Soul Ripper is suffocating in the current FAF balance

[DommyMommyDostya]

The soul ripper is in a thoroughly weak state in the current FAF balance. I am making this post to point out some of the statistics that make this unit difficult to justify building, and begin a discussion on what could be done with this unit in order to give it a genuine place in the current meta.

Firstly, we should go over the Soul Ripper's stats to get a good idea of the unit's place in general, which will give us good grounds to consider how it may be adjusted/changed.

Soul Ripper's Stats:
29,000 Mass Cost & 812,000 Energy Cost,
75,000HP & 75 regen/sec,
2,307 air to ground DPS,
240 AA DPS, (Only 60 range, rough..)
Personal Stealth (-600 Energy, damn..!)

When compared to Wailers, the Soul ripper is utterly lacking in stats when it comes to air to ground DPS, total health, and AA DPS. This can be expected, since all experimental units are statistically lacking when compared to their T3 counterparts.

The issue is, when one is actually playing the game, there are many contexts where one could argue that having a GC is genuinely preferable to having 32 Harbingers, there are also plenty of contexts where one could argue that having a ML is genuinely preferable to having 15 bricks; But there are very few contexts, if any, in which someone can make a serious argument where having a Soul Ripper is preferable to having 19 Wailers (5320 DPS, nearly 3x the DPS of a Soul Ripper).

Really, there are only two significant advantages that a Soul Ripper brings to the table over Wailers.
-Firstly, it can be built without access to T3 air. This can be useful if you are simply looking for air to ground DPS, but you just don't have an upgraded air factory.
-Secondly, it is not subject to taking multiple hits of AOE damage from a single AA source the same way a group of gunships would be subject to. This is something that is definitely worth considering, but we should also keep in mind that the Soul Ripper lacking damage output when compared to gunships means it will take more time to destroy well placed static T3 AA when compared to the same mass costs worth of Wailers (19 Wailers). The total HP of the 19 wailers will also be significantly higher (37,100 extra total HP).
Outside of these two advantages, the Soul Ripper appears to be simply inferior to the Wailer in every way, especially damage output. Absolutely brutal.

So how can we adjust the unit?
What can be done to adjust the Soul Ripper's place in the current game balance? When looking at it statistically, it is basically just a deficient Wailer that has a pitifully narrow context of justification when compared to it's T3 counterpart. It is, in some cases, potentially better at attacking a base with lots of T2 static AA, *that still has low enough AA DPS to allow the Soul Ripper to survive. Basically, it is only good at attacking an area with low amounts of T2 Flak. In order for this unit to become more easily justifiable to build, I think to start it would need a very serious regen buff, and probably a chunky HP buff as well. This would make for a very simple patch to the unit. The previous HP nerf to this unit removed its one single advantage it had over T3 gunships, reverting this change would back to it's original 90,000HP would at a bare minimum bring it back to it's original standing in the balance.

I would propose reverting the Soul Ripper back to it's original HP (+15,000HP), and giving it an extra 50 base regen/sec.

A more exotic buff idea

What if the Soul Ripper gained a toggle-able ability to walk around on the ground like a landed beetle (similar to the Salem's Toggle-able walking function)? The unit already has legs and practically looks like it was designed to do this at some point. I think this would be super cool, but also, this would be a very significant buff to the unit, so balancing the unit with this added functionality would become a significant piece of the discussion. Imagine how cool this would be, to be able to crawl the Ripper on the ground like a insect hunting for prey? I think it would give the unit some much needed individuality.

Overall, this unit needs something, because right now in it's current state, it is completely suffocating for a place in the meta game. Lets discuss what we can do to make this unit a part of the game!

[maudlin27]

Another significant advantage not mentioned is build time - you can build a soulripper in the time it takes for roughly 8 wailers - so it's great if you have lots of energy, mass, t3 engis, and want to quickly take advantage of an air win by your team.

I see it as a weak to average unit - not as good as czar, and nowhere near as good as ahwassa, but I find myself using it occasionally (usually where I've not managed my air grid scaling that well and find I have mass to spend).

Would be nice if it could have a bit higher health regen I suppose to lean more into the raiding role that iirc was the justification behind the previous changes that made it cheaper and weaker, but I'd be wary of buffing too heavily

[Nomander]

• Another aspect of it being a T4 is that it is the lowest energy ratio air T4, so a land player making it can do so very easily on top of the low buildtime and not requiring tech. It's also cheaper than a Megalith so you could arguably even build it instead of land units if your air player coordinates their micro and strategy with yours; that is to say, it is extremely accessible as an air T4.
• For your DPS/HP stat comparison you missed a few critical factors: it doesn't lose DPS as it loses HP and it has AoE DPS. If you use f(n/cost, h, d) = h * d * (n^2+n)/2 to calculate the "power" per mass of the units (yes I tested this works before with GC vs percy testing), Wailers only need to take 1.55x damage from AoE or Ripper needs to deal 1.55x damage with AoE for Ripper and 29k mass of Wailers to have equal final damage outputs. Considering that high-AoE, high unit count T2 mobile flak is the main counter to gunships, Ripper has a great role in countering that counter.
  • Veterancy is not as easy to compare as DPS/HP, but it's also a large factor in the continued survival of the unit. Wailers can repair for free, but Ripper is far better at getting veterancy due to being a single unit and T4s having much lower vet requirements than units. That veterancy boosts hp by 10% and also heals by 10% every vet. T4s also get much more regen per vet than lower tiers. Long term, you're guaranteed to lose Wailers but rippers are few in number so they're much easier to micro and keep alive, farming that vet heal/regen value and if you're tanking with healthy future rippers then the old one is just free 100% Ripper DPS.

[Caliber]

Didnt the soul ripper already have a dps buff not to long ago, I feel its fine as is.