Just gonna answer the OP.
First of all i don't get the logic of ignoring the paragon because there are, in your opinion, more pressing issues regarding balance. If there is an easy and simple solution to fix the current paragon problem it can just be quickly implemented. Also some issues are way harder to tackle than others; A good example being the SACU rework which arguably is the most important balance rework but it requires so much attention/detail/time to work on it to properly balance it, in combination with the classic lack of manpower in the balance team, that it sometimes makes more sense to just try to quickly fix a few smaller/simpler issues.
Funnily enough out of the 8 issues you mentioned that you deem more important than the paragon change i think at least 3 aren't even issues to begin with and the other 5 are either as important or just slightly more important than the para change.
So clearly we have different opinions on what's important to change. You say you spoke to multiple people that agree with you. I have also spoken to multiple people that think para's have been broken OP for years now and the only reason why you don't notice it often is because game enders are rare to come across.
So who's to say who's right and what's more important? A ladder player would think the stealth/titan/othuum issues are more important. A teamgame player would think the novax/czar issues are more important and a seton's player would think the novax/stealth/paragon issues are more important. All of this shows that, going back to the beginning, it makes no sense to ignore an improvement to the game because somebody else thinks there are better improvements to make.
Now regarding the individual balance issues you mentioned.
- Mercies: They aren't completely ineffective, they can be pretty good, but it's extremely rare to see it happen so they should see some sort of rework yes.
- Absolvers: They are already super strong and are a sleeper unit that people refuse to discover. Thinking about buffing it is nuts imo.
- Czars: They are probably the most balanced air t4 in the game right now. They tend to perform relatively average but have potential to be absolutely insane because they're very flexible.
- Titans: They are pretty fine right now. It being weaker than a loya doesn't mean it's bad, because a percy is stronger than a brick after all. Somehow u listed the e drain as a negative while ignoring it's because it has a shield, which is basically always a good thing (the shield is why harbs are one of the most dominant t3 units). It also has a big role of protecting percies against slop while loya's have a role of charging into percies to try and stun them. Titans also have mobile shield support while loya's don't. I do agree titans are on the weaker side, but i don't think that's any issue given the current UEF roster (not every unit has to be as strong as another factions unit) and the titan covers a few specific roles.
- Spearheads: They are a great example as to why the absolver could be a sleeper unit. For years and years players in faf thought the spearhead was bad and almost nobody ever made them. Now most people see them as being too strong even though they basically didnt get a single buff. They should probably get a nerf though, it mostly being hp so its easier to try and snipe them like other long range units.
- Novax: nowadays everyone agrees it's an annoying unit, it's not really OP though. Just an annoyance that makes the game unfun, so it probably at some point needs a big overhaul (not just making it useless) but it's gonna be quite some work.
- Othuum: right before i left the balance team i already buffed the turn rate/maneuverability. I wanted to make it more but at the time ppl were against it because it would look unnatural (iirc)
- Stealth: not sure what to think. Stealth is super good but the lack of shields (which are insane) needs to be replaced by something good. Also after 30+ min in a teamgame you can't stealth your asf while building more asf if you didnt make spare pgens to overflow. 250 asf (a relatively normal amount) is -7.5k e drain. You also have to keep in mind that cybran asf are worse than the others without stealth
And last but not least: Paragon
Paragon is the most broken game ender and it has always been that way. The reason why it's broken isn't because of the game ender vs game ender balance, but because of the game ender vs non game ender balance.
Let's take setons for an example (it's very similar on almost all other maps but this makes it easier to explain):
If team 1 loses both ponds but have a mavor they still lose the game because the map control of the ponds is more important than the mavor.
If team 1 loses both ponds but have a scathis they still lose the game because the map control of the ponds is more important than the scathis.
If team 1 loses both ponds but have a yolo they still lose the game because the map control of the ponds is more important than the yolo. Yolo has a bigger chance to win though than scathis/mavor) since the assist buff it received.
If team 1 loses both ponds but have a paragon the map control is completely irrelevant and they auto win the game.
Now quite some people would say "Well you shouldn't have let them build a para" and that's one of the most wrong/stupid statements ever. Eventually lategame you can build a game ender, even a paragon, in a few min and because of defenders advantage it is extremely hard to deny it. This counts for every game ender.
The issue is that for every non paragon game ender you have a chance of winning if you don't have a game ender yourself, while this isn't the case for para's. So for some reason, for a meager 25k more mass than a mavor/scathis, a paragon is allowed to win the game while u sit and turtle in a corner and people somehow accept that as not being completely and utterly broken.
I've seen so many games, even recently one on sentons, where quite literally the entire team loses all of their slots over a 30min game. Mid lost, beach lost, rock lost, air lost. But because they had an aeon player they just gambled on a para while sitting in the corner and eventually they won. No other game ender even comes close to this being possible.
And once again this is purely about game ender vs NON game ender gameplay. game ender vs game ender is more balanced. Para's are insanely OP in this situation and it requires fixing.
Yapper out.
