REX

REX's biggest changes are related to the nature of their self-damage abilities, as they now ignore block and armor, but also don't put the player into danger or inflict curse in E8. The mechanical skills have also received some buffs to better stand alongside the powerful plant skills.

General Mechanics - Self-damage (tweak)

• All skills that deal self-damage now ignore armor and block chance when doing so, but no longer apply curse in Eclipse 8. They still trigger on-hurt effects and stop shield regen, but they don't put the player into danger, allowing cautious slug and oddly-shaped opal to function.

Comments: The goal of this change, other than to make the skills viable in Eclipse, is to make REX's self damage matter a bit more and not easily avoidable with a few items. Furthermore, it saves item uses such as Oddly-Shaped Opal and Safer Spaces to be used for actual attacks rather than self-damage.

Base Character (buff)

• Sprint speed multiplier increased from 1.45 to 1.6.

Comments: Rex feels extremely sluggish, and a big part of that is lacking any weight behind its really awesome sprint animation. It's going to receive a sprinting speed buff, because I love the little plant-robot guy (I know all the other characters I was trying to standardize their stats, but I don't care, it feels good to use).

Default Primary | DIRECTIVE: Inject (buff)

• Proc coefficient increased from 0.5 to 0.8.

Comments: Why does REX's primary attack have a proc coefficient that's even less than MUL-T's nailgun? It's a hidden nerf with massive consequences for REX's item synergies, and for no good reason.

Default Secondary | Seed Barrage (tweak)

• Self-damage percentage reduced from 15% to 10%.

Comments: Under normal circumstances this would be a huge buff. However, the health cost has been changed to ignoring armor and block, and REX starts with 20 base armor. This armor was already reducing the self-damage by 16%, so the skill needs a cost reduction in order to stay viable with these changes.

Default Utility | DIRECTIVE: Disperse (buff)

• Now starts with 2 stocks.
• Cooldown decreased from 5.5s to 5s.
• (Indirect) No longer counts as a combat skill for Red Whip and the reworked Warbanner.

Comments: Attempting to give REX's default utility a niche over the very powerful damaging and healing alternative. A second charge should allow it to spread the debuff better and allow you to more freely use it for mobility.

Alternate Utility | Bramble Volley (tweak)

• Health cost reduced from 20% to 15%.
• Cooldown increased from 5.5s to 6s.
• Healing per hit foe reduced from 10% to 8% (as a percent of max health).
• (Indirect) No longer counts as a combat skill for Red Whip and the reworked Warbanner.

Comments: These changes are similar to Seed Barrage's, in that they make up for the lack of damage reduction from armor. However, I find it to also be a bit overtuned in terms of the raw healing amount, so I'm slightly reducing the amount of health you get back (while I could simply not reduce the health cost, that would make the skill a bit too volatile imo).

Alternate Special | DIRECTIVE: Harvest (buff)

• Reduced skill duration from 1 second to 0.4 seconds (greatly reduced end lag).
• Cooldown increased from 6s to 10s.
• Damage increased from 330% to 400%.
• Enemies inflicted with the fruiting debuff can be executed at 20% health (10% if they are a large enemy).

Comments: This is one of my least favorite skills in the game, it just doesn't feel good to play with. There are 3 main changes here. First, this ability can now proc bands, which is important if you are using only mechanical skills on REX. Second, the projectile no longer completely halts your primary fire for a full second after use. Finally, the fruiting debuff has an additional offensive niche as a versatile execute (for context, freeze is a 30% execute and guillotine is 17% per stack). In exchange, the cooldown has been significantly increased, which also helps balance out the ridiculous burst healing that it can provide.