The Boiler

[Madventurer]

The Boiler is:
-Tier 3 xeno
-Dedicated long-range artillery for xenos
-Keystone in any xeno stationary warfare situation
-Really fucking annoying to play against

Boiler's the top support xeno. It's not self-sufficient, it can't help xenos outside of combat, but its combat support abilities are priceless.

Maybe even too much.

Recently, the issue of boilers being absolutely crucial and obnoxiously hard to deal with properly have been highlighted with the addition of mutators and weapon rebalancing.
There's just so much a gas of murder brings for the xenos that any marine push that requires passing a chokepoint grinds to a halt when a boiler is supporting the frontline, when the frontliners would slowly give ground to the push in exchange of casualties. Two boilers at a chokepoint can completely lock it down with no chance of pushing, barring excellent timing for OB, CAS, or sniper suppressing the boilers with incendiary bullets. The last is unlikely to happen with mutators giving a larger buffer for boilers to tank before needing to retreat to heal.

Personally, I feel that the boiler has far too much utility and ability to control the battlefield with no reliable counterplay on marine part. OB is too slow to fire and reload, snipers are less-than-lethal when the boilers have even minimal tanking support. CAS can work wonders, but it relies a lot on communications and timing, and isn't anywhere close to guaranteed to kill.
In short, there are too many counterplays for boiler counters.

And on top of this all, mutators allow boilers to survive what would have killed them before, and the last but not least, Wider Gas exists, absolutely nullifying multi-layered defenses by spreading gas further than ever before.


What should be done is increase the recharge time for boiler gas clouds considerably. Currently there is only a short window to push after the gas dissipates, which is functionally none when there are two boilers. While it may be possible to push through a chokepoint into an open area in the lull, if the chokepoint is either a moderately long tunnel, such as certain LV locations, or there is a large amount of sticky resin, the push is doomed to fail.

For marines, this is extremely frustrating, since you can't usually even see what's firing at you, and if you can, chances are that it's just about to fire a gas cloud behind you and you're about to get mobbed by several xenos.
For xenos, a support this effective is unhealthy for the game in general, since any major pushes and defenses have to rely on the gas cover to work.


TL;DR nerf boilers

[Build_R_]

What if you find a way around the chokepoint to flank the boiler? Or while you're holding the spot, get a supply drop with some gasmasks? Even just get some unga to rush in and throw a nade if they can and that'll knock down the boiler.

Not saying the boiler isn't really strong, just suggesting some counterplays.

[Heraclitus]

As much as I love boilers for just standing out compared to the rest of the T3s, I have to get with team #nerfwidergasplox because it was just never needed, boiler was strong and meaningful enough without it.

What if you find a way around the chokepoint to flank the boiler? Or while you're holding the spot, get a supply drop with some gasmasks? Even just get some unga to rush in and throw a nade if they can and that'll knock down the boiler.

Not saying the boiler isn't really strong, just suggesting some counterplays.

It's actually worth mentioning this but gasmasks and internals don't do anything for acid (green) gas, not even compression suits protect you. I'm also pretty sure that neuro gas isn't really affected by gasmasks either, but it has honestly been a long time since I've tested this.

If you really want a hard counter to boilers though, I'll give it to you: laser cannons. The CAS laser cannon has no impact delay, does a ton of damage, and sets mobs on fire. It does rely on some pretty exact timing though.

[FGRSentinel]

Apparently Boilers are also going to be the AA caste for the CAS rework. Like I said before, the Boiler's becoming the new tank and it seems like people are starting to realize exactly why I say that.

[IMMASPACENINJA]

fsg.jpg

i farded

[MasterShakeEZ]

The problem is that no other caste can do anything to stop rushing marines. I played a round this morning as queen on LV with a hole in bridge fog. We had no boiler, guess what happened? Marines pushed across with sadar and pushed us back into the caves and slaughtered everyone. A lot of it was incompetent xenos but if we had a boiler marines never make it across that bridge. 1 caste having so much power is stupid and it needs to be spread out. t3 in general are too relied on and especially queen is way too relied on. Ive been saying this for a while and no one will listen. In the short term though wider gas needs to go that will atleast make it bearable.

[Griffith78]

Yes the boiler is strong but it is also very easy to kill. Unless you coordinate with the other xenos, a marine can easily run up and shotgun you twice resulting in death. Although they have the acid spray , it only works in a 1v1 but even then you have to get a lucky shot.

You guys are making the boiler out to be some unstoppable gas machine, but as a boiler main I know all too well they are very easily killed.

As for wider gas I think it was an appropriate addition. It helps to control rushing Marines and prevents them from running in and slaughtering the hive.

[CABAL]

Boiler on defence is killable, on offence it isn't that hard, but on siege it is unstoppable.
Let's just not act like boiler is a caste that should be considered as lone wolf. There are always benos around boiler, especially up front. You can't even flank boiler. Mature is faster than a marine in armor, there are always weeds to slow down them even more, not even talking about sticky. Boiler just have to spot you and run in a straight line, while flanking requires going around somethibg, slowing rines even more. Then the thing about benos detecting any mob on their screen. Boiler that is alone sucks, but any decent one aways have a company nearby.

To balance boiler:
Remove wider gas.
Make gas more transparent.
Make the gas ball respond to gun fire, where it could explode early.
Make the gas ball have a chance to explode while flying trough beno. Small chance, but still.
Make boiler slower and remove its x-ray vision while "scoped".
Make boiler way slower for few seconds after "going out" of "bombard" mode.

[Griffith78]

Boiler on defence is killable, on offence it isn't that hard, but on siege it is unstoppable.
Let's just not act like boiler is a caste that should be considered as lone wolf. There are always benos around boiler, especially up front. You can't even flank boiler. Mature is faster than a marine in armor, there are always weeds to slow down them even more, not even talking about sticky. Boiler just have to spot you and run in a straight line, while flanking requires going around somethibg, slowing rines even more. Then the thing about benos detecting any mob on their screen. Boiler that is alone sucks, but any decent one aways have a company nearby.

To balance boiler:
Remove wider gas.
Make gas more transparent.
Make the gas ball respond to gun fire, where it could explode early.
Make the gas ball have a chance to explode while flying trough beno. Small chance, but still.
Make boiler slower and remove its x-ray vision while "scoped".
Make boiler way slower for few seconds after "going out" of "bombard" mode.

These suggestions would cripple the boiler and make it useless. I don't see why everyone is complaining about one xeno mutator when the Marines have recieved several Stroger buffs.

[Mann handle]

These suggestions would cripple the boiler and make it useless. I don't see why everyone is complaining about one xeno mutator when the Marines have recieved several Stroger buffs.

Well seeing as the wider gas mutator is complete cancer that renders FOBs and defenses pointless when most of it is covered in gas which just leads to the aforementioned "early evac marines!" statements that some love throwing around.
There's a reason why you often see Boilers as one of the more popular T3s right now. One it's necessary for a balanced xeno hive and second, it's completely devastating in both defence and offence. No hive leaves boilers to go solo and no boiler worth its salt will find itself running solo. The counter plays for it are CAS which is shit in general and the PO player pool makes it harder to hit a target, OBs which every xeno avoids now so long as they have a brain and snipers which can be countered by having cover for the boiler or the boiler just walking away. Flanks often fail due to divide and conquer kicking in and most maps, while they allow for flanks, often find the route required to flank take so long the battle line changes completely rendering the flank useless most of the time.

Food for thought