Age of Strategy Forums

I think because of double atk, ballista can deal more area damage than catapults, even from 2 tile distance of atked tile, they still kill long bowmen, I think area damage should b reduced, or may b instead of 2 tile radius, they should b 1 tile radius ( and again there wasn't any announcement that ballista could double shot in game....I really feel changes in stats should b announced)

Numbers on that?

The ballista has not been changed for a long, long time. And I think it could always double shot?

To unprotected units Both deal similar damage.
But to protected units (with melee armor) they both deal less damage. and ballista deals even less because armor counts twice.
Also catapults do better against buildings and have higher range.
But price for ballistas i think is a bit too low do deal similar to catapult's damage.
Increase it to 5-6 turns at least.

we can consider making the ballista a little weaker (eg. smaller area damage, or smaller the damage on areas)
and making a new level of upgrading it to advanced ballidsta.

I do think a slight nerf of ballistae is in order. However I am appreciating that they have finally become useful

I m pretty sure area damage of ballista is at least 20 while it is about 10 or so for catapult from 1 tile, and from 2 tile area damage of ballista is more than 14 (since long bowman dies) while area damage of catapult is 3 (tested on worker )

And one more thing ballista actually deals pierce damage (skirmisher survives area damage) which I didn't know before and it is actually pretty cool

And this is for double shots, not single shots

Those skirmisher shields are stronger than they look.

I guess its good for Ur play style right

We can
1. increase their building cost from 4 turns to 5.
2. decrease their base damage on 1-2 points but if we want some upgrades for ballistas.
3. decrease their power range by 1.
4. all together.

Also catapult's (and even heavy one's) damage in its power range i must admit is lower than ballista's.

On the other hand, a 4 turn unit that is so slow, so weak and so little range, is not a bad thing if it can kill a LOT of units in just one turn....

Right now its only useful when defending inside towers or wen used with a wagon, which would increase total cost to 8 turns

And I think most horses don't have a bonus against them for some reason, is it by accident or to balance?

May b keep everything as it is but give bonus to horses so that even light cavalry can destroy it in one turn, does it both kills and gets killed, but it can kill more if used right....

godOfKings wrote:May b keep everything as it is but give bonus to horses so that even light cavalry can destroy it in one turn, does it both kills and gets killed, but it can kill more if used right....

Please don't do so many mini posts if you can help it Makes it hard to follow

Donmt forget that catapults don’t deal pierce damage. So they can destroy ships, buildings, skirmishers, wagons, other siege weapons, etc with ease

But other siege weapons could kill it faster due to range (exept rams)
And ships also have higher range for attack (if they have one) to counter ballista

COOLguy wrote:

godOfKings wrote:May b keep everything as it is but give bonus to horses so that even light cavalry can destroy it in one turn, does it both kills and gets killed, but it can kill more if used right....

Please don't do so many mini posts if you can help it Makes it hard to follow

I simply gave an alternative, that instead of nerfing ballista simply make cavalry more effective at destroying them

Cause I actually like the way that it is so easy to kill so many enemies in just one turn. At the very least light cavalry should have 120% bonus against ballista so that they can deal 11 damage instead of 5

how about make a 4 turn costing tech that needs to b researched to unlock the area damage of ballista ? the tech could b called 'heavy spear' and researched in siege workshop,
especially in a small map it becomes too easy to kill all the workers, so something to curb their insane area damage early on is desperately needed,

another alternative idea is ballista will also need 'area damage' tech to use area damage but in this case i dont think area damage should require ballistics tech to unlock because after all it only allows siege to use area damage and right now there are many counters to catapults, so both area damage and ballistics can b researched on the same time, but without ballistics area damage only allows ballista to use it

although i liked it before, but now i see people literally spam only ballista and nothing else, and it is hard to kill it with anything, even with a knight it survives with 2 hp, and can b repaired to full health by a worker next turn, at the very least knights should b able to destroy them in one hit

It takes 12 turns,I guess to complete 6 turn ballistic,and 6 turn fire damage,and ballistic have everything with them.But a different tech for catapult and ballista would become difficult thing

Ballista is currently 2x 12/10/8. Catapult is 100%/50%(/25%) of 33 or 39.
I would be for nerfing ballista to 2x 12/6/3 (same 100%/50%/25% of full damage). Or at least to 2x 12/8/4 or so.

ok, lets wait Coolguy's suggestion

I think a small nerf would be fine or make it require ballistics (would make sense)

I remember when we added its power because people thought they were under-powered I'm glad they are being used now

i suggest the nerfing, in aoe it have not required any tech, and it is cool to have a pre-catapult weapon.

It was used a heavy missile like crossbow.It was siege weapon

How about 12/8/4? That way most two turn units would still die, but from 2 power range, only labourer can b killed in first turn while worker survives with 2 hp

If area damage is same as catapult it would again become obsolete as having higher area damage is the only advantage it has over catapults for which it may b even useful in late game

Yes.I see players,having ambidextria and 3 builders,they make ballista's in seconds

godOfKings wrote:If area damage is same as catapult it would again become obsolete as having higher area damage is the only advantage it has over catapults for which it may b even useful in late game

It is cheaper than the catapult.

Ayush Tiwari wrote:Yes.I see players,having ambidextria and 3 builders,they make ballista's in seconds

True.

Daniel and I ended up taking a bit off the ballista's area damage - not much because it was actually to high anyway

yeah ballista's really should not have area damage anyway because the only shoot once. I think that they should have a less miss chance.