Thoughts on Acrid

[Razor Strike]

Just sort of expressing my thoughts on the reptilian boi, experiences and opinions I've heard/read from other people here and in the discord :-

His Appearance :-

I was expecting him to look a lot sharper and scalier to look more intimidating, but I like the current (almost cute) look. His alt skin is a bit weird and I've heard some people comparing him to a mole rat. Fan of the orange eyes though. Please tell me if you think you'd prefer him if he looked different, maybe more creepy or scary, or wether you agree that he looks fine as the way he is.

His Abilities :-

The Passive Ability or 'Poison' -

I've seen a lot of people say that the poison not being lethal makes Acrid very frustrating, especially against airborne enemies like wisps. I've been there, but I don't think the problem lies with the poison, but rather the rest of the kit.

The poison itself is actually pretty respectable. 10% of maximum health or 1000% of base damage is pretty respectable for just one hit of his M2 or R. People also recommend items like tri-tip dagger or gasoline, since their procs can help finish the enemies off.

I personally don't think this ability needs a change, but I'd like to hear your opinion as well regarding this.

M1 or 'Vicious Wounds' -

A lot of advice I've received and read regarding this character often involve the words "Forget about M1" or "Just get Visions of Heresy". It's just not viable to get in close range and maul enemies, even with the M1 glitch, since Acrid doesn't really have much survivability in his base kit and without the items, he's often stuck relying on his ranged abilities. He essentially becomes a ranged character halfway through any run, with the exception of using his shift once in a while to finish off a group of 1 hp enemies.

I personally think this ability should be changed and could make the character more reliability. I was personally thinking something along the lines of a reduction in damage (200% of 15 early game is a lot lul), but in exchange if Acrid used M1 against a Poisoned Enemy, he would get a Buff. This buff could be Armor, Health Regen or Movement Speed. I'm biased towards Armor/Health Regen, since it will enable him to go in and have a more brawling style, which I think is pretty fun.

Please let me know your thoughts on this ability, my proposed change and what change would you rather prefer instead if you're already thinking of one!

M2 or 'Neurotoxin' -

This ability is essentially Acrid's bread and butter at the moment. A very short cooldown projectile, with respectable damage and poison on hit. It's pretty good ability and, in my opinion, doesn't need a change.

I was thinking though, what kind of alternative would this ability have that could be cool. Let me know if you've thought of any ideas or are thinking of one.

I'd personally want the alternative to be like a much bigger (but also much slower) ball of poison that upon making contact, bursts in a small area to do AoE damage and apply poison.

Shift or 'Caustic Leap' -

I've had some awkward interactions with this ability, but that may be entirely due to my lack of practice with it. I have a hard time landing it on people that are close by, often overshooting and getting into weird positions that get me killed. It's ESPECIALLY hard when you're on an elevated surface, but easier if you're on lower ground which is nice.

The solution to that is to probably just directly up so you land only a few metres front, but then that leaves Acrid open to a LOT of fire.

I don't want to say this ability needs to be changed since I think maybe I'm just bad at using it. Let me know if you have any advice on how to use it or wether you think it should actually be changed.

I also prefer Caustic Leap over Frenzied Leap, as I like the shorter cooldown and puddles for the extra damage and execution potential on 1 hp enemies, but I do think Frenzied Leap would be better late game as there are bigger swarms of enemies, therefore higher chance for resetting the cooldown almost completely upon impact.

R or 'Epidemic' -

Similar to M1, I think this ability is fine the way it is. The AoE poison is great and especially helpful when trying to focus down bosses. Probably doesn't need to be changed.

Let me know if there should be any changes for it. One change that I read made by a user called 'Chaotic' was to add a 0.5/1m + range to the ability per level which I found to be really interesting so I just wanted to shout that out.

Overall Gameplay Experience :-

I've played a few hours of almost all solo games, all on monsoon. I've really tried to like the playstyle, but after the first few stages, I've just been stuck on using my R and M2, using Shift mainly for mobility or finishing off groups (Topaz Brooch is amazing with it imo), and completely forgetting about M1 unless I got 'Visions of Heresy' (which I only got once cause short on lunar coins).

I feel like it'd be more fun if I were playing co-op and didn't have to worry about finishing ALL the enemies off myself, but in solo play it can get kind of frustrating.

I want to play in a bruiser playstyle, just getting into the thick of it and going ham, all the while poisoning all the enemies, but I just don't have the survivability. It's risky to get in melee range for even a second due to the lack of really good movement options. Maybe it's just my preference towards Loader and Mercenary, but I wish I wasn't just stuck running away, and only using M1 and R. At that point, I just feel like I could play Huntress and get similar, if not better and more satisfying results.

Also, I hate Wandering Vagrants.

If you've read till here, please let me know about any information or opinion you might have regarding Acrid. I really like the character concept and potential playstyle, but felt a bit off-put when actually trying him out.

TL:DR, I think he's balanced, looks neat, but his playstyle in later stages mainly focuses on his ranged abilities and hit and run tactics, and a bit of survivability and changes to M1 could encourage a more brawling-focused gameplay, which I think would be pretty fun.[/b]

[Ittrix]

I agree for the most part.
His melee abilities fall off because he lacks melee survivability. If he had some it'd be nice.
Poison not killing takes some getting used to but it really doesn't need to kill. It does have a tendency to fall off in use, though. It only boosts itself with % damage items, which are a super small and limited item pool. It could stand to scale with fire rate and crit. Procs too, though those are trickier. Only when it's going off of 1000% base damage though! If it's going off of 10% max HP you're already either getting a huge boost against a super bulky target or so far behind you deserve the punishment, lmao. Or... just scrap the 10% max HP and go full on with the 1000% base damage, assuming we let it scale too.
I think epidemic could stand to be larger, or to infect multiple enemies on the initial splash. It's the most helpful skill he has for finishing off weakened targets, but if they're spread out you can get messed up.

[Razor Strike]

Originally posted by Ittrix:

I agree for the most part.
His melee abilities fall off because he lacks melee survivability. If he had some it'd be nice.
Poison not killing takes some getting used to but it really doesn't need to kill. It does have a tendency to fall off in use, though. It only boosts itself with % damage items, which are a super small and limited item pool. It could stand to scale with fire rate and crit. Procs too, though those are trickier.
I think epidemic could stand to be larger, or to infect multiple enemies on the initial splash. It's the most helpful skill he has for finishing off weakened targets, but if they're spread out you can get messed up.

Yeah. Epidemic is especially useful against wisps and not being able to hit all of them leads to taking a LOT of damage.

I was actually wondering about a variant for Epidemic where, instead of being a simple projectile, it would burst into a large gas cloud, similar to the puddles from Caustic Leap, that would apply poison when made contact with. Any opinions?

[Ittrix]

I think it'd be too samey-ish. (I'd prefer it but samey-ish) I'd rather have it do something more out there to change up the playstyle.

[willsimplybe]

i feel like Acrid is supposed to be dedicated to hit and run playstyles- like a harrier.

I noticed that Acrid can use every single one of his abilities while sprinting except for his M1. You can leap and maintain sprint, you can shoot poison while sprinting, and you can shoot epidemic, all while sprinting- this gives him a unique playstyle of tagging lots of enemies while running wild, and just leaping on enemies to finish them off without losing any momentum.

Speaking of jumping, I actually found Frenzied Leap better than Caustic Leap- You get two uses of the leap regardless of version, Frenzied hits harder, and if you hit two enemies with it, it's cooldown is far shorter too. And the caustic puddle can't even finish off enemies, so it only does meaningful damage if you wanted to go toe to toe with an enemy in a single spot for a long while. Frenzied Leap is practically my main attack.

Finally, the only thing i think could use some changing is indeed that M1. *I feel like if Acrid could sprint while M1ing, it would actually fit better with the rest of his kit being all about hit and run.* Maybe he could even gain a movement speed boost off of it. I feel this would give him perfect synergy with the rest of his abilities.

[Ittrix]

Issue with frenzied leap is that it's base cooldown is long.
With the whole "do the teleporter event then loot chests" mentality we have, when you need the major mobility you won't have it if you use frenzied leap.

I prefer it for damage, hate it for mobility.

[Razor Strike]

I prefer caustic leap over frenzied as well, mostly for the low cooldown and mobility, but I haven't also given it enough time as well so it may just be bias. I also like the puddle when fighting bosses as most of them tend to stick to a single area and thus take a lot of damage from the puddles.

I've been getting used to Acrid's hit and run playstyle, and do like the idea of getting movespeed as his leap also scales with movespeed anyway, thus allowing the 2 abilities to synergize well. Movespeed items early game are generally good on Acrid early game and giving him a natural way of getting it would definitely make M1 an actual decent ability. (Tho I'd still probably end up replacing it with Visions if given the option. The item turns the character into a WHOLE another beast.)

[willsimplybe]

Originally posted by Ittrix:

Issue with frenzied leap is that it's base cooldown is long.
With the whole "do the teleporter event then loot chests" mentality we have, when you need the major mobility you won't have it if you use frenzied leap.

I prefer it for damage, hate it for mobility.

Just checked, it is twice as long... unless you hit something with it, but i found that with Acrid naturally having two uses of the leap, it isn't often you really feel it unless you really prefer to just use leap constantly outside of combat- literally off cooldown just for movement's sake.

I find myself often getting the quail feather on acrid runs and just use that, or even just relying on run speed boosts and saving one leap for combat. However, it's true you can't leap out of combat nearly as much. But landing on 3 enemies reduces the cooldown to a mere 2 seconds, and the AoE on it is actually huge.

With my playstyle at least, Acrid has a train of poisoned enemies to stomp at all times, ripe for stomping. So I find it almost more similar to loader than anything else- repeatedly slamming 3 or 4 times before going back to specifically running away.

I saw a lot of people saying he was awful, and nothing in his kit worked together, but i didn't really feel that way- I think he's great. (though he is pretty item dependent.) But his M1 does seem to be really left out in the cold. I haven't gotten Visions yet, so i'm really looking forward to trying that out- but regardless, it feels like it wouldn't take much but letting him sprint while M1ing to make the ability more useful and give him a way of meleeing without being completely suicidal, by stopping.

[Ittrix]

I want to want to use frenzied leap. I really do. but I spend so much time early game grabbing the loots after the teleporter event that I just can't.

Acrid's base kit is amazing and synergizes very well imo. I did a few runs 100% itemless with him partially to see how good his base kit was alone and partially because that 10% max HP damage was mesmerizing.
While the last two stages of the mastery runs were hardly anything to brag over since I just kited enemies around, the first 5 stages showed off his base kit working very well.

I got to stage 5 consistently in under 20 minutes. Usually 17, though my most recent and last run I did it in 12. No kiting, no constantly running and fearing for my life, just 12 minutes of tearing through monsoon w/out items. Never felt like that with any other character.
After that there was a lot of kiting and running for my life though, lmao.

He does have some issues, but I think they're all to do with how he scales (hence why his early stages with no items felt great).