New tower idea

[Cowmunist Leader Moo Zedong]

Motivation:
The Energizer is a bit of an odd tower. It lowers water monkey cooldowns in its radius. Okay. It lowers cooldowns globally. Alright that follows. But then it also increases hero xp gain by 50% within its radius, which is HUGE and, since most heroes are land-based, really freakin' weird and annoyingly limiting.
But I'm not here to change the Energizer. No, I got to thinking about how to get a land tower that can increase hero XP gain so that you can have this amazing functionality anywhere on a map. Then I thought about how the mid-path ice monkey can create land where there is water, but there's no land-based equivalent and I thought maybe there's a new tower here.
Now, the Primary Expertise is a bit of an odd tower as well, I thought. Why is there no magic expertise or military expertise? It all clicked into place. But before we get to the new tower, some changes need to be made.

The only real change will have to be replacing the primary path for Monkey Village. Don't worry, it becomes the top path for the new tower so here's what takes its place in the Village:

3xx Village - Lower ability cooldowns of monkeys within radius.
4xx Village - Increase Buff and Ability durations of monkeys within radius.
5xx Village - Lower Hero XP requirements by 50% and strengthen previous upgrades.
Top Path Village Aesthetic - Maybe like a regular modern monkey house. Treehouse maybe?

The goal of these changes is to pretty much make this a land Energizer without the damage output, which fits the village better than Primary Expertise imo. The benefit of decreasing XP requirements instead of increasing XP gain is that buying upgrades for your hero will also cost less and this buff can stack with an Energizer. I'd prefer it stack with energizer so that you can catch up more easily if you don't put your hero down ASAP. The buff duration increase applies to the buff caster, not the target. So if, say, Pat roared from inside the village and a monkey outside the village was affected, the roar buff would still stay on that monkey longer.

Now that that's out of the way, here's what I've settled on so far for the new tower:

The Monkey Fort is a land-based support tower which does a mix of popping bloons and buffing other towers.

000 Fort - A tower with a powerful but slow-firing melee splash attack. Increases projectile speed/lifetime of all monkeys in its radius.

While it won't win any prizes for its popping abilities, the buff it gives should ensure that early game monkeys whiff fewer attacks and can cover more track more easily.

Basic Fort Aesthetics - Probably a pile of sticks and/or boxes with a monkey(s?) in it and a flag sticking out.

1xx Fort - Changes the melee attack into a consecutive dart/arrow volley with a spread equal to the previous splash radius.
2xx Fort - All units in radius gain increased projectile size (but not splash radius) and pierce.
x1x Fort - adds an energy type pulse attack which will fire halfway between its main attacks.
x2x Fort - increase the tower's attack speed and strengthen its attacks per monkey in the tower's radius up to a certain point which increases as the middle path gets upgraded.
xx1 Fort - Water units can be stationed within its radius, bloons get pushed back right before the main attack fires.
xx2 Fort - Non-water units can be stationed within the tower's footprint and gain +1 elevation for doing so.
I think these upgrades give a general sense of what further upgrades will do while providing good crosspath options.

Top Path: This will be the new home of the old Primary Expertise path. Additionally, it adds to the offensive capabilities of the tower itself more steadily than the Primary Expertise does so that the power of the Primary Expertise doesn't come out of nowhere.

3xx Fort - Primary Training plus a doubled volley volume.
4xx Fort - Primary Mentoring minus the ability cooldown reduction but adds a global ballista attack that doesn't seek and has much less pierce than the familiar ballista attack.
5xx Fort - Pretty much the old Primary Expertise with a bigger increase to the tower's range.
Top Path Aesthetics - same as the Primary Expertise path.

Middle Path: A path primarily to buff magic monkeys. Magic monkeys are already pretty powerful so the ability path felt like just the path to focus on them with.

x3x Fort - All magic monkeys gain weakly seeking projectiles, strengthens the power of seeking if the unit already has them, and increases their range.
x4x Fort - Adds Afterimage ability: All magic monkeys gain a clone that mimics its upgrades up to level 3 for a set period. Magic monkeys will slow bloons on hit.
x5x Fort - All monkeys in radius gain an afterimage and they now exist permanently, activate the ability to reposition the afterimage cluster anywhere on the map. Furthermore, the non-magic monkeys and clones all gain seeking projectiles and the clones can mimic up to level 4 (will use abilities when the original does).
Middle Path Aesthetics - Various institutions of learning.

Bottom Path: A path meant to enhance military monkeys. Due to just how varied military units are, this is definitely the path I've had the most trouble coming up with.

xx3 Fort - Adds a hangar unit at the closest free space. This unit has 2 upgrade choices: chopper or plane. Upon purchase, the unit will act as a normal one of these units with a minimal footprint and a permanent hangar buff: increased flight speed, projectile speed, attack speed, and damage.
xx4 Fort - Adds an additional hangar and all military monkeys in radius can upgrade their secondary path to tier 3.
xx5 Fort - Increase the tower's range and all units in radius can unlock up to tier 2 of their tertiary path. All military units gain damage and attack speed. Naval units additionally gain range and projectile speed. Air units and mortars additionally gain pierce.
Bottom Path Aesthetics - Military Bases

And thanks for reading through all that. Have a nice day.

[Ninja Zyborg]

before I get into your tower idea, let me point out that:
1. your 4xx village change is something that Energizer doesn't do
2. your 5xx change is much stronger than Energizer, which only grants heroes 50% more exp. your change is basically 150% -> 200% and also it additionally affects Adora's sacrifice ability. I think it's incredibly broken.

now for your tower.
1. 2xx is broken. You know Sun Avatar does 1 damage, right?
2. x4x / x5x broken. Once again, I'll point out putting Sun Avatars under your 250 fort.
3. xx4/5 is broken. Let me elaborate: 532 / 235 mortar, 532 / 523 / 235 sniper, 235 sub, etc.

Also, no support buff? But my ultraboosted sentry paragon!

[Michael Daemon]

The Land Submarine!

[Cowmunist Leader Moo Zedong]

Originally posted by Ninja Zyborg:

before I get into your tower idea, let me point out that:
1. your 4xx village change is something that Energizer doesn't do
2. your 5xx change is much stronger than Energizer, which only grants heroes 50% more exp. your change is basically 150% -> 200% and also it additionally affects Adora's sacrifice ability. I think it's incredibly broken.

now for your tower.
1. 2xx is broken. You know Sun Avatar does 1 damage, right?
2. x4x / x5x broken. Once again, I'll point out putting Sun Avatars under your 250 fort.
3. xx4/5 is broken. Let me elaborate: 532 / 235 mortar, 532 / 523 / 235 sniper, 235 sub, etc.

Also, no support buff? But my ultraboosted sentry paragon! :btd6stunned:

For the village critique I'd say of course it does more than the energizer. It sacrifices the offensive capabilities of an energizer to go purely supportive.

Otherwise the thing I'd say is truly (unfixably) broken is the damage on 2xx, you're right on that.

But that gets to the rest of it which I'd say you're considering these things broken because you haven't considered other factors to balance it out. Like if we looked at something like the 5xx spike on paper you might say that's broken too but you consider what it takes to afford it in a normal game and it all kind of evens out.

But thinking of including support buffs to each path was a consideration but with only 3 paths...idk a good way to do it. Maybe middle path pulls double duty on magic and support so the footprint economy helps balance that path .

[Ninja Zyborg]

Originally posted by Milordog1:

Originally posted by Ninja Zyborg:

now for your tower.
1. 2xx is broken. You know Sun Avatar does 1 damage, right?
2. x4x / x5x broken. Once again, I'll point out putting Sun Avatars under your 250 fort.
3. xx4/5 is broken. Let me elaborate: 532 / 235 mortar, 532 / 523 / 235 sniper, 235 sub, etc.

But that gets to the rest of it which I'd say you're considering these things broken because you haven't considered other factors to balance it out. Like if we looked at something like the 5xx spike on paper you might say that's broken too but you consider what it takes to afford it in a normal game and it all kind of evens out.

x5x seems like just permanent homeland defense on some towers.
and I will once again reiterate the incredibly broken tower that 532 mortar would be. keeps the burny stuff dps, x3 base attack speed, and an additional x4 attack speed ability that allows it to reach a total x12.

[ArcyPaweł]

I'm stupid or what? Everyone here is saying that 2xx of this tower would have broken damage. This upgrade in the post literally doesnt say anything about increasing damage

[Cowmunist Leader Moo Zedong]

Originally posted by ArcyPaweł:

I'm stupid or what? Everyone here is saying that 2xx of this tower would have broken damage. This upgrade in the post literally doesnt say anything about increasing damage

It used to but I realized that having an upgrade permanently increase damage that early is untenable for any tower so I edited it. It would be like perma-brew for a few thousand gold or alternatively having a tier 2 upgrade cost way more than every other tier in the same path combined.