BTD5 DC 8/17/2014 - cont. description

What happened? This was supposed to be about the Ice Tower, hence the title "Arctic Monkeys." Well, I'll tell you what happened: Bloonjitsu Master wrecks literally everything that isn't a Lead Bloon or a leveled Blimp. Neither has enough frequency to even pressure Bloonjitsu Master at all. Bloonjistu Master's group control isn't the best in the world, but it's still strong enough to stand decently on its own, and the proof is in the pudding. If it didn't have that Lead weakness, I'd complain about it more, but on Battles, I've actually beaten Bloonjitsu Master players (granted when they didn't abuse that God forsaken Signal Flare) because they needed to waste precious economy to have Camo Lead protection, leading to them being eventually unable to handle natural bloons.

That's exactly what I'm talking about when remarking about how Leads do a surprising job balancing things just by being an upgrade check, despite forever (outside Regen...and there's not even a SINGLE Regen Lead in BTD5, what) becoming vulnerable to about any tower in the game upon being so much as HIT by something that actually damages Lead. Of course, everything that is popular (Bio Boomer, Cluster Bombs, Ice Tower, Ring of Fire, and Signal Flare) ALL have innate Lead busting, and that last one is the only one in that list that can hit Camos, which come too bloody late to get around Signal Flare shenanigans. It's why Signal Flare needs to be nerfed. A certain friend would recommend that Signal Flare--and Burny Stuff since we're on the subject--shouldn't get applied to Blacks or Zebras. I agree there, because it would then need support to do ANYTHING about Camo Blacks/Zebras. Also I would recommend in Battles to buff the Lead and White sends (maybe Zebras as well) by increasing the bloons per send by 1 for each of them. Leads go without saying especially at this point (I actually busted an experienced player early on Indoor Pools via a Regen Lead blitz against their CANNON and some other stuff), and Whites and Zebras would tell Ice Tower users to have more tower types that risk needing to try to hit effective-Leads.

People think I'm just complaining and claim my general loadout (F/H/M/N) just sucks because it can't handle the RRoD that well, which is its own beeswax anyway when RRoD is stupid powerful for its price regardless (and what gives it the right? Why not, oh right, use variety as its own threat?), but honestly, the only major buff that could be needed on ANY of the towers would be Ace firing 30% faster outside Operation Dartstorm. Even though floods are significantly likely, they're just ONE aspect of a Tower Defense metagame. Firing faster still wouldn't stop Ace from having problems with clusters, durabloons (Ace's Lead busting is ABSOULUTELY GARBAGE for God's sake), or even leaks. I even bring it up because I had been confused about the Ace myself and I'd rather be empathetic and showcase what the Ace's basic purpose is. They're not the only towers I'd rather see buffed at all either. Glue and Sniper have some PAINFUL competition problems, and Dart's dedicated left path upgrades suck as well. In comparison, the most significant buff suggestion for Mage, Dartling, OR Spactory outside dedicated path upgrade stuff that I would make would be to have the Mage's innate attack and Intense Magic (but not any of the other attacks) pop 2 layers for each hit bloon to make those attacks not suck while Mage n00bs still get killed by Red floods (which won't even care about this idea). The other two buff suggestions are have Depleted Bloontonium and White Hot Spikes pop 2 extra bloons per attack to give them flow while avoiding buffing anything else. That's basically it, I'm being kind to towers that ultimately don't deserve this suffocating stupidity. In fact, Spactory doesn't even need unnecessary buffing in general--I'm looking at you, Spike Storm having innate MOAB-SHREDR.

Honestly, Battles just plain has some painful balance issues right now. Signal Flare sticks out as one of the worst, and it also gets overused in Monkey City as well. Bloonjitsu Master, though it could stand a minor nerf (I FREAKING USE A SPECIALTY THAT WEAKENS ME), isn't so horribly imbalanced but it goes all over BTD5's questionable bloon quality. Why is it allowed in a DC without careful thought again?