How you buff ele archers without making the unit broken on closed maps, Bengali ele archers are already on the verge to be broken in late game.
Pretty bad choice on water maps.
By making them not a literal monster against archer line. And Bengalis EA shouldnât get benefit from (Censored word that is Bengalis Castle Age UT). I liked devs changed EA a lot from an UU to a regional unit. But it is still not up to the mark to be a balanced unit.
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Use Monks with Block printing,
Just âRedemptionâ should take care of it. Till now âbonusâ damage creeping into a lot of civ bonuses itself looks ugly. If it becomes a unique tech like 50% bonus reduction from Siege, it just shows the game has run out of ideas.
Dude, you have taken one word out of context and ran with it. I wrote a whole paragraph. I wrote âplay like a normal civ and not like an athlete on androids for a 100 m dashâ. I am relieved you got the point that âOpponent reach Castle Age. Dravidians = gg.â. But in AOE2 game ending options start in earnest in castle age. Unless the opponent screwed up a boar lure or failed to wall in time, there is little chance any player @ 1200 elo can end the game in feudal age. Any tower rush potential or even vill fight potential is nipped in the bud by devs, so they will never allow a civ to have the ability to end a game before castle age. So Dravidians despite their stats on ladder are still not a good design.
Introduce monk tech in imp to increase Pierce armor by +3 like Bengalis.
@Pulikesi25 Dravidians - 1v1 Random Map | 1200+ - aoestats this is the link buddy.
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What do you mean by âenoughâ?
I agree for the most part, but this is a done deal at this point. We are never going back.
So, Iâve got a different view now. Make their castle age even weaker, and make their imperial age far stronger. Yeah, dravidians would be more of a high elo-civ, but thatâs fine.
Currently, their castle age is weak, but imperial age isnât strong enough to justify it. So, remove the siege unit wood discount. Then, double the effects of medical corps in imperial age, and give them hussars and elite battle elephants with husbandy. Or give the infantry units a bit of anti-cav armour like shotels. Yeah, Iâm going a bit overboard here, but you get the idea.
This way, there are clear win conditions in both sides. Dravs need to go extra aggressive in feudal and use that to buy time in castle age. Opponent needs to get to castle and really push on that weakness to prevent dravs from getting that imperial age power spike.
Btw, it seems like the devs used one of your ideas, kinda. The rome blacksmith bonus is basically what you proposed with strike corps. And Iâm still completely in for replacing medical corps with strike corps.
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Easiest one but why Ratha is also excluded?
Dude, they miss out on all late game techs including Gold shaft mining. So they canât bank up gold for a push later. They donât have treadmill crane to build faster. So going on the offensive and buildings forward is also not feasible. Dravidians donât have architecture to have strong buildings to withstand enemy push. So the civ is not a late game powerhouse like Bohemians.
The civilization is historically old enough to have pre-dated all AOE1 civs. Since ancient times, they were a farming and sea-faring people. In AOE2, they donât get crop rotation or any ship based technology discount. Using Siege wood discount to make them a late game powerhouse will not be possible or thematically correct. If Armoured elpehants had battle elephant speed and were not nerfed to dustbin level continuously, people could have eventually figured out good late game play with the civ.
I canât believe people are talking about nerfing Bengalis. The civ is a meme. They survive under cover of walls or other natural defenses like woodlines. They are a civ with little or no power spikes on land till imperial age.
I see no reason to nerf Bengali Elephant archers. The unit and its counter system are incorrectly designed. The civ is not to be blamed. Skirms should counter archers, But not Elephant archers in current form as a food heavy unit. Its like skirms having a bonus vs steppe lancer. The food cost should be made to gold cost and gold cost to wood for Elephant archers. The counter for Elephant archers should be Mangonels. The negative cavalry archer armour should be brought to zero. Mangonel line and Petards should get âWar elephantâ armour bonus against elephants. Black forest dominance will be nerfed by Mangonel line bonus damage.
All non-unique unit elephants like battle elephant, Elephant archer and armored elephants should have 250 HP or any other same value and have same speed. The idea that Armoured elephants are reskinned Rams should be changed. They should be treated like battle elephants with a Siege specialization. Bengalis access to Siege Engineers should be removed.
If these changes are done, Bengalis will be good on Arabia type Maps with their strong Elephant monk push in castle age. They donât have to build a castle to make a squishy unique unit to match Knights. When they fail against Knights and skirms, research a unique tech to get 20% faster attack. But still donât find any difference in gameplay.
IMHO, if they canât balance Elephant archers. They should make Ratha unique unit of all dynasties of India civs except hindustanis. Indian history and vedas tell of chariot usage by all non-Muslim kingdoms. Elephant archer should be made unique unit of Bengalis from castle thus preventing their spamming potential. Give some new unique naval unit that resembles cannon galleon but shoots in a straight line doing melee damage. They should have some power spikes on water too. To prevent overbuffing, fast fire or galleon can be removed.
PS:- To fix elephant archers on closed maps. Mangonels and Bombard cannons should get bonus damage against âWar elephantâ armour class. The negative cavalry armour value should be brought to zero. Bengalis contrary to all opinions should be made viable on arabia too.
They are not reskinned rams. Although the distinction between them has been narrowed a lot with patches.
I agree with what you are saying, but Iâm arguing for it to be changed. Devs will never truly buff their castle age. They are also dead set on not giving them even the smallest amount of mobility. I donât know why, but this is what the trend indicates. So, we have to accept that. Work around it, and push for changes that the community (and devs) will accept.
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Its an interesting perspective. The thing about âearlyâ aggression is its a forced option for Dravidians because of the weak castle age imo. So Iâm not sure it would help them get enough damage to reach their late game. Sort of similar to Magyars in some way.
Exactly. And they gave it to a civ which seems to be on ######## even without that bonus. 
LOL. One of the worst civs losing one of the very few options they have. No knights, no camels, no CA, terrible uu, no thumb ring on archers, no gunpowder, missing armor on infantry. Elephants are just a blackforest TG thing, nothing to be concerned about for the regular 1v1 players. Its perfectly fine to rework Elephant archers without doing any of these things to weaken a civ thatâs already too weak.
I love this idea. Rathas can be quite decent if theyâre made from range/stable. Theyâd also address the mobility crisis of Dravidians to some extent.
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