Does Walter have potential in pub games? (I think so)

[abrocator]

I’ve been trying Walter in some pub games. I’ve never played him in my life. He seems to have some potential:

• Woby is fast early game with some monster meat
  • So you can more easily stumble upon useful things that are easy to loot like bunny hutches
  • In general I feel that pub games that don’t go more than one year (maybe just autumn+winter) benefit a lot when the players explore a lot in order to get the easy loot (especially now in the Beta servers with Woodie)
  • If the server has those settings that let you see all players then the exploration will benefit everybody
• Never have to worry about dusk/night sanity drain
  • Have to gather less sanity food… as long as you don’t get hit
• Killing butterflies with the slingshot is more comfortable than hitting them in melee and it only takes rock rounds
• With at least three people in the server—and especially now in the Beta with Woodie—you can let other people take fights where you risk taking damage
• His tent is good (Beta: Wormwood)
• He could help out without getting in the way in boss fights if he gets marble or cursed rounds (I’m bad at ruins rushing though so I wouldn’t count on getting the latter)

Personally I wouldn’t aim higher than to be a slight help to the others while not being a burden on them. That seems doable while also being a bit “chicken” when it comes to engagements.

I failed in my last game though because of tentacles while riding Woby (four guaranteed hits + no armor = death).

What do you think?

[ShadowDuelist]

I’d aim him to be a character that is oriented to quickly mapping the world, then going beefalo + some ranged combat, and excelling at crowd control. Plus his tents and minor personal perks.

He’s fine in most aspects except the slingshot doesn’t work well beyond cheesing, or killing birds or butterflies. So you are left with a very frail character that has little going for him in the mid or late game. That’s mostly his main issue. he seems to be designed to fulfill this role given the special rounds he got, but just was poorly implemented.
 

Hopefully, if they fix the slingshot, I think they fix him as a whole. He doesn’t have to have a machine gun, nor be a ghengis Kahn army mounted archer. I mean they don’t have to make him OP. Just fun and versatile enough.

 

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, abrocator said:

He could help out without getting in the way in boss fights if he gets marble or cursed rounds (I’m bad at ruins rushing though so I wouldn’t count on getting the latter)

Honestly I find it's generally safer to help your team fight bosses head on with him because while it seems better to use the slingshot at first if your team is kitting you can sometimes pull aggro and if you melee kite or face tank alongside them most bosses will just wilt. Despite how it might seem he's actually not bad at taking hits if you use his pioneer hat.

Despite all the flack he gets from the community he is a fairly popular pub pick though since he's fairly relaxed outside of boss fights.

Edit: Interesting fun fact btw Woby will only buck you if you take 8 hp of damage in a short period of time meaning using marble suits will make it so you can take multiple hits from bosses and mobs without being bucked assuming your not careless.

[MondayNight]

First off, if your ping is over 100-150, even with Lag Prediction: Off - forget it. Your pub experience will be lackluster to say the least - more-so if you haven't played much pubs with Walter (and his main dmg-taken-to-2x-insanity con). If you're also rubberbanding? Punch screen select Wigfrid instead. Or another pub. I wanted to stress this the most since, if connectivity is bad, you'll take plenty dmg, in turn being insane all time, not able to properly kite, leading to more shenanigans sapping your game session to Hellraiser BDSM levels.

That out of the way, pubs can be pretty enjoyable as Walter. Slingshot is quite versatile and fun, with pretty much all the available pellets. You can spam Rock ones, as stated, not only on Butterflies, but likewise on Tentacles for "stressless" kills since they can't do anything to you - easy MM, Tentacle Spikes and Spots at the cost of minerals laying around in Mosaic. Random Walter Tip: be close to insanity, go in Savanna, stand on Rabbit holes to block them and snipe them furry screamers with Rock Pellets too (2 shots) for NF, Hairs & MM dirty-cheap. Then the Golden ones: now can 1-shot Birds and Rabbits to never starve again just by standing still + Feather Hat (from previous Swamp adventure and making them Red and Black feathery friends of Woodie's see their own backs past a *snap*). You can even try your luck with a simple Krampus farm-setup a la Walter close to PK to benefit from surplus Morsels converted into gold with a 1:9 gain - just have a small 4 Walls pen and random crap as bait in it for them dastardly devils. You'll only get 1, at most 2 (depending how long you play) but can swimmingly yeet them if shore and a Boat platform are close: Krampi can't jump ship, so.. happy F-sniping them too. Now shove those extra-MMs in fellow Porkers for more 1x Porky Butt & 2 Meats. You can explore, carry Broken Marble Statues heads and complete the trio if wanting to try your luck at them Shadow Pieces, perhaps with friends/pub regulars/companions. Prototype a Log & Marble Suit, Marble Pellets too, and go venturing in Caves, for Ruins: no need to do complex stuff, find some statues, mine for Yellow, Green Gems, some more NF. If luck has it and you stumbled onto Moon Grotto in search of Blue Caps for mentioned Ruins incursion, you can flicker the lights of some Mushgnomes too, the sniping, stress-free way Walter benefits from - hello Living Logs! Don't forget to make some Poop lil-balls-of-joy too for those nasty Bishops at main station, with the Marble Suit equipped: howdy new Ruins gear - Starcaller, some Crowns & Suits, bonus a Thule Club, what you can quickly build via 1x Green Amulet (kinda what you can swiftly get your hands on such trip and knowing will use in Winter - most pub dives encompass 1st Autumn & Winter - vs DC and S@tan-senpai Klaus). My comment is rather all over the place, but just to show a bit of the entertaining flavors Walter brings to pub sessions. Also a Walter-Willow co-main here (or at least I was, nowadays I seldom play). Cheers!

PS: what I forgot to mention and I particularly enjoy: Willow's Lighter! Walter can use it like Willow (and Warly), on the go. Thus very good synergy with birds/rabbits sniping for Morsels - for cooking them in inventory over Lighter. Hence why finding Willow corpses in forgotten corners the world (to loot ), or giving needed materials to (still) kicking Willows is an auxiliary boy-scout bon.

[cropo]

My biggest fear of Walter was that he'd actually have decent ranged combat. I think ranged combat is the most overpowered form of fighting in this game, and the blowdarts are balanced(unless you are wicker) because farming them is an absolute chore, it's far easier to just make a hambat and that's how it should be.

 

If Walter were to get any slingshot buffs, I'd rather it be done in the form of various CC effects than straight up improving DPS.  Honestly I'd be happy if they took out his slingshot entirely and MASSIVELY buffed his other perks and alleviated his downsides. 

 

I'm too biased with Walter, I don't like ranged combat and don't think it should be easily obtainable. 

[Kemthazul]

1 hour ago, abrocator said:

 

• Woby is fast early game with some monster meat
  • So you can more easily stumble upon useful things that are easy to loot like bunny hutches
  • In general I feel that pub games that don’t go more than one year (maybe just autumn+winter) benefit a lot when the players explore a lot in order to get the easy loot (especially now in the Beta servers with Woodie)

 

1 hour ago, ShadowDuelist said:

I’d aim him to be a character that is oriented to quickly mapping the world, then going beefalo + some ranged combat, and excelling at crowd control. Plus his tents and minor personal perks.

This is exactly it. I mostly play on Klei Official servers, and if I don't think I have enough time (usually 3+ hours) to play where I have to:

• Get enough resources to start from scratch in a world where the surface resource is heavily plundered (gold, flint, pig skin)
• Explore the map to find such resources + deal with the seasonal hazard. I actually like starting at winter/summer in pubs
• Tame a beefalo which usually takes 20+ days for the travel speed + relatively safe combat

This usually heavily incentivizes me to go to caves ASAP, the nearest cave entrance by then is usually open and players are not often there and resources are plenty. Walter helps with this with a free chester, and a somewhat slower tamed 'beefalo', which makes the early game phase pre-base a lot more convenient.

I still like to play Warly though in pubs because I like to torture myself and nigh impossible to use my powers except glowberry mousse within a season

[Cheggf]

It's Don't Starve, not CS:GO. Play who you want to play, you don't need to try to justify it. 

[abrocator]

9 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Play who you want to play, you don't need to try to justify it. 

If I want to discuss a character then that’s my business.

[Gashzer]

Walter is the best character for pub servers. The extra inventory slots of woby allows Walter to benefit from a no backpack playstyle this means he can better use body slot armour/insulation which is important if someone else has the eyebrella or if all the pig skin has ran out. Big woby gives an awesome speed boost meaning if you get unlucky and other people have killed the mactusks before you... who cares? You dont need a walking cane as Walter.

Slingshot can help you assist on killing awkward mobs like big/small tentacles, pigs, mush gnomes and you can wall yourself in a box for hound waves and shoot out at them. This is quite useful on high ping servers. Gold rounds are the mvp.

Portable tent means easy health or sanity anywhere without needing crockpots.

And once Walter gets his skill tree (hopefully klei use some of my ideas https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/149175-good-job-klei-on-the-skill-trees-walter-skill-tree/ ) Walter will be even better than he currently is!

[Mysterious box]

On 7/12/2023 at 9:22 PM, cropo said:

 

If Walter were to get any slingshot buffs, I'd rather it be done in the form of various CC effects than straight up improving DPS.  Honestly I'd be happy if they took out his slingshot entirely and MASSIVELY buffed his other perks and alleviated his downsides. 

 

I'm too biased with Walter, I don't like ranged combat and don't think it should be easily obtainable. 

With the recent improvements to Wolfgang's dumbells offering both high ranged damage and powerful cc as well as Maxwell's cage and shadow sneak being very powerful and cheap.

I feel like they're going to have a hard time striking a balance on his slingshot to make it worthwhile without complaints. Considering Walter's ammo is time consuming to amass, takes up alot of space, has very comparatively lackluster cc effects and damage while also being very slow. Currently I'm of the opinon but the slingshot needs to be stronger, be more resouce efficient and have all around better cc abilities to reach a decent standard comparable to the rest of the cast.

While I'm not sure what the exact balance should be overall I know for sure the each craft should give 40 rounds per and each round type should have a 200 stack size to break the tedium of reloading.