"Cluster bullets are nice to have. At low levels, it's like having an extra fling shot available.
Homing Permorpha Bullets, however, are stocked at too high a QL to be used -- the bullets that are spawned have a much higher QL to use them than the nanoprogram requires to spawn them. This could be fixed by changing the requirement curve on Homing Permorpha Bullets so that it takes the same skill as Cluster Bullets, per QL, to use them.
Easier, partial, less satisfactory fix: Adjust the nanoprogram to spawn lower QL Homing Permorpha Bullets. Though, it would be nonsense to bring these special attack items to attention by integrating them into the new player experience, and then letting them still be junky.
The requirements to use Homing Permorpha Bullets are the main problem, but there are other things that would be nice:
- Adjust both Cluster Bullets and Homing Permorpha Bullets so that they do more damage at higher QLs. Otherwise, eventually, they're just cluttering up the hotbar. I'm a fan of having plenty of special attacks to use because it makes the gameplay less q-afk. It would be a shame to see Fixers' special ammo go unused at later levels after you've gone through the effort to integrate this ammo into the new player experience.
- Both special ammunition types would benefit from a sound effect and a rendered tracer. Nothing about better CB/HPBs (it's such a small thing) would make Fixers overpowered, but sound and graphic effects would make Fixers the COOLEST of the professions. If balance is a huge concern for beefing up Fixers' special ammo, though? Remove the Fixer-only tag on the ammunition (not the nanoprogram).
- Other balance-fixing ideas: If HPB damage seems too high, decrease it, but give it a chance to proc a damage-over-time effect on target. If damage is still too low, do only the DoT proc, at a higher chance.
inb4 debump because a fixer killed you once"