There are several things bothering me about Rocket Boots:
1)It doesn’t jump us back as far as Acid Bomb on the Elixir gun. To be honest the first time I used Acid Bomb, I expected myself to just hop back a few paces, but when I suddenly vaulted all the way to other end of a room I’m like “What the heck just happened?” Sure Acid Bomb isn’t a stun break, but it jumps us back really far, has a shorter cooldown, and has a really nice vertical distance that lets us clear objects in our path.
2)It doesn’t have any vertical height. I can end up crashing into the small hill behind me and really end up only CCing myself.
3)It knocks us down. Sure, the Engineer is a tinkerer, not a soldier. But he’s an ADVENTURER. You’re telling me that my character will never learn to stop landing on his butt from Rocket Boots? And that suddenly popping my goggles on in mid flight will stop me from landing on my butt?
4)Rocket kick toolbelt is very counter intuitive. It encourages melee and divides the uses of Rocket Boots. The only build it fits into are the in-n-out burst combos, but that leaves Engineers without any sort of utility dedicated to escape and/or evasion (Oil slick is both offensive and defensive and the toolbelt only enhances that fact. Rocket Boots is just… ugh.) The main thing is that if you use Rocket Boots for stun break/Immobilize, you are NEVER going to follow up with Rocket Kick because you’re going to be launched way to far back.
So can we buff it so that:
-Rather than landing on our butts like a stereotypical fantasy goblin-esque engineer, we’re experienced enough to roll with the boots and instead gain evasion while blasting backwards and then immediately dive into a roll to prevent ourselves from getting knocked down.
-It gets some vertical height so that it can at least match Acid Bomb in terms of jump-back.
-Rocket Kick is changed to something more conducive to a keep-away utility while you can push other utilities like PBR into the forward offensive control territory.
Like say:
Rocket Jump
Blast yourself upwards, knocking away any enemies around you and evading attacks while moving upwards. Upon landing, you inflict damage and burning on any enemies around you.
Rocket Jump is not a leap, it puts you into a controlled jump state where you can direct your movement as if you were simply doing a normal jump. Rocket Jump moves you higher than a normal jump and can be used while jumping.
Ok, while this might cheese certain jumping puzzles (Like other abilities don’t?) it puts it into clear keep away territory while maintaining the offensive capabilities for in-n-out builds. You can choose whether to make use of the knockback to gain distance, or use it to land your stomp on an enemy. As for “pure fun” (something that only helps the longevity of a game) you can use it before you hit the ground to do a mid air double jump and save yourself.
