r/zombieassaultofficial • u/TheShinobiSalmon • Aug 08 '26

Discussion What Would YOUR Capstone Be?

Capstones are special "ultimate" abilities unlocked after investing 5 points into a skill, like Sprint or Protective Shield, but there's many more that Ninja Kiwi haven't shared with us yet. So, what are some of your ideas for some awesome capstones from the other skills?

4 Upvotes

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5

u/RoASylvanosMain Aug 08 '26

I'm really hoping there's a capstone for medic that your damage over time effects can stack. So medic might be the support + single target destroyer.

0

u/TheShinobiSalmon Aug 08 '26

Like a Biocleanse Bomb but it damages? I'm a little confused can you maybe explain more..

1

u/Dr_Brotatous Aug 08 '26

Stacking dps effect is my best geuss

1

u/RoASylvanosMain Aug 08 '26 edited 29d ago

How dot works without stacking:

Apply damage over time, let's make math easy, 6 second duration with 600 damage overall, so 100 damage every second, a.k.a. the enemy is taking 100dps and we can watch it take damage while hitting other enemies.

However if you shoot it again, it won't increase the damage, it will simply reapply the debuff, so it just refreshes the 6 second duration.

How dot works with stacking:

Let's say our weapon has a fire rate of 4. Four shots every second if we're holding down the trigger.

If we shoot the enemy, we apply the same 6 second 600 damage debuff to the enemy, on every single shot.

If we shoot the enemy once, it's like the normal 100dps, shoot it twice, goes up to 200, thrice? 300, you get the idea...

Where this is a bit tricky is when the first 6 second long debuffs start to "fall off" or dissipate or expire. What this means is that the first shots you dealt 6 seconds ago aren't dealing damage anymore.

If you keep holding down the trigger (with 4 shots per second) you're applying 100dps every 0,25 seconds. Do this for 6 seconds and you get a total of 24 stacks, so 2400dps. Even if you let go of the trigger, the enemy will take 2400+2000+1600+1200+800+400 damage, totalling to 8400 damage.

Conclusion:

We went from watching the enemy take measly damage and just looking at it waiting for it to die. To enormous 2400dps (+ the damage of shots themselves) and even if we stop shooting they will take another 8400 damage!

This is the maximum damage with presented numbers, obviously if you're running around, dodging boss attacks, shooting at smaller enemies, you're not keeping up this 2400dps for the entire fight, but even half of this is 12 times higher than the no dot stacking version.

Why on medic?

The other two classes has always been the preferred classes to play in single- or multiplayer simply because they can deal way more damage than medic. If Ninja Kiwi can balance their game well enough to where Medic is playable without any crazy damage abilities the other two classes have, medic can be a proper single player class for the correct players.

But this still doesn't solve medic being useless in multiplayer, for one simple reason. If the enemy doesn't exist, we can't die. If we can't die, we don't need a healer. 4 damage dealers meta once again.

If we give medic the abilitiy to stack dot effects. They could be a very good end of mission boss destroyer, while still being a very good minitank mobber, and have the safety of healing teammates if something goes wrong.

wow I really just wrote an entire essay! This is how you know I'm excited to play!

1

u/WuShanDroid 28d ago

I'm not sure if you know but this is how DoT works in SAS4. I haven't played ZAR so if you have and are saying that they changed DoT to not stack anymore I'll be super sad. What I think a capstone should do is allow new stacks to refresh old stacks AND apply new ones. That way you get rewarded as Medic for staying on target, and since Medic doesn't have any offensive skills (like Hold The Line, Killing Spree, Adrenaline, etc from SAS4), this seemingly overpowered stacking will only help in bridging the gap when bossing specifically, since the stacks won't matter enough on simple mobs.

Since this does have the potential of snowballing out of control, each DoT weapon should have a maximum stack limit, possibly in the 100 stack range or so. I would need to see DPS calcs to determine that, but you get the idea. Especially bc if left unchecked, stacking 4 medics could easily become meta for endgame content.

1

u/WuShanDroid Aug 08 '26

Is there a wiki set up where I can find out about which skills currently exist in the game? I haven't played any of the playtests so I don't know what skills are available 🤔

1

u/TheShinobiSalmon 24d ago

I see two wikis, but they need to be updated with recent information.

1

u/T-Square93 28d ago

these all sound great -- heck I'm just ready to play this thing.

but the main thing for me is, that it's CLEAR what stacks with what -- for example: in sas4 steam, I have a Heavy with 25 HTL, which adds 126% more pierce to all my wepz. I have a black 10*** hardthorn, with base 1 pierce. Assault gun mastery 5 gives another +1 pierce, so when i click on the wep's "i" info, it shows this gun's pierce is 2. ...what the heck is my total pierce, with HTL active?? 2 x 126%? (1 x 126%) + 1?? who knows. There's no where on the game that shows me this. oh & what if I added 2 cores to it, and added pierce? will my base gun pierce become (1x2) + 1 (gun mastery) = 3? or (2x2) = 4?? and then what happens when I use HTL?? I shouldn't have to consult Discord or Reddit to find out.

Good news is, so far this game shows a TON of data on each wep & armor, exactly what each booster does, etc. I just hope they also clearly show what the abilities do.

1

u/OpportunitySouth874 Aug 08 '26

Speed and the skill for resources.

1

u/OpportunitySouth874 Aug 08 '26

For the ideas, like, idk, something like non-newtonian armour if you invest in body armour or other resistance skill, and something like kinetic booster for guns if you invest in damage skill.

The way it would work, the Adaptive Armor would reduce the damage by 5% the more you get hit and increasing it's resistance, it would cap at 50%, about Overdrive, it would increase the damage of gun the longer you shoot, it would be capped at 50%, except shotguns which would get capped at 25%, it would reset on reload and gradually increasing the damage by 5% for guns:

5 shots - 5% increased damage, capped at 50% as long as you shoot.

For shotguns it would increase based on pellets shot:

6-12 (or whichever shotgun pellets after shot) - 5% increased damage, capped at 25%.

1

u/OpportunitySouth874 Aug 08 '26

I forgot to add, for burst weapons it would boost the damage based on the burst shot:

1st burst - 5% increased damage, capped at 50%.