Currently:
Oxygenator currently increases your movement speed by 10%.
My Proposal:
Increase Oxygenators movement speed increase from 10% to 20%.
My reasoning:
10% movement speed increase is not worth the opportunity cost of not getting 50 more armor rating (Extra Padding), being almost invisible to enemies (Reduced Signature), +30% reload speed and 20% ammo capacity (Siege-Ready), just to name a few.
Oxygenator is strictly worse than Extra Padding:
Heavy Oxygenator armor and Medium Extra Padding armor have the same armor rating* and move at the same speed, but the Medium Extra Padding armor has more stamina and faster stamina recovery.
See this for a demonstration: https://i.4cdn.org/vg/1777385318481673.webm
(On the right, heavy Oxygenator armor. On the left, a regular medium armor. Both running 50m in the same time, but the medium armor has more stamina left after.)
This means you get the exact same survivability* but worse movement with Heavy Oxygenator armor.
The exact same goes for comparing medium Oxygenator armor and light Extra Padding armor.
So Oxygenator is not only not competitive with other armor passives, it is also strictly worse than an already existing armor passive.
What my proposal achieves:
It makes it more competitive with other armor passives.
It gives Oxygenator a point of differentiation and unique identity from Extra Padding. With the change, you walk and run faster with Oxygenator, but you will have more stamina and stamina recovery with Extra Padding. Meaning you can run and melee attack more with Extra Padding.
It gives Oxygenator a unique identity as a counter to the Spore Burst Strain. AH wants us to vary our loadouts depending on the enemy we are facing, like how stagger and gas are very good against the Predator Strain. Spore Burst have the unique property of moving very fast, so a faster-moving armor would be a great counter to them. Oxygenator doesn't currently fulfill this role. Community sentiment seems to be that even with the fastest armor in the game, you cannot keep pace with the Spore Burst Strain.
See this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1sypoyd/hes_overtaking_me/
So my change would help Oxygenator build a unique identity as a Spore Burst Strain counter.
Additional remarks:
I am aware that Oxygenator also provides extra slide distance, not just a movement speed increase, but this is clearly more of a meme to make this armor more clearly a reference to Titanfall. (I am aware that this lets you move a tiny bit further when initiating a stationary reload.)
Even at 20% movement speed increase, this armor would not step on the toes of dedicated traversal tools like the FRV The FRV would still be significantly faster than even a light Oxygenator armor.
*no, just because an armor is classified as "heavy" does not mean it blocks more damage than a "medium" armor. The only relevant factor is the armor rating. 150 armor on a "heavy" armor is the exact same as 150 armor on a "medium" armor. Please see this for an explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1srqh93/comment/ohht4ez/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
In conclusion:
I think raising Oxygenators movement speed increase from 10% to 20%:
- makes it more competitive with other armor passives without overshadowing them
- provides it a distinction from Extra Padding
- gives it a unique identity as Spore Burst Strain counter
- won't make it encroaching on existing tools like the FRV