A massive Fletcher rework (please read the whole thing)

(watsyurdeal) #1
  • Fletcher’s max Stickies are reduced to 1 at a time, deployed or in hand, you get 1
  • Fletcher’s Stickies now have a cooldown of 10 seconds when used, 5 seconds when you cancel a throw
  • When a Sticky is thrown and used as a trap, Stickies will still recharge, detonating it will cause a 5 second cooldown, throwing another will just cause the previous sticky to disappear.
  • Sticky Damage has been increased to 160, radius has been increased by 20% (tentative buff, may change later, like the damage may be nerfed to 120 instead to buff Fragger and Thunder if needed)
  • Fletcher’s health has been increased to 120, small speed nerf has been applied
  • Some cards have been removed from possible loadouts, new cards have been added (augments not known, but these cards should include the Remburg, SMG 9 and Hochfir as Primaries, secondaries possibly the Empire 9 and Tolen for Remburg, DE 50 and Simon for the SMGs).

The goal is to increase the rewards for Stickies, while also increasing the skill floor and reducing their spamminess.

This will effectively turn Fletcher into a lighter Fragger, with less health, more speed, and the ability to repair. These are all subject for discussion but what do you think?

(brennanfreak) #2

If it stops Fletcher from being a monkey flinging his shit I’m for it.

(Eox) #3

So basically, Fletcher is now Fragger with a sticky frag grenade ?

No thank you. Seriously, there’s nothing wrong with the current version. Okay you can somewhat manage to play a whole game with only your stickies out, but it’s not if it was the absolute weapon. Stickies are awful in duel scenarios and have range issues.

(triteCherry) #4

Sounds like a massive buff to a merc that doesn’t need it. It’s actually better then Fraggers nade because you can detonate it at will plus giving him SMGs with the repair ability basically outclasses every other engineer.

(SzGamer227) #5

You know that thing that Fletcher does to Proxy, Kira, Aura, and Phoenix? Where he one shot kills you outta nowhere with a surprise sticky bomb? This would allow him to do that to… hell, every single merc besides Thunder and Rhino. ('°-°) Doesn’t that seem… slightly entirely too powerful?

Fletcher is definitely overpowered, but this takes him to a whole new level of overpowered.

I think it would be reasonable to reduce the number of stickies he can carry at once to 2, reduce maximum sticky damage to 90, and increase the cooldown by a second or two, but still allow him to have 3 stickies armed at a time. Less spammy and less powerful, but still holds true to the general Fletcher playstyle.

(Eox) #6

[quote=“SzGamer227;145692”]You know that thing that Fletcher does to Proxy, Kira, Aura, and Phoenix? Where he one shot kills you outta nowhere with a surprise sticky bomb? This would allow him to do that to… hell, every single merc besides Thunder and Rhino. ('°-°) Doesn’t that seem… slightly entirely too powerful?

Fletcher is definitely overpowered, but this takes him to a whole new level of overpowered.

I think it would be reasonable to reduce the number of stickies he can carry at once to 2, reduce maximum sticky damage to 90, and increase the cooldown by a second or two, but still allow him to have 3 stickies armed at a time. Less spammy and less powerful, but still holds true to the general Fletcher playstyle.[/quote]

In order to one shot you with a 100hp blast, he needs to direct hit you with a sticky bomb, which is far from being easy unless you have a predictable trajectory (the most common thing being “running in a straight line”). And since he surprised you, you would die anyway since you didn’t paid enough attention, no matter what was the merc encountered. Meanwhile, a Stickybomb can only deal up to 80 damage if its not stuck, in a very short radius, making damage decreasing extremely quickly if you are not right at the center of the explosion. It’s very easy to dodge sticky bombs if you stay at mid long range, and very easy to kill Fletcher from that position as well.

He’s far from being the ridiculously overpowered and game breaking merc that a lot of people want to make you think about.

(Dawnlazy) #7

Eh I’d rather just nerf stickies from their current stupidly overpowered form and in compensation buff/rework his primaries a bit. I do agree that something definitely needs to be done though, fucking Nader is easier to fight than a Fletcher and she is literally designed to only kill and nothing more.

(sgtCrookyGrin) #8

I actually like this (damage should be around the 110-120 mark), the concept is that he can still use them like a Fragger on offense but on defense he is more like a Proxy that has to shoot their mine. Interesting concept mate, but how will Bushwhacker even compete now? If Fletcher’s sticky has enough damage to one shot his turret with one sticky and has 10 secs cool down while Bushy is waiting for 30 Secs, this makes Bush just worse now since Fletcher will do everything an engi does but can kill that much better. And the fact that Turret is pretty easy to combat :stuck_out_tongue:

(streetwiseSailboat) #9

I honestly just think the cooldown should be increased by one second and the maximum damage from a non-stick should be capped at 70-75 so that lighter mercs wouldn’t get OHKO’d by the blast.

(wolvie) #10

I like what your thinking, but I think its a little much. What’d I’d like to see is for Fletcher is somehow be reworked to encourage stciky tripping and less direct sticks. How to go about that,I’m baffled

(Szakalot) #11

dont fix what aint broken, fletcher has plenty pf weaknesses, its just that pubbers dont know how to dodge

(CCP115) #12

Fletcher’s real strong and kinda spammy, and a change would be kind of nice, but turning him into a lighter Fragger? Sorry, doesn’t seem right.

(solace_) #13

Are you kidding? Buffing damage to 160 and increasing the blast radius. You do realize that will one hit kill the majority of mercs in the game and with such a short cool down this will really only make him more overpowered just in a different way.

(Amerika) #14

[quote=“Eox;145698”][quote=“SzGamer227;145692”]You know that thing that Fletcher does to Proxy, Kira, Aura, and Phoenix? Where he one shot kills you outta nowhere with a surprise sticky bomb? This would allow him to do that to… hell, every single merc besides Thunder and Rhino. ('°-°) Doesn’t that seem… slightly entirely too powerful?

Fletcher is definitely overpowered, but this takes him to a whole new level of overpowered.

I think it would be reasonable to reduce the number of stickies he can carry at once to 2, reduce maximum sticky damage to 90, and increase the cooldown by a second or two, but still allow him to have 3 stickies armed at a time. Less spammy and less powerful, but still holds true to the general Fletcher playstyle.[/quote]

In order to one shot you with a 100hp blast, he needs to direct hit you with a sticky bomb, which is far from being easy unless you have a predictable trajectory (the most common thing being “running in a straight line”). And since he surprised you, you would die anyway since you didn’t paid enough attention, no matter what was the merc encountered. Meanwhile, a Stickybomb can only deal up to 80 damage if its not stuck, in a very short radius, making damage decreasing extremely quickly if you are not right at the center of the explosion. It’s very easy to dodge sticky bombs if you stay at mid long range, and very easy to kill Fletcher from that position as well.

He’s far from being the ridiculously overpowered and game breaking merc that a lot of people want to make you think about.[/quote]

It’s pretty funny. One piece of advice I always give friends who are new to the game is, “don’t run in a straight line pretty much ever. Play like you’re drunk. Swerve, jump around common areas, jump off walls etc.”. It’s such an amazing survival tactic in this game yet so few know to use it. Sparks always headshooting you? Easy fix. Fletcher’s always sticking you? Easy fix. Having issues with most snipers? Easy fix. Play like your a drunken idiot and vary your movement constantly. This also works while strafe fighting in duels which are half mind games and half tracking.

I could probably write a book titled, “Playing Stupid Intelligently”.

(Eox) #15

[quote=“Amerika;145994”][quote=“Eox;145698”][quote=“SzGamer227;145692”]You know that thing that Fletcher does to Proxy, Kira, Aura, and Phoenix? Where he one shot kills you outta nowhere with a surprise sticky bomb? This would allow him to do that to… hell, every single merc besides Thunder and Rhino. ('°-°) Doesn’t that seem… slightly entirely too powerful?

Fletcher is definitely overpowered, but this takes him to a whole new level of overpowered.

I think it would be reasonable to reduce the number of stickies he can carry at once to 2, reduce maximum sticky damage to 90, and increase the cooldown by a second or two, but still allow him to have 3 stickies armed at a time. Less spammy and less powerful, but still holds true to the general Fletcher playstyle.[/quote]

In order to one shot you with a 100hp blast, he needs to direct hit you with a sticky bomb, which is far from being easy unless you have a predictable trajectory (the most common thing being “running in a straight line”). And since he surprised you, you would die anyway since you didn’t paid enough attention, no matter what was the merc encountered. Meanwhile, a Stickybomb can only deal up to 80 damage if its not stuck, in a very short radius, making damage decreasing extremely quickly if you are not right at the center of the explosion. It’s very easy to dodge sticky bombs if you stay at mid long range, and very easy to kill Fletcher from that position as well.

He’s far from being the ridiculously overpowered and game breaking merc that a lot of people want to make you think about.[/quote]

It’s pretty funny. One piece of advice I always give friends who are new to the game is, “don’t run in a straight line pretty much ever. Play like you’re drunk. Swerve, jump around common areas, jump off walls etc.”. It’s such an amazing survival tactic in this game yet so few know to use it. Sparks always headshooting you? Easy fix. Fletcher’s always sticking you? Easy fix. Having issues with most snipers? Easy fix. Play like your a drunken idiot and vary your movement constantly. This also works while strafe fighting in duels which are half mind games and half tracking.

I could probably write a book titled, “Playing Stupid Intelligently”.[/quote]

Exactly this !

I should consider playing with a bottle of Vodka at hand by the way.

(SzGamer227) #16

[quote=“Eox;145698”][quote=“SzGamer227;145692”]You know that thing that Fletcher does to Proxy, Kira, Aura, and Phoenix? Where he one shot kills you outta nowhere with a surprise sticky bomb? This would allow him to do that to… hell, every single merc besides Thunder and Rhino. ('°-°) Doesn’t that seem… slightly entirely too powerful?

Fletcher is definitely overpowered, but this takes him to a whole new level of overpowered.

I think it would be reasonable to reduce the number of stickies he can carry at once to 2, reduce maximum sticky damage to 90, and increase the cooldown by a second or two, but still allow him to have 3 stickies armed at a time. Less spammy and less powerful, but still holds true to the general Fletcher playstyle.[/quote]

In order to one shot you with a 100hp blast, he needs to direct hit you with a sticky bomb, which is far from being easy unless you have a predictable trajectory (the most common thing being “running in a straight line”). And since he surprised you, you would die anyway since you didn’t paid enough attention, no matter what was the merc encountered. Meanwhile, a Stickybomb can only deal up to 80 damage if its not stuck, in a very short radius, making damage decreasing extremely quickly if you are not right at the center of the explosion. It’s very easy to dodge sticky bombs if you stay at mid long range, and very easy to kill Fletcher from that position as well.

He’s far from being the ridiculously overpowered and game breaking merc that a lot of people want to make you think about.[/quote]

There is a big difference between being overpowered and being game-breaking. You might be confused as to where I think Fletcher stands on that spectrum. :l

I definitely think that Fletcher is overpowered. He has an ability that is nearly as powerful (and potentially just as useful) as a combat merc like Nader or Fragger, and has the objective capabilities of an engineer on top of that. If you can throw your stickies with any accuracy, you can deal a steady amount of damage to enemies from behind cover (and get the occasional stick that can often guarantee victory) without the delayed use of a cooked Frag or the 2 second delay of a Nader 'nade. You are also able to throw multiple explosives directly at an enemy with a minimally delayed detonation, which is extremely rewarding, makes up for the relatively low DPS output of his Stickies, and makes them more effective of a lead-in to close quarters than any primary weapon.

I did not hear a rumor about Fletcher being overpowered and pass it on here. I’m not just someone who has gotten killed by Fletcher a lot and came here to complain. I am someone who plays Fletcher frequently, hears people complain about how powerful Fletcher is, and can’t help but agree with them. Being able to carry three stickies at a time is a bit unnecessary and makes Fletcher’s ability, as people have said, really rather spammy. Reducing his max number of Stickies would hardly be a crippling change, it would just make Fletcher more reasonably powered when it comes to CQC and force Fletcher to use his ability a bit more sparingly like other mercs do.

(watsyurdeal) #17

This is more or less what I was trying to do, maybe a bit too effective though.

The way I see it Fletcher is too spammy as he is, but of course some disagree. The ideal situation is to give him good enough weapons that he doesn’t HAVE to use his stickies so much, he can actually participate in gun fights fairly well.

Reduced capacity in exchange for increased damage output seemed like a smart idea, but 2 stickies with 100 damage might be better.

Forget the increased health and all that, just give him new cards that give him access to other SMGs.

(Jostabeere) #18

Slightly increasing the cooldown on Stickies is more than enough. Fletcher is a very strong merc. He is easy to play with, but hard to master.
Just spamming Stickies and monkeying around won’t make you win fights.

(CCP115) #19

He is too spammy, that’s his only problem.

Fixing it is hard and it’s good that you tried @Watsyurdeal .

If I could suggest anything, it’s reduce stickies to 2, with a little more cooldown. This would force a bit more gunplay, which makes fights generally a little more back and forth.

(Hexwall) #20

We already have one Fragger, thanks