[quote=“SzGamer227;146033”][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.[/quote]
That’s where you are totally wrong. He’s very far from sharing the combat potential of Nader and Fragger. Fragger can pierce a defence or nullify a push with a simple cooked frag grenade, who have much better splash radius and damage, and are infinitely more suited for it : the time you’ll take with Fletcher to throw all of your three stickies, pressing the detonator and wait for the arming time to trigger will easly get you killed. A single huge blast will always be better than three smaller ones. Now about Nader, her Grenade Launcher is much better in direct combat (direct hit = instant damage : you don’t need to trigger them), with a better RPM, a slightly better radius and a way better firing range, while being as spammable as Sticky Bombs in mid air. Sure those deal a bit less damage, but they fly faster and won’t require you to switch to a detonator in the middle of a fight.
The DPS you can actually reach by throwing stickies is the happy value of… 100 (if you land direct hits). Even the Tolen MP has a better DPS. All guns basically outDPS sticky bombs without even needing headshots. And when you score headshots ? All guns reach a DPS above 200. A stickybombing Fletcher will be no match against a player with a decent gunplay : only his guns will make a difference. Now let’s talk about the guns. Shotgun, Shotgun, and Blishlok. Shotguns who are not even played in competition, because the metagame is mid to long range. The only primary left is the Blishlok who is highly controversial (some says it’s bad, some says it’s okay, few says it’s very good). Don’t get me started on the Empire-9 : it’s a machine pistol : even the one considered as the best machine pistol in the game is no match against a SMG. While I am at it : Nader’s Grenade Launcher’s DPS is acually 130 (if you land direct hits), with a way better range and the possibility to reach people around corners. Sticky bombs are sticky : you’ll never be able to reach someone around a corner as nicely as Nader or Fragger can. The corner game only works if your opponent is actually dumb enough to chase you.
Stickies are god awful in duels, and will only work against players who are distracted or are not precise enough. Just setting yourself at mid range is enough to allow you to kill him properly : at that distance, you can easly dodge, unless you are not in a clear enough area. And you don’t even need to fully dodge it : even if he damages you, the time he takes to throw the second stickybomb or take another weapon will be enough to kill him. The only difficult situation is when Fletcher is in an area he can exploit (with low walls, corridors and/or corners). In that case, just pick another path with good sightlines or evict him with Fragger or Nader.
Reducing the max stickies to two is an awful idea to balance a merc who is supposed to be versatile. Especially since the nerf is not deserved : there’s seriously nothing hard about fighting Fletcher if you know him correctly. That’s the real issue : very few people actually really knows Fletcher. People can’t even agree on the proper damage value his stickies has : you’ll see people saying 90, some saying 100, some saying 80. When I see so much misinformation about Fletcher all around the internet, I’m not even surprised that not a single person actually knows how to fight him.
Real values are 80 on the ground, 100 if stick, 100 self damage.