I’ve heard a LOT of people both in game and online hating on phantom, and the people who use him.
The most recent was me playing a game, and someone called me a “skill-less cancer who is ruining the game”, for using a merc that i bought (i was looking forward to the release of the merc, and decided this was an opportunity to support the devs).
Many people, including (to a certain extent) me, believe that phantom needs to have a few changes. And since I was thinking about it, i thought i might share my ideas, and see what other think of them.
Currently, phantom’s load out is just silly strong. Here are my (and possible others) suggestions.
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Remove the armor, and lower the health.
-Removing the health-gate armor would prevent people from successfully bum-rushing a group of mercs, interrupting the flow and ruining everyone’s fun, and the lower health would ensure that phantom players are more cautious about what targets the choose. -
Balance him
- Lower armor + lower health = more skilled game play of phantom, right? -WRONG. this would make him useless. Simply de-buffing him would ruin him and make playing him pointless. Instead, lower those aspects but give him a larger stealth bonus -such as not being spotted for as long, or the heartbeat sensor taking a second or two longer to “detect” him, or him not making (as much, or any) sound when walking/sprinting, or all of these (lol).
- DAT LOADOUT
- remove the smg. seriously. hes an assassin melee character, let him play the part. Instead, he should use him katana as a primary/melee, and his secondary could be a silenced pistol, or some kind of equipment (possibly an Emp grenade to temporarily fry turrets/other engi equipment).
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His cloak
-Works very strangely. Seriously. It lasts for a few seconds, and takes a few more to recharge? that literally only encourages rushing for him. Instead, why not make it last a bit longer, but provide a recharge-rate bonus for not having the cloak interrupted, and a debuff for interrupting it (such as longer recharge time, or a sort of stun-effect)? This would discourage people from using cloak to simply pop out of nowhere and instantly start hacking at people, and encourage a more sneaky/methodical game mechanic for phantom players. -
Give him a purpose
-At the moment, he’s sort of a “kill shit” class. Nothing particularly team-benefiting (IE, PTFO assistance). I mentioned an emp-grenade earlier - that would make him a sort of saboteur/assassin hybrid job, or possibly having him drop smoke bombs to mask choke points or distract the enemy team, or something other that “kill shit”. -
Limit ratio of classes on teams
- I know this is kind of a pain in the ass, but how about preventing an all-vassili/phantom/skyhammer/rhino team from sucking the fun out of the game? All i’m suggesting is maybe preventing more than two of the same class from being alive on the team at a given time. This is more of an all-around suggestion, as its happened frequently enough that its annoying, but not big enough deal to justify its own thread.
In short:
No armor
More stealth-oriented stats/bonuses
no smg, maybe a silenced pistol
Longer cloak, with faster recharge rate after being allowed to fully run out, and a debuff for being interrupted
Give him a job - if all else fails, make him a thorn in your side, not a sledge hammer
Stop the rolling thunder