Bushwacker & Sparks buff ideas from Scrubs Trailer

(Brycko) #1

I jumped into the game again today, and can’t help noticing that Bushwacker and Sparks are a bit underwhelming.

So I randomly watched the scrubs trailer again today and noticed 2 interesting but simple mechanics that I aren’t in the game, but may help imrpove the power of our good old pals Bushwacker and Sparks.

The first one was when Bushwacker slides out his turret across the floor 0:56. I know, its kind of silly, but think about it; it would give Bushwacker the ability to lay down suppression when under fire, giving him a distinct advantage over other mercs in the game.

The second one was when Sparks shoots her ‘Revifial’ (1:16) at Phoenix, and the recoil sends him flying backward (and maybe also temporarily stuns him), where he gets hit by the train. Maybe this would be an annoying mechanic, but it would give Sparks an advantage over other Snipers. It would also ensure that she doesn’t get into any CQC situations, where she would get absolutely destroyed. This wouldn’t necessarily be OP since Sparks rifle needs to charge anyway.

Alternatively, Spark’s rifle could do (small) damage over time, put a debuff on the enemy but deal less physical damage or just simply stun them for a brief second.

Thoughts?

(SiegeFace) #2

I like the bushwhacker idea, and would probably encourage players (talking about the free rotation players here) to not use it as a “martydom” in turret form or a fake turtle shield to hide behind that also fires back at enemies.

Turrets in their current state are more like distraction pieces against skilled players, unless you are very obscure/lucky with your placements. I would like to see it get some kind of size reduction or range increase, or something to make it more viable, it is a stationary target after all with not many options on some sections unless you stack them with more turrets.

I do have the idea of maybe changing the turrets all together and make them some kind of wall mountable object sort of like a camera, but made of death, like Aimiee’s snitch but not throwable, it could open up a wide array of new options and in turn could make them more useful.

As with all your sparks ideas though ill just leave a quote from the woman herself

“Any fool can destroy, it takes genius to heal”

Since well…her primary role in the game is medic/support class, her job is not to kill, and given the outrage with Thunder about conc nades being OP yadada (Seriously, Insert Thunders Bored Voiceover here), I don’t think a stun mechanic would sit to well with the playerbase nor does it fit her role.

She is a character that plays best sat behind the lines but shes quick enough to evade combat and in the right hands deadly enough to take anyone down, I think she is in a very good place overall, even though I do miss her long range headshots ; )

(sgtCrookyGrin) #3

^
What Siege basically said.

(TheStrangerous) #4

It’s a video game trailer, full of “bullshots”.

Who plants a turret right in the wide open area?

(Szakalot) #5

sparks doesnt need a buff

(Brycko) #6

[quote=“SiegeFace;205471”]I like the bushwhacker idea, and would probably encourage players (talking about the free rotation players here) to not use it as a “martydom” in turret form or a fake turtle shield to hide behind that also fires back at enemies.

Turrets in their current state are more like distraction pieces against skilled players, unless you are very obscure/lucky with your placements. I would like to see it get some kind of size reduction or range increase, or something to make it more viable, it is a stationary target after all with not many options on some sections unless you stack them with more turrets.

I do have the idea of maybe changing the turrets all together and make them some kind of wall mountable object sort of like a camera, but made of death, like Aimiee’s snitch but not throwable, it could open up a wide array of new options and in turn could make them more useful. [/quote]

Aye. I think the turret has a considerable range, and is actually overall a very well balanced mechanic. I don’t think it would be good as a wall mountable, that’d make it difficult to place and spot. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think its the logical solution.

I think the problem is that once you know the turret is there, its easy to destroy. It doesn’t really block any of the paths you’d take to the objective like it used to. It doesn’t have that much health, and since its stationary its easy to aim at and hit. Plus the brief aiming sequence it has is just enough to avoid getting hit as you dodge back behind the wall.

Personally, I’d like to see Bushwacker get some sort of deployable repair ability, considering how crucial deployables are in DB in comparison to other games. If he stuck by the turret he could just keep repairing it instead of it dying so quickly. But maybe that’s just TF2 and Overwatch rubbing on me.

True. But I can dream.

No-one does, but the idea isn’t that its there permanently, its just there to break up an objective rush, kinda like Nader or Stoker. Besides, one could just sprint over and pick it up afterwards and redeploy it in a better spot.

Okey. Just makin sure.

(JJMAJR) #7

Bushwhacker
I think that Bushwhacker should be buffed so that his turret acts intelligently and is able to deny an area equally as well as Assaults, if not better. A quick-deploy mini-sentry ability would be the complete antithesis to what I want to see for the character, because that the Objective Specialist perk is supposed to go alongside something that is primarily defensive in nature.

Not only that, but the “DPS machine” complaints that I hear from people thinking that Bushwhacker’s ability should be reworked to make him another Fletcher makes me think that they believe that the turret constantly regenerates, and never goes away even if you dump a full clip into the thing by peeking and shooting at it.

The turret can’t repair itself, and even if its effective HP is 220 it’s still not high enough to be a complete waste of ammo.

She does actually. A whole entire rework in fact.

She doesn’t heal well, can’t defend herself, and her ability to revive, her absolute best ability, is heavily nerfed. I think that she could use a healing buff instead of a combat buff though, because knockback actually could be insane.

Like, being able to continuously heal players in melee range, including herself, with a minigun-like cooldown system.

In the mean time, Aura needs a nerf. I think that making her health station friendly-fire would be enough to make a pocket Rhino less of a pain and easier to cheese.

That’s all for another thread though.

(Szakalot) #8

[quote=“JJMAJR;205690”]
She does actually. A whole entire rework in fact.

She doesn’t heal well, can’t defend herself, and her ability to revive, her absolute best ability, is heavily nerfed. I think that she could use a healing buff instead of a combat buff though, because knockback actually could be insane.

Like, being able to continuously heal players in melee range, including herself, with a minigun-like cooldown system.

In the mean time, Aura needs a nerf. I think that making her health station friendly-fire would be enough to make a pocket Rhino less of a pain and easier to cheese.

That’s all for another thread though.[/quote]

No she doesn’t. With the recent buff, Sparks HAS THE FASTEST BURST HEAL FROM ALL THE MEDICS IN THE GAME. Two direct hit medpacks give what, 100hp? Even aura is 40hp/sec, Sawbonez medpack is something similar, Phoenix can heal for a 100 in about 1.5 sec, so i guess thats pretty close; but can only do it once every 10-11 seconds, sparks can heal for a 100 with 2 packs, and then for another 100 with another 2 packs.

Sparks is super fast, even with the falloff nerf can still reliably poke at range, and still is able to get one-hit-kills for 120-130hp headshots t mid/close range.

(JJMAJR) #9

Burst heal? Unsustainable burst heal < sustainable heal.

Sure, even though Phoenix is mostly a burst heal character it doesn’t change the fact that he’s much better in combat/defending than Sparks, and can heal a group of people much more effectively.

Sparks has burst single-target heal, that leaves herself vulnerable and has greater total casting time to get both her and her target to an appropriate amount of HP.

Phoenix can contribute to a fight, then heal friendlies and himself to get them back into the fight again. Not only that, but he could self revive, allowing him to hold an area more easily than other medics could if he’s out of LoS when downed.

Sparks can’t do that. She has ranged revives and her healing ability is on a 10 second cooldown per pack. In order to get a 100 HP burst heal she needs 20 seconds after to do that again. Phoenix trades in casting time for a much stronger HP/minute heal, and increased ability to take damage and kill things.

This is coming from the fact that a 10 second cooldown time for Phoenix is just an indication the player went overkill on the medicine. For Sparks it’s normal to have a 10 second cooldown for a 50 HP heal. A very high estimate for Phoenix’s casting time in that scenario would be 6 seconds, but leaves Phoenix vulnerable for very little time.

Sparks, in order to do that, needs around 1.5 seconds, but is vulnerable for the entire time and has less HP.

Okay, with base stats, Phoenix could heal allies for 100 HP with a cooldown of 12 seconds. Sparks heals allies for 100 HP with a cooldown of 20 seconds. Phoenix’s burst heal is slower than Sparks, but it gives more healing per minute, at around 375 HP per minute or 6.25 per second. Sparks has, without the casting time, 300 HP per minute, and even then that could only apply to one person at a time.

Sparks has 20% less health than Phoenix, and her weapons deal 90% of the DPS that Phoenix’s weapons could do, assuming that Sparks has the highest DPS weapon she could carry while Phoenix has the lowest DPS primary he could carry.

Sparks does have burst damage in CQ, but it’s basically a shotgun that you have to aim. At least Aura has the best ability in the game. Sparks has the worst healing ability, the worst weapons, and only a marginally better revive than most medics.

Comparing Sparks’s healing to Phoenix’s is like comparing the FEL-IX to the MOA. The MOA is better even though it does less burst damage. The same could be said about the Healing Pulse.

(aminuseternal) #10

Oh boy I guess its my turn to add to this.

Okay so first off Sparks balance is complicated at best. She is not a very popular merc, and is difficult to use, and requires a lot of time using the rev gun to be any good with it, and lastly some people will point to someone like Zorla and just say “See she is just hard to use and is perfectly balanced!”

Personally, I do not think Sparks needs a full rework or some healing spray or medic/mercy knock off gun. I just think she needs a few adjustments. The healthpack buff was actually a really good one as @Szakalot pointed out. With potent packs it gets up to 58 health now on a direct hit which is a lot of health going up to 116 with two consecutive packs bringing most mercs back to full health or more. Not to mention the fact that you can go for a quick rez(especially if you have quik charge) toss out a medpack, and then if you have get up then you can have a merc back to full health without having to go to a full charge.

Now onto the phoenix comparisons, of course phoenix is going to have better healing thats what his ability is focused around, it would be like comparing the defibs to the rev gun. Yes the defibs get people up faster, but the rev gun can cover distances that the defibs can’t. That extra speed doesn’t help if you get killed in the process of trying to pick someone up, or if they get finished while you are still en route. Plus sparks can rez people killed by stoker’s fire if you are fast enough thanks to the magic of Iframes. Back to the healing part though, sparks doesn’t actually need to put herself in the line of fire when trying to heal someone, phoenix does, and if you want to get a few people then that means you have to get grouped up, which means easy kills for aoe abilities.

People need to also stop thinking of sparks as a healing vassili. You really cannot just hang out in the back and act like a sniper anymore. She is all about speed and maneuverability. You can use that to escape any slower merc, I mean with the first edition 181 she is the fastest merc in the game. Staying up close to your team to heal people and get the rezzes, then dropping back when things get too lethal.

People just need to get off of the 383 and actually try out different loadouts, stop hanging back, and stop expecting the empire 9 to save them and just learn to run away from the tougher mercs. Sparks can one shot a lot of mercs in short/medium range with some well-placed headshots, or even hitting someone with a body shot and finishing them off with the MPs or pistols, but that doesn’t mean to go face to face with those mercs and expect to win.

So now onto actual adjustments for sparks. I would like to see some visual/audio improvement for the rev gun, making it more like the lighting gun in the trailer and less like a really weak taser. Though we all know that when it comes to audio SD has some problems for some reason, like you know the deagle. I would like to see her healing fall off either reduced or removed, but I have a feeling that string of code is tied to the damage fall off so I do not think that will happen, but it would be nice. Lastly, I would like her loadouts to be adjusted, making everything closer to the 383 really damages her in the long run, she doesn’t have any real variation of augments anymore and needs some things like guardian angel, or untrackable, or flying pig back. (These are all augments that the other medics have btw.) Unshakeable literally does nothing to a merc with 80 hp, but at least with guardian angel, it would make it easier to avoid jumping into arty strikes.

[spoiler]everyone wanted sparks to be more “medic focused” and now she doesnt have any survivability people are complaining lol[/spoiler]

(GatoCommodore) #11

[quote=“aminuseternal;205851”]Oh boy I guess its my turn to add to this.

[/quote]

flying pig sparks is cool m8.

(JJMAJR) #12

-Sparks has the least amount of healing in the game, and can only heal one target.
-Sparks is unable to contribute to combat as well as other medics.
-Sparks is glass as hell.
+Sparks has the fastest burst heal per second.
+Sparks can revive allies from a distance.
+Sparks can counter many abilities that most medics are less able to deal with.
!Sparks has revive health dropoff at range, and is going to have a hard time with reviving assaults to full in close range.
!Sparks is unable to support allies that are currently in the fight besides the single-target burst heal, and can’t contribute to a push like Phoenix or Sawbones. Aura has the best healing in the game and it allows her to contribute to combat indirectly via her teammates.

I still don’t think that Sparks is anywhere close to being as helpful as other medics are currently. Phoenix doesn’t leave himself vulnerable when charging his healing ability as much as Sparks leaves herself vulnerable while charging her revive gun, and has weapons that are at least on par to Sawbones.

Sparks has… counterspells. I guess it’s useful for denying pushes a lot of the time, but it amounts to a lot of time having that thing out to revive what? One person? To 86 HP?

I guess there could be something of value from the friendly fire gimmick though. But that takes around 5 seconds to give 120 HP and an I-frame…

Ah well.

(GatoCommodore) #13

[quote=“JJMAJR;205900”]-Sparks has the least amount of healing in the game, and can only heal one target.
-Sparks is unable to contribute to combat as well as other medics.
-Sparks is glass as hell.
+Sparks has the fastest burst heal per second.
+Sparks can revive allies from a distance.
+Sparks can counter many abilities that most medics are less able to deal with.
!Sparks has revive health dropoff at range, and is going to have a hard time with reviving assaults to full in close range.
!Sparks is unable to support allies that are currently in the fight besides the single-target burst heal, and can’t contribute to a push like Phoenix or Sawbones. Aura has the best healing in the game and it allows her to contribute to combat indirectly via her teammates.

I still don’t think that Sparks is anywhere close to being as helpful as other medics are currently. Phoenix doesn’t leave himself vulnerable when charging his healing ability as much as Sparks leaves herself vulnerable while charging her revive gun, and has weapons that are at least on par to Sawbones.

Sparks has… counterspells. I guess it’s useful for denying pushes a lot of the time, but it amounts to a lot of time having that thing out to revive what? One person? To 86 HP?

I guess there could be something of value from the friendly fire gimmick though. But that takes around 5 seconds to give 120 HP and an I-frame…

Ah well.[/quote]

“now guys, sparks is glass cannon. but the cannon is now a taser”
gee… who had the idea to do this

(aminuseternal) #14

[YOUTUBE]WWDtXrQjrD4

(aminuseternal) #15

I know its Zorla, and she is freaking amazing at sparks, but sparks can still be incredibly effective at combat. Its just stupid how much time you have to put in to be any good with her.

(GatoCommodore) #16

With aim that good im questioning why arent he/she not maining Vasilli/Aimee because using sparks with that aim is like a handicap.

(Your worst knifemare.) #17

That video makes me realize…i have a really big job to do if i want to be that good.

(aminuseternal) #18

@sweetColumn because sparks is bae duh. :wink:

(Herr_Hanz) #19

howbout the only buff sparks needs is removing the revive health dropoff?

(aminuseternal) #20

@Herr_Hanz yes yes a thousand times yes. I have a feeling though the code is tied to the damage falloff as well I mean otherwise they would have done it with the last balance update right? I mean it makes more sense than buffing the medpacks(though that is a great buff) taking potent packs makes sparks actually pretty good at healing.