Does phantom need adjustment?
Seperate EMP from Cloak, revert cloak cooldown. Make EMP a pulse or thrown ability.
I just want the old cloak back which didn’t suck ass for juking.
[quote=“LifeupOmega;189511”]Seperate EMP from Cloak, revert cloak cooldown. Make EMP a pulse or thrown ability.
I just want the old cloak back which didn’t suck ass for juking.[/quote]
Not even just that, but if I going to move slowly, I want the visibility to be proportional, right now there’s crouching, then everything else.
I feel like that can be adjusted a lot more to reward patience.
Really Phantom needs a complete rework. Not another merc’s mechanic slapped on his only ability and his only ability insanely nerfed…
He definitely either needs more HP or more speed. He’s a 120hp speed merc but only has 110hp.
The old cloak cooldown is the most important thing. Anyone who has played phantom a lot knows how quintessential it is to his play style. I don’t think that should mean he doesn’t have his EMP, or something else to compensate however. As many are suggesting putting his EMP on a separate ability would work. I’m more of the impression that the EMP should go back to Thunder in compensation for the removal of his flash (but still a concussed visual effect) and a slight nerf to his max move speed reduction (from 99% to 80%) personally. This would open up a lot of potential reworks to Phantom’s kit (because lets be honest, the EMP doesn’t fit his play style with the way it is applied in a nearby radius). This also would give Thunder a lot more versatility, because he may be ridiculously strong right now, but he is still pretty boring at times (his lmg is fun though).
The EMP addition to his kit gave him a lot of utility, but his overall performance (unless playing against particularly weaker opponents) is lackluster compared to most other mercs right now. In conjunction with the addition of his EMP effect he received massive nerfs to the baseline defensive and offensive value of his armor. The new 7 second minimum cooldown and the lack of ‘cushion’ health on his armor have decreased his overall combat efficiency drastically. It was not an equivalent exchange for the EMP effect. To exacerbate the problem SD for some reason are trying to push him as a melee merc even though his stealth is the furthest thing from actually stealthy. He sounds like a jumbo jet when you’re within any kind of radius of him, not to mention he is very easy to spot if moving at all. My suggestion would be to revert the cooldown and health change to his armor, remove or change the EMP effect in to it’s own cooldown (maybe adding some kind of spotting or bomb squad effect to it, or converting it in to a ‘hacking’ effect), and based on the removal/efficiency of his EMP/‘hacking’ effect, give him some kind of throwing knife or other quick burst potential (and ranged finish) to make him a highly efficient mid-range skirmish/assassin merc. Oh, and lower the sound range of the damn jumbo jet sound, lol.
My thought would be to have him back the way he was before the whole nerf-fest he was hit with now that more more recons available where their detection ability is pretty powerful and people are starting to use heartbeat sensors as Vasilli.
Maybe give Phantom a REALLY powerful “true sight” ability that lets him mark everyone in the map but with a long cooldown and that has him exposed and vulnerable while doing it (Like Comm’s hack from Brink) or as my vote says, separate the EMP from the refractive armor, maybe also just give him faster movement speed along with the 120 health, but no more damage reduction on his stealth.
Give the EMP back to Thunder, but remove the Flashbang on Thunder’s concussion grenade as it’s inconsistent, and the blurred, grayed vision of the concussion’s effect is enough to really mess with a player’s vision but also add some sort of debuff to accuracy and the inability to aim down sights.
just revert the cooldown nerf. it was added to prevent phantom from spamming EMP willy-nilly, but frankly the ability is not that powerful, and probably a bad idea when you are already being shot at.
even the armor HP nerf left as is would be fine, if they just got rid of this horrible cooldown nerf
@stayfreshshoe @RazielWarmonic Can we get any word if an actual rework for phantom is in the works, or at least acknowledgement that the community is being heard that phantom is in need of his old cloak cooldown, at the very least please.
A new stealthy firearm. He can go invisible, but not enough contribution. The EMP is a gimmick.
The emp just ruins the whole idea of phantom being stealthy. By seperating it, it gives him a chance to play to gis strengths.
[quote=“Dysfnal;30837”][/quote]
This wasn’t an option on the poll - but I think that the time that the EMP lasts for AFTER the shield/cloak is turned off needs to be reduced by a couple of seconds or so.
Its funny seeing new players use phantom, go cloak and run in and die instantly, they learn the hard way how useless the cloak is at first.
I really would love phantom getting a speed boost, cloak cooldown back to its old self and make the cloak quiter and less visible.
getting a speed boost is dangerous, it promotes the newbie run in and die with a katana playstyle
I doubt SD will increase Phantom’s stealth any further for counterplay purpose, but there are other ways to improve his sneaking. And +10hp would really help his lone wolf playstyle.
But for a real buff, maybe add shades to his mask? B)
(That can maybe even see enemy deployables/spotting devices through walls?
Including the Redeye’s… IR… eye, so he isn’t Phantom’s nr.1 counterpick anymore? 
)
[quote=“Dracorion;190938”]I doubt SD will increase Phantom’s stealth any further for counterplay purpose, but there are other ways to improve his sneaking. And +10hp would really help his lone wolf playstyle.
But for a real buff, maybe add shades to his mask? B)
(That can maybe even see enemy deployables/spotting devices through walls?
Including the Redeye’s… IR… eye, so he isn’t Phantom’s nr.1 counterpick anymore? )[/quote]
Taking away Redeye’s ability to counter Phantom would be stupid - that’s Phantom’s ONE weakness (now that Vassili and Aimee can’t spot him).
I didn’t mean it like that, was more of a joke suggestion for Phantom to see deployables and Redeye while he’s using the IR through walls.
Vassili can still spot him, albeit only once or twice, but he kinda can? Redeye is becoming really useful and nobody is really noticing, he is strong against all of the recons
What if he had an ability, to buff his teammates into making them invisible to heartbeat sensor/snitch, for a certain period of time?
@TheStrangerous if Phantom can be spotted for counterplay purposes, nulling spotter abilities seems a bit of a bad idea.
@Sneaky I like the idea of a high-speed but squishy phantom with very good burst damage - able to take out aura stations with the help of a team. Currently, running while in cloak is loud and visible. - Since release, phantom now has more spotters to deal with - even with his EMP field. Enigma helps a bit, but… still.
Currently, a fast-moving proxy has better evasion skills than Phantom, unless Phantom is crouch-walking. - I would also like phantom’s cloak to be a consistent timer-based system rather than energy-based. Taking damage can eat at the meter, but otherwise, a timer makes moving around easier: not wasting energy crouch-walking. (This is assuming they make the invisibility a bit more useful for getting past sniper sight lines.)
Separating the EMP from the cloak is not a bad idea - it would allow the cloak to become either movement or timer based with minimal cool downs without a mandatory 7 second limit to avoid EMP spam. - Separate abilities mean separate timers.
(ok. on-topic stuff ends here)
I’m under the impression that Phantom was initially meant to be a counter-sniper: creeping into a sniper’s line of sight while invisible with his own rifle to shoot and kill enemies from behind, or specifically, the enemy sniper. - His old cloak allowed him to survive a single head-shot, after all, and his cloak’s noise wouldn’t matter at long range - Makes me wonder why he was changed. He was initially called a recon class after all - same as the other snipers.
I do enjoy the new utility of the EMP, but without his cloak at full power anymore, and the counter-productive aspect of moving within cloak boosting his visibility, Phantom seems a bit out of place. It’s difficult to pin down what he should be. Even once behind a team, Phantom in his current state can’t move around much. Hit and run isn’t an option: running makes you visible, and the new 7 second coo down means that if your fight lasts LESS than 7 seconds, you’re left out in the open when the entire enemy team turns around.
Separating the EMP helps with this, but isn’t a solution on its own. The cloak itself needs changes. - Just my opinion.