Fletcher, explosives, state of the game

(globalGale) #1

Free fletcher week folks. And as we’ve all feared. DB has regressed to full auto noobtube mode.

So. Taking a step back from the whole anger at fletcher being able to do what he does. How come, a game that takes pride in its gunplay. Allows something as broken as the current explosive situation to go on as it stands.

-Sparks got spanked by the nerfbat HARD because she was capable of doing a lot more then she was supposed to
-Vasseline got orbital striked with the glorious fury of stalin himself guiding a million blazing suns of rage, because "he was annoying to play against (I’d agree with this one tbh - coming from WOLF:ET where 3 headshots with the GARAND where needed in quick succesion to get a kill - but that is a topic for another discussion)
-Stokers on contact damage from his molotov got basicly removed for the most part
-Nader lost most of her brute force from explosives over time.
-F"r"agger got most of his utility removed by giving him only a single nade, with a shorter cooldown.
-Don’t even get me started on phantom.

As you can see, quite a lof of mercs have been changed to keep the game in line with a “shooty shooter” view on things. Yet, for quite some time now. A lot of instakilling, amphetemine’d jumping with a gigantic AoE has been in this “shooter”

From the initial release of fletcher, he’s supposed to be played as an ambush predator. Luring some poor sod into a trap and nuking the bloke to smithereens with carefull and smartly placed bombs. Skill was rewarded by having a sticky do a LOT of damage, and seemingly making a miss look REALLY punishing.

Yet as it stands, no other merc can deliver this kind of punch, with the cramped maps as they are. Fletcher reigns supreme

Saddly enough for all the wrong reasons.

So, community, what do? How can be bring him back in line with the role he’s supposed to play. without making him just a phantom thats really stealthy at night only?

(Szakalot) #2

fragger got utility removed LOL

disagree on pretty much every single point, but you get a lol for how amazingly opposite your views are

(MatteMG) #3

I agree that fletcher does maybe need nerfed a bit, but meh, I play as him quite often so I wouldnt be too bothered if they didnt nerf him :stuck_out_tongue:

(Jesus) #4

Just one thing

[spoiler]Its a NerfHammer not a nerfbat
http://i.imgur.com/iHBY3Mw.png?1[/spoiler]

(globalGale) #5

Origin of the saying are the nerf weapons fyi.

And yes, being able to frag twice, to being able to frag once is a loss of utility

(Eox) #6

All this time I passed playing Fletcher, and I still can’t reach à K/D ratio above 1.5 reliably. Contrary to your belief, maps are not that cramped and actually a lot of areas are not friendly for short ranged mercs such as Fletcher. If maps were so cramped, Dirty Bomb’s competitive metagame wouldn’t be mid-long ranged.

Fletcher’s explosives does not have a huge explosion radius. They actually have the smallest explosion radius from the whole game (Nader’s grenade explosion radius being slightly bigger). They are a slower projectile than the GL’s grenade and also require to be manually detonated. Making you loose enough time to take severe damage in 1vs1 scenarios. All those drawbacks cumulated makes Fletcher’s stickies ill suited for long range fights and duels. The only reason why Fletcher is actually performing well is pub’s general chaos.

Shotguns ? They’re way too crippling. Impossible to be efficient past five meters were every guns will still able to empty their whole clip in your face and headshots are only worth your time at point blank. The Blishlok is your only viable ranged option and isn’t that good. About Empire-9 : it will never replace a real primary weapon.

People are overestimating Fletcher way too much. The only reason why he gets so much attention is because his playstyle is much more flashy and ability reliant.

(Szakalot) #7

[quote=“globalGale;163014”]http://8gmwp015fo-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/11/nerfbat1.jpg

Origin of the saying are the nerf weapons fyi.

And yes, being able to frag twice, to being able to frag once is a loss of utility
[/quote]

being able to frag every 17 seconds as opposed to every 30seconds is a gain of utility. You can frag two targets per spawnwave. Pre-change you would be able to frag two people per spawnwave, but then you have no nades ready for the next wave.

I’ve been on the fence whether the change to one nade is a buff/nerf.

On pubs its obviously a buff, as it almost doubles Fragger’s nade DPS (excluding one extra nade at map start), and the crowds and chaotic nature of pubs calls for having a nade ASAP, rather than try to setup some skillshot.

In comp setting its a bit trickier, but I’d argue that it buffs defensive fragger - as he will always have a nade ready for the next attack - but nerfs attacking fragger - as he won’t be able to nade two positions and open up a choke.

(LoliGagging) #8

From what I have experienced in ranked, Fletcher adds a lot of firepower to a team as an engineer compared to the other engineers.

Proxy clearly is weaker in teamfights due to low health and an ability that requires setting up or suiciding (which is incredibly unreliable especially in high-level competitive).

Bushwacker is better due to having access to better primaries and more health, but still has an ability that requires setting up (putting a turret behind teammates can end up getting them shot in the back in teamfights, putting in front means it gets destroyed instantly. Moreso, it takes a lot of time to put it down, and has a long cooldown if it gets destroyed, effectively making him abilityless if destroyed in active combat.)

Fletcher has a good healthpool like bushwacker but has slightly worse primaries. (keep in mind in high-level comp, people have pretty good accuracy, so the ahnuld is actually very viable. Also most engagements are at close-mid range, not long range.). He has the shortest “setting up” time, having to throw a sticky and detonate. Most engagements are either around corners or at short-mid range (mainly hallways or narrow area. I do not recall going down a very wide spacious path being very safe (attacker spawn to obj in trainyard, last ev push in chapel, dome last obj turret area, etc.) Fletcher excels in fighting in these areas. Bushwacker will often not be able to set up his ability in time to combat such engagements attacker side, and proxy’s ability can backfire very badly. Fletcher can easily support his team in these engagements with both his primaries and ability (THESE ENGAGEMENTS DETERMINE WHETHER A TEAM ADVANCES TO DO THE OBJ OR NOT). The stickies, if they do not stick, still take a decent chunk out of people that the other engineers cannot do without risky tactics.

also like in comp, mos ppl who play fletcha r liek prety accurate so leik they r gunna at least dmg u with dem stikys.

Fletcher does take a lot of skill to play well though. I tried, some friends tried. We can’t be as op as some people claim him to be. He is able to get a decent amount of kills (not least or most amount of kills) without much knowledge of the sticky trajectory however (it isn’t too hard to at least scrape someones knee with the bombs).

This is some of what I have noticed in mid-high level COMPETITIVE matches, not pubs or min lvl 10 garbage (min level 10 servers still full of nubs tbh)

If Splash Damage wants to base stuff off pubs doe, then all gucci, might as well remove explosives >____>"""""

tl;dr: fletcha is meta

(Szakalot) #9

ahnuld very viable ‘esp. in high level play’ LOOL.

also ranked =/ competitive

(Ballto) #10

[quote=“Szakalot;163115”]ahnuld very viable ‘esp. in high level play’ LOOL.

also ranked =/ competitive[/quote]

shotguns are extremely viable, do you even use them?

when i say theyre super strong its not because i get salty whenever im shot by one its because i use shotguns at least 60% of the time

on some maps theyre not great, like dome, but in most mapsthey do really really well

(Szakalot) #11

the better you and your opponents are the worse the shotguns become. esp in competitive (not ranked). i played ahnuld for over a year as fletcher but had to switch to blish cause of the recent range damage nerf (pellet min damage dropped from 5 to sth like 1).

i agree that having a shotgun is better for close range where fletcher is the strongest, but on many maps and stages you need long range capability to be able to help your team push. e.g. on bridge first stage attack a shotgun fletcher is pretty much stuck going short left, as the entire right flank will make him face a long range opponent when pushing ev.

blish fletcher on the other hand can use each avenue of attack

(terminal) #12

Fletcher wasn’t supposed to be played by luring, in the merc roll call you could see him being played by throwing bombs at enemies.

(strawberryJacket) #13

The only thing i can really agree on is that stickies are OP, but placing fletcher over fragger as a combat merc is silly at best.

Dropping the damage on stickies to 90 and either taking away one of them or adding 2sec CD should probably be enough to put him in place. Lets not overreact like people did with sparks, we knows how those things tend to end.

(AnimeDude) #14

Stickies are overpowered, I’ll agree with that. Arm times should be increased or damage decreased.

(Rjsto) #15

1:18

(Yoma) #16

1:18

Im awesome at shooting stickies midair… sadly too late and because of that they tend to explode right in front of my “oh my god its a sticky” face.

Short word about free rot, surprisingly most people ingame i encountered dont like fletcher when they played him for a while for the first time. Not to mention that theyre terrible and only good theyre with is the shotgun but they dont know what to do with stickies at all… .

Most just throw all 3 on a door and use them as mines while camping just to press the switch waaaaay to late when the enemy is already right in front of them giving the fletcher a taste of the rifle barrel.

To me Nader free rot is worse for the epicness of 5 nadespam which still gets me waaay too often because its simply… ya too much dmg even if none hits the aoe is enough.

Vasili is a bigger pain aswell because having 3+ more Vassilis in team who aint hitting shit isnt any good for obvious reasons.

Redeye is another thing which is a pain because people tend to think that its poisongas and throw it on the enemies…(and giving the enemy cover therefor) .

Bushwacker and Proxy are annoying because turrets and mines in every corner… .

(BananaSlug) #17

i would decrease blast radius soo noobs will be bad with him and better players still would be good
(by 10%/20%)

(PurpleHippo) #18

[quote=“BananaSlug;163151”]i would decrease blast radius soo noobs will be bad with him and better players still would be good
(by 10%/20%)[/quote]

Blast radius and damage, As long it can oneshot low hp mercs its too much damage.

(watsyurdeal) #19

For me the problem with Fletcher is just how spammy he is, I can throw out 3 stickies, and a few seconds later I have 1 sticky, and another one, and another one, rinse and repeat.

And people say he takes skill to use, honestly, that’s sorta debatable, cause you have 3 chances to stick someone and few seconds later you’re back to doing the same thing. So it doesn’t take long to get the hang of him, I much rather have more potent stickies with more risk, then less potent ones with multiple chances to make your mark.

That’s just my take on it

(globalGale) #20

[quote=“Watsyurdeal;163182”]For me the problem with Fletcher is just how spammy he is, I can throw out 3 stickies, and a few seconds later I have 1 sticky, and another one, and another one, rinse and repeat.

And people say he takes skill to use, honestly, that’s sorta debatable, cause you have 3 chances to stick someone and few seconds later you’re back to doing the same thing. So it doesn’t take long to get the hang of him, I much rather have more potent stickies with more risk, then less potent ones with multiple chances to make your mark.

That’s just my take on it[/quote]

The issue i have mostly with it that it doesn’t punish you for not getting the sticky off. The blast radius is rather hefty. and being able to get 3 of them with the amount of effective damage you can do is insane!

What i havn’t even touched on is that the speed at with the stickies “get thrown” is additive to current movementspeed. So a fletcher using a long jump can REALLY get some long range engagements off.