I know at least one person that uses the emp-9 as their primary with fletcher and the real main gun as their ‘secondary’. Definitely an interesting way to roll with Fletcher. ofc those sticky bombs make up for any lack of power coming from the mp he uses.[/quote]
That’s pretty much standard usage for Fletcher. I think it’s pretty much consensus that the Empire is his best all around gun.
I know at least one person that uses the emp-9 as their primary with fletcher and the real main gun as their ‘secondary’. Definitely an interesting way to roll with Fletcher. ofc those sticky bombs make up for any lack of power coming from the mp he uses.[/quote]
The Empire-9 is one of the most reliable, forgiving and effective weapons that Fletcher has, so you’re dang right we’re using it as a primary! 
Got the H63 Standard Close Assault gold with the recent elite giveaway so I ended up buying Fletcher last night. No regrets. Good times.
Did you seriously get one of the best Fletcher loadouts in gold out of a free case? Lucky son of a… No but really, that’s awesome.
It is indeed awesome. However I’m starting to see the problems people have mentioned. Quite frustrating when you see a great target of opportunity for a sticky and it fails to detonate.
The sad thing is, they are probably going to take forever to fix sticky bombs because almost no one plays Fletcher.
Which is odd, because sticking a bomb on someones face and watching them fly around like a rag-doll is very entertaining.
[quote=“capriRocket;37786”]pic
Blishlok >>>>>>> Aunold > Hollunds
Emp-9 > Simeon > Tolen
combat knife > Stiletto > cricket bat
Quickdraw is the best augment and the BL33 is the best fletcher card, I have all the Fletcher cards in at least bronze.
[quote=“approvingGoose;37995”][quote=“capriRocket;37786”]pic
Blishlok >>>>>>> Aunold > Hollunds
Emp-9 > Simeon > Tolen
combat knife > Stiletto > cricket bat
Quickdraw is the best augment and the BL33 is the best fletcher card, I have all the Fletcher cards in at least bronze.[/quote]
I agree with all that except I prefer the Stiletto to the combat knife. My one gripe with BL33 is the damn cricket bat.
[quote=“approvingGoose;37995”][quote=“capriRocket;37786”]pic
Blishlok >>>>>>> Aunold > Hollunds
Emp-9 > Simeon > Tolen
combat knife > Stiletto > cricket bat
Quickdraw is the best augment and the BL33 is the best fletcher card, I have all the Fletcher cards in at least bronze.[/quote]
Blishlok is widely viewed as the worst weapon in the game and I totally agree. It’s the only weapon that has a chance of missing every single round past close range due to the mindless bloom nerf they gave it. The shotguns can 1-shot at point blank and are very accurate, even out to longer ranges. They also have a vastly superior time to kill as compared to the Blishlok which requires you to be very close and get lucky on headshots. The Blishlok is the only weapon in the game that relies on RNG from the ridiculous random bloom, even for the first few shots. Most of us would rather use a weapon that we know will hit where we aim, instead of where it aims, off the crosshair. At a time where sticky bombs aren’t working at 100%, thus also making them completely at the mercy of RNG, the Blishlok/Sticky combo for a Fletcher makes for a very unreliable and non-rewarding loadout. For a slow firing weapon that works best when burst firing, you might as well just click click click with a shotgun of your choice. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a weapon in DB get nerfed to such a horrible state within the few years I’ve tested the game. Well, unless we include the Katana that isn’t released yet. As far as secondaries go, yeah, that’s agreeable. The Empire-9 really is one of the most reliable, forgiving and rewarding weapons in the game. It’s range and accuracy makes it laughably easy to score constant headshots, even at longer ranges. The Simeon packs a serious punch and will knock someone on their arse, but the low round count means it’s only effective as a dueling gun, which is fine. Then we have the Tolen, which is just the not-all-there sibling of the Emp. Still a good secondary, but there’s no reason to use it over the Empire-9. As for melee, first of all, you might as well quick run with your sticky bombs instead of your melee weapon, making all of them quite useless for a Fletcher. The only time you’ll really want to melee as a fletcher is quick knifing to finish someone off or when you run into someone, but you might as well just throw a sticky or two instead. The Cricket Bat has superior range and damage, meaning it’s far easier to finish off a downed player in a hurry and it’s more likely to 1-hit someone that you ran into at close range. The knives on the other hand have lower range and damage, making them far less effective for a merc who isn’t going to be knife running because again, sticky bombs let you run just as fast. You’re also not as quick as say, Aura, making knife hopping a less viable tactic. Now, aesthetically, I hate the cricket bat, but we’re talking about usefulness here. If sticky bombs didn’t let you run really fast and gave you a reason to knife run instead, I would have probably just put them all as “good” instead of the Cricket Bat being “great”.
cricket bat has a considerably slower swipe animation, making it much worse at finishing incapped players.
One important thing about having a shotgun over blishlok is the frontloaded damage of shotties. You can peek a corner and unload 70damage in a fraction of a second, hiding back again to load another shell.
this is a playstyle that is very effective for fletcher, in particular on defense.
[quote=“Szakalot;38084”]cricket bat has a considerably slower swipe animation, making it much worse at finishing incapped players.
One important thing about having a shotgun over blishlok is the frontloaded damage of shotties. You can peek a corner and unload 70damage in a fraction of a second, hiding back again to load another shell.
this is a playstyle that is very effective for fletcher, in particular on defense.[/quote]
While the Cricket Bat has a slower swipe, you can compensate by super jumping towards the downed player while also pre-swinging the Cricket Bat, allowing you to hit them the moment you land. This way, you’ll have a huge burst of speed WHILE swinging. But really, if you have a sticky bomb or two off cooldown, you might as well just finish a downed player with them instead. This also works great when you see that a medic is running towards them, allowing you to both finish off the downed player AND kill the medic, which is always hilarious to see.
I had a few games with Fletcher yesterday using the A23 loadout (with the Tolen, my fav mp)
I’ve tried Fletcher before and never got the real hang of him, partly due to my ability binds being too far away for some manoeuvres, but yesterday things just clicked. He’s immense fun when you adapt to him and I’m starting to prefer him to Bushy as my 2nd engineer.
Those sticky bombs do need a look at though. Very bugged.
Alright, so, here’s the match I just finished, trying to use Ahnuld-12 as much as possible instead of my Empire-9 (A31 loadout) to prove a point. It wasn’t an amazing match, but considering that half of those deaths were accidental sticky bomb suicides (it’s early in the morning), I’m calling BS on those who claim the Ahnuld-12 to be a horrible weapon.
EDIT: I just wanted to tell a funny story about one of those accidental suicides because it was actually pretty hilarious. I was engaging the enemy on the first bridge of Chapel (the one with the MG) and I threw a sticky across the bridge, towards a group of enemies. Well, as I was in the process of detonating this sticky, a blind teammate of mine decided to step on a prox mine behind me in the doorway leading to the attacker spawn. It flung me across the bridge just in time for me to land near my sticky as it went off, blowing myself up… I ain’t even mad that my teammate is responsible.
really the only good weapons in the game when you start are the k121,remburg and the m4a1 but if you have good aim and can tweak your play style the blishlock and the ahnuld are great
The Blishlok having heavy bloom is a myth. Go test fire at medium-long range against a wall or another player, you will almost always get a stream of headshots. The Blishlok just feels inaccurate because when you miss one or two shots you will not hear any dings for almost a second because of its low RoF. If you aim perfectly you will hear a stream of dings consistantly at medium range. You do not need to burst fire with this gun.
Just did. Nothing has changed since the last I’ve used it. The bloom was laughable. I assume this is your first SMG?
All the SMGs are all accurate enough to the point where if you track the head you will land constant headshots at somewhat long ranges . The Crotzni though is the least accurate and suffers from significant falloff from cone bloom at long range although because of its raw dps it still does damage close to that of the Blishlok. The Blishlok does not have this problem and I outgun good Crotzni users (Naders, Sawbonez) at a distance. I’ve done tests with all the SMGs.
About the loadout cards, here are my personal opinion about each of them :
A31 Guardian Close Assault :
Pretty oftenly considered as the best loadout, and for a good reason : you get the Empire 9, you get double time (reload while sprinting), the Ahnuld is a fine weapon and you also get Lock On (detonation takes less time) and Though (You start your health regeneration faster)… Except that Lock On just does not work at all, and may never work since Fletcher’s rework. Besides that, it’s still a very solid loadout card to use due to the weapon combination and the presence of double time. If Lock On gets replaced, it can be even more good.
A23 Guardian Close Assault :
Another good pick in my opinion. You still get the Ahnuld, but your Empire 9 is replaced with the Tolen MP : oftenly considered as a worse choice, but it’s actually not that bad. The weapon have very few if not no recoil. It has less DPS though. The force of that loadout is that it comes with the unshakeable augment, that gives you a 20% resistane against everything explosive. And well, there’s a lot of things explosive around. You also get with that Though (still an appreciable bonus) and Enigma that reduces the time where you are spotted : it’ll only work if there’s a Vassili in the opposite team, so it’s not that great… However, if you want Unshakeable with both a shotgun and a machine pistol, you do not have any other choice anyway.
A62 Superb Close Assault :
At first view, it’s not that great. Augments overall are meh, and you’d prefer to have a machine pistol with your shotgun (much more forgiving)… But wait, is it Quick Draw that I see in a corner ? While Cool is a bad augment and sneaky is not that useful, Quick Draw is really a great advantage in combat for Fletcher since you have to switch your weapons a lot ! Actually, Quick Draw is almost enough by himself to make that loadout fine ! Almost ! The weapon combination is not that great, but the Ahnuld-12 makes you able to rivalise at range a bit more, so you shouldn’t have that much range issue (at least as long as you have a good aim). It’ll be hard to convince everyone to use that loadout. But if you want Quickdraw with a shotgun, you don’t have any other choice anyway. Probably not the best, but probably not the worst either.
H22 Standard Close Assault :
What have we there ? Hollunds (better firepower than the Ahnuld, can one shot 80hp characters, but far less efficient range), Tolen MP… Fine. Enigma, meh… Drilled, less reload time, oh that one is good !.. And… Focus (-50% flinching while aiming down sights) ? On a shotgun loadout ? And it doesn’t ever work ? Yuck. In my opinion, A31 is better than this one. Drilled is fine, but it does not allow you to compensate the time lost while reloading like Double Time does since it allows you to reposition yourself efficiently during the reload. Though feels better than Enigma, and Ahnuld tends to be a better choice for Fletcher. Also, you get Empire 9 with A31. And Lock On may be replaced with a very good augment… A31 has much more potential than this loadout.
H31 Standard Close Assault :
Those augments are just the worst you could get. Plain, and simple ! Spares gives you one more clip with you… It’s fine. But cool, with quick eye (35% more speed while scoped) on a shotgun loadout ? The only thing good with that loadout is the Empire 9. If you want a loadout with a shotgun and a machine pistol, go for A31 or A23 : the augments are just way better, and the Ahnuld will make enounters with ranged weapons less painful.
H63 Standard Close Assault :
Another loadout considered as the best loadout for Fletcher by a lot of people. The augments are just excellent ! Drilled, with Double Time ?! Wow ! And you also get Unshakeable ? Is it too beautiful to be true ? Well. Sort of. While the augments are just extremely good, the loadout available is far from being the easiest to use. You get the Hollunds, that has a range far worse than the Ahnuld, combined with the Simeon revolver, that is far less forgiving that our beloved Empire 9, even if it packs a lot of punch. A loadout that would have made a lot of mercs look away due to the lack of reliable mid-ranged options. Fortunately for you, you are not a lot of mercs ! You are Fletcher, and Fletcher comes with a pretty nice mid range fighting tool : stickies ! Expect much more switching work with that loadout that the others (you’ll quickly empty your clip), and, well, expect regretting to not have Quick Draw. It’s still a very good loadout if you can aim well with your stickies.
BL32 Standard Operative :
Suicides with Fletchers can happen, and less rarely that you think. An enemy bum rushing you with your stickies on him, an enemy that luckily shoot your sticky on the fly, a teammate blocking the way… That’s why Fail Safe is not that a dumb augment, especially since more experienced players may be able to use it to “sticky jump”. Too bad that it comes with the Blishlok, at this time a not very viable weapon, and limiting your efficiency while ambushing… Well, you can still use your stickies for it. And you also get the Empire 9 to compensate for your totally imprecise primary. The other augments ? Well, Springy is fine, and Lock On is borked, but if Lock On get’s replaced, expect that card to become potentially better. Not the best, but not the worst. Players that knows how to sticky jump may like it.
BL33 Standard Operative :
Quickdraw is back, and with much better buddies than with A62 ! Though, and Flying Pig (no more fall damage) are two pretty fine augments… Well, Flying Pig does not work at the moment, but if it did, it would be kinda nice. That loadout comes with the Empire 9 (excellent !) and the Blishlok. Overall that loadout does great ! It’s one of my favourites. If the Blishlok gets his precision buffed, it’ll be even better !
BL63 Standard Operative :
Unshakeable, Flying pig and Chopper (+20% melee weapon damage), with the Blishlok and the Simeon. Not a lot of gamechanging augments, but Unshakeable is a very good one… However, considering the current underpowered stated of the Blishlok, if you really want Unshakeable, you probably should take A23 or H63. The primary is better, and one comes with a machine pistol secondary while the other also gives you two other fearsome augments.
Yeah this is the one I grabbed when I bought a kit for him. Struggling a bit with the shotgun right now, but I’m doing that with every shotgun atm. The perks on it were just too good not to get, AND it has bat.