LMFAO OP’S POST!!!
But for real, what these posts from experienced players said, really take them for advice, it’ll help you. Currently no mercs are OP, but still might need just slight tweaks and balancing after all this is still Beta.
I think Fletcher, Rhino, Nader, Vasili and Stoker are too powerful
Bojangles
(Bojangles)
#42
@gg2ez @darlingClaymore
http://i.imgur.com/mOnWIqd.png
[quote=“sneak;111397”]Fletcher - I played this with a Gold A23 loadout (Ahn-12/tolen/Enigma/Tough/Unshakeable – No I didn’t go out and buy a gold card for him, I got it in a case earlier this week). I actually DID get first place on my team (and in-game) with this character, despite mostly messing around with the sticky nades instead of doing objectives and mass killings. Somehow, this happened. My opinion on this character is the same more-or-less. It’s morphed a bit… It’s not necessarily an “OP character”, the problem is that bad players are getting rewarded with lucky sticky nade shots and multiple people on the enemy team are using the character and lobbing the sticky nades at once into a group of people. Something is bound to hit. Where this gets frustrating is that it just happens to be me often enough that it gets to me. However, the end-game result of fletcher is that he isn’t very useful, as far as going out and mass fragging the enemy team. He’s not the kind of character, I believe, who can easily get 5-8 KDR in a match. He’s a bit of a crutch for slightly higher than low skill players to land some lucky sticky nades here and there. I also don’t really like shotguns in this game so far, so I wasn’t enjoying his shotgun. When I looked at the store it looks like he only uses shotguns.
[/quote]
Congrats! You’re officially a better Fletcher fighter than I am! However don’t keep ignoring those objectives, someone has to get things done and it had better be the engis. Glad to hear you had a positive experience with him, I am also not a huge fan of shotguns (as are a lot of players). Most Fletchers and Auras will run with a Blishlok card, @Eox could give way better Fletcher game tips than I could.
It’s really easy to notice being killed by a particular Merc, especially when it starts getting on your nerves. My rage-op merc is Sparks. Honestly I don’t come across a good one that often, but as soon as I get headshot once by her damned little REVIVR I start flipping tables and cursing the Dirty Gods. I’m so tuned to hating that happen that I notice it every time it happens which makes it feel worse than it is.
If you enjoyed playing Fletcher that’s a great indication to purchase him, I’d gift him to you if I could just so I don’t have to see his smug sh-t eating grin staring at me… but I can’t shrug. If you have interest in Bushwacker but haven’t played him yet then be careful. He could be risky to just purchase if you haven’t played him since you’re almost level 10. Level 10+ servers don’t usually let you do some of the same little tricks/placements that you could get away with in under 10 servers. I got Bushy early as he fits with my play-style so I’ve had a ton of time to learn plenty of spots for turret placement and get to develop strategies for maps. I know it might be awhile before he goes on rotation again but I don’t want you to waste credits or money on a potentially regretful purchase.
Bojangles
(Bojangles)
#43
Nader is a whole bunch of fun to play, have you had an opportunity to play her? I don’t mean to be patronizing but from reading this paragraph I would guess not. She’s my tertiary merc and she is a blast! Here are some counter arguments to a few points you brought up:
On grenade damage…
Her grenades will f–k up most mercs from a direct hit, however that is hard to do purposefully. They move relatively slowly and are pretty easy to see. If you are paying attention to her in an area you can move around in, you have almost no excuse to avoid her nades. If you notice you are in a clump of allies and you know a nader is around, give some room! If your buddy gets 'sploded right beside you then you 'gon git rocked. The splash damage on her nades isn’t as fantastic, but it sure as sh-t doesn’t feel good. The thing is she only has 5 grenades and after she uses those she can only use one every 7 seconds, and that feels like forever in game time. So while she can spam, it doesn’t last very long. She also does less damage to the EV than Fletcher, weird to me but that is the case.
On health and short-mid range weapon selection…
That is what Nader is designed for, she’s an assault merc. Her SMGs give her the ability to deal damage to single targets who don’t warrant her grenade launcher. Her health allows her to fight at the front line, cover engineers, and support the fire support mercs. She is solely made for fighting, that is why her health is where it is. Deducting health from her would destroy who she is in terms of combat roles.
On martyrdom…
It took me forever to remember not to knife her, or even run near her after she gets downed. I think it was about a month of play before I finally kicked the habit of running up to knife her completely. As I said in the post above, in level 10+ servers you can’t necessarily use the same tricks. While I have no doubt you see it frequently now, after the general player base you’re playing with improves you’ll see it happen a lot less often. I will often go on suicide runs to try and stop an EV push, it’s hard to resist when there’s a clump of medics and engineers behind it. Of course I’ll go down but the whole time they’re moving away from me and by the time I go down and have activated her martyrdom, no one is beside me 
Although it makes any martyrdom kills that happen later so rewarding as a result.
On lack of weaknesses…
Here is what I feel her weaknesses are based on my experiences and skill level.
-Lack of long range. Nader will lose vs snipers and burst-fire weapons. The most she can do is try to pressure them by lobbing a grenade towards them but against an experienced player it will not do too much.
-Vulnerability to short range surprises. If you are caught with your grenade launcher out in a CQC situation, you’re gonna have a bad time. You cannot use your grenade launcher as the nades will bounce off the target if they hit, their fuse time will allow plenty of time for the enemy to kill you, and you risk splash damage to yourself. So you’re forced to switch weapons, which leaves you vulnerable for a number of seconds where the enemy is shooting you.
-Lack of dominance at the front lines. Hear me out on this one before you scoff at it, and if you have already scoffed then whatever. The other high HP mercs you’ll be running into will wreck her in that short-mid range zone she’s supposed to be good at. Fragger has more HP, also Fragger, Stoker, and Skyhammer all have access to stronger weapons for short-mid range. If you’re caught in the open by a Rhino yer done son.
On Strengths…
I don’t feel like there’s a need to go in depth with the obvious as I’m sure you’re well aware of them. She’s got a good health pool, the SMGs are good weapons in general, she’s not unbearably slow, her grenades can act as area denial if utilized properly and you’re aware of their damage.
But I love one strength in particular. One strength that makes Nader the apple of my eye in terms of assault mercs. Her indirect combat capability. Fire over a wall! Bounce it around the doorway! Harass snipers from behind cover! Protect C4 from a long distance! Destroy generators from a distance! My favorite map to play Nader on is Church. On defense you can bounce nades off the garage to kill engineers who are trying to repair using the EV as cover. You can bounce nades off of so many walls that are angled perfectly for her. You can harass anybody on the machine gun nests. On offense you can lob grenades over the ramp of the final defender spawn, that will slow down reinforcements.
tl;dr I disagree