It amazes me how spoiled so many Sparks mains are.

(sonsofaugust5) #81

[quote=“Jesus;153195”][quote="-BigRed;152581"]It’s difficult to kill an 80 hp merc with a small hit box and full movement speed.[/quote] Yet people wanted Sparks nerfed cause Sparks player was able to successfully headshot mercs like that (proxies auras and such) while Hipfiring at highdistance. Doesnt this deserves the oneshot on those squishy merc?

I agree the damage on headshot was a bit high, maybe 110/100 would have been more right, and i think the close range was too good for a long range merc. But the change they did, this falloff bullshit ? It just doesnt work.

@sgtCrookyGrin well maybe you’ll show the path of reason to the others. The plague is still on cooldown for now all i can give you is a Flood, but i keep it for special occasions like wiping earth population.

[/quote]

If they drop the damage down to 100, maybe having full range would be balanced.

(sonsofaugust5) #82

[quote=“magnanimousMagician;154242”][quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154211”][quote=“Jesus;154204”]

[quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154189”]I dont get it, why people get mad because their character was corrected to be a medic, supposed to revive players at distance, NOT KILLING. Medic = heal/revive Medic =/= Combat

I remember the pre nerf sparks players, seeing you in the middle of the ground, non a single enemy around, and they just walk away wihout giving a fuck. That was the problem.[/quote]

Every merc even medic are supposed to kill people. Medic = Combat too. just look at their fucking weapon blishlok shotguns and kek[/quote]

So you prefer to play a wasted purpose merc just as an alternative sniper?

I know that medics need to be capable to kill an enemy for self defense, but they are not supposed to focus on combat. THEY ARE MEDICS.
[/quote]

Two things:

  1. It’s ok for medics to have different strengths and weaknesses, it’s ok to have Sparks be a uniquely dangerous medic at range. It might be a balance problem, but it’s not a design problem. Sometimes a strength is so good that it makes balance impossible, and it has to be nerfed. But it’s worth keeping in mind that “nerfing strengths” has a tendency to homogenize the feel of the game.

  2. It’s hard to say Sparks was a huge problem in Pubs as of the last patch. Maybe on Chapel. But she was a big problem in competitive: gibs + ranged revive + teamkill revive to full to bypass her main weakness was too much.

Maybe nerf the teamkill gimick (revivr no friendly fire, revive with 50% health after friendly fire death) rather than dramatically alter the most compelling thing about the merc for casuals. [/quote]

That first point though! dead on. If you nerf every merc as they are doing now, the abilities will matter less and the game will become more about picking the right gun that you can aim with (homogenizing the game).

(RedBeard) #83

but the med packs! for self healing I would rather have sparks…

(Jesus) #84

[quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154296”][quote=“Jesus;154220”][quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154211”][quote=“Jesus;154204”]

[quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154189”]I dont get it, why people get mad because their character was corrected to be a medic, supposed to revive players at distance, NOT KILLING. Medic = heal/revive Medic =/= Combat

I remember the pre nerf sparks players, seeing you in the middle of the ground, non a single enemy around, and they just walk away wihout giving a fuck. That was the problem.[/quote]

Every merc even medic are supposed to kill people. Medic = Combat too. just look at their fucking weapon blishlok shotguns and kek[/quote]

So you prefer to play a wasted purpose merc just as an alternative sniper?

I know that medics need to be capable to kill an enemy for self defense, but they are not supposed to focus on combat. THEY ARE MEDICS.
[/quote]

Have you tried her? You dont just play her as sniper nor just as a medic you just had to do both because with the weapons and hp if someone comes close you are most likely dead unless you jump everywhere and manage to get a headshot but none has a robocop aim. She had to take out her ennemies at distance before they come close to not put herself in danger and this has been highly limited so now any noob proxy can run right at her jumping everywhere like a monkey and shotgun her and she cant do anything about it. A nerf was needed YES everyone agrees with that, but these nerfs are just ridiculous. She has nor real viable self defense option when compared to what other mercs have

[/quote]

I have played her, and i had a better idea.

Avoid combat, rely on teammates, teammates fall down, revive from distance.

Your rage because a REVIVING TOOL was nerfed on damage is absurd. I know it can be an alternative weapon, but its not supposed to be a effective one.[/quote]

How many fucking time will we have to explain this thing ISNT A FUC*ING REVIVING ONLY TOOL ITS A WEAPON FOR CHRIST SAKE. THATS WHY SHE HAS A SECONDARY HAS PRIMARY.

We told that already five hundred times get it in your thick skull. This thing IS A WEAPON, and every weapon just have to be effective somewhere you makes no sense at all. YOU are just the one happy about the nerf cause now sparks isnt a threat to you anymore at all ad you werent able to deal with her before. Avoid combat? This is an fps everyone have to fight no fight no fun no fun useless unplayable merc, there is NO SUCH THING in this game as a merc that must not fight. Rely on teamates ? Fucking lol the only time you could do that was with your premade and even then, premade which they removed. NO merc at all HAVE TO absolutely rely on their team. Why because this kind of gameplay is unfunny shitty unrewarding and needs NO skill whatsoever. And this kind of gameplay is just impossible. And if you think such a nerf is justified its just because you are a bad player and you are glad to not have to face a big threat anymore and to be able to run around like a nab without fearing anyone to kill you from afar

(Jesus) #85

[quote=“WaffleMonster;154298”]There’s no point balancing a game for public when the skill difference is so large. The biggest factor in pubs is skill, not balance. Competitive is where mercs are pushed to their maximum and the skill difference is a lot closer. As a result imbalances have a far greater impact on the game and are far more obvious. That’s why you should always balance towards comp.

All you have to do is look at some of the latest balance changes (which were made off statistics gathered in pubs) to realise how much of a bad idea it is to balance of pubs[/quote]

The latest statistic they got are from min ten and Ranked match only. Get your stuff right.

(Jesus) #86

[quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154307”][quote=“magnanimousMagician;154304”]

I have played her, and i had a better idea.

Avoid combat, rely on teammates, teammates fall down, revive from distance.

Your rage because a REVIVING TOOL was nerfed on damage is absurd. I know it can be an alternative weapon, but its not supposed to be a effective one.

Missing the point. A merc without an “effective” weapon isn’t fun to play. [/quote]

If you want to kill, then dont play medic, thats it. Stop trying to make a medic a combat character.[/quote]

All Medic are ALSO combat character how much air must you contain in your head to not be able to get that in

(Jesus) #87

[quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154485”][quote=“magnanimousMagician;154318”][quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154307”][quote=“magnanimousMagician;154304”]

I have played her, and i had a better idea.

Avoid combat, rely on teammates, teammates fall down, revive from distance.

Your rage because a REVIVING TOOL was nerfed on damage is absurd. I know it can be an alternative weapon, but its not supposed to be a effective one.

Missing the point. A merc without an “effective” weapon isn’t fun to play. [/quote]

If you want to kill, then dont play medic, thats it. Stop trying to make a medic a combat character.[/quote]

“Hard” supports are usually bad design. If you look at medics in dirty bomb, it seems Splash Damage agrees. [/quote]

So, being an useless asset to your team because you use a reviving tool as a weapon is more important.

So. FUCKING. Genius.

Want to be an aggresive medic? Play aura or Sawbones. SPARKS ITS NOT A SNIPER.[/quote]

Guess what? She IS. Thats the fucking whole point of the merc to a be a unique Hybrid between Sniper and Medic

(Jesus) #88

@RedBeard

They are a bit too much imo Get her one 3/4 of her life medpack who starts slow regen with a 15 second cooldown and give me back my range oneshot on squishies

(magnanimousMagician) #89

[quote=“Jesus;154621”]@RedBeard

They are a bit too much imo Get her one 3/4 of her life medpack who starts slow regen with a 15 second cooldown and give me back my range oneshot on squishies[/quote]

Yes please. Sparks’ health packs are actually kind of toxic: you can top yourself 5 times in 20 seconds. Which sort of doubles down on the annoying aspect of the merc where she self-sustains forever in the back of the map while sniping heals. Her healthpacks are a much more obvious candidate for nerfs or perhaps even redesign, given that they are so bad at everything except promoting toxic sparks play. Maybe reduction in charges and then add a slow heal over time, or reduce charges + heals for more with a self healing reduction.

(Jesus) #90

[quote=“magnanimousMagician;154630”][quote=“Jesus;154621”]@RedBeard

They are a bit too much imo Get her one 3/4 of her life medpack who starts slow regen with a 15 second cooldown and give me back my range oneshot on squishies[/quote]

Yes please. Sparks’ health packs are actually kind of toxic: you can top yourself 5 times in 20 seconds. Which sort of doubles down on the annoying aspect of the merc where she self-sustains forever in the back of the map while sniping heals. Her healthpacks are a much more obvious candidate for nerfs or perhaps even redesign, given that they are so bad at everything except promoting toxic sparks play. Maybe reduction in charges and then add a slow heal over time, or reduce charges + heals for more with a self healing reduction. [/quote]

@magnanimousMagician My solution i proposed to balance her was,

-Take the damage falloff and reverse it so that damages increase over the distance up to 100~110 (on headshot ofc) and starts at close range at something like 50~60.
-Nerf Medpacks remove some make them give a bit more life and less spammy. Personally i think 1 medpack that gives 3/4 on 15s cooldown would be good or 2 Medpacks that would give her half her life back. Same cooldown.
-And give more life on revive at distance thats the whole point of the merc.
Thats one of the way i thought of her.
With this she becomes less self sustainable on her medpack while still being squishy her close range is way less efficient she is more vulnerable there and her long range is very efficient for player who can hit.

Besides that, Phantom Rework to make him viable --> we can clearly see in the Scrubs trailer this merc is designed to counter long range merc like sparks and vassili by flanking but right now he isnt much used because of his actual state which is only good in the hand of a handful of player. He needs to be reworked to be more present and counter LR mercs

(magnanimousMagician) #91

[quote=“Jesus;154637”][quote=“magnanimousMagician;154630”][quote=“Jesus;154621”]@RedBeard

They are a bit too much imo Get her one 3/4 of her life medpack who starts slow regen with a 15 second cooldown and give me back my range oneshot on squishies[/quote]

Yes please. Sparks’ health packs are actually kind of toxic: you can top yourself 5 times in 20 seconds. Which sort of doubles down on the annoying aspect of the merc where she self-sustains forever in the back of the map while sniping heals. Her healthpacks are a much more obvious candidate for nerfs or perhaps even redesign, given that they are so bad at everything except promoting toxic sparks play. Maybe reduction in charges and then add a slow heal over time, or reduce charges + heals for more with a self healing reduction. [/quote]

@magnanimousMagician My solution i proposed to balance her was,

-Take the damage falloff and reverse it so that damages increase over the distance up to 100~110 (on headshot ofc) and starts at close range at something like 50~60.
-Nerf Medpacks remove some make them give a bit more life and less spammy. Personally i think 1 medpack that gives 3/4 on 15s cooldown would be good or 2 Medpacks that would give her half her life back. Same cooldown.
-And give more life on revive at distance thats the whole point of the merc.
Thats one of the way i thought of her.
With this she becomes less self sustainable on her medpack while still being squishy her close range is way less efficient she is more vulnerable there and her long range is very efficient for player who can hit.

Besides that, Phantom Rework to make him viable --> we can clearly see in the Scrubs trailer this merc is designed to counter long range merc like sparks and vassili by flanking but right now he isnt much used because of his actual state which is only good in the hand of a handful of player. He needs to be reworked to be more present and counter LR mercs[/quote]

I disagree with the damage increase idea. Weapon consistency is important all equal, and there’s no reason to double down on Sparks’ weakness in close quarters.

I also disagree with reverting the revive distance nerf. Sparks’ distance revive is the kind of enormous strength that is so good it is very hard to balance the merc while keeping the rest of her compelling. The distance change tones this feature down in the best way possible: increasing the revive time further would start to cause big problems, and changing the revivr charge speed is a non-starter.

I kind of like the low charge, high power med pack idea, but I can see some arguments that it would feel too similar to Sawbonez. The good thing about Sparks’ current packs is they contrast starkly with the nearest analogue (instant, weak heals vs. slow, strong heals). The trick is changing her instant, weak heals to be slightly better at healing others while also making them slightly or even significantly weaker at healing Sparks. Simple self-healing modifier coupled with small buff to packs seems like the cleanest solution, even though it’s somewhat arbitrary. Sawbonez already has it. Another option is buffing the direct impact heal and nerfing charges to 3.

Phantom is a harder problem. His “strength” is to ambush people in unfair gunfights. That’s just hard to square with a fun experience for everyone. Not necessarily impossible but very hard. For instance right now he’s probably a bit-undertuned, but any direct buff to him (speed, health, shield, stealth, even katana) would cause tons of frustration.

(HoakinBlackforge) #92

[quote=“Jesus;154612”][quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154296”][quote=“Jesus;154220”][quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154211”][quote=“Jesus;154204”]

[quote=“HoakinBlackforge;154189”]I dont get it, why people get mad because their character was corrected to be a medic, supposed to revive players at distance, NOT KILLING. Medic = heal/revive Medic =/= Combat

I remember the pre nerf sparks players, seeing you in the middle of the ground, non a single enemy around, and they just walk away wihout giving a fuck. That was the problem.[/quote]

Every merc even medic are supposed to kill people. Medic = Combat too. just look at their fucking weapon blishlok shotguns and kek[/quote]

So you prefer to play a wasted purpose merc just as an alternative sniper?

I know that medics need to be capable to kill an enemy for self defense, but they are not supposed to focus on combat. THEY ARE MEDICS.
[/quote]

Have you tried her? You dont just play her as sniper nor just as a medic you just had to do both because with the weapons and hp if someone comes close you are most likely dead unless you jump everywhere and manage to get a headshot but none has a robocop aim. She had to take out her ennemies at distance before they come close to not put herself in danger and this has been highly limited so now any noob proxy can run right at her jumping everywhere like a monkey and shotgun her and she cant do anything about it. A nerf was needed YES everyone agrees with that, but these nerfs are just ridiculous. She has nor real viable self defense option when compared to what other mercs have

[/quote]

I have played her, and i had a better idea.

Avoid combat, rely on teammates, teammates fall down, revive from distance.

Your rage because a REVIVING TOOL was nerfed on damage is absurd. I know it can be an alternative weapon, but its not supposed to be a effective one.[/quote]

How many fucking time will we have to explain this thing ISNT A FUC*ING REVIVING ONLY TOOL ITS A WEAPON FOR CHRIST SAKE. THATS WHY SHE HAS A SECONDARY HAS PRIMARY.

We told that already five hundred times get it in your thick skull. This thing IS A WEAPON, and every weapon just have to be effective somewhere you makes no sense at all. YOU are just the one happy about the nerf cause now sparks isnt a threat to you anymore at all ad you werent able to deal with her before. Avoid combat? This is an fps everyone have to fight no fight no fun no fun useless unplayable merc, there is NO SUCH THING in this game as a merc that must not fight. Rely on teamates ? Fucking lol the only time you could do that was with your premade and even then, premade which they removed. NO merc at all HAVE TO absolutely rely on their team. Why because this kind of gameplay is unfunny shitty unrewarding and needs NO skill whatsoever. And this kind of gameplay is just impossible. And if you think such a nerf is justified its just because you are a bad player and you are glad to not have to face a big threat anymore and to be able to run around like a nab without fearing anyone to kill you from afar[/quote]

Fine, keep using a reviving tool as a useless weapon instead of reviving teammates because thats actually spark’s job.

You dont melee with the defibs because stabbing your enemy with your melee weapon is faster. Same rule was applied to the reviver.

(magnanimousMagician) #93

@HoakinBlackforge

Sparks has no real primary for a reason. You need to argue that the game is better with damage drop off, not that Revivr should suck because medic. Splash damage obviously thinks Revivr should be a core part of Sparks offensive kit. They just don’t think it should be able to 1 shot Skyhammer from across the map. They DO think it should be able to 1 shot proxy, though. Argue the point at hand, because the above isn’t constructive.

(ProfPlump) #94

[quote=“SzGamer227;24301”]Of all the balance changes made in the recent updates, the nerfs surrounding Sparks have by far made the biggest splash, and Sparks mains just love to tell you how much their valued merc has been damaged. Half of the Sparks player base complain about how her ability sucks at range now and how she is no longer viable as a combat medic. Y’all need to slow tf down and look at the facts.

Sparks is by far the most capable reviver of any medic. She can resurrect teammates faster than other medics and can revive from half a map away with no trouble. This is still true, even with the nerfs. So riddle me this: How can you justify having a medic that supremely better than anyone else at reviving teammates and still equally capable in combat?

You can’t. There have to be drawbacks. Old Sparks didn’t have any drawbacks: She matched snipers like Vassili in combat power with her Revive Gun, an ability which even still makes paddles look like pathetic plastic knives by comparison.

Now that Sparks has had her combat abilities weakened, she finally has an actual drawback to justify her absurd revive power, but half of the Sparks users here still want to be a combat medic. Do you realize how spoiled that makes you sound to people who play other medics? You can’t have it both ways.

If you want to play as a medic that is viable in combat, you’ll have to get your hands dirty when you revive like everyone else does. Otherwise, stop taking that Revive Gun for granted. If you play Sparks, play Sparks for the right reasons, and stop complaining about things that Sparks was never entitled to have.

EDIT: My opinions on certain issues discussed in the comments, which I’m putting here to give you Sparks diehards a better idea of where I stand on this whole issue and the kind of progress I’d like to see made.

[quote=“SzGamer227;151474”]I will definitely say that making the heal-on-revive drop off identical to the damage drop off was a lazy and ill-advised decision on the part of Splash Damage. I do think there should be some drop off, but it would be reasonable to have the heal drop off to kick in at a further distance or decline more gradually. Even so, she is still able to revive teammates without jumping into the thing that got her patient killed in the first place, which is still a definite boon that Sparks has over paddles.

As for her Health Packs, I can definitely agree that they need some overhauling. With the amount of health that a medic needs to give to their team all the time, healing a small chunk of health every 10 seconds is far from adequate, and you never see all four health packs ready beyond the very beginning of a match unless you just aren’t using them.

Giving them the same treatment as Fragger’s grenades way back when would be a big help: Cutting the cooldown to 5 or 6 seconds and reducing the max capacity to 3 would be a good start to making up for her diminished healing ability, without turning Sparks into a constant healing-carpet generator. This would also give Sparks’ healing a level of versatility that other medics don’t have, making it easy to regularly distribute small amounts of health in various doses instead of discharging a large amount of healing into just a few people.[/quote][/quote]

Thing is though, that Sparks is amazing in 8v8, 7v7 and, to some extent, 6v6 games, because she’s best at keeping a whole team alive from a vantage point, but in 5v5 games (which is what Dirty Bomb is for competitive, remember) she’s now fairly lackluster. She’s great for keeping large numbers of teammates up, but given that she can’t really deal damage at the same time to the enemy team, she becomes fairly useless when she doesn’t have many revive targets.

It’s hard to balance mercs for all different sizes of teams (just look at what happens on an EV map on an 8v8 game where almost the entire enemy team goes Arty/Skyhammer), but the focus should be competitive first, pubs second. I think, before her reviving nerf (but after her combat nerf) Sparks was still OP in pubs, but she was just about right in competitive. NOW, she’s balanced in pubs, but basically trash in competitive - she might be used as a wild card every now and then, but she’s nowhere near as viable and flexible as she used to be.

(Szakalot) #95

viable? sparks was a must on a sawbonez/fragger level

(WaffleMonster) #96

[quote=“Jesus;154614”][quote=“WaffleMonster;154298”]There’s no point balancing a game for public when the skill difference is so large. The biggest factor in pubs is skill, not balance. Competitive is where mercs are pushed to their maximum and the skill difference is a lot closer. As a result imbalances have a far greater impact on the game and are far more obvious. That’s why you should always balance towards comp.

All you have to do is look at some of the latest balance changes (which were made off statistics gathered in pubs) to realise how much of a bad idea it is to balance of pubs[/quote]

The latest statistic they got are from min ten and Ranked match only. Get your stuff right.[/quote]

Min lvl 10 is still low level pubs and most people in MM play like it’s pubs. If you want to balance, you need to balance off actual comp.

(OmaGretel) #97

Imho:

a) Reduce her movement speed further while charging, so it’s easier for eg Vassilli to counter her.

b) Change the Revivr so she has to focus a downed teammate for like (half?) a second before he gets revived, creating a visible beam while doing so. That would make Sparks have to stay in line of sight to the teammate (and possibly the enemy) for a short while and also giving the enemy a better chance to finish that player off, because they know in advance, who is going to get revived next.

c) Remove damage drop-off.

(SzGamer227) #98

[quote=“ProfPlump;154760”][quote=“SzGamer227;24301”]Of all the balance changes made in the recent updates, the nerfs surrounding Sparks have by far made the biggest splash, and Sparks mains just love to tell you how much their valued merc has been damaged. Half of the Sparks player base complain about how her ability sucks at range now and how she is no longer viable as a combat medic. Y’all need to slow tf down and look at the facts.

Sparks is by far the most capable reviver of any medic. She can resurrect teammates faster than other medics and can revive from half a map away with no trouble. This is still true, even with the nerfs. So riddle me this: How can you justify having a medic that supremely better than anyone else at reviving teammates and still equally capable in combat?

You can’t. There have to be drawbacks. Old Sparks didn’t have any drawbacks: She matched snipers like Vassili in combat power with her Revive Gun, an ability which even still makes paddles look like pathetic plastic knives by comparison.

Now that Sparks has had her combat abilities weakened, she finally has an actual drawback to justify her absurd revive power, but half of the Sparks users here still want to be a combat medic. Do you realize how spoiled that makes you sound to people who play other medics? You can’t have it both ways.

If you want to play as a medic that is viable in combat, you’ll have to get your hands dirty when you revive like everyone else does. Otherwise, stop taking that Revive Gun for granted. If you play Sparks, play Sparks for the right reasons, and stop complaining about things that Sparks was never entitled to have.

EDIT: My opinions on certain issues discussed in the comments, which I’m putting here to give you Sparks diehards a better idea of where I stand on this whole issue and the kind of progress I’d like to see made.

[quote=“SzGamer227;151474”]I will definitely say that making the heal-on-revive drop off identical to the damage drop off was a lazy and ill-advised decision on the part of Splash Damage. I do think there should be some drop off, but it would be reasonable to have the heal drop off to kick in at a further distance or decline more gradually. Even so, she is still able to revive teammates without jumping into the thing that got her patient killed in the first place, which is still a definite boon that Sparks has over paddles.

As for her Health Packs, I can definitely agree that they need some overhauling. With the amount of health that a medic needs to give to their team all the time, healing a small chunk of health every 10 seconds is far from adequate, and you never see all four health packs ready beyond the very beginning of a match unless you just aren’t using them.

Giving them the same treatment as Fragger’s grenades way back when would be a big help: Cutting the cooldown to 5 or 6 seconds and reducing the max capacity to 3 would be a good start to making up for her diminished healing ability, without turning Sparks into a constant healing-carpet generator. This would also give Sparks’ healing a level of versatility that other medics don’t have, making it easy to regularly distribute small amounts of health in various doses instead of discharging a large amount of healing into just a few people.[/quote][/quote]

Thing is though, that Sparks is amazing in 8v8, 7v7 and, to some extent, 6v6 games, because she’s best at keeping a whole team alive from a vantage point, but in 5v5 games (which is what Dirty Bomb is for competitive, remember) she’s now fairly lackluster. She’s great for keeping large numbers of teammates up, but given that she can’t really deal damage at the same time to the enemy team, she becomes fairly useless when she doesn’t have many revive targets.

It’s hard to balance mercs for all different sizes of teams (just look at what happens on an EV map on an 8v8 game where almost the entire enemy team goes Arty/Skyhammer), but the focus should be competitive first, pubs second. I think, before her reviving nerf (but after her combat nerf) Sparks was still OP in pubs, but she was just about right in competitive. NOW, she’s balanced in pubs, but basically trash in competitive - she might be used as a wild card every now and then, but she’s nowhere near as viable and flexible as she used to be.[/quote]

In ranked 5v5 games Sparks can exploit friendly fire to down and full heal a merc if they’re low on health instead of having to wait until they die, so there’s that at least. :stuck_out_tongue:

(ProfPlump) #99

[quote=“SzGamer227;154802”][quote=“ProfPlump;154760”][quote=“SzGamer227;24301”]Of all the balance changes made in the recent updates, the nerfs surrounding Sparks have by far made the biggest splash, and Sparks mains just love to tell you how much their valued merc has been damaged. Half of the Sparks player base complain about how her ability sucks at range now and how she is no longer viable as a combat medic. Y’all need to slow tf down and look at the facts.

Sparks is by far the most capable reviver of any medic. She can resurrect teammates faster than other medics and can revive from half a map away with no trouble. This is still true, even with the nerfs. So riddle me this: How can you justify having a medic that supremely better than anyone else at reviving teammates and still equally capable in combat?

You can’t. There have to be drawbacks. Old Sparks didn’t have any drawbacks: She matched snipers like Vassili in combat power with her Revive Gun, an ability which even still makes paddles look like pathetic plastic knives by comparison.

Now that Sparks has had her combat abilities weakened, she finally has an actual drawback to justify her absurd revive power, but half of the Sparks users here still want to be a combat medic. Do you realize how spoiled that makes you sound to people who play other medics? You can’t have it both ways.

If you want to play as a medic that is viable in combat, you’ll have to get your hands dirty when you revive like everyone else does. Otherwise, stop taking that Revive Gun for granted. If you play Sparks, play Sparks for the right reasons, and stop complaining about things that Sparks was never entitled to have.

EDIT: My opinions on certain issues discussed in the comments, which I’m putting here to give you Sparks diehards a better idea of where I stand on this whole issue and the kind of progress I’d like to see made.

[quote=“SzGamer227;151474”]I will definitely say that making the heal-on-revive drop off identical to the damage drop off was a lazy and ill-advised decision on the part of Splash Damage. I do think there should be some drop off, but it would be reasonable to have the heal drop off to kick in at a further distance or decline more gradually. Even so, she is still able to revive teammates without jumping into the thing that got her patient killed in the first place, which is still a definite boon that Sparks has over paddles.

As for her Health Packs, I can definitely agree that they need some overhauling. With the amount of health that a medic needs to give to their team all the time, healing a small chunk of health every 10 seconds is far from adequate, and you never see all four health packs ready beyond the very beginning of a match unless you just aren’t using them.

Giving them the same treatment as Fragger’s grenades way back when would be a big help: Cutting the cooldown to 5 or 6 seconds and reducing the max capacity to 3 would be a good start to making up for her diminished healing ability, without turning Sparks into a constant healing-carpet generator. This would also give Sparks’ healing a level of versatility that other medics don’t have, making it easy to regularly distribute small amounts of health in various doses instead of discharging a large amount of healing into just a few people.[/quote][/quote]

Thing is though, that Sparks is amazing in 8v8, 7v7 and, to some extent, 6v6 games, because she’s best at keeping a whole team alive from a vantage point, but in 5v5 games (which is what Dirty Bomb is for competitive, remember) she’s now fairly lackluster. She’s great for keeping large numbers of teammates up, but given that she can’t really deal damage at the same time to the enemy team, she becomes fairly useless when she doesn’t have many revive targets.

It’s hard to balance mercs for all different sizes of teams (just look at what happens on an EV map on an 8v8 game where almost the entire enemy team goes Arty/Skyhammer), but the focus should be competitive first, pubs second. I think, before her reviving nerf (but after her combat nerf) Sparks was still OP in pubs, but she was just about right in competitive. NOW, she’s balanced in pubs, but basically trash in competitive - she might be used as a wild card every now and then, but she’s nowhere near as viable and flexible as she used to be.[/quote]

In ranked 5v5 games Sparks can exploit friendly fire to down and full heal a merc if they’re low on health instead of having to wait until they die, so there’s that at least. :stuck_out_tongue: [/quote]

Good point - forgot about that.

(Jesus) #100

[quote=“WaffleMonster;154769”][quote=“Jesus;154614”][quote=“WaffleMonster;154298”]There’s no point balancing a game for public when the skill difference is so large. The biggest factor in pubs is skill, not balance. Competitive is where mercs are pushed to their maximum and the skill difference is a lot closer. As a result imbalances have a far greater impact on the game and are far more obvious. That’s why you should always balance towards comp.

All you have to do is look at some of the latest balance changes (which were made off statistics gathered in pubs) to realise how much of a bad idea it is to balance of pubs[/quote]

The latest statistic they got are from min ten and Ranked match only. Get your stuff right.[/quote]

Min lvl 10 is still low level pubs and most people in MM play like it’s pubs. If you want to balance, you need to balance off actual comp.[/quote]

Well if your not speaking of MM Ranked i dunno what you mean by “comp”, and if you mean those tournament and pugs played by barely a hundred people that would just be stupid to balance a game just for those; like it or not they just cant balance the game around a bunch of players, you seem to be thinking those people are somehow superior to the rest. They are not they are just players like everyone. I know DB aims to be some sort of competitive Esporty game but you just cant push that to happen it happens by himself if its worth it. The game isnt even released they cant just start balancing the game around their ridiculously low “competitive” (whatever you mean by that) playerbase. Because what maybe right for comp, isnt fun for all the others , and at a beta state, the game wont survive without all those others. Like it or not. They can’t do that. Not now.