Hey guys,
I’ve been active on the Steam forums, but someone on there referred me to the official forums, since devs would be more active on these ones.
I’ve been playing the game for a bit, and tried all six mercs that are available right now, including all the weapons and a lot of the different perks.
Feels like the game has a lot of potential, but in a ‘competetive’ game, balance is very important. I think the balance in DB right now is not in a good place.
Shotguns
I’m aware they were nerfed last patch. They still feel too strong to me though. Feels like the problems with shotguns are because they synergize too well with Aura and Proxy. Those mercs both have the smallest hitboxes, and have the highest mobility. Combine that with a weapon that goes hand in hand extremely well with those things and you’ve got a slight problem. Aura’s healing field (when placed around a corner) is especially good when ‘peeking’ with a shotgun. I’d lower their damage a bit, while giving them a slightly higher fire rate and a slightly bigger ammo capacity. [i]They are - by far - the deadliest weapon in the game right now, thanks to their huge potential DPS. In a game that’s as fast paced as this, people WILL be in your face half the time, causing shotguns to be the natural choice. They deal a shipload of damage per shot, have near auto headshots if fired when running into someone, and probably require the least amount of aim and/or skill to use effectively right now. They still take 2 hits to kill you from medium ranges, meaning they are dominating in close as well as medium ranges right now. They’re also really ammo-efficient, I have probably ran out of ammo once whilst wielding a shotgun. Someone else on the Steam forums also just now brought up that shotguns are the only weapon type (next to snipers at long range, I guess) that you can ‘peek’ effectively with. Unlike other weapons, you don’t need to continuously hit your enemy to deal enough damage. You can pop out of cover, hit them, and pop back in. Peek out again, shoot them again, and you’ve got yourself a kill. They won’t be able to do enough damage to you since you’re only vulnerable for minimal amounts of time, while you ARE able to get your max potential DPS out. [/i]
Proxy
Everyone’s most hated merc right now. I think what the devs tried to create with Proxy was a fast but fragile engineer that dashed across the map trying to get the objectives. What they instead delivered was a monster, that excels in too many things. She’s extremely good at repairing/placing/defusing. Insane damage output. Highest mobility - and thus, also the best avoidability. [i]With a good reason. I’m just going to say this again: “In a game as fast paced as this”, I don’t think there should be one merc that has the most mobility by a long shot. She ‘only’ has 80HP to compensate, but that doesn’t really matter when she can avoid most damage thrown at her simply by running and jumping around. One could argue you could say the same about all mercs, but none is as mobile as Proxy while in combat. Plus the shotgun (the default loadout for her) synergizes too well with her. She’s the only merc that can get in your face in a blink, meaning she can deal extreme amounts of damage while avoiding yours. Her mines are fine in my opinion. I just think her mobility needs to be looked at. [/i]
SMG’s
I think these are the weakest type of weapon in the game right now. I don’t understand why people say Proxy with two SMG’s is the most broken thing right now. SMG’s are somewhat versatile - true - yet they seem lackluster at any range. They burn through ammo, while their overall damage seems low. I think they could use a slight decrease in fire rate while receiving a slight bump in damage per shot.
Paddles
These definitely need a cooldown. I mainly play Sawbonez, so you could say I’m biased -I think that says enough about the paddles. I don’t know why the devs thought it would be a good idea to give players the option to rush in and revive 5 teammates within five seconds. My team won so many big shootouts thanks to these badboys. Maybe make them overheat, like the turrets. For example, if you just rapidly revived 3 times, there’s a 5-second cooldown.I think a good idea would be to give the paddles a 3-second cooldown, getting shorter the longer you charged them. If you fully charged them the cooldown would only be about 0.5 seconds.
RNG
Despite all the hate against RNG-locked loadouts - I hated it at first too - I like it now. It’s a big ‘fuck you’ to those players that want to get the best possible gear within a week. They give you something to get excited about. They keep players coming back, because why quit when you finally merged enough iron cards to get your first silver loadout? When has a shooter ever made you scream of joy just because you finally got your favorite loadout, in gold? The only downside to this system is that if Nexon (which they might, being Nexon) reaches a point where they want to turn the game into a quick cash grab, it could lead to this game’s downfall. RNG locked stuff and greedy publishers never were a good combo.
Throwing knives
These should be a one-hit-kill, I think. They definitely feel extremely weak right now. If an instagib would be too much, maybe deal 70 damage. This way they aren’t gamebreaking and still require you to finish off your target, adding some counterplay to them.
Menu’s
Are stuttery and laggy, but I have no idea why. I’m playing the game on pretty much all the highest settings at a nice, smooth framerate. It’s the worst in a game lobby when you’re swapping out mercs and loadouts. Apparently switching the game to ‘borderless window’ fixes it for some people.
Aura VS Sawbonez
Not sure if I’m the only one, but Aura just feels like a way better medic to me. Not sure why, Aura’s kit synergizes way too well with itself. since Sawbonez can heal while on the move.
Match progression
Sometimes, matches are extremely one-sided. Either due to difference in skills, or the amount of players in the teams. The game needs an autobalance. Should be votable.
Servers
Pretty sure this was fixed with the latest mini-patch. The game NEEDS to have better detection for servers. Sometimes when selecting either gamemode, the game gives you an error message saying ‘unexpected error’ or ‘server full’. No different when using the server browser either. If it happens 12 times in a row, you’ll likely get frustrated.
Spawncamping
No clue why there’s no system in place to fight it right now. Once one team gets the upper hand, they can easily spawncamp your entire team.
Arty
I really think his Artillery Spotting ability should have at least something indoors. Arty is almost completely useless except for his ammo packs - which Skyhammer or Fragger has as well - on the map Underground right now. His ability doesn’t work for 90% of the map.
Do you agree? Do you disagree? Please, let me hear your opinions!
Oh, and can you change your name on these forums or are you stuck to these silly lil generated names?
TL;DR: Obama is the best pirate 2017