Making Phantom Viable Again?

(hawkeyeguy99) #1

Maybe he’s unfixable because his play style just doesn’t fit the game (which it doesn’t) but he’s so damn fun to play I want to see him work better. So let’s brainstorm on how to make him a part of the meta again!

One of the ideas I had was to give him another ability such as an EMP grenade. It would work much like Vasilli’s spotter egg and would enable him to disable enemy deployables from a distance instead of having to get up close. This alone would push him into the meta as it would become an extremely viable tactic to take out an enemy healing station for a few seconds, allowing for a coordinated push.

Another idea to make him useful on the defense side would be to give him an EMP mine of sorts that would activate and disable all defuse kits in a certain radius for about 3 seconds. That way, an engineer goes up to defuse a C4 and they find they can’t for 3 seconds, allowing the defenders to take advantage of the stall.

What are your thoughts? New ideas?

EDIT: Just realized this is probably supposed to go in “Merc Feedback”. If so, could you do me a flava fav and move it @Eox?

(Pyjama_Slam) #2

The current EMP field made him even more visible than he used to be for the experienced player. Changing the EMP field to an EMP grenade is in my opinion a very viable Buff for phantom.

This will indeed make him a more team based merc instead of a strange solo artist trying to gain his fame on the scoreboard at the cost of the objective.

(KangaJoo) #3

If they could just like give him better guns and hp or something with that EMP ability and remove going invisible all together, that’d be fine by me. Never been a fan of invisibility in online fps games.

(JonBongNoJovi) #4

Would he work as a engineer ?

(TheStrangerous) #5

Said it before and I’ll say it again.
No wonder he doesn’t fit recon category, he doesn’t have a throwable ability item, unlike other recon mercs.

(GatoCommodore) #6

implying Kek-10 and Crotzni isnt one of the best gun in the game

(hawkeyeguy99) #7

@JonBongNoJovi Making him an engie wouldn’t really fit his current kit. He fits much more in the recon category than engineer. I think what SD needs to focus on is fixing his current kit instead of changing it. He has potential, just not in the current way it is implemented.

(Press E) #8

I mentioned this on a thread I posted here recently, but I’ll paste it here too:

I do not believe Phantom should be played as an invisible assault merc, but rather to disable deployables at critical times to encourage a team to push.
-Different XP values for EMPing different deployables depending on priority, with med stations giving a large amount, and ammo stations much less. This helps the Phantom know what they’ve EMPd and helps prioritize EMPing important targets.
-Continual XP from staying cloaked near a deployable to keep it EMPd, more incentive to keep a health station down while your team pushes
-Increased damage absorption from the cloak slightly. Around 30+ damage at a full charge is really next to nothing. It is “refractive armour” after all.
-Potentially EMPing non-deployable abilities at no cooldown cost. For instance, a red eye would be unable to use their IR goggles while near a cloaked Phantom, or a Phoenix to self revive. This effect would immediately stop after the Phantom decloaks, however.

Basically, he’s not an nonviable merc. He’s extremely useful, especially in the right situations. The issue is a lot of people don’t understand how to play him properly, because they keep trying to play him as they did before he got reworked.
@Shinywindow does an excellent job playing Phantom the way he should be played, I definitely recommend checking out his youtube tutorials for an example of what I’m talking about.

[quote=“TheStrangerous;c-227508”]Said it before and I’ll say it again.
No wonder he doesn’t fit recon category, he doesn’t have a throwable ability item, unlike other recon mercs.[/quote]

Fletcher is the best recon

(GatoCommodore) #9

[quote=“STARRYSOCK;c-227517”]

[quote=“TheStrangerous;c-227508”]Said it before and I’ll say it again.
No wonder he doesn’t fit recon category, he doesn’t have a throwable ability item, unlike other recon mercs.[/quote]

Fletcher is the best recon[/quote]

no Proxy is

(SnakekillerX) #10

The thing with Phantom is he actually works as a great recon, if people communicate.
If you use your mic, there is nothing stopping you from telling your team where the enemy is, and you can do this from the safety of your cloak. The enemy doesn’t know they’ve been detected either as there is no visual marker.

Once your team mate opens fire you could very easily support that team mate from a flank position as you were already waiting there cloaked.

Phantom is fun to play, and sneaky as shit if you play him right.

Actually, if they made any changes to him I wish they would give him a hidden spot ability.
Only your team would see the spot, and the enemy would remain unaware.

The spot icon could also be coloured differently so people would know that it is a Phantom spot, and could be used as an assassinate target kind of queue.

He would only be able to spot one target at a time, with a short cool down.
Use the ability to mark someone, and use it again to unmark. It is also unmarked if the target dies. Cool down starts only when the target is unmarked.

Mark is lost when an enemy is out of view for over 1 second.

(GatoCommodore) #11

@SnakekillerX you know whats better than teamspeak recon?

not needing teamspeak to give away enemy position

(KangaJoo) #12

@GatoCommodore said:
KangaJoo wrote: »

If they could just like give him better guns and hp or something with that EMP ability and remove going invisible all together, that’d be fine by me. Never been a fan of invisibility in online fps games.

implying Kek-10 and Crotzni isnt one of the best gun in the game

They’re good and can compete with rifles up close, but they don’t put out the same DPS as the rifles and burst guns at mid and long range and if his only ability is an emp, he needs an edge in straight up gunfights at all ranges.

(SnakekillerX) #13

[quote=“GatoCommodore;c-227563”]@SnakekillerX you know whats better than teamspeak recon?

not needing teamspeak to give away enemy position[/quote]

But we already have 3 of those.

I don’t see why Phantom can’t operate differently. Also, the hidden mark would work like the other detectors, but only mark one enemy at a time for a focused attack against them.

(TheStrangerous) #14

[quote=“STARRYSOCK;c-227517”]

Fletcher is the best recon[/quote]

I actually meant recon-like throwable device, but whatever.

Maybe trying shoving Phantom into Recon category doesn’t work. Since SD denied giving him spotting ability. The EMP field is more like Saboteur thing. Perhaps creating a new merc category is the solution.

(KangaJoo) #15

I’d put him in the assault category, give him a strong EMP ability (maybe something he could throw), get rid of his cloak all together, and give him access to assault and burst rifles. Then again, i’ve always disliked stealth in multiplayer fps games.

(BlackboltLW) #16

What if Phantom is able to mark the deployables he jammed?

(TheStrangerous) #17

Maybe a bit too OP? Playtesting should determine that.

(Your worst knifemare.) #18

[quote=“TheStrangerous;c-227570”][quote=“STARRYSOCK;c-227517”]

Fletcher is the best recon[/quote]

I actually meant recon-like throwable device, but whatever.

Maybe trying shoving Phantom into Recon category doesn’t work. Since SD denied giving him spotting ability. The EMP field is more like Saboteur thing. Perhaps creating a new merc category is the solution.[/quote]

Technically Phantom does sort of belong in recon. Aimee gives debuffs, Redeye blocks vision and Vasilli can spot through walls. All 3 harm the enemy team without killing them. Phantom disables deployables, therefore harming the other team and putting him inside the recon class.

(Press E) #19

What category Phantom is placed into is unimportant tbh. Frankly this game doesn’t need more recon mercs.
Adding more spotting abilities to this game just because Phantom happened to get stuck in recon will just make the game a shitfest of constantly being detected. Creatiing an entirely new saboteur class would be just as horrible. This isn’t Overwatch or whatever.

He doesn’t need a massive change. His current build is more or less fine (though it does need some tweaking to better encourage how he should be played), it’s the players who need to learn how to use him.

(hawkeyeguy99) #20

I still hold to my initial idea that would catapult him into a more useful state, not that his current state isn’t useful at all, (I just topped the scoreboard in a full stopwatch using only him) but he could use more to be viable against other mercs as a team pick as opposed to a solo killing machine. Just giving him a throwable EMP nade and taking away the EMP effect from his cloak to make it a separate ability would instantly shove him into viability without breaking any balance.