I started playing Dirty Bomb pretty recently, somewhere around a month ago or so, and so far, the most fun I’ve had in the game was playing as Phantom before he got nerfed. I totally understand and agree with the update, even if they took it a little too far, but it forced me to change my playstyle. Before I would use literally only my katana, going almost every match I played with him never shooting, and now that the cloak and sword are both considerably worse, I use it just a little more than I do with any other merc’s melee. I would use the cloak to get close to enemies or groups of enemies, my record was taking down five in one fight, then uncloak and fight them close quarters relying entirely on maneuvering to win. It’s this very melee intensive rushing playstyle that I, and am sure others, really enjoy in this type of game. I think it would really benefit the overall experience of the game if Phantom were tweaked so that either his speed was raised, or that his armor were taken away in exchange for better invisibility so that he would better suit melee fighting. I have heard in other threads that Phantom was never meant to be a melee specific merc, and that he’s just the first merc to get the katana, not the only one. In that case, I think an even better solution would be to have a separate merc who is intended for melee rushing. Maybe a merc whose ability allows them to get close easily but has a shitty primary weapon so that they are forced to use the melee option (preferably a sword). Someone who has a higher speed but lower health. The main purpose of this merc would be either to flank, or to be able to easily push back a firing line by rushing in and killing a couple enemies likely at the cost of their life so that their teammates can advance more easily.
I looked around for a thread with a similar topic and couldn’t find one so hopefully something like this hasn’t already been said. Also while writing this I found out that there is a separate board for merc suggestion and I’m not sure if this should belong there since my post is half about tweaking phantom. I think if the response to this is mainly that Phantom should not be melee/stealth and just stealth, then I will post something similar on the merc suggestion board instead