[quote=“savoryLettuce;41675”]If you have to change Phantom (while i think he is balanced as he is) leave the cloak and instead take away the SMG.
I in general think though that people just need to get used to him as long as i have him now there was a big difference when you had a team playing together and even remotly working together i had a hard time killing anything with Phantom, because you get spotted while approaching and get butchered by the enemy.
The problem is when people are not playing together, when they mistake the game for a Team Deathmatch and walk off alone, then they often die and i get nice killstreaks.
The things you say about the cloak/armor are true but we also need to be clear that this is his special ability when we think about Skyhammer with Airstrikes and Ammopacks if you take those or nerf those skyhammer loses his most important things, its the same here, Phantom has Cloak and Katana but thats all for Katana you need cloak and at least some HP otherwise you get nearly always butchered because you have to close in and die to fast, you have to have the ability to actually get out again because first you have to close in other classes just work from the distance thats the difference.
Thats why the cloak needs to be the way it is, so that you are actually able to close the distance to a target to use your special trait otherwise you are just a sawbonez without any revive or Medic capabilities.
If you raise CD of cloak to 12 Seconds you can engage once, you have no chance to leave in any fast time (12 seconds is forever) and are after ONE strike you lost your whole advantage the only thing you can do is to pray that noone sees you.
Again look at skyhammer, his airstrike can obliterate entire teams and he never has to get close to them but that somehow seems “fair”.
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Sky hammer has a very long cooldown for his ability. Its probably the longest in the game if Im remembering correctly. As strong as his airstrikes are, and the fact that they can kill multiple people at once, you see the air strike marker a mile away, and can hear it to.
Airstrikes are balanced because a simple “airstrike incoming” from a teammate, moves everyone out of the way. When I use skyhammer I always am mindful of using it at the right time because of the cooldown. I also make sure that if I need to use it as a nade, that there definitely isnt a roof opening where I am.
And even when the airstrike kills the EV in one blow…an engineer can have it back up in seconds. This requires my team and I to really really coordinate our air support…and not make the mistake of using our supports at the same time by mistake. In which case we all have to wait a long time on cooldowns.
What does Phantom require in terms of teambased planning and coordination? None. I always see them going solo and just hacking people up…running in and out of invisible mode constantly because of the laughably low cooldown. It should be the same length as Aura’s health station.
If I drop a health station and someone gets to it right away during our fire fight, I know Im fvked depending on who they are. I know I messed up and didnt put it in a good spot. And I know the cool down ensures I have to use my gun skills to win. But with Phantom…all he has to do when spotted, is take a few hits, dodge, and jump back into invisible mode again…and kill you while he has his armor back. Fuck his armor, and fuck his cool down.
Regarding ammo…thats not a big deal…as there are Kira stations and ammo stations around the map that arent hard to get to.
Skyhammer should never be compared to Phantom. Skyhammer is not a tank, with speed, a great gun, invisibility, and a shield that makes headshots, mines, turrets, air support, and lasers meaningless.
Phantom should not be a jack of all trades.
