Add in more powerful melee mechanics behind him. I’m sure he wasn’t designed as the dedicated melee character but it obviously fits with him the best so he should have some unique traits that fit that role.
Give him increased melee speed and damage over the other characters in the game. You can get this through cards but he should have these stats by default anyway which can then stack with the card buffs.
Give him unique lunging animations for his melee. Catching someone with almost equal movement speed with your melee attacks are hard enough but considering that there are a handful of meta/popular characters with higher movement speed it becomes very VERY difficult to land even a single hit, which won’t even kill them.
Nothing fancy. Just a simple lunging effect added to his melee to give him extra range.
Finally he should have some sort of critical damage tied to his melee.
Example: Right click backstab equals an insta kill on all characters or atleast heavily increased damage.
Hits to the head also deal massive critical damage. ect.
For as much fun as it would be to 1-hit a rhino, this would be absolutely terrible. As it stands, right click gibs <=90 hp mercs (Aura, Sparks, Proxy, Kira, Aimee), add in chopper and it does Phoenix (100 hp), too. His attack speed is fine as it is; fast attack does 60 damage, 2 of those will kill most of the mercs in the game, so all you need to do is stand still for a while, uncloak, walk up behind them and slice 'em up before they have the chance to retaliate.
But while I’m here, I would like to add that his “buff” (when they added the emp and downgraded the shield) was also an awful idea. Most of the time the emp just gives phantoms away because you can see when something’s disabled easy enough. As for the shield…eh, it was probably a bit too op before, I don’t really remember how much HP it had but maybe it was a bit too much. However, now it only takes, IDK, 3 bodyshots from your average rifle to deplete it? And the recharge time…holy shit, that was fucked up. It should start at a much lower number than it does (I thought 8 seconds, although wiki says 10…) given how weak his shield is now.
I wish they could just roll back that buff and put the disable effect on some other merc (no, not Thunder, he’s broken enough as it is…)
…actually, just had an idea: what if Phantom had to walk up to an object and press “e” to disable it or something? That way you could effectively walk up to an HP station without being given away, but by getting close enough you could disable it when you want. It would be less annoying from both perspectives: The Phantom doesn’t get detected if he doesn’t want, and the owner of the object doesn’t have to worry about it getting disabled for an eternity if a phantom so much as comes within 10 meters from it.
I think I’m liking this idea more and more. Might just make a thread about it O-o
“Hey guys lets make the game about gunplay have a merc who can just walk up to you and one shot you with a knife, sounds good? All the other Triple-A titles are doing it!”
The thing is you literally just stated what’s wrong with your post.
[quote=“meekPentacle;33585”]Add in more powerful melee mechanics behind him. I’m sure he wasn’t designed as the dedicated melee character but it obviously fits with him the best so he should have some unique traits that fit that role.
[/quote]
How does it obviously fit him better when you just said wasn’t designed as a melee character???
The problem is how he was designed, it’s how he’s perceived.
Imo, I want Phantom’s cloak to behave like the cloak in BF2142, as in it’s basically like an item of it’s own. You equip it, use it, then have to switch weapons to attack, so you can’t attack and be cloaked at the same time. The buff for this would be perfect cloak, meaning you can’t be seen by anyone but Red Eye, but even that’s fine since you have the armor to protect you.
[quote=“Watsyurdeal;213925”]The thing is you literally just stated what’s wrong with your post.
[quote=“meekPentacle;33585”]Add in more powerful melee mechanics behind him. I’m sure he wasn’t designed as the dedicated melee character but it obviously fits with him the best so he should have some unique traits that fit that role.
[/quote]
How does it obviously fit him better when you just said wasn’t designed as a melee character???
The problem is how he was designed, it’s how he’s perceived.
Imo, I want Phantom’s cloak to behave like the cloak in BF2142, as in it’s basically like an item of it’s own. You equip it, use it, then have to switch weapons to attack, so you can’t attack and be cloaked at the same time. The buff for this would be perfect cloak, meaning you can’t be seen by anyone but Red Eye, but even that’s fine since you have the armor to protect you.
That would make him a master flanker imo
That and make his emp field and emp nade already.
[/quote]
[quote=“MidnightButterSweats;214656”]EMP nade, yes.
Undepleting cloak with no shield, yes.
Inability to cloak and attack, yes.
Here’s the thing about Phantom.
He was so obviously meant to be a melee character on release, and it was quickly realized it doesn’t work as conceived. But here’s THE THING:
He COULD EASILY be a melee character if;
Combo-able melee attacks that were strong from front
Instant kill from behind at the cost of slower melee attack speed
Cloak that had to be activated and deactivated
Ability to disable electronics with an item instead of an aura
…wait a @$!# minute I’m just describing the Spy from TF2[/quote]
Because everyone likes getting instakilled by getting stabbed in the back by someone they couldn’t see coming…
If he was intended as a melee character, 1) it was a bad idea 2) …just use your guns. Unless you have the drop on them, just stick to guns, please. This is a game about guns, anyway.
Combo-able melee just doesn’t make sense for this kinda game; this is not Dark Souls or Super Smash or whatever the fuck not, it’s an FPS that isn’t TF2 (which I’m glad about).
The only point I think I agree with here is number 3; being able to stand still while someone is running toward you and suddenly unleashing 5 headshots/1-hitting them with a katana is unfair.
Also confused on what you were saying on point 4?
On another note, the more I think about it, I’m becoming more and more fond of Watsyurdeal 's idea:
^this because I think cloak should be a defensive thing rather than an offensive one. It’d be a great way to get into strategic position/escape from a fight easy, and we wouldn’t have to have nightmares about randomly getting weeaboo-stick-gibbed outta nowhere anymore. +1 this.
To further the idea, since DB has a quick button for everything, I think you should be able to use that to activate it, but you’d also have to use the quick button to turn it back off. That, or you could switch to the item and use it. To make it fair, maybe the decloaking sound would be louder/more noticeable to bring attention to them so they can’t just get away with uncloaking behind someone and insta-ing them.
[quote=“r2dav2;214661”]
If he was intended as a melee character, 1) it was a bad idea 2) …just use your guns. Unless you have the drop on them, just stick to guns, please. This is a game about guns, anyway.
Combo-able melee just doesn’t make sense for this kinda game; this is not Dark Souls or Super Smash or whatever the @$!# not, it’s an FPS that isn’t TF2 (which I’m glad about[/quote]
Since item 5 wasn’t obvious to you, my entire list is a joke. For the giggles. The sillies. Supposed to be funny, a compilation of common suggestions I hear for Phantom, get it?
But an item to disable instead of an aura means you would, say, Q or E to toss/drop something that EMPs to disable, instead of it just being a disable aura around you.
[quote=“r2dav2;214701”]Oh…nvm, thought it was sarcasm or something, 'cause some of it made sense, but at the same time it looked legit…I don’t humor I guess :S
At any rate, 3 & 4 I’d have to agree with, actually…[/quote]
In all fairness, a melee only mode with combo-able melee would be absolutely dope.
But yeah, the TF2 Spy is a really good way to make a gun-optional class. It just feels like changing the Phantom by way of item 3 and 4 would be too much like copycatting the Spy.
Spy isn’t really gun optional, at higher levels you are required to use your revolver (Ambassador for those 102 headshots is lovely) due to the fact that the average pug+ player will shut down a Spy very fast otherwise.
Design wise though Spy is the ideal melee focused class, but saying his gun is optional is a bit odd.
[quote=“LifeupOmega;215145”]Spy isn’t really gun optional, at higher levels you are required to use your revolver (Ambassador for those 102 headshots is lovely) due to the fact that the average pug+ player will shut down a Spy very fast otherwise.
Design wise though Spy is the ideal melee focused class, but saying his gun is optional is a bit odd. ;)[/quote]
I don’t ever take high level play into consideration as it focuses on specific circumstances that can never be found in general casual game play, and it represents < 2% of players anyway. Yeah you’re right that you need to use a gun as spy, but be real, the gun isn’t the majority of kills.
This is kind of a stark contrast to phantom. Trash phantoms get majority of their (negligible amount) kills with the sword. Phantom is still geared to use guns in this game, but players don’t seem to want that. Problem is, the changes that need to be made to him to make him very effectively a main-melee gun-optional character just turns him into the same thing Spy in TF2 is, which is not what devs are looking for.
[quote=“MidnightButterSweats;215180”][quote=“LifeupOmega;215145”]Spy isn’t really gun optional, at higher levels you are required to use your revolver (Ambassador for those 102 headshots is lovely) due to the fact that the average pug+ player will shut down a Spy very fast otherwise.
Design wise though Spy is the ideal melee focused class, but saying his gun is optional is a bit odd. ;)[/quote]
Phantom is still geared to use guns in this game, but players don’t seem to want that. [/quote]
Phantom is still geared to use guns in this game,but NEW players don’t seem to want that.
phantom is very good at sneeki breeki in the pubs but like the guy said from earlier, becomes a bush without the sentry in comp.
[quote=“MidnightButterSweats;215180”][quote=“LifeupOmega;215145”]Spy isn’t really gun optional, at higher levels you are required to use your revolver (Ambassador for those 102 headshots is lovely) due to the fact that the average pug+ player will shut down a Spy very fast otherwise.
Design wise though Spy is the ideal melee focused class, but saying his gun is optional is a bit odd. ;)[/quote]
I don’t ever take high level play into consideration as it focuses on specific circumstances that can never be found in general casual game play, and it represents < 2% of players anyway.[/quote]
I keep forgetting that since the F2P update TF2 players have all become walk-into-walls pootis shitters who can get chainstabbed endlessly. Basic sense and skill was commonplace when community servers reigned.
Clue to Phantom is using both gun and sword, and even then he’s bad. That stealth is rubbish, his rightclick melee is slow af, just pick a different merc, you’ll be way more useful. His guns and his katana is not exclusive to him.
