Phantom fix/buff?

[BobTheBully]

I think if they removed the stealth sound or made it much quieter it would help a lot. As it is now its more stealthy to be uncloaked most of the time since you can hear him coming from miles away on good headphones.

[Naonna]

Honestly, modifying Phantom’s armor to act as a continuous overshield rather than disappearing would make phantom at least a little more powerful after his first bullet leaves his gun. - Reduce the cooldown and let it act as temporary health for the next 2 or 3 seconds of a firefight, and he’d win most 1v1’s only if he got the first shot in. - (although some people already complained about his extra temporary HP early on in his release, so feel free to disregard this option.)

In its current state, his armor is unable to be used as a means of escape due to his low speed and loud noise: even with the HP buffer it grants. The current long cool down means that unless it is toggled off regularly, moving any fair distance (walking or otherwise) leaves Phantom without an ability by the time he does engage. - It’s bad for a hit-and-run play style unless you confirm every kill and never engage in a group fight. (The noise would still be problematic if you gave the cloak a temporary speed boost while under its effects.)

His current high visibility is funny to play against. A small number of head shots burns cleanly through his cloak and results in a quick win. (2 shotgun shots will do it also)

While crouch-walking, he’s fine in terms of invisibility - He just won’t make any headway towards his goal due to the lack of speed.

While sprinting, Phantom is just awful at flanking despite his refractive armor. - Proxy does the job better, and with mines and as an engie: without extra aoe noise outside of her mines.

In my opinion, the community as a whole has to decide if Phantom is going to be an assassin or a tank-y / fragging class. SD appears to have put him somewhere in between as of now. He’s outclassed in flanking by the faster mercs. He doesn’t have the killing potential of the assault mercs.

Combining all of this with the lack of team-play mechanics, (no spotting ability or engineer perks) It’s no wonder that phantom is seen as both an outcast and the game’s worst merc.

At his release, he seemed overpowered to some. This was the only time he had a strength in killing. Even then, he paled in potential to an equally-skilled Fragger or Nader.

I don’t understand the complaints about him upon release: A sniper can head shot a player from across the map and relative safety. Phantom being required to get far closer to achieve the same results within melee range is somehow unfair?

After being given decent weapons, Phantom’s armor had to be weakened to compensate: resulting in a merc which fails to excel in any real area of combat.

Unless I am alone on a map with no teammates nearby, why should I worry about anyone playing phantom?

[extraordinaryEmperor]

@Naonna No, at release Phantom was absurdly op, but that was the problem of his katana and how it worked back then. Phantom himself without the katana was average at best. Katana’s right click would drag, meaning you could kill 2 people with 1 swing, not to mention if you missed the initial swing, you could just drag it over and you’d damage/kill your enemy just the same.

All they needed to do was remove the drag from the katana and NOTHING ELSE. What they did was nerf melee turns, phantom’s move speed, phantom’s hp, phatom’s life saving shield, the katana’s range. In other words, they may as well just have removed him.

[Amerika]

[quote=“thoroughPistachio;135903”][quote=“Amerika;135742”]Go try to get consistent 50+ kill sides with Sparks and post them. There is a difference between being OP due to revive mechanics and also annoying players with ranged sniping and being a powerhouse killer. Sparks needs some changes but it’s not because she drops tons of people easily.

And a few of your assumptions are pretty biased and doesn’t reflect what has been posted by SD themselves nor actual play by good players who aren’t trying to force him into being melee-centric. You are going off of what you want as opposed to what actually is.

In that promo video Phantom could more easily be seen than he can in game currently. He also only showcased a pistol and no SMG. It’s not a reflection of the game but simply creative license. His role-call video did not say he was a melee merc. In fact they only gave his Katana a short scene to show it and SD immediately told everyone that day that the Katana would be released for other mercs.[/quote]

I use his guns and I’ve been complimented many times as “best Phantom I’ve seen” or “actually useful”. I’m not forcing his melee (others on the forums are however).

Your defense is based around the fact he even has a gun. Anyone is “viable” because they can kill/have a gun, in that sense. It’s about what utility and role you can fit, to make that more possible and assist your team. Phantom lacks here grossly, and his ability is poorly retrofitted. The actual stealth mechanic is useless against a good player, and the armor goes away the moment you try to kill someone. Let’s make a Bushwhacker where his turret doesn’t fire, or blows up, if he shoots. And strip away objective specialist. The same feels. I get you have your own opinions, but even if your life schedule allows you to upload a ton of videos and post a ton of posts, you’re still massively in the minority on the Phantom uselessness community feels. I’ve even been kicked from game before getting 1 kill or death just for picking Phantom, too.

My Sparks run was Execution and I had 12.5k points and was called a hacker twice. This is par for the course, however.[/quote]

I am not sure what you’re trying to say. You say you don’t want him to be melee yet all you talk about is his wanting to buff his melee. But when you start saying his “stealth” (it’s refractive armor btw) doesn’t work and is comparable to a bushwhacker turret blowing up/not firing and completely ignoring how his mechanics do work when used correctly throws all credit out the window. That is exactly why I mention how people are using his ability wrong and how they should be using it right for how Phantom is right now.

Also, I know he needs a secondary team skill. I’ve been one of the main people advocating for it. I just don’t want him buffed where people go back to trying to do the melee only thing hence my argument about people using his refractive armor ability incorrectly.

He needs changed. But he doesn’t need to be a TF2 spy and get an instant kill on anybody in the game because people want to be fully invisible. That’s no fun for anybody, it’s cheap, it’s skill less and it makes people quit.

[extraordinaryEmperor]

[quote=“Amerika;136540”]

I am not sure what you’re trying to say. You say you don’t want him to be melee yet all you talk about is his wanting to buff his melee. But when you start saying his “stealth” (it’s refractive armor btw) doesn’t work and is comparable to a bushwhacker turret blowing up/not firing and completely ignoring how his mechanics do work when used correctly throws all credit out the window. That is exactly why I mention how people are using his ability wrong and how they should be using it right for how Phantom is right now.

Also, I know he needs a secondary team skill. I’ve been one of the main people advocating for it. I just don’t want him buffed where people go back to trying to do the melee only thing hence my argument about people using his refractive armor ability incorrectly.

He needs changed. But he doesn’t need to be a TF2 spy and get an instant kill on anybody in the game because people want to be fully invisible. That’s no fun for anybody, it’s cheap, it’s skill less and it makes people quit.[/quote]

Yes, because Spy was notorious for being skill-less in TF2. Spy was very well balanced on the fact that his knife did half of a normal melee at the front while swinging at normal speed. He had fairly low health with a moderate move speed, and his cloak was balanced on the fact that he was partially revealed by bumping into him or taking damage. Not to mention that it had no ‘armour’ of any sort.

SD just needs to learn how to balance things rather than nerf and think about stuff later.

[Solid_Stache_NaC]

[quote=“Amerika”]
He needs changed. But he doesn’t need to be a TF2 spy and get an instant kill on anybody in the game because people want to be fully invisible. That’s no fun for anybody, it’s cheap, it’s skill less and it makes people quit.[/quote]

A little late for that, as many people quit when bey blade phantom was released.

Phantom was flat out op at release due to having rhino level HP (with armor) with the kek-10 being more powerful back then. There was no reaction time to a phantom with 120hp with kek-10 flanking you at any time. It’s manageable now, since the kek has higher recoil and shorter range (from what I remember from the nerfs). Needless to say, phantom in his current state is quite laughable, unless you play in a pub where the player is actually decent. Even then, most of the time it’s just better to play a character that can actually kill players more quickly.