Hello Dirty Bomb Community. gg2ez here to provide you with a run-down of our one and only stealthy backstabber, Phantom! Take note that this thread starter is subject to constant change that forms around input by the community. Also, there will be quite a few hyperlinks in this thread so whenever you see the word “here” it’s probably a hyperlink.
Here is a quick list of content that will be addressed in order.
- About Phantom
- The Katana
- Community Viewpoint
- Suggested Changes
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About Phantom
Phantom is a merc who differentiates himself from other merc by his ability to turn invisible (not quite). In order to use Phantom it maximum efficiency, users have to rely on flanking and surprise tactics. He has a 410 sprint and 110HP, thus making it quite easy for Phantom to back away from fights, this trait is even more apparent due to Phantom’s refractive armour that absorbs damage at the cost of Cloak duration. With the refractive armour, Phantom can often run head-on into encounters and swiftly finish his enemies with his controversial Katana.
Phantom is marketed as a recon class, however, lack of recon-alike abilities such as spotting, Phantom in his current state, outfitted with tanky damage absorbing armour and a high DPS weapon would be more accurately described an assault class.
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The Katana
The Katana is a high damage melee weapon (currently) exclusive to Phantom. It allows the player to deal 60DMG upon light attack and 90DMG upon heavy attacks, taking out fully healed Auras in one hit and any other merc in two or more. The high weapon damage is justified with it’s slow swing times. The Katana is by far the most discussed non-ability weapon. -
Community Viewpoint
After conducting a poll (here) it is clear that CURRENTLY, the community’s perspective of Phantom consists mostly of “Phantom needs a buff” and “Phantom is balanced” In order to understand why the community is expressing such opinions, we must first examine the history of Phantom himself.
Phantom was initially released as what many people thought to be overpowered, with almost 100% invisibility and an extremely versatile and deadly melee weapon, to fix this the good guys over at SD released multiple updates “trying” to fix Phantom, in the aforementioned updates Phantom was either radically nerfed or over buffed. These nerfs follow along the lines of reducing Cloak duration, reducing Cloak potency, reducing health, modifying Katana stats, changing melee, ect.
Now that we understand why the Dirty Bomb Community has these opinions, let’s move on to potential fixes.
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Suggested Changes
Post your suggestions as a comment. Any comment with 4+ agrees will be put into this section, so onlookers - don’t forget to agree with your favourite fixes!
In the mean time, here are some currently suggested changes.
@Watsyurdeal and @TheOrangePhantome mentioned the implementation of EMP tools or spotting abilities for Phantom.
@SereneFlight has created a thread talking about the possibility of a spotting ability for Phantom.