All recon classes have some sort of spotting ability, with the exception of Phantom. Phantom needs to stop being an exception.
Proposal? Add a spotting ability that’s very similar to his current EMP ability (activates with armor, same area, same effective duration).
So what’s the point of having a spotting ability if the enemy is, like, 3 meters away? Well, its a support ability. The idea is that Phantom would be able to sneak behind enemy lines, spot enemies, and slip away without anyone noticing. Actually, they could notice him, because the detection warning would come up, but that could equally be Vassili, Aimee or Redeye. Plus, since Phantom is stealthed, it’s harder to find the source of the detection.
On the other hand, this would give the other team another chance to counter. This could also take some of the flak off of other ways of detection Phantom, such as the obnoxiously loud refractive armor.
The advantage of Phantom’s spotting ability is that he can spot the enemy team en-masse, whilst also being relatively more difficult to uncover. It’s pretty clear where Vassili puts his heartbeat sensor and it’s easy to destroy, however Phantom, how is a) stealthed and b) has significantly more health would be more difficult to destroy, which would justify the short range.
This could also help Phantom players pinpoint the best target for assassination. Instead of running blindly into a room and killing the first person in a group of people, Phantom could pinpoint, say, a player who’s sniping away from their team and assassinate them quietly. This new way of being detected means Phantom’s other countermeasures, like his obnoxious sound or partial visibility, can be reduced, which will make him truly invisible, unless detected. The detection could also help defend against a Phantom before he has the chance to strike.
Another note on Phantom’s armour:
I don’t understand why Phantom has armor whilst he’s invisible. It would make much more sense for the ‘armor’ part of his refractive armor activate for a couple of seconds after he becomes visible. Too often I see Phantoms run in, get one kill, and try to run away but to no avail, making him a sort of suicide assassin. The other choice is to completely slaughter everyone in the room, which can happen, if occasionally. But Phantom is an supposed to be an assassin, not a mass murderer. Having the extra armor activate for like, 5 seconds after the kill can guarantee him to get another assassination kill, another time. If a Phantom was shot whilst stealthed, he would very well deserve it for not being stealthy enough. Deactivating the invisibility after someone seeing him could still give him a chance to get away, with his ‘grace armor’ giving him an extra chance.
I’m not gonna comment on the EMP ability since I don’t know enough about it, but I do think it (this could also apply to the armor ability) should just belong to it’s own separate merc. I think too much is being piled into Phantom, and it’s ruining an opportunity. The beauty of each merc’s ability is that it is simple, and effective.
TL;DR: Phantom needs spotting ability that acts similar to his EMP ability, Armor ability should activate after decloaking, EMP and armour deserve their own mercs.