Phantom is too versatile


(ghostBase) #1

Instead of creating another crybaby-esque thread I’ll actually try to explain his ridiculous strength in a way that the “he’s not op you’re just bad” people can also understand.

The way Phantom is designed, he is not “too strong”, but instead “too versatile”.
There’s not a single thing about him that makes him so strong, it’s rather a combination of things that wouldn’t be overpowered by themselves, but add up to a huge pile of clusterfuck when put into the same pot.

His Ability:

His Refractive Armor allows him to become invisible. He’s not even fully invisible but rather transparent and he also emits a ringing noise.
His Refractive Armor also serves as Armor. Trying to defend yourself from him when you caught him charging you with his Katana out (aka: when he failed at assassinating) is nearly impossible when you’re not currently carrying a Remburg Shotgun.

His Weaponry:

Phantom can use the Crotzni and the Kek-10, two of the strongest SMGs in the game, alongside the S&W, the strongest sidearm in the game, his melee weapon, the Katana, is currently the strongest melee weapon in the game, and he has access to the ‘Chopper’ Augment. I think I don’t even need to explain why this is bad.

His Refractive Armor is strong, but in the wrong way. Allowing him to tank damage is not what he’s supposed to do, and playing him stealthily is doomed to fail as he’s easy to detect once you get a keen ear for the ringing noise he constantly emits when cloaked. The way his armor is currently handled makes him a Rhino with added invisibility.
On top of that, adding his weaponry which is simply too strong (and there’s no way in hell you can deny that with a logical argument), Phantoms current design makes him a fighter.

Phantom is the exact opposite as what he was advertised as. He’s not an assassin, he’s a fighter BUT he’s also invisible, and that’s what makes him too strong, or rather, too versatile.

How to fix this

Phantom’s signature weapon is the katana, so it should be his strongest weapon.
His Primary and Secondary Weapons should be the same ones as the weapons that Sparks currently carries: Tolen, Empire 9, MP400 as primaries, Caulden, M9 and Selbstadt as secondaries. EVERY loadout-card of phantom should have the katana. It’s his weapon, he should have access to it regardless of what card he’s using.

The Katana should have more rightclick-damage and considerably less attack speed / more attack cooldown. This limits his attacks so a Phantom player has to know the capabilities of himself and of the katana, and when to strike with it. This makes the katana more difficult to use, more powerful IF used correctly, and therefore also a lot more rewarding.

As his only one, the refractive armor is Phantom’s signature skill, but it doesn’t fit the stealthish character a single bit.
It should not have damage absorption at all. If you get caught when trying to backstab someone, there should not be a failsafe.
Transparancy should be changed to 100% when standing still, 95% when crouchwalking, 90% when walking and 80% when sprinting. His emitted ringing should not be hearable from a certain direction. Treat it like it’s not coming from the armor, but instead like it’s creating white noise in your character’s radio. When he’s standing still you should not know where he is, but you should know that he is there. This also creates a side-effect; Phantom will be able to disrupt a defence by causing the defenders to become nervous and/or paranoid and search for him.

I hope I have explained my point well enough, and I hope that whoever reads this can work with it.

Please let me know what you think of it, and leave a vote in the Strawpoll to simplify data analysis :slight_smile:

Chris


(debonairRogue) #2

like the ideas but i’d add a few tweaks
lower his health down to 70-80
instead of what you advised, i’d prefer him to be 100% transparent when still, 98% transparent when crouchwalking, 95% transparent when walking, and 91% transpoerent when sprinting.
he should also have to uncloak before performing any sort of attack, but he can still perform objective based tasks while cloaked (ex. arming C4 ). the downside to this being that he’s only 85% cloaked while performing one and the cloak timer runs out quicker. BUT the katana still ohks in right click attacks, but it is more sluggish as you said and the hitbox is reduced ( I’ve seen people miss completely but still get the kill )
other than that great ideas. While I prefer my tweaks to your idea I would not be opposed to only your ideas being added in game


(stealthyBass) #3

[quote=“ghostBase;14301”]Instead of creating another crybaby-esque thread I’ll actually try to explain his ridiculous strength in a way that the “he’s not op you’re just bad” retards can also understand.

[/quote]

Worst way to open any sort of talk about anything.


(Gi.Am) #4

I’m giving you a insightfull to balance out all those dislikes. Overall those are well thought out ideas and reasoning.

Personaly I disagree on the armor part. The point of the armor was to guard teammates giving him a more teambased role (or atleast to play him that way) and while the armor needs change to make that role clearer, since it is hardly used in that role (tho standing invisible infront of a planting/defusing/repairing proxy works great) I would hate to see that role completely gone.

The weapon part is kinda spot on unfortunaly. I’m running a non katana loadout on Phantom (combatknife) just to test it out. The thing that became clear in trying this is that Phantoms katana is what makes and breaks the guy.
With the combatknife I’m not bothering to go for a melee kill anymore. Phantom is to slow to stay close enough to land a second hit (especially now that everyone is instantly jumping out of range) and the shorter range also means that you will not even land a first hit when they spot you before you facehug them.

Personaly I think there needs a decision to be made either have phantom be katana centric in that case your ideas would more or less apply (not sure about the swing speed if they fix the multikills it will be fine imo). Alternative they could nerf the katana to be more in line with the other melee weapons in that case he is balanced otherwise the simple fact that he can’t jump into a group and melee them down in an instant, balances out both the Cloak/Shield and the stronger Weapons.


(Eox) #5

Actually the Blishlok is one of the worst SMGs in the game : it has nothing to give you more than another SMG besides high damage per bullet, but is still the worst DPS in the game among primary weapons. However the Crotzni and the KEK-10 are just the two most used SMGs, and KEK-10 is considered as the best SMG in the game.

Besides that, I think your ideas are fine. He’s maybe slightly overnerfed so you may think about quality of life changes to give him. Add also a replacement to the armor mechanic : Phantom players are hardly teamplayers, and it would be nice if this changed.


(ghostBase) #6

[quote=“stealthyBass;46442”][quote=“ghostBase;14301”]Instead of creating another crybaby-esque thread I’ll actually try to explain his ridiculous strength in a way that the “he’s not op you’re just bad” retards can also understand.
[/quote]Worst way to open any sort of talk about anything.[/quote]

I know. I like provocative openings. And honestly, there’s no other word to describe someone who thinks that Phantom is actually balanced in his current state.


(Alphafox) #7

[quote=“ghostBase;46559”][quote=“stealthyBass;46442”][quote=“ghostBase;14301”]Instead of creating another crybaby-esque thread I’ll actually try to explain his ridiculous strength in a way that the “he’s not op you’re just bad” retards can also understand.
[/quote]Worst way to open any sort of talk about anything.[/quote]

I know. I like provocative openings. And honestly, there’s no other word to describe someone who thinks that Phantom is actually balanced in his current state.
[/quote]

Right now, alot of people feel he isn’t balanced, and they have the right to believe that. I for a part can see and understand why he has the armor part in his ability. I keep repeating this in all Phantom related thread, but in a few updated his stealth will be useless because of the abundance of recons available in the game.

We will have RedEye, Vassili and Aimee and all 3 of them have a way to make his cloak 100% useless in battle. As someone who played him before the opening of the game I clearly see why he has the armor, because without it he’s just a guy running around whit a gun. In his current state he his perfectly fine for me, but he might need some tweaks to help the newbies.

There is plenty of way to describe people that don’t agree with your opinion, you just chose that way.


(ghostBase) #8

Honestly I can hardly imagine that these people are capable of breathing on their own.
I don’t know if you have played Phantom, but in his current state he’s so overpowered it’s not even “ridiculously broken”.

I feel disgusted from myself because I bought this merc with real money.
Luckily he’s going to receive some adjustments today.


(saffronBastion) #9

stop spamming the stream