Phantom rework.

(Gire) #1

As a guy who has played ALOT with Phantom i see that he performs really well against new players ( no shit sherlock) because the new players dont know the game yet and the mercs yet.
But against higher skilled players, Phantom seems quite shit. Enemies can hear you, see you ( sometimes even when you are standing or crouching still ) and the EMP also gives Phantoms away.

My suggestions are :
Make the EMP and Cloak separate abilities, but also that you can activate both of them at the same time but consume more energy.
Cloak consumes less energy and be completetly invisible while standing or crouching still.
Increase his energy pool so it can handle the EMP consuming.
Decrease cloak sounds while only using cloak mode but maybe increase it just a hinch if you are using both.

Probably not neseccary but increase Phantoms hp by 10 to maintain his combat survivability because he is quite short ranged merc with a melee potential

(GatoCommodore) #2

@Gire said:

Probably not neseccary but increase Phantoms hp by 10 to maintain his combat survivability because he is quite short ranged merc with a melee potential

phantom refractive armor can absorb up to 30 damage

(arharr3) #3

The real issue with phantom in my opinion is that hes designed as a mixture of recon and assault.
Hes supposed to go frontline and pick off lone enemys.
The issue that db is a team based shooter and there is rarely an enemy whos not with a group. So you usually end up 1vs2-3 when you execute your ambush which then leads to you killing maybe one or two of them before you die.
So phantom needs either a kit which allows him to deal better with groups or an option to withdraw from such situations. Phantom is already slower then the usual 110 hp merc , so escaping is not an option most of the time.
So I suggest that SD decides what they want phantom to be. Assault or recon?
If its assault, then: buff hp to 120 , reduce his speed further. Cloak is buffed up to absorbing 70 hp but does no longer make him invisible and loses its emp effect.
Gets an emp device which can be thrown and disables deployables within a 1,5m radius. Cooldown is 12s.

If recon:
Current stats are being kept. Emp is removed from cloak and full cooldown is no longer forced when disabling it.
Phantom gets a new ability, the silencer grenade. All weapons within a radius of 12,5m are silenced and visual feedback when being hit is decreased (aka bloody screen).
If he falls under 30hp , phantom drops a smoke grenade and immediately cloaks regardless of cooldown. This allows him to retreat in critical situations but still allows a good player to get the kill. Cooldown for next use of cloak after leaving cloak is 150% of the max cooldown.

(LifeupOmega) #4

Why’re you completely redesigning him lol. The EMP is fine as is, ideally I’d have an option to cloak with and without it. A grenade is a dream a lot of people have but I quite like dragging the EMP with me and stopping everything for my team.

(Gire) #5

@LifeupOmega said:
Why’re you completely redesigning him lol. The EMP is fine as is, ideally I’d have an option to cloak with and without it. A grenade is a dream a lot of people have but I quite like dragging the EMP with me and stopping everything for my team.

You just said why am i redisigning him while saying the same thing.

And i am not completetly redisigning him whilst you are suggesting EMP grenade.

(Gire) #6

@arharr3 said:
The real issue with phantom in my opinion is that hes designed as a mixture of recon and assault.
Hes supposed to go frontline and pick off lone enemys.
The issue that db is a team based shooter and there is rarely an enemy whos not with a group. So you usually end up 1vs2-3 when you execute your ambush which then leads to you killing maybe one or two of them before you die.
So phantom needs either a kit which allows him to deal better with groups or an option to withdraw from such situations. Phantom is already slower then the usual 110 hp merc , so escaping is not an option most of the time.
So I suggest that SD decides what they want phantom to be. Assault or recon?
If its assault, then: buff hp to 120 , reduce his speed further. Cloak is buffed up to absorbing 70 hp but does no longer make him invisible and loses its emp effect.
Gets an emp device which can be thrown and disables deployables within a 1,5m radius. Cooldown is 12s.

If recon:
Current stats are being kept. Emp is removed from cloak and full cooldown is no longer forced when disabling it.
Phantom gets a new ability, the silencer grenade. All weapons within a radius of 12,5m are silenced and visual feedback when being hit is decreased (aka bloody screen).
If he falls under 30hp , phantom drops a smoke grenade and immediately cloaks regardless of cooldown. This allows him to retreat in critical situations but still allows a good player to get the kill. Cooldown for next use of cloak after leaving cloak is 150% of the max cooldown.

It would be something to have “hit and run” ability you said to escape death like when your health goes down less than lets say 50 you are able to activate instant cloak and run away

(arharr3) #7

@Gire I actually started at 45hp with the concept of a savior cloak , but the issue is that you can still easily win a fight with so many hp. So when fighting phantom you only have to deal 60 damage before you are basically forcing him to retreat. The hp bar which triggers this needs to be at a point where you wont die before cloak is activated , but also means that you are about to lose your fight.

@LifeupOmega the redesign is because, like I mentioned, his kit doesnt work with what hes supposed to do/how db currently plays. You will almost run in groups or have someone close to your position. Phantom is currently supposed to ambush lone enemys , but he doesnt shine at that because most of the time someone is close enough to turn the whole ambush against you. So in my opinion he needs either an option to separate them (thats where the silencer grenade comes into use) or an option to deal with groups more efficiently.

(GatoCommodore) #8

phantom cloak can soak from 30dmg to 70dmg alone…

(TheStrangerous) #9

I feel SD always had other plans of reworking him, rather than what we’ve been suggesting all this time…

Curious how he turns out.

(arharr3) #10

@TheStrangerous said:
I feel SD always had other plans of reworking him, rather than what we’ve been suggesting all this time…

Curious how he turns out.

Im not even sure if they are already working on it. Hard to tell since the dev videos usually focus on whats going to come out with the next update, but rarely give a short info on whats planned further down the road.