Funny. It’s possible I’m just a massive baddy, but I’ve found Rhino to be largely non-threatening without an Aura to back him up. I got him, and there’s very little I can get done on my own. The minigun is something you can really only use when holding a position. If I try to run around with it and somebody jumps me, usually I die during spooling, before I can get a shot off. Likewise, when I see other Rhinos do the same, I can just kill them before they can spin up. Most of the time, anyway.
That said, with an Aura, he’s bloody dangerous. But he’s still pretty situational. He really only shines in tight, enclosed spaces. The lack of range on his minigun limits his utility. I have trouble determining whether he’s situational, or if he just needs a slight buff in some areas. Most classes can be used on pretty much any map, but (against good players) I struggle to do well with Rhino on the more open maps, like Trainyard or Chapel. There aren’t many good places to bunker down, you lack range, you’re a big target, and you’re slow; players who have good aim, or are at least smart enough to shoot the heal station first, will get you. But, against bad players he can hold with a heal station without any trouble.
Something that I think would be a nice change; instead of adding awful bloom on the MG, tighten the CoF, but give the MG terrible damage drop off. It would still do terrible damage at range, but it would be consistently terrible, rather than completely random. I would also like to see some changes that give Rhino a bit more independence, but I’m not exactly sure what those would entail. I do have on idea though. I think one of the big problems when operating alone is that people can just whittle you down. They pop off a few shots, then retreat to cover. Being so big and slow, you can’t really catch up to them, and often you lack the speed to retreat to a better firing position. You can scare them off, but they’ll quickly come back to get another shot in. It’s a death by one thousand paper cuts sort of deal. A possible solution is tweaking his regen so that it accelerates by some small amount the longer he’s out of fire (with a 5 second delay or something after being shot before kicking in). In my mind. It isn’t a direct benefit to gun fights, and it doesn’t enhance his survivability with a medic, but only increases his survivability alone. That’s probably the biggest thing he needs, in my mind. Increased independence.
