[quote=“rancid;122356”][quote=“MarsRover;122291”]@rancid Not the best example - BR-16 is the least popular weapon on Fragger. Primary is the most important thing in choosing a loadout for most mercs (except for high level pugs etc where Fragger’s M4+Unshakeable was considered better that K-121 before explosives gib nerf).
I’d like you to describe to me what playstyle makes Sparks 181 or 273 good. One has some jumpy stuff that Sparks doesn’t really need with her base speed, the other one has augments good for an assault, not for a back-line sniper/medic. Both have no healing augments. If you compare Sparks to Phoenix - he has 1 or 2 healing augments on every card, but never 0 or 3. Every time I play him I can choose one at random and happily use it. Sawbonez is also bad - 2 best loadouts, the rest ranges from weak to total crap - why even put Tough on a freaking medic?[/quote]
That’s exactly my point though. I’m saying I like the BR-16 best and everyone else hates it / will argue all day that it’s terrible compared to the M4 in competitive play. All I was getting at is each to their own, and that I don’t think there is just one best loadout as so many people imply, hence my BR-16 example.
Also as I said, there are a few exceptions. I’m not very familiar with Sparks (don’t use her much) but in all honesty I do find springy even more effective on mercs who are faster. I find it easier to keep fluid movement with the faster mercs while jumping around than I do with the slower mercs. I’ve seen quite a few people use sparks and abuse it in tight corridors where they bounce around like absolutely crazy.
I think Sparks is a bit different though. Her healing gun is technically a pretty dominant weapon if used correctly, which can also be used long range (sure it isn’t common, but it does and can happen) so it’s no surprise she doesn’t have the same powerful healing augments as Phoenix. 90% of the people I see using Sparks use her healing gun as their main weapon, so I think that’s why you can be more flexible with her loadouts.
But any way, re: the two cards you suggested. To me 273 is a no brainer. My favourite merc in the game is Proxy and my favourite loadout for her is the KE53 which like the 273 for Sparks, has both quick draw and drilled. In combat each of those by themselves are awesome, but together even better. Being able to reload your weapons quickly mid battle - I can’t even tell you how many times this has saved my life while I’m boucing around or ducking in and out behind cover, not to mention being able to switch out the pistol double speed aswell. So the 273 is actually really appealing to me. Those two augments are literally the only reason I picked the KE53 for Proxy. The fact that it also has the Hochfir was a bonus.
re: the 181. I come from a Quake Live background which has basically made me a very aim heavy player and I base my game around very fast movement (if you’re not familar with Quake Live the movement is about as fast as you’ll ever get from an FPS game), so this is why I am a fan of springy. Pair that up with quick draw and I think you have a decent up close combo.
To be honest, for me if anything, I would say her worst loadout is the 172 and 343.
I know the MP-400 and the Tolen are bad compared to the Empire-9 but given the fact that I would be using them as secondary weapons with Sparks, I wouldn’t be as concerned as I would be picking a main for another merc.
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I would like to put polls on forum with 9 loadout options on each merc… (it would be considered spam so I won’t do it)
Anyways, I would like to see people’s opinion on which is the best loadout for a given merc (loadout you use or you are trying to get)
You would see the fact that 90%+ of Sparks players use 383… (I don’t know it but I am most certain it’s like that 
On the other hand, if I gave same poll for Fletcher, you would see very different opinions.
What I am trying to say… Don’t make single best loadout for Fletcher that will everyone use, but rather make more options (not so OP) for Sparks/Skyhammer/Phantom/Fragger… (of course we can see mercs are almost balanced as it is now, so to compensate nerfing “main must have” loadouts, it would be good to buff mercs a little)
Fragger may also have different opinions but I think majority of players is playing M4 just because of augments…
Same thing goes for Phantom and katana…
Hope you understood what I was trying to say, cause wasn’t quite concentrated while writing and there might be some mistakes :grimace: