Should Aura or Sparks have their health changed?

(watsyurdeal) #1

Simple enough question imo, should one of them get a health buff?

If Aura get’s a health buff, and maybe a change to her possible loadouts, she could maybe be given needed flexibility, and maybe her healing station could changed or reworked.

For example, instead of just constantly healing, it releases a pulse every 0.5 seconds that immediately starts health regen, and causes it regen at a faster rate of 33%. Not saying they should go with that, just a thought.

Or Sparks, what if she lost her health packs in exchange for a health buff, and her Revivr also being able to heal allies instead of just revive them? No longer will people have to use friendly fire to kill their allies so they can revive them at full health.

Just something to think about.

(Someordinaryguy) #2

IMHO Aura is way too tanky atm when sitting on her healing station, especially for a starter/newbie merc. Maybe increasing her HP to 90 but nerfing her healing station “hit points” (so it can be easier to destroy, f.ex. with a point blank shotgun blast or Beckhill heavy attack) and adding 0.5s “pulse cooldown” to it’s constant heal after being shot (so if you keep getting shot you won’t heal) ? Just throwing ideas. That way she would still be strong, especially on her station but not as tanky and constant, accurate fire would make short work out of anyone just camping the station and not moving/firing back.

Sparks medpacks are already used primarly by her, especially when escaping but with proper tracking even that won’t save her, especially if you go for headshots. And even if she does pick them up, headshots will outdamage the healing of her medpacks. Taking that away would make her even squishier even with HP buff.

For Revivr healing: we already have Phoenix for clutch burst healing in the middle of a firefight.

IMHO what Sparks needs is her revive and damage nerf reverted BUT make it so that Revivr cannot headshot and increase “charge needed to fire” threshold to something like 25% of the Revivr bar. And make it overheat faster/be able to fire less shots. That way Sparks will have a powerful tool but overusing it will leave her useless. Plus Sparks players will have to think, whether they want to focus on reviving or damage support.

Just throwing ideas out here, don’t kill me and have some cookies

(watsyurdeal) #3

Honestly, after playing Sparks for some time, the headshotting aspect of her isn’t that bad imo.

To me, my problem is when I corner her and try to kill her, and she just runs off and heals up.

While not every player is invincible or anything, I’ve melt some slick Spark’s players who can jump around and seemingly dodge everything to get those packs.

I feel like given her role, as half Sniper half Medic, she needs to be less tanky, it makes sense since she pretty much can walk all over the main weaknesses of Defibs, you’re vulnerable while using them, and you have to be close to the ally. The fact you can ignore both of these problems, AND Snipe, will still make her a hella strong merc to use. I just think we need to figure out ways to make her a little less tanky, therefore increasing the skill floor to play her, and bring back her Revivr to how it was damage wise.

A Vasilli will still snipe better, he can kill Fragger and with the right buff, kill Thunder as well. Heck even Aimee will, and I think that at this point, having two Sniper Rifles is kinda pointless, unless they completely rework them.

As for Aura, most of your ideas I agree with, it’s just a matter of testing them in game.

(JJMAJR) #4

I think that Sparks would be better off with +10 HP and a “healing spray” of some sort. Left click to heal others, right click to self heal. Reload charges a shotgun blast of healing chemicals.

That way she could become an extremely useful support class for both healing and reviving, but at the cost of combat potential. Like Mercy from Overwatch or something.

(Someordinaryguy) #5

using an idea for my merc Para What if her medpacks healed at a constant 10hp/s (how much hp/s it would give could be of course adjusted after testing) tick but once you take damage, it stops healing (like 'Bonez medbag). That way even if she drops them while running away, when out of cover she’s pretty much dead. But if she manages to get clear, will heal fast. Also better heal for teammates.

@Watsyurdeal Well it’s kinda her thing to run away, unlike Vaseline who has more HP+better weapons (or rather a better, easier to use combo). Aimee has her debuff and RedEye…well he’s Redeye xD

(watsyurdeal) #6

[quote=“Someordinaryguy;198551”]
@Watsyurdeal Well it’s kinda her thing to run away, unlike Vaseline who has more HP+better weapons (or rather a better, easier to use combo). Aimee has her debuff and RedEye…well he’s Redeye xD[/quote]

But the point is, that because she’s a Medic, and because her design is for to keep at mid to long range, if she is caught she shouldn’t be able to get off so easily. In my opinion that’s what makes her broken, she’s too hard to kill for what she can do.

(SweetGenocide) #7

facepalm Once again the revivir could heal idea, if she would only have the Revivir to heal and revive, then it would get affected, i’ll just go with @JJMAJR 's suggestion just give her a healing spray, Sparks isn’t really designed for combat, even tough a lot of people including me use her for combat, also i agree, she’s a pain to kill but you know what else is a pain to kill? Bunnyhoppers, Proxys and so on. Even tough giving her +10 HP would be cool, it would also affect the movement speed, from 470 to 450-440, You know what? Screw this i’ll just go back playing my 282 Service Agent Cobalt Loadout and just stab people with the butter knife.

(aminuseternal) #8

I find it really interesting that all discussions on sparks turn into the same ideas, and I find it even more interesting that people still think she needs to be nerfed. She is far from being tanky, just getting any explosive in her general area will kill her, and having unshakeable doesn’t do much when you heave 80 health. Not to mention that the remburg and pdp instagib her on a headshot. If she gets hit by a direct conc grenade she can’t dodge and her only way to survive is to spam healthpacks and hope the thunder is a bad enough shot, and hell the blishlok can outshoot the rev gun at long range. Most of these people who can wreck with the rev gun and can dodge out of gunfire to get med packs have played sparks a lot.

While yes, people can take a lot of hits if they can dodge and throw down medpacks, but those medpacks are on a long cooldown and are much better for using on teammates especially when you have someone reparing an odj or defusing c4. Remember this game is supposed to be focused on 5v5 gameplay. Having four insta heal med packs can make a lot of difference in that space, but I feel like that goes into a whole other topic completely.

Sparks was designed from the start to be a long distance medic who can also snipe with enough skill. The problem is however, that SD really doesn’t seem to know what they want to do with her. With all of the nerfs they gave her, you have to be a short-medium range merc, and it does not work well unless you save medpacks and are really good at getting headshots on pistols/mps.

[quote=“Someordinaryguy;198529”]IMHO what Sparks needs is her revive and damage nerf reverted BUT make it so that Revivr cannot headshot and increase “charge needed to fire” threshold to something like 25% of the Revivr bar. And make it overheat faster/be able to fire less shots. That way Sparks will have a powerful tool but overusing it will leave her useless. Plus Sparks players will have to think, whether they want to focus on reviving or damage support.

Just throwing ideas out here, don’t kill me and have some cookies[/quote]

I have to disagree with the headshot part, mainly just because it is a game that focuses on getting headshots. The problem with making her charge longer is that, would affect her usefulness as a rezzer. If they made the charge longer, but the get up time the same as the defibs then I could understand it, but if she has a longer charge time, plus the longer get up time, then she is not going to be able to rez anyone because they will get finished off too quickly.

And well shouldn’t all medics have to think if they want to focus on reviving or damage or support? :wink:

Sorry for this being long sparks balance is complicated to say the least.

As for auraI actually like the idea of having it pulse, and maybe giving the station’s hp a nerf, making her playstyle based on speed and support rather than just tanking with the blishlok. While fragger, nader, and stoker, can counter a health station, it is still pretty powerful. I mean Aura is banned from most tournaments from my understanding.

(Herr_Hanz) #9

just some notes:

sporks is a pain in the ass to kill as a vassili, thats the main reason i was happy for her damage dropoff, her peek speed was freaking annoying, and since she didnt have to ADS and could 1shot vassili’s she was a better counter to vassili than redeye. (as long as the sporks has good aim)

and the pdp doesnt instagib on headshot. instagib with snipers is 50 hp or lower, for explosives its 80 hp or lower.

(SweetGenocide) #10

And trust me, landing shots with the Revivr is much more of a pain rather then trying to get a headshot, and trust me, i saw a lot of players run away when they get shot by the Revivr, and im happy that they do that, and removing the damage and headshot from the revivr can destroy Sparks permamently and her meta, i mean sure, she’ll still be unique at Reviving but still, i barelly see a Sparks in any game, she feels like one of the most unplayed mercs in DB, same with Bushwaker, most of the time i feel like im the only Sparks in a match. But seriously now, removing the damage from the Revivr will basicly destroy part of her, and she will only consider using the MP’s. And then in some weeks/months she will probably be in the same category of unplayed mercs with Bushwaker. So technically removing the damage from the Revivr can kill her.

[quote=“Herr_Hanz;198775”]just some notes:

sporks is a pain in the ass to kill as a vassili, thats the main reason i was happy for her damage dropoff, her peek speed was freaking annoying, and since she didnt have to ADS and could 1shot vassili’s she was a better counter to vassili than redeye. (as long as the sporks has good aim)

and the pdp doesnt instagib on headshot. instagib with snipers is 50 hp or lower, for explosives its 80 hp or lower.[/quote]

If Sparks is a pain to kill, then what about a Aura? She litteraly has the same speed as her, also even if you bodyshot a Sparks, she will litteraly be at 10-5 HP (depends on what sniper you’re using) forcing her to retreat, Next time if you see her again she will have wasted 2 medpacks to get some health, or even 3. If she wasted 2 then that means she will probably have 65-70 HP, and even if she wasted all her medpacks then that’s a huge disadvantage for her, so she can’t heal herself and probably die because of it.

(Herr_Hanz) #11

[quote=“SweetGenocide;198785”]And trust me, landing shots with the Revivr is much more of a pain rather then trying to get a headshot, and trust me, i saw a lot of players run away when they get shot by the Revivr, and im happy that they do that, and removing the damage and headshot from the revivr can destroy Sparks permamently and her meta, i mean sure, she’ll still be unique at Reviving but still, i barelly see a Sparks in any game, she feels like one of the most unplayed mercs in DB, same with Bushwaker, most of the time i feel like im the only Sparks in a match. But seriously now, removing the damage from the Revivr will basicly destroy part of her, and she will only consider using the MP’s. And then in some weeks/months she will probably be in the same category of unplayed mercs with Bushwaker. So technically removing the damage from the Revivr can kill her.

[quote=“Herr_Hanz;198775”]just some notes:

sporks is a pain in the ass to kill as a vassili, thats the main reason i was happy for her damage dropoff, her peek speed was freaking annoying, and since she didnt have to ADS and could 1shot vassili’s she was a better counter to vassili than redeye. (as long as the sporks has good aim)

and the pdp doesnt instagib on headshot. instagib with snipers is 50 hp or lower, for explosives its 80 hp or lower.[/quote]

If Sparks is a pain to kill, then what about a Aura? She litteraly has the same speed as her, also even if you bodyshot a Sparks, she will litteraly be at 10-5 HP (depends on what sniper you’re using) forcing her to retreat, Next time if you see her again she will have wasted 2 medpacks to get some health, or even 3. If she wasted 2 then that means she will probably have 65-70 HP, and even if she wasted all her medpacks then that’s a huge disadvantage for her, so she can’t heal herself and probably die because of it.[/quote]

thats because aura is close range, before the nerf sporks could rek vassilis in long range.

the situations i am talking from are when i am standing as vassili just up the escalators of the defenders spawn of underground, and the sporks is on the balcony to the left. all the sporks does is peek, shoot, and repeat. i keep aiming at that spot but she is too fast most of the time for me to get a good shot at her before she is back behind cover.

when a spork is thats when she is easy to kill, headshot, or bodyshot +pistolshot. its way easier to kill her when she is in the open than when were in a peeking battle.

(aminuseternal) #12

@Herr_Hanz Sparks can be outshot by an aura with the blishlock at long range :confused: But for me, I have had way more success just outflanking a vassili and using pistols/mps/melee to kill them. It has been the only way that I have been able to really beat a vassili without taking a lot of damage and burning through medpacks.

I feel like everyone needs to go back and watch the merc role call for sparks. She is supposed to be a long distance merc. “The revivir can be used to take down enemies at long range.”
The mps are there to fend off people who get close, or to finish people after hitting them with the revivir.

and you should be able to win a peeking battle anyways as vassili, you can track them with your heartbeat sensor and know when they are going to come out, not to mention that you can just move and change positions. I mean if a sniper doesn’t move I can take them out with a dreiss or br no problem.

They really just need to remove the damage fall off, or at least alter it so you can actually get a decent revive from a distance.

(LMuerteMan) #13

Sparks is ok imo she can heal her self is really good support which is the most important thing about a medic. It’s annoying to think she should rival snipers or worst case be better ( before nerf ). Right now she is really good choice for a medic just yesterday my team won 4 straight stopwatch because we had a level 90 ( unfined I think was the name ) who didn’t die because he was almost always far away healing and running per game he made 5 to 10 kills. But it was because of him that we won so easily.

Now aura on the other hand has always been a mystery to me. I think she is very unique compared to medics in other games the concept of the healing station is really cool I just don’t get why does sawbones Health packs work slower when he uses them on himself ( which I think is great because he is a support class not a super killing class ) but aura’s ability heal her as fast as her team mates I think you can buff her health but make it so that she doesn’t heal as fast. Hell if that happened you coul make her life 100 or 110.

(hoyes) #14

Sparks is fine. Due to the difficulty of actually hitting revivr shots, she is fine for the amount of damage she does and reviving potential. She can stay alive a long time, but only in the hands of a skilled player. Aura I just hate. She becomes so difficult to kill with your guns when she is on the healing station, tankier than fragger, but the slimmest and fastest merc in the game. Imo, aura should not experience the same effect as her team mates (like sawbonez) from the health station. Half the healing power. Countless times I have engaged an Aura for her to just place the health station down, start bunny hopping and becomes a tank which can only be killed by explosives or the burst rifles (due to their sheer damage). Plus the fact that new players get her straight away and exploit the fact that she is a tank the health station rather than healing team mates. Sickens me.

(bontsa) #15

Engaging an Aura that has set up a station requires you to make decisions. Destroy the immobile station first allowing Aura to land shots on you or trust your aim enough to dink her head to oblivion and get rid of station afterwards? Can you wait till a teammate joins you in the engagement? Can you utilize your ability somehow to turn the situation under your control?

Forcing people to go through these kinds of thoughts is exactly the reason it’s magnificent Aura is starter medic. Lower skilled Auras get an edge (only if set up) against same level opponents, but are left dumbfounded by getting destroyed by more experienced players who know how to deal with station-huggers. So one is given the option to learn from either scenario: “Why is this Aura so hard to deal with on station, how to get around it?” and “How did he win the conflict there me even though I was at my station?”

Which also leads to why I wouldn’t want to see Aura’s hp nor hp station being touched. She is super squishy without station, but has just enough buff on the station to stay harder to deal with but still quite possible to headshot her down into smithereens.

Sparks too, not a fan of this kind of changes. Necromancer can already buff her hp to ridicule proportions with her packs. Also killing and then reviving your teammate in Friendly Fire environment instead of wasting packs creates tactical decision making which I definitely don’t want to see gone. Referring to suggestion of getting rid of packs and making REVIVR both healing/reviving equipment in the OP. Definite no to that from my part.