This is likely going to be one of them post that splits the community right down the middle. Already we have people concerned about the amount of spam in the game and others hating that she has martyrdom as an ability. Let me be completely upfront about what you can expect in this post… Yes, I am going to be suggesting she is made stronger and also switch her role from the assault classification to an assault + field ops hybrid. So, let’s not waste any more time and get right on with it…
HEALTH
Currently Nader has 100hp by default, this puts her at the same health as a Vasseli and only 10hp higher than a Proxy. When compared to her utility, speed and optimal combat range, this simply feels odd. I believe she should receive 10hp more bringing her up to 110hp by default and be restricted (if she is not already) from the “Try Hard” augment.
Based on the damage numbers provided to the people over at the wiki, this should increase her survivability by 1 shot on a bunch of weapons. This is important because currently Nader dies in the exact same number of shots as Proxy when using a lot of the most popular weapons at close range.
SPEED
Nothing too drastic here… I feel that Nader should lose a tiny bit more speed while carrying her launcher to slightly negate boosting nades with long jumps and offsetting that extra survivability while using her ability.
NADE HITBOX & DIRECT HIT
The Nades hitbox should be reduced in size to better represent its real size. On the surface this may seem like a Nerf but it would actually make shooting Nades much more reliable without them hitting bits of geometry or team mates. Where this would be a Nerf is shooting in the open or up close, To balance this out I would slightly increase the Direct Hit damage (none explosive) by 10hp bringing its total to 25hp on a direct hit when there is no explosion (Due to range). Keep as is at range.
NUMBER OF NADES + COOLDOWN
So far, we have mainly been talking about small tweaks, now we get onto the good stuff. Nader can now stack a maximum of 4 nades compared to 6 pre Steam beta and 5 at the Steam Beta launch. This combined with relatively low cooldown is resulting in almost always having access to a nade or two but always feeling like you lack the required amount. 4 does not feel like enough of a stack to help clear out entrenched areas due to the low damage and small radius. I feel slightly increasing the cooldown time by around 15%-20% but increasing the max nade stack to 6 would be a smart move. While this would slightly increase “spam” I believe this is a problem caused by 3-4 Naders on a team and not the number of nades available in a stack. Maybe even looking towards having a nade fired pausing the cooldown by X amount of time would also encourage more stacking nades?
MARTYRDOM
Now, I totally understand why this ability can be such a perceived problem and what I am about to suggest is more of a change in the function rather then a buff or nerf. Currently, triggering the explosion is a very quick process that can be cancelled by gibbing the Nader. This is making the ability almost useless in close range and as people are getting better at gibbing, its not all that effective after fighting at medium range either. Currently this is an ability that feels like its effectiveness is either entirely on the Nader in some situations or the enemies mistake in others. This is not the worst thing in the world but it certainly lacks that middle ground. By doubling or even tripling the detonation time but removing the cancel on gib, the ability would have so much more utility and would make suicide strats both more and less effective. More in terms of clearing out defences and bad players but less when it comes to just being able to run into people and spam the activation. I think out of everything suggested so far this is going to be the one that divides the player base the most.
EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE
Most simple suggestion here and is partly related to the Assault - Field Ops thing I mentioned in the intro to this post. I suggest increasing damage done to OBJECTIVES (like the EV) is increased by 50% per nade.
==EDIT: AFTER PLAYING SOME MORE IT SEEMS MY ISSUE IS NOT EXACTLY WITH THE DAMAGE BUT THE ARMING TIME WHEN HITTING THE EV AND HAVING IT BOUNCE BACK OFF. MAYBE KEEPING THE DAMAGE THE SAME OR EVEN SLIGHTLY REDUCING THE DAMAGE BUT REMOVING THE ARM TIME WHEN HITTING THE EV WOULD BE A BETTER SOLUTION==
I NEED AMMO!!!
Again, this is linked to the Assault - Field Ops thing. To be blunt, Nader is not and is not likely to ever be as useful as Fragger due to her weapon (SMG vs LMG) and primary ability. This makes her a very hard pick for competitive and really more of a “let’s have some fun” pick for public (even with ALL the suggestions I have made so far). So should she be a Field Ops? Again, I don’t think her current style fits into that role all that well either when it comes to weapon damage output, health and explosive damage onto objectives. However, I do feel she is perfect for that middle ground here. I feel that she should be given SMALL ammo packs (1 clips per pack, 15xp direct hit + extra clip). This allows her to be a bullet hose while waiting for her nades to recharge and be of some use to the team.
The real reason I think this works out is during competitive/drafting. Currently you would take 2 Assaults, 2 Medics and 1 “Required” Merc. If this is an engineer, there is a good chance you would roll with no ammo and if its a EV map on defence you would want to roll with maybe 2 Field Ops meaning less assault brunt. Nader could bridge that gap between Field Ops and Assault picks by offering slightly more utility to the team overall. This could help the game slightly break away from the current meta and in drafting allow for multiple bases to be covered as a bare minimum with a single Merc. Honestly, its really hard to explain all the situations that I have floating around in my head but it just seems to make sense. Too the point, I am struggling to find a single reason why she should not have this ability currently. Baring in mind Phoenix already has 3 abilities.
Well there you go 