Every gunfight with a fletcher is like trying to swat at a fly. It’s the same strategy every time: See enemy, panic and bounce around on the walls indefinitely, throw stickies, win. If you’re playing a light merc, one is enough to kill you, instantly. If that doesn’t work, he can just turn the corner, whip out him empire-9 and then mop you up. Where when I’m playing Sparks or Aura, getting one-shotted by a nader feels like it’s my fault for moving in such a predictable way… When faced with a fletcher, I just know I’m done for and there’s nothing I can do. Shooting him is suicide since it slows me down too much, I can only pray to run away. Two will kill most mercs and to tip it all off, they’re on low cooldown, so you can hop in the clouds and toss stickies all day if your heart desires. He’s an objective specialist with the combat effectivness of an assault merc like fragger.
So when's the fletcher nerf
Um, it’s not just jump around and throw bomb. You have to aim the thing. Every time any fletcher tries to jump randomly, throw bombs and try to be sniff (too many people do that), it never ends well. Don’t get so close to him. Every time you get stuck, you should also blame yourself for moving predictably.
If you shoot him with a gun he will die, if he surprises you then run or die. He has to either set up, or trick you. The stickies are horrible for assault.
Empire-9 does not share the power and range of an SMG, and has much more spread. It’s just downright a worse SMG. It does the work, but you can outgun that extremely easly.
Fletcher is much less ranged than Nader, Stickies clearly can’t fly through the map as easly as the Grenade Launcher’s grenades, and require as much skill to pull up for direct hits, and ALSO require you to detonate them, making you loose time. It’s very common for a Fletcher to be downed just before being able to detonate the stickybombs. Shotguns have a crippling range issue too. Blishlok is your only choice for a more potent way to fight at long range but it’s also outgunned very easly. Fletcher have a very clear weakness : range issues. In competition, low range means that you’ll die, as mosts fights are mid to long ranged.
Also, you are using the fastest mercs : you are the most potent at dodging projectiles. If you didn’t managed to dodge the projectile and got blown up, the Fletcher just outplayed you. Let’s add that Aura is the weakest character against explosives due to the stationnary nature of the health station. It’s by design, so it’s clearly normal if you get killed a lot by Fletcher : that’s called counterplay. I’d also argue that if you get blew up by Fletcher while using Sparks, you were very probably doing something wrong, as you are supposed to help from a rather long range.
[quote=“bizarreRectangle;112833”]Um, it’s not just jump around and throw bomb. You have to aim the thing. Every time any fletcher tries to jump randomly, throw bombs and try to be sniff (too many people do that), it never ends well. Don’t get so close to him. Every time you get stuck, you should also blame yourself for moving predictably.
If you shoot him with a gun he will die, if he surprises you then run or die. He has to either set up, or trick you. The stickies are horrible for assault.[/quote] “The stickies are horrible for assault” but they aren’t, 80 damage for one on the ground and 100 for a stick, after hitting just one you can easily just get mopped up by a few mp-9 bullets. Aiming with a sticky is like aiming a nuke, you never have to be right on target, just toss on in their general direction and immediately press E, half their health (if not all) gone in just about 1 second. Trying to shoot him at close range is attempted suicide. Whilst a nader gets punished for missing her explosives and hitting direct nades at close range, fletcher gets rewarded? Here’s the scenario: You’re running and out of nowhere a fletcher whips around the corner, you start shooting on instinct, but guess what, that slows you down. You get stuck ( or not) and then get mopped up with any of his other weapons.
[quote=“WaifuSquad;112887”][quote=“bizarreRectangle;112833”]Um, it’s not just jump around and throw bomb. You have to aim the thing. Every time any fletcher tries to jump randomly, throw bombs and try to be sniff (too many people do that), it never ends well. Don’t get so close to him. Every time you get stuck, you should also blame yourself for moving predictably.
If you shoot him with a gun he will die, if he surprises you then run or die. He has to either set up, or trick you. The stickies are horrible for assault.[/quote] “The stickies are horrible for assault” but they aren’t, 80 damage for one on the ground and 100 for a stick, after hitting just one you can easily just get mopped up by a few mp-9 bullets. Aiming with a sticky is like aiming a nuke, you never have to be right on target, just toss on in their general direction and immediately press E, half their health (if not all) gone in just about 1 second. Trying to shoot him at close range is attempted suicide. Whilst a nader gets punished for missing her explosives and hitting direct nades at close range, fletcher gets rewarded? Here’s the scenario: You’re running and out of nowhere a fletcher whips around the corner, you start shooting on instinct, but guess what, that slows you down. You get stuck ( or not) and then get mopped up with any of his other weapons.
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That’s 80 damage in such a small radius that you can’t expect to hit more than one player with. Also it makes the stickies plainfully avoidable.
Your scenario describe just the classic case where Fletcher is supposed to be good : close range and cornering. Fletcher poping from an corner and blowing you up is what he’s meant to do. It’s like complaining about Vassili one-shotting you from the other side of the map.
Fletcher needs some kind of nerf, that much is clear. easy mode merc, any average skilled player can do well with him, but players that have mastered him are a one man army.
Out of all the mercs in this game, he stands above all when it comes down to not being exactly balanced.
I know a lot of people would be butt-hurt over this, because Fletcher is extremely popular, but I think it is because of all the wrong reasons.
I’ll just quote what i said elsewhere since i get tired of having to explain why is dislike the current state of Fletcher
[quote=“Blackers;112680”]The OP ‘Remote grenade(s)’ that Fletcher has.
Next to no delay to arm, just enough time to throw and then detonate, and he gets 3 of them, Fragger, a grenade specialist, only gets one grenade. proxy, 2 mines that take a few seconds to arm before they are active, and she can only place, not throw. Fletcher is in a league of his own really. and any average skilled player is able to get him to the top of the leader board too.
Fletcher is used in a way that kinda makes the concept of sticky bombs pointless, they are very rarely used in a way I’m sure was intended. it’s not often you see Fletcher players using them as traps. they are 9 times out of 10 used as 'nades.
It just bugs me that the developers altered the burst fire weapons in order to push fire support mercs to be at a distance, intended for ranged combat. Yet no one bats and eye at the guy that uses trap weapons as grenades.
either give them more of a arming time, or reduce the distance they can be thrown drastically.
For me he is by far the most questionable merc, but people are just praising him for some reason. [/quote]
I still don’t get why Fletcher is so popular. At first I thought it was an underdog mentality because of his shotguns but Proxy is way more underplayed then Fletcher from what I see. I own him and I don’t play him at all just because you can’t change keybinds per merc.
Fletcher really only needs a nerf to his sticky’s CD to decrease the spam.
[quote=“Blackers;113116”]Fletcher needs some kind of nerf, that much is clear. easy mode merc, any average skilled player can do well with him, but players that have mastered him are a one man army.
Out of all the mercs in this game, he stands above all when it comes down to not being exactly balanced.
I know a lot of people would be butt-hurt over this, because Fletcher is extremely popular, but I think it is because of all the wrong reasons.
I’ll just quote what i said elsewhere since i get tired of having to explain why is dislike the current state of Fletcher
[quote=“Blackers;112680”]The OP ‘Remote grenade(s)’ that Fletcher has.
Next to no delay to arm, just enough time to throw and then detonate, and he gets 3 of them, Fragger, a grenade specialist, only gets one grenade. proxy, 2 mines that take a few seconds to arm before they are active, and she can only place, not throw. Fletcher is in a league of his own really. and any average skilled player is able to get him to the top of the leader board too.
Fletcher is used in a way that kinda makes the concept of sticky bombs pointless, they are very rarely used in a way I’m sure was intended. it’s not often you see Fletcher players using them as traps. they are 9 times out of 10 used as 'nades.
It just bugs me that the developers altered the burst fire weapons in order to push fire support mercs to be at a distance, intended for ranged combat. Yet no one bats and eye at the guy that uses trap weapons as grenades.
either give them more of a arming time, or reduce the distance they can be thrown drastically.
For me he is by far the most questionable merc, but people are just praising him for some reason. [/quote]
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No regular average skilled player can simply top-score. Above posts have already covered how using stickies isn’t all that easy. Throwing takes a short time sure, but then you have to detonate it. Not to mention aiming, radius is small.
As for why he’s so popular, Fletcher’s just a charismatic character. Sunglasses, sleeveless shirt, sexy accent and one of the best lines in the game. Also has one of the most unique playstyles.
Apparently you think of sticky bombs as trap weapons and that’s where you’re wrong. Where did you get this idea? You think it’s good gameplay for a fletcher to lay traps and wait like an old turtle? Sure traps are a great asset, but fletcher shouldn’t be limited to this. It’s just one of the tricks he has up his none-existent sleeve.
It’s harder to use the stickies as nades, you have to make sure people don’t see it coming. Whether it’s stuffing it in their face as they turn a corner, traps or just going behind people. But if you manage to pull it off, I think you should be rewarded.
If a nerf might really be necessary, I feel the cooldown is a bit ridiculous. Like @derpypenguinz19 said, reduce the cooldown, it’s a tad bit too spammy.
Detonation time is fine. And the range is short enough, it can be manipulated but not by much.
I play Fletcher because he has a boom-boom ability that helps clear the objective area of enemies, because often no one else will do that for me. When I compare him to Bushwhacker with turret and better SMGs I don’t think he needs any nerfs.
True, a lot of times you just need a boom boom so people will die. Because apparently everyone else is too nice for that. Also because in pubs no one makes anyone die, and everyone has the situational awareness of a drunk.
[quote=“Blackers;113116”]Fletcher needs some kind of nerf, that much is clear. easy mode merc, any average skilled player can do well with him, but players that have mastered him are a one man army.
Out of all the mercs in this game, he stands above all when it comes down to not being exactly balanced.
I know a lot of people would be butt-hurt over this, because Fletcher is extremely popular, but I think it is because of all the wrong reasons.
I’ll just quote what i said elsewhere since i get tired of having to explain why is dislike the current state of Fletcher
[quote=“Blackers;112680”]The OP ‘Remote grenade(s)’ that Fletcher has.
Next to no delay to arm, just enough time to throw and then detonate, and he gets 3 of them, Fragger, a grenade specialist, only gets one grenade. proxy, 2 mines that take a few seconds to arm before they are active, and she can only place, not throw. Fletcher is in a league of his own really. and any average skilled player is able to get him to the top of the leader board too.
Fletcher is used in a way that kinda makes the concept of sticky bombs pointless, they are very rarely used in a way I’m sure was intended. it’s not often you see Fletcher players using them as traps. they are 9 times out of 10 used as 'nades.
It just bugs me that the developers altered the burst fire weapons in order to push fire support mercs to be at a distance, intended for ranged combat. Yet no one bats and eye at the guy that uses trap weapons as grenades.
either give them more of a arming time, or reduce the distance they can be thrown drastically.
For me he is by far the most questionable merc, but people are just praising him for some reason. [/quote]
[/quote]
Fletcher’s sticky bombs are not designed to be only a trap. They are designed to be highly versatile, allowing you to use them both offsensively and defensively. This is counterbalanced by the lower damage input stickybomb deals and the way lower explosion radius. The delay is fine too. It has already been increased from 0.33ish to 0.5 seconds in a recent update. You have also to take travel time into account, and the time Fletcher takes to switch from the Sticky Bombs to the detonator. Taking this into account, you really have the time to gun down a Fletcher trying to midlessly bomb you with his stickies out, and if you stand far enough you can dodge the stickybombs easly. As I stated in a earlier post : Fletcher is the most powerful at a rather close range and around corners or where he can exploit the map. If you try to deal with him while he’s holding a corner or at short range, don’t expect this to turn out well.
Fragger’s grenade is an up to 180 damage nuke designed to be able to take down a whole group of players. Proximity mines are also able to dish out an insane amount of damage to take out whole groups though they are much more defensive. Those two abilities are designed for crowd control, but stickies are way less potent for that job. Stickybomb traps will never be as efficient as a good old proximity mine, nor sticky bombs used like grenades are as efficient as the Frag Grenade to clear a path. Why ? Once again because sticky bombs a have much more limited damage input and explosion radius.
You can’t only base yourself on the number of explosive/ability charges one merc can carry for balance, because there’s a lot more factors that you have to take into account : the weapon that merc carries, his/her hp, his/her speed, and probably more.
@bizarreRectangle Do you know how expensive nerfs are? This nerfed Nader launcher costs 40 USD! That’s enough to pay for two other mercs!! Do you know how many motherf—ers a Fletcher has gotta kill to afford that?
Honestly, if they gave Fletcher some cards with a SMG 9 or Hochfir, I think they could drop the cooldown to 10 seconds per sticky and nobody would complain.
And the Ahnuld isn’t too bad honestly…
While I wouldn’t mind that change, it would break the current hp/speed ratio. Not sure of this would happen.