Sp0rks

(INF3RN0) #21

To be fair I think I was one of the only sparks getting a lot of frags in the cup. She’s really great for a medic though if you can land the shots without a doubt, but it isn’t super easy I suppose.

(Protekt1) #22

It is kind of weird that they chose to make the tool basically an unlimited ammo primary weapon. So yeah the recharge stuff makes a lot of sense.

(Demolama) #23

I just think her battery life is too big. With 383 a Sparks never runs out of battery. She can go from full charge healing to full charge sniping without blinking an eye.

I think the solution is just make the revivr drain faster because most of the other changes suggested, such as removing damage from her revive gun or having damage falloff, would make her super weak as she only has machine pistols and an extremely low health pool. She would have no way to defend herself from long ranged shots, which even shotgun welding mercs can do by sporting a Blishlok. Also, if other medics can kill with defibs she should be able to kill with the revivr.

Besides Sparks with the revivr is probably one of the best new fresh concepts for a medic that I’ve seen in a game, which greatly adds to DB’s uniqueness.

(retief) #24

A headshot damage nerf probably won’t completely kill her at long range. A 97.5 damage full charge headshot + a quick follow up body shot would deal 120ish damage and kill the vast majority of mercs. She won’t be one shotting people before they can react, but she will still win fights against non vassilis/redeyes if she has good aim. Short range should be similar – a 97.5 damage alpha strike should give you a pretty big advantage vs anyone not named Rhino in a 1v1. However, it will give you an advantage instead of being the entire fight. If a more experienced player wants to tell me that sparks really would die before landing the follow up shots at higher levels of play, then fair enough. I could be wrong. However, that isn’t my experience – even a charged body shot generally gives me an advantage.

The thing is that a long range 130 damage headshot is an incredibly powerful ability. Even with its current limitations (charge time and aiming without a scope), it has to eat up a lot of sparks’ power budget. I don’t want to see the rest of sparks’ kit nerfed into the ground in order to balance out 1 shot headshots – nerfing the headshots and possibly buffing the rest of her kit to compensate seems like a better option to me. Also, sparks’ offensive power is only really an issue at the highest level of play – even most open cup sparks weren’t racking up kills. A battery nerf would hit middling to poor sparks players harder than it would hit the best players (good players will be better at managing battery life), and sparks is already hard enough for most people. On the other hand, a headshot nerf would tap her power where she is problematic without hurting the average player too much (trust me, people like me aren’t landing a ton of revivr headshots anyway).

I’d be fine with no nerf or a minor battery nerf. However, a major battery nerf would make her a lot harder for a scrub like me to play.

(Szakalot) #25

sparks was somehow fine before the patch that fixed her battery. reversing it back to that change would already solve this

(Faraleth) #26

Yeah, I have to admit as annoying as the old Quick Charge bug was, where the battery would deplete faster, it actually made it FAIR. With the normal battery life and quicker charge time, it’s completely better than any other loadout and I barely even remember to check my charge anymore, because I know I won’t run out - however before, I at least some-what kept an eye on it! haha. I think the battery should deplete 25% faster to compensate for the 25% quicker charge time.

Also agree about the damage fall-off, because she’s only really “great” at range. If you add major damage fall off, she’ll be “average” at range, and “fairly poor” up close, due to her machine-pistol primaries.

One change I do think needs to happen though is removal of the insta-gib possibility with the new insta-gib changes. Headshot anyone on low HP and they are gibbed - this shouldn’t happen with the REVIVR. She’s good at taking people out at long range, but insta-gibbing low HP opponents is too far.

(watsyurdeal) #27

To be honest they were pretty op too, fully revive a Rhino from across the map? What the hell is balanced about that?

(Demolama) #28

How is that any difference than a pocket sawbonez ready to revive as soon as he goes down?

(poiuasd) #29

Defibs require you to actually touch the downed teammate which in most cases is in a dangerous spot while Sparks can revive without ever even revealing herself to the enemy.

(Demolama) #30

Big long tracer reveals her position, and she needs to come out of hiding to shoot it

(mccrorie) #31

I don’t like that either. I think falloff dmg should apply just like everyone else but scaled for revives.

Alternatively make the battery life more reasonable.

(watsyurdeal) #32

Yea, because that prevented Vasilli from stopping games right?

The vast majority of fights in this game take place at close to medium range, a Sparks is in no trouble at all when doing her thing. She can easily run away and patch herself up quick while finding a new position to revive and get picks from.

(Demolama) #33

[QUOTE=watsyurdeal;541042]Yea, because that prevented Vasilli from stopping games right?

The vast majority of fights in this game take place at close to medium range, a Sparks is in no trouble at all when doing her thing. She can easily run away and patch herself up quick while finding a new position to revive and get picks from.[/QUOTE]

I’m sorry but she only has 80 health and a big gust of wind can knock her down. If you can’t kill her at those close to medium ranges then the problem isn’t her but you.

(watsyurdeal) #34

I’ll clarify

Since most fights take place in close ranges a smart Sparks will keep her distance, SO the argument of the tracers revealing her position is a pretty terrible one since she can easily run away and reposition AND patch herself up.

(JasWil) #35

For me spark is still OP, and macro make her more OP … (I know some people using it) , 100% instant health revive with the revivr is way to much, and finally not really fun to play
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(Rémy Cabresin) #36

Problem isn’t so much one or the other, the problem with Sparks is that shes insanely good at both reviving and combat. Short version is that she’s just the best in two areas. Imagine Fragger being the best combat merc PLUS having another ability that heals him very well.
Reviving is best because unlike any other merc she is both faster(as you’re already holding the revivr as its the primary instead of having to switch to defibs) and can stay away from harm(as its ranged revives). Add on top of that that she can spam the revivr quite easily aswell and you have a revive train monster.
Then comes the fact that she’s pretty much the best long range combat merc in the game.

My thoughts on balancing her:
Fix her “ease of access” to revives. Either make the minimum charge way higher for a successful revive(I’d say 50% of a full charge at least). That way she will still have the ability to stay out of harms way but needs more time for it. Only apply this minimum charge to reviving, this way her combat ability isn’t effected as she can still spam enemies. To remove her status as the best long range combat merc I would say simply remove the headshot multiplier on the revivr or atleast make it have a lot more fall off damage.

Anything you do, atleast stop nerfing all the medics just because Sparks is broken splashdamage… First you change the entire gibbing vs revive balance just because of her and now you nerf Get Up across the board “because of revive training” eventho Sparks is the only medic that’s still overly capable of causing revive trains.