Suggested REVIVR Changes

(Samniss_Arandeen) #1

I’ve been playing Sparks recently, both as her and against her. Yes, an experienced Sparks can wreck entire teams, but a nooby Sparks is food for Fragger. My general opinion is that, while great as a supportive class (sniping and ranged revives are awesome), Sparks simply isn’t viable for keeping a team alive. I’ve also come across numerous forum posts remarking about various imbalances, and while my opinion of Sparks isn’t the “2OP NERF NAO” commonly espoused, I did have some misgivings during my time with our favorite Swiss surgeon.

With that said, I ended up coming with a couple of ideas for possible Revivr changes. Both are intended to carve out a wider niche for Sparks and increase her utility, while adding counterplay especially up close.

1.) “Reverse Damage Falloff”: Make the shots grow in effectiveness vs. enemies the farther they travel.
If Sparks is supposed to do well at range, this should help decrease her effectiveness up close. Particularly, getting headshot instagibbed the instant you pop around a corner is rather frustrating when trying to chase down and deal with a Sparks. Nerfing the Revivr’s close-range damage potential gives some counterplay to Sparks, who may find herself needing to run away or switch to a gun if it’s too close for the Revivr to do reasonable damage.
On the flip side, at medium to long range, landing the Revivr’s projectiles should be a fun and rewarding achievement. Increased damage as a compensation for aiming a non-hitscan sniper rifle correctly, especially from across the map, sounds reasonable to me.

2.) Ranged healing.
I’m taking a cue from Team Fortress 2, specifically, the Crusader’s Crossbow. The Medic could shoot friendlies with it, from great distance, and heal his teammates. To give Sparks an even more unique niche in Dirty Bomb (medpacks, seriously? Sawbonez does it a hell of a lot better, and in a frontline combat oriented build no less), let us shoot friendlies with the Revivr to heal them. I’m thinking this function would work like Phoenix’s healing pulse - but at range instead of in a wave. Minimum charge would only serve to instantly kick in and slightly boost natural health regeneration, great for topping up teammates on the move. As Sparks charges up the gun, the healing gained from the shot would increase dramatically, akin to Phoenix charging his pulse. Sparks gets further rewarded in my version of the Revivr for good aim - landing a headshot on a friendly will allow them to heal while taking damage, perfect for tanking.
I’m still on the fence as to whether this should completely replace the Small Medpacks, or if Sparks should have both options at her disposal. For one, the Small Medpacks are her self-heal. While they do a poor job of keeping a team alive and healthy (especially amid a firefight, but of course this is where Sparks should be at a disadvantage anyways), they can still be a lifesaver, especially to herself and other squishies. On the other hand, two options for healing sounds anathema to me. Sparks being able to instantly throw a pack and heal remotely might be a tad overpowered. And should Sparks even have a self-heal? An inability to heal oneself, on an 80HP Merc, would be quite punishing if Sparks got too close and took damage.

(Ritobasu) #2

People have suggested ranged heals on the Reviver, and I’m completely against it. It’s already a nightmare dealing with a reaaaallllyyy good Sparks who rezzes the moment her teammates go down, but giving her one of Phoenix’s most unique traits at range would be absolutely infuriating. Part of the reason people play Medics too is for the self-sustain, and I don’t believe any medic merc should be without it. Yes, a skilled Sparks that just flees the moment she takes a scratch and goes back to taking potshots with Reviver is annoying as shit and one of the worst things to deal with in pubs. At this point though, I don’t think she needs any nerf right now and other options need to be explored.

Redeye is just starting to be explored as a competitive pick in ranked; being 1-2 shotted by someone hiding in smoke while also posing a serious threat to the rest of your team is no joke. Returning headshot gibs to Vassili would also remove her ability to contribute to the team too.

(Melinder) #3

Have to disagree here. Their medpacks work in two completely different ways. A lot of the time, the instant shot of around 30 health is far better than Sawbonez’s slower “over time” regeneration of health that can be cancelled from taking a single point of damage.

(ImSploosh) #4

The Rev gun shouldn’t be able to hipfire accurately and have so much range. It shouldn’t have such a fast charge up time and be able to 1 shot mercs and 2 shot them like a semi-auto sniper. It’s the best sniper rifle in the game and doesn’t take that long to get used to it.

I don’t understand why Vassili can’t hipfire like Sparks then. Either buff Vassili a bit or nerf Sparks a little.

Just my opinion though. I would take a quick merc with less health as a Sniper any day, but I don’t really use Sparks because I hate the look of the rev gun and prefer having a real sniper rifle. :expressionless:

(CCP115) #5

Actually… actually… take away her medpacks and give her the Crusaders crossbow, and then she won’t be able to do that annoying “run around a corner and instantly heal up” shit that Sparks players always do!

Guys, I think we have this fixed.

(watsyurdeal) #6

I agree the med packs should be taken away, and have the Revivr heal. But I also think the damage scaling should be fixed as well, so you aren’t nerfing her medic abilities too much, but her damage dealing is nerfed by quite a bit.

(ImSploosh) #7

Agreed. Her damage dealing should be nerfed quite a bit, especially at long range. As of right now, she’s the best sniper in the game, can run away from any enemy, can heal herself, and revive her teammates. That’s just too much. She moves so fast and doesn’t need to zoom in to be accurate, it’s difficult to win in a 1v1 against her as a vassili. That’s just not right in a medium-long range fight.

If she’s not nerfed, let’s at least buff Vassili quite a bit. Maybe give him a short cloak and more movement speed… Haha.

(sentimentalDime) #8

‘‘Sparks can’t keep a team alive’’

If you revive at a fast enough pace, which is pretty easy as Sparks, your team is easily gonna hold off wave after wave of enemies.
At least in my experience.

(vdll) #9

Are you for real? If you are losing to Sparks as a sniper you shouldn’t snipe at all.

(ImSploosh) #10

Are you for real? If you are losing to Sparks as a sniper you shouldn’t snipe at all.[/quote]

I never said I lose to Sparks, but often times I find myself struggling to kill her in a 1v1 from mid-range. Long range can be kinda iffy because she can spam her hipfire and get a bit lucky sometimes.

She has the best sniper rifle in the game and there’s no arguing that lol. Sure, she’s lacking a scope so super long ranges are a bit more difficult for her, but other than that, she’s a better sniper than vassili in almost every way. She has the advantage most of the time.

(vdll) #11

Define ‘best sniper’ and ‘best sniper rifle’. To me, ‘best’ means the most efficient and reliable. I had tons of multikills with MOA/PDP, hardly any with REVIVR.
Compared to Vassili, Sparks lacks the range and sensor, this you can’t deny.
Also, I strongly disagree with your ‘no arguing’ regarding SR superiority.

P.S. how many hours do you have as Sparks, if I may ask?

(Naonna) #12

Just reduce her head shot damage multiplier. I’m fine with the body shots taking chunks of damage off, but it’s frustrating getting head shot from her hipfire. At close range, she does more than a shotgun, and at any decent range, her hipfire will kill - even if it’s not spammed, it only takes 1 shot. It’s similar to the lack of counterplay related to Fletcher’s stickies. I’d rather it take her 2 body shots to kill my medic than 1 head shot.

(Corppet) #13

Aiming with the REVIVR is easier than sniper rifles but still quite hard, and those who can hit heads around the corner with it are those who has god aim. Of course, it still is annoying to go down from one shot from the REVIVR so the “Reverse Damage-Falloff” is nice, since you can finish people off with your machine pistol anyways. As for ranged healing, I highly disagree. Sparks specializes in reviving people quickly and at range, so having a ranged healing would make Sparks unbalanced and a must-have mercenary for winning.

(vdll) #14

Unless you compare hipfiring REVIVR to hipfiring SR I can’t see how it’s easier. And nobody is using hipfire with SR unless it’s a close quarters emergency.

(Apofenas) #15

Hello.

Well i’d like to add a concept for REVIVR. Simply make 3 modes for it:
1)Revives team mates
2)Heals team mates
3)Damages enemies
Each mode has its own color on REVIVR display.

Put REVIVR on main weapon spot with Attack mode as default and remove pistol. Now If you want to switch firing mode you need to charge REVIVR battery from 0% to 100%.

Once you charged you can make a single strong shot or multiple weak shots and, if you hit 0% charge, wait untill battery recharges to 100% again. If you charge single shot, it won’t fire automaticly or cancel it, but battery won’t be recharging untill you shoot. If battery has some charge left it will be constantly recharging after 1 second of not using REVIVR. Recharge can be enabled with reload button, but can’t be aborted in this case.

If you want to heal yourself, you need to charge battery with heal mode, charge shot and hold it. Holding charged shot will regen you health like Aura heal station. It’s not insta heal med pack and you can’t run while doing that like Phoenix.

Damaging mode would be something between sniper and burst rifle. By that i mean if you make one single shot, you do a lot of damage like sniper rifle. If you fire multiple weak shots you do less damage total than single shot and your accuracy gets worse with each shot like burst rifle.

With this, REVIVR can do all options: heal, revive and damage, but NOT all at once.

(WaffleMonster) #16

Unless you compare hipfiring REVIVR to hipfiring SR I can’t see how it’s easier. And nobody is using hipfire with SR unless it’s a close quarters emergency.

[/quote]

With the sniper rifle you have to zoom in to shoot accurately, you don’t have to do this with the revivr which allows you to keep your mobility and be far more responsive.

Whilst sparks long range firepower is really powerful, whats broken about her is the sheer number of revives she can put out in a short amount of time with zero risk.

(watsyurdeal) #17

Guys, do not remove hipfire from the Revivr, or have you forgotten this is a HIPFIRE focused shooter?

Imo, just remove her med packs and allow the Revivr to heal, bam, no longer can she run off and heal herself, and it forces more careful use of her Revivr’s resources.

(vdll) #18

details, please

(watsyurdeal) #19

So imagine the Revivr, instead of dealing damage, it heals allies.

How much you charge it up depends on how much health is restored.

(Rawr) #20

[quote=“Watsyurdeal;137647”]So imagine the Revivr, instead of dealing damage, it heals allies.

How much you charge it up depends on how much health is restored.[/quote]

How would that work in Competitive though? Since friendly fire is active, her REVIVR will damage teammates. I’ve actually seen people purposely kill their teammates with the REVIVR and then bring them back up to full health. That is an interesting idea that you have though. It could work if done correctly.