@ARandomLugia said:
SD openend pandora’s box with phantom and boi did this post blow up harder than I expected.
After a few more hours fighting aaginst and as him, I am even more convinced that Phantom needs a nerf, well nerf. A slight tweak more to say. But extremely annoying non the less, so I decided to bring along Redeye with the grandeur to murder myself some phantoms until that tweak rolls around and #makephantomgreatagain inevitably comes back…
I suggest when he decloaks he makes an audible sound to let you know that death is very close and has a real delay between decloak and attack. Saying he has a delay is saying thunder needs a nerf, both of them are stupid.
Currently, I see a million phantoms running around constantly top scoring with 40+ kills.
But I already hear the comments along the lines of git gud, look around, bunch together. Let me just roundhouse kick those out of the park:
- 800+ hours, I am pretty good and I know my way around all of the maps with their routes.
- On the off chance a phantom cloaks infront of me or I manage to get a glimps of his cloak, it is pretty easy to lose him with erratic movement and being in a fight with someone else already.
- Bunching together? Okay so lets just pretend half the roster doesnt exist with their abilities for a moment. You really think that most phantoms you run into have a sense of self preservation? They will chase your ass down no matter where you go or with how many you are.
Can’t wait for the responses
He does need tweaks but, to be fair, he will never be completely balanced in a way that pleases everyone in public matches. Now to be honest with everyone, it’s not so much bunching together as watching each others backs that helps deal with him. Granted, this will only be as effective as the accuracy of those you play with; and their ability to track a moving target. If your team is very conscious of the situation occurring around them, and swaps targets to help, the Phantom will potentially die before he can finish the player off (he may down them but you might be able to kill him quickly enough to revive them). You can be spread out enough to not all get wiped by one explosive and still watch each others backs, it isn’t that complicated it just requires a little more awareness and communication; it is fair to say that, for public matches at least, expecting that level of communication and awareness from everyone is unrealistic and unreasonable.
So perhaps the arguments made by those whom you refer to was not worded appropriately, that may indeed be the case, but the underlying principle is technically correct. This game has always attempted to balance itself based on a competitive scene and mindset; and this often leads to a situation where certain Merc concepts just happen to succumb to this pitfall where they will always be viable in one area, while potentially imbalanced for another (casual or comp, it will be stronger in one and weaker in the other). The trick is “sticking to their guns” and the overall vision for the game; something Splash Damage has lately been all too keen to avoid doing, which I can admittedly understand their reasons for; even if I don’t agree with the choice they’ve made.
For a point of reference look at TF2’s invisibility-using class, the Spy; he has the potential to be very powerful in the proper hands within a comp setting, but is simultaneously the most complained about class in the game by casual players. Dealing with any such ability has less to do with finding a balance and more between deciding which is more important to you; having a competitively viable class with that gimmick, or a casual class balanced for that setting that is significantly less viable in the competitive scene. This is a simple matter of “pick your poison” and it’s for the best that we stop beating around the bush on the matter; not to mention this entire discussion borders on beating a dead horse already. Splash Damage has already made their choice, which will be implemented sometime next week, and no amount of whining is gonna change that.
