The word "balance"...is it just me?

(HauniHaunted) #1

So, when a friend of mine introduced me to this game, I thought I would give it a try. Now, I have spend like 47 hours in game and I kind of feel like…well I like the idea of different roles, different abilitys that make every merc unique…but it also feels like there is absolutely no balace between those 23 guys. Maybe I am wrong about some things, so here is what I absolutely do not like:

  • Auras Health Station. I can just compare it to Sawbonez and Phoenix, but this comes to my mind: Sawbonez health pacs stop healing when getting damage, the station does not, not even for a short time. Phoenix has an AoE-Heal and the cooldown seems to depend on the amount he healed, he can not even shoot when charging it right?, the station just heals and heals and heals until it is destroyed with no cap or cooldown at all. That one game I got tons of support xp with Aura just by putting it in a spot where it was hard to hit and a few teammates just camped there. Free XP for doing barely nothing.

  • Rhino and his minigun. Am I mistaking or does this thing have like the highest DPS there is? On an high HP merc? As a fourth weapon? Why? It is one thing that I do not remember ever wining a 1v1 against him, simply because he just rekt me in 1 second while eating hits like it was apple pie and not some deadly projectiles, but seeing him just burst down 3 guys as if it was nothing…

  • Phantom…I am just thankful that there are some idiots who are too bad to play this broken thing. I mean, beside the fact that invisibility should be a no go in an FPS, he should at least become visible again when getting damage or stuff like that. And since it has already been admitted that he is broken, why is he running around for weeks now without being disabled or fixed?

So, I am not getting into Hunter yet, he does not feel that right either but I have not played him that much yet. But those were some of the things that make me wonder why I should continue playing this. Feel free to correct me where I am mistaking.

(Muddy Muddy Mud Nade) #2
  1. Destroy the health station.
  2. Fight him at range. Like long range.
  3. Yeah Phantom’s broken, I’ll give you that.
(Rokon2) #3

  • In the case of Aura’s healing station, it heals about as fast as Sawbones, but with the caveat that you cannot move out of that area. She’s meant to help occupy an area, and so she isn’t ideal for a team that pushes fast. It’s great to hold the fort and lock down areas.

  • Well, that’s the point of Rhino. Someone is going to end up taking this role if he was removed. He’s a slow moving, large hitbox target that you do NOT want to fight alone. I always fight a Rhino with a teammate, or at long range. I’ll either kill him or force him back. He’s great for barrier busting, but when it comes to 2v1’s, you can eat Rhino every time. It depends on the situation. Ideally you want Rhino on a choke to prevent enemies from going in, but you wanna maintain his sustain with an extra guy or some healing so he can continue what he does.

  • I will continue to remain on the opinion that stealth and invisibility can work in a game like this, but Phantom currently is broken, I absolutely agree. I don’t want to see his invisibility changed though. However, I’d like to see some boosts to audio so that we know that he’s around, just not where exactly. This would allow me to be more alert when he’s around, but not so much that I can find him each time, effectively making him just as useless as before.

([ *O.C.B.* ] Wildcard) #4

@Rokon2 said:

  • In the case of Aura’s healing station, it heals about as fast as Sawbones, but with the caveat that you cannot move out of that area. She’s meant to help occupy an area, and so she isn’t ideal for a team that pushes fast. It’s great to hold the fort and lock down areas.

  • Well, that’s the point of Rhino. Someone is going to end up taking this role if he was removed. He’s a slow moving, large hitbox target that you do NOT want to fight alone. I always fight a Rhino with a teammate, or at long range. I’ll either kill him or force him back. He’s great for barrier busting, but when it comes to 2v1’s, you can eat Rhino every time. It depends on the situation. Ideally you want Rhino on a choke to prevent enemies from going in, but you wanna maintain his sustain with an extra guy or some healing so he can continue what he does.

  • I will continue to remain on the opinion that stealth and invisibility can work in a game like this, but Phantom currently is broken, I absolutely agree. I don’t want to see his invisibility changed though. However, I’d like to see some boosts to audio so that we know that he’s around, just not where exactly. This would allow me to be more alert when he’s around, but not so much that I can find him each time, effectively making him just as useless as before.

Aura Response:
With regards to Aura’s station it used to heal more per second than it does now (potent packs just brings it up to its old values again now), but it has had its Health Pool nerfed; you should always target the station first if more than one person can be shooting at you from it. As I’ve mentioned in the past you can out-dps the healing rate of her station by getting consistent headshots; there are some guns that can do it without this but generally its safest to go for headshots to outrun this.

Rhino Response:
With Rhino you do want to fight him at a range or as a group, unless you can catch him unaware. Even if you do catch him unaware it is recommended that you do it from a position, at medium range, where you can quickly duck into cover while exposing a minimal amount of your hitbox to gunfire; you will need to ADS (aim down sights) and go for his head with this method to maintain the consistency of the shots so if you aren’t confident in your accuracy do not try it. This will require good tracking, especially if he notices in time and starts to bolt for cover, but if you have to take him one-on-one this is your only option at medium range. Unless you can catch him completely unaware with a point-blank shotgun blast I would avoid taking him at close range under any circumstance; you will need at least 2 clean headshots from the shotguns to take him out in time, assuming he has full health, even if you manage this; so generally speaking this is not advisable to attempt unless you can consistently manage it.

Phantom Response:
Phantom is currently in a state that needs adjustment right now; I have to say, considering this is a point that has already been discussed to death, let’s not beat a dead horse and wait til the patch comes to discuss it further because right now there isn’t really anything more to be said about him.

(HauniHaunted) #5

Well then:

Aura: Sure I have to target the station first. Which makes me a free target for her or whoever is standing in the area of that station. If she is smart, I can not even fire at it from the point where I am cause she put it behind a corner. Yep, it is great to lock down areas but the question is: Should it be? I mean where is the equivalent that Sawbonez has? What is he great at besides healing guys that are already back in cover or after the fight is over cause his health packs are completly useless in combat?

Rhino: You make it sound like you can choose where to fight him from or that he is always on his own, which is absolutely not the case.

Phantom: It annoyed me so hard that I started playing him myself a little more. It is just ridiculous…still do not understand while this is still not deactivated.

([ *O.C.B.* ] Wildcard) #6

@HauniHaunted said:
Well then:

Aura: Sure I have to target the station first. Which makes me a free target for her or whoever is standing in the area of that station. If she is smart, I can not even fire at it from the point where I am cause she put it behind a corner. Yep, it is great to lock down areas but the question is: Should it be? I mean where is the equivalent that Sawbonez has? What is he great at besides healing guys that are already back in cover or after the fight is over cause his health packs are completly useless in combat?

Rhino: You make it sound like you can choose where to fight him from or that he is always on his own, which is absolutely not the case.

Phantom: It annoyed me so hard that I started playing him myself a little more. It is just ridiculous…still do not understand while this is still not deactivated.

Aura Response:
You missed the point where I mentioned how it is possible to outrun the healing, if all else fails this is where explosive users are handy. With public matches it is always up in the air, and it is not a good example of balance in this game; even some of the dumbest tactics will work on occasion in public matches.

Rhino Response:
Yes but that’s implied and you shouldn’t be alone yourself either; if you are it’s your own fault for trying to engage him to begin with.

(K1X455) #7

Health station has set up time like the Bushwhacker’s turret, arming time of Proxy’s mines and Javelin’s rockits, drop/activation time of Nader’s Marty, aiming time of Arty Artillery barrage and Kira’s Laser, and Skyhammer’s airstrike which has one of the longest delays.

Phoenix has a charge up/hold time of his health pulse which is one of his weakness… the hold time and time to switch weapons is too far apart for the pace of the game.

Every ability has cooldowns, which is built into the game; some more than others (Fragger’s Pineapples).

(Artyrim) #8

47 Hours and you already know the name of mercs… wow it took me over 500 hours to remember most of them and still I ignore the name of molotov guy

Said that. Balance?
Ok. A has 1 dmg / sec and B has 1 dmg / sec. This is balance.
We have over 20 mercs and all are different. With so many of them is impossible something like a perfect balance.
Such thing as perfect balance you can find only in tetris

(Press E) #9

I haven’t gone over the other replies to forgive me if someone else mentioned this, but you have to consider more than just one ability when considering if a merc is balanced. Aura has the best healing ability in the game, but she also has the lowest HP in the game, as well as a poor selection of weapons. Unlike sawbonez who can be an effective combat merc and heal himself without having to wait for a medstation to deploy.

Rhino is also very slow and pretty much can’t do anything besides spam his minigun. He’s pretty much a walking target for snipers and explosives.

You’re right tho, phantom is completely broken, there’s no justifying him

(HauniHaunted) #10

I would not say that Auras weapons are poor. Sure, shotguns are just made for close combat but I just got “most kills” with her…so can`t be that bad. Also: Lowest HP, highest movement speed. Kind of makes up for it.

(Mc1412013) #11

Your never going to be able to ballance 100% too many variables

(LifeupOmega) #12

Aura’s station is fine, or would be if it had a penalty when destroyed that stopped you instantly replacing it. Even 5 seconds would give a buffer for the opponent to push.

Rhino is frustrating, low effort and bad for the game, but get used to it because he’s bad in pubs so is therefore weak /s

Phantom, like all recons, doesn’t belong in DB.

(JShug07) #13

-Aura station is fine
-As for rhino I would suggest them to low his HP to 180 like seriously it’s hard to kill think at 1 vs 1 and even when he uses his mingun
-Phantom ( Broken as always, People are always gonna complain about him no matter how many times developers tune him)

(Rokon2) #14

You can deal with each one of them with a Katana Kira. :^)