Tips for phantom?

(SlixFaz) #1

So i just bought phantom never really considered buying him but i did and i suck with him and tips on how to play better with him?

(Armuh) #2

Step 1: Remove Phantom from Squad
Step 2: Put Fletcher in squad
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

(Rjsto) #3

Only two things I can think up are that don’t sprint with camo on around enemies cause you’ll become really easy to see and don’t forget you have guns too, not just the katana

(YeOldeButtcheek) #4

I think this a good tip:
http://i.imgur.com/ffMBXfi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qX6ZnaV.jpg

(Sinee) #5

You should’ve tried him first. He used to be good and fun to play with, but he ended up getting one of the biggest merc-nerfs that I think the game has seen yet. Just his C94 card, which was his best loadout, received 12 nerfs to it in a single patch, so…

He’s pretty broken now. The devs mentioned a rework sometime down the road, but I don’t have much faith in them.

(XavienX) #6

Right now, Phantom is pretty much a lone wolf who is weak. Go flanking enemies and stay invisible by not moving and when they pass you, shoot them in the back. Don’t go suiciding by trying to head on knifing people.

(Ballto) #7

First off you need to decide if you want him more for katana based play or for more run and gun flanker play.

After you decide which one you want to do more, you should pick your loadout card.

If you want katana based play, youre going to have some major problem getting the hang of it. I would recommend trying a different class with a cricket bat melee bonuses card (like sparks 373 or proxy r23) and getting practice using a lot of melee on them. It may or may not be slightly harder flanking depending on how alert your enemies are, but at least you have the chance to be much more useful to your team so long as you can watch for heals/revives/repairs.

If youre already passable with melee or just want to go balls deep with Phantom, pick your loadout card. You need one with katana obviously, and your first thought (and what will be pitched to you mostly) is C94 excellent operative.

C94 is a very good card, but not he best, ill explain why.

Undercover is really important on phantom, especially for a melee heavy playstyle, but cool is really optional for the most part. Its super useful if you can be super sneaky, especially on chapel and the new map Dockyard when it comes out, due to all the MGs in areas a lot of enemies will be facing away from, leading to some great flanking gameplay and snipers like to sit near them usually, leading to easy sword kills, but its not really that needed in most situations.

Now chop though, you may be thinking, katana with chop would be silly!

Well, no. Not really.

If you were to math out all the damage, you would only be able to kill three classes faster with quick slashes, thunder, fragger, and rhino, but none of these classes you would really ever want to melee. You will only OHK with a heavy stab one more class than normal, being phoenix, after vasili got an HP buff.

Generally, you will be using your quick slashes most of the time anyway, as heavy stab throws you in a long animation that if you miss, youre basically fucked, and you will only really use heavy stab on mercs with less than 100 HP anyway, every other time you will be using quick slashes as the majority of mercs you will most likely be able to catch for melee attacks the majority of the time have 110-120 HP.

So what card should you chose?

BL94 Veteran Operative (this one)

It has undercover, Drilled, and untrackable.

Melee based or not, you will use your primary gun a lot. Drilled is fantastic, as the less downtime you have on flanky or fast classes, the better as you need to reposition yourself as fast as possible after an engagement in most cases.

Untrackable helps you avoid landmines which will be in a lot of paths you will need to take,leading to easier flanks, just watch out for the proxy

The bishlok is pretty god tier on phantom if you have semi competent aim. Its high alpha damage especially on headshots when you catch someone off guard just decimates HP insanely fast, and it has some of the best ranged damage of any smg in the game (if not the best im not sure with all the stat changes to falloff on many guns lately), and youre stuck with the smijuth on pretty much all katana loadouts.

I usually like to hit people with my katana then finish them off with my primary or secondary if theyre not a sniper or on an mg, since usually people are pretty alert to this kind of thing and can jump out of the way faster than i can swing again. Katanas Alpha is pretty deadly if you can take advantage of it and the bishloks high headshot damage

For run and gun C51 tempo operative (this one)

http://i.imgur.com/eEVDpPH.jpg

The kek 10 is probably one of the best close-midish range automatics in the game, and the deagle is probably one of the easiest to use heavy pistols. the beckhill also provides one of the best, if blandest, melee weapons in the game, as its animation isnt wonky, it does decent quick and heavy damage, and has a decent swing time.

Phantom is very weak to spotting, like all flanky classes and playstyles, because being seen is the worst way to be sneaky. Enigma is really helpful with this.

Double time is fantastic on running and gunning, as even though you dont get less downtime like drilled, you can reload without slowing down too terribly, providing a huge advantage if you can duck behind a corner or something with someone coming after you, as youre already completely refreshed with a new mag after shooting his buddy. Sneaky supposedly also makes phantoms cloak noise quieter, but im not sure on that, but the footstep sound reduction is certainly noticeable if youre decloaked and moving too

Regardless of if you pick run and gun or katana, this following advice should help a bit

Your cloak is very, very visible at closer ranges. Dont expect to charge in and not be seen, youll get penetrated with phallic objects more than a hooker who gets abducted by aliens, and it makes noise. Try and use combat pollution to your advantage, every gunshot, explosion, and angry 12 year old on the enemy team is working to your advantage. Never, ever stick with more than one member of your team if at all possible. Let the bulk of your team distract the enemy with shinies, and use your cloak when rounding corners if youre not sure if there is someone or a mine there or not to help sponge some early damage. Use your cloak mostly when crossing open areas, like chapels street though.

When you actually get to a position and see a guy or two, try and pick out the weakest link. Low HPpeople, medics, vasilis, people on MGs or people shooting some other direction. The more distracted, the better. If youre running and gunning people reloading are also great targets, and somewhat for a katana kill too but usually they will notice you and be fully reloaded by the time you can hit them once, let alone twice. My personal order of importance to wipe out is as follows.

Deployables (Med bays, ammo stations, turrets,etc)
Redeyes
Sparks
Fletcher
Aura (especially if enemy team is defenders)
Sawbones
Phoenix
Skyhammer/Arty/Stoker/Kira
Vasilis (place higher if hes closeish/isolated and you are running melee)
Everyone else

The reason redeye is placed so high is not only do i think smoke is cancer, but he is the only class that can 100% hard counter your cloak, as you still show up glowing white on his IR goggles. Taking out that, one of the best ranged mercs in game, and cancerous smoke, is super good for you and everyone. Medics should be obvious why theyre placed so highly.

Your goal now is to kill as many people as you feel is possible, and make damn sure you finish them. If you flanked well youll probably be in the back lines of the enemy, so no one else will, and there will probably be at least one medic ready to pick them up. I very rarely if ever kill more than three people though even if i think i can kill more, unless someone is already looking at and shooting towards me. I find it better to play it safe and reposition before re-engaging more targets. After you kill your targets, recloak and start running like a methed up scared bunny. Jump around to escape and make your path as hard to track and shoot as possible, and let your armour soak up as much damage as it can. Someone will be chasing you in all likely hood , try and find a position advantageous to decloak and kill them as it is unlikely you will be in this position after kill a bunch of people, probably it was someone who started shooting at you from your side while you were killing the last sod.

To play phantom well you need a lot of map knowledge and practice, thats the only way you can get better. I hope this helps.

Oh, also avoid knifing naders regardless for obvious reasons. Martyrs fucking hurt man

(SlixFaz) #8

@Ballto you have lots of time in your life if you could post all of that XD

(Ballto) #9

you should see my posts basically giving a chemistry lesson about stokers molotovs

(SlixFaz) #10

@Ballto link?

(Ballto) #11

http://forums.dirtybomb.nexon.net/discussion/comment/154863#Comment_154863theres a few posts, i think three or four, thats the first one though

(blisteringOwlNest) #12

http://forums.dirtybomb.nexon.net/discussion/23485/the-phantom-guide#latest

A little guide I did a while back with some basic advice.

(Drac0rion) #13

I just try to sneak by as close to the enemy spawn as possibly using the lowest traffic routes, wait for the spawn timer, let all of them pass me and then begin my job.

Taking them out one by one if possible.
Sometimes even walk behind them all the way to the current objective (if no sniper type figures are staying behind), then wait for my team to strike and in the middle of chaos I try to take out the ones in the back first. Of course assuming I’ve destroyed their HP station first.

I’d only use the katana(if I’m currently running a katana loadout) in a situation where I can pretty much just one shot their medics or when they’re gathered up enough to right click multikill and then clean up with my primary.

Also sneaking with Phantom is kinda like that kids game… not sure what it’s called in english, but basically, you sprint when the “targets” aren’t looking and instantly stop and crouch when they are and just slowly try to continoue with crouch walk.

(Amerika) #14

Do not play him as a melee merc and expect to do well. Play that for fun if you want…just don’t play him melee only and expect to do as well as if you were using a gun. Chasing people to melee them takes away good defensive angles and puts you in a bad spot even if you get a kill. Not to mention you have to sprint which not only makes you fairly visible but also very loud.

Setup shots from stealth, use the armor to flank and not take damage so you go into fights with full HP, pick people off on flanks but always leave yourself an escape, use dark spots on maps to hide in plain site. And sometimes it’s simply better to not be cloaked due to how audible it is and you want the CD so you can use it as an escape.

If you play him with intelligence he’s pretty good in pubs. He gets less valuable in 5v5 matches due to less chaos which allows people to be more aware of his shenanigans and a severe lack of team utility.

(terminal) #15

peak corners with refractive armor and then shoot things with a gun

(Szakalot) #16

@Ballto good post

I would add that regardless of whether you really want to use the katana, its a good idea to play at the beginning as if you did not have it.

too many phantoms focus on the melee kills which makes them easy targets.

primary power comes from beig able to fire the first shot.

undercover is also a bit overrated as armor duration does not mean it absorbs more hits. kek tempo operative is by far my favorite loadout!

i have also heard that the sneaky perk decreases the loudness of the armor itself

(ASTOUNDINGSHELL) #17

Use your Gun
Flank the enemy
wait for the right moment to gun them down from behind.
Realize you havnt used your Katana
Banzai
???
Profit

(Rawr) #18 
 I play Phantom pretty often. My advice would be to flank lone players (or two if you think you can take 'em) and shoot them in the back. By the time they turn around and start shooting you should be able to finish them off. Another tip: I see a lot of newer players trying to use the katana too much. Put it away and use it the way you would the cricket bat. Its not meant to be your primary killing weapon. Also don't sleep on the Blishlok. It's really good on Phantom. Just get behind someone, put the crosshair over their head, and shoot. you'll be able to get at least 2 headshots before they can react (72 damage in 2 hits!) and finish them off easily enough. 
 
 Another more advanced tip: If you engage someone in a firefight, turn on your cloak and strafe around, doing your best to avoid being hit. If you practice, you'll be able to absorb damage and can uncloak and start shooting once they have to reload, giving you a huge advantage. Its a risky maneuver, but it can give you the edge you need. My final tip: Use him wisely. If you feel like you aren't contributing to doing the objective, switch to someone more useful.
 
 My favorite loadout for him is the BL94. It has Untrackable, Drilled, and Undercover, all perfect for Phantom. The Blishlok is good if you can get headshots, the S&W can also do great headshot damage but is pretty lackluster, and he gets the Katana, still being able to 1 hit 90HP or lower mercs. Overall he's not particularly useful or strong, but he can be an absolute menace in the right hands, and will have the enemy team looking around making sure he isn't lurking behind them. I enjoy him cause he's very fun to use. Few mercs come close to the fun factor Phantom provides. Good luck.
(Szakalot) #19

ekhm, i dont think blishlok body shot deals 36 damage…

(Rawr) #20

It does if you hit them in the head… That’s why I said “you’ll be able to get at least 2 headshots before they can react”. Body shots deal 18 damage according to the wiki.