What I Think about Aura, Nader and Sparks.

(Disquieted1) #1

Hello all. Hope you’ve been enjoying Dirty Bomb. I have, especially coming from CS:GO. I want to discuss Aura, Nader and Sparks in particular. This isn’t a “X merc is OP” thread, but rather how I think they should be tweaked so that they match the purpose they were made for. Any and all thoughts are welcome (as long posters aren’t the “git gud mlg rekt 420 360 noscope” posters). Looking for a civil discussion here. And without further ado:

Aura
Aura’s pretty solid. The one qualm I have with her is her healing station. It has a delay before it begins healing, but its heal rate is very high, and to me, it’s absurd. I think Aura’s heal station was meant for “back line medical ward,” if that makes any sense. I’ve seen many Auras place their healing stations in the front lines – and there it’s basically invincibility. Whatever damage anyone does is negated by the heal station. To fill the purpose of some “medical ward” I think the healing station should deploy nearly instantly, but the heal rate reduced.

Sparks
Now, I haven’t played Sparks but I’ve seen plenty running around. She has a ranged revive. That’s pretty neat. However it’s better than Sawbonez’ and Aura’s revives. Both can revive (well duh), both can do damage but Sparks has range. There should be some sort of “potency for range” trade. Possibly remove the shielding when a player is revived, or bind the ability to a certain player until some condition is met (similar to the Medic in TF2). I see Sparks as a front-line medic that follows a certain player, supporting them. Again, similar to TF2’s Medic.
If someone could post Sparks’ numbers below to compare to Sawbonez and Aura, that’d be great.

Nader
Nader is similar to TF2’s Demoman. Almost too similar. Actually, I can kind of see how most current mercs have similar styles to TF2 characters. /offtopic
Anyways. Nader’s ability gives her six grenades to use at her will. She has a large amount of coverage with the nades, almost as much as air strikes. They do quite some damage. This should compare in that Nader has control over her nades, but air strikes have little. Air strikes also have outdoor coverage while Nader is more effective indoors. To fill that purpose, I think Nader should have the radius of her nades reduced, but the damage of the nades increased. Or possibly increase the amount of control Nader has in exchange for damage.

Overall the mercs in Dirty Bomb are great. They’re diverse and I like each of them – however I feel as if they’re too all-purpose. Mercs should have areas of specialty (in which they do), and the difference between what they’re good at and what they’re bad at should be increased. It would allow for more strategic gameplay, and overall a better experience. Thanks for reading.

(Reddeadcap) #2

Why did you single out them and not talk about mercs in general? Also nader has 5.

(scrub_lord) #3

I really don’t know how I feel about Aura’s heal station. On offense it can be rather useless most of the time, but on defense it can be borderline overpowered. If it’s in a position where you can’t get direct LoS from long range, then you are basically screwed if you don’t have any explosives at hand.

(Sinee) #4

Aura’s heal station is abused. Don’t even get me started. Aura’s are one of the few things that butcher my experience in DB.

Most Aura’s that I have to deal with in matches don’t use their station properly. Some do. They’ll set up a sort of base camp for areas people can run to or stick around in order to properly do defense or offense on certain areas. But from over a hundred hours clocked and many many matches therein so far, I can without a doubt say that most Aura’s don’t do this. Most of them drop their station for themselves, which grants them invincibility.

Because A, she moves too bloody fast to be hit regardless of range. B, even if you manage to hit her, she’s squatting on her station so she heals immediately. Then she just needs to pop you a few times with her shotgun and you die. gg.

I can handle literally every other merc, but Aura’s make me mental. If I see an opposed team crawling with more than one of them, I leave and find another match. They skitter across the map like they’ve had way too much caffeine, and even if you manage to pin one, you can’t take her out cause she’s freakin’ immortal. I seriously hope the healing station gets tweaked. I’d love some ideas on how to counter this in matches too. lmao. Desperate at this point. I’ve had Aura’s literally chase me down from behind, drop their station, and engage me (and win every time). It’s horrible.

(Temporary) #5

@Disquieted1
Aura’s station was nerfed into having the delay and reduced healing because it was far better than it currently is and if your team has any common sense the 1st thing you destroy is the healing station followed by her making it a moot point. Despite popular belief her Healing Station doesn’t make anyone invincible, if you cant kill it you can take anyone out easily enough with any merc if you’re aiming for the head like you should be doing.

Sparks is squishy as hell and can’t heal to save her life in comparison to the other two medics which is why she isn’t a front lines healer, she’s a long distance reviver (currently the hitbox for her Revivr is slightly broken in that direct hits don’t always revive teammates); Sawbones can take more punishment (30 more health) and dish out decent healing where as Aura has a drop and forget healing station albeit shes just as squishy.

Nader has 5 grenades not 6, their explosion radius is fairly small but only a direct hit will do maximum damage as it drops off the further away you get from the initial explosion if she misses (which happens more often than not); comparing her to Fire Support classes is just silly because they are specifically used for large targeted area of denial outdoors (Skyhammer is the exception with crappy indoor grenades reducing the CD by 75% iirc) instead of the random firing of a free grenade, a better comparison would be to Fragger as he gets 2 grenades which he can cook resulting in better control and he’s actually an Assault class.

This specialty you speak of already exists you just need to take a deeper look at what the characters do and how they do it, my apologies if this feels like I’m having a go @ you because I’m not.

(animatedFrog) #6

Sparks’ revives are better because her healing is significantly worse. Especially with the Potent Packs glitch.

(umberInlet) #7

Why did you compare a Fire Support’s ability to an Assault’s? They fill their own roles.

(Sinee) #8

[quote=“Temporary;30923”]@Disquieted1
Aura’s station was nerfed into having the delay and reduced healing because it was far better than it currently is and if your team has any common sense the 1st thing you destroy is the healing station followed by her making it a moot point. Despite popular belief her Healing Station doesn’t make anyone invincible, if you cant kill it you can take anyone out easily enough with any merc if you’re aiming for the head like you should be doing.[/quote]

Sorry to butt in, but I have a long list of grievances about Aura. It’s really ruining my game experience, so I’m open to some tips… I try to take out the station, but she’s firing at you and moving so fast that you’re down before you can take it and her out. I have tried and failed so many times. If you use anything less than Fragger or Rhino (and I don’t use those), then the shotgun is plenty to knock you down.

Plus the station is pretty resilient against SMG. It takes a good number of rounds, and then having to take her out when she’s firing at you too— you’re usually going to have to reload and then get owned because she’s so fast and difficult to hit.

Taking out the station first is the most logical thing yes, but in a match, it never goes down quite that easy. I’m out of ideas and it’s such a plague to me. Especially when, as I’ve said before, Aura’s have come up behind me, dropped their station for themselves and engaged me. I get rekt. lmao

(animatedFrog) #9

Nader Fragger Fletcher all wreck health station camps. Vassili hits through revives and Proxy can suicide in with a mine to blow everything up. Health Stations are balanced by having ridiculously long cooldowns compared to Sawbonez.

(Temporary) #10

@hiddenSpring you aren’t butting in, its cool :slight_smile:

Do it from range for a starters, her shotguns aren’t effective between med-long range - backpedal if you need to to keep her @ range and causing her to step away from it making it easier for you to down her. If you can’t do it from range you only have 2 options, either bunny hop/wall jump to dodge her shots or run in and knife her which will hopefully make the players brain fall out (mine melts down when players do that to me :stuck_out_tongue: )

Most smgs will do it in 1/2 to a full clip and if you’re ADS (Aiming Down Sight) it’ll be a lot easier than just spray and pray. As for them creeping up behind you my only suggestion is turn your sound up because you can easily hear her foot steps and the planting of her station (hopefully she doesn’t have the sneaky augment).

(Disquieted1) #11

The three mercs I mentioned are probably the biggest examples of being all-purpose, so I thought I’d write about them in particular.

Also typo.

Fair enough. In my experience I’ve seen a single person hold off an entire team because his health was being replenished by the healing station.

(Temporary) #12

[quote=“Disquieted1;30957”]In my experience I’ve seen a single person hold off an entire team because his health was being replenished by the healing station.
[/quote]
Was the whole team comprised of storm troopers? “Set your guns to miss and follow me!” :stuck_out_tongue:

(sinKrin) #13

I like to use Proxy’s speed to try and get a mine down on a crowded health station. Try and time it with the respawn timer, as you’ll most likely die, so you can quickly get back in the fight.

The only real difficulty I have is the stations hidden around corners but there are explosive counters for those: Fragger, Nader, Fletcher and Skyhammer. Or Arty and Kira if outside.

I can’t comment on Sparks as I’ve not used or seen much of her but she does come equipped with an SMG, reducing her effectiveness at range (apart from her healing gun)

I’ve been playing with Nader a fair bit lately and do quite like where she’s at. She’s great for area denial and slowing down teams that push hard (on defence) or allowing you to push through (on attack) On a side note, she’s also fantastic for dropping that barrier generator on Bridge.

(GregHouseMD) #14

Sparks has the same HP as Aura, but considerably worse weapons ( ignoring REVIVR ). Also, unlike Sawbonez and Aura, her revives have a cooldown, and a minimum charge time.

Basically, every time you fire it, it gets a piece of the cooldown. It’s longer the longer you maintain a full charge. If you hold a full charge for ~5 seconds, the shot is lost and the REVIVR stays overcharged until the cooldown has passed, meaning no revives. If you’re spamming revives ( i.e. your teammates are just dropping left and right ), you can keep reviving for quite some time - but you’ll likely get a cooldown at some point, unless you manage it carefully.

It’s also the main problem with using REVIVR as a weapon. If you want to aim at all, you’ll get cooldown pretty quickly.

(t3hsquirr3l) #15

[quote=“GregHouseMD;31075”]Also, unlike Sawbonez and Aura, her revives have a cooldown, and a minimum charge time.
[/quote]
Hm, not having played her yet I didn’t quite understand how the cooldown worked. That’s good to know.

However, I feel like the charge time minimum is a bit too fast for the benefits it provides. Countless times, as a front-line sawbones, I was out-revived by Sparks a good ways behind. Like, two downed allies in melee range in front of me and she got them both up at a RoF equaling the defib animation time.

What I’m saying is, at range, she can revive just as fast as a sawbones or aura up until that cooldown, which seems to allow a lot of revives. Plenty for most situations.

I’d like to see the charge time increased just a little bit. Nothing drastic, just enough to keep front-line medics relevant.

As far as ninja Auras go, I agree they’re a bit annoying. However, by going ninja, they also abandon their team and I’ve seen that cost them the win many times. Also, that tactic tends to melt down when faced with a competent team that works together. 1v1 against an entrenched Aura is rarely a good idea, but 2v1 generally ends well. Stick together, and as mentioned retreat when you have to. Their healing nest doesn’t do any good if there’s no one to shoot at, and they’re vulnerable when relocating.

(GregHouseMD) #16

@t3hsquirr3l

As Sawbonez, your main advantage over Sparks is that you can actually be on the frontline ( Sparks has all the toughness of wet paper ), and that his packs can actually sustain teammates and bring them up to 100% regularly. Sparks simply can’t do that.

In situations where you have a clear and relatively safe view of your teammates ( say defending the EV garage on Chapel ), Sparks really shines. In tighter spaces, or places where there are lots of obstructions, Sawbonez is probably better.

(firebrickRetreiver) #17

The only thing I would fix about Aura’s station is the hitbox. Other than that, she goes down insanely quickly and if it was nerfed she would essentially be useless. Just go Nader, Arty, or Fragger to clear her bases.

Sparks has little to no healing, weakish primary weapons, and also goes down extremely quickly. She’s as squishy as Aura without a shotgun and without the strong healing Aura brings. If anything, she needs a buff to her packs. Sawbones is a better “roaming” Sparks with stronger healing, more health, and better weapons.

Nader is a little spammy at times, but if Martyrdom was removed she would be perfectly balanced. It pretty much punishes people for doing the thing they’re supposed to (aka finishing off bodies).

Don’t really agree with your points here.

(Disquieted1) #18

Fair enough. I’m liking the discussion especially about Sparks. I haven’t used her, nor have I been able to find numbers on her, so thanks for the clarification.

Edit: [quote=“Temporary;30923”]@Disquieted1
Aura’s station was nerfed into having the delay and reduced healing because it was far better than it currently is and if your team has any common sense the 1st thing you destroy is the healing station followed by her making it a moot point. Despite popular belief her Healing Station doesn’t make anyone invincible, if you cant kill it you can take anyone out easily enough with any merc if you’re aiming for the head like you should be doing.

Sparks is squishy as hell and can’t heal to save her life in comparison to the other two medics which is why she isn’t a front lines healer, she’s a long distance reviver (currently the hitbox for her Revivr is slightly broken in that direct hits don’t always revive teammates); Sawbones can take more punishment (30 more health) and dish out decent healing where as Aura has a drop and forget healing station albeit shes just as squishy.

Nader has 5 grenades not 6, their explosion radius is fairly small but only a direct hit will do maximum damage as it drops off the further away you get from the initial explosion if she misses (which happens more often than not); comparing her to Fire Support classes is just silly because they are specifically used for large targeted area of denial outdoors (Skyhammer is the exception with crappy indoor grenades reducing the CD by 75% iirc) instead of the random firing of a free grenade, a better comparison would be to Fragger as he gets 2 grenades which he can cook resulting in better control and he’s actually an Assault class.

This specialty you speak of already exists you just need to take a deeper look at what the characters do and how they do it, my apologies if this feels like I’m having a go @ you because I’m not. [/quote]
Thanks for the insights. I started playing DB since OBT started, so I didn’t know Aura’s heal station was more powerful before.