What if we un-fuse hybrid mercs?

(TheStrangerous) #1

A fun topic, where we take hybrid mercs (Phantom, Javelin, Guardian) and separate them into 2 new mercs, of course tweaked to fit their role group.

Here’s my take:

Guardian:

  • The Engineer merc is basically Turtle with drone.
  • The Medic has a Revive Glove and Med packs (Because that would put Phoenix out of business, feel free to debate on this one)

Javelin

  • The Assault merc is Fragger with RPG, not sure if there’s need to compensate for the loss of ammo belt… 3rd alt fire mode for RPG? 3 mini rockets or shock combo equivalent form UT series?
  • The Fire Support merc has an ammo belt, for sure. But coming up with a new artillery strike can be tricky… Or maybe add a buff ability, like Rally from Battlefront series, commonly known as Buff Banner from TF2. It is fire support, after all.

Phantom

This one is a hard nut to crack…
Does refractive armor count as recon? Does Emp count as assault, cause Thunder’s conc had that effect before?
There’s so much contradictions and retcons… but let’s just make a theoretical scenario…

  • The Recon merc has a spotting field, which is either separate ability or tied to refractive armor (debatable, I’d prefer it as separate ability)
  • The Assault merc is a master saboteur, he either has a throwable EMP nade/device or EMP bubble, much like Guardian’s Revive bubble, or both. Seeing of Thunder’s EMP effect on his conc wasn’t very useful, maybe allowing enemy deployables turn into friendly would provide utility.

Wow, look how many potential mercs we can have. if we perform analysis on these hybrid mercs. That was fun.

(CombatMist) #2

Im sure these merc will come about eventually. Lets say we did hard keep mercs into a class. Lets talk about recons. Its the hardest to pin down what defines them. All besides phantom have spotting. Phantom does not fit with the snipers. I think what makes them all recons is they are not direct combatants and not meant for sustained damage. They are all ideally meant to burst kill you with 1-2 well played attacks at high damage. That being 2 sniper shots to chest or even 2 quick katana strikes will kill vast majority of mercs. The information spotting is to support their concept of not being a direct fighter. They are to wait for the right moment to strike regardless of if its a sniper rifle or katana. They all are loners and provide little for the team compared to medics, engineers or fire supports. The spotting is mostly to help them get the drop on enemies so they can ambush them and the camo for phantom is the same. As I think about it that is probably what a “recon” is. A loner who can in theory burst kill with traditional weapons. This is fairly wide as long as they can burst kill and get the drop on enemies. Could be a spotting ability or a form of concealment.

(CombatMist) #3

Guardian would best fit as an engineer. Instead of objective specialist have the drone do objectives at base speed. Its not controlable but it heads to the nearest objective and attempts to complete it disregarding everything including its safety. It would have its sky shield up of course which would help it not get nuked and help the team hold the area. If your defending side it just sits or does a small patrol of the nearest objective. If your attack already planted say c4 same thing it stays near the objective and patrols it so its not a non moving target. By patrol I mean moves no further than range of the sky shield. This would allow the drone + guardian to be be attempting the objective at the same time so if 1 die the other is still doing it. The drone could be used as a distraction or to set off traps like proxy mines and sentries. Maybe have a 2nd mode with the drone. You can tell it “stop” or “objective” and thats it. Not tell it exactly where to go. That way you could set it down as normal to not move or have it go for the objective as needed. Just waiting for a drone that does objectives.

As a medic guardian could still have the drone but it is a weaker but big healing area like aura. By weaker I mean at least 1/2 the amount.