What's your opinion about Sparks.

(Ctrix) #41

I don’t know why people keep saying Sparks is a better sniper than Vasilli, it’s simply not true.

(ForgottenCrowd) #42

Sparks’ REVIVR, while powerful, cannot one-shot headshot all mercs. I don’t know if Vassili can do that, but Sparks certainly can’t. Also, you have to either charge up REVIVR AND/or make multiple shots to the face

(WaffleMonster) #43

Sparks’ REVIVR, while powerful, cannot one-shot headshot all mercs. I don’t know if Vassili can do that, but Sparks certainly can’t. Also, you have to either charge up REVIVR AND/or make multiple shots to the face[/quote]

Vassili can’t kill rhino or thunder in one shot.

(WaffleMonster) #44

[quote=“ForgottenCrowd;127794”][quote=“bizarreRectangle;127288”]I don’t have big issues with damage. It has a high skill cap and you need to be pretty skilled to use it in a very deadly way.

Her med packs can be quite good. Direct hit a 110 merc once + regen and they will be good to go. Otherwise they are a bit weak. Balanced.

I don’t like her with the empire 9, it just feels strong sometimes. They also self heal around the corner. Usually I can deal with sparks and I’m fine if she stays the way she is. It’s like getting wrecked by a pro sniper or fletcher. However I wouldn’t argue against a small nerf.[/quote]

Indeed. Getting beat by an experienced Sparks player is hardly different from being beat by an experienced player on any other merc. There are two types of “pro” level Sparks players: those who kill and those who actually play the way she was intended to play. The killer Sparks just about NEVER revive their teammates, run off to headshot enemies with REVIVR, and only use medpacks to self heal. Those types of Sparks player are of no use to their team other than to piss off the enemy team if they don’t work together. The ones who actually play medic are pretty hard to deal with, but then again, she has 80 health. All you have to do is throw explosives where she’s hiding out and now you can deal with the rest of the team. Any good sniper is similar in that you have to evade them or deal with them in order to even get to the enemy team to flush them out[/quote]

Then you get the players who actually know how to play her. The players who can rack up loads of kills at range whilst also instantly reviving downed team mates. The strength of the revivr is you can be charging a shot to kill an enemy and can instantly flick to a fallen team mate as they drop to the ground removing any form of delay in reviving. With the paddles you have to firstly get them out and then run over to a team mate which all takes time and also puts you in significant danger, the kind of danger which you never have to deal with the revivr. The risk/reward nature of revivng just disappears with sparks which is why she is fundamentally broken. Then you take into account she can compete with vassili who offers very little than killing power.

When it comes to a good sparks player, explosives don’t work well because a good sparks will stay mobile with good positioning making them almost impossible to get within striking range with explosives even when flanking.

(UnicLunatic) #45

Yeah, let’s nerf a merc who is annoying when played by 0.1% of players…
Ridiculous.

It’s annoying to fight a really too good player, whatever merc he plays. Really good snipers are pain in the ass.
That’s the game, that’s how you improve your skill, finding a way to payback.

(WaffleMonster) #46

[quote=“Lunatic;127845”]Yeah, let’s nerf a merc who is annoying when played by 0.1% of players…
Ridiculous.

It’s annoying to fight a really too good player, whatever merc he plays. Really good snipers are pain in the ass.
That’s the game, that’s how you improve your skill, finding a way to payback. [/quote]

It’s more about nerfing a merc who is overpowered when played correctly (which is honestly not that difficult).

(LifeupOmega) #47

[quote=“ForgottenCrowd;127788”][quote=“BlackFro;126314”]Alright guys let’s be real. Sparks should not be able to one-shot people across the map with the REVIVR. It’s absurd.

High damage from long distances should only be reserved to snipers.[/quote]

I play a sniper in many games and I like that REVIVR can be used as a bad sniper rifle. From my perspective, her weapons don’t deal a lot of damage and most times I find myself up close with an enemy, I have to hope I have a lot better accuracy than they do. She has such low health that she dies if she even looks at a grenade or a molotov. There are 7 mercs that can easily kill her with explosives, can be almost one-shot (in the body) by Vassili, overpowered by Thunder and Rhino at mid-range and up close, decently easily killed by a turret, one-shot by a Phantom with chopper and a katana (which is a loadout people go for anyways), and killed by anyone with an accuracy over 20%[/quote]

You’re playing Sparks very very wrong then if you’re dying so much.

Any good player with Sparks can outsnipe a Vas and knows to always keep their distance no matter what - and as the fastest merc in the game you should never be close to the enemy anyway. You should always be peeking corners, backing out to heal up, and then snipe spamming everyone who even looks your way. With proper management you have zero downtime, and provided your team aren’t literal idiots, the enemy won’t be able to even get close to you anyway because of the pressure the other 4 players should be putting on them.

All the things you’re listing just don’t happen that often to a good Sparks player really, unless you hit them from a blind spot. You have to get the jump on them to guarantee their death and even then if they’re good they’ll potentially kill you in one or two Rev shots. For a merc who changes the game so much you’d think their own self-defence would be a lot lower than it is.

I should probably mention that pubs just don’t count at this point too. All the bad Sparks players just make people think that she’s not inherently broken.

[quote=“Lunatic;127845”]Yeah, let’s nerf a merc who is annoying when played by 0.1% of players…
Ridiculous.

It’s annoying to fight a really too good player, whatever merc he plays. Really good snipers are pain in the ass.
That’s the game, that’s how you improve your skill, finding a way to payback. [/quote]

Wow it’s almost like that’s what we did with Vas 'cause he was also a gamebreaking merc with no chance at counterplay. Do you not like balance? We should be taking this opportunity of a “beta” stage of Dirty Bomb to fix these issues, not shrugging our shoulders and going “eh, maybe if we just get better”.

Some of the best players agree that Sparks is broken, and they know how to counter her. This is an argument that people always bring up and its always a dumb one. “Get better” just doesn’t hold its weight when some of the best players are also chiming in with their thoughts on balance.

It’s kind of amusing that you think the killer Sparks isn’t the right way to play. Your medpacks are yours and yours alone in 95% of cases, your other medic is on healing duty. If you need to top someone off you kill them and then revive them to full in under a second. There is almost never a need to waste a pack on someone else.

You have a lethal weapon that ramps up to 130 damage at full charge. Hitting heads really isn’t as hard as people make it out to be. And when you’re spamming these while your team holds the front line, it’s a nightmare to break through. Reviving is easy when your team knows to fight by cover, if they die in the open that’s their fault.

(Ctrix) #48

Sounds like you’re just hurt because someone outskilled you.
I’ve seen someone dominate Execution matches on Market with a Vasilli. So should we cry for a nerf on Vasilli now?

One shot headshot is OP. If you’re skilled enough you can instantly kill any merc in the game. OP. Nerf now. Wallhacks too. Wtf devs. How did this ever make it out of the concept stage?

The only thing that’s hard to beat is that people revive at full health with a charged shot, and Sparks can revive people before you can put enough DPS on the corpse. That is the only thing.

(Black) #49

[quote=“ForgottenCrowd;127788”][quote=“BlackFro;126314”]Alright guys let’s be real. Sparks should not be able to one-shot people across the map with the REVIVR. It’s absurd.

High damage from long distances should only be reserved to snipers.[/quote]

I play a sniper in many games and I like that REVIVR can be used as a bad sniper rifle. From my perspective, her weapons don’t deal a lot of damage and most times I find myself up close with an enemy, I have to hope I have a lot better accuracy than they do. She has such low health that she dies if she even looks at a grenade or a molotov. There are 7 mercs that can easily kill her with explosives, can be almost one-shot (in the body) by Vassili, overpowered by Thunder and Rhino at mid-range and up close, decently easily killed by a turret, one-shot by a Phantom with chopper and a katana (which is a loadout people go for anyways), and killed by anyone with an accuracy over 20%[/quote]

Sparks lack of health does no excuse her ability to do such high damage from long distances, period.
I could understand if I was up point blank and she shot me with the REVIVR in the face but across the map? No, no, no.

Sparks is right at the moment simply to strong with her REVIVR.

My suggestion is simply to down scale the damage of the REVIVR by a percentage for each foot.

(Dawnlazy) #50

Removal of instagib hurt the MOA but the PDP is still super strong as always. No Sparks can truly compare to an aggressive Redeye or Vassili with the PDP.

(PleasantWheat) #51

I don’t think the real problem atm with sparks is sparks herself or the revivr (altho i do think it needs a damage nerf doing enough damage to one shot most mercs with a headshot which isnt really that difficult) I think it may have something to do with her loadout cards and augments. The 383 companion agent. I see what SD were going for with this card. It has Get up, quick charge and potent packs perfect for being the best at helping your team. Wrong, perfect for being a pain in the ass. Especially since quick charge gives you a faster fire rate on the revivr AND allows for more shots before the reserves are completely drained. Having quick charge actually drain from reserves faster would be a great balance change. I also reckon her packs should have a reduced healing effect on herself similar to bones.

(ForgottenCrowd) #52

@LifeupOmega

“You’re playing Sparks very very wrong then if you’re dying so much”
-When did I say I play the way you think I play? I just said that she doesn’t really stand a chance when caught off guard by just about any merc.

“Any good player with Sparks can outsnipe a [Vassili]”
-Any good Sparks can outsnipe Vassili unless Vassili is also good.

“It’s kind of amusing that you think the killer Sparks isn’t the right way to play”
-I never said killer Sparks is “the wrong way”. Just, not the intended way (because she’s a medic).

“If you need to top someone off you kill them and then revive them to full in under a second”
-Over exaggeration; takes longer. (But, yeah, I get what you mean)

“Hitting heads really isn’t as hard as people make it out to be”
-Yeah, if you’re a pro from CSGO or something. Not everyone has amazing accuracy.

I think REVIVR’s damage output should decrease over longer distances, but I don’t think that she needs a dramatic nerf.

(Wolvengaming) #53

I’d agree with Gh0st1e’s post. Ultimately she got an indirect buff because she was fixed.

So while the gameplay is better for playing her, it does allow people to be quite spammy with the weapon.

Either a slight nerf on the damage directly, or nerf (again, slightly) the charge required per shot for damage.

Otherwise she’s fine.

(LifeupOmega) #54

[quote=“ForgottenCrowd;128221”]@LifeupOmega

“You’re playing Sparks very very wrong then if you’re dying so much”
-When did I say I play the way you think I play? I just said that she doesn’t really stand a chance when caught off guard by just about any merc.

“Any good player with Sparks can outsnipe a [Vassili]”
-Any good Sparks can outsnipe Vassili unless Vassili is also good.

“It’s kind of amusing that you think the killer Sparks isn’t the right way to play”
-I never said killer Sparks is “the wrong way”. Just, not the intended way (because she’s a medic).

“If you need to top someone off you kill them and then revive them to full in under a second”
-Over exaggeration; takes longer. (But, yeah, I get what you mean)

“Hitting heads really isn’t as hard as people make it out to be”
-Yeah, if you’re a pro from CSGO or something. Not everyone has amazing accuracy.

I think REVIVR’s damage output should decrease over longer distances, but I don’t think that she needs a dramatic nerf.[/quote]

Honestly, it was more the implication - I apologise if I assumed wrong. We’re still looking at a merc with zero accuracy or spread on their signature ability, with no need to reload. I’ve faced good Vas players, and when you’re pelting them in and out of cover it’s very hard for them to keep up. It’s still a pretty even match up though overall, but while they have to deal with swaying, a slowed down ADS, and flinch, you can still run full speed and chip shot them constantly.

I’m no pro, but Sparks is very forgiving when dealing out damage. And with no limitation like ammo you can just keep those shots going out. Shouldn’t we be balancing for the best? If a medic of all merc-types can take out, or cripple, 2-3 mercs on a team every spawn on their own with little risk, isn’t that an issue? I’ve seen it happen repeatedly, especially on the more open maps.

Her issue is the way she changes how the game is played - no longer can you safely leave a downed player behind your push, meaning wasted time and ammo, and you’re constantly having to watch out for her ridiculous damage at any range. The game suddenly becomes about her, and making sure you do every little thing correctly to counter her first. It’s pretty exhausting, and incredibly annoying, to play against.