Why Phantom is perfect, just the way he is.

(Despaniard) #1

After reading some very interesting posts, comments and replies, I must say… Phantom is by far the most controversial character in Dirty Bomb. The talk about giving him better stealth is interesting, and somewhat amusing (for reasons I’ll explain later). How about a new ability? Like throwing knifes, or a decoy? Again, that is amusing to me.

Phantom doesn’t need a new ability, or an improvement, or a buff. Phantom is a balanced character now. If you still play him by trying to sprint through enemy lines while cloaked, of course you are going to feel weak.

Let’s think of it scientifically. An invisibility suit (if it existed) would camouflage you with what is BEHIND you, so it seems like nothing is obstructing the view. When running, it is impossible to present what is behind you so fast, so you become blurry, you become easy to spot and the energy is used up faster, quicker and louder.

Now, why he doesn’t need a new ability. He is (as some commentators well said) a very selfish character. He is designed to be a lone wolf type of Mercenary. No spotting ability, except for team-chat and mic. Though people argue about it, his signature item IS the katana (though technically it’s a ninjato). He is a tough to play assassin with a great reward for cool headed playing. You need a strategy. And here is why I’m amused by so many posts about improving him.

I bought Phantom with 50,000 credits I had saved up through weekend time playing alone. I have not spent a single dime on Dirty Bomb (buying mercs, cases, what have yous). When I got him, I knew right away he was overpowered. Post nerf, I felt weak. Then, after grinding myself to 6 gold Phantom loudouts, I found a fellow Phantom, who was damn near invisible when walking.

His secret, he later told me, was that he didn’t sprint anywhere. He (and now I do as well) played Phantom as a slow moving while cloaked player. Everything he did was with a purpose. To further increase his invisibility, he would crouch. I once sat at my screen, watching as my entire team of advanced players ran past him. Since he walked while crouched, the noise was not an issue, being seen wasn’t an issue either.

Please realize, I’m telling you my winning strategy. I’ve gotten some many “Unstopables,” “Rampages” and a handful of “Godlikes” thanks to playing smart.

@MissMurder if you would please talk about this with the community, they would listen more to you than me.

(gg2ez) #2

You’re not getting the point of these threads. They’re not balance threads, they’re “give Phantom the ability to contribute more to his team”. It’s easy as hell for me to score a shitton of kills as Phantom too, in fact, he’s probably my best merc, doesn’t change the fact that he’s a lone-wolf character that does nothing for his team along the lines of support.

An invisibility suit would have to camouflage you as everything around you and provide a perspective based display on the suit. When running, the Cloak should remain the same as when walking - mind you, Phantom’s skill is called Refractive Armour, meaning that it works by bending light, moving faster doesn’t change the rate at which light bends, at least not visibly to a human eye. How can you look at it from a scientific perspective if it doesn’t exist yet?

(Frogteam) #3

Seconding g2e’s input, racking up kills with Phantom is easy. Doing more than that is not, which is a problem in a 5v5 environment where every merc pick matters.

(blisteringOwlNest) #4

Yeah I agree completely with everything OP has said, but that’s not what people are complaining about. If you were going to go on competitive mode, who would you pick? Maybe phantom, but then you lose a potential healer, engi, or fire support and you don’t get the health of an assault.

I love phantom to pieces, but apart from rushing sparks and aura, and headshoting pheonix, I can’t say I’ve ever been valuable to the team effort.

(Szakalot) #5

Phantom is still weak balance-wise. He has no utility and average killing potential. Yes armor is nice, but not ENOUGH for 5v5, where you have to choose between another DPS merc or a medic.

(Black) #6

[quote=“gg2ez;125909”]You’re not getting the point of these threads. They’re not balance threads, they’re “give Phantom the ability to contribute more to his team”. It’s easy as hell for me to score a shitton of kills as Phantom too, in fact, he’s probably my best merc, doesn’t change the fact that he’s a lone-wolf character that does nothing for his team along the lines of support.

An invisibility suit would have to camouflage you as everything around you and provide a perspective based display on the suit. When running, the Cloak should remain the same as when walking - mind you, Phantom’s skill is called Refractive Armour, meaning that it works by bending light, moving faster doesn’t change the rate at which light bends, at least not visibly to a human eye. How can you look at it from a scientific perspective if it doesn’t exist yet?
[/quote]

Not true. Since Phantom is invisible he can give away enemy positions, hence recon.
He is also very good at defending objectives and choke points.
I don’t know if I’m the only one who does this but alot of time I cloak near an objective and wait for a proxy to come plant so I can just walk up to her and get an easy kill.

He can actually support his team better than a fragger who only provides suppressing fire and a nade ever 16 seconds.

Again, all this controversy over Phantom is just from people who just don’t know how to use him in the best way possible.

(thoroughPistachio) #7

OP is missing point… Phantom better not get screwed over because of dummies.

(Ballto) #8

OP:
http://rs283.pbsrc.com/albums/kk287/Wien13/smilies/3_2_10.gif~c200

(Ballto) #9

Also this, especially in dome, cloaking by turn ins and C4 can and has saved many games

(LifeupOmega) #10

We’re not balancing for pubs though. Phantom is literally useless in a 5v5 scenario because any other recon and assault merc can do his job better than he can. The only time I’d ever use him would be to defend a C4 charge by sitting on it and gunning down the engineer, and even then that’s a stretch.

Who cares if he can walk somewhere and not be seen, when the other recons would just pop off everyone’s head in the first place. Same with using the katana, why bother when any other assault and recon can just kill someone from further away for less risk. There’s almost no reason to ever utilise his cloak over another merc’s killing potential - maybe, MAYBE, if you want to get a quick C4 plant, but again that’s the only scenario that he’s potentially better than the others.

Pub players just aren’t a good way to go off balancing a merc, because it makes people think that they’re actually useful because they wiped a team of potatoes.

We really wouldn’t.

(watsyurdeal) #11

I get what the op is saying but like a lot of people here he misses the point of those threads.

Nobody is saying he isn’t playable in his current state, but rather in his current state, when push comes to shove there is no reason to use him.

First of all, no character should be built around being a lone wolf in a team focused shooter, so let’s get that out of the way. Second, he does need a second ability when you consider his health, weaponry and current ability as is.

How many mercs have 100+ hp, and smgs? Bush, Sawbonez, Phoneix, Nader, all meet these and have abilities that do more to get things done. This isn’t a game focused on DM, it doesn’t matter how many kills you get with Phantom when your team doesn’t push or you yourself don’t contribute to the game as a whole. And if you want a merc designed to kill people, chances are you will pick Fragger or Nader, as they’re abilities do more to get the job done.

His Refractive Armor can be useful if you play it slow, crouch walking everywhere and being stationary while the enemy runs past you. But the problem is that it’s not NEARLY versatile enough to be used beyond that, what about offensive play? Can you walk in without getting noticed? No, can we buff him to fix that? Yes but not without making him frustrating to deal with as it’s not fun to fight someone you can’t see.

Even in his current state, if they buffed Phantom to where walking was even harder to see, the way I vision it is this.

Stationary: 0% visible
Crouch walking: 5% visible
Walking: 10% visible
Sprinting: 20% visible
Taking damage: 40% visible

I can see that working out quite well for Phantom in his current state, but the problem still remains that he does not bring much to the table. Anyone who wants a killing class is not going to pick Phantom over Fragger and Nader, so we can at least give him niche or something that makes him stand out from Vasilli and Red Eye, while also maybe adding some potency to his killing potential.

My idea is a scrambler or decoy, imagine the Heartbeat Sensor, but a reversal, he throws it out, and it produces fake spotted enemies, drawing people away from the objective, or luring them to where he is so he can pick off opponents one at a time.

I think that would be enough to not only make him a good assassin merc, but a good anti Recon merc as well. It would give him a better niche that can’t be filled by any other, therefore increasing his worth just enough to use in 5v5.

(Despaniard) #12

Thank you all for your comments. They have helped me see the point I was missing. Indeed, I was referring to pubs, not ranked. I thank you all for your attention on this post and your patience with me.

This post is now closed. Thanks to all who contributed.