Why Redeye won't be the Phantom miracle counter everyone hoped for

(Arri_Shi) #1

People are going on about how Redeye will be the one thing to counter Phantom, but from what I know about him, I don’t see how that’s so. Here are a few reasons why he’ll probably get stabbed just as easily as any other player.

  1. Weaponry
    Redeye’s armed with an M14 knockoff, which is somewhere between the Driess and the PDP, this is so he can pick off targets through the smoke he puts up. It was also rather infamous for needing to ADS for accurate shots, as the weapon was notorious for its terrible hipfire, meaning his close range capabilities come down to his sidearm which isn’t exactly a point in his favor when paired up against Phantoms close range arsenal of DPS slingers. He’ll also supposedly have some kinda special melee weapon himself, but the effectiveness of it is up for debate, but of course, melee isn’t exactly a good fallback.

  2. Range
    Most Phantom kills happen within melee to mid range, usually at the hands of the KEK-10 and derivatives. While Redeye is efficient at range, he lacks close combat capabilities. Unfortunately, most Phantom encounters happen at very close ranges, usually due to him successfully flanking, or taking ranged hits with his cloak shield. While Redeye can certainly see Phantom, he still has to deal with both the cloak shield and whether or not he’s in range to blast him to ribbons, if he hasn’t already been flanked and had a sword up shoved his ass.

  3. Orientation
    Flanking is Phantom’s greatest weapon, and Redeye isn’t going to be a good counter to that. Redeye’s playstyle seems to be to smoke a chokepoint and gib anyone that tries to poke through, similar to what Vassili does down long corridors. But while Vassili has a sensor to watch his back, Redeye will most likely be watching a corridor through his iron sights most of the time, meaning that despite his ability to light up enemies like a christmas tree Redeye still has a lack of situational awareness, and Phantoms always know to lurk in your blind spots.

Now, all of this is subject to change, but I’m just saying not to be disappointed if he doesn’t turn out as well as you hope.

(cornJester) #2

As of right now Rhino completely shuts down Phantom. You can see him from a mile away and even if he does attack you with melee you can tank it easily. The fact that most Phantoms try to get in close plays right into Rhino’s game. He’s currently the best counter and I suspect will continue to be if they don’t make him actually stealthy.

(Azure Emulation) #3

It should be noted that Vassili’s Heartbeat Sensor doesn’t peel off Phantom’s cloak anymore. But anyway…

I mostly agree. There’s also the fact that he’s the only one with the IR Goggles, so only he can see cloaked Phantoms and see through the smoke. Unless a Redeye player can actively notify his team of Phantom’s flanking path through mic communication, then he won’t exactly act as a hard counter. You can’t depend on your Redeye ally to be hunting down Phantoms all of the time anyhow.

(watsyurdeal) #4

Honestly the only reason Phantom has the Armor at all seems to be BECAUSE of Red Eye, so when he comes out finally it’ll be a good chance to see how Phantom is affected in the meta.

(VincentRJaeger) #5

[quote=“Azure Emulation;56456”]It should be noted that Vassili’s Heartbeat Sensor doesn’t peel off Phantom’s cloak anymore. But anyway…

I mostly agree. There’s also the fact that he’s the only one with the IR Goggles, so only he can see cloaked Phantoms and see through the smoke. Unless a Redeye player can actively notify his team of Phantom’s flanking path through mic communication, then he won’t exactly act as a hard counter. You can’t depend on your Redeye ally to be hunting down Phantoms all of the time anyhow.[/quote]

If I have heard correctly, the enemies Red-Eye spots will also be seen by his teammates.

(Arri_Shi) #6

Edited out the comment on the heartbeat sensor. Yea, the only thing Redeye counters is the visual cloak itself, which honestly isn’t really the most dangerous thing about Phantom.

(MTLMortis) #7

Phantom is dangerous? Since when?

(irishrOy) #8

Stoker would be nice… :>

Throwing some Molotovs, area-denial with fire, maybe the fire even after-burns on Phantom and he’s the living torch from the fantastic four :wink:

(god1) #9

Phantom in his current state is a complete waste of a merc slot, every other merc that a competitive team would put in that role outclasses him. I don’t see why anyone would hope for a counter to the most useless merc in the whole entire game.
Regardless of this, Red Eye is going to be seen very often because he has smoke grenades and the access to the most powerful gun in the game.