Wtf? 10 seconds for a single sparks pack?

(bgyoshi) #41

We know, we’re trying to make her good and unique, instead of bad and worthless :frowning:

(Gire) #42

I have always thought when i see random teammate playing Sparks that “Oh, im not getting enough heals now” My point is, buff Sparks med pack healing or increase recharge rate.

(AlbinMatt) #43

But she was never intended to be a full on healer… Hell, SD made Guardian without any heals.

You need to always have two medics, that’s just the meta bud. Whether it’s Sparks or Sawbz, no one medic can handle four or five other people alone. Just ask for a Phoenix or an Aura if you have a Sparks. Better yet, if you feel like it, switch to a medic yourself so long as you feel like other roles have been sufficiently filled.

(Teflon Love) #44

Still waiting for SD to design a medic merc that can neither heal nor revive quickly.

(AlbinMatt) #45

Still waiting for Scrubbs…

(DarkangelUK) #46

That’s Skyhammer

(AlbinMatt) #47

To be fair, I’ve been revived a couple of times by newbies, especially Skyhaggis of course.

Hats off to those sods that died to crouch down for three seconds and touch a dying body.

(bgyoshi) #48

Or better yet, ask the Sparks to switch to either Phoenix or Aura; whichever one the other medic isn’t.

And gave her a real set of guns for killing, a useful ability, and AoE resurrection. That’s what we call a “trade off.” Sparks has bad/worthless guns and bad/worthless health packs in exchange for long-range resurrection. That’s called a “nerf.”

I’ll always stick fast to Sparks being the worst and most worthless medic. I’d rather have literally any other medic class on the team instead. I’ll also always push for a Sparks buff; it’s really sad that she’s so terrible and under-performing compared to the rest of them.

(GatoCommodore) #49

at least if SD wants to make her a hard to use merc they could have made her rewarding to play, instead, they just put nerf after nerf to her ability to the point that why even bother picking her?

(Jigstraw) #50

Sparks oneshots 20/23 or 86.9% of the merc roster
“wow sparks has shit weapons”

No one medic should be able to do everything, okay? sparks is great at reviving and great at killing if you have the aim to make use of her kit. She is a bit lacking in the healing department, but if she were equally proficient at healing, there’d be no reason to use any other medic.

Every medic has one or two things they excel at, at the expense of one area where they’re a bit lacking. Why should Sparks be any different?

tl;dr: sparks isn’t bad, you’re just not good enough with her. Or maybe the sparks on your team isn’t, if you’re not the one playing her. Just because someone isn’t reaching the height of her potential doesn’t mean she has no potential.

(AlbinMatt) #51

Ok, I never played Sparks for that long, but I know, for a fact, that SD didn’t give her “just” long range defiblirators. They gave her a Fel-Ix that just so happens to be a long range defib. And two secondaries, and selfsustaining instant healthpacks, and the fastest category of merc in the game next to Aura (but at least she needs to be anchored to her morphine dispenser).

I played a game with someone that was actually really good with Sparks. I swear, she put Phoenix out of business. By the end of the match, I had like six revs, tops, and she top scored, almost solo wave wiping and resurrecting everyone.

I do agree that the nerfs seem unfair, seeing how constant they are, but pushing for her to be almost as good as Sawbonez and still have the chance to outplay Aimees and Vaselines just doesn’t sit right.

(bgyoshi) #52

With a 30% damage fall off after 1/5th the range of FELIX, and a max hit of 120 meaning anything farther than practically in your face gets hit for 84 damage max; aka, not a one shot on any class but Sparks and Aura. Oh, did I also mention there’s no scope on it and the damage per magazine is lower?

By this logic the minigun is also a FELIX that just so happens to have a high fire rate

Two of the worst secondaries in the game**

Meaning she isn’t healing the team in any capacity

Because she has 90 hp, the second 80hp, the lowest of all medics and better only than except Aura, who is a main-line competitive pick despite having shotguns. (EDIT: 80hp, corrected by other users)

Me too, and like I say any and every time someone tries to play the “but I played with a good [insertmerchere]” card: They would’ve top-scored with any other medic, solo wave wiped with any other medic, and revived every other teammate anyway. Being Sparks didn’t enable the player’s success, that person is just good at the game.

Don’t get distracted by her self-healing; it’s easy to outgun her self healing with even moderate aim. Prioritizing self-healing means she isn’t healing her teammates, and playing with your gun always charged looking for teammates to revive means you aren’t killing the other team.

She’s not a good medic, and arguably the worst of all.

(AlbinMatt) #53

Aight, to be fair, I was never up on the numbers, and I often play mercs with low health so maybe that biased me.

Afaik, she has 80 health. Maybe I misread that.

Selfsustainability isn’t the core benefit of her, it’s all of this in tandem. Arguably, the machine pistols are meh at best but the revifle does seem to be her main ass.

I’ll agree that she needs some buffs to her medpacks, but only enough for her to be a pick me up kind of healer. Otherwise, she might overshadow the other medics. The revifle is a touchy subject though, since you could turn a potato player into a decent teammate but make pros into gods.

I can see you’re very passionate at this though.

(Your worst knifemare.) #54

@AlbinMatt @bgyoshi Sparps is 80 hp, equal to Aura when it comes to hp and speed.

Sparps heals 45 hp to teammate and only 25 hp for herself, which even then is more useful in healing in the middle of a firefight than Sawbones packs would be especially without cover.

Her Revivr isnt meant to be as powerful as the snipers are, however at midrange a fully charged headshot can down most mercs and leave Fragger with 10hp. Thunder with 40 and Rhino with 80, where it’s easier for you or a teammate to quickly finish them off.

It also can revive teamates from any range as long as you have sights on them and it charges quicker than defibs.

Also the Revivr doesn’t really need a scope since most of its shots go to the center of your crosshair anyways.

MP nerfs made them pretty bad now I’ll give that.

(AlbinMatt) #55

Of course, you’d be a Sparks coniseur.

(Jigstraw) #56

25/45 self/teammate healing also goes up to 30/54 with potent packs.

And extra supplies reduces the cooldown for each by 2 seconds. If you’re really that determined to heal people, get the first edition 382 sparks loadout that has both potent packs and extra supplies. You can grab it in the store for 17500 credits.

(bgyoshi) #57

Or I can pick Phoenix, which heals twice as fast as Sparks with less cooldown and can actually reliably kill players. Or Sawbonez, who only needs two packs to fully heal himself and the assault. Or Aura, who can heal everyone around her without needing to aim. All of them better choices than Sparks

This is why Sawbonez is the pocket medic and Aura is the team medic. Sawbonez has more HP and an actual gun, making him infinitely more reliable as a pocket healer than Sparks as he can gun down with the assault and full heal both himself and the assault, and dump two packs behind him for the team during the push. Aura can heal the entire team at once and leave a safe zone for other players while simultaneously buffing her own HP considerably, without having to switch weapons. This is why she’s infinitely more reliable as a team medic than Sparks.

I know, but you’ll have to convince some other players that the Revivr isn’t a sniper rifle. And with the choice between relying on having perfect headshot tracking at 80hp or using a Crotz, the Crotz wins every time. Not to mention that if you’re perfect enough at headshot tracking to always win firefights as Sparks, you’d be infinitely more deadly with Vas or Aimee while someone else can be a better healer.

I know Sparks can be deadly and strong, but… again, anyone who is a good Sparks will be a better Phoenix/Aura/Sawbonez/Guardian. She needs a buff, big time. Giving her Revivr more range is a bad idea. Giving her a PDW would be perfect.

(Jigstraw) #58

Your constant argument seems to be “wow sparks isn’t as good as (other medic) at (thing other medic is good at.)”

None of the other medics are as good at reviving as sparks, who can not only revive people that other medics couldn’t revive without getting themselves killed, but also revive multiple players in a shorter timespan due to the revivr charging to full much faster than defibrillators. You could argue that Guardian’s bionic pulse is better, but it’s really only effective if the teammates die in a tight-knit group. Sparks doesn’t have that limitation.

Sawbonez can’t heal in combat because the medpack gets canceled out by taking any damage whatsoever, and if he misses a medpack or his teammate doesn’t pick it up, an enemy player can.

Aura can’t heal in the middle of a push because her station can’t move up with the team

Phoenix has one pulse, and then he’s on cooldown unable to heal for however long.

Guardian can’t heal at all.

You’re pointing out all the strengths of other medics while focusing solely on Sparks’ weaknesses and it’s not exactly a fair assessment.

I love sparks. She’s got such a busy, active playstyle, essentially ‘micromanaging’ her teammates. She seems to be the only medic who can effectively be everywhere at once providing support from the back of the team while swapping between different lanes with very short turnover inbetween.

https://youtu.be/Z4SYbggISuk?t=9m7s like in this video on castle where i’m pretty much alternating between two lanes as well as going for a cheeky flank at one point. And with a loadout that has neither potent packs, nor extra supplies for extra healing. Just get up for extra health on revives. I’m not claiming to be a great sparks player, but I really don’t think she needs any buffs just because some players can’t do well with her. Some players are bad at vassili too, but nobody wants recons buffed.

https://youtu.be/huuGxQrbhgg?t=13s Here’s another example of sparks doing things other medics just couldn’t do. video is from before the revivr/machine pistol nerfs, but her capacity to revive teammates hasn’t been nerfed whatsoever since it was recorded, so I think it’s a pretty fair example of her strong point.

(bgyoshi) #59

I’ve maintained that Sparks’ only unique strength is reviving at range throughout the entire conversation, and countered that the sole ability to heal at range is pale in exchange for an inability to be reliable in a combat role (res/retreat/res/retreat, as you do in your videos), a general inability to get kills (poor weapons), and a poor healing ability (as you said, if she misses a pack or her teammate doesn’t pick it up, an enemy player can. At least Sawbonez packs on enemy players can be cancelled).

Comparing her to Sawbonez is entirely fair as they have different health packs and strengths that can be pitted against each other. On the one hand, Sawbonez can’t heal in combat, which is why you go into combat with him shooting and heal AFTER combat. As pretty much every ranked player ever will tell you, being a gun down on a push is a guaranteed way to lose. After the firefight, Sawbonez only needs one pack to heal himself compared to Spark’s 3, one pack for the assault compared to Sparks’ 2-3, and still has two packs left for anyone else that might need them, on top of being able to tk/res as well. On the flip side, trying to pocket with Sparks means you’re going into a 1v2 instead of a 2v2, or a 1v1 instead of a 2v1, or a 2v3/3v4/4v5, with someone who won’t be adding damage and has to be perfectly tracking the player in front of her, or have split attention, to throw packs that don’t miss, all in hopes that the enemy isn’t plinking headshots to kill faster than you can throw a pack anyway. So you get +30 health, +1 combatant, and +2 health packs in exchange for giving up long distance res. Sounds good to me.

And of course, both videos only serve to prove why she’s an ineffective medic: There were plenty of missed or stolen kills that were only so simply because you’re relegated to using the Revivr. Most of your revives weren’t even at range (mostly because you don’t suck and know to stick with your team) and could’ve been done by any other medic, at least half of your healing you threw on your team was completely inconsequential (didn’t bring them above or close to 3/4 HP) and your lane coverage is precisely what I do with a class as slow as Fragger already, who is just better at combat all around. None of the benefits pointed out are unique to Sparks and ALL of them, with the exception of the two or three truly long-range revives, could’ve been done better by another non-Guardian (since you’re all indoors) medic. The second video is mostly ignore-able since it’s pre-nerf and the Revivr WAS legitimately unfair in those days. But again, it’s only strength highlighted is her long range reviving, which I’ve already pointed out, is not good enough in the face of what you have to give up for it.

And by all means, I’m not saying your performance was bad. It was perfectly fine for a Sparks, but you would’ve done a lot better with Sawbonez, Aura, or Phoenix. Without question

And that’s the problem. She’s just worse than everyone else.

(Your worst knifemare.) #60

You have to know the medic to main the medic.