Quote:Just to illustrate the problem. Before the mouse controls got destroyed with the randomized wiggle in the mouse movement I had a 1.98 kdr (not something I give a damn about, but it's the easiest way to show the problem) runnnig logi with assault rifles. Since then, running logi still, my kdr dropped to around 1.3 or so.
In the past week I've been running a gallente scout with a cloak and a mass driver. First night I did this I lost two suits the entire night, racking at least 30 kills before I called it a night. My usual kdr, with me spending a lot of time placing links or reviving people (in a scout suit), in those matches is between 5.0 and 9.0. Technically, because I go the whole match without dying most of the time. I never even played scout before 1.8. It's the combination of the cloak and medium suit levels of hp causing this to happen, and I'm only running two enhanced plates on my tankiest fits. I use precision enhancers in the highs and 1 ewar in a low usually.
With the advanced cloak I'm pretty much untouchable unless I get unlucky with a bad spawn that places me near reds before my dampening skill turns on. In FW I've found that I'm at more of a danger of being run over by a friendly LAV than I am of getting killed by an enemy.
Here's how it typically goes: I start running toward an objective and cloak up when I get near. When the coast is obviously clear I may sprint to cover despite the blue shimmer. Then once I've established that I'm safe I'll turn off the cloak and let it recharge. While this is going on I keep a close eye on the radar and plan my attack, decloaking behind up to 4 enemies if nobody is looking my way. If there's 3 and only one is looking my way I yolo and kill him first (unless it's a sentinel, then I nope out of there). I kill one or two people then sprint behind cover and immediately cloak up. Because I'm using the advanced cloak it's extremely unusual for me to not be able to cloak up at will. This one aspect makes me nearly invulnerable, since very few people ever spot me.
If they do, moving at walking speed while changing directions is often enough to throw off their aim if I'm not highlighted on their radar. If they've got a good aim on me then I have tons of armor available to keep me alive until I can get behind cover. Then I turn off the cloak and sprint away keeping the cover between me and the bad guy and then recloak. If he didn't get eyes on me while I was decloaked they never find me again at this point. It's absurd how much damage I'm doing as a solo scout. Put another similar scout, or two with me, and we'd wipe out a full squad no problem. If the scouts use their second equipment slot for a nanite injector it'd be unlikely for anyone to lose a scout suit.
Observations:
- It seems to be the combination of high tank and cloak that makes this so cheesy. Without the cloak I'm easily spotted at long range or in peripheral vision. With the cloak I never get spotted until I'm close, and then only if someone looks right at me. Alone this seems perfectly balanced and in keeping with the intent for cloaking
- It's too easy to use the cloak for a long period, turn it off and then immediately recloak. This means that when I attack a small group of players they never have the opportunity to return fire. I'm gone and invisible before they ever get into a position to take me out. Increasing the capacitor requirement for the cloak to 75% would do a lot to balance that aspect of this game style. I could still do surprise attacks, but not against larger groups without support of my own.
- It's unusual for me to need a damper. I think logi suits fitted with precision enhancers should have a chance to actually detect me, especially given how short their scan radius is to begin with. At that range even if they did see me, it's likely because I'm about to attack. This would at least give his squad the ability to turn around and punish me for taking on a group solo.
-Active scanners are just plain bad atm.
-I kind of feel like the second equipment slot isn't really needed, as much as I like my cloaky dragonfly scout proto uplink fit. It certainly doesn't make me feel like pulling out my logi suit which only has 1 more equipment slot. Especially with mediums dying instantly to scouts, leaving heavies as the only targets for my rep tool (which draws invisible ninjas to me like white on rice). On a combat scout fit I only ever run an injector because I rarely stick around in one spot long enough to drain a nanohive, and deploying any kind of equipment would just give away my position. It kind of makes scouts the ultimate squad support platform. You can kill very, very effectively while providing passive scans which makes revives and repairs less needed.