Muzzle flash on minmatar weapons makes it hard to keep track of the player.

Dimmed Light blue chevrons/tanks/CRUs behind the scout make it hard to concentrate on the exact color of the cloak, making it hard to see as well.

Honestly I think the main problem is the sound. If someone stands right next to you and de-cloaks, the sound is barely audible compared to gunfire, RDVs, heck even the background game ambience. The sound on de-cloak was supposed to be a balancing factor so that if a player decloaks right behind you, you'll know about it.

Finally, it's disorienting to play a FPS where the only way to move your head is to move your entire body. Unless you're standing still, looking in the same direction, or have your sensitivity set to max in order to reduce the amount of time you spend "turning", it's almost impossible for your eyes to spot the difference between motion blur and a cloak shimmer.

And to top it off, if I do end up seeing a scout, and I do shoot at them as they're coming at me, and I do manage to fire at them for 10 seconds, they still don't die because they also have 500-600 ehp. Trying to stay on target while your muzzle flash gets in the way, or while he jumps around like crazy, or while there's a huge group of blue dots in the background, or while the person runs right past you disorienting you because of the limits of a 2D perspective FPS...makes it so that unless I'm focusing REALLY hard, I will probably end up dying by the scout 50% of the time.

Use my eyes? Get my eyes checked? Keep situational awareness? It's all excuses for the cloak creating an unfair fight and you/me/every other scout knows it. The disadvantage of the shotgun is range. The cloak eliminates that issue, and the main balancing factors for the cloak (i.e. sound and not firing from de-cloak) are currently broken, causing all of the problems that people keep complaining about.

It's a fair fight if you sneak up behind me, de-cloak, and I see a red-dot blip on the radar because of my precision for about a second before you're able to start firing on me. It's a fair fight if you de-cloak too close to me and the sound made by the cloak gives me the chance to run around and face you. It's a fair fight if you have to use dampeners and you de-cloak 10+ meters away from me in order to insta-kill me with a suit that has almost no hp at all. It's a fair fight if I watch my back all the time and am able to kill you within seconds because I spotted you.

I only use the CR, SMG and Flaylock. I use the Minmatar Assault. I have never not been able to see a cloaked scout that was in my vision, and if I did then they did not attack me. I highly doubt the Cloak is OP. I have only been killed by people using the Cloak twice, and they were both from the back and so it could be done without a cloak.

The entire "fair fight" perception is invalid because of the way the game works: unfair tactics are the name of the game. If I attack a heavy who has an HMG from 300m away with a Sniper Rifle, then it could be considered an unfair fight by your reasoning, because they never have the chance to kill me. There are countless examples like that where unfair tactics are simply the tactics that are used by default.

Because a lot of people are stupid ...

Out of curiosity, how stupid is your boss?

Lots and lots of folks whine about cloaks and Scouts, but the Ydubb cloak tears are a special kind of salty.
Kinda like "there's nothing I could ever possibly do to beat this darned cloak" salty.
Or maybe like "this is all too much ... I'm gonna go biomass myself on Twitch" kinda salty.

I only use the CR, SMG and Flaylock. I use the Minmatar Assault. I have never not been able to see a cloaked scout that was in my vision, and if I did then they did not attack me. I highly doubt the Cloak is OP. I have only been killed by people using the Cloak twice, and they were both from the back and so it could be done without a cloak.

The entire "fair fight" perception is invalid because of the way the game works: unfair tactics are the name of the game. If I attack a heavy who has an HMG from 300m away with a Sniper Rifle, then it could be considered an unfair fight by your reasoning, because they never have the chance to kill me. There are countless examples like that where unfair tactics are simply the tactics that are used by default.

Oh I can't wait until CCP nerfs your FotM fit and you cry. Have fun being able to kill people while you can scrub. "boo hoo I can't get free kills anymore... boohoo" HTFU.

Ok liar. Sure.

Most of the time it's because you can't see them on your tacnet or you engaged in a firefight.

I actually want to know, because wearing a cloak in this game gives you about as much invisibility as wearing black clothes and laying in the middle of the street. If you think that's OP then you should rethink your Dust career, or get your eyes checked.

Lol. Been a Scout since Chrome. You're calling out the wrong guy.
I'm afraid the onus of HTFU rests upon those whining unduly over cloak.

cloak vs dark background = dead cloaker

cloak vs super bright or sky background = invisible

That's how it goes....

Cloak just needs the free non-stacking-penalized complex dampener removed, it messes up the ewar meta.