Phantom

[rob]

It's pretty clear (to me anyway) that Phantom is OP. It's totally stolen Trailblazer's thunder and there is pretty much no role it can't do -- it's even non-terrible at convoys. I want to make it a less potent scout (less than blazer anyway), and I want to make it less of an obvious win for clearing. I want to bring it into balance.

Its total DPS is 90; I try to aim for 75 plus a little when not all enemy types can be hit (eg, Minotaur). I think it should go to 85 or maybe 80.

The cloak and shield refills essentially refill the 4x200 shields, even when taking a decent amount of fire. By increasing the inner shield refill delays by another second (from 6 to 7 seconds) we reduce the amount of fire the Phantom can take and still get a full shield refill. That is, the outer shields will have to hold for another second to start the inner shields regening. Another possibility would be to slow down the inner shield refill rate, so they take longer than the current one second or so to fill.

These nerfs make it less effective in clearing, but I think it might still be too good a scout. Besides the shield refills, it's pretty easy to just blast down a Beta Processor and rest there. Maybe overdrive and burst damage need a nerf as well?

If you have any ideas, I'd like to hear them.

[fire]

It is definitely true, the best idea I can give you is to replace the cloak with another damage trigger. Will make it still useful for clearing, but will take away its current scouting use, and probably wont be seen at convoys anymore either.

[Justin (cellphone)]

Whenever I'm not scouting (I don't do it often anyway), I just use the trailblazer cloak to regen my shields. It's a lot more efficient than the instantly regenerating shields when tanking deltas or nova minions. What if there's a slight shield buff, a longer cool down, and the cloak can be replaced with the teleport-forward ability that I forgot the name of.

Would this be too much or too little?

[tribow]

Rob, I think it is just the fact that the phantom can destroy a tower and rest there if need, the blazer simply cant. I know that trigger that takes down vehicles is really op (that thing on convoys is beast), but when it needs rest it cant really do it without using the cloak trigger which cant be used very often in a row. Plus the inner shield cant take as much as the phantom can.
So here's an idea, the blazer has a MUCH WEAKER vehicle only turret that, well obviously only hits vehicles. The gun trigger could be changed to a trigger that activates a turret that aims for towers while the vehicle only turret gets the buff (the buff could be turned down a bit).
That shouldn't be too op.

[Ood]

Replace the cloak with a invulnerability trigger that does not regen shields (like the corsair) similar (or exactly) to what it had before its buff. Nerf the shields thickness slightly (not to previous levels), but keep the damage output.
If that isn't enough (edit:)to decrease scouting capabilities (/edit), look at longer/slower shield regen rates

Why is invulnerability better than cloak? Numerous reasons:
1. You can't regen your shield during invul.
2. You're now a co-op tank.
3. Scouting is more troublesome because things will target you even if not damage you.
4. You go back to the generally perceived purpose of the phantom; eating damage, not avoiding it.

[hypevosa]

Invulnerable still has its abuses, but it does need some kind of "I bit off more than I can chew" trigger like the cloak was intended to be (I believe).

How about a forceful shield refill that ignores being hit resetting its refill rate? So you have something great for making you able to ignore minions, but can be overcome by heavy enough damage from things like convoys, zeta, etc?

Less blatant abuse as you'll still take HP damage, still makes it great for fighting large groups surrounded, buddabing budda boom?