Viability of Assassins? Post-Nerf (NO LUNGE GRAPPLES)

Re: Viability of Assassin's Juice? Post-Nerf

I agree with your OP that the juiced Assassin is now paperthin. Unless you smoke bomb turrets chances are you will take heavy damage and be killed if any defender is in shooting distance. I haven't had the pleasure to go up against a 3.3 RockIt but I imagine it's a lot more dangerous now. Smoke bomb isn't going to last forever and there are usually more turrets.

Re: Viability of Assassin's Juice? Post-Nerf

True, and on a heavy base defense there's at least 1 firebase next to the Rockit that will take destroy you.

The assassin class IMO never should have existed in the first place and the only reason it's here is because TF2 had an invisible dude so MNC had to have an exxxtreme version of invisible dude. It's too weirdly different and relies on the most janky and inconsistent form of combat in online games...melee.

This new patch is still too buggy to be judged in terms of balance yet anyway imo. I've been grappled in the air, grappled during charge, during the air while charging. Shot around corners, had the whole game freeze while three people standing close by frozen and then everybody died mysteriously....etc. Assassins in my experience are more dangerous than ever if only because the goofy bugs seem to work in their advantage.

ummm...what?

just because this is a class based shooter doesn't mean it automatically has to be compared to TF2, already a poor argument. Secondly, sure the assassin has her melee useage, but it's not her ONLY form of attack. I, for one, happen to use the shuriken launcher and feel that it is a very VERY versitile weapon and very much under-appreciated one at that. If you're constantly melee spamming an AIRBORN TARGET like a flying assault or a jetting tank/gunner, you're doing it wrong. If you are charging at people constantly from the front with the cloak and assume I R TEH INVIZBUL NINJA and don't realize you make a very noticeable hum, you're doing it wrong. If you NEVER use the shuriken launcher AT ALL, guess what? You're doing it wrong. The reason a lot of people are saying the Asassin is OP or whatever is because they don't realize how to play her or deal with her. Once you realize that she's got the health of a chair made of balsa wood at a McDonalds, then you've got nothing to worry about but to bunny hop and shoot her in the face. This recent "nerf" made it THAT MUCH easier to deal with assassins. It's understandable to a certain extent as to WHY UBER did this move, but I feel that it was done way too extremely.

As to your TF2 thing, same thing applies, but I can get more into that in PMs.

Assassins have a place and can be countered if you are aware of your environment. I believe it was lag.

Anyway

I have been noticing that assassins are easier to kill

It's a class based shooter where the characters are quirky ethnic stereotypes that taunt each other based on their weapon and are divided in red and blue teams with an announcer...okay. There's even in game hats to acknowledge WHERE the character was influenced from. That MNC scoops from TF2 hardcore is not debatable. Unless you are taking a moral highground there is no shame in being unoriginal (that's not a unique characteristic in the gaming business anyway) only if you don't do whatever you are doing well IMO. One thing MNC does very elegantly is the combination of the engineer and the medic into a support class. It's the right blend of repair/healing and aggressive action. MNC won't suffer the lack of medics in pubs like TF2 for that reason.

The problem with the assassin and to a degree the sniper is that encounters are so absolute that minor hiccups in lag or whatever brainfarts the server has can push the class into one extreme or the other. It just doesn't match the "rhythm" that other classes have where they spend some time "dueling" with one another. In a game where everyone is a bullet sponge and you lose some input no big deal. But in head explodey games like Call of Duty anything fishy goes on and someone explodes.

Have you considered that this game bearing any sort of resemblance to another game is purely coincidental. I'm not saying it is, but there is that chance.

I think that was kind of ruled out with the TF2 skins. :/

edit: Plus I really doubt that the dozens of similarities that MNC bears to TF2 are purely coincidental. They are completely different games but its hard to be ignorant to the fact that the developers might have borrowed a little something from the games that they personally enjoy.

^Indeed.

I'd like to see the nerf play out over the next few days before I can say yes or no.

I haven't played since the patch, and now I don't plan to. Hurray for giving heavy classes an even bigger advantage in a game that barely revolves around anything but deathmatch anymore. Wee.

Also anyone that whined about Assassin before the patch was terrible. I mean it, lol.

The nerf gives very little headroom for mistakes as Assassin, which often means I play much less aggressively than I used to. Utilizing the environment, and harassing enemies with Shurikans, the Assassin still makes a good offensive support (softening the enemy, suppression, etc).

The number of assassins seems to have gone up shortly after the patch and then normalized.

The biggest change I've noticed is that juice is far less useful and seems to require running away well before it's finished to avoid dying. Also finding yourself anywhere near a good tank without the ability to lunge away (smoke takes too long) seems to = death.

I can attest to this. In a random pub game, I went to Assassin first, then for some unknown reason, the other 3 players also went assassin. They were some of the worst Sins I've seen in quite a while, they ignored the bots altogether, 2 of them not getting so much as a kill, and all of them getting 10+ deaths. Needless to say, my team got stomped.

Had one guy opt to run around as an assassin and also griped left and right about how the team was sucking and such.
Checked the scoreboard after gameend... he had 5 kills, a dozen deaths and not even 30 bots destroyed. I had 15 or so kills, 8 deaths and over 100 bots trashed, as an Assault. :|

I even had a game where myself and one other ran as Supports and both of us somehow managed to get top scores on our team, with at least 2 assassins on our team. X|

Re: Viability of Assassin's Juice? Post-Nerf

I predicted with the sniper, that every class would get nerfed twice before everyone realized that none were OP to begin with.

Which one of you mods wants to change my forum name to "Nostradamous".

Maybe we should leave the sniper's clip size and damage where it is, leave the assassin's armor where it is, but return everything else to normal (heavy jetpacks and such nerfs). Then, nerf the assault's grenade launcher damage by 20-30% (or at least to the moneyball), and tell anyone else with complaints that their "ideas" are breaking the game.

Re: Viability of Assassin's Juice? Post-Nerf

Since when does someone who mainly plays assassin agreeing with you, make you right?

In that case, I've said Armor + Assassin is too good pre-patch, and that you're not a good assassin if you don't run with armor. Apparently the devs agree. I guess that makes me more right, right? /sarcasm

What did they change other than the armor endorsements? Why "NO LUNGE GRAPPLES"?

I don't care either way, keep nerfing classes until you get to tank, and then stop. That way, I get to be the OP .

Wish Capcom were as nice as these devs are to me. They would make Vega and Gen completely fast and safe with more invincible frames on ultras, like Chun Li and Guile are currently (and then nerf those 2 of course lmao).

Currently, the gunner (not so much the tank), the sniper, and the assassin have seen nerfs. The assault has seen a mild one (I simply get more consistent OHKO charge-deathblossoms on them when they have armor is all). The support isn't a real threat on an uncooperative team, so when the assault gets a nerf now, and I will be God tier. I don't actually agree with the nerfs, but it doesn't hurt me so I will simply stop posting.

At least all the classes won't be nerfed worthless on the xbox, where people actually use the classes in a matter that makes them balanced without free nerf handouts.

HAY GUYS LOOK AT ME I PLAY STREET FIGHTER

HEY WAIT A MINUTE! You can still lunge-grapple with assassin. Someone lock this thread, it lied to me.

Nah, just played it before I sleep for work, and she is still fine. Sorry to say this, but lrn2play. Assassin is probably even friendlier than before to beginners and vets alike (just makes suicide attempts actually end in death, go figure).

I withdrawl my previous arguement, snipers and assassins are fine and I can even live with the jumpjets. That assault could still use a moneyball damage nerf, and we have ourselves a balanced game here folks.