Hero Balance

speaking of that there’s also a bug where the bomber’s hitbox around the head is completely nullified when you activate your Q,that should probably be fixed

There is a report bug thread for this stuff, use that instead.

I don’t understand why you guys are suggesting an AR and Shatter nerf for gunner without buffing rail gun. As much as we love sniping, it just isn’t any good in maps other than space station, and the fact it takes like 4 snipes to kill a blaster and that shocker domes completely negate them are a large part of the reason. They need a buff.

Rail gun is perfect the way it is, I have never heard of anyone (until now) suggest changing the rail gun in anyway. It is near the most perfectly balanced weapon in the game. High damage, high utility and kill power with the catch that you actually have to be able to hit with the thing. Youve faced plenty of no miss snipers Toad, what made you think the rail gun needed changing. I miss often and still see the thing as a very fair weapon. I even have this bug on me where I will hit a target and it will do no damage, and I still feel it is perfect. The rail gun is the most fun weapon in the game.

So first, I’m talking only about matches with strong players (at least Lft+ rooms) rather than the general population, since in a random Shuttle Bay match you can win with any class due to a big skill discrepancy between you and other players. With that said:

It’s simply not good in any map except Space Station. In any other map: you get hunted and killed and have little to no effect on your team’s ability to cap. You’re too easy a target. You can’t snipe past shocker domes. You can’t do anything to Blasters or Tanks.

Now I get that people like Panda who have practiced rail gun a lot, may think that it is balanced. But it’s important to note that he invested maybe over a thousand hours into practicing with rail gun, for it to become viable. For most players, even experienced G1+s, rail gun is not worth the effort outside of Space Station.

I think most people will agree I am a strong sniper. But I feel very powerless sniping in most Lft+ matches where everyone can just sneak up on you. I have to focus 10 times as hard while sniping with Gunner just to not die all the time to people hunting me, and I am not nearly as effective in helping my team win as if I was playing Scout or Blazer.

Additionally, I am frustrated that Rail Gun takes 4-6 shots to kill a Blaster (I will not even talk about how retarded it is to try to kill a Tank with sniping). In most shooters a snipe to the head is an instant kill. At worst 2 shots. In this game you have to snipe someone over and over and over. It doesn’t make sense, especially considering that most of the maps are not designed to have good sniping spots.

1 Like

I also have another point to make. I think a lot of the people calling for an AR and Shatter Bomb nerf (without a buff to make up for it) are doing so not for the purposes of balance, but for the purposes of promoting more “skilled” play. Many Gunner players are frustrated when they see a successful gunner that never uses the rail gun during a match, instead using the assault rifle and shatter bombs. This is similar to how most scouts are annoyed at “SMG spammers”.

I don’t think this is a good way to balance the game. If you want to promote skilled gunner play, exclusively nerfing gunner (which is a IMO a very balanced class) is not the solution. Instead you want to nerf the things that cause unskilled play, but buff the things that cause skilled play. In the case of gunner this means that Shatter Bomb might be nerfed, but Rail Gun should be buffed in its stead.

2 Likes

I respect your thoughts and do understand your thought process. I as you know I play Tank down right exclusively and when I jump into Lft+ matches (with there being so many more generals now than there used to be almost every game is a lft+ game) i have no problem with sniping and when sniping you want to be focused IMO because you wont be sniping on cap and most blasters (at least the smart ones) see you as the biggest threat bc you are a blasters biggest threat at this point in the game. So they will focus you and not go on cap and even with my sniping skills (very few look at me as a good sniper) I have no problem handling my own. I think (assumption alert dnt feel disrespected and correct me if I am wrong) your problem is you dont know how to create the space you need to continue sniping then you feel frustrated and switch to commando which is 1. your top class(and scoot) 2. the best up close striker class in the hands of someone like yourself.

Part of being a sniper is learning how to kill a target before they reach you because snipers are the most focused targets in the game (just ask Ryan). So them focusing you is rewarding you as you are sniping correctly and getting that bastard blaster off of the cap. We are all more than capable of sniping a target that is flying straight towards you spamming rockets. However when in doubt run, trademark of any scout player is to run when not in control of the fight and is likewise for a gunner reliant on sniping.

What I suggested was an ammo and a range reduction, to be fair it’s way too long. Rail gun should be fixed on other aspects which it’s hitboxes (I briefly explained this in the report bugs thread, this is what causes the no damage hits as well) and the proper distance damage buff. There are times that I need to land 5 or 6 shots one after an other on a normal gunner to kill it, which doesn’t make any sense. Same goes with some close shot that could do a third of their hp without any reason. The distance doesn’t provide damage bonuses like it should, that’s the only thing I can complain about. The overall damage is fine by me, taking time to kill heavies is appropriate for that kind of class.

1 Like

Well about all the points that I wanted to highlight on gunner rail just been said.


I never understood the part about distance = more damage… because never have I ever felt in 4 years of FFT that it did its job…
Even before the update we actually had the no damage hits and rare 3-5 hit kills for gunners rail, but that was RARE I repeat RARE now it happens every single time.
Gunner is overall the most balanced class in this game, the only thing I for one find it needs is a fix to the rail gun bugs…
Also AR range is just fine (imo), you think its long most likely cause the difference in map size. Since SB is the smallest it feels like you can hit from one end to the other. Larger maps like SS doesn’t give you such a feel.
Maybe a reduction according to each maps specific length?

1 Like

(correct me if I am wrong) your problem is you dont know how to create the space you need to
continue sniping then you feel frustrated and switch to commando which
is 1. your top class(and scoot) 2. the best up close striker class in
the hands of someone like yourself.

Yes, you are wrong :p. Like rja, PIS and Panda (okay maybe a bit less) I have a lot of practice with Gunner and know how to play it well - I think they would vouch for me. In fact I almost have twice as many kills on it as I do Commando, and far more than Blazer or Scout (I’m not even particularly good at Scout). I’m not saying this to toot my own horn or anything, just to say that even though I am good at Gunner, I still think it needs to be buffed in some respects.

Look at SuperSonic’s post. He is (used to be?) very strong at Blazer and there were many hard games where I saw him dominate with it. But he still thinks Blazer needs to be buffed and changed. This is because when you try to be objective about it, Blazer really does need a buff, no matter how good you are at it personally.

1 Like

The problem with the range is that in space station you can literally hit on the other sides while using Q, from point to point, I personally hate that. In Shuttle Bay it’s literally long a third of the whole map length, I get it’s an “assault rifle” but still…

And other thing about rail gun is the map itself. On some specific places you aren’t able to shot properly at all because the shot gets stucked in the ground or wall. In moon base every platform you fire from makes your shot slightly higher than where you actually aim, aiming the floor to hit a target on it isn’t the best game design. And sniping foes too much above you is a pain, mostly because after a specific amount of height compared to your position, the shot will get stuck on the floor. That’s why I always back off and jump when someone is approaching me from those prospectives, so I don’t get that weird angle that screws me completely. On this last one I’m not really sure if it’s meant to be this way to make it more “realistic” or it’s just a bug, but I’ll tell it anyway.

Or just add in (currently missing*) obstacles when long-range sniping(make the damage output realistic to what you actually do in-game, basically). I assume the reason long-range sniping rewards more damage is because there’s an implied difficulty level unmatched by ‘normal’ sniping. This is skewed because Fft maps are too small to accurately display a ‘proper’ sniping format, and any sense of heightened difficulty seems to not exist, directly or indirectly because of this.

I imagine the user-friendly aspect the current sniping system brings would take a toll if anything were to change. Learning to snipe(well) in this game is perfectly, well, you know, user friendly. It’s not too difficult. It’s not too easy.

Tbh I want some changes for Railgun:
1.) Railgun projectiles should be less visible or almost invisible. (Please implement this!!!)
2.) If damage is buffed, the cooldown should be longer.

Sniping is also extremely good in TA.


The only change I want for AR is to decrease its magazine size by 60%.

You want the AR to only have 24 rounds in its magazine? Also why does the sniper bullet need to be less visible, you need to be able to be seen where you are sniping from. Change the hitbox problems and the hit = 0 damage and the rail gun would be fine. If it does more damage per hit but shoots slower that (depending on the numbers) the DPS would stay the same.

My opinion, nothing more.

The only thing that needs to be fixed with Gunner is it’s rail gun glitch, when you hit someone but do 0 damage. Other than that the class is fine as it is. Why fix something that’s not broken? They should be worrying about the OP classes.

2 Likes

Its extremely easy to spot/track/detect snipers.
1.) The projectile is extremely visible. (And plus, its a long straight line)
2.) Player’s name appears above when the player is pointed.
3.) Player’s name is visible for several seconds. (To the point that the killed target that respawns can still see the name of the player who killed them.)
4.) Maps are extremely small and sniping spots, barricades, and corners are extremely limited.
5.) It takes several shots to kill a target.


I play as a sniper 24/7 on other FPS/TPS shooter games. Most of the time, you should be stealthy, camping, and hiding most of the time. In FFT, you are extremely exposed and vulnerable when sniping.

Lol, then why do you want him nerfed?

Pis in that way a sniper will get too strong. Remember great damage output for high risks, a sniper has to be spotted fast otherwise it’d be painful to deal with. You know quite well that even if it takes few shots to kill stuff it’s still not a problem, because the cooldown is fair. Implementing what you are saying would make gunner rail gun focused and not able to handle any ambush. Yes I do agree that AR has some flaws, but removing 60% of the bullets? Really? What I had in my mind was to reduce 10 bullets max( and the ridiculous range). This is an arena game, not like other FPS/TPS, fast paced, those changes would make the class slow and even boring on a high degree. You’d see people camping because it would actually benefit the strategy.

I hope you remember how I used to play gunner many years ago. Never on a spot, moving all over and sniping whenever I had a chance. I always enchanted the fact of being spotted and you should too.

Actually that’s a buff…

Making mag size to 24 is a buff? What…

The buff is rail related, I wasn’t talking about that ridiculous reduction of bullets. I didn’t make mtself clear, not gonna lie.

Y8 Games