Undervalued and unloved healers

Meanwhile, there's this guy, the healer on my team. His total healing and damage was less than the 4k damage I did*, but he still got the star. He wasn't a bad healer, he just wanted to front-line a lot. Both of our Shooters were always on full health as a result, so most of his healing was on me. Strange isn't it? Maybe he healed Fat_Mama a lot early-game, or all of his healing pulses on other players just happened to be at points in the game when we were doing our most damage?

*For clarification, most of the healing in the picture was self-healing. He only healed for about 2.3k. I would have used the post-battle screen, but I didn't see this thread until after I left that match.

 

Fixers should be resilient because they are most targeted ship, pulse nerf just pushed fixers in corner from where they can't escape. This ship class is on the verge of extinction.

 

The problem is the notion that double Pulse was too resilient - Fixers have never dominated the top of the leaderboards, they have consistantly been rare at peak performance level.
Which is why I've just given up - If devs think Fixers needed that nerf, then its (in my view) clear that fixers will never be allowed anywhere near the top.

Between flare Gun (30%), Tesla (100%) and weapon burst damage at high level, Fixers were never unkillable. Perhaps this nerf was made (or agreed upon) before the draw changing patch, where a fixer opting to flee alone might have been hard to kill?

Tdlr: If devs still think Repair Pulse nerf was meaningful then Fixers arent intended to ever be a top class.

 

Double-Pulse was too resilient. There's a game outside of Nightmare, Mk 5 and 6 Fixers running that set-up were too difficult to kill. It's only because of that nerf that Fixers started using anything else. That said, the nerf was a little harsher than it probably should have been so they could have gone about it in a better way. My main problem with the nerf as it stands right now is that it's given way to people seriously using Duct Tape. Double-Tape is not less annoying than Double-Pulse, it's just annoying to both teams instead of just one of them.

 

When you nerf the only viable setup to an already underperforming class, it might lead to other setups being used, but it also turns a mediocre class into the worst one.

Yes there is a game outside of Nightmare, but that is where builds and items become compareable as items cap and talents are maxed out. Fixers were not overpowered nor impossible to kill before the nerf, not sure how that fallecy turned into a standard argument here.
Messing with max level balance in an attempt to fix low level issues is completely hopeless game design.

Yes, I'm bitter that I dedicated 6months of farming to gear up Fixer despite knowing that other boats were more powerful at mk6. I figured that they would balance it out over time, instead they opted to make it even worse.

 

But that's cheating man!!!!!... Using firebomb

 

This is your opportunity to see 3 star healer or at least a 3 star selfish healer



This is from another battle which i didnt record

 

No. And I'll tell you why.

It is *way* harder for me to hit an enemy across the map with my Railgun or Sniper Rifle, than it is for me to run by a teammate or 3, and hit Pulse. Then I hit one of those guys with an 800hp Bolt, and then immediately for another 600hp with my other Bolt. Wait 12 seconds, spam it again.

Meanwhile I just did 313 damage by miraculously hitting a fool sitting still with my Sniper. Healing is infinitely easier to rack up points wise than damage. I have to WORK to get 3k damage...but getting 10-20k healing in that same match took very little effort at all outside of staying alive and making sure you've practiced leading your shot.

I do agree with you that us Fixers get shafted on Stars. I've had (3) 3 Star matches as a Fixer (4 months, ~3,000 matches...) and I had to get otherworldly numbers for the gear I was running (15-18k healing and 4K+ damage). Hopefully they address this but to be perfectly honest I wouldn't have the slightest clue how to fix it. All I know is a 1:1 ratio would automatically make it extremely unfair to non-healers...we want to be respected for playing hard, not hated for getting rewards we barely worked for.

 

I say this with all the Fixer love I can muster; but I hate, hate, HATE the fact your setup seems to be working. I myself am contemplating dumping my Fixer because we can't survive much these days, and I hate myself for even THINKING about using Duct Tape at all since seeing you strut around. Ugh, I feel so dirty...

 

As I said, they could have gone about it in a better way. Though I disagree that double-Pulse was Fixer's only viable setup, the fact that people even thought so shows how underdeveloped the class was.

The reason I keep talking about the game outside of Nightmare, especially in this game, is because progression in this game, as you've often stated and argued yourself, is extremely slow. I'm not going to bother talking about capped items and maxed talents when no one freaking has them. Just cash users and early adopters.
I agree that they weren't impossible to kill before, that didn't mean I was happy to see them. I'll concede that I wasn't playing at that level, but I want you to point me to any video that shows an old double-Pulse Fixer dying in any reasonable amount of time. Seriously. If P0rthos's vids were any indication, they didn't go down that fast at his level, either.

On that last note, I think you might be overreacting. P0rthos got some good Defender matches in despite saying multiple times that it was the worst class in the game. You might just have to switch it up a bit.

 

Oh I'm absolutely overreacting All 5 classes are playable within reason. My point is that Fixers got nerfed despite not being amongst the top classes, which in my view is complete bullshit

To some extend I understand your view that low level balance matters, but for the most part I'd argue that the infamy system does a fine job of "balancing" below nightmare level. If a class is slightly better, then they will have higher infamy and face tougher opponents. No need to distort end game balance to bring mk4s closer in infamy spread.

 

imo pulse nerf should be the other way around, 100% efficiency on fixer itself and 50% on teammates, the aoe heal if spammed its just way too op... 2 pulses its like aoe 200hp per second, if the team is grouped thats 1000hp per second of healing, i dont recall any weapon having 1000dps
also imo shooters need more hp and 1 more weapon slot, i mean 4k hp at mk5? that's oneshot for most of the nightmare players and mk5 shooters get matched up against them a lot.
all the teslas need a nerf as well as big torps' splash damage, while freeze gun\blasts need a buff\rework cause honestly they have no use
the op trend i see at 4k infamy is tesla speeders\double pulse fixers\123718923718923hp defenders

 

Fixers undervalued? Nah, my 3k damage was surely contributing more than his 8k damage + 20k healing.
Star system has some crazy logic that overvalues my speeder to an absurd degree!

 

I'm not a healer, but check out this screenshot. We won only because our healer did TWICE the healing of my top damage. Their damage was massive and they should have won. But I get 2 stars and he gets just 1? He should've got 2 imo.