Hello there. Long time player, first time poster. Been playing this game for a long time. I have 7 classes at lvl 6. And I have soloed HOE with 4/7 classes. So I consider myself somewhat decent at the game.
I would like to explain why the recent change of weapons vanishing when rounds start has nerfed the firebug harder than any other class. To the point, where the class has absolutely no merit to bring into a HOE game compared to the other 6 classes.
I'm sure many of you have read guides about the importance of ammo conservation with the firebug and the flamethrower.(the sticky on this forum even tells you to do this). Let me tell you that if you want to hold your own with the other classes in HOE, to ignore most of that advice. It's wrong for the most part. You flame hard, you flame often. You hold that sucker down. Just don't blind your teammates. All this crap about letting zombies burn to death. NO. If he's close he can and will hurt someone before burning to death. You incinerate him into the ground.
Before this patch, the BIG BIG advantage firebugs had over other classes in HOE, was that they had by far the cheapest heavy damage weapon with the flamethrower. A mere 225. It has the best damage/price ratio in the game. They had the highest sustained DPS. Meaning that in HOE, you could start stockpiling flamethrowers faster, and more of them compared to any other class. It was not uncommon for firebugs to have 7+ flamers on standby on the ground by wave 7. What other class can stockpile their big damage dealing weapon 7-10 times over in HOE??
When I played firebug on HOE, I would only use the MAC10 to assist my team through wave 4-5. Spending all my money buying flamers and dropping them at the camping spot. I would make 2, and if lucky enough, 3 trips to the trader to stockpile flamethrowers. The hardest waves were wave 7-10, and if you had invested well and planned out your trips, you could essentially hold down the fire button with infinite flamethrower ammo. That is what a firebug brought to the team. No other class could even come close to you in trash clearing when you managed your flamethrowers well. (well maybe the commando, depends on the map). But you were unparalleled during wave 7-10, where all your flamethrower planning paid off.
This was not an overpowering trait. Firebug was not a "solo HOE blindfolded class" like the beserker. He couldn't take out scrakes or FP with 150 cost weapons like the sharpshooter or the berserker. He was not a fast class like the medic or the beserker kiting the entire swarm over the course of half an hour. he was only useful on very specific maps in HOE.
So with the addition of vanishing weapons at the start of rounds, the biggest and strongest advantage of a firebug has been removed. Why would I use a firebug for HOE now? Even if i conserve my ammo exceptionally well, I wont approach the trash clearing power of commando. He just has more ammo than I do. The husk gun, a scrake stunner essentially, is done easier with a beserker or sharpshooter. It has low ammo for its purposes and it not a trash clearing weapon. I could understand if you could use it with the flamethrower, but its weight forces you to choose between the flamethrower and the husk cannon. You're dead weight to the team on HOE difficulty after wave 4.
I know you have weapons vanish because of performance issues, but as it stands now, the firebug is left a broken and sad class. You have to rethink the role the firebug has in HOE now if you plan to leave vanishing weapons in. Is he a trash clearer? Because after wave 5 as it is right now support, sharpshooter with EBR, commando, berserker, and demolitions are better than him at it. Is he a stunner? Because sharpshooter and berserker is better at it than him. Is he an emergency "OH ****" class? Because the beserker and demo is better than him for that.
Anyway thanks for reading, and I hope the firebug can be brought up to the level of the other classes again.
Great game btw.
I would like to explain why the recent change of weapons vanishing when rounds start has nerfed the firebug harder than any other class. To the point, where the class has absolutely no merit to bring into a HOE game compared to the other 6 classes.
I'm sure many of you have read guides about the importance of ammo conservation with the firebug and the flamethrower.(the sticky on this forum even tells you to do this). Let me tell you that if you want to hold your own with the other classes in HOE, to ignore most of that advice. It's wrong for the most part. You flame hard, you flame often. You hold that sucker down. Just don't blind your teammates. All this crap about letting zombies burn to death. NO. If he's close he can and will hurt someone before burning to death. You incinerate him into the ground.
Before this patch, the BIG BIG advantage firebugs had over other classes in HOE, was that they had by far the cheapest heavy damage weapon with the flamethrower. A mere 225. It has the best damage/price ratio in the game. They had the highest sustained DPS. Meaning that in HOE, you could start stockpiling flamethrowers faster, and more of them compared to any other class. It was not uncommon for firebugs to have 7+ flamers on standby on the ground by wave 7. What other class can stockpile their big damage dealing weapon 7-10 times over in HOE??
When I played firebug on HOE, I would only use the MAC10 to assist my team through wave 4-5. Spending all my money buying flamers and dropping them at the camping spot. I would make 2, and if lucky enough, 3 trips to the trader to stockpile flamethrowers. The hardest waves were wave 7-10, and if you had invested well and planned out your trips, you could essentially hold down the fire button with infinite flamethrower ammo. That is what a firebug brought to the team. No other class could even come close to you in trash clearing when you managed your flamethrowers well. (well maybe the commando, depends on the map). But you were unparalleled during wave 7-10, where all your flamethrower planning paid off.
This was not an overpowering trait. Firebug was not a "solo HOE blindfolded class" like the beserker. He couldn't take out scrakes or FP with 150 cost weapons like the sharpshooter or the berserker. He was not a fast class like the medic or the beserker kiting the entire swarm over the course of half an hour. he was only useful on very specific maps in HOE.
So with the addition of vanishing weapons at the start of rounds, the biggest and strongest advantage of a firebug has been removed. Why would I use a firebug for HOE now? Even if i conserve my ammo exceptionally well, I wont approach the trash clearing power of commando. He just has more ammo than I do. The husk gun, a scrake stunner essentially, is done easier with a beserker or sharpshooter. It has low ammo for its purposes and it not a trash clearing weapon. I could understand if you could use it with the flamethrower, but its weight forces you to choose between the flamethrower and the husk cannon. You're dead weight to the team on HOE difficulty after wave 4.
I know you have weapons vanish because of performance issues, but as it stands now, the firebug is left a broken and sad class. You have to rethink the role the firebug has in HOE now if you plan to leave vanishing weapons in. Is he a trash clearer? Because after wave 5 as it is right now support, sharpshooter with EBR, commando, berserker, and demolitions are better than him at it. Is he a stunner? Because sharpshooter and berserker is better at it than him. Is he an emergency "OH ****" class? Because the beserker and demo is better than him for that.
Anyway thanks for reading, and I hope the firebug can be brought up to the level of the other classes again.
Great game btw.
