I was in agreement on the statement that it was a shortsighted suggestion, although my reasonings differed from theirs.
What I'm getting at is that I giving Sharpshooter Fan Fire--which was OP's original suggestion--is a bad idea and the fact that it came up as an idea hints at a misunderstanding of how the perk is intended to be used. Given their history on this forums and others of asking for blanket class buffs, I should've asked to clarify, but that wouldn't be for much since I don't really see the point in the first place. But what the hell.
Humam2104: Aside from the fact that it would further blur the lines between perks--something the game shouldn't be encouraging--the main issue with giving SS Fan Fire as you suggested is that, unlike Gunslinger (which it gets inevitably compared to), you can't just give the perk with the hardest-hitting weapon/skill tree combos
in the game that kind of firepower because it's busted as hell. LLLX with Railgun/M99 would be literally the strongest thing
in the game. Think of how many Railgun shots one could reload cancel in 18-21 seconds of Zed-Time, which is what you'd get with a competent Commando on the team. Now multiply that by the average number of times an experienced team triggers Zed-Time in a game. That's one player wiping entire groups of FP/QPs on their own accord.
That's not even getting into the fact that it would still be a blanket buff in terms of all their other weapons because Sharp is balanced around somewhat-slow but hard-hitting semi-auto weaponst (and I guess the FN-FAL's alt-fire mode). This would give them a universal buff against trash as well as large Zeds.
Unless the team itself was absolutely
dire in terms of aiming you'd want a Medic, a Commando, and 4 Sharpshooters with Fan Fire, because the only reason to use a Gunslinger instead would be "for fun." Between 6 players on the field and the fact that all the sharps can use sidearms, you'd more than be able to get away with playing 4 characters like that.
In their current iterations, Assassin and Ranger differentiate the Sharpshooter from the Gunslinger in multiple ways:
- Both perks emphasize the importance of hitting headshots--the thing you should be doing to begin with
- Both are legitimately good options instead of one being completely worthless, as is the case with most perks (as better damage > other stuff)
- Assassin is meant for dedicated HVT nuker builds by minimizing shots-to-kill for heavy weapons
- Ranger is meant for team support on M14 builds by emphasizing CC/stun over direct shots to kill, which gives the generalist loadouts some breathing room for takedowns and allows the rest of the team to pitch in on takedowns, where appropriate
- The Sharpshooter's 5% universal chance to trigger Zed-Time is a nice bonus for LLLLL builds and one of the main arguments for running a Marskman build. It isn't necessary to win the game--Zed-Time in general isn't--but it is a part of the game's perk balancing and marks the Sharpshooter as the more team-oriented perk vs. the Gunslinger's "solo-friendly" inclinations
Changing one of these to Gunslinger's current equivalent of "Fan Fire" would further remove that balance (Sharp isn't designed to spam in Zed-Time) and make them more like the Gunslinger to begin with (something TWI seems to be avoiding given their design decisions).
Of the two of them, I'm inclined to believe that o2 is the more confused one, as his admission that the "typical" minimum of one third of (presumably) a 6p HoE team dedicated to SS does more than just imply that the SS is vital to consistent winning. If there are statistics to back up his claim, then I would say that the SS is OP and needs to be nerfed.
I believe
o2xVc3UuXp0NyBihrUnu is referring to the high-level HoE/CD "holy trinity," where Sharpshooter is the perk that triggers Zed-Time, Commando extends Zed-Time, and other perks (primarily Gunslinger) use that extended Zed-Time to ruin everything on the field. Not that other perks can't do it, but these three are considered the best at high-level play for a reason: their synergy complements each other in a manner that other perks don't share.
The catch, of course, is that you can only reap those benefits if you know how to play the perks well. In fact, I have a hunch that if you asked most players, they'd tell you the most important perk in HoE is Medic.
For better or worse, this is not a game where other players need to intricately understand perk interactions in order to win, but that's for a different thread. But for those that do, well...Sharpshooter with the Railgun/M99 is considered OP in CD games and, outside of boss waves, players on those servers will ask you to switch loadouts so you don't completely remove HVTs as a threat.
In short, Sharpshooter gets better the better you get at aiming, and the more you improve at the game as a whole. It's probably the hardest perk to get a full grasp on in terms of hidden mechanics, but that's part of the learning curve. Most of the talk around Sharpshooter on forums, in fact, seems to be that Sharpshooter is in dire need of a buffs (which I disagree with).
In a properly balanced game, no one perk should be considered so vital.
It's about generalists and specialists, after all; it's just that some specializations are more useful than others when players fully grasp the game's mechanics. If your team is good enough altogether, Medics can AFK and not make a difference. If the team struggles to efficiently kill things, then Medic and Berserker suddenly seem a lot better. Just like how TF2's meta has the Medic as
the defining point around which the game revolves. Some dislike that. Others embrace it.
But barring a complete redesign of the game and its mechanics--and probably completely trimming out some perks--you're never going to get an equally useful roster. That's just the nature of the beast.
Perhaps the Commando should be watered down as well to help encourage people to hone their skills to a level where they can win without using ZT as a crutch.
That's going into a completely separate hypothetical discussion.
