For the record I play pretty much exclusively as Fire Team, had two matches as the Predator and one of those was by accident as I was queuing as “play either”, this is how I want to play the game and I did the same with Friday the 13th (Never chose to play as Jason).
So I played this game since release, and when I got to level 40-50 ish I started running into allot of Berserker Preds with the combistick that would charge in zerging and wipe out a fireteam in a few seconds. This new tactic I was coming across completely changing the playing field and I went from winning mostly, to losing allot more than I would win (I know about the parry and tried it, but it still seemed more likely the FT would die to the zerg). Anyway, this was very frustrating as it seemed like a very cheap way for the Predator to play and get good results.
Anyway, I began to notice two things, when I was playing. When I lost to the Predator it was usually one of two ways, combistick zergs or those who played from range and would pick people off with the plasma canon (getting one hit kills with what I assume was fully charged hits). I never really minded losing to that way, but the combistick zergs were just taking away any enjoyment I was getting from the game.
I voiced my displeasure at this more than a few times here. Then patch 1.6 hit and I read the notes and there was so many nerfs to the Fire team, and many buffs to the Predator - only nerfing to my knowledge, the combistick and plasma canon. Taking the notes for face value it seemed like massive nerfs to FT when at that time I was mostly losing more than I would win and many buffs to the Predator. I thought sod this then and thought I’m done with the game.
But today I thought I should at least try out the patch and see how I feel rather than just make that decision based on the patch notes. Oh my what a shock I found myself in…
I played for a couple of hours and did not lose to the Predator once, even in one game where I didnt have a full team. In most games it didnt even feel close, in fact in the last game I played the Predator I think used all his heals, never really got close to taking any of us out and just gave up, he came and stood in front of us and let us gun him down.
Ok, I will be the first to admit I was very unhappy playing the game and getting wiped out by Berserkers with their stick and voiced that, as it was ruining the game experience for me and just seemed cheap. Never had much of an issue with the plasma canon when losing to that, I’m not sure if there was a way to counter it, maybe not and it needed nerfing… but I didnt feel cheated, I would come out and think of things I could have done to maybe change the win, or my team could have done.
Anyway, for all my previous complaints, which as I say I voiced here, I didnt want this, I want to feel under threat from the Predator, like I’m being hunter. I want to feel like I should keep an eye all around me and above, as if it gets the element of surprise on me I’m fighting an uphill battle. I’ll m now level 77 (pretty much exclusively playing FT) and from the games I played today, I quickly began to feel like that threat was gone, the Predator was more of a nuisance that would occasionally pop up and be a distraction.
Now I dont want the combistick zergs to come back, but I realised something as I was playing, which was there before 1.6 patch, i just didnt see it. The Predator only had 2 reliable methods of winning, the plasma canon sniper/stalker and the (cheap) Berserker combistick zerg. Both of those got nerfed in the patch and now it doesnt feel like they have the tools they need to get the job done.
I have no doubt there are still some really good players, using nets and traps and getting results. But for the more general players, they are always gonna feel like they are fighting an uphill battle against the Fireteam.
So what can be done to help the Predator… I dont want to see the combistick restored to pre 1.6… but a few suggestions…
fireteam classes should be more defined, only certain class can take certain gear. Medics take heals, support take ammo, so on. But you need to fix the lobby so that the FT players actually are able to select there class before the game starts (at the moment you rarely get the chance to do that)
combistick should be reworked, it should have durability or something, and using it in melee reduces the durability, throwing it as a spear should be a 1 hit kill (or at least close to it) but reduces the durability to zero. Or maybe add a way to sharpen it, which like the FT who muddy up, every so often the Predator needs to sharpen it and when fully sharpened the damage is higher, and it does less damage the less sharp it is
reinforcements, I actually like these but I can see how they give the FT an advantage over the Predator and should maybe be a bit more difficult to get reinforcements than how it is now
parry, ok I dont like the parry system at all, it’s not fun gameplay and just doesnt fit the game. But as it stands it needs to be there to counter a Predator who wants to melee rush. I don’t know the answer to this
nets should not be breakable by the person caught inside it and only by teammates, this might make it a bit OP I’m not sure
Anyway, i was just spit balling ideas, but something’s need to change as the game wont last long if A) you dont feel threatened by the Predator or B) the Predator can just wipe you out with melee zergs… it’s a going to be a fine line to get the balance right, but at the moment it’s to eskewed in favour of one side over the other.