PD-97 Bloodhound

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iRobot
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PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by iRobot » Thu 15 May , 2014 10:55 am

Spent a lot of time trying to get this to work and just can't seem find any romance.

Observations-

Poison duration feels a bit low.
Prox heal completely negates the weapon.
Riot shield stops poison damage, or at least lowers it (even if you swap to riot shield after being poisoned)
Dual wield seems wildly inaccurate.
Poison seems to cap at 10/s, which reduces any benefit to going dual wield in the first place.
Ammo reserve is underwhelming.

So some suggestions to make this one a bit more viable;

• 33% longer poison duration. At the moment it feels like I stop hearing the ticking after a relatively short period. Since the darts do not have good impact damage, the poison duration should be prominent.
• While poisoned, you do not receive any proximity healing. Other healing sources work normally. Alternatively, while poisoned, I notice you have a cloud around you. Maybe make this contagious.
• Riot shield bug fixed. It should block shots while equipped but it should have no effect on current poison status.
• No change to dual wield if the above factors are considered.
• Remove poison cap. If you hit so many consecutive shots, you should not be punished with a cap.
• Double the ammo reserve. When you use berserk the reserve ammo goes up from 30 to 60, so there is room for it. 60 seems spot on for a full round of 11 opposition players.


Thoughts?

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Butcher
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by Butcher » Thu 15 May , 2014 3:54 pm

Just want to comment: Its a pistol, so it should be not so powerful as you expect it to be. Its already powerful enough compared to others in same load out slot.

Dual wield sucks in general, shoots simultaneously and no aim possible. Reload is asynchronous though, so you have 2x reload time...
Bloodhound riot shield bug to be repaired..
Ammo reserve is OK for a pistol type...
"An BW match is a test of your skill against your opponents' luck." :)

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iRobot
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by iRobot » Thu 15 May , 2014 4:11 pm

Butcher wrote:Just want to comment: Its a pistol, so it should be not so powerful as you expect it to be. Its already powerful enough compared to others in same load out slot.
Armchair critic. Try using it. I have done for two days in many games exclusively.

Consistent skill drops every game. Not that I care for the skill drop, but it's a way of showing I cannot kill people with this weapon.

This weapon is only a minor annoyance to the other team, not a threat. Small dots do not work with the proxy heal as potent as it is.

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Azarael
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by Azarael » Thu 15 May , 2014 4:23 pm

His point stands, however. If this weapon is buffed to main weapon class, the sidearm slot is clearly not fit for purpose.

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Ollievrthecool
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by Ollievrthecool » Thu 15 May , 2014 4:35 pm

Have u tried using it for healing team mates. It is an assist weapon.

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Butcher
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by Butcher » Thu 15 May , 2014 4:37 pm

iRobot wrote: Armchair critic. Try using it. I have done for two days in many games exclusively.
I did try it, had complete match with it, actually I killed you 2 times with it in DM-Foy, while you were trying it too... ;B
Is obvious to me that your result is inferior than when using an assault,shotgun, sniper or machine gun in the same map... is like fighting with only MDR pistol ... but your score was 1st in the game, net positive, using only Bloodhound? ... that's what others can't achieve with even KS2 weaps. I think is great as is because you can shoot without FFR problems; as I see it, there is an advantage for this weapon when the map is big, and the opponents are disperse.
:)
"An BW match is a test of your skill against your opponents' luck." :)

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iRobot
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by iRobot » Thu 15 May , 2014 4:37 pm

I don't follow this distinction. I can use something like the eagle, well most other pistols better than a lot of people use assault rifles here. I can actually contribute to the team with them. No wonder everyone uses the same weapons when the actual slot is balanced around being sub-par.

Who cares if it's a tactical nuke or a boxing glove, all weapons should be viable. Bloodhound is currently not for reasons given and the counter argument being "lol but m8 it's a pistol" is just a cop-out.
but your score was 1st in the game, net positive, using only Bloodhound?
This is the problem. The weapon does a lot of damage over time, but this damage is worthless. It's instantly healed off and you might score highly, but your actual kill figure will be low. Anyone can take the longhorn and fire it into a group, doing a lot of damage but killing nobody. Same for A500 alt and FP7. It doesn't make these weapons good.
Ollievrthecool wrote:Have u tried using it for healing team mates. It is an assist weapon.
I have not, because if I wanted to heal I'd use something like the HMC that does it better. If the basis for this weapon is it being weak because it can heal then I again see why we have all the server using the same four assault rifles.

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Azarael
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by Azarael » Thu 15 May , 2014 4:52 pm

I would rather then see this discussion revolve around giving pistols a role with the intention that they be an option on par with main weapons, rather than making the Bloodhound the best option.

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iRobot
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by iRobot » Thu 15 May , 2014 4:58 pm

As I mentioned above - a lot of the current sidearm slot weapons are fine, but some are just awful. I don't recall the names of them so I can't give you examples, but the Bloodhound stands out as I like the poison mechanic. I like DoT effects, which is why I suggested the same for the coach.

Bottom line for me is, Bloodhound seems to trade damage up front for damage over time, but that over time damage is too easily ignored by proxy healing and low duration. Not only would preventing prox heal while poisoned make it more dangerous, it would encourage other members of the team to use healing items and/or weapons.

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Aberiu
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Re: PD-97 Bloodhound

Post by Aberiu » Thu 15 May , 2014 6:20 pm

lol but m8 it's a pistol!

However I agree that currently it is not very useful. If you're a healer in general you will use HMC or CX61 and you will not choose bloodhound because you will need more firepower to defend yourself.
What's a sidearm for in general? I think it's supposed to save your ass when both of your main weapons run out of ammo. Therefore a pistol should deal damage (or heal) immediately.

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