I think we can agree that pre nerf flamer used to be an absolute god tier weapon, and that we don’t want to bring back that. However, Flamer received many nerfs at once, and it did hurt it too much.
It received a nerf on these points :
Ammo reserve and clip got reduced
Damage against Flak armor (which is the most common type of armor) got Halved
The stagger got reduced significantly, and now doesn’t provide protection through CC (it used to instantly stagger ragers, now it can barely stagger anything that isn’t a basic unit)
All of these points being taken down individually seems fine, the flamer had extremely good damage, comfortable enough clip and ammo count so it could be “spammed” without being too wooried as well as a very good stagger that worked on the full wave
But nerfing all of that at the same time creates a negative synergy. For example, nerfing damage forces flamers user to use more ammo to kill targets already, so nerfing the ammo count and clip size in addition of that doubled down on the ammo economy of the weapon
Same thing goes with the nerf of both ammo and stagger : The weapon used to be spammable because it had both a large ammo stock and it staggered everything, making it always very safe to use (little worries about wasting ammo + it instantly created security). And once again since both are gone now, it made it way too situational : Instead of using it constantly, you have to double check if the situation really requires spending ammo or not, and if you are already in a safe position to fire (and i can’t stress this enough : It rarely happens, you very often get interrupted by taking damage when using flamer now)
Flamer is bad now. It is still amazing in some rare situations where you’re facing a horde in a corridor for example, or if you’re against a monster and nothing is aiming at you directly, but other than that it is just a very frustrating weapon to use now. It takes ages to draw, ages to set up the secondary fire and it is terrible at killing low density hordes, terrible in open spaces and terrible at helping zealot to reach melee : It very badly needs some buffs
Ehm, you still need like 5-6 ammo to kill horde or 15(instead of 10) to kill mixed horde. But oh my god you need to think and position a bit more than before. Nothing has changed with this “nerf”.
Yeah, like from 200% to 100%, just means that flak doesn’t die twice faster than everything else.
And don’t forget, to roll a god flamer you basically need a 1 stat – burn. Everything else just a nice addition to kit. It’s still one of the strongest weapon on it’s own without perks and blessings.
…So it got indeed, halved : What is even your point there ? It doesn’t make any difference to go from 100% to 50 or 1K% to 500 if it results in the same numbers, the damages from flamer got halved on flak, that’s a fact
I litteraly started the thread by saying i didn’t want “good old flamer back”, and i specifically said that the nerfs were fine individually : Read maybe before going all in ? I’m fine with flamer requiring more clever positionning, my point is that it became too demanding for it’s now limited effectiveness. It needs some ajustments
And yes i know you can kill a horde in like 15 ammo in the meat grinder, except that in an actual game, hordes keep coming at your face and you don’t necessarily have the luxury to space out your shots so the burn does the job : Flamer is a delayed killing weapon, and delaying it even more by optimizing the burn is only a good idea if you are already in a relatively safe position, in which case you wouldn’t even need a flamer in the first place
I think they reduced the ammo reserve (so not the “clip” that I prefer calling fuel canister) too much… and damages against flak is yet a little too much.
I agree that they went a bit too far on the ammo nerf. About the damage and stagger however, it’s still stupidly strong. (I run mine with “overpressure” & “blaze away”)
Frankly, it’s pretty rare that I do. Good positioning and fast repositioning becomes more important now. It actually gives the weapon some challenge which makes it more interesting to play - I used to find it too strong and boring.
Yet people cherry pick simulacrum situations to show “look it’s still relevant”. But anything is against immobile targets.
It was a good weapon before, but now my mates just make fun of me for using it.
“Just use the shredder”… And like every single other meta weapon, it’s of course a blessing abusing weapon.
There used to be skill expression with it. Now if you do not hold the trigger to abuse the +50% damage buff, it’s just … showering enemies in orange ji…