I want to preface this by saying that in regular game modes the weapon is still probably the worst weapon in the game, in terms of raw kill potential.
The Ravager has a slower time to kill than most weapons with its standard fire mode, and it’s secondary fire is somewhat lackluster despite being useful in niche situations.
What I want to talk about are three features that make a difference and make the weapon worth picking up:
It has the highest bladed weapon melee bonus in the game. It takes less than a full three round burst from the weapon to set someone up for a melee kill, and a melee on a full shielded enemy puts them so low of health that most anything can kill them immediately with a follow up shot. It’s the most practical use of the weapon in 4v4 modes.
It has a headshot bonus. I had no idea until I was testing out weapons in a custom for a video, but it actually does extra headshot damage to unshielded enemies. If you can land headshots it turns the weapon from a 4 burst kill to a 3 burst kill. That’s a substantial difference in ttk. It’s not that easy to do with the way the weapon shots work and with how bad desync is, but it’s the way to go if you have to use it.
It’s power against vehicles is tremendous compared to most of the sandbox. The standard fire does as much damage to Light and medium vehicles as it does to normal Spartans, Which means you can kill a warthog in a fraction of the time you can With 3/4 of the other weapons. It’s also one of few weapons that does any real damage to tanks and wraiths. For that reason alone it’s worth keeping in your back pocket for BTB matches or games where vehicles are a factor.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still in need of some balancing and attention, but the current build of the weapon is not totally useless if you’re using it in its niche situations.
I’m about to lay out some potential fixes for the Ravager, and I want to make it clear that don’t think the Ravager needs all of these, only some. And there is 1 that I think is an absolute requirement, but I’ll mark that when I get to it.
Finally, keep in mind that the Ravager is a tier 2 weapon spawn.
Starting with the charge shot, I think the damage is fine. Its problem is time. Let me explain:
The time it takes to charge up the shot is very long, especially compared to similar guns like the plasma pistol. In a straight up fight, charging up a ravager is basically pointless unless you can duck behind cover. Worse, it doesn’t do more damage than a Plasma Pistol, unless you hit 2+ people (which is a net win for the Ravager). So essentially it takes longer to get a weaker effect.
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But couldn’t I just pre-charge it? I’m glad you asked.
The battery drains too quickly on the Ravager. It uses more than 1% per second (I’ve haven’t fully tested this, but it appears that way). This means that it is very easy to waste most of your ammo just looking for an enemy. At the very least it needs to drain as slowly Plasma Pistol. Keep in mind the Ravager primary fire has a pretty costly ammo consumption rate, unlike the PP.
The time the AOE pool lasts could be longer. The main attraction of the Ravager right now is its ability to lockdown areas of the map by preventing people from walking through them safely. If 343 want to make the gun stronger without changing the damage, this could be a solution.
One more potential buff that the Ravager’s alt-fire could use is an increase to the size of the AOE puddle. Right now it is very easy to just walk out of it. Making it bigger would allow it to do more damage by doing damage longer as well as it would be more effective at blocking off areas.
Next is the primary fire. Overall I think it is simply too weak:
It needs to be a 2-shot, full burst kill. A projectile weapon, with bullet drop, and it requires me to land 3 x 3 direct hits is far too weak to be considered a Tier-2 gun. And I doubt you’ll live long enough fire a 4th shot if you miss one. And if what you say about the headshot damage is true, this is actually worse considering it’s a gun you’re supposed to aim at the ground.
The Ravager needs splash damage. It’s classified as a “Launcher” and should be treated as such. Right now it looks like it has splash damage, but does next to no damage when shot near someone. Which brings me to my final point, the big one.
If (emphasis on the “if”) 343 insist on keep the ravager the way it is, then it needs a complete audio-visual redesign. Like I said before, the gun looks like it does splash damage, when it doesn’t. For two weeks after this game launched, I was completely baffled on why I was barely hurting my opponents, only to find out that, despite covering them in plasma goo, all of those explosions were pointless. Make the impact effects smaller more like a plasma rifle impact if it isn’t going to explode on impact. Lastly, make the gun smaller or less bulky if it isn’t going to be aggressive. It’s the size of a Brute Shot, but hits like a Carbine.
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For the audio side, make the gun less loud and explosive, or make it sound like a pew-pew gun or something. Right now, it doesn’t reflect what it actually does.
I agree with all these things, especially the time it takes to charge and the rate at which it runs out of ammo.
I think it should get a damage buff OR a splash damage buff, but not both at the same time. If the splash damage were viable now, it would be just right for it’s intended purpose, and if it just plain did more damage now it wouldn’t need the splash damage to do the same job. I think treating it more like a concussion rifle with less raw damage is a fair trade since it would then be a perfect support fire weapon to shred multiple enemies shields or clean them up, but wouldn’t be overpowered as a wall weapon.
After Taking time trying to figure it out I think Improving the splash damage viability should be the first fix they attempt and go from there. It really is a fierce antivehicle weapon already
Sorry, I meant to say “haven’t fully tested this”. I’ve already corrected it.
Ammo capacity is definitely one of the biggest issues since ammo is one of the easiest ways to balance a weapon. Too powerful? Only let players fire it once or twice (Rockets). Or in the case of all power weapons, you often can’t replenish ammo since it’s usually the only gun of its type on the map.
Now that you brought up the Concussion Rifle, it’s also worth noting that the Ravager doesn’t have knockback. That’s another trait that could be added to make it better. Being able to flip vehicles, or slow down sword users would be good (coincidentally spawns a Recharge, on map with rampant sword/hammer users). Assuming we never get a Brute Shot of course.
Basically, they need to either bring the primary up to par with the secondary, or make the secondary overwhelmingly powerful to justify it’s spot on a tier-2 pad.
I kind of get why it’s on a tier 2 pad in btb now, it’s really a good either/or for the hydra in a strictly anti vehicle sense. It’s when it shows up in 4v4 or games without vehicles that it just plain sucks.
It’s a pretty good zonal weapon and I like using it in BTB sometimes. Great for getting shields off or forcing enemies out from behind something. Hitting a player with it on Recharge is hilarious as they never see it coming, why would you.
The flight Ravager was a different beast. I picked it up every time I saw it, if I recall it was a one hit kill to the head.
Only issue is, it is so situational that I find it isn’t worth picking up unless the reason you are picking it up is unfolding before you. Realistically most other weapons are going to give you more value in more scenarios.
I just wish it didn’t share a pad with the Hydra. Nothing worse than a wasp pulling up at your base, you scramble for a weapon and see a Ravager sitting there.
Exactly. The same thing about the Needler/sentinel beam. The Needler does no damage whatsoever to vehicles and the sentinel beam is one of the top 5 best ways to kill a wasp, and it always seems like one side gets double screwed that way. They really need someone that understands balancing on their matchmaking design team
I do have one Ravager kill on a wasp though which is funny. It’s not hard to hit any that are dumb enough to sit still too long. But even mediocre pilots will stay out of range and keep moving
The problem with shock/stalker isn’t so much that one or the other is there, it’s that it’s not consistent between sides. If both sides have stalker or both sides have shock, it’s fair. But one side getting shock gives them a huge advantage over the side that doesn’t.
But I know one layout on Deadlock for instance gives one side TWO shock rifles and the other side gets a single stalker rifle and a Mangler. That’s insane
