In my opinion, the Needler supercombine should do a little more damage than it does. The reason being is that it no longer completely kills or strips a fresh overshield player.
Before the OS buff, it would put them extremely one shot with a supercombine (as in, less than no shields, but actually low health). Now it will only take away the OS itself and about half their base shields.
While this is still useful, it does create issues with the risk/reward aspects of both OS and the Needler. The only time this really comes into play in ranked for instance is on Live Fire, where both spawn next to each other anyway. Typically it’s more likely the person who has OS picks up the Needler as a back pocket option for later, instead of it being placed to counter OS anyway.
BUT that is not necessarily a good way to balance the placement. Typically the first thing people do is grab the plasma pistol to counter OS instead, which is a fair option if the desync isn’t ruining your day already. But what if the Needler was also placed in a good optional spot to act as a counter as well?
In terms of damage output there’s little reason for the supercombine to be relatively weak in the first place. The point is that it’s a one and done kill weapon that either nukes someone or barely does anything if they failed to land enough needles. But I feel like it being able to hard counter OS and not just soft counter it would make it a more commonly picked up and controlled weapon.
Reminds me of the Repulsor placement for sword on Recharge–fun for mind-the-gap but awful for balancing. I agree that needler would be better elsewhere. Having it spawn in that sneaky from top mid to OS side by plasmas could work?
I wouldn’t mind seeing it in columns, it would give both sides equal chance to grab it from the initial spawn, and it gives people spawning B a chance to grab it when the enemy is on OS.
Different placement is a good point but buffing it is IMO not necessary. It is already a super powerful weapon and I wonder why people don’t use it more often. Combine it with smart movement and you get at least 3 cheap kills with it.
I agree that it’s good now, but I mean increasing the supercombine damage wouldn’t change how good it is, except in regards to the OS specifically.
It would still work the same on a 1:1 basis with the average spartan
Cheap in the sense of no real counterattack and skill in actual aiming. You are absolutely right, movement and map awareness is a big part of overall skill.
I wish the needles could detonate and do some meaningful damage on their own, without the supercombine. In CE and 2 you could occasionally score a lucky kill on an unshielded enemy with just a few stray needles. But in Infinite it seems like you either get the supercombine or it does nothing
