[Suggestion] SMG infiltrator balance

cool story bro......but infiltrators end up with even less effective health after the nanoweave rework. So stay in your tank and spam your shells at towers. That's where you belong.

Majority of SMG infiltrator are just easy kills for me, they´re pretty easy to deal with, because they have to get close to you and that is their weakness, you can see their cloak shimmering from a far away and before that if you fail to hear them, then you really need to sharpen your ears.

It's also gimmicky in that it only works against 1 target, 1 time. ...unless there is a significant period of time between that target giving up instantly & leaving the area, and a fresh new target coming right to the spot you're camping. The reason for so much Derision in this thread towards the Original Post is tacit admission that nerfing the SMG in any significant way that affects that rapid style Ambushing, would also put them in the same exact position that Stalker & Scout infiltrators are already in.


But in regards to everyone else in this thread who's only pulling "L2P" on this:
Your main argument here would be that the SMG has a medium to low Range. But the argument against that, is that the Pistols are equally as low-range too, but also suffering much slower ROF while being more difficult to track "headshots" with against corner-diving & dancing targets. And why this Matters: The same attempt at the first argument was made with OHK Shotguns but ultimately, SOE wrote those arguments off. So IMHO, adding and refining Stalker cloak is their first steps towards nerfing the SMG ambush style.

IOW: I really think it's already a done-deal at this point. If there's one thing Sony has a dynasty on, it's Nerfing.
(though they seem to be slacking a bit on moving threads to the appropriate sub-forums right now)

Simply put: Being overpowered is fun but gets boring after a while, and most people have already done this whole song and dance 20x over in this game already and lost anyway; starting with Lib-farming & Magriders. infact SMG Inf is basically last year's mini-magrider. Extremely mobile & "Blitzy", minimal audibility presence, identical "Armor" setup or better in some cases compared to other Infiltrators, and always facing its targets and never in "tunnel vision". It's also extremely versatile at the "Disengage" while having very limited counters. (the only one currently, being gimmicks such as an Engineer running Radar cross-bolts & maxed out AP/Proxy Mines in choke points ... which just like other infiltrators themselves, only works the first time around). The "strength" of the SMG infiltrator, versus all other infiltrators, is that it does not become increasingly less effective each time it is deployed using the same tactic over and over again.

Then give us a gun that shoots through heavy shields

one that instantly removes LA jets making them fall to their death

prevents healing

destroys any turret

etc.

EMP nades turn off HA shields by draining their energy pool, the rest of what you want is insane.

TBH I feel sorry for them. It must be exceedingly boring to randomly die when someone manages to spot you, and even more boring to spray some poor guy in the back with a bullet hose over and over.

kind of why asking for a total counter to cloak is insane

EMP nades are good but cost resources, and affect everyone's shields, they're not really a direct counter to HA

The cloak sound was made even more audible at greater distances one or two patches ago.
I can't tell you how many times the cloak sound alone has given away the presence of enemy infiltrators to me.

Very limited counters?
Have you ever heard of Scout Radar?
It highlights EVERY enemy in range for EVERY ally in range, no matter if they are cloaked and/or sitting still.
Or you could, you know, respawn as an infiltrator and spam darts everywhere after the first death to an SMG infiltrator.

I'm still amazed how many people just respawn and continue their business after i mow them down on my infiltrator.
If only one of them would spawn a scout radar flash or spam darts i'd be dead within seconds.
Instead i can farm bases full of people until i randomly bump into someone or somebody with decent situational awareness takes me down.

If i get killed by an SMG infiltrator i light the place up with recon darts as soon as i respawn, and if he manages to hide i pull my scout radar flash to hunt him down.

The end. SMG infiltrator hard countered. No chance. No need to go to the forums and whine about a nonexistant problem.

Someone called infiltrators OP.... HA....HAHA....HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Let's break this down piece by piece:

1) Extremely mobile: funny, I didn't think we had a single tool to be any more mobile than anyone else.... weird (and if you say the 10% thing... just don't)
2) I always thought the main counter to infiltrators was seeing their outline and filling them full of lead? I mean that's how I kill them. If you are saying you want a way to completely nullify them being semi invisible, we can go back to L2P.
3) I feel like most people that complain about SMG infiltrating have never played it. Sure, once you're pointing it at the back of someone's head, it is quite easy to kill them. It's the GETTING THERE that is difficult and pretty situational. If someone spots you, you're either dead or running for the hills to try and infiltrate again.

As many have said, if an infiltrator blows your head off with an SMG, you've either failed or been outplayed. They did their job getting to you. Your job was to prevent that from happening. There are no doubt some MLG infiltrators out there, but your average player is 9/10 getting a kill or two and finding the respawn tube. There is a reason why infiltrators aren't topping the charts. As soon as they start matching the K/D of any other class int he game, we can talk.

They aren't OP they are just a complete pain in the neck - literally when you get a knife into you. I usually get SMG'd when using my RL as I need to be stood fairly still and I'm usually looking through a sight - no chance at all to see an infil and if I hear the decloak, I can go away and make a cup of tea before I manage to swap weapons, aim and fire its that slow.

The Infil class seems designed for KDR padding and little else. That said I've seen SMG infils single handedly take a base defended by four or five enemies without getting killed.

I've also met snipers who literally never miss even if you are actively evading by moving around on the spot or running full tilt. I was even head shotted in mid air once as I was jumping down from a tower balcony

no they don't. Afaik you can turn it on asap as if nothing happened. Last time i checked, admittedly long time ago, the only class that got its juice drained was the infiltrator.

nope. it works on HA shields, try it again.

Bullets counter cloak. Shoot them.

Seriously SMG infils are free kills. Play one, learn how to use them, and they are easy mode to fight against. I've said this before and had a CM even quote me to agree. So I doubt SOE is going to change things.

+1, I switched to EMP's a while ago
b/c I was sick of always being ****blocked everytime an HA who could actually hear decloak, showed up to a point.

The poor "logic" behind every single post like this, also extends to ALL infiltrators being free kills as there is nothing that any other close-quarters Infiltrator can do any better in this situation. Yet there's still hundreds of SMG'ers every day on every server who manage to succeed again and again despite this claim that they're free kills. So when someone says something like "Oh well I personally never die to them!", it's basically impossible to believe without consulting their (Beta) Stats page every day to verify it.


Care to volunteer YOUR main handle, Mr Taemien so that this can be verified first?

While I don't play SMG Infiltrator (I use pistol instead), and feel that it can be a lame way to engage in CQC combat (unless you're really going it alone and 'infiltrating') - I don't think it's OP. Not even remotely.

Yes, I hate them. Yes, it's lame as hell at times, when all they're doing is going for kills while you're distracted by their friends. Yes, that's why so many people play it. But unless you're blind/deaf, or it's night time in the middle of big, loud battle, they're pretty easy to see/hear coming, and they do have less health after all. If you're getting killed by them in toe-to-toe fights, you might want to consider that they're a better player. Not all SMG Infiltrators are actually bad players.

However, I don't think Infiltrators should have been given the SMG. It's leading to the homogenization of the classes. They should have kept the Infiltrator as a specialist sniper with a CQC pistol and buffed their individuality as a class, their ability to gain information, and their ability to 'infiltrate' and hack. Instead they've given them SMGs, have given everyone else the ability to use recon darts, and now appear to be giving everyone access to NS sniper rifles. But now they've given Infiltrators SMGs, they almost have to give other classes sniper rifles, otherwise they'll be the only choice at range, and also very viable in CQC.

There's less and less to differentiate Infiltrators from the other classes now, and it's bad for the game if this is the way it's heading.

I don't play SMG Infiltrator. I play CQC Infiltrator with the TX1 Repeater instead, which is far weaker in CQC than an SMG, and I have a great deal of success with even that. If somebody kills me, it's usually because they were better, or because they caught me with my pants down. It's not because I'm 'a free kill'. And like I said, that's with the default pistol, not an SMG.

I wish people wouldn't make these posts that are pretty much 'I never die to SMG scrubs'. I've seen some very good players playing CQC Infiltrator to devastating effect, and sometimes I've even been that Infiltrator.

Oh I can do some really nasty things as a Infil in CQC. I use a Rebel with a suppressor usually if needed (use that on my LA too). But the point is, unless the SMG user is really good or really lucky, I can usually take them out. And I attribute my success to my personal knowledge of the combo.

Same thing with Dalton Libs, I can usually take one of these solo in a Reaver, but I know where the dalton can point and how fast.

Alot of the nasty things in this game can be easily mitigated, and the best way to figure how is to play them. Once you find out what kills it and what it can't kill. You've got an edge.

Sometimes people are just better. But I can recognize that, which is why I very rarely if ever consider something unbalanced or overpowered. Sometimes someone is better then me, them's the breaks.

Commissioner + Flashlight.

Turns infiltrator heads into canoes.

Thank me later

couldn't play much this week but, I only played for an few hours now, nothing but infiltrators.
hey their the devs, if they want a sniper game, go for it, i can find something else.
The good ol combat game was nice while it lasted.
god bless the now all mighty infiltrator.

As much as I hate getting killed by SMG infils I have to agree, they're fine.