New spiker changes

ok..good to hear and thxs for the claerification...this way the Spiker is much more in line with the Desperado and pays a price for being more accurate and useable over range then the NCs Burst pistol with a lower DPS.

But imo it would be better to lower damage per shot and let the RoF stay on the 526..DPS wise this would set the Spiker on a slightly higher value.

This way we had the Repeater as the DPS Monster with low accuracy and damage per single shot, Desperado with medium DPS and accuracy but highest Damage per single shot and the Spiker with lowest DPS but best accuracy (plus the sniperlike charge up) and medium damage per shot.

Btw...atm when you charge up the Striker it pulls the sight away from the target when ADS...this isnt that good imo...sight should stay on the target and the shacking when charging in ADS need to be reduced.

Yes, because a burst pistol having greater range will be such a good item. Said no one ever.

Those changes look promising, could someone explain me what the new charged shot exactly do?
The video is unclear about it.

I love how everyone is comparing the Spiker to the Desperado (Something NC have had for how long?) when the Spiker is part of the new pistols release. NC got the Magscatter, a freaking pocket shotgun. TR get another pocket SMG and have had one as a default pistol since release I might add.

As someone that plays a VS stalker 90% of the time I would like just 1 decent pistol. Just 1 that doesn't feel like I'm throwing water balloons at the enemy. I went on TR and NC alts a few days ago and tried out their default pistols (not even talking about the rest of their pistols) with stalker...my TR had like a 9:1 KDR in that session (Because that's what we're talking about here) I could take out heavies with shields on with no problem...try doing that with any VS pistol, and my NC toon had a 3:1 (I admit I don't like the magshot, maybe with more practice I would, that being said it's still better than the beamer) . The only thing remotely close to feasible on VS is the Manticore and it is just underwhelming.

If you truly think the Spiker is as powerful as you seem to think it is, let's trade. Heck, let's trade any NC or TR pistols for that matter, with their tier equivalent. VS pistols are a joke and always have been. Just 1 devs, just 1.

Seems basicaly, the changes mainly are:
- RPM up to 432 from 366
- New charge, on a separate mode

1. Ahh...ok..because the Spiker came with the MagScatter and the AMP i should work like they do? Ok...lets check: TR Striker Phoenix and Lancer came in the same release...does this mean Striker must be our new long range Rocket Launcher? Doesnt seems so. Or whats with the new Assault rifles aka A-Tross, TORQ and Terminus...well...doesnt look like the A-Tross is a close to medium range gun. Or the new Carbines...Cougar is a long to medium range gun, Bandit a mobility CQC carbine and Zenith is right in the middle of those 2.

2. VS got some great pistols aka Cerberus and Manticore...learn to use them.

Oh...and if you dont like that VS dont get a a pistol who can out-DPS the other Empire ones, you should follow the tip a VS player gave me when i started a discussion about accuracy on TR weapons (LMGs a.E.). He wrote: "...and if you dont like that your weapons dont have the accuracy of VS weapons and it effects your gameplay that hard, switch factions to VS..."...so if you dont like that VS get a pistol that has better accuracy but for that it cant out-DPS the NC or TR burstfire pistol switch faction to TR or NC...

Some little thoughts on the new charged shot:

1- FX

While the flames are quite original and somewhat attractive, one of the type of characters that need the most a better VS pistol is the VS Stalker.
However, for that kind of character, such FX is too much drawing the attention. Let say you want to use it while playing a Stalker, you're going to almost do like a visual shout saying "Hey! Seek for me with flashlight!"

It could be a bit sad if the people which need the most this review would not be able to enjoy all its features because it has such a trade-off... but on the other hand, some people really enjoy the "burst in flames" current FX...

2- Effect

Charged shots are things you use on someone only when this person didn't notice you (otherwise, you don't have time to charge anything), and are not moving a lot (missing a charged shot only brings sadness)

For this reason, this is relatively unlikely you will ever use it when facing a pack of foes, because the more opponents there are, the less likely you are going to stay unoticed, not even speaking about the fact that engaging a pack with a sidearm is somewhat suicidal.... but if you don't use it when facing a pack, what is the use for the splash damage?

The previous charge mode, while somewhat criticized by some players, had better use cases: assuming you where not too far away from a still target, and had time to charge it before get noticed, it would provide handy alpha strike.

The opinion of someone who use the current Spiker daily: I'd prefer that this weapon stay in the "alpha strike" logic for the charged shot instead ot the "splash damage" that I have hard time to figure a true use case for.

3- Where is the "spike" ?

I've always found that "Spiker" was a weird name for what the pistol has been doing.
To me, a "spike" is a sudden and very short surge of efficiency with a brutal return to almost nothing just after, so it would relate rather to something able to kill someone with one-headshot, but at the cost of the whole clip.

I wonder if it's really not possible to do something like that while staying balanced... perhaps by making it only useable at very short range and make it fires as soon the full charge is reached, to prevent people to run everywhere with the gun already charged in the wait to find a target?

Wait wait wait....
So the speaker shots cause flames...
And the flamethrowers were removed from the game due to performance problems...
BRING THEM BACK

"speaker" ? Does it now give you a speech about "enlightment" when it charges?
Brain-washing weapon !!!!!

So I tested the new Spiker. It is now...a crappy version of the Desperado. It had a clip size reduction to match the Desperado. However...the Desperado fires 16% faster, which means 16% higher DPS. Ah...but the Desperado doesn't have the secondary fire mode. Yeah, neither should the Spiker. It is weak. It does 3 charged shots and needs a reload with 2 shots still in the clip. The 3 shots are weak. Charge up takes a long time. Even if the charge up were removed, I still wouldn't use the secondary mode.

Spiker went from a complete piece of crap, to a competitor with the TR Repeater, and finally to a poor low end copy of the Desperado. Lovely. And here I was getting excited about being able to use the Spiker next patch.

For the record...the TTK on the Spiker is substantially worse than the TTK of the Beamer.

For the record...I think they should just make it like the spiker in PS1. One mode. Can fast-click for low power shot, or hold for more powerful shots. That was a fun pistol. Watch here [SKIP TO 7:34]:

forget the fairy cannon charge mechanic: i don't want to give them my purple power.

the 2x burst was good with the 526 rpm but i think 500 rpm would have the same effect.
just nerf the 167@10m to 167@8m to make it on par with the desperado (Technically you should nerf the desperado to a lower rpm and upgrade the dmg tier but hey, that is just my opinion)
so everyone is happy. (oh yeah desperado seems to accurate with hipfire for its RPM
even the spiker has more COF Bloom than the desperado)

for all i care give it a heat mechanic

..... -.-
How about we don't suggest making it a Desperado? If I wanted to play NC, I'd play NC.
With the Charge, it is finally closer to the original Spiker.
Sure I would like a firerate of 451/469, and a half meter more outer AOE would certainly help make the charge shot attractive, but this is already pretty decent.
Honestly, at the 532 rpm, I thought "This would be a decent AR/BR"; Minus the CoF, magsize and velocity, of course.

I feel... enlightned!
It nows makes sense for me why the Spiker was designed like that in PS2 at first!

However, the problem for me lies in the fact that the old mechanic is inadequate to the way PS2 is working:
Charging a spash damage shot makes sense when you can do it without dropping stealth... but this is not possible in PS2, making that you can't use it in the same situations that you did in PS1.

In PS2, charging a weapon makes you REALLY vulnerable. I do not think people are going to do it just to get a bit of splash damag... to be worth that risk, the gain has to be more substantial than it used to be in PS1.

You didn't HAVE to charge it in PS1 either. You could rapid fire single shots (direct + splash), which we always did in times where it wasn't advantageous to charge up. It's like the Lancer. When you don't have time to charge, you just spam single shots. However, given the opportunity, charging is your best bet.

I think that same system could work in PS2. And it'd be better than a poor desperado clone.

To be clear, the 526 rpm on the Spiker was a bug, it was old data that didn’t make the update; at that fire speed the weapon was much better then what it should have been.

I agree that 432 rpm does feel a bit too sluggish, I went ahead and increased to rpm to 480. This brings it more or less on par with the Desperado in terms of close range ttk and it feels much better. Edelhonk’s suggestion to bring it down to 143 damage is a valid option, and if I increase the rpm any more it pretty much becomes a necessity.

I think some people may be underestimating the value of the charge mechanic; its alpha strike potential honestly makes me a bit nervous. However, considering most people seem to like the charge mode or are indifferent towards it (providing the burst fire mode is solid) I’m content to leave it where it is for now.

Bburness... the lightshow, sound effects, planning in advance, disabling of sprint and inability to use it in cloak is such a downside, that for cqc pistol it's a mode I would be using in very rare situations.

People can hear you going around the corner and in general, would be more of a "1 in 20 situations" thing. It will be more of a PR thing for the spiker, maybe stuff for some interresting skillshots, nothing that can be abused...

I love how you are actually talking to the community on the offical forums, thanks for that.

The problem with the charge up is, you have to switch fire modes aka if you are caught you are pretty much dead as charging a pistol vs an enemy who isnt playing with his pants on his head will drop you, no contest. And the charge mode is still 2x burst are needed to kill a target which means the TTK will be alot higher than what the repeater or desperado are capable of.

What i mean is, by the time I have charged my pistol, ill most like be dead - and it requires 2 bursts to drop a target. The TTK to be able to pull off 2x burst is _long_. It might have high alpha damage, but aslong as it doesnt 1 shot targets it doesn't really matter how high the alpha is.

And infil's still cant charge it in stealth, so the high alpha damage isnt an issue there either, as I can pull out a repeater or desperado and kill a target way way faster than what the spiker is capable off, burst mode or charge mode.

And like Hessesian says, the amount of animation, light etc is another huge drawback as you will light up as a Christmas tree.

It seems like you're trying to argue that the Spiker is good, because it is 2 Mediocre Pistols all in one. Switching modes makes you lose access to Burst mode. So you're essentially turning the pistol into a completely different one when you switch up. You're arguing a pistol which operates almost EXACTLY like the desperado, although with worse TTK, is good because it also has a secondary mode you can activate which does something that will likely never get any use, and on its own also fails to be a good pistol.

So...to you....2 sub-par pistols in one = 1 super awesome pistol that makes you "nervous"

News flash...."Alpha Strike" is pointless with a charge-up and inability to easily follow it up with Burst Shots. Not to mention the bullets per clip is is not divisible by the number of shots each charge up takes. If you think Charge is so OP and dangerous...take it away and make the single primary mode good. And then remove the "Spiker" name as this is a Disgrace to what the Spiker was in PS1.

I would trade the current PTS Spiker with 167@480 damage model, for the current Desperado.