[Vehicle] The 5 second Cloak Restriction is too high for single a single occupant Flash.

I don't agree - adding *any* cooldown was a mistake. Step one was to fix the tragic hitbox collision issues inherent in the engine. I can't tell you how many times I've driven my flash through a crowd of people, *right* *over* enemies, and not even hit them, and then bumped against an idling tank and fell over dead. Nerfing the flash cloak was a kowtow to a small, whiny contingent who didn't like the idea of people traveling invisibly into enemy territories and interfering with their hamburger-hill 'spawn, shoot, kill someone, die, rinse repeat' play style. The fact is, the majority of those encounters generally end with the death of the flash driver, but the times when he does succeed in killing the tank or running someone over are memorable - and worth crying publicly over as well.

Nerfing the flash was a huge mistake. It created a lot of annoyance and did very little to address the issues. People still run and gun, and the death rate for Flash riders hasn't really changed that much (I'm a career inf since the wraith came into being, trust me), but the fun and utility factor sure has gone down. There's a difference in nerfing a mechanic that's legitimately out of hand and dumbing down something for the sake of artificially leveling the playing field for players who just aren't as good as some of their counterparts. The latter is what happened in this case.

Cloaked flashes were perfectly fine the only people that died to them were the people who somehow didn't notice the thing coming up even when it has ran through the area like 20 times. That is the players lack of being able to notice something that really isn't that hard to see not the thing being overpowered. I am certainly not biased I have never used the wraith-flash I just think this change is bad, they have pretty much killed an entire playstyle with this change.

Yeah. That moment when I hear the sound of someone or something uncloak, I am immediately on edge. And when you hear a Renegade or Fury right after that uncloak, you know that it was a Wraith Flash. From that moment on, I know there is a Wraith Flash in the area who is stealthily taking people down, and I hunt for it. Its not the Flash's fault that you died to something that you can see, but you weren't paying attention, and its not the Flash's fault that it killed you multiple times because you still weren't paying attention, and it is still not the Flash's fault that they chose to find a Heavy, recruit him to their squad, and ride around hunting tanks. None of that is the Flash nor the Wraith Cloaks fault that people can't pay attention and guard against stealth attacks.

When you see a LA with C4 in their hand coming towards you, what do you do? You shoot them. After that moment on, you know that THEY WILL COME BACK! You don't go on your happy way knowing you are safe. YOU ARE NEVER SAFE! You have to be on guard. If you don't die to the Fury Wraith Flash or the Renegade Wraith Flash or the Starfall Wraith Flash or the 2/2 Wraith Flash or the C4 Wraith Flash, you should learn from your experience, take the necessary precautions, and beat it the next time that it comes back instead of complaining about it. Players have the opportunity to live, die, and retry. They can also use the mechanics ingame to come up with a plan to beat whatever comes their way, be that a zerg, a well-coordinated strike team, or a Wraith Flash. Only when they can't should a dev step in.

Given the flash's weaponry, is a shotgun, a kobalt, a grenade launcher, prior to the ES Weapons, all front mounted with a crap arc limitation, I'd severely doubt the intention was defense.
Cloak should've have been the target - the bloody weapons are the issues: That's what I just repeated. Literally.

The weapons needed the nerf.
I said it three times now.

Pretty much agree here. The AV perhaps could be toned down a fair bit. I mean you have an invisible little engine that can take you and a mine oriented engineer right up to the flank of a tank and murder it anyway. You know, like the rest of us... Minus the invisible part.

Should it be completely useless? No. CERTAINLY not. I'd propose to leave those AI guns in tip top form. Vehicles should still fear the 1-2 punch of a flash showing up at an inopportune time when they're repairing.

All that said, I've not seen where a flash has really dominated the scene even now. Now, I don't tend to engage a flash when he's paired with anything mind you. But this is, again, adapting to terrain and tactics. I don't dive too deep allowing myself to get caught out, nor do I let them get away. In fact, the last time a flash outmaneuvered me has been a while PRIOR to the patch that nerfed them.

I don't think handing them more powerful AV was really a smart idea, but certainly taking away their invisibility as it was definitely took a step too far to balance them. If you want them to be ambush sniper platforms, well there you go. But the guys that get in there right in the thick of it and get kills aren't using an OP machine, they're being opportunistic skilled players. I kill a lot of them in the ol' harasser and sometimes they come back out, sometimes they don't. I rarely see'em hang out for long if I give'em a thrashing though and I do like it when they have the tenacity to do so.

To the tankers: Learn. Adapt. Use your terrain. Keep positioning of forces in mind. If you expect (as I often see) to sit in the open on flats or on elevated spots of land and just lob shells with impunity cause nothing's supposed to touch you, you got a lot to learn. It's not the cloak that shoulda been nerfed cause "Darn that OP flash" it was the guns coming out a little too dialed up for a crotch rocket.

The problem was the starfall + Deci combo. A wraith should not be able to take out tanks I would think.

I only just got back into the game this past summer when the weapon became available. Im wondering if there were there a lot of problems with the wraith prior to the inclusion of what I admit was an OP (although fun) weapon?

I drove it pre rumble seat, pre Fury nerf and had a blast. I rarely if ever carried a passenger and prefer to wraith alone actually. The only tank I could ever seem to score was one what was decently wounded by another party. And harassers? With their 360 POV vs my 90 (is it 90? it's not much right) even cloaked they'll hunt you down and take you out one shot from anyone who is half decent. It's a cheap vehicle and it's made of paper and dreams vs even infantry.

you can take my starfall, my rumble seat, give me back my old 2012 flash with my fury (pre nerf) and I'm fine with it.

or...

let any class use it as a wraith with it's current cool down, power usage. Ok, maybe that's a bit much but would be cool.

kp