Despite the patch, Warp and Steam Blaster still need a nerf

After spending quite some time on BFN, I still notice a lot of the time that we may be getting very close to seeing a Scientist meta again. And it all revolves around Steam Blaster, how it’s powerful, and what needs to be done to balance it.

One important note that I rarely see being brought up is that Steam Blaster has a lot of damage, but also some crazy range for something that’s supposed to be similar to a shotgun. This is like Snapdragon range, and the accumulating steam just makes it too easy of a way to clear out groups, especially against smaller characters and team up characters. Basically, Scientist becomes a very mobile snapdragon with less health, but quicker damage and slips through anything by abusing warp

Now, the warp ability was always intended to make Scientist a mobile healer, one that can zip around to revive allies and heal quickly. When the Scientist meta arose for the first time, it was cause people were using warp the way it was not intended to be used, and thus, resulted in Scientist’s weapon to be nerfed to be very difficult to use properly, with the advantage of being an excellent group healer down the line. However, Steam Blaster just gives players another excuse to abuse warp again to escape and make sure their enemies don’t. It also makes them focus more on vanquishes rather then actually playing as a healer, which was the same issue that gw2 Scientist also suffered from.

Now, how do we nerf Scientist without ground pounding Steam Blaster, but also keep the mobility aspect of Scientist to be an active healer?

The best answer to this is to actually make it harder to use the weapon, not to nerf its damage to the ground. For example, reducing it’s range will actually make it so they have to risk getting even closer to vanquishing an enemy.

Warp can also be fixed by giving it a slight timer that can effect the primary, but not the healing ability. A 0.5 second wait time after activating warp could make it so Scientist has to focus on the warp, and stops him from shooting, making it more predictable for plants to know when he is gonna move away. During this animation, it can also make it so the weapon can’t be fired during the 0.5 second timer, but keep the effects of the healing hose available, which will still keep the mobile healer aspect alive without being butchered at the same time as the primary.

Summary: Heavily reduce range of Steam Blaster, reduce the damage, add a 0.5 second wait time before Warp takes effect after activating the ability, canceling out the ability to use the primary, but not the Healing Hose. It’s the best nerf we can do to avoid the return of such a disliked meta.