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mikepal19's avatar
mikepal19
6 years ago

My Steam Blaster Review

This upgrade is very frustrating and I believe it's OP.  I LOVE playing the scientist and i feel like it takes a lot of skill balance out killing and healing.  This upgrade, I cant consistently get vanquish master and I have to try less than half effort. 

Yes you have to get really close to someone to kill but in my experience the optimal range for his regular primary is only SLIGHTLY farther than with the steam blaster (sb). This makes the range at which I personally fight at negligible.  The pros of adding it FAR outweigh the * to which it is currently an absolute must to add this upgrade (if you dont want to just be a healer). 

Pros compared to the regular primary

  • more DPS
  • dont have to be accurate to kill
  • kills multiple targets at once, with ease
  • can solo any plant with relative ease
  • dont need to refine your aim, just plug and play and kill
  • only cost 1 more than the precision upgrade (a perk that is used to increase damage at longer ranges). NOTE: how many long range kills can you really get with the scientist, and how often are your battles long range vs short range.  Answer: 85% short range : 15% (or less) short range.  Therefore upgrading your short range capabilities weighs much morre important.

* compared to regular primary

  • no long range damage (doesnt really matter because the greater majority of your kills will be at the same range)
  • cost 5 slots  (should be 7 slots, and even that it would still be OP at its current state)
  • less damage to moving targets (given you have decent aim)

How to balance:  This upgrade takes very little skill to kill, and in the hands of someone who is very accurate and anticipates movements, then it is actually too good and unbalanced of an upgrade.

  • decrease range
  • decrease width of steam
  • increase DPS
  • decrease the total damage per shot from 87 to around 50-60
  • increase ammo from 5 to 6 

Discussion and conclusion: I have been playing with nothing but the steam blaster when I'm a zombie and it is literally the easier way to rack up kills.  Add this to an instant warp (which seems like you have an endless supply of), then distance doesnt really play a big part.  Use 1 warp to get in battle, use all your ammo, use 1-2 warps to get out, use heal if you are damaged too much.  Rinse and repeat.  This strategy is what ive seen from even mediocre players with great success.  The really good players who can jump and shoot are almost impossible to fight 1v1.  Even with NC, it becomes a stalemate, but I know i would eventually lose given no one else is involved and its just a 1v1 to the death.  The scientist can just run, heal for 3 seconds and then be back in the fight.  Sure its not an insta-kill like the thorn apart, but how many times can you instakill with thorn apart in one game vs the consistent use of the sb throughout your game.  The value of sb vs thorn apart is not even a discussion, sb hands down. BTW, I'm a scientist main who prides himself on having developed a kill to pain pretty accurately and now with this upgrade, there is NO reason for me not to equip it. I often have games where i can get 50-70 kills. This is honestly upsetting. This upgrade, in my opinion, is blatantly OP.  

31 Replies

  • Pheesley's avatar
    Pheesley
    6 years ago
    @mikepal19 I haven't got the Steam Blaster yet, but when fighting against it, it seems pretty strong. Kind of annoying that scientist could be even more powerful now.
    I was playing Citron and decided to use the Peached upgrade for the first time in a while. Turns out Peached is really great way for catching aggressive scientists, even when fighting against steam blaster 🙂
    Also I learned that at close range, Citron can't out-damage Stick Healy Thingy's heal rate at all...
    Pretty sure SHT has a better heal rate than self regen
  • Ninja2Blade's avatar
    Ninja2Blade
    6 years ago
    I still feel like steam blaster is really op, to the point where it’s annoying and almost anyone can use it! Think it needs to have slightly reduced dmg or something
  • Pheesley's avatar
    Pheesley
    6 years ago

    @Ninja2BladeYeah that's usually the best option. What's so dumb about it is that I can get a scientist low on HP and sacrifice some of my HP in the process, and then they get healed by SHT and they can't be killed unless I react quick enough with a high burst damage ability. It's ridiculous how much survivability a scientist has.

  • Ninja2Blade's avatar
    Ninja2Blade
    6 years ago
    @Pheesley The sad part is that scientists should be giving others survivability, but almost no one does that, especially with the steam blaster upgrade
  • mikepal19's avatar
    mikepal19
    6 years ago
    @Pheesley Yeah I also notice that steam blaster goes threw the citron shield. Another head scratcher.

    I can deal with rapid fire soldiers but an sb scientist is almost unkillable. Oh and the sticky heal needs to be nerfed back to 20hp/s x 5s Instead of this 33hp/s x 3s. He heals way too quickly. Maybe compromise at 25hp/s x 4s.
  • mikepal19's avatar
    mikepal19
    6 years ago
    @Ninja2Blade wrote:
    @PheesleyIf a scientist chooses to go all aggressive and use sticky healy thingy, best to just fall back


    Pretty much.  I was playing scientist pretty much exclusively since I actually like being an aggressive scientist but also trying to see if i can find any weaknesses. So far, the only weakness is if the scientist has bad aim then you can exploit its low ammo. But then again he can just warp away and be at full health in 3 seconds and a rematch ensues while your at a weaker state. 

    But I haven't really tried citron like @Pheesley has. Take off some health then spam stun and spin. 

  • Pheesley's avatar
    Pheesley
    6 years ago

    @mikepal19Yeah, I'm not too sure what to think about steam blaster going through shields.
    I agree that sticky healy thingy needs to be reverted back to its previous state. I think they wanted to lower the active time, so I think the previous SHT with a lower active time would be good.

  • realitysquared's avatar
    realitysquared
    6 years ago

    I haven’t unlocked the upgrade myself just yet but by your description and gameplay footage I am reminded, in a general sense, of the Chemist in GW2- short range, wide spread, high damage, low ammo.

    The “balancing” factor for Chemist was the high risk-to-reward ratio since you pretty much needed to be in your opponents face to be effective, but I’ll need to get hands on to see if the Steam Blaster is similar in that regard so I’ll likely weigh in with an actual opinion later.

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