Are Instakills Fair? Were Any Instakills Removed Yet?

'Pyro's instakill'

 

i missed you webbert

 

We've had this conversation a million times over the past 2+ years and every single time there's been people who think instakills are a hindrance to balance and need to be removed & replaced for the sake of the meta. Then there's people who think that while instakills are busted, they're "necessary" for recovery or to counter other broken stuff like buffed heavies or medic 'insta-heals'.

Imo I don't think there's ever going to be a consensus on keeping or removing instant kills. They're a fun mechanic for the player - as long as they're not on the receiving end - and are relatively noob friendly (unless you put a bunch of restrictions on the instakill to make it hard to use). I've never liked them and do not see them as essential to CTF.

That said... removing instakills might not be the way to go about things from a popularity POV.

CTF was at its most popular (2012-2014) when many classes had broken mechanics which were easily abusable. Necro and Engineer have had more of these issues than most. Pre 2012, Necro had a fire aspect, sharpness IV sword and 3 poison potions each. I still remember playing it and it was ridiculously strong. At several points after the rework it was just as strong, with the infinite spawner glitch and the old buffing mechanic where mobs would end up with regen IV (something like that) and became unkillable

Everyone knows how silly Engineer was (and still is, even with all the nerfs). Telecapping was, as I understand it, one of its biggest problems. Then you had Dwarf, pre nerf, where you one shot any class if you got to a high enough level. And so on

I know I had a lot of fun on CTF before the train of nerfs over the past five years. You could do more stuff and do it better without having to be as good at PvP. CTF was a little more fair that way. Now everything takes so much skill to play well (like Elf and Mage -- I'm trash with both classes) it just isn't fun cause you get wrecked over and over again by people who play CTF competitively. And coincidentally, CTF's popularity has been in slow decline since 2015. Down from ~120 players at peak times to 60, at the very most.

I do think the reason behind this (in part) is due to having so many classes that are just not fun to use. Take Elf and Necro for example

The reason why classes like Elf and Necro suck is because they don't do anything well by themselves. In order to succeed with either class you've got to either 1) be really good at PvP or 2) know exactly how and when to utilize each classes' specific abilities to their full potential - which is not easy to do. I've played my fair share of Necro and it has got to be one of the most boring concepts ever devised. You spend a ton of time trying to get kills to level up mobs, when the skeletons aren't much better than the zombies. Elf is just frustrating

I can see why people would want to keep assassin's or archer's instakills, aside from counterplay. Having once mained Archer back in 2013 and played Assassin somewhat recently I know they're very fun classes. Completely stupid, but fun. You don't go through all this hassle to get kills or recover the flag. You can just do it because each class excels at doing both

I think if instakills were to be removed they ought to be replaced with abilities that are roughly as powerful but have more balanced counterplay. That way classes like Assassin, Archer, and Dwarf would still be fun to play but not so busted that one guy is having a great time while everyone else is p*ssed off

just my two cents

 

The only instakill that is unfair is the assassin insta kill where you can kill an assassin if it tries to kill you. Also there shouldn't be a block thing for assassins, they should be able to kill anyone with their insta kill on. Actually, they should also be invincible while having insta kill active so that they can acurately cantribute to the team.

Well now that I think about it, assassin should just have full metal PIV and should have perpetual insta kill.

That's the fairest solution imo.

Also archer's bow spam should be made better don't @ me.

 

So you just die under any circumstance?
Now that's bs.

 

**** you

 

As someone who formally played an instakill class (Assassin), I still maintain that instakills are completely required within the current class structure of the game. That being said, not all instakills are fair, and one could throw the "ping" debate into this argument. I have moved away from assassin based instakills and usually use archer, but now stick to non-instakill classes.

 

Oh **** a heated debate brb getting popcorn.


Nah but all jokes aside tbh the game is going to be broke instakill or not, so as of right now I'd rather just keep them since removing them would just make the game even more unbalanced than it already is.

 

Nerf med-jack

Also infiltrator in ps2 2stronk.
(more people play Planetside 2 pls pls pls pls pls)

Also also hello Web <3

 

If medic wasn't so dang good at its job, i'd be all for removing them.

 

This is actually the best response to "are instakills op?"

Regardless, no more have been removed since the pyro rework. Currently there's archer, assassin, and max level dwarf against some classes. The only one of the three I personally see as "unfair" is archer just due to how safe the class can stay while having an extremely high level of effectiveness due to a long range instakill.

 

The only reason I see archer as possibly more fair than assassin, and I guess dwarf if you count it, is that it's not a premium class. Obviously this alone doesn't justify its being in the game, and there really isn't a black or white "good vs bad" when it comes to archer, but here's my take: It's really fun to play as, anyone can use it, necessary when there's a large group and/or medic team, and as is right now, removing the class would do more damage than good.

 

My personal opinion on insties is to keep them. The only instakill I think could be made a little less damageable is archer's. As a diehard archer I would hate to see instakill removed, because it's the class's only real feature. But I wouldn't lie awake at night crying if they moved it like 10 blocks behind. Believe me, moving the headshot range from 30 blocks to 40 blocks would be enough to make the headshot less annoying.

About the assassin instakill, there's not really a problem with the feature itself, other than the fact that it's WAYYY too predictable. If you see an assassin running right at you, blocking the second you do can be enough to avoid a kill. Other than the predictableness (is that even a word lol) assassin's instie is fine.

ADDITION: I know this thread wasn't supposed to turn out like this, but it turned into a class discussion so /shrug

 

Remember when it was 20 instead of thirty..

 

Personally, I liked CTF more when every class was ridiculously overpowered. I'm one of the people who think instakills are fine. They've always been a part of the game.