I was actually just telling my wife yesterday that I wanted to abandon my 90+ hour flak to play a more challenging character. I love fl4ks playstyle, but he doesn’t feel fun and it feels like I’m killing everything way too fast. Then the patch notes hit today. I couldnt be happier. And I’m looking forward to the emergence of more diverse yet equally viable builds. I think this games biggest problem currently is finding a balance between feeling rewarded when you finally get that badass build and gear set up, and feeling as tho maybe some of the mechanics are too heavily tilted in your favor.
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That’s generally what I’m getting from this thread.
Personally if I had that problem I’d re-spec and give a different build a try rather than demanding or celebrating that other players have to also take a reduction (play more to how I want).
It’s like Moze’s Mech. Playing with my friends with my build I’m usually stealing all the kills and getting in the way of their shots with my Mech. So I’ve limited myself to only using it for tough revives.
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Exactly!
Because i am not having fun, everyone else shouldn’t - mentality is awfull…
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Fl4ks real problem is that he doesn’t have any other equally viable builds, even after the nerf to Fade Away. Gamma Burst and Rakks need serious buffs. As does his pets, which makes Gamma Burst builds doubling punishing. His other skills are as weak as Zane’s were.
And I say this as someone who dropped Fade Away after my normal run and moved to a Megavore/Gamma Burst build way before the Hotfix.
What’s more the other characters are doing similar, if not more impressive, feats as Fade Away Fl4ks. So save for maybe Zane, the other aren’t more challenging then Fl4k.
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I think Gearbox want players to feel that there as a wide variety of ways to feel badass, rather than just a single build or loadout that achieves this.
So some things will be changed to get there.
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Except they did nothing to fix any of the other builds. They just made him objectively worse.
If you nerf Amara’s elemental build, she still has her melee brawl build. If you nerf Moze’s grenade spam build, she still has her infinite ammo build. If you nerf Fl4k’s crit build, he has…nothing? His only alternative build is his pet build and anyone who has played it in endgame will tell you: It’s hot garbage already.
If your answer to 'Oh hey, you have a fun build." is “Well, we’d like you to play his not fun builds, so instead of making them fun, we’re going to make your fun build just as not fun.” you’re a bad developer at your core.
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Not yet.
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They certainly bettet address other action skills for many characters… iron bear and pets being the biggest to me. However, the issue is they nerfed first without sweeping adjustments.
Look at other loot games like Diablo. They may slightly nerf builds and items that are topping leaderboards in a new season… but it comes with buffs to builds that arent working. The nerfs arent even huge most of time and the nerfed build can still end up in top meta.
You dont try to break players builds in a pve game and expect them to be happy waiting for the buffs to the useless to underperforming perks and action skills.
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That is the problem, if you have any contact with the team of gearbox plz tell them is bad user experience to remove something without add other (options) to the same object(?).
With guns we Lost power in some to improve others, giving options. Good job (except for the misscomunication)
With Fl4k we lost power to give It to zane???
Which make it a bad decision.
The dude was pretty OP
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I see all sides of the argument. I know that sounds like I’m playing neutral so I don’t offend anyone, but I totally understand why this would both please and piss people off. I’m personally on the fence.
On one hand, as a Fl4k main it was nice to finally feel like a powerhouse when the other builds were tryhards (even though I still try, damnit) with decent results. On the other, the “powerhouse” was basically facerolling the highest level content by going invisible and smashing the fire button. Like others, I would grind out the Graveward with one Fade Away on the hardest difficulty. Yeah, that seems a little broken. Let’s not forget that also lets you gear up insanely fast and raise those Guardian Ranks at lightning speeds.
It was clearly a priority nerf because I’m sure Gearbox wasn’t too psyched that people were burning through end content in literal seconds. Let’s not forget they nerfed Mayhem 3 drops (and specific mobs as well) prior to this patch.
However, I also understand why people are pissed off. A lot of Fl4k mains are probably no longer playing Fl4k at all, because GBX took away the one “tool” they were given to compete at higher levels. If you’re going to strip Fl4k of his bazooka, at least do something about the slingshot he has as a backup.
Lastly, as @Psychichazard said, "not yet. It’s not like they forgot about Fl4k. They can’t just buff pet damage by 50% or whatever in the interim and be like “ok ok we know we stripped crit builds but here’s a massive pet buff” and hope like hell they didn’t just do the exact same thing they did with the crit build because proper time and testing wasn’t allocated to the decision.
Balance is a bitch. This will be the topic of every MMO/RPG forum until the end of time. There will always be a flavor of the month, or week, or even day. There will always be that one class that can chuck a grenade and wipe an entire map. It’s an ongoing battle. I’m not an apologist and I’ve been straight up pissed off about Fl4k’s pet viability from day one, waiting (somewhat) patiently for a change.
For whatever it’s worth – probably nothing – I would have nerfed the crit build and announced that Fl4k pet builds were being balanced internally and in testing to appease both crowds. The real issue I have with this approach is the lack of communication. If you’re going to neuter the one powerful build, let us know you’re working on the others. We’re fickle and impatient, don’t assume we’ll assume you’re totally working on it. We need to hear it. That’s PR 101, baby.
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I dont think announcing a crit nerf then saying pets are going to be buffed is going to appease both crowds. Why would people want to be good at one thing then have it nerfed then told that other trees of the character were buffed to make up for the nerf. Some people simply wanted a crit fl4k with a pet companion to pull aggro. Instead of implementing buffs to hunter and master all they did was nerf the main point of most people’s builds. It leaves a sour taste. It takes a mobbing and bossing skill down to a less good but still viable bossing builds. 5 seconds though is not near enough for mobbing and often appears clumsy and rushed to get the best effect
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Hey if i had an option like with amara to build for bosses when i put my farmer hat ir build for mobing-exploration, It would have been better…
But fl4k has only one good build for M3 and that makes me sad.
I hate the duration nerf…
“I couldnt be happier. And I’m looking forward to the emergence of more diverse yet equally viable builds”
Flaks skill trees are crit buffs and self healing. You won’t be seeing any diverse builds for him now he has been neutered.
What we will inevitably see is a circle of complaints about the next best characters being OP until they are nerfed. Until all of the fun is gone out of most of the classes.
This happens in every game that jumps in with two feet nerfing stuff hard off the bat.
It’s especially a shame for B3 as it was always emergent game play that made the franchise so much fun.
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Everyone who loved Fl4k before the changes is allowed to share their opinion in that regard but those who like Fl4k’s current state better aren’t? There’s nothing even close to what you imply in the OP. He’s just voicing his opinion like everyone else around here in all the hundred threads specific to this issue and that’s perfectly fine.
I don’t mind a damage Nerf, the two second Nerf is what bothers me.
Also the people that say that fl4k was killing everything too easily , well that might be true but most of the people saying that are talking about people with all end game gear and best in slot items.
Not everybody has their fl4ks equiped that way.
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I can still kill graveward in 10 seconds with fl4k all they did is limit his mobbing capability with and that is what sucks. Base fade away can 1 or 2 shot that boss
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Oky so OP was not having fun because to easy, right? Because his build or gear, he could change It to give himself some challenge.
Change happens and for some people the game is already challenging as It is, others make their own builds and they are not meta, etc different experiences.
OP is happy about the nerf that strikes many players, clearly OP had to read some of the complains before making this post.
OP was not having fun because fl4k to strong; gets nerfed and is happy that his/her/them needs are fulfilled over others.
I said mentality because It is: my needs first yours second. If i am not having fun anyone else is not or shouldn’t.
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Yeah, but that’s also the case for people who liked Flak better before the nerf. The same implication can be applied to the opposition: “I want him to remain this strong and I don’t care for those who want him to be changed.” As long as there are no changes to their prefered way they are happy that the interests of others that would prefer a change isn’t payed attention to. Where’s the difference? You don’t seem to think different in that regard. I could ask you the same question. Why do you think your opinion or the ones of those that agree with you are more important than the one in the OP and the people who agree with him?
I also still fail to see what makes you this certain that his intention was to express spitefulness with his post.