Thinking of Fahz' future (nerf/buff)

Gears 5
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#1

So I was thinking about Fahz a little bit. I love playing Fahz and probably many people will agree with me that he’s a strong character and fun to play with. There’s one little thing that he’s lacking though, he’s reliable on Active rounds, especially in Horde or when using Icy Precision.

Now, the skilled people are able to pull off these Active reloads even if the bar is very tiny. But thinking about the nerf of Ambush (140% => 100%) as mentioned by TC which was delayed due to some apparent localization issues, I was considering a very tiny change that would benefit Fahz.

You know that one card which increases the reload bar? It’s kinda useless since you always have 5 other cards that are worth it more, especially for Horde. Now what if, they would exchange this card with his Passive. His Passive is currently causing Pilfer ammo drops on (I think) every 6th critical kill. Usually it’s kinda pointless in both Escape and Horde. It doesn’t give much ammo and is usually in the middle of the battlefield. If they would exchange the card with the Passive (say the new ammo card would be the same as for JD, dropping middle sized ammo boxes on every kill), I believe even the people who are less skilled in sniping would enjoy Fahz much more.

What do you think?

2 Likes
#3

The active reload cool down is the stupidest thing about gears 5. They should just remove it.

1 Like
#4

Michael Shannon (PvE director IIRC) said something to the effect that TC wanted passives to better reflect or reinforce the classes gameplay loop, so with that in mind Fahz passive is likely going to be tweaked as his current is useless.

With all that being said though I disagree, what balances Fahz is the high skill ceiling, I have a friend that actually does use Master Marksman mainly because as they put it they “can’t hit the active” now obviously I rip him a new one for it :joy: but my point is that it creates a skill gap and a learning curve, if you just make him easier to use it just nullifies the class entirely. When TC made reloading irrelevant for Marcus’s Ult it didn’t go over well, I suspect the same thing will happen with Fahz and everyone will be asking for another nerf when (imo) he’s great as is.

1 Like
#5

An interesting idea. I think several heroes could have the passive reworked.

Maybe could even see the active reload window as a perk one could upgrade. It would require people to still have to hit the original bar early on, but as the waves wear on it could get larger with perk upgrades.

During 50 waves, as the night wears on, a little forgiveness is a good thing :wink:.

#6

If they’d just only leave the Ambush nerf for Escape - which I’m 99% certain is why they’re taking it down a notch in the first place - then I think he’d still be fine in both modes… albeit it could potentially further underpower the EMBAR which even with its three shot clip kinda sucks(in Horde, to be clear) because it doesn’t fire fast enough to freeze targets(correct me if I’m wrong) and its damage potential just feels a bit meh, especially without the EMBAR specific skill. It has an useful active stun effect but I don’t expect to be clearing up loads of enemies with it, particularly the bigger ones.

#7

Just looking at the Embar in The Split, it’s actually crazy that all three damage cards need to be maxed that you can two-shot-kill the DR1 Protector’s in Active. Because I used to have the Embar card on Level 5 and it was just not enough to two-shot them. Good thing there’s a Bow I guess.

#8

Gears 4s EMBAR had almost the same headshot damage as a Longshot, only very slightly lower, which may be a bit overkill, but I feel like they lowered it a bit too much in 5. Not anywhere near as bad as they did the Dropshot though.

2 Likes
#9

Plus the EMBAR has the same ammo capacity as the Longshot. So 15 bullets for the EMBAR won’t do anywhere near the same damage as 15 bullets with a Longshot.

I think the EMBAR needs a buff fullstop. It was so much stronger in GOW4. I don’t even use the thing in Horde anymore.

2 Likes
#10

I thought the stun was worth the compensation. At closer range, being able to stun a target could save extra seconds from being attacked, something the Longshot and Markza cannot do. And it gives opportunity to melee combo a stunned enemy. It’s also a middle ground where 3 consecutive headshots would completely freeze a tough enemy, and more damaging than Markza per shot.

#11

I think TC should re-work passives for all those characters’ who have Pilfer drops as passive. It’s completely useless.
With Op5 coming I’m expecting Fahz to be nerfed, Lahni buffed ( hopefully), Cole also nerfed ( maybe?) and Clayton…
I do feel embar strength should be buffed. As mentioned before it’s not even close to how it was in G4.

1 Like
#12

Stop talking about nerf already. Like seriously… Hmeep, hmeep.

#13

You do realise that TC have already stated that they are going to nerf Gahz’s Ambush card right? The OP isn’t calling for a nerf, they’re discussing when the time comes and what they feel needs to be rebalanced.

#14

What is this? Some kind of mixture of Gabe and Fahz?

1 Like
#15

Fahz shouldn’t be any more powerfull then any regular cog.

#16

If you are basing off of damage exclusively then you have a point, however Embar also stuns enemies (even though its glitchy af) and being able to shoot 3 shots in quick succession is more useful for mid/short range battles.

Its fine where it is in my eyes, you also can’t ignore that a few characters (Baird/Del) benefit way more from Embar than Longshot, oh and I forgot to mention that Embar can be used as a great method of finishing off downed enemies :slight_smile:

Edit: if you really want to bring up a useless gun then Talon/Enforcer are much better examples.