For those of you who don't know who The Phantom is, the title will most likely be lost on you.
But this thread is about the Phantom, a creature that seems to be causing quite a lot of trouble for people right now.
Since the thread in the General Discussion is being flooded with suggestions and ideas on how he can change, I figured it would be a lot better for the Devs if we made a thread specifically for them instead.
So people can better express their ideas without derailing a thread.
And for ease of reading, I suppose.
I'm lazy, so I'm just copy pasting my post in that thread.
Deal with it, !@#$%.
I remember in the last Preview Event, there was a stage that had a Golden (indestructible) Trojan in it. You had to dodge him and hit gate switches with urns or a gun to get in and get a golden key and back out again.
But when you were holding the gold key, you had to stand near the switches to get his attacks to hit them, or put it down and throw an urn or shoot your gun, whatever.
It was a challenging part of the level and all around, made the stage quite difficult.
But it was well implemented challenge and there were a number of ways to solve it.
This Phantom seems to only exist to bring the pace of Graveyards up from stepping on a single grave at a time, using a Dread Venom Striker charge attack and receiving loot.
There's no challenge to him, there's not even anything remotely fair about his existence.
He seems to be omnipotent as well.
There are whole host of better ways the Phantom could be implemented.
This way isn't inherently bad, but he needs to be either easier to manage, or different in the way he works.
The waterball things, like the ones from Firestorm Citadel, could hit him and transform the Phantoms into Angel kind of things, but you might have to avoid his attacks until you find one and cleanse him.
There could be more than one in a Graveyard as well (though not more than one at time unless it's specifically called for), which would help pace a level without it being to annoying difficult.
Just like all horror movie bad guys, he should be set to slow, deliberate walking speed. His footsteps should be fairly audible when he's off screen by a few squares and his attacks should take a bit longer to charge up to whomp you with, kind of like the other Undeads.
This scheme of pacing was successfully used in a whole number of games, specifically platformers.
The boulder run levels in Crash Bandicoot, the Minecart race levels in Donkey Kong Country, etc.
Spaces between a cleansed Phantom and one you've yet to encounter could be checkpoints with treasure or whatever in them.
There's also have to be some way to stop people just rushing to the waterball then going back and killing all the skeletons they missed as well.
It could work if it was done right.
This is just one idea on how he could change, though.
I support a slower movement speed for them.
They evade way too much, to add to that. I'm using Striker, and the Phantom will teleport before a slice even whips out. And then attack me instantly. And/Or get flanked by another Phantom.
It's also a bit aggravating to get pincered when multiple Phantoms are locked onto one of you, and facing an unavoidable cross spray of 9 Gran Faust swordbeams. Shield shattering from just one of them, and dying from the next.
As most have suggested, implementing some sort of safezones would really help to balance them as they are now.
With Phantoms in play, there is no breather, no moment to rest or leave for a few minutes, no viable chance to type something to your teammates; you cannot avert your attention for 2 seconds without being caught and slaughtered, really.
They do liven Graveyards, and add an absent suspense element; but they take it to levels too high, and become more irritating and distracting than fearful by the end of a run.
Yeah yeah, at least an attempt at a graverun.
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Graveyards are now something to avoid to players; and not just because of the Phantoms. The levels have gone from "have you cleared everything?" to "Hightail it out of here." To even bother with the Skellies, or seek out any loot, is troublesome, being much less attractive an option. It's best to flee straight to the exit - a shame, as Graveyards have energy blocked treasures and everything. It becomes a waste of 10 energy, and probably much more if one does decide to challenge the map for some reason. My party decided to quit after wasting 300+ energy on reviving.
It's fine for Graveyards to be haunting, and daunting, but not when you shouldn't even bother with the content within. It's rather good content too.
- Of course, others may see it differently. I have more or less a good 3* loadout, an average Tier 2 player's perspective. Players with Tier 3 quality gear may say nay to the degree of my points, but these are the difficulties I'm dealing with; along with others of similar rank and lower, likely.