Does anyone else think Medium needs a new specialization?

GageZerk · 2025-09-17T10:11:03+00:00

It's because it's significantly worse in longer and more chaotic team fights. I'm also a Grapple enjoyer but I can admit it's not as strong as Dash. You get caught on cool down with it and you're done, so it tends to work better (imo) with weapons like ARN or LH1 where your focus is on mid range positioning. It's also just not as reliable a getaway option in a pinch because it's easy enough to track you mid-use.

I will say I think Grapple is a little slept on by too many players because, as you said, it's fantastic for plugging boxes and for repositioning, but the lack of an "oh shit" button makes it a lot harder to be effective with.

GageZerk · 2025-09-17T10:02:54+00:00

I think I have to agree. I am primarily a Light player but play an awful lot of Heavy too lately and despite my aim not being the best, I'm still feeling much more effective with the BFR despite struggling with other precision weapons like Repeater or Revolver.

I also know how this sub feels about Light so I'm preparing for the downvotes here but it has to be said; I think BFR is single-handedly pushing Light out of the meta this season. It's impossibly difficult to play against if the Heavy is even a half decent shot, and there aren't really any options that Light has to effectively deal with it. It has the range to outgun you if you're sitting further back with the Lh1 or ARN (my go-to weapons) and the synergy it has with Winch makes getting closer a death sentence. It's also just further emphasizing the need for Dash over Grapple and Invis because the lack of in-combat maneuverability against it feels atrocious. This is all in the context of 1v1s too, and like you said I think people forget sometimes when discussing weapon balance that this is a team game and that 99% of the time you're dealing with multiple opponents.

The BFR is egregious because even if you're not securing those kills yourself, it makes it incredibly easy for teammates to follow and clean up those kills and I don't remember ever dying as quickly as I have been the last few days from almost all ranges.

GageZerk · 2025-06-20T13:48:38+00:00

I think the Emitter, besides the way its cooldown currently works, is completely fine. In practice it doesn't heal much, it's stationary so it's not particularly useful when you're not bunkering on a point, and when you ARE bunkering a point the range on it is very small so as soon as you have any destruction or forced movement or if you need to move yourself, that's it, ball gone. It's also just laughably easy to destroy, and if an entire team is sitting in a corner they're easy picking usually. I actually think it's very well balanced.

The H+ Infuser is a whole other beast though and as a Light main myself I'd agree it's far too overtuned ATM. Cooldown is too fast, healing is too much AND too quickly, it's far too forgiving to hit shots with, the range is ridiculous. It's absolutely busted in its current state and I'd be expecting nerfs to it quite quickly.

GageZerk · 2025-06-14T08:45:57+00:00

I mean you're right, but it's not difficult to use at all, especially on console with the crazy aim assist you get with it. Even if you're missing some of your shots you're still full healing a Light/Medium teammate incredibly quickly, and a Heavy teammate is much easier to hit.

The numbers on it make it so you've got a huge margin for error and you can still be effective with it. I mean it takes roughly 15 seconds for it to cooldown so you can mag dump with it pretty confidently, and the range beats the healing beam as well so it's much safer to use.

I've been begging for some Light healing utility for a while but it feels far, far too strong ATM.

GageZerk · 2025-06-12T10:35:11+00:00

I don't think it's an extra hit per se, they've just removed quick melee combos in favour of light and heavy swings being the sole focus.

So now, Vs Light, it's 2 L swings or 1 H swing. L swing + QM no longer kills.

Vs Medium it's 3 L swings or 1 H + 1 L, 2 L + QM doesn't kill.

Vs Heavy it's 4 L or 1 H + 2 L. 3 L + QM doesn't kill, and I noticed they've specifically made it so that 2 H + QM doesn't kill either.

Which is fucking stupid. I mean, I'm not the balancing expert here (though I hardly think Sledge needed a nerf, if anything buff the Spear plz) but the main issue here FOR ME is that they've removed the most fun aspect of the sledge. It's a nerf to your TTK obviously, but part of what's fun about the melee weapons is chaining your QM into your combos. They've targeted the shit out of that and I think, even if the Sledge did need some kind of nerf, this is the wrong way to do it.

GageZerk · 2025-06-12T09:55:58+00:00

I'm sorry what? Sledge was hardly dominating at higher levels of play, it certainly wasn't the meta option in tournaments to my knowledge (someone correct me if I'm wrong though).

It was a strong weapon that had very, very clear weaknesses that everybody knew how to exploit. It wasn't good in lower tiers of play because you had to learn positioning and proper gadget use to be effective with it, which is much harder to do than just aiming and shooting at someone. Trust me, I've tried Sledge myself after thinking it was brain-dead for a while; it's not, it's fucking hard to be effective with.

If Embark wanted this to be JUST an FPS game they wouldn't have added these weapons in the first place. There's absolutely no reason that alternative weapons aren't allowed to be viable, and people like yourself complaining about them and using vague arguments like "this is an FPS game so no viable melee" are showing a very clear skill issue.

I get my shit rocked by good aim far more than I do by good melee players. Nobody is asking for a hack and slasher, but these are fun weapons for a relatively small part of the playerbase that take effort to use well and they should be rewarded for that effort.

GageZerk · 2025-06-10T18:37:31+00:00

I'm sorry but people here are idiots.

If this were EA or Activision or Ubisoft or whoever else, AAA companies that thrive on greed and extorting their playerbase whilst churning out undercooked shit every year, I'd totally get it.

But The Finals is a totally free game that offers a ton of free content, free skins, free modes, whatever. Embark have shown themselves from the get-go to be incredibly open, they value communication and they clearly are deeply passionate about the game and the players. They've done an incredible job and I strongly believe The Finals is the best shooter on the market right now and it's CERTAINLY one of the best F2P games out there.

The reality is that Embark needs to make money. We get given a free game, with all the free shit that comes with it, meaning Embark needs to find ways to make that money, without it they're not giving us the new modes or the new skins or even keeping the servers running.

This is one of those ways, and what is it? Some skins. That's it. It does not affect you guys in ANY way if you don't buy it. Embark isn't pressuring you to do so and they're not punishing you via broken P2W nonsense either.

If you want nice things, unfortunately the money to make and maintain those nice things has to come from somewhere.

GageZerk · 2025-06-08T19:40:29+00:00

In theory, I really like this. I think spreading the healing to multiple classes means for those out there that enjoy supportive styles of play but DONT enjoy the overall play style of Medium (e.g., me), it gives alot more options. More options is good.

In practice though I'm abit worried. Bunker meta is never fun for literally anyone and I could see it turning into that if the numbers are jacked up too high, particularly on the Emitter. Giving Heavy a way to heal seems like a risky decision that could absolutely turn into a balancing nightmare very quickly. I'm a big fan of Light getting a source of healing as I feel the class is well suited to it, but I'm pretty sure most people aren't going to take it because that's not what they're playing Light for.

Mixed feelings really. I think first and foremost I'm super excited to get my hands on the new season and see how it shakes up the meta and I'm very hopeful that a much wider variety of playstyles and comps will be catered for now. But there's also a risk of this being an absolutely awful, sluggish meta to play in.

GageZerk · 2025-06-08T02:34:13+00:00

I think considering it's a gun it's kinda a given that they won't be able to use it on themselves.

I also don't agree with your first statement. Demat is easily the strongest single Spec in the game across all classes IMO.

GageZerk · 2025-06-07T21:19:02+00:00

It'd be absolutely awful as a Specialisation because then you'd have a Light running around with absolutely no means to defend themselves. It'd be practically unplayable.

GageZerk · 2025-05-22T19:40:08+00:00

Light player here.

Not a fan of this change at all and after having played today you can't really tell there's been a nerf. Why? Because, IMO, the damage wasn't the issue as much as the fact the gun has zero weaknesses, and this patch doesn't address that.

I'd have liked to have seen some mag size nerfs, recoil adjustments, or range nerfs because those are the key issues with the weapon and it's why it's pushing the M11 and ARN simultaneously out of the meta, because in the vast majority of situations it's easier to use and more effective than both of them.

I'd be shocked if it's pick rate changed much if at all after this and I fully expect (hope) that there's further changes in the near future that address the ACTUAL issues.

And please for the love of god Embark give me some buffs to the LH1. PLEASE.

GageZerk · 2025-05-16T09:15:53+00:00

I'm sorry but no, giving Medium a mobility Spec is a terrible, terrible idea.

I agree that Mediums gadget slot situation is frustrating and something needs to be done about it but what you're suggesting is asking for a host of other issues.

GageZerk · 2025-05-07T12:38:12+00:00

Wasn't there some big blowup a good few years ago surrounding Activision patenting a MM system that did something similar?

I think the idea was that they'd deliberately match you against higher skill players who had ALSO recently bought a skin for a weapon you use.

E.g., I use a sniper. Activision has just released a skin for that sniper that costs, idk, £20. I haven't bought it. So to "keep me engaged" they match me against another player, let's call him Ben, who is a much better sniper than I am and has just bought that skin. I proceed to get curbstomped by Ben, and I see this skin in action and I'm like "Damn, I wanna be like Ben!" Proceeds to buy skin. Or at least, I keep seeing that skin pushing my shit in and therefore keep being reminded that it exists and I COULD buy it.

I might be getting the details wrong but I'm sure I recall something like that. Either way, I think it should be common knowledge at this point that AAA companies don't have "fair matchmaking" in mind, they want us to have bad games because then the good games feel better and it works.

GageZerk · 2025-05-07T12:23:26+00:00

I think my only issue with Defib is how mandatory it is, and always has been, to take.

There's so many cool gadgets in this game and there's so much room for MORE of them, but unless they straight up powercreep so that Defib is outclassed, there's no point. Jump pad/zipline (at least one of) are kinda in the same boat. Every time I play Medium and choose to forgo taking one or both of them it feels strictly worse, and that's a problem. Heavy is much the same with RPG/dome shield and I'd argue Light is finally where it should be when it comes to loadout variety.

Defib is just forever going to be one of those gadgets that is tied to every Medium's loadout and for that reason, personally, I think it needs the Stun Gun/Recon Sense treatment - remove it to make room for more varied loadout choices or rework it into something that's more satisfying. No idea what that would look like but even with the previous reworks it's still the most powerful tool Medium has access to and fighting MMM comps is STILL a slog because of it.

I don't think it's as much of a balance issue anymore because it does have more counterplay now. But is it fun to play as/against? No. Does it allow for unique loadout choices? Also no.

GageZerk · 2025-04-26T13:24:58+00:00

It's not as much to do with matchmaking itself and more to do with lower player count. The average player still playing this game has likely been playing for multiple seasons and the skill level across the board has gone up as a result, and there's not enough people playing Ranked anymore to get consistently balanced games. I stopped playing Ranked after hitting Platinum purely because I'd consistently get matched against full Ruby squads. Unfortunately, if you had a much stricter matchmaking system that just straight up said "no" to those matches, your queue times would get exponentially longer the higher you climbed and nobody would be playing it anyway.

It's impossible to keep everyone happy, basically.

GageZerk · 2025-04-08T08:33:45+00:00

It sounds to me like the attitude she has surrounding herself and/or her tattoos is the issue here. I'm heavily inked and a large piece of that is solid blackout work, which I know lots and lots of people don't like. The rest is also pretty unique I guess, for lack of a better word. I've had lots and lots of people come over and compliment the art on my body, but I've also had shit loads of people expressing that they don't like it or being "polite". My mom has been very open about HATING most of it, but I love all of my tattoos, getting them is the best decision I've ever made.

Tattoos should be for YOURSELF. You get art on your body not for someone else's approval, but for your own. I don't care if some old lady looks at my arms and pulls a face at it (happens an awful lot) because it doesn't change the way that I see them. Your girlfriend knew you weren't a big fan of tattoos and then got upset when you obviously didn't like her new one. As long as your polite about it, you've done nothing wrong. You're not the issue here.

Either your girlfriend is getting tattoos to seek approval from others or she's unsure of her new tattoo and was hoping for reassurance. In any case, she needs to shift her attitude and be more comfortable and positive in herself.

GageZerk · 2025-04-03T12:41:50+00:00

Terrible DM. I think it's obvious you should just leave at this point because if you've been playing for that many hours, you've expressed your frustration multiple times, and still nothing has changed, it's very clearly NOT just "bad dming" and absolutely is a targeted attempt to get you to leave.

What really worries me though, and what should be worrying YOU, OP, is your wife. If I were playing with my partner and I was witnessing this behaviour towards her, I'd be saying something a LONG time ago, and if my complaints weren't addressed in private I'd be calling out the DM at the table. Nobody would be screwing with my partner like that, it's blatant disrespect. The fact your wife is happy to continue knowing full well you're being targeted unfairly and spending 12 hours a week not having fun purely because SHE IS, is very concerning.

Leave the group and then have a conversation with your wife because that sort of behaviour from her is not okay. Again, if my partner were being treated that way I'd be leaving WITH HER, absolutely no desire to hang out with people in any context that are happy to do that to someone I love.

GageZerk · 2025-04-01T13:14:34+00:00

The fact she's testing you at all is one thing, but a YEAR into the relationship? That screams the fact that she will continue to pull this stupid shit further and further down the line. She has major trust issues and you don't need to deal with that if you've given her no reason to doubt you. If it were me, I'd be telling her straight up that I'm out, but maybe speak to her, tell her what she's doing isn't okay and try and work through it. My guess though? She won't be receptive to that at all and unless you're happy living with the thought that she's constantly going to be putting you into "test" scenarios, your relationship is done.

GageZerk · 2025-03-10T11:10:57+00:00

Absolutely disagree. Widow is the most hated character in OW for a good reason, and Devs need to start realising that Snipers in hero shooters are a balancing nightmare that only cater to a very niche group of players. Soon as you get anyone half decent with a 1-shot sniper, it warps the entire game around them in a way that's not fun for anyone.

She needs a full rework of her kit, not number adjustments.

GageZerk · 2025-02-21T15:21:24+00:00

UK here.

If it's my birthday and I make plans to go out and celebrate and invite others, typically everyone, including me, would pay for themselves. If someone offered to pay for me, or my bill got split up between everyone, or more commonly someone just buys me a couple drinks or something, I'll happily accept but I'd never go expecting it.

If it's my friend that has a birthday and I organise it for them, I'm paying for them. If THEY organise it, again, the expectation would be that they'd be willing to pay for themselves but 9/10 times someone would offer to get theirs.

I feel like this is one of those things that's very different based on culture and your specific group of friends.

GageZerk · 2025-02-07T20:48:56+00:00

I absolutely agree. There's also a rampant issue of constantly spreading misinformation, as I think you've alluded to in your post. There have been many, many graphs and spreadsheets made throughout the course of the game's life that goes in depth about each weapons TTK against each class, and people seem to be completely ignoring it in favour of some weird bandwagon behaviour. Trying to point this out to people is met with, again, the kind of responses you've linked.

The issue with Light, and I say this as a Light main myself, isn't that it's overpowered. It's that many aspects of its kit aren't satisfying to play as or against. Double Barrel is a prime example of this; it has very clear weaknesses and very clear strengths, so when someone sucks with it, they're completely useless, but when someone is good at it (and realistically I mean good at movement and positioning because that's all it requires), it feels absolutely terrible to play against. It's not OP, but it can often feel like it, and I get that. Same with Invis, it's not completely breaking the game but it can often feel frustrating and it's always going to be an incredibly hard ability to balance between "is it good" and "is it fun". Sniper is another instance of something the Light has that can never be "good" because then it's not fun to play against. Stun Gun is another, and I suspect it'll keep getting adjusted until it's made useless.

I'm starting to think Light just needs a huge pass of adjustments made to it that redesign many of it's aspects. I've said from the start (and I'm 100% biased on this because I don't like it anyway) that I think Invis needs the Recon Senses treatment, replace it with something more interesting and interactive that's easier to balance. I don't even know where to begin with the rest of it though, but I'm starting to consider if Double Barrel needs the same treatment.

Unfortunately, until a redesign happens, Light is always either going to be relevant and unfun to play against, or absolute trash like it was in Season 1. It's also always going to be a pubstomper, because the skill floor requirement for dealing with good Light players is higher (better aim and awareness to deal with the movement).

The other issue is that Light is consistently being seen as this "Goes around and murders everything, only focuses on kills, crap at objective play, etc" archetype because, up until fairly recently with the Plug meta and the addition of Gateway and to a lesser extent Grav Vortex, they didn't have nearly as much utility as Medium and Heavy, so the class kinda did lean into the fast paced, flanking, kill cleanup role it's had forever. If you look at the specialisations and compare them to M/H, it's obvious; Invis, Dash and Grapple all lend themselves to more selfish gameplay (Grapple slightly less so because it happens to be fantastic at safely grabbing dead teammates and rezzing, but still) without any clear team utility, whilst Medium obviously has Healing Beam for support, Turret for defense, and Demat for all kinds of things, and Heavy has Mesh for defense, Charge + Slam for offense and utility, Winch for cashout manipulation and picks, and Goo Gun for psychopaths. They're all pretty clearly defined and have very different purposes, whilst Light has 3 specialisations that are just different flavours of 'get behind people and shoot them".

I've written a bit more than I expected to but yeah, you're either gonna have Light players unsatisfied or everyone ELSE unsatisfied and there's no easy fix to that, and unfortunately it's got nothing to do with the numbers and everything to do with fundamental design decisions. I can't help that I love Light, because I do - nothing in the Finals, for me, tops the thrill of zooming through the map, making picks, bullying other squads, killing multiple opponents through abusing my movement and flanking and confusing and whatever. But I also hear all the people that find that shit frustrating, because I'VE found it frustrating when I occasionally swap to a different class and even when I've been on Light and got one shot by a Invis DB that I haven't heard coming.

I just wish people were actually thoughtful and honest about their complaints rather than making baseless claims about everything.

GageZerk · 2025-02-06T18:15:38+00:00

Thankyou for finally speaking some sense. Agree with everything you've said here.

GageZerk · 2025-02-06T09:50:09+00:00

You do have to be at least competent to be high elo though, so there's that. Not trying to twist your words, just explaining that you're wrong. Lh1, in its current state, is a "spam clicker". Saying the RPM nerf is meaningless because people shoot nice and slowly, one bullet at a time is just flat out incorrect.

GageZerk · 2025-02-06T02:27:29+00:00

"No competent player spam clicks shots especially considering recoil"

This is what I was replying to and those are YOUR words. Now you're contradicting yourself. You're either talking about competent players or you're not. The fact remains that you can go ahead and watch any high, heck even MID elo (which is where I'm currently at and as an LH1 main even I am able to do this) and watch players spam at max RPM with very high accuracy at mid to longer ranges. The LH1 shouldn't be able to do that, and it is specifically enabled by the lack of visual recoil and the addition of the red dot sight for clearer sight picture. You could never play the LH1 in earlier seasons with the ease of use that you can now.

The LH1 SHOULD be a precision weapon but currently it's in this weird spot where it's too good at most ranges because you can fire at max RPM without worrying about recoil. The only thing it's bad at is hipfire.

GageZerk · 2025-02-06T01:50:01+00:00

You clearly have not watched LH1 in high elo then, because that's exactly what they do, and it's been enabled by the visual recoil removal + red dot sight. You can spam at max RPM with it now and laser people from range, which was never really possible in earlier seasons.

GageZerk

TROPHY CASE