The latest patch bought with it potions, which are a fun way of getting additional time-bound (5 minutes) abilities.
Whilst I love the idea of this and I do think it makes the game interesting to have abilities such as infinite fuel, regeneration and always-on radar, I feel that the Juggernaut potion is pointless!
This potion makes a player gigantic and gives them a ridiculous amount of health (15,000, I believe). This makes them virtually invulnerable and completely skews the balance of the game (although, I have killed a few to win 2500XP).
So the game is no longer about being skilful. It’s simply a race to see who can get the juggernaut potion and become almost impossible to kill. Now we have new players that aren’t particularly good at the game running rampage, thinking they are awesome.
And the players that have spent a lot of time getting good at the game are now squashed like flies by noobs.
Surely there must be some downsides to being a juggernaut? Well, yeah. You’re a lot slower so it makes it a bit more difficult to get about and it only lasts for five minutes but apart from that, you’re just completely OP. With Sniper Rifle shots to the head (causing 200 damage each), I had to unload over 75 rounds to kill one of these beasts. What’s more is that if they get a kill, there’s a chance that they will recover their health!
It gets even worse if you have a load of kids all teaming as juggernauts and preventing everyone else from getting the potions. The game just becomes a bit of a joke – although I gotta say it is very satisfying when you kill a juggernaut and they lose their shit….and then maybe keep killing them when they’re small before they have a chance to get another potion.
There’s the argument to be made that Juggernauts aren’t available on all maps, so anyone that doesn’t like them should just move to a different map. My argument is that there is completely no point to them at all. I’m all for giving new players a chance – I think overshield does a decent job of that – but Juggernaut is just complete bollocks. And I like a challenge as well – but the amount of health the juggernaut gets makes it very difficult to destroy them.
So what can be done? Getting rid of them completely would be good but if that’s not possible, perhaps reduce the amount of health they have, maybe to 1000 or even 2000. Prevent them from getting bonuses for kills (such as getting their health back). Only allow one juggernaut on a map at a time. Give them some sort of vulnerability that can be exploited by decent players. All good options, I think – they need to be nerfed to make playing against them fun.
Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below.