Mobility is a controversial topic in the Fortnite community. When it is brought up, the opinions are divided 50/50. In the recent season update changes, the Fortnite map is now covered in vents and a new vehicle. All of these changes make mobility very easy to come by on all parts of the map. The reason why too much mobility is bad is simply because it rewards bad play and encourages vehicle usage. When new vehicles appear in a game, players love to use them to test the mechanics and crazy plays. In the case of the Baller spawning across the map, it heavily impacts gameplay.
Spawn Rate
One of the worst things about the Baller is the spawn rate. With spawn points in 18 places across the map, there are way too many in the game. Each location offers one to five spawns for the Baller, meaning there is easily one for every four people in the game. It’s a great vehicle, but it is too abundant in the game’s current state. Many people who do not mind the presence of Baller claim just to shoot it, but destroying the ball is not that easy. While it only has 300hp, it is elusive and speedy, making it hard to track while spraying it.
Other vehicles, like the quad crasher and hoverboard, have reduced spawn rates, so they are not seen nearly as much. The quad crasher and hoverboard also do not allow 100 percent protection from enemy fire, which is why the Baller is the most popular vehicle right now. The other key difference in the vehicles is how fast they move. All of the vehicles have boost, but the Baller has boost and a grappler. This allows for fast movement while the boost is recharging, making it faster and more mobile than the other vehicles.
Rotations
Rotating in a battle royale game is tactical and made based on hot spots and bus routes. With vehicles, rotations are a lot easier and don’t require as much thinking since the player can move faster. In the case of the Baller, rotating into zone is made easy, thanks to the boosting feature. While looking up and boosting this vehicle flies forward, and can be used to slingshot when paired with the grappler. With the quad crasher, rotating is easy with flying, but it is hard to accomplish, and also predictable. The Baller offers much more dynamic movement with no cooldown, so it becomes the clear choice.
The hoverboard is fast while boosting but slow without it, making the player vulnerable while they are on it. This is the kind of vehicle that is not overpowered in Fortnite. The Baller is a win-win in terms of mobility and protection, there is no trade-off. Since it is so easy, players check spawns and use the ball to get to late game very easily. Planning rotations is pointless since players can just hop in a ball and go.
Vents do not offer as much of an advantage because they are spaced well and are not protective. Players can rotate easily by using vents, but enemies can shoot them out of the sky. While there are a few too many around the volcano, they are not spread around the map as much. This makes it so players around the map have to rely on foot or hamster balls to get to zone. Vents are more useful than overpowering, and they are a good addition because of it.
Competitive Play
The Baller is a high-value item in competitive play. Due to the reasons mentioned above, players treat them like gold. Exiting the ball and boxing up in the safe zone is a common practice. Once it is time to rotate, players hop in the balls and go. While this is a strategic move and there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s the sheer amount of balls that cause the problem. If it was only a few it would not be a big deal, but the amount of people that end the game in balls is just crazy. Below is a twitter video from @xiTigger that shows how crazy it really is.
The “just shoot it” strategy also does not work here because of the others not in balls. When a player tries to shoot a ball, an enemy shoots the player, causing them to edit their window back to a wall. When the storm is moving as well, players cannot shoot the balls because they have to worry about enemies rotating. Something needs to be done in order to stop these end game situations from being so easy for people with Ballers.
Fortnite season 8 at its finest 🤣 retweet this rk pic.twitter.com/3p3OLEgjhe
— Felix Bullrich | Tig 💎 (@xiTigger) March 14, 2019
Adjustments
Moving forward, the Baller needs to be re-evaluated. since it offers 100 percent player protection, the boost needs a slower cooldown or the grappler needs a cooldown. Having a fast boost cooldown and no grappler penalty, it makes it the item of choice constantly. Nobody wants to ride around on a hoverboard and get shot at while they can hide in a ball. Vents aren’t a problem since they allow the player to be shot, they are more of an annoyance in terms of fighting. Quad crashers are a little bit overpowered because of the easy rotating, but the spawn rate has been lowered multiple times. Planes just got taken out because they were too much. The Baller is the next item that needs to be looked at and hopefully Epic does something about it in the next few updates.
Feature Image Courtesy of @_NicholasRivera
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