Black Ops 2: The Ghost Perk Done Right

4.4
There’s no debating that the Ghost perk in Black Ops 1 was a huge point of controversy for the title. Some people argued that because of things like the Blackbird and how easy it was to do well in BO1, that Ghost wasn’t that big of a deal. Other people argued that Ghost made the game play incredibly slow and enabled campers like no Call of Duty has ever enabled them before.

I felt that reality was somewhere in between the two. The Blackbird made BO1 a fast-paced, gun-on-gun killfest, but until you called one in, every match was a drawn-out campfest.

The solution most people supplied for the imbalances presented by Ghost were typically either include Stopping Power in the same tier as Ghost or make it so Ghost users appeared every 3rd sweep of a UAV.

In my opinion, however, the upcoming Black Ops II has hit the stealth perk dead center.

No perk should reward a player 100% of the time, especially if that perk affects the enemy team. BOII’s Ghost perk only protects players from enemy UAVs when the player is on the move, planting/defusing a bomb, or controlling scorestreaks. To me, that is perfectly balanced. Now Ghost only rewards players that stay on the move (which you can’t do 100% of the time) or play the objective. Side note: Ghost working while standing on a Domination flag is pointless because if you’re close enough to capture a flag, 9 out of 10 times the enemy can see you, in addition to getting a warning that the flag is being captured.

Playing the objective in COD has always been risky behavior. BOII’s Ghost is going to make it easier for players to minimize the risk that comes with playing the objective. This, in combination with it not working when stationary and objective points being worth more than kills, is going to get players moving and playing the objective. Of course there are always going to be campers, but at least now they won’t have the luxury of being invisible.

Why Stopping Power isn’t a balanced counter to Ghost

Stopping Power, like Ghost, rewarded players 100% of the time by making every bullet they fired a little more deadly. Not running it put you at an immediate disadvantage to anyone that was. That’s the baseline definition of imbalanced. Stopping Power was just as imbalanced as Ghost. Perks shouldn’t require other perks that act as counters to create balance. All the perks should be balanced within themselves in addition to remaining balanced when combined with other perks.

What are your thoughts? Are you worried that the seemingly endless possibilites of the Pick 10 Create-A-Class system are going to be too easily manipulated to combine perks in ways that will cause imbalances? Do you think Treyarch is taking the balance of the perks in the right direction?

Posted:
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: http://mp1st.com/2012/10/21/black-ops-2-the-ghost-perk-done-right/

Comments

"Black Ops 2: The Ghost Perk Done Right" :: Login/Create an Account :: 50 comments

If you would like to post a comment please signin to your account or register for an account.

CombPosted:

ZOMG OH NO camperszzz! Seriously people need to grow up and stop thinking that everyone should just run in circles in front of them for a free kill.

CyberPunkPosted:

TTGJac see it will be interesting to see how the game defines being mobile and being static, for the simple fact the main reason ghost, assassin, cold blooded were created was for proper sniping...


UAV Jammer best one in my opinoin, didnt fully oer you from UAV and if no radar was up your minimap turned staticy when near someone with uav jammer so meant a good balance in my opinoin as they got the cover from the all seeing eye so to speak but then also were given away by the technology they used to give so in a sense causing the static :)

TTGJacPosted:

see it will be interesting to see how the game defines being mobile and being static, for the simple fact the main reason ghost, assassin, cold blooded were created was for proper sniping...

SayPosted:

In all honesty if stopping power was in BO1 I would of never played it after the first month the famas was already powerful enough would of ruined it. I love the new ghost anything that makes campers life hell is alright in my book. I hope the multiple perk with the wild card is balanced tho will have to wait and see.

whozbeanforeverPosted:

Nice_Peter Copy and pasted right from Mp1st


Hey, they gave a source link, didn't they?

Nice_PeterPosted:

Copy and pasted right from Mp1st

GoneFishinPosted:

wheres the like button?

theartftwPosted:

It doesn't really matter what they do, eventually the community will find the next cheapest method of grinding up the kill feed and ruining the game.

TTGJacPosted:

personally i hate what has happened to ghost. people blamed the perk i blame some players. i used ghost on pretty much every class and the only time i stopped was for KS, objectives or to rethink my next move. i hate that i now have to pick from four perks to get the correct under the radar, bullets in your face play style.

Fuzzeh_XPosted:

ok what if theres a loop hole where they can just move back and forth like 2 inches in there corner that will be LAME