I like the changes to the Banshee, but I think a small nerf might be in it's future.
This highlights a big problem with trying to 'balance' a game. 'Balance' assumes there is some representative team of players which you can pit against some other representative team of players and if things are properly 'balanced' all the weapons can be used in sensible builds and both teams have about an even chance.
The problem of course being that the idea of a 'representative player' is complete balderdash, some players like brawling, some ranged fighting, some are new, some are veterans, some have great engineers, others great gunners. The new Banshee is hard to balance because how powerful it feels depends on the make up of the teams, and in a potentially nasty way (which is why I think it is going to get a little nerf)
I've found that the new Banshee feels very powerful, unless I'm flying against a ship with decent engineers, then it feels about right. Why? Because fire damage induces panic in novice engineers who don't do their chem spray cycles properly, put out small fire stacks on engines rather than whacking them with a mallet or worse extinguish the hull when it is under fire and close to going down.
I think the question is what do Muse want to achieve. If they are looking for another weapon like the flamer which is punishing on new players but a bit easier to cope with if you have some experience then the changes to the Banshee could do that. It encourages novice engineers to learn how to chem spray and with matchmaking to prevent heavily stacked lobbies the Banshees should do this somewhat gently, similar to what the flamer does. It will also likely be better for this than the flamer as it doesn't make the enemy ship a blazing inferno of burning death.
Unfortunately matchmaking still has a few problems and while I think things are better it is still generating pretty unbalanced matches where the new Banshee facilitates experienced crews crushing new players. Add to that the novelty of the weapon change (half my builds at the moment have one just because I'm enjoying trying it out and from what I've seen I'm not alone) and you have a recipe for newb stomping. That is why I think it is going to get a little nerf, to make it a bit more novice friendly. Probably a small reduction in the secondary damage.
So I don't think it is OP, but I do think it isn't the gentle introduction to the importance of chem spray that new engineers need. If Muse are looking to cater to more hardcore players they might leave it be. If they are looking to make things a bit more novice friendly they might either give it a little nerf or see what further improvements can be made to matchmaking. Of course I'm bias, I often fly with novice crews and I like being able to slowly teach them new things rather than having them panic, lose and get frustrated.
