DUST Search - Mass Drivers Critical Review

Thog A Kuma wrote:

NewOldMan wrote:

To me Mass Drivers were expecting the nerf, as it made it rather easy to kill 2-3 grouped up people with a freedom last build. This time it takes much more skill (which I like).

They just need to fix the damage application. Because jumping (which isn't 3 meters high) completely negates most of the damage, as well as being on some sort of incline, even though you are well within the blast radius.

You can say it was rather easy to kill 2-3 people grouped up, of course those people could always decide to separate themselves, and then you couldn't. grouping up was their choice and grouping was not smart against a MD..you can still kill 2-3 people that are grouped up with a grenade..grenades do far more damage. Now you cannot kill 2-3 people with a MD Why shouldn't we be able to? Isn't this our wheelhouse? isn't this our function? to disrupt the enemy, make them move disrupt their visibility? when faced with a MD driver, grouping up should be contra-indicated, now nobody cares.

MD shouldn't be a forge gun depending on direct hits to kill. right now we have to aim so close that I'm getting a lot more direct hits (Wee I'm an arcing AR with a 4 second reload, 6 shots a clip) Joy.


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Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 514	Posted - 2013.05.07 09:41:00 - [1] - Quote Like others said, the absence of weaponry is very noticable, but it's not the end. With the terrain glitch fixed, all those would be splash hits from a flux or the MD itself are hits which scores some huge points in reliability. It kind of sucks that the standard assault is gone and the breach is still a POS, but Rome wasn't built in a day. If anything, I miss when killing someone produced some entertaining ragdoll acrobatics.
Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 588	Posted - 2013.05.09 08:24:00 - [2] - Quote Anyone notice the arc trajectory is straighter now too? I can't even flush people out of objective B in the complex by shooting through the window anymore. This really needs to be fixed. With all the proto suits running around, I'm completely gimped.
Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 601	Posted - 2013.05.09 22:42:00 - [3] - Quote If they were worried about the MD being overpowered, it wasn't. 3~4 hits on someone for a kill was a good balance compared to other weapons. The biggest hit though was to the splash radius. I can't even perform the same successful tactics I did last week with my squad. My role in combat was to herd the enemy in the direction of my squad from a flanking position or hold them down in a choke point so that heavies and scouts can get close enough to unload. Another tactic was to push back enemy squads so I could revive a downed team mate. I never got many kills or topped the leader boards, but I was always the squad MVP for enhancing their potential. Now, my damage isn't threatening enough and with the splash radius gimped, there are no tactics. Thanks to the splash damage fix I get more kills, but I would trade those kills just to be able to take advantage of the mass driver's utility and tactical aspects.
Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 604	Posted - 2013.05.09 23:29:00 - [4] - Quote NewOldMan wrote: To me Mass Drivers were expecting the nerf, as it made it rather easy to kill 2-3 grouped up people with a freedom last build. This time it takes much more skill (which I like). They just need to fix the damage application. Because jumping (which isn't 3 meters high) completely negates most of the damage, as well as being on some sort of incline, even though you are well within the blast radius. The splash damage application is fixed, I can attest to that. Many of those dud shots have been turned into easy kills. But the splash radius and damage has to be increased to give it the area denial capabilities it once had. One problem that seems to be the elephant in the room is damage mods. I'm starting to wonder if it's just the damage mods making weapons seem OP when they really aren't. Maybe if they increase the CPU/PG fitting requirements on them so players can't equip so many at once, we can have more accurate information on what weapons out damage others. As of right now, stacking damage mods on any weapon can make it OP. (Looking at Duvolle TAR)
Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 604	Posted - 2013.05.09 23:45:00 - [5] - Quote Thog A Kuma wrote: NewOldMan wrote: To me Mass Drivers were expecting the nerf, as it made it rather easy to kill 2-3 grouped up people with a freedom last build. This time it takes much more skill (which I like). They just need to fix the damage application. Because jumping (which isn't 3 meters high) completely negates most of the damage, as well as being on some sort of incline, even though you are well within the blast radius. You can say it was rather easy to kill 2-3 people grouped up, of course those people could always decide to separate themselves, and then you couldn't. grouping up was their choice and grouping was not smart against a MD..you can still kill 2-3 people that are grouped up with a grenade..grenades do far more damage. Now you cannot kill 2-3 people with a MD Why shouldn't we be able to? Isn't this our wheelhouse? isn't this our function? to disrupt the enemy, make them move disrupt their visibility? when faced with a MD driver, grouping up should be contra-indicated, now nobody cares. MD shouldn't be a forge gun depending on direct hits to kill. right now we have to aim so close that I'm getting a lot more direct hits (Wee I'm an arcing AR with a 4 second reload, 6 shots a clip) Joy. This is the tactical aspect of the weapon that never gets taken into account. Having a weapon that can harass and disorient the enemy adds a breath of fresh air to battles that you don't get from 48 ARs and zerg tactics.
Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 606	Posted - 2013.05.10 02:59:00 - [6] - Quote Belzeebub Santana wrote: NewOldMan wrote: To me Mass Drivers were expecting the nerf, as it made it rather easy to kill 2-3 grouped up people with a freedom last build. This time it takes much more skill (which I like). They just need to fix the damage application. Because jumping (which isn't 3 meters high) completely negates most of the damage, as well as being on some sort of incline, even though you are well within the blast radius. Sounds like you like this blob warfare... "Everyone huddle up and move as a flock, no worries about ANY AoE because we have to be piggybacking each other for them to hit more than one of us!" Game has gone from stale to broken, not happy about it either. CCP needs full disclosure on what they want to tweak going forwards, they have proven time and again they can't balance without breaking 5 things for every 1 they get right. Yeah, those patch notes had a lot of holes in them. If I had an assignment at my job that I needed to finish before going on vacation and I put in that amount of effort, I'd have to look for a new job when I got back. Just sayin'
Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 658	Posted - 2013.05.11 11:12:00 - [7] - Quote Looks like they tried to fix a weapon that wasn't broken to begin with: CCP Remnant wrote: To be perfectly honest, I'm a little baffled at what's happened with the Mass Driver. The reason for the splash and blast range nerf was that in playtests we found the MD to be so effective that at one point almost half the people in the office were using it in battles. Clearly, that's not been the case with Uprising and after getting the engineers to go elbow deep into the code it appears there may be a few reasons beyond dry numbers that are contributing to the MDs underwhelming performance. One, there appears to be a de-sync between client and server so that (more often than it should) the server and client think the projectile exploded in different places. They're not far off, but enough so that shots you think are spot on are off the mark enough to do only minor splash damage. And two, I'm told splash occlusion is getting blocked by a single player character more than it should, contributing to the "randomness" of the damage dealt and the sometimes smudgy feeling of the weapon. I'm hesitant to rebalance the weapon until we get these issues looked at (which is happening right now).
Cosgar The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar DARKSTAR ARMY 672	Posted - 2013.05.11 14:57:00 - [8] - Quote Remember when people did ragdoll gymnastics when you blamed them? sigh It's like losing a best friend...