So, Mass drivers got a nerf. I'm at Mass Drivers L5, I can kill people, but it's really irritating when you think for sure that that round should hit/finish off the red dot, and doesn't. Why such a huge (Near 50%) nerf to the blast radius?

I'm reaching out to you, fellow Mass Driver users, particularly those who have put a lot of points into the tree. Are they still worth using? Do they become a lot better after those point?

(I will commend uprising on it's hit detection for direct hits with Mass Drivers, tons better now than before.)

So, Mass drivers got a nerf. I'm at Mass Drivers L5, I can kill people, but it's really irritating when you think for sure that that round should hit/finish off the red dot, and doesn't. Why such a huge (Near 50%) nerf to the blast radius?

I'm reaching out to you, fellow Mass Driver users, particularly those who have put a lot of points into the tree. Are they still worth using? Do they become a lot better after those point?

(I will commend uprising on it's hit detection for direct hits with Mass Drivers, tons better now than before.)

The boundless had like 9 m radius after skills. That was kinda ridiculous if you ask me... However I agree... A 50% nerf is too far.

So, Mass drivers got a nerf. I'm at Mass Drivers L5, I can kill people, but it's really irritating when you think for sure that that round should hit/finish off the red dot, and doesn't. Why such a huge (Near 50%) nerf to the blast radius?

I'm reaching out to you, fellow Mass Driver users, particularly those who have put a lot of points into the tree. Are they still worth using? Do they become a lot better after those point?

(I will commend uprising on it's hit detection for direct hits with Mass Drivers, tons better now than before.)

Most deaths to MD's I had in Chromosome were to mass spamming them around waiting for the blast radius to kill people instead of actual skill aiming those things. So I consider them fixed in this build ;)

There is a new problem though where the rounds appear to explode but don't actually apply their damage. This seems to be happening mostly on structure surfaces. I think the 50% radius nerf may have gone too far, but this will just mean my aim improves.

the vast majority of the advantages the gun had are now gone.

all the advatages of all wepons are gone now

No, duvolle tactical still has it

No, duvolle tactical still has it

Why the Duvolle Tac? Haven't looked at that one yet either.

all the advatages of all wepons are gone now

Mass drivers werent that great in Chromosome once you began to encounter proto suits and shield tankers. They are needlessly nerfed and i gather much of the MD data comes from how they performed against all the ppl running militia gear in pubs during beta.

Perhaps with proficiency all these weapons become their ultiamate form.

Please fix the splash CCP, I've wasted a LOT of SP on this weapon otherwise.......could I get that back?

have not tried it, perhaps that will be the flavor of the week, and by next week, they will nerf it lol

I was a dedicated MD user in the last build, although it was only moderately useful. Got it up to prof 4. AR's were better, but I could compete. Now...Even if you get a direct hit you don't do that much damage since everyone skilled into shield tanks again. Maybe if the round traveled faster and fired a little faster it would be worth using but right now....

So, Mass drivers got a nerf. I'm at Mass Drivers L5, I can kill people, but it's really irritating when you think for sure that that round should hit/finish off the red dot, and doesn't. Why such a huge (Near 50%) nerf to the blast radius?

I'm reaching out to you, fellow Mass Driver users, particularly those who have put a lot of points into the tree. Are they still worth using? Do they become a lot better after those point?

(I will commend uprising on it's hit detection for direct hits with Mass Drivers, tons better now than before.)

The boundless had like 9 m radius after skills. That was kinda ridiculous if you ask me... However I agree... A 50% nerf is too far.

Is it just me or are all my weapons less effective. I die more too. Almost like my dropsuit and upgrades are NOT protecting me anymore.

i just can't give up the MD since it's never ending nastalgia from my star wars battlefront 1 days of playing the imperial pilot/mortar cannon, definately less effective but it's making the kill more rewarding to have to land the shot, i kinda admit the old MD was getting too easy, still they went too far with the nerf, it should be half of what it is..

Boundless Assault Splash = 7m
Freedom Splash = 5m
Core Breach Splash = 4m.

This is including MD Operation 5.

Then increase the splash damage by 10%. That pretty much bumps the MD up to Uprising standards.

As it was before each MD served a purpose.

The normal was a general face to face weapon best at halting charges. You did better if you had high ground or from behind, but its general use was stop people rushing a position and keep them in cover.

The assault did the opposite. The assault drove people from cover and let your men cross ground with minimum hassle. Its blastradius also gave Iit the longest effective range of the three letting you use it as a mortar.

The breach was the bastard child of the three. It looks like it was meant to fight lav but it doesn't work like that. What it could do was ambush. It was good if you got the drop on your target, but it had the worst splash of three. If you were gifted it could be used to dual directly, but this was both rare and difficult.

Now the normal md can't hit well enough to suppress, the assault can't drive people out or put hurt down range very far, and the breach doesn't hit hard enough to do much even if it was nerfed the least.

This is one shot at my feet from a basic mass driver. Please tell me more about how broken they are.


http://i.imgur.com/0Yj0r5F.jpg

I tried several weapons and most are actually weaker, especially because weaponry doesnt increase damage anymore. It feels that I am overall more durable while the truth is that EVERYONE does less damage. I can run around with scrambler pistol and jump/dance around during reload and survive to continue fire 2 seconds later, which was not possible before.

to be honest, I used the MD before and the splash was huge and I could hit a whole squad sitting on an objective and all I had to do is aim their general direction. on some maps I was just sitting on the roof or somewhere close, spamming MD nades and killing whole squads trying to get the objective. imho the nerf is justified although a bit too harsh.

Maybe you didn't notice the 760 dmg in 1 shot. and it wasn't a head or even a body shot...

I think they give total damage. Maybe you were hit by his flux simultaneously.

Sometimes when I die it shows that I took more damage than I have HP.

Maybe you didn't notice the 760 dmg in 1 shot. and it wasn't a head or even a body shot...

On another of the MD threads someone posted that they noticed the actual round travels higher than the smoke trail a shot leaves behind. After spending a couple days trying to learn to play at all with the my beloved MD (that I foolishly went to level 5 op and level 1 proficiancy without even trying first because I was unaware of a nerf) I think I noticed it too.

In general I think the round travels about a foot higher than one thinks it is. For example, if you are aiming directly at a medium frame enemy, a round aimed at and showing the smoke trail hitting him in the pelvic area would in actuallity hit the target straight in the middle of their chest.

Anyone else notice this or am I and the other guy who originally posted such completely off base?

I did the exact same thing you did. I haven't noticed the difference in smoke to round distance. Although, I was a very good shot in Chromosone with the MD and shots that I would have expected to hit, don't.

I swear, some shots where the blast radius should splash the target, don't. Not sure if it's just me though.

Mass drivers werent that great in Chromosome once you began to encounter proto suits and shield tankers. They are needlessly nerfed and i gather much of the MD data comes from how they performed against all the ppl running militia gear in pubs during beta.

Perhaps with proficiency all these weapons become their ultiamate form.

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.

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.

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.

Lets compare the exo-5 and the freedom splash damage. Direct impacts are great and all, but most effective against heavies... And do they even count at this point?
Exo-5
51 CPU
7 PG
3.1m radius
110.2 HP splash damage
6 round clip -- 1 shot a second
4 second reload.

Freedom
93 CPU
14 PG
3.3m radius
115.5 Splash damage
6 round clip 1-- 1 shot a second
4 second reload.

So for 42 CPU and 7 PG you get...
~6.5% accuracy bonus
~31.8 damage a clip
Over the 10 second Fire/reload cycle that equals about 3.1 DPS difference... for double PG and 42 CPU

Furthermore, if every shot is a direct impact, the damage per 10 second reload cycle only increases to about 60 a clip.

Compare this with the 90 damage a clip for Gek vs Duvall... And the higher time spent firing (Basic AR clips last about 5 seconds w/ a 3 second reload. 4.8/7.8 VS. MD's 6/10)... Did I mention that the accuracy bonus between those two is also about 10% as well? For 1 more CPU and the same amount of PG....

Oh and ARs have another 3X multiplier skill that makes their shots more accurate as well...
Scale better much?

Just using an AR as an example... Not trying to say that the MD should do the same amount of damage as the AR, just saying that it doesn't scale well enough right now.

But if I WAS trying to make that arguement....

Duv DMG per clip (every shot hitting) 2040.
Freedom DMG per clip (Direct impacts every time!) 1452.

Ill leave it to the viewer to decide which of the two events are less likely... direct impacts every time -- or hitting with the AR.
Never mind the TAC duv...

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).

Remember when people did ragdoll gymnastics when you blamed them?

*sigh*

It's like losing a best friend...

Tell me something I don't know. This was an issue LAST PATCH. One player eats up all the splash damage if you miss. And by miss I mean direct impact or don't hit exactly in the center of them all. This isn't so much of an issue this patch because..... THE SPLASH RADIUS IS TOO SMALL TO HIT MORE THAN ONE PERSON.

I am still doing OK with the MD. I put that on the strength of flux gernades and not the MD itself.

I refuse to give in to flux, I will not carry a grenade to make my grenades work...I will not do well either.

as far as I can tell, nothing changed