PTS 1.4 Week 3 Patch Notes

[Oh. daesu]

For those who are interested in the PTS 1.4 changes.

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1502900-PTS-Week-3-Patch-Notes?s=1bd7af933c618e5cae7ea89bac3047e7&p=11980102#post11980102

• Elites - time to kill. They scaled back the damage and armor of elites. So, Week 1 - real easy, week 2 - people felt it was too hard. Week 3 they are hoping for Goldilocks.
  
• Search and Destroy.  Less elites will be encountered. Back to veterans.
  
• Skills will have different threat levels. e.g. Ballistic Shield - high threat, Smart Cover low threat.
  
• Vendor purchases are scalable to your agent gs#. Blue prints not scalable.
  
• Check the vendors for Named Weapons, and open world. More scalable depending on the context. There is meant to be more exploration in knowing where to them.
  
• Diminishing returns on electronics and skills has been decreased.
  
• No purple drops killing mid-level bosses. Though fixed with underground caches.
  
• MG5 was a mistake. Goneski.
  
• Division Tech removed as a crafting requirement. It will be irrelevant in 1.4, though at a later date they shall find a use for it once again.
  
• Banshee (formally know as Blind). Speed bonus is removed, was causing issues with low spec machines. I can't see it in the patch notes, however they were talking about a gear talent to preserve your DZ credits on death.
  
• Mod lv 33, will make a return. Though with limitations. Bear in mind these were originally an impact on the gap between min-maxes and casual players.
  

Incursion Weighting. Sets are rng'ed. Gear pieces are weighted.

• Falcon Lost: Masks and gloves
  
• Clear Sky:    Vests and Holsters
  
• Dragon's Nest: Backpacks and Knee pads
  

EDIT:

This week is a reset. You shall be porting your 1.3 toons over again.

 

[quinch1199]

Skills will have different threat levels. e.g. Ballistic Shield - high threat, Smart Cover low threat.

Ohhh... I like this idea. Like in other MMORPG's...if you pop a group heal you add Aggro to your threat calculation.

Division Tech removed as a crafting requirement. It will be irrelevant in 1.4, though at a later date they shall find a use for it once again

Good point... wonder what they will do with our caches of it.

the rest... seems like solid rebalancing. 

 

[RimBlock]

Well, I got a couple of days with the MG5  :10_wink: .

What use are purple drops post lvl 30 ?

Will see what it is like for a bit tonight.

 

[Oh. daesu]

Purples: They kept talking about game economics. They are for crafting mats and credits; thus the argy bargy.

(oops yep the MG5)

 

[RimBlock]

Then why not just give crafting mats and credits  :51_scream: .  :10_wink: .

 

[Oh. daesu]

Then why not just give crafting mats and credits  :51_scream: .  :10_wink: .

To paraphrase them, "this way you can choose whether you want mats or credits". lol it's not a strong sell.

 

[quinch1199]

To paraphrase them, "this way you can choose whether you want mats or credits". lol it's not a strong sell.

Yeah that's a pretty weak argument when getting a random drop of a cache of mixed crafting materials would be far better received. 

Easy idea on Credits... why don't mobs just drop money when you kill them? Or put a financial value on raw materials?

 

[quinch1199]

I'm ALWAYS short on Tools ... I have an abundance of every other type of material...except tools! 

Loosing Division tech isn't an issue for me...I've never used any!

 

[Oh. daesu]

I suppose this game is the rare exception that you didn't get cash off the street or mobs lol

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Glad to see the threat component being used, now one can truly tank and draw agro from NPCs so DPS and support can do their thing.  

 

[RimBlock]

Saw State of the Game this morning so just to clarify a few point on the patch notes.

• Lvl 31 -> 33 enemies damage reduced by 15% and armour reduced by 17%.
  
• Reckless incoming damage increase changed from 15% to 10% (outgoing damage is still 7% IIRC).
  
• S&D are mostly normal / veteran rather than elites.  Intel increased for S&S (in week 2 and remains).
  
• Banshee GSet: Speed boost changed to no XP or cash lost on death in DZ for non-rogues.
  
• Named weapons are not GS locked apart from not being able to get in GS163 (little hazy on if just one weapon - showstopper, or all named weapons).
  
• Named weapon blueprints removed.  You will keep if you already have but it will be locked to that GS.
  
• Named weapons available at vendors and via loot drops.
  
• DPS headshot weighting dependent on weapon type in calculation.
  
• Ammo cap reduced by 25% (meaning still +50% compared to 1.3)
  
• Caduceus has new talents.  It gets Talented (kill and increase skill power), Competent (use skill for more damage), Determined (kill to reduce skill cooldowns)
  
• Skill point curve amended to allow more impact for specialising in skill points.
  
• Skill haste capped at 60% (people were able to get 100% previously).
  
• All but sig skills have a 5s min cooldown.
  
• Skill adjustments due to skill power curve reworking.
  
  
  Sticky Bomb: Base skill and mods PVP modifier reduced to 44% (from 90%)
  
• Ballistic Shield: Added threat generation when deployed.  Health reduced by 30% (apart from Kinetic breaker which gets -25%)
  
• Support station: Reduced cooldown to 50s (from 90s), cooldown scaling with skill power set to 80% (??), Ammo cache Skill Haste bonus now 15% (was 50%).
  
• Smart Cover: Base Skill with mods set to 7% (Trapper set to 5%) for stability and accuracy bonus. Recharger Skill Haste bonus 15% (was 20%).
  
• Concealment: Increased threat reduction.
  
• Pulse: Tac Scanner reduced Crit Hit Damage bonus to 7% (from 10%).  Scrambler added threat reduction.
  
• Seeker Mine: Reduced bleed from 10s to 8s.
  
• Mobile Cover: Added threat for Extention,reduced threat for Countermeasure.
  

[*]Open World named NPCs respawn set to 4 hours (was 24 hours).

[*]Underground (bosses and chests): Normal mode WT1 will have a chance for purple loot instead of HE and GS.  WT2+ all difficulties give high end and GS.

[*]Mission and incursion mid bosses (ie. 4 horsemen or Raptor & Domino in GA): No purple drops but will drop HE mats and chance of HE / GS items.

[*]PXC vendor removed from Tech wing (upstairs).

[*]Division Tech no longer required for blueprints but can still be used to craft other mats.

[*]MG5 removed and blueprint converted to RPK blueprint .

[*]A number of bug fixes (check out the link @Oh. daesu posted at the top of this thread for those details.

 

[Oh. daesu]

Saw State

• Mission and incursion mid bosses (ie. 4 horsemen or Raptor & Domino in GA): No purple drops but will drop HE mats and chance of HE / GS items.
  

of the Game this 

Must have heard them defending how it works.. before actually dumping it. They made a big point of how it was by design and the twitch chat exploded.

 

[RimBlock]

:8_laughing: .  Was a bit surprised to hear after the stuff you put up. Thought they were just using our awesome ideas  :10_wink: .

 

[quinch1199]

Must have heard them defending how it works.. before actually dumping it. They made a big point of how it was by design and the twitch chat exploded.

We're being .... watched! lol

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

We're being .... watched! lol

I rarely go to the official forums, is the conversation there very active?  Granted, over here it's basically 1/2 a dozen of us chattering back and forth, but still a lot of good ideas that we come up with. 

 

[quinch1199]

I rarely go to the official forums, is the conversation there very active?  Granted, over here it's basically 1/2 a dozen of us chattering back and forth, but still a lot of good ideas that we come up with. 

Maybe Massive stalk these forums and forums like these for ideas as, in my experience, its really easy on official forums to lose good ideas under a massive wave of Trolling, negative comments, repeated posts and a general mass of unrealistic ideas, suggestions and just simply people begging for attention. 

I would imagine a forum where six or so sensible people thrash out ideas in a civilised manner might JUST be the place to find out what's really needed in a game.

..its what I'd do....

 

[RimBlock]

I rarely go to the official forums, is the conversation there very active?  Granted, over here it's basically 1/2 a dozen of us chattering back and forth, but still a lot of good ideas that we come up with. 

Yes and it is probably just as you would expect, pretty pointless with so many people trying ...

I deliberately do not post there as I just can't be bothered with all the hassle.  Whatever you say there, there are going to be arguments from one side or the other.  Just take a look at one or two of the main threads there and you can see it generally just descends in to off topic crap and then arguments.

This is a much more civilised place :1_grinning: .

 

[RimBlock]

Impressions of week 3 so far.

• LMGs feel like they are back to 1.3 effectiveness.
  
• Weekly HVT and Challenging missions are doable solo*.
  
• Smart cover is feeling relevant usable again and scaling better with skill power.
  
• M4 is working well.
  
• Loot is worse again.  Not as bad as 1.3 but almost nothing better than what my live character had when converted to the PTS this week. 
  
• Marksmen rifles are feeling a bit week again.
  
• Joining missions which are already running is ok but I joined one just after they killed the boss so as soon as I loaded in the all just disbanded and I had no idea what was going on.
  
• Items at the stores are now all purple apart from two gold items and a cache (WtH do we want purple for in WT4).
  
• S&Ds are paying +10 intel on completion at the safe house which is better than the previous tiny amount.
  

* Lexington on challenging was tough on the rooftop with two heavies, took 3 attempts.  Marksman, LMG & turret failed to take down the machine guners fast enough with all fire on me.   I completed it in the end by running to the left to were the hostage is, taking out the sniper and using smart cover & Overdose with the marksman and lightweight M4.

Unfortunately I have some PC issues with the new ram I bought.  I suspect overheating but it is causing the machine to lockup usually in the heat of multiplayer missions (hasn't done it when going solo) which is very irritating for me and the rest of the team, I'm sure.  I will be looking at better cooling or changing to a better case.  The fans in the Corsair Carbide 540 I am using are not pushing that much air through.

 

[Oh. daesu]

I tried the RPK, and the numbers are different.  1.4 wk2 (12k,38k,38k) vs 1.4 w3 (13k,31k,4Ok) (base, headshot, crit). Now my gun and gear are the same though I was fiddling with my mods. Not quite the benchmark, though I'm not left the the impression the LGM has been nerfed..

 

[RimBlock]

I have seen no notes on them nerfing the LMGs but just try challenging Lexington and see how well it does on the roof.  I switched to the LMG for Wk1 & 2 but could not get past that part with my LMG that in week 2 was my go to weapon.

My M4 will take down heavies in two mags, my RPK, with twice the ammo will require 2+ mags.  RoF difference and just twice the number of bullets make it too slow in that situation for my playing style.

My marksman rifles that got ported over from live and the ones I found have around 160k base DPS with my Firearms.  I found a Scar-H with a base PDS of around 300k.  I can also see no real reason for it.

Firearms to DPS has radically changed, as expected.  Health seem to have also changed and we know skill power has also changed.  Overall not getting the crasy DPS figures anymore (apart from the Scar-H).