Haven't gotten through testing most of the changes...what are people's reactions thus far. Anyone changing their hunting rotation around?
Cool that kneecap now seems to interrupt. Addresses the 'oh snap' effect when out of bullets. A bit bummed that pointblank is now melee, as that will pull us out of cover now to do...but suppose it makes sense from the definition of pointblank.
I'm low key annoyed that the kneecap changed basically made code I spent an hour yesterday fiddling with pointless, because I don't need to reserve ammo when fighting wind up mobs, I can just kneecap.
Unload went from 1s per tick after a 1s windup, with a 4s balance cost, to 1.5s per tick. That bums me out, because I get far fewer shots than I normally would, and it's become a lot harder to find situations where unload is competitive to use.
I'm still never going to use haymaker, since the only thing Scoundrels can do that scales on muscular is kneecap.
Here's the thing with binding: when you prone a mob with trip, it takes them longer to stand based on their internal subsytem damage. So by the time you can get a reliable prone/bind off, you can already forcefeed them, so there's no reason to use pummel, when you can instakill them. It does do a lot of damage though, and it's fun switching it up a bit. If nothing else, pummel is faster in terms of balance costs than forcefeed.
On an unrelated note, DAZED is the odd affliction out in Infused ammo for Scoundrel. All the other afflictions do 0 subsys damage and stack and have requirements, but dazed does not. It doesn't stack, it does 1.5% subsys damage, and it has no req. There's another aff in the Sensory pool called DIZZY that does have all of the above features... but you can't use it. Bug, or intentional?
I know. And there might be something I am missing, but even trying to trip them one hit away from death while their internals are at heavily damage, they still stand before I regain balance...
Haven't gotten through testing most of the changes...what are people's reactions thus far. Anyone changing their hunting rotation around?
Cool that kneecap now seems to interrupt. Addresses the 'oh snap' effect when out of bullets. A bit bummed that pointblank is now melee, as that will pull us out of cover now to do...but suppose it makes sense from the definition of pointblank.
Most of what makes scoundrel hunting interesting to me is thrown out of the window with the change to unload. Mobs that previously take 4 bullets from it at the start can only be hit twice now. It also becomes harder to use it to end a fight. I would say unload is not useful now for hunting.
This affects other abilities that synergizes with unload as they become less useful or require less intricate usage.
Haymaker is one of those. Previously I would use it to end fights if mob is low health and bullets are at 3/4, to set up for unload on the next mob.
Gun eject in mid fight, so as to attempt to arrange for the same end condition with the desired number of bullets.
Using rapidfire where a crackshot would suffice to end a fight to reduce number of bullets to desired range.
Selecting next target depending on number of bullets left for efficiency, as some mobs could consistently take 4 unload bullets while others 3, before interrupting.
After the change, it seems like hunting becomes ambush->rapidfire>crackshot, mow down whichever mobs comes next, in every case. I would say scoundrel hunting has become very simplified now.
Unload is absolutely rubbish now. Why was this change made? It now does less damage for me than any standard ambush/rapidfire/crackshot rotations while bashing. It's totally useless. And this is a trans skill, too.
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty." — Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before." — Margaret Atwood
Probably cause it was broken in pvp. Previously if you waited for a fury to do anything you could get off min 3 shots guaranteed. Consistent 6% subsys 3 affs and huge damage with no CD? Lol.
A scoundrel in cover couldn't be interrupted by beast or fury anyway so that was doubly stupid.
Unload was previously something that had absolutely zero consequences to use (the off-balance thing wasn't really enough of a detriment) and had a load of people complaining about it. If you somehow failed to interrupt that or were unable to due to being put to sleep, you were going to get hit with potentially 6 afflictions and probably more than 12% subsystem damage.
Not every ability needs to be useful in bashing to be useful, anyway. Most classes don't use all their abilities in bashing. Unload should still be very strong in pk.
Should have been made a longer delay between the opening and the initial hit, instead of slower alltogether. Same usefulness in pve, much easier to react to and punish in pvp.
From my logs, it appears mobs now react to the starting message of unload, while previously they only countdown to their initial attack after taking damage from the first shot.
So I've been mostly away for the better part of two weeks prepping for and moving.
I am level 30. An area that I should be emerging out of (the Biloxin swamps) is now squashing me, I'm barely surviving fights that I used to be able to handle comfortably. Change no bueno.
I can see the rationalization for lowering our pvp damage, but Scoundrels are incredibly squishy as is. Lowering our pve damage on top of that feels a bit much.
I don't PVP. I PVE / bash at this point. Scoundrel is incredibly squishy. I'm currently MIL 53 and I cannot hunt in zones designated for my level. Lowering Rapidfire damage hurt our already fragile state in bashing. The only way we survive is to kill the target before we die. We take an incredible amount of damage.
This is why people are class changing to BEAST or other classes btw. That's not a route I want to go down but cmon throw us a bone.
That might be more of an issue with the level 50+ bashing areas, not scoundrel specifically. I couldn't hunt there, either, as a nanoseer (before the nanoseer buffs). Had to switch to the lovely engineer.
Mereas Eyrlock "They're excited, but poor." - Ilyos (August 2019)
That might be more of an issue with the level 50+ bashing areas, not scoundrel specifically. I couldn't hunt there, either, as a nanoseer (before the nanoseer buffs). Had to switch to the lovely engineer.
Well lowering our PVE damage ontop of it certainly wouldn't make the situation any better.
I have been hunting on the Delta Deck from level 50-57 and even with rapidfire damage being cut down, I haven't really seen it matter a whole lot. Now I couldn't hunt in the 50-60 areas even before the change, though I can now hunt at the Quarry even after the change, it isn't fast enough and I can get more xp an hour and spend less marks on clone costs and gain more junk just hunting on the Delta Deck right now. I haven't really felt the change in Pve as much as I thought I would so right now I can't complain to much about it.
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "We're called
Scatterhome after what everybody does at
the end of the night when it's time for
someone to pay the bar tab."
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my
calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what
my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds
up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
My most optimal bashing rotation kills in 7/8 bullets and one fling. That's 17.5/20 seconds taking into account balance recovery, i.e., after that time, I can move around and do something new. The nerf made it less likely that I get the 7 bullet kill, but I still do get it every so often. I have maxed regen and lifeforce, and have wetwiring prios set to health/systems/afflictions. Generally, I need to stim still after every fight because I don't stim in the middle of it, which adds another 2.5. Every 3-4 kills, I use a wetwiring mend.
That's not too shabby. Nanoseer can do 18-21s normally, plus healing time. Occasionally it can be as quick as 16s if you want to use all of the Oblivion buffs (but they each have their long cooldowns on top of the hefty sanity drain of putting them all up).
Mereas Eyrlock "They're excited, but poor." - Ilyos (August 2019)
My most optimal bashing rotation kills in 7/8 bullets and one fling. That's 17.5/20 seconds taking into account balance recovery, i.e., after that time, I can move around and do something new. The nerf made it less likely that I get the 7 bullet kill, but I still do get it every so often. I have maxed regen and lifeforce, and have wetwiring prios set to health/systems/afflictions. Generally, I need to stim still after every fight because I don't stim in the middle of it, which adds another 2.5. Every 3-4 kills, I use a wetwiring mend.
So summary is:
Base: 17.5/20 Healing: 20/22.5 Healing+: 22/24.5
I think you also need to note your MIL and the approximate MIL of what you're hunting and/or area & name of mob. As those factors would introduce a ton of outcome variance.
Comments
Cool that kneecap now seems to interrupt. Addresses the 'oh snap' effect when out of bullets. A bit bummed that pointblank is now melee, as that will pull us out of cover now to do...but suppose it makes sense from the definition of pointblank.
I'm low key annoyed that the kneecap changed basically made code I spent an hour yesterday fiddling with pointless, because I don't need to reserve ammo when fighting wind up mobs, I can just kneecap.
Unload went from 1s per tick after a 1s windup, with a 4s balance cost, to 1.5s per tick. That bums me out, because I get far fewer shots than I normally would, and it's become a lot harder to find situations where unload is competitive to use.
I'm still never going to use haymaker, since the only thing Scoundrels can do that scales on muscular is kneecap.
Here's the thing with binding: when you prone a mob with trip, it takes them longer to stand based on their internal subsytem damage. So by the time you can get a reliable prone/bind off, you can already forcefeed them, so there's no reason to use pummel, when you can instakill them. It does do a lot of damage though, and it's fun switching it up a bit. If nothing else, pummel is faster in terms of balance costs than forcefeed.
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
A scoundrel in cover couldn't be interrupted by beast or fury anyway so that was doubly stupid.
I am level 30. An area that I should be emerging out of (the Biloxin swamps) is now squashing me, I'm barely surviving fights that I used to be able to handle comfortably. Change no bueno.
This is why people are class changing to BEAST or other classes btw. That's not a route I want to go down but cmon throw us a bone.
- Ilyos (August 2019)
However, does it make things slightly more balanced? Probably slightly.
Was an adjustment needed for PVP? Probably
Was an adjustment needed for PVE? No. Scoundrels already under perform in PVE.
So the change made things more balanced for PVP and even more out of whack for PVE.
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
- Ilyos (August 2019)
So summary is:
Base: 17.5/20
Healing: 20/22.5
Healing+: 22/24.5
- Ilyos (August 2019)