1. Dumping a whole magazine into an "enemy" before realizing it was just a Decoy.
2. Trying to deploy my drone but throwing away my Reviver Hive instead.
3. Panic-rolling into cover without noticing a teammate was already there. He got pushed out into the open and took an immediate headshot.
Your turn!
Reaching level 30 Expertise just to upgrade gear to prototypes is a massive chore. For newer players, or even long-time players like me who didn't systematically donate junk for years, it feels incredibly frustrating. Spending days just hoarding loot to blindly dump it into a menu isn't fun gameplay. It’s just artificial gatekeeping.
Massive should add alternative ways to level up Expertise—activities that actually challenge and improve player skills instead of just testing our patience.
A couple of ideas:
Descent: It's not a popular mode, but it forcing you to focus on positioning and basic mechanics. Reaching high loops should reward solid chunks of Expertise.
Raids and Incursions: Completing high-end group content that actually requires team coordination should give a massive boost to the grind.
If we have to spend hundreds of hours to max our builds, the path there should feel rewarding through actual skill, not through endlessly donating digital trash.
Right now, if the targeted loot across the 5 Escalation locations is trash for your build, there’s zero motivation to play that day.
Massive should change one of the 5 locations to always drop completely random loot, but with a guarantee for higher or perfect rolls.
This would easily fix those "dead days" where the rotation is useless, while still giving players a high-reward reason to log in and grind.
I have zero motivation to go in there just to farm caches for my modifiers. If it at least sped up the proficiency grind, it might be worth it
Just a quick rant/thought on the Exodus gloves in Escalation. Don't get me wrong, the survival aspect of the smoke screen is actually nice and definitely saves lives. But mid-fight on Tier 5+, that thing is honestly so annoying for the rest of the team. It feels like it always triggers in the most crucial moments, and suddenly you’re standing in deep smoke for 3 seconds, seeing absolutely nothing while NPCs are pushing from all sides. Obviously, I’m not gonna flame anyone in voice chat over this, it's not that deep. But maybe some of you could consider some alternatives when putting your builds together? A fixer drone or a mender seeker mine usually does the trick just fine to keep you alive. Even better would be skills that actually benefit the whole team—like the Decoy. It draws aggro for everyone without completely blocking our vision.
Every Tier 5+ Escalation run with randoms is often the same: 3 guys with Striker or Tipping Scales and one healer as a babysitter. It works, but ngl it gets boring.
I've been thinking about dreamteams with better synergy:
2x Negotiator‘s Dilemma for wave-clear and marks.
1x Ongoing Directive for status effects, so the team gets Hollow-Point Ammo (+20% damage and bleed).
1x Refactor with turret and drone. Heals automatically via skill damage and still does DPS himself.
Plus, 3 players run the exo Signal chest piece for mutual buffs.