I’m a guy that used to play this game daily since the ODST dropped in, D10 nowadays, mind you. This has got to be the worst patch notes I’ve seen added in a game ever, I personally think this put the game in a state just as bad as Into the Unjust, maybe worse but that’s imo.
Bastion is one of my favorite stratagems to use, but they were already struggling on Automaton missions due to the durable damage buffs (also kinda on Illuminate, but only on city missions because vehicles straight up suck in the face of the Leviathan, what a terrible enemy).
Bugs were quite literally the only faction that makes the Bastion actually feel great to use it on, but apparently AH disagrees and while glazers claim the Bastion is a 7% weaker on this front or whatever the fuck irrelevant number it is, this is quite literally EVERYTHING the Bastion has now. I wouldn’t be so mad if the Bastion had other options, but I guess it’s only other option is only against Illuminate missions not in the city aka what most divers call “easy”.
I heavily disagree that the Bug’s durable damage is undertuned. In fact, I think it’s the complete opposite. Automaton (and Leviathan because that’s the only real problem child on squids) durable damage is HEAVILY overtuned, making vehicles just so not fun against them.
Turrets being screwed over on terminids not just because of durable damage buffs, but also the Hive guard rework is also something I hate. Gatling and MG turrets used to be the top dogs on bugs and deservedly so, they should be amazing chafe demolishers.
So why in gods name does a common chafe unit now have to become essentially be the Heavy Devastator of the bugs. This is the exact reason why I don’t bring those turrets to bot front, the Rocket sentry would fair much better there.
Rocket and Autocannon sentry on bug fronts is only really regulated to dealing with heavy units, not exactly great chafe clearers, especially if the bugs, known for rush down, rushes down those turrets, which they can’t deal with at all. That was supposed to be the Gatling/MG turrets job. For the glazers talking about how you were meant to fight with the turret, not ditch it, I can slightly understand it…except for the MG turret.
The MG turret quite honestly has it the worst out of all the sentries on bug front. I can see the argument of fighting alongside the Gatling sentry because it has a longer cooldown, thereby making it a more valuable sentry you want to keep alive, but the MG sentry? That sentry has a lower cooldown for a BIG reason, it’s meant to be the most disposable sentry, with the Flame Sentry coming in second (it now also has a weird blind spot close to it because apparently AH’s outsourcing couldn’t figure out how to stretch a hitbox instead of moving it and creating a blind spot).
The MG sentry was meant to be the sentry you set and forget because of this, but now I can’t forget it because I’ll know it’s going to immediately die the moment a hive guard walks up, blocks, and then other chafe bugs begin to demolish the turret as the MG doesn’t change targets. If you wanted me to fight with my sentry, then I’m bringing a sentry that’s actually worth protecting rather than a sentry LITERALLY made to be disposable. The saddest part is that because Gatling and MG got cucked on the bug front, their only best faction is the Illuminate, but there’s like zero reason to bring the MG sentry on this front when the Gatling sentry does its job much better anyways, so even at its best, it’s still suboptimal.
There’s a lot to unpack from this update that is far from good, but these are the main stuff I want to talk about because they used to be some of my favorite stratagems to use and now AH treats them like trash in order to shill the face of their newest warbond, mechs. I used to be so impartial about this glazer vs doomed war going on with this game, I simply wanted to enjoy this game with the stratagems I like mixing and matching, build variety is a huge reason why I play this game. This singular update limits my build variety significantly, if not by the Bastion nerf then MOST DEFINITELY the blatant turret nerfs, I didn’t go over how the terminid durable damage buffs also make mines so inconsistent as well, and gas mines are supposed to be my staple on the bug front (I bet I’ll also be yelled at because of the new slowing effect making it terrible for my teammates to deal with now).
I didn’t want to be a doomer, I really didn’t want to, but this update that Arrowhead gave has tipped me over the edge and now I can’t find any reason why this update should even be defended for outside of mech lovers being happy I guess. I will die on the hill that the first and most urgent change they should make is make every enemy in the game deal significantly less durable damage. Vehicles, turrets, mines, all of these should be versatile on all fronts to some capacity.
It shouldn’t have been this way, Arrowhead…it shouldn’t have at all…