PVP
Skills have been individually tuned for PVP. Any value adjustments will be displayed in the skill information panel.
- Damage adjustments only affect damage dealt to players in Conflict and all Dark Zones. NPCs within Dark Zones take un-modified skill damage.
- Status effect duration adjustments only affect status effects dealt by skills to players in Conflict and all Dark Zones. Status effects durations are unmodified to NPCs within Dark Zones.
- Shield damage taken adjustments only affect damage dealt to shield from players. NPCs deal unmodified damage versus player shields.
- Healing adjustments affect all healing within conflict and Dark Zones.
- Cooldown adjustments affect usage of skills within conflict and all Dark Zones.
-
Damage Adjustments (Buffs):
- Pulse – Jammer: 0.16 -> 5
- Turret – Sniper: 0.12 -> 0.4
- Turret – Artillery: 0.16 -> 0.45
- Chem Launcher – Firestarter: 0.16 -> 0.5
- Chem Launcher – Oxidizer: 0.16 -> 0.35
- Firefly – Burster: 0.16 -> 0.35
- Firefly – Demolisher: 0.16 -> 10
- Seeker Mine – Explosive: 0.16 -> 0.22
- Seeker Mine – Airburst: 0.16 -> 0.4
- Seeker Mine – Cluster: 0.16 -> 0.25
-
Damage Taken Adjustments (Nerfs):
- Shield – Bulwark: 1.82 -> 3
- Shield – Crusader: 1.82 -> 3
- Shield – Deflector: 1.82 -> 3
-
Healing Adjustments (Nerfs):
- Hive – Restorer: 0.64 -> 0.5
- Chem Launcher – Reinforcer: 0.64 -> 0.5
- Seeker Mine – Mender: 0.64 -> 0.5
- Drone – Fixer: 0.64 -> 0.5
-
Status Effect Duration (Nerfs):
- Firefly – Blinder: 1 -> 0.4
- Cooldown Adjustments (Nerfs):
- Pulse: 1->3 (Conflict only)
Skills
Chem Launcher:
- Repair cloud no longer repairs a hostile players armor.
Drone:
- Striker Drone damage is now affected by the Damage to Elites attribute.
Firefly
- All Firefly variants can now be quick-deployed and will rapidly seek out the nearest target(s).
- Increased cooldown of Blinder Firefly from 60s to 90s.
Developer Notes: Similar to what was outlined above, generous skill haste from gear and the addition of the exotic BTSU gloves meant players could achieve both very frequent and very long blind durations on NPCs. Coupled with something like an equally short cooldown on Cluster Seekers, it was possible to crowd-control an entire wave of 10+ enemies while simultaneously dealing tens of millions of damage with ease and at very little risk.
We like seeing powerful combinations of skills being used together and want to encourage clever use of game mechanics, especially in terms of group synergy, but it should come at the cost of investing in highly specialized gear. With these changes, it is still possible to achieve a 10s or lower cooldown on both the Blinder Firefly and Cluster Seeker Mines, however it will require a more significant investment in Skill Haste to achieve such a powerful force-multiplier.
Hive:
- The Stinger hive now applies the Bleed status effect on hit.
- Can now be picked up and placed down elsewhere.
- The charges that remain when picked up are saved.
- No longer uses a cooldown, but instead uses a charge-up mechanic similar to chem launcher.
Pulse
- Scanner Pulse base cooldown increased from 40s to 60s.
- Remote Pulse base radius increased from 12m to 15m.
Seeker Mine
- Increased damage of Explosive Seeker Mine by 20%.
- Now applies Bleed status effect.
- Increased damage of Cluster Seeker Mines by +30%.
- Increased cooldown of Cluster Seeker Mines from 40s to 60s.
- Lowered quantity of Cluster Seeker Mines from 4 to 3.
- Increase cooldown of Blinder Firefly from 60s to 90s.
Developer Notes: We’ve seen an overall positive reception from the community in regard to the improvements to skills and skill haste in TU5, and it’s been great to see players theory crafting and using their new and improved builds. With skill-based builds becoming more and more common at the end-game however, it was clear that some combination of skills had become overly disruptive to the intended experience.
In particular, the generous increase to skill haste on gear coupled with the reduced base cooldown of Cluster Seekers meant achieving a very short cooldown was relatively easy. While we’re happy with the damage output of the Cluster Seeker itself, the skill does more than just blow things up, as it effectively causes NPCs to panic; frequently flushing them out of or away from cover, leading to even more damage received.
For this reason, the Cluster Seeker can be seen as a significant force multiplier, especially in group content. Because encounter balance and cadence is important for creating not just challenging combat, but a satisfying overall experience, we felt it necessary to increase the cooldown of Cluster Seekers to 60s (still remaining 30s shorter than its TU4 counterpart) and lower the number of mines deployed by 1, while giving it a boost in damage to compensate; ensuring it remains your best choice when it comes to eliminating multiple spread-out targets at once. The increase in damage and the addition of the Bleed status effect to the Explosive Seeker Mine should also increase its attractiveness and make choosing between it and the Cluster variant a more meaningful choice.
Turret
- Assault Turret and Sniper Turret damage is now affected by the Damage to Elites attribute.
- Increased drain on Incinerator Turret active duration when firing.
Talents
New talents:
-
Composure:
- While in cover, grants +10% total weapon damage.
- Composure can be found on kneepad items. Requires 11 offensive attributes.
- Concussion:
- Headshots grant +15% headshot damage for 2 s, 5s with marksman rifles.
- Concussion can be found on mask items. Requires 7 offensive attributes.
- Damaging enemies with skills or grenades grant +15% (10% in PvP) weapon damage for 15s.
- Spark can be found on backpack items. Requires 9 offensive attributes.
- Gain +25% (20% in PvP) weapon damage. Receiving damage disables this buff for 4s.
- Vigilance can be found on chest items. Requires 7 offensive attributes.
-
Spark:
- Damaging enemies with skills or grenades grant +15% (10% in PvP) weapon damage for 15s.
- Spark can be found on backpack items. Requires 9 offensive attributes.
-
Vigilance:
- Gain +25% (20% in PvP) weapon damage. Receiving damage disables this buff for 4s.
- Vigilance can be found on chest items. Requires 7 offensive attributes.
