I have been kinda patient with the growing pains of the new skill system, I have sad it is bad but I have held on to some hope. I am just nearing the point when playing only one DPS build is getting so incredibly boring. The worst part is my build only got above 450 two days ago because I did not care to even upgrade it. yet I was carrying teams through WT5 challenge strongholds, all while not even giving 2 poops about my PVE DPS build. Trying to invest in skills at challenge god forbid heroic is just awful. If you have played with a skill build and no real DPS player you know it is a choir trying to advance in missions. Well anyway I made a video expressing my lengthy opinion of skill builds currently. Along with actual use of some skill builds in skirmish to show how poor they perform in direct competition.
https://youtu.be/70CxQkrQ_KM
Originally Posted by MutantCowboy x Go to original post
I've got 3 builds. One is a half hearted skill build that just stacked power (3k SP) with a full Gear Set on, most people would say that's unplayable. I have no trouble on challenge with it, enemies spend so much time CC'd it might as well be normal mode, it's just not a DPS build.
Teach us your ways...![]()
Well I am glad you are finding a way to enjoy it. I am having every kind of issue with skill builds. the one I would see with yours is either super long cooldown or really long missions by comparison. I can beat missions in minutes with my DPS build, but the same mission with an optimized skill build takes twice as long if not more. Playing with a 4 man and I am just useless. I am not saying it is not possible to do it. Just saying it is unbelievably one sided in terms of being efficient. Going 100% skill adds like 100k dps to a build, but going full DPS gets you in the 1 million or higher DPS range. In PVP the situation is even worse, being one shot by snipers yet hitting a sniper with both a seeker and bomb drone still needs 2 more sniper shots of my own to kill.... he is just able to heal before I can actually do any real damage.
My cooldowns are 20 to 30 seconds, I run survivalist on top of that, all AI do is burn... and burn some more. It's not faster if my group is lower dps than I would've been on my dps build, but its far faster when I know every enemy spawn location in a mission and create a burning mass of centralized targets for even semi-competent players with dps to simply mow down, instead of having to have protracted fire fights. Every mission goes a little different.
Pretty sure they know. Although them adding 5% skill damage was a bit... uhhh underwhelming all things considered.
I think the talents needed a serious reworking as some were absolutely key and loads were mostly crap. Considering how much of the meta they affect... I’d rather them sort those out effectively... and then look at the skills themselves as a consolidated and concentrated effort.
They get great data on player metrics so they can see how often everyone is using skills and what skills are being used. I’ve heard more than one say that they see skills aren’t really in the meta and they want to fix that. Some of the talent changes directly affect skills as well so small buffs will come... which also argues for waiting a bit for any real balancing to ensure you’re not adjusting talents every two weeks.
For instance with my blue and purple mods on pulse and the talent that’s being buffed to 20% damage on pulsed enemies... pulse is now viable for my playstyle again. Especially in DZ and open world at night (neutral lighting or bust) I’m hoping that trend of buffs through talents and gear keeps going til the raid and then after that launches and things are somewhat settled... then skills will start getting their due.
Tbh they need to make pulse / disrupt / smoke screen etc a ‘dual bumper’ third skill like the old signature skill. They also need to work on skill AI and the utility of some skills. Some are just way too situational. Like chem launcher.
Ya because carrying a couple different types of round is impossible. Quantum physics bro. Also the fact that NPCs have access to skills that far outclass our own... is less than ideal. If enemy can disrupt, why can’t we. If their turrets can load alternate ammo... why can’t ours? The enemy has robot tank sniper dogs.
I have drone that shoots .22 and is made of tin. Ya ok. Like every single Hyena genadier gets an MGL... so like our super snazzy specialist weapon... is really just us catching up to the pack. The arrows to the face were an NPC thing first as well.
Skills should be dynamic and have at least one or two roles given the new scaling in place, maps in use and variety of tactical threats. They should be mostly fire and forget, like an elemental. I summon... you smash. Finally enploying them should flow with combat... not interrupt it.
All in all I really like the new variety. Even the firefly which I didn’t give two ****s about initially... has proven to be a solid little helper when it doesn’t completely **** the bed and fail. Drone would be hella good if it was tougher and meaner and had its combat subroutines upgraded from potato. Chem launcher would be badass as an underslung grenade launcher. Imagine if your seeker mines deployed like claymores on any cover you designated (like the old fortified cover skill or whatever) What if your pulse could overcharge and release a huge puff of smoke like the hunters.
I’d be in f’ing heaven.
Honestly I think my biggest problem with the system is that they did nothing creative. Like they could have used mods to make skills better version of themselves like I though was the whole point.
For example Mods that...
-At 0 SP flame turret has 20 deg arc and 8m range 1000 SP flame turret gets 45 deg arc 10m range..... up to 3000 SP 360 deg arc 15m range
-Regular turret get 2% chance to shock per 1000 skill power
-Regular turret gains 10% crit chance per 500 skill power 3% crit damage per 100 SP
-Seeker mine damage reduced by 10% but detonates upon reaching target (2000 SP)
-Seeker mine damage is reduced by 50% but gain 200% bleed damage over 10 seconds
-Pulsed targets take 10% extra damage from you for every 800 skill power
- Bulwark Shield can be double tapped and placed as cover, health increased by 30% per 200 SP
Nothing fun or rewarding for skill builds.... all we get is dumbed down generic +30% damage, +20% radius, +80% health.... just lack luster at best. Yet guns get all sorts of cool play mechanics, like roll reloads, distance based damage buffs, charge up snipers. It is obvious they spent about a day thinking over the skill system. Just look at our mod system..... I feel like a disabled hoarder. Just waiting for my cats to eat me...
Actually the more you ignore parts of the game the less data ubi has on them and what makes one more preferable or its peak performance in the right hands. Thus you have the balance patch now as it is, where Ubi is pretty much forcing people into one bin or another I'm assuming so they can actually see how the builds they intended perform as opposed to the Frankenstein DPS builds that have been dominating every talent that was feasible to use. When a majority of players rolls an 11 red build, Ubi will then know when and where they can buff without the crazy overlap on certain talents being used as AR or SMG talent trigger builds.Originally Posted by teksuo1 Go to original post