I was stupidly happy when i saw the set at the same time like many people i thought in the back of my mind that it was going to be a very OP set, i should be clear and say this is only from doing skyscrapper solo with it and NOT PVP.
While the set clearly focus on giving bonus for close range with shotgun and SMG as focus, for you to take hte most out of this set, you would need to play fast and hard at very close range, something that is drasticly risky, and when you actually go against enemies from challenging and up, you armor goes down really fast if you build towards damage to get those kills fast, works wonders for playing high risk high reward, the armor kill on bonus is vital for this to work and while i thought i would be a immortal being laughing at the enemies without ever entering cover regaining a lot of armor per kill even also using the new named shotgun, but that was not the case, 20% armor goes by fast and i can clearly see that when you play in a group the enemy health scalling will make so you be getting kills as fast as you would solo, making the set way more balanced than originally thought.
The really underwhelming part is the secondary bonus of causing confusion on enemies around 5m of the guy you killed, that is hilariously useless you are spawncamping the enemy already, which is A LOT like old BLIND gear set that was kinda of a joke due enemies spreading out and taking cover instead of being a very close family at all times, unless you are using the backpack this effect might as well not even exist. Similarly the health on kills is really not that interesting since health is not relevant for tanking really.
So chestpiece is useful for the bonus duration incrase so you actually can have some back and forth between what to use, the backpack is almost mandatory IF you want to cause the confusion which is honestly just meh so it just fills a minor unintersesting niche
To offer another perspective: Hunter's Fury is much better and more fun than I expected it to be originally. I've been getting a kick out of it and absolutely love it. Managed a 9:30 run on Heroic Lincoln despite getting Rogues in the "Major Ashford" area.
It's definitely a risk/reward build, though, and if you aren't running and gunning effectively enough, it's easy to get burst down by the AI.
That said, I agree with you on the group scaling issue. The set is *so* heavily dependent on on-kill abilities (both the armor-on-kill and the disorient effect/damage buff on kills) that I'd expect playing in a group to be extremely challenging—both because of the enemy health/damage scaling, and because of teammates "stealing" the kills that you need in order to make the set workable and survivable.
That might not necessarily be a bad thing—it's fine to have different builds for solo and group play—but it's definitely a weakness of the set (and honestly, of on-kill shotgun builds in general).
I like that there's a meaningful trade-off decision on the chest and backpack. The backpack doubling the radius of the disorient effect can make it very good for disrupting enemy "flow" and more useful for post-spawn encounters as enemies start to spread out, although in situations where you're consistently going to be encountering wide-spread enemies (e.g. somewhere like Space Administration HQ or Potomac Event Center) I'd swap it out for something else. The chest piece is very interesting—30 second duration on the damage bonus makes it so much easier to maintain that bonus during or even between encounters, or you can replace it with another chest piece and take the damage bonus in shorter bursts.
Honestly this has been my favorite gear set in the game so far, and between this, the Adrenaline Rush talent from TU 10, and the new named SIX12 shotgun, I'm so glad that CQB playstyles finally are getting some real, usable love in the game.
Small AOE effects when the enemy die causing status are a proven flawed concept from the first game with the BLIND gear set, it was so ******g bad it got changed into Banshee and many people never saw how the first one operated, i would just change that after killling an enemy your next shot would cause confusion, like it was a rubber bullet or somethingOriginally Posted by As1r0nimo Go to original post
Yeah, I found the set viable for solo heroic open world/CP's because of this, but I'm not sure I'd run it in a group without a healer.Originally Posted by xcel30 Go to original post
I tried pairing the set with Lady Death to help with situations where enemies were scattered, but agree the confusion effect seems underwhelming.The really underwhelming part is the secondary bonus of causing confusion on enemies around 5m of the guy you killed, that is hilariously useless you are spawncamping the enemy already, which is A LOT like old BLIND gear set that was kinda of a joke due enemies spreading out and taking cover instead of being a very close family at all times, unless you are using the backpack this effect might as well not even exist. Similarly the health on kills is really not that interesting since health is not relevant for tanking really.
The confusion effect is underwhelming on its own but I feel the Devs didn't wanted it to last long unless you invest a bit more on status effects attributes since they are clearly trying to direct players to more hybrid builds.
I think that with firm handshake if using SMG and perhaps a couple more status effects atributes could make it work better. With survivalist spec or firewall could make a good pair provided they fix the healing seeker mine to follow your commands. I have to do more tests but at least I am happy that's overpowered. I expected more but it is quite in the right spot.
I agree with you as well that a solo playstyle will benefit the most from this gear set, BUT let's be honest. In a 4-man group, a CQB is really not viable compared to the other meta builds out there right now, that offer a higher sustained DPS and lower risk to death. With this gear set, combined with the Memento backpack, and perhaps a chest piece with Intimidate (which procs from the Memento bonus armor), along with a Lady Death for burst damage DPS, I could see this build as highly accretive in a group setting, especially in Summit. However, it's not going to be for everyone, as there is already only a modest number of people that "enjoy" CQ playstyles, relative to skill builds, M1A builds, traditional tank builds, etc. I definitely believe that it is a good set, that will positivley add build diversity and enjoyment for many of us. Cheers.