Was going to contribute to the "Why is this game unplayable" thread but my knowledge of the game is not on a level to contribute knowledgably hence this thread.
Just lately I have played less and less and this is for a number of reasons which I would like to list here in the hope comments and responses may reignite my enthusiasm.
1. First and foremost I've seen the phrase "doesn't understand the mechanics of the game" used a lot in these forum threads and I'll be honest, I don't even understand the term "Game Mechanics". For instance, I have played the summit all the way to Floor 89 solo on Heroic but I cannot get any further than a few minutes into floor 90 before I am killed by those inescapable bombardier drones. The boss comes at me and any "Cover" I have is useless because everything knocks me out of cover or keeps me cowered while the boss flanks me and I die OR I instantly recognise an attempt to flank so retreat but there comes a point where I can retreat no further and ..........I die????
2 I have, however, completed the Summit from floor 90 to 100 on Heroic with a 4 team matchmake which confuses me because I am sure I read in one thread somewhere that the difficulty levels are easier to complete solo than as a team? If true, presumably that is something about "game mechanics"?
3 I am definitely certain that Legendary can under no circumstances, for me at least , be done solo. I have watched YouTube videos of people who claim to be doing it solo and are demonstrating how they can "MELT" the enemies and yet surprisingly the enemy characters are only coming at them one at a time?? I tried legendary once or twice solo and it feels like being outnumbered by 10 to 1 AT LEAST so not sure how those videos have one enemy at a time on so called Legendary?
4 Another thing about Legendary, as soon as one of four Agents goes down ALL the enemies begin moving forward and if you don't get that Agent revived within seconds you can guarantee all will be down within seconds. This is so even if you are in cover, somehow there are always three grenades launched at you with pinpoint precision. The first jolts you out of cover and strips all armour before you can get back into cover, the second again knocks you out of cover and strips all your health before you get back to cover and the third kills you outright. If I try to move to alternate cover after the first grenade strikes I am instantly hit and that one shot kills me. Again I'm not sure I understand how it is that if I stick my head out of cover just to try and shoot I am instantly one shot hit and downed yet the enemy can keep coming at me as I unload 6 grenades from my grenade launcher and unload six AR magazines into their face and yet JUST as their health is about to expire they miraculously down me and they survive? Game Mechanics??
Don't get me wrong, I have completed a mission on Legendary with a matchmake team of four but I have failed so many more.
5 Rogue Agents in the Summit..............totally sick of them and yes, I know what you're thinking, I have no skill that's why they kill me. In my defence I would argue that I do have some skill as I did solo heroic to floor 90 and can complete Floor 100 on Heroic in a team of 4 so I must be doing something right. I would ask the developers to allow us to switch off Rogue Agents because now I just waste time having to run and find them so they can kill me so that I can get the monotonous and predictable death over and done with so I can carry on with the game. Hell Fire, I like a challenge but not only do the rogue agents out number the Agents by one, so when solo I have to face two of them but they are also 10 times more powerful but they can also disable all my skills and yet theirs not only work but they have every damn skill available ???!!!
AND when you do succeed in killing them the dropped loot is in no way a reward for the hard work. Game Mechanics?
6 MIRACLE? I got Ridgeways Pride Chest piece. I say miracle because I couldn't kill one Hunter let alone two. I go so fed up of dying I just decided to forget the chest piece but when I went into my Inventory one day everything was there and I crafted it. If I did kill two Hunters how is it I didn't have 2 Ivory Keys?
7 The summary shown after a mission is utter nonsense, I hope. I am sure the number of my kills are always much higher than shown but having said that how can any kills be attributed when turrets, striker drones, seeker mines, ARs, LMGs, SMGs etc etc are being fired simultaneously. I like to experiment with my builds but that's not much use if you don't know if your kill rate has increased or fallen?
8 AND LASTLY, it is soooooo frustrating heading into a legendary mission when one of two things happen. Firstly either one or more of the 3 players are muppets who go rushing forward and not only get downed but then have the nerve to continually mash the button for me to commit suicide trying to revive them OR as soon as they are downed they simply leave the group and the three that are left then most likely don't stand a chance.
All in all the above has down heartened me. I know clans are extremely organised and have healers and a tank and a DPS or whatever but I don't want to be that serious, I can't be that serious because then it's not just fun when you want to log in because you would have to time your availability with three other players and if something cropped up mid mission you would feel guilty bailing out. I prefer the freedom of Matchmaking and could happily accept the downsides of that if their weren't so many.
So to end I would just like to say I would appreciate any comments advice and, no pressure, but my previous experience of this forum is that everyone is so helpful
Thanks for listening
Your post sounds entirely reasonable and I understand the frustration.
As for the drones, shoot them [they pop on one well placed shot]. Better yet, pay attention to the operator, who will signal when releasing them, and shoot them just as they do to score an easy kill [if elite, it will severely damage them]. Learn the weakpoints of all the enemies. Once you have those down, it becomes more of a chaos management game, to be honest [except Rogue's & Hunter's]. Prioritize certain targets, time weakpoint hits to hopefully hit more than one enemy, etc. Each faction and build style will have a different priority order [and some of it is personal preference].
As for higher difficulties and the ineffectiveness of cover - at higher difficulties you need to change cover more often. Even more so for Rogue Agents. Scaling in groups makes the enemies harder, but you also have more people dishing damage [and to rez]. I've only done Legendary with clan members, so we have no issue leaving someone down until it's safe, but we also communicate & coordinate - which sounds very hit and miss with MM. Rogue Agent's do drop better loot, roll wise, but still suffer from the same randomness of Att/Talent/Brand/etc [also, try Foam or Shock Traps, stunning them allows you to shoot them while they can't heal - a proper Bulwark Shield build can facetank them too]. Also, only the LZ Hunter's drop Keys, not the Summit or Manhunt Hunter's.
For survivability, there is a reason I favor Unbreakable on my Heroic+ DPS builds [unless I'm using Headhunter, which is great OP fun]. It's good for 3.5 extra armor cores on a full DPS build, giving me a chance to recover from a mistake [I play too aggressively at times]. I use Crit attributes to offset the lack of talent damage - I find the trade off perfectly cromulent. Use Memento or Clutch if you need more.
The summaries are, and have always been, broken. Ignore them.
Lately, I took MoBz PfE idea and ran with it. It's been great fun and breathed new life into the game for me. Maybe try that if you have enough PfE mods?
What kind of builds/guns/skills/style do you favor?
There's nothing I can really argue with in your post. That said, once you play Legendary more and more you'll get used to constantly changing cover, playing aggressive when it's needed and laying back other times. Learn the weak points, like with heavies, shoot the backpack to stop the stingers, shoot the drone over the operators head which will kill him, etc. Great thing we do is run up quietly before aggro with two skill builds with hives and cluster seekers. Toss the hives on the groups before they see you and then immediately throw the seekers in your way into cover. You'll clear the first wave of the room in 10 seconds most of the time.
Hunters and Rogues are different. Rogues will not charge you with a skill between you and them. Stinger or turret work well. Hunters just foam or shock trap them then dps the heck out of them. Each enemy requires a different way to kill them, which is why so many people fail Legendary content. And Rambo rushing is 100% not the playstyle to do it. I kick those guys who rush up and die every stage only to beg you to come save them.
2 More players in the group = more enemies.
7 Don't put too much faith in that screen, put no faith at all in it if you're a skill build. Turret/drone dmg isn't counted for some reason, been like that for a while. Use mission completion time to judge the effectiveness of your build, instead.
A lot of your other issues would be solved by just joining a casual clan, I've never been in one where anything was "required" of me. I know I personally could care less who leaves during gameplay or for what reason, you gotta go and take care of something, you gotta go. Isn't there a forum clan? Maybe join that one.
Thanks for the info guys. I like the Pyromaniac and Famas 2010 ARs and I switch to the Bullet King to tackle heavy machine gunners in Legendary IF I can shoot from cover. I find because they are right handed they cannot target you if you are in cover in front and to their right.
I had also learned to shoot the drones as they are launched and also shoot the incendiary grenade thrower muppet who shouts "burn baby burn" so I shoot him before he can throw it.
My build is mostly red, which I believe is referred to as DPS build but from your responses I think I need to sacrifice 2 core reds for blue and increase my armour/health. I use a restorer hive to revive myself rather than put on the other players but the cool down time is ridiculously long.
I will take the advice given and see if I can revive my enthusiasm😊
A lot of times veteran players will use the phrase "You don't understand how the game works" as a catch-all for when a player hasn't yet developed an intuitive, instinctual grasp of combat awareness, enemy AI behavior, and shooting skill. But it could also reference a lack of understanding of good builds, and how/when to use those builds to maximum effect. Things like timing dodge-rolls, sticking to cover, how to maximize the cover-to-cover run or pull out a shield down to the fraction of a second. These are all learned skills gained from practicing the game HUNDREDS of hours.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post
It's also a very common problem people have in The Division 2 to assume that gear and build is everything. If they just copy a build seen on youtube, and get the god rolls, they'll be able to defeat anything. This is absolutely, 100% not the case. The Division 2 is VERY much based on personal player ability, especially at the higher difficulty settings.
When someone on the forum says "You don't understand the game", they're usually referencing one of those things.
For instance, something like this is a good example of not fully understanding how the game works.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post
Yes, in terms of scaling raw stats and numbers of enemies, those numbers will be adjusted lower for a solo player. However, consider carefully that a solo players must do everything themselves. There's no one to revive them. No crossfire from an ally. No buffs from team builds. No one to CC enemies for you. No one to provide a different target for the NPCs to shoot at.
Completing difficult content solo is, in most cases, actually MUCH HARDER than doing things with a team.
Youtube videos are almost ALWAYS a highlight reel of the most interesting gameplay. You have to remember that youtubers need views to stay alive. They're not going to show you vids of them getting floored countless times until they learned the best way to use a build. They're not going to show you the 100 hours they filmed to get 10 minutes of good stuff. They're not showing you the thousands of hours they've spent playing the game to learn how to operate at that level.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post
Welcome to legendary, land of bullsh*t.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post
Stacking up Protection from Elites can help, as does Hazard protection. But yeah, Legendary is just everything turned up to 11 to see how much tolerance of nonsense you can handle.
I've actually argued in the past that there's a deep, fundamental flaw with the game in allowing unrestricted access to matchmaking. Specifically because it creates problems like the one you described just now. Combine that with what I said earlier about how players think gear will make them gods at the game, and you get idiots who matchmake for legendary thinking they'll be carried to good gear.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post
It's something I hope they fix in Year 3, or Divison 3, or whatever. World tiers was a perfectly good system. Not perfect, by any means. But it at least meant that by the time you were in the highest difficulty of the game you at least had a bare minimum amount of gear.
I totally understand the frustration. Personally I tend to take a lot of breaks from the game. Sometimes I don't play for weeks at a time, like right now. Sometimes I get in the zone and can't seem to miss a single shot. But other times I play for 10 minutes and get my *** k*cked by reds and purples....and just have to walk away from the game and play something else for awhile.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post
All I can tell you is that if you're not having fun, you should not feel like you have to keep playing. You do NOT have to complete everything the game offers. In my opinion, Legendary is just stupid, and only exists for streamers with thousands of hours in the game. I play it sometimes when I really want to test the limits of my skills, but I NEVER think it's fun. So I stick to heroic. The god roll drops are there too, and it's more fun.
There were a lot of things in there but it seems like your main issue is dealing with the highest difficulty content like Legendary floors, strongholds, rogues and hunters, especially when solo. Well let me reassure you it's perfectly normal to initially struggle in that kind of content.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post
I think Sircowdog1 had a very good answer concerning the "game mechanics" aspects and regarding youtube videos, like he said, usually, unless it's live streaming, what you see is the successful part.
Like, I just did some speedrunning on Manning heroic to beat a previous time and after many, many tries I was finally able to do a run that felt satisfying and without dying. I'll upload it eventually and all 20 failed attempts are going in the bin. Clearly, watching only successful gameplay gives the impression of extreme facility when it rarely is.
Don't fool yourself though. People have been doing all kinds of impressive things in this game. Many players have speedran Legendary Strongholds solo in less time that it would take decent or even good player to solo some missions on heroic. Do you truly believe that these players can do it because the game somehow give them easier content? Anyone can get some luck from time to time, but when something repeats itself, it means there's a pattern somewhere, The question is, what are they doing that allow them to play the way they do, what would it take for someone to do the same thing and how much of a gap in experience is there?
You will never figure out how to do that content if you believe that some players just get 1 NPC at a time owhile others get a bunch. Like I said, anyone can have some luck here and there but if they're doing content you're not able to do, they're doing something right and you probably don't know what it is.
There's nothing too specific in your post so it's hard to pinpoint but your build, the way you engage a fight, target prioritization, aim, positionning, movement, clever and efficient use of skills, knowledge of spawns, knowledge of ennemy behaviour and patterns, timing, ability to react to the unexpected etc. All that will have a great impact on how the fight unfold. Generally speaking, and that is especially true on higher difficulty, the more you're proficient in all those areas, the more you'll be able to play aggressively and dominate/dictate the fight. The more you're able to be the aggressor, the more easily you'll be able to handle those fights.
On Legendary, the ennemy is so aggressive, deals so much damage that you basically have to behave in a way that says "no, I'm in control, I'm putting pressure on you". But you don't get to that point in a heartbeat. There's a big leap between solo heroic and solo legendary.
Not sure if I have the best advice, but if your builds are on point, what you need is experience. It's not like you need extraordinary god-like mechanical skills to do that content, but I think you probably still need to improve your efficiency at killing ennemies fast and easy.
Soloing heroic is an important step but if you want to move to higher difficulty content, what would be a better indicator of your readiness is if you were able to do them with great ease and quickly. You don't have to hardcore speedrun the missions but trying to do some solo heroic mission fast and aggressive is a good training. It will highlight all the flaws in your gameplay and punish them quite severly, until you're able to identify and overcome them.
That said, that's coming from a predominantly DPS player. Skill builds are very effective on Legendary, especially when they let you stay in cover and let your skills do most of the work. I'n Not too expererienced in skill builds though.
Oh and I also agree with Sircowdog 1 on the futility of Legendary. I guess we all want to do it at some point because it's the hardest difficulty and it's...well, there, but honestly the difficulty is very badly designed and balanced. I mean, if you like Legendary good for you I hope you have a blast but if you don't, there's really no need to make yourself go through that.
Thanks to LateNiteDelight; chicagolongball; AIBot46; Sircowdog1 and LightKola for your responses all of which contain really helpful stuff and will take on board what you guys have said. The moving cover makes sense now as I admit I do tend to cower in one place overly long frightened to move and I see now that just invites more grenades. Feel reinvigorated now so bye as I need to log back into the game :-)
Never be afraid to make a tactical retreat. It actualky works really well. Chuck a nade at the enemies to make them panick roll, and use the opporrunity to cover-run away.Originally Posted by crysiskandimann Go to original post