Imrpessions from the new Patch

#1

Played my first game after Patch as a Scout. Totally disappointed, the game for Predator became worse.
I did some nice full charged Plasma shots - but wasn’t able to kill anyone. At the chopper point I attacked one of Fireteam member with combistick - I made 5 or 6 successful hits before he starts parrying, but… yes, I wasn’t able to down him with these hits. After he parried my combi, I had a stun (like always) and was easily killed. So… right now Scouts CAN’T kill anyone or have to make A LOT of good shots, that’s only possible against absolutely noob, blind and deaf Fireteams of brave snails.

Good things: Plasma now can penetrate through leaves. Boars are much easier to get - I mean to find them and kill.

P.S. Will write more after some testing, feel free to add your own opinion based on your experience. The opinion of Fireteam mainers is not interested, sorry :)

P.P.S. It seems that now Fireteam needs less time to complete their objectives. So we actually have about 7-8 minutes before they go to the copter. Less time for hunt, less opportunities for good moments, so we MUST rush. Sounds bad for me.

3 Likes
#2

Biggest problem i have is the Cannon nerf, really dont like that. I play Scout exclusively and i kidna rely on those hits, even tho i dont care if i win. This patch blows my entire playstyle out the window, because ive practiced alot to be able to hit with fully charged shots.

This is not gonna go well with me, not a fan at all. The Combistick nerf is fine,in my opinion, i really dont like Preds running in and BARELY downing the FT and call themselves good, they always die or very close to it. Retarded gameplay, but NOW…we cant even be at range effectively, they already see out laser so…no this is bad.

1 Like
#3

The combistick nerf was so necessary, I just hope it was significant enough. (Will test tonight)

I think it’s interesting that rather than nerf the berserker, they buffed the other preds. I only played hunter, because I felt the berserker was op, so this is good news for me I suppose.

Also, they nerfed the parry, that’s also good for melee builds.

Big question, are the FT class bonuses working, the increased secondary damage for scout and increased spot time for recon, for example?

1 Like
#4

The combistick nerf looks bad for me because I still believe that a Predator should have an opportunity to kill a Fireteam member in melee fast enough, especially if he’s alone and not parring at all. It’s kinda part of immersion for me. Like I can’t play Division 1-2 because it’s stupid to fire 20 ammos for killing 1 enemy, same for combi here. If Predator engages, the Fireteam still have an opportunity to do tons of damage and easily kill him, especially if he already used his “second wind” ability. Remember that a Pred can’t really kill a Fireteam member, even if he got the trophy (some more time needed and damage recieved), there still 3 more Fireteam players + Reinforcement.

So right now with the combi nerf the melee-based Predators are deeper in the ass than before, sorry for my language. I still believe that Predators should be flexible in terms of gameplay and gamestyle.

1 Like
#5

Tried as a Hunter. Well. Nice job, Illfonic, nice job. You totally destroy the game for Predators. Reinforcement takes more time now? Lol, you still won’t be able to go there in time if you were not close enough to the point right from the beginning. Predators takes less damage from Fireteam? Bullshit. Plasma is useless now. Melee still terrible. The role of the Predator in the game is to be a clown on a party in kindergarten. You have to ENTERTAIN the Fireteam (because it’s boring to fight with AI that is dumb as f*ck), you have to attack Fireteam, but have NO RIGHT to disappoint a Fireteam’s kids. Thay HAVE to win, like in all good movies!

Gosh… I guess in this circumstanses Illfonic must pay to those who plays as Predator. Because I don’t want to be a clown for free.

2 Likes
#6

Well if you play a long range predator you took an L plasma cannon was nerfed to the ground, bow got buffed though so maybe that’ll work instead ? If you play an aggressive hunter or berserker you’re pretty much unstoppable now Combistick + Netgun is still meta

#7

Since the patch, I’ve not won a single game as Predator… Close up, all 4 FT members can kill you in an instance… The Plasma Caster nerf makes ranged attacks pretty useless… I shot one dude point blank in the face with a fully charged plasma shot, and he just merrily hopped away… 🤔

2 Likes
#8

Opposite for me I run an aggressive melee predator and I haven’t lost, one game I got 7 Fireteam kills I killed 3 they brought me back then I killed all 4. Ranged predators took a hit, so if you favor a plasma cannon build its looking slow for that til next patch

1 Like
#9

Damn… I’m running a Hunter ranged build at the moment… I was doing OK!! Not 100% Victorious, but it was working! Even tried the Beserker with Combi-stick, but that was almost a guaranteed win, so I went back to Hunter. I really want to try Scout, but if Ranged is now unviable, I’ll stick to Hunter

2 Likes
#10

No wins for me too, exactly (didn’t try berserker yet, not my style, but I will). I knock some of FT members down, killed only 2 (2 in all games, not in every match lol), but they were back with Reinforcement. Was killed in all games (yes, I rushed at the copter pad trying to kill at least someone and get trophy).

Bow? Bow is nice when they don’t see you and don’t spot you. Otherwise… it’s kinda more easy to hit your target with rifle, than with bow that have to be charged. All the problems with broken stealth are still with us.

Combistick + Netgun? But they still can parry your net with their knives (lol), plus changing weapons needs time. And we mostly don’t have time. And if you miss your Netgun shot…

P.S. Right now Predator players should be superhumans - have tactical mindset, have good aim, never make a mistake and even have not to worry about victory (play for fun, not frags, enjoy lol). In other games with different classes it supposed that different players with different playstyles can find whom to play. Like Overwatch (bad example, but it could show what do I mean). If you have a good aim and reflexes - you can play Widow or Hanzo, if you like to make a fast attack, run away and repeat - you play Genji/Tracer. If you have bad aim - you can play Mercy/Doomfist or Reaper. And so on. Here in PHG we don’t have a choice. There is only one semi-working build and all of other playstyles are absolute trash.

#11

Although I do not use spear nor shoulder cannon much, I think nerfing both was not necessary. That is because if you look at the weapons Fire Team gets as they progress with levels, the damage, defence, speed also increases. Where with Predator, nothing is increasing during the levelling progress, no defence, no damage, no better camouflage, no better batteries (except perk). Predator does not improve with levels, where as Fire Team does. That is why high level teams gives problems to Predators.

In relation to close quarter damage, I don’t see how this has been reduced. Because every time I had encountered 4 Fire Team members shooting at me close quarter, I always went to Second Win in few seconds. Same is now, few seconds, may be few seconds + two milliseconds. The change is not noticeable at all.

It does feel that Fire Team does missions now faster and reduction in amount of AIs greatly helped with that. Problem is that reducing amount of AI they did not increase DMG AI does, so since Fire Team members could before just tank AI outright standing on an open field and wacking AI with knives, now they just don’t even bother shooting them all and move up to next objective.

So the supposed buff to Predator is actually a nerf. They did not address visibility, spotting. Be it by design or by miscalculation is hard to say. But it certainly does not add to the bright future of the game, considering people were on the verge of shelving this game until better times come.

If devs think that reducing AI and 0.000001% close quarted dmg then Predators would compensate in being in action with Fire Team more, they have miscalculated this move.

2 Likes
#12

Try scout with the bow I’m hearing early that it’s really really good right now

1 Like
#13

I want also add that it seems detecting Fireteam members now became harder. Maybe I was just unlucky but yesterday I could mark them with thermal vision much easier, than today. And if they are using mud (seems almost all the time now)… well, they spot me before I see them. It’s not like an “almost-impossible-to-see-creature” hunting on marines, but “a squad of genetically modified ninjas” has it’s fun with a Christmas Tree that can only hurt you a bit with its needls.

1 Like
#14

I know this may be obvious but them nerfing the cannon and combi was a way for them to make the perks more effective. Now if the perks doesnt fix that than yea theres a problem. But you guys must remember that certain classes have different strength and weaknesses in how they handle the hunting experience.

#15

Perks do almost nothing right now. 2 shots vs 3 shots to KO a Fireteam member, really? Classes… right now different classes have different disadvantages, that’s all. No pros, just cons.

Just played another game as a FT. An easy win! Poor Hunter tried differen tactics, he attacked us from different distances, different sides, from trees and roofs, from the ground as well. One time he even halfed my health bar! He tried to attack in melee as well, I just easily parried his attacks (didn’t notice any problems with stamina doing that). Finally before the copter arrived he was able to knock one of us down. It cost him his life and we just easily revive our teammate (no Reinforcement). That’s all. Nice game. First win for today (all other games I played as Pred and no wins). And no, I’m not experienced FT player, damned it!

#16

Problem is that there is not enough slots for perks. Fire Team classes gets 2x perks baked into each class, where as Predator classes don’t get any perks for each class.

#17

FIreteam can also combine perks, classes and weapons. Predators can’t even get med, trap and sonar if he’s not Zerker.

#18

Well they do have to fix that invisibility though its awful in my opinion I cant do anything without these FT seeing me. But yea they should tweak a little bit more with the plasma, it’s the pred most reliable weapon.

#19

Well with the questionnaire let’s see how much more it can open their ideas

#20

I think you should not be able to be spotted or targeted when cloaked.

1 Like