Today in Anthem

Krass.

Whew, I had to rush onto the forums after seeing all the TY titles with tips, walkthroughs and tactics used in Cataclysm.  I'm assuming they were talking about when the PTS was up.  IMO that doesn't count as Bio could change how the event works by the time it goes live across all platforms.

Every once in a while when the trophy page comes up I just go, "Whoa... just... whoa!"

Yes. Its downloading.

Very moody...

After downloading the update, did a game repair … just in case and probably overkill.

Ran three story missions, did a bit of freeplay, then jumped into the cataclysm … working through all four javelin to get the melee weapon.

Tried the seasonal store, bought some (melee) weapons, two ended up being duplicates of the cataclysm rewards, but with better inscriptions.

All four javelins have a new melee weapon at the MW level, a couple with great inscriptions … plus my interceptor has both melee weapon types.

Typically freeplay is where most stability issues have resided. Didn't run freeplay with friends, just pugging, so maybe not a fulsome test.

Regardless, the game seemed stable today … hope that becomes the norm, going forward. This looked like a good day for Anthem.

I had a half an hour, so I was able to do the first story mission of the cataclysm. Because I solo all story and didn't know how the new balance would work, so to be safe I played on GM1. Here are my thoughts so far, in a non-chronological order:
- Lol they really like blue filters, don't they? But anyway, nice touch to have the main screen reflect the event. Also, was that new pilot button always there? First time I noticed it.
- I like the purple colour for the cataclysm, it reflects the right kind of drama/urgency. But why they don't stay uniform and made it the same blue colour as the blue filter is a mystery to me.
- What the dickins? Suddenly I'm bumped back to masterwork javelin because of the melee slot
- melee has been nerfed like crazy! Granted, I was playing using an epic gear so maybe I should hold out until I get legendary melee, but still... and the whole bs of "you now have multiple inscriptions boosting it" is bs, as you dont CHOOSE your inscriptions, you need to be extremely lucky to have them.
- holy smittins! Procs have been absolutely destroyed with the nerfhammer. Ralner's blaze has been made equally useless as other weapons now. Well... at least that's one way balancing. At GM1, my storm combos were still killing enemies outright, but I expect GM2 to not go so well...
- while I'm on the subject of nerf: maybe I need to play more and level gear score up again, but I thought of doing GM1 for the sake of ease, and found it to be rather challenging with the rebalancing, mainly because my damage output has been decreased by, like, a LOT. Maybe they made the curve to GM2 and gm3 less steep, which would be a good thing, but this rebalancing really changes the game. I'll withhold my juding until after I play more to see if it is for the better or worse. But I am not a fan as it stands.
- Black ice seems... "off" somehow. It doesn't hit/freeze as consistently as it used to? Might be my imagination, but I have used it since longtime. And it 'feels' off.
- one of the objectives of the first mission at the start was 'suit up!'. Nice touch.
- an additional load screen at fort tarsis to enter the jail. REALLY??!! YOU LEARN NOTHING BIOWARE!!!
- overall, the update has been pretty bug-free and stable for me. Did not expect that. But I only played for half an hour...
- the mission itself was interesting. But I'm glad I solo'd it so I could take breaks while they were talking, because they throw a lot of information around, and in multi I cannot both comprehend and play.
- that said, at the last battle, I missed a lot of information because they kept japping and throwing enemies towards me at the same time.
- I like the setup of the story, but nothing TOO special...
- the grandmaster's voice acting kind of pales in comparison to other/earlier characters. Might just be me.
- Really good idea to earn crystals from the story mission. I like it. Also, good idea to make melee war chests first so people can get up to speed on that slot (granted, I got a interceptor slot instead of a storm, but whatever, I'll take it).
- You see the damage a combo does, now. This is a change from before?


Overall, good update, but ultimately 'meh' for now. But I haven't played much yet. And I AM happy to have a reason to play again. I am kind of scared that they over nerfed, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Question: the patch notes read that some things are no longer affected by inscriptions. Are procs still affected by for example ponder infinity's electric boost?

It was around 10 EST last night when I found out the Cataclysm was live (saw several YT vids announcing it) and the Xbox Live Service had finally been fixed to the point where I could actually launch/play a game. I had a choice between going back to Destiny 2 and continue the grind for my Solstice armor or Anthem. I opted for Destiny 2. I'll give it a go sometime today but my enthusiasm for Anthem is at an all time low right now.

Tried the new patch for the first time today. Didn't have much time but I managed to do the first mission and found a special legendary event in Freeplay. There was a 15 minute counter counting down to it and then you could fly into a gateway where you faced several tiers of bad guys unlocking a chest with each tier. All four of us on the server were involved. It was pretty cool

Met the Augur and bought myself a MW Colossus melee weapon with the crystals I'd collected.

I haven't tried the Cataclysm itself yet but, so far, it's been good fun.

Incidentally you can earn more crystals by breaking the crystal formations in Freeplay.

Ok second time in Cataclysm and this time was no charm. Got lost in a cave. Paired with XPTNL but I have mostly no clue yet about the puzzles. Still pretty much a learning and exploring experience. Vara was a bithch for some reason. Yesterday I managed to dodge her attacks sooo nimbly, today not so much. I'll be back!

You should move toward Vara, right to the centre of the circle.

Well, I think I've "finished" the story missions and played 2 cataclysms now, so I'm ready to dish out more erratic thoughts:
- the second story mission was meh. The third story mission was a lot more interesting because the interation with was pretty well done.
- On that note, Really well done and amiable character.
- final subject of story: They really kind of leave you hanging. I mean, you do the story missions, you do the cataclysm... then what? No solution? I mean I know that the story will probably progress in the coming weeks and be finished at the end of the event, but this leaves you in some sort of weird story limbo at the moment...
- Now that Ive played GM 1 and GM2, I can say, I'm a fan of the rebalance. Everything from enemy health, player health, and damage output feels MUCH closer to where it should be compared to before. I'm not saying it's perfect (storm is still underpowered imho), but it is a really big step in the right direction. GM2 feels REALLY good and is a nice difficulty for a team. In general, the sacling from GM1-3 feels a lot better in terms of growth. Good stuff.
- Loot: the drop rate feels slightly better, but I don't know if it was simply a day's RNG luck, or if it is a general upgrade. During the story missions on GM1 I got 2 limes (one of which a fantastically inscribed softened blows), and during my first cataclysm run on GM2 I got 2 limes (useless). The second cataclysm run on gm2 I got nothing. The masterwork quota does seem to have risen (ie less purple/blues). So... a slight improvement, it feels like? But it's always difficult to say with rng.
- Finally, the universal components were boosted in stats to something usable!!! Really nice touch!
- I've opened a couple war chests and have a decent mw melee for most javelins (except for my main man storm, ofcourse, FU RNGsus). At least my melee damage is back on par again. I am a fan of the storm's lightning melee, but it requires a change in my playstyle since it's no longer a detonator, which is taking me a while to get used to But, the melee change is a welcome one. Good addition.
- I'm still really confused by some of the puzzles. The one in the caves where you have to restore the artifact and the one on the beach with the tubes I get. But the third one, for the life of me, no clue what to do. Collect echoes, sure, but how to lower the damn shields? In any case, it's somethign different, I suppose.
- I like the warchest rewards and in general the concept of being able to work towards your rewards instead of relying on luck. So that is a very goo change, and I hope they continue with this path (I'm looking at you, inscriptions!)
- I haven't done the freeplay cataclysm thing yet (that's next on my list), so can't say if it is more stable now.

So that's it for the positive. All in all, what's there is very good stuff and is well done. Haven't seen any bugs either, so that's a first, but very welcome.

Some negative:
- okay so, as I said: story limbo. You're left with conclusion blue balls and - other than attaining new limes - no real reason to continue playing. I mean, the cataclysm itself is a basically a stronghold run. So... keep grinding the same stronghold, I guess? Personally, it might be more interesting if the 'events' in the cataclysm changed randomly so yo have more variation, but maybe that is something for the near future? We'll see. Other than the grind (which I'll continue to do for now since I finally have a reason to play anthem again) there is no real reason to run the cataclysm more than twice.
- Vara as a boss is weird. And by that I mean: as a storm, she is mostly harmless, until at one point she does her one-kill attack (which I honestly don't know how to avoid), before returning to harmless again. She's not a bad boss per se, just... not a positively thrilling fight either.


In conclusion: I like 1.3 as a patch: 8,5/10. I 'mostly' like the cataclysm 7,5/10, hopefully it becomes better later in the event.