Today in Anthem

That's usually what different difficulty levels are for so it caters to everyone depending on their equipment, skill and personal preference. I don't want to force a difficult game on players that can't beat it (yet) or don't ever want to. But if I can pretty much solo through most content on the hardest difficulty without too much problems even without god tier equipment and maximum gearscore and the biggest challenge is that some enemies just take forever to go down (while not posing too much of a threat at the same time) then something is definitely not right. In my opinion the highest difficulty in a game like this should always be challenging for a full team and require some coordination (and/or being very hard for solos/duos) and that's just not the case here. And I don't even want to ask for GM4 or GM5 because the problem is that we'd probably just end up getting the same stuff with percentage-adjusted health/damage instead of an acutal solid rebalancing, maybe new enemy compositions and such. The problem -again- is that core fundamentals of the game are just broken. Because people don't get enough stuff on GM1 they are stuck there. If they get stuff, it's usually crap. No options to make different builds because you have to use what you get. So they adjust the difficulty to make the transition to GM2 easier and players get more loot. But the difficulty in my opinion isn't the problem - the fucked up loot-, inscription- and crafting-system is...

So played Anthem after a few weeks away. Tried out the whole cataclysm thing which was fun, and the 2 leggos I scored along the way definitely helped. No majorrrrrr issues, but I got a lot of lag. Not sure whether it actually was that but it was definitely sluggish at times.
The first one (and next 3 lets be honest) were total noob doozies as I had -45643 idea what I was actually doing. Died a lot on the first match whoops. 2nd run was ruined by following around the people who seemed to know what they were doing, but when it came to finding Vara that was a definite no 😂. 1 player got stuck by themselves with her for a solid 6 min until I managed to find my way back with less than 4 min left. We then took turns cleaning the floor with our faces (it was spotless ) until the other 2 turned up with not enough time to finish her off.
That second puzzle is a total pain in the ass though. Do not like.
Other than that, had a blast and it was good to see full squads running out each time.
Until I saw the leaderboard and cried 😂

Don't know if anyone remembers this, but a while back someone on here (and I'm sorry but I forget your/their name) posted a 'story' of sorts about being able to fly with Lucky Jak. And wouldnt ya know it, yesterday I actually DID fly with Jak! I guess fans have been talking about it and wanting to be able to do it, so the Devs listened......Still, I thought that was pretty cool.

Yes, stuff like this among other things is why a lot of players, especially the ones who do theorycrafting, have been saying since day one that core mechanics are not well thought through or simply broken. Which is why they will never be able to balance anything properly in this game until they rework some stuff completely. That plus Bioware is really bad at balancing in general compared to other studios.

Just dropped my first legendary melee weapon. Unfortunately it's the wrong blades (the acid ones that prime but I need the detonating twin blades) and rolls could be better. But I'll give it a try later. I think I got it from the daily challenge, it was no standard legendary icon in the inventory either but had this cataclysm color and melee symbol like the chest in the seasonal store. By the way: has anybody seen mastwerworks or legendary support items yet?

I just tested the acid blades and I think I need to stick with them - at least for now. Them being legendary plus having additional damage inscripted makes a huge difference in melee damage right now. So I'm fiddling around with other stuff as well. Switched my +30% global damage Raneri's Charge for one with +250% gear damage and +100% charges so I can charge more often. Might run a test laster to see if I should skip the gear damage and instead go +200% and another +100% charges. So that I can basically charge all the time - because right now that's my only detonator. Global damage really doesn't do that much anymore since it does not affect melee, combo or ultimate damage. It's basically useless now I feel. Some % more weapon damage and gear damage? Hardly noticable. In fact havin global weapon damage might even be better because it also affects the melee weapon. If only I could swap those inscriptions the way I like and make new builds easily

Edit: damn those priming blades. they do more damage but I really need the other ones. Just gave Temple Of Scar GM3 solo another go and the difference is huge. Yes, I do more damage but I also die very quickly. This damage reduction the detonating blades give really can't be underestimated it seems. Didn't notice it in Freeplay but in the Stronghold it really is noticable compared to an earlier attempt. Also dropped another Venom Spray and right now I have 4 charges for each skill... I'd gladly take 3 but have additonal gear specific damage added instead 

Count yourself lucky, my friend.  The Bunny is still hopping around in a MasterWork Ranger, recently returned and briefly lowered to Epic Status even though my Gear Score was 720.  Now it's 745 and I'm hopping around in a MasterWork (but always classy looking) N7 Ranger suit.  Can't even begin to count the days till I reach "Legendary" Status......I wonder, does it have anything to do with completing the Legionnaires' Challenges?    Cause I'm not even done the Challenge of Valor yet, damn it.

My RNGsus compatriot. Come, sit down. Listen to my fellow woes.

So this'll be a loot post. As I type this, I am still slightly enraged so take it with a grain of salt. Partly at myself for ever so shortly believing the loot would have been better, partly at bioware, for not granting me what I want (yes, I am aware that sound sentitled).

So I typed earlier that I had gotten about 4 limes in the initial phases of my cataclysm experience, so I sat down last night, reserved some me-time, prepared my body for a relatively sleepless night to come, and got heavy into the cataclysm. I think I must've racked up 7 or so cat runs.

intermezzo: I also did a short freeplay session with my ranger to see what the conjunctions were about and to test out my new shiny exploding fire stick: I like the conjunctions, they are a cool addition and a fresh change! I really hope they keep it after the event! Also, I'm really starting to grasp the concept of freeplay more. Mainly because the experience has been improved by a lot with the markers etc. end of intermezzo

In those 7 runs (GM2), I got one lime. ONE!! I'll grant the game this: the masterwork drop rate is noticeably better (although purple rains are still a waaaay too common thing). But the limes are still too few and far between. Or, what I mean more accurately described: they are still too unreliable. 
The point is, now I feel like I accomplished nothing (small exception: see further below) and my time was wasted. Additionally, due to the remaining unreliablility, I feel like nmindless grind is still the way to go. And I feel discouraged...

I feel discouraged because, I have no clue about how they're releasing the new stuff. Do I even need to keep trying to grind for a MW support gear slot to drop? Because I have no idea if those are even released into the loot pool yet. Similarly, I haven't seen any guns or new gear. Do we need to wait for those things because they're only released in war chests? Then that's stupid. So basically I need to grind and stack up crystals. Bah, what a bore. Dunno how long I'll keep enjoying that...

Onto some positive points:

* I found a legendary ranger melee fire detonation stick, and lo and behold, the inscriptions weren't half bad. Also, detonation melee on ranger is SO good. I am LOVING it. Maybe it's just a fresh change of pace from always playing storm (with it's weak-ass combo's...), but I love playing as ranger with the boomstick. Also, I have a legendary argo's mace from earlier, and tested it out, and it's actually kind of useful now in gm2, or well, at least, not completely useless.
* I finally, FINALLY got a legendary black ice for my storm. However, the inscriptions are such shit, that I felt more slapped in the face than relieved... It's a shame I have to feel so bad about a drop I wanted for so long, but that's how bioware wants us to feel, apparently. GET ON WITH THE INSCRIPTION SYSTEM REWORK, BIOWARE!!!

Anyway, in conclusion, I dont know if I have to start hoarding crystals now, or keep spending them on melee war chests to try to get a legendary storm melee (btw, severely dissapointed in the storm melee options compared to other javelins, we once again really got the short end of the stick). I'm left confused by the event. Maybe it'll improve, but... I don't know if the want to play feeling will keep coming back.

I wish they just kept all the stuff and not make it an event. Because we actually do need that content. And about the conjuction... I got into one with another (undergeared) player and we made it to the end but those Brittlebacks are really something. I feel like they take more damage than bosses do now. Speaking of bosses... I'm really starting to like the Vara boss fight more and more, especially on GM3 which feels satisfying an fun. Her freeze/burn move is OP though I think. If she gets you there is basically nothing you can do and you will die. Maybe a Colossus won't...?


Yes, apparently it's just like that. The new stuff is only available in the war chests. So you need to keep grinding for crystals. I actually like that we have a special chest for melee weapons but the fact that it can contain weapons for other Javelins is really annoying. Like I said: I have several legendary melee weapons for the Colossus and I will never ever play Colossus. Right now you can't get masterworks or legendary support items or the new weapons. I wonder how it will work when the store rotates... if the melee weapons then get dropped into the general loot pool (which is way to big as it is) or if we have to further wait. Again... Bioware's lack of communication is totally annoying. It's unbelievale how disconnected they are from the community and I seriously wonder the community managers are actually getting paid for.


Personally I really can't get into any other build than the cookiecutter Ultimate Ranger. It's just so much better than any other build I think and overall probably the most versatile and powerful build in the game because it can shred through groups of enemies as well as do high single target damage and refill his ultimate meter pretty fast vs. bosses as well. Of course other builds can potentially be fun but in terms of pure damage output nothing compares to a good Ultimate Ranger. And with the priming stick they added even more options to build the ultimate meter.


I totally know the feeling. I mean... for my Interceptor it's basically a must that I get a good melee weapon but of course I'd like to get some of the other stuff as well. On top of that I can't spend as much time playing anymore because of more important matters. If this wasn't as frustrating as it still is unfortunately I will probably take a break for a while until they really rework the whole loot system in a way that makes sense and that let's me either farm for specific stuff at certain locations and such or let's me swap out inscriptions so I can actually make builds and go looking for certain types of inscriptions or better numbers.

Congratulations on the future little one!
Don't worry, you won't get a lot more time to play any time soon either

Congratulations!    I wuv babies!   They so cute 

Got through the first mission, it was exciting to see them... Started with massive confusion but soon I got hang of what I did last time; freeze with grenade, get strikers multiplier to melee to shock target and then pulse blast for combo and another strikers strength, melee again...
Its good to be back!

edit: oh I got a good legendary component immediately from this GM2 game