Today in Anthem

Just got insta team nuked by Vara an embarrassingly large number of times. Nice.
Other than that RNGesus and I have settled our differences apparently because the leggos have been plentiful.
Couple of dropouts but meh I can deal with that. Haven't had a chance to fully explore all the map secrets stuff as pugs wanna pug and speedrun it all.
And its cold AF here and I cant use the controller good cos my hands are le frozen.

At last I got LG Argos Mace. I will have to build the one I was trying before, but this component was lacking punch. I hope it now has it.
Lets see, 3 missions and the plot thickens, this feels good

Those are nice.  I haven't really gotten any major Items for any of my suits.  Mostly stuff I already have lots of like "Vassa's Surprise" which I never used. 

Australia. It was around 3 degrees last night (Celsius). So not thaaaat cold for a lot of places, but cold for where I live 😂.
I prefer it though to the heat though.

I'm now experimenting with my build and while I totally love Raneri's Charge I switched it for Serpent's Veil now and switched my Viper's Bite for Sudden Death. Going full on acid is also an option but the lack of detonators can be annoying vs. groups. I'd like to have a button to switch between loadouts fast or at least be able to do it in the forge. I can of course switch certain items but not loadouts. Because for bosses I most likely still want to use Viper's Bite to get the Ultimate up quickly. And Raneri's Charge with several charges really has its uses vs. bosses as well. So switching between those two setups without too much hassle would be really nice.

It's interesting how much the update changed things. Global damage being so severely nerfed into the ground really has an impact. I was mainly using it for melee, combo and ultimate damage - none of which is affects anymore and it has become somewhat of an useless inscription for my Interceptor (or in general?). Melee weapons being weapons changes things up as well because now some of the bonusses from gear or weapons that grant additional weapon damage over a set amount of time now also apply that bonus to the melee weapon. Another interesting thing is that my ultimate damage is so low and if it wasn't for the invincibility I'd much rather fight with without it because the damage buffs for acid and melee are really something when using the acid blades...

Havent seen a leggie in days 😕
Loot isnt much of an improvement for me...

Got the second melee weapon for two of my #2 pilot's javelins. The other two were repeats. One had lesser inscriptions, the other was an improvement.

One of my friends can't get into the Cataclysm yet ... hurry with the patch, BioWare ... so we did a bunch of strongholds, legendary contracts and freeplay ... both world events and storm anomolies. Game was solid. While I was out doing other stuff, they got a server shutdown once, but no other issues.

Since I've been running my #2 pilot's javelins the last couple days, surprisingly, I made a lot of progress with two of the javelins ... not quite, but getting close to the same level as my #1 pilot's.

The ranger and interceptor still have a long way to go ... but maybe if I concentrate on them over the next couple of days ...

It's all balanced, Pillar  Your words, not mine

Alas ... someone doesn't want me to play the new story missions

I started a private session to play the new mission(s) and lo and behold CTD'd again
losing interest/patience/my nerves real fast because I just don't understand... FP & SHs work(ed) just fine - why do I crash on these new mission EVERY FUCKING TIME (after shooting the 4 turrets, collecting the 5 intel pieces and then on my way to the next objective: boom, CTD)
any ideas?!

Yesterday we rocked with my fellows from west correctamundo and PutinWithAnimals 'everything we got our hands on to'
Today we've been trying to unlock secrets with PutinWithAnimals in the cataclysm, need to investigate more...

Today I tested some things after not being too happy with my options since the patch released. I have opened so many war chests, around 50 just on friday night after we played the crap out of the cataclysm with 5-6 million scores each run. But I basically get useless items all the time and/or things I don't need (I think I have one or two rather good ones for the Colossus). Unfortunately the rolls I have on the universal components I use are not what I need either or they are on items I don't have much use for. I dropped another Bloodlust with 90% Armor to replace the one I have with 90% Shields but I'd much rather like to see some melee damage on it (which I have rolled on something like Rejuvenating Ammo of course...). It's just frustrating... playing a lot, even getting more drops but being fucked over by RNGesus so much.

Anyways... I tested some setups and will go through the video footage now. I'm really torn between my loadout because one caters much more to my preference and the way I enjoy playing but is just noticably worse in terms of pure damage output numbers than the other loadout. And that has nothing to do with bad rolls but simply with the fact that you get +200% acid damage when using the acid bomb and meleeing and while this was never really interesting before it now makes a big difference when using the acid melee weapon. And to be honest I think this is somewhat bad game design (again) because it's not just about "do I want to prime or detonate with my melee" but one weapon is just flatout better than the other (discounting the randomness of the rolls) because it a] debuffs with acid b] does more damage to enemies with lowered health and c] can be buffed significantly with the damage bonus of another piece of gear. I have no idea about the Colossus and Storm but I don't feel that way with the Ranger who has 2 nice weapons which I consider somewhat equal even though they are very different and depending on several factors one can possibly be better than the other - but I don't feel it's such a huge difference as it with the Interceptor weapons.

In other news I also noticed how little difference it makes if I use a lot of stuff with additional armor. I wonder if it's maybe capped. The maximum I can use without changing my build too much is around is +398% armor. But the difference between that and let's say +100-200% is nothing I can actually notice that much. What I do notice however is what difference it makes when I'm not using Softening Blows. That 75% damage reduction when shields break really has a huge impact on my survivability, especially when playing and drawing all the attention/fire. Interestingly enough I run both my Interceptor and my Ranger with just 3 class components right now and 3 universal components each although I might change that for the Ranger again (if I finally get the component I actually want and have been using as a masterworks for a long time). Another interesting thing: I have a weapon with a +140% ammo roll and a gear icon, yet I get additional ammo for BOTH my weapons. But I won't complain... having almost 2000 rounds for my Ranger's machine pistol surely helps on GM3 and in boss fights to get the Ultimate up as fast as often as possible.

Oh... and I played a really nice GM3 Sunken Cell duo. Wasn't sure if we could make it, especially at the puzzle section but the other guy kept most enemies aways and I did use my Ultimate to stand there and do them - although I messed one up as enemies were blocking my view. The boss still is quite the bullet sponge after the patch I feel compared to other GM3 bosses.