What should you expect after the update? Well, the most significant buffs impact the MDR and the MP5A2. The MDR's damage increase from 17 to 19 now allows the heavy barrel to be the perfect attachment for the gun, with its increased damage decreasing the time to kill on the weapon despite the heavy barrel's decrease in rate of fire. The aim-down site speed has also increased, so expect to see more of the MDR after this latest patch. As for the other assault rifles buffed in this patch, the M4A1 received a smaller damage increase from 17 to 18. Admittedly, I have not used the M4A1 much since the latest patch, as this change does not seem significant enough to overcome the better options available in the assault rifle category.
MP5A2 Boosted
While the other assault rifles had minor tweaks, the MP5A2 however, received some powerful buffs. I have used this weapon nonstop since the patch, and it feels so much better than before, with its increase in damage and headshot multiplier easily being felt. Before this recent refresh, it was no doubt the worst in its class, now it's my second favorite SMG. If the MP7 ever gets nerfed, the MP5A2 will have to be my main SMG. As for other weapon changes, the sniper rifles have been nerfed again. Their sprint-to-shoot times have increased, meaning it will be slightly harder to quick-scope with them. They also got their hip-fire spread nerfed for some reason... Ultimately, these are welcome changes due to how easy it is to snipe in this game.
Faction Changes
Some great faction changes have arrived in this update. The Echelon has seen a nerf once again, with its pinging taking a second longer and highlighted foes being highlighted for less time. Honestly, this nerf is a major shakeup, to the point where I'm not sure Echelon is worth it anymore in its current state. Don't get me wrong, I like the downgrade to how long enemies are highlighted, but I think they should reduce the cooldown slightly in the future to compensate for these changes.
The other significant faction change in these patch notes comes with the Spiderbots, you can now once again shoot them off your face! The unintended feature has returned after many complained about its removal in the season 1 update. It's worth noting that before the ability to shoot a Spiderbot was removed, you had to look down to shoot the robot creature off your face. Now it seems you just need to start shooting to get the crawler off. But from my testing, it's still overly buggy, especially with shotguns and the Phantom's Ultra, which sometimes can't shoot the Spiderbot off your face. Phantoms and shotgun players will just have to accept their fates when a Spiderbot comes crawling along until this gets patched up.
Final Thoughts
That's all I have for this XDefiant update assessment. For the most part, this update is an improvement, though I wish they did more. The jump and crouch spam nerf from past updates did nothing to solve the issue and still needs some fine-tuning. Jump spamming in particular seems to grant immunity in combination with the game's net code and server latency. While most individuals you come across won't be jump spamming, but when you do run into them, they are ridiculous and by far the most toxic thing in XDefiant. To be clear, I do not want jump-shotting removed, just jump spammers. Sliding and jumping once around a corner in XDefiant is fair game, getting T-bagged and Bunny-hopped to death while the net code and hit detection are suspect is not. There either needs to be a delay in performing a second jump or the second jump needs to be reduced in height.
Gameplay
- Fixed a delay in reloading, swapping weapons, or deploying devices caused by players rapidly tapping the Fire and Ability buttons.
- Players who took advantage of a speed hack will now find themselves locked in place, which is the opposite of what they were going for.
Factions
- After coming to an agreement with pharmaceutical company GSK, the Team Rainbow faction will hereafter be known as GS-Kommando. Feel free to continue calling them Grenzschutzkommando as a handy time saver.
- Fixed an issue where DedSec's Spiderbots were ignoring victims previously targeted by the deploying player. Now they'll spiderhug faces new and old with equal enthusiasm.
- Players can once again shoot DedSec Spiderbots off their own faces. Not sure why; everybody loves Spiderbots.
- Tuned the functionality of Echelon's Intel Suit. Now it pulses every four seconds instead of every three. Enemies remain highlighted for 1 second instead of 2.7 seconds, so everybody pay attention.
- Some abilities such as Firebomb, the Digital Ghillie Suit, and BioVida Boost weren't always activating or occasionally stopped working. That's fixed.
Maps
- Fixed a weird issue letting players exit a Times Square spawn zone early by jumping off a picture frame.
Game Modes
- Updated the Playlist screen to show all the available game modes.
- Added menu text clarifying that the Bronze rank unlocks at the first victory.
- Fixed an issue that was displaying the little padlock icon on Ranked Rewards despite players earning them fair and square.
Weapons
- Tuned various weapons for gameplay balance. Here are the spec changes for your records:
- M4A1 short-range damage increased from 17 to 18.
- MDR short-range damage increased from 17 to 19.
- MP5A2 medium-range damage increased from 13 to 14. Its headshot-damage multiplier increased from 1.35x to 1.4x.
- The MP5A2's short range increased from 16m to 18m. Its medium range increased from 25m to 27m.
- MDR ADS speed improved from 300ms to 250ms.
- M44 Sprint Out Time (sprint-to-shoot time) increased from 350ms to 400ms.
- TAC-50 Sprint Out Time increased from 600ms to 625ms.
- L115 sprint-shoot time increased from 550ms to 575ms.
- The sniper rifles (M44, TAC-50, and L115) got a small increase in spread when shooting from the hip (as opposed to aiming via the optics).
- Improved the visual presentation of tracer fire and ammo-case ejection so both depart more accurately from their respective weapon.
- Adjusted how the aiming system detects player input so that recoil recovery returns to center rather than being thrown off by unintended player jitters in the heat of combat.
- Fixed a glitch that allowed players to fire automatically upon respawning if they jammed on the Fire and Sprint buttons while dying.
Audio
- Graphical and audio fixes, various.
Miscellaneous
- Corrected the Killscreen HP value (from one to zero) of players who killed other players post-mortem (via a well-placed proximity mine, incendiary rounds, or similarly persistent offensive strategies).
- Previously, players with pings greater than 150ms were kept waiting an un-fun amount of time in matchmaking. We've improved the matchmaking parameters so their ping is assessed more frequently, which should greatly reduce matchmaking wait times. Also, players of any ping quality can now instantly jump into the Practice Zone, where they can take out their ping frustrations in a healthy and constructive way.
- Crash fixes, various.
Add Thoughts