Please repair Vauban changes made in 26.0.4 in regards to Photon Strike.

[evil713]

Some changes were made to Vauban in this patch with the intention of decreasing the charge time on two of his abilities. The intention was that from feedback his Nervos shock drones and Orbital Strike beacon charged too slowly in situations giving them large activation times which could miss targets.

For Photon Strike this had, what I hope is, unforeseen consequences. 

Yes the charge time was decreased allowing the beacon to go off faster, but now the ability effect of the strike goes off before the beacon can travel far. Previously this ability could be used on Io for example to cover the distance between both left and right stair entrances to the platform easily before firing. Now the travel distance because of rapid charging is around 10 to 12 meters, or about as far as you can run in 2 seconds. It is quite possible to be at a dead run using this ability in essentially melee range.

I and others have found this specific change to be detrimental to the ability and the concept behind it, of supporting fire from on high. The effect ruined by the strike hitting a point in the air instead of the ground or an enemy.

The simple request is that the strike only goes off after the beacon hits the ground or an enemy, and that the charge time be decided from that point. This restores ranged functionality to the Photon Strike of Vauban to match the ranges of his other abilities as they are all based on the same multipurpose orb throw mechanic.

Edited November 28, 2019 by evil713
title rebranding again, wrong ability name.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

How about instead of it being reverted they just improve it so it doesn’t activate until it comes in contact with a surface?

[evil713]

Just now, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

How about instead of it being reverted they just improve it so it doesn’t activate until it comes in contact with a surface?

I list that at the bottom but should I change the topic to repair instead or revert?

[Monolake]

its buggy as hell too, sometimes it does no damage

[Xepthrichros]

6 hours ago, evil713 said:

I and others have found this specific change to be detrimental to the ability and the concept behind it, of supporting fire from on high. The effect ruined by the strike hitting a point in the air instead of the ground or an enemy.

I am not sure if they want people to go to the high ground anymore actually, even if the photon strike ability footage in the game suggests something like that. (It's over Obi-wan, they have deleted the high ground)

I recently was on Hydron. There's a part of the map with ledges where you can hop up to and from there, use a sniper, or cast abilities like Garuda's seeking talons. And do damage from on high, as you mention. I liked doing that as Garuda as it felt like a bird of prey raining claws of death down on enemies, softening them up, and swooping in after and finishing some of them off with her other skills, before proceeding back to her perch. But I tried that again recently, this time hoping to do it with Vauban, and they added what seems to be an invisible ceiling there now so you cannot jump that high anymore.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Xepthrichros

[Sibernetika]

I'm hating the orbital strike after that, I don't even use it for coolness factor anymore.. I only use it now when I accidentally press 3 instead of 4 for bastille 

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

It sounds like it was an unintentional change, since they only noted it was reducing the charge up time.

[evil713]

14 hours ago, (PS4)Ozymandias-13- said:

It sounds like it was an unintentional change, since they only noted it was reducing the charge up time.

I agree that it may of been unintentional, but given the hotpatch cycle is quite fast a revert on this specific issue could of been easily done just to get prior functionality back before we can work on improved functionality.

Right now its like using a chopstick as a pool cue, yes I can still make shots but I need to be stupid close to do it.

[evil713]

Sorry edited for wrong name of ability, and bumping because still is a issue. I get that there is a lot of focus right now on the Railjack content right now but this feels so minor to fix.

[MrFrog9]

I'll chime in to say that the instant detonation on impact actually takes away some of the move's functionality. Before, I could toss a beacon into a Vortex and shift my attention somewhere else for a bit, as all enemies that fell into the vortex over the next few seconds would get taken out automatically when the killsat hit. Now, it just goes off immediately as soon as it contacts an enemy, requiring me to babysit my Vortexes more.

It's debatable if this is worth not having to plan out its use in advance esp. for the fine, intelligent patrons of this forum but the change wasn't entirely positive.