Nova Molecular Prime No Longer Functioning Properly After Update 14.5 (No More Aoe Damage)

[Mokona512]

Hi, I was wondering is anyone else is having the same issue. Before update 14.5, Molecular prime was able to create AOE damage on each enemy that you killed within a close distance thus allowing for chain reactions if there were a large number of enemies.

After update 14.5, Molecular prime has about a 4 second delay before enemies that the wave goes past, actually gets primed, and after that, shooting an enemy no longer causes AOE damage to nearby enemies.

 

I feel that this may be a bug as these changes were not mentioned in the update notes.

[Pearlkryer]

A friend of mine which really likes to play nova noticed this too. This is hopefully a bug.

[Z123FFSS89]

I hope it's a bug. By the time the blast hoes off I've already killed all the other enemies making it semi useless.

[HollowExistence]

I think that's a fair nerf

[Mokona512]

I think that's a fair nerf

 it pretty much makes it useless, the delay is far longer to when it takes effect, thus making it ineffective in emergency situations, and the lack of AOE makes it so that if a team member is down, you can not rush over to them and use the molecular prime to do enough crowd control to provide you with a chance to revive them without getting killed yourself.

 

overall, it takes one of the weakest (defense wise) frames, and makes its most powerful offensive ability (to balance out the weak defenses), almost completely useless.

 

Furthermore, since you can take damage while casting it, and the 4-5 second delay before the effects take place on the enemy, it is pretty much suicidal to use the attack on any enemy that can shoot at you, as well as suicidal to use it if infested enemies are very close to you (e.g., in situations when you are being rushed by a large number of infested, as the moment you start casting it, the enemies are able to incap you before you.

 

basically the only way to effectively use it now, is to have your team mates become your bodyguards while you cast it, all for an attack that is now so ineffective that at best, it will just slow the enemies down a little. (but not enough to really offset the amount of time it takes to effectively use it in a situation that warrants it.

 

At the moment the only levels where you can safely use it, are levels where there is no need to even use it.

 

If these changes are intentional, then it would mean that this is the 4th nerf of that ability, and their way of indirectly removing that ability from the game by making it an attack that only hurts you and your team as the time you really start to lose at a defense or survival mission, is when someone goes down and others have to revive you.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Mokona512

[Gajoline]

I think that's a fair nerf

 

Really? Then what is the point for MP to explode if the explosion is useless in the first place ?

[TwiceDead]

 it pretty much makes it useless, the delay is far longer to when it takes effect, thus making it ineffective in emergency situations, and the lack of AOE makes it so that if a team member is down, you can not rush over to them and use the molecular prime to do enough crowd control to provide you with a chance to revive them without getting killed yourself.

 

overall, it takes one of the weakest (defense wise) frames, and makes its most powerful offensive ability (to balance out the weak defenses), almost completely useless.

 

Furthermore, since you can take damage while casting it, and the 4-5 second delay before the effects take place on the enemy, it is pretty much suicidal to use the attack on any enemy that can shoot at you, as well as suicidal to use it if infested enemies are very close to you (e.g., in situations when you are being rushed by a large number of infested, as the moment you start casting it, the enemies are able to incap you before you.

 

basically the only way to effectively use it now, is to have your team mates become your bodyguards while you cast it, all for an attack that is now so ineffective that at best, it will just slow the enemies down a little. (but not enough to really offset the amount of time it takes to effectively use it in a situation that warrants it.

 

At the moment the only levels where you can safely use it, are levels where there is no need to even use it.

 

If these changes are intentional, then it would mean that this is the 4th nerf of that ability, and their way of indirectly removing that ability from the game by making it an attack that only hurts you and your team as the time you really start to lose at a defense or survival mission, is when someone goes down and others have to revive you.

Yes, the debuffing effect of Molecular Prime is indeed completely useless... Except that the debuffing effect is the sole reason people bring it to T4's. 

To the OP:

Sounds like a bug. 

[CedarDpg]

Aside from the delayed blast not damaging the surrounding primed mobs properly...the thing that's annoying about the delay is it's usually difficult to tell if you've actually killed the mob. It takes extra time to check and see that, oh, yeah, they're not moving and now have no health bar while they're just standing there waiting to explode. It makes shooting and killing mobs from a distance a pain because you can't even see that they're slow motion falling or whatever.

[JacobLittle]

Really? Then what is the point for MP to explode if the explosion is useless in the first place ?

She/He doesn't have Nova so ignore him. Her opinion is mute.

Edited August 29, 2014 by JacobLittle

[RealPandemonium]

I haven't noticed this; I was able to chain explosions as normal.  

[Mokona512]

Just tested again, issue still remains, though I noticed more to it, up close there is a delay between when the molecular prime wave passes then and before it takes effect, but in addition to that, the further an enemy is, the longer it takes for molecular prime to take effect after the wave/ animation of the molecular prime passes them.

 

On top off that, it seems on really low levels e.g., defense on mercury (second mission) the some of the explosions will do AOE and others will not, but once you start to go higher than that, then the AOE has almost no damage, thus no chance of chain reaction.

 

The increased delay makes it useless in more difficult missions (e.g., some of the ODD missions and void ones, due to the delay in taking effect and the ineffective AOE) overall, to test this and properly see the issue, you need to be more more difficult missions.

 

Furthermore, even on the simple missions, the chain explosion only does about 2 to at most 3 people before 1 enemy in the chain gets stuck in a weird animation which delays their explosion. thus even then, in the time it takes you to cast it, you could easily just shoot all of the enemies.

 

When this issue, the nova is 100% useless as a team member as all other frames are more useful. I am now able to make it further in ODD with a mag than with a nova simply because it is better at crowd control when we get rushed than the nova is. (which is prety bad since I have 2 forma added to my nova while my mag only has the orokin reactor installed)

 

the only areas where the molecular prime is useful now is in areas where it is not needed.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Mokona512