Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[Cairhiin]

Tried out Interceptor seriously for the first time. Man....that is some super frenetic gameplay. Get in the mix and bounce from target to target like a pinball. I can finally see a reason to keep shotguns.

Although I guess you could sit back and snipe with the Interceptor support ability too. That seems like a role better suited to a Storm, though. Although when I say "snipe" I mean dropping elemental bombs on the enemy like artillery.

I don't really like the Sniper game play. I just run a shotgun and melee abilities.

[Sixnalia]

The aura is probably the worst combo in the game atm, and melee dmg is pretty low and underwhelming and requires you to be stationary and in melee which gets you killed. Interceptors skills are arguably worse, you're trading squishiness for mobility in a game where most enemies have a lot of hitscan.

Interceptors saving grace is the masterwork affixes, which is why you might have seen people acting like interceptor is nonviable in GM2-3. Its hyper gear dependent in order to do the tougher content effectively.

I honestly love Aura, especially when you get an Ice combo aura.
I'm currently still messing around with my builds, though.

Biggest issue is I don't see a reason to bring my one ice ability as Interceptor.
But Storms seem to favor frost shards or the ice storm, so I can take advantage and "spread the cold".

Ice makes GM2/3 feel much more manageable, too.

[Gaidax]

This is pretty much the best ranger can do without going with Avenging Herald cheese with 30k weak hits, which is like boring as fuck. Spark Beam with good roll is basically the only ability that does any sort of damage with impact build, which is what you gonna use in GM2+ because Devastator/Blast simply does not scale for shit.

[Sixnalia]

This is pretty much the best ranger can do without going with Avenging Herald cheese with 30k weak hits, which is like boring as fuck. Spark Beam with good roll is basically the only ability that does any sort of damage with impact build, which is what you gonna use in GM2+ because Devastator/Blast simply does not scale for shit.

I'm enjoying the blast build, but it feels way more gear dependent than Impact.

Divine Vengeance scales with blast, so leaning on just Devastator isn't necessary with a blast build.

Throw in some of the key things like Last Argument to use your Ultimate every 20 seconds-ish too.

Add Argo's Mace to the mix (ideally one with plenty of gear damage and speed)


The build is a "blast". It's pretty damn fun, but needs quite a bit of speed/blast damage rolls to feel effective.

Vs. impact build which took far less luck.

[Gaidax]

I'm enjoying the blast build, but it feels way more gear dependent than Impact.

Divine Vengeance scales with blast, so leaning on just Devastator isn't necessary with a blast build.

Throw in some of the key things like Last Argument to use your Ultimate every 20 seconds-ish too.

Add Argo's Mace to the mix (ideally one with plenty of gear damage and speed)


The build is a "blast". It's pretty damn fun, but needs quite a bit of speed/blast damage rolls to feel effective.

Vs. impact build which took far less luck.

Not even close to simple Impact build.

I have Blast Build with legendary Last Argument with +250% blast on it and Devastator with +125% weapon damage and +9% sniper on it and a TON of +damage mods all around. It's simply no match for impact, the best it does is ult really, that one is the only real thing, the rest is fluff including Divine Vengeance.

Problem with Divine Vengeance is that proc with full balls to the wall blast build does what - 7k damage? That's like one tick from body shot lazerbeam in the vid above or like 3.5 bullets from LMG. Damage is simply not there, because shit that's killing you is not that trash you take out in 2 milliseconds but those legendary shielded guys or minibosses that corner your behind.

Like the best best setup with Blast I had was hilariously with this Lazer of Death, simply because its proc scales with Blast, so it sort of does similar-ish damage in Blast build maybe like ~30% less overall. At least it gave the build some sort of relief single target. It's like having divine vengeance with uncoditional explosions that does not suck actually.

[Sixnalia]

Not even close to simple Impact build.

I have Blast Build with legendary Last Argument with +250% blast on it and Devastator with +125% weapon damage and +9% sniper on it and a TON of +damage mods all around. It's simply no match for impact, the best it does is ult really, that one is the only real thing, the rest is fluff including Divine Vengeance.

Problem with Divine Vengeance is that proc with full balls to the wall blast build does what - 7k damage? That's like one tick from body shot lazerbeam in the vid above or like 3.5 bullets from LMG. Damage is simply not there, because shit that's killing you is not that trash you take out in 2 milliseconds but those legendary shielded guys or minibosses that corner your behind.

Like the best best setup with Blast I had was hilariously with this Lazer of Death, simply because its proc scales with Blast, so it sort of does similar-ish damage in Blast build maybe like ~30% less overall. At least it gave the build some sort of relief single target. It's like having divine vengeance with uncoditional explosions that does not suck actually.

*looks for where I said Impact isn't as good as blast to trigger this*

Ah damn, I must have ghost typed.

[Baconeggcheese]

I honestly love Aura, especially when you get an Ice combo aura.
I'm currently still messing around with my builds, though.

Biggest issue is I don't see a reason to bring my one ice ability as Interceptor.
But Storms seem to favor frost shards or the ice storm, so I can take advantage and "spread the cold".

Ice makes GM2/3 feel much more manageable, too.

The issue is the affix application is redundant since it the mobs already need to be primed in order to proc it. The aura would be useful for that if all the javs could only prime single enemies, but we can aoe prime entire packs so it simply doesn't matter. Which is why they added the damage over time aspect after launch when players said interceptors combo was useless outside of the initial explosion. Though the damage over time aura is still really pathetic. What's worse is new enemies who gain the affix via the aura aren't primed so even the potential team play aspect of it is removed.

The idea of an aura is all well and good for a combo, there's all sorts of things that could be done to play into the interceptor fantasy. Its just that the current thing is poorly designed. Though if I'm being honest most of the interceptor design in general seems like it was very much just slapped together in a rush. I'm fairly certain it was the last Jav they made with how unpolished it feels.

I say that while still very much enjoying playing it, but the entire time I'm also just thinking about how it could feel so much better to play and things could be designed so differently.

[WoWGoneBad]

I don't really like the Sniper game play. I just run a shotgun and melee abilities.

I do the same thing, I pack the +35 shields shottie and the Machine Pistol that gives damage boost with point-blank ranged shots so much fun bouncing from target to target melting them with melee and shottie. I find that even though the ice stars are lower in damage they are great at controlling the enemy while you melt them down until you get hit from behind. Then I jump to another

If I am working with elites, I do a Double strike build. It blows right through their shields and then I can just blast a shottie in their face then spread them.

The most fun about interceptor is that it is not strictly about damage for me but it is about shredding and moving. I kill most of what I go after but if I can get them down to about 20% before moving on I am good

[Gaidax]

*looks for where I said Impact isn't as good as blast to trigger this*

Ah damn, I must have ghost typed.

The point is, what you said is shit damage. But hey it's good for GM1 - everything goes there, even Interceptor melee, but then GM1 is the only thing worth doing at the moment so meh.

[Baconeggcheese]

Yeah, but what does the ranger have? Some nades? A melee primer?

The Rangers base design is just a straight up better Interceptor, which is why you had people not unlike Gaidax abandoning Interceptor to pick up Ranger and saying it was just outright better early on. Interceptor really doesn't have great tools to be in melee using abilities that do the same damage as the ranged abilities other Javs have. And the general ability design just isn't great.

What Interceptor does have at end game is a bunch of masterwork components that give flat damage increases. Like I have a masterwork double edged component which passively gives a flat 50% more dmg (but I take "-25%" more lul) and also gives me another large flat % bonus for 5 seconds when my health is low. Its not that interceptor has a great design, it just has numbers.

[Gaidax]

The Rangers base design is just a straight up better Interceptor, which is why you had people not unlike Gaidax abandoning Interceptor to pick up Ranger and saying it was just outright better early on. Interceptor really doesn't have great tools to be in melee using abilities that do the same damage as the ranged abilities other Javs have. And the general ability design just isn't great.

What Interceptor does have at end game is a bunch of masterwork components that give flat damage increases. Like I have a masterwork double edged component which passively gives a flat 50% more dmg (but I take "-25%" more lul) and also gives me another large flat % bonus for 5 seconds when my health is low. Its not that interceptor has a great design, it just has numbers.

Once you have some time in the game and start uncovering all the shit that is hidden it quickly becomes apparent why Rangers are weak. The whole giant mess of Impact and Blast for Rangers that for some outlandish reasons cannibalize each other result in builds that are either very good at guns (which is really the only way to go GM2+ now) or very good at blast damage (which with current options available simply does not scale enough for anything more than GM1), but never both.

So if you go impact route, your Ult and grenades simply stop doing any sort of relevant damage, while if you go Blast route - your gunning skills, aside from and oddity and a half, are about as good as Storm's.

Reason is that for Rangers specifically Impact+Blast skills which is most of Grenades and Ult are borked to scale only with Blast, which is in fact not how the game behaves otherwise with physical AoE. So our trade-off components end up severely hurting output one way or another, where as Interceptor has no such issue. That, coupled with quite terrible components Rangers have creates a ton of issues.

Interceptor's fragility on the other hand is plenty compensated by various craziness like triple dodges and what not, while Ranger does not really have THAT much more meat on its bones to make a real difference.

[Sixnalia]

The point is, what you said is shit damage. But hey it's good for GM1 - everything goes there, even Interceptor melee, but then GM1 is the only thing worth doing at the moment so meh.

Doing fine in GM2 with it xD

Argument has 3 charges.

Mace has close to 100%(across set up) speed before consumables.
(150% damage and 200% damage)


Tip of the Spear lets me revive players safely by detonating a combo next to them.(no revive animation needed, it is instant) (Only downside is I need someone else priming at the moment with my build. But groups are pretty reliable in my experience)

As I mentioned. It is far more gear dependent.

And I already agreed the Impact build is much easier to build for and performs better. (The same luck I've had with blast goodies, would probably make an impact build do great in GM3)

But I don't mind not 2 shotting a mob when I can 4 shot it, and few things around it.

*shrug*



I'd like the Devs to adjust Ranger's ult though.
Sacrificing your ult's damage so you can pursue the impact build feels kinda crappy.

Or adjust the components so the blast/impact ones don't harm the other.

And fix the tooltips to be a little bit more clear about what benefits from impact and blast. (I'm aware of them, but had to find a source on Reddit that tested everything)

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I still need to build my Colossus up.
Funnily enough, I used that Jav to level through my story.

But ended up focusing on gearing all the other javelins first in endgame.

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To add.
They still need to make GM2 worthwhile.
The loot rate doesn't seem to justify the enemy health pool climb yet.
But mostly been doing GM2 the last two days. Will run more today, but may drop back to GM1 again just because it is infinitely faster for now. (Especially when undergeared folks go into GM2)

[Gaidax]

Basically when Interceptor is choke full of shit like this, Ranger can't really compete. Roll your face over autoaiming shit, get +60% weapon damage.

[Sixnalia]

The issue is the affix application is redundant since it the mobs already need to be primed in order to proc it. The aura would be useful for that if all the javs could only prime single enemies, but we can aoe prime entire packs so it simply doesn't matter. Which is why they added the damage over time aspect after launch when players said interceptors combo was useless outside of the initial explosion. Though the damage over time aura is still really pathetic. What's worse is new enemies who gain the affix via the aura aren't primed so even the potential team play aspect of it is removed.

The idea of an aura is all well and good for a combo, there's all sorts of things that could be done to play into the interceptor fantasy. Its just that the current thing is poorly designed. Though if I'm being honest most of the interceptor design in general seems like it was very much just slapped together in a rush. I'm fairly certain it was the last Jav they made with how unpolished it feels.

I say that while still very much enjoying playing it, but the entire time I'm also just thinking about how it could feel so much better to play and things could be designed so differently.

That's why I focused on Frost.

You wont prime new mobs, but they'll freeze.

Or if you get Acid, you'll spread the debuff quickly enough.

I find it helpful for pug groups.

Though the value of it in organized groups is diminished.

But my two friends who were interested can't run the game :P
Their CPUs are at the bare minimum specs.

[Baconeggcheese]

As I mentioned. It is far more gear dependent.

This is probably one of the biggest things people overlook with the game. The gearing and builds can change drastically depending on what rolls you've got on your items because inscriptions get absolutely ridiculous.

Its like if you don't have something visual like the big talent tree that PoE has then the game is automatically shallow.

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That's why I focused on Frost.

You wont prime new mobs, but they'll freeze.

Or if you get Acid, you'll spread the debuff quickly enough.

I find it helpful for pug groups.

Though the value of it in organized groups is diminished.

But my two friends who were interested can't run the game :P
Their CPUs are at the bare minimum specs.

The issue doesn't change depending on what affix we're talking about though. You can focus on frost but storms are already freezing everything around you far more efficiently. You either have to be priming things inefficiently to make it feel like the aura is doing something, or you have the aura is just applying a redundant affect and isn't doing anything.

They added damage that didn't exist on the combo aura for this reason, its just not good.

[Sixnalia]

This is probably one of the biggest things people overlook with the game. The gearing and builds can change drastically depending on what rolls you've got on your items because inscriptions get absolutely ridiculous.

Its like if you don't have something visual like the big talent tree that PoE has then the game is automatically shallow.

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The issue doesn't change depending on what affix we're talking about though. You can focus on frost but storms are already freezing everything around you far more efficiently. You either have to be priming things inefficiently to make it feel like the aura is doing something, or you have the aura is just applying a redundant affect and isn't doing anything.

They added damage that didn't exist on the combo aura for this reason, its just not good.

Yep.

My Retaliation of Garretus Legendary holds true to that.
"Oh a little machine pistol." (see's 200% physical, 175% weapon, 18% gear damage)
"Oh what the hell is this relic of unnatural power."

[D3athsting]

Is there any chance to get masterwork/legendary loot at hard mode or do i have to play gm1/2? Done some legendary contracts in hm but only epix

[Big Thanks]

Im having a hard time figuring out how to do COMBOS with my interceptor.
I did it a while back but for some reason i cant do it anymore.

From what i understand a "primer" is marked as a circle with a mini circle at the center.
A combo activator is marked as a...star?

I do a primer "venom spray"
Then do a "spark dash"...and see no COMBO

Halp

[Sixnalia]

Is there any chance to get masterwork/legendary loot at hard mode or do i have to play gm1/2? Done some legendary contracts in hm but only epix

I can't say for legendaries, but Masterwork can drop in Hard Mode.
I got a masterwork at level 27 doing the story on Hard.

Im having a hard time figuring out how to do COMBOS with my interceptor.
I did it a while back but for some reason i cant do it anymore.

From what i understand a "primer" is marked as a circle with a mini circle at the center.
A combo activator is marked as a...star?

I do a primer "venom spray"
Then do a "spark dash"...and see no COMBO

Halp

This is due to Venom Spray having a status rate much lower than the standard.

So they aren't primed immediately.
The effect needs to "build up" to prime them, then spark dash will work.

Venom Bomb will prime immediately, but doesn't have the front end damage of spray.

[kaelleria]

Im having a hard time figuring out how to do COMBOS with my interceptor.
I did it a while back but for some reason i cant do it anymore.

From what i understand a "primer" is marked as a circle with a mini circle at the center.
A combo activator is marked as a...star?

I do a primer "venom spray"
Then do a "spark dash"...and see no COMBO

Halp

If you kill things with your venom spray there's no debuff to combo off of. Your melee is also a detonator. Shielded enemies also cannot be primed.

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Is there any chance to get masterwork/legendary loot at hard mode or do i have to play gm1/2? Done some legendary contracts in hm but only epix

There are is a pool of 6 MW guns that drop in Hard.