Star Wars Battlefront's most recent update nerfed two key weapons in a big way, which will come as welcome news to the hordes of low-level cannon fodder propping up the K/D ratio of those who either bought the deluxe edition or hit level 25 long ago.
That's right, the DL-44, the best weapon in the game, has come back from the vet and it's a lot less aggressive now. Its fire rate has gone down to 180 from 250. The DL-44 isn't the fastest main weapon in the game, but it could crack off two shots before you even sighted the other guy, and that is often enough for a kill. The overheating for the DL-44 has also been "tweaked." I wish that instead said "tripled," but I'll take it.
The homing shot, a Star Card perk that unlocks at rank 11 and has raised a lot of anger, also took it in the shorts. Lock-on time has now tripled to 1.5 seconds, up from the ridiculous 0.4. The lock-on distance has gone down by 10 meters and the projectile speed has been reduced, too.
Considering how many times I've been summarily executed by people running around with DL-44s and homing shots, I can't wait to load into my next game and get killed by some teenager packing something else. Variety: it's the spice of death.
Heroes and special vehicles have also gotten a haircut. Most notably, Boba Fett's missile won't lock on any more and his main weapon damage and and range has been reduced. The wristlauncher's damage radius and damage amount also has been reduced.
For heroes, Han Solo's pistol — this is the weapon used by the hero, not the DL-44 available to all — has had its damage and effective range reduced, too. The Millennium Falcon and Slave I also had their ship health reduced, limiting the chance that someone can last an entire Fighter Squadron round without dying, and removing ship-ramming as a viable kill option.
Unhelpfully, though, the score one gets for damaging AI X-Wings and TIE Fighters in Squadron has been cut in half. This was always the last resort for scrubs like me. The match bonus for Blast has been cut to 1,000 from 2,000 XP, but the match bonus for Hero Hunt has increased to 1,750 from 1,000, meaning DICE wants people to try features of this game other than its team deathmatch.
All of the nerfs, buffs (there are a few, really) and other fixes and changes are available here. Star Wars Battlefront launched Nov. 17 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Yesterday, Electronic Arts announced its yearlong schedule of DLC, both premium and free.
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