Since Hi-Rez was finally able to give us enough conquest tokens to fully test the new devices, they’ll gift us when the first Sandstorm-patch hits the live servers, I’m at least slightly enthuasiastic that this patch is going to be a positive addition to the game. Granted, the new mechanics regarding the tokens have still a few bugs left which leave people with refreshed or weird negative amounts of tokens, but the overhaul itself performs really well.

Yes. Thats right, I made over 1million dmg/min on the PTS.

Especially the new combat jetpack brings a lot of mobility and speed into the game. Being able to shoot while jetpacking through wide areas will surely be one features with the most impact on the gameplay. All the new devices seemed to be in good shape regarding game balance with the flame tower of the Robotic being the only new device I personally felt to be a bit underpowered without any AoE on its short range, even if its able to fire 360°.

The only things feeling a bit too strong were the new boosts, literally all of them. The Robo is now be able to summon himself a Vandal which can be mounted by anyone in the team whilst being able to chain this boost through repairs alone. The new Assault boost is now practically a knockback aura which with an area wide enough to corner people in close halls and then just killing them off through a bit more than the standalone damage of the aura.

But the cornerstone of awesomeness regarding strong boost abilities seems to be the new Medic Oathbreaker boost. An aura that literally negates all healing in the area for 10 seconds while dishing out a good 170-240 dmg (different classes) plus the damage of a poison aura or grenade just kills off anybody dumb enough to stand in the area for more then 4 seconds.

But well, we will see how these boosts will really perform in AvA because its just another new target priority to focus down.

Nonetheless, the new additions look promising and may bring fresh ideas into the AvA matches and apart of that, people finally have something to do while AvA isn’t up which literally PvE farming for new items. At least for the first weeks.

Echelon map at the end of last week.

But lets go back to the actual AvA on Echelon. Of course its still RebeL vs. Mpire. And of course powers shift on a daily basis, mostly determined by activity and fielded strikeforces. In the beginning of this week, RebeL were even able to push Mpire back on all three rare elements and resecure the eastern base.

But as already mentioned, the activity in RebeL dropped in the second half of the week, leaving Mpire in the late advantage thus being able bring the eastern base down and to retake one of the rare elements.

On a sidenote, STEALTH declared that they will quit with AvA because of activity issues. Sad to see another european agency go, you had one of the hardest paths among all of us. Gl&hf in the future.

Echelon map at the end of this week.