Let’s talk the Dusk. The original perk of it was “Homing rockets deal 20% more damage and fly 20% faster. However, the lifetime of the projectiles is reduced by 67% and their maneuverability and target acquisition range are also reduced.”
This made the cabin only usable in the sideways facing dusk+pyre builds. Which got slowly nerfed out of being viable.
Now, we have a new perk, “+25% to damage, but instead increases spread and reduces projectile speed. Homing rockets have reduced maneuverability”
There is a big problem in this, which is “reduces projectile speed” as in the missiles travel slower.
Dusk+Pyre no longer works at all because of how slow the missiles are now. These kinds of builds simply do not work anymore. So you wonder, is it any good with other missiles? Nope, the increased spread and slower speed makes using any non-homing missiles a pain as well. The Devs said something about “Steppe Spider being long range rockets, Dusk trying to be close range rockets” but rockets are not a close range weapon.
Dusk had a singular use, and now it has no use at all. The original use of it has been completely destroyed.
I used to play it on and off even while it was no longer that great, and compared to the old dusk + pyre, now you need to pretty much be way more closer to pretty much tachi level closeness while hitting the enemy, only able to do drive-by shots at pretty much of a facehugging distance
The old dusk + pyre, you could fire them from more far away from the enemy rather than having to be exactly within 1-2 meters of the enemy build. And the missiles could catch up to enemy builds, but now it feels like they travel at about 50 km/h as a raw estimate
And with further testing, the slowness of the missile speed makes the missiles behave way worse than with the original -67% maneuverability. They feel less maneuverable now than they did with the original perk
I just picked up the last one up on the PC market to mess with I think I’m going to try it with waltz’s though as I have +15% projectile speed on them from their upgrades. So it should counter some of the projectile speed decrease they gave to it.
I tested it on the Nest and yeah, reducing the speed of the missile really affects everything so bad. I have Nests fused for rocket turn speed, and they can hit enemies pretty amazing, long range, even right next to me.
With the Dusk, they can’t hit anything. I need even more precise positioning than with an Arothron for the missiles to hit an enemy, and it takes them way too long to even get to the enemy, nerfing the “dps” of the Nests by at least 50%, possibly way more, because they only start to explode after all of them are done traveling and have attached to something
The speed reduction is way too much, the cab just completely abandons any usability with any kind of a homing missile, and Steppe Spider is just way better with the usual crocket locust etc, even when Dusk has the damage boost.
Waltz BP version worked fine got nice dmg with that. (Favorite so far)
Crickets upgraded for spread seemed ok was just like the spread upgrade wasn’t there.
Swarm BP version horrible
Wasps weren’t that bad but you can feel the range loss with them.
Yeah
Dusk
The perk now affects all weapons from the “rocket launchers” category, except: RA-1 Heather, Clarinet TOW and ATGM Flute.
The perk now gives +25% to damage, but instead increases spread and reduces projectile speed. Homing rockets have reduced maneuverability.
Comment: the perk was also too narrowly focused. The new perk is designed to be the opposite of “Steppe Spider” for close range combat.
I tested it next with all the missile guns I have, and honestly only 1 did really good with it
Pyre - useless
Nest - useless
Locust - not good
Lucifer - not good
Waltz - really good
So I guess they’ve at least turned the pyre only cabin into a Waltz / Helicon cabin. I am guessing it shows as little change in effectiveness with the Cricket as it did with the Locust, and honestly based on what the devs are trying to do with it, trying to make it a “close range missile cabin” snowfalls should do ok with them. But I doubt it suddenly makes the snowfalls any more viable as they are already, since original snowfalls are not that great imo, and Lucifer, not that great either even before the dusk changes, even with the recent “buff”, did not do any better on the Dusk now. I tried to buff all these weapons with the Mars originally when it came out, but I was not impressed by any of them, especially snowfalls, and Waltz already did ok enough on it’s own
I’d agree with you on Lucifer but I haven’t even found a use for that yet either. I keep thinking raids.
Pyre it wouldn’t bother me. However I hardly ever do full Pyre builds.
Nests I have two but they’ve been so toxic in the past that I hardly touch them anymore. So I’m not sure if I’d really notice the difference.
I was shooting fairly far away with the cricket, it didn’t really bother me. I’m use to using them on the steppe though and the spread is so little that it often causes me to miss targets. I can tell there’s a dmg bonus but it’s mostly because I’m use to the negative I get from the steppe.
I like Pyres, although they are extremely weak. I stay away from the Dusk cabin, specifically due to the reduced range. I have used Pyres on a number of cabins but the Dusk is not for me.
With Dusk, Pyres are basically reloading lances. It’s a fun way to play them, but doesn’t seem like the best use of a homing missile.
I am really curious how much Pyres will be improved with Steppe, now that it works for them. I’ve been a big fan of how Steppe improves other missiles, especially Crickets. If it leads to more pyres actually hitting their target, it could be really good for them.
I had one for a really long time and was using it with crickets even before they made the major perk change. The neg to dmg never really bothered me though as I use to like to take far shots anyway. So with the crickets the perk dmg just over compensated for it anyway.