With the Dust community finally used to a seemingly concrete release schedule of monthly updates, it was quite a shock when after the 1.7 update on December 10th, 2013 didn’t have an immediate follow up in January, or even in February.
This was due mainly to two reasons. The CCP Shanghai’s Christmas break and Lunar New Year break, the other being this is the biggest release in Uprising since its 1.0 itself.
Although we’re not sure of everything in 1.8, we at least know the biggest parts. They are:
· Dropsuit bonus rebalances
· Weapon rebalances
· Equipment rebalances
· New Dropsuits
· New Sidearm’s
· New piece of equipment, the cloak
The new dropsuits include:
· Gallante Sentinel
· Minmatar Sentinel
· Caldari Sentinel
· Gallante Commando
· Minmatar Commando
· Caldari Commando
· Amarr Scout
· Caldari Scout
· Basic variants of new frames.
This wraps up a large part of CCPs plans for racial parity, with Dropsuits it is complete in 1.8.
The new Weapons include three sidearms:
Caldari Bolt Pistol
“The result of years of R&D, the bolt pistol is a high-impact handgun capable of firing kinetic projectiles with pinpoint accuracy. Building upon its copious experience with microscale rail weaponry, Kaalakiota has further refined the technology to produce what is commonly regarded as the most powerful handgun on the market. Central to its success is a smart sensor that bleeds off a minute amount of dropsuit energy at the moment of discharge, dissipating the sharp recoil impulse through the suit’s internal membrane and greatly reducing the peak force of each shot. This seemingly minor innovation is what makes accurate fire of the weapon possible without the need for an external mounting.”
“The Bolt Pistol is currently only available in a single variant: an automatic charge-shot variant. Holding the trigger will continue cycling the weapon, but each shot requires a short pre-fire charge before it fires. The Bolt Pistol features high damage per shot with great accuracy, but a small clip means you need to make every shot count.” – CCP Games
Caldari Magsec SMG
“The magsec is a semi-automatic firearm capable of sustained, accurate fire at ranges beyond what conventional sidearms can offer. A high-speed slider feeds current to a magazine of hyper-velocity projectiles that are discharged with minimal separation, maximizing energy efficiency and reducing flux shear to produce a weapon with lethal kinetic potential. Having overcome early reliability issues, manufacturers have since taken advantage of the weapon’s modular design; the magsec has been made available in multiple combat configurations – including optical sights and silenced operation – and is in widespread service throughout the cluster.”
“The Magsec SMG will initially only be available as a fully-automatic variant without a silencer. Like the Rail Rifle, it requires a short pre-fire charge. It features higher damage per round and range than the SMG, but a lower fire rate and smaller clip size.” – CCP Games
Gallante Ion Pistol
“A ruthlessly efficient close-quarters weapon, the ion pistol fires charged plasma munitions that rupture shields and scorch armor. Each discharge is enveloped in an electrostatic sheath that reduces field distortion and increases stability. The improved dispersion and stopping power is not without drawbacks though, as the higher density of each slug generates excessive heat, enough to seize the weapon if the rate of fire is not carefully controlled. By overriding internal temperature controls, the weapon can be overcharged to produce a focused, bulk discharge of sufficient lethality to instantly neutralize most soft targets. Caution is advised however, as each overcharged shot will shut down internal systems until the excess heat can be flushed from the weapon’s core.”
“The single variant of the Ion Pistol currently available is capable of semi-auto and charged-shot fire. It has lower damage and range than the Scrambler pistol, but a higher rate of fire and larger clip. It also features a charged shot: Simply hold the trigger until it’s full charged, and release to fill some poor unsuspecting victim’s face with plasma. While the charged shot requires the pistol to dump excess heat after shooting, it does not consume additional ammo. This allows a clever player to maximize the efficiency of their ammo when at close range.” – CCP Games
The updates also includes the cloak, a Caldari piece of equipment that allows the user to be rendered almost completely invisible.
In 1.8, CCP has also sought balance by reducing the Time To Kill (TTK), which is a very popular request among the community; this is through nerfs, buffs and skill changes.
Standard damage modifiers have retained their 3% damage bonus, whereas Advanced and Complex damage modifiers were reduced to 4% and 5%, respectively, from 5% and 10%.
The other change is weapon Proficiency skills. At the moment, they give a flat bonus to damage with a specific weapon. With Uprising 1.8, these bonuses are being changed and will only give a bonus to attacking either shields or armor. This applies to all weapons other than the Nova Knife (which retains the damage bonus). Here’s the breakdown of the new bonuses:
-Bonus to damage against shields: Plasma Cannon, Scrambler Pistol, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Scrambler Rifle, Laser Rifle and the new Ion Pistol.
-Bonus to damage against armor: Rail Rifle, Swarm Launcher, Submachine Gun, Sniper Rifle, Magsec SMG, Heavy Machine Gun, Forge Gun, Flaylock Pistol, Combat Rifle, Bolt Pistol and the Mass Driver.
CCP Games also made a change to the number of spare grenades you can carry. All grenades now have their maximum ammo reduced by one. This generally means you now carry two grenades instead of three.
Lastly, the base damage has been lowered on a number of weapons in this release. Weapons affected include the Rail Rifle, Combat Rifle, Assault Rifle, Scrambler Rifle and Sub Machine Gun. Here is the breakdown of all the changes (Aurum versions are omitted to save space):
THE BUFFS
In Uprising 1.8, the Laser Rifle and the Mass Driver have both received buffs.
The Mass Driver received an increase in both base damage and splash damage. New numbers can be seen below:
The Laser Rifle received an increase to its effective range; a stronger zoom when scoped; and increased damage at short ranges. Additionally, the Advanced and Prototype Laser Rifles have both received reduced heat cost while firing. More news is due this week on the specifics of the new dropsuits and dropsuit bonuses and also on the cloak and new equipment values.
With the recent hints CCP have been giving us, 1.8 may be the last patch for Uprising and we may see a new named expansion in May (probably on May 14th, or 5/14).
This may be the patch that makes it worthwhile to dust off your PS3s if you took a break from Dust.
See you on the Battlefield Mercs. o7
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Draxus Prime has been a DUST 514 fan since the beginning. You can contact him via e-mail here.