People Can Fly released its new sci-fi looter-shooter merely two weeks ago, andOutridershas since received a lot of attention. The game was very anticipated by eager fans of the genre, yet it is not uncommon, unfortunately, that looter shooter game players end up having to deal with nerfs to their characters. Games likeBorderlands 3andDestiny 2had their fair share of nerfs to classes, items, mods, drop rates and more. It always was within the realms of possibility thatOutriderswould, too.
Despite the on-point marketing campaign forOutridersand despite the overall idea ofOutridershaving players sweep through contentat a reasonable pace but with god-like abilities, People Can Fly still decided to nerf several elements of the game. That’s not really the surprise, though, but the speed at which it happened.
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Class Nerfs For The Trickster And The Technomancer
First of all,the Trickster’s Twisted Rounds go from being a 16 seconds cooldown ability to a 25 seconds cooldown ability. That’s not all, though, as the Disruptive Firepower, Scion of Power, and Outrider Executioner class nodes for the Trickster are all seeing a reduction of 15% in their values because, according to PCF, they scale too well with the Trickster’s Twisted Rounds.
Another popular build that is getting hit by the nerf hammer is the Pestilence Technomancer, and it is hit hard as well. Considering the popularity of round-based builds,the Technomancer’s Damage Against Poison class node is also suffering from a 15% reduction in extra damage, for a total of 15% increase now. Another nerf came in the form of Exposing Toxin being able to apply the detrimental status effect called Vulnerable every time enemies are afflicted with the detrimental status called Toxic. This nerf makes it so Vulnerable now guarantees a damage increase of 15% on the enemies it is applied to, whereas before the nerf the bonus was 25%.
Lastly,the Pyromanceralso got hit by the nerf hammer PCF is relentlessly waving around, making its Trial of Ashes class skill node now less effective. The nerf has the same magnitude as the Trickster’s Disruptive Firepower, Scion of Power, and Outrider Executioner nodes, as well as the Technomancer’s Damage Against Poison node, with a reduction of 15%.The Devastator, desperately in need of a buff, was instead left untouched by People Can Fly.
Loot Nerfs For Outriders
After the patch,players have not been able to repeat bounty hunt quests, historian quests, and monster hunt quests in order to find more legendary pieces of gear. While the reasoning behind the decision being that some players were exploiting this is understandable enough as a motive for nerfing the feature, this also means that players doing so casually never got a chance to do the same. These quests were a reliable way to obtain much-needed legendary items and players had to go through a lot of effort and a significant amount of time to get them, and this especially hurts because of how scarce sources of specific loot farming are in the game.
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Furthermore, specific enemies' loot pool has drastically been diminished, as according to PCF, they were being too generous with their spoils. This means that Splittooth, Coldclaw, Sandshifter, and Tooka Beast no longer drop multiple epic items per run, and the amount of farmable Titanium by dismantling the loot has been reduced as well. Finally, two Expeditions got the timers for Bronze, Silver, and Gold ranks reduced, which means that players have a harder time earning high-tier gear in a consistent way.
The Approach Of Other Loot-Based Games
The obvious comparisons to make here are with games likeBorderlands 3andDestiny 2, as they are some of the most recent, most successful looter shooters. These games are a good source of comparability forOutriders, especially on the nerfside of things, as they are similar to it and different from it in some ways.
Starting off,Destiny 2is of the two games the one that is more diverse when compared toOutriders. It is not a game where cover gameplay is seen much, excluding the barriers Titans get to cast every once in a while and some specific boss encounters. Furthermore,Destiny 2does come with a PvP mode called The Crucible This is relevant because thenerfs inDestiny 2make much more sense, considering that overpowered items, mods, or class abilities all have an impact on PvP matches as well. Notably,Destiny 2didn’t have its major balance patch until early December 2017, when the game had been out since mid-September on consoles and late September on PC.
Borderlands 3is more comparable toOutriders.It doesn’t feature mass PvP modes, while still retaining a small degree of PvP gameplay in the form of duels: 1 on 1 matches between friends or people playing the game together. This is more of a fun feature, and it doesn’t come with loot.Destiny 2’s PvP comes as loot sources, instead, and they are also exclusive sources of some pieces of gear in a few cases. Despite the PvE-oriented gameplay thatBorderlands 3players get to experience, Gearbox was quite fast to drop some major rebalancing hotfixes two weeks post-launch, specifically addressing some of FL4K’s overpowered skills, some legendary items, and buffing Zane to be more in line with the other characters. It was a reasonable way to deal with unbalanced elements of the game, despiteBorderlandsfans still being upset about the nerfs.
The problem withOutridersis that the game is all about players overpowering enemies. Thus,nerfing build-defining skillsa week into the game, especially when most people didn’t even get to the endgame and others didn’t have the time to acquire more legendaries and test more builds, is definitely setting a bad precedent.
Outridersis out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Stadia.
