PoE2 1.7 Hand Weapons Preview

[FBmantis]

PoE2 1.7 Hand Weapons Preview

New 1.7 Weapons

.:USMC/GER - T89 Mortar, UKR - M224 Mortar

- The additions of mortars to PoE2 will be an interesting development. This pickup kit is available for all three armies and it will be another added element a

squad could bring to their disposal. Are they overpowered? Underpowered? Lots of pub play will truly tell but they feel quite good right now in testing. The splash damage went thru lots of changes in development and in 1.7 I believe we found the right level. If you land a shell close to an opponent he is likely not going to survive the encounter. If you dial in a clustered group of enemy infantry the body count will likely pile up quickly if they do not immediately seek solid cover. Of course the downside to using this weapon is you are completely exposed while operating the mortar. Expect to die often if you do not think carefully where you setup shop with one of these weapons. Snipers and players who desire a good knife kill couldn't ask for a more stable target. Of course the farther away you setup shop to avoid this fate the longer your shots will take to reach your target.

Now how do you operate the mortar. Well if you missed it in the news post here again is the link to the video tutorial. High Quality Xvid - Youtube . It's quite simple really...like the arty it just takes a little time to get a feeling on how far the shots will travel and vary based on your angle of fire and adjustments you make. There are three modes of fire to choose from...you can see this in the second screen below. First firing option is a direct line of sight mode... wherever you fire you see it from your current viewpoint. The second and third options will track the mortars progress from an overhead view...second option being a regular explosive round but the third is a smoke round. The mortar itself can not be pickup back up after placement(not yet at least) and you do not have to be using the mortar pickup kit to operate it. Resupply does allow for one more mortar placement but after that your done and will have to settle for the nice shotgun you get with the kit. Again the added infantry weapon will allow this kit to see solid use within a squad...when not much action the mortars could be firing away at targets far off but when things get hot at your flag you could join the fight with your shotgun.

.:USMC - M4A1 Carbine

- The new POE M4A1 looks and performs much better than its vanilla counterpart. You will find that this carbine works similar to how the GER G36C operates. With low recoil the M4A1 will work well in close encounters through quick use of full auto while scoped. Meanwhile the accuracy at distance is good and like the G36C you'll find creating these medium range encounters will be the best way to use this silenced weapon.

.:USMC - M249 SAW LMG

- The M249 SAW was one of the worst weapons in vanilla. The random deviation encountered while firing this LMG was to the point that you couldn't help but laugh. Now in PoE:2 this staple of the USMC will be reborn with a beautiful new model and weapon properties that will strike fear in the Ukrainian army. Simply put the SAW is a monster in PoE:2. The accuracy and damage are on par with the other support weapons and when you combine this with the higher rate of fire you reach levels of lethality that are uncontested. Is it too good?...thats for the community to find out.

.:GER - DSR-1 Sniper Rifle

- The DSR-1 is a bolt action sniper rifle manufactured in real life by the German company AMP Technical Services. This rifle will be found as a pickup kit on a majority of maps...both new and old. The rifle is quite nasty in game. You will find that unarmored opponents will fall in one shot while those with armor will need to find health immediately as they will lose the majority of their health. The rifle does not require the user to be prone to operate but you will find the rifle only has one level of zoom. Lone range sniping will not be very effective and you'll find it is best used as a frontline sniper that hangs a bit behind the rest of the friendly units. For kit loadout you will find claymores and binoculars available just like the other sniper rifles.

.:USMC - M16A4 Assault Rifle

- This is the rifle you will be using if you take up the task of being a USMC medic. The model is done by the PoE team and actually comes from PoE1. No images to show off here since the model will likely get updated with a PoE2 one down the line. In game as expected you'll find the weapon is accurate and deadly but not quite up to the level of the assault rifle for gameplay reasons.

.:USMC - KaBar Knife

- No images to show off here. Simply put...its the knife you'll get to use as a USMC player in this game. I have found it works quite well against the other testers...over...and over...and over again...


1.7 Placeholder Weapons

When you start playing 1.7 you will find that there is a few weapons that have been brought over from vanilla bf2. These weapons have been given PoE2 specific coding and sounds but for now will be using the vanilla models as placeholders. This is unfortunate but was necessary in order to get a much needed update out to the public. The following is a very quick rundown on the placeholder weapons and how they differ from their vanilla counterparts coding wise:


- USMC M16A2 Assault Rifle .: This vanilla assault weapon now has new sounds and vastly improved in game weapon properties. Players will find the accuracy on this rifle to be extremely good and the recoil very low. For the most part if you line up your shots well you'll be taking down a lot of targets. US players will absolutely find this weapon to be a worthy opponent to the UKR Vepr.
- USMC M24 Sniper Rifle .: As a bolt action rifle the M24 has a natural disadvantage compared to Ukraines semi-auto SVD. To offset this you will find the M24 does the most damage among all the default sniper rifles. If your target is not at full health it will not be uncommon to take down your target in just one shot. The other change you'll notice is the new sound. I am not someone who could describe the sound in detail...all I can tell ya is it sounds hard and lethal.
- USMC M9 Beretta .: This vanilla pistol has been given a new sound and its weapons properties have been redone so its in line with the other pistols.
- USMC Predator Mk20 SRAW .: As expected the SRAW has been given a coding change so it fits in with the rest of the unguided AT weapons. No longer will you be able to snipe armor at long distances with this weapon as one does in vanilla. Like the other armies you will need to get reasonably close to your target and ideally sneak behind them and hit them in their weak points.

Tweaks to 1.15 Weapons

.:Assault Rifles

One of the larger issues in regards to weapons in 1.15 was the disparity between the effectiveness of the two armies assault rifles. Ukraine has the now legendary Vepr Assault Rifle which proved to be the gun of choice among just about everyone. You could see how valued it was by how often german players would pick up this weapon from fallen UKR players. Simply put the Vepr was a monster... it was the one weapon average players could easily put up big numbers with. The reasons were numerous but one could pinpoint the issue to two critical areas. First was the scope...the large clear scope allowed a player an incredible zoomed in view of the battlefield. Picking off targets at distance proved extremely easy.

Second was the low recoil combined with very good accuracy at distance. This allowed the player to often take down opponents in burst or full auto at distance without much trouble. Combine this with the weapon having the highest damage per shot of any in game rifle and you had a gun that had no downside. Meanwhile the GER G36K Assault Rifle was quite weak in 1.15. Only occasionaly would you see players use this kit. The rifle has solid accuracy and damage but failed miserably up close due to high recoil. It was just no match for the vepr or other rifles in those up close situations.

Well now as we move on to version 1.7 you will immediately notice that both of these assault rifles have received tweaks and their overall effectiveness is much more equalized. The Vepr is no longer the monster it was. This is due to two major changes. First is the added recoil. You will find it much harder to auto fire at your opponent at distances that are not extremely close. Its controlable but definitely hinders the range and speed at which you can fire at your targets. The second major change is the new scope view. Gone is the perfect view as now an accuracte scope view is displayed and the player will have to get used to the added onscreen detail.

I personally expect a lot of balking at how the vepr has changed. For a lot of players this was the one weapon they felt comfortable with so when you take that away you'll get some negative reactions. The weapon will now take more thought and care in how to use it...the days of picking it up and seeing instant satisfactory results are over. Controlling the recoil will be a key but from my viewpoint it will be the scope change that will be the hardest part to get used to it. As a tester I can assure you that this weapon is still a monster if you play it correctly. The rifle still deals out the highest damage per shot and so if you learn to control the weapon you'll find your opponents will fall just as quickly as before. Also the long range effectiveness in one shot mode is still very high.

Moving on...how has the G36K changed? Well it really didn't take much to fix this weapon. The only real change to this weapon was a solid reduction in recoil. It is quite noticeable and you'll find it is now better than the Vepr in this regard. Very easy to control and fire where you want it to. Expect to see a lot more German assault players going forward and with the easier to use scope I will not be surprised if various players will now prefer the G36K over the Vepr from now on.

.:Sniper Rifles

There has been a couple changes to the German and Ukraine sniper rifles. I'm sure everyone knows in 1.15 how the SVD was quite a bit more powerful then its GER counterpart. One shot would knock an unarmored player down to about 20% health where as a hit from the GER MSG-90 would leave a player with somewhere around ~50% health. These damage properties yielded an SVD that took down all targets in 2 shots while the MSG-90 took 2-3 shots....usually 3. In 1.7 you will find that these rifles are much closer now in regards to their damage models. Both rifles will leave a player with a similar level of health and neither will feel like they are outclassing each other overall. There was one other change to the SVD btw. The rifle recieved a new model and texture job that is much nicer to look at.




Another minor change some people will notice is the damage Anti Material Rifles do to various vehicles. In 1.15 it was very possible to take down a Helo or Jet with one of these rifles. A full mag from the G82 AMR would pretty much take down any of the jets or attack helicopters...the only exception being the beefy Hind which sometimes took a few more shots. This has changed now in 1.7...the damage dished out to these air vehicles has been reduced and taking down one of these assets will become a very rare occurance. However the damage to transport vehicles has been upped. Light transport vehicles like the Dingo/Dozer/Wolf/UAZ will be easier to take down...sometimes it will only take 3-4 shots.

.:Scope/Ironsight Changes

Another change worth mentioning is the changes to the scope textures on several guns. I talked about this a bit in the assault rifle section but I'll go further into this in this section with some before and after comparisons. With all these changes the general goal was a more realistic view along with better widescreen support. As a tester I feel this has worked on both levels. Here is some comparisions...the first images are 1.15...the second one are 1.7.

UKR Vepr


GER G36K


GER G36C

.:Pickup Kit Tweaks

In 1.15 there were a few pickup kits that players quickly realized were not worth using. Naturally this was a problem in the eyes of the PoE team ...you don't go through all the work of creating a new weapon to see it sit idle on the battlefield round after round. The weapons in question of course are the VSS and MG3 pickups. In 1.7 these weapons have seen tweaks to up their effectiveness. You will find the MG3 has been tightend a bit so its a tad less wild. Combine this increased lethality with the addition of ammo bags to the kit and it will certainly be well worth the time to pick up this kit and use it within a squad.

Moving on to the VSS you will find this weapon has been beefed up quite a bit in regards to accuracy and range. In 1.15 if you were not right near the person you were pretty much wasting your time as the weapon deviation really sprayed bullets all over the place quickly as the distance grew. Now in 1.7 it feels very close to the UKR AS VAL and you'll find this weapon will be a menace in close encounter urban environments.

There is one other pickup kit that recieved some changes. The handheld AA pickups have seen multiple improvements in 1.7 and it will become common to actually run around with these kits full time instead of just picking them up and firing when needed. There were two changes that will cause this change in thoughts toward this kit. First is the addition of a medic rifle. You will be able to defend yourself now and will feel comfortable that you are not hindering your squads performance by using the kit. The second change is the damage these missiles deal out has been increased. These kits were mostly an annoyance in 1.15 but now in 1.7 pilots will have to respect these handhelds. 2 hits will down most jets and the GER/US attack helicopters.



Quick Summary

Overall as a tester I am very excited to see how the hand weapons have progressed since the current pub build. The new weapons are solid and the balance is much better but the one aspect that really excites me is how the increased pickup kits effectiveness will create a more dynamic battlefield as you see more variety in the weapons utilized and how they are used. I know on the forums there has been calls for unlockable weapons to add variety. In my view the pickups kits have now developed to a point where that extra choice and variety will be available and noticed in game. In 1.15 you really only saw AMR's being utilized often and within a squad. Now going forward it will not be uncommon to find handheld AA or mortar kits operating effectively as a component within a squad. Support players will now have a worthy second option in the MG3...a solid specops/sniper hybrid has been created with the VSS...and who can forget the DSR-1 addition that will potentially craft a marksman style position that could be utilized within a squad. Lots of options...lots of potential creative uses...I can't wait.


~ |TG-12th|mantis , POE Tester

[Lucky Shot]

Outstanding writeup man!

Lucky Shot

[Iamthefallen]

Good stuff, thanks. I really like the stuff you guys have posted giving us an idea of what to look for and try out come Friday.

And I'll be first to say it: I don't like the new Vepr scope.

[Bc2ID]

Thanks for the info Mantis. I only hope I can see the effectiveness of the Kabar when I use it on you!

[Snail88]

im so happy about the vepr nerf. You might actually see germans using their own assault rifle...(gasp!)

[jmaker]

Originally Posted by Snail88

im so happy about the vepr nerf. You might actually see germans using their own assault rifle...(gasp!)

Sweet, that'll be the first kit I try out.

[Dick Blonov]

Great writeup Mantis!

Kudos to the devs and testers. I can't wait to play this release.

Thanks!

DB

[Santa]

I think I was about the only person that actually liked the MG3 in 1.15, so I cant wait to try out the even beefier version. The Vintorez should be fun as well, as i always had wished for that weapon to be useful because its just so cool lookin.

Mantis, is the DSR sniper rifle sort of like the vanilla Chinese sniper rifle in that you had to be very close and fire very rapidly?

In real life, isn't the vintorez the same thing as the as vas assault rifle but with a scope? This was the case in Stalker at least...

[Melee]

Originally Posted by Iamthefallen

...And I'll be first to say it: I don't like the new Vepr scope.

I second...but I'm all for fixing the balance issues.

Great write-up, Mantis. I'm really looking forward to 1.7 - thanks team PoE2!

[FBmantis]

Originally Posted by Santa

Mantis, is the DSR sniper rifle sort of like the vanilla Chinese sniper rifle in that you had to be very close and fire very rapidly?

No. Slow Bolt action and you do get one level of zoom so you don't have to get very close to the action. Basically just think of it as an M24 but your going to have difficulty landing shots if you try to setup camp far away. Combine the emphasis on getting a bit closer along with the one shot kills and I had the marksman thoughts.

[MasterEditorInChief]

Thanks for the update Mantis. I for one am very excited that the USMC is being included along with the new POE content. Mortar combat sounds like it will be crucial in battle as it just about makes mobile "artillery" available on the map. Can't wait to download tomorrow.

[Dirtboy]

Holy Crap...Mantis' avatar was just winking at me. I just noticed that

[WhiskeySix]

Oh come on - you didn't think Mifune was really his true identity, did you?