The BF Diaries: Are DART rounds the new USAS?
The intrepid Triggywiggy over at BATTLEFIELDO is reporting that the M26 Dart is the new USAS Frag Round post patch. According to Triggy there is a glitch in the code. When you attach the M26 with an underslung rail and add a heavy barrel while using dart rounds, the damage of the darts increases by a huge margin and is quite effective at long distances. DICE has confirmed they are aware of the issue and it will be addressed in an upcoming patch.
I’ve been using the G3A3 with dart rounds since well before the patch and while I believe my fellow gamers when they say there is a problem, I’m not convinced that it’s the new USAS.
I will admit that my first game post patch was with the G3A3 and underslung M26 with dart rounds and I went 21 and 6. 16 of those kills were attributed to the dart. But this had to do with the fact that the other team was entirely preoccupied with shooting down our air support with the newly adjusted Stingers thus allowing me to flank and come up behind them far too easily during the match. Because of the 20 round capacity of the G3 and my tendency to go through the clip quickly I’ve always liked using the underslung M26 on the G3A3 and I started using the dart rounds when it was suggested by 1WINDSHEAR, long before the patch. I like to use the G3A3 on large maps that feature quite a bit of close quarter combat as well. It’s not instinctual for me to use the M26 at range so I have no knowledge as to its effectiveness over long distances and I honestly can’t recall a time when I’ve been killed by one over a long distance. Unless I get a head shot it takes me two shots of dart to put most people down and the M26 has a painfully slow rate of fire. So I have to respectfully disagree with Triggerwigger, while the dart round glitch is an issue that needs to be fixed it is simply not as gamebreaking as the USAS with frag rounds combo was.
This hasn’t stopped the forum trolls from blaming BATTLEFIELDO and various game commentators for this glitch’s proliferation throughout the community. Blaming BATTLEFIELDO for promoting this glitch is ludicrous. It’s like Romney blaming Obama for an Ohio drywall factory closing down under the Bush presidency. Knowledge of these type of glitches spread much like the common cold throughout the community. Once you get nailed by a dart for the sixteenth time you try the loadout yourself and Bob’s your Uncle. I remember getting killed relentlessly for about a week by the USAS frag round combo before I saw mention of it on the internet.
Regardless of this current meme in the BF3 community I will continue to use my G3A3 with underslung M26. Though I have recently traded in the heavy barrel for a flash suppressor and will probably switch back to buckshot in anticipation of the over-nerf the dart round will probably get. I find the flash suppressor makes the G3A3 much more effective in my hands and an underslung M26 always comes to my aid in a pinch, along with my trusty sidearm (currently the .44 Magnum.)
Posted on May 9, 2012, in Battlefield, Gaming, Shooters, The Battlefield Diaries, Xbox 360 and tagged Battlefield, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 3 tactics, Battlefiled 3 Tactics, DART. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
Its the nature of the beast really…. when you nerf one thing because people complain about it, something else will become the next over used thing. People then have the assumption that because so many people are using it, it must be OP. They in turn use it, and thus more people bitch about it being OP.
Always bound to be somebody bitching about one thing or another being OPed. Its like the stingers… great that they have more power, but now with so many paying for all the air vehicle unlocks it’s impossible to knock out many from the sky, unless you have a few people with stingers aiming at them and firing rockets
The effective range of the Stingers needs to be increased as well. Below radar is very effective and I don’t have problem with that. But its a gamble these days when the other team has superior fire power in the air and your guys a putzing around the map. You bring in the Stinger, lock on they either go low or fly out of range. You bring in an RPG and the guy sees one barely miss him he gets savvy goes high and launches all his rockets in your face.
All that’s fine and dandy, just increase the range of Stingers a bit so two engies on either side of the map have a decent chance. Because the faster lock-on isn’t all that faster, especially if they have all their vehicle unlocks.
Then again, I haven’t played in over a week now, so I don’t know what’s going on in the game anymore. I tried last night. Jumped on some servers I’ve seen people recommend during all this server controversy and I’m just not having any fun. Half the time I fell like I’m on a clan server where the other team all knows each other and I’m stuck with an entire bunch of randoms. Part of it is the longer I’m not playing the longer I am out of practice and so my suckage level goes up a bit. But it’s hard to get back into something when you feel the odds are stacked against you. IDK, I’m just not enjoying this any more.
I went back to Skyrim for a bit, just because something about playing online was just annoying me. Also with a game like Skyrim, I can just log in and play right away.
I’ve spent an entire game (normal ticker count) trying to shoot one guy out of the air. It becomes hard work, when the pilot has ECM jammer and they always seem to know exactly where I’m standing.
Since the update I’ve shot 1 helicopter out of the sky from the ground, whereas I had a whole bunch more prior to that. However, the slightly quicker lock has helped me in one aspect. When I get in the Huey, I get in the passenger seats, repair and then get my stinger out. About a week ago I shot down 2 helicopters and one plane. So it seems to be working better up there, but I suppose it helps there that they can’t just duck down under cover so easily
It does 400hp of damage with the G3A3 when underslung with the heavy barrel, I believe. Tremendously powerful.
Sad this is, for me at least, is that the G3A3 is the absolute favorite weapon in the game – this extends well beyond AR’s.
When the first patch dropped with the Karkand expansion, I was crest fallen at how the G3A3 was re-balanced and put it on the shelf for a while. After it got re-buffed in the latest patch, I was ecstatic and immediately went back to my old-standby, with the MASS of course, since it’s the perfect compliment for maps like Bazaar and Seine, when you have to get in tight and the G3A3 is handicapped there.
And now it’s gotten such a bad rap, than even when I use the MASS with the G3A3 and a foregrip I get ripped for it. :/
I wonder what lever DICE pulled to make this bug and why is it so difficult to remedy something that seems like such an easy hot fix (to us)?
I don’t even know if I have the G3A3 unlocked, but I would think if anything they would just be looking to fix the dart round glitch, and not nerfing the G3A3 itself?
I suppose the reason it takes so long for them to fix something so simple is the amount of hoops they have to jump through with M$. I’m pretty sure they mention it in the past that rather than do lots of small ones, with so much time and effort wasted with M$, they would do bigger updates, and do it all in one. Which is very annoying as I imagine any games played now, will be filled with idiots using this.
Given that, and the fact that the first DLC is out in June 2012, I have a feeling we may have to wait at least a month for the fix.
They’ll have to patch before the DLC. The only hoops they have to jump through with MS is the 30-40k they have to pay for the update. That’s their only whine. Considering they’ve made billions, 40k is pocket change. You know how it is, the people with the most money are the one’s who whine the most about not having any money.
The G3A3 is the last weapon you unlock in COOP.
Isn’t it amazing the amount of “bend em over and screw them as much as possible” that goes on in the gaming industry? We pay the gaming companies for the games, which they have for the most part not fully tested but the had to get them out before a set deadline regardless of how broken it is (except in some rare instances it seems).
Then we pay M$ to be able to play on servers provided by these gaming companies.
Then M$ goes ahead and charges the game developers a fee or any updates, and that (plus the somewhat lengthy time M$ takes to let the update through) means that game developers would rather lump a few fixes together than get them out at the same time.
Add on top of that this whole new approach of getting gamers to pay for something they should already have, and its a wonder they don’t provide gamers with KY jelly with every game purchase…. or at least a link for epayment for the lube….
Honestly, as consumers, all this is our fault. If we’re willing to pay to get shagged…
Part of it is because this is entertainment and not a necessity in life people run with the attitude, “if you don’t like it you don’t have to buy it.” And they’re correct, but that doesn’t mean you can’t voice your opinion when you feel shafted. Or you can’t stick up for your rights.
People will haggle with car dealers, but God forbid you tell a huge entertainment corporation that the deal isn’t working for you. Then you’re labelled a commie anti-free-market bastard.
The problem is much more serious here in America than it is in Europe. My Anglo-Saxon and European brethren have a much lower tolerance for social injustice. At least they did when I lived over there.
Americans roll over any chance they get. They scream and yell that they don’t want the government bugging them but if a multi-national bank tells them they are at war with EastAsia and not Eurasia they bend over backwards making the protest signs.
It’s sad, really, really sad.