Anthem Patch 1.0.3 Update & Discussion

Anthem Patch 1.0.3 Update & Discussion (+Gameplay)

Hey everybody, today we’re going to be taking a look at the brand new patch coming our way right now from the Anthem team.

This patch has been pushed forward a few days so you can all enjoy it over the weekend, and has some really nice changes that the community has been requesting for a while now.

Without further ado, lets’ get stuck into what you can expect to change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Who_HHI6ti0&t=1s

The Changes – Complete Anthem 1.0.3 Patch Notes

High level fixes and changes

Respawn restrictions have been removed – Respawn timers are now based on the activity a player is in. Crit-Path, Agent Missions and other non-end game missions now have a respawn timer of 10 seconds. Strongholds, Legendary Contracts, and other end game missions now have a respawn timer of 30 seconds. The respawn timer Freeplay remains unchanged.

An awesome change that will massively reduce some of the frustrations when dying in ‘respawn restricted’ zones, which are now almost completely gone.

Loot Changes – Common (white) and Uncommon (green) drops will no longer appear for players that are level 30.

Finally! No more Common or Uncommon drops while we farm our end-game, hallelujah!

Improved stability for all platforms – this includes fixes for a number of issues that were causing crashes or connection problems

Hopefully this helps the PS4 players keep their consoles on. Big improvements for everyone, at least.

Audio Improvements – Fixed a number of issues that could cause audio to drop out

Another massively annoying bug now gone, meaning no more complete restarts in order to re-establish game-sound. The bug should never have made it to launch, but at least it’s gone now.

The whole roster has benefited from this patch.
The whole roster has benefited from this patch.

General Fixes and Improvements

Fixed a number of issues that were blocking players from accessing the Forge

All missions should now properly end when all conditions have been met

The inbox now properly displays information on PC (the inbox is found in the newsfeed)

Fixed an issue that would cause players to be unable to interact with NPCs in Fort Tarsis

The vault is no longer accessible from the Forge. This change was made to improve performance – most never accessed it here anyway, and this means faster load times.

Fixed an issue that would cause the game to hang when entering menus while on an expedition

Titans will no longer respawn on missions after they are defeated. Example: if players defeat 2 out of 3 titans and then wipe on the third, the first two will not reappear when players respawn during a mission

Server shutdown messages should now appear less often

The ability to Quickplay into a Stronghold has been added back to the game

Mouse button 4 is no longer bound to the back button for PC players

Crashes that occurred while selecting certain conversation options when interacting with an NPC have been fixed

Players should no longer get stuck at the end of the “Tomb of General Tarsis” mission

Players should now run into less issues during Quickplay missions. Additional improvements to Quickplay will be coming in future updates

Players should no longer get stuck behind fogwalls on missions or in strongholds as often

Players should now receive credit for the “There Be Giants” challenge when they are downed and when the event is active

Improved the audio when defeating creatures to provide better feedback

Feedback was one of my biggest criticisms of the combat in our review, so improving it is a win in my book.

Changed wording for server shutdown messaging to better indicate that it is just the players server shutting down, not the entire game server

Players may now launch an expedition from anywhere within the launch bay and Fort Tarsis.

This one is huge. Now you won’t have to walk all the way back to the Forge to launch an expedition. It also means you can get into game when launching so much faster. Great change, and a good sign that Bioware are listening to community feedback.

PS4 led lights will now change based on the javelin being used

Fancy.

It should now be harder for players to get stun locked by certain enemy compositions

This one is lovely too. Especially against multiple snipers. Anything that reduces player downtime and interaction is great.

The values on max flight time inscriptions have been increased

The appearance of the N7 vinyl on Legion of Dawn armor has been improved

Haluk will now properly face players during certain dialogue scenes

The message “Open the Cortex to track the legionnaire Challenges” will no longer pop up after completing the appropriate challenges

Usability buffs across the board mean the Ranger should be combo-ing for a LOT of damage.
Usability buffs across the board mean the Ranger should be combo-ing for a LOT of damage.

Strongholds

Fixed an issue that would cause players to get stuck at the entrance to the sewers in the Temple of the Scar Stronghold

A much needed change. Not a bug I experienced often, but annoying enough when it happened that I’m glad to see it gone.

Creature Updates

 Titans: We have made several balance changes to all variations of Titans

Reduced overall damage mitigation from 100% to between 70% and 75% depending on the damage type.

Increased the time that weakpoints are exposed.

Fixed an issue that prevented effects from applying and thus preventing combos.

Increased the damage the Titan takes from weakpoint hits.

Lesser Titan’s weakpoint’s have been changed to always be active.

Improved the collision on the ring and seeking projectile attacks. This should make them easier to dodge.

Decreased the radius of the seeking projectile attack.

Decreased the damage done by the self-destruct ability.

These changes are enormous. No longer will we struggle forever to take down Titans. Hitboxes are now clearer and smaller, and the Titans themselves actually take damage. Awesome.

Frozen Scar Enforcers and Scrappers can no longer move or attack while frozen.

The Monitor’s health has been greatly reduced in the Heart of Rage Stronghold.

We’re not sure how big this change is yet, but initial reports suggest that it’s a big decrease, and could mean that the Heart of Rage Stronghold becomes our new favourite for getting sweet loot, without setting aside half an hour for the boss-fight alone.

Force

Players will be less likely to be repeatedly staggered by heavy attacks.

Adjusted the force applied by some creature attacks down which will lower the frequency of player’s being staggered.

Again, decreasing player downtime and increasing player agency against enemy attacks. Great change.

Interceptor players will love the new melee damage.
Interceptor players will love the new melee damage.

Damage and Item Scaling Changes

Adjusted the damage scaling of secondary damage sources. These now scale with Average Item Power. This will allow these damage sources to better scale in the Grandmaster Difficulties. This will increase the scaling of the following:

Melee Damage

Combo Damage

Ultimate Damage

Status Effects

Item Procs (e.g. Proc from Yvenia’s Thunder)

Item Power scaling has changed to better reflect the actual power of the item based on its rarity. This is applied to all items retroactively. Players will see the Power of their items go up.

Now this is music to my ears. As an Interceptor player who loves the melee builds, this makes us much more viable. In general (and for every Javelin), this will greatly improve our ability to farm higher difficulties and adds more damage to the more knowledge and skill-based components of the game, like combo-ing.

Gameplay Bug Fixes

The Ultimate ability bar will no longer appear full at the start of a mission when it isn’t actually full

Great. Another super annoying bug purged!

Weapon recoil will now stop once an exo is looking straight up

Fixed a number of animation issues that could occur when the Colossus was using its shield

It should no longer be possible for the Interceptor to become Frozen while starting up their ultimate

Interceptor Aura damage will now deal the correct type of damage based on the active aura

Players can no longer equip abilities from one javelin to another

The Colossus can now use gear faster after being attacked by a heavy hit from enemies

The Colossus can now shield charge through destructible objects such as explosive canisters or harvest nodes

The Colossus now recovers faster after crashing into walls

All great changes that should reduce the frustrations with those Javelin classes. In particular, overheating your Colossus no longer means waiting an entire month to stand back up. And now it can smash stuff with its Shield. Cool.

Colossus players have tons of buffs, including standing up faster!
Colossus players have tons of buffs, including standing up faster!

Item Balance Updates

Increased the base health of Wind Wall and Bulwark Point to provide better scaling in higher difficulties. The duration of these has been reduced to 20 seconds, down from 60 seconds

Defensive Support abilities are much, much better at higher difficulties now.

Burst Mortar’s damage has been increased to 300, up from 145 and its cooldown has been reduced to 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds. Its description has also been fixed

Flak Cannon’s damage has been increased to 42, up from 30

Battle Cry’s description has been updated to explain that it also reduces the resistances of affected targets

Wraith Strike’s damage has been increased to 250, up from 200 and it will now apply elemental effect to targets based on the active aura

Note: Description text for Wraith Strike will be updated in 1.0.4.

Nice ability changes that buff some under-used skills. I’ll definitely be trying the new Wraith Strike in my Interceptor melee build. Colossus players got some nice numbers here too.

Item Bug Fixes

Wind Wall should no longer block or interfere with other player abilities

Ranger Grenadier Component will now correctly lower the cooldown of grenade abilities

Fixed an issue where certain weapons were not firing where the crosshairs were aimed

The Ice Blast ability for the Storm javelin now has the primer icon correctly displayed

All things that should not have made it to launch. Good to see them go nonetheless.

Inscription Bug Fixes

The Thruster Delay Recovery inscription is now correctly applying a bonus

The Overheat Delay Recovery inscription is now correctly applying a bonus

The Weapon Reload Bonus inscription is now correctly applying a bonus

Note: These will have non-updated text values until the next patch (1.0.4)

It’s likely that most will still avoid these Inscriptions, but if you’re stuck with them they are now actually working, which is great.

Masterwork Item Balance Updates

Increased the base damage of the following Masterwork Weapons.

Ralner’s Blaze

Rolling Carnage

Cycle of Pain

The Last Stand

Glorious Result

Insult and Injury

Sentinel Vengeance

Gnosta’s Balm

Vassa’s Surprise

Soothing Touch

Renewed Courage

Artinia’s Gambit

Now this change is awesome. It should add to already-great buffs to our ability to push higher difficulties. Always good to see buffs to weaker choices over nerfs to strong choices, too.

Masterwork Item Bug Fixes

Ralner’s Blaze – Will no longer roll with incorrect inscriptions

Ablative Shielding now provides the proper boost in shield and armor

Badge of Devastation will now generate more ultimate charge when triggered

It should no longer be possible to stack the effect from Gunslinger’s Mark more than once

Much needed changes, glad to have them. Should make some options more viable, and Rangers get their Gunslinger’s Mark back.

The Storm now has a wider variety of combo and weapon choices too.
The Storm now has a wider variety of combo and weapon choices too.

The Ones that Remain

Note that there are still a good number of bugs roaming around the system, and they’ve given us a rundown of what to be looking out for, with the assurance that the following bugs are being worked on right now.

In addition to the above updates, we wanted to let you know of some other known issues that the team is working on fixing:

When loading into the game for the first time after a patch the Shields and Armor on a javelin will be incorrect. The first time a player enters and exits Freeplay or any other activity the issue will fix itself.

Nice to know how to fix this one, at least. Though, there’s definitely something weird going on with health-scaling in general that needs to be fixed.

Players are not receiving their level 20 Match Consumables. Players were granted item blueprints instead of the recipes when they hit this level previously.

Some players may experience audio crackling while in Fort Tarsis.

There may be some instances where players are unable to quit out of a Quickplay mission through the map UI.

A number challenges may not be tracking properly, such as the objectives under the “Legendary Freelancer” challenge.

Some players may encounter a bug where they are unable to interact with any objects or players.

Visual effects on javelin thrusters are not functioning properly while stormy weather is present in game.

Inactivity messages may not be able to be dismissed after a player returns from being away.

There are a number of Origin error messages that some PC players may encounter, including Origin showing that it is offline when it actually online.

The UI may not display events for some players when an event has spawned nearby in Freeplay.

There is a bug where armor pips can change in between activities. This is both a display and gameplay issue.

These are all still super-annoying to deal with, but at least we know that they’re being worked on. This actually shows really good communication on Bioware’s part, and eases a lot of concerns for those claiming nothing was being worked on in the background.

Overall, despite these bugs remaining, the patch is a huge success and a great reason to hop back into your Javelin and test out the buffs. In particular, the new scaling on melee, Ultimates, inscriptions, combos and procs is amazing – and the reduction in health for the Monitor should see a lot of players giving him a second shot.

I’m really glad to be saying this; this patch shows a really good reaction, ownership and responsiveness from the Anthem team, and highlights how much they are actually listening to us all on social media, reddit and forums. It’s a great sign and bodes extremely well for the future.


Alright, that’s it for today’s patch notes and discussion. Hopefully that gets you all up to speed and encourages you to jump back in this weekend to a massively improved Anthem.

Thanks for stopping by, I’ve been FaultyOptics and I’ll see you all next time for more gaming guides and news.

 

 

Hungry for more Anthem? Check out our other coverage:

 

ANTHEM NEW LOOT AND STATS GUIDE

 

INTERCEPTOR BEGINNERS BUILD/CLASS GUIDE

 

 

EMBRACE THE STORM: ANTHEM NEW PLAYER STORM GUIDE & BUILD

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