Does TC REALLY thing we won't notice these nerfs? Is that why they never say anything about them? Clayton's ultimate

Gears 5
#1

I liked Clayton as Horde Character before OP4, and I like him in OP4 - he now has a lot of different roles which he can fulfill, with many good cards to choose from.

But, without a doubt, the best contribution he has is the ability to reflect fire back onto a highly dangerous enemy, mostly bosses. Especially with the bleed card, he can be the difference between a wipe and a win…

Let’s be honest - no one cares if Imagos bleed themselves out, on Clay’s shield, right? It’s the FLYING enemies where his ultimate is and has always been the biggest help…

Well… Some time ago I started to notice that sentinels and guardians would not shoot at Clayton when his ultimate was active anymore… That was a new change, before, no problem… I would notice that a flyer would stop engaging Clay once the ultimate was activated, and it would either just hover there, LOOKING at Clay, or shoot at other team mates… And then once the ultimate run out, it would re-engage Clay…

Well, I got a peach of a video few days ago, from Master on Forge, with a Kestrel… It’s full speed first time around, and I slowed down the key moment and re-showed it, so you can see it plain as day: Kestel opens fire, it’s directing its fire towards Clayton, and the INSTANT the ultimate is activated, it stops shooting, and loses all interested in Clay. It tries to engage other targets, and then, after the ultimate runs out, then it’s happy to re-engage Clay…

I mean, like , WTF???

Did I miss a What’s Up announcement, where they were said that Clayton’s bleed / shield would no longer be useful against flying enemies, because they were now programmed to not shoot at him???

it’s these types of sneaky, stealth BS nerfs to actual, legitimate, intended functionality which make me feel no remorse about taking full advantage of UNINTENDED glitched side effects…

27 Likes
#2

I give up at this point tbh let T.C. mess with whatever they want. They’ll never tell us anyway

2 Likes
#3

Ah that’s gone too far. If anything, just make it so it shoots, takes damage, then AI smartly realizes it should stop shooting, not just avoid shooting altogether. That would be a fair “nerf.” This, however, means the enemy now anticipates Clay’s ult, which is cheap.

3 Likes
#4

I haven’t had the same problem to be honest and all fliers have engaged Clayton fully while his ultimate was active. I have a horde game coming up so ill see if there has been a change since this update rolled out.

#5

I’ve noticed similar instances when running escape maps. It seems like when I go into a crowd of enemies I always wait until they start shooting then pop my ultimate. Low and behold they stop shooting. I always thought I was just being paranoid. It’s good to see clear evidence that something funky has been going on. Pretty sleazy if you asked me. Just like exploits this is a role reversal but there is nothing we can do about it. Except stop playing i guess.

6 Likes
#6

Clayton: COME ON! SHOOT ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

Kestrel: I got news for you friend. That’s not gonna happen.

19 Likes
#7

Yup that’s TC for you, they believe in mediocrity for their gamers, it’s as if they do not want you to beat the game, like what’s the purpose of playing a game knowing you don’t stand a chance at beating it.

#8

But people have been asking for smarter enemy AI right?

I’ve had some mixed success using Clayton’s ultimate against flying enemies. It requires good timing though, and you potentially put yourself at risk of other enemies by delaying activating it until the Guardian/Kestrel/whatever is on the cusp of firing at you.

On E scape maps like The Split, I found it helps for Clayton to go out alone, and close the door behind him when he enters an area where there is a Guardian.

Just to add as well, and I don’t know if this has always been there, but I noticed that Guardian tri-shots that are reflected back pretty much go straight through their shields and cause really heavy damage including bleed. I noticed that Kait firing directly at the Guardian shields also cause a small amount of bleed too. It may have been there since launch, but I never noticed it until recently.

1 Like
#9

I’ve noticed this for almost close to a month now. And the strategy I use, which is VERY risky (especially on Master) is waiting behind cover until boss plus some enemies enter together. For some reason that conflicts the AI encounter by the boss and forces it to react normally. But you’ll still seem to have to wait until the attack comes.

1 Like
#10

Lol. This is the exact reason I had a thought about nerfing characters through AI.

I’ve popped Clayton’s ultimate many times, and I’ve noticed things will stop shooting at me. Some will pull out a flash, some will shoot other teammates, and some will just take cover longer.

I figured it was more my imagination.

Glad @Omen_LP and others have noticed too.

6 Likes
#11

Its been like this for a while, probably since OP4 was released if I had to guess.

That being said I doubt it was intentional, probably an oversight.

#12

Just like meme “Ah sh1@?!#% here we go again”.
Fu$@#%ck off TC! The same crap with their balances, fixes and stuff that make us angry instead of fixing real issues like random crashes on PC version even in fresh Windows installs and the bare minimum software and drivers, or fixing the teleporting enemies.
Many of my friends stop playing this game, And trying to find a decent match with random si public lobbies is more harder and painful rather than playin the horde/escape itself.

2 Likes
#13

Tested this on the Split against the Guardians and based on my tests, they won’t shoot you if you ult at any time before they begin shooting you. However, if they’re already shooting you and you see you’re turning red from damage, quickly ult and and they will continue shooting you and kill themselves. So, basically you need to wait until they’re already shooting you and then trigger before you die. Risky, but worth it when you pull it off.

5 Likes
#14

I almost don’t play as Clay (He is level 18 but cards are low level, I have 0% on Clay achievement too), but I noticed this when others plays as him.

Played Escape (The Split), we depended on Clay to clear a path. He is in the middle of the gunfight, but suddenly Guardian stop paying attention when he used his ultimate.

I know some players said that horde was boring and easy, but doing this is not the correct way to increase difficulty. Or at least that the enemies shoot you and when they receive damage stop firing. This feels more smart that anticipating the ultimate

1 Like
#15

Noticed this as well and wondered if I was imagining things. Apparently not.

To be successful against flying enemies, as others have said, I wait until I’m actually taking damage, then quickly activate it. Usually enough bullets left hitting me to take down the enemy.

#16

This is a result of shotgun pellets hitting the unshielded weapon underneath the body of the flyer, which causes bleed damage. You’re actually better off doing that with Kait instead of trying to bring the shield down using shotguns, in my experience. Of course if the teammates take the shield down…

#17

That’s called AI, not a big deal.

#18

Yeah, but that only works against enemies which don’t insta down you, and it assumes the ultimate will activate in time, and not just result in your lancer reloading (that last one is a classic-Alt issue, where the ultimate activate is RB-LB).

I took the bleed off of my Clayton load, since it’s useless… It works well against stumps, but that’s IT… the little guys, who cares, the really dangerous things, they don’t shoot at you… So what’s the point…

it still works as protection, sure, but the bleed aspect of it is largely useless now. And that’s a Gold card, lol…

Thanks, TC…

1 Like
#19

Contrary to the narrative of this thread, this is a bug, not an intentional change. I will take a look and see if we can get a fix for it soon. Thanks.

18 Likes
#20

Thanks for that.

Also while you’re here (apologies for just pouncing on you like this), could you confirm if you and your colleaguea are aware of the duplicate Clayton exploit please? I and some other players have already submitted a ticket via the official site, but figure that as you’re here then to let you know if you don’t already.

6 Likes