I have begun using the EMP grenades again now but I still notice it to be a bit lacking. I was under the impression (from using it a loooong time ago) that if you are the blast of an EMP grenade, that your special ability will drain. This is NOT true. And I am made sad by this. If anything this feature should be (re)installed. By design, the EMP grenade has no other use but to weaken a group of enemies for easier mop-up. And it currently sucks at that role. With enemies still being able to cloak and heavies to use their shields. meaning the grenade is little more but an annoyance. I have heard that it drains these abilities when they are in use. If so then this feature is already half-way implemented. lets go the other half, shall we? As for engineers and Maxes. Engineer turrets could just overheat for the durration of the EMP's effect, and MAX's special abilites will be drained and disabled for the time. The EMP also opens alternate avenues for anti vehicle use! EMP grenades from battlefield 2142 not only did what EMP grenades do in PS2, but they also disabled vehicle engines for a few short seconds and made the turrets of vehicles very sluggish and slow.
I agree. I hope the infiltrator update will fix EMP grenades at the very least since they're fixing decoys. As far as I'm concerned, their issue with the energy meters not being affected for most classes is nothing more than a bug.
Problem with the emp grenade is that a normal grenade will kill those guy's instead of just weakening them.
I found it's perfect for knifing. Gives you enough time to come close and blend in. Removes shields and you can OHK them with knife.
The EMP grenade does drain heavy shields and all that jazz if it is currently in use, if it is not turned on the EMP cannot knock it out. Also, if thrown near a vehicle or spawn room shield once the radius of effect hits the shield the grenade will stop spreading.
Emp nades are a bit wonky, always have been, though they did get alot better not too long ago, I forget exactly when the did the last overhaul on them. Either way, I'm sure they'll get a better pass once the infil update rolls around, until then, they're still really awesome, I always roll emps on my infil, and while I need to get into the habit of using them more naturally, when I do use them properly it's utterly devestating. If it actually did drain special abilities it would be an extremely powerful nade, maybe op =/. I'd definately like to see it's effects broadened though, but that's just something I think would be awesome, havent given much thought to if it would be a good idea at all or not yet. I'd like to see it have some effect on maxes, maybe blind people from being able to see cloak at all for the duration... i dunno. Infil's been my favorite class recently, it's probably my most consistently effective kill class behind max right now, and it's certainly more gritty than max. So long as they dont completely butcher recon darts with implants I think it'll stay that way for awhile.... or if they ruin the class by making the cloak more noob friendly or something.. ugh. Ah well the devs have yet to actually dissapoint me yet, and have impressed me consistently... though that implant thing really scared the crap out of me... the proposed implants were just utter trash for gameplay... ok, im getting way off topic, time to sleep.
EMP grenades are fine for what they are. Keep in mind the price point is only 50 resources. Only 5 more than a frag. That alone leads me to believe the lack of extra function is intentional. Look at it in the context of an offensive grenade, rather than one meant to cripple or interfere with the player directly like a concussion or flash grenade (priced at 75) A frag is deadly for maybe 2.5m and hurts out to maybe 6-7m before the damage becomes inconsequential, but also has a delayed detonation and a UI warning, making it fairly avoidable. An EMP absolutely cannot kill a target unless you're lucky enough to have it detonate a deployable explosive, (which it's fantastic for if you know when to exploit it) but what it does do is detonate instantly without warning, and completely knock out all shields in a 10m radius. This is essentially a 50-40% health shearing effect, guaranteed and executed instantly. I'd say in that context they're very much side-grades easily interchangeable depending on how you plan to engage in a situation, and nothing further needs to be done to the EMP grenade, as it's price point and effects feel fully justified, even with the loss in UI disruption in recent updates. My only hope is that they allow mini-map disruption to return it to being an awesome ambush tool, but even if they don't it's still useful. All these effects that people have been asking to have tacked on, I feel are they're to treat the EMP like a clown car. It overloads energy shields and shield related abilities, (turns off active nanomesh and burns out cloaks) and that's enough. As much as I hate to cite reality, it's not hard to assume that in the space age most hardware would be shielded to a degree of EM radiation, so I don't even think it's a stretch of the imagination that only emitted shields would be impacted. If there's any new crippling ability the infiltrator gets, it should be it's own independent and unique tool, and resource priced accordingly, allowing these features to be the focus of function and accordingly powerful. Rather than staple it on to an already existing tool and trying to rebalance it accordingly EDIT: here's an idea: Nanite Disruption "Spammer" Grenade: Overloads and disrupts communication within nanite swarms, preventing abilities from being executed and weakening nanite lattices in armor plating until garbage commands and signals are purged. 75 resources a piece (maybe 100 w/ 10 second duration) Small radius explode on impact or larger radius w/ delay. -Does NO DAMAGE. -Disables the use (but does not drain energy reserves) of HA Over Shields and Medic healing fields for 8 seconds. -Overheats deployed turrets and nanite based class tools, preventing repairs and healing. (might be overkill) -Reduces the damage reduction of all armored targets (Vehicles/Maxes) for duration of 8 seconds. (essentially applying the ZoE penalty without the benefit, vehicles with 100% small arms damage reduction would now be susceptible to the percentage by which the armor is reduced)
I would love it if the EMP disabled vehicles for a while, as for its affects on infantry, the only thing I would really like to see being added is that Engineers and Medics hit by the EMP would not be able to use their tools (max heat) while under the affects of the grenade, that would make the Infiltrator a very direct counter-support class.
EMP nade disables nanite shield, nano-regen, HA shield, and cloak but those can be toggled back on. The disabling of nanite shield is the important part, lets you spend fewer bullets to kill the affected target. EMP nade should disable vehicle weapons as well.
The abilities not draining is a bug for me. I kinda remember EMP grenades doing it. It could disable them, but that doesn't really justify it. Why does it drain abilities only when in use? What logic is there to it. This grenade can be nothing else but an "alpha strike" Much like flash grenades (concussions are more crowd control). You toss it in, it detonates, and you move in after. It has no other use to it since the effect lasts only a couple seconds. Just to weaken the enemy. As it stands now it does nothing that a frag grenade can't do, with the later having the chance of a lucky kill. With the exception of fuzzing up the HUD. My first ever target with the EMP was at an enemy magrider, hoping it'd function like the EMP grenade of 2142. And people who play infiltrator have been asking for a way for infiltrator to affect vehicles. I see only win-win here. First, the effect only lasts a few seconds. Second, these grenades can't be spammed (effectively at least) and since it doesn't directly damage a vehicle, you need allies to make full use of it. So, promoting teamwork with infiltrators. As for cost, last I checked most grenades are now prices at 45. EMP is.
Isn't EMP setting off C4 and AI mines? Also, draining half the ennemy health (his shield) is all but a non factor.
What does happened to EMP grenade? It doesn't erase the enemy\friendly HUD for now at all.... Was it nerfed, or is it some sort of bug after the last patch?
I have a love hate relationship with EMP's. I love what they do but there are those times when like the OP said the HA just pops his shield right back up. Then there is the roughly 1 second throwing time . That frustrating second can be a real piss off if you happen to screw it up. And by screw it up, I mean throw while "exposed". I find that unless the enemy is deeply focused away from you... just don't even bother trying because they will notice you, aim on you and kill you shortly before or after EMP detonates. Its either a well timed ambush from behind/the side, or assisting your squad via breaching in the front. Even with frontal breaching the EMP does not bounce and so in order to get one into the room you have to be exposed to the target in some manner. If your good you never throw an EMP directly at the target in a frontal confrontation, but instead throw it near them keeping yourself as covered as possible. Learning that art, takes a good number of fail throws and a sadface understanding of how long the throwing time can feel in combat. Still I am addicted to using them and strongly recommend them to others. I just wish they were slightly more reliable.
I think that would be a little too much in my opinion. Maybe just disabling max abilities would be a more down to earth idea.
I somehow was under the impression that EMP nade killed the HUD, including the crosshairs. Doesn't kill the crosshairs. Furthermore, it only eats up the energy from infiltrators. SoE's way of making clear using one of your own tools, without being careful, will kick you in the balls harder than anything you hit with it. But, enough ranting about the unfair treatment of Infiltrators.. (2450 certs opposed to the 30 now for the Flash stealth to work.! Really SoE!?) EMP is still the best nade to carry. It clears the entire room of explosives, and it does kind of delivers a "oh ****!" moment on those it hits. It does what it should......now if only it didn't put a delay on your cloak...
The EMP no longer removes HUD as of GU12 I believe, I made a thread about it the first day I noticed but I don't feel like archive diving at the moment to get a date for it. but the static was changed some time back. It did actually get a slight boost to it's radius when it lost the HUD removal though. None of these changes have been documented in any patch notes, but I've been keeping track of them and other undocumented changes, such as the recent recon dart changes. For those interested, here's the complete saga of the undocumented EMP changes thus far: The changes began around the time when they were retuning the concussion and flash grenades, making their crippling/blind effects a proximity effect rather than a static one (more intense the closer to detonation one is) and during that very same patch the old static was removed from the EMP which was prox based and chanced to it's current static based model to match the function of the shield strip (100% effect to any target in range.) I can sort of understand a possibly rationality behind it, in that the grenade can apply both effects with the same check whereas before it had to make an area (for the shield strip) and a range check (for the screen static). This was also the patch where they made many of these effects not penetrate so the more check that had to be made against obstructions they more it would tax a system. The end result is the static went from being mildly disorienting at the core to completely ignorable at the outer radius to somewhat annoying no matter your location in the blast. But the whole patch where this changed cut back on the disrupting effects of all grenades with the capability to do so, so it's not terribly surprising I happened. Now the HUD disruption is gone. This is again a cut back on the disrupting effect, if it is in fact intentional. There's no clear indication whether it is or not like there was for the screen static (the whole new graphic implemented for it makes it obvious) but I haven't gotten any response and not a lot of other people were making noise about it, but I'm leaning toward intentional. If it is, my own opinion is that I'm still pretty okay with it, as the EMP was the only grenade with both a disruption and damage component, but still with a low price point, so I can understand it as an attempt to make it fit a certain model, and force it's function to being that of a shield stripper where in the past people used it with the intent of player disruption. All the some transparency on the subject would definitely be appreciated so I don't have to waste time theorizing and trying to find rationality and direction in these undocumented changes to work out if they're actually bugs or not. Especially since when they're undocumented like this we have to find out in the middle of combat or entirely by accident. And for all I know this was just something someone was playing around with in the dev build, didn't revert it, and it went live. So devs, please: PLEASE make a better effort to put changes in the patch-notes, no matter how small or subtle. For the record, there have never once been EMP grenade changes documented in patch notes. On the upside losing the HUD disruption wasn't a total was, as around that change, the effectiveness of the remaining components got boosted a bit with a radius increase, going from 10m to 12m. While it doesn't sound like a lot as linear distances go it adds up to a fairly significantly area in terms of coverage. So that's something at least for those that used it primarily as a shield stripper.
Well, I personally am completely lost as to what exact effects EMP have TODAY. * make C4 / Prox mines explode * remove energy from normal shield * disable HA shield, but it can be reactivated right away That's what I think it does, is that true?
