Payday 3 Update 5: Feasting On Crumbs
Update 1.1.2, which I'm just going to call five for my own sanity sake, was released early on Wednesday, bringing with it some actual content.
And I still don't believe an update like this one, which feels a bit fragmented and held together by duct tape and dreams, is what we need at this stage in the Rejuvenation project, but it's still interesting to talk about because it's left Payday 3 in a state I can't remember a Payday game being in since maybe Grinders launches for Payday 2.
Right now as of this update simply put the game is absolutely trivial in loud after just a few ludicrous Heist Buffs in the form of new skills I'm going to run you through in this article, if you thought Overkill was easy before you ain't seen nothing yet as the only real danger to you if you build a certain way at this point are those all two common cloakers, anyway the truth of it is I've had a good time with this update and I think it will appeal to the diard fans of the game but my main worry at the moment is that the game is going to be in a dangerously unsustainable aable State from here on in it's fun to get a taste of the old Payday 2 power fantasy back but after reality sets in and you remember there only 11 heists in the game for you to play around on and that they're now basically all the same experience as Dallas has evolved into an immortal being.
I worry it won't be long before you get bored again and go back to a game with a bit more respect for your time. Anyway, a little less Doom and Gloom, let's start this article by working through the new skill line of fortitude. If you want a full breakdown of what each and every new skill on the line does, my most recent article actually has you covered.
Instead, today I'm going to spend more time touching on how the skill line plays its role within the survivability matter and, most importantly, how fun it is to use in practice. As I've mentioned previously with the addition of the new adrenaline mechanic to the game also coming in this update fortitude feels a lot more like a standalone perk deck than any other prior skill line as a quick refresher, external sources of Health gain those being medic bags and first aid kits will now utilize any wasted portion of their heal after hitting full health to Grant you an additional green overheal health bar which takes the brunt of any incoming damage first even before your armor with foru being built around this new mechanic its individual skills are a lot less fragmented, and tend to work well specifically alongside each other giving it that pickup and play Feel You might expect from an old Payday 2 perk, that doesn't mean it lacks any hybrid utility though is getting Health are free is always nice pain ass and Bower is one of the most interesting and probably powerful skills in the game and the Mastery skill stop pil has excellent Synergy with Deep Pockets giving you up to four more Deployable charges.
If we look at the skill line in its entirety, though it really is about promoting a very simple but quite aggressive play style, it leans into having more downs, allowing for riskier plays. Buffs your health pool to assist you in that aggression and also augments your capacity for adrenaline, that green health bar that scales alongside your base Max Health.
While it is worth mentioning that adrenaline decays over time if it isn't actively used to block incoming damage, this decay is incredibly easy to offset with any source of healing, so I didn't really notice it impact the efficacy of my extra tankiness. The icing on the cake in this skill line is definitely pain asymbolia, a skill that's designed to be run with a focused adrenaline build doubling the effect of edge Gris and Rush when you have access to the resource meaning at all times whenever you gain adrenaline you will take 20% less damage to that Resource as it always props grit not to mention the added 10% damage movement speed feels amazing, accentuating the aggressiveness of this play style even further in my opinion the ideal way to run it is with one plate standard lining not only because you will absolutely Zoom around the heist with 20% rush but because one plate armor has also been passively buffed as of this patch due to a new skill I'll talk about later weapon-wise 4ud is obviously best run alongside a powerful primary that can make use of the new break points game by paying ASM bolia.
I noticed the SA really appreciated that bonus damage gained new one-shot potential on units like shields. In case you're wondering yes I do suspect the best build in Payday 3 will make use of fortitude, with everything but maybe Health siphon for solo players being a must pickup, the build I'm showcasing here was incredibly over in and I could get away with virtually anything so long as the cloakers didn't get to me I don't even believe I've discovered the optimal way to play it yet and I was still hanging around picking fights on Overkill just for fun because honestly, nothing think was a threat I'm also happy to report I didn't find it quite as clunky to use as I expected I would this is because the resource management and tracking wasn't a problem at all given all the healing Buffs we now have in the game I still don't think it's the smoothest implementation, of the skill set and I just wish fiddly moment to moment micromanagement was less of a focus in a heisting series that's never taken itself so seriously in the past but fortitude hasn't fallen completely file of attrition sucking the fun out of it just yet after describing the very real highs of fortitude.
I do now have to touch on the lows of certain skill changes. Take a look, for example, at the updated version of Misdirect in Strategist.
Don't get me wrong, the old version was very situational; it simply protected you from cloakers and zappers using up any Rush decks you had in exchange. But this new effect is so disappointing. It's there just to say, Look, Dodge is back. I'm serious if I could boil down the entire design philosophy of Payday 3 into a single skill to show someone might be causing the game issues, I'd probably show them misdirect.
You guys love Dodge in Payday 2, right? It's back, baby. That's the tagline that's the tagline that draws you in, dare I say blows you away, except this time you need to have access to an arbitrary stat to make any use of it; it's limited to a maximum probability of 1 in 10, which is effectively useless for any serious build, and it'll only work on marked enemies, so you better enjoy pressing the middle mouse button to point at things at all times to get any usage out of it, and unless you're pissing around with motion sensors, you can only mark special units, so it's only going to work against roughly 10% of all cops on a heist; it's the most non-committal.
