Earlier this month, reddit user YeetLordSupreme discovered the Defender assault rifle deals more damage than every other weapon in the game, including the masterwork rifle Ralner’s Blaze. And recently, some players have claimed that removing support items can increase damage output. While these issues might seem like bugs, one dedicated player believes they’re actually a sign that Anthem’s underlying systems are working as intended. Or unintended.
A reddit user by the name of TemperHoof claims Patch 1.0.3 broke Anthem. Not just the Defender assault rifle but every single piece of loot in the game, and they have the math to support their theory.
After three sleepless days and nights of testing, producing spreadsheets, and crunching the numbers (and staring at loading screens), TemperHoof broke down how he believes power scaling now works in Anthem. And how he believes it is flawed.
According to TemperHoof, the combined power score Anthem provides is completely pointless. Instead of calculating the sum of each weapon’s power score, TemperHoof claims the game actually averages these scores and uses that as a player’s power level. More importantly, he claims that inscriptions are all pointless save for ones that grant Javelin-wide damage bonuses and that Anthem’s scaling system doesn’t take level one equipment into consideration. Make a mental note of that last part.
Anthem also features what TemperHoof calls “arbitrary multipliers” that increase damage at higher power levels. According to TemperHoof’s calculations, these multipliers start as low as 7.466 for power level 30 and go all the way up to 22.622 for power level 75.
For the sake of comparison, TemperHoof provides two hypothetical players in their thread: Player A and Player B. Player A has a one legendary, six masterwork, and four epic pieces of equipment, whereas Player B only has the legendary and masterwork equipment; the rest is either level one gear or empty slots.
While Player A’s combined power score is 593 and Player B’s is 441, TemperHoof’s theory that power level scaling utilizes the average power score transforms Player A’s effective power level to 53 and Player B’s power level a superior 63. Assuming TemperHoof’s math is correct, players can essentially maximize their damage output by replacing every piece of equipment that doesn’t tie for the highest power score with level one gear.
Even though Anthem is a looter shooter, TemperHoof believes their research indicates that the game penalizes players who deck out their Javelins with equipment, especially if that equipment isn’t legendary, and he isn’t alone.
Senior Forbes contributor Paul Tassi states that melee attacks have felt overpowered since the update, as they apparently scale with power levels and the associated damage multipliers mentioned in TemperHoof’s theory.
While we don’t have any definitive proof one way or another, TemperHoof makes an intriguing argument. Go and read the original reddit thread and see for yourself if you believe their claims.
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