The rebalance patch overhauled the way that Assault Rifle grenade mechanics work, and for most players the new mechanics are a bit of a mystery. The goal of this thread is to put forth a model of those mechanics so players have a better understanding of the system and can make informed decisions.
Everything in this thread is based on data I collected during the patch’s beta period, along with some discussions with the developers. I meant to post this all last fall, but then got swamped at work and never found the time. I haven’t had time to reproduce any of this testing on live, so this model is based on the assumption that the mechanics didn’t change significantly (apart from a bug fix that will be discussed in the data) since then.
First, I’ll go over the model, since that’s what will be most relevant to the largest portion of the population. After that I’ll provide details about each of the tests I performed and the conclusions drawn from them, which informed the design of the model.
The Grenade Points Model
During combat, players accumulate Grenade Points (GP) in two ways:
- Spending energy on power abilities
– Burst Fire grants approximately 21 GP
– (assumed) Full Auto grants approximately 12.6 GP
– Grenade Points are earned even if a grenade is already cooking - By being in combat
– You earn approximately 6.67 GP for every second spent in combat (about 4 grenades per minute)
Players spend Grenade Points to proc a grenade:
- If you have over 100 GP when casting a power ability, you have a high probability to proc a grenade and lose 100 GP
- Proccing a grenade seems to temporarily reduce the probability of getting a grenade on the next power ability
Grenade Points do not have a known cap - it is possible to accumulate 200+ GP and proc back-to-back grenades.
Grenade Points are reset when leaving combat
When entering combat with Burst Fire, you have a 30% chance to proc a grenade (independent of Grenade Point system)
Auxiliary Loader adds 3 Grenades per Minute to the time-based component
- This increases the GP/s by (300 GP)/(60 s) = 5 GP/s, for a total of 11.25 GP/s
Most other passives that state they give grenades per minute also use this system
- Overclocked Loader adds 2 GP/s to the time-based component
- Auto-Loader gives a flat 40 GP when launching High Explosive Grenade
- Heavy Payload is the one exception: it just gives a simple 40% dice roll to get a grenade
I should also add a disclaimer at this point: the model explains the stochastic (steady-state) behavior of grenades, which is generally what matters for longer encounters. It’s a little hand-wavy on the details of how things work on short time scales. I’ll address the shortcomings of the model below in the appropriate testing section.