Removal of Aim Punch / Move speed Penalty
I've been coming up with a theory as to why TTK changes have made fights feel one dimensional and I believe its due to both of these established mechanics. If you don't already know, when you get shot with / without shields your move speed immediately drops. All types of ammunition slow for the same amount, and is indiscriminate of where you hit. Aim punch is when you get hit without shields, and your aim jerks wildly.
Lower TTK means more players are cracked to flesh more quickly, and thus begin to suffer from aim punch while their target might not. While flesh, enemies who have fast firing weapons will cause aim punch to significantly impact the person being shot at, and with the Volt / Devotion meta we have going on now, it's safe to say once your shield is cracked, you're not going to be able to fire back or dive for cover at all. Which leads into two pointers:
1. R99 meta and previous shield amounts protected many players from being affected by aim punch too quickly, giving them options to either try and return fire and make up for lost shots with better movement, or to simply dive for cover and call for help. Aim punch was not as noticeable during this time, simply because R99 would melt you down once you hit flesh granted your opponent knew what they were doing. Good players could react to being shot within 1-5 rounds of an enemy R99, giving them ample time to return fire, dive for cover, or dip out of the fight altogether.
2. Lowered shield values means less options when it comes to third parties and responding to ambushes. I've found in about 24 hours of play, there's a lot of situations in close to medium ranges where diving for cover is not an option because of move speed penalty when getting shot, or overall terrain, and firing back is not an option either because once you start aiming, aim punch kicks in and you're no longer able to really fire back. With Volt and Devotion meta currently in play, it's not hard for opponents to keep their advantage as long as they have generally good aim. On top of this, if you're on the shooting end firing at a target that's flesh while you're flesh, it's not uncommon to miss one round and become unable to finish your target.
Aim punch serves no purpose, especially in this meta, except to give an overwhelming advantage to whoever shoots first. There's no room to outplay or outskill an opponent when all your means of doing so are cut off from you. Which brings me to the move speed penalty.
Creating distance or diving for cover to heal is an insanely important part of outplaying an opponent who already has the drop on you. However the move speed penalty when shot prevents you from diving to cover in the first place. If the opponent hits you just before you slide jump, your slide will instead turn into a crouch, and your jump will have no momentum leaving you suspended mid-air unable to move forward to try to avoid shots. It is quite literally, a death sentence, and it's one that I've had happen to me many times in previous seasons, and I've done to many opponents as well.
For reference on aim punch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XJHBZaIIqY
A break down in slow speed, Seagull ambushes a target and knocks them, and an enemy Wraith shows up and starts firing at them while not moving at all. On Wraith's second Wingman shot, aim punch kicks in and veers 2 rounds of the initial Hemlok burst off course. The second burst lands fully, and the third burst veers off course entirely due to another Wingman round, and the last Wingman shot ends Seagull, punching the final round fired (a total of 10) above Wraith's head into the mountain face.
