Ubisoft, please fix this game, over the last week my friends and I are unable to enjoy this game anymore because of multiple issues:
1. Game keeps crashing for one of us.
2. NPCs are just tanking and sticking to character and you can't get away.
3. 8 times out of 10, shield wint deploy, and if it does, it's too late.
4. NPCs can shoot through cover now.
5. NPCs can shoot you with smgs more than 2 blocks away with 100%accuracy and you can even see them, and their damage is ridiculous.
6. Enemies aren't rendering, when they come out a door, sometimes they come out and they are invisible, attacking you and there's nothing you can do because they can't be seen.
7. The NPCs are hitting way too hard now, it's overkill, dial it back to what it was before update.

This is out of control, ease fix these problems. We are veteran players and have been playing since launch and never have we had so anger in this game, we love a challenge but this isn't survivable anymore. Please do something about it!

Heroic is no problem for veteran players like me

@ob1sapprentice Sounds like server problems to me, but then a lot of the bugs and disconnects reported recently sound like they could be connection-related. I'm wondering if Ubisoft have been cutting down on the number of servers in the last few months as player numbers have dwindled, and and have maybe not been replacing them as numbers go back up again?
I haven't had any of the issues you describe, although I did have a phantom fight going on in one area, all the sounds of a group of friendlies fighting a black tusk heavy, but nothing to be seen.

(...) 2. NPCs are just tanking and sticking to character and you can't get away.

This can happen when rushers try to melee you while you've deployed your shield. So un-equipping the shield should do the trick here. But other than that – I have never heard of that issue before.

3. 8 times out of 10, shield wint deploy, and if it does, it's too late.

Sadly it's pretty hard to tell what happened here, if we do not have footage of this happening. I have already seen pretty simple solutions for such "bugs" (like simply being under the effect of an EMP or having activated a Directive), hardware issues being the real cause (broken button on a controller), and rather complicated connectivity issue that still in most cases will not be an issue with Ubisoft or the game. So yes... it's pretty hard to tell without actually seeing anything.

(...) 6. Enemies aren't rendering, when they come out a door, sometimes they come out and they are invisible, attacking you and there's nothing you can do because they can't be seen.

Again – this can have a lot of reasons. Connectivity, servers, graphics card... But again: that seems to be a rather rare issue, as I cannot recall having read something like that before. That at least miiiiight indicate a problem which could be found and fixed on your side.

7. The NPCs are hitting way too hard now, it's overkill, dial it back to what it was before update. (...)

Difficulty levels of the game were not part of the last update, so I guess that's rather a personal perception.

@ob1sapprentice Unfortunately these are all issues that game has from time to time. Either caused by lack of server response or simply bad implementation of NPC behavior, or difficulty by bullet sponges and extreme damage output. It's just how this game is made.

1. Many players are having this issue on PC, some days are better then others.
2. When they get close (inside player) they actually glitch through your shield. Same happens in TD1, nothing new.
3. Yeah sometimes skills take very long time to get activated by server, then deploy later, are invisible, or don't work at all.
4. There are instances where they can, so as cleaners in TD1. If barrel is glitching through cover, they can shoot you.
5. Not sure about distances but I can do same with a riffle, their damage is tied to difficulty and group size.
6. Seen this happen a lot too, especially in Summit. They are only visible after some time, or they already start shooting while the doors are still closed. Either way, fighting invisible NPCs happens and it's quiet annoying when on highest levels.
7. Could be, or just server issues where all damage comes at once, not spread over few seconds.

I would not expect any 'fixes' nor difficulty changes to the game. Maybe the next time you play it will be completely different and it feels like it's back to 'normal' and what you were used to.

@ubi-theberry thankyou for your response, yes I can provide a lot of recorded evidence, im not the only one either, many I play with are having the exact same issues, the latest being the enemy npcs disappearing and respawning right on you and destroying you, it's so frustrating. But yes I can send you recorded sessions, I just need to know where and how?

@ubi-froggard thanks, I'll review my recordings and do that asap, there are a lot so I'll get them on here when I can over the next few days, cheers