And if you really think about it, odds are that you don't really care either. If you could get the materials from the gear without extracting, would you even bother 90% of the time? Or if you could mark items to be extracted as materials, how often would you need to visit your stash? I know that a lot of people are really upset about the new rope cutting mechanic, but it's not going to really change anything other than add an unnecessary extra mechanic that will largely go unused due to existing and new issues introduced by this upcoming patch.

First, as I've already talked about, actual drops in the Dark Zone are junk. And I already hear what you're going to say: "But they're decreasing Performance Mod drop rates and guaranteeing level 32 drops." However, that doesn't fix the absurd amount of RNG layers that separate a good item from something you immediately dismantle, and the highest level drops only happen when you're already 200 GS (so it's not like the the GS of the drops alone will be an upgrade). People aren't going to be trying to cut your rope for your items any more often than they are currently trying to kill you for your items.

Second, you're about to witness the Dark Zone becoming a lot quieter. While adding a 200 bracket was necessary to stop high score players from rolling all over fresh 161 players, a new bracket also means more fragmentation of the shrinking player base. Not only will the new brackets decrease the amount of players you'll run into, but the introduction of HVT in the PvE area is likely going to decrease the amount of "farmers" running mobs in the DZ. All together, you'll probably have to worry even less about defending your extraction because there simply isn't anyone else in the Dark Zone at the higher levels. This will likely cause PvP players to smurf into lower brackets just for the extra population resulting in even less people playing in the high brackets.

This rope cutting mechanic isn't going to be an issue. At best, it'll be a complete nonfactor; at worst, it'll just be an unnecessary extra mechanic that players work around instead working with (why "defend" your extraction when you could just wait until the last minute to attach your bag and avoid any chance of having the rope cut?). /u/The-PainTrain- corrected me in letting me know that adding a bag increases the extraction timer. That's definitely a smart move; sorry for the misinformation. I am curious as to whether it refreshes the extraction timer or if it adds a flat time, though. If the former, then it'll force players to attach their loot immediately (which would actually work really well given the goal of this mechanic). If it's the latter, then waiting until the last second will still be the ideal strategy to minimize time spent at risk. Killing a player or group and completing a 6 second cut animation within the allotted time might be tough no matter how it's designed, though.