Now that I am officially forsaking DX11, running in DX9 has proved my point. If anything, the game performs like it should, with no lockups or lagging problems. I've no clue what to say anymore about all this. I want to say SE should get on their game but honestly I've not a clue if anyone else shares this problem, and if I should just upgrade my GPU to a 390x as I can only assume the R9 290x is inadequate for the game.