I'm glad there is finally a response given, since this is probably the 6th thread that I can think of that has asked reasonably for an explanation and wasn't just complaining. Unfortunately, this response only indicates that the developers in all reality are entirely unaware of the current situation of warzones and PvP balancing, unless they are simply trying to mask their poor decisions in PR language. I'm content with neither.

Where are the promised class balance patches that were supposed to occur on shorter intervals?

This is going to be crazy talk I know. But what's the AOE range on Smash?

Couldn't you people just... not stand so close together?

I mean seriously. God forbid we fight intelligently. Also, I don't have a Rage spec Warrior/Knight. In fact, my Warrior is Immortal tank spec.

I asked Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer) about Rage and Focus builds and how they're fitting into PvP overall right now, and here was his comment:

 

Rage and Focus have always been high burst specs, but they haven't been very popular due to some usability and quality of life issues in the past. Our goal for Focus and Rage was to address those issues without significantly affecting their burst. In large part, I think we've done that, but the result is that many people are playing them now, which means there's a lot of AOE burst happening in warzones that wasn't happening before. We're willing to wait and see if their popularity is a result of being viewed as "flavor of the month" (i.e. Rage/Focus populations will naturally subside as people realize the spec doesn't suit their playstyle) or if they are truly too good and were just too unusable before. In short, we're going to keep a close eye on it.

I just want to say... thank you very much for your reply! Good to see devs and mods starting to address some of the things being brought up, we need more of this involvement from you guys.

EDIT: FYI, I think the main issue with smash is the ridiculous auto-crit, which enables the player to stack surge and power and have big smash numbers.

On my server there were plenty of focus/rage knights/warriors. And they did nice damage, too. Focus/rage tanks were also very good, being able to guard and kill at the same time. I have a friend who is a rage-specced juggernaut tank and he has been playing that spec since before 1.2 and he's now disgusted by it. The same way I'm disgusted by the medic operative buffs in 1.2. Operatives were fine, aside from the lacklustre top talent. You could have buffed that, and that alone.

It's kinda funny how you claimed that infiltration shadows were fine, but apparently focus knights were not. When a class can dish out 400-500k damage in an average WZ and have around 150k protection, something is not right.

I big chunk of why it has become so much more popular is that failure of the designers to effectively assess the 1.4 changes to PvP. Reducing the range of the fight to within the 10m circle effectively creates a 'fish in the barrel' syndrome. Also reducing the range of all the key 4 second stuns to 10 meters means if you see the problem developing on the far side of the scrum you can't do anything to interrupt them until after they execute the attack, making it too late. It didn't just reduce the decision cycle time, it just eliminated the opportunity. Then, as a commando, you removed our knockback on stockstrike so we have less options than we did before.

The bottom line is the design team pushed everyone into a scrum and increased the opportunity and payoff of all AoE. It escapes me how hard it is to assess the effect of battlefield compression.

if bioware puts rage/focus back to where they were before 1.4 people will still whine about them. reason, it's not the damage itself that's the problem, it's the fact that geared out veng/vig have respec'd into rage/focus. That is, an immediate influx of highly geared smashers. In reality 3 or 4 rage/focus in a WZ changes the dynamic of it. Just as 3 or 4 tanksins do. Just as 3 or 4 healers do. 3 or 4 PT pyros do. etc.

maybe i should play my 19.k HP pyro PT again to we can give people more to complain about. Just get it all out there, what are people whining about now?..

-OP healers

-OP juggs

-OP mara cooldowns

-Too many healers on a team

-gear grind

-no pug WZ balance

-premades in non rated (aka grouping with 3 friends in a video game)

what did I miss ? I'd say changes to sorc but i think people finally like those changes

oh yea. nerf operatives

I asked Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer) about Rage and Focus builds and how they're fitting into PvP overall right now, and here was his comment:

 

Rage and Focus have always been high burst specs, but they haven't been very popular due to some usability and quality of life issues in the past. Our goal for Focus and Rage was to address those issues without significantly affecting their burst. In large part, I think we've done that, but the result is that many people are playing them now, which means there's a lot of AOE burst happening in warzones that wasn't happening before. We're willing to wait and see if their popularity is a result of being viewed as "flavor of the month" (i.e. Rage/Focus populations will naturally subside as people realize the spec doesn't suit their playstyle) or if they are truly too good and were just too unusable before. In short, we're going to keep a close eye on it.

So Austin Peckenpaugh is the guy the AOE Burst guy

I don't mean to be insulting, but you should not have AOE and Burst in PVP.

That is why most AOE in the game has target indicators and a damage over time effect applied.

What happens in all games that apply AOE Burst is you don't have to be accurate. Like a GAINT BOMB to do massive damage. So a smart team will take 3 Bombers and BLOW UP AN AREA.

Which wouldn't be so bad, but oh no. Lets let them smash (NUKE, BLOW-UP, AOE SPIKE) every 15 seconds.

Its like these senior designers never played a pvp game. You've given players the ability to drop 3 nuclear bombs on an area over chat with a simple 1, 2, 3 spike command in chat for full damage. It has absolutely zero setup can be empowered futher, has a big ranged follow through at no cost and cannot be stopped from hitting.

LOL... just LOL.

In my view the extra stacks of shockwave and cooldowns and stuff do make it easier to use, the problem is it also makes the spec significantly stronger. When combined with the instant cast it's too much; dodging/knockbacks used to be the way to counter smashes. It is very fun to play as, but kinda ridiculous when there's more than one (just like pre-1.4 assault vanguards)..

Having two of anything is really a problem nowadays, its not just the smash folks. Two operatives or shadows/sins can stunlock a single target into obvilion. 2 marauders focusing a target can kill someone in 2 gcds. However, the biggest problem now are two+ healers. WZs with 2+ healers cross healing (assumine the healers are intelligent) make for a long and boring WZ, as you cant really kill anything

Since 1.4 my PvP participation has dropped to almost zero. They nerfed my healer Sage's ability to even halfway defend himself and upped the incoming damage. One hit, 6k+. Really? Now, add in the marker on my healer never goes away and every time I come back in I get hit by 2 or 3 (somtimes 4 or 5) guys at once all doing 5k+ per hit. What's the point? Why bother? I'm in a mix of WH and BM gear and just can't survive long enough to do anything. 1-2 medals on a winning team where the next lowest guy gets 8 or 9? Why bother spending my time in PvP? Level 50 PvP generally sucked before 1.4, now it's just a plain waste of time and effort.

FWIW< my level 50 vanguard does better, but only because he's not the target the healer is. He can't take that many high damage attacks all at once either.

Thing is...it really didn't need buffing at all. It was already a very powerful spec. Maybe it could be cleaned up a little to be easier to play, but these changes actually increased the amount of damage it can do, and how often it can do it. I really don't get it.

 

And unfortunately by that dev comment, it sounds like it will take a long while before any change happens. DPS scoundrels are still waiting their turn at being "flavor of the month" by the way.

Surprised? First post from a dev on the pvp forums in months. Won't be seeing that again for a long, long time. Disgraceful.

In short: You still have no idea what you're doing on the PVP end of the spectrum. Assassin/Shadow Tank hybrids are outDPS'ing PURE dps classes (This is possible in Tank stance mind you), Sentinel/Marauder burst death squads are obliterating everything within 6 gcds (Yet still retain the most defensive CDs and TEAM BUFFS) and Paired smash (geared) warriors are AOE bombarding the **** out of clusters of players. Sorcs still don't have a defensive CD, mercs are still a red headed step child in the DPS department (just like lightning sorcs, the lack of mobility // reliance on one spell makes them a joke) and Operative healers are still the best PVP healer in the game.

 

The only thing I've seen *fixed* recently was the Pyro/vanguard ability to destroy someone at range and melee.

 

SIDENOTE: I am happy to see another "we're keeping an eye on it" response which is along the same lines of "Soon" and "stunlocking operative teams ruining PVP". /sarcasm.

 

On a more serious note: Can any of the developers respond to the Class Feedback threads? Because as of right now, they haven't listened to a damn word in them and have mentioned NOTHING about balancing PVE or PVP.

Hire this person please.

Thing is...it really didn't need buffing at all. It was already a very powerful spec. Maybe it could be cleaned up a little to be easier to play, but these changes actually increased the amount of damage it can do, and how often it can do it. I really don't get it.

 

And unfortunately by that dev comment, it sounds like it will take a long while before any change happens. DPS scoundrels are still waiting their turn at being "flavor of the month" by the way.

This, this, this. The spec really didnt need the help, the crazy damage was offset by the difficulty of lining up the moons and the stars to get the perfect smash. Now, there's no difficulty, and it's just lolsmash everywhere. WHY do you continue to "fix" things that arent broken, and ignore real issues for months at a time... I dont get it either.

As others have said, it's clear the designers do not actually play any pvp. "Keeping an eye on it"... ridiculous.... GO GET IN A WARZONE and tell us it's at all balanced. God, the over-reliance on "metrics" by this team is disgraceful.

I asked Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer) about Rage and Focus builds and how they're fitting into PvP overall right now, and here was his comment:

 

Rage and Focus have always been high burst specs, but they haven't been very popular due to some usability and quality of life issues in the past. Our goal for Focus and Rage was to address those issues without significantly affecting their burst. In large part, I think we've done that, but the result is that many people are playing them now, which means there's a lot of AOE burst happening in warzones that wasn't happening before. We're willing to wait and see if their popularity is a result of being viewed as "flavor of the month" (i.e. Rage/Focus populations will naturally subside as people realize the spec doesn't suit their playstyle) or if they are truly too good and were just too unusable before. In short, we're going to keep a close eye on it.

lol, standard fluff answer which exposed itself in the first line, rage and focus builds were not popular indeed, they were always the "stock" build, now every faceroller jumped on the ez mode train.

Oh and whoever thought the hardest hitting ability in the game should be a aoe should not be employed as a game designer.

Those bombs are soo easy to kill, i was confused today when met "whatchman" one. I just forgot how to kill it . So 1st round was upto him :/

Just hold em in 11m range and they're dead. And develop new tactics. For example, as a shadow, my 1st priority now go ahead and maze/lift as much smash-bombs as i can. So they will not income all at once.

One of the biggest problems with Smash/Sweep now is the fact you can't stop it. It used be if you saw it coming you could knock them back and stop it.

Well, the problem used to be that you could setup the smash and get stunned or w/e after initiating the smash. This would burn your buffs and trigger the cooldown but do no damage. I'm sorry, but this was completely unacceptable and made the spec a nightmare to play. Nevermind the constant knockbacks ruining your smashes. If you are a one trick pony, it shouldn't be so easy to spoil your trick. That's not balance.

The only thing that Smash needed was for the INSTANT ability to actually BE INSTANT. And it got that. It also got a huge damage buff and other tweaks that made it significantly easier to achieve max damage more often, which it did NOT need.

@Bioware: This is not a FOTM spec that people will gravitate away from. This is hands down the most powerful spec for Knight/Warrior dps and people will play it because of that. Buff Vigilance, FFS!

This, this, this. The spec really didnt need the help, the crazy damage was offset by the difficulty of lining up the moons and the stars to get the perfect smash. Now, there's no difficulty, and it's just lolsmash everywhere. WHY do you continue to "fix" things that arent broken, and ignore real issues for months at a time... I dont get it either.

 

As others have said, it's clear the designers do not actually play any pvp. "Keeping an eye on it"... ridiculous.... GO GET IN A WARZONE and tell us it's at all balanced. God, the over-reliance on "metrics" by this team is disgraceful.

To be honest, I really don't know if they are using "metrics". The whole "we'll keep on eye on it" is very telling in that regard.

Seems hard to believe that An entire PvP Dev. team did not realize that Substantially buffing the Rage tree, and then Nerfing Veng/Vig (A Spec that was never considered OP, or atleast not by many), and having already nerfed the dmg potential of an already low dmg tank tree...would not result in a massive respec to the Rage tree for pretty much all Juggs....Then there is mara/Sent from what I understand Carnage is no longer the go to Burst tree...that has been replaced by Rage/Focus for them as well.....

So how does anyone not come to the conclusion that there will be massive AoE bombs going off in PvP indefinately? How? Seriously.....

They basically Buffed Rage/Focus and intentionally pushed All DPS Juggs to the spec, and Gave Mara/Sent No reason not to respec.....BW did this either out of ignorance...or because they truely have no foresight what so ever....

I Play a Jugg...I was Rage after the first nerf up to a week after 1.4...Now Im Veng. I wont play FoTM or anytrhing besides Veng because of the CC fest that PvP has become.. so please Nerf Rage back to pre-1.4, and for the love of everything Star Wars Give Veng a bitty DMG buff...Nerfing it was completely unjustified and random.

I asked Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer) about Rage and Focus builds and how they're fitting into PvP overall right now, and here was his comment:

 

Rage and Focus have always been high burst specs, but they haven't been very popular due to some usability and quality of life issues in the past. Our goal for Focus and Rage was to address those issues without significantly affecting their burst. In large part, I think we've done that, but the result is that many people are playing them now, which means there's a lot of AOE burst happening in warzones that wasn't happening before. We're willing to wait and see if their popularity is a result of being viewed as "flavor of the month" (i.e. Rage/Focus populations will naturally subside as people realize the spec doesn't suit their playstyle) or if they are truly too good and were just too unusable before. In short, we're going to keep a close eye on it.

This response makes me wonder if the developer have ever watched a rated game played by highly ranked teams. People stream them and the developers would learn a great deal about this game if they took the time to watch a few.

Melee trains have dominated rated since rated warzones were released. Their AoE burst damage and AoE CC were already topping the charts prior to these changes. Rage/Focus specs were not under performing in PvP when used by coordinated teams in ranked warzones.

I asked Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer) about Rage and Focus builds and how they're fitting into PvP overall right now, and here was his comment:

 

Rage and Focus have always been high burst specs, but they haven't been very popular due to some usability and quality of life issues in the past. Our goal for Focus and Rage was to address those issues without significantly affecting their burst. In large part, I think we've done that, but the result is that many people are playing them now, which means there's a lot of AOE burst happening in warzones that wasn't happening before. We're willing to wait and see if their popularity is a result of being viewed as "flavor of the month" (i.e. Rage/Focus populations will naturally subside as people realize the spec doesn't suit their playstyle) or if they are truly too good and were just too unusable before. In short, we're going to keep a close eye on it.

I think you guys are completely out of your game's reality, or in the US is completely different than in EU. Rage spec was always good, never heard any Warrior complaining about it, and Carnage was just required to be used in Ranked due to it's huge advantage regarding team tactics (insane predation speed). Never heard any decent player complaining about the spec. And, as if Maras weren't already FOTM, you even improve them I take out my hat at you guys.

Seems hard to believe that An entire PvP Dev. team did not realize that Substantially buffing the Rage tree, and then Nerfing Veng/Vig (A Spec that was never considered OP, or atleast not by many), and having already nerfed the dmg potential of an already low dmg tank tree...would not result in a massive respec to the Rage tree for pretty much all Juggs....Then there is mara/Sent from what I understand Carnage is no longer the go to Burst tree...that has been replaced by Rage/Focus for them as well.....

 

So how does anyone not come to the conclusion that there will be massive AoE bombs going off in PvP indefinately? How? Seriously.....

 

They basically Buffed Rage/Focus and intentionally pushed All DPS Juggs to the spec, and Gave Mara/Sent No reason not to respec.....BW did this either out of ignorance...or because they truely have no foresight what so ever....

 

I Play a Jugg...I was Rage after the first nerf up to a week after 1.4...Now Im Veng. I wont play FoTM or anytrhing besides Veng because of the CC fest that PvP has become.. so please Nerf Rage back to pre-1.4, and for the love of everything Star Wars Give Veng a bitty DMG buff...Nerfing it was completely unjustified and random.

did anyone used Veng ? xD Juggs I know were either Tanks or Smash spammers Never heard of a veng besides the obvious hybrid specs.

I just want to say... thank you very much for your reply! Good to see devs and mods starting to address some of the things being brought up, we need more of this involvement from you guys.

 

EDIT: FYI, I think the main issue with smash is the ridiculous auto-crit, which enables the player to stack surge and power and have big smash numbers.

Ive been playing my juggernaut since early access. I think hes onto something. If you remove the automatic crit, it would balance things pretty good i think. The way it is now, makes it far too powerful.