So like the title says Can we get an update on the issue of Carbine Burst/ Blaster Volley changes that we were told would be done in a future patch like 3 or 4 patches ago. Asking the Devs to please give us some sort of response. I have asked before and have been ignored. I am sure I speak for all who play these advanced classes in saying that since you took away our only real option for AOE and have not given anything viable in return in 3.0 we feel that we have been swept under the rug and ignored. So please can we get some response on this from one of the devs.

I remember that post, promising some attention to the issue. And yes, I'd love to know. It's just pathetic that the Op and Scoundrel have splash damage from a grenade as an excuse for Aoe, and beyond pathetic that Carbine Burst/Blaster Volley is called "aoe". It hardly qualifies as a single target damage ability, let alone aoe.

 

No exaggeration, which would serve no purpose.....but as an example I just used Blaster Volley a few hours ago. I was 4 meters or less distant from enemies (I could use Blaster Whip)...facing them, yes, I was not facing in some other direction. The tracer trails went right though 2 enemies. Result? No damage. Nothing. This is all too common.

 

Even with the reduced energy cost and no UH/TA requirement, I find it a very questionable use of resources.

 

Sadly, I doubt we'll see any real improvement to aoe. I really hope I am wrong.

Still hoping for a response.

bump to keep it on the front page.

What's wrong with carbine burst? I haven't played in a while but I noticed that it doesn't require tactical advantage anymore, which seems like an improvement

What's wrong with carbine burst? I haven't played in a while but I noticed that it doesn't require tactical advantage anymore, which seems like an improvement

 

Aiming it still sucks....and it doesn't do any worthy damage. But no TA is pretty nice I will admit.

Bump carbine burst damage, bump radius, make it a full 360 aoe...give it a name and animation to match.

Bump still looking for an answer from one of the Devs.

Right after the sniper's post-orbital-stike-nerf buff. Okay... just don't get your hopes up.

Right after the sniper's post-orbital-stike-nerf buff. Okay... just don't get your hopes up.

 

At least snipers still have the option to use it even if it was nerfed and you also have supressive fire which is is the same as the mercs sweeping blasters.

they were supposed to improve Carbine Burst because its cone is so narrow that if it hits anything it is the mob directly in front of you. BW talked about it in a post for suggested chages to operative/scoundrels they took the TA/UH cost off of carbine burst/ blaster volley and said that they would increase the angle and animation of it to be viable for an aoe awhile back and still has not done anything to the abilities. And again PVE raiders who want to bring operatives/ scoundrels to raid are tired of not being able to contribute when there are packs of mobs.

I have been playing my operative and leveling a scoundrel, both heals. (Operative is lvl 60) THE AOE IS ABOMINABLE. It is NON EXISTENT. What were they thinking. Either give us back our (now gimped) orbital strike or give us something else. We haven't got jack.

 

This is ridiculous. The lack of attention to our questions, problems, posts and other lack of customer service is beginning to really become a glaring problem. INformation is critical to good service. (I think this is probably falling on deaf ears.

 

SCOUNDRELS AND OPERATIVES NEED AN AOE and not the EXCUSES for **** they have offered. MOst of the time volley spray doesn't even hit anything. Get real devs. This isn't working.

It is depressing how little AOE our class has. During 12x, I've taken the time to level both a Merc and an Assassin, and it doesn't feel right to even compare it. There is never a time to use Carbine Burst. It is a waste of a cool down, and will be a waste of a utility slot.

In all reality, we need something like Explosive Surge/Flame Sweep for our AOE skill. I'm thinking something like this.

 

EMP Blast: Use the Neural Surge ability animation tack on the damage from Carbine Burst and make it a new Operative Ability.

 

EMP Grenade: Use the /smuggler animation, give the pulse effect from Neural Surge, tack on the damage from Blaster Volley make it a new Scoundrel Ability.

In all reality, we need something like Explosive Surge/Flame Sweep for our AOE skill. I'm thinking something like this.

 

EMP Blast: Use the Neural Surge ability animation tack on the damage from Carbine Burst and make it a new Operative Ability.

 

EMP Grenade: Use the /smuggler animation, give the pulse effect from Neural Surge, tack on the damage from Blaster Volley make it a new Scoundrel Ability.

 

I could get behind this if they made it with no CD.

I have also thought about what if they took the cone and mechanics form the Powertech's Firestorm and used the damage and animation from CB/ BV the animation is about the same width and it lasts for about as long would just need to make it have the channel and be able to turn in place which would work well with CB/ BV being the dot spread for our CD the way they have it worded in the tool-tip.

Edited September 22, 2015 by fragnor
changed a word.

I could get behind this if they made it with no CD.

I have also thought about what if they took the cone and mechanics form the Powertech's Firestorm and used the damage and animation from CB/ BV the animation is about the same width and it lasts for about as long would just need to make it have the channel and be able to turn in place which would work well with CB/ BV being the dot spread for our CD the way they have it worded in the tool-tip.

 

Obviously my concept would have no CD, we already have Fragmentation Grenade/Thermal Grenade.

Still no further word on this

Bump to keep it close to the top so maybe it gets looked at by the devs. 8O

Bump to keep it close to the top so maybe it gets looked at by the devs. 8O

 

We can only hope :/

After playing Star Wars: Uprising they have a move that you start with called "Hold-out Blaster" which is a cone that does above average damage and is exactly what Blaster Volley should emulate. I would be interested to see what the actual pathetic cone is for BV. I support the idea of having the cone similar to that of Flamethrower and no further changes. I only really use the move randomly when running and usually never in a rotation - I did like the energy reduction they gave it though!. Edited October 2, 2015 by -Sullster-

After playing Star Wars: Uprising they have a move that you start with called "Hold-out Blaster" which is a cone that does above average damage and is exactly what Blaster Volley should emulate. I would be interested to see what the actual pathetic cone is for BV. I support the idea of having the cone similar to that of Flamethrower and no further changes. I only really use the move randomly when running and usually never in a rotation - I did like the energy reduction they gave it though!.

 

I never even used it when it had higher energy cost plus TA/UH requirement. Not after trying it when I was new.

 

Now it is less painful and wasteful to use but....still hardly worth it.

I beg the devs... play scoundrel or operative and do anything that requires killing mobs. Alone. With no friend, no team and no god mode. Geez this blaster volley is THE WORST. We used to have orbital strike. My gunslinger has sweeping gunfire and that is awesome cmpared to this worthless crap. Make this as good as sweeping gunfire and you might convince me you care. Right now, as things stand, my operative has essentially no aoe.

 

Makes doing Yavin 4 a pain at times.

I beg the devs... play scoundrel or operative and do anything that requires killing mobs. Alone. With no friend, no team and no god mode. Geez this blaster volley is THE WORST. We used to have orbital strike. My gunslinger has sweeping gunfire and that is awesome cmpared to this worthless crap. Make this as good as sweeping gunfire and you might convince me you care. Right now, as things stand, my operative has essentially no aoe.

 

Makes doing Yavin 4 a pain at times.

 

Basically, you gotta roll with the punches when it comes to class changes. But damn, the lack of aoe on scoundrel and operative is just sad. It just becomes tedious.

It's really hard to come back to my Operative after playing my alts. In terms of progression raiding, I may not even start on my Concealment Operative this tier despite it being what I consider my main. The other classes just offer too much by comparison, and I cannot help but feel that I'm always making my Raid Team worse off. I really hope that Lethality could become a true AOE spec.

 

I find it disturbing that our specs try to buff Carbine Burst, or use it as part of a rotation despite it having one of the laziest animations in the game, on top of the fact that it does a pittance of damage. We are even getting a new utility that will apply a slow when we use it. As a reminder:

 

Concealment's level 12 Passive is an increase of Crit by 15% and Crit Bonus by 30%.

Lethality's level 12 Passive forever ties the spec to Carbine Burst with dot spread for Corrosive Dart.

The level 59 Talent includes a 5% increase to its damage.

A Skillful utility for 25% extra damage.

A Skillful utility to add a 40% slow for 6 seconds.

 

All of these abilities are completely useless. If it wasn't for the fact that Carbine Burst was forced into being a dot spread, the move would never be used. We have no abilities that alter Fragmentation Grenade in any way outside of the passive that allows it to hit other targets. Which, as a quick side note is bugged, because Fragmentation Grenade is no longer considered an AOE until after it does damage, which means a Single Target Reflect will still reflect the grenade. This causes Operatives to have very little they can hit a Juggernaut with during a Saber Reflect.

 

I'd be fine with our nonexistent levels of AOE if it meant that we were far and beyond the top DPS class in the game on single targets. This isn't the case, as we see ranged specs with superior AOE dominating the charts every single time in both damage and usage. According to Log Parsing tools Ranged DPS have 59% utilization. Once we start going into Hard Mode only, we find that it increases to 62%. If we take it a step further and only look at current raids, it jumps to almost 70%. Even at the most broad of spectrum of all raids, Operative usage is startling 3.2% with 75% of Raiders using Concealment.

 

So please, please make Lethality into a viable AOE Build. Take Carbine Burst out the game and give us a 10 meter PBAOE that we can place. It should be shaped as a circle.

Edited October 7, 2015 by KyoMamoru

Just checking back with my post to read what others have said about this I am glad that I am not alone in my feelings that these classes need a descent spammable aoe, either by fixing CB/BV or by giving us a new ability something akin to supressive fire that the snipers get. Thanks all for all of your comments and suggestions I do hope Bioware actually reads this and pulls their heads out of the sand and fixes this. And according to this post Operative - Lethality /Scoundrel - Ruffian is middle of the pack and Operative - Concealment /Scoundrel - Scrapper is on the bottom of all ilevel dps rankings, so we have room to gain some dps and not be completely op.