Ever since my Smuggler got this attack it has NEVER hit for min-max dmg. I've talked to other Smugglers in my bracket (25-35) that are hitting with theirs for 1-1.2k crits, but MY backblast, which should be doing a minimum of 650-ish damage, rarely ever hits for 500. Whether my opponents are PC's with mitigation or NPCS doesn't seem to matter. At the moment my backblast is hitting consistently for 450 dmg, even though the tooltip says I should be doing at minimum 650. I really am at a loss. On the one hand, one of the attacks I rely on the most does negligible damage. On the other, most other Smugglers I have played with/ against tell me their attacks are just fine.

What I want to know is what the title of the thread asks. Could Backblast be broken? I stack nothing but Cunning... i thought, if anything, it would be getting MORE powerful.

Ever since my Smuggler got this attack it has NEVER hit for min-max dmg. I've talked to other Smugglers in my bracket (25-35) that are hitting with theirs for 1-1.2k crits, but MY backblast, which should be doing a minimum of 650-ish damage, rarely ever hits for 500. Whether my opponents are PC's with mitigation or NPCS doesn't seem to matter. At the moment my backblast is hitting consistently for 450 dmg, even though the tooltip says I should be doing at minimum 650. I really am at a loss. On the one hand, one of the attacks I rely on the most does negligible damage. On the other, most other Smugglers I have played with/ against tell me their attacks are just fine.

 

What I want to know is what the title of the thread asks. Could Backblast be broken? I stack nothing but Cunning... i thought, if anything, it would be getting MORE powerful.

generally, i find any attack ability which does 'kinetic' or 'energy' damage, does not hit for it's tooltip damage.

this comes down to your targets armor and overall damage mitigation.

very loosely, you can expect your kinetic/energy damage attacks to do about 60-80% of the tooltip's damage. exceptions to this are if your target has 0 armor and 0 mitigation (mobs with 'Weak' status), or if you have a 100% armor penetration, which only sentinels/marauders have in their middle trees.. afaik.

Thanks for the reply Thierry. If what you wrote is even remotely true, then perhaps Backblast is deserving of a buff when used as an "opener" while coming out of stealth. I mean, the attack sounds devastating, it looks like it should be hitting for devastating dmg, but as you describe how it's dmg is applied - is really mediocre. I understand the mitigation concept but the way you imply that it's applied in SWTOR would suggest that tootltips should be adjusted to reflect what is actually being put out.

What's the point of even keeping track of min-max if it really doesn't apply to what you're doing? The way it SHOULD work is --

1. Cloaked players should automatically be granted 1 stack of Upper Hand. Using the increased cloak ability should give them another stack, for maximum UH stacks. Or make it a timed buff, say -- 1 stack on cloak, another stack after 6 seconds in stealth, 2 stacks maximum.

a.) Each stack of Upper Hand should grant 50% chance to critically hit your opponent.

b.) Players should be debuffed upon expending their Upper Hand stacks via "cloaked Back Blast", with a lockout to stacks of Upper Hand. Call it something like "Overload" or something.

c.In addition to its regular function, Cool Head should remove said debuff.

2. Weak opponents should be hit consistently at the top end of the min-max spectrum, with crits more likely to occur on grey/ green targeted NPC's.

a.) "Normal" enemies should be hit for in between the min-max values of the attack, excluding criticals. Point blank period.

b.) Strong/Elite/Champions should be harder to crit with the ability and take less dmg than usual, as is expected.

What should NOT happen is what i'm experiencing... No matter what level of the enemy I face, whether pve or pvp, the ability does significantly less damage than what is shown on the tool tip. It doesn't make any sense from a strictly informational perspective, for min-max values to be there if the "actual" damage is NOWHERE in the same ballpark as the "anticipated" damage.

What i'm saying is...Make it make sense.

^ Backblast is not your stealth opener...level some more. And you can't adjust tooltips to account for mitigation because all targets have their own mitigation amounts.

It already makes sense, and some of the changes you're suggesting are absurd to say the least.

Your ability does the damage shown - then the targets mitigate it to determine the damage taken. Different enemies have different defences, so the amount of damage they receive will vary. This is why you see Back Blast scoring less than it says on the tooltip. So will your other abilites.

Each damaging attack has its own characteristics too - kinetic (like Back Blast) and energy damage are mitigated by armour. Internal and elemental damage is not. The latter two types may do damage nearer to theur tooltip value as a result, if not mitigated by something other than armour.

Back Blast is a scoundrel's second hardest-hitting attack. The hardest is Shoot First - which is usable only from stealth, and grants a stack of Upper Hand. This sounds a bit like what you were proposing to do to Back Blast.

You only get a feel for how a class really works oncve you have all the abilities, and you may not get them all until level 50. Until you've tried it at that level for a bit, it's probably rash to propose changing the entire way the class works.

Playing scrapper is a (back) blast... have fun!

No, I'm not broken!

Oh. Oh, sorry, you meant the ability. See, my trooper's name is Backblast.

No, I'm not broken!

 

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Except for Steve. He's just a jerk.