I was wondering why my BH was doing so poorly last night, took forever to take down an elite. Finally quit as I realized I was not having any fun playing him. Now I see why.

LOL, you are clearly one of those people that LOOKS for reasons to complain, BH aren't any worse really in terms of DPS other than the stupid nerf to DFA, which would have no effect on how quick you take down an elite as it was a AoE nerf and not a damage nerf.

It ticks for less cause it hits 2x as many times. pre 1.2 3 ticks, post 1.2 6 ticks. Same exact amount of damage done over time.

 

I play a BH and love it. I owned all day yesterday and until servers went down.

so if that's the case, it's still a pretty big nerf because there's no way you're gonna get a player to take 6 ticks of DFA. at least before i'd see 1 or 2 hits for 2k before they got out of there, now i see 1 tick of 800 tops. i still think they lowered the damage some, because even if you double the ticks that still is lower than the numbers i was seeing pre 1.2. there isn't anyway to prove this as we didn't have combat logs (conveniently on BW's part) prior to 1.2 for comparison.

of the dps classes we are the worst utility/defense and middle of the pack offense- wise. this is an imbalance. if we're gonna be so terrible on defense we need to be the best offense and that's just not the case. we're too stationary for the lack of defense and our offense doesn't make up for it, that's why we get melted in 3 secs flat (against anyone remotely competent) whenever anyone decides to take notice of us. the marauder/sentinel has far more defense and better offense, smuggler/ops can still do their vanishing act and kill you in 3 hits, etc. i'd even take the sorc's bubble over our (lol) heavy armor. the only dps class w/o a natural interrupt, give me a break. terribad AoE now. the list goes on and on. but hey, keep drinking the koolaid if it suits you.

in all fairness it was completely ridiculous before.

I must admit I loved DFA for both the animation, knockdown, AoE range, and especially the damage. Maybe it was a bit too high. Still sad to see it go down.

in all fairness it was completely ridiculous before.

this!

I must admit I loved DFA for both the animation, knockdown, AoE range, and especially the damage. Maybe it was a bit too high. Still sad to see it go down.

the thing is the damage did not go down, its just more ticks for less damage per tick but same overall...

No this is a ninja nerf or someone messed up as the damage of death form above was not to be reduced!

Only the damage per tick was reduced, the net damage is the same.

DFA was three ticks of damage, It was changed to six ticks. The initial damage is now instant.

To compensate for doubling the ticks the damage per tick was reduced. It has the same total damage over the course of the full channel.

Only the damage per tick was reduced, the net damage is the same.

 

DFA was three ticks of damage, It was changed to six ticks. The initial damage is now instant.

To compensate for doubling the ticks the damage per tick was reduced. It has the same total damage over the course of the full channel...

Looking back over my character's playtime (LVL 47 Trooper/Vanguard, server Canderous Ordo), I can say the Mortar Volley was most effective on the early planets, where mobs would actually stand close enough together that AoE abilities actually DID something. After ...I want to say Alderaan, the mobs started standing just far enough apart that Mortar Volley was only hitting half the mob. (Of course, the mobs were larger after that, too, so that likely had something to do with it.)

Having played for a few minutes after the 1.2 patch finally downloaded, Belsavis is finally starting to be a problem. I'm back on Hoth to finish some Heroics (and one random AREA-4), but I shudder to think what Voss will be like after this.

All the damage in the world doesn't matter if it never reaches it's target. At this point, with the knockback effect throwing the mob out of the blast radius after the first tick, ticks 2-6 are practically superfluous...not to mention an excellent free root effect on YOU while you're casting the rest of the volley, something players on PvP servers ought to be really worried about.

And to the gentleman who posted about still being able to hit a target with Death From Above for full damage, you just made their argument for them: only A target?

Damage from Death From Above should not be any different in this patch. All that was adjusted was the radius of the effect. Damage is applied faster now (every .5 second instead of every second) but the overall damage is the same.

Awsome, I am glad that the damage is applied faster now. I am not thrilled however with the change to the radius. From a PVE stand point, it kinda stinks.

In PVE, the mobs are spread out more, making it harder to get multiple mobs. In addition, the weak/standard mobs would typically be knocked out of the radius due to the DFA Knockback and not take anymore damage as a result. Obviously, this only applies to the weak/standard mobs and not the Strong and up mobs.

Overall, 1.2 wasn't bad to the Powertech/Vanguard Advanced Class. Well, at least from a Powertech/Shieldspech stand point that is.

Compared to some of the other classes and there ACs, we should really count ourselves lucky.

the thing is the damage did not go down, its just more ticks for less damage per tick but same overall...

True, but with the reduced AoE we can hit less targets (unless someone is herding them) and with the knockback if the mobs are anywhere near the outer edge of the area they get knocked out of the damage. Assuming they are suseptable to the knockback. That lowers the damage. But yes, I did state that the total damage was reduced, which it was not.

You reduced the radius of Death form Above which was fine but now you ninja nerfed the damage by 30-40%. PLEASE EXPLAIN YOURSELF.

THey have explained themselves, you just have not looked for the explanation. It was not a ninja nerf. And really it was rather OP as it was. As to mobs getting knocked out of the AOE, that can happen to weak mobs, and is something you have to take into account, but those are weak mobs so it should not really be a problem should it since they are also knocked down? And of course if you have a tank it is probably not a problem at all. If it is a problem then maybe you are in a higher level area than you should be.

THey have explained themselves, you just have not looked for the explanation. It was not a ninja nerf. And really it was rather OP as it was. As to mobs getting knocked out of the AOE, that can happen to weak mobs, and is something you have to take into account, but those are weak mobs so it should not really be a problem should it since they are also knocked down? And of course if you have a tank it is probably not a problem at all. If it is a problem then maybe you are in a higher level area than you should be.

who's gym socks have you been smoking

atm DFA is the smallest radius AoE in the game that is channeled....since they nefed range of DFA i Demand Feighter flyby and force storm to be nerfed down to the same radius and lets see the *****torm of cries that come out

BW return DFA to its original radius as it is now in lvl 50 areas with say alot of normal 50 mobs they are too much spread meaning it will now only hit 1-2 mobs of a grp of 3-5

atm i can put my tiiiiiiiiny DFA inside my pal's force storm

The damage reduction didn't bother me, but the reduction of radius of damage did. Now after the first tic it knocks the enemy out of range to the rest of the attack is usless. I'll admit I almost never use DFA in pvp. People see the target on the ground and run out of range which makes it usless.

Thats cause there wasn't a damage reduction it just ticks every 0.5 seconds instead of every 1 second.

I'd rather see range put back and DMg reduced...ESP. For PVE. Let me put a ill hurt into alot of mobs as an opener then use my other aoe abilities and single target DMg to burn them down....just feels more epic/heroic to me....but if they leave it as is I can adapt....I've been soloing most of this game with mako....and now it gets a little more hectic at times but I still get through content...oh and I'm a casual player with no raid gear and no pvp gear. I've got all orange gear with number 22 or 23 mods in them. I'm pyro tech specd and still burn through mobs of trash plus elite boss and get them all down. Now I just use flame sweep carbonise and my shoulder charge more followed up with uppercuts and rail shots when they proc and stuff still drops like its hot!

Alot of times in a group if I pull a strong or elite mob of healer I still burn him down faster then two peeps hitting on another mob. It's just you have to change tactics a bit and can't always do the same thing you did till now. BHs still do mad burst DMg and still get through PVE content and hard mode FPs so I guess I don't see why anyone would just up and quit over One aoe skill being changed for better or worse.

It was already pretty useless in PVP. Any player with half a brain interrupts it the second they see you leave the ground. It was only good in PVP against inexperienced players and PVE. Now even the inexperienced players can just walk right out of it in one tick and the PVE usefulness is greatly diminished.

Any way you want to spin it this is a big nerf to damage. You were hitting 5 mobs before and now your hitting 3, which are knocked out of the radius after the first tick. Damage has definitely been lowered also, intentional or not. When I hit my crit relic/adrenal items before it used to hit over 1000 per tick, now I'm seeing 600 range numbers.

I understand the need for the TM nerf, but DFA was fine the way it was. It had a long cooldown and was very situational.

Damage has definitely been lowered also, intentional or not. When I hit my crit relic/adrenal items before it used to hit over 1000 per tick, now I'm seeing 600 range numbers.

The ticks have been doubled haven't you been paying attention. x2 more ticks = half the damage per tick. Except according to your model, the damage would be actually increased. (600 x2 = 1200 > 1000)

And DOA was BROKEN before, the radius was FAR more than what BW wanted it originally to be, now it is balanced.

Also, I think many of you need to look up what the term "radius" means. It's a 5m radius, which = 10m diameter. Test it if you don't believe me.

So the patch notes specifically state that the effect radius was reduced, and the amount it was reduced to.

Then we get not one but two Bioware posts explaining that the damage was not reduced in any way, just that we see double the amount of ticks for half the damage per tick in the same amount of time - along with the (stated in the patch notes) adjustment that damage now starts immediately, instead of being delayed.

15 pages of the same complaints about the "ninja nerf" and "damage reduction" later, and I'm thinking this is actually a stupidity test for people who play Bounty Hunters.

It's hilarious, but man is it embarrassing.

So the patch notes specifically state that the effect radius was reduced, and the amount it was reduced to.

 

Then we get not one but two Bioware posts explaining that the damage was not reduced in any way, just that we see double the amount of ticks for half the damage per tick in the same amount of time - along with the (stated in the patch notes) adjustment that damage now starts immediately, instead of being delayed.

 

15 pages of the same complaints about the "ninja nerf" and "damage reduction" later, and I'm thinking this is actually a stupidity test for people who play Bounty Hunters.

 

It's hilarious, but man is it embarrassing.

THIS

/thread

There are multiple different issues going on here that many are ignoring. From my own testing, DFA still does the same amount of damage - provided something actually takes all the hits. The real nerf was the radius.

I play a powertech tank. DFA was a great pulling move. It is still decent in very limited situations, but for most trash pulls it is now almost useless. In operations, the damage I deal with it is insignificant compared to that put out by the rest of the group, but it gets everything on me from the start. Now I have to charge in, use flame sweep a couple times, and still end up losing outliers just from heal aggro. Also, as has been noted before, DFA still does knockback against normal and weak mobs. In many cases, it is impossible to hit more than one target with the full volley where before I could hit 3-4. It has also lost quite a bit of damage versus some mobile bosses.

Note - I do not PvP. I understand the issues with the radius there, but I have no issue with it. It seemed rather situational to begin with.

So yes - the total damage is the same against a single immoble target. But the net effect is a huge nerf.

the dmg has not been nerfed but the overall dmg has been unintentionally or not by the nerf of the radius of the skill

and the skill got more nerfed on the PvE side than the PvP side

i use DFA practically whenever its off CD while doing dailies and Flashpoints Ops....but since the radius nerf i just dont use it anymore as the mobs pretty much has to be ontop of eachother to have any effect past the knockdown of it

Caves are your friend. In the caves, this works normally as the npcs are grouped together. In the open, you're lucky to hit 2 at once.

It's amusing...my imperial agent friend just unlocked airstrike which is 8M still. So other classes keep their 8M abilities, while we get our DFA nerfed. I don't get it.

DFA is totally useless in PVP, unless you catch someone offguard. They can see the red ring and are able to step outside of it/or stun you back to the ground.

EDIT TO ADD: I think the damage is basically the same, the trick is trying to do it to as many NPCS which is more difficult now.

So the patch notes specifically state that the effect radius was reduced, and the amount it was reduced to.

 

Then we get not one but two Bioware posts explaining that the damage was not reduced in any way, just that we see double the amount of ticks for half the damage per tick in the same amount of time - along with the (stated in the patch notes) adjustment that damage now starts immediately, instead of being delayed.

 

15 pages of the same complaints about the "ninja nerf" and "damage reduction" later, and I'm thinking this is actually a stupidity test for people who play Bounty Hunters.

 

It's hilarious, but man is it embarrassing.

Ok, fair enough for the people saying that DFA was nerfed because it wasn't hitting as hard, but didn't notice that it was ticking twice as much.

But it is a DPS nerf in a sense. Let's say DFA does 3k damage to each target it hits. If you have a DPS meter running and you hit 3 targets for the full duration, you've done 9k total damage spread across three targets. If you only hit one target for the full duration, you only do 3k damage. That's a loss of 6k damage.

This is an extreme example of what has happened to DFA. By reducing the radius, bounty hunters are not likely to hit as many targets as they did in the past. The only way for the DPS to stay the same is if the group of mobs/players are tightly stacked on each other (which in the players' case, if they don't move that's their own fault).

The other loss comes from the knockback DFA does on normal and weak targets. Because the radius is smaller, DFA's first and maybe second tick will go off, but then the knockback kicks the mobs out of the hit zone. It doesn't matter if the damage per use of DFA is the same if the skill knocks them out of the hit zone and you waste the rest of the shots.

So yes, technically there is no DFA damage nerf. If you have the exact perfect conditions, you can still pummel all of your targets for the same damage. In most "real world" applications, however, BHs are forced to target less mobs in hopes that DFA strikes the smaller group for the full duration. Even then, it is not uncommon to see one (or both) mobs knocked out after a few ticks, thus making it a waste.

If these changes are going to stay, the minimum range needs to be either reduced or eliminated. While DFA would no longer be an effective opener, at least Powertech Tanks can use it to solidify their aggro.