Why is the hardest hitting attack in the game (smash/force sweep) both area of affect AND have a exceedingly simple automatic critical mechanic?

Combined with the pvp set bonus (+10% damage after using force leap), this entire concept has always been ridiculous. However, the fact it hits so hard (7k hits not unusual vs. 1396 expertise targets) and is area of affect is not what annoys me the most. The fact it crits *automatically* really annoys me.

Why?

Well, quite simply, focus/rage spec players can simply ignore critical rating. Virtually every other class requires 200-300 critical rating for optimal dps. However, the so called "lolsmash" spec means you simply ignore critical rating and convert all of that critical rating into more +power, which of course, will give you even bigger smashes. Who cares about +crit rating? Irrelevant, it crits automatically!

More then that, they can also ignore talents that would otherwise be excellent. For example, +2% critical on force attacks? *scoff* waste of points, smash crits automatically which the entire build is based around.

This is why automatic crits are bad. They affect both gearing and other talent choices. All automatic critical talents

should instead be altered to a critical bonus. Make it high, sure, but NOTHING should ever be absolutely guarenteed.

That's what critical rating is for. Making a whole stat irrelevant is imbalanced.

I now look forward to arguments attempting to justify why one spec should be permitted to not have to bother with critical rating while everyone else does in fact have too.

Making a whole stat irrelevant is imbalanced.

Talking about this topic is no longer entertaining. I do, however, find it amusing that this statement can be applied to both alacrity and accuracy depending on your class. Well, pretty much for everyone on alacrity.

If it didn't auto crit I would have to take away from all that power and surge and then I'd only be smashing you for 6K instead of 7.5 K.... DUH!

They also buffed smash so it could compete with the infamous rapid shots build.

Ask yourself,

do you think that the person/s responssible behind rage spec 1.4 changes honestly believed that Rage was underpowered? If the answer is no, than they do not understand their own game. If answer is yes, that it was a deliberate sabotage/trolling on their part. Whatever your answer it, it just speaks bad for the entire SWTOR developement team.

We have entire servers where all RWZ teams have come to an agreement to not roll rage and stunbubbles in RWZ. When the community decides for you what is balanced than it is a bad sign bioware.

Talking about this topic is no longer entertaining. I do, however, find it amusing that this statement can be applied to both alacrity and accuracy depending on your class. Well, pretty much for everyone on alacrity.

Alacrity is intended for healers, it's some times useful for dps classes, but generally much less so.

Point can be made more simple: even for the class the tree comes from, one tree offers you the chance to simply dump critical chance all together. It's just stupid design - and thats ignoring everything else about the entire tree.

its the hardest hitting, its auto crit, its instant, its aoe and its on a short cooldown

pretty faceroll, smash build has been powerful for juggs since release

then bw decided to make it powerful for marauders as well, and to give a 3rd means of building 4 shockwave and make the rage tree never run out of resources

its the hardest hitting, its auto crit, its instant, its aoe and its on a short cooldown

 

pretty faceroll, smash build has been powerful for juggs since release

 

then bw decided to make it powerful for marauders as well, and to give a 3rd means of building 4 shockwave and make the rage tree never run out of resources

It wasn't that powerful. BW just made it more powerful after they nerf vigilance spec. They even moved one of the smash talents into the the rage talent tree.

Ask yourself,

 

do you think that the person/s responssible behind rage spec 1.4 changes honestly believed that Rage was underpowered? If the answer is no, than they do not understand their own game. If answer is yes, that it was a deliberate sabotage/trolling on their part. Whatever your answer it, it just speaks bad for the entire SWTOR developement team.

 

We have entire servers where all RWZ teams have come to an agreement to not roll rage and stunbubbles in RWZ. When the community decides for you what is balanced than it is a bad sign bioware.

lol, which eutopic servers are these where people get along and don't use overpowered specs to win in ranked? On the harbinger, the top pvp guilds that do ranked almost always have a smasher or stunbubbler.

As for the people who designed smash, I like to think that the few remaining developers play maras and keep giving themselves buffs so that they can completely dominate every wz they enter, with jawdropping damage output and the best defensive cooldowns in the game, while at the same time nerfing the specs they don't use, like annihilation heals, so that it doesn't look like they're favoring one class.

God a ranked warzone without smashers or bubble stuns?

That's.....man I'd love to be a part of that. In the past week I finished getting my sent to 50 through PVP and the one defining difference is that in lowbie the bubbles rarely if ever stun you. In 50 PVP only the bad sorcs aren't using stun bubbles, and it's always a happy day when that's the case. Made me switch to focus because combat is just too easily shut down by smash.

Do you guys swear off grenades too? Those things are starting to infest lowbie PVP on shadowlands.

It wasn't that powerful. BW just made it more powerful after they nerf vigilance spec. They even moved one of the smash talents into the the rage talent tree.

That was their mistake. How many maras would be running rage spec right now if decimate wasn't moved into the shared rage tree?

Alacrity is intended for healers, it's some times useful for dps classes, but generally much less so.

 

Point can be made more simple: even for the class the tree comes from, one tree offers you the chance to simply dump critical chance all together. It's just stupid design - and thats ignoring everything else about the entire tree.

Healers getting Alacrity thats new.

no healer in their right mind would go Alacrity.