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Developer Update: Class Changes and Balance in Game Update 1.4


CourtneyWoods

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I think the Resolve mechanic on getting chain stunned will still work fine - this lowers Resolve bar filling up on *overlapping* effects/stuns, not on one stun after another like an Op might do.

 

Be careful which spec tree provides certain buffs/abilities when commenting on changes. For example, Sorcs as a whole class are not getting better escape on Force Speed with the no snare/root thing. Only sorcs with at least 17 points in the healing tree are - DPS sorcs really don't get much help here. Same idea goes for evaluating some of the Op and Assassin changes - look carefully at which tree gets the change.

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I think you missed the part about us having a instant cast free force self heal. Also having to move is something healers should have to do anyhow. Also consider the fun to be had in huttball and the new wz for throwing people into FIRE!!!

 

Overall I like the direction the devs are going with this. Really one minor nerf, and some good buffs. We will have to see about resolve in game, however, to really judge it.

 

My experience with WoW was the free self-heal was near-useless and not worth speccing into. Here, we'll have to wait and see, but my other complaint about it is it's just what I need, yet ANOTHER ability on my already full hotbars. /sigh

 

In addition, Overload does give at least split-second respite while your enemies go flying and have to recollect themselves, physically and mentally. While they're flying, they're not adding to the stuns or damage, which can be significant. a self-heal doesn't affect them at all and they can just stand there or continue chasing you and beating on you.

 

As a healer, I DO move, both in PvE and PvP. I expect to. I get fidgety when I don't. It's just going to take more time (assuming I survive that long) to clear stun, move out of a group, face them and hit Overload than to simply hit Overload then Force Speed. At that point, I might as well not use it and just hit Force Speed and bolt and pray.

 

As for Huttball and fire, I can already toss people into it if I line up properly, which I'll have to do with the change anyway.

 

Again, it's all wait-and-see, but that self-heal's going to have to be serious for me to be happy about the Overload nerf.

 

Edit- As for Force Speed's snare removal, I think what some people are missing is that it's a specced thing, NOT automatic. I'm not currently specced into it, but it will be something I'll look into once 1.4 drops.

Edited by Heartsong
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[...]

 

Overall: Rather pathetic how short-sighted the changes have been. We get it. You care about PvP more than fun PvE gameplay.

 

Have fun losing more subs.

 

Indeed there are 16 PVP planets in this game, with thousands voice acted stories to level in PVP with many PVP items that you can get as you easily level in PVP while you are eating your CHEESYBURGER, while there is only 1 PVE world, where everybody is PVPing anyway, and a couple of PVE warzones, where you poor PVEer carebears can level your few PVE equipment.

 

GO AND TAKE A NAP NAB!

Edited by HendrixCoyote
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"Polarity Shift/Mental Alacrity now additionally grants immunity to interrupts for the duration. Improved visual FX to demonstrate this effect."

  • This sounded like an awesome effect because at first I thought it was for healers and it was on their 2 min global cooldown or something but then I realized it was for the dps of our class so they can now stun us while we cant stun them and bash us in the face.

Dark Resilience/Valiance: Now additionally increases the healing dealt by Unnatural Preservation/Force Mend by 15% per point.

 

  • Is this a new ability? I cant seem to find it. So a maximum of 30% more healing from that spell? What is that 30% of?

 

Force Speed now has a 20-second cooldown (down from 30) for all Consulars and Inquisitors.

  • This is the most useless ability in the game. Its like a button you can push to trigger people's predatory instincts to attack you. It might help if the levels were more complex but they are all open plains and people lol at you and hookshot you/stun you. If it was immune to stun for like 75% of its duration or something it might have some escape use. I see it possibly helping to get you out of the range of stuns now since they aren't so uber long anymore.

 

New Sorcerer/Sage ability, Unnatural Preservation/Force Mend: Heal yourself for a moderate amount. Only usable on yourself. Instant, costs no Force, 30-second cooldown. This ability is trainable at level 18.

  • This needs to be instant with the way things are currently. I think if another spell gets added to the rotation, we wouldn't be able to heal in the time needed before people die. This does seem like a good idea though to give us a tiny boost to consume on or to keep us alive for a second if we get randomly targeted by a boss or something so the whole group doesn't wipe.

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A 10 sec cooldown would be fun with force speed, especially with the added immunity

 

It might be necessary given the defensive buffs. I find that a 20 sec CD is not enough given the number of snares and gap closers in the game, and that's with Overload working as it does right now.

 

But I would not trade a nerfed overload for a quicker CD on Force Speed given a choice.

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Why they changed overload I don't understand. I also don't understand why they publish these changes like they are set in stone when they should all be subject to revision based upon testing. I.E. how come 1.4 isn't on the PTS yet?

 

If you accidently get knocked into fire or off a bridge cause of overload it is your own fault. You have to aware of the classes and space around you. A number of important strategies are going to be ruined because of this. As a assassin tank you can no longer use overload in order to get enemies off of your allies particularly in cases like huttball. Also it is effectively worthless as an aoe for stopping node caps in denova or alderran when multiple people are capping at once.

 

I don't necessarily know if it will make the game better but it significantly alters current strategies. Buffs to mercs, sorcs, operatives were all fine. Especially concealment operatives. Also cool to see deception get buffed maybe I will even respec to test it out.

 

Nothing terribly bad but I do want to see how the overall knockback and resolve changes effect gameplay as a whole. Shortening range on some of these interrupts could make gameplay much more offensive with less chance to interrupt node captures or stop the huttball. Also I think Bioware should stick with the strategy of boosting the weaker classes rather than nerfing the stronger ones. I don't consider Marauder or Powertech so vastly overpowered, but some of the other dps classes like Operatives and Assassins simply couldn't compete so I hope this brings them more in line. Certainly better than nerfing something to oblivion.

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I came to this game for PvE/Story in a Star Wars universe. I'm sure I'm not the only one. At launch I was playing with a dozen or so 'Star Wars' geeks, who were all excited about playing an MMO in a Star Wars universe. For most of them, it was their first MMO. As fhe first month or two went by, we collected up more Star Wars fans, formed a guild, and had a lot of fun playing the game. We do a little light PvP (helping defend a city, or friendly player when needed, etc...), but PvP is not a central focus to our game play.

 

Since that time, our guild of 30 or so players has dwindled to three who still have active subscriptions. The major reason they don't log in any more is lack of content updates (no new stories, new planets, new NPC's, companions, etc...). Even the little things. One female friend complained that she had leveled her Scoundrel, romanced Corso, ended up marrying him, and now he won't speak to her. Once the current story ends, it just ends. Nothign has changed in this regard since the game launched in December. Our companions, characters we spend almost all of our time with, are nothing but non-conversational meat bags.

 

The Codex is broken. One of the things that I enjoyed was the Codex. Learning about the worlds, characters, organizations, etc... it was fascinating... at least it had the potential to be. Instead it's broken, badly. Many of the 'achievements' are broken completely. There are many items that are just not in the game. Achievements for completing codex entries has so much potential. If done well, it could even be an alternative mechanism to advance you characters. Instead, its mostly ignored by most players. As far as I know, not a single minute of development time has been devoted to fixing/updating the codex.

 

There are many many threads in various forums on this site where players are asking for more story, more content, more depth to the story.

 

Instead, we get PvP balance...

 

It's really frustrating. I really want to love this game. I really do. The amount of time the developers are dedicating to PvP in the game is discouraging, especially with all of the attention given to the layoffs of staff and developers.

 

The Star Wars universe, an IP that I'm sure they paid a ton of money for, has so much story potential, and yet instead of developing more Star Wars story, PvP gets all of the developer attention.

 

This discourages me about the future of this game.

Edited by KhodaKat
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"Polarity Shift/Mental Alacrity now additionally grants immunity to interrupts for the duration. Improved visual FX to demonstrate this effect."

  • This sounded like an awesome effect because at first I thought it was for healers and it was on their 2 min global cooldown or something but then I realized it was for the dps of our class so they can now stun us while we cant stun them and bash us in the face.

Dark Resilience/Valiance: Now additionally increases the healing dealt by Unnatural Preservation/Force Mend by 15% per point.

 

  • Is this a new ability? I cant seem to find it. So a maximum of 30% more healing from that spell? What is that 30% of?

 

Force Speed now has a 20-second cooldown (down from 30) for all Consulars and Inquisitors.

  • This is the most useless ability in the game. Its like a button you can push to trigger people's predatory instincts to attack you. It might help if the levels were more complex but they are all open plains and people lol at you and hookshot you/stun you. If it was immune to stun for like 75% of its duration or something it might have some escape use. I see it possibly helping to get you out of the range of stuns now since they aren't so uber long anymore.

 

New Sorcerer/Sage ability, Unnatural Preservation/Force Mend: Heal yourself for a moderate amount. Only usable on yourself. Instant, costs no Force, 30-second cooldown. This ability is trainable at level 18.

  • This needs to be instant with the way things are currently. I think if another spell gets added to the rotation, we wouldn't be able to heal in the time needed before people die. This does seem like a good idea though to give us a tiny boost to consume on or to keep us alive for a second if we get randomly targeted by a boss or something so the whole group doesn't wipe.

 

You are so far off sorry to tell ya. Polarity shift grants immunity to interrupts not stuns and Force Speed is one of the most critical skills a Sorc has. I am of course referring to end game type of play to include pvp and pve so if you don't do either of those then I understand why you feel that way.

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I like the removal of the animation delay from Overload. I don't like the fact that I have to be facing my opponents to use it since it is primarily used while trying to flee. Looks like I'm going to have to start practicing my WoW Hunter technique of jump>spin>shoot again.

 

Also, with the way the client/server lag works in this game I'm positive that most of my overloads are going to be wasted on enemies that aren't really in front of me.

 

I'm also glad to see that Bioware recognizes that Resolve is working well depsite all the QQ. Now if they would only fix the TTK...

Edited by Darth_Philar
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Almost full War Hero Sorc heals here. I'm pretty expert at staying alive by kiting (as good as one can be against melee types that have lots of gap closers), and I have to warn you that the changes to Overload and Electrocute are going to significantly reduce survivability for Sorcs/Sages.

 

Overlord is a "skunk's tail"-like defensive cooldown in kiting: I turn my butt toward the enemy, knockback, and then create separation by moving away, usually in search of a LOS breaking obstacles. With the new ability, I'll have to face my foe and then trigger Overload and then turn around and then run away. That's hard to do in practice because lag prevents quick movements like that. Another use of Overload was to knockback an enemy while standing at a corner of LOS and then going around that corner. Not possible with your new cone effect. Adept close-range fighters are already skilled in moving through you, making it difficult to use forward-facing effects on them consistently (particularly with a narrow aperture cone at very close range, I imagine). So this is a major nerf to an ability that, talented with Electric Bindings, was one of our few escape mechanisms. We're already very squishy, and melees already have lots of gap closers. Why you want to reduce survivability is beyond me. I've heard lots of complaints, but "sorcs always get away" was not one of them.

 

Similarly, Electocute was a preemptive opener at 30 meters. If you could get it off before the leap, you could try to run away. Not so at 10 meters. The leap has likely occurred already and some melded have CC immunity after leaps.

 

These two changes favor melee types at he expense of a class already regarded as too squishy by most. I meant his feedback in a constructive light and not as a complaint. I Enjoy the class and it's limits as is. But less survivability against melees is not the right direction for balance.

 

Yeah also this. I can't heal myself break cc, try and cc, try and run away, try and aim my face towards the guy to push him away so I can turn back around and run away all at the same time. I see myself on my pyro circle strafing around these squishies and blasting them non-stop while they try and aim their face at me which they will probably miss and achieve nothing and if they do hit me and push me away by the time they turn around to run away ill be out of knockback and orientate my screen on them and then hookshot them right back.

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Of all the things to nerf: a key defensive ability of a squishy class that no one complains about being OP. I just don't understand it. I find the "stunned while they beat on ou ability" that juggs have to be far more troublesome. Not that I am calling for a nerf to that. Overload just lets you escape.

 

And in Huttball: you just axed LOTS of strategic plays with the overload changes... But leaps are still unaffected. Again, I am not calling for leap nerfs. I think they're fun even if I don't have them. But why Overload on an underpowered class?

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Why do developers let PVP mess up PVE?

 

I play PvP quite a bit on my Consular/Shadow. There are a total of four (LOL) whole maps with the same 16 people killing each other over and over again while they talk trash to each other. It's riveting to say the least but good XP so I participate.

 

PvPers are NOTORIOUS whiners. There have been countless spoofs, memes, parodies, etc. making fun of their incessent nerd rage. (http://www.pwned.nl/) So now here we are, not even one year into SWTOR and every single patch has brought with it ridiculous "balance" changes. The entire player population now has to suffer because of a few loud mouthed whiners with small pathetic lives. Great. Thanks BW for caving into the same crap that destroyed SWG.

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So, to sum up the changes...

 

1. Classes are nerfed to balance PvP, upsetting PvEers.

2. The most hated PvP part, the resolve system, is still there.

3. You ADD abilities, while you already need to know and use more abilites in this game than in other games.

 

These changes will make the game more complicated then it already is. Which may be good for bored players, who play the game 24/7 and can run the hardest game-content with one hand tied behind their backs, but 95% of your player base will have a harder time with these changes.

 

Good luck getting people back to the game with that attitude.

Edited by Yogol
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I like the removal of the animation delay from Overload. I don't like the fact that I have to be facing my opponents to use it since it is primarily used while trying to flee. Looks like I'm going to have to start practicing my WoW Hunter technique of jump>spin>shoot again.

 

Also, with the way the client/server lag works in this game I'm positive that most of my overloads are going to be wasted on enemies that aren't really in front of me.

 

I'm also glad to see that Bioware recognizes that Resolve is working well depsite all the QQ. Now if they would only fix the TTK...

 

Agreed on all points. I already find turning around can cause lag spikes that leave me disorriented from the unexpected facing that results. Imagine trying to hit some guy trying to run behind you and through you....

 

The animation delay is welcome.

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NO MORE UPDATES LETS SEE SOME ACTION > :) .Sorry for the caps but I had to say it that way and it is Sep were are the new and fast updates were Suppose to see .:) ? . and to the flamer i know its just the 4th but I'm tried of seeing all these things coming , I want a see them happen now :) . Edited by moonshoter
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Thanks for the pre-pre patch notes. It is encouraging to me that the cc problem is being acknowledged and addressed. If anything is nudging me to play GW2 full time and drop this it is the cc. I will need to play with the changes before deciding how much difference they make; I am looking forward to doing so.

 

With regard to the "instant" overload - please also make guardian's force sweep instant. It ha the same sort of wind-up animation that makes the ability painfully interruptable where I don't think it was intended to be. Thanks.

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30m Stun changes are going to murder my PvE experience. Everything else is a nice change and I see the need for it. But seriously Bioware, make abilities do different things as soon as you get into a warzone, then you have balanced PvP. Stop wrecking PvE and making people relearn their classes just so that PvPers have a nice experience.
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So with the resolve changes, this means 6 Guardians/Juggs/Mauraders/Sents can all cast their choke on me, I have 6 dots on me, and it won't fill my resolve now?

 

Yeah, maybe you should implement these changes on stuns that DON'T do damage, not all of them.

 

Kthanx.

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