Notes on BioChem and Cybertech in Game Update 1.1

As some of you may have already noticed from our patch notes for Game Update 1.1, we’ve made adjustments to several high-end, purple, player crafted items on the BioChem and Cybertech professions. Simply put, we reduced their overall impact on gameplay and I wanted to explain why it was necessary.


BioChem crafted medical kits were too good. In fact, they were too good both in the amount of healing they provided (often more than half a character’s health) and the frequency they could be used (every 90 seconds!). This was negatively impacting the game for everyone else. We’ve seen significant chatter both in and out of game about how players not picking up the BioChem professions would be ‘stupid’ and ‘gimping themselves’. This indicates that a small number of competitive players have been denying access to high end content based on whether a player has the BioChem Crew Skill.


Cybertech grenades, especially when stacked with additional power-ups and other temporary buffs, were creating combat damage burst potential higher than we were comfortable with and caused player versus player engagements in the game to resolve faster than intended. In fact we have additional changes to classes and consumables currently in internal testing to deal with faster than anticipated kill times in player versus player combat in a future patch.



The design intent for the game is that your choice of crafting profession should not become a requirement or ‘gating’ mechanism for participating in competitive content (PvP) and high end endgame challenges. While we certainly want players that engage in the crafting game to reap rewards for their effort, we don’t want one or two crafting professions to become the de facto ‘must have’ choice for everyone, which is what happened here.


We are extremely careful with this type of change, and understand that it can be frustrating for our players when we make them. Please understand, we make these changes not because we like to mess with your character, but because they are required to ensure a level and fun playing field for all players of the game.

At the same time, we understand that people that changed their profession because of the events described above will likely be unhappy about these changes – and while it’s easy to say ‘that’s how it goes in MMOs’, making modifications like this is something we’re always cautious about doing. At the same time, both player feedback and the data gathered from hundreds of servers made it very clear that this issue needed to be dealt with decisively now with only a small minority of players at endgame level and the vast majority of our characters in their 20s to minimize the number of affected players.


TL;DR: Fancy words for ‘we nerfed BioChem and Cybertech endgame products’ because they were so good that players started considering them mandatory. Your choice of profession is not supposed to be the deciding factor for participation and success in endgame content. We still believe that BioChem and Cybertech are very worthwhile Crew Skills, especially considering the significant fortune players with these professions are able to realize on the GTN... they are however no longer the ‘golden ticket’ into endgame content.

Aw crap, I can bet I know what class that affects.

Thanks for the explanation though, it's nice reading everything you guys put out.

But the cooldown on grenades is still 5 minutes?

We've been saying on the forums that it is far too long. If you are reducing the damage anyway, how about balancing them around a shorter cooldown, as well?

We currently cannot reverse engineer grenades, even though the UI lets us try. Is the bug that they show up as RE-able, or that doing it doesn't work?

What about the other crew skills? I think the key problem is that with the exception of Biochem and Cybertech, they don't offer anything that can't be achieved through other means. People want something unique from their crew skills; something that makes them say, "Yeah, I get to use this because I've got X skill!" and consumables are a good way to do that because there are many ways to get equipment.

A solid first step.

I hope we will see other Trades advance a bit with items for them like Biochem and Cybertech.

Tauntaun approves this message.

Seriously? Nerfing grenades?

I took Cybertech as a tank for the grenades to help with my AOE tanking deficiencies as a Juggernaut. I don't care about nerfing the damage, but how about reducing the cooldown to 1 minute so I can actually use them every pull?

At the very least, keep the individual 5 minute cooldown, but give them a 90 sec shared cooldown or something. There's almost zero reason to make more than one as it stands.

Even so, I really don't see how these needed a damage nerf. Were people actually switching to Cybertech? I only *ever* saw people on forums/in-game talking about changing to Biochem.

As someone who just dropped a 400 to go biochem, I knew this was inevitably coming and thank you for not going overboard with the nerf.

Your reasoning makes sense. However, many developer posts have been about tackling needed game adjustments in order of priority. Is this really high on that list?

How about Ability Lag?

How about the unpopular and unavoidable Auto-PvP feature that violates the game code about non-consensual PvP (see thread in this forum)?

If y'all are using "Ease of Correction" or "Rapidity/Alacrity of Correction" as a criterion in addition to simply priority, please let us know. I think the community would accept that, but saying "priority" only, and making a fix like this, is quite the empathic failure. This community certainly has other priorities.

But thanks for the clear explanation!

In other words, Bioware are letting a small number of hardcore dictate the game's design.

kthxbai.