Class changes and balance in Game Update 1.3

I would like to see the cost in taking mods out reduced or taken away so we have have free range in customizing our gear without penalties

No, because that's not correct. 5.24% damage from each mob attacking you means that you take 5.24% more damage. That's how percents work...

With your numbers, say a mob normally hits you for 1000 damage, with three of them hitting for 3000 total. Post-patch they now each hit you for 1052.4 damage, for 3157.2 total. That's...you guessed it (or not) 5.24% more damage. 15.72% more damage would mean you're taking 3471.6 damage, which you didn't.

If a dev could provide exact numbers and the reason(s) why Defense Guardian is getting nerfed in damage while it already was the lowest among tank classes I would be very happy, and perhaps a but more understanding towards the changes.

I don't think some people will ever be satisfied.
"If a dev could provide what changed to my class" ->
"if a dev could provide a reason why" ->
"if a dev could provide exact numbers" ->
"if a dev could provide the percentages of people making and not making the marks" ->
"if a dev could provide what servers these guys not making the marks are on because we're doing just fine / if a dev could provide what servers these guys making the marks are on because we're finding it impossible on our server."

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but I think that the core truth is some people will never be satisfied, and I think giving more and more minute information takes away from the game and puts it too much into meta-gaming, which isn't what I came here to do. I play the game to have fun while learning to play my character well, NOT to calculate needlessly.

I trust that the devs won't let an entire class become COMPLETELY unplayable (in b4 sorc healing, which IS playable), and if they realize that they screwed up, that they'll fix it (in b4 fanboi assumptions, because I'm not).

Certainly agree that the extra 35% does not do much for Assassin Tanks anyways. My only guess is that in the top pure absolute highest tier of gear there may be some palpable differences, yet for those of us not at that absolute highest tier of gear, this change will hamper our ability to tank effectively.

Here is where guild will certainly shun Assassins trying to tank and prefer a Juggernaut or a Power Tech. The changes were not small by any means, 35% of something and 50% something are massive amounts... Just think about it--- 35% less of your body is pretty much loosing your head and part of your chest. Loosing 50% well then you are just left with one arm, one leg, part of your head and part of your torso...

Small? The developer that wrote the article needs an editor - you need to understand that perhaps a better word choice would have been to say the changes shall range from one-third to one-half and that would have been neutral enough to not seem misleading and flat out just not right.

Good to see buffs to other tanks and some dps... at least you are acknowledging that part of your fanbase is not all pro and are actually doing something about this... I can't help but ask... where is the healer love?

My question is when will Bioware realize the biggest issue with class balance is giving tank classes access to DPS tree's and DPS gear. If you want a tank class make a tank class. Give them 3 trees that allow a player to pick something that fits their play style while not creating super classes that can take a beating and dish out tons of damage

When you have tank classes that can use DPS gear and access to DPS builds you end up with imbalance. It happens in every game I have played that allows this, yet instead if addressing the actual issue the Dev's always dance around it because it would be admitting poor design and shoddy mechanics.

The reason Powertech's are doing so much damage comes down to two basic things.
1)Access to Tank and DPS trees
2)Access to Tank and DPS gear in a single build.

What a group of SMART developers would do is change the Merc's to a Medium armor class and Balance gear for both. Thus allowing more control over Itemization and more control over damage.

More so what a group of REALLY SMART Dev's would do is break each base class into 3 advanced classes. For Example BH could have:
Merc - Medium armor Ranged DPS - Support
Powertech Heavy armor support class. Healer - Support
Bodyguard - Heavy armor. TANK (Ranged - Melee) - Support

Then Itemize gear to list each class (ie Trooperlookin Getup of Blahness Type: Heavy Class: Boduguard stats: yadda yadda Tank tank tank yadda yadda) to maintain balance.

Then you can base skill trees in a way that allows you to control Damage and survivability much better than having "Shared" trees which is always a recipe for disaster especially when on of the "Shared Tree's" is a DPS tree. Now if you make the "Support" tree the shared tree again you can more easily balance out damage, Itemization and create more balance as well as play style options.

When Implementing a class based system as opposed to a skill based system you have to make clear and direct distinction between those classes limiting and controlling access to skills and equipment to make it work. When you fail to do this as has been demonstrated clearly in ToR you end up with exactly what you have happening now. PT's going up in the tank tree and then over into a DPS tree creating imbalance in PVE and PVP. To be fair PT's are not the only ones that are doing this, but I am using the PT as an example. The exact same thing could be pointed out with Jugs/Guardians and Sin/Shadows. They all share the exact same flaw. Access to Tank and damage tree's and access to tank and DPS gear.

Its fine to make it so each class has options in how they play, but with a class based system you have to really think through what a class has access to, and Bioware has simply dropped the ball on this.

Actually there was no necessity of such an actions in regard of class balance. If Bioware thinks that some class is overpowered relatively to other similar classes, they could boost these other classes instead of nerfing that single class. This step would probably make people happy instead of making so many subscribers upset making them disappointed and as a consequence loose another part of subscriber base. In addition to retain balance Bioware could make Boss mechanics more complex to compensate this boost. But of course this is much more complex and needs much more efforts, than just take class and randomly destroy its strong sides making it useless.

Wonderful! And good luck ruining game that people were waiting for so many years!

Wow this just made my Shadow Tank useless in a one on one fight. Survivabilty was the only thing I had going there at the level 50 pve and even pvp, I could not win in a one on one vs a healer let alone a DPS unless I have a healer keeping me up, unless I went all out with my cool downs and timed it properly, which is a rare thing to really do in pvp. This "fix" just flat out screws any chances for Shadows and I am assuming my Assassin is just as equally nerfed now.

Yup your right, I knew you were right, Its my not explaining properly and using % in error.
Was only meaning that although its a 5% nerf to Damagae mitigation it has an exponential affect the more targets involved in a multi mob tanking situation.
5% more damag against one mob may not be a massive nerf, but when appllied multiple times as a multi-mob tanking situation means that the increased damage also makes the Assasssin the worst OFFtank and no more fit for that role than a main tanking role.

YOU seem to be a SMARTDEV. why don't you send a resume or better yet make your own game?