"Streamlined leveling"...

For example, Strike, Master Strike, Zealous Strike, Slash, Cyclone Slash, Leg Slash, for Jedi Sentinels. All sound similar. Leg Slash is just a cripple, so why not fold that into an existing skill like the standard Slash to make it more appealing and reduce bloat at the same time? Master Strike and Zealous Strike are both lightsaber skills that execute a series of melee attacks over X seconds, with the only difference being that Master Strike also stuns weaker enemies for the duration. Why not just make that an upgrade to one of the two skills and fold them into one? If animation variety is an issue, why not expand Strike's "finishing blow" dynamic animation across all abilities? If Zealous Strike is folded into Master Strike, that skill could still play either animation randomly.

It's strange seeing every other MMO out there opt for less skills, reducing them and making each skill more versatile and powerful to make them more exciting to use and easier to manage, while SWTOR ignores that trend despite the recent cash injection for the expansion and looming film releases. MOBAs are a fantastic example of how to do this well, with most characters having only 4 skills, but each skill being incredibly versatile in varying situations. ESO has a lot of fun with skill customization, having each skill start off the same way for each player, but then allowing them to add additional effects onto each skill as they level up, customizing their skills based on their preferred play style. Guild Wars 2 follows a similar approach, allowing players to choose a small number of skills from a roster of powerful and versatile ones, customizing their character in the process. SWTOR just says "Here, have everything, enjoy managing four hotbars."

Personally, I'd reduce the number of skills by up to 50% for each class, aim to fit them all on one hotbar, and make them all more versatile and possibly customizable. I'd get rid of the need to repeatedly "level up" skills at a trainer and have them improve automagically as you level. Do that and I'd expect a much stronger attach rate from the new influx of players from Episode VII. As it stands, the quantity and (in some cases, ie Leg Slash) blandness of skills are the most archaic aspect of SWTOR as an MMO, similar to WoW from the better half of a decade ago, and all the new players are going to notice it.

the misconception with this post is mind boggling.

and explains why little effort is going into the combat system

because little effort is being put into trying to learn it. tool tips are there for a reason.

"We're working on crafting blog"
"We're working on Alliance blog"
"We're working on gearing/stats blog"
"We're working on companions/influence blog"

Bioware, you do realize it's 1 month left till the expansion right?

If you thought the game has ever truly been a waste of time, you would not play it.

If your time really is that valuable, you should not be playing a computer game.

Quality and useful contribution to the thread as always bran.

Everything from gear to leveling to traveling has gotten easier. At launch, sprint wasn't even turned on until, I think, level 10. Speeders were level 25. Today, we have instant quick travel, instant fleet pass, priority transport terminals, speeders at lvl 10, etc. .

> Any plans to actually make companions more powerful now that we are deep into single player territory? This especially applies to "Tank" companions who are just laughably bad at their role(25% DR...really? A DPS Guard has more than that!)

These are good questions! We are working on a blog which will talk about what streamlined leveling means for Fallen Empire. My hope is to get it out sometime next week and we can talk through any unanswered questions then. Thanks everyone.

-eric

The game has gone casual since launch. What once was more of a hard core MMO has become much more casual friendly. It only makes sense that combat would become simpler as well.

Everything from gear to leveling to traveling has gotten easier. At launch, sprint wasn't even turned on until, I think, level 10. Speeders were level 25. Today, we have instant quick travel, instant fleet pass, priority transport terminals, speeders at lvl 10, etc. Gear comes out of our ears, basic comms are everywhere and mods are only 2 basic each. Good moddable starter gear exists at lvl 7 now on the fleet (would be nice for that vendor to be copied to the starter planets).

So all your details about which ability to use might be accurate, but it hardly matters anymore. Skill trees are gone, and there is a decent chance that even the 2 different DPS options for each AC might go too.

Why is that bran? I consider playing games to be a tremendous waste of time...but I enjoy it. It's fun...but it's literally as unproductive as watching TV is.

(...) I spend a lot of time replaying stories and sub 50 is just as important to me as new KoTFE bits are.
(...) how about just letting us watch our previous conversations? (...)