General

 

Dirty Kick can now be used while moving.

Players can now "Crouch" (but not roll into cover) while immobilized.

Smugglers can no longer be pushed out of cover via the "cover integrity" mechanic, which has been removed from the game.

 

 

Gunslinger

 

Due to changes to the Gunslinger skill trees, Gunslingers have had their skill points refunded.

Flourish Shot now additionally inflicts trauma, reducing all healing the target receives by 20% for 9 seconds.

 

Saboteur

Hot Pursuit has been redesigned. It is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree and makes Quick Shot cost no energy for 6 seconds after leaving cover.

Incendiary Grenade has been improved. It now deals more of its damage in the first few seconds and snares affected targets. If the initial hit strikes a target affected by your Shock Charge, that target is stunned for 2 seconds.

Pandemonium is now located in Tier 2 of the skill tree.

Sabotage's range has been increased to 60 meters.

 

Sharpshooter

Burst Volley has been redesigned. It now triggers from dealing damage with blasters and increases Alacrity and Energy regeneration for 10 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

Deadeye is now a 3-point skill that provides the same overall effect.

Holed Up is a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6 of the skill tree that reduces damage taken from area attacks by 60% while Hunker Down is active. This change allows the Sharpshooter to remain in cover more often in situations that force other classes to rapidly change locations.

Snap Shot's tooltip now correctly mentions that its effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds. Functionality has not changed.

 

Dirty Fighting (Gunslinger)

Bombastic now correctly requires Shrap Bomb.

Hemorrhaging Blast no longer has an Energy cost.

Hold Your Ground's cooldown reduction for Pulse Detonator has been reduced to 2.5 seconds per point.

Holdout Defense now increases Blaster Whip damage by 4% per point.

No Holds Barred now increases critical chance by 1% per point.

Reopen Wounds now increases the critical chance of Wounding Shots and Speed Shot by 4% per point.

Wounding Shots now costs 25 Energy (down from 30). The weapon damage component of this ability has been reduced by approximately 15%, but bleeding damage remains unchanged.

 

I for one think that the changes to cover alone could really help our class.

 

Changes to flourish and burst volley could be game changers.

 

I still would have liked to have seen more on the defensive side other than the AOE skilled reduction and a move to tech damage for one or two abilities.

 

Still it is hard to say without seeing how it interacts with many of the other class rebalances.

 

What I am most interested at this point is to find out exactly how the changes to stats and the "math" effect us. Also, I am hoping that the new gear provides us some better options.

 

What do you think?

P.S.

 

Dirty Kick being fixed.. Great!

 

What was the cover integrity mechanic?

P.S.

 

Dirty Kick being fixed.. Great!

 

What was the cover integrity mechanic?

 

I think you cant be knocked out of cover anymore by any attack.

you can't be knock out of over which is really annoying in pve with mobs with rocket launchers. This is actually a buff for us! Good work Bioware.

People play Gunslingers?!!

 

On a more serious note! I have rolled a GS the 1.2 changes to sabo line seem to be for the better. I cant wait to try em out!

The change to flourish shot is fantastic. If I'm not wrong, it will give us competitiveness in ranked pvp. Healers are so powerful in this game, having a heal debuff on your team will work wonders when focus firing.

The change to dirty kick and cover while rooted is of course Bioware listening to our complaints, like they usually do. Love them.

Our DPS will be better with the new burst volley. We can fire more. I might actually go back to 31 SS from 26/16/2. There's no point in going up to insurrection if we can get the energy regen off of burst volley.

The fix to deadeye makes sense, and will make 31 ss even more viable. 30% damage on 3 skill points instead of 5 is great.

This is a huge buff to SS.

I can't speak too much on the DF, but it looks like a slight nerf.

 

I'm really excited for this patch.

Overall, I'm very happy with the mini buff to gunslingers. I kinda feel that the flourish shot buff is a little op, but whatever not our problem lol. Also probably will still not spec into burst volley unless I'm raiding. Though I'll have to test it out in pvp once this goes live.

 

Lets hope our new armor sets have cool bonuses. Though I do love the pvp set bonus, the pve one is useless.

Rolling sab.

Overall, I'm very happy with the mini buff to gunslingers. I kinda feel that the flourish shot buff is a little op, but whatever not our problem lol. Also probably will still not spec into burst volley unless I'm raiding. Though I'll have to test it out in pvp once this goes live.

 

Lets hope our new armor sets have cool bonuses. Though I do love the pvp set bonus, the pve one is useless.

 

its not op. Sentinels already have a healing debuff. They probably did it to give us some competitiveness in ranked wzs. Now slingers and sentinel are the only class to have a healing debuff.

 

Very happy with the changes

The first two items in the post made me really happy.

 

Due to changes to the Gunslinger skill trees, Gunslingers have had their skill points refunded.

Flourish Shot now additionally inflicts trauma, reducing all healing the target receives by 20% for 9 seconds.

 

A lot of the changes in this patch for Gunslinger needed to be made. Hemorrhaging Blasts being free is a huge plus to Dirty Fighting, because it wasn't worth using with how energy starved you were already.

 

Gonna be interesting playing around with the new tree locations. Although, I doubt this is really going to make us any better in PvP, since we still don't have any survivability, and Defense Screen and Dodge weren't really covered. :/

Edited March 17, 2012 by Ukita

Rolling sab.

Thanks for posting this When do the changes go live?

People play Gunslingers?!!

 

why do people say this? there are slingers galore on my server (Belgoth's Beacon) in fact ive been in wz's with 5 slingers before. its kinda annoying, i think the word is out that slingers are the new "it" class.

 

I kinda feel that the flourish shot buff is a little op

 

what? flourish shot currently useless if a guardian is in the group doing his job with their own armor debuff. this now gives flourish shot more of a reason to be used.

9sec -20% healing debuff ? AMAZING .

Fixing dirty kick ? AWESOME .

Fixing cover ? GREAT .

-5 energy using wounding shots ? WONDERFUL

1% crit gain on WS / SS for an overall 3% crit loss ? WOOT

 

 

 

Overall , as I said in another thread , for a 3 month brainstorming patch , it's just laughable .

 

 

 

( go Sab or MM ? lol seriously ? )

Edited March 17, 2012 by Tsubibi

The Little Turret that could,

Just got given a crate of can.

why do people say this? there are slingers galore on my server (Belgoth's Beacon) in fact ive been in wz's with 5 slingers before. its kinda annoying, i think the word is out that slingers are the new "it" class.

 

 

 

what? flourish shot currently useless if a guardian is in the group doing his job with their own armor debuff. this now gives flourish shot more of a reason to be used.

 

When I first hit 50, there were, quite literally, only 2 level 50 gunslingers and a level 50 scoundrel. This wasn't in the first week or anything either, I leveled very slowly with a friend, and didn't even play the game for 2 weeks around level 40. I *am* on a small server, but still, with 50 people in the fleet at the time, and so few smugglers, it's easy to see where people are getting that.

 

However, I have noticed that gunslinger alts are becoming more and more common. I see tons of them in low levels, and have started seeing a lot more in 50 queues as well. Unfortunately most are pretty bad, and I hope the majority go back to playing something else so we can stay the underplayed class.

Incendiary Grenade has been improved. It now deals more of its damage in the first few seconds and snares affected targets. If the initial hit strikes a target affected by your Shock Charge, that target is stunned for 2 seconds.

Pandemonium is now located in Tier 2 of the skill tree.

 

This one caught my eye -- makes IG useful in PvP again. Very, very useful...

we are already op and they buff us shoulda just kept us where we were and nerfed shadows. df spec will still be pretty bad against good healers and amazing against bad healers in rated. cleanse makes df spec useless. Edited March 18, 2012 by Lambz

I play a mad bomber gunslinger and what I can tell you is:

 

Incendiary Grenade has been improved. It now deals more of its damage in the first few seconds and snares affected targets. If the initial hit strikes a target affected by your Shock Charge, that target is stunned for 2 seconds

 

Is a massive buff, before I would only use it situationaly right after a xs flyby, but now its actually worth using in your rotation.

 

Hot Pursuit has been redesigned. It is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree and makes Quick Shot cost no energy for 6 seconds after leaving cover.

 

This makes refunds so much to my rotation its not even funny, after I drop to cover ss, sc, as I get up and quick draw. There are alot of times where the target still has some kick to him and now instead of being energy staved to do anything I can qs for free. Its like hitting the lottery on gunslinger.

I doubt this is really going to make us any better in PvP, since we still don't have any survivability, and Defense Screen and Dodge weren't really covered. :/

 

How much more survivability do you want man?

 

Ranged interrupt, root, melee stun, 2 knockbacs, group ranged stun, defense screen, dodge

and SS at least also get 60% reduction in aoe damage now which is huge as aoe was a major tactic in forcing gunslingers out of cover. Sabs also have a slow through shock charge...

seriously all the tools are there... do you want the ability to heal on top of all that?

How much more survivability do you want man?

 

Ranged interrupt, root, melee stun, 2 knockbacs, group ranged stun, defense screen, dodge

and SS at least also get 60% reduction in aoe damage now which is huge as aoe was a major tactic in forcing gunslingers out of cover. Sabs also have a slow through shock charge...

seriously all the tools are there... do you want the ability to heal on top of all that?

 

He never mentioned a heal, did he. Also, every stun and knockback you mentioned boils down to only being allowed to use two on a single target before their resolve is full. If they are close enough to be hit by the aimed shot knockback, that counts so you can only use one stun. You can only use two for the most part. Also, I'm not sure why you felt simply mentioning dodge and defense screen was adequate enough of of a response to his contention that they are subpar skills. Maybe you can explain how they are on par with the other classes?

I think I will try speccing 30 in SS plus some extras from other trees. Or maybe even 28 in SS + extras as I don't feel the need of getting extra AoE Def nor Rapid Fire even now.

Damage and survability are very nice as they are and I could use those to points we will save from Dead Eye and spend them on something else.

 

Just some thoughts. OFC I will try that AoE dmg def skill but I am more inclined to not have it.

With Burst Volley triggering off of damage dealt with blasters, I'm going to say that you probably will not need all 3 points in that ability. Since it has an internal cooldown of 30 seconds anyway, having it proc 100% of the time isn't useful. My guess is you can put 2 points in it and have the same up time of the buff as if you had 3 points in it. You may even be able to get away with 1 point in it.

With Burst Volley triggering off of damage dealt with blasters, I'm going to say that you probably will not need all 3 points in that ability. Since it has an internal cooldown of 30 seconds anyway, having it proc 100% of the time isn't useful. My guess is you can put 2 points in it and have the same up time of the buff as if you had 3 points in it. You may even be able to get away with 1 point in it.

 

Currently on the test server:

 

"Blaster shots have a 5% chance to grant Burst Volley, increasing alacrity by 10% and energy regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds."

 

That's what it says without any points into it. We can assume that putting the full three points into it will increase the chance of occurrence to 15%.

 

So that's it. Three points for 15% chance to increase alacrity to 10% and energy regen by 50%. The energy regen sounds great, but I'm not sure if it's worth 3 points investment. If anything, this will just keep people in hybrid specs instead of 31 SS.

Edited March 19, 2012 by ZDProletariat

I think we will see more 28 pt SS variants with at least 2 pts in the new Burst Volley in 1.2.