How can 1 person do all the balancing by themself? Its not going to be possible unless he plays all 8 classes on a regular basis, or did at one time.

 

"Well, I'm pretty sure this class is ok. I asked my buddy who plays one and he said they are fine."

the classes are pretty balanced besides merc, pyro powertech, and rage jugg. Some trees need to be fixed but every class has at least one good spec for pvp except merc.

I definitely have a team that supports me, brainstorms with me, and tests with me, but I do all of the design, implementation, and balance for all of the classes by myself. It is a daunting task.

Sweet Mother of Spanish God, I'll help you for free and you can take all the credit. I'm sure the same could be said of many suggestions for this AC and the other 7.

How can 1 person do all the balancing by themself? Its not going to be possible unless he plays all 8 classes on a regular basis, or did at one time.

 

"Well, I'm pretty sure this class is ok. I asked my buddy who plays one and he said they are fine."

To give him some credit, he's doing a phenomenal job for one person. If you've played any other MMOs you know that even despite the issues with Merc/Commando the overall balance in this game is light years ahead of most others even if they have entire teams dedicated to "balance".

To give him some credit, he's doing a phenomenal job for one person. If you've played any other MMOs you know that even despite the issues with Merc/Commando the overall balance in this game is light years ahead of most others even if they have entire teams dedicated to "balance".

I tend to disagree. Smashers etc can almost take on 2 lesser classes even with the same gear. So many defensive/damage mitigation abilities plus insane dmg. They are at least 50% stronger than any other class atm, even powertechs. This could easily be quick patched by reducing smash damage by half. 4k for an instant attack is plenty. My commando in full expertise gear and ewh and augs has only crit low 4k for a 5 grav round demo round AT BEST. This is after 3x 1.5 second casts.

<< I can understand these types of things being around for a month or two while people get geared. Any more than that, there is absolutely positively no excuse for not having a quick fix.>>

The answer? Simple. "That guy" plays the class that is redonkulous and ignores all feedback to tune it down. Then "that guy" gets tired of said class and another class is magically OP. This is the evolution of most MMOs (actually all). It's called CORRUPTION. Same thing as our government, people who abuse their power for self gain. The people have voted and made it clear what to do for months. There is NO excuse.

Noticed that too did you? It gives me slightly more sympathy for him....but only slightly.

Don't worry about Austin...he has Metrics to help him out too. I think Metrics may be Austin's boss, because every change Austin makes seems to be due to him.

Don't worry about Austin...he has Metrics to help him out too. I think Metrics may be Austin's boss, because every change Austin makes seems to be due to him.

this would make me laugh it wasnt true

It's funny BECAUSE it's true.

Remember that time when Metrics told Austin that Mercs/Mando's were fine and then, like months later, Metrics was all like "oops, I counted trash mobs as part of the Mando/Merc DPS #'s in Ops lol"...I bet they have a good laugh over that still. That was funny.

That dude needs to spend a full day just sitting in someone's teamspeak and watching their live stream. Let them talk to him as they do warzones.

Imagine 8 days of sitting in on a few different players of each class.

I tend to disagree. Smashers etc can almost take on 2 lesser classes even with the same gear. So many defensive/damage mitigation abilities plus insane dmg. They are at least 50% stronger than any other class atm, even powertechs. This could easily be quick patched by reducing smash damage by half. 4k for an instant attack is plenty. My commando in full expertise gear and ewh and augs has only crit low 4k for a 5 grav round demo round AT BEST. This is after 3x 1.5 second casts.

 

<< I can understand these types of things being around for a month or two while people get geared. Any more than that, there is absolutely positively no excuse for not having a quick fix.>>

 

The answer? Simple. "That guy" plays the class that is redonkulous and ignores all feedback to tune it down. Then "that guy" gets tired of said class and another class is magically OP. This is the evolution of most MMOs (actually all). It's called CORRUPTION. Same thing as our government, people who abuse their power for self gain. The people have voted and made it clear what to do for months. There is NO excuse.

THANK YOU. Someone else is starting to spread the word.

Lets keep demanding /played by AC and skill tree from the devs.

That dude needs to spend a full day just sitting in someone's teamspeak and watching their live stream. Let them talk to him as they do warzones.

 

Imagine 8 days of sitting in on a few different players of each class.

Imagine him having bringing as much professionalism to his work in this game as my dog does to taking a crap in the yard. She usually spends a good 5 minutes finding a good spot. That's 5 minutes longer than the time he's put toward commandos.

well i find it hard to believe that AP has been the sole force behind class balance for the entire life of the game. there had to have been a larger team at one point, and then all that scaling down bioware did back in spring '12 probably cut away all of his support.

what irks me the most is that we, the community, are more than willing to act as his "teammates" on design, balance, and implementation. and not only will we do it for free, but we PAY 15$ a month for the chance to do it!

bioware needs to help us help them. in any game, there is a tier of players that know the game better than the devs. its just the way things are; for them its a job, for us its a hobby to master. AP would be wise to spend more time interacting with the community. even if he just personally posted in 1 thread a day, that would be incredible. it doesnt even always have to be a meaningful post, just let us know he is alive and interested in the thoughts of the community.

unless his boss says no. that Metrics guy seems to have AP locked in a room and chained to a computer.

well i find it hard to believe that AP has been the sole force behind class balance for the entire life of the game. there had to have been a larger team at one point, and then all that scaling down bioware did back in spring '12 probably cut away all of his support.

 

what irks me the most is that we, the community, are more than willing to act as his "teammates" on design, balance, and implementation. and not only will we do it for free, but we PAY 15$ a month for the chance to do it!

 

bioware needs to help us help them. in any game, there is a tier of players that know the game better than the devs. its just the way things are; for them its a job, for us its a hobby to master. AP would be wise to spend more time interacting with the community. even if he just personally posted in 1 thread a day, that would be incredible. it doesnt even always have to be a meaningful post, just let us know he is alive and interested in the thoughts of the community.

 

unless his boss says no. that Metrics guy seems to have AP locked in a room and chained to a computer.

so much this

Remember that time when Metrics told Austin that Mercs/Mando's were fine and then, like months later, Metrics was all like "oops, I counted trash mobs as part of the Mando/Merc DPS #'s in Ops lol"...I bet they have a good laugh over that still. That was funny.

And for folks mocking the metrics, the above passage is the key. Using metrics is much better than not using metrics but the system is still vulnerable to garbage in -> garbage out.

E.g. for PvP, how about looking at class population and performance for rated warzones? How about for the top rated teams? If less than 1% of competitive matches between elite teams has a commando in it, that is an interesting metric -- it tells you that the best players in the game have decided that the commando is crap for competitive WZ.

I know BW likes to keep their cards close to their chest but they could do some open ended discussions and surveys where they ask players "what metrics do you think would be most valuable for balancing XYZ"?

Metrics are invaluable but you have to look at the right thing. This includes looking at different parts of the player population -- most notably looking at how classes play in the hands of the best players.

Plaing merc in 50 lvl wz. And yeah, he can't do anything about allmost all classes. And if you use mostly middle skill tree so you are done for sure. Also it VERY many smashers and maradeurs in pvp.

I wonder if BioWare even looks whats happening in pvp zone. Merc and commando supposed to be dmg, but real dmg is Powertechs and Vanguards and their "brothers" just nothing. Simple as that.

Still keeping my merc Pyrotech. Ill just improvise like what I have been doing this whole time playing my merc.

not a good idea

Mercenary may be able to match Powertech damage in 2.0 unless things change. both Powertech DPS trees got gutted

lol, I guess that's one way to level the playing field...

Before misinformation abounds, no further changes beyond what I already posted are slated to go in for Mercenaries/Commandos in 2.0. More specifically, Cell Charger and Terminal Velocity are fully intact.

 

I also want to dispel any theories that finalizing 2.0 means that we're "done" with class changes. Quite the opposite. The deadline for 2.0 is a big deal, determined by forces far, far beyond my control. The class changes that are going in for 2.0 are the best that we could manage in the window of time given to us. It by no means demonstrates us being "done" with class changes.

 

Classes are the kind of thing that can be iterated on forever, so at some point we can't hold off a major update (let alone a digital expansion) because there's more stuff we want to do for classes. It only stands to reason that those plans will carry on to the next update.

 

We're also discussing the viability of introducing class changes without relying on major updates (like 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, etc). There are a lot of factors at play and this is still an internal discussion, so no guarantees, but know that we'd love to be able to get class changes to you guys as quickly as we're making them.

So still not viable for the next year.Roll sniper everyone.

I tend to disagree. Smashers etc can almost take on 2 lesser classes even with the same gear. So many defensive/damage mitigation abilities plus insane dmg. They are at least 50% stronger than any other class atm, even powertechs. This could easily be quick patched by reducing smash damage by half. 4k for an instant attack is plenty. My commando in full expertise gear and ewh and augs has only crit low 4k for a 5 grav round demo round AT BEST. This is after 3x 1.5 second casts.

Smash Monkeys in 1.7 could be controlled by the liberal application of stun bubbles. What was perplexing to me was that they nerfed stun bubbles and didn't reciprocate with Smash. it would have been very simple to keep Smash's auto-crit for a targeted enemy and make it a standard AoE attack for everyone else. Instead they chose to mega buff snipers to control the smashers, but now snipers are off the charts in the hands of a skilled player. And yes, with the horde of players migrating to the sniper class, we'll see sniper meta average productivity drop and snipers will be buffed again in 2.1. Count on it.