Still does not justify the damage reduction. Guardians/Juggernauts as stated already dealt the least amount of damage of all the tank classes and they are lowering it even more.

 

Now, I can't speak for everyone who plays a Guardian or Juggernaut, but I can say that my guild has already approached me about replacing my Juggernaut tank with a Bounty Hunter tank in light of this damage nerf.

For PvE or PvP? I play a Guardian tank myself, and damage is the very least of my concerns, as that's not my job in either PvE or PvP. Unless you mean you're playing a DPS spec?

Its really sad to see the Shadow/Assassin tanks getting nerfed like this. I'm sorry Bioware, you guys really should think about stuff before you speak on them. This change is obviously made for PvP... simple! But you guys "claim" you are trying to bring this spec down to par with the other tanking classes. We raid 3 nights a week, and we would rather have PT's or Juggs over Assassins. Even the 150% armor buff isn't enough to bring them up to par with other tanks... but instead you lower the armor by 35% lol. Really? 35%? And you guys claim this is supposed to be a small nerf?

 

Ok.. so the staple behind the Assassin tanking style to "bring them up to par" with the others tanks is self healing. So what do you guys do? Cut Dark Charge in half 50% (doesn't sound like a small nerf there does it? 50% lol) and reduce Harnessed Darkness to 8% down from 12%.

 

You guys are cowards! You claim this is for PvE but infact it has nothing more to do with than PvP. So you destroy any viability we have to satisfy some kids who can't play in WZ's..

 

lol this is a joke

This.

Maybe Bioware should develop two games. Balance classes around PvE only on PvE servers and around PvP only on PvP servers. Yes, they would eventually be quite different, but at least those of us who don't PvP wouldn't have to worry about our class being completely destroyed because bioware has decided they will balance the game around kiddie pVpz0rzzzzzzz

The changes to Assassin/Shadow in 1.3 does not hinder the play ability of the class apart from one thing.

Spike damage from Operation Bosses, in particularly Hardmode/Nightmare.

Assassins have at least 15% less Damage reduction (Skills/Abilities+Armour) Than the other two tanks.

That is also 26% More damage From Crits. Its Currently 17% More than the other tanks on Live.

Healers are already aware of the Relative spikes Assassins take now.

No amount of 'channelled healing/proc" can be balanced for these large damage spikes.

Reducing armour to reduce survivability in 4 man Heroics, Flashpoints or PVP, cripples them in Hardmode nightmare operations.

Nerf = 4 man Heroics/Hardmode Flashpoints = Balanced

Nerf = Hardmode Operations = F*****

Tell you what how about you tell me the next class your gonna nerf before i make another lvl 50.

Obviously not Marauders.

Assassin/Shadow Tanks will receive multiple adjustments (or should) Every time they bring out a new teir of content.

In their own words they equate Survivability as a two edged sword between Armour and Self Healing.

Armour is a %, It scales with new items new teir of equipment.

Dark Charge Does not. Its 425 healing proc Whether your in Normal False Emperor or Hard Mode Explosive conflict.

Damage after Mitigation from Malgus = Damage After mitigation from Kephess

erm I think not.

It does not scale and will need to be adjusted every single time they bring out New Content.

The Damage Mitigation from Self healing is fundamentally flawed. Bioware cant seem to see this.

Obviously not Marauders.

I get tired of people blaming sentinels and their defensive cooldowns for their woes. I've said it before - the easiest way to negate a sentinel's cd's is to use well timed cc.

Why do you think sentinels have these awesome, albeit, short lived defensive cd's? Because they are like a big piece of glass taking on a kid and his bike. The glass will still cut, but it will be easily shattered in the process.

I've even been killed while my 99% damage reduction was up and running. Use it, get cc'd and have 3 or 4 players pounding on you. Makes it pointless to use a med pack at that time too. Revive and jump back in the fight only to be reminded with a prompt death that the defensive abilities are still on cd. Ignoring a sentinel is like ignoring a sniper or a healer. They will make your wz hell if left alone.

Do remember that this game is completely gear/stat dependent, which is the root of a lot of balance issues. So trying to defeat a sentinel maxed out in top tier gear will always be a futile effort unless your gear and the gear of your allies are at least equal. Player skill will never take the driver's in a game that is gear/stat dependent.

ok so in 1.2 the healers where nerfed , making force /power management a nightmare now your nerfing the tanks. really? I realize the pvp people where boo hooing , However it is the PVE people who are going to suffer most, unless Bioware doesn't REALY want people to be doing ops in the first place. Then by all means carry on , if you don't care about your membership why should I, never mind.

I just have to wonder why you would create a class type then render it useless, all for the sake of ONE aspect of the game. Shame.

This has probably been answered already, but I couldnt find it so here goes.

How does your stuff in your bank and Inventory transfer with your characters?

Nevermind, found it.

While I'm usually critic about the Devs choice, I found the article interesting.

That I agree or not, I think reasoning and motivations add an important layer between what we "players" see and perceive, and what the Devs decide and intend.

I welcome the modifications to the Tanks.

A Tank can now focus totally on "survivability", without having to juggle his stats for damage, in order to produce enough threat to do his work.

Also, the "smart" AoE will allow the use os some key skill even in cc situation, where they were currently impratical (Slow Time, for instance is essential to shadow Tanking, and not being able to use it was actually a problem).

On the other side, my concern is that tanking in swtor is already quite easy. It requires less positional awareness and skill savvy/resource management than many other games (imho).

I hope Tanking will not turn into a mindless rotation, with threat given as granted and survivability basically depending on gear and healers.

As I said this is a concern... but I will gladly see what happens.

Regarding the comparison between different Tanks, I find the slight nerf of the Shadow surprising.

It may be my perception but in a difficult combat (and a difficult combat is the only combat that matters when talking about survability) the self healing skill of a Shadow/Assassin Tank counts zero to nothing. What makes the difference are usually the emergency cooldown abilities. Still, as I don't think the self healing relevant, I won't probably suffer the little nerf.

Only one thing I would like to say... I think that it's a mistake (even if it's easier to balance, necessarely) to force a single rotation as better than any other. Balance should open up different strategies from the same charachters... different skills and rotations that are all effective, roughly to the same extent.

Right now, most classes use always one and only rotation. THAT is boring, and that makes gameplay uninspired.

One day I would like to compare different Shadow Tanks, and not a Shadow Tank vs a Guardian Tank or a Vanguard Tank. The use of "stances" should help, but if you are Tank (and no, respec does not help, because gear is too specialized) you just use one. It's not a real choice... it's just white noise on the skillbar.

Sorry for the long post,

Al have fun.

This might help answer some...

 

Lots of good info in that interview, but especially this:

 

 

 

DPS is not a focus for a tank in PvP. Thus, if survivability is increased, DPS must be decreased.

 

This, of course, extends to PvE as well. With threat and survivability being increased, you no longer need so much damage to hold aggro, thus in the interest of proper balance, something has to give, and in this case the trade-off is DPS.

They're nerfing the damage of the lowest DPS tanks in the game by minimum 7%, and probably more like 10% or more. Who says my survivability is increased by that much? I can already hold aggro. They can keep this change.

Is the shadow tank now still viable or will people tell me in the future that they prefer to have a real tank in the flashpoint or operations instead of my class?

As a precaution, I'd roll a Powertech. justsayin'

As a precaution, I'd roll a Powertech. justsayin'

I started playing my Shadow on December 14th, long before it had became favour of the month class, and I would like to continue playing that class... but I guess nobody will think shadow tanks useful in the future. Can't understand why they didn't just nerfed the damage, which was what most people complained about.

I started playing my Shadow on December 14th, long before it had became favour of the month class, and I would like to continue playing that class... but I guess nobody will think shadow tanks useful in the future. Can't understand why they didn't just nerfed the damage, which was what most people complained about.

The problem with shadow/sin in pvp is their main damage abilities cannot be parried/blocked as most other classes abilities.

I have noticed that as my gear on my tankassin gets better, I start stacking more on defensive abilities, shield rating and absorb.

But in exchange I'm losing accuracy, which is now at 90%, yes my melee accuracy is at 90%, which means my lightsaber attacks won't hit as much and will probably miss sometimes, therefor making my dark charge nerf even more noticeable in 1.3.

Since at this moment my lightsaber attacks have a 50% chance to drain life, well now with my accuracy reduced, my lightsaber attacks don't always hit, did BIOWARE forsee this change in stats?

BIOWARE lowers accuracy rating, dark charge armor, dark charge self-healing, simple math here, too much nerfs!!!!!

I have noticed that while I wear my pvp war hero gear, that my tankassin does have more armor then in PVE gear, but less of the other defensive stats.

If your idea is basically nerfing assassins for pvp, you should just lower the armor stats provided from their pvp gear, that should balance out the whole problems around pvp and tankassins while leaving pve untouched.

Senior Designer Austin Peckenpaugh lets us in on details around class changes and balance in Game Update 1.3.

 

Read More

From what i have seen dark charge only ever gave 130% armor bonus so im hoping so im hoping 115% will actualy be 115%

Wouldn't the smart thing to do be wait to see what happens to pvp after nerfing biochem then see if adjustments need to be made? The reason why shadows/assasins seem so hard to kill is because they have to maneuver behind something which means they are no longer being hit. In PVE that is no longer a viable option, the machine will face me no matter where I move. The only thing that has been acomplished is the following:

People will move to another class which will then be blamed as OP'ed in PVP and be nerfed.

It's a vicious circle that never ends when you balance the scale by taking off 40 pounds on the 140 side and adding 40 pounds to the side with 100 pounds. Why do I say this, very simple if you nerf one class and enhance others that is not balance.

No, because you can see this in the PTS which many players like my self have done.

( tank sin/shadows days are over in pvp mainly the onces in dps gears. can't do that anymore, not to mention our damage output have been altered. they may not tell you this in the notes but trust me i've tested it and it has been seriously nerf as well.