Mercenaries/Commandos

 

We are currently testing some changes to DPS for Mercenaries/Commandos. Tentatively you will see some of these changes the next time we update public test (not today) but note that this is entirely subject to change! Pyros and Arsenals are getting some love to their core abilities that should alleviate some of the PvP issues. Some of these changes are being rolled out today while others are currently being tested (the Combat/PvP devs are testing these changes against each other as I post).

 

so we are never going to see the changes that were being play-tested? or did they just never happen and this was just an "appease the growing mob with bait and switch" tactic? since there will not be a "next time we update public test".

this post was made, and shortly after Pyrotech was nerfed into the ground. that had better not have been the changes that were being hinted at.

we tested the changes. we provided feedback ad nauseam. this was the only dev response to that feedback. and now the server is being closed, and all testing is finished? i just dont understand.

i thought we were supposed to be seeing increased dev-player communication? or has the team responsible for the "account name only for login" project been meeting the dev post quota?

help us help you. please.

Oh boy.... if were going live with the current build I may just have to finally reroll.... I hate to say it but with the current build both of my favorite classes are damn near unplayable. The commando changes have been analyzed to hell and back, but what hasn't been tested much it seems is the new operative Lethality.

Just for the sake of trying one last time, here goes: Can you guys please give lethality back our dot crit/damage and give us some range? The utliity and rolls are nice but our damage just plain sucks outside of melee range now, and our survival hasn't increased enough to let us actually fight in melee. I realize that next to nobody plays lethality operatives, but compared to all the other dps out there, even including commandos, were rather pathetic since our ranged damage actually went DOWN from what it was on live and our kiting ability has dropped comparatively as well since so many others got better gap closers and controls...... Do I really have to roll a smasher?

aint just the commando/merc that needs help. at least your class is still parsing decently in a pve fight.

assassins/shadows are not going to be allowed to do anything but tank in operations.

In Eric's defense, Austin Peckenpaugh is pretty horrible at his job.

I haven't seen any evidence of this, and insulting the developers isn't really going to get us anywhere. While I absolutely don't agree with every change that has been made to classes in 2.0, you have to admit that the DPS classes are much closer to balanced than they have *ever* been before (everything is within a 7-9% margin at most, and generally 1-3%). Tanks also are even more balanced than they were on live (and they were pretty close, historically).

It's also worth noting that AP doesn't do all of the class balancing and theory crafting by himself. He does have a team that works under him that pops into the forums *very* rarely. Not every poor decision is his fault, and not every great change is his idea.

Regarding the OP, I'm pretty sure we'll see the merc/commando changes land in the final version of 2.0. It would certainly be better if they would get some game testing time, but we'll have to make do.

aint just the commando/merc that needs help. at least your class is still parsing decently in a pve fight.

 

assassins/shadows are not going to be allowed to do anything but tank in operations.

oh, i know that Merc/Mando is not the only class that needs dev attention. crit chance still needs to be addressed, and that effects everyone.

things are not looking good for 2.0 atm

Regarding the OP, I'm pretty sure we'll see the merc/commando changes land in the final version of 2.0. It would certainly be better if they would get some game testing time, but we'll have to make do.

that means that there is even less chance of us having a say about the coming changes. instead, we are going to be stuck with w/e comes to Live for what could be a very very long time. and i do not have high hopes for whether or not the coming changes will improve Merc/Mando.

I haven't seen any evidence of this, and insulting the developers isn't really going to get us anywhere. While I absolutely don't agree with every change that has been made to classes in 2.0, you have to admit that the DPS classes are much closer to balanced than they have *ever* been before (everything is within a 7-9% margin at most, and generally 1-3%). Tanks also are even more balanced than they were on live (and they were pretty close, historically).

 

It's also worth noting that AP doesn't do all of the class balancing and theory crafting by himself. He does have a team that works under him that pops into the forums *very* rarely. Not every poor decision is his fault, and not every great change is his idea.

 

Regarding the OP, I'm pretty sure we'll see the merc/commando changes land in the final version of 2.0. It would certainly be better if they would get some game testing time, but we'll have to make do.

a) Insulting the developers may not get us anywhere, but we already aren't going anywhere in a lot of ways. Also their continued treatment of DPS commando in PVP environments is just a never ending train of "what the hell?" that reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the class and how it works in a live combat environment. Such a fundamental misunderstanding that I feel completely comfortable saying Austin is bad at his job. He's free to correct me by actually doing his job well. Is that kind of narrow minded of me? Perhaps. On the other hand it's been a year of uphill battles just trying to get us on PAR with other classes (need I remind you how long we had to wait for an interrupt?)

b) He's lead, and part of that means he gets the credit when his team does things right and the blame when things are subpar. In defense of the rest of his team, who I will concede are also bad at their jobs, he doesn't exactly post with a crazy amount of frequency either.

c) You are much more confident than I am that we'll actually see the promised changes. Since they've given us no indication what those changes are we can't make an educated guess on what kind of issues internal testing may be facing when it comes to balancing those changes. Given their history, I'd almost prefer they left us alone, unless they're going to finally give us a good offensive cooldown. Historically, the only changes they've ever made to us that weren't unmitigated disasters were fixing problems in the tree (deadly cannon) and giving us things we should have had since day 1. Ok not quite fair. Cell Charger change was a net positive change, and the change of the Accuracy Talent to an Armor Pen talent was actually pretty good too.

Dev comment would be nice. You know, soon. As in, before 2.0 when we get hit in the face with something stupid as has been the case so far...

Gonna give a simple QoL anti-hammer-shot-spam suggestion. grav round has a 45% chance to refund 8 cells/heat no more than every 6 seconds.

Dev comment would be nice. You know, soon. As in, before 2.0 when we get hit in the face with something stupid as has been the case so far...

 

Gonna give a simple QoL anti-hammer-shot-spam suggestion. grav round has a 45% chance to refund 8 cells/heat no more than every 6 seconds.

kind of redundant to the heat/ammo regen that already exists in Arsenal/Gunnery specs. would be easier to just increase that passive resource regen to 10 every 6s (up from 8). that has been suggested a bunch.

I think the devs finally realised that rather than the PTS generating positive hype for the expansion, it just opened the door on a whole heap of terrible design decisions. Crit changes, class balance, bolstering, itemisation. You name it, they screwed it up.

They don't have the talent, money or manpower to fix the problems, so they're closing the door again. There'll be more changes, but we won't see them, because then we'd just be pointing out how crap they are again.

They need the expansion to do well financially - much more than they need to make the game 'better'.

In Eric's defense, Austin Peckenpaugh is pretty horrible at his job.

I could not agree more. I don't blame Eric for reporting what he was told, but if this class fails to be fixed, it's squarely on Austin's shoulders. His inability to communicate with the communities/classes he is in charge of developing for is insulting at best, negligent worst. I find this lack of concern sickening. I hope he gets it right, because he's failed every other attempt...

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.

 

The following changes are going out in 2.0 and won't be making it onto PTS.

 

Bounty Hunter

Mercenary

-Electro Net: This ability now applies its effects instantly instead of waiting for a projectile to finish traveling.

 

Arsenal:

-Tracer Missile: The Heat Signature applied by Tracer Missile now lasts 45 seconds. In addition, the Heat Signature effect now reduces armor by 20% and no longer stacks. Furthermore, this ability now fires a faster-moving projectile.

-Heatseeker Missiles: This ability now deals 25% additional damage if the target is affected by your Heat Signature. In addition, this ability now fires a slightly slower-moving projectile, ensuring that the Heat Signature effect-checking will work properly if fired off immediately after a Tracer Missile.

-Light 'Em Up: No longer affects Heat Signatures applied by Tracer Missile.

 

Trooper

Commando

-Electro Net: This ability now applies its effects instantly instead of waiting for a projectile to finish traveling.

 

Gunnery:

-Grav Round: The Gravity Vortex applied by Grav Round now lasts 45 seconds. In addition, the Gravity Vortex effect now reduces armor by 20% and no longer stacks. Furthermore, this ability now fires a faster-moving projectile.

-Demolition Round: This ability now deals 25% additional damage if the target is affected by your Gravity Vortex. In addition, this ability now fires a slightly slower-moving projectile, ensuring that the Gravity Vortex effect-checking will work properly if fired off immediately after a Grav Round.

-Gravity Surge: No longer affects Gravity Vortices applied by Grav Round.

Please look at powertech/vanguard dps viability for pve. With the damage we're putting out atm combined with our operation wide buffs/debuffs on target (or lack thereof), we are lagging behind pretty much everyone atm.

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.

 

The following changes are going out in 2.0 and won't be making it onto PTS.

 

Bounty Hunter

Mercenary

-Electro Net: This ability now applies its effects instantly instead of waiting for a projectile to finish traveling.

 

Arsenal:

-Tracer Missile: The Heat Signature applied by Tracer Missile now lasts 45 seconds. In addition, the Heat Signature effect now reduces armor by 20% and no longer stacks. Furthermore, this ability now fires a faster-moving projectile.

-Heatseeker Missiles: This ability now deals 25% additional damage if the target is affected by your Heat Signature. In addition, this ability now fires a slightly slower-moving projectile, ensuring that the Heat Signature effect-checking will work properly if fired off immediately after a Tracer Missile.

-Light 'Em Up: No longer affects Heat Signatures applied by Tracer Missile.

 

Trooper

Commando

-Electro Net: This ability now applies its effects instantly instead of waiting for a projectile to finish traveling.

 

Gunnery:

-Grav Round: The Gravity Vortex applied by Grav Round now lasts 45 seconds. In addition, the Gravity Vortex effect now reduces armor by 20% and no longer stacks. Furthermore, this ability now fires a faster-moving projectile.

-Demolition Round: This ability now deals 25% additional damage if the target is affected by your Gravity Vortex. In addition, this ability now fires a slightly slower-moving projectile, ensuring that the Gravity Vortex effect-checking will work properly if fired off immediately after a Grav Round.

-Gravity Surge: No longer affects Gravity Vortices applied by Grav Round.

Great. A couple of nice tweaks. No extra mobility? Nothing for interrupts? Nothing to address the vast majority of concerns that have been posted here again and again and again? Do you not understand what is wrong with Merc/Commandos in PvP? Have you set foot in a ranked warzone as one?

THIS is why people are pissed, and why trust in you has evaporated. And no testing. Great.

If you're not willing to engage your community, then HIRE SOMEONE ELSE. Please. You obviously can't do this alone.

By the way, I'm not trying to insult you, I'm telling you that what you are doing is not working.

Nice NOTHING about SAGE/SORC? Can you pop over to those dozen plus threads and tell them what's happening? Didn't see JACK SQUAT about them in the last patch on PTS and nothing still.

Losing faith in you guys still being able to deliver a balanced PVP match.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rofl. People need to lighten up. Changes are coming when they are ready and tested. If they aren't here, that means they aren't ready, aren't tested, or aren't going to happen because as much as you want to be a bad *** balancing the game matters more, and you killing because you're over powered isn't "balance" (as is what would happen if some of the ideas players bounce around to help their slightly behind classes we're implemented because they go too far).

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.

[/Quote] My condolences. But thanks for coming back to us!

 

I like the changes, makes life a little bit easier in PVE.

Especially finally unerfing Demo Round, big thanks for that.

Class balance is predominantly a one man show? All starting to make sense now.

And he mains a sniper, is it? Think I remember that from a video or an interview.

Would be nice to get a list of sorcerer changes as well to alleviate our paranoid minds and to help us make the decision to keep paying the sub fees for another month.

Holy crap a response. Nice, looks like a modified version of things that had been suggested. Hey Penny! looks like all that spamming of the tooltip for shatter shot may have actually done some good. Nice QoL improvement in PVE, and a slight boost in PVP for making boost less predictable and easier to set up, as well as spreading a decent armor debuff around.

Nothing directly to help with ammo management although my thinking is that without forcing our opening rotation to be 3 back to back casts of grav round just to get things perfectly setup as soon as possible (particularly the armor debuff, but also full setup for HiB and DR) is nice. Granted if you put in anything else there's still a delay on getting HiB out, but at least the rotation isn't as forcibly set in stone and it allows slightly more flexibility.

Betting is closed. I'll call these changes NOT even a backhanded negative, though I can't say they'll make us ranked viable.

Still I call it a win anytime we manage to avoid getting nerfed >.>

Hey Austin, no hard feelings or anything, but why do I feel that we can only manage to pry responses out of the combat team when we resort to lots and lots of personal insults? Was there really an issue with putting in these changes over a week ago and letting us actually try them out?

Betting is closed. I'll call these changes NOT even a backhanded negative, though I can't say they'll make us ranked viable.

You're WAY more positive than I am about this.

The entire point was to make us ranked viable. This won't even come CLOSE to that - we're going to be so far behind snipers as RDPS it's not even funny. And we'll likely see nothing more for a long time to come.

Game over man, game over.

Get your alts ready

AAAAAWEEEEESOOOOOMMMMMMEEEEEEE!

It`s a Good day to be a trooper!

Thank You Bioware =)

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.

 

The following changes are going out in 2.0 and won't be making it onto PTS.

 

Bounty Hunter

Mercenary

-Electro Net: This ability now applies its effects instantly instead of waiting for a projectile to finish traveling.

 

Arsenal:

-Tracer Missile: The Heat Signature applied by Tracer Missile now lasts 45 seconds. In addition, the Heat Signature effect now reduces armor by 20% and no longer stacks. Furthermore, this ability now fires a faster-moving projectile.

-Heatseeker Missiles: This ability now deals 25% additional damage if the target is affected by your Heat Signature. In addition, this ability now fires a slightly slower-moving projectile, ensuring that the Heat Signature effect-checking will work properly if fired off immediately after a Tracer Missile.

-Light 'Em Up: No longer affects Heat Signatures applied by Tracer Missile.

 

Trooper

Commando

-Electro Net: This ability now applies its effects instantly instead of waiting for a projectile to finish traveling.

 

Gunnery:

-Grav Round: The Gravity Vortex applied by Grav Round now lasts 45 seconds. In addition, the Gravity Vortex effect now reduces armor by 20% and no longer stacks. Furthermore, this ability now fires a faster-moving projectile.

-Demolition Round: This ability now deals 25% additional damage if the target is affected by your Gravity Vortex. In addition, this ability now fires a slightly slower-moving projectile, ensuring that the Gravity Vortex effect-checking will work properly if fired off immediately after a Grav Round.

-Gravity Surge: No longer affects Gravity Vortices applied by Grav Round.

Here is a question, will that 25% damage boost to HSM be in addition to the current buff we get, or just the same thing. Because if it is the same thing we have now this essentially does absolutely nothing for arsenal/gunnery

Here is a question, will that 25% damage boost to HSM be in addition to the current buff we get, or just the same thing. Because if it is the same thing we have now this essentially does absolutely nothing for arsenal/gunnery

They say "additional" damage, so it means on top of the current buff.

I mean, im loving the changes!