Updated for E3
This post is divided into two sections, the Overview/Discussion below, and the
Trooper vs. Other Classes speculation in the post following.
Disclaimer:
Given the limited amount of information available on the Trooper and that the game is probably in internal beta, it is quite possible a number of the ideas below may be invalidated. There is however enough information to begin discussion of what I hope will become a solid basic tactical guide to the Trooper shortly after launch. So with those admitted limitations, the following are observations and speculations on the Trooper’s combat characteristics.
From a design perspective, the Trooper looks to be a highly efficient and well integrated fighting machine. This isn’t very surprising considering Damion Schubert (the Lead Combat designer) has been one of the main Trooper spokespersons from BioWare. Toughness, Firing on the move, Ammo, Min/Max ability ranges, AoE damage/Crowd Control (CC), and Burst DPS all come together synergistically in the Trooper.
Toughness: Heavy Armor and High Health
The Trooper is going to be able to take risks that would kill a more fragile class. Given the Trooper’s arsenal, this enhanced survivability shifts the balance towards more active, freer, and more aggressive positional play. This is further augmented by the Trooper’s nature as a ranged class and their ability pacing mechanic, Ammo.
Ammo and Intelligent aggression
Ammo is like and Energy mechanic on a fast player controlled recharge. Currently in game it is the most flexible and agile of the pacing mechanics. It allows for substantial burst DPS while at the same time allowing for significant sustained DPS. With a 9 sec CD timer, downtimes are going to be short before a Trooper can get back into the fight. While not providing the same burst capacity as the BH’s Heat mechanic or the Force Point mechanic of the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular, it provides more burst capability than the prior Action Point mechanic while at the same time being the most tactically flexible pacing mechanic in game to date.
Solid Basic Attack and "Run and Gun"
The Trooper's Hammer Shot is an excellent basic attack. It does solid damage, it has a 30m range, it can be performed while running, and it’s free to use. It’s a great attack to hit an opponent with while they are under CC since it does solid damage, and lets you adjust your position. Also, since it appears light saber deflection works mostly on basic attacks, using Hammer Shot when a Force User (FU) is under incapacitating CC will allow it to do maximum damage. Since most of the Troopers abilities are instants that can be done on the move, this "Run and Gun" play style is supported the majority of the Trooper's arsenal.
A True Ranged Class
When Troopers can control range, they can leverage virtually their entire arsenal of abilities while denying any opponent the full use of theirs. All of the Trooper's ranged abilities so far have a 30m range. In comparison, the range of the Bounty Hunter’s (BH) abilities varies quite a bit (30m for Rocket, 25m for Electro Dart, 10m for Flame Thrower), all of the Sith Inquisitor’s attack abilities seen so far have at most a 15m range, and some of the Imperial Agents abilities are designed for short range stealth. The downside is many of the Trooper’s abilities have a 5m minimum range. While Rifle Grenade can be used as a point blank AoE Knock Back and Knock Down, being swarmed at Melee severely restricts your range of available abilities usable against the mobs at hand. As mentioned later, when swarmed, you may be better served letting a team mate CC the hoard around you while you continue to apply your full arsenal against more distant targets.
5m minimum range
While the 5m minimum range on some abilities poses a challenge when confronting a melee swarm, that’s doesn’t mean the Trooper is out of the fight. The Troopers have a number of tools available to regain range, and in a team situation, group positioning can be used to further minimize the impact of the 5m minimum range limitation. For example, if a pair of Troopers stays in each other’s field of fire and they remain separated by 5m+, at least one will always be in a position to apply a wide range of AoE CC to disrupt a melee swarm and thus allow the Troopers to regain range. So, the min/max range of many Trooper abilities makes it important to control the range to your foes, to establish supporting fields of fire, and to manage the separation between you and your allies. As it stands now, Trooper’s arguably benefit more from positionally organized and disciplined group play than any other class.
A Powerful Mix of Damage and CC, and Exceptional AoE capability
Troopers are powerful one on one and devastating when attacking clusters of adversaries. Below is a comparison with the Sith Warrior (SW) (at ~ level 10).
.vs single targets
Class-------Damage-------------CC
SW----------Very High-----------Moderate
Trooper----High------------------High
.vs groups
Class-------Damage-------------CC
SW----------Very High-----------Low
Trooper----Extreme-------------High
Burst Damage/Shock and Awe
The Fire Bomb has a 5-30m range, has a 5m radius of effect and inflicts a moderate DoT and a 5 sec stun. Combine that with Hammer Shot, Full Auto, Grenade/Sticky, and Grenade and you have the makings of a powerful AoE first strike perfect for “breakthrough” operations.
Putting it all together so far
With all of the above taken together, you have class with high ranged DPS and a powerful capacity for disrupting coordinated enemy actions. Adding in the Trooper's toughness, "run and gun" capabilities, and min/max ranges, and you have a class that will strongly benefit from intelligent, coordinated, and aggressive positional play.
The Trooper’s CC has a number of characteristics that add further depth to game play. In general, much of the Trooper's CC is AoE, does damage, and damage does not break it. Additionally, the Trooper’s CC is also unusually fast to activate and it is mostly projectile based.
Fast animations and CC
Troopers may carry heavy weapons, but that doesn’t mean they are slow on the draw, esp. when it comes to getting out CC. Why is that? Most classes have to go through substantial animation sequences to get to the animation frames where their abilities activate. For example: a SW has to jump into the air and then fall to the ground before their Smash ability takes effect, a BH has to raise their arm to fire a Rocket, and a SI has to perform a sweeping motion with their Lightsaber to activate Discharge. All of these animation sequences take time, most often a half second or more. In comparison, the animation that initiates Full Auto takes less than a tenth of a second and the animation to launch a grenade takes < .2 sec. The take away here is the animations prior to an abilities activation can be quite fast for heavy weapons.
Projectile CC, Global Cool Down (GCD), and range
At range it can take longer for Trooper’s CC to take effect, but you can take advantage of more of the CC's duration. To understand this, let’s first look at CC for FU’s.
Force Power CC
A FU’s CC abilities take effect at the same time regardless of the range to target, and the duration of their CC starts timing down the instant the ability is initiated. Looking at the SW's Smash ability, the duration timer for the CC starts counting down almost instantly. Examining the animations, it takes ~ .75 sec. for the CC to take effect and 1.5 sec for the GCD to finish. So the actual duration of the CC is (5 - .75) = ~4.25 sec, and the amount of time the SW has to act while his opponent is stunned is only (5 - 1.5) = ~3.5 sec.
Projectile CC
The Trooper uses mostly projectile CC, for example the Grenade ability. For projectile CC like Grenade, the CC takes effect and duration start courting down when the projectile reaches the target. This delay is both a disadvantage and an advantage. This delay means projectile CC's can take a fair amount of time before they actually incapacitate a target at long range. On the plus side, this delay can keep the GCD from eating up the amount of time you have to take advantage of your CC. For example, if you activate the Grenade ability from 25m+ away, there is a decent chance the GCD will have expired by the time the Grenade goes off. This ability of the Trooper to bias their CC for immediate effect or enhanced duration adds another dimension of sophistication to the Troopers positional play.
