Class changes and balance in Game Update 1.3

Here is a post from the Smuggler Thread.

I feel, that with 1.3 coming up it is time to revisit two issues that BW did in 1.2.

1) Give Corso back his harpoon. Bowdaar is the melee tank so give us back the harpoon that let us preserve our cc's, and be able to use back blast, dirty kick, and blaster whip, as well as our interrupts, while still being able to keep our distance as a range class should.

2) Bring back the Giggles. Some people complained about the laughing when Upper Hand was granted and BW just up and removed it. Instead, they should give us a toggle and make it so only the player can hear it, and not everyone around them.

After 1.2 was released there was a huge uproar on the Suggestion Box forum regarding these changes and it's time for BW to make amends.

Lol. On target? Wow. Sometimes I thing you type things just for the point of being on the opposite end of a disagreement. No where near is nerfing the TANKING aspects of a TANK class on target. And it wasn't even the survivability that people cried about in PvP. It was the DPS (even though it was mediocre) that everyone cried about. And yes. This change was brought about by the forum criers. Believe that bs by the devs if you want to that it wasn't about people complaining or about balance. There was no other reason to nerf the tanking trees of Shadows/Assassins.

The travesty behind this entire thing is that it won't affect PvP in the slightest. That loss of 4% to HS and the loss of half the bonus to CT is negligible in PvP. The people who cried to get this nerf will surely have their feelings hurt when this goes live and they are still getting WTFPWNED by every Shadow and Assassin on their server.

As I asked before. Since they have just now made PvE tanking mediocre for Shadows/Assassins, what is the point of the tanking tree again?

Hey Bioware serious, serious question I hope others press as well till we get an answer. Are you going to give shadows/sins advanced class resets? After all it did say when we selected the class it could perform a tanking roll and after 1.3 it will no longer be able to boast that. DPS (if you can call that vs sage) and utility will be it's bread and butter. Seems only fair. I would have picked sage as an advanced class if presented with shadow as a utility/dps build. Maybe I am weird lol

I agree with darksaber entirely, PVP it won't matter this screws us in PVE folks, guilds run with the most efficient for the job that needs to be done. Shadows will no longer be tanks rest assured, the tree says you are a tank, but the tree apparently lies. Bad Tree!

Couldn't have said it better myself. the thing is i have other 50's as well and i am not going to brag i am a extremely hardcore play who knows what their doing. i fair if i even touch my other class the next big expansion they will be called for a fern as well because of cry babies who simply can't play. Many ppl don't think the shadows got owned pretty bad with the Nerf, i am here to say you are strongly mistaken. I've tested the class on the PTS and its just horrible. what they should have done was mess with the healing "only" the fact that they touch the armor is just plain retarded. we are already bad tanks compared with a jugg or a guardian but this crap just cross the line. They will lose money over this badly. According to them we are " too over powered" They don't even know what that means, i doubt they even see the marauders running around. why couldn't they just increase the cd on tele or force lightning? why would they touch our armor and self healing. What they should do is hire ppl who bloody knows how to pvp instead of following these New players QQ when they only been playing for a week or 2.

You know having a gm come on telling us we can't spawn cam in open world pvp, now this? only tells me they really don't know what their doing at all.

Thank you for nerfing sharpshooter bioware. Very well done. >.>

In regards to the tanking changes discussed in this post, I think everyone, but most especially the Shadow/Assassin community, is over-reacting and employing quite the fair amount of revisionist history.

To those of you who say your Shadow/'Sin is "already the worst of the tanks" are delusional. I have all one of each variety, all 50s, and all progressed through end-game content. By far and away the easiest class to tank with is the Shadow/'Sin. Case in point, as my 'Sin was the 2nd tank I levelled it lagged in gear behind my main, a Jugg. Even with far inferior gear, the class easily held it's own in PVE encounters and just felt easier to play. To say now, as our class is being brought in-line with the other two tanks, that we were in any way anything but better at the job than Guardians/Juggs and Vanguards/PTs is revisionist history to better sell the woe-is-me story of the "nerf bat."

Insofar as overall PVE usefulness, I think that the more impactful change is that to the "smart" AoE functionality of abilities like Wither. Countless times in an Op have I been unable to maintain the use of two of my mainstay abilities as a 'Sin tank due to the fact that mobs surrounding the current target were CC'd. In fact, when asked about the differences in tanking styles amoungst the 3 tanks, my main "con" for the 'Sin was it's reliance on AoE abilities that triggered your defensive capabilities - thus forcing you to tank at less than optimal levels for certain fights. No longer is that an Achilles heel of the class.

Again, this is not a knee-jerk reaction to patch notes, this is an opinion based on playing each of the tanks at 50 through end-game, PVE content. Even before the changes were announced, I would consistently tell anyone who asked about the tank classes that the Shadow/'Sin was by far the easiest to play - provided you were awake at the keyboard and kept up your Dark Ward, Discharge, and Wither. Hell, during the gearing process of my 'Sin, his survivability was on-par with a better geared Jugg. Any changes being levied againt the Shadows/'Sins of the world are less about "nerfs" and more about being brought in-line with the rest.

1) Never ever give Corso back his harpoon. I hated the early levels with him always pulling away a mob from my aoe or mob I was about to hit with a melee attack causing almost every encnounter to take longer than it does with him having a charge instead.

2) Hated the giggles. I can live with a toggle as long as I dont ever have to hear anyone elses giggles.

[snip]

PvE game.

All the best,
Akabeth

PLEASE address time to kill in PVP. You have already been stated that this is too low.

Then use Bowdaar, as has been said over and over again. I never had any of the problems you're mentioning.