Developer Update: Class Changes and Balance in Game Update 1.4

Well...i unsubbed a few days ago, should have about 2 weeks left...and i told myself i'd resub if an game update delivered some good changes to pvp (And more WZ's + at least a halfwitted attempt to incentive world pvp)

This update lol...isn't it.

Seriously...making ppl more available to CC? Really? Haha...have fun with those white bars folks, better luck in 1.5?

What you miss is that it says roots and snares, but nothing about stuns & knockdowns. So , no you won't be getting away quite as much as you think you will be.

I understand the changes, and the desire for them. Playing both my sage and other classes, the root off of force wave is one of the largest sources of rage for me (much like the same effect on snipers/slingers, who get to keep it as far as I read, and who can actually kill someone during the root~...) It can't be cleansed and leaves you sitting there for 3 seconds doing nothing, unless you are a ranged dps that laughs, and keeps shooting all 3 seconds). Nevertheless, I think it's pretty impressive to see how they are simultaneously breaking us in opposite directions for PVE and PVP.

You will recall that the initial nerf to Resplendence was to preclude our never ending force pool obtained from free Noble Sacrifices every 15 seconds. Now they introduce a no-cost self heal for a "moderate amount", which I am guessing puts it somewhere between Benevolence & Deliverance. In PVE that's the 2k-4k range + bonus healing, 30% talents, and 80% crit (virtually guaranteed every third use, because what else does a pve healer use force potency for?) and you've got a free noble sacrifice double tap every 30 seconds. (AKA no more oop sages). They could manage this by reducing the strength of the self-heal a little more, but then it would be useless in pvp.

Now turn to pvp -- The change to 20seconds on Force sprint is great for dps pvp sages. more mobility to move from point to point is always great. It's use as a getaway tool? great 1v1 (which aside from ops & shadows isn't a problem) and useless where we are really hurting -- the focused healer. How often do we really get away from a snaring/stunning/rooting/knockdown/mezzing assist train using force sprint? If this is supposed to replace Force Wave as our survivability ability, it needs to ignore/break the root component of mez, stun & knockdowns as well (i.e. leave us stunned/mezzed/whatever but able to move).
On to Force Wave -- the change to insta-effect is nice, but not a big deal -- we've adjusted and timed our casts now as is, insta effect makes it a little easier to aim people, I guess. With the change to resolve, making it harder for them to fill our resolve bar when spamming cc, it's even harder to actually get away with force sprint assuming that. we aren't dead before the cc wears off. The change to 120% frontal screws us. How often do people who leap to us land next to us rather than in front of us? how often does client/server lag not show where some one actually is? This has become an offensive ability, to be used in void stars and civil wars to protect cap as people leave the gate/land off the speeder rather than as the defensive ability it appears to be intended to be. A lesser version of force push with an ae component. On the bright side, dps sages can use it to peel the crowd off the healing scoundrel next to them.

/sigh

Healers and range got some help. No knee jerk reactions to the other classes.

Overall good changes. I am a little concerned about healers being able to constantly distance themselves and continue healing but as long as DPS is somewhat coordinated it should be a fair fight.

The CC changes are good. People will adapt.

Um no your wrong... its a HUGE part of our gameplay... and dont say its not coz i know for a fact your dont play Merc

I'd rather see 1.4 killed off than these nerfs applied.

I'd need to see this stuff in action in PvE content....

... but at the moment, this looks like a whole load of PvP driven changes. In fact the blog makes numerous references to PvP and none to how these changes will impact people levelling through flashpoints or endgame operations. Like others here, I dislike when PvP balance issues change something that isn't broke in PvE.

I'm less concerned about the individual changes (which I'll have long forgotten in a few months) than I am about the trend of a one size fits all solution to single issue problems.

As a mercenary DPS who does purely PvE content, I'm just seeing classes becoming more and more generic. Ability upon ability being repeated across multiple AC's. Are we headed down the "every DPS is a mage" route?

Electro Dart just became more or less useless to me. Since the NPC's don't need me to overextend or broadcast my intentions that I'm about to cast it. I'm rarely using regularly anyway - but it's the one ability I really liked when levelling and future mercs will be denied it.

As an aside... Why do classes have to be BALANCED anyway? This isn't 1-on-1 arena. Every class doesn't have to be viable and equal to every other class surely? Isn't the point of PvP to function as a team? To give give one class a distinct advantage over another, so that each player covers the vulnerabilities in their team-mates ? (as I say, I don't PvP - but I'm thinking of stuff like Starcraft, where one unit is both powerful and weak to two other units at the same time, making for a "oh he did that, I need to counter with that" style of evolving gameplay.

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Thanks for the insight into what's coming in terms of class changes. We'll have to see how it plays out, but merc/com interupt is VERY welcome.

Read the following very, very carefully:
Rocket Punch is not going to stun the target, it's going to root it. "Immobilize" is Bioware's term for a Root, which is where you can perform actions but not move your character. You're thinking of "Incapacitate," which is Bioware's term for Stun.

I play Merc and youre being a bit dramatic. Its a minor nerf.

LOL
i have a 50 merc with almost optimal gear...
i also have a 50 shadow and operative and 50 legacy.
the knockback from rocket punch is useless for raid content (jet boost is far superior) and a stun beats a *small* knockback in pvp easily.
it takes how long for a melee attacker to run back to you from 5m or so?