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tunewalker

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  1. I am curious as to what you think the mechanical/design problems are? The tutorial and how it teaches players is definitely the largest problem. For the most part it is kind of like throwing a brand new player into ranked PvP on a Jedi Knight class and they have never played an mmo before in their life and then, because the players didn't read any guides he doesn't know that there are abilities besides strike and slash that he needs to put on his bar. Meanwhile he is being paired up against every single one of the top 50 players on his server. In this case I wouldn't say the game is bad once you understand the systems, but gaining that understanding is not made intuitive at all.
  2. Ok so you are not going to like this explanation, but this is neither a bug, nor a cheat. It is working as intended. What is happening here is a matter of perspective. They are shooting you through the gap in the satellite fins. When you are far away from the satellite fins the gap is nearly non-existent and it treats it as such from your perspective. The gap just is way to small to shoot through from a distance, but when you are right next to it the gap is massive especially by comparison to the tiny ship you are shooting at because of the perspective of distance. Could you imagine the game telling you that you can't shoot through this very obvious gap because the guy you are shooting at can't shoot at you because the gap from his perspective is smaller than your ship? You would have screen shots for days showing the greyed out thing while a ship is in the wide open middle of this gap and people saying WHAT?!?!?! In the end it is simply a matter of distance and perspective and working as intended. If you were close to the gunship the fins would look the way it does for him and you would be able to shoot him just like he shot you. Right through the gap.
  3. As most have already stated most of these have a pretty solid explanation and could be multiple things. The 1 shotting is rarely/never actually one shotting, most likely multiple damage sources, but a DO set up strike can also do a lot with very little time. Another thing is changing directions to break a missile can actually sometimes make it easier to keep the lock depending on your distance because where you are feeling like you are moving around alot relative to his position you just aren't. Also, some missiles have larger firing arcs and faster lock times, but they typically aren't as dangerous as a P.Torp but they do still get people to react. The scores you are talking about sounds like you are not alone as a "new player" on your team and the enemy team has at least 1 veteran. Keep an eye out for the names of the people on the enemy team blowing you out and ask them to group with you and teach you it will make things make more sense. Also check your accuracy stat at the end of the match, if it reads under 40% there is probably something you are doing wrong which is keeping your kill rate low. I get the frustration, because this game does an absolutely abysmal job of teaching its players. And with the systems in place there are a lot of things to know and situations to keep track of. I will just say that all of it can be learned, and while bioware largely ignores this section of the game, this is probably the most balanced game mode in all of SWTOR. Personally I just wish rewards were better, ship skins would be awesome.
  4. Please make the Tenebrae fight into a raid, or a flash point or give me some way to repeat it on a higher difficulty. That fight was spectacular and I want to be able to spam it. One time was no where near enough.
  5. Someone please tell me Tenebrae is a raid boss somewhere or a repeatable fight or something. That was probably one of the most epic fights I have seen and I want to fight him again.
  6. I was pleasantly surprised to see that just because I took a break some of the same people I used to fly with still fly today.
  7. If you feel you need the mobility take Blade Blitz. You said Reflect was Mandatory with no reason why if they buff the other Defensives. And you just proved my point on both enure and Awe. Enure was always kinda weak and Awe is useful in Pvp and not so much in other content. So if you are doing PvP take it, if not ignore. So good job proving my point.
  8. I am surprised to see gunship hate back. But I will say every time someone complains about strikes being good I bask in it for a while because of just how long they were bad. That said I am thinking they have been good almost as long as they were bad now so it has been a nice retribution. That said I do think some minor nerfs to Protorp and/or buffs to bomber/scouts would be nice, but I always remember it takes years for GSF to see a patch so largely have to just learn the meta and play within it, and this is still the most balanced version of the game since it's launch, and I still love it.
  9. I personally played the class all the way through until after Revan when I first stopped playing the game. Now I am not saying that they have too much defense as of now. I am saying that during an ability prune a melee dps spec doesn't NEED more than 2 defensive abilities to be balanced. In PvE if you are having to rotate through that many defensive abilities at all times there is an issue with how you are playing the mechanics of the fight, and in PvP there are other nobs to pull and other things to tweak on ALL classes to create that balance. The ability prune doesn't exist in a vacuum. Edit: this said, having not really played the other classes or felt what the PvP balance is, and while acknowledging balance AND gearing is very much still out of whack still. Going to talk about what we ARE getting if they fix the scaling and the numbers. Going to talk about specifically vigilance, because again this is the one I largely play and largely played since launch. Branding Burst: Nice additional help with AoE mob pulls and with lower kill times, by doing this you are not losing plasma brand burn when applying it to a low health target. Cauterizing Brand: AWKWARD. 2 seconds is 1 GCD + a little extra and feels like a very awkward amount. I personally would love if this was a full 3 seconds. This would return Plasma Brand to it's 1.0/2.0 CD which I remember very fondly as it added some flexibility to the abilities up time and re-application time. Cyclone slash being gone and needing to be taken, It kind of takes away our only AOE rotation, but other classes have always been better at AOE anyway and, from what I remember in operations, there aren't a lot of AoE moments that are really needed, but there are still enough in NM operations that you could be a detriment to your team for not having good AoE. Thankfully other spec options do seem to Add some AoE back to the fray so this is a bit of a mixed back for me. Awe being gone unless taken, I was never much of a fan of this ability outside warzones so it being an option and something i can completely ignore if I want to do other content. Yes please thank you. Unyeilding justice, ironically fixes one of the biggest issues I always had with the blade storm range increase. By also increasing force push damage AND having it ignore the damage reduction after doing so you have added some more ranged capability for guardian, which is nice. Now the part where I get hung. Enure, vs Saber Reflect vs blade blitz. I hate blade blitz, I have forever. Yes it is a mobility option, but it has always been a clunky and awkward ability to use. Yes I know skilled players have gotten used to it, and with it being out 5 years or more people are probably throwing themselves off cliffs with it less often, but that does not change the fact that it is clunky and weird to use and takes away directional control from your character. I play GSF I get enough Self destruct moments out of Power Dive and bad Barrel Rolls in 3d space, I don't really need that on the ground. Enure, I do not get peoples love for this ability, it has existed since the dawn of the game, and has consistently been one of the worst defensive cooldowns, the temporary health goes away so it just gives healers a false sense of safety. It helps in a pinch, but I am not popping this ability on CD in just about any situation. Finally Saber Reflect, again very short duration, very niche ability and personally my favorite of the bunch and I am taking it, but this is my point none of these abilities were particularly super powerful to begin with and all had decently long CD's that made their use limited. Only 1 has existed since the start of the game and it was considered very weak it's entire span. To call all 3 "Necessary" is a stretch. Again we can't compare post ability prune balance to pre-ability prune balance. They are 2 separate balance issues. This is the definition of non-core abilities/ weak niche abilities, being pruned to create more player choice while also giving them a more focused way on improving balance as a whole. If 1 of these 3 becomes the overwhelming favorite, they will look to buff the other 2, if the class as a whole is weak they can look outside of the spec and to the actual core defensive abilities like Saber Ward or Force leap and guardian leap for mobility, but this is just a returning players view point. That said, balance in the whole game is still very much out of whack, but that doesn't mean the concepts of the ability prune aren't being done alright. Just really need to fix the scaling and the gearing.
  10. I am going to talk about what I think an ability prune SHOULD be. The biggest factor of an ability prune should be to simplify the rotation. The current rotation for vigilant guardians include sundering strike, plasma brand, overhead slash, blade barage, lightsaber throw, whirling blade, vigilant thrust and blade storm. That is a total of 8 abilities that the spec is juggling. We also want to trim the fat. The abilities that are rarely if ever used such as Force Freeze, Awe and for damage specs Riposte all of which are highly niche abilities. Finally, yes I do agree with trimming down defensive abilities for damage specs. When 1.0 launched we had enure and saber ward at that was it. Making enure a little stronger and then giving you a choice between ward, reflect (with reflect seeing a buff) or Focused defense on damage specs should be more than enough for them to survive content, as long as that content is properly tuned. Let's talk about what the ideal rotation should be for vigilant guardians and what the total prunning, i believe, should look like. First plasma brand is wrapped into Overhead slash and Overhead slash's cooldown is changed to 6 seconds (every other Overhead slash would do force damage, apply a 12 second burn and reset blade barrage with a refund of focus). LIghtsaber throw and whirling blade would be rolled into a single ability with procs causing a damage increase and ability reset. Cooldown on Lightsaber throw is lowered. Cooldown on Blade Storm is lowered. Damage on vigilant thrust is lowered to make it good for AOE and not a part of the main rotation. Strike and Slash are both buffed to be viable single target filler. Abilities lost Force Freeze, Awe, Riposte becomes defense only, Plasma brand is wrapped into other abilities, Whirling blade is wrapped into other abilities, AOE Rotation created and more seperate from single target rotation, Defensive cooldowns returned to 2 buttons for offensive specs. Defensive specs keep defensive cooldowns as rotating through them during a boss fight is a skill, they loose more offensive abilities but keep riposte. TL: DR An ability prune I feel does not work unless you are simplifying the rotations of the classes. If you still have 8 or 9 abilities you utilize on the regular and you are simply pruning the less used abilities all you are doing is removing utility. That said less used abilities should be removed as they are taking up unneeded space, there just isn't much of a point if you aren't also simplifying other aspects. Ideal rotation for Vigilant guardian Saber throw-force leap, Overhead, Blade Storm, Blade Barrage, Sundering strike, Overhead, blade storm, blade barrage, Saber Throw/(turned into whirling blade by procs).
  11. I am wanting to bump this again because this is a clear showing of how out of whack the balance is currently. You should get more attention for this.
  12. This is actually the perfect microcosm of what I am talking about. When I hear the words "Gunslinger" I think maybe Jango Fett, or the guy in the opening cinematic or a dozen other westerns, but the sharpshooter spec makes the class feel like a sniper. Before I know this was intentional as each faction needed to mirror one another. This is the perfect time to make the gunslinger it's own identity and not feel like a mirror of the sniper which, in my opinion, should be completely different in feel.
  13. I think the scoundrel still plays to much like an operative. In the future, (maybe not this patch) I would love to see them become a bit more divorced from one another. I would love to see more utilization of the shotgun as part of the scoundrel's rotation.
  14. I posted in the Vanguard one about this already, but the shadow/assassin specs are a perfect example of combat style that is missing a part of it's fantasy and it being linked to the same resource and some of the same abilities as the Sage/Sorcerer is a big part of what is messing with the fantasy of this class. To me a Shadow/Assassin gives us the fantasy of being able to play with a double bladed lightsaber. The three specs, to me, should be a Tank spec where the blade is used defensively with conjunction with the force in the same vein as Satele or Darth Zannah. The second should fit the name of "shadow/ Assassin" and introduce a lot of stealth elements and backstabbing to the fighting. These two I feel are, at least somewhat, well represented with the current way Shadow/Assassin is. The Style that is missing is the third style, the Maul/ Savage Opress style of combat where they more overwhelmingly use the blade and aggressive quick strikes. Divorcing this fighting style a little more from the force side of the old inquisitor and Consular could go a long way to bringing that third fantasy to life for those that want it.
  15. So this is probably beyond the scope of this particular patch, but I believe this separation of combat styles from their classes is the perfect time to begin divorcing the Advanced Classes from one another. In this case the Vanguard utilizes the same resource as the Commando and plays very similarly to the Power tech when they could be very different. Their could be a spec that has a greater focus on melee weapon combat, their could be a spec that is a "grenadier" that focuses on tossing grenades and of course the tactical spec can still mix the two in some way. With tech characters all able to choose between the 8 freely we do not need 4 of them to mirror each other any more.
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