So I've been conducting further testing on Pyrotech to get a handle on how it feels to play. And while it plays mostly the same, there has been one issue that I've been contending with for some time now: Heat management.

 

Allow me to explain. Thermal Sensor Override has been baked into Vent Heat and Pyrotech's big heat management passive, Heat Flow Recycler has been outright removed from the spec. This makes it rather difficult to get a handle on heat management should it get out of control in hectic scenarios because A: We can no longer use TSO on key abilities without having to put Vent Heat on cooldown, and B: Not having Heat Flow Recycler means having to weave more Rapid Shot casts into your rotation, this puts added strain onto the rotation's priority list.

 

This creates a slippery slope that punishes the player pretty hard should their heat levels climb too high. There's very little room for recovery because the safety net has been greatly diminished by rolling all of it into one ability, Vent Heat, which has a 2 minute cooldown. TSO and Heat Flow Recycler were an important part of Pyro's safety net to prevent issues with heat management. But now that they're gone, you can really feel the impact of their absence. If Vent Heat is on cooldown it creates an ugly dead-zone where our only means of reducing heat are Rapid Shot casts and Flame Barrage procs.

 

Something definitely needs to be done about this issue. I recommend reintroducing Heat Flow Recycler to the spec and shaving 30-40 seconds off of Vent Heat's cooldown. This should help to get heat management under control. I understand that pruning is one of goals for this expansion pack, but this is an example of pruning gone too far imo.

Edited October 11, 2021 by validatio
Spelling, grammar, and clarification.

Actually, PT's are in wonderful shape (PVP)

 

Losing CC doesn't matter

PT changes are not happening in a vacuum. All the classes (except guardian?) are losing their hardstun. I actually think it'll be good for pvp, since as we know there's too much CC anyways for PvP nowadays. Guardians will be returning as the Control Kings they were at launch, which is fine.

 

Losing Mobility Doesn't Matter

How many of us actually use Second Contract? On live, it gimps your damage. Is nobody grateful for baseline battering ram? On live, battering ram gimps your defense/hydraulics. I understand DPS losing 75% Overdrive, because that was insanely overpowered IMO anyways. Again, we need to consider this in context of all classes, where PTs will still have good mobility.

 

PTs received extra mitigation CDs, other classes lost theirs

• Operatives lost revitalizers (except lethality apparently)
  
• Jedi Knights.
  
• Snipers lost ballistic shield
  
• Mercs losing half of their heals/mitigation
  

Meanwhile, Pyro and AP did not lose any mitigation. In fact, both DPS specs received extra dcd opportunities. No other classes received extra DCD talents, as far as I know. After seeing what they did to warriors, I was expecting to lose Power Yield/Energy Shield/Kolto. Are you not grateful PTs are the only class to retain all mitigation as on live? 7.0 seems to want to move PTs from being glass cannons to being slow cannons. This is understandable but I can see why some players dont like it, because it does feel like a nerf mobility-wise.

 

Stealth Scan sounds fun again

On live it is only useful to counter vanishes. Maybe I just havent been playing as much in the last 5 years, but I dont use stealth scan as much as I used to. I think its because the stealth classes are not relying on stealth so much because of all the reflects, hard mitigation, and extra mobility. With all classes being tuned down, stealth should become more of a factor, and so I see myself using stealth scan instead of the extra dcd talents. With the extra long duration (which has been suggested on the forums for years) we probably become mandatory for voidstar defense.

 

Channeled Flamethrower

Really happy to see this back in the game, just wish pyrotech had access to one as well.

 

Thermal Sensor Override

Heat management is strictly worse now. Making 1 "oh ****" button for all concerns caters to bad players. It's like how Snipers have Evasion + Speed boost on one button, which i dont like either.

I agree with the post above that the dcds for PT DPS specs are actually very good. My friend reached 121.51 % damage reduction by using PY + Kolto + Energy shield + sonic missile 10% DR at the same time as a pyro PT.

 

Shield PT feels more or less as it's on live. Me and my friend went to have some memes in DF story and I really loved heavy flamethrower because it feels good to use it. I'll be really sad of Target Rich Enviroment turns out to be always better just because it's a DPS upgrade.

 

Fun note, we are not downscaled in operations on PTS. The healing from Close and Personal alone was more healing than what Nefra did to me. But I had to use dcds on later bosses tho.

 

I'm little conflicted about adding a self cleance to PTs. I'd like if all three tank specs had their niches. If all tanks have self cleance and a short window of invulnerability (shroud, EP bubble, reflect), then it it makes little (some, but little) difference which one I bring. But... maybe this is the desired state for most players?

 

Anyhow, overall I feel that shield PT is in a pretty good place. The combat buffs to shield are nice and probably will enable us to have stable shield chance of 60-70 % with bis gear (i had 50+ in 318 green items with no augments). Mandalorian iron is a bit weird tho, since it adds damage reduction to explosive fuel. Using fuel (and defence clicky relic) gave me a defence chance of 59%, and I don't think it will go much past 60% because the defence diminishing returns hit pretty hard. I had 8.5k defence (in greens) and the relic (+1500 def) gave 2 unit-% more. The purpose of explosive fuel is to avoid hits and giving 3% damage reduction to that is kinda wasteful since in best case scenario you don't benefit at all from it. But on the other hand it's a nice back up when the defence lottery fails. I would add mandalorian iron to energy shield as well, because there it is always useful mitigating damage.

 

Big thumbs up for the friendly grapple!

Mandalorian iron is a bit weird tho, since it adds damage reduction to explosive fuel. Using fuel (and defence clicky relic) gave me a defence chance of 59%, and I don't think it will go much past 60% because the defence diminishing returns hit pretty hard. I had 8.5k defence (in greens) and the relic (+1500 def) gave 2 unit-% more. The purpose of explosive fuel is to avoid hits and giving 3% damage reduction to that is kinda wasteful since in best case scenario you don't benefit at all from it. But on the other hand it's a nice back up when the defence lottery fails. I would add mandalorian iron to energy shield as well, because there it is always useful mitigating damage.

 

 

After thinking about this some more: fuel and energy yield cooldown reduction make even less sense (unless the point is to prevent players from getting full benefit). Fuel makes things not hit you while the energy yield CD drops when you are hit. Having this effect on energy shield only would make much more sense and reinforce shield PT identity as mitigation tank rather than avoidance tank.

After thinking about this some more: fuel and energy yield cooldown reduction make even less sense (unless the point is to prevent players from getting full benefit). Fuel makes things not hit you while the energy yield CD drops when you are hit. Having this effect on energy shield only would make much more sense and reinforce shield PT identity as mitigation tank rather than avoidance tank.

 

It does add a little consistency to Explosive Fuel with some guaranteed mitigation. I've always found Explosive Fuel to be a mediocre cooldown as it just doesn't add enough Defense Chance to feel consistent again M/R like Deflection and Saber Ward, and against F/T the 35% is even more unreliable. Coupled with Oil Slick it does decent enough vs M/R, but a little consistency through the DR effect is not bad imo.

 

Energy Shield is already fantastic, so I'd rather any new buffs focus more on Explosive Fuel. I'd rather have two pretty good cooldowns than one really great one and one mediocre one.

It does add a little consistency to Explosive Fuel with some guaranteed mitigation. I've always found Explosive Fuel to be a mediocre cooldown as it just doesn't add enough Defense Chance to feel consistent again M/R like Deflection and Saber Ward, and against F/T the 35% is even more unreliable. Coupled with Oil Slick it does decent enough vs M/R, but a little consistency through the DR effect is not bad imo.

 

Energy Shield is already fantastic, so I'd rather any new buffs focus more on Explosive Fuel. I'd rather have two pretty good cooldowns than one really great one and one mediocre one.

 

I get what you mean, and I pair fuel with slick as well. Would you agree that 3% is quite unimpressive tho?

 

But the practicalities aside, it's just the design philosophy that weirds me out. 1. Use something to make it more difficult to hit you 2. Wish they hit you every 1.2 seconds anyway to get more energy yields 3. Don't get hit that much and look at 3% DR buff and 10s off EY cooldown. Can you see my point of view?

Fuel makes things not hit you while the energy yield CD drops when you are hit.

But this is exactly how it buffs EF and makes it more reliable tho: you won't resist/evade much with 35% DC, it's a hit or miss by itself, but when you add the DR buff and reduced CD on a defensive ability with selfheal every time RNG isn't in your favour it makes a really good failsafe.

 

I have also noticed that you can click off your EY stacks to get the self heals instantly, that trick saved me a lot of times, very cool ability))

Edited October 11, 2021 by Voroschuk

AP PT feels mostly the same. Noticed a couple of important changes, such as choosing between 2 gap closers - jet charge or grapple; shield cannon or hydraulic overrides, or elector dart.

Can't say that I'm all that thrilled for the new system, but, since globally every class losses mobility and cc, it's not all that bad.

 

Level 15: Power Burst - 20% additional damage on thermal grenade opener and Heat Zone - energy burst spread. (I seem to be getting two stacks of lodes after railshot sometimes. Is that a bug?)

Level 20: Painful loss of either jet charge or grapple. (though getting two grapple charges is nice)

Level 30: Similar to level 15 choices - additional either single target damage(Retracted Refresh) or AOE(Jugular).

Level 35: Now this is something interesting. Advanced Yield - increases range to 15m on almost all abilities, but for some reason not on shoulder cannon?! (Fix it). Advanced Shielding - Being shielded increases next kolto to 45% or power yield timer by 5 sec. Losing a stealth scan is just wrong though.

Everything beyond this is pretty underwhelming.

AP PT feels mostly the same. Noticed a couple of important changes, such as choosing between 2 gap closers - jet charge or grapple; shield cannon or hydraulic overrides, or elector dart.

Can't say that I'm all that thrilled for the new system, but, since globally every class losses mobility and cc, it's not all that bad.

This is across all classes where we are being forced to make really horrific choices and losing some important skillls

I strongly recommend that this be reconsidered.

Do not take skills away in this manner, please, just dont... trees should give skills, they should augment them.

Make them better, add something to them.... jet charge and grapples should be baseline, add tweaks, such as an AoE burst to jet charge or the stun to grapple... not add the skills itself.

Please dont do this, get creative, give us the skills, use trees to modify them!!

After testing AP PT some more, I can confidently say this goes completely against their "more customization" selling point.

 

If you want AP PT to feel anything like live, you have nearly no choices on the talent tree except for level 60. This will result in cookie cutter specs and loses all diversity. Right now in PvP I run 4 different "specs" depending on what map I am on, switching out utilities and tacticals to better suit how I want to play on that map, while still keeping my core abilities.. I am losing that customization with this current PTS talent tree and losing core abilities.

 

Also, the new Vent Heat is stupid...it doesn't actually activate until you use an ability. On live, you press Vent Heat and it immediately vents 50 heat over 3 seconds. On PTS, you press Vent Heat and nothing happens until you activate an ability (which costs 0 heat) and THEN it vents the heat. It feels awful under the fingers.

 

The talent "Jugular" simply causes an additional Retractable Blade to proc when you refresh it's duration. It's fine on it's own, but you get the sound effect from Retractable Blade that will play continuously every time you refresh it. It's annoying.

 

HYDRAULIC OVERRIDES SHOULD NEVER BE A CHOICE. PLEASE MAKE IT BASELINE.

 

Head-scratches all around. I went from 4 active specs to 1. Bunch of customization to a cookie cutter spec that will never change.

 

These changes are short-sighted and not smart. Any "casual" player is fine in the game as-is...they don't need all their abilities because the game is so easy it doesn't matter. If they wanted to get better, they had something to work towards. Those who love the abilities get lots of customization and optimization. The current iteration makes it worse for everyone.

really confused in this thread why people speak as if AP PTs have to choose between grapple and jet charge...

 

I know there are bugs where skills are being granted when they are not intending to be (for example, I can have both Searing Wave and the Channeled Version, which is an error)...

 

But the descriptions of AP PT and Pyro PT imply that grapple is baseline for AP PTs. So the only thing you theoretically are losing is Jet Charge. Thing is, how many of us actually use (on live) Second Contract, or whatever the other one is (Reel)? Doing either of that gimps your damage. On top of that, how many of us take Battering ram? (That's 2 Jet Boosts).

 

So... to clarify, if you're like me, who never uses Battering Ram or Second Contract, then:

On live I get 1 charge and 1 pull

On PTS I get 2 charges and 1 pull

 

Even *if* you do take battering ram (very common) then you're still no worse off. And if you take Second Contract... then it seems you're about to get a huge damage buff in the form of Power Lode, which appears to be baseline on the PTS.

 

Or am I missing something?

really confused in this thread why people speak as if AP PTs have to choose between grapple and jet charge...

 

I know there are bugs where skills are being granted when they are not intending to be (for example, I can have both Searing Wave and the Channeled Version, which is an error)...

 

But the descriptions of AP PT and Pyro PT imply that grapple is baseline for AP PTs. So the only thing you theoretically are losing is Jet Charge. Thing is, how many of us actually use (on live) Second Contract, or whatever the other one is (Reel)? Doing either of that gimps your damage. On top of that, how many of us take Battering ram? (That's 2 Jet Boosts).

 

So... to clarify, if you're like me, who never uses Battering Ram or Second Contract, then:

On live I get 1 charge and 1 pull

On PTS I get 2 charges and 1 pull

 

Even *if* you do take battering ram (very common) then you're still no worse off. And if you take Second Contract... then it seems you're about to get a huge damage buff in the form of Power Lode, which appears to be baseline on the PTS.

 

Or am I missing something?

 

Huh, you're actually right, well, partially. Picking up jet charge doesn't exclude grapple, but you get a single charge. Don't know if that's intended, but in this case, we're ain't losing any of two gap closers.

However, picking any of the abilities tied to grapple automatically removes jet charge.

I use Second Contract on every Huttball match except Quesh along with all the utilities that buff Grapple. My job as a PT is to hang in the rafters and near fire pits so I can pull ball carriers, steal, and run away. Have won countless games in the last few seconds of the match like this. Casual players didn't NEED to do this to contribute, but I really enjoy being able to customize my utilities and tactical based on what map I play in PVP. It's fun to have options.

 

Now I'll only be able to have a cookie cutter spec with no customization or options.

I'm back to being a little unimpressed. What I really want to know is: are we going to be allowed to have dual specs (e.g. one tree spec saved for PvP and one for PvE)? Because that's the only way I can see this working. And why is Hunter's Boon now a passive? One of the benefits of completing all 8 classes was the ability to have all the class buffs (4 empire or 4 republic). Have you removed this? Why did we bother with that Legendary Player achievement? The buffs were the only reason I did it. Anyone know if the buffs will auto apply to those who completed the achievement?

 

I copied my level 75 Pyrotech over and I'm a soloer who does unranked PvP on my Pyrotech (sometimes) and occasional PvE grouping (NOT Ops).

 

1. Does it feel like a Pyrotech?

Yes but only because FLAMES. And, even though the flame thrower ability has been gone for years (and is only available via heroic moment), why oh why not take this opportunity to return it to all Powertechs? It was an iconic ability (I saw others mentioning that it was back, but I don't see it).

 

2. The ability tree

Choosing an ability in a higher tier makes a lower tier option default to something you don't want. Is this intended or an annoying bug? The tree itself, as it stands this is going to be a problem.

Tier 15: I'm not sure what to pick here. Went with Primed Ignition.

Tier 20: I'm only ever going to choose Jet Charge in that tier.

Tier 30: Whistling Birds could be useful in PvP, however I picked Mandalorian Warhead for the large instant damage.

Tier 35: all three please. However since I don't raid I picked Chilled Retribution.

Tier 50: Really? Pyro Shield, Gyroscopic Alignment and Iron Will all on the same tree? Super fail and at the very least PvP fail right here.

Tier 60: Torn between the Quell cooldown (Hitman) and Reflective Armour. Picked the latter as it will be more useful for what I do in-game, though I'd have preferred both.

Tier 70: Oh come on. The only choice is Hydraulic Overrides but at the expense of a stun ability (Electrodart). As a soloer, heals from shoulder cannon is very useful but can't pick that (Shield Cannon) either. This tier makes me angry.

Tier 80: The only option for me as a soloer is Efficient Suit. The other two are useless to me.

 

I was hoping Neural Dart and Sonic Missile would be gone as I've never used them as a soloer. Give us the option to sell abilities we don't/won't use so we can buy more ability tree skills (sell our useless/unused abilities for ability tree tokens or something).

Edited October 14, 2021 by Sarova

I use Second Contract on every Huttball match except Quesh along with all the utilities that buff Grapple. My job as a PT is to hang in the rafters and near fire pits so I can pull ball carriers, steal, and run away. Have won countless games in the last few seconds of the match like this. Casual players didn't NEED to do this to contribute, but I really enjoy being able to customize my utilities and tactical based on what map I play in PVP. It's fun to have options.

 

Now I'll only be able to have a cookie cutter spec with no customization or options.

 

I'll have to go back through what Bioware said about 7.0 and if they tried to sell it off as, omg this is amazing we are giving you all new ways to play these classes! Then yeah that's a bit used car salesman like lmaoo. I'll wager tho what they meant by that was the load outs if in fact they were touting that.

 

Every class is losing a lot btw, so yeah it's disappointing to lose an ability you like, however they seem to be trying to streamline the game for newer players and still keep 3 play styles viable for each class. A mobile spec, a damage spec, and a tankier spec. There's always a meta no matter what they do tho. When they released multiple gear sets and tacticals, there's really only a handful of viable options and the rest are trash. Sad to say this is just more of the same old, I'll reserve judgement until I see how it plays with the rest of the classes.

I use 3 different tacticals in PvP. Life Warden for last round arena, Second Contract for Huttball, and Powerlode for other maps. Each time I also switch utilities. I use different utilities for Voidstar, Huttball maps, arena, and the other maps. This amount of customization is fun, and I still retain my core abilities.

 

Now I get to lose my core abilities and customization. That is not fun.

I use 3 different tacticals in PvP. Life Warden for last round arena, Second Contract for Huttball, and Powerlode for other maps. Each time I also switch utilities. I use different utilities for Voidstar, Huttball maps, arena, and the other maps. This amount of customization is fun, and I still retain my core abilities.

 

Now I get to lose my core abilities and customization. That is not fun.

 

How do you manage to use different utilities in different pvp maps? I thought that respeccing utilities wasn't allowed in a pvp match, or even in pvp queue? How do you know when you're about to play a huttball?

 

Changing tacticals is allowed, but only before the match actually begins.

You can change utilities and tacticals before the match starts. The only map it doesn't work on is Voidstar.

Dear SWTOR team,

 

I was able to test all 3 specs for the Powertech on PTS.

 

Before I jump into some details, I want to give you an overview of my general thoughts. Firstly, all of the specs felt to be similar in playstyle as they are currently on live. Secondly, a lot of choices on the ability trees are missing tooltips and they just say "passive." While I was able to figure out what some of them do, it would be a lot easier if I actually had the tooltips so I can test them out and know what I am doing. Although, I was able to test some things by poking around. I really hope the next iteration on PTS will not be missing the tooltips.

 

Shield Tech

 

Overall a very pleasing experience, I love the fact that you transformed Power Yield into Energy Yield, where you can receive 6% max health heal per stack of Energy Yield. I think this improves Powertech survivability on the whole thing. Having heal that is better than Kolto Overload definitely helps.

 

There were some options regarding the Firestorm ability: you could increase the strength of your elemental and tech attacks after you use Firestorm, or you could transform your Firestorm into essentially a channeled flamethrower. Assuming it gives similar effects and similar damage, I would probably not go with that option as I am not fond of channeled attacks for tanks, however it does feel nostalgic. I wasn't able to figure out what the third option is.

 

Looks like some of the choices are connected to Heat Blast. It seems that one option gives you stacks that seemed to increase shield rating on top of absorb rating from Heat Blast itself (it seemed that you could build those stacks by using certain abilities like Railgun Shot or maybe Flame Burst/Flame Sweep). The other option seemed to give you different number of shield rating stacks depending on how many enemies the Heat Blast hits. The final option seemed to give you a buff which gave a fixed shield rating increase. Overall these options seemed extremely good! I was able to get shield and absorb chances up to 60% and 70%, respectively (not having augments). That gives some good damage mitigation for powertechs, as they didn't have many defensive cooldowns for spike damage (Heat Blast and Energy Shield were the only ones really, but Heat Blast was not really enough, this change really buffs it though). Assuming everything I said here is true (no tooltips), this is awesome.

 

Advanced Prototype

 

Some choices I thought were pretty good. Like for example, you could modify your bleed refresh: you can make it so that every time you refresh your bleed, it does either damage to enemies around the target or additional damage to the primary target. Another choice was to improve initial hit for Retractable Blade.

 

It seems that you could make your Energy Burst to be an AoE attack, which is pretty neat! Powertechs do not really have a lot of AoEs in their arsenal, so this addition is nice. Among other options, you can modify your Energy Burst to leave a lingering DoT or you can increase Magnetic Blast attack.

 

The Power Yield for Advanced Prototype seemed to work as usual, but it seems to build max stacks of Powerlode so that you can use Energy Burst immediately which kind of works in the same way as the tactical currently on live.

 

Pyrotech

 

You can improve your Flaming Fist to be either an AoE, improve your Immolate, or it seems to be putting a stacking buff. I am not entirely sure what it does (no tooltips).

 

You can also make your Incendiary Missile to be a burst attack as opposed to a DoT (that's what it seemed like), or you can make Railgun Shot to be a DoT after the Incendiary Missile. It seems that you can also spread you Incendiary Missile between the enemies using Flame Wave. I don't think it is possible right now on live, but it's been awhile since I played Pyrotech.

 

Power Yield changes to Thermal Yield and works in a similar way and it can be extended up to 30 seconds duration. I am not sure if it does anything else besides that.

 

Overall, the flow seems to be the same with some extra flavor added for all three specs. It seems that you decided to combine Thermal Sensor Override into Vent Heat. I think it's an ok change, but certainly something that I would need to get used to.

 

Thank you,

ViShAsh

How are pyro pts fairing now that the meteor brawler set will be gone?

Kinda hated it since everyone complained about the huge burst of pts as if expecting everyone would play that dumb tier set, do pts feel any better?

 

Mainly asking since I am planning to start a character with the powertech combat style in 7.0 and curious to see how they feel in comparison to their current version.

I would rly love to see the old flamethrower channeling ability to return, with slightly more damage since it is being channeled rather than instant and the same damage bonus/slow stacks from searing wave passives, it should make it absolutely viable and definitely an option for us who miss that.

 

Bit concerned over close up and personal since it often does a lot of damage in pve, at the same time 30% aoe damage reduction is often quite huge in all contents as well.

You can just imagine healers moaning they have the heal more cuz everyone picked the dps option over the defensive one.

 

I definitely like the way pyro is now in pts dps design wise, if the values are correct it sounds like we might be getting some rly nice big immolate crits which definitely makes pyro feel right, big dangerous flames

Edited November 19, 2021 by ralphieceaser

On the whole, the changes to the PT don't look too bad. Powerlode finally got the necessary rate limit, but unfortunately only lasts for 10 seconds. This makes it even more vulnerable than it already is. I would like it if Power Yield stayed as it is on the Live Server for AP PT and instead of the Powerlode stack effect from critical hits, Railshot generates an additional Energy Lode for it during Power Yield. I don't really like the passive Advanced Shiedling. By using Energy Shield you can either increase the duration of the next Power Yield by 5 seconds or the next Kolto Overload now heals up to 45%. It feels wrong to me to be "forced" to a certain DCD order. There I would appreciate if Power Yield would always hold 15 seconds through the passive and Kolto Overload would be buffed as well. The heal from Kolto Overload feels very weak at AP and you always have to combine Kolto Overload with another DCD to stay alive now. I expect more from a DCD with a 3 minute CD. In addition, there are no more reasonable single target tacticals for the AP PT due to the elimination of Powerlode and Energized Balde. Playing with Overwhelming Offensive is not too much fun and Lifewarden has too much CD. Edited December 31, 2021 by Schwarzherz

I really dislike combining Vent Heat and Thermal Sensor Override into one ability. PT already doesn't have a whole lot of skills, so I don't really feel it's needed anway. And having them seperate just makes for a much better experience. Now you just get a complete overload of head once, and then no heat reducing abilities until it's back. Having them seperate means you can space them out for a much better experience. This is especially noticable when opening with double Energy Burst on AP. Also worth noting that Energy management is already nerfed by the loss of Meteor Brawler. Consider reversing this change.

 

The Retractable Blade upgrade talents are a bit of a letdown imo. The range on the AoE when refreshing is laugably small, should be 8m radius to be useful. Also the one that boosts the initial hit doesn't quite feel right for me. It seems to be aiming for solo play, where you often have to reapply it, but it's not great. There's very few targets that are worth hitting with Retractable Blade in most solo content anyway. And if they are, you're probably going to get more value out of the other options. Maybe have it change Retractable Blade into a burst ability? (Removing the dot component, upping direct damage to be much higher and giving it a cooldown). Obviously make it so overall dps is lower, this would be an option for content where the dot won't help much since targets die fast.

Edited December 28, 2021 by AdjeYo

So I just wanted to talk about power tech tank as of current PTS.

 

The level 43 decision is the only one I would argue has an issue. So with Payday it loses the cooldown reduction that heatblast gets which allows it to have a larger uptime with the heat blast absorption rating buff, and allows for more utilization of the ability to gain more damage. Payday addresses the damage by it doing more damage, but I don't believe it is enough to really push it above standard heat blast's utility, even in single target fights. The additional single target taunt CD reduction isn't THAT great, as it can only be used once per taunt CD basically making taunt's CD 12 seconds but still requiring you to hit payday to gain the benefit of it.

 

So the main changes I would suggest would be to either:

A: give back the ion gas cylinder's ability to lower the cooldown, even if it is only .5 seconds per trigger compared to heat blast's 1 second.

or

B: Make it so payday has a longer uptime on the absorption buff than heat blast to compensate, lets say 10 seconds per ability use, giving it a 2/3rds uptime.

 

Maybe I am missing where this really comes into play, maybe it is meant to be more pvp utilized but I don't really see how a tank doing slightly more single target is helping compared to AoE.

So I just wanted to talk about power tech tank as of current PTS.

 

The level 43 decision is the only one I would argue has an issue. So with Payday it loses the cooldown reduction that heatblast gets which allows it to have a larger uptime with the heat blast absorption rating buff, and allows for more utilization of the ability to gain more damage. Payday addresses the damage by it doing more damage, but I don't believe it is enough to really push it above standard heat blast's utility, even in single target fights. The additional single target taunt CD reduction isn't THAT great, as it can only be used once per taunt CD basically making taunt's CD 12 seconds but still requiring you to hit payday to gain the benefit of it.

 

So the main changes I would suggest would be to either:

A: give back the ion gas cylinder's ability to lower the cooldown, even if it is only .5 seconds per trigger compared to heat blast's 1 second.

or

B: Make it so payday has a longer uptime on the absorption buff than heat blast to compensate, lets say 10 seconds per ability use, giving it a 2/3rds uptime.

 

Maybe I am missing where this really comes into play, maybe it is meant to be more pvp utilized but I don't really see how a tank doing slightly more single target is helping compared to AoE.

 

Interesting I didn't notice they dropped the cooldown reduction when you pick the single target upgrade of heat blast. (Tbh I initially thought they must've just forgot to mention it so I went to test it, but you are absolutely correct). I initially thought the idea was that you sacrifice the AoE effect for some extra single target damage, but the rest stays more or less the same. I think it's probably best that way, just keep the cooldown reduction from building Heat Screens, and now the option becomes a bit of extra single target damage at the cost of AoE damage.

 

It's also worth noting that while it gives a 3% shield chance as well, this is less than the 5% you can get from the other options (even on single targets) and the 3 second CD reduction on single target taunt hardly seems worth it either. That's a shame because even in purely single target fights this seems inferior to the other option, unless you really don't need the extra defensive utility from having a lower CD on your absorb buff as well as some extra shield chance.