Yes, this is my expectation as well. The only adjustment I would make would be to put 186 and 192 set bonus gear higher than 192 and 198 no set bonus commendation gear, respectively. Obviously that only applies if the list is meant to be ranked in terms of gear value. A player with min/max 192 set bonus gear will outperform a player in the poor secondary stat 198 no set bonus commendation gear.

Actually no, that's a poor example. Your writing style is histrionic. My comment to the other poster was sarcastic. Those are different words because they mean two completely different things. P.S. Who threw a stone? "Histrionic" isn't an insult. It simply is an accurate one-word description of your writing style--like "blue" describes the colour of they sky. If you personally interpret "emotional" or "dramatic" as being an insulting characteristic of a person's writing style, that's based on your personal value system, over which I have no control.

Exactly. The orb will never go on cooldown for the person who possesses it as long as they have The Hateful Presence targeted when they use the orb (i.e. they don't mistakenly trigger the orb when they have nothing targeted). For example, either of the following two scenarios will work. Bob the Sniper has an orb he won ten months ago on a clear of The Dreadful Entity. He brings that old bound orb to your run. Your group can skip the Dreadtooth and Dreadful Entity stages and move straight into the nightmare S&V phase to prepare to summon The Hateful Entity. Bob will be able to summon The Hateful Entity as many times as you need. No one in your 16-man group already has an orb. Your group kills The Dreadful Entity and you take the orb drop for yourself. There is no need to trade the orb to different people during its bind timer. You can just keep summoning The Hateful Entity yourself for as many times as your group needs.

Augment kits have no level restriction. It is just the quality of the augment going into them that is level restricted. Therefore MK-10 augmentation slots could potentially take a variety of different augmentations, with various level restrictions, up to Level 60.

For PvE content, it's the same as it is now. Some boss effects are cleansable and some are not. The Developers stated in a LiveStream that the are looking to move away from the Force vs. Tech distinction with debuffs, so that any healer can remove any cleansable debuff. It has not been clarified if this change will be implemented for the 3.0 launch content, or if it's something to expect further down the road. For PvP, no player DoTs will be cleanable by healers. Player DoTs are able to be purged however, if a player's character has a purge ability. All CC effects will be cleansable in PvP and PvE content in 3.0, so healers can now remove hard stuns, soft stuns, roots and snares from their teammates.

That’s cool. I’ll go do your work for you. Mercenary Blog Sorcerer Blog Powertech Blog Juggernaut Blog So, as we can see through the underlined passages above, the Developer blogs have provided no indication that healers or tanks will be suffering from any type of performance reduction in 3.0. Everything that is underlined actually provides a boost to healing or mitigation. The change to Crushing Blow replaced a flat damage reduction for the tank with the effect of being able to reduce the outgoing Force and tech damage of its target, a group-wide benefit. For good measure, here’s the Developers discussing the overall philosophy of their tanking changes during the Trooper/Bounty Hunter LiveStream (12:15-13:02), which includes the following quote. I've supported my position that your statement suggesting that healing and mitigation reductions are coming in 3.0 is false by using only information directly from the Developers. Perhaps you can deign to do the same if you want to claim that I am incorrect. In fact, I would say that based on the Developers' information above, players should not be surprised if healer performance increases with the launch of 3.0. The very opposite of your statement.

Please point me to exactly where the Developers have stated, or shown, that healers were exceeding what they were expected to be able to achieve from a HPS perspective and that they should expect an across the board reduction in their healing output when 3.0 is released. I would be fascinated to see your source. Also, a second Developer statement on tanks mitigating too much damage, and that they should expect to die more easily the morning that 3.0 launches, please. An adjustment to a healer or tank ability or two is not even similar to the Developers' sweeping generalisation that all DPS output across all Classes is being reduced with 3.0. Have you accounted for the increased healing output or tank mitigation that comes from other expected ability changes? What about the Sorcerer's new bounce-heal?

It has never been said by the Developers that healing or tank mitigation is being reduced with the launch of 3.0. That is a creation of your imagination. Guidance on 3.0's DPS targets. Internal targets exist so that PvE flashpoint and operation content can be balanced around appropriate enrage timers, DPS checks, healing checks and tank mitigation so that content is appropriately challenging for each difficulty level according to the Developers' design philosophy. Refer to my response on how DPS creep occurred in SWTOR over the past 13 months. This is incorrect. Player performance from levels 56-60 remains unaffected by the DPS reduction. Players will be fighting mobs and bosses that are correctly balanced as the Developers intended. If the Developers didn't reduce our damage, they simply would have added more hit points to everything included in 3.0 to provide the exact same experience. There is nothing that is suddenly "harder" about levels 56-60 because of the upcoming damage reduction.

Let's examine the Developer's method of balancing classes since the release of Dread Fortress and Dread Palace in October 2013. "Buffed" and "nerfed" are used in the broadest sense to mean any increase or decrease in DPS caused by a change to an offensive ability. Patch 2.4.2 - Nerfed Mercenaries (vent heat change). Patch 2.5 - Buffed Marauders (including implementing group-wide Bloodthirst), Inquisitors, Assassins, Agents. Patch 2.6 - Buffed Mercenaries, Juggernauts, Sorcerers, Operatives, Snipers. Nerfed Agents (orbital strike). Patch 2.7 - Buffed Sorcerers, Mercenaries. Nerfed Juggernauts and Marauders in PvP (Smash requires primary target). Patch 2.8 - Buffed Marauders, Sorcerers, Assassins. Powertechs. Patch 2.10 - Buffed Marauders, Assassins. Buffed/Nerfed Snipers (mixed changes including roll-bang in-place removal). Not surprisingly, after all of the above changes, DPS is outperforming the DPS target levels that the current operations were balanced around back in 2013. Why would the Developers follow the above "more buffs than nerfs" trend? As was posted by Rob Hinkle in the 2.8 PTS forums (emphasis mine), As many posters have displayed in this thread, people get pissed off when the advanced Class and spec they play receives a nerf in the name of better balance. Just the thought of receiving a damage reduction in 3.0 has some people saying they will stop playing the game. So yes, damage got out of hand as the Developers tried to balance using mainly buffs to keep players happy. There's no conspiracy theory. The Developers simply used too many "happy" buffs rather than "sad" nerfs over the past 13 months when trying to balance classes for an emotional playerbase. With 3.0 they are finally saying "Suck it up. You were all on a DPS vacation for the past year. Your vacation is now over and you will be playing content as it is intended to be balanced."

Yes. 186 is the recommended gear level for the new story mode operations. It is expected, but not confirmed, that a version of 186 gear (likely non-optimized and with no set bonus) will be available for purchase with Basic commendations.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you were a flawless example of humanity using your godlike omnipotence to move through life mistake-free. I would rather damage be corrected for the long-term health of this game than for the problem to be ignored.

I believe the opposite. The correct time to build in the adjustment to damage levels is when the Discipline system is introduced. The purpose of the system is to make balancing the game easier so the Developers can spend more time creating content. Damage should be balanced to the Developers' target levels at the same time so the new system begins at their intended values.

Well, you'll be wrong. And nightmare operation players won't care about 186 gear being purchased for commendations. It will not be Dread Master gear and it will have poor stat optimisations on it and no set bonuses. Their nightmare DF/DP gear from token drops will still be superior. Besides the fact, they will be moving immediately into farming 192 tokens from the new story mode operations--after all, they're already in the recommended gear level 186s--and will be pushing to get 198 tokens out of the new hard mode operations. The second that 3.0 goes live, 186 gear is yesterday's news. 198 gear is what matters to progression players.

lol - they'll be interested in it. 186 is the recommended gear level for the new story mode operations. Casual Fleet PUGs are not going to be clearing more than a boss or two, if that, in 162/168/180 no set bonus commendation gear. Honestly, how often do you truly see casual players legitimately outperforming their gear level? When you browse players' gear these days as you're waiting for the last few players in a 16-man SM PUG to phase in, how many four-set bonuses do you find? Four players with them? Five? Casual players seemed to become fixated on acquiring 180 commendation armorings in 2014 and many of them removed or overwrote their 162/168 set bonuses. They can't clear HM DF/DP bosses, so they're stuck in full 180 commendation gear with not a set bonus to be found. The playerbase hasn't experienced operation content in PUG situations where no one in the group is above the recommended gear level in a long, long time. 3.0's story mode operations are going to be a giant wake-up call. Expect full player-by-player gear inspections for the first couple of months as group leaders ensure that everyone is in full 186 gear in their PUG. Also, expect to see a lot of enrage timers.

I agree. All of the above points are great advice. If you can do an operation first as a DPS or a healer before tanking it, that is extremely helpful in understanding what happens in each fight. The best advice you can give to a tank is "be prepared." Oh, and Shadows/Assassins make great tanks when they are played well. I should know, I've cleared every fight in the game as an Assassin tank...except for nightmare Dread Council (the last fight of the nightmare Dread Palace operation.) My guild is still working on that one, but my tanking is spectacular.

I think you're looking for "histrionic." Histrionic: deliberately affected or self-consciously emotional; overly dramatic, in behavior or speech. Examples: "...and as time passes it continues to grow, forming this vehicle into a mighty force in the MMO market." "And the game has been moving forward ever since to brighter skies." "And now we are on the precipice of another major change, and perhaps more around the corner..."

This is the correct structure. 186 was mentioned as being the new gear recommendation for the story mode operations, so the Developers will want players to be able to get their hands on it with no problems--Basic commendation purchases. As they are commendation purchases, I would expect that 186 gear to have poor stat distributions on the mods and enhancements and no set bonuses on the armours. Therefore players with 186 token pieces from nightmare DF and DP will still come out ahead, comparatively.

I would expect fewer of the "players overwhelming the server" type problems as a portion of the player population (pre-orders) will be starting 3.0 content on December 2 with the rest of the playerbase starting on December 9. A staggered start like that should help a bit.

Dread Fortress and Dread Palace are Level 55 operations, so any group you join would expect you to be fully leveled. The gear recommendation for Dread Palace is 156. You should complete the whole mission-line on Oricon to receive a full set of 156 gear. You will them be ready for story mode Dread Fortress and Dread Palace, which drop 162 and 168 gear tokens.

PTS testers who worked through the operations over the past six weeks will have guides up quickly, I imagine.

Ah yes, that awesome overhead blowtorch ability. I forgot about that one (and don't play PT DPS).

Exactly this. There is a part of one of the Gree PvP missions that asks players to scan some destroyed vechicles. How is that different than walking over to an unguarded node and capping it? They both involve clicking on an environmental object in a mandatory PvP zone. They are both PvP missions.

Wait, which advanced Class has "jumping" DoTs? I know about DoTs "spreading" when multiple targets are hit by certain abilities like Death Field, and that Hots can "jump" between teammates, but who was given jumping DoTs?

I agree with you that the damage reduction will primarily be noticed by players as they move through the game's Level 51-55 content, assuming that they have already run that content previously and are familiar with how it felt previously. However, I don't see why casual players, who purchase the expansion, would be affected by the damage reduction any more than progression players. I'll make the assumption here that you're referring to casual players as being Level 55s geared in something between Oricon's 156s and 180 commendation gear (i.e. no HM or NM DF/DP tokens). No Operations Player If there's a casual player today who does not participate in operations and only has Oriconian 156 gear, they will easily be able to move into 168-185 gear as they level through the new planets. If they have Basic commendations, they will be able to purchase 186 gear. Story Mode Operations Player If there's a casual player today who participates in storymode operations and only has 168 token gear, they will be able to move into 192 token gear as they win rolls in the new story mode operations. Ultimate Commedation Player If there's a casual player today who grinds Ultimate commendations and is fully geared in 180 commendation gear, they will be able to move into 198 commendation gear as they grind out more Ultimate commendations in 3.0. Nightmare Progression Player If there's a top-end nightmare progression player today who is fully geared in min/max 186 gear, they will be able to move into 198 min/max token gear as they win rolls in the new hard mode operations. Conclusion All of the above players will receive a damage reduction when 3.0 launches, and they all will do more damage as they move into higher gear tiers at Level 60. If anything, the casual player moving from 156 to 186 gear (five tiers higher) or from 168 to 192 gear (four tiers higher) will see a greater increase in their relative damage output that the nightmare progression player moving from 186 to 198 gear (two tiers higher), the opposite of what you suggest.

I don't think that makes logical sense based on what the Developers have shown us regarding their 3.0 game design philosophy for alacrity. If the duration of a defensive effect was not affected by alacrity, but its cooldown timer was, then the up-time of the defensive would be increased by stacking alacrity. For example. for an Operative, Shield Probe currently has a 10 second duration with a 20 second cooldown. This gives Shield Probe 50% up-time under the current system. Under your system, 10% alacrity would result in the cooldown being reduced by 2 seconds, while the duration remained unaffected. This would give Shield Probe 56% up-time. With offensive effects, alacrity affects every aspect of them, energy regeneration, Global length, cast time, channel time, DoT duration and tick rate. Why would alacrity suddenly only affect only some aspects of defensives? It's either going to modify both the duration and the cooldown time for defensives, or neither of them. My bet is that alacrity has no effect of defensive cooldowns.