Haha. I have a level 30 Sentinel. It's so crazy good even at this level. And I still don't have like 75% of my good abilities yet. Insane.

Iron Fist's main offensive ability is Rocket Punch. You want the 15% crit from 4-piece Combat Tech so that you can have 45% bonus to crit from the spec/gear. Then replace all the Enhancements in your Combat Tech gear with Imperial Agent Champion Enforcers glove Enhancemnts. That is the 23 End/34 Power/48 Surge Enhancement. If you feel like you need more crit, mix some crit enhancements in as appropriate. I've been getting a lot of 400k/200k games as this spec becomes more and more comfortable to me. It's nice steady damage, and you can burst well when you pop adrenals/relic/Explosive Fuel. The smarter/better I get with this spec, the better I get at controlling fights. I could do that with Pyro simply due to my insane burst, but this spec is going to only get better in 1.2. I like it. Especially when it comes to playing against equally skilled groups in rated WZs.

6s ICD on the bread and butter ability for Pyrotech is way too high. 4 GCDs is a long time for a good player. 4.5s is better. But I think a flat reduction in the CD of Rail Shot from PPA is the real answer. I think the ICD is going to do a lot more harm than they realize. People are going to save their Rocket Punch, Heat is going to be a huge problem, RNG still sucks and will always suck(have you learned nothing from how much players hate the PvP gear grind?). I agree that back to back to back procs was over the top. But a knee-jerk huge nerf like this isn't the answer, either. And kind of an off-topic thought: After all the nerfs to classes in 1.2, it'll be scary to see the nerfs in future patches for the alpha classes, Sent/Mara and Shadow/Assassin.

I love Iron Fist. If you're good, and your group plays well, you can control an entire Warzone. The burst isn't there unless you pop your CDs. But with 1.2, you'll be able to all but shut down a healer while helping keep your teammates alive. If you roll with a good healer and 2 strong DPS, the other team is in trouble.

lol @ a step in the right direction Once these changes go into effect, if you can't beat a Pyro Powertech, you're bad.

RNG is bad. At least right now it's live and die by the sword. In 1.2, it'll only be die by the sword. o_O What Bioware should have done, was figure out how often they want us to Rail Shot, and then have Prototype Particle Accelerator reduce the cooldown of Rail Shot. I hate the RNG aspect of it. Then you throw in a huge internal cooldown(4 GCDs is huge). It really makes it seem like Bioware has no idea how to design/balance classes. Which I've been saying since beta. I knew a nerf was coming. Because lightsaber classes were really starting to QQ hard. I just wish the nerf was handled better. It's a band-aid applied to an already broken mechanic.

The word is "lose." You lose. Lose lost loser.

Rail Shot's cooldown is 15 seconds. Rocket Punch is 9 seconds.

They need to remove the ICD, remove the RNG, and just make PPA reduce the CD of Rail Shot. 6 seconds is way too long, unless you have a guaranteed way to proc it. Because we're still going to see times where we'll have to wait out the full 15s CD of Rail Shot, without the possibility of tempering that with back to back procs. That's part of the problem now. Whatever, I'm going Iron Fist. Empire never has enough tanks. And that build is going to be about as bursty as a neutered Pyro now. /shrug

Internal cooldowns coupled with RNG is bad design. Which means, this change is even worse than what it was. Bioware should have figured out how often they want us to be able to use Rail Shot. Then have Prototype Particle Accelerator lower the cooldown to the desired amount by putting 3 talent points into PPA. Remove all RNG, remove the internal cooldown, remove the ability for PPA to proc when Rail Shot isn't on cooldown(because that's going to hurt us, too.) But that would make too much sense.

How is Pyro's venting better than AP's? Lol. And I agree, the ICD is a bad mechanic. This is a band-aid fix for a poorly designed mechanic. FIX BAD WITH BAD! Some of the things Bioware does to classes, not just Powertech(and this goes back to beta), I question whether they've ever played some of these classes with any regularity at 50 with gear. I would assume they don't. Or they're just not very good at their own game.

Iron Fist is going to be the way to go. 6s interrupt with no Heat generation is going to be sick. And honestly, the burst of that spec with DPS stats(tank stats are bad in PvP) is going to rival the neutered Pyro burst.

I ran Iron Fist this weekend. It's going to be even more amazing at shutting down healers in 1.2. The best game I had was a 400k/200k game.

^^^ Has never played a Powertech.

Have fun using Rapid Shots after every or every other ability in your rotation. Because that's the way it's headed.

Yeah, while this build definitely became intriguing, 5 stacks is a lot. It takes way too many GCDs to make your Flamethrower good. Perhaps Immolate should give 2 stacks. Or maybe crits from either Flame Burst or Immolate would give 2 stacks instead of 1. We all know how much Bioware loves RNG...

A 6 second internal cooldown would be fine if every Rocket Punch and Flame Burst proc'd Rail Shot. But an extra 15% chance on each ability doesn't make up for a 6s internal cooldown. We're going to be seeing serious Heat issues unless we remove all burst from a spec that is built on burst damage, by mixing Rapid Shots into almost every other GCD. The rotation is probably going to include 3 or 4 Rapid Shots instead of 3 or 4 Flame Burst/Rocket Punch. Which is going to destroy our burst/sustained damage. Another thing to think about: Sometimes you choose not to use Incendiary Missile as an opener due to Heat concerns. If you're in range of a target, sometimes Flame Burst is the appropraite ability to open with. Not any more. If you open with a Flame Burst and proc PPA while Rail Shot is not on cooldown, you have just crippled your ability to manage Heat and do damage. This is a scary change. So many possibilities for failure. And in the end, I think we're going to find that the pros of a tank build like Iron Fist or a 23/17/1 type of build, far outweigh the damage/burst capability of the new Pyro spec. No Heat cost Quell on a 6s CD? Yes, please. The cons of tank builds now, is the lack of burst and Heat management. And the cons of a Pyro spec in 1.2 are going to be lack of burst, Heat management, lack of defense, no gap closer, no Guard. It's not hard to see what spec will be superior in 1.2.

Get ready for a build/class that is RS focused. And no, RS doesn't stand for Rail Shot, it stands for Rapid Shots. ZZZZzzzzz. But apparently after this change and the Heat and damage problems that will ensue, Rapid Shots will need to be spammed.

People only remember the times that PPA proc'd a couple of times in a row and destroyed them. No one ever remembers when we overheated while waiting for Rail Shot to come off of CD. Live and die by the sword. With the new internal cooldown, we will only die by the sword imo. The ICD is too long. 4 GCDs, really? Heat is going to be a serious problem. I would have much rather seen Bioware take all RNG out of Rail Shot and just have PPA reduce the cooldown to a number that Bioware felt was fair.

I'm a good player, and while I don't whine and endlessly QQ like a lot of people on the forums do, I do give my input and state my opinions. I gave my thoughts and suggestions on this change on the Powertech forums. This is a bad change. It used to be live and die by the sword when it came to Rail Shot procs, now it's just die. They're just putting an internal CD band-aid in place to "fix" an already broken mechanic. I'm not going to lie, the lucky 2-3 procs of Rail Shot you'd get in a row sometimes was too much. But that was at least tempered by the times where you'd scramble to manage Heat when Rail Shot didn't proc and you had to wait for the 15s CD to be up. This is how the changes should have gone down... 1. Prototype Particle Accelerator talent reduces the cooldown of Rail Shot by... 2s/4.5s/7.5s(for a total of 7.5 seconds off the cooldown of Rail Shot) Those numbers are pulled out of thin air. Instead, plug in numbers you feel would be reasonable in regards to how often you think we should be able to use Rail Shot. 2. Prototype Particle Accelerator: Rocket Punch reduces the cooldown of Rail Shot by 1s/2s/3s and Flame Burst reduces the coolown of Rail Shot by .5s/1s/2s. Again, numbers I just pulled out of thin air. Obviously, testing would need to be done to see if that would be inline with what Bioware thinks the cooldown of Rail Shot should be, but you get my point. Remove all RNG, because now RNG only serves to hinder us.

Make no mistake, this is a nerf. I think it should have been handled a bit differently. Remove all the RNG aspects of it and just lower the cooldown of Rail Shot to something that Bioware feels would be reasonable. It's still RNG, but RNG now can only screw us over, not help us out. GG terrible.

Have you run Iron Fist at all? With Quell not generating any Heat, it's going to be pretty awesome. I run it from time to time, and while you play a different role, I think it'll still be really fun.

That's the problem with RNG for Pyro now. It used to be live and die by the sword. Now it's just die by the sword. How is that going to be fun for us? Seriously.

It makes more sense imo. And this is something I've been thinking about for a while now, not just since I've heard that we were going to be nerfed in 1.2. Another thing I thought of, too... Gone are the days of running into a fight and opening with Flame Burst to get CGC up on someone. Prototype Particle Accelerator procs are beyond sacred now. And if it procs with Rail Shot already off of cooldown, you just hosed yourself. Which means I'm going to have to Incendiary Missile more often now, which will make Heat management as Pyro even worse than it will be after this nerf. Ugh, this is going to be a mess. And it's so easily fixed.

My question to Bioware would be: How often do you want us to use Rail Shot? In which case, instead of an internal cooldown, why not do one of 2 things... 1. Prototype Particle Accelerator talent reduces the cooldown of Rail Shot by... 2s/4.5s/7.5s(for a total of 7.5 seconds off the cooldown of Rail Shot) Those numbers are pulled out of thin air. Instead, plug in numbers you feel would be reasonable in regards to how often you think we should be able to use Rail Shot. 2. Prototype Particle Accelerator: Rocket Punch reduces the cooldown of Rail Shot by 1s/2s/3s and Flame Burst reduces the coolown of Rail Shot by .5s/1s/2s. Again, numbers I just pulled out of thin air. Obviously, testing would need to be done to see if that would be inline with what Bioware thinks the cooldown of Rail Shot should be, but you get my point. The reason I bring this up, is because I do not like RNG. Especially when the bread and butter mechanic of an entire spec for a class depends on RNG. In my opinion, that is poor design. And it has created a false representation of Powertechs in the PvP community, because Powertechs that hit hard can throw a Thermal Detonator on someone, then get a couple of lucky PPA procs and potentially Rail Shot someone twice and kill them. But none of my opponents remember the times that I had to wait out the 15s cooldown of Rail Shot to use it again, or the times I had to re-apply my DoTs over and over again because they were being dispelled properly. Instead of remedying the real problem, and normalizing the frequency of being able to use Rail Shot, the RNG element of Prototype Particle Accelerator still exists. In the past it could win or lose you a fight by either proc'ing a lot, or not proc'ing at all/enough. You lived and died by the sword. Now, with the 6s internal cooldown, the upside to the RNG aspect of Prototype Particle Accelerator has been removed. Not only due to the potential reduction in damage/burst because of using Rail Shot less, but also for Rail Shot's ability to help regulate our Heat. This is a band-aid applied to an already broken mechanic. I think the most damaging problem that will be created by this nerf is going to be Heat management.