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ragamer

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  1. Sigh... Ppl always eating the bait of P2W content. What will happen with PvE content hard to beat? At which rate you will progress through it? The drops the hard content will give... At which rate you will farm it if your team use/don't use those boosts? F2P/P2W models have a lot of "obfuscated" costs when analyzing progress speed... And don't be fooled, this rates are carefully calculated to "encourage" ppl to spend more and more... ...Not all P2W are the straightforward (but honest) plain advantages on PvP model you see around.
  2. You really need to read between lines to know what's going on, and have 1st hand experience with past "F2P migrations". - F2P announcement due to Subbers drop below 1M (but that are above the breaking point of 500k) -> The owner of the game doesn't trust future content will be enough to bring back subbers. - Rushed announcement when competitors are going to drop their bombs (MoP, GW2) -> Sub loss projection makes this game hit the Breaking Point sooner than expected. - Retroactive "F2P coins" for subbers now -> Conversion of game model to a FULL microtransaction model -> Devs will concentrate all new features to match F2P model conversion Release Date and seek to keep subbers interested until then. Regarding "what we have ahead" there is also things to read: - Remarkable overlook of Level Extension and New Planets previously teased on June -> F2P "new" content is just what was on the finishing "pipe" before the 2nd crew layoff -> Hint: Remarkable incisive clear labeling of "free to play until L50" seems to suggest Level extension may appear later as a payable "option". Finnaly I try to explain what "Conversion to F2P" is about and why it's used as a way to "save a game" (Notice that, contrary to most MMOs owners try to sell, "Conversion to F2P" HAS NOTHING TO DO with creating a F2P game, there are a bunch of really good F2P games around... But they were designed from the beggining with F2P in it). In a nutshell, migrating to F2P is basically a Playerbase replacement process. You go from subbers that have experienced old content that are mainly motivated to keep subbed by future new content to... ...Constant stream of new players that are exposed to old content that incurs in higher costs to traverse/use at the same speed as old subbers. This is how F2P conversions "save the day"... Instead of trying to keep players interested, you are after geting new players paying for a more expensive old content. Obviously generating new content is much more expensive than simply reusing what you have... So it's basically the standard "reduce costs approach" some companies in difficulties go for. So this is what will happen with the content in the future: - As Community is more volatile because F2P players are not retained, just "cycled". Content requiring Guilds will have the lowest priority of all because you will not have stable associations of players required for it. So you will see an increase on activities solo/party players can attempt. Conversion from MMO to multiplayer game. Notice that SWTOR MMO part was already weak (The max interactions you got was between 16 players), so it will be very easy to "convert" activities to party size. - You will see reused mechanics scaled, instead of new mechanics (Direct hint to class balance, btw). Art is cheap so you basically will see new art left and right, but at the bottom, you will be doing the same. One of the signatures of SWTOR, the voice acting, will go down the drain. You already got an example on Black Hole "quest line". Were you get 2 voice acted scene... And like 7 quests dropped at you through a console (ie WoW quest-hub style). Good voice acting is expensive, sadly. From the point of view of a MMO subbber, some1 that expects NEW content for Massive Groups added regularly (at least twice per year), ALL F2P migrations to date have been a failure because they end removing the 1st M of MMO.
  3. It's not related to levels or whatever... ...It's an anti-stealth run meassure FP bosses have (and some regular mobs... Patrol Droids for example). If you are stealthy and 40m or closer at the moment the Boss do the "pulse" (That eye-like icon that appears briefly on top of their heads) you will get a mark on you... IF you stay inside those 40m by the time the debuff on you dissapears (4s after the mark is applied) you will agro the Boss/Mob. Unstealthing after receiving the mark will not help you, blocking LoS will not help you. The only way to prevent the pull is to be farther than 40m before the timer ends. How to deal with this extreme nuissance as Shadow? 1st get familiar with the Pulse period... Stay visible and then stealth right after the pulse happens. Good tanks are aware of this and will pull taking this crappy mechanic into account. If your tank is not aware of this... The alternative is to sit at 41m from the boss stealthy and use your sprint on pull. It's an obsolete mechanic that was put there to prevent teams of shadows + scoundrels to skip a lot of sections of a FP... But this days, the paradox, is that you can skip far more bosses by simply moving carefully next to them than if you try to sneak past them.
  4. Max HP has always been crap on the fights were a pure tank is needed. You can forget about willpower/endurance debate... Keeping agro on you is trivial after the threat buff, and if your team needs extra DPS you can swap some of your tanking gear for DPS pieces, it's better to have specialized maxed gear for each combat than going around been a jack-of-all-trades sucking at everything you do. At the end is about which Tier of content you are facing mainly: - EV & KP. Keep your effective shield chance around 50%, absorption close to 45% (WIth the allocation you have on Columi is impossible... On rakata with some ENH jugling you can) and your defense around 26%. The rest can go on END (You should aim for something close to 23k). On this Tier you have a good bunch of encounters were your self regen will shine (Specially Soa and S&J) so endurance plays an important role still. - EC. Encounters are symetrical with generous doses of High Impact Physical/Energy attacks. Here you will feel the nerf on armor. So you have to balance it by the extra Shield/Absorption Mitigation, particularly important on Kephess as due to the high mobility involved your regen windows are reduced and, specially on HM, he hits like a truck and most his attacks can be shielded from. Try to aim to something close to Defense (28-29%), Shield 50% and absorption... As much as you can (You have to try to reach a minimum of 50%+, with 55%+ prefered). You can let your HP pool around 25k (Enough to eat 2 unshielded hits of Kephess HM). Commendation BH gear will not help you much here if you are migrating from Rakata as it will nerf your Defense with a lot of Shield rating (Depends also on which Implants you may get your hands into... As the good ones are MK2+) so when migrating all your armorings to 61 do not loose sight of how enhancements will be overloading you with Shield Rating and get extra pieces to convert them back to absorption & defense (use mods also to assist you here). EDIT: When I talk about "effective stats" they include full Raid buffs, including the Endurance+Defense Stim, Gear Set bonus and Kinetic Barrier up. EDIT2: Notice that, again, due to threat buff, unless you team really needs your DPS, you can ignore Double Strike and PA procs and just focus on generate as many 3/3 HS TK Throws as possible to max your Self Regen by redirecting all your Force to just Projects & ST, the occasional FB and ofc TK. EDIT3: Uff, sorry... The above stats are tailored to the 2 Relics I use, both proc based, The absorb rating one and the healing one. So I can go with a bit less base absorb than usual.
  5. It's discouraging to see a Senior Dev so disconnected from the reality of a class. He is talking about environments that have been changed on 1.3 dramatically both at mechanical level (Another systematic nerf to burst capabilities) AND at community level (Ranked WZ mainly). He seems also not aware on why "hit'n run" tactics are obsolete on most PvP scenarios... Downtime. Ppl likes to whine about been killed on 1v1 by an Infil Shadow but... Do they realize that during 2/3 minutes he is doing... NOTHING? Waiting for the optimal set of CDs to attack and perform the "hit'n run"... Instead of the most common "hit'n die"? (Notice that I keep using just Hit... Not Kill )... All this "philosophy" dissapears at the moment you check what a good teamplayer with a decent class/build does on those same 2/3 minutes. The main issue this Dev is not realizing is that... He is advertising Infil Shadows as only good at... ...Ganking ppl on Open world PvP... An activity no class should be designed for, ever... Even on games with emphasis on such activities (Not the case here, ofc). I suppose that when updated data on pressence of certain builds on each game activity comes to his desk he will have a harder time trying to bring the same generic comments to a Q/A Session... And I hope he learns also why labelling a certain specc as a "lone wolf" on a MMO is adding the last nail to that specc's coffin.
  6. Search "Project delay pvp"... ...You will understand why it has to be this way and why it's a decent middle ground combining functionality & appearance.
  7. It's painfull... Tried 4 times (The last one didn't count, tbh, because 6 guys were from the same guild and I was specifically invited as a "friendly" backup to patch their lack of healers on that day... With my Scoundrel Alt in Rakata gear, so go figure the level of outgearing of that run) Returning to pure PuGs... I have encountered all the bugs mentioned here just in the 2 1st attempts... In particular if you have ppl locked to some encounters... That seems to open the Pandora's Box... You will have ppl that instant travel do not work, split into different instances and ppl not getting the BH reward quest (Didn't finish any of the pure PuG runs... So can't confirm if lacking the "Group Finder" quest denies you the reward... As on HM FP you don't get any special extra quest and on the 4th run every1 had the quest and everything went smooth). But that's only the 1st problem... The next is a more crippling one. It's the PvP soloers... I don't know the rest... But over the brief period (All days since 1.3 hitted... Obviously on the HM T1 queue... No single pure PuG LI has been successfull so far) I have been systematically farming the 5 bh... I only found 1 person exclusively geared for PvE (He was in bad blues... But all of them coming from PvE activities)... The rest of the components of the PuG parties I have been tanking (On purpose... I wanted to check how the system is... Instead of using the easy approach of going with my Gm8s to speedrun farm this) have always come with PvP gear of varied levels. Why is this a problem? Simple... Months of WZ solo queues have created a habit on the "expected duration" on anything accessed through a queue... On the 3 100% PuGs to EV & KP I have tried... We lost ALWAYS at least 1 person at the moment I explained the average duration of a run... The persons that left were systematically PvPers (Notice what I call a "PvPer" here... Some1 with Valor Rank and good proportion of PvP gear). Coincidence? Bad luck? I don't think so... it's the filtering of 6 months of solo PvP queues that has "created" this common profile of player. On those 3 100% PuGs... I manage to explain patiently tactics to beat XR on EV twice (With the exception above of ppl leaving at the very moment I dared to say average full run duration... That forced us to recruit new ppl)... 1 EV failed on the way to Gharj due to ppl been frustrated by been killed on the trash (Healers weren't brilliant on that one) and the other at Gharj because the tank was a 1stimer (I was with my Healer Alt on that run) and, tbh, Gharj can be quite confusing for some1 new to MMOs and to tanking (It was embarrassing how he was treated, tbh... A lot of ppl is crying left and right about lack of tanks... But when they see a good willed guy trying to tank for the 1st time an OP that tries to follow the instructions of another player (me)... All are shouts and angry comments at him... From ppl that have no clue what they are talking about and are making the same or worse mistakes)... ...But Bonetrasher on KP, tbh, was a nightmare... Seem that doesn't matter how much times I explained it, but having a Giant Rancor looking at you makes the average 1st timer to run around like a headless chicken that invairably ends with an acid shower for him and with a lot of unnecesary damage applied on each Claw Swipe (There were 2 persons moving left and right all the time like if they believed moving around randomly will help them at all on PvE... I have seen it also on some HP FP this week... Is this somekind of autoscript/macro PvPers use to trigger facing errors while PvPing?). EDIT: To avoid confusion... When I say I have encountered almost exclusively ppl with PvP gear... It's not just them that are a high proportion of the GF users... It's that dedicated PvErs avoid pure pugs by organizing full parties (As they have been doing from day-0) and then using the random HM FP/SM OP queues... Thus they are "invisible" from users that are "pure PuGing". Even more, as I have been queueing as tank (mostly), even most partial PvErs parties secure by default tank (and healer usually) before even bothering with FP activities... Making even harder for me to see them. EDIT2: Before you jump to a wrong conclusion... I play on a PvE server with those characters.
  8. As expected... Rated PvP will make class teamplay flaws shine... ...And this is just Presesson 1... ...So after the botch 1.3 has been for Shadow in general, we can expect a swift revision on our "group contribution" (I hope also for PvE)... ...Specially when real items start to be poured that requires effective Ranked WZ performance, but there is a problem... ...Hurried forced "rebalance" process rarely work, break classes and tosses them into a long boost-nerf cycle. On the bright side at least BW Devs were wise enough to create PS1, instead of directly going with the Ranked PvP Bizz (Like the OTHER game foolishly did), to get some metrics on which Team compossitions dominate RWZ... So lets hope they do not turn blind to what the PvP Community is telling them... No, not whines on forums, but which teams they like to go with to a RWZ.
  9. A new patch comes, another test done and... ...1 stack of Clairvoyance is still not affecting Project at all so... As I have done in the past (since 1.1 when I 1st detected this)... Another post to report it, this time in its own thread. MODS: I placed this on the wrong forum... This particular bug cannot happen unless you are a Shadow. Can this be moved to the right section?
  10. My 2 prefered toons are Shadow & Scoundrel, and I have played BOTH (each in both main roles) on OP environment (I have slightly more experience with Shadow DPS, although). Scoundrels have higher potential of DPS IMO... But ONLY on static fights (Requires extensive tweaks of your gear... Even more than Shadows, specially when going from Columi to Rakata. From Rakata -> BH/Campaign things are more symetrical). The problem you have is your lack of mobility... It's horrible compared to Shadows and on demanding content you will rarely find such a thing as a static fight. The other thing is they lack Resilience... Don't get me wrong, you can be tough to kill as a Scoundrel because if needed you can heal yourself... But the degradation on DPS you suffer is much more than what Shadows suffer when subject to the plethora of anoying spike damage powers affecting a Melee. If you value versatility... Well you can't really compare both as the goals are totally different. The good thing about Scoundrels is that, if you plan your gear in a smart way, you can have top notch gear for heal & dps with just a few piece changes... Meanwhile, for been a Shadow tank you require a full regearing process each time you reach a new Tier. Also, regarding balance, Shadow tanks are in the lowest spectrum on PvE ATM and Scoundrel Healers are in the higher tier (Specially on dynamic fights)... But as with everything related to balance... it changes like the wind, so you shouldn't take any long-term decission based on the current status of each class. EDIT: Forgot an important note... ATM I'm in the process of evaluating how the nerf on armor debuff stacking is affecting performance. My shadow seems to have been more or less untouched (If you take the advantage of all the extra augment slots in fact the DPS is buffed). I haven't had the chance to test my Scoundrel Scrapper DPS still on demanding content after 1.3, but on paper, it will be hurt far more than my Shadow due to the higher reliance on Kinetic damage Scrappers have (To counterbalance, Scoundrels DPS scale far better with raw Cunning than Shadow's do with Willpower... So when I fully augment his gear I may compensate... But I repeat, I'm still in the process to check this).
  11. To the OP. Generally speaking... Yes you can get all BH sets... ...But you will not be close to top performance because most classes require a mix of BH & Campaign Armorings to reach optimum performance (ENH & MODS you can safely ignore... BH is the source for them)... ...Implants, Ear & Offhands are also randomly distributed in both sets (And by randomly I really mean it... Some BH are better than Campaign... But for other classes can be perfectly the opposite). Not to mention that the ONLY way to get MK2+ versions (Which are BiS for some classes) is to wait, patiently, for a direct drop from HM Bosses (And last Boss on SM). If you really want to get mad at the remaining design flaws on the loot paradigm BW uses, think on the following: - Why after 1.3 the BiS PvE Relic for most classes require you to PvP? - Why some classes can be fully geared without having to fully clear EC HM (This one is particularly funny tbh... They created armorings per slot but... They forgot to create hilts/barrels per slot, allowing offhand -> mainhand conversions in some roles for Jedi Knights, Smugglers, Bounty Hunters & Sith Warriors)?
  12. Remember... You will NEVER be assigned to a team that contains a person in your ignore list.
  13. At Rakata level... If the Tank & Healer are human, ALL HM are doable like that with the exception of LI. Requires a bit of tricky maneuvering and some direct commands, but can be done regularly (I did it as an experiment, ofc, a competent team of human players should be faster on most cases). EDIT: I mostly did this right before 1.2 hitted (And haven't dared to attempt LI, still ), btw... Not after 1.3 with the newly nerfed HMs, which, in theory would make this easier.
  14. I really was waiting for posts like this to appear... But so soon? It's what ppl really do not understand that if you have to wait for so long to get a group you will keep on waiting relatively longer doesn't matter what tool you use to assemble a team. If you think the queues are long now for DPSers... Wait a few weeks for the tanks that are using them now to be geared for full. Do you know the rate at which my tank is doing HMs? Almost instant (She doesn't need the gear... But I was doing this on purpose to recheck for the n-th time the placebo effect Automatic LFG tools are... And will keep on doing it to see how the abssence of tanks will increase the queue length for DPSer on the coming weeks) Now think how much time it will take me to gear her up compared to you (If we both started at the same gear tier)... And voilá... One tank less to help you. That's were Dungeon Finder tools backfire... If been a tank is usually a cumbersome role... Wait until all the generalized bad manners anonymous dungeoneering triggers, start to appear... Good luck trying to convince competent tanks to go with randoms anywhere. But do not despair... The Nerfing of PvE difficulty has already started. They started by reducing the difficulty of most HMs... When they realize that tanks are bottlenecking all their efforts they will simplify the role so it will be next to impossible not be a competent one by just pushing random buttons (The humongous buff to threat gen is also a good clue on what will follow for tanks... Gameplay-wise). Ultimately they will fail (Even after they extend the LFG tool to be X-server... That will happen also sooner or later)... Again, because doesn't matter how low you put your "skill threshold"... The main issue on why tanks are rare will be there and will keep on been excacerbated by Anonymous Dungeoneering... Some ppl is not mature enough to carry over their shoulders the flow of the typical PvE Dungeon run. EDIT: Dual specc or multi specc will not help neither... RIFT got the same problem... They never solved it. Because the reasson is deeply tied on what a role is expected to do on a typical Dungeon run... And how been permanently under the "spotlight" turns the experience into a stressfull one. It's something similar on what happened today to me on the different runs with my DPS... Each time I saw obvious sympthoms of ppl that have rarely steped into a FP before and I asked "any1 new to this?"... On the 10 runs I did today (with 2 different chars) I found 8 with this signs... Wanna guess on how many I got a sincere answer requesting tips on how to play?
  15. From here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=4449669&postcount=2 Relevant quotes: & I swear I saw the Sage notes also... But can be my imagination after reading the above 2 changes. Seems that "Pain Bearer" (Max of 8% self healing) is left intact, for now.
  16. It's a limited Trial in practice, which, in principle, is healthy for any MMO. Just see a few caveats: - Fleet Chat potential flood with "Kleenex" character/accounts that will be deleted after offending ppl. One possitively surprising thing about SWTOR I like is that I'm not flooded with gold farmer advertising 24/7, meaning that BW is really taking care of them instead of "letting them be" for the sake of "bussiness"... This can be gone if "infinite" accounts can access the same communication channels as paying players. - Low Level Zone saturation with "bored" players can increase disruptive behaviours. On a deeper thought, the way to "brand" this Trial as a "F2P" is worrying... It's probably an EA "probe" to see how much influx of new players this model would bring... If they are enough, it will set a milestone for the future of SWTOR. From my PoV of a sub paying player expecting top notch high end content to be released in decent periods... Recent history on games that are converted to F2P (Notice the BIG difference with a game initially designed with F2P from the beggining) tells me that it will be the death of SWTOR for me... Doesn't matter how much they try to rephrase the change... ALL F2P "migrations" follow the same approach: - The main target is to make the MMO cheaper to keep. - The secondary goal is to replace the current playerbase. They get rid of the same old players seeking new content (expensive to create) and instead they aim for short lived accounts that experience already done content modified to incur in microtransaction costs along the way to reach high end content. Obviously you will never see an honest Dev saying you this (Because the owner of the MMO will fire him ASAP, ofc )... But that's the core of all F2P migrations in the end. The playerbase that helped you to polish your product & balance it is "suddenly" too expensive to keep (Strictly speaking about the costs per ongoing custommer) so you just get rid of it. This is probably the main gripe I have with migrations... When a Dev says "We expect to last 10 years" you go there to put effort on your characters and that effort suddenly is destroyed when the environment you are playing into is abruptly changed. - The rate at which new content is released is dramatically cut down. And when released is just content based on the current technology developed at the moment of the "conversion". You can expect no new groundbreaking features to appear because the senior Devs are too costly to keep. Don't take me wrong, I have my share of fun with F2P MMOs I have played that have been satisfying experiences... But no MMO that has made the "swap" (DDO, AoC, CO, STO) has managed to keep me interested (Because when I go to a sub MMO I expect a long-time experience based on progressing with the same set of characters into a cohesive Community... And ALL of this I like is precissely what a F2P model kills).
  17. A good Scoundrel Healer will be impervious to your Interrupts and will be able to keep a good HPS on the team he is protecting (If you allow him to setup it). After the change on their stun (They can now move while doint it) their kiting has improved also. The trick is that the changes they added to deep sawbones has made possible to go decently deep to boost HPS output on PvP (3 UH on EM are a lot in instant free heals), also the change on KC to make it more "bursty" appeals better for a full healer specc on PvP (Previously was unthinkable to go deep Sawbones for PvP, ofc). So they are the harder of the 3 healers to "anoy". The good news for you is that on 1.3 BW is nerfing the basic +9% extra self-healing skills they have (Not just the SC, all healers are nerfed in self-healing) so you will have an easier time (Warning because if you relayed strictly on Power boosters to deal with them you will find yourself nerfed into oblivion, btw).
  18. Sadly... It's far more complex than that, I'm afraid. You have multiple issues here affecting which relic is the "best": - Internal/Elemental vs Kinetic/Energy. Meaning the armor debuffs on your target twist your results, based on the relic you have and the specc you use (Even the other gear you carry can twist your damage type profile). Which means no SOLO test you can do as shadow will help you there (Notice this asymetry will be lessened on 1.3 as Devs already confirmed that armor debuff will not stack, only the strongest will affect the target). And, ofc, what applies to Infil WILL NOT be applied directly to Balance and viceversa. - Procs vs Steady. Another complication because based on the build and your attack routine the number of valid hits per ICD chances, which, in turn, affect the effective proc chance. - Target variation. Your target has a role on all this. True needs to be said that most PvE targets show, ATM, the same mitigation profile but on PvP... That's the jungle. - Effective Windows. The "on use" relics are tied to how much DPS you can do in a row... Due the 1.3 change that extends them to 30s... It will be VERY hard to be able to do continuous dps over 30s on most fights (On PvP this relics were already systematically wasted on the old 20s duration, but the effect players were after was not to maximize DPS over the duration, was to be sure they had a high chance to finish off a target in 5-6 hits, that's why BW simply chose to remove them altogether from WZs... But on PvE it will be hard to find one encounter were you aren't interrupted more often than once per 30s). Also, for infil, it will doubly hard as keeping a high force regen over 30s is impossible, while now, with a strategic use of an almost full bar + FC + Blackout, you can perform a high DPS regime that fits into 20s. - Scaling Effects. The classic, ofc, procs follow a different scaling than basic boosts as they are linked to your crit/surge only (Remember that ATM the proc relics are bugged and are missing around 10% crit chances... Haven't retested this on 1.3). So... Wait for 1.3 (Or jump to PTS now), get a friendly JK, CO or GS to put an armor debuff on the fleet dummy and get your numbers about how each relic interacts with your build/routine.
  19. Depends on the build... As Infil, the extension of the power buff will mean I will not be able to back the "buffed" period with a matching force bar (Full bar + Blackout + FC), meaning that power buff will be systematically wasted on "low force" periods (This is another Dev mistake affecting Shadows on PvE after 1.3, that the person pulling this "statistically" correct numbers has made... They forgot, again, Infil resource management & typical continuous DPS windows). This, in turn, will make me think on swaping specc... As Balance is providing more sustained DPS (I would swap to Sentinel if I could... Because if you remove Burst damage from Shadow DPS you aren't collaborating in an unique matter to your PvE OP team performance... As Balance is subpar compared to Sentinel sustained DPS)... Which in turn will force me to analyze relics strictly on average periods. They are buffing Matrix Cubes and you will be able to add Augment Slots to all relic types (But not to the cubes themselves) so... There are a lot of factors that can change.
  20. 1.3 comes with tons of changes affecting both of them... If you can afford it (And have something else to spend those Commendations... Which in general, it's not the case) I would wait for the definitive version we get on Live (They rarely change itemization during PTS testing, btw... Even harder on this one as it has a lot of changes on classes that are derived from changes on Relics & Adrenals... Specially on anything regarding PvP performance).
  21. I don't know were you got the 7% figure on overheal, Keyboard but... You are vastly underestimating the overheal effect. That's why no reassoning can be done taking into account any parser ATM about effective healing capabilities and the "average effect" of the nerf on Self-healing on PvE. What you can do is estimating how long it will take you to recover now (and after 1.3) from certain combos on certain encounters were self healing may be fully used. On a regular combat: - CT proc is uncontrollable. You can guarantee that each 6 seconds you are at full HP your CT is been wasted. This varies HEAVILY with the fight, specially on the ones were you are offtank and are attacking something while not been attacked back, or fights were you spend considerable time without been able to hit anything (F&S for example). - TK Throw can be delayed a bit and your cycles can be tuned to the expected spikes of damage (This, after 1.3, can be done freely as you will not require TK Throw to keep agro on you on most fights). If you are controlling this, you can meassure its effective HPS to compare to the one CT is providing on each fight... When you see that the theoretical difference between both is less than expected (because CT is overhealing systematically and TK Throw not so much) you will get an average of around 25% overheal on CT. - BR shouldn't be triggering any overheal in itself. But once you do all the above... You need then to evaluate if the healer you have is really taking advantage of a Shadow Self-healing (Specially as all recent fights come with frequent tank swaps... Unless BOTH tanks are of the same type, it will be very rare to find a healer that knows how to swap his healing approach based on the tank he has to currently heal).... Because doesn't matter how much care you put into maximizing your self heal... If a healer is toping you continuously, he is not saving any resources anyways making your self-healing irrelevant. That's why using any kind of average reassoning (As the Devs seem to be using) is a pitfall on this tweak... You have to go to specific moments on fights and realize that the armor reduction + the delay on self healing + the weak CDs will increase the already common image the average healer has that Shadows are "fragile" & a hell to heal. Regarding one shoting... It's all about DPS windows & worse cases. Obviously, after 1.3 the "worst case" is worser & the time to recover is increased. The best example you have is on EC Toth's enraged jumps were the Shadow is already the worst tank and will be even worser after 1.3. Just calculate time to recover between the 1st and the 2nd jump and check the same situation (Final HP level) with a Vanguard (And don't think on the CD a Vang can burn twice on this fight and still have it rdy for the final Enrage).
  22. I share the pain... You will see a lot of ppl saying that rerolling is an option... They are PvP-centric players or Casuals that do not have high-end gear (Basically ppl that progress without needing a team... That's why it's easy for them to "restart" they can do it on their own schedule without problems and, ofc, the gear progress they are subject to is convinently tweaked to casual gaming)... ...If your toon is the tank of a PvE guild... Then you are screwed (And you will screw your m8s). If your guild is on farming mode... You will keep on going and you will have the chance for the Devs to realize that 1.3 Shadows are the worse tanks for demanding content and correct it before the next Operation comes later this year, if they are slow, as usual, you will find yourself in the following situation after the new OP hits in... ...If your guild is currently progressing on any Op content... Good luck and I hope their good will makes them to stick with you besides the harder odds for not carrying a Vang/JG.
  23. Math is only needed when there is doubt... ...There is no doubt that using a Shadow tank on progress content is putting yourself in a big disadvantage vs using Vang or JG. There is not complex argument to hold here, just guilds that "stick to the geared tank" doesn't matter which class is... Because there is something worse than a nerfed tank... Having to gear one from scratch. After 1.3 not much is going to change pragmatically (You will have to keep on going with what you have)... Such is the nature of a filtering process but... Each new Tier of gear and each new Tank spot available will be harder to fill as a Shadow Tank because the obvious flaws will be highlited and no1 really needs a good "Farming Content Tank", tbh. What most posts trying to justify the need of this PvE nerf do is using wrong figures on Tanks outgearing the content or, conveniently, avoid entering into the details of most fights (That's why there are also radically different experiences based on if you spend time farming KP/EV or you are on EC... There has been a LOT of changes between both Tiers of Op content)... Because then they will find inevitably why Shadow Tanks require not the same, but better average mitigation to be "equally useful" on challenging content. Naturally, when you have a regen tank that outgears the content the net effect (less healing needed) is more noticeable... But the inverse also applies when you are badly geared. That's the curse/blessing of the Shadow Tank.
  24. I think you ate the bait on the specific wording the Dev used on the Community Update. If you just wanted to nerf Shadows on PvE... You just have to tweak shield chance & absorption which have negligible impact on PvP and has a lot to say on average PvE mitigation. The problem is that PvP whinners think they have anything to do with this and think it's the actual situation what's triggering the nerf on Shadow Tanks... ...They are wrong, it's post 1.3 situation with the game-wide nerf on burst damage for PvP what's worrying the Devs (We could discuss if increasing TTD for all classes is the way to go for fun PvP... But that requires its own thread). Think clearly... Which is the type of character that gets benefited more by a reduction on burst damage in ANY PvP environment (Not just SWTOR)?: - Healers - Tanks But wait!!!! We have a class that's at the same time a healer (self) and a tank... ...Think for a moment as a BW Dev... Which class you would put as the 1st one in the line to receive the Nerf Bat?. That's why the brutal nerf on Self Healing and the nerf on armor comes on 1.3 and not before (Magnitudes that are both important on PvP and on PvE). The problem I have is that NPCs care a **** about Adrenals & Relics nerfs... They will keep on doing the same spikes and using the same attacks. EDIT: If you want to gather some extra tips on how all this changes are interrelated... Why do you think BW Devs have nerfed into oblivion ALL healers' self healing boosting skills on 1.3?
  25. I don't really know why ppl is even bringing PvP to "on use relics" topic: So until BW decides to add back meaningfull World PvP... "On use" relic will be restricted to PvE only (And that if the new boost to Matrix Cubes stats is low enough). The logic of the Dev behind "same overall bonus over a longer period" is really disturbing, although. As it seem to ignore completely some details about the recent PvE encounters, in particular continuous DPS windows. The best example I can find is EC last Boss Walker vulnerability periods, which lasts around 20s.... Meaning any DPS "on use" relic will be wasted systematically there after 1.3, for example. It's one of those "details" that makes me nervous about the future of the balance/game... When you see Devs doing changes on one side that go against the intentional design on other parts of the game. Returning to Infil Shadows the "mind" behind this statistically correct change on PvE, seems to also ignore that force-wise an Infil Shadow will simply run dry of force on boost periods longer than 20s which will waste systematically this boosts on any fight. The bottom line is even more worrying... If you strip away burst tools for the Infil Shadow? Why you bring one to a group? Balance offers better sustained and Sentinels have a substantial advantage on sustained DPS + Group Utility,
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