Marb
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Posts posted by Marb
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Considering that interrupts are not classified as force/tech/melee/ranged abilities and have no damage component, it is very odd that they behave this way. I feel they shouldn't miss at all when interrupt immunity is a strictly unique kind of effect that already exists.
On the same topic, I would really like mobs and player abilities that are immune to interrupts to have a unique gui for their cast-bar (like WoW). Not a huge deal but its a really nice quality of life thing. This way you could 'let' players be able to burn their interrupts even if the target is immune, as the cast bar is kinda displaying that information already. Not a fan of the arbitrary "Immune to interrupts" prompt as red error text.
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I still think this is an issue regarding terminology. The game does let you respec, for no cost at all for a subscriber.
Letting you pay to change your advanced class (class) would have to come with some severe restrictions. This system would essentially be monetizing FOTM re-rollers.
Can you imagine what would happen to the class distribution in WoW if they offered paid class changes?
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Bioware have only themselves to blame for the misconception that advanced classes are the same thing as specializations from WoW. Respec in WoW lets you change your spec, not your class. Respec works the same in swtor, its just that classes are referred to as advanced classes for some misguided reason.
An mmo that has strict defined classes letting you pay to flat out switch the class of your toon is pretty much unheard of, at least I'm not aware of any mainstream mmo that has set this precedent.
Bioware would be better served by letting players choose their advanced class at character creation, and just removing the whole concept of "advanced class" from the game. It would also give them the opportunity to cut down on ability bloat, for example removing unload from the powertech.
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Hi dipstik, I really like how you have taken the time to make up AMR profiles.
With your listed AMR profile for guardians, have you included the average contribution of the defense proc when choosing that stat spread? I'm putting together a list of things I need to match that profile, but I'm not sure if I need to drop defense down a bit from what you have in that AMR profile to account for the defense proc.
Thanks.
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I don't understand why the heal relic is best. With it having a 20 sec cd, over the course of a 3 minute fight you'll only heal yourself for 457 x 9 which is 4113 and that's assuming you have it proc every 20 seconds. When it procs, it heals for less than 1 tick of your heal from telekinetic throw and barely anymore than the proc from just attacking. I fail to see how that small amount of healing will save you from dying. Unless of course, I'm just missing something.
Compared to the other relic choices, none of them will "save you from dying". Proc absorb or a clicky relic wouldn't make impressive contributions to your survivability either, with relics in general you're talking very small numbers. If the other two tank classes had significant self heal mechanics they may also want to use the heal proc relic. It's the best of a bad bunch.
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This game has no learning curve when it comes to tanking, you are thrown in the deep end by queuing for a random. This game should do a better job of drilling the basics into people before they hit the level cap. For example, no average "just hit level 50" tank is going to know how taunt really works just from the tooltip, which is *essential* concrete knowledge. Min maxing tank stats is perfectly acceptable to be relegated to out of game resources, but learning how to taunt is as essential as learning how to to cast a heal on a player from the raidframe.
This is also an area that the mmo genre at large needs to improve upon.
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That is a valid concern, but considering that retractable blade is a comparably mundane dot, there is plenty of room for adjustment. I feel like the dependency on flamethrower having 100% success rate in raid and pvp environments are dubious assumptions that bioware have in mind when balancing the overall output of AP.
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A buff to dot damage, with some sort of execute mechanic on one of their attacks would really improve AP's day to day performance.
Increased crit on flamethrower seems reasonable, and more interesting then a global passive stat increase. I would prefer this option.
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While I can see the reasoning behind using unload as a heat efficient filler, it doesn't have channel protection like flamethrower, which means you are never going to get all of the ticks of damage when you are tanking. This makes unload very inefficient.
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Actually this fight is bugged, the shackles will regularly not respond to group members breaking them. Spreading out mitigates this a little, but full melee groups are screwed without good use of cc breakers. I'm pretty sure the intended mechanic are the shackles should always be breakable by a group member.
And ranged getting knocked back into the fire is not the tanks fault, if you are ranged you are 100% responsible for where you are standing in relation to the boss.
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snip
Where have you been baby.
I suppose I mean tactics as decision making in the heat of the moment, and strategy as a plan with a stronger element of preparation and anticipation. I think these words in the context I was using them is a D&D thing.
Even though we may not find these new FP's difficult, they are supposed to be an entry level point for players new to the end game, and for those players I think the trash is unforgiving, most of the bonus bosses and all of the lolbosses are fine.
I think the problem could be that all of the trash is identical to the lower level version, they have just been beefed up to 55, creating some trash packs that are more difficult then they should be. Sort of like nightmare Jarg and Sorno back in the day.
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If you look at it from afar:
Why would you want accuracy as a tank? to generate more threat. Which stat out of all the others would be the best bang for my buck if all I wanted to do is increase my threat? the answer is main stat / power, not accuracy.
This isn't taking into account that accuracy occupies the same stat slot as shield rating, which seals the deal as accuracy being tied with alacrity as useless rubbish that exists to artificially inflate the time it takes to min max a set of tank gear.
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Juggs opening burst is very competitive if you look at how much threat they generate before they even hit their ravage, its just that their first 2 global cooldowns tend to be low damage rage builders in order to debuff and sync their 12 second cycle. Its during those first GCD's that a jugg can loose it. All these weaknesses are the strengths of the PT, with very flexible range and no reliance on low damage resource builders. Where they fall down in defensive cooldowns, they make up for in strong utility outside of 4m, and a forgiving resource mechanic.
Any boss that requires initial positioning where the jugg drops out of melee range is going to result in loosing agro without a taunt due to the sheer dependency on the 4m range. For example first boss in scum needs to be facepulled with saber throw and swiveled into position facing the shield generator, but ranged dps are already shooting the entire time, which can make setting it up a little stressful for a jugg. A helpful co-tank is going to make life wonderful though, considering you have 4 taunts on demand between you. I think a lot of issues people have are really issues working as a team with the other tank.
On the topic of endurance skill vs dps skills, I wouldn't say one is better, its really more of a philosophical choice. The endurance skill does have more value now as it is a direct increase to shoulder missile heals, in addition to increasing TTK by a trivial amount. The same could be said about using power crystals and reflex armorings, reducing your TTK for added raw dps.
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I think the expected pre-requisite knowledge of some of the quirks in these flashpoints is unreasonable for pick up groups. Some of the hound packs don't spawn until the pull is triggered, which is is not very good at telegraphing danger to new groups. Trash should require tactics not strategy.
Tanks should use a cooldown when tanking large packs, or they will die. Large packs of strongs tend to be the problematic ones, but can be overcome with cooldowns if the group is ready for them. Groups of strong droids in hammer station will obliterate a tank when they all do their channeled attack, but it is nullified by deflection and saber reflect.
If a tank is not using cooldowns at the right time, a healer cannot carry them like in 50fp's. I think this is reasonable for boss encounters with specific mechanics, but not for group finder flashpoint trash.
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The biggest difference now is that using the right defensive cooldown at the right time is even more important for PT's and juggs when that used to be the realm of assassins. For example using energy shield when tanking heaps of Salky Hounds in mando raiders, as those trash packs will destroy any tank/healer pair who are not prepared. Knowledge of the fights and more importantly, the trash pulls are even more critical when doing HM flashpoints than ever before.
As has been mentioned, use and abuse your cooldowns, stagger them so you always have one to use. Also consider your shoulder cannon as a full on defensive cooldown considering the total healing it does by firing all missiles off back to back. And as always, using grapple for anything other then pulling a mob is a waste of a GDC. Grapple generates less then half the threat of the assassin pull ability, and less then a flameburst. Its a great tool for tanking trash, but has no place in a high threat ability priority.
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I wasn't trying to imply that shield vents and procs were the only reason to go with shield/absorb. You seem smart enough to realize that, so I guess you're only trolling in an attempt to strengthen your own position? To try and make me look dumb?
I got the impression that you were basing the value of shield/abs on PT class mechanics, and I didn't mean to come off as a jerk. The very same sort of theorycrafting that you're skeptical of now, is responsible for giving you the high shield/abs low defense spread for powertechs that you readily accepted before 2.0, and you are now trying to apply that to the new stat model in 2.0. The whole concept of high shield/abs for powertechs was based on theorycrafting.
I wouldn't call the new defense bonus "significant". Certainly not enough to warrant a complete changing of the guard so to speak. Would you agree that Shieldtech is a mitigation tank? Considering that most talents revolve around damage reduction, shield, and absorb, I would certainly hope so. I don't have the skill tree in front of me, but I'm quite certain that the amount those bonuses offered to PT FAR outweigh the bonuses offered for defense, even if you consider it to be "significant".All of the tanks are mitigation tanks, and heat screen and the new heat blast are calculated into KBN's stat spreads. If you compare PT stat distribution to guardians, you can see that the stats are different, with shield and absorb becoming more important at lower stat budgets compared to guardians. Its only at 2800 stat budget when shield starts to overtake defense, with absorb shooting up not far after that. Shield/Abs will still be important.
I don't care what kind of fancy math and theorycrafting is used to determine stat weights. Theoretical physics can prove that an elephant can dangle over a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy. Use your eyes, your common sense, actual tanking experience and it proves otherwise. Look at the bonuses and gear and you'll easily find that defense stacking is not practical for Shieldtech.Real raid experience is important, but when it comes to selecting stats it becomes a numbers game. In that realm, stat weights are important and you should take notice of them to make informed choices about your gear. Defense stacking has always been dubious for powertechs due to, what are now outdated, skills and stat weights. 2.0 has turned stats upside down for all tanks, and it will take more tiers of gear for things to resemble what we had before 2.0.
To sum it up let's agree that we disagree, you believe in this math and the assumptions behind while me and a few others think otherwise. And no this math is not backed up by any actual real data it's based on old NiM Denova logs, which makes it to theorycrafting only.That is a fair call, but KBN and dipstick are actively investigating the new playing field in 2.0, so there will surely be some updates to the tank spreads when they have HM S&V damage profiles. At worst, it may mean that relics and the odd piece of gear will have to be swapped for specific fights with high amounts of F/T damage.
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The math is theorycrafting, nothing more. Just because we got a small defense stat boost doesn't mean that the mechanics of the class has changed. Practical application dictates that shield > absorb > defense for PT tanks. It's that simple.
No its not that simple, the only reason this was the case in Pre 2.0 was because of stat weights and bonuses in the skill trees, not because of shield vents. Rocket punch procs and heat vents were *not* the reason that shield was so valuable for PT tanks in pre 2.0. It was because of the bonuses to natural shielding and absorption in the tree, and not having *any* static bonuses to defense, or accuracy debuffs (with oil slick uptime being too spotty to assume its presence.)
And the defense bonus in the tree *is* a significant factor, but not the only one. Consider the returns on shield and absorb were reduced sharply during the PTS, and the devaluation defense has on absorb rating. If you look at the stat distributions on higher stat budgets in the tables make by KBN, you will notice that shield and absorb *will* become more important in future tiers.
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Whats with all the flat earth society tanks.
Considering the 6sec lockout for shield vents and heat free flamethrower procs, I can't imagine gearing for maximum survivability will cause you to overheat. The same argument was popular even pre 2.0, with some advising PT tanks not to get a shred of defense if they could avoid it as it devalued shield and caused heat issues. PT's now get 4% defense bonus and NOT the shield bonus we were getting pre 2.0, which means we are getting even more value out of it. Pre 2.0 we didn't receive a single bonus to it from our skill tree, in contrast to the other tank classes.
The stat budget we have now has support for a lot more tiers of gear in the future, and absorb will become more valuable at a later stage in itemization. With what we have as maximum stat budget, the returns from absorb are just not as good as defense as it stands currently, and this will change as we have more stat points to play with.
I would advise to go with the math and not the observational opinion pieces.
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They probably wanted resolve to reflect the time being CC'ed, and not the number of recieved CC. If you think of it this way, you'll find their change perfecty normal.
The problem is when resolve acts this way, uncoordinated groups can effectively lock down targets. Before the resolve changes, hard stuns from two different targets landing at the same time would generate full resolve for both stuns, even though the target was only locked down for the duration of a single stun.
The prior system was better, because it rewarded teams who coordinated their cc effects, and punished those who threw them out with little thought or strategy. Halting the resolve decay to when cc effects end was the only good change they made.
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I think it was more in preparation to cut down ability bloat, with all classes gaining new abilities in 2.0. Looking at all the abilities objectively, they were the prime candidates to be cut.
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I feel like the healing component should be accompanied by an elimination of the knockback entirely, even if it means the heal is greatly buffed. The healing is going to encourage some pretty rotten behaviour in flashpoints.
Off topic, but a tanking skill to make it pull affected enemies into the assassin/shadow would be super awesome, and skills that alter an abilities effects like this would be very interesting if implemented on a wider scale.
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When I transferred over my operative healer where I used 2 pc pvp and 2 pc pve set bonus, I lost the set bonus for pvp pcs. I had black hole armorings in battlemaster shells. My understanding is just the pve set bonuses transfer to the armorings... not the pvp set bonuses.
It does transfer. On the pts my battlemaster set bonus was there but when I ripped an armoring out, the set bonus on that specific piece permanently attaches to the armoring on extraction.
It sounds like its just not working at all for some people though.
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Well set bonuses have been attached to armorings since 1.2 and you could never get a set bonus by REing armorings.
On the PTS I had transferred my commando who is using two rakata pieces with Reflex Armoring 27s in them. One crafted and one from a hazmat boots drop from Writhing Horror. The gloves still had the set bonus. The boots didn't so I've seen both.
As to what happens to set bonuses for gear with no mods in them at all, I just have no clue at this point.
Its nothing to do with crafting set bonuses (which you never have been able to do). The highest grade mods could be made and placed into (free) tionese gear to get a full set bonus from the shell along with BiS stats from the mods, without ever setting foot in a flashpoint / operation.
But yea atm, there seems to be a huge inconsistency with the behaviour of old armour shells with set bonuses transferring to the new 2.0 system.
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At this point, the damage has already been done.
Looking back on the history of oceanic located servers for other MMO's, it probably would have been naive to expect EA to keep them running, but it still didn't stop me from hoping.
I think by now we should all be used to the fact that having 50ms ping is a privilege for us, and not a right. Oceania has always been a fringe market.
So when are you giving bolster for raiding?
in General Discussion
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I'm not sure why you would want gear checks and treadmills to progress through pvp, when there is no tier or graduation in actual pvp difficulty. In pve its: hm fp>sm ops>hm ops>nightmare ops. Each of these steps require stronger gear to beat those nasty npc's.
In pvp it goes: ding 55>queue. How is strong gear tier progression meant to work in an environment with no gated content? Smashing noobs in your elite war hero gear was the worst possible thing for good quality pvp. Skill should be the main deciding factor in pvp, which I thought was the main sentiment of most pvpers anyway.
I will concede that ranked warzones shouldn't have any bolster active at all. Pvp should have *some* level of progression, but only if those people are segregated to compete against each other, in the same way that hardmode ops are for people at the same stage of gear progression.