Marb
-
Posts
671 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Posts posted by Marb
-
-
The game needs more content that holds up well to being repeatable. Even Makeb, with the compromises they made is a chunk of content that you only play through once per character, and becomes a chore on every other character.
Oricon is an example of how the story should evolve between level cap increases, a one time quest with major plot points, leading into the newest operation. The game should push and encourage max level players to participate in large group content like operations. For players not interested in group content, the conclusion of chapter 3 is the end of the road for them, and I don't think that should be seen as a bad thing.
Further out, when they decide to raise the level cap again, some engine improvements to support a larger playable region with a focus on exploration and discovery would be fantastic. Big use of the macrobinoculars, excavation device, special mounts that have acceleration and super high speeds. A sandbox play-field with a swtor flavor focusing on exploration and repeatable content.
-
Well that is one of the 2 popular PT/VG tank builds, with the alternative swapping out Prototype Burn Enhancers and Advanced Tools for Integrated Cardio Package
(http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301GMGrdoroMdRRZbcZbc.3)
As later on, the lack of DCDs for Powertechs and Vanguards means that you want all the health you can get, and the threat generation of VGs/PTs is already incredibly high.
Oh and good job not falling into the Prototype Cylinders trap. That skill is pretty much worthless for a tank.
It isn't that black and white. Considering juggs don't even have a hp skill and a lot of shadows don't take theirs.
Prototype Cylinders is a solid use of 1 skill point, because of the higher threat multiplier on ion cell damage. If you skip cardio, you don't have to make any compromises and can pick up a few good threat skills.
Choosing cardio at the cost of threat generation is a valid choice, but I wouldn't call it cookie-cutter.
-
Just Feel still like its slightly unfair, commando just to take a example have armor piercing rounds that stack armor debuffs on top of that they can put on grav rounds with a least 2 stacks if they are talented in that direction. Mobs as I mentioned before can put on several armor debuffs at a given time. Having what seems to be a low armor debuff makes eating through mobs even with a dps companion sometimes take forever, especially if its some the elite droids which have a damage reduction that resembles that of a Bulwark or titanium wall. I am not saying that Juggernaut should be stacking extremely high armor debuff just don't get why there could not be a sort of mid point.
All player applied armor debuffs, no matter which class, applies a single debuff that provides the full -45% armor debuff. It is functionally identical to how it used to be when it was 5 stacks.
Commandos, Mercs, Snipers all have the exact same armor debuff. I think you are confusing gravity vortices and stance armor pen with the armor debuff. They are entirely separate effects.
-
Even if you plan to go darkside warrior, there are still some options that are lightside that will fit better with that type of character.
For example, swindling, bribery and acting like a mercenary in general just don't fit at all, even though they are often darkside choices.
I played mine as a bit of a Darth Malgus and it felt really good. Think lawful evil instead of chaotic stupid.
-
-
Force Push falls in with a category of mirrored abilities that don't have a different theme from their republic counterpart. Force Push, Saber Throw, Saber Reflect, Saber Ward are all represented identically (even sharing the same name), with the only difference being a palette swap or different icon. These abilities have no unique identity on the sith warrior.
A sith lightning blast substitute for force push is a good example of where to start. It would be cool to see all of these abilities re-imagined, and given a distinct sith theme.
-
Try never use Taunt in rotation, save it for when somebody steal the agroo or when you need to change taunt with the other Tank.
Keep your Guard for DPS's not Healers.
Good look and have fun!
Rotational taunts, yea that's a bad idea.
But Dps who know what they're doing are going to necessitate the proper use of a taunt boost in the opener, there is no way around it.
-
Imagine "Aural Modulation" kits that act like mods for weapons that override its sound set. Think color crystals, but instead of color, it changes the sound.
Put that on the wall of crazy, Bioware.
-
Going to be honest with you, moving over from Powertech to Juggernaut was a pain for me as well. Get used to face pulling with enrage+smash instead of saber throw>leap.
Vanguards and Shadows are both much more flexible when it comes to dealing with large mixed trash pulls. It's doable on Juggs at 55, but requires some counter-intuitive things like not pulling with leap. Learn to love saber reflect, because you're going to be playing piano on your keyboard when it's on cooldown.
Not much you can do at the lower levels.
-
A variation of removing advanced classes would be to ingrain the advanced class into the skill tree itself, becoming specialization templates that classes choose from and respec out of at will, just like the skill tree currently functions, but without spending points each level.
Something like how specializations work in wow, no skill trees, you just choose your ability template. Instead of choosing an advanced class and then a skill tree at level 10 you choose your "specialization". For example a Knight would have these specializations to choose from: Defense, Vigilance, Watchmen, Combat, Focus (shared specs would be renamed to differentiate them). If you choose Vigilance, you gain heavy armor proficiency and your ability/skill template changes. If you respec and choose Watchman you lose heavy armor proficiency, gain dual wield proficiency, and your skill/ability template changes to that of a Watchman.
Respec removes spec and weapon/armor proficiency and all spec skills and abilities, returning you to the blank slate Knight until you choose another specialization. Ability/skill templates would be strictly defined by their chosen specialization (Vigilance spec doesn't have force camo, Watchman spec doesn't have saber reflect etc).
Then there would be 4 classes with 6 specs each, instead of 8 classes with 3 skill trees each.
-
I'm almost positive sticky grenade generates 1 threat on attachment and then damage threat when it detonates. In addition to the travel time, it's probably not worth using in most single target openers. You also risk wasting a stockstrike proc.
Need a log to confirm this though.
-
WoW has 11 classes with 3 specializations each (last time I checked). You can change between those specs, and even save two spec setups to change on the fly.
The problem here is that you have your class, and then you have your class nested inside a class, and THEN you have your specializations.
It is the class nested inside a class part that is the problem. I suspect it is because AC does not feel like a class, it feels like a spec. That is why, IMO, folks want to be able to change AC...if it actually felt like a class I don't think we would be having this conversation.
They could fix this. Instead they seem to have chosen to leave it ambiguous and allow this debate to continue.
Agreed, that's the problem.
But in defense of AC respecs, I wouldn't be against swtor trying to be its own thing instead of mirroring WoW for the sake of being familiar to a wider audience.
It's a topic worth exploring.
-
The devs acknowledged how saber reflect was working, but they seemed to be undecided about whether it should work that way. Never heard anything about it again after that
.Interesting about saber reflect failing to catch all attacks sometimes, that seems to indicate it is still subject to that arcane 5% failure rubbish, counter to earlier claims that it couldn't fail like shroud.
-
Not sure about Vanguard opener other then trying to Stockstrike asap before a proc, and not using grapple as a threat builder. I think there are some max threat vs. max mitigation interaction to consider with ion cell procs as well.
That is actually incorrect. Saber throwing, taunting from range before leaping guarantees that you get 130% extra threat. If you taunt from melee range (especially for bosses with small hit boxes) its only 110%. The practice of getting 130% extra threat instead of 110% for the initial taunts basically makes it much smoother for DPS with bursty openers. Late taunts also run into a who variety of problems with aggro drop mechanics and tank swaps. The initial 130% plus the rest of the high threat abilities should be more than enough to keep aggro (well... unless crazy DPS has a string of ungodly crit hits). Taunting before a leap is essential for guardian, might not be the case for vanguards.But that is only 130% of saber throw's threat, which is nothing compared to what you would get if you delayed it until after guardian slash. I understand the problem with saber throw, and how it puts the tank a full GCD behind the dps, so that's probably the real issue you are fighting against by using a taunt after throw.
-
I see what you are saying, but I see no real difference between choosing a class at creation and choosing a class at level 10. If I choose the sith inquisitor story and then at level 10 choose assassin, but realize later that I would prefer to play a ranged DPS class over a melee DPS class, I have to reroll. The same goes for "that other game" if I choose to create a rogue, but later realize that I would prefer to play a ranged DPS class, such as hunter. I have to reroll, no matter how attached to that rogue I might be, and no matter what "unique and no longer obtainable items" he may have.
The difference is one of terminology. In WoW, you choose your class at character creation, and in swtor you choose your class at level 10. You may not be required to reroll 10 levels in WoW if you don't like your class (because you chose it at character creation). If you choose a ranged class in WoW, you are ranged from the moment you enter the game. In swtor, what you're really selecting at character creation is your storyline, and there is no such equivalent in WoW. This is where the confusion begins.
The desire behind having AC respecs has its root in a misunderstanding of what Advanced Classes are (WoW people assume they are similar to specializations). In swtor you are introduced to two interrelated systems at level 10, the first is choosing your Advanced Class, the second is choosing which skill tree to spend your first skill point in. Most people confuse the WoW specializations with Advanced Classes, when the equivalent system is the skill tree.
The point of removing the entire concept of base class and advanced class, by renaming advanced classes "class" and letting you choose it at level 1 would be a way of avoiding this confusion. It also has other merits such as the 1-10 experience being a relevant introduction to the classes playstyle, and having trainers only teaching abilities that you actually use as that class (no more unload for powertechs etc).
-
We are already too reliant on saber reflect for ranged/AoE tanking as it is. I would rather there be some improvements to be able to handle ranged/AoE tanking more reliably outside of the saber reflect cooldown.
This is a good topic for discussion though, because compared to the other tanks, guards rely way too much on saber reflect to perform tanking duties that are trivial for Vanguards and Shadows.
An anti F/T cooldown is fantastic, but feeling the need to blow it for threat generation defeats its primary purpose IMO.
-
I got better framerates and quality on my nVidia card by turning off in-game AA, and then forcing 4xMSAA (now 8x with a newer video card) via nvidiainspector. You'll need to change some other values, too, in particular the Antialiasing behavior (set it to None) and Anti-aliasing compatibility flags (I'm using the flags for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.). To get even smoother rendering, at some framerate cost, bump up the transparency antialiasing. Also a LOD bias of -1 adds some better shine to reflective surfaces. Some people find it a bit much, though.
Yea the driver fxaa uses a brute force method which probably isn't as optimized as it would be if the client supported it officially.
Adding some old fashion MSAA into the mix (FXAA+MSAA) and you can get a really clean image without using transparency msaa or supersampling. The interface blur remains an issue though.
-
This is how I picture an improvement to ship travel also. Nice work putting this together.
-
The leveling experience as a tank is terrible. The main issue is the way the skill system works. Everyone loves to bash on wow's talent system, but it means that you get access to your core skills that are essential to your role at a much lower level, letting you use the full toolkit of the class during the leveling experience instead of in the last 15 levels before the cap.
There isn't much encouragement for tanks to queue at low level when they don't even have the skills to be a tank.
-
If I am not mistaken, the difference between KotOR and SWTOR is that KotOR uses bink movies for the cutscenes, where this game uses the in game engine.
I agree, bink movies would have been better for the planetary landing and takeoff cutscenes.
Absolutely, and with an added bonus of being able to have a bink movie play while the planet loads simultaneously.
I think space would be a huge restriction though, having to have pre-rendered cutscenes for every single planet with all the ship model variations. Considering how most people play on very big screens and high resolutions now, they wouldn't be able to get away with low res bink movies. I can see why they would decide to go with in-engine ones, but with their low quality and glitches, they are just awful to watch.
In contrast, the one-off space cutscenes that play when you do the missions for Explosive Conflict, Makeb and Oricon look fantastic. It would be great if we could get that level of quality for all the planet arrival/departure cutscenes. Things like the space field and planet textures look really low res on all the pre-fab cutscenes, but the one-off cutscenes for Explosive Conflict, Makeb and Oricon have much higher quality textures and animation.
-
MGNMTTRN said it all.
Another thing that is phenomenally easier on a PT is the ability to "tap" enemies with rapid shots. This is something I really miss about the PT, as it made tanking large spread out groups so much easier to manage.
As a guard it takes a lot more movement and micro to get that bit of damage out on every target. This is another reason why it helps when dps go after the weaker mobs first, because it makes the job of taking that initial threat away from the healer a lot easier.
MGNMTTRN really hit it on the head about using your CC's. Smash, scream, crushing blow all have cc effects on normal enemies. Adding to that, backhand and force choke can lockdown most gold mobs and intimidating roar has an added niche role as a poor mans AoE interrupt. The guard has a lot of options when it comes to control.
-
Cross server technology does make sense, if only to increase the total available pool of players. This sort of tech does have some social drawbacks. It encourages anti-social behavior, and doesn't allow you to make ties to people you may meet in group finder if they are from another server.
Also I don't think the group finder should be encouraged as a replacement for joining a guild or making friends. The group finder should function as a last ditch effort to get a flashpoint done, it shouldn't be pushed as a primary way of doing group content.
The game needs an intuitive guild finder/advertisement interface. Adding new flashpoints more often than every 12 months would be great too. Where's my hardmode red reaper?
-
If you have an nvidia card, turning off the in game AA and forcing FXAA through the driver can improve FPS while still removing jaggies. It does blur the interface slightly however.
Turn off nameplate scaling, or even turning plates off completely (turn on the next target indicator) can also boost fps.
Same. All on ultra settings and I'm looking for a way to customize the settings to go higher.Apart from increasing view distance on objects, grass ect, I'm not sure there is much more you can do from the config file. You can try using some more advanced anti-aliasing techniques forced through your driver.
-
Why are you against options? Options are awesome.
branmakmuffin is dismissing the idea because "options" already exist. There are 5 companions, each with their own combat role that suits their character. Adding on to that there are 2 "premium" companions that are best in class at performing their roles.
And that's exactly how they would be looked on if you could freely change their roles. So you're lobbying for a change which would make no difference.The point is to unshackle roles from the companions themselves, so as to enable you to use your favorite companion in a role that you find useful, rather then being forced to use a companion that you may not like, purely out of a need for their assigned combat role.
There are reasons for some companions being the role that they are (turning Skadge into a healer wouldn't make sense). Expanding upon the ineffective off-spec dps stances would provide an opportunity to add complete skill suites that enable the companion to fill an alternate role that still fits their character. There are ways of adding more effective alternate combat roles to the current companions without sacrificing their integrity as characters.
Would that be a good use of dev time at this point in the game? Probably not.
.
Bioware ruining and tunneling class stories
in General Discussion
Posted
The game does back itself into a corner, I agree. The issue is that "endgame" demands repeatable content, and the 1-50 experience is a linear story driven single player experience. I'm not sure how Bioware could provide heavy "one-shot" story content in every patch. The content needs to be more sustainable if it's aimed at those playing at the level cap.