Sabbathius
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Posts posted by Sabbathius
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7/10 Better than average.
They need to remove Expertise, and/or give 50s their own bracket, and/or give premades their own bracket, and/or add more WZs. Class balance is surprisingly good. Just a lot of nonsense and misinformation floating around.
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A. the biggest problem is that arsenal is simply boring and pyrotech just doesn't look very good. Tracer missile to build up heat signatures, rail shot, throw in some unloads rise and repeat. Having played a TON of MMOs its possible that all characters get like this once you understand them, but the bounty hunter does seem extremely straightforward. I was considering operative as they are also a healer but seem to have more to them.
This is true for most classes. Sorcerers will spam lightning a lot, once DoTs are in place. Snipers will use a lot of Snipe. Etc., etc.
Operative isn't much better. Their rotation is just as rigid as Merc's. You start with Hidden Strike (once you have it), Backstab, Shiv, Laceration. Then Laceration again if Collateral Damage procced, otherwise Overloaded Shot x2, or regular shot depending on whether you're bursting someone down or saving energy. Then repeat with Shiv-Laceration-Laceration, etc.
All classes in this game play exactly the same way. You have your half a dozen (at best) meat-and-potatoes abilities that you use over and over and over and over. Did I mention over?
B. I really wanted to have a healer for PvE, but a lot of my friends are really into the PvP. BHs seem to really lack mobility and seem like they could be locked down pretty effectively in PvP. Ultimately, Operatives seem like a much better PvP healer, is this true?Yes and no.
As an Operative, your only way to recover energy to keep on healing is through a channeled ability that you can only use when stationary. You can cast Kolto Probes on the run, but they don't heal much. Surgical Probe can be done on the run too, but again doesn't heal that much and requires Tactical Advantage to work, which procs off the ticks of Kolto Probes.
Merc on the other hand can run-and-gun, as shooting friendlies with Combat Support Cylinder heals them, and gives you time to cool off a bit.
If you are forced to do some heavy healing, or recover energy while healing, you WILL be stationary doing it. Same as every other healer in the game.
C. Our gear looks terrible. I've looked like crap for a really long time, do our higher level sets look better? I'm really starting to get jealous of all these sith running around in fancy robes and our agent friends balling out in their trenchcoats.Find some nice looking orange armor and re-socket it. But in general, no. You will look like a tin man most of the time.
D. It's wierd shooting people to heal them. Guess that's just personal preference.Eh, works for me. Other classes require a separate keybind for their heals. Mercs do not. It's actually an advantage.
E. I would love to start leveling as a healer so I can easily jump into pvp/instances but it sounds like I can't do it effectively until I get blizz and even then, not until I gear the hell out of him.No comment. In my opinion you should level as damage spec, it'll go much faster and much easier. The only exception is Operative. If you make one, level to 36 as healer, because until you get Hidden Strike at 36 the class really sucks (relative to BHs and Inquisitors anyway).
Bottom line, I think you may be suffering from "grass is always greener" syndrome. I have a Sorcerer, Merc and Operative (and a Powertech) all in mid-30s right now. And I did all the same quests and PvP. And I can safely say they're all exactly the same. There's some variety here and there, some tradeoffs, but in the end it's all the same mush.
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The 300k depends largely on the enemy, and not so much on yourself. If the enemy team stubbornly refuses to bunch up and stand in the big red circle while you pelt them with large caliber rounds, getting there is pretty hard.
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So far, for me at least, PvE is much faster.
Kills net you very nice XP (strong mobs my level around 800 XP/kill, elites 1.2k+), quest rewards are also nice XP.
By comparison, in PvP you get around 11k for a loss, again at my level, and 13k for a win, roughly. And an average match lasts 10 mins.
The thing is, in those 10 mins, I could have killed dozens of mobs while questing, and completed the quest. Easily double the XP, from what I see so far.
Doing either one exclusively gets pretty boring though, so mix and match to break the tedium.
EDIT: Fastest XP/second is still probably space battle daily. Most missions last 5 mins, and award around 3k XP. Do two missions for a daily, get a bonus 14k XP. In total you're looking at 20k XP in 10 mins of play.
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Mostly only mercs that think higher runspeed would be nice..
Ok, so a melee is approaching and you let that unload off to get the superduperamazing long snare effect up (OR you knock them back and then let Unload rip..) and then BOOM! not only are you rooted to get the snare up, the melee also jumps right back in your face and starts anal-probing you with their sabers/knives.
Let me momentarily flip the situation and use another class as an example.
Replace Merc in the above with Sorc. What would you do if melee jumps on you?
Slow? 6 sec duration, 12 sec CD. No good.
Sprint? 3 sec duration, 30 sec CD. No good.
Knockback? Shorter distance and no snare compared to Merc. Still no good.
Whirlwind? Mercs get that one too, Concussive Missile.
Electrocute? Mercs get that one too, Electro Dart.
Am I missing something? Oh, the Sorcs get a bubble, which eats maybe one hit every 20 seconds. They wear light armor (about 18% reduction?) to a Merc's heavy. Mercs get the 25% damage reduction one, as well as Kolto Overload, albeit on a 2 min CD.
What can a Sorc do with melee in his face that Merc can't.
And what can a Sorc cast on the move? Let's see - Shock (6 sec CD), Affliction (no CD, 1 sec DOT), depending on spec Death Field (15 sec CD). Did I miss anything? And what can a Merc use on the move? Rapid Shots (no CD spam), Missile Blast (no CD spam, but heat-heavy, can alternate with Rapid Shots), Explosive Dart (15 sec CD), Rail Shot (15 sec CD with a DoT from Explosive Dart). If anything, you could argue Merc has too many abilities that can be done on the move.
I don't know, maybe I'm a noob that hasn't done enough PvP. I'm only rank 20. Across four characters, all of them in mid-30s. So what do I know.
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I think your character starts glowing blue a little bit when it procs.
But yeah, I agree. Some classes have audio clues. Like when I get Tactical Advantage from Kolto Probes on my Operative, he laughs and I know I got a TA to blow.
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See, rather than nerf, how about BUFFS?!
Take the BH stealth scan. Good idea. Except it's 20 sec CD, 10 sec duration. Reverse those numbers, and suddenly nobody is going to whine about Operatives with a BH around!
Similarly, give several other classes an AoE that pops people out of stealth that can be placed on the ground. Make people refresh it every 10-15 seconds, so it takes work and isn't just passive, but give them something.
In a group setting though, Operatives are not too bad. With friendlies around, the moment he knocks you down he gets CCd and dropped, or forced to vanish while you get healed.
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The music choice was so unexpected it made me smile. Really made my morning.
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I haven't really noticed anything, no. But I'm not 50 yet so I get decimated by 50s regardless. But I do hope they document these changes in patch notes. I hate sneaky nerfs/buffs.
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I feel that it kinda does, yeah.
For example, the leap to enemy ability. Many classes (both Warrior types, Powertech shield spec and probably someone else too) have them. This basically means if he is ANYWHERE near the finish line, if anyone spawns or jumps down, they're giving the enemy a free cap.
Same with knocking them down into the pit. If you knock them down, and anyone anywhere decides to shoot down at them, they just give them a free hand to top back out of the pit. The only solution is for everyone to quickly jump down as well. In which case the enemy will just pass it up and cap unmolested.
Speed abilities also make it less fun. Shouldn't be able to sprint with the ball, just like you can't stealth with the ball. It gets especially fun when jump AND sprint are tied to the same ability (Powertech Jet Jump), where following the jump you move 30% faster for 6 seconds. Makes for ridiculously easy caps, coupled with the general tankiness.
Bottom line though, I wouldn't worry about it. In a month or two people (and by people I mean Empire, which is 75% of the players) will be so tired of it that they will stop playing it altogether.
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Sadly, best MMO PvP award still goes to WoW. And yeah, I played UO, skipped DAOC (college, so sue me), I played EVE, I played Darkfall, etc.
Combat was responsive, classes were largely unique and very fun. Balance was atrocious, but then again look at SWTOR - tons of mirror classes and a bunch of copied abilities (everyone gets a 4 sec stun on 1 min CD) and balance is still atrocious. I've yet to see a game with a class that was as fun to play as a druid in WoW, or demanded that much skill. Nothing came even close so far.
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WoW calls it Resilience
Rift calls it Valor
TOR calls it Expertise
And all of it blows!
Resilience was an dumb thing to do when Blizzard did it. It was changed quite a few times over the years, and it still sucks. They even added another stat in the latest expansion, don't remember what it's called, Mastery? Anyway, that didn't turn out well either.
The very IDEA that you need a separate set for PvE and PvP is asinine. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. If people want to gear up in PvP, they should be able to, and if they want to PvE in said gear, they should be able to. And vice versa. But needing to raid for PvE gear and PvP for PvP gear, with a PvP stat that only applies to PvP? Dumb. What's next? Leveling gear? Only way to gain XP is by wearing leveling gear?
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Not really a problem, in my book. As long as someone uses it, it's better than it just sitting there. I mean, sometimes I cast a Deathmark on a guy and get dropped by focus fire before I can say "Menzoberranzan", so should my debuff go to waste?
Similarly, some classes have debuffs that reduce target's armor. So should that debuff only apply to their damage? It would be silly.
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...my heavy armor really feels like delicate silk at times when let's say an operative gets first attack from stealth.
Might have something to do with the fact that Acid Blade reduces armor by 50%?
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...is quite lacking in the escape category...
You mean a long-distance knockback with a 4 second 60% slow to it on 20 sec cooldown isn't good enough?
You mean a short-distance knockback with Rocket Punch on 9 sec cooldown isn't good enough?
You mean Concussive Missile incapacitate for 8 seconds on 45 sec cooldown isn't good enough? (*instant with Power Surge)
You mean Electro Dart stun for 4 seconds on 60 sec cooldown ins't good enough?
Plus the 50% slow for 2 seconds every time you Unload?
How many more escape tools do you need?
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Yea Ive had most damage, healing, objective and medals and got zero MVP votes, fairly often.
This.
The whole thing is just asinine. Half the people don't vote at all. The other half picks an arbitrary value - most damage, most medals, etc. And the rest just vote for their friends.
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They should have seen the lopsided population balance in beta and put in safeguards for release to ensure a proper game experience for all, but they didn't.
Beta is a poor example. I know a lot of folks who were going to go Empire at release NEVER played as Empire in beta just so they wouldn't spoil the story for themselves.
Where I think BioWare came up short is general Republic design. Quests are boringly generic, classes are unimpressive. I mean, look at Sage and Inquisitor. The latter shoots lightning from his fingertips. The former throws pebbles. Which do you think people will want to play more? Take Bounty Hunter - be your own man, make money, slaughter your enemies. Now take a Trooper - the storyline (at least as far as I got) is "yes, sir! no, sir! thank you, sir!" If I wanted that, I'd join the army.
I just get zero incentive to play as Republic. I don't like the classes, I don't like the stories, I'm not crazy about the companions or ship designs. At leas in WoW Alliance was straight-backed and pretty, while Horde (at least the males) suffered from scoliosis.
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However, when most WZ's are Sith Inquisitors / Bounty Hunters, you might have a problem...
Ever wonder perhaps this is just your luck/your server?
My brother says whenever he does WZs, about 75% of the team are Inquisitors (Sins, Sorcerers). But on the server I play on, the representation is quite even, with the exception of Snipers (which are always low, but even so some games we have 2-3).
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I think they're fine-ish.
What I would do is put a 15-30 sec CD on Hidden Strike. You can use it every fight as an opener, but you won't be able to Hidden Strike-Vanish-Hidden Strike combo.
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Aion despite being a horribad game, had a way to address faction imbalance, when a server was becomming to lopsided, it just wouldnt let you create the overpopulated faction on the character select screen. Whether or not that would work here, I have no idea.
And despite all that, on most servers one faction absolutely butchered the other in world PvP. So much so that the underdog faction never showed its face in the Abyss.
Moral of the story is, just because population numbers are even, doesn't mean the number of PvPers is even, or their skill levels, or the time they play each week, etc., etc.
There IS no solution to this. Never was, never will be. It's human nature at its best - can't beat them, join them. That's why dual faction never works, you need a third faction as a wild card.
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What's the problem with people mass-leaving when it's an obvious loss?
I'll give you an example. Game starts. My team has five level 50s. Enemy team has none. Zero. Within the first 5 mins, we capped 4 huttballs, and how we're just killfarming the other team, for medals.
Now, any SANE human being on the opposing team would either A) quit or B) AFK. Seriously. Any three of them cannot take down a single geared 50. And five 50s working more or less together drop lowbies with AoE alone, without even having to target.
So, your solution is, lowbies have to stay there and take it, or face a 1hr debuff? Really? Can you not guess what will happen then? Either mass AFKs (about which nobody can do anything, just look at WoW, people AFKing in BGs for 6 years and counting), or queue times jumping to 90+ mins. Is this really what you want?
The actual solution is quite simple, pick one:
a) Remove expertise as a stat altogether
b) Give equal expertise to all players via bolster
c) Give 50s their own bracket
That's it.
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dang... you can easily get 6 medals with just pressing 3-4 buttons like a nooob xD....
That's...actually pretty accurate.
The 2.5k heal medal - pop bubble (1 key) and run into the fire.
The killing blow medal - any spell (1 key).
The 75k damage - again any spell (1 key).
And the 10 and 20 kill medals, while doing the above.
That's 5 medals, with 3 keys, maybe even 2.
Then again, I can do the same on my Powertech. Guard a guy and follow him around - 2-3 medals, with 1 keypress. Help him kill, 2 more medals easy. And if you manage 75k in a match, that's another medal for a total of 6+.
Dunno what your point is. Most classes can do it.
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My only beef (or pork or lamb or what have you) with the Sage/Inquisitor is that they're the only AC that doesn't need to worry about resource management.
You start the fight with 600+ pool of energy. Which regenerates linearly no matter how full/depleted the bar is. You can spam what you want, when you want, however long you want without ever even looking at the bar. I've never ran out, ever. Either I die, or my target dies. And it happens LOOOONG before the bar is anywhere near empty.
Meanwhile Bounty Hunters and Agents have to worry about their resource and regeneration rate, because popping 3+ hard hitting abilities will push you into an area where regeneration slows to a crawl. Push a little bit more, and you're down to basic shot, which does next to no damage. And then you die. And Warriors need to build their resource, though I won't speak for them because I've never played one.
In other words, nerf the Sorcerer/Sage huge resource pool AND force them to deal with nonlinearly regenerating and much smaller sized pool. And that's it. It'll balance the class, as far as I'm concerned. Might even have to buff some abilities, once they're unable to just stand there and spam their heavy hitters until cows come home.
P.S. I have a Sorcerer, Powertech and IA all roughly the same level (+/-2) in mid-30s.
Hey Devs any PVP love coming for Arsenal Mercs?
in Commando / Mercenary
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I don't often say this, but stop being such a drama queen!
A marauder approaches you without using charge? He can certainly try. I'll just be jogging away from him, using Explosive Dart, Rail Shot, Explosive Missile, Heatseeker and Rapid Fire on him as I go. While he's doing precisely jack to me. Guess who'll win that one?
He blows Charge #1? He eats the knockback, and we're back to square one. He blows Charge #2? He eats any CC I feel like giving him. Now I have a free hand to stack those tracer missile debuffs and hit him with Heatseeker and whatever else I feel like it.
Then he finally gets on top of me with full resolve, at which point I turtle up behind the shield and spam my attacks. Yes, he'll interrupt one. Too bad there's plenty to go around.