So no evidence of a community movement asking for class swapping? So my statement about there not being a movement is not hyperbole then? So it's actually an exaggeration on your part, to claim hyperbole in others, when other people are making statements of fact. Just like you claimed a few hours ago. Sounds like you're being hyperbolic, friend.

If it exists and I didn't see it, there would be evidence, right? So you're quoting me, calling it hyperbole, but not showing the evidence even though you seem quite eager and capable of quoting certain people. Show me evidence that there was a community movement of people asking for class swapping dated before the 7.0 announcement was made, and I'll believe you that there was in fact, such a movement. SWTOR is extremely alt friendly, I think anyone who actually wanted that would have a hard time getting any traction. I'm still not seeing any exaggeration on my part. Hence, it's not hyperbole.

Combat Styles aren't "combat styles" at all, it's a simple class change. I see no evidence for a large, or even small group of people, asking for the ability to switch classes before 7.0 was announced. How is any of that hyperbole? (And it's still pages of text, even when instead of one long post, you do it 4 times in a row.)

If I have someone constantly quoting me, but instead of having a valid, articulated point just kept on rambling and rambling on, writing page after page of vague nonsense that's clearly off topic, yeah, I'm gonna ignore most of it. Can you actually, in 30 words or less, speak about a point I made that you've clearly proven me wrong on? I haven't made you look bad, the pages and pages of rambling have. To quote a Obi Wan Kenobi, "You have done that yourself."

I'm saying the developers could make a use for Guardian Leap. The reason it isn't used, is that it reduces threat in addition to the buff to DR, and raid/flashpoint bosses, as I've seen them, don't really have alot of "x boss is about to use his signature move, buff the tank" type scenarios that actually necessitate buffing their dr for 6 seconds. There's plenty of abilities in FF14 that give a temporary damage resistance buffs to other players, alot more than what I see in SWTOR, and they're not only used in FF14, they're actually consistently needed. Giving the dps more to do that just "stand in the right place and dps" could go a long ways to making combat more dynamic for pve. It's not that guardian leap is too niche. It's actually a pretty powerful ability. It gets used in every warzone/pvp area where the concept of losing is real. If healers in a NiM operation, or even a flashpoint, were in danger of pulling agro, a jugg dps could guardian leap to them, then leap back to the boss. Yet that probably doesn't happen too often, but that has more to do with the pve enemies that it does the ability itself.

Show me the thread where I initiated dialogue with you. I might be wrong, but I don't remember ever talking to you, other than responding to you quoting me.

I remember back at launch, getting to Corellia for the first time, underleveled (cause I hate Voss) and getting knocked off my speeder bike while driving by two "strong" enemies. Because of a bug, companions wouldn't come back after getting knocked off a mount, so suddenly I had a tough, but fun fight, which I lost. I can't even remember any individual fights from yesterday, when I was leveling up a new smuggler. Even though it was on a new server, and I didn't have all the buffs and legacy advantages, it was still too easy to make an impact, or bother to remember. I really think something really important is lost when pve is too easy. None of the new players are making memories off of combat, when combat is too trivial. I think the Star Wars IP, and the story is enough to get people in the door, but it isn't enough to keep them as long term players. I think modern day gamers are capable are, on the whole, not only capable of handling harder content but are actually a little bit insulted when combat is nothing but pre-determined wins. Anyways, I don't see why guardian leap couldn't be used in Nim ops. Just take off the threat modifier when leaping to a tank, or a tank that has a guard up. Freezing force, why is there no add phases where you need to kite a bunch of droid adds or whatnot, because they'll detonate or one shot your low armor party members? Sounds like dynamic gameplay. My suspicion is that Bioware doesn't want to balance the utility/usefulness of dps outside of raw damage. I'm not a NiM raider, but that's just what it seems like from the videos I've seen, and Bioware in general.

You write pages, and pages of stuff, none of which has much of anything to do with the topic at hand. I'm not obligated to spend all my time responding to every sentence like you do. You go to every thread which I post in, and then quote me and go off on weird tangents, trying to start arguments without any point. Seriously, find an stable, trusted person in your life, and show them all the posts you've made in the last month. I don't think this is a healthy activity for you.

You could say something like "For concealment operatives, fragmentation grenade seems a bit redundant." Then we could have a constructive conversation on the pro's and cons on Toxic Haze, Noxious Knives, and Frag Grenades, and why concealment operative should or shouldn't have 3 aoes. Specific criticism, tied to the actual subject of the thread, is a thousand times more valuable then just vague ranting and raving. Do I need to explain to you why I ignore most of what you have to say, still?

You still haven't described, in detail, what you think is bad about the combat or abilities. "It's bad cause it has 25 buttons" isn't an argument, especially now with FF14 having about the same and being the most played mmo. You still haven't said what's actually improved with the changes you'd rather make. You talk and you talk and yet you don't say anything at all.

As a sub, Galactic Seasons are extremely easy to keep up on. It's more of bomb that's set to go off in September, when people who haven't been playing the game suddenly panic and think they're missing out on something they'll regret not having. That's the target audience for Galactic Seasons, the ones who'll buy 100 bucks of cartel coins towards the end of September. I agree with most your points, but at the same time, I think you just take it a few steps too far. If you're a subscriber who wants EVERYTHING, then yes, extra monetization certainly kicks in. However, if you're a subscriber, actively playing, who wants very specific things, it's pretty easy to minimize or eliminate all the extra swiping of your credit card.

You keep saying SWTOR combat is bad, outdated, blah blah blah, but you never go into any details. Old School Runescape, which last time I check has the 5th largest population in mmos, proves that you can have a pretty good old school mmo, that doesn't chase trends, and simply does it's own thing. SWTOR doesn't need "action" combat, it doesn't need class swapping, it doesn't need a 6-12 button system. It's an old school WoW clone inspired by the TBC/Wrath era, the most popular era of WoW's history. That's it's strength, and it should progress from that, rather than shaking things up every couple of years.

You ever stop to think, that the reason none of these abilities matter in pve, is because pve is too easy? Guardian Leap, for example, what's the point when you and your companion were going to survive anyways? Freezing Force, enemies don't even run away to save themselves, like the humanoids did in Vanilla World of Warcraft. Force clarity, again what's the point of extra burst damage when you're going to win anyways? Slash, the only rage dump worth using against single target, but they're already dead, right? Combat focus, pretty pointless in pve, because as long as a guardian can hit something, they can generate focus, and enemies in pve don't try to stop you from hitting them. The problem isn't the amount of abilities, it's the lame pve enemies that don't necessitate them in the first place. "Fixing" the amount of abilities to match the state of solo pve just drags the entire game down to the solo pve level.

Starting from level 12, a merc could literally remove every ability from their hotbar, never train again, and just use sweeping blasters and a companion to complete the entire vanilla storyline, as well as any heroics. If anything, the ease of the game creates a barrier later on. There's no motivation to get good at the game while leveling, until suddenly you're max level and all those buttons and abilities you didn't bother to read up and understand might actually matter. Double Exp boosts and events make it even worse. Sorry of that pisses them off, but they'll adjust.

I like SWTOR combat, as it is, right now. So how about you establish what's so terrible about it for you, and I can recommend you an MMO from there.

And no, that's not me, so please don't cyberstalk him like you do me. Thanks.

That's just the removal of skill trees, to remove hybrid classes. Still sucked, but all the abilities were still there, and the design philosophy was still intact as well. I kinda get it too. You want to give a cool, spec driven ability to the players early on, but you can't do that with skill trees, because people will just pick up the low hanging fruit. People calling this ability pruning "normal" for SWTOR still can't name the patch where they gutted all the classes in favor of a dumbed down system. The patch is called 7.0 for SWTOR. It's also called "Warlords of Draenor" in WoW lingo, and it did not go down very well. Just Google "WoW ability pruning" and read through the articles, reddit posts, etc. See for yourself if it had an overall positive or negative impact through the years.

A big part of PvP is the play/counter-play of getting people to burn their cooldowns at the wrong time. Like soft stunning a jugg when he hits enraged defense, or stunning a sorc or merc when they hit force speed/ hydraulic overrides. How that could play out, and still be as fun, with half the buttons is a mystery that Bioware claims it can solve, but given what we see on the PTS there's no reason to believe them. Action mmos, like ESO/Neverwinter can get away with a 6-12 button setup, because they have a whole additional element of gameplay in attacking, blocking, dodging, completely separated from those 6-12 abilities. It's a design choice bases around using an xbox controller, and those games were built from the ground up with that in mind. I think someday there will be a Star Wars action based MMO, but SWTOR aint it. It's better off as an "old school" wow clone, not a "retail" WoW clone. WoW devs, who blazed this trail Bioware seems intent on following, even admit ability pruning has hurt their game. https://massivelyop.com/2019/06/22/blizzard-on-world-of-warcraft-class-pruning-weve-gone-too-far/ A better idea would be to have Bioware make a mobile game that ties into SWTOR. Something that ties into your characters, or legacy, cosmetically or via a system that doesn't effect SWTOR game balance. Make it addictive, make the cash shop with it predatory. Make it pay to win. Make it shallow and flashy, and easy. Load it all up with the typical EA sleeze. Then they can log into SWTOR and reap the "benefits", and then get tricked into actually playing, and maybe enjoying SWTOR.

So which patch in the past was it where they completely changed design philosophy of classes and removed a huge amount of abilities, to dumb down the game? Name the exact patch. This is beyond a simple buff or a nerf. It's also not an over reaction, simply because, as history with the PTS shows, they completely disregard feedback, and very rarely make changes to testing builds. People on the PTS have reported all sorts of issues over the years, and time and time again those issues make it into the patch releases. Testers give warnings about overtuned classes, but those versions of the classes always make it through to the release and take forever to get nerfed. Endwalker releases November 23rd, so those of us dissatisfied with the "New Game Experience" will be voting with our feet.

"Superfluous." At level 70, a guardian/jugg will be able to choose to have Saber Reflect, Blade Blitz, or Enure. (Saber reflect, Mad Dash. Endure for Juggs) So not only are some abilities getting completely removed, you're given a choice of having one of three abilities, all of which do radically different things, all of which are necessary for dealing with slows and roots against ranged opponents. How are these abilities "Superfluous"? How does diminishing player choice inside of combat open anything new up? If the motive for diminishing abilities is to balance classes, then lets not forget the LITERAL YEAR it took for nerfs to happen to mercs in 5.0. Why did it take a year? "Because someone had a baby." Rather than dumbing down all the classes so they're easy to balance, why not just hire more staff and balance what you've got? We're not dealing with "Superfluous" abilities nearly as much as were dealing with "Disingenuous" development. From their press release: "The latest expansion will introduce the new Combat Styles feature which further expands on the deep custom Star Wars experience of SWTOR." Objectively speaking, a lie, when you realize how much they're planning on gutting all the classes.

At a time when FF14 has overtaken WoW as the most played MMO, Bioware Austin announces that with 7.0 we'll be able to switch classes on singular toons, but in switching they'll still be locked to the weapons for the class we're switching too. In other words, just like FF14. You don't see Dark Knights in FF14 with an axe, or a sword and shield, and you won't see Mercs with a blaster rifle in SWTOR. Coincidence? No. Good for SWTOR? No, or maybe at best. Shameless and lazy in it's implementation? Yes. There was no large movement in the SWTOR community to prune abilities, not even a "manufactured" movement like we see with other changes people want in the game. It's not a pressing issue for people who play the game, it's a potential issue for the executives at EA trying to milk each and every new player that swings by. I'm not against EA making money, but if it's the expense of good gameplay then it's a problem. "A fool and his money are soon parted." EA, and Bioware Austin are taking that to heart. They don't want gamers that have the patience to handle or enjoy complexity. They want gamers who expect immediate gratification, AKA, fools.

The current playerbase has, more or less, already bought all the stuff they want and need from the Cartel Market. It's less expensive to try and sell existing items to new players than it is to make engaging content and good gameplay.

Can you give an actual quote of this hyperbole? Or are you just stuffing people into categories for your own narratives, and then condemning them for being in that category? Star Wars is one of the biggest IPs in history, if not the biggest. In terms of milking whales, none of your examples even comes close to what SWTOR can do. SWTOR can sustain itself just on casual fandom. It doesn't need to be a good game to exist, nor does it need to cater to the players who enjoy it the most to make money. That's the issue. If you ask SWTOR vets if they've got too many buttons, they'll say no, on most of the classes. If you ask the casual Star Wars fan, trying out SWTOR for the 3rd day of playing, if his fury marauder has too many buttons, he's probably going to say yes. These changes are not geared for player retention, they're geared for new player turnaround, at the cost of player retention. If that doesn't concern you, you might as well get a head start on your next hobby.

At what point did I say the game was going to die? These changes are designed for people who don't like SWTOR to play SWTOR. SWTOR survives, as I've stated before, on a revolving door business model. Get people in, get them hooked on the decent vanilla story content, get them to sub, and spend money on the cartel market, and let them leave when it's obvious the game isn't supported the way it should be. If SWTOR wasn't Star Wars, it would have died. It's whale bait. The changes to design philosophy won't effect that, but it will drive away the veteran players, and the shallow gameplay won't be an issue for the new players until well after they've swiped their credit cards. If they gut the guardian/jugg like they're intending, no I won't be sticking around. Just like I stopped playing vengeance at end game when they turned it into a fluff aoe spec, and had to hop to skank tanking. This time I'll have nothing to hop to, except to a different mmo that actually has the support of the company behind it. You project way too much. You also spelled your name wrong. You forgot the L and the I in front of the V.

Allow classes to use different weapons, with minor benefits and drawbacks to mimic the functionality of the weapon. A merc using a rifle could get a small accuracy bonus, and a small penalty to raw damage, calculated out to be the same overall dps. A sin using a single bladed lightsaber could get a small bonus to attacks from stealth, but a penalty to aoe attacks and defense. There's a million little fun things they could do with that. They can keep the force powers idea, having the animations based on alignment rather than class. Just like with weapon choice, people have been asking for it for 10 years. 64 bit engine. Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and Terra all stated out at 32 bit engines and were upgraded to 64 bit years after launch. I want Pvp rewards to be revamped, to track objective play and reward based on that, and while keeping the win requirements for daily/weeklies, add an option to not que for a single type of mode for regs. Most of all, I want Bioware to stop chasing mmo trends without first thinking about how features in other games works for them, and if they'd actually add anything of value to SWTOR.