Funny enough there's a very informative ad on reddit that points to the in-game-events page.

Are you sure you're talking about HMFP bolster and not warzone bolster, because traditionally they've not been to the same item level and haven't given the same stats?

Why make it so darn hard? If they haven't changed it lately bolster in HMFPs put you at about 220 item level. It's probably a one row code change to change bolster to something a bit more compelling - 242 sounds over the top, but maybe somewhere around 230-236. That takes care of most gear related problems for level 70s. (Possibly they should give people augment bolster in FPs as they do in warzones. That would make a bit of impact as well.) The second problem is lower levels, both in HM and VM (and, incidentally PVP). This is due to bolster doing exactly what it says on the tin - giving everybody roughly the stats of 220 gear. Unfortunately for lower levels it doesn't compensate for missing skills. Let's have a look at what a level 50 is missing. We'll use vengeance juggernaut as an example: Savagery - no autocrit on force scream. That's in the ball park of 40% less damage on that ability every 6 gcds. Deafening defense - major increase of survivability. Vengeful slam - considerable damage boost over smash. Maybe 25-30% extra on this every 6 gcds. Destroyer - free Hew. I don't even know what I would put in here instead, but it's good damage and refunds rage. Gushing veins - 5% crit chance extra on about 40% of you damage. Bloodmaster - extra damage on bleeds. Probably about 5% extra damage on those, and they are about 20% of the damage. Three less utility points, including Piercing Chill which is important for max damage, especially for AoE. Maybe someone should retune bolster so a level 50 didn't just get the same 220 stats as a level 70, but actually got compensated for that considerable loss of damage. I can't say for sure, and it's a ***** to test this, but my guess the stuff above leads to about 15-20% less damage. Thus, make sure the level 50 gets extra stats causing about 15-20% extra damage on top of current bolster. This also balances lowbie and midbie warzones, as an added bonus. While they're at it, they can go ahead and give people armor bolster in SM ops if they haven't already. It's there in FPs, so how hard can it be to do the same in ops?

But you slaughtered a metric ton of trash mobs on the way to the boss, gaining super easy cxp and cash on the way. Besides, pvpers don't earn very much cash or cxp unless they do something worthwhile.

I do agree that phase walk has had me wondering, and I do miss it on assassin. But most of the stuff they brought this time was clearly not due to pvpers, but what BW felt about the classes: - Hatred, pyrotech, and madness clearly were underperforming in PVE compared to comparable specs. Very few played those in PVE. - Virulence, engineering and IO were way above most specs except lethality. - Arsenal was considerably better than comparable specs such as marksmanship or lightning. It was also good enough to make most people ignore IO, despite IO dps being really, really good too. (Partially because arsenal has excellent survivability, though.) Stuff pvpers complained about: - Merc DPS survivability. Nothing was done about this except decoy got fewer charges. Merc survivability is still monster good. Btw, I tried visions in the dark on story as a healer. I slapped on some old 220-224 gear and dropped implants and earpiece completely. Besides dying from boredom, there wasn't even a remote risk of dying. (Might be different as a dps. Nerfing bubble and dark heal for dps was uncalled for, but I doubt it will make story mode unplayable.)

The "even remotely" comes from you constructing a far fetched scenario on how pvpers in general benefit from the removal of a skill so seldom used by hatred that Kre'a doesn't even mention it in his 5.0 PVP guide for Hatred. If it was so effective as you make it out to be it surely would have been listed. (Guide ofc predates the removal of the skill.) Or, maybe it was just not that good, emptied your force bar, and had only situational uses, which caused BW to remove it. This would be in line with other "slim the bars" variants, such as removing actually useful stuff like unload for PTs.

Of course they were, too. Probably all healers were. But most of all everyone has a boatload of defensive cooldowns, so its easier to keep people alive. But the reason you can't just boost everyone else is PVE. It is indeed a bit harder to solo content as a healer, since your companion isn't very easy to control, comparatively. As a healer you're more dependent on your comp doing more than standing around channeling heals. I haven't actually tried that chapter as a healer - I probably should go do that. Has there been any nerf in the history of the game that you feel was not due to PVP?

It was removed for PVE reasons since it's not normally used by hatred. I.e. unclutter the bars and prevent newbies from being eternally force starved. Just because you can construct a scenario where someone playing PVP even remotely benefits from a nerf, doesn't mean that's the reason.

I don't PVP much either, but it's clear even when viewed from orbit that none of the nerfs in 5.3 were PVP based. Especially merc changes were completely different stuff compared to what PVPers complained about. The sorc/seer healing nerf was simply driven by the fact that they healed way better than intended when PVE content was scaled. It's possible that other healers will be slightly nerfed too. Btw, which solo oriented content are sorc healers unplayable in now? If 5-6 out of 24 specs are viable in PVP, then it's much less variety and less entertaining than if all or a vast majority of specs are viable. Just as if only 5-6 of all specs were viable in PVE. And since switching costs are considerable with the new gearing system, it matters even more.

The healing 6-set bonus for sorcerers is arguably the most important set bonus in the whole game. Never leave home without it. (But if the alternatives are "every mod in gear is 246" vs "every mod in gear is 230 but I get set bonus", then you might get by with the 246s instead. Such as if you have a standard non-bonus legacy set for all your alts.)

Since the two weaker scouts would be pretty crappy without distortion field, there could be a possibility to split into two similar but slightly different versions. One for the smaller scouts, which keeps disto almost as it is today - maybe just a bit less evasion bonus. Another one for T2 scout and gunships, with less impact on shield power, but gives a bit less evasion and no missile break. In general, stuff that stacks up very close to 100% is a bit too good. Charged plating builds that go to 99% DR are a bit too good. (If they go to 98% they're just half as good!) Evasion that stacks close to 90% with cooldowns is a bit too good (which in turn makes BLCs slightly OP, due to people needing to be in your face to hit you). Stuff that have 100% armor pen is a little bit too good. Since strikes and long range missiles have no purpose, we could make them a soft counter for gunships by giving strikes missile range boosters and make it easier to lock missiles on gunships. If missiles locked in half the time against charging gunships, long range missiles could at least make them have to move.

Low hanging fruit that could improve things for new players: 1) It's very easy to get disoriented as a new player, especially in death match. Flying straight into the enemy camp while being chased makes you an easy kill. Solution: Put up waypoint markers on the capital ships, so you can head for one of those when you want to run away towards safety. 2) Gunships should start with max zoom out when going into sniping mode, as that's what everyone normally wants anyway. 3) Put up some defense turrets around one of the satellites in the tutorial, so people can practice how to kill those. Nothing makes you feel bad as a newcomer as when you're free at a node and get killed by the turrets. 4) Newcomers often leave matches with zero medals, especially in death match. The criteria for medals are too high for newcomers, while they're easy to pass for experienced pilots. Add an extra medal level for kills, assists, and damage: 1 kill (this is reason enough to celebrate for a new pilot) 2 assists (doable for most people) 5k damage (still hard for very new pilots, but feels much more reasonable to aim for as a new player than 10k) Other stuff that's a bit harder to do: 4) Fix mouse sensitivity and make it separately adjustable ingame, so one can play both the regular game and GSF without fiddling with the mouse settings. Without this, a newcomer can't hit the inside of a hangar. Also, make this so you can have reasonable mouse movement when using the free mouse mode. 5) Create a clear "UP" marker in the UI. While there is a leveling key, that doesn't work if you're trying to do something besides flying straight and being a target. Having a clear up indicator solves this. 6) Make it possible for people to load into all of the maps to have a look around. Newbies are very disadvantaged in that they don't find their way around the map. Also, make it possible for them to load in with their own ships. It's fine if there's nothing but a bunch of turrets around the satellite, and all the deathmatch powerup locations filled. 7) In deathmatch, have capital ships power up their guns for the losing team when they're enough behind (5-10 kills or so), and make an ops announcment about it. When it's more even, they power down again. (This is to prevent spawn camping.) 8) Newcomers spend very much time dying, being shot at, and running away from people chasing them. Neither of this is considered contributing, even if I keep 5 people busy shooting at me so my team can cap, if I don't hit anybody else. Make it so being hit and being targeted for missile lock counts as contributing. 9) Make it possible to make buffs and debuffs much bigger in the UI, so it's easier to notice them. (Max size possible in interface editor is still too small.) 10) I don't know if it currently is showing in any way, but it would be good if evasion showed around the ship in some way. If it does, it's not clear enough to be noticed. (And the "evaded" flytext suggestion from above is a good idea too.)

My suggestions for changes to the changes. Keep this without reduction. The other sorcs have it rough enough as it is, and nobody uses hard casted dark heals anyway. Also, if you reduce crit rate (see below), it will impact dark heal too. Let this go on efficacious currents instead of static barrier directly, so it only impacts corruption and not the dps specs. Since this is the "cheap but slow" heal, consider keeping this at 45 force and have something else take the 5 force hit. Since you're nerfing pretty much all healing abilities, consider removing parts of the force crit bonus from life surge instead. That would impact healing, plus it would make it less certain to get a force surge stack from a plain innervate. Consider removing revivification from dark concentration. That would indirectly increase the cost of revivification and make dark infusion more worthwhile. Since you're chopping off most of the alternatives to bending innervate, consider reducing the crit bonus on bended innervate instead of taking a straight damage nerf on innervate. Consider having renewal clip the dot and only give the fixed heal. That would encourage riding the buff in a similar way to reverse corruptions. Consider a smaller healing nerf, but keep cost higher by having secrets of the dark side reduce cost less (only 5 force less). Also consider eliminating double tap, as double tap trivializes both tank healing and pvp healing. Other considerations: Since force management is a bit easy, there might be room for smaller adjustments to consuming darkness and reverse corruptions. Maybe 5 less force from consuming darkness (though check if this works with the dps specs, or give them a corresponding 5 force boost) and shorten reverse corruptions to 8 seconds (4 force less if riding all the way). That would make it a harder choice when having only one stack of force surge - get needed heals in, or get the force from the free consumption.

It's generally not you who's about to die in those cases. It's that tank with 2% health, the death of whom will wipe the raid. No medkit or DCD can help you save that tank. Still, a very uncommon case. I've heard those troopers don't use explosive round much, especially gunnery. But they use that boltstorm all the time. Boltstorm is both cheaper and hits harder. Why don't we nerf damage on boltstorm so it's better to use two explosive rounds instead of a bolt storm, if you have the energy for it? That would make explosive round much more valuable! Because it's the signature move. And the signature move for sorc healer is innervate. It's okay if unproced explosive round and dark heal are bad, but it's not ok if boltstorm and innervate are bad. Besides, a free dark heal every 10 seconds is one in seven GCDs or so. Hardly a very limited use. But we don't see one every 10 seconds, but more like one every 12 seconds. Why? Because revivification. That is the real explanation for why you don't see many dark infusions. In fights where revivification is used on cooldown, you get the free dark heal each time, just losing two seconds on the dark concentration trigger. Thus, revivification isn't just its AoE HoT, it's subsidized by a free, instant dark heal. And since the main driver of dark infusion is "cheap healing that takes longer", not getting the free dark heal from the infusion makes it less valuable. One easy way to make dark infusions more valuable is thus to remove revivification from the list on dark concentration. Also, you're missing the bigger picture on how much impact the current lack of force management has. It's a perfect storm of effects causing this: 1. The free dark heal on revivification from above, which in essence subsidizes the cost of revivification. (Nominally with 70 force, but no one casts dark heal for 70 force except in the emergency case above.) 2. The high chance of criting on innervate without force bending, meaning you won't need to use force bending for that but can instead use it to lower force cost 30% on revivification, or for instant bounce on roaming mend. So if you have continuous raid wide damage, you can get cheap revivfication, bouncing mends, and free dark heals. 3. The relatively effective force regeneration from consuming darkness meaning you don't have to use as many stacks of force surge. Thus you don't need that many innervate crits, and you don't need to consume that often. (Don't forget that one force surge stack is two vindicates, i.e. up to 50 + 20 + 50 = 120 force back on top of the normal regen.) Roaming mend surely needs a nerf. As it's stated I feel it's a bit agressive on the damage nerf. I'd prefer to keep the 5% bonus on secrets of the dark side, but make it lower the cost less (either not at all or only by 5 force). Also, prevent double tap - if there's no third target to bounce to, the remaining charges are wasted, just as with other similar skills. That would prevent slacker healing of two tanks (resurgence + roaming mend and let it bounce between the tanks), but still make it a viable multi target heal.

If noone is attacking a mob, guard won't help the healer, except for the damage reduction. There are some fights where guarding the healer makes sense, though. Braxx in Mando Raiders, for instance, where you want your dps to have threat, so the dogs don't go for the healer.

Yes, dot specs put out more total damage, because nobody would play the dot spec if both specs did the same damage and were about as easy to play. Even in PVE X points of burst damage is a bit better than X points of dot damage, due to weaker targets dying, target swapping, immunity phases and whatnot. But my reasoning was about the relative value of burst damage vs sustained damage when comparing PVE vs PVP, and in PVP the value of burst damage goes up. People don't die from taking millions of points of damage - they die because the other team could put enough damage out in a short time so the healer couldn't cope. Thus, if you balanced two specs based on PVP merits, the difference in dps needed to make the dot spec viable (if AOE and dot spreading capacity was the same) would have to be larger. But that makes the burst specs bad for PVE (like MM snipers and ligthning sorcs). Yes, that's why I also said that dot spreading and huge AOE output would be grounds for getting less damage bonus, since both of those are much more valuable in PVP. But my suggestion would not give more hybridization. It wouldn't give dot specs more burst - it would just give them more dps in PVP relative to PVE. That also would mean you could shrink the dps gap between specs in PVE (where burst isn't such a huge deal) a little, so MM snipers and lightning sorcs wouldn't feel so gimped there. How's that for compensating burst specs?

It doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be close enough for government work. While this is really hard to do with only abilities and utilities, they could reuse an old friend of ours, the pvp boosts (damage, healing, DR). Since expertise went the way of the dodo they're all at zero, but you could easily reuse those stats for discipline balancing. So, the balancing process would then be: Balance DPS/HPS/DTPS for PVE as they're in the process of doing now. Balance utilities so they're reasonably good for PVE and PVP, avoiding superpowered utils (hi, Trauma Regulators!) Check which disciplines are over or under performing in PVP, and compensate with PVP only bonuses for each spec. Since burst is much better in PVP, you probably want to give dot specs some extra oomph. More bonus damage for dot specs then. Healers might be fine in PVE but a bit OP in PVP. Let everyone get more damage bonus than healers get healing bonus, and lower bonus DR across the board. TTK goes down. Also, if offheals are too good, just give no healing bonus at all for non-healer specs. One class has too good or too bad survivability? Compensate with lower or higher bonus damage reduction. Stealth is not very useful in PVE fights, but good in PVP. Give stealth classes a bit less bonuses. Same with mighty AOE damage or impressive dot spreading - a bit less bonus damage to balance things out. Also, one good thing with having these bonuses by discipline, is that they can be mildly tweaked. You can nudge it parts of a percentage in either direction. It might not be perfect balancing, but it might be good enough. You can't fix everything - skank tanks, for instance. Though you could make DR for tank specs be partly dependent on the mitigation stats chosen. Say, sum up defense + shield + absorb and the more you have the more DR bonus you get. That would mean you could still skank tank if you liked, but "real" tanks would get compensated for the fact that PVP has very much non-mitigatable damage. While I do admit that their plan makes sense from an effectiveness of execution point of view, I do believe the complaining players feel a bit like this: Player: "There's a fire in the living room!" Dev: "Don't worry. We're remodeling the house. It will be fine afterwards." Player: "But the living room is on fire! Aaaaah!" Dev: "We'll get to the living room eventually. Remodeling needs to be an orderly process." Throwing a bone to the PVP crowd by fixing the easiest to fix flaws, such as nerfing Trauma Regulators, would both be a prominent way to say "hey, we're listening to your problems" and buy some time for the rest of the balancing. It would take some extra effort, though.

You could make strikes specifically better at killing or annoying gunships at longer ranges, for instance by making missiles better against gunships. I have three suggestions there: - Only one missile break on gunships. - Strikes get missile range extenders, and possibly missile speed extenders as well. - Lock on time for missiles is halved when a gunship is charging. (You're shooting at a stationary supernova after all - how hard can it be to lock on to that?) Another possible option would be to give the emp missile more range and have it disable railguns. That would mean sitting in a bomber's nest carries some risk.

Since PVP is so massively unbalanced you can't really do any damage control unless you actually promise imminent changes that address the most pressing issues. Fortunately you could easily nerf both trauma regulators and ballistic safeguards with very easy measures that require very little coding: Trauma regs: 0.5% or 1% healing per stack (down from 5%). A 7.5% or 15% heal isn't that big a deal, and would probably make people stop using them and take other utils instead. Ballistic safeguards: 1% heal every 2 seconds (down from 3% every 1 second) for 10% heal instead of 60%, and reduce max charges to 2 or 3 for 10% or 15% DR. (These are ofc only ballpark figures - the point is it's very few numbers you need to tweak, and the risk of creating bugs is low. Compared to removing or replacing utilities, it's a world of difference.) ...and then you put out a patch with those changes ASAP, so you can get new feedback about where PVP is while you polish the dps numbers.

Easier flashpoints - it can be a casual way to enjoy the game, while still having a bit of a challenge. Harder flashpoints - for the challenge and feeling of achievement. Possibly even bragging rights. Also, in some cases it has been a good CXP source, while still being a "solo" activity.

It seems you get bolstered to about 220 item level. Good enough to clear most stuff, but it can get hard in some places. Also, many people don't have augments on lower level gear, which isn't compensated for by the bolster algoritm. (Bolster not compensating for missing skills is another downer for lowbies.) Actually, if you have a group that can get to Mokan, especially if they also can do Obai and Vodd, your group is most likely good enough to clear Mokan if you use the best strategy. Problem is almost nobody uses the best strategy, so your healer has to compensate. Since most people queue for all flashpoints, it's reasonable to compare with any single flashpoint. Queueing while praying for Black Talon is not a good way of doing things.

One possibility I came to think of with gunships would be to have missile lock time halved against charging gunships. (How hard can it be to lock a missile on a stationary target that radiates like a supernova?) This could make them both a bit more susceptible at short range (0.7 seconds to get a cluster volley in your face), and at long range (longer lock on time missiles are now 2.0 seconds at most). For strikes, they could then get missile range and speed boosts, causing them to be somewhat of a soft counter to gunships at half decent ranges. Oh, yeah, and lose that second missile break on the gunships.

I'd like Titan 6. And he has reasonable rates, too! He might not be the best team player, though.

The bolded parts is the conventional wisdom, but if you want an easy ride, they're not ideal. The point is conal does no damage - it only puts on stacks, and Mokan has no cleave, so standing in front of him is fine if you just want stacks. The second point is the third conal is the perfect time to take your final stacks, as the stacks then fall off just after compound 17 is finished. So, if you want to take the least amount of damage as dps/healer: - First and second person to get the circle takes one stack from their circle, and two stacks from third conal. - Third person takes two stacks from third conal and one from their circle afterwards. In this way, no stacks fall off when they shouldn't and fall off asap when they should. (Taking one stack only from your circle does require you to be on your toes. It's easy to take two instead.) Since I made that parse, I think I know what went in it. And it's one player taking 3100 dtps from damage mitigatable by tanks, and 1200 dtps from the dots. For a decent tank, those 3100 will be way lower. With lethality ops having extra DR against dots, normal people should take 1500 dtps each from dots. Still, it requires a decent amount of heals from the healer, especially during compound 17 release. People specing into some extra damage reduction helps a bit. On the other hand, a healer in 230 can output between 14k and 22k hps against four targets, so 6k shouldn't be impossible. Offhealing helps, though. Partially to keep the companion up, as they have really lame damage reduction. Also, keeping kolto up gives extra DR with the right utility, which is nice. The healer should cleanse two, so tank doesn't have to wave the conal around by getting stims. Ideally, healer cleanses just as conal hits, so there's room for a third cleanse if someone dies and tank gets the third circle. (Or getting a stim, but that can be short on time.)

The main damage taken is not from the dots, but from his ranged attack. This is substantially less with a proper tank. But you did get about 1.5k dtps per player (in 4.x values) from the poisons. ( Here's a parse ) Also, your healer should have less than 11 seconds cd on cleanse, but that's hardly a problem with today's stat levels. No tank can consistently clean themselves, and things get much easier if tank isn't running all over the place fetching injectors. Nobody should take more than one dot from one pool + two stacks from a conal, if you want to minimize healing. So the number of pools isn't a huge problem. The big problem is making people count and play at the same time, and that there is not a huge margin for error. In this thread, there's some info that might help people. About 8-10 hours and maybe 70 attempts. Companions aren't the most trustworthy of followers...