Combat in 1.2

[Aaramis]

Very curious to see how Ataru form procs will be boosted in long-term PvE combat such as Ops, where an enemy is often going to be -20% armour debuffed (from sundering strike and grav round).

 

A previous 330ish damage form proc may suddenly be hitting for 370ish without debuffs, and 440ish with debuffs. Barring any damage reduction, of course.

 

Over the course of an 8min+ battle, that can add up to a lot of free dps. Provided they're not blocked or evaded.

Hmmm, I guess Accuracy of over 100% just became more important than it previously was.

[SaxManders]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but they weren't talking about Trans, they said the 15% damage boost will be OPwide. The speed boost apparently will still just affect your party.

 

"Transcendence now affects all Operation Group members."

 

Direct quote from patch notes.

[Enexemander]

Very curious to see how Ataru form procs will be boosted in long-term PvE combat such as Ops, where an enemy is often going to be -20% armour debuffed (from sundering strike and grav round).

 

A previous 330ish damage form proc may suddenly be hitting for 370ish without debuffs, and 440ish with debuffs. Barring any damage reduction, of course.

 

Over the course of an 8min+ battle, that can add up to a lot of free dps. Provided they're not blocked or evaded.

Hmmm, I guess Accuracy of over 100% just became more important than it previously was.

 

Weapon damage is, of course, affected by any and all types of mitigation and even a light armor wearer has more than 10% mitigation.

 

They're going to need to up the damage by more than 10% to compensate.

[Ainianu]

Weapon damage is, of course, affected by any and all types of mitigation and even a light armor wearer has more than 10% mitigation.

 

They're going to need to up the damage by more than 10% to compensate.

 

force/tech damage was/is still effected by armour.

 

Force/Tech damage only ignores defense chance/shield

 

most enemies have a defense chance of 5-10% and this will be overcome by accuracy

 

This is a boost for Ataru even if it is not fully understood how.

 

The only situation where this change would not be a boost is vs tank spec/geared peoples.

[AstralProjection]

Ex-Combat Spec player from before launch that was really hoping to go back to Combat Spec. I'm not overly excited about the changes, in fact I'm very disappointed.

 

Combat Spec's Zen just encourages you to spam single moves - Blade Rush or now Cyclone Slash to try to remain competitive. The same thing they just tried to fix in BH/Trooper.

 

It's a lackluster, poor implementation of a cool utility concept (Zen), just like the talents in the Combat Tree. It takes 31 points to get the utility/power boost of 15-20 points in any other Class' talent trees.

 

Great changes overall for Sentinels, but all they do is make Watchman spec look more overpowered, while only making one more spec viable for Sentinels (if it even does that, I'll wait for the verdict from the Focus Sentinels against real opponents).

 

The changes to Ataru form seem like a (very unnecessary) stealth nerf to me. Change the damage type to the kind that is mitigated by every class/defense skill easily, and majorly affected by Pacify. So now a Watchman Sentinel will laugh even harder if they come up against a Combat spec Sentinel.

 

I'm just not seeing the Combat love. Yeah, Blade Rush spam is very powerful, but also very boring. I like Sentinels not being a button mashing class. I would've preferred a Zen effect like "increases the duration of your precision slash" to be added instead of having Zen affect Cyclone Slash.

 

That's just me anyway. Maybe someone playing Combat on PTR can bring my hopes back up.

Edited March 19, 2012 by AstralProjection

[Game-Hermit]

I'm just not seeing the Combat love. Yeah, Blade Rush spam is very powerful, but also very boring. I like Sentinels not being a button mashing class. I would've preferred a Zen effect like "increases the duration of your precision slash" to be added instead of having Zen affect Cyclone Slash.

 

I agree. It encourages spamming the same ability. Your suggestion would reduce that while also helping with the problem of well timed CC during precision.

Edited March 19, 2012 by Game-Hermit

[AcaciaDragon]

If Ataru is now Weapon based damage instead of Force, The damage modifier would no longer be based on our bonus force damage right? It would be based on our weapons damage instead? We have 2 sabers and the damage from my mainhand alone is 125 more than my force damage? Any Carnage/Combat marauders/Sentinils on the PTS seen a bigger damage increase than just 10%? I have no idea how the damage was caluclated before, but currently my Ataru tooltip says i do 325 damage and my bonus force damage is 649 Edited March 19, 2012 by AcaciaDragon

[Dulwaithe]

 

The changes to Ataru form seem like a (very unnecessary) stealth nerf to me. Change the damage type to the kind that is mitigated by every class/defense skill easily, and majorly affected by Pacify. So now a Watchman Sentinel will laugh even harder if they come up against a Combat spec Sentinel.

 

As the poster before you explained, the proc will be mitigated in exactly the same way. Just like weapon damage, both kinetic and energy damage are mitigated by armor. The only thing that will change is that now the attack and be deflected/parried/shielded. With enough accuracy, you will only have to be worried about the shielding part, which should only happen against tanks.

[Bu-jin]

What makes focus better dps?

[EasymodeX]

People seem to have a hard time reading and comprehending.

 

Focus will be harder to play after the changes:

 

1. Sweep on a 12s cooldown, not 9s.

 

2. Sweep will cost 3 Focus, making Focus management more interesting.

 

3. Blade Storm will have a longer cooldown, meaning less frequent 3.8k spikes.

 

 

RNG focus refund on Slash will keep the overall spec focus neutral, however it is more difficult to manage an RNG refund than it is to manage a static lower cost.

 

Focus will be harder to spec and optimize after the changes:

 

You can no longer ignore Slash buffs, since you need to spam it for focus management. In the current version, you can spec to avoid Slash, which means no Focused Slash, so you can pick up Defensive Roll. Now, you will want Short Fuse (who doesn't?), Focused Slash, and Defensive Roll. This combination is not possible with 31 Focus.

 

 

Sidenote:

 

The only benefit of the Sweep stack changes is that you no longer have to use Stasis to build stacks -- you can save that as a CC mechanism.

 

 

IMO, Focus isn't really being changed in terms of power level. The burst will be a tad higher with the Guardian talent, but it will cycle slower (bad) and the focus will be harder to manage (bad), even though you can spam Slash more (meh). But you get access to the +Centering talent, so whee.

[ZakPreston]

Combat still remains a garbage in terms of survivability and DPS, just admit it. BTW I'm Carnage since early access.

[RG_jhanlec]

Combats going to be terrifying in the right hands.

 

It already can be. Carnage mara in my old guild used to own 2 people in one gore cool down by twitchy folks hitting adrenal, relic, berserk, gore, carnage 6 hits followed by force scream and a smash if necessary. I ran Carnage until 45 when I realized Annihilation was the way to go and swapped.

 

I moved to a PST server to better accommodate my now very late night schedule and rolled a sentinel because I loved the marauder. This time I have leveled annihilation and will probably end up changing to carnage soon since it will be viable and I always liked it better.

 

I am excited for this change!

[muradi]

Why is EasymodeX the only person worth listening to in these forums...

Dude, explain us why/how Combat has been buffed.

[Eszi]

Im staying clockman

[Soybombz]

People seem to have a hard time reading and comprehending.

 

Focus will be harder to play after the changes:

 

1. Sweep on a 12s cooldown, not 9s.

 

2. Sweep will cost 3 Focus, making Focus management more interesting.

 

3. Blade Storm will have a longer cooldown, meaning less frequent 3.8k spikes.

 

 

RNG focus refund on Slash will keep the overall spec focus neutral, however it is more difficult to manage an RNG refund than it is to manage a static lower cost.

 

Focus will be harder to spec and optimize after the changes:

 

You can no longer ignore Slash buffs, since you need to spam it for focus management. In the current version, you can spec to avoid Slash, which means no Focused Slash, so you can pick up Defensive Roll. Now, you will want Short Fuse (who doesn't?), Focused Slash, and Defensive Roll. This combination is not possible with 31 Focus.

 

 

Sidenote:

 

The only benefit of the Sweep stack changes is that you no longer have to use Stasis to build stacks -- you can save that as a CC mechanism.

 

 

IMO, Focus isn't really being changed in terms of power level. The burst will be a tad higher with the Guardian talent, but it will cycle slower (bad) and the focus will be harder to manage (bad), even though you can spam Slash more (meh). But you get access to the +Centering talent, so whee.

 

Reread the patch notes and swelling winds and stop having a hard time understanding...

 

 

 

Focus (Guardian)

Felling Blow is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect. The effect now lasts 20 seconds (up from 15).

Force Exhaustion's cooldown has been reduced to 18 seconds. Its overall effect is unchanged.

Gravity now specifically affects Freezing Force and Force Exhaustion.

Inner Focus has been redesigned. It now requires 2 points in Singularity and causes Combat Focus to immediately grant 2 stacks of Singularity per point.

Master Focus now increases the damage of Master Strike instead of affecting Force Stasis.

Singularity's buff effects now last 20 seconds (up from 15).

Swelling Winds is now located in Tier 1 of the Focus skill tree. It increases the damage dealt by Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash and reduces the cooldown of Force Sweep.

Through Peace, a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6, has been added. It reduces the initial activation cost of Focused Defense by 1 Focus per point.

Unwavering Focus has been removed from the game.

Zealous Leap now immobilizes the target for 1 second.

Zephyr has been replaced by Zephyrean Slash, which allows Slash critical hits to have a chance to refund 2 points of Focus while the Guardian is in Shii-Cho Form.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Soybombz

[Soybombz]

Why is EasymodeX the only person worth listening to in these forums...

Dude, explain us why/how Combat has been buffed.

 

Because he spews wrong information good call though

[Rotanartlu]

Reread the patch notes and swelling winds and stop having a hard time understanding...

 

 

 

Focus (Guardian)

Felling Blow is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect. The effect now lasts 20 seconds (up from 15).

Force Exhaustion's cooldown has been reduced to 18 seconds. Its overall effect is unchanged.

Gravity now specifically affects Freezing Force and Force Exhaustion.

Inner Focus has been redesigned. It now requires 2 points in Singularity and causes Combat Focus to immediately grant 2 stacks of Singularity per point.

Master Focus now increases the damage of Master Strike instead of affecting Force Stasis.

Singularity's buff effects now last 20 seconds (up from 15).

Swelling Winds is now located in Tier 1 of the Focus skill tree. It increases the damage dealt by Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash and reduces the cooldown of Force Sweep.

Through Peace, a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6, has been added. It reduces the initial activation cost of Focused Defense by 1 Focus per point.

Unwavering Focus has been removed from the game.

Zealous Leap now immobilizes the target for 1 second.

Zephyr has been replaced by Zephyrean Slash, which allows Slash critical hits to have a chance to refund 2 points of Focus while the Guardian is in Shii-Cho Form.

 

Stop giving bad information. They stealth nerfed us. Quick Recovery is gone. I'm assuming Easymode assumed you knew. SO plz take some of ur own advice aaaaaand "stop having a hard time understanding...".

 

I was about to post this but then I thought maybe you knew about that and didn't know Zephyr was also gone. So with no quick recovery and no zephyr ur highlighted but doesn't do much to compensate.

 

p.s. sorry i didn't highlight anything

[LagunaD]

As the poster before you explained, the proc will be mitigated in exactly the same way. Just like weapon damage, both kinetic and energy damage are mitigated by armor. The only thing that will change is that now the attack and be deflected/parried/shielded. With enough accuracy, you will only have to be worried about the shielding part, which should only happen against tanks.

 

Unfortunately, though, it will use Melee Bonus Damage, instead of Force Bonus Damage.

 

As things stand currently on the test server, Ataru Form damage will be reduced by 20-25%.

 

See: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=371763

[Bishidoblade]

Focus was easy to play from the beginning, lol. Also while all the changes look great and while combat got some help - I for one will be staying Watchman. Combat looks more inline with what it should have been, but Watch is still the better choice IMO.

[slowantics]

is there a way we can see the 1.2 talent trees?