Fellow Troopers are you satisfied with 1.2?

[origional]

The two issues I have are:

 

Mortar Volley range reduction. Why? what useful purpose does this serve? its supposed to be an AOE and in the PVE game a lot of the mobs are already spaced too far apart for it to effect all of them, so now in a group of 3 you'll get to hit 1, 2 if they are really close together. It's not an advantage in PvP because every sees that big ol targetting circle and moves away. Stupid nerf.

 

Grav Round Spam. Reducing the damage of grave round isnt going to reduce its spam, and thats what they claim they are doing this for. It will still be spammed because it has no cooldown and it buffs HiB and Demolition. Failed Nerf.

 

devs are idiots.

[Raiffiel]

Has it been released? I haven't played it on the PTR and as far as I know it hasn't gone live. So too early to tell.

[LillyWhiteS]

Short answer as a Combat Medic, NO

 

Longer answer follows...

 

Having been reading all the cries for heals to be nerfed into the ground, they are too op, it seems most of these cries are because of too many healers in the same warzone, or when in premades.

 

Obviously if too many healers are in the same warzone, that means too many heals are getting thrown out, not that a class in itself is too strong, limit the amount of healers that can enter, that change is two fold, both less heals and more dps.

 

With premades, healers are getting guarded, dps getting damage reduced elsewhere on top of that, CC and stuff to help the healers, basically good timing, good communication and teamwork, of course you will be harder to kill, but the problems lie in a few places, nerf just the healer isn't the correct way.

 

The trouble is premade PvP is far different to pug PvP with just a healer or two, where you don't get guarded that often and don't get that much help when dps is on you, you heal for a normal amount and do in fact die in nearly every WZ.

 

While healing/healers may be op in certain circumstances, in others they are not that bad at all, the nerfs will hurt in pugs and were not really needed as much there.

 

I strongly dislike SCC getting touched, it was fine, not just one nerf, three nerfs and field triage.

 

Trauma probe I will not longer waste a skill point or ammo on, I only used it because it was free and because you could move it around often depending upon who needed it most at the time, not now.

 

I also refuse to use Hammer shot to heal, it's more trouble than it's worth, even doubling the heal amount wouldnt be enough to make me use it that often.

 

Some nerfs you can live with like 3% less crit, losing trauma prob, the residue nerf etc, but others like Field triage and SCC are annoying

 

Losing some radius on Mortar Volley is also frustrating, more so when we have had to live with the delay problems for so long.

 

Just seems that any buffs/fixes were more than counted by nerfs, Mortar Volley losing radius, nerfs to heals and damage reduction stronger than the buff the aoe heal got, the weakest possible buff they could have done to it.

 

Also nothing back in return from a PvP view, like an escape ability/defensive stuff, the res wasn't that important to some. more a PvE thing and just equality with the other healers anyway, so more a fix than a buff.

Edited April 1, 2012 by LillyWhiteS

[Doomsdaycomes]

Agree! Solution is to buff those underpowered specs to bring them in line.

 

That would lead to inflation, just like printing more money. First you buff one class, then someone else is "under-powered" so you buff them. Then the bosses are to easy, buff them... and the cycle continues. Balancing means buff some, nerf others.

 

I play a BH Merc healer, the Imperial counterpart to the Commando. I think the healing nerfs were pretty heavy handed except... That most of what is being nerfed... you can place skill points in to reduce cooldowns or increase healing.

 

 

I think the Dev's kept this in mind to avoid hybrid dps/healers. On my server, I've faced teams of 6 dps/heals commando's and it's aggravating. Tracer/Grav round spam (which stacks with other tracer/Grav round debuffs I think, could be wrong) and anytime you nearly kill one, oh no! Here comes decent heals from 5 other "dps" commandos.

 

Do I think nerfs were a little heavy handed? Yep. Do I think it will "kill" the class? Nope. It will be way more challenging, require people to adapt and form new strategies... maybe bring in other classes into your 6 commando squads? We'll see what the future holds... me, I'm gonna be optimistic and keep on playing my BH healer (And small shock, I have *friends* that will raid with me no matter what, so thank you I'll keep my raid spot.)

 

Two more small things:

 

Rebalancing is both pvp and pve, because let's face it, it's true some asses will only run with "The perfect raid team." THis time around, merc/commandos got hit hard, so maybe there is something to all the Q.Q'ing. I don't think it's gonna be as bad as ya think.

 

Second, Maurader does take a certian level of "skill" to be effective, and that level is a bit higher than to be an "effective" commando. If you think that's not true... go play one. :-) That being said, unfotunately the buff to mauraders/juggs is going to make those that truely are skilled at that class... well OP. Expect a reactionary nerf soon.

 

Thanks Bioware for all your hard work, you're not quite there, but you're trying and there are alot of us in the community supporting you, we're just not as vocal as the QQ'ers and the crybabies.

Edited April 1, 2012 by Doomsdaycomes

[Kissakias]

The two issues I have are:

 

Mortar Volley range reduction. Why? what useful purpose does this serve? its supposed to be an AOE and in the PVE game a lot of the mobs are already spaced too far apart for it to effect all of them, so now in a group of 3 you'll get to hit 1, 2 if they are really close together. It's not an advantage in PvP because every sees that big ol targetting circle and moves away. Stupid nerf.

 

Grav Round Spam. Reducing the damage of grave round isnt going to reduce its spam, and thats what they claim they are doing this for. It will still be spammed because it has no cooldown and it buffs HiB and Demolition. Failed Nerf.

 

devs are idiots.

 

sad but true

[sensiblepoast]

you can be damned gauranteed that I will be spamming GR at least 5 times to get my 5% damage reduction up, since you felt the need to reduce that.

 

If my sub is still active when 1.2 hits I plan to undust my commando and only spam GR just to see how many people I can annoy.

[xxIncubixx]

This game is a lost cause if all of the proposed changes are actually implemented. It's almost as if the Bioware development team is a bunch of children who are making rash decisions based on bias. What I mean by this is, and this is my personal opinion:

 

1. Bioware buffs a class that needs no buffs (Sentinel/Marauder). A lot of developers must play this class.

 

2. Bioware leaves the Assassin/Shadow classes un-nerfed. Again, bias.

 

3. Bioware completely destroys the BH/Commando in both healing and damage. These two classes are not on-par with Sages/Sorcerers IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM.

 

4. Bioware refuses to learn from bigger, better games and poorer, failed games.

 

5. Bioware does not care about its customers, at least not all of them, when is the last time you saw any of these Bioware reps post here? Failures.

 

6. Bioware will lose many customers due to their poor, uninformed decisions. Some of you may say "good, let the bads quit, WE WILL PRESS ON LIKE REAL STUDS!!" Oh yeah? Who are you going to play with? Look at the server populations if you need an explanation.

 

 

Bioware has nerfed the classes that are not even the most played, why? Because some really really bad Sentinel cried about getting hit by Tracer Missile but was too lazy to go over there and destroy that merc 1v1? Yeah, getting my Sentinel more gear before I cancel, or maybe I'll keep playing just and walk on to any ranked WZ team since there's no way in hell any team worth a s h i t will want a fully geared BM Commando for heals or dps. So sad.

 

u do know the forums are a really really really small portion of the community... usualy forums are just to let people think they are interacting but in reality what u write here doesnt matter. never did in any game lol

[Mystys]

u do know the forums are a really really really small portion of the community... usualy forums are just to let people think they are interacting but in reality what u write here doesnt matter. never did in any game lol

 

Made me chuckle because its true. For anyone who thinks that bh dps got nerfed, you haven't actually read the notes. Tracer missile got a slight nerf sure, but wait for it, unload procs are going to be through the roof, and holy ****, heatseeker got a 10% dmg boost!!! So, if anything, arsenal is going to get a slight pve buff. durp. Know your **** before you post garbage.

[TUXs]

When I look at the gunnery tree, and Grav Round specifically, it appears to me that this skill was designed to be spammed. Just look at the facts, 0 cool down, and Charged Barrier. When both points are put into Charged Barrier, Grav Round has a 100% chance to provde (currently) 2% damange reduction, stacks up to 5 times (10% total when maxed). So why wouldn't a Gunnery spec want to spam Grav Round unitl they can utilize the maximum amount of defense out of their spec (especially at lower levels when you don't have your Full Auto buffed or Demo Round)? Personaly, if I am unharrassed, I will spam at least 3 times (HIB used after first GR), and be satisfied w/ the 6% damage reduction before I utilize the rest of my damage assortment. Honestly it's not beneficial to just sit and spam it soley, you have to utilize the rest of your tools, but it's at least gaurantueed to be spammed by me to the point that I can get the maximum amount of defense out of it. By the time I get approached, I should have a nice damage reduction in place, and the ability to pop my Reactive Shield for greater survivability.

 

Considering this, the current 1.2 Command changes to Gunnery do not fix the problem. To it is making it worse. Yes, overall the ability will have a 10% reduction in damage... ok. And Charged Barrier now is being nerfed to only provide 1% damage reduction stackable up to 5 times (5% total). With Muzzle Fluting (which I have already anyways), I will still have the same Grav Round cast time, but you can be damned gauranteed that I will be spamming GR at least 5 times to get my 5% damage reduction up, since you felt the need to reduce that. Before I would roll w/ 2 or 3 stack for 4-6% dam reduction, now I have to spam it more to get the same results. NOT A FIX.

 

To me, a fix would be to change they way Charged Barrier works and just let us spec into a 5% or 10% damage reduction as an inherent skill. That right there would reduce the "need" for me to spam it. Or use it more than once w/in a specific period of time.

 

This is exactly the problem. Bioware designed Gunnery around Grav Spam. Now that it's being spammed, it's an issue?! Instead of moving skills to something like Hammer Shot, to encourage some low DPS mobile attacks, EVERYTHING STILL hinges on our Grav Round stacks. It's moronic.

 

This change does NOTHING to encourage a better rotation. It's the SAME rotation.

[Empha]

No,

 

Snipers are way too overpowered. A lvl 20 sniper against a lvl 40 commando wins all the time. There is no L2P about it; they just deal too much damage per shot. I don't see the patch notes addressing this issue. I might reroll sniper and chase anyone who tells me that i'm wrong.

 

If bioware read our posts they certainly neglect to reply to them. Nothing posted seems to make a difference. Any manager will tell you that you listen to your customers and your staff, if they feel neglected they be unhappy and leave you. Hello Bioware!

 

Please, you cant compare two classes in PvP unless they are level 50.

 

And no. I'm not, and I dont think that anyone is, satisfied with 1.2. But, as someone at the first page said: The forums is full of QQers.

 

And btw, I'm more worried 'bout the fifth sequent concealment operative nerf

[RuQu]

 

And btw, I'm more worried 'bout the fifth sequent concealment operative nerf

 

Why would this concern you? I'm sure that whatever internal testing procedures they had in place that missed that their 4 previous nerfs still didn't meet their "performance targets" have been updated before they undertook such a massive single patch nerf to Sage and Commando healing.

[Marqhill]

That would lead to inflation, just like printing more money. First you buff one class, then someone else is "under-powered" so you buff them. Then the bosses are to easy, buff them... and the cycle continues. Balancing means buff some, nerf others.

 

I play a BH Merc healer, the Imperial counterpart to the Commando. I think the healing nerfs were pretty heavy handed except... That most of what is being nerfed... you can place skill points in to reduce cooldowns or increase healing.

 

 

I think the Dev's kept this in mind to avoid hybrid dps/healers. On my server, I've faced teams of 6 dps/heals commando's and it's aggravating. Tracer/Grav round spam (which stacks with other tracer/Grav round debuffs I think, could be wrong) and anytime you nearly kill one, oh no! Here comes decent heals from 5 other "dps" commandos.

 

Do I think nerfs were a little heavy handed? Yep. Do I think it will "kill" the class? Nope. It will be way more challenging, require people to adapt and form new strategies... maybe bring in other classes into your 6 commando squads? We'll see what the future holds... me, I'm gonna be optimistic and keep on playing my BH healer (And small shock, I have *friends* that will raid with me no matter what, so thank you I'll keep my raid spot.)

 

Two more small things:

 

Rebalancing is both pvp and pve, because let's face it, it's true some asses will only run with "The perfect raid team." THis time around, merc/commandos got hit hard, so maybe there is something to all the Q.Q'ing. I don't think it's gonna be as bad as ya think.

 

Second, Maurader does take a certian level of "skill" to be effective, and that level is a bit higher than to be an "effective" commando. If you think that's not true... go play one. :-) That being said, unfotunately the buff to mauraders/juggs is going to make those that truely are skilled at that class... well OP. Expect a reactionary nerf soon.

 

Thanks Bioware for all your hard work, you're not quite there, but you're trying and there are alot of us in the community supporting you, we're just not as vocal as the QQ'ers and the crybabies.

 

This is EXACTLY the problem. The unkillable Bounty Hunter/Commando Healer/DPS hybrid is what they are trying to stop. I don't know the exact spec but I run into them all the damn tim. They can heal to the point where you can do literally 0 damage to them that they can't single target heal through and then they hit you with tracer missile/grav round. I'm a DPS guardian currently so a solo fight between myself and this hybrid lasts for a million years. But the inevitability of the outcome is what makes it broken. You actually CAN'T kill them and they WILL kill you. God forbid you have to play against a team of them. They will focus each player down and then any time you nearly kill one of them they will focus heal that person and kill whoever is trying to kill them. It was COMPLETELY broken and unintended and I'm glad it's going to be unavailable in 1.2.

 

I actually played a team that was 7 self healing missile spamming bounty hunters and an operative healer. It was the most obnoxious game I've ever played in my life. We couldn't kill ANY of them and any time we came within range of them we would get murdered by 5 - 7 tracer missiles. We literally couldn't kill anyone on that team unless we managed to get the entire team focusing a single target and if someone could CC the operative healer. We managed to win the game because they played for pure kills while we played for the objectives but we still got our ASSES handed to us. Each player on their team had double our number of kills a third the number of deaths per player.

 

With ranked war zones coming up and 8 man premades coming up this build can't be allowed to exist. Period.

 

From the trooper friends that I have in my Guild apparently troopers lose damage on Grav round but are buffed in other areas. So your overall DPS shouldn't be affected. It just promotes using other abilities instead of using JUST grav round. I fully understand that Grav round is an ability that is intended to be spammed. The problem wasn't that troopers were spamming an ability. The problem was that a trooper could spam a single ability and still be incredibly dangerous. If I went out as a Guardian and tried to spam one ability I would get laughed off the server.

 

So yeah, continue to spam Grav round. That's what it's for. But now you'll be using other different abilities that also got better. That will make you a better player.

[Raeln]

This is EXACTLY the problem. The unkillable Bounty Hunter/Commando Healer/DPS hybrid is what they are trying to stop. I don't know the exact spec but I run into them all the damn tim. They can heal to the point where you can do literally 0 damage to them that they can't single target heal through and then they hit you with tracer missile/grav round. I'm a DPS guardian currently so a solo fight between myself and this hybrid lasts for a million years. But the inevitability of the outcome is what makes it broken. You actually CAN'T kill them and they WILL kill you. God forbid you have to play against a team of them. They will focus each player down and then any time you nearly kill one of them they will focus heal that person and kill whoever is trying to kill them. It was COMPLETELY broken and unintended and I'm glad it's going to be unavailable in 1.2.

 

So where was the rest of the team during your epic, million year long battle?

 

I actually played a team that was 7 self healing missile spamming bounty hunters and an operative healer. It was the most obnoxious game I've ever played in my life. We couldn't kill ANY of them and any time we came within range of them we would get murdered by 5 - 7 tracer missiles. We literally couldn't kill anyone on that team unless we managed to get the entire team focusing a single target and if someone could CC the operative healer. We managed to win the game because they played for pure kills while we played for the objectives but we still got our ASSES handed to us. Each player on their team had double our number of kills a third the number of deaths per player.

 

Wait a minute.

 

You mean the team of 8 healers began to die when you focused fire and used CC? You mean using tactics led to success?

 

Wait another minute, are you really in this thread - claiming that these builds are so powerful as to be invincible until you and your team started working together, using your abilities to focus fire and CC until you...

 

Won the match?

 

You mean you won the match and are still here trying to play the They Are Overpowered card?

 

With ranked war zones coming up and 8 man premades coming up this build can't be allowed to exist. Period.

 

From the trooper friends that I have in my Guild apparently troopers lose damage on Grav round but are buffed in other areas. So your overall DPS shouldn't be affected. It just promotes using other abilities instead of using JUST grav round. I fully understand that Grav round is an ability that is intended to be spammed. The problem wasn't that troopers were spamming an ability. The problem was that a trooper could spam a single ability and still be incredibly dangerous. If I went out as a Guardian and tried to spam one ability I would get laughed off the server.

 

So yeah, continue to spam Grav round. That's what it's for. But now you'll be using other different abilities that also got better. That will make you a better player.

 

I wouldn't mind having a more complex rotation but as it is, I don't do more than two grav round back to back at any one time. It's our base attack.

 

I find it enjoyable, not because it's simple, but because I don't have to watch these tiny little buff/debuff icon for procs outside of Curtain of Fire. That was one aspect that I didn't like on my Sage DPS.

 

It must be just a PvP thing to spam Grav round ad infinitum because in PvE, I hit 2 grav rounds, then demo round, full auto, 2 grav round, full auto, 1 grav round, HiB - while mixing in hammer shot as needed for ammo regen.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Raeln

[Marqhill]

So where was the rest of the team during your epic, million year long battle?

 

 

Occasionally in a war zone you WILL run into a situation where you are fighting alone against another player individually. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. It has happened to you like it's happened to everyone.

 

Wait a minute.

 

You mean the team of 8 healers began to die when you focused fire and used CC? You mean using tactics led to success?

 

Wait another minute, are you really in this thread - claiming that these builds are so powerful as to be invincible until you and your team started working together, using your abilities to focus fire and CC until you...

 

Won the match?

 

You mean you won the match and are still here trying to play the They Are Overpowered card?

 

It was not a team of healers. 7 of them were not healers. They were self healing hybrid DPS/Healers. It's a build that specifically focuses on self healing and using a single attack (Grav Round/Tracer Missile) to do just enough damage so that you can eventually kill your attacker but they CANNOT kill you individually or if you're receiving healing then you effectively cannot be killed. If it was a team of 8 actual healers then there would have been no issue as they would have had ridiculous healing output and we would have had ridiculous damage output and no one would have died. The hybrid build specifically focuses on single target self healing while spamming tracer missile. And yes we won because the enemy team made no attempt for the objectives and decided to stand around spamming tracer missiles. We got our asses handed to us in pretty much every stat there is to rate but we won because they were too busy kicking the crap out of us an forgot to play the game. The only people we killed were when we could stun the other people on the team and then THE ENTIRE TEAM focused down a single self healing target. Several people on the other team didn't die at all.

 

I wouldn't mind having a more complex rotation but as it is, I don't do more than two grav round back to back at any one time. It's our base attack.

 

I find it enjoyable, not because it's simple, but because I don't have to watch these tiny little buff/debuff icon for procs outside of Curtain of Fire. That was one aspect that I didn't like on my Sage DPS.

 

It must be just a PvP thing to spam Grav round ad infinitum because in PvE, I hit 2 grav rounds, then demo round, full auto, 2 grav round, full auto, 1 grav round, HiB - while mixing in hammer shot as needed for ammo regen.

 

It is exactly a PvP thing. I PvP and don't really PvE more than I really feel like I have to. One of the people who I most commonly PvP with is a Battle Master level Commando and he can grav round a target literally to death in very short order. If you're a sorc don't come anywhere near him because you'll go from full health to nothing in 4 grav rounds if he has his power adrenal active. It's not pretty.

 

I don't get bothered by the fact that you guys can spam Grav Round/Tracer Missile. What bothers me is the fact that currently it's pretty much the only attack you need to use.

[Raeln]

Occasionally in a war zone you WILL run into a situation where you are fighting alone against another player individually. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. It has happened to you like it's happened to everyone.

 

I think it was hyperbole. There are no solo warzones and there is absolutely no reason for a "lone ranger hero" to be out trying to 1v1 someone for what is exaggerated to be "an epic, million year long battle".

 

This is no different than in other MMOs - the player is on a team. Bring the team. While yes, occasionally 1v1 happens - it should never be for very long because the TEAM should be communicating and sending backup to support the "lone ranger hero".

 

Well, that is what successful teams do anyway.

 

It was not a team of healers. 7 of them were not healers. They were self healing hybrid DPS/Healers. It's a build that specifically focuses on self healing and using a single attack (Grav Round/Tracer Missile) to do just enough damage so that you can eventually kill your attacker but they CANNOT kill you individually or if you're receiving healing then you effectively cannot be killed. If it was a team of 8 actual healers then there would have been no issue as they would have had ridiculous healing output and we would have had ridiculous damage output and no one would have died. The hybrid build specifically focuses on single target self healing while spamming tracer missile. And yes we won because the enemy team made no attempt for the objectives and decided to stand around spamming tracer missiles. We got our asses handed to us in pretty much every stat there is to rate but we won because they were too busy kicking the crap out of us an forgot to play the game. The only people we killed were when we could stun the other people on the team and then THE ENTIRE TEAM focused down a single self healing target. Several people on the other team didn't die at all.

 

Commando medics are either healers or they are not. Hybrid healing builds are still healing builds - they just are not "pure" healers. Whether or not the hybrid builds need broken is another discussion altogether but as long as MMO game developers insist on going the route of WoW's tri-tree talent system, hybrid builds must be possible to some degree or another.

 

Applying pressure to one or a few team members while rotating CC on the others should aggravate them enough to be successful. In the end, proper team-based tactics would have won the day no matter what their specs were if your story is true because they were not playing to win - they were playing for kills.

 

Who knows how many warzones they steamrolled because we all know most players in Warzones wouldn't know strategy if it came up and slapped them across the face. They want to spam DPS abilities on the first autotarget and then forum cry when they can't kill someone that has a heal spell - nevermind that they never applied interrupts, CC and focus fire to the equation. That requires too much effort.

 

It is exactly a PvP thing. I PvP and don't really PvE more than I really feel like I have to. One of the people who I most commonly PvP with is a Battle Master level Commando and he can grav round a target literally to death in very short order. If you're a sorc don't come anywhere near him because you'll go from full health to nothing in 4 grav rounds if he has his power adrenal active. It's not pretty.

 

I don't get bothered by the fact that you guys can spam Grav Round/Tracer Missile. What bothers me is the fact that currently it's pretty much the only attack you need to use.

 

Personally, I think PvP in an MMO is largely a waste of time. Too many variables to balance around; yet, apparently this is another MMO where PvP "balance" is going to affect my PvE enjoyment.

 

Yay.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Raeln

[SvnStrSlm]

I havent had a chance to try out the new changes but for PVE i do think it is rediculous how i seem to never run out of ammo while healing. It will be interesting to see how the new cost affect me in longer fights but over all i dont think its that bad. too many qq about pvp and forget the game needs to be balanced as a whole. oh by the way i have a commando becuase i felt they were OP so i figured it be and easy alt to level. i was right.

[TUXs]

Not at all.

[Torbernite]

Seems alright to me. I had a memorable pug Heroic recently with all troopers, a veritable TROOPER HOEDOWN if you will, with 2 dps commandos a combat medic and a van and we rapidly bludgeoned through the Heroic with nary a hiccup. It sorta confirmed in my mind that troopers as a whole must have something right going for them for that to have been so quick and easy.

 

Maybe combat medics are underpowered but it was compensated for because vanguard tanks are so good and OP? Maybe the whole paradigm falls apart with the more difficult or less straightfoward content? Couldn't tell you, but that's my testimonial anecdotal evidence, anyways.

[GySgtKerr]

I find it rather funny, pretty much all the class forums are raging about the nerfs to one thing or another in 1.2, well, maybe not the sent/mrd. And we haven't heard a single thing from the devs in regards to that. All the dev tracker has been talking about is the "be a droid" mini-game.

[Keinhoran]

Still no dev respond in our thread!!!

But i would like to know the population distribution of classes after the patch. Because in my server it is usuall to have 8 out of 10 wzs dominated by sorcs and maras + a random bounty hunter.

Anyway it is a lost cause because they will implement the changes. But they will not keep them for more than 3 months. Then they will say about their metrics lead them to change again their stuff and propably destroy another class maybe.

I have seen the same mistakes from the same people in Warhammer. Unfortunately they havent learned anything.

This patch will hit them hard and they will undo the changes that implement now even as they claim they are testing them on PTS. But from what it seems it will be very late.

[Soltrooper]

I havent had a chance to try out the new changes but for PVE i do think it is ridiculous how i seem to never run out of ammo while healing. It will be interesting to see how the new cost affect me in longer fights but over all i dont think its that bad. too many qq about pvp and forget the game needs to be balanced as a whole. oh by the way i have a commando becuase i felt they were OP so i figured it be and easy alt to level. i was right.

 

I do think people need to change their train of thought about Commando Healing. The resource mechanism basically means we never want to dip below 2/3 ammo as it kills regen. With 12 ammo points there are only 13 different discreet states that aour ammo pool can be in. So guess what... the Commando Healer was effectively designed as a healer that should never run out of ammo while healing. Simply put, with regen getting lower the lower your resources are, the traditional healer design of managing resources and eventually running out doesn't work - as it is the regen itself that is effectively drawing you down not the heals.

 

So Commando instead was built around a sustained healing amount. The thing is to make it interesting, and to allow for skill, players need something to be able to shake this up. Prior to 1.2 this was the various tools that allowed for burst - the good Commandos could use them regularly to advantage. Post 1.2, the burst has been taken away, in terms of the bell curve, differences in skill level will not be as great. This makes it easy for developers to predict the heals available to an encounter, so it's great for tuning. However it removes choice and flexibility from players, making it boring. Post 1.2 you'll basically all be gearing the same way (away from Alacrity), using the same sequence for abilities and pretty much just using "burst" on CD as it's now comparatively small.

 

It is shocking design - character trees should not be retooled to make things easier for designers. Use your metrics, see what the spread of heals is for Commandos and tune Story, Hard and Nightmare modes to those numbers. Let people play to their ability. Post 1.2 we become healing companions who use their abilities in a robotic sequence that maintains ammo.

 

It all seems so easy to me... undo the % healing/resistance nerfs but ensure that buffs cannot stack (including the probe - get rid of its mana cost and just make it so it can't stack). Keep the ammo nerf on the other spells, but have Alacrity affect regen. This gives people choice in their gearing and play styles. Key some abilities to behave slightly differently to people that have a Trauma debuff on them if they need changing in PVP - you have a debuff there that you can use to tune all the abilities differently in the two environments if necessary.

 

I don't want to be overpowered, but I want to have to think. I'd like to have the ability to pull a bad situation back from the brink if I'm good enough, and I think that can all be part of good character design. Hitting an ordered sequence of buttons where the only choice is "Which mole do I whack", and all I need to do is follow encounter orders is just not engaging enough to keep me in this game as a healer. It just seems like a large step backwards from the current design. If anything in the current state of play, the encounters feel underpowered rather than the characters feeling overpowered.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Soltrooper

[RuQu]

It just seems like a large step backwards from the current design. If anything in the current state of play, the encounters feel underpowered rather than the characters feeling overpowered.

 

Excellent post. I felt this last part in particular needed emphasis.

[SWImara]

I'd have had little issue with the changes if all three of the Commando trees weren't hit at the same time. To a degree I expected the Combat Medic changes due to incessant PvP whines regarding healers not being 1v1able by DPS players without interrupts. I have to admit I didn't expect the changes to Gunnery, I knew the build had to be changed due to cries regarding Tracer Spammers... but I assumed they'd do something about either the build's mobility issues or lack of an interrupt. Instead we got pushed into more full autos and less grav rounds with the added bonus of kicking dirt in the face of charged bolts. What really got addressed here? Is the rotation really that much more "deep" and thoughtful? All of the talent tree still keys off of grav round, it just seems like a sloppy change.

[Kaisernick]

No,

 

Snipers are way too overpowered. A lvl 20 sniper against a lvl 40 commando wins all the time. There is no L2P about it; they just deal too much damage per shot. I don't see the patch notes addressing this issue. I might reroll sniper and chase anyone who tells me that i'm wrong.

 

If bioware read our posts they certainly neglect to reply to them. Nothing posted seems to make a difference. Any manager will tell you that you listen to your customers and your staff, if they feel neglected they be unhappy and leave you. Hello Bioware!

 

hah try a lvl 50 sniper against a lvl 50 commando i get burned 60% of the time.

[Kunari]

Unfortunately they reduced asault tree (in commando) dps as well. The changes in combat medic somehow i cant understand why they should be implemented

 

Gunnery is more back-loaded DPS now with the nerf to Grav & CB but greater CoF procs and boost to Demo. The nerf to survivability is annoying and I'm not sure why since it's not like we have that great of survivability now.

 

CM took a double-whammy I think and it seems like a bigger hit than Sage.

 

Assault got hit from the changes to Gunnery and it really needed a buff for Commandos as it's our weakest tree.

 

 

...Is the rotation really that much more "deep" and thoughtful? All of the talent tree still keys off of grav round, it just seems like a sloppy change.

 

Agreed, it's all still centered around Grav Round. They should not do the 10% nerf to CB since most of the buffs will proc off either CB or Grav. Grav has the added armor de-buff for the same ammo cost so why go CB if Grav is avail? By having CB do more damage it'd give you more reason to use it over Grav.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Kunari