1.2 First impressions (Commando)

[LillyWhiteS]

.No godmode healers> yea im saying it, before a healer could run with a gaurd into a full group of ppl as CM and keep up easy. Im talking 2 ppl against a full wz group. I saw this happen many times and its bs imo. Not gonna happen now, u gotta heal the targets that need it and watch ammo as u do it. I dont play a CM but i saw the stupid crap that BH medics pulled with a gaurd/ hybird spec.

 

Im assault spec commando and the damage is great. Stuff goes off faster, more rotations

 

Another dps complaining about healers, whats new...

 

lol at godmode, try being a healer in solo queues, where you DON'T get guarded that often, you DON'T get protected that often, with little help when dps is all over you.

 

I was one of the highest healing Medics on Swiftsure, but that doesn't stop me dieing multiple times when solo queing and coming up against a premade who knew what they were doing, even had the odd game where I hit double figure deaths when marked and little to no help.

 

Point is when you solo queue, you are not op, solo and premade play is VERY different, if it's ok for people to use premade play as a reason for nerfs, it's ok to use the other end of the scale to counter and balance the arguments.

 

Sure you are harder to kill in premades, but that is because of others, not your class being too strong, not everyone has the benefit of great teammates who will do whatever they can to keep you alive.

 

You don't have to put all the nerfs just on healers, could have been spread out more like the guard ratio, drop to 40/60 or 35/65 or whatever, but the expertise increasing damage by so much now, already would have meant more healing was needed, the nerfs have taken it too far.

 

In solo queues, you do die just about every game, you do less healing and you don't feel op, but hey let's stuff those that solo queue because when you get guards you can't be taken down quickly enough as far as dps in concerened and we can't have that right ...

 

PS: I did do some premades, but with the combination of them hardly logging on anymore and the server transfer coming up, meaning it's pointless wasting a guilds time knowing you will leave, means solo play for me.

 

PPS: If a full WZ can't take down a Medic and a guard, that's just bad play...

 

I have had times where two people couldn't take me down, kept them at bay for over 3 mins until the clock ran out, yet have had others when one person shut me down with CC and I couldn't escape because they also had abilities to stop that and result was death, we have no esacpe ability at all.

 

If one person who is equally geared and roughly the same skill can kill you, then an entire WZ ahould be able to do it, guard or no guard.

 

Nerfs will hit solo players harder than they will others.

 

Having experienced leveling a Medic, looking at the changes I was thinking it would be like playing a lower level Medic again, where ammo was a problem without field triage and survivability was low, seems that my fears were justified going by comments I have read.

 

I have retired my Medic a few weeks back and eventually unsubbed myself and have been leveling some alts and doing class stories until my time ran out, however the nerfs were not the main reason it has to be said, just the final straw, I already was getting bored of PvP just consisting of Warzones, no World PvP, big scale stuff with forts etc the main reason.

 

The nerfs just killed the chances I would change my mind after 1.2 hit...

Edited April 14, 2012 by LillyWhiteS

[SeloDaoC]

the op healers are still there. they wear cowboy hats and can stealth

[SpaniardInfinity]

So with some good playtime since 1.2, I feel confident in saying the following:

 

Note: This is based on a player in 4/5 Rakata (missing Chest and 1 Implant) and Valor 78 with full BM. Most of my PvE experience has been in the new op on STORY difficulty and the new FP on HARD difficulty; and my PvP experience has been a mix of pre-mades with my guild and solo grouping.

 

PVE

• Ammo management is tighter now. I find myself watching my ammo more than I do the healthbars of teammates.
  
• Is it possible for something to be more than mandatory? If so, the use of Hammershot whenever possible absolutely qualifies for "more than mandatory".
  
• I found a strategy for keeping ammo up by quickly building Supercharge for the 1 free ammo it generates. The faster you build it, the sooner you get more ammo. So far, my rule of thumb has been the less time Supercharge Cells is up the better. I'm still trying to find a rotation that has a very nice rythym to it, but clicking off Supercharge manually is admittedly uncomfortable to work with. I am looking for an alternative.
  
• Field Aid, talented to heal, is a godsend. There is almost no reason not to use it to cleanse a DoT or effect, because it will be significantly more ammo efficient than trying to heal through it.
  
• I have been experimenting with a new build EXLUDING Trauma Probe. So far, I haven't really had a situation where I thought to myself "damn, I wish I had Trauma Probe". With that said, there are times during encounters where you can catch up on healing. However, these windows of opportunity only exist if your team observes the mechanics of the fight and aren't expecting healers to carry them. Every mistake pushes those windows closed by another inch until it shuts entirely. This is true for all healing, but I feel it is most apparent with Trauma Probe.
  
• I am MUCH more defensive of my Field Traige proc. Before, I'd spend it almost as soon as the GCD expired after AMP. Now, I save it for as long as possible. This kind of artificial inhibition has also been keeping my ammo down, but also suppresses any HPS (since I only use weak heals when protecting the proc). Actually protecting it, however, is very difficult in high-damage phases. It would also be substantially more difficult for a player that was having difficulty managing ammo before 1.2, becuase there is no alternative.
  

 

Verdict: Real-time ammo management is tighter, but from my experiences so far, is manageable. This is good news, despite the changes.

 

PVP

• Healing bonus has remained more or less unchanged in stock BM before and after 1.2 (Before I had 10.98%, now I have 11.71%). What has changed is that damage scales MUCH higher. In my stock gear, damage is hitting for 21.27%. That is nearly double what is was before, and boy do you feel it.
  
• I have found that I am coincidentally more ammo efficient post 1.2 because people die so fast. Ammo efficiency doesn't really matter over short time intervals because efficiency is for long-term healing! I don't heal players with less than 30% HP. There is no saving them anymore. Even if I burn my whole resource to heal, it is yet to actually save their life.
  
• The truly sad thing is, in post 1.2 mindless DPS is greater than smart HPS. The difficulty in getting kills is so incredibly low compared to the difficulty required to keep players alive 1.2.
  
• I cannot fathom why any sane healer - who wants to stay that way - would even risk clicking on that group solo button. Find a player you trust (I highly recommend a tank), group with them, and stay by their side. You're going to need it if you want to stay alive longer than 10 seconds.
  

 

VERDICT. Needs further observation. With a dedicated tank (Vanguard) and a pre-made, healing was manageable if the person attacking me was focused down ASAP. My effectiveness dropped to pretty much nothing when no one was paying attention to protecting the healers. I discourage any healer who wants to stick to the role from grouping solo. It isn't worth the risk.

Edited April 14, 2012 by SpaniardInfinity

[Eillack]

Guess I'll stict to my new alt for a bit until commando gets a true fix :/

[SgtRock]

So the reduction to healing *particularly when not specced for healing* is painful enough. Couple that with the damage nerf - which affects my WHOLE rotation - as a gunnery commando and the effect is ultimatley exponential.

 

It's a crying shame they did this. I used to have just enough utility to make PvP really fun and competitive. Now... I guess I'm done with PvP. Since that is my end-game activity of choice... well the outlook for continued patronage is looking bleak.

 

Sad too; PvP used to be a blast in this game. It really blows chunks right now.

[ImariKurumi]

No godmode healers> yea im saying it, before a healer could run with a gaurd into a full group of ppl as CM and keep up easy. Im talking 2 ppl against a full wz group. I saw this happen many times and its bs imo. Not gonna happen now, u gotta heal the targets that need it and watch ammo as u do it. I dont play a CM but i saw the stupid crap that BH medics pulled with a gaurd/ hybird spec.

 

We can only pull that off with bad players. The reason you can duo an entire WZ group is because your enemies are very bad players.

 

Interrupt is rampant in Swtor but many dont fully utilize it. Not only interrupts, channeled stuns, stuns and other CCs are rampant too, just that people dont know how to use them. Many are playing this like WoW where you blow all your CDs. Unfortunately this is not WoW, strategy and tactics play a big part.

 

CM is easy to lock down even with guard, and our shield is worthless with all the many stuns and channeled CCs.

 

It was never the fault of us players or the fault of our Class that makes us seem OP. It has always been the fault of numerous bad players that make us OP.

Edited April 15, 2012 by ImariKurumi