Compromise Idea to "fix" Combat Medic

[Haydawgg]

While most of the changes are adaptable, these are why we now suck which all stem from ammo management:

 

1. Field Triage now reduces the cost of Medical Probe by 1 (down from 2).

 

This is a lot worse then it appears. Basically in the long hall combined with #2 below, I quickly dip into decreased ammo regen after a few heals. I believe this is attempt for us to pepper in hammer shot heals (free heal) in between our main heals however they did not buff hammer shot. As I experienced in the new op, I cannot pepper in hammer shot heals to keep me in good ammo regen zone or people start becoming dead. If I don't hammer shot, I quickly become ammo starved and people ...become dead.

 

2. Supercharge Cells now restores 1 Energy Cell (down from 2) when used and increases all damage and healing dealt by 5% (down from 10%). The shield applied by Kolto Bomb now reduces damage taken by 5% (down from 10%).

 

The main part of this nerf is that supercharge cells only restores 1 ammo instead of 2. While the other nerfs suck, they are manageable. This is also a huge nerf as I used it as a lesser "ammo regen potion". if I began to dip to lower ammo regen zones, this allowed me to get back into the higher without using my 2 min cd's.

 

So this got me thinking on how BW could offer a compromise. If BW wants us to use hammer shot, it NEEDS to be buffed. One of these could be working into the now lackluster talent tree:

 

1. Hammer crits have a X% chance to restore 1 ammo

 

2. Hammer shot crits grant you ammo regen as if you have a full ammo bar for X seconds

 

3. When hammer shot crits, you gain a charge stacking up to 3 times. Each stack reduces the cost of your AMP or MP by 1 ammo.

 

Any thoughts?

Edited April 15, 2012 by Haydawgg

[ImariKurumi]

I strongly oppose towards buffing HS to mirror Scoundrel's Diagnostic Scan. Primarily because it will be useless in PvP. HS cant be cast on self, HS has green beam that will reveal our positions in PvP.

 

Besides, if BW does implement these changes then im afraid it beats the purpose of having 3 healer classes with different play styles. CM is probably gonna play out more or less like scoundrel.

 

Apologies if you meant to talk about PvE only.

 

But i strongly want to point out that balancing just for the sake of PvE is not a good direction to take imo. It has to be an all round buff useful to PvE and PvP.

[Agiri]

I strongly oppose towards buffing HS to mirror Scoundrel's Diagnostic Scan. Primarily because it will be useless in PvP. HS cant be cast on self, HS has green beam that will reveal our positions in PvP.

 

You know that you can... shoot people with Hammer Shot, right?

[Yakito]

I am so furious right now (in a Hard mode)

 

I will not agree to any compromises. Screw that! I want my class back!

[LillyWhiteS]

Didn't take a genius to know that the combination of increased damage through multiple sources and the huge nerfs, particularly to ammo regen, would result in the mess we have now.

 

More damage alone would result in more heals needed to be put out and that alone would effect the ammo/heat situation, add the nerfs and the result was always going to be healers running on empty and people dieing too fast.

 

Warnings were given about it and ignored.....

 

DPS whiners got what they wanted though, a dps fotm game and now unblanced even more.

 

PS: Most Combat Medics know not to use hammer shot to heal in PvP, they can buff it all they want, I still would rarely use it

 

Making Combat Medics have to use that ( and they would have known it would be needed with the dps buffs and healer nerfs ) is just another example of Bioware not understanding it's player base, they should of known hammer shot is a very unpopular heal method in PvP due to it being very very weak and also painting a sign above your head, unbelievable how clueless they have been.

Edited April 15, 2012 by LillyWhiteS

[ImariKurumi]

You know that you can... shoot people with Hammer Shot, right?

 

Yes, but as I pointed out, when you do fire at your party members, the green beam is a dead give away in PvP, everyone will home in on you. If BW make it so that you can shoot yourself, at least its semi useful in regenerating ammo. You dont reveal your location to enemies + you can regen ammo.

Edited April 15, 2012 by ImariKurumi

[Jay_Stocker]

Didn't take a genius to know that the combination of increased damage through multiple sources and the huge nerfs, particularly to ammo regen, would result in the mess we have now.

 

 

if only the developers thought correctly like you do, we wouldnt be in this mess. but we have **** developers in this game so its what ive come to expect

[SpaniardInfinity]

Yes, but as I pointed out, when you do fire at your party members, the green beam is a dead give away in PvP, everyone will home in on you. If BW make it so that you can shoot yourself, at least its semi useful in regenerating ammo. You dont reveal your location to enemies + you can regen ammo.

 

This has always been debatable to me, honestly. On my server, the regular healers are pretty well-known. If you happen to find a team that doesn't know you're a healer, I've very rarely found that it nets me any additional attackers pre or post 1.2. With that said, I'd love for them to change the animation. Either fade it out or make it a much closer mirror of the Bounty Hunter equivalent (definition of "mirror"). I also like the idea of integrating Hammershot into our rotation more if it was more beneficial, which is my point:

 

My biggest complaint about the changes in 1.2. You can make all the changes you want to the class, if at the same time you are encouraging a valuable alternative. Playing the devil's advocate, let's just say that maybe Combat Medic was too dependent on Field Triage procs. The logical question to ask at that point would be WHY are they so dependent on those procs?

 

Is it overpowered, such as if the consequences of using the ability are negligible compared to the benefits (ex: if Medical Probe was free, 1 second cast time, no CD, and was our biggest heal)? Or is it significantly more valuable than the other choices? More importantly: what are those other choices, and in what situations can you argue one option is better than another? If you can't name other choices, or can't identify enough situations where they are superior to the mechanic you want to discourage, you've found the source of the imbalance.

 

The problem with the nerfs to Combat Medic - and strikingly similar to Gunnery - is Bioware went and nerfed our most relied on heal without considering WHY we rely on it so much. We have no other choice but to use it, and those are the least acceptable nerfs. Give us a reason to use something else and encourage it, don't punish us for using our only viable method of healing and expect anything to change.

Edited April 16, 2012 by SpaniardInfinity

[Arzoo]

Gunnery worked out OK. Grav round was already our worst attack, and they DID give us better odds of full auto being available in its place.

 

The changes to CM medic would be like nerfing grav round 50% and then nerfing full auto along with it.

[Haydawgg]

Can we keep this on topic please

[ImariKurumi]

@SpaniardInfinity Well said bro... Couldnt agree more.

 

@OP I dont really like us copying Scoundrel's DS really, i might as well just play Scoundrel Sawbones. Just my personal preferences no offense.

 

But i have to say if we're having the Scoundrel mirror for our HS and they fix the stupid green beam, it might be a bit OP, because it can be casted on the move. There was a discussion similar to this in Sawbones thread.

[redfield]

 

1. Hammer crits have a X% chance to restore 1 ammo

 

2. Hammer shot crits grant you ammo regen as if you have a full ammo bar for X seconds

 

3. When hammer shot crits, you gain a charge stacking up to 3 times. Each stack reduces the cost of your AMP or MP by 1 ammo.

 

Any thoughts?

 

I love all these....we get slapped in the face, kicked in the nads and thrown to the curb. These would make me feel a bit better.

ALTHOUGH...

The big beam that says "Hey Im a healer, come kill me" still sucks (I'll take the annoying Merc sound from their attack to eliminate the beam)

Edited April 17, 2012 by redfield

[SpaniardInfinity]

 

1. Hammer crits have a X% chance to restore 1 ammo

 

2. Hammer shot crits grant you ammo regen as if you have a full ammo bar for X seconds

 

3. When hammer shot crits, you gain a charge stacking up to 3 times. Each stack reduces the cost of your AMP or MP by 1 ammo.

 

Any thoughts?

 

To continue the conversation here, having thought about it myself:

 

1) I like this idea, but would like to say it probably needs a time restriction on it (ie. x% chance to restore ammo, can only occur once every y seconds). If the X is sufficiently low it might not matter, but I know with how often I see Hammershot crit I'd probably be in a very good ammo state without some restriction.

2) Again, a clever idea, but Hammershot crits too often in my opinion. Having a x% chance to increase regeneration rate, however, seems like a worthy compromise to me.

3) This is an interesting idea, and I think having a building stack from Hammershot would be very interesting. An idea I had to build on it is have it stack on crits, and then once 3 stacks have been built, the stack clears and generates 1 ammo. A time restriction would probably be necessary here as well.