First impressions of shadow tank nerf?

[Thasri]

All I know is last night I got face rolled but just about every class except Snipers. Monday I was doing very well in WZ's and Tuesday I'm getting killed in 3 sec. /shrug.....

[anstalt]

Tanked Toth and Zorn HM tonight on my shadow. I'm mainly DPS but also have a set of full rakata gear (minus ear which is BM). I only have 3 augmented pieces with absorb augments in them. Havent switch any mods or anything so its pretty much cookie cutter rakata.

 

Damage seemed fine.

 

Other tank was a Guardian who was fully augmented and better optimised for mods/enhancements. He took more damage than me on every fight and I beat him on damage too. Tonight was our first kill for HM Toth and Zorn so we were very happy!

 

So, on that very anecdotal evidence, it seemed fine. I did seem to be slightly more spikey than usual, but barely. So, given that I took less damage AND I was healing myself, I was still better than the guardian.

 

Haven't compared to vanguard yet, we don't have any highly geared vanguards in guild either so can't really compare to them either :S Basically, we'll be fine! If/when I get fully augmented I expect I'll take even less damage.

[WheresMyWhisky]

I tanked Toth and Zorn the other night and although i took a bit more damage was nothing unmanageable and I dod not feel useless compraed to the Guradina tank at all. In fact all it meant was I hasd to wake up and pay a bit more attention than pre 1.3 which i think was no bad thing.

 

Holding threat now is a bit of a joke no skill required at all but heh ho. Although the change to Slow time is awesome i would have settled for that with no increase in threat or at the most a smalll one.

 

Anway in short still totally viable as end game tanks and in the couple of PVP mathces i did as full tank spec (I mainly PVE and cant be arse respeccing) I also felt i was still fine

[Denchet]

Its still completely viable in PVE. Ran a full clear of HMEC tonight and had no problems tanking anything. Toth and Zorn were glitching like crazy (randomly wouldn't jump sometimes, sometimes the yellow circle for Baradium Heave would randomly switch to a different target then immediately turn blue, leaving us with an endless enrage). No wipes due to my survivability though, and we even one shot the other three bosses.

[Korrigan]

It's definitely a PvP nerf which negatively affects PvE. Smells like some Mythic guys got their hands deeper into SW:TOR now.

I came back to check out 1.3, but this will make my decision not to renew my subscription next month even easier, thanks for that.

Edited June 28, 2012 by Korrigan

[LuckyKnight]

I've been PVPing almost exclusively and while it's noticeable, I haven't really been dying any more than before 1.3. The biggest effect I've seen is that I can't 1v1 someone and kill them while still having 90%+ of my health still left.

[DarthOvertone]

My playtime has been limited for the past couple days since the Patch so I didn't get to really give my Shadow some run until last night. Didn't get to do a ton of PvP, but was able to get in about 10 WZs including one Rated.

 

Definitely noticed the armor nerf. That was glaringly obvious to me. I found myself adapting by blowing defensive cooldowns more often, doing less toe-to-toe fighting, and popping the WZ adrenal when needed. Adding some more endurance via Augments also helps to offset the change.

 

Didn't notice the self-healing nerf too much. Harnessed Shadows is certainly less, but is still worth having imo. Going to keep playing 31/0/10 for a week or so before trying some of the new hybrids for comparison.

[LuckyKnight]

I don't know. I think the healing nerf is worse, especially for 1v1 and 1v2 fights. Pre-nerf I could self-heal for around 4k every 20 seconds or so. Now its about half that. I'm noticing that more than I am taking 8% or so more damage due to the armor nerf.

[Aronite]

I played a pretty standard 31/0/10 for both Pvp and Pve pre 1.3. I wasnt in the rotation for our most recent ops night so I can't speak to ops post 1.3.

 

However in PVP i found TK wasn't worth the points anymore. Anyone worth their salt in pvp knows to interrupt a double bladed saber using TK. And since most classes have 2 or more ways to interupt it, I almost never get all 4 ticks in. Pre 1.3 that was a bummer, but wasn't a crisis, between it and my ambient healing I was tough, and could manage pretty decent sustained damage. However post 1.3 I just couldn't justify the top 5 points in the KC tree to make HS and TK worth it. There wasn't enough benefit to them. If i choose to fill those points out again ill be running with my guild in rateds with tank gear.

 

As it stands i'm running 23/1/17. The increased power from the trinket change plays a role, but overall I feel no tougher than your average dps, but my damage is excellent. How am I compared to how I was? Night and day, I fall apart in a stiff wind by comparison. But how am I compared to vanguards and guardians in similar gear/spec? Thats hard to say at this point. I feel like there will be across the board increases in survivability to counter the trinket change. Everyone of any class seems to be dying really fast in most WZ's.

[Xinika]

We got nerfed? Cough. Did. Not. Realize.:rolleyes::rolleyes: Edited June 28, 2012 by Xinika

[nagatamen]

So I was tanking HM Toth and Zorn last night and my usual healer commented that it felt easier to heal me. I don't know where that came from. The only things I've changed is I swapped some of my damage talents for 3 points of Endurance and I've added about 80-ish absorb rating via augments. Even on Zorn who pretty much ignores shield (and therefore ignores my absorb rating addition) the healer felt that I was easier to heal.

 

The healer was a scoundrel with a sage tossing out a heal on a rare occasion. I can't narrow down exactly why they feel that way. I may have been focusing a bit more on using my self heals when it was most beneficial, but I don't see it being drastically different then how I normally tanked it. For the record we weren't having much luck with the boss due to undergeared DPS but it was rare (1-2 times in 3 hours) for the tanks to die (the other tank was a guardian).

[Xinika]

It's definitely a PvP nerf which negatively affects PvE. Smells like some Mythic guys got their hands deeper into SW:TOR now.

I came back to check out 1.3, but this will make my decision not to renew my subscription next month even easier, thanks for that.

 

Actually it's a PvE nerf that affects PvP.

Just fyi.

[Aronite]

Actually it's a PvE nerf that affects PvP.

Just fyi.

This is the important part. The only justification for it I ever saw from the Dev's was almost solely PVE oriented.

[Xinika]

This is the important part. The only justification for it I ever saw from the Dev's was almost solely PVE oriented.

 

If they (which they are) allow Maras/Sents to run around as they are, w/o any nerfs in PvP, then why should the Shadow be solo'd out? It only makes sense it was because of PvE and also was confirmed by devs.

 

Much thanks pvers!

[Korrigan]

If they (which they are) allow Maras/Sents to run around as they are, w/o any nerfs in PvP, then why should the Shadow be solo'd out? It only makes sense it was because of PvE and also was confirmed by devs.

 

Much thanks pvers!

You don't believe that yourself, do you?

[Xinika]

You don't believe that yourself, do you?

 

Are you generating conspiracies against O'holy BW?

[DragonianJedi]

My only problem with the nerf is how they went about doing it.

 

Given the different stats that they could have nerfed to "fix" PvE tanking as they claimed was their aim, armor and self heals were not the best ones to choose as they are the only ones that are universally effective in PvP.

 

Shield/Absorb and Defense are useful against only a few specs in the PvP realm. Armor and Self Heals are effective against much more than that as they effectively mitigate many more sources of damage.

 

Because of what was nerfed I believe one of the following is true. (Not that it really matters.)

 

1) The aim really was PvE balancing and they just chose the worst aspects to nerf if this was their only focus. (Possible...though I still have more faith in BioWare than this.)

 

2) The aim was actually PvP balancing because they hit the most effective tank stats in PvP, leaving the other stats alone. (I'm thinking this is the real reason.)

 

3) The aim really was both aspects of the game but they didn't want all of the people who QQ'd about shadows in PvP to feel like they accomplished something. Doing so would merely be feeding an eternal fire and lead people to increase the QQ in the future. (Also plausible.)

 

-_-

 

The nerf is noticeable. But I can still solo heroic two mans and even the heroic four man in The Black Hole. My healer says I am a bit more "spiky" to heal, but it gives him a little more to do so he doesn't mind. We have yet to do anything serious, PvE wise since the patch though, so I haven't been able to fully test it.

 

I have no comment on PvP as the server my friends and I play on is dead now. >_>

[exodusdm]

Some of you people make my lul hard. The nerf wasn't even that bad.... Not to mention you hit consistently harder with the passive relics and augmented gear. My armor went down from 7K to 6K, BIG WHIFF! Our Combat Technique's healing may have been cut in half, and our Harnessed Shadows may have been nerfed by 4%, sure it affects our ability to survive a little bit, but we have so much utility and cc in the tank tree that it shouldn't matter. In the end, the new update has given us more sustained damage over a long period of time.

[DarthOvertone]

In the end, the new update has given us more sustained damage over a long period of time.

 

Not that I disagree with your general points about Tanking, but the new update gave every class more sustained damage over a long period of time. That change did not benefit Shadows in any unique way.

[Order-Sixty-Six]

Some of you people make my lul hard. The nerf wasn't even that bad.... Not to mention you hit consistently harder with the passive relics and augmented gear. My armor went down from 7K to 6K, BIG WHIFF! Our Combat Technique's healing may have been cut in half, and our Harnessed Shadows may have been nerfed by 4%, sure it affects our ability to survive a little bit, but we have so much utility and cc in the tank tree that it shouldn't matter. In the end, the new update has given us more sustained damage over a long period of time.

 

Yes but that consistently hitting harder you speak of isn't shadow specific, every class in the game gets this.

 

So here's how it is.

Their damage is higher.

Your defense is lower.

Your heals are lower.

 

They hit you for more than before, more often, and you can't heal yourself enough to compensate for the difference.

I'm fine with one of the two nerfs, but not both. Take away my defense but don't mess with my heals or take away my heals and leave my defense.

[Chikari]

I agree, they messed up the nerfs. Shadows already had lowest damage reduction from Armour anyway so they had self healing to compensate that but now there reduction is even less and almost no useful self healing....

 

You die faster now and don't have anything anymore to compensate. this both problem in pve and pvp.

[YaanaOhtar]

What so balance about PVE i wonder; lowest Defend; no skill to use when low hp; lowest attack. We're talking about normally class mission not group cause this wont effect group at all.

 

And pvp; seriously, we're lacking attack power and now we lack defensive power too ? while their attack power increase ? great.