Commandos ranked for utility against other classes

[Axien]

I recently wrote an article for Toroz.com.au that mathematically compares Commando utility against 14 other tank and dps builds and ranks them. Would love to mount a case for change based on metrics & numbers and looking for input and ideas on what could realistically be done to effectively balance our class.

 

Would also welcome any theory-crafters out there with suggestions and feedback on the maths - inaccuracies, improvements etc...

 

http://toroz.com.au/2012/07/the-third-edge-mercenarycommando-interrupts-utility/#comments

[Gyronamics]

As an Assault Commando I immediately examined the section marked Assault Commando.

 

Sez we have 0 ability to slow compared to Gunnery Commando which has (up to) a 3s 50% slow on Full Auto.

 

However when Assault's Plasma Cell procs (70% chance on a default attack (free), 16% per hit on every gun attack) it will slow a target for 6 seconds to 50% while burning them.

 

Also the knockback for BOTH classes applies a 50% slow - but ignored for Assault. Talenting in Gunnery merely provides a further knockback.

 

On that note your spreadsheet doesn't show the knockback being counted for Assault, just the ones for Gunnery.

 

 

Carrying on...

 

Adrenaline Rush - free 15% heal for both with talent in Assault to reduce CD - ignored for both specs

Kolto Recharge - 7% heal when Recharge Cells are used by Gunnery - ignored

Charged Barrier - 5% damage reduction created by casting Grav Rounds - ignored for Gunnery

 

Certain talents also reduce CD on utilities.

 

In short, Assault and Gunnery by your own rules are ranked higher than you've placed it.

 

 

There's a lot of stuff Commandos can do but it's mostly about surviving long battles, taking low damage and putting down sustained fire.

 

When it comes to saving themselves from burst damage (which is what pvp is all about) they suck.

 

1) Their shield is only a 25% damage reduction for 15 seconds, only a slight difference to heavy burst damage on you

 

2) Healing CD are all HoT, there is one "fast" 1.5s heal that can be used but casting when taking burst damage is never good.

 

So the only really useful defensive abilities Commandos bring are the CC, Knockback and Stun which is far from being something special.

 

 

Supporting fire is the game of Commandos. Aoe or Single target is all good but any kind of front line action is a question of skill being able to overcome poor front line abilities.

 

 

Anyway, listing utilities is one thing but deciding their value in a pvp environment is tricky.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Gyronamics

[ArchangelLBC]

The most important part of the article is the note that while Pyro PTs and Assault VGs are considered some of the most important classes in Ranked PVP, and yet by your ranking have the lowest utility.

 

 

What they have however is incredible burst which they have the tools to insure they can apply (Harpoon to get their enemies into range, followed by 100% proc 70%Slow to keep people from kiting them). Those tools are instant and allow the Assault Vanguards to keep moving. Also they have an interrupt to stop casted/channeled abilities being used on them.

 

Like us they have no real way to escape and since "Stance Dancing" is just not practical under combat situations their survivability isn't noticably greater than ours outside the aforementioned interrupt.

 

At the end of the day though it really is that ability to do their damage on the move and to keep people at the ideal range for them to do that damage.

 

They have another tree, Tactics, which does depend on more channeled abilities (Pulse Cannon features prominently in the tree). With only the one really channeled ability, they have an ability to stack buffs which makes it uninterruptable, and have an ability that makes them immune to CC for 8 seconds out of every 30, as well as having a slow from a prominent ability in the tree and an increase to movement speed so again they have the tools to do their damage and keep people in the range of their abilities and this is the INFERIOR tree for Vanguards

 

Assault Commandos, on the other hand have a knockback (which doesn't knock back far enough) with an attached slow to keep enemies at range. While it can be argued that for the purposes of proccing Ionic Accelerator Full Auto is relatively instant, Charged Bolts is not, requiring you to stand still for the entire cast (which is 2s unless it's talented to 1.5). Their knockback is also 4m less than Gunnery Spec, but this is mostly a nonissue outside of how close you need to be to the pits in Huttball or the void in voidstar to knock people off and out of the fight for awhile. If they are leapt to they lack even the ability to interrupt the few channeled/casted abilities other classes can bring to bear. They can't keep the enemy at range, and can't make sure their Charged Bolts don't get shut down, which can really have them sucking hind teat when HiB is down. Still, left alone their burst is still very good.

 

Gunnery Commandos are completely built to be a long cast time turrent class. Our two biggest contributions to damage are Grav Round and Full Auto. Grav Round is what the tree is built around for granting buffs/procs, and Full Auto is one of the abilities that benefits from the most buffs (especially now that Deadly Cannon has been fixed). They have really good burst with a fully stacked HiB/Demo round but that requires 3 GCDs of setup which all requires cast times. The spec is built completely around the concept of standing in place and dealing high damage but it lacks all the tools that a similar class (Sniper/Gunslinger) has to perform that job. If they handed us half the tools of Tactics Vanguard such as a talent to make FA uninterruptable, the slows on Concussion Charge and Talented FA changed to roots so we can KEEP enemies at range, and a defensive ability making us immune to controlling effects. I understand that it's a PVE spec, but those things would make it 100% viable in PVP.

[Axien]

Thanks for catching the errors, Gyronamics! I did rush a bit to make my deadline and I know there are some inaccuracies here. I will review the spreadsheet and correct the errors.

 

Re protecting burst - it seems everyone is agreed. This is our best asset in PvP and at the moment is way too easy to shut down. Let's hope the sticky feedback posted by the developers today helps address some of this. And yea Arch... I love even a quarter of the tools a Tactics Vanguard has let alone half - just one 3 sec root on a 15sec cd would give us a fighting chance against some classes.