Developer Update: Class Changes and Balance in Game Update 1.4

[Thepainfairy]

Dual spec? stop delaying this! how long will it take you to act on this? Edited September 5, 2012 by Thepainfairy

[Sundragon]

Change to resolve system is an improvement.

 

But you nerf the sorc's stun range AND knockback, and for a DPS sorc you gave me......a moderate heal every 30 seconds... None of the other sorc changes help the DPS sorc. Oh boy, a no-interrupt...that helps when everything I cast is instant.....Yawn.

 

This is nothing more than making dps sorcs WORSE.

 

Hey, at least you reduced the timer on my runaway ability! Seems like you know my sorc is going to have to run away a lot more now in PvP.

 

Time to ditch this game.

[MidichIorian]

Here's another thing, they end the news article with "thanks for your dedication and feedback". I read through every class feedback post in the sage/sorc forums and most of the other classes' feedback threads. The only thing they got right was to give mercs/commandos an interrupt. Not a single sorc/sage PvP'er was happy about our current state and they all complained about low burst and survivability. BW decided to make no changes to sorc/sage dps and pretty much got rid of the one stun that allowed us to deal damage during its' duration. Yes, I'm refering to it as "got rid of" since most sorcs/sages will be dead if they get a mara/PT within 10m. Edited September 5, 2012 by MidichIorian

[Yeochins]

Change to resolve system is an improvement.

 

But you nerf the sorc's stun range AND knockback, and for a DPS sorc you gave me......a moderate heal every 30 seconds... None of the other sorc changes help the DPS sorc. Oh boy, a no-interrupt...that helps when everything I cast is instant.....Yawn.

 

This is nothing more than making dps sorcs WORSE.

 

Hey, at least you reduced the timer on my runaway ability! Seems like you know my sorc is going to have to run away a lot more now in PvP.

 

Time to ditch this game.

 

The developers don't understand what makes classes viable in PvP. This senior designer should've been fired in 1.1. If he had been fired this game would still float 1 million subscribers.

[Rigaux]

This shall be fun. Much fun indeed. The self heal for sorc/sage will be defined by how much it heals for. Lowered stun range, immunity to interupts durring polarity shift, and Sorcs might actually be deadly for once. albiet for 10 seconds. and the Overload/Force wave? Quick someone go make a rage comic about a sage using force wave with the current animation with two marauders on each side and nothing happens to them. While Sorcerors get an epic "Get out of my way!" cue the knockback. DO IT XD

[Tuscad]

I finally came up with the phrase I have been looking for this whole time and it is a good one because it sums this all up rather nicely: Learn 2 Dev. Edited September 5, 2012 by Tuscad

[Sundragon]

Had to make a second reply....

 

(ALSO, I HAVE CANCELLED MY ACCOUNT NOW)

 

I just cannot, cannot fathom how in the world you nerf the Sorc again. Nobody in fleet says "LF DPS Sorc for RWZ". No, they all say "LF DPS Powertech/Maurader/Sniper for RWZ". Do you really think this is going to change with patch 1.4? You just made a class with low health, light armor and only modest spike DPS easier to kill.

 

360-degree overload is crucial to getting away from people. A decent melee player can just run through you and keep hitting you from behind or side, so when I go to overload, oh well, he wasn't in the 120-degree arc, so I wasted it, and now i have to wait the GCD to do something else.

 

I already have Force Sprint on 20-second cooldown. Maybe you guys didn't realize that we can spec for the 20-second cooldown....because you didn't mention what the impact is for those of us who already have it at 20 seconds....does it go to 10 seconds?

 

I just, I just cannot, it is unbelievable, that you nerf Sorcs again. I'm stuttering in shock of this crazy development.....THE ENTIRE SURVIVABILTY OF THE DPS SORC IS DEPENDENT UPON CROWD CONTROL....YOU JUST MADE IT MUCH HARDER.

 

A modest heal every 30 seconds? Seriously? When a sentinel jumps on you for 5,000 damage, do you think I want a modest heal every 30 seconds (despite being instant will create a 2-second GCD proc) or a 360-degree overload that also has a root ability while I'm trying to get distance? Which one do you really think is going to help me?

 

My 30m stun is now 10m? Because I'm so overpowering that it needs to be reduced? Please, help me out here, I didn't know my DPS sorc was so powerful that it needed to be nerfed. You just made it even HARDER to get invited into a ranked warzone, because everyone is going to say "but you only have a 10m stun, a sniper is 30m. But you don't have a 360-degree knockback, it got reduced to 120-degree." What is my reply as a DPS sorc "hey, i have a moderate heal every 30-seconds." Sorry, we have healers that are healing... FOR THE LOVE OF THE EMPEROR DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HOW BAD YOU JUST MADE DPS SORCS? GOD!!!!! I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN GAME!!!! FRUSTRATING!!!!

 

About the only way to make a DPS sorc somewhat wanted after just lowering our survivability even moreso (still unbelievable) is to dramatically increase our damage. Lightning Strike, Chain Lightning, Crushing Darkness and Deathfield all need a major boost to damage (~50% more damage), OR increase Force Lightning damage by ~40% but make it cost more force to use. Right now I can spam Force Lightning and all my dps spells all day and remain at 75-100% force power. I'd like to have a lot more damage in exchange for occassionally running out of force. Without massive increases to damage, it will be impossible to get invited into a ranked warzone group as a DPS sorc.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Sundragon

[Rafkin]

So you're taking the biggest complaint pvpers have, too many stuns, and making it worse? We'll gain even LESS resolve?

 

So much for reading feedback. Worst design team ever.

[BlackSpin]

Are you ******* kidding me, so you're saying we'll be able to be stunned more?! I've had it. There's nothing like going from 75% health -> 0% all while stunned, watching your character get dog piled, and can't do a damn thing about it. This infuriates me beyond belief.

 

I give up.

[Mharz]

Does anyone really understand what the resolve change means?

 

What it means is, in short, your resolve bar will fill SLOWER which will allow you to be CC'd MORE.

 

Read the notes. Understand them.

 

THIS PATCH WILL HELP YOU SPEND MORE TIME NOT PLAYING YOUR CHARACTER AND MORE TIME UNDER CC.

 

This is exactly the opposite thing that needs to be done. Your resolve bar should fill FASTER and REMAIN FULL making you immune to CC every time some idiot spams another CC at you. If you can't stop someone because they have a filled resolve bar TOO BAD. Don't spam CCs. Sorry if you PvP in pug groups.

 

I'm sorry but I think it's time to find a new team to take care of my game. You guys aren't cutting it.

 

No dual spec?

 

No Guardian/Jugg tank love?

 

But let me guess there will be awful looking raid gear we can work through bugged operations to obtain and pay far too many credits (it should be FREE) to rip out mods from and put into the few properly styled Star Wars looks available in the game.

 

Yeah I'm really looking forward to 1.4.

 

Bioware, fix it or lose more players and money. If you don't know how to fix it I'll offer my consulting services at a discount (free!) and I'll explain how to fix it and make players come back.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Mharz

[Karillon]

They freaking nerf the sorcs and the mercs, but the issue is with the Sentinels and the Marauders. They didn't do anything to the Marauder or Sentinel, which are the two classes that need the biggest nerf of all. Does anyone notice that 95% of PvP Warzones are either all Sentinels and Marauders? That's because everyone knows that these two classes are over-powered and they become lemmings. Thus, you have SO many in each and every warzone.

 

C'mon now dude, if you're a developer shouldn't you be nerfing the real issue here. You totally avoided it. Put these two classes on the same level as the rest of the classes, then it would be fair. Suggestion: take away the leap, stealth escape and master strike and marauders and sentinels will be almost on the same level as the rest of the classes.

[DarthScruffy]

I'm really excited about the commando/merc 30m interrupt. This makes a merc a viable interrupter for boss fights. In PvE, this is going to have serious applications.

 

As far as both nerfing the Sorcs and buffing stunlocking, this doesn't seem to help the complaints about PvP for classes that were getting hit by stuns. Now I can freely stun without coordination and cheese off everyone else.

 

You marginally gave love to mercs/commandos to make a serious problem worse in pvp.

[Mharz]

So you're taking the biggest complaint pvpers have, too many stuns, and making it worse? We'll gain even LESS resolve?

 

So much for reading feedback. Worst design team ever.

 

Quoted for the Truth.

[Karillon]

Read through all these posts, and you can see that the majority of the QQ'ing is coming from Sentinels cause they won't have thier precious bubble. Good, keep it that way and take away their leap, stealth escape and their master strike and we'll all be on an even keel.

[Tuscad]

Just thought I would jump in and remind everyone to vote for this thread appropriately, maybe the devs will change their mind if this has a 1 star rating (I freaking doubt it, but you never know).

[Karillon]

If this helps get rid of more Sentinels and Marauders, more power to you Bio! I see a lot of QQ'ing in these posts, but notice that they're either from Sentinels or Marauders!! They won't be so Op as much as they used to, them poor babies! Whine, whine, whine they do!

[KurganNazzir]

"Overload and Force Wave have been redesigned. These abilities now knock back all targets within a 15-meter 120-degree cone in front of you. Furthermore, these abilities now knock back all potential targets instantly; they no longer wait for an animation note at the end of the ability animation."

I'm curious what this is going to look like. Honestly, it made sense that you wouldn't knock anyone back until you landed and sent out that 'wave' of energy. I also do not like the change over to cone but I'm a nobody who plays mostly solo (not always by choice, people just don't want to group most times) so it doesn't matter. Just another comment, I'm wondering if the Devs' thinking is that people will use these to clear the path in front of them so they can use Force Speed, though running in front of you puts you right into those you knocked away from you and running behind you, well, you didn't knock those folks back so they're still there.

 

Afterburners/Concussive Force: Rocket Punch/Stockstrike now immobilizes the target for 4 seconds instead of knocking it back. Damage caused after 2 seconds ends the effect. The knockback previously caused by this skill generated enough Resolve that it was actually detrimental to the Mercenary/Commando’s ability to further escape the attacker.

I don't like having the knockback taken away from my rocket punch. I honestly can't see how knocking an enemy away from you is 'detrimental to our ability to escape'. Sure, Immobilize keeps them from moving towards you for a few seconds but really, so does knocking them back because they can't be coming at you while they are flying backwards. Of course, this is strictly a band-aid change for the PvP side of things. Why couldn't the amount of resolve caused by the knockback be adjusted instead of changing the skill?

 

Force Cloak now has a 2 minute cooldown.

Fade now additionally reduces damage taken from area effects by 15% per point. Kinetic Field/Entropic Field no longer provides this effect. Now reduces the cooldown of Force Cloak by 15 seconds per point (down from 30 seconds per point).

My Force Cloak already has a 2 minute cooldown because of Fade so according to these two changes, Force Cloak's cooldown would now be 1 minute 30 seconds for me. I guess that's good for certain situations, huh. I've only used the ability maybe three times and once was to escape an encounter that was buggy.

 

Infiltration Tactics/Duplicity: Now when triggered, your next Shadow Strike/Maul deals 30% more damage and costs 75% less Force. This cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds, but each rank after the first reduces this rate limit by 3 seconds

Infiltration Tactics currently does the following (at 3 points): "Direct damage attacks have a 30% chance to grant Find Weakness, causing your next Shadow Strike to ignore 50% of the target's armour and cost 50% less Force. Cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds." So, we are losing that slight chance to ignore 50% armour and just getting a straight damage increase? I guess that's better because we are getting a guaranteed damage buff whereas now, it is just a chance to ignore armour.

 

Electrocute and Force Stun now have a 10-meter range.

My Sorcerer's skills have a 30m range, yet you're shortening the range of my stun. The shortened range for Force Stun isn't that big of a deal for my Shadow since his skill range (not counting melee, of course) is 10m already but I'm going to assume that Sages are like Sorcerers and have 30m skills since they are the mirrors.

Electro Dart and Cryo Grenade now have a 10-meter range.

Again, my Mercenary's skills and the majority of my Vanguard's skills are 30m yet you are reducing the range of my stun to 10m.

 

The changes hopefully won't be a big deal for me due to my playstyle, but it seems odd to reduce the range of the stuns compared to the range of the skills (depending on AC). I wonder if the stun range can be changed to be AC-specific. It makes sense for my Shadow to have a stun at 10m when his skills are 10m but it doesn't make sense for my Sorcerer, Merc, and Vanguard to have a stun at 10m when their skills (or the majority of skills) are at 30m.

 

 

One of my biggest wishes is that BioWare could/would change how skills work on PCs versus NPCs. I'm sure it'd be a lot of work but it would be a nice thing that would probably please most.

[BlackSpin]

You took the biggest complaint about resolve and made it worse (repost for thread vote.) HAHA, I can't vote this "1:Terrible", it only lets me vote "2:Bad." Awesome BioWare, you sure tricked us. Edited September 5, 2012 by BlackSpin

[NajeeSensei]

If this helps get rid of more Sentinels and Marauders, more power to you Bio! I see a lot of QQ'ing in these posts, but notice that they're either from Sentinels or Marauders!! They won't be so Op as much as they used to, them poor babies! Whine, whine, whine they do!

 

What in the world are you talking about? The developers have not said anything about changing Sentinels/Marauders as of yet.

 

Furthermore, most of the "QQ'ers" are Sages and Sorcerers and some for good reasons.

[Monterone]

Thanks for this update. The Overload change is terrible.

 

Thank you for making it easy to make up my mind about re-subbing.

[Henu]

"Begun, the stun wars have."

[Smuglebunny]

I dont know about the other changes but if they do what they say to Overload/Force wave. Im done with this game.

 

I DONT NEED IT TO KNOCK BACK PEOPLE IN FRONT OF ME...

 

I NEED IT TO KNOCK BACK PEOPLE ON ALL SIDES OF ME!!!!!

 

THE WORST thing you can do to Inquis and sage. You have lost me the second that happens.

[Smuglebunny]

The game is over the makers are stupid there is nothing to be done. Next game lol. My god, clueless.

[Tuscad]

The game is over the makers are stupid there is nothing to be done. Next game lol. My god, clueless.

 

When 1.4 hits it is time to watch all of the unfinished class stories on youtube.

[contactlost]

What the **** u did to resolve? It was broken before and now it will be broken even more. You should add all root, stuns etc. to resolve system, make it like one stun is normal, second is half of its power and last one do not apply. I cant ****in play pvp becouse it's all about who stuns first, no skill required. And dont say the community wanted it to be like you said, we wanted LESS STUNS, not more.

 

 

edit: oh, but i like the knock back changes. At last it will need to accually TRY to use some skill, not just tap the button on Huttball and "yay i'm free".

Edited September 5, 2012 by contactlost