ZeroPlus Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 (edited) So, I always felt that Assault was a little too squishy when in his "optimal/close up" range. So, I liked the idea of softening up a target as I closed the range. With the changes in 1.4, not being able to soften up the target as I closed the range was, I thought, a terrible change and I was one of those advocating switching Storm and Harpoon's availabiltiy to be able to get into range faster. So yesterday, after not touching the VG in over a month (busy with other toons) I decided to go give him a spin. The results have made me change my mind... read on... I headed off to Belsavis with Elara to go solo "Lesson is Learned", "Open Communications" and "Stasis Generator", the 3 [Heroic 2+] dailies. I always felt that these 3 heroics where a great way to test out survivability/damage. As an Assault I can normally solo them with a death or 2 sprinkled in. So I headed into "Lesson" and took on the first group (elite and 2 strongs). I was convinced I would die (normal, I would be rusty and the damage from all 3 is pretty intense in the first few seconds). Truth be told, the 3 mobs were down before I even realized the fight was over. I literally said "WHOA!" IRL . "Okay", I thought, "I got lucky with crits. Let's try the second group.". The second group is again an elite and 2 strongs, but the elite will "force choke" you various times during the fight making this 2nd group tougher to take down. They went down just as fast as the 1st group . The first champion, that hits like a truck, went down with no issues either. The rest of the instance was a breeze. Basically, I did all 3 heroics without a single death and not only was stuff dying faster than before, but I was definetely taking less damage in the process. Not opening from range also made ammo management much much easier. So, in short, I don't know what they did to the Assault VG, but with no changes in gear or rotation my Assault VG is hitting harder and surviving better than before 1.4. I like this change. Is anyone else noticing that the Assault VG is "performing better" after 1.4 or is it just me? Edited October 8, 2012 by ZeroPlus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Sticky grenade, hammer shot (to proc plasma cell) and HiB are still 30m attacks if you want to do something before 10m. Sticky is also no longer linked to plastique so you have two grenades now. They did nothing to improve things aside from unlinking the grenades, you being able to control your ammo now is not because they gimped two of the attacks and weakened a snare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroPlus Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Sticky grenade, hammer shot (to proc plasma cell) and HiB are still 30m attacks if you want to do something before 10m. Sticky is also no longer linked to plastique so you have two grenades now. They did nothing to improve things aside from unlinking the grenades, you being able to control your ammo now is not because they gimped two of the attacks and weakened a snare. Yeah. I know! That is why I was so surprised with my experience yesterday. The VG just "feels" so much better. Damage output feels higher. He doesn't feel as squishy as before. Nothing in what was changed should have led to this "feeling". The VG just feels "stronger" (for lack of a better word) from when I last played him a month ago. It's like they fine-tuned something and now procs are flowing better, cooldowns are more effective, etc... As for ammo, not opening from range is probably making a difference . I don't know. Again, it just "feels" much better... Why this is, I have no idea... None of the changes should have made the VG "better" (if you know what I mean ). This is all from a solo-PvE point of view though. How do people feel in a raid environment or PvP? Better? The same? Worse? Share your findings... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Well, having a second grenade means it's now not a choice of single target or AOE, I can have both cakes and eat them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 The lack of a gap closer is huge though. It's especially noticeable in Huttball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wadecounty Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 (edited) This post is sarcasm right? Assault spec has been broken (in a good way) for a long time now, a nerf to abilities that were NEVER the main draw of the class does nothing to change that. We always bring pyros to HM TFB, we always bring pyros to warzones, and they're just as OP as ever (and I love'em for it). If losing range on Incendiary round or Thermal (AP) was a major nerf to you, odds are you're a baddy who was never any good with the class in the first place. You're better off spamming Rapid (Hammer) shots over Incendiary in 9/10 situations, it actually hits the enemy 6-7 times which means you proc your plasma cell around 50% of the time for 0 ammo, a far better tradeoff than Incendiary. On top of that, proccing Plasma nets you a nice tick of damage off the bat, AND if they're burning that hammer shot now does 9% more damage, altogether making it the most stupidly awesome default attack in the game for any class/spec. Thermal (AP) only made a big difference as a nice burst opener, a lot of people don't even take it (my guilds Pyros never did). It in no way makes or breaks the spec. As long as Railshot (HiB) remains as strong as it does, and the dot on Plasma Cell remains as strong as it does (and always ticks once when first applied as well), assault/pyro is going to be stupid OP. These calls for a gap closer are ridiculous to me when Pyro/Assault still tops the parses and still dominates warzones. Edited October 8, 2012 by wadecounty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truescopes Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 (edited) This post is sarcasm right? Assault spec has been broken (in a good way) for a long time now, a nerf to abilities that were NEVER the main draw of the class does nothing to change that. We always bring pyros to HM TFB, we always bring pyros to warzones, and they're just as OP as ever (and I love'em for it). If losing range on Incendiary round or Thermal (AP) was a major nerf to you, odds are you're a baddy who was never any good with the class in the first place. You're better off spamming Rapid (Hammer) shots over Incendiary in 9/10 situations, it actually hits the enemy 6-7 times which means you proc your plasma cell around 50% of the time for 0 ammo, a far better tradeoff than Incendiary. On top of that, proccing Plasma nets you a nice tick of damage off the bat, AND if they're burning that hammer shot now does 9% more damage, altogether making it the most stupidly awesome default attack in the game for any class/spec. Thermal (AP) only made a big difference as a nice burst opener, a lot of people don't even take it (my guilds Pyros never did). It in no way makes or breaks the spec. As long as Railshot (HiB) remains as strong as it does, and the dot on Plasma Cell remains as strong as it does (and always ticks once when first applied as well), assault/pyro is going to be stupid OP. These calls for a gap closer are ridiculous to me when Pyro/Assault still tops the parses and still dominates warzones. Incendiary missile is a must use in pve, if you're not using it as soon as it ticks off, you are doing it wrong. Edited October 8, 2012 by Truescopes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wadecounty Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 (edited) Incendiary missile is a must use in pve, if you're not using it as soon as it ticks off, you are doing it wrong. Sure but there's absolutely no indication from OP's post whether he's referring to PvE or PvP, beyond one anecdote about daily heroics (which are hardly a way to gauge PvE effectiveness). If its PvE, the range reduction has a marginal, extremely marginal, impact on DPS at best. In a worst case scenario you're waiting 1 extra GCD til you can apply Incendiary and losing a couple hundred damage, in fights where you're dealing over a million this can wind up accounting for less than 1% of your DPS output. Edited October 8, 2012 by wadecounty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroPlus Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 This post is sarcasm right? Assault spec has been broken (in a good way) for a long time now, a nerf to abilities that were NEVER the main draw of the class does nothing to change that. We always bring pyros to HM TFB, we always bring pyros to warzones, and they're just as OP as ever (and I love'em for it). If losing range on Incendiary round or Thermal (AP) was a major nerf to you, odds are you're a baddy who was never any good with the class in the first place. You're better off spamming Rapid (Hammer) shots over Incendiary in 9/10 situations, it actually hits the enemy 6-7 times which means you proc your plasma cell around 50% of the time for 0 ammo, a far better tradeoff than Incendiary. On top of that, proccing Plasma nets you a nice tick of damage off the bat, AND if they're burning that hammer shot now does 9% more damage, altogether making it the most stupidly awesome default attack in the game for any class/spec. Thermal (AP) only made a big difference as a nice burst opener, a lot of people don't even take it (my guilds Pyros never did). It in no way makes or breaks the spec. As long as Railshot (HiB) remains as strong as it does, and the dot on Plasma Cell remains as strong as it does (and always ticks once when first applied as well), assault/pyro is going to be stupid OP. These calls for a gap closer are ridiculous to me when Pyro/Assault still tops the parses and still dominates warzones. Thanks for your comments Wadecounty. No sarcasm meant. None at all. The post isn't even about the "nerfs" as such. I was just genuinely surprised at how much "better" the VG felt in 1.4. The last time I played the VG (solo-PvE btw... H2 and H2+ (maybe a 4 if the run to the entrance isn't too far... )... sorry for not making that clear in the first post...) was about a month ago in 1.3. Back then, I enjoyed the class greatly but I felt we took too much damage when we were in optimal/melee range so I liked being able to soften up the target as I closed the range by opening with IM and hitting it with HiB as I closed the distance (I too never took Thermal, so that "nerf" meant nothing to me) and I was under the impression that loosing that ability to open at range would hurt the spec. What I found however is totally the opposite. I now don't open at range, I open in melee range (nope, not even with Hammer Shot ). Other than that, the rotation is the same, the gear is the same, everything is the same as it was from about a month ago and yet... mobs are dying faster and I seem to be taking less damage... It's strange... it really is... I'm enjoying it, finally the VG feels they way it always should have... The aim of this post was to see if I was the only one that had noticed the change to the "feel" of the class in 1.4 (in terms of survivability/damage output). Nothing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrigPt Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 it probably feels better the first day you use him because you've spent a month playing inferior classes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroPlus Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 it probably feels better the first day you use him because you've spent a month playing inferior classes Hehe. I thought that might be the case, but the feeling remains. I always felt that my Watchman Sentinel could handle solo content better than the VG and yet now, after 1.4, they are on par. Yesterday, just to be sure, I did "Lesson is Learned" back-to-back, 1st on the Sentinel and then on the VG. They both breezed through it whereas before only the Sentinel would breeze through it. On the VG I had to be way more careful with cooldowns and things could go south in an instant (especially on the 1st Champion). Not anymore. It really is strange. Bioware "must have" fixed "something". What it was I don't know. Defensive cooldowns seem to be making a bigger difference, HiB procs seem more consistent (no more using HiB and never have the cooldown reset proc) and stuff just dies faster. Strange... but I'm loving it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Reminds me, on Lesson is Learned you can jump on the ledge, hit the first champion and he can only do his ranged attacks on you Not that I'd do such a thing of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroPlus Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Reminds me, on Lesson is Learned you can jump on the ledge, hit the first champion and he can only do his ranged attacks on you Not that I'd do such a thing of course Neither would I. Never ever... Before 1.4 I occasionally had to jump up there because the incoming melee damage was just too much. Either that or just run around kiting him. Now, I stand toe-to-toe with him my health doesn't drop below 60% and it is normally in the 80s... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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