Why get rid of pommel strike, similar abilities?

[AlaricSevGirl]

They could have just left them in game and allowed you use them for any mob or boss in pve, but disable them in pvp. I really like the pommel strike ability of the jk guardian. It looks nice.

 

The problem with pommel strike and other similar abilities is that they are limit to weak and strong mobs, which aren't very common in operations and in flashpoints the mobs die too quickly to be of any use. Basically, I only used them for doing dailies or if you were leveling. Point is these abilities aren't really needed and server very little use at max level. Thus, removing them is probably for the better. Perhaps they can reintroduce the animations in future expansions.

 

Yes but if you are leveling alts, and I have let's see 11 characters all under level 50, I don't really care if they're useful at max level or not. Bioware is really going all out for those playing single max level characters when truly it is those who are leveling alts that are making the game viable. We use those skills because we level a lot of characters. Bioware needs to work for us too, not just those at max level.

 

And yes, in my past, I had 2 level 50 characters and other than operations, flashpoints when my guild did them and dailies, my characters stood around fleet doing nothing.

Edited March 28, 2013 by AlaricSevGirl

[Akash]

Ability bloat can be solved with macro support. As long as reactives or "no GCD" abilities aren't overly prevalent then macros don't hurt gameplay. I would hate to see the game devolve to button-mashing, but some limited macro support to tone down the number of buttons on the main hotbar would be very nice. I use a Nostromo and seriously despise having to mouse-click abilities as I like to keep my eyes on the action (why have a game with good graphics is you are constantly looking at the hotbar?) so with some macro support I could lower the number of skills that had to have their own separate button.

[Gavida]

I will definetly miss my Shoulder Slam

[Ryluk_Shouja]

"Because they're too complicated" is a pathetic excuse. The tooltips for them are actually quite detailed, and, to be honest, if you don't use them you really are not at much of a disadvantage. These are trash clearing moves, and nothing more. When I first levelled a character, I tried using them and thought they were pretty useless. And for some classes they are, since they cut the range of stuns on ranged classes down to 10m. But for classes with roots or 3-second stuns, they are incredibly useful.

 

I use the two on my marauder all the time. I also use the one on my operative on a regular basis, when I'm not busy healing. I will be very sad to see these abilities go.

[JimG]

One ability with highly situational utility isn't going to make or break combat, but I respect that they're trying to keep the number of abilities limited.

Don't know about "highly situational". I use Opportune Strike all the time as a Sentinel. It's part of my regular rotation after opening with Force Leap. There are other abilities that I never use. So the "utility" of these abilities is debatable.

I had exactly the same rotation. Opportune strike is so much better than wasting resources on overhead slash.

Same here.

I don't use these abilities on my Guardian because by the time I can get to the place I put them on my bars, the stun from Force Sweep has already worn off

Then why wouldn't you just put the abilities near Force Sweep? Any abilities that are a combo should be next to each other on your hotbar if you want to take full advantage of them.

Imagine trying to explain the Pommel Strike combo to them.

Stun and then use ability that can be used on stunned targets. If you're making the argument that this combo is too difficult for players to understand, then the entire game might as well be shut down. There's no point in even making a MMO if understanding this combo would be beyond the gameplay comprehension of most players. CoH had multiple powersets where basically the entire powerset was based on combo moves. Plenty of people used those powersets and the game didn't implode. Let's not take the minority of people who might not "get it" and try to turn them into the majority of players.

[NwahsNirom]

What!? I had no idea we were losing these abilities! This seems pretty silly. Eric, tell the developers that this is silly!

[MazakMatsura]

There's no reason to expect anything else to be the least used abilities. It's not that people don't use them as much because they aren't useful, it's that people literally cannot use them more often.

 

Exactly my point.

 

Of course their "metrics" show that, they made the skills function the way they do, they should have known from the get go. Honestly, I'd rather see the skills revamped than removed, get rid of the enemy type condition, and only usable on stunned enemies.

 

Or do something new with it, cut the damage in half, and make it a melee range interrupt.

[Lung_Tien_Lien]

I don't understand the decision, either. My Marauder doesn't care, but I like the one for my Operative! I use it quite a bit, actually.

 

Why does it matter if we have abilities that aren't used much? If you don't like to use it, take it off your quickbar and voilà, it's like it doesn't exist at all Why remove something that's already been implemented? (And if they mean to rework those abilities, why wouldn't they wait until they've done so and then simply switch the existing ones with the new ones?)

Edited March 28, 2013 by Lung_Tien_Lien

[errant_knight]

Actually, if you're using them to maximum effect, you can use them a lot--and they're some of the most fun moves in the game. This is a really sad decision. Aside from that, there should be more conditional abilities that require thought, not less. Edited March 28, 2013 by errant_knight

[Arkerus]

Sorry folks. Not that sad about losing them.

 

The fact is most classes (if not all) have abilities that hit almost as hard if not harder. I understand if there are some tanking specs that don't hit as hard but in reality they will kill the mob. Nothing against weak and normal mobs is so difficult you need these.

 

I liked them. I did. But they are going away and I welcome the simplification.

[YoshiRaphElan]

im am going to be very sad when these abilities are gone. As lvl 50, during dailies, my rotation is as follows (on standard mobs)

 

Force leap

opportune strike - dead enemy

Smash

Pommel Strike - dead enemy.

 

leaving 3 more standard enemies alive, but with less than 90% hp (due to smash aoe)

 

It is really going to be a pain in my *** when opportune strike and pommel strike are removed.

def a nerf to sentinel/marauder

 

This is what I do all the time! I wish they weren't taking them away.

[Aelther]

Point is these abilities aren't really needed and server very little use at max level. Thus, removing them is probably for the better.

 

But you don't understand. If we were asking them to CREATE NEW ABILITIES which only work on certain conditions, then yes you could say "well they will be rarely used so they aren't really needed". BUT these abilities already exist, so how is removing them gonna make anything better? If you're not using them, then you will feel no different, but if you DO use them you will be upset. It's not like we're asking bioware to implement some complicated feature for us, we're asking them to DO NOTHING and STOP TRYING TO FIX WHAT'S NOT BROKEN..

 

server very little use at max level.

Also that's YOUR opinion, however I and other people use those abilities all the time. They're basically part of my rotation. Every time I force leap I use Opportune Strike next. Every Time mob gets stunned in some way I use Pommel. In groups I use pommel even more often because any kind of stun applied by any player counts.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Aelther

[CelCawdro]

I'll miss the animations, but not the abilities themselves.

[Aelther]

I'll miss the animations, but not the abilities themselves.

 

I won't miss the animations, but I'll miss the abilities themselves.

[Rafaman]

Ah.... pommel. Yes I will miss it. A one shot kill and excellent way to clear trash. But... I welcome the double saber throw which is an AOE. A great starter and awesome way to clear trash as well. Why not have both? Seems like a question of balance to me.

[Aelther]

Ah.... pommel. Yes I will miss it. A one shot kill and excellent way to clear trash. But... I welcome the double saber throw which is an AOE. A great starter and awesome way to clear trash as well. Why not have both? Seems like a question of balance to me.

 

Well Guardian's don't get double saber throw, so it's not a question of balance. It's clearly a question of people not being able to comprehend ability descriptions or being too lazy to bind them to keyboard. Also there is no way any of these skills could be considered overpowered in any way, because you can't use it on bosses and can't be use on players. They simple save time on trash.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Aelther

[arunav]

Sorry folks. Not that sad about losing them.

 

The fact is most classes (if not all) have abilities that hit almost as hard if not harder. I understand if there are some tanking specs that don't hit as hard but in reality they will kill the mob. Nothing against weak and normal mobs is so difficult you need these.

 

I liked them. I did. But they are going away and I welcome the simplification.

 

Why do you welcome the simplification? Others find these abilities very useful. Personally, I think they are great on my Mara and Shadow.

 

Just don't use the abilities if you want to. Why should everyone else lose them?

Edited March 28, 2013 by arunav

[CelCawdro]

Well Guardian's don't get double saber throw, so it's not a question of balance. It's clearly a question of people not being able to comprehend ability descriptions or being too lazy to bind them to keyboard. Also there is no way any of these skills could be considered overpowered in any way, because you can't use it on bosses and can't be use on players. They simple save time on trash.

 

It would be nice if they were simply broadened in their usefulness instead of being removed, however. I love reactive abilities, but even as reactive abilities which is a limit in itself, they were limited.

[AzraelCales]

Stop blaming the casual players and start blaming the people who don't know how to properly utilize these abilities. I'm going to miss them in my daily rotations for making them go so much faster. I really think double saber throw should have been in game since day 1, however i suppose it could have needed some work is why we are just now getting it. Better late than never i guess. Can't wait for 2.0!! Edited March 28, 2013 by AzraelCales

[MackAddy]

To me, there was nothing more fun and exhilarating than running straight into a mob, hitting my Force Slow/Force Breach combo to grab aggro on everything, spotting that one enemy that somehow managed to circumvent my blast radius, then immediately running up to its ***, pulling a Spinning Kick on it all Chuck Norris style, then hitting Tumult (Chuck Norris part 2: Deliver the PAIN) followed by a rock to the face, and going right back to tanking my mob (which I didn't lose aggro on because let's face it, Shadow tanks rule).

 

The Pommel Strikes and Tumults of the galaxy are essential for maximum ***-kicking and showmanship! Removing these from the game would be removing a part of our souls.

 

Please people of SWTOR, think of the souls.

Edited April 9, 2013 by MackAddy
typo

[StratoNexus]

I am very sad to lose Cheap Shot on both my Scoundrels. Slamming an enemy with Cheap Shot while Akavi used her big crunchy attack is already very much missed.

 

There was no reason to remove these powers. Please add them back in.

[dacentabaal]

R.I.P Pommel Strike My DPS Jugg used you too well, now im just floating around for a few seconds wondering what to hit with

[Devako]

Regardless of the reason they was removed or why people thought they was useless skills, I used these abilities like Shoulderslam on my BH very often on trash mobs, they had cool animations and added flavor to my combat, now once again someone felt like being a *** and decided to remove something from the game that was fine....nothing new there happens in every MMO. I could care less of the tech or statistics B.S. behind the reason they got trashed, imo they only keep adding to the growing reasons why people choose not to login anymore lol. Edited April 9, 2013 by Devako

[CloudCastle]

I miss these too and was really hoping that with all the feedback we've been giving them they would reconsider and change this back before launch.

 

I used most of these abilities during every fight. They were part of my regular rotation. I don't really understand the logic of removing things from the game that are 1) part of the fun and 2) not causing any harm to the game.

 

These abilities were very useful, powerful, and had cool animations that made them a blast to use. I also liked that they required some paying attention to combat mechanics to use. Using strategy in a fight is what makes combat in an MMO FUN.

 

There are a lot of features in the game that only get used by a portion of the player base. That doesn't mean that they are not worth having! Players like choice. Players like options. Some people didn't use these skills...so what? I've got other skills that I almost never use because their main function doesn't suit my advanced class or playstyle or whatever. I don't ask that they be removed for everyone else just because I don't use them. I just don't put them on my bars. Problem solved.

 

Please reconsider BW.

[Blackavaar]

It's called the dumbing down to please casuals.

This sort of thing is ruining all games, not just this.

 

No, it's dumbing down to please the stoopids. There are plenty of those on both sides of the casual/hardcore line.