Tactics/AP players completely ignored regarding Hold the Line changes

[JarenWelen]

We begged you to let us keep some semblance of uniqueness. We told you we were here, that we loved our class for being the cheeky underdog so often overlooked, and wanted a reason to continue playing it. We gave the feedback you asked for on PTS and said that Tactics had lost all appeal and purpose.

 

Clearly that feedback meant nothing.

 

The moment the patch notes for PTS came out, we knew that we had lost out unique ability. The ability that for many of us was the only thing that made up for playing an underappreciated and ignored tree, the one that gave us that "wow factor". Whilst we invested time in becoming the best we could be with this tree, all the time being torn apart by our Assault Specialist brethren, or mocked and ridiculed for our choice of spec, there was nothing that brought the smile back to our faces than running over a fire pit whilst harpoons bounced off you, Force Waves just washed over you, and exclamations emerged from your teammates convinced that you were done for.

 

Of course can still do that, but now it just feels empty.

 

I'm going to brush over the fact that it was an unneeded change - Hold the Line works in perfect unison with Pulse Generator, its design appears to have been to get our full ticks off without being pushed back or knocked down, which had fantastic synergy with the interrupt immunity. Additionally it allowed us to stay within range of our target for longer. I would go so far as to say that it was essential for our tree. The other two Vanguard trees did not need it to do their jobs - SS I can sympathise with but not once when playing SS have I ever thought that HtL was essential. Assault Specialist already had great mobility, does not need it to get channels off, and is rarely within distance of knockbacks.

 

Combat Medic and Gunnery Commandos, I can always sympathise for - and I will absolutely say "great, this was a brilliant addition for them". But it was not the change they needed - something could have been thought up of to be far more useful for them in terms of interrupt immunity and stationary defenses. I know of at least two Commandos on PTS, excluding myself, who felt that Hold the Line was not enough. I'm already expecting to see complaints in the Commando and Mercenary forums in the near-future that echo these thoughts.

 

But I digress. People will no doubt reply to this (hopefully reading it as well) saying "dude, you got a 2s buff to Hold the Line, shut up!". These are probably the same people who have been telling me I've been playing the wrong class for the past 6 months. But yes, whilst a 2s buff is great, it comes at a tremendous cost.

 

Someone posted an example of a hypothetical (not a rumour!) patch note that this is comparable to:

Jedi Guardian - Unremitting is now a passive ability trainable by all Jedi Knights. Using Force Leap grants Unremitting for 4 seconds, decreasing all damage taken by 20% and providing immunity to all interrupts and controlling effects.

Vigilance - Unremitting has been replaced by Firmly Unremitting, increasing the duration of Unremitting by 1s.

 

Would Vigilance be happy with the 1s buff? Sure, but one of the key unique points of their tree would have been thrown out to the masses. There would be outroar at this. Sadly, in this similar scenario, our voice has not been heard due to a) there are not enough Tactics players and b) the March 14th PTS changes to damage took precedence in peoples' minds and drowned us out.

 

We do not expect to get Hold the Line back to ourselves. That ship sailed the moment the first PTS notes came up. We know that we've lost that special "wow factor", which will go from "Holy cow, none of my controlling abilities are working on him, enter wild panic" to "Oh, another Trooper with Hold the Line. Interrupt, stun, interrupt. Boring". A great mechanic ruined.

 

We ask yet again, please consider giving us something unique back. Your numbers may say we're balanced but we have quite clearly suffered a nerf in relativity. These forums are full of ideas, many of which would eradicate any complaints we've ever had about Tactics/AP (see further snares or a root to aid in getting all Pulse Generator ticks off).

 

Please listen to what we have to say, we were starting to get a feel for the developers listening to us but our concerns have gone completely unacknowledged. The most we got a week or two ago was a statement along the lines of that internal numbers showed balance. That's not what we're talking about, we know from that post that you do read the forums and we would really love to know that you acknowledge that Tactics/AP players feel cheated and ignored - who could blame them when they clearly were not important enough to keep such as a special ability.

 

As for me, I've gone from playing Tactics every day and it being my favourite class to hanging up my armour for the time being. The final straw today was facing a Pyrotech in a Warzone who later PMed me on another forum to say, I (sadly) quote: "lol y u still playing ap?? i have ur ability tis awesome ty". The intellectual taunts are always the best...

 

Thanks for reading, constructive comments welcomed.

-J

 

(Disclaimer: written on 2 hours sleep in 3 days. God bless Software Engineering)

Edited April 9, 2013 by JarenWelen

[GostGajol]

Hey fellas,

 

Much as i predicted, they screwed the AP/Tactics big time! - And when they deleted our posts on the PTS server it was nothing short of a "**** YOU PLAYERS" message they sent!

 

Next time they ask us to test a patch refuse, give them zero feedback... and for now go cancel subscription, im not saying stop playing, im saying cancel the subscription and resubscribe when its time to renew and then cancel it Again. ONLY WAY THOSE ******ES WILL LEARN IS WHEN THE DOLLARS SEEMS TO STOP FLOWING!

 

/Gajol

[Keypek]

Tactics tree is basically there to buff up shield or assault and that's about it. I don't know why anyone would go past pulse cannon anymore. And even if people go to pulse cannon they'll still be running around in plasma cell.

 

They should bump up high energy cells speed boost to 30% which would help give back some of tactics unique movement bonus. And maybe lower the cooldown of fire pulse when in HE cell. But they did kill what little this tree had which wasn't much before.

 

Edit: Forgot to say this is for pvp. All though the burst nerf to pyro sucked also. For pve tactics seems to still do ok according to rough estimates. Will have to see how it all plays out.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Keypek

[af_raptura]

Well, Jaren, I'm glad that you keep posting in reagards to helping out tactics/AP. I myself am getting the distinct feeling of its futility, but I honestly would like to see something unique, cool, and boderline overpowered given to the spec. But, if that ever comes, it will likely be a long time from now. I mean, look how long it took arsenal to get the buff to tracer missile applying the full, non-stacking armor penetration in 1 shot. Edited April 10, 2013 by af_raptura

[Evuo]

Someone posted an example of a hypothetical (not a rumour!) patch note that this is comparable to:

Jedi Guardian - Unremitting is now a passive ability trainable by all Jedi Knights. Using Force Leap grants Unremitting for 4 seconds, decreasing all damage taken by 20% and providing immunity to all interrupts and controlling effects.

Vigilance - Unremitting has been replaced by Firmly Unremitting, increasing the duration of Unremitting by 1s.

 

Would Vigilance be happy with the 1s buff? Sure, but one of the key unique points of their tree would have been thrown out to the masses. There would be outroar at this. Sadly, in this similar scenario, our voice has not been heard due to a) there are not enough Tactics players and b) the March 14th PTS changes to damage took precedence in peoples' minds and drowned us out.

 

This analogy was originally made by LordExozone and it is excellent.