Powertech Tank Quality of Life Suggestions

[DarthBuckets]

I play a Powertech tank in both PVE and PVP. This is a collection of suggestions to remove some outlying frustrations that I hope get looked at when assessing PT tank balance and design going forward (assuming a 2.4 balance pass?). With the singular exception of lacking an immunity cooldown comparable to Saber Reflect or Force Shroud that can negate/trivialize some boss mechanics, I actually think PT tanks are quite balanced and performing well at the moment. I also understand that buffing or changing things probably means the developers will need to apply a nerf in other areas to keep balance sometimes.

 

IGC Only Procs on Ranged Attacks

 

In 2.0, IGC procs generate stacks of Heat Screen, which increase the uptime of the 3% Absorb Heat Screen buff and the Heat Blast 25% Absorb effect. This means that the way to maximize your mitigation is to increase the number of IGC procs you get.

 

In tank spec, the following attacks generate IGC procs:

Rocket Punch - 100%

Rail Shot - 100%

Rapid Shots - 15%

Unload - 15%

 

Attacks that are used that do not generate IGC procs:

- Flame Sweep - free after a charge

- Flamethrower - free with Flame Engine

- Flame Burst - Good damage filler

- Explosive Dart - Generally not used except for when caught at range or boss immunity phases (like precasting on Golden Fury while shielded)

- Missile Blast - Generally not used except when caught at range and can afford the Heat

- Death From Above - AOE burst, weak add control

 

Unload does poor damage compared to other options for filler, is Ranged so it has a 10% added chance to miss, and is channeled so it is susceptible to pushback.

Rapid Shots does poor damage and is Ranged so it has a 10% added chance to miss, but it generates no heat so it is the basic filler to allow Heat to vent a little (which will never be needed if you choose to maximize IGC procs).

 

Flamethrower procs, Flame Sweep procs, and Flame Burst filler are all valuable skills and enjoyable gameplay, but using them regularly vs spamming your basic attacks decreases your mitigation potential.

 

With the exception keeping Combust up (one Flame Burst or Flame Sweep every 15 seconds), if you want to maximize mitigation, the PT tank priority is the following:

* Use Heat Blast (off GCD) when available

* Rocket Punch on CD

* Rail Shot on CD

* (Possibly) use Unload on CD (if it is an improvement in damage and IGC procs compared to 2 Rapid Shots, as it ticks every second)

* Spam Rapid Shots.

 

Some may argue that choosing between mitigation and damage/threat output is a valid gameplay mechanic, but I'd argue that resource management is a more valid avenue to demonstrate player prowess. Spamming your basic attack to increase mitigation completely trivializes resource management gameplay, is boring, and removes player skill in maximizing DPS/threat output.

 

Suggestions:

- Make IGC proc on Ranged and Tech attacks (potentially drop the proc chance if it creates a balance issue).

 

Defense Makes Shield/Absorb Weaker

 

SWTOR uses a two-roll system with Defense on the first roll and Shield on the second. This means that Defense and Shield chances are not additive, and your Shield chance % is actually lower than what it is on your character sheet, since it is only applied to the amount of attacks that fail the first roll.

 

Let's say you have 15% Defense and 40% Shield and you are getting hit by a Melee attack.

You will Defend 15% of the time on average, leaving 85% of attacks capable of being Shielded.

Your actual chance to Shield is 85% of your Shield chance, so 85% * 40% = 34%

 

The more Defense you have, the weaker your Shield and Absorb becomes. It is like if a DPS player added Crit % and their existing bonus damage went down.

 

The 2.0 changes (Shield works on more types of attacks) helped a bit, but a large amount of damage is still Melee/Ranged, and susceptible to Defense. While it is valid to compare the relative value of stats against one another when gearing your character, it is extremely frustrating that having more of a stat makes your existing stats worse.

 

While this is an issue for all tanks, the Powertech is most affected:

- Shield Vents: vent Heat when you Shield

- Hydraulic Shield: reset Rocket Punch when you Shield

- Heat Screen: generate a stack and lower CD on Heat Blast when you Shield

 

Suggestions:

- Long-term, make Defense and Shield work on the initial combat roll, such that your chance to shield is your actual shield percentage, and adding more Defense increases the amount of damage that is defended without lowering the amount that is shielded.

- Change affects that proc on Shielding an attack to work on Defending an attack as well (like Lightning Reflexes, Lightning Recovery, Revenge, etc). TMK, the only non-PT effect in the game that procs on Shield but not Defense is Dark Bulwark, which is a preventative measure to smooth out damage if you are in danger of losing Dark Ward.

 

Kolto Overload in PVE

 

Kolto Overload is a great skill for PVP, but is really lackluster in PVE because of its limited uptime, and the necessity to be low in health in order to trigger.

 

If you and your healers are doing well, the skill will not be used at all. Using it proactively (activating Health Monitor) runs the risk of wasting it completely. Pre-casting the Health Monitor and anticipating incoming damage spikes usually does not work, because you are competing against your healers, or in danger of being gibbed. A Health Monitor that does not trigger is a 4 minute cooldown that achieved nothing , which is really depressing. Being killed during the 8 second window of Kolto Overload is extremely depressing, especially if one compares the effect against a 5 seconds of Saber Reflect or Force Shroud (which are able to be used on demand and proactively on extremely lower cooldowns).

 

The Coolant skill in the Shield Tech tree would be a great avenue to buff Kolto Overload without imbalancing PVP or affecting DPS players.

 

- Suggestions:

- Lower the CD, and/or make Health Monitor expiring not trigger the cooldown on Kolto Overload. A 2 minute cooldown on Kolto Overload, and the ability to re-cast Health Monitor if it expires would be very welcome improvements.

- Raise the health percentage that can trigger it to 40% for tanks. I dip below 40% health in PVE fairly frequently, but 30% is far more rare. In PVE, there are dedicated healers, so the primary benefit of Kolto Overload is a single spike heal up to 30% and then the 2% health every second from Coolant.

- In the absence of increasing its uptime / usage such as above, make Health Monitor provide some sort of benefit when activated or expired, such that the ability serves some use when running successfully with competent healers.

 

Other Quality of Life issues I would like to see addressed:

- Allow Shielding of Crits in PVP.

- Change the secondary stat on tanking augments to be Endurance, rather than Power, like every other augment in the game.

- Resolve uard Behavior Frustrations (PVP): http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6492039

- Fix Shoulder Cannon Appearance (total vanity lawls): http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=650912

Edited July 5, 2013 by DarthBuckets

[Brunner_Venda]

I love your ideas, especially kolto overload. That one should probably work at 50% or less health to be of any use. 30% basically leaves you in execution range, or death by a single sweep/smash. It doesn't stack up to saber ward.

 

I only disagree with changing the defensive rolls to be on one check, and allowing the shielding of crits. This would make juggernauts ridiculously, stupidly, and completely unstoppable.

Edited July 6, 2013 by Brunner_Venda

[Gytheran]

Your idea that defense on a separate roll somehow hurts PTs is wrong. In your example of 15% def and 40% shield chance, you say that your shield chance is now at 34%, which is an incorrect way of looking at it. Yes, you are only shielding against 34% of attacks, but you are also completely mitigating 15%.

 

You also do not account for absorption, which is the real hindrance of your shield. At 40% absorption with 40% shield chance, you are only mitigating 16% of the damage you receive. In reality, your defense should be closer to 20-21% and when that occurs, your defense rating will mitigate more damage than your 40/40 shield/absorb.

 

With Defense at 20%, Shield at 40%, and Absorb at 40%, your damage mitigation is actually closer to 32.8%

[DarthBuckets]

Yes, adding Defense will increase mean mitigation because it creates a bigger benefit through dodges than the amount of shielded attacks it reduces. However, I was not talking about mean mitigation at all, and what I posted was true. I didn't mention Absorb because I was not talking about mean mitigation.

 

If you have x Defense and y Shield, your actual shield chance for Melee/Ranged attacks is: (1 - x)*y

If you add z Defense, your actual shield chance is (1 - (x + z))* y

The difference is: (1 - x)*y - (1 - x - z)* y = (1 - x -1 +x + z)*y = z * y

 

So if you add z Defense, you effectively lose z*y Shield chance you already had without the added Defense. Adding z Defense will probably increase your mean mitigaiton, but it still holds that the more Defense you have, the less amount you will Shield. I have problems with this because it is not transparent to players and IMO adding one stat should never detract from your existing stat pool (even if it is a net gain). There really aren't any other cases like this in the game.

 

PTs are especially affected because they have mechanics that proc on shielding attacks. The more Defense you have, the less procs of the following you will see:

Heat Screen stacks for Heat Blast uptime

Venting Heat from Shield Vents

Resetting Rocket Punch (which also contributes to Heat Screen because it has 100% chance to proc)

Edited July 15, 2013 by DarthBuckets

[Rylorn]

Kolto overload is not good in PvP either, except in 1v1 situations against low damage/burst players.

[DarthBuckets]

With some of the extreme spike damage that Nightmare bosses possess, I am using Kolto Overload a lot more consistently. The only problem is that I often get killed while it is active because the spikes in damage outpace the HPS for Kolto Overload and healers in clutch situations where defensive RNG is not in my favor. I still think Kolto Overload could use a little work for PVE tanking.

 

Are any of these concerns (notably the Defense decreasing Shield procs and Rapid Shot spam being effectively the best choice for mitigation) good candidates for the PT Class Representatives questions?