2.4 Class Changes

[cashogy_reborn]

These just went up for the PTS:

 

Trooper

General

Reduced the cost of Pulse Cannon to 24 energy cells (down from 25) and slightly reduced the damage it deals.

 

Commando

Assault Specialist

Increased Assault Plastique explosion damage, but reduced the damage it deals over time.

Reduced the cost of Incendiary Round to 16 energy cells (down from 22) and slightly reduced the damage it deals.

 

My gut reaction: dont really understand the change to Pulse Cannon, ammo cost redux to IR is very nice, and Im going to test AP as soon as I can log on to the PTS. I will let you what I find.

[LordKantner]

1 energy cell!!!!!!!! Holy sith!!!!!!

[SpaniardInfinity]

1 energy cell!!!!!!!! Holy sith!!!!!!

 

You know, LordKanter, some people don't have any energy cells at all.

[cashogy_reborn]

PTS is broken; stuck in a queue. I probably wont be able to get on until tonight, Ill do some testing then though.

[ArchangelLBC]

LOLwut? I didn't get that change at all.

 

I'm more worried they lowered by a lot more than 4%. Also kinda curious to see how they changed AP in terms of actual damage.

[LordKantner]

you know, lordkanter, some people don't have any energy cells at all.

 

1 Heat!!!!!! Feel the Burn!!!!!

[Keypek]

Pulse cannon change was more for the vanguard changes I suspect. They get crit bonus for it now plus changed pulse generator again and high energy cell's ammo regen values. So I'm guessing whatever metrics they keep told them they needed to slightly adjust PCs values down. Curious how much "a little" is for damage though.

 

Assault changes might be good for hybrids though. AP change is still kinda meh unless they put most of that DoT damage back to the first explosion.

[ArchangelLBC]

Here's what I don't get. They changed the VG version of cell charger to give 2 ammo every 1.5 seconds when fully talented. The effect is the same (8 ammo every 6 seconds), but since it's happening in small chunks every 1.5 seconds instead of one big chunk every 6 seconds, I have to believe that it will actually make Tactics ammo management easier.

 

Now, here's what I don't understand: Why wasn't that same change made for Cell Charger? Seriously, what the crap bioware?

[Keypek]

Here's what I don't get. They changed the VG version of cell charger to give 2 ammo every 1.5 seconds when fully talented. The effect is the same (8 ammo every 6 seconds), but since it's happening in small chunks every 1.5 seconds instead of one big chunk every 6 seconds, I have to believe that it will actually make Tactics ammo management easier.

 

Now, here's what I don't understand: Why wasn't that same change made for Cell Charger? Seriously, what the crap bioware?

 

Yeah I consider that a buff for vanguard tactics absolutely. Constantly getting ammo back is much better than some every 6 seconds imo. It'll be awesome those times where you barely edge under full regen and it gets you back up in 1.5-3 seconds instead of 6 where it'll be nice. But yeah, don't understand why they didn't do that same thing for Commandos.

[Gyronamics]

Increased the usability of IR but also lowered the damage.

Halfway rolled back the change to AP by reducing the DoT and increasing the explosion

 

Lowered cost and damage of Pulse Cannon for commandos and vanguards...

 

 

Sounds like a trivial tradeoff of more IR for less HS.

 

The rest looks like a wash and still not the AP that's wanted.

[cashogy_reborn]

Im getting ~5.4k crits on Assault Plastique against the WZ training dummy. Which is about a 15% increase to the initial burst.

 

Now for the DoT, it ticks 4 times over 12s still, and im getting ~500 damage per tick (~1k on a crit). So w/ no crit that is ~2k damage. With all crits, that is an extra ~4k damage.

 

So it now has a damage range of ~5k-10k, give or take (10k would require crits on everything, which is likely not going to happen)

 

I tested this w/ power/surge optimized PvP gear, and used a 2/8/36 spec. I had 815 bonus damage and 28.84% crit.

 

 

 

Personally, I would like to see AP have the DoT removed just because it increases the likelihood of it actually reaching its max damage potential. That way, either it crits or it doesnt. In its current state, you need 5 separate crit rolls in order to get the maximum damage out of it (the chances of which occuring are very slim).

 

 

Basically right now, my super-burst-combo of AP -> CB -> HIB can produce ~15-17k damage with lucky crits.

Edited August 17, 2013 by cashogy_reborn

[Gyronamics]

AP-CB-HIB doesn't work as an opener unless you wait after throwing AP.

 

The changes did the following:

 

AP = total damage on an operations boss increased by ~11% without or ~12% with an armour debuff

IR = Bit more than 4% damage loss

PC = Bit more than 1% damage loss

 

Encouragement to use AP.

 

For reference AP now explodes for about the same amount as it did on the PTS before 2.0 went live.

 

However we are now 2-3 tiers of gear higher and a 5k crit or 5.5k crit if a SA relic is going isn't nearly as powerful anymore.

 

Lump sum > half burst half pathetic DoT dribble which became more useless now that IR can be reasonably used.

 

And for reference having AP with the total damage it does on the pts currently as a lump sum of kinetic/energy would be a 7k+ tooltip damage.

 

Bear in mind that is still inferior to the 5k+ tooltip damage on Demo Round because Assault has no armour pen. Demo round gains 25% more damage on top of all that too.

 

Anyway, the class does need something with a huge spike that can override healing and be an extreme threat to anyone trying to LOS while weak.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Gyronamics

[metalfenix]

1 energy cell!!!!!!!! Holy sith!!!!!!

 

Get out of my mind! how you dare to write exactly what I thought lol.

 

Seriously, a reduction of 1 energy cell??? I would prefer to augment 1 cell and do more damage. This will be fun, I use a lot the pulse cannon on my trooper healer (and flamethrower on my merc healer) when I solo fight.

[Aliensorigin]

And not 1 change to combat medic or sawbones scoundrel..... Flippin goodness *facepalm* sake

[cashogy_reborn]

AP-CB-HIB doesn't work as an opener unless you wait after throwing AP.

 

 

I would have already applied a dot before doing that combo.

 

 

And just doing some thinking, but what is the point of Explosive Round in Assault now? There is already a >90% chance to proc PC w/ Hammershot, and IR now costs 16 ammo (which is what ER should be).

Edited August 17, 2013 by cashogy_reborn

[Gyronamics]

Same thing it has been forever, an attack only used for objective interrupts.