Brace yourselves, Sentinel and Marauder nerfs are on the way.

[Omniscientearl]

I am referring to the results of the Mercenary Top 3 here.

 

Specifically the answer to the second question, PVP.

 

It is fairly clear now that Mercenaries/Commandos are not the dominating force on the field of battle that we originally feared they might be. With that said, some classes have utilities that are just too strong and/or cooldown durations that are quite possibly too short – the Marauder/Sentinel is a good example of a class like this. So while some classes may pine to be given cooldowns that will make them as strong as Sentinels/Marauders, we would rather reduce the effectiveness of Marauder/Sentinel cooldowns to make them more like the other classes when it comes to survivability.

 

There is also a hint of this in the first answer, as well.

 

Overall, we feel that Mercenary/Commando DPS is in a fairly good place; however, we also feel that Mercenaries/Commandos could bring more to an operation as far as utility goes and that the classes pulling higher DPS than Mercenaries/Commandos are doing a bit more damage than we would like. Mercenaries/Commandos are not really underperforming in DPS as some sort of trade-off (unless the Mercenary/Commando actually is spending global cooldowns to cleanse, resurrect, or heal); it is more because we went too far to ensure that guilds would bring Marauders/Sentinels and Snipers/Gunslingers into operations. We did this because, while the other classes have an opportunity to fulfill one of two different roles in an operation, Marauders/Sentinels and Snipers/Gunslingers can only fulfill the damage dealing role in operations. So we made sure they dealt plenty of damage, and then we gave them utility to boot – probably too much damage, and probably too much utility, judging by the operation groups that some guilds put together.

 

All in all, not too thrilled at the way they're eyeing us and fiddling with that nerf hammer in their hands. What does everyone else think?

[TACeMossie]

Its an elaborate Ruse.

 

I mean, BW's favourite storylines are the Knight, Warrior, Scoundrel and Agent. And so they made those classes OP first.

 

And they haven't done any nerfs recently, so why start now?

[verfallen]

What, no mention that merc can heal to full?

 

What I'm afraid off is how far a nerfhammer would strike. BW hasn't had a great streak of balancing so far.

 

They "balanced" sorc after launch. They have been underperforming since.

 

They "balanced" sintanks. They have been having massive spikyness issues since.

 

They "balanced" pyro PTs. Pyro PTs were underperforming.

 

They "balanced" operatives. DPS issues to this day, altough they fixed healing.

 

 

I gotta say I'd agree to slight nerfs, but I'm rightfully worried they'll again bring out hydraulic powered nerfhammer to make "small corrections".

[Ardarell_Solo]

Small downward corrections should be made vor Gunslinger DPS and a little less for Sentinel DPS in general.

 

Ideally if you have top skill level, all possible DPS classes should do about the same amount of damage - that is in NiM Ops. The argument, more variable classes like Sage or Commandos should have inferior DPS, doesn't count in NiM content, where everyone will have to strictly stick to their primary task in the group, as challenges to survival, DPS and Healing are simply too tight for themselves to fool around with off healing. It's nice to have Sage DDs in flashpoints or HM OPs, where a casual heal to the tank can save the day, but that's not viable for NiM.

 

I'd say it's a challenge to design classes in a way that their balancing varys with the level of skill players bring while playing them. But that's the way it shoud be imo...

[Omniscientearl]

I agree with other players that, when in skilled hands, all of the DPS specs should parse similarly. However, these nerfs seem directly aimed at the ability of Sentinels and Marauders to be in the closest melee range during operations and survive long enough to aid the group. Other classes' defensive cooldowns may seem lackluster in comparison, but most of them have the option of moving out of range of the boss' attacks with a relatively low DPS cost compared to a Sentinel or Marauder.

[Alec_Fortescue]

It sucks that because of sentinels exploiting rage, jugs will also get hit even though they can't even match what equally skilled and geared sent is capable of. :' (

[Helmholtzz]

I agree that all dps classes should be able to do similar DPS in capable hands with same level of gear. Off heal is useful in certain situations but to be gimped just because your class can off heal is not fair in my opinion. The tool tip while you choose your class should carry that information: 'Because this class has healing abilities your class cant do as much damage as pure DPS class'. While I am doing NiM ops, I rarely have to off heal. So I'd like to have an option to go toe to toe with a sentinel in damage because that is my role. If there was an option to give up the healing abilities (healing abilities tied to the medic skill tree at the bottom) and take a skill to increase overall damage dealt (a tree option at or near the top of the dps tree) will solve the problem of off-healing classes. Pick the build you want: If there is too much raid wide damage, pick the healing ability and give up damage. If healers are managing the damage go full throttle.

 

That said, I do not like nerfs. If the devs think that the slingers and sentinels are doing better than anticipated please buff the other classes. Its harder to over-buff and its very easy to over-nerf. - opinion of a player with a commando main.

[babygotmoreback]

I agree with other players that, when in skilled hands, all of the DPS specs should parse similarly. However, these nerfs seem directly aimed at the ability of Sentinels and Marauders to be in the closest melee range during operations and survive long enough to aid the group. Other classes' defensive cooldowns may seem lackluster in comparison, but most of them have the option of moving out of range of the boss' attacks with a relatively low DPS cost compared to a Sentinel or Marauder.

 

This exactly. If Bioware keeps buffing ranged classes and nerfing melee, there will be no need to bring melee into an operations. Almost all fights (pvp and especially pve) favor ranged dps over melee. Please keep this in mind Bioware.

[Ardarell_Solo]

If there was an option to give up the healing abilities (healing abilities tied to the medic skill tree at the bottom) and take a skill to increase overall damage dealt (a tree option at or near the top of the dps tree) will solve the problem of off-healing classes.main.

 

I think that's indeed a very good suggestion! Volunteers to take it to the Devs? ^^

[Helig]

Just hope they don't gut Carnage.

[Ugolino]

You had this coming for a long, long time. If you'd asked for fixes earlier, the nerf hammer wouldn't be dropping now.

[verfallen]

marauder's threat on their forum about this : http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=685374

 

 

I find it funny some people are "ahaha finally, we can't wait to MURDER YOU, I wish you the WORSE NERFHAMMER in history" about this. Just proves your whining was not about acheiving a decent balance, but wishing your class was that FOTM instead. While some people do reroll around them, most sent/mara players have been saying for months it might be good to tone down rage faceroll a bit. They also rather than wish to keep being OP, see other class gain some cooldowns of their own, especially some that are lacking.

 

I still fail to see where giving merc an interrupt protection on their barrage proc unloads wouldn't be simpler than doing a complete rehaul of the interrupt mechanic and defensive cooldowns.

[Lecaja]

I am going to wait before they unveil what, if anything, they are going to do before I make any judgments. The problem I see is that they are going to handicap players who are extremely skilled which is going to leave players of average skill like me in the lurch but again I am waiting for more information.

[GregAlia]

It sounds like they wish to reign in, not hamstring. They seem very focused on making them have a spot in PvE so with that in mind I think the changes will be thoughtful.

[Apsternator]

If they nerf it more than what is necessary for pvp .. then it's time to unsub' and find something else. So much time invested in this class, I just cant be ****ed anymore with changing classes and reskilling etc Edited October 10, 2013 by Apsternator

[athanase]

I just can't see why Sentinels/marauders should be nerfed. I find them well balanced, especially compared to Shadows/sins or gunslingers/snipers, and far more difficult to play. Edited October 11, 2013 by athanase

[FROIDBUSTER]

I just can't see why Sentinels/marauders should be nerfed. I find them well balanced, especially compared to Shadows/sins or gunslingers/snipers, and far more difficult to play.

 

They have arguably the best cooldowns and utility of any of the pure DPS classes. And its' only arguable because Gunslinger/Sniper are right up there as well and need some nerfs just as badly.

 

In PvE other classes simply can't compete with the inherent mitigation Sentinels get from their cooldowns. I mean a long with Gunslingers they're really the only DPS class that can waltz into NiM level fights on bosses like Terror and completely ignore 15-20~ worth of otherwise 1 hit kill mechanics (see: Phase 2 Tentacle slams, and any red circle or boss cleave mechanic) just purely from using cooldowns at the right time. Which gives a pretty big advantage in harder content because not only do you make it easier for Healers to raid heal (and thus make it more favorable to stack a Ops with Sents/Slingers, but you also increase your dps uptime when you can ignore mechanics).

 

In PvP Sentinels have easily usurped, other melee just by virtue of the fact they had a get out of jail free card for 5~ seconds out of every 45 seconds on top of all the rest of their utility/defensive cooldowns. In the current healer heavy PvP meta this was a problem, since even "tanky" classes like Guardian or Shadow can't tout that kind of damage immunity even when they spec hybrid or use a shield.

 

In 1.7 Commandos may have been the kings of PvE dps, with Guardians holding down the PvP side of things. But for the better part of half a year since 2.0 it has been all Sentinel/Gunslinger once the masses caught on, I don't mind some minor tweaks so much at this point, we had our fun in the sun, both of the classes are kind of imbalanced.

Edited October 18, 2013 by FROIDBUSTER