Commando Changes Brainstorming

[NoFishing]

Medic:

Hammer shot on ourselves please, and let us keep trauma probe up on both tanks in operations.

 

Gunnery:

We have very twitchy energy management here, where bad luck on CoF procs can drain us of energy and DPS. I would be very happy to see CoF proc reliably every N seconds, with N being fairly small, even if it means less of a damage buff to full auto. Also make cell charger return a small amount of ammo more frequently (every 1 to 1.5s) rather than every 6s.

 

Assault:

I almost never play this, so I don't really know. Its apparent lack of defensive buffs and raid utility make it somewhat unappealing.

[CommanderKeeva]

Here are the changes I have in mind. You don't have to implement all of them but I would like to see some of them make it into the game:

 

Combat Medic:

 

Energy Management ideas:

 

Do not redesign the Ammo system. Just tweak the costs and cooldowns of the skills.

 

- Hammer Shot critical heals restore energy (similar to Scoundrels/Operatives' Diagnostic Scan) or

- Supercharged Cells increases Ammo regeneration by 50%

- Supercharged Cells reduces the Ammo cost of Advanced Medical Probe and Kolto Bomb (instead of Charged Bolts which nobody uses)

- Trauma Probe periodic heals restore Ammo

 

Healing:

 

- Frontline Medic makes Trauma Probe usable on 2 targets (at least the 2 tanks in the Ops group)

- Bacta Infusion heals for more

 

Quality of Life:

 

- % value changed to actual numbers

- Hammer Shot heals are usable on yourself

- Supercharged Cells provides immunity to interrupts for its duration

- Supercharged Cells provides 20% alacrity for its duration

 

Gunnery:

 

Energy Management:

 

- Hammer Shot critical hits restore Ammo

- Cell Charger restores 2 Ammo every 1.5 seconds instead of 8 every 6 (like how it works for Vanguards)

- Curtain of Fire makes the next Full Auto free

- High Impact Bolt cost is lowered by 2 (free for Gunnery)

- The Ammo cost of Plasma Grenade is reduced by 33%

 

Damage:

 

- 100% critical chance on Demolition Round on targets below 30%

- Increase the trigger chance on Curtain of Fire without increasing its lockout OR make Curtain of Fire a fix proc after a certain skill (for example firing High Impact Bolt on 5 stacks of Charged Barrels), make Curtain of Fire procs reliable and predictable, as it stands, its randomness can severely hurt both our damage and our energy management

 

Quality of Life:

 

- % value changed to actual numbers

- Hold the Line provides immunity to interrupts for its duration

- Reduce the cooldown on Tech Override and Reserve Powercell to 1 minute

- Remove the root effect from Stockstrike, Concussive Charge roots all affected targets for 4 seconds, damage after 2 seconds breaks the effect

- Adrenaline Rush's does not go on cooldown if your health does not go below 35% and the Fired Up effect does not trigger

- Adrenaline Rush provides 20% extra alacrity for the first 10 seconds after its activation

Edited October 28, 2013 by CommanderKeeva

[SpaniardInfinity]

For PVP healing (and I think these would also benefit PVE):

 

 

• Tech Override's cooldown should be lowered to 60 seconds, perhaps additionally having two-stacks baseline (although I don't think the 2-stack is necessary for Combat Medics). This will really help with some much needed utility for all Commandos and give them a lot more in the way of options during a fight. Considering that most of the abilities it can effect are limited by their cooldowns and/or ammo cost, it pretty much balances itself.
   
   
  
• Field Medicine OR Steady Hands (pick one). I know the devs said they may explore allowing Hammershot to target oneself, but if they opt instead to keep it as it presently is, they could add a mechanic to either of the aforementioned skills to allow Hammershot healing on an ally to have a 100% chance to heal yourself for 25%/50% of your tech bonus healing stat. Both skill points are low enough in the tree to benefit Combat Medics who are leveling and since you may only heal an ally while in Combat Support Cell, it is implicitly tied to the stance. It can also be a compromise to the suggestion the devs had in the Mercenary thread where they were considering allowing you to heal yourself directly with Hammershot (100% of your tech bonus healing presumably) but it would not build 3 charges; my suggestion would cut the self-healing (to 50% of the tech bonus healing) in exchange for the 3 charges of Supercharge. This would have less of a negative impact on your rotation, since Hammershot is used to pace yourself and build charge.
   
   
  
• Fix the bug with Efficient Conversions. If it's not a bug, this is a helpful QoL change that resolves a problem that affects Reserve Powercell. Basically, if Reserve Powercell is active when you use Concussive Charge, Concussive Force, or Cyro Grenade (all of which are made free of cost by training into Efficient Conversions), the Reserve Powercell proc is consumed despite the fact that all of the abilities are FREE. This wastes a 2-minute cooldown.
   
   
  
• Kolto Residue: Include Kolto Wave (Concussive Charge) as an ability that applies Kolto Residue to affected allies. This would help add incentive to taking Kolto Wave while giving extra utility to the class.
   
   
  
• Kolto Pods. In addition to its present effects, the 50% slow from Kolto Residue is refreshed on affected enemies with each tick of Kolto Pods. Presently, Kolto Pods applies/refreshes Kolto Residue's healing buff and Charged Screen (when Supercharged) with each tick of Kolto Residue to all affected allies without a player limit. This change would help bring the slow up to speed with the other effects, but the 5-player limit should be enforced for the slow (or lowered to a 4-player limit to compensate).
   
   
  
• Preventive Medicine: Increased duration to 12 seconds (up from 9 seconds). This change is mostly for PVE, where there is a 1-GCD window to cast Advanced Medical Probe on the target due to its cooldown (the HOT lasts 9 seconds, the cooldown of AMP is 7.5 seconds). Increasing its duration by 3 seconds (1 additional tick) would make this window more reasonable and less restrictive.
   
   
  
• Kolto Wave: Damage no longer wakes sleeping targets, but still generates resolve (if applicable). A small QoL change to make Kolto Wave more feasible in PVE and PVP situations where you cannot afford to be breaking CCs.
   
   
  
• Switch the positions of Probe Medic and Frontline Medic in the skill tree. Keep them as three and two point skills, respectively. Probe Medic would require Trauma Probe, but Frontline Medic would have no prerequisites. This is mostly because Frontline Medic is currently a waste of a talent in PVE (it has zero benefit for them) and is only occasionally useful in PVP in small skirmishes/duels. Making Frontline Medic more valuable may warrant its position in the tree.
   
   
  
• Change Frontline Medic's effect to the following: Increases the number of Trauma Probes which may be active at one time by 1/2 and lowers Bacta Infusion's cooldown by 1.5/3.0 seconds. This would allow up to 3 Trauma Probes to be active and trims Bacta Infusion's cooldown somewhat. Another option here could be to add some sort of synergy between Bacta Infusion and the rest of the skill tree (probably to Trauma Probe) because there is absolutely no synergy high in the Combat Medic tree.
   
   
  
• Supercharged Cells: There are a few changes to make here under "Supercharged effects":
   
  1. Move the Supercharged effects of Full Auto and Charged Bolts to the same line in the tooltip (their effects do not change).
  2. Include Kolto Wave on the line for Kolto Bomb, allowing both abilities to apply a 5% damage reduction shield to affected allies while Supercharged.
  3. Add a new effect: Trauma Probe's ammo cost is reduced by 50%.
   
  Most of these are quality of life changes, and #3 has been included because Trauma Probe can now be applied to multiple allies (see changes to Frontline Medic). This change could also compensate for Trauma Probe if its ammo cost is increased because of its expanded number of targets (which may be necessary).
   
   
  
• Med Zone OR Treated Wound Dressings (pick one). In addition to its present effects, you generate 1 stack of charge per second for every second that you are stunned, knocked down, or otherwise incapacitated (basically if an effect generates resolve, it would generate charge). Roots, slows, and non-CC (true) interrupts would NOT generate charge. The generation of charge ceases as soon as the controlling effect expires.
   
  My rational for this recommendation is that in PVP the main weakness to a Combat Medic is that a single interrupt can shut them down if they have less than 30 charges and all of their heals are on cooldown (and this WILL and DOES happen in PVP). Supercharges free up Advanced Medical Probe for use on demand, which makes it more difficult to shut down the spec (since there are 2 abilities without cooldowns instead of the one). Combat Medics have two ways of building Supercharge, both of which can be problematic under pressure: Hammershot is always an option but if you need to build an entire Supercharge purely with Hammershot, chances are someone is going to die; and Medical Probe is costly and highly vulnerable to interruptions. Making stuns/knockdowns/etc generate charge would allow more regular Supercharges and makes it harder to shut us down, but does so in a way that is at the mercy of the opposition (we can't stun ourselves). It adds a good dosage of strategy to fighting a Combat Medic since Supercharges are more rewarding and incentivizes the killing of a Combat Medic BEFORE Supercharging and controlling them DURING Supercharge. (Although this change is mainly aimed for PVP, the extra Supercharge generation during boss battles with controlling effects will also benefit PVE Combat Medics).
   
  

Edited October 28, 2013 by SpaniardInfinity

[TeganKing]

Here are the changes I have in mind. You don't have to implement all of them but I would like to see some of them make it into the game:

 

Combat Medic:

 

Energy Management ideas:

 

Do not redesign the Ammo system. Just tweak the costs and cooldowns of the skills.

 

- Hammer Shot critical heals restore energy (similar to Scoundrels/Operatives' Diagnostic Scan) or

- Supercharged Cells increases Ammo regeneration by 50%

- Supercharged Cells reduces the Ammo cost of Advanced Medical Probe and Kolto Bomb (instead of Charged Bolts which nobody uses)

- Trauma Probe periodic heals restore Ammo

 

Healing:

 

- Frontline Medic makes Trauma Probe usable on 2 targets (at least the 2 tanks in the Ops group)

- Bacta Infusion heals for more

 

Quality of Life:

 

- % value changed to actual numbers

- Hammer Shot heals are usable on yourself

- Supercharged Cells provides immunity to interrupts for its duration

- Supercharged Cells provides 20% alacrity for its duration

 

Gunnery:

 

Energy Management:

 

- Hammer Shot critical hits restore Ammo

- Cell Charger restores 2 Ammo every 1.5 seconds instead of 8 every 6 (like how it works for Vanguards)

- Curtain of Fire makes the next Full Auto free

- High Impact Bolt cost is lowered by 2 (free for Gunnery)

- The Ammo cost of Plasma Grenade is reduced by 33%

 

Damage:

 

- 100% critical chance on Demolition Round on targets below 30%

- Increase the trigger chance on Curtain of Fire without increasing its lockout OR make Curtain of Fire a fix proc after a certain skill (for example firing High Impact Bolt on 5 stacks of Charged Barrels), make Curtain of Fire procs reliable and predictable, as it stands, its randomness can severely hurt both our damage and our energy management

 

Quality of Life:

 

- % value changed to actual numbers

- Hold the Line provides immunity to interrupts for its duration

- Reduce the cooldown on Tech Override and Reserve Powercell to 1 minute

- Remove the root effect from Stockstrike, Concussive Charge roots all affected targets for 4 seconds, damage after 2 seconds breaks the effect

- Adrenaline Rush's does not go on cooldown if your health does not go below 35% and the Fired Up effect does not trigger

- Adrenaline Rush provides 20% extra alacrity for the first 10 seconds after its activation

 

If they added all of that I think commandos would be overpowered LOL, but great ideas, hopefully they use a few of them!!

 

 

definetly trauma probe on multiple targets is a must for commando healer, and some sort of guaranteed 100% crit ability for charged bolts would be nice, then maybe people would use our 'assault cannon class ability'......

Edited October 28, 2013 by TeganKing

[ArchangelLBC]

Ok mainly I'll focus on gunnery:

 

-As already mentioned Special munitions should either make HiB free when fully invested, or should make grav round extremely cheap (10-13 per cast). In order to smooth out ammo management.

 

-Curtain of Fire makes the next Full Auto free. I really like this idea mentioned already in this thread. We currently have zero energy positive skills in our repertoire with the exception of hammer shots which is one thing which is making energy management so very brutal at the moment. Additionally this proc is just way too streaky. I made a thread earlier which questioned why the reset on CoF seems so streaky when IA in the Assault tree seems so much smoother and I think the answer is that IA has a second way to reset. To that end I think Demo Round should have a 70-75% chance to proc curtain of fire as well. I think this will smooth out the procs quite a bit and just overall be a huge QoL buff for everyone.

 

-Lower the cost of plasma grenade to 16-24 ammo. This ability currently does decent damage on a 30 second cooldown with an absolutely absurd ammo cost (currently 33). If it hit 5+ targets I would understand the cost but it hits 3, which have to be in proximity to your current target (so you can't place it like with Hail of Bolts or MV). Since the cooldown already limits it just fine, there's no need for the high ammo cost and this effectively raises its cooldown to around 45 seconds in assault or a minute in Gunnery (which has the aforesaid ammo management issues).

 

-The suggested change in this thread to Cell Charger so that it works like the vanguard version giving back 2 ammo every 1.5 seconds would be quite nice.

 

-Please for the love of God fix our ammo display like you said you would. This should happen as early as next week. There's no excuse to delay this to a major patch.

 

All I can think of for now.

[Fellow-Canadian]

My thoughts on Combat Medic as an exclusive PVP'er:

 

 

• Do not change the current resource mechanics. I like the tier system of regeneration as it requires careful thought and knowing what heal to use at the right time to manage ammo correctly.
   
   
  
• Allow Hammershot to cast on oneself. This can fill the gap when my instant heal options are on cooldown and I require myself to be mobile.
   
   
  
• Decrease the cooldowns of Tech Override and Reserve Powercell. The current length of cooldowns I guess were meant for a slower pace of combat.
   
   
  
• I don't think Trauma Probe needs to change so that it can be cast on multiple targets. However, I would like to see each proc of Trauma Probe reduce the cooldown of Bacta Infusion.
   
   
  
• After using Bacta Infusion, the next Medical Probe cast is reduced to 1second and costs no ammo. That should help mobility slightly and resource management.
   
   
  
• Kolto Wave is one of those talents I will not take. I hate wasting my knockback as a heal (meaningless one at that) because I so often need that ability just for the knockback.
   
   
  
• Frontline Medic talent is a complete waste. No one would ever spec into it if it wasn't a prerequisite for Probe Medic. I'd say remove the talent completely or revamp it so Trauma Probe procs return ammo.
   
   
  
• Commando healing is easy to shut down, so perhaps anytime the Commando is stunned or interrupted it reduces the cooldown of Bacta Infusion.
  

[GNWP]

All specs:

Utilities:

• Give to Commando/Merc baseline ability to place on their allies analogue of Hold the Line/Hydraulic Override. Operatives/Scoundrels has Smuggle/Infiltrate, Sages/Sorcs has Rescue/Extrication. Commando/Merc has NOTHING as soon as it comes to utility skills! So do it! Give it to them!
   
  

  Combat Medic/Bodyguard

  
  Utilities:

  
  

• I think there's too much tied on Reactive Shield/Energy Shield in Combat Medic/Bodyguard tree, Devs need to separate immunity to interrunts to another new ability. So if I just want immunity to interrupts I use only one major cooldown instead of two. And when I want to survive I use Reactive Shield only, and again it would be only one major cooldown. And if I want both, I use both. Simple!
  
• Also, Kolto Residue movement slow effect need to stay longer, at least up to 6 seconds, so Combat Medic could actually escape melee instead of beeing target dummy for them.
  

 

Survivability of Combat Medic/Bodyguard:

• Also it would be nice to increase survivablity and of Combat Medic by adding, for example, a talent which decreases cooldown time on Reactive Shield/Energy Shield while taking damage.
  
• Also it would be awesome to give Commandos/Mercs some instant "self-only" heal or something. While Scoundrel/Operative healer can basically just spam Emergency Medpac/Surgical Probe(No energy cost!) all day, Commando/Merc healer can only use Medical Probe/Rapid Scan + Tech Override/Power Surge (2 minutes cooldown!), Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan with 18 seconds cooldown, then Kolto Bomb/Kolto Missile which heals like one tick of Operative's HoTs and has 6 seconds cooldown, put Trauma Probe/Kolto Shell on yourself and spam Hammer Shot/Rapid Shots at the enemy hoping for the best.
  

Healing and energy management:

• Remove Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan cooldown BUT make them place on the target debuff similar to Sages/Sorcs debuff after they put Shield on an ally, so next 15-18 seconds target couldn't healed with Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan untill debuff goes off. Other too healing specialization in the game has instant spammable heal. Sages/Sorcs - Force Armor/Static Barrier, Scoundrels/Operatives - Emergency Medpac/Surgical Probe. Why don't bring a Commandos/Mercs-healers up to other two healing specialization?
  

Edited October 30, 2013 by GNWP

[GNWP]

Med Zone OR Treated Wound Dressings (pick one). In addition to its present effects, you generate 1 stack of charge per second for every second that you are stunned, knocked down, or otherwise incapacitated (basically if an effect generates resolve, it would generate charge). Roots, slows, and non-CC (true) interrupts would NOT generate charge. The generation of charge ceases as soon as the controlling effect expires.

Great suggestion.

Edited October 29, 2013 by GNWP

[NogueiraA]

Some Ideas:

Arsenal - Procced Unload is free/no energy cost.

Pyrotech - Procced Railshot has 15% chance to crit.

- Crit dot from your incediady missile restore 2 heat.

 

Heals - Rapid Shots on someone restore 2 heat per tick.

- 1 more tick on the AOE heal.

- While supercharged gas is active, emergency scan has 100% critical chance.

- Heal scan leaves a hot on the target, tick every second for 9 seconds.

[CrazyOldMystic]

OP first thank you for taking the time to look into this. I am no genius when it comes to spelling or grammar, or setting up some popular format in a post. In RL I am worker so Ill get to the point.

 

GUNNERY

I would like to see this spec become the suppression spec, and I would like to see the I win button taken away. By the I win button I mean grav round. Too many commandos will just sit and spam grav round. When grav round is lower then it has been damage, you dont here a peep about it, when its buffed up you get the "Spam grave round spam grav round" Like all commandos are idiots or something. For me I would like to see grav round turned into a instant cast dot. While its direct damage is moved over to hail of bolts, now the damage should be added up top of the hail of bolts damage already there. Otherwise you end up loosing dps. The second change I would like to see is the Hail of bolts ammo cost reduced to a reasonable range. Like I said I am no genius. Just reducing the cost somewhat would go a long way to helping this class.

 

The other change id like to see is no more push back on concussive charge. The reasons for this is it would allow commandos to support there team a whole lot more if we could use this without push back. This may be too op, its a thought. Another change concussion charge. Failure after failure with this ability. Sometimes it works other times it does not. The other day I blasted it off next to three imps, only one was in cover, and nothing happened. A imp came up to our goal line, was right in front of me, and I blasted off concussion charge. Nothing happened again. So something is not right with this ability. Also I would make sure it works on those players already cced, as sages, and sorcs can push you back while cced. Also cryo grenade is not working as intended I have seen many players just go right through it as if its not even there.

 

The last issue escape and survival. You get a sniper on you or a operative, and you got no LOS near by, you are dead. So suggestion enable hold the line to prevent abilities from being reset on the commando, lower its cool down a tad, and allow it to get the commando out of more ccs. Not all obviously but just some. The other option is my mind is drastically increasing the damage resist of the commandos armor when attacked at melee range.

 

I tried to make my case here. My thoughts are survival, improving abilities that allow us to support our team, and saying no the single target glory hounds, that spam grav round all day long.

 

Lastly I know I am dreaming but some day perhaps if you could let us go into prone and shoot our assault cannon like a 50 caliber machine gun. This would be very fun especially if you upgraded hail of bolts to the suggestion I put forth.

 

Thank you for your time in reading this, sorry about the length, but I wanted to be accurate.

Edited October 29, 2013 by CrazyOldMystic

[GNWP]

Some Ideas:

Arsenal - Procced Unload is free/no energy cost.

Pyrotech - Procced Railshot has 15% chance to crit.

- Crit dot from your incediady missile restore 2 heat.

 

Heals - Rapid Shots on someone restore 2 heat per tick.

- 1 more tick on the AOE heal.

- While supercharged gas is active, emergency scan has 100% critical chance.

- Heal scan leaves a hot on the target, tick every second for 9 seconds.

 

You're confused threads, imperial! No one understands here what are you talking about. Go there or you'll be banned by Eric Musco himself.

Edited October 29, 2013 by GNWP

[NogueiraA]

You're confused threads, imperial! No one understands here what are you talking about. Go there or you'll be banned by Eric Musco himself.

 

Thanks

[AMightyKnight]

- Fix energy management by bringing back fre HiB. Itll solve all our problems. It was suggested before, just tie it to the armor piercing cell to not influence Assault spec.

- Change our ammo display to what the Mercs have. We need a percentage display.

- Cell Charger should be a continuous ammo recharging ability.

- Get rid of the randomness of the Curtain of Fire proc. Tie it to every third Grav Round or whatever.

- DON’T touch our resource system. Its fine, it doesn’t need a complete overhaul, just give us back free HiB.

- Did I mention NOT to touch our resource system?

[ManiacDavis]

-Tech Override: base 60s cooldown

-Reserve Powercell: base 60s cooldown

-Fix the 6c internal cooldown in Assault for proc'ing the Plasma Cell DoT with Ranged attacks (makes it a real pain switching targets)

- Combat Medic needs a lot of love. There are countless threads on it that you could use (and should have already been using) as references Eric.

- *DO NOT* fundamentally change our resource management. It is unnecessary and IMO would the extreme long way of solving the problem. There are small, relatively easy changes that would provide the same improvements

 

Overreaching changes should be made to the Casting/Interrupt system. This was hinted at in the answers to the Mercenary Rep questions, and is an idea that I like. My suggested changes for how casting/channeling/interrupting should work:

 

-You can now Cast and Channel while moving (can still be interrupted)

- Casting while moving slows your movement by 30%

- Channeling while moving slows your movement by 70%

- Once interrupted, you cannot be interrupted again for the duration of ability lockout (iirc this is 4s)

- Alacrity now also reduces the slow effect from moving while casting/channeling.

 

Commando/Mercenary always felt like it was supposed to have more of a Run'N'Gun feel to it; being able to cast and move simultaneously would not only give the class a unique feel, but would also improve our QoL a lot.

 

 

Oh, and please fix the DR of a lot of stats. Crit, Alacrity and Accuracy all had their DR curves changed in 2.0 (I assumed to correct for stat inflation), but the changes were way more drastic than they should have been.

 

I support these changes.

[ArchangelLBC]

OP first thank you for taking the time to look into this. I am no genius when it comes to spelling or grammar, or setting up some popular format in a post. In RL I am worker so Ill get to the point.

 

GUNNERY

I would like to see this spec become the suppression spec, and I would like to see the I win button taken away. By the I win button I mean grav round. Too many commandos will just sit and spam grav round. When grav round is lower then it has been damage, you dont here a peep about it, when its buffed up you get the "Spam grave round spam grav round" Like all commandos are idiots or something. For me I would like to see grav round turned into a instant cast dot. While its direct damage is moved over to hail of bolts, now the damage should be added up top of the hail of bolts damage already there. Otherwise you end up loosing dps. The second change I would like to see is the Hail of bolts ammo cost reduced to a reasonable range. Like I said I am no genius. Just reducing the cost somewhat would go a long way to helping this class.

 

The other change id like to see is no more push back on concussive charge. The reasons for this is it would allow commandos to support there team a whole lot more if we could use this without push back. This may be too op, its a thought. Another change concussion charge. Failure after failure with this ability. Sometimes it works other times it does not. The other day I blasted it off next to three imps, only one was in cover, and nothing happened. A imp came up to our goal line, was right in front of me, and I blasted off concussion charge. Nothing happened again. So something is not right with this ability. Also I would make sure it works on those players already cced, as sages, and sorcs can push you back while cced. Also cryo grenade is not working as intended I have seen many players just go right through it as if its not even there.

 

The last issue escape and survival. You get a sniper on you or a operative, and you got no LOS near by, you are dead. So suggestion enable hold the line to prevent abilities from being reset on the commando, lower its cool down a tad, and allow it to get the commando out of more ccs. Not all obviously but just some. The other option is my mind is drastically increasing the damage resist of the commandos armor when attacked at melee range.

 

I tried to make my case here. My thoughts are survival, improving abilities that allow us to support our team, and saying no the single target glory hounds, that spam grav round all day long.

 

Lastly I know I am dreaming but some day perhaps if you could let us go into prone and shoot our assault cannon like a 50 caliber machine gun. This would be very fun especially if you upgraded hail of bolts to the suggestion I put forth.

 

Thank you for your time in reading this, sorry about the length, but I wanted to be accurate.

 

That change to grav round is absolutely horrendous. I agree it'd be nice not to have to spam one ability to gate everything, but your change would spell the end of Gunnery in PVE since everything in the tree is gated by it.

 

Also I don't think you know the names of our abilities. Concussion charge is not a casted ability and so does not suffer from pushback. I think you may be confusing it with concussion round, but I'm not sure since you talk about using it on a group of imps and it is indeed concussion charge that is an AoE.

 

Meanwhile you can't seriously be asking for Grav Round's damage to be moved to Hail of Bolts. I'm not even sure what you have in mind, but no. The ammo cost alone would result in exactly the horrific DPS loss you're afraid of. Assault is the spec with the "pressure dots". We don't need a second one of those.

 

 

Back to suggestions, surely someone has suggested taking away the dependance of Probe Medic (a good talent) on Frontline Medic (a horrifically bad talent). Or just flat out redesigning Frontline Medic to be something you might actually want (multiple trauma probes is one idea I see suggested often).

Edited October 29, 2013 by ArchangelLBC

[Mork_M]

Like most have suggested, having Trauma Probe useable on multiple players would be a great bonus. Also, I think there needs to be some sort of Aim stat heal % increase, because my friend who is in 69 mods heals approx 200 per tick on the kolto bomb less than me in mostly 78s. HOW. It drives me nuts when it gets mentioned.

 

Additionally, PvP wise, I feel that the Mercs have a huge advantage over the Commandos. Our Kill Me Beam vs their tiny Needles needs to be adjusted somehow. I'd suggest making their heal more noticeable, but I'd be fine with ours being smaller. I know it's just a simple QOL fix, but I rarely heal on my mando in pvp because of it

[Zero_Alignment]

I've only resubbed (and started playing again) recently, after having gotten my Commando to around 48 two months after this game launched.. I've been spending most of my time back leveling up through 55, through both solo quests, flashpoint queues, and warzones.

 

As far as PvE goes, the observations I made when I first played still hold pretty much true, Commando needs a little more survivability. Not enough to make them a tank, or anything, of course, but enough to make them at least viable in solo PvE content without having to spec healer and slug through content with a companion DPSing.

 

As far as actual damage goes, I've noticed that Gunnery isn't actually all that bad if you're geared for your level at least. There's probably some room for improvement but I'll leave the more seasoned Commandos to discuss that. Assault Specialist on the other hand, really needs some looking into, specifically in the ammo consumption department.

 

I don't play healer at the moment, so I have no advice to go there, though I certainly haven't been seeing many Commando healers.

[SpaniardInfinity]

-You can now Cast and Channel while moving (can still be interrupted)

- Casting while moving slows your movement by 30%

- Channeling while moving slows your movement by 70%.

 

My only complaint about a change like this is that it wouldn't be able to dodge interrupts the way you presently can (ie. moving your character slightly to cancel the cast). Not only does this make you more vulnerable, it also takes some of the skill out of it. Maybe the extra mobility will offset it, but it is a design oversight.

Edited October 29, 2013 by SpaniardInfinity

[Monstein]

My only complaint about a change like this is that it wouldn't be able to dodge interrupts the way you presently can (ie. moving your character slightly to cancel the cast). Not only does this make you more vulnerable, it also takes some of the skill out of it. Maybe the extra mobility will offset it, but it is a design oversight.

 

100% agree. You do not know how many times you use this until you can not. There would have to be something in a skill that broke your cast so you could still stop casting and change targets when something happens. I would rather just have us get better defense and stay as the cannon.

[Woozywyvern]

More weapon chices!

I know that this thread its more for Commando Skills, but i would like to see commandos able to use Blaster Rifles without damage penalties compared to assault cannons. Maybe adding new adaptative weapons (this could cover even other classes!!!) as many have given ideas on forums, or maybe by changing the maths for comandos and blaster Rifles.

 

^^^^^ This

[wainot-keel]

Background: I am PvE operation combat medic.

 

First I wanna add something I think is a bug. I made some reports of it but nothing has changed.

When the ammo system was changed from a maximum of 12 to 100, the amount you get if you die and then get battle ressed didnt change. Before the change you got 6 out of 12 ammo back, i.e. 50% of your ammo. Now you still get 6 but I guess it should be 50? You are sort of a waste to get ressed unless your Recharge Cells is off cool-down.

.

 

Yeah, it's been reported months ago. I also made a bug report myself. They said thanks for it.

It's definitely a bug. Either with how little resources a commando gets after a rezz or with how much a merc gets. One of them is not getting the resources they're supposed to get on account of being mirrored classes.

 

 

 

As stated above I believe combat medics are in need of some love. I would love to see a better bacta infusion or some additional instant. An additional instant could be something to help catch up when a target is low on health. Sometimes its near impossible to catch up if you falled behind. Much in the success of healing good as a combat medic is planning a head and knowing what you are facing, both to maintain ammo and keeping your targets alive. But in some cases you can not plan a head. And it can be a real pain when you end up in a catch up phase.

.

 

Good god, yes. Bacta Infusion seriously need a bit of love. The top healing ability should be awesome. At the moment, all you can only say it's "nice". Doesn't have to be as amazing as Sage's Healing Trance but could be better than it is now.

Anything to boost it would be welcomed, like a shorter CD, an increase in healing done (whether a "raw" number or a HoT), etc. But I rather have something else involved, like for example, a buff on target that would increase the rate at which Trauma Probe releases its charges. That would be a buff to both Bacta Infusion and Trauma Probe.

[schooch]

For PVP healing (and I think these would also benefit PVE):

 

 

• Tech Override's cooldown should be lowered to 60 seconds, perhaps additionally having two-stacks baseline (although I don't think the 2-stack is necessary for Combat Medics). This will really help with some much needed utility for all Commandos and give them a lot more in the way of options during a fight. Considering that most of the abilities it can effect are limited by their cooldowns and/or ammo cost, it pretty much balances itself.
   
   
  
• Field Medicine OR Steady Hands (pick one). I know the devs said they may explore allowing Hammershot to target oneself, but if they opt instead to keep it as it presently is, they could add a mechanic to either of the aforementioned skills to allow Hammershot healing on an ally to have a 100% chance to heal yourself for 25%/50% of your tech bonus healing stat. Both skill points are low enough in the tree to benefit Combat Medics who are leveling and since you may only heal an ally while in Combat Support Cell, it is implicitly tied to the stance. It can also be a compromise to the suggestion the devs had in the Mercenary thread where they were considering allowing you to heal yourself directly with Hammershot (100% of your tech bonus healing presumably) but it would not build 3 charges; my suggestion would cut the self-healing (to 50% of the tech bonus healing) in exchange for the 3 charges of Supercharge. This would have less of a negative impact on your rotation, since Hammershot is used to pace yourself and build charge.
   
   
  
• Fix the bug with Efficient Conversions. If it's not a bug, this is a helpful QoL change that resolves a problem that affects Reserve Powercell. Basically, if Reserve Powercell is active when you use Concussive Charge, Concussive Force, or Cyro Grenade (all of which are made free of cost by training into Efficient Conversions), the Reserve Powercell proc is consumed despite the fact that all of the abilities are FREE. This wastes a 2-minute cooldown.
   
   
  
• Kolto Residue: Include Kolto Wave (Concussive Charge) as an ability that applies Kolto Residue to affected allies. This would help add incentive to taking Kolto Wave while giving extra utility to the class.
   
   
  
• Kolto Pods. In addition to its present effects, the 50% slow from Kolto Residue is refreshed on affected enemies with each tick of Kolto Pods. Presently, Kolto Pods applies/refreshes Kolto Residue's healing buff and Charged Screen (when Supercharged) with each tick of Kolto Residue to all affected allies without a player limit. This change would help bring the slow up to speed with the other effects, but the 5-player limit should be enforced for the slow (or lowered to a 4-player limit to compensate).
   
   
  
• Preventive Medicine: Increased duration to 12 seconds (up from 9 seconds). This change is mostly for PVE, where there is a 1-GCD window to cast Advanced Medical Probe on the target due to its cooldown (the HOT lasts 9 seconds, the cooldown of AMP is 7.5 seconds). Increasing its duration by 3 seconds (1 additional tick) would make this window more reasonable and less restrictive.
   
   
  
• Kolto Wave: Damage no longer wakes sleeping targets, but still generates resolve (if applicable). A small QoL change to make Kolto Wave more feasible in PVE and PVP situations where you cannot afford to be breaking CCs.
   
   
  
• Switch the positions of Probe Medic and Frontline Medic in the skill tree. Keep them as three and two point skills, respectively. Probe Medic would require Trauma Probe, but Frontline Medic would have no prerequisites. This is mostly because Frontline Medic is currently a waste of a talent in PVE (it has zero benefit for them) and is only occasionally useful in PVP in small skirmishes/duels. Making Frontline Medic more valuable may warrant its position in the tree.
   
   
  
• Change Frontline Medic's effect to the following: Increases the number of Trauma Probes which may be active at one time by 1/2 and lowers Bacta Infusion's cooldown by 1.5/3.0 seconds. This would allow up to 3 Trauma Probes to be active and trims Bacta Infusion's cooldown somewhat. Another option here could be to add some sort of synergy between Bacta Infusion and the rest of the skill tree (probably to Trauma Probe) because there is absolutely no synergy high in the Combat Medic tree.
   
   
  
• Supercharged Cells: There are a few changes to make here under "Supercharged effects":
   
  1. Move the Supercharged effects of Full Auto and Charged Bolts to the same line in the tooltip (their effects do not change).
  2. Include Kolto Wave on the line for Kolto Bomb, allowing both abilities to apply a 5% damage reduction shield to affected allies while Supercharged.
  3. Add a new effect: Trauma Probe's ammo cost is reduced by 50%.
   
  Most of these are quality of life changes, and #3 has been included because Trauma Probe can now be applied to multiple allies (see changes to Frontline Medic). This change could also compensate for Trauma Probe if its ammo cost is increased because of its expanded number of targets (which may be necessary).
   
   
  
• Med Zone OR Treated Wound Dressings (pick one). In addition to its present effects, you generate 1 stack of charge per second for every second that you are stunned, knocked down, or otherwise incapacitated (basically if an effect generates resolve, it would generate charge). Roots, slows, and non-CC (true) interrupts would NOT generate charge. The generation of charge ceases as soon as the controlling effect expires.
   
  My rational for this recommendation is that in PVP the main weakness to a Combat Medic is that a single interrupt can shut them down if they have less than 30 charges and all of their heals are on cooldown (and this WILL and DOES happen in PVP). Supercharges free up Advanced Medical Probe for use on demand, which makes it more difficult to shut down the spec (since there are 2 abilities without cooldowns instead of the one). Combat Medics have two ways of building Supercharge, both of which can be problematic under pressure: Hammershot is always an option but if you need to build an entire Supercharge purely with Hammershot, chances are someone is going to die; and Medical Probe is costly and highly vulnerable to interruptions. Making stuns/knockdowns/etc generate charge would allow more regular Supercharges and makes it harder to shut us down, but does so in a way that is at the mercy of the opposition (we can't stun ourselves). It adds a good dosage of strategy to fighting a Combat Medic since Supercharges are more rewarding and incentivizes the killing of a Combat Medic BEFORE Supercharging and controlling them DURING Supercharge. (Although this change is mainly aimed for PVP, the extra Supercharge generation during boss battles with controlling effects will also benefit PVE Combat Medics).
   
  

 

 

^This x2

[CommanderKeeva]

My only complaint about a change like this is that it wouldn't be able to dodge interrupts the way you presently can (ie. moving your character slightly to cancel the cast). Not only does this make you more vulnerable, it also takes some of the skill out of it. Maybe the extra mobility will offset it, but it is a design oversight.

 

Yeah for Gunnery spec as well, we have to spam Grav Round during the channel then step out of the cast if Curtain of Fire procs. We get Curtain of Fire AFTER the damage of Grav Round is applied and you wouldn't believe how slowly the damage of Grav Round is applied. I would care to guess that is by far the most slowly applied damage in the game.

 

Just an example, I hit a weak NPC mob with Grav Round, then finish him with HiB. If HiB's damage is not enough to kill it, a get a victory message that the target was defeated by Grav Round. Yeah, the damage of Grav Round is applied so slowly that firing HiB right after Grav Round can actually do damage before Grav Round does.

 

With such a messed up system, we need a reliable way to cancel casts by moving. Or give some forewarning on Curtain of Fire, so we don't have to spam the ability queue on the off-chance it doesn't proc.

[CommanderKeeva]

Reading this thread has been painful! I now can confirm that 95% of people that play commandos are horrible at the game lol.

 

Yeah, you're totally right. You can totally tell that 95% of the Commandos are horrible from what 0,00001% of the Commandos in game posted in this thread and without actually ever seeing any of them in-game. That's an entirely valid observation.

Edited October 29, 2013 by CommanderKeeva

[thasensei]

The biggest problem that I have with my Commando is that I feel it's the baseline and nothing more. There's nothing special about it. No cool animations (Mercs get to use their jet packs, Knights jump around, Smugglers roll around), no unique utility; there's nothing to make the class stand out. So here's a few utility ideas that might add a little flavor to the class.

 

Utility Ideas:

Increase group efficiency. Perhaps in the form of increased ammo rate regeneration or an alacrity buff. This helps all roles to some extent, and it's not just a clone of another class's ability. It also fits the "commando theme".

 

Auto-Revive Probe. A probe that you can place on one person which lasts some decent amount of time (i.e. 60 seconds or more) that will automatically throw a combat revive at them - uses a different debuff than the normal combat revive debuff. It's more reliable than a stealth revive, but can't be used as often.

 

Life Saving Tackle. An ability that lets us push our allies out of the line of fire (preferably without interrupting them).

 

Threat Dampeners. I've got a giant cannon, beastie; pay attention to me, not that Sentinel with his glow sticks. Perhaps this reduces threat for everybody that doesn't currently have aggro; like a raid-wide aggro dump. It's a subtle thing, but it could be situationally useful.