Commando Changes Brainstorming

[Isolde]

Thank you for the opportunity for feedback and ideas.

 

Energy Management for Commando Healer

 

It would be fair to force us to work for our energy management, therefore I would solve the current energy crisis by making Supercharged Cells for healer commandos regen a significant amount of ammo. It would allow us a consistent way to keep our ammo up whilst also forcing us to work on rotations to keep supercharged cells up as much as possible.

 

Interruptable Heals

 

Medical Probe and Advanced Medical Probe immune to interrupts for duration of Supercharged Cells. Still CCable and still forces a strict energy management rotation.

 

Misc

 

Allow hammer shot to target self to build stacks of supercharge

[oaceen]

more interrupt immunity (combat shield as a baseline, for example, or interrupt/pushback immunity on full auto)

 

more pushback resistance, but i understand the necessity for it in pvp while being directly attacked (maybe just remove it completely from aoe damage and reduce it a fair amount for direct damage)

 

an execute for gunnery pretty please?

 

a 4-set bonus that is more powerful than the 2-set bonus that equally affects both dps specs (and i don't mean moving the current 2-set bonus to the 4-set position)

 

better ammo management for healing

 

more available ammo after being rezzed

 

some capacity to cast while on the move as a tradeoff for having less range than sages/gunslingers

 

an actual reason to use hail of bolts, explosive round, or plasma grenade (auto-trigger plasma cell with hail of bolts and/or explosive round, lowered cost for all three)

 

a buff to sticky grenade (a +x% aoe damage skill would be nice and would help with the above issue as well)

 

a good utility buff for assault that is comparable to gunnery's easily-applied armor debuff

[NuRhoPhi]

Generally speaking about the ammo/heat system:

 

Knight/Warrior have a 'unique' system, generate own 'mana'

Consular/Inquisitor have a linear system, could be considered unique.

Smuggler/Agent have a non-linear system, closer to max 'mana' means more mana regeneration.

 

-> Trooper/BH at the moment share this system.

Looking at the thread, many (tbh, myself included) are not in favor of a linear system.

What about a more unique system? Max ammo regen when you are LOW on ammo, max heat venting when you are glowing red hot? BUT: chaining a 'burst' of healing or dps should then require either dipping into lower ammo regen BEFORE you can do this, or a cd such as reserve powercell, or... But, reducing such cd's might make it more attractive to start.

This would require a considerable overhaul to be workable, but I'd prefer such a change over a boring, linear system.

How would it require an overhaul? Because at the moment, staying at 'high ammo' is difficult, but if needed the OPTION is there to burst through your ammo reserve, hopefully slowly regenerating it afterwards. In practice, such change FORCES the presence of a bit more ammo regen/lower ammo costs in order to be workable.

 

Other 'fun' mechanics could be 'concentration steps': low concentration: your 'basic heals' require least amount of ammo. But, as you spam those, their cost goes up, and the cost of 'medium heals' down. Then, with each 'medium heal', the 'high heals' come down in cost and cast time (burst heal), the 'basic heals' increase in crit chance, Casting 'high' heals reducs the cost of basic heals....

Similar system for dps..

Gunnery has a sort of 'concentration': spamming grav round increases dmg of rail shot (making it more attractive to use), and the cast time of a heal (again, making the heal more attractive). Also, demolition round dmg goes up, full auto come of cd etc. Adding an extra 'step' in the abilities, so grav round does not proc everything results reasonably close in a three step system, although IMO there should be a gain doing a rotation 1-2-3, or 1-2-1.

 

Again, would require a considerable overhaul of commando AND vanguard.

[Bleeters]

There's not much I can add that hasn't already been said. I am, however, going to stress my own particular pet peeve of how much ability pushback from damage screws over commando casts, and how little difference that apparent 70% resistance skill seems to make. Even with it, Grav Round and Full Auto are incredibly easy to disrupt to the point where the latter hits twice instead of three times if you're taking basically any damage at all.

 

(And if you made it so commandos could keep using rifles without gimping themselves I wouldn't mind just throwing that out there)

Edited October 30, 2013 by Bleeters

[haksilence]

From a PVE perspective i feel that commandos are fairly balanced in both healing and DPS, but some quality of life things would be nice, from the healing perspective, since that is my area of authority, id like to see some changes to bacta infusion. its our capstone healing ability and is... well... pretty pathetic. an instant cast medium sized heal on an unnecessarily long cooldown doesn't bring much use to the table. id reccomend have its cooldown reduced and have a buff or something or other tied to it, because as a heal alone its pretty underwhelming.

 

ive been thinking about how the commando class is in general for healing and i love the concept of trauma probe adrenaline rush being reactive healing, i'd like to see something with bacta infusion follow this theme. perhaps keep it as a moderate heal on the same cooldown, but in addition places a adrenaline rush type buff that activates when the target drops before 50% or some other arbitrary percentage and heals for another moderate amount over time.

 

another HUGE quality of life issue is not being able to use hammer shots on yourself and having no substitute for self healing, this ability needs to be reworked or we need to be given something else to to accommodate self healing. basically commandos are dependant on their own kolto bomb or other healers to keep them healed in a PVE scenario. very rarely will you have the time or resources to drop a medical probe on yourself in any serious content.

 

for PvP healing mobility is the greatest problem, unless we are being babysat by another healer or tank we are essentially easy targets. and with advanced medical prob, bacta infusion, and kolto bomb all be abilities plagued by an independent cooldown, all the enemy has to do is interrupt medical probe and we are essentially dead in the water, i have no suggestions for balancing this class for PvP other than what ive already stated or by giving us some more potent defencive CD's or giving us another heal off an independent CD something in the medium low to the medium high range similar to the sages "benevolence"

 

as for PVE DPS, commandos put out appropriate numbers in both specs, but id like to see some QoL changes for gunnery, namely to make it less RNG dependant. the spec already revolves around two massive hits, so crit plays a decent role, and RNG for the Full auto procs, which is the more prominent issue. my recommendation is to remove this as a RNG factor by making it a stacking buff from gravround, demo round, and HiB to remove the CD on full auto and grant to curtain of fire proc, or something along those lines. perhaps at three stacks of said buff it automatically takes FA off the CD and grants curtain of fire. just spit balling here, maybe treat it similar to the combat medics supercharge cells and have it perform a plethora of features.

[Altheran]

I'll give my point on Assault spec since it's the only one I play.

 

Recent change have somewhat improved things such as burst... some people were asking for it, while I didn't feel the need even though I reckongnize it was underperforming in this area. I thought it was normal considering the gameplay of the spec since it was more mobile than the other spec, and a DoT spec. But I welcome the intention.

 

However, this improvement came with a cost that I think was unaffordable : mobility. How is it possible ? By reducing the value of instant damage ability and DoT damage. Yes, what has been reduced. Before it was somewhat possible to be moving a lot and have acceptable damage... ... not impressive, but acceptable. Good enough to help others at focusing, and throw some explosives that will be enough of a burst in focus situations. It was also able to fight back melee foes by kitting and doing enough damage while kitting... "was".

Now that the DoT damage and instant damage has been reduced, damage done on the move isn't acceptable anymore, but just crappy. Now in order to have an acceptable output we're much more forced to rely on casted and channeled abilities. Assault has become much more static and unable to kite efficiently.

It would be okay if we didn't already have a spec matching these specifications with more pros avaliable. But we have it, and it's Gunnery. So at the moment, Assault is in my opinion underperfoming Gunnery in all aspects : it's as static, not more bursty, while being less useful to others and having less tools to survive.

 

In addition a DoT spec's forte is usually its ability to move while not plummer its own damage too much, and Assault means assaulting right ? Now I feel my Commando is anchored, and unable to assault anything. I 'd have to sum up Assault in five words, it would be "Assault has lost its soul".

 

The ability to do acceptable damage on the move for Commando is absolutely mendatory for the spec. It doesn't have especially improved defense. So it has to be better elsewhere, it there are two options : output or mobility. Output is not an acceptable option as we can not allow a spec to overperform damage wise. Only remains mobilty. Improving defense would also be a possibilty, but Assault would only be "Gunnery mark II" then.

 

Now, about the ideas... Since I identified the recent changes as the mobility problem, some people would easy say "revert them". But that would lead us nowhere, putting us back with dissatisfied players since they were disatissfied at that time. So no, I won't ask a roll back.

So... what hinders mobility ? The response is the over-reliance of Full Auto and Charged Bolts, the two only self-rooting abilty. Since we can't revert the changes, nothing can be done about the over-reliance on these abilities. Only remains their self-rooting aspect.

Cannot this spec still use casts and channels like other DoT specs (Lethality &Balance) ? Not at the same degree. Other have either protection (Cover) and/or quick movement (Force Speed/Covered Escape) that allows them to not have to stop casting or channeling for too long. Commandos only have Hold the Line, and it means a much longer time running.

Which ability can we alter its self-rooting aspect ? We can't blame a channeled ability that is used once a while because of a CD, and that can be stopped half-way if moving is needed. So logically that's Charged Bolts that would need a change. Two ways are avaliable to take care ofthe problem : allow its cast while moving, or make it instant. The first option would be the softest one since the spec would still have the same sensibility to pushback, interrupt and CCs... but can the tech allow it ? If not then making it instant will do the job, can easily be done, but is a stronger change (Charged Bolts become immune to anything that can hinders its use).

 

Now would it be a huge improvement ? Yes, because in comparison to the previous state of the spec, not only burst would be improved by the last change, but also it's ability do damage on the move since allowing Charged Bolts to be used on the move (casted or instant) would allow the spec to be nearly fully effective without having to stop moving.

But are there other options ? Not any one that seems acceptable to me. (Improving defense would turn Assault in a Gunnery mark II, improving direct damage would probably make it unbalanced for PvE, improving DoT damage would in addition just undo the DoT change that has been made, which probably has a good reason behind it while and is also affecting Powertechs/Vanguards)

 

 

 

Assault Specialist:

 

--The internal rate limit on Ionic Accelerator becomes an annoying guessing game when you have substantial alacrity. I find myself trying to guess whether or not 6 seconds have passed since the last proc, and I often hit Full Auto just half a second too soon, wasting its 75% chance to proc. Can the skill be adjusted to that ALL ticks of Full Auto have a chance to proc Ionic Accelerator? (This could require reducing the chance of each individual tick to proc, to avoid it being a near-guarantee; if each tick, like Charged Bolts, had a 40% chance to proc, the probability that at least one of the three ticks would proc would stay about 75%.)

 

Since GCD is now reduced by Alacrity, now all specs that rely intensively on procs with an internal proc rate are now hindered. And the lower the ICD is, the more it will hinder the class/spec. So in addition to Assault Spec, all Shadows' spec are affected since all their Technique have an ICD... And for DPS specs the DPS loss induced by alacrity and proc rate, is pretty huge. I've tried to prove on Shadows' forums one or two month ago, that any points in Alacrity would lower total DPS by more than 100 DPS, but... ...you know forums were more about "we're underperforming" and such, and nobody even made a comment about it at that time.

 

I can only say that I'm with you with this, but instead of a changed only adapted to Commandos, I'd rather have a change to anyone : making all these types of ICD to be a direct multiple of GCD instead of flat value... In other words, a previously 6s ICD would turn into a 4-GCD ICD, meaning that if your ICD is lowered from 1.5s to 1.4s, then the ICD becomes 5.6s to keep the same flow of events regardless of Alacrity.

Edited October 30, 2013 by Altheran

[cashogy_reborn]

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.

 

NB: Ive not read through this whole thread yet so I may add other responses to this post.

 

Are you talking about bait-casting? You could do that quite easily if we had a keybind to "Cancel cast/channel". Right now you can cancel a cast by hitting Escape. If anything, being able to move and cast would actually increase the amount of skill required... bait-casting would be more complicated than just moving a fraction to stop the cast.

 

 

Most of the players here consider commando in a very bad place atm. I have seen commando do very well in 4v4 ranked arenas (DPS both gunnery and assault) along with Sage/Sorc. Focus on making commando heals viable and give us some pushback/interrupt resistance. Most of the changes recommended are unneeded or will simply break the class.

 

This X100. Cant emphasize it enough IMO. The overwhelming majority of suggestions Im seeing in this thread are basically absurd. The bolded should be the main focus, as that is where we are the most weak.

 

 

Edit: although i do not believe we need the slows as they would still keep us with our problem and managing our distance from our opponents so everything but being slowed

 

I hear ya, but you have to look at this from the perspective of a melee player. If we could cast while moving and not lose any movement speed, we would be an insane kiting class. Also, I would think that a base core mechanic change like that would also apply to other classes with casts/channels. I think it is a fair trade-off IMO: allow more mobility for cast/channel heavy specs, but not so much mobility that they gain a very significant advantage over melee players

Edited October 31, 2013 by cashogy_reborn

[ripamorame]

What about a ability where you buff someone with a guard esque buff and if they are within 15-20m of the target they get 50% of the healing (non hammershot) this would make healer tank combo quite formiddable still leaving dps etc capable of shutting them down but with more difficulty.

[schooch]

 

 

The overwhelming majority of suggestions Im seeing in this thread are basically absurd.

 

 

 

 

Very,

[SWEtree]

Give us a HoT. Not sure how much ammo it should cost considering the fact our resource managment is very vulnerable.

Operatives wear medium armor and should be a "squishy" healingclass compared to mandos. But still they usually have twice the dmg takes in WZs compared to mandos. In other words,heavy armor dont help us in frontline healing. Give us some better survivalbility (dodge,evade,resistence, or something like this) And its very easy to shut us down when we heal. Split our skills so not "all" of them gets disabled during a interrupt.

Change our suicidal green beam to same animation we have with hammer shot. (we all know why)

Maybe some short CC immunity like 3-4 seconds against KD,stunns (this could get abit OP because we have Hold The Line.

With my operative i dont slap myself if i throw away a overheal. With my mando i cant afford this kind of misstakes. Lower cost on medical probe.

While Combat Support Cell is active make hammer shot crits (green beam) restore a tiny amount of ammo.

Reactive Shield lower CD down to 90 seconds.

Cell Charger from Gunnery tree available for healers (regen 8 cells each 6 second while AP-cell is active)

Adrenaline rush healing 30% hp (not up to 35% hp) and make the rate of healing abit faster.

Bacta Infusion should get stronger.

 

Yes i understand we cant have ALL these buffs

[Clogski]

I already responded with this post on the merc thread but since I am sure not everyone reads both I shall post it here as well.

~

From a PVP Healer Standpoint:

* I am not saying we need all of these changes but one or two variations or tweaks like these would be helpful to the class.

 

Trauma Probe/Kolto Shell: Make it free again! Also make this castable on more than one target (say max 4 players). Also allow procs a chance to restore/vent 2 energy on crits. The talents that buff Kolto Shell is never used in pvp builds.

(this will mainly help us with our energy management)

 

Combat Support Cell: When using rapid shots on a friendly player or self each tic has a chance to restore 2 energy.

(more abilities to help us regain energy)

 

Recoil/Jetpack: Disengages you backwards 15 meters away from the enemy. While this ability is active you gain immunity to all movement impairing effects. ((This is so we're not slowed or snared during our disengage.))

 

(the commando animation could be like firing the assault cannon to the ground causing the commando to recoil. The merc animation is obvious.)

 

Bring 30 yard Electro Dart back for mercs&mandos!

 

Increase the healing done by our casted heals by a sliver: Healing Scan and Rapid Scan/Advanced Medical Probe and Medical Probe. Right now we have the weakest single target heal in pvp.

 

Someone brought up the idea of a chain heal which reminded me of a skill talent somewhat like this:

Quick Patchup: When you crit with Healing Scan, Rapid Scan and Emergency Scan you have a xx% chance of the lowest party member within 10 meters for xx% of the heal.

 

~

[Arehonn]

My ideas for tweaking Commando / Merc Healing:

 

 

1. Hammer Shot can be used on yourself

 

2. Hammer Shot critical heals also restores 2 ammo cells

 

3. The Kolto Residue slow is upped to 6 seconds ( currently 3 ).

 

4. First Aid now heals Force and Tech effects

 

5. Trauma Probe is now useable on two targets

 

6. I think the cooldown on Bacta Infusion is justified by the fact that it's an ammo free heal. However, it is currently under-performing in comparison to other top tier healing boxes. Make it so that after every Bacta Infusion, you gain a charge that increase your next Bacta Infusion by 10 percent, alacrity by 1 percent and it can stack 3 times before losing all charges.

 

 

A quality of life change that would greatly help all classes but especially casting classes:

 

Interrupts are not GCD dependent, meaning a DPS class can use their interrupt while they're using other specials at the same time. Put all interrupts on the GCD it for god's sake. This will make interrupting a healer require more skill instead of quickly mashing a button whenever they see a green cast timer pop up.

Edited October 31, 2013 by Arehonn

[DiabloPL]

(◕_◕)

 

Full Auto (and corresponding ability on Mercenary) is bugged from game release. If u turn it fast right after one of popular skills (combination of Grav Round, HiB or Demolition round), Full Auto bugs, activation bar is going but u get no animation, character is stuck for 2 secs doing nothing and then at the end or cast u are shooting once dealing tiny amount of damage u would deal if Full Auto would be used as first skill before others (but its bad for rotation efficency). U got many reports about this but never did anything.

 

One of houndrets post about it, this is almost 2 years old, and U DID NOTHING all that time http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=174450

 

Also fact that every other class is doing higher DPS than Commandos/Mercenary is just LOL, since this class was supposed to be a highest DPS class in this game.

Edited October 31, 2013 by DiabloPL

[CrazyOldMystic]

Need to chime in here, umm please do not let healers, ummm shoot themselves ROFL! Are you trying to turn this game into the laughing stock of the gaming world. Here in swtor we solve issues by letting our healers shoot themselves for healing! I thought my brainstorming was crazy wow.

[SWEtree]

(◕_◕)

 

full auto (and corresponding ability on mercenary) is bugged from game release. If u turn it fast right after one of popular skills (combination of grav round, hib or demolition round), full auto bugs, activation bar is going but u get no animation, character is stuck for 2 secs doing nothing and then at the end or cast u are shooting once dealing tiny amount of damage u would deal if full auto would be used as first skill before others (but its bad for rotation efficency). U got many reports about this but never did anything.

 

One of houndrets post about it, this is almost 2 years old, and u did nothing all that time http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=174450

 

also fact that every other class is doing higher dps than commandos/mercenary is just lol, since this class was supposed to be a highest dps class in this game.

 

 

this!

[Malckiah]

You guys need to learn to play the class. I have never had an issue with interrupts and pushbacks.... at least not to the extent you guys are pushing it. This is why I can't stand the forums... You get a few loud people who will dictate the future changes who don't know what they are talking about. Interupts and pushback is part of the game....deal with it. Play better.

 

So what are you guys even saying the Commando has problems with?....dps? .....that would be ridiculous! As far as a dps Commando goes the only problem they should have if you play them right is no way to escape heavy focused dps damage. That's it....nothing else.

 

Lets look at ranked for a moment. Every match I play Commando is always the first dps class to get focused. if you get focused as a Commando, there is really nothing you can do, but die.

Sages can bubble.

Shadows can stealth.

Guardians can freeze them and use saber reflect, not to mention warding call as well

Sentinels have Guarded by the force and force Camouflage

Scoundrel has disappearing act and Dodge

Smuggler has Dodge and Flash Grenade

Vanguard has Neural Surge which doesn't hold for very long...but better than nothing.

Commando has....Nothing to stop a group from attacking for a short duration so he can get away!

Edited October 31, 2013 by Malckiah

[Rahizm]

My ideas from a PVE perspective

 

1. Gunnery DOT

Assault has DOTs sure. Gunnery? Only Electro Net and Plasma Grenade. With the latter one being an energy eater and has NO boost in any talent whatsoever.

 

Now if I read the description of Grav Round: "crushes the target's armor". If my armor was crushed I'd be in pain. Why not turn it into an armor debuff + DOT that ticks somewhere in the low hundreds? Result: "slight" dps increase and most likely still under the pure DPS classes.

 

2. Gunnery Setpiece bonus

Bring the old Dread Guard bonus back. The current one is an energy management horror.

 

ALTERNATIVE: up the energy regen on EVERY DPS cell.

 

TK sages laugh in the face of any DPS commando who doesn't know how to properly use their ammo. Well, they laugh in anyone's face with energy management issues as they literally don't have to manage it at all.

 

3. Stockstrike

It costs ammo to punch someone in the face. W-why?

 

4. Defensive cooldowns

This is just crap. 2 minutes on reactive shield and adrenaline rush (this would be better off with the vanguard only imo). Compared to Gunslingers who have how many? Dodge, Defensive Screen, a huge soccer shield..

 

Makes you wonder how they got all this tech. Commandos are soldiers who should have more tech compared to a gunslinger who just traverses space and stuff. Another defensive cool down would be nice, and a soccer shield of our own would be great.

 

5. The Green Beam

Starting off by saying that this isn't Unreal Tournament 2004's Link weapon that commandos use. They are the to-go-target in PVP because of it. Added to that is the lack of defensive cool downs.

 

But if you want to keep it UT2k4-ish, at least make it less obvious: a target painter. Hammer Shot turns into a target painter. The "Painted" target receives minor healing over x seconds at no energy cost. Painted target can be recognized by a small green light on his/her back.

 

This idea adds a HOT to the commando healer as well.

[CrazyOldMystic]

You guys need to learn to play the class. I have never had an issue with interrupts and pushbacks.... at least not to the extent you guys are pushing it. This is why I can't stand the forums... You get a few loud people who will dictate the future changes who don't know what they are talking about. Interupts and pushback is part of the game....deal with it. Play better.

 

So what are you guys even saying the Commando has problems with?....dps? .....that would be ridiculous! As far as a dps Commando goes the only problem they should have if you play them right is no way to escape heavy focused dps damage. That's it....nothing else.

 

Lets look at ranked for a moment. Every match I play Commando is always the first dps class to get focused. if you get focused as a Commando, there is really nothing you can do, but die.

Sages can bubble.

Shadows can stealth.

Guardians can freeze them and use saber reflect, not to mention warding call as well

Sentinels have Guarded by the force and force Camouflage

Scoundrel has disappearing act and Dodge

Smuggler has Dodge and Flash Grenade

Vanguard has Neural Surge which doesn't hold for very long...but better than nothing.

Commando has....Nothing to stop a group from attacking for a short duration so he can get away!

 

Let me guess a operative healer? Again today in a warzone operative healer multiple classes including my commando dpsing the operative. Could not kill the operative worth anything. Try playing the game, if you had, you would have noticed with the recent ammo changes our dps is lacking. I push 3 grav rounds, one HIB, and one demo round my ammo is nearly empty. Put recharge in I can put off one more set after that I am empty. Take a guess what that little bit does to a operative healer or merc healer? Just guess. Oh and in case you did not notice you cant focus dps on operatives and scoundrels because they just stealth out and heal. Thats if you even get them to the point of forcing them to do that. Lastly before you blame the players for this thread it was the devs that asked for brainstorming ideas on the issue of commando. Not some loud mouth as you put it.

[Wanchope]

Most of the players here consider commando in a very bad place atm. I have seen commando do very well in 4v4 ranked arenas (DPS both gunnery and assault) along with Sage/Sorc. Focus on making commando heals viable and give us some pushback/interrupt resistance. Most of the changes recommended are unneeded or will simply break the class.

 

I don't disagree that many of them are over the top. But its a brainstorming session, so there is nothing wrong with throwing out ideas. I have no doubt that the devs (if they read this) will not just pick one and go with it. I think they are just looking for ideas of things they might try.

 

My favorite ideas so far for Medics is any of the various buffs to Bacta Infusion. Make it do something more, even if it is just heals for more or something simple like that. I'd be up for something that takes some skill to get the most benefit from, since right now, outside of managing resources, Commando healing isn't very brain intensive imo since there are no procs or anything to do other then watch and wait on various cooldowns. Maybe give us a way to proc Bacta Infusion when it's on cooldown (crit med prob has a XX% chance to proc bacta) . Or as I suggested earlier, have it refresh trauma probes charges (making us be careful where we use it). Both require some basic skill and would have a (minor) impact on ammo management.

[venomlash]

Try playing the game, if you had, you would have noticed with the recent ammo changes our dps is lacking. I push 3 grav rounds, one HIB, and one demo round my ammo is nearly empty. Put recharge in I can put off one more set after that I am empty.

Dude, I don't know WHAT you're doing. When I open up on an enemy? Grav Round x3, HIB, Demo Round. Then I hit Full Auto and by the time it finishes, my ammo is back in the full regen zone. I'm right with you that Gunnery has ammo management problems now because HIB is no longer effectively free, but if they fix that we'll be fine. It's not all that bad.

 

Also, I kinda like the suggestion of making Bacta Infusion more like healer companions' Kolto Jolt. (No cooldown, applies debuff on target preventing it from being used again for a little while.) The plus: it would give us better group heals under pressure, making us very useful in Ops and Warzones. The minus: debuff mechanics would be tricky. Presumably the debuff from one healmando would prevent the target from another healmando's Bacta Infusion, similarly to the debuff from Force Armor. This could be problematic in Ops situations, though, where two healers might end up stepping on each other's toes and a target might not get sufficient healing as a result. Also, we've got enough debuffs to keep an eye on as it is.

[Cleet_Xia]

.... I push 3 grav rounds, one HIB, and one demo round my ammo is nearly empty. Put recharge in I can put off one more set after that I am empty. ....

 

If that's running you out of ammo... you're using the wrong ammo cell. Plus, there is not longer any need to open with 3x Grav Round, as Grav Vortex doesn't stack any longer. You should be opening with Grav Round>HIB>Demo Round>Full Auto. And their should be a Diversion after Demo Round if you're in PvE. From there it's Grav Round & Charged Bolts looking for a CoF proc for Full Auto, until HIB/Demo/ or Full Auto come off CD. Unless you get really lucky with the CoF procs ~ you should never have any issue with ammo that can't be fixed by inserting a single or double cast of Hammer Shot.

 

1 change... gief back the small knockback on Stock Strike & have it keep the root. That would go a long way to straighten out the problems we have with melee.

 

Commando healing has needed the following changes forever.

1) GET RID of the "Green Beam O' Death". Just change our bolt color the way Merc is done.

2) Make Hammer Shot able to self target.

3) Remove the assault cannon requirement for any Commando attacks.

4) cut the number of charges of Trauma probe by 50% & let us apply it to multiple targets.

Edited October 31, 2013 by Cleet_Xia

[KatieKatPrincess]

I'd really like to see some more AoE heals for combat medic. I was playing a 16 man story mode last night that could have used more than just my kolto grenade. We had 2 other healers but none of them were sages and I just kept throwing out my grenade like it was going out of style.

 

As a DPS, I haven't even tried PvP because of my gunnery tree. Even in duels I get interrupted constantly which makes it quite difficult to do anything. I think a nice change would be to make grav round cast faster the more times you use it. So for example, my rotation is Full Auto > High Impact Bolt > Demo Round > Grav Round until Full Auto procs. My average usage of grav round to get full auto up is 2-3. So maybe after the first grav round, the next one can be casted 25% faster, then after that casted 50% faster, and the maximum being 75% faster casting which could stay as a buff for like 30 seconds or something. Most everything else can insta cast so it's just the full auto and grav round that get stuck when it comes to any sort of pvp.

 

Also for the gunnery tree, it'd be cool if we didn't have so many useless things we had to put points in for the next branch to open up. Off the top of my head, Decoy and Heavy Trooper are the most useless (are we suppose to be tanking? lol). I think advance the line, concussive force, and tenacious defense are pretty useless too but less so. I really only took them so the next line of skills would open up, and my leftover points went into other trees.

 

Another point I'd like to hit, we run really slow and hold the line literally looks like it makes us run at normal speed. I am always at the back of the op watching the shadows and whatnot run further and further away. Ops groups always have to wait, and god forbid us commandos are trying to farm mats because then they have to wait even longer!

 

Lastly, I didn't even level in gunnery tree, I leveled as an assault specialist and when I hit max I was told I had to change because they just don't rank as well as the gunnery (not saying they suck, just telling you what I was told) as far as DPS goes. I really liked being an assault specialist with all the explosions and fire so please do something about that tree (make it more like vanguard DPS or whatever) so I can go back to being like Scorch from Delta Squad.

[SpaniardInfinity]

While Combat Support Cell is active make hammer shot crits (green beam) restore a tiny amount of ammo.

 

I've seen a few people suggest this, and of course this is a brainstorming thread, but I don't think its going to happen. The devs suggested they might, but they also casually made it clear that the ammo regen Scoundrels/Operatives have may very well be something they're going to review as a possible cause of over-performance:

 

As for venting Heat/recharging Energy Cells when Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot is used, that may be something we could do. However, it is also possible that the energy return tied into Diagnostic Scan makes Operative healers better than they should be. It does seem strange that one healer would have an energy-returning ability, while another healer using basically the same type of resource system has nothing to compare with it. We will investigate this further, and the outcome should be positive or at least neutral for Mercenaries/Commandos

 

To be honest, other than playing with the cooldown to Reserve Powercell to make it available more frequently, there should be a regeneration mechanic somewhere on a modest cooldown (namely, a cooldown that prevents it from being spammed). There is already one such mechanic: Supercharge Cells. You can only Supercharge once every 20 seconds or so, so getting through your rotation to that point could reward maybe 10 ammo instead of 6. Another prime option is Bacta Infusion which has a similar cooldown (18 seconds). Tighten up its RNG range, trim its cooldown to 15s (with the set bonus), and enable it to regenerate 8 ammo when it is used. Mechanically, this would be somewhat similar to the Vanguard tank's Energy Blast, which serves a similar purpose. And yet another alternative could be to allow Field Triage to stack twice, with each stack reducing the cost of Medical Probe by 8. Since this could only reasonably be done during Supercharges -- you'd otherwise have to go without casting Medical Probe for 7.5 seconds due to AMP's cooldown -- this is gated at roughly a 20-second interval and still requires you to have an effective rotation.

 

The reason I'm focusing on these longer cooldowns, though, is that I think lowering the cost of Medical Probe too significantly, or making Hammershot regenerate ammo whenever it is used without some kind of gate will make it too efficient, and Bioware has also explicitly said they don't want Combat Medics healing indefinitely:

 

...however, we cannot allow Mercenaries/Commandos to heal indefinitely – which is actually the reason why the system works like it currently does.

 

Basically, it's a Catch 22 for Combat Medics: we want the system to be easier, but the reason the system is so complex is because its by design a limit to Combat Medic's effectiveness. I think this is acceptable, but I also think the system can be very unforgiving especially when you mentioned underhealing. Basically, there are situations where if you heal less than you should have because of bad RNG, you are in danger of running out of ammo very quickly because of how expensive it is. Focusing on these non-spammable abilities (ie. NOT Hammershot) will encourage better rotations, reward more, and still serve to limit the effectiveness as intended.

Edited October 31, 2013 by SpaniardInfinity

[metalfenix]

I see 3 main problems with Commando/merc healers.

 

1) Very tight ammo/heat management. I don't ask for the god mode of 1.0, but something among the lines of diagnostic scan of scoundrels, maybe getting a bit of ammo everytime a hammershot crits? and some free heals to deal with the interrupt hell on PvP, maybe by lowering to half the Cooldown of bacta infusion. I don't ask to be instant, but the current cooldown is looong.

 

2) Most of the skills can (and will) be interrupted. Since people learned to interrupt, casting classes are at loss on PvP, and some PvE fight with intense knockbacks and interrupts. and we are not very mobile healers, the only heal we can throw at the moment on the run, is kolto bomb and bacta infusion.

 

3) in Ops, we could use an AoE stronger skill, or at least, a HoT like kolto probe that can be casted on various members of the group.

[cashogy_reborn]

You guys need to learn to play the class. I have never had an issue with interrupts and pushbacks.... at least not to the extent you guys are pushing it. This is why I can't stand the forums... You get a few loud people who will dictate the future changes who don't know what they are talking about. Interupts and pushback is part of the game....deal with it. Play better.

 

So what are you guys even saying the Commando has problems with?....dps? .....that would be ridiculous! As far as a dps Commando goes the only problem they should have if you play them right is no way to escape heavy focused dps damage. That's it....nothing else.

 

Lets look at ranked for a moment. Every match I play Commando is always the first dps class to get focused. if you get focused as a Commando, there is really nothing you can do, but die.

Sages can bubble.

Shadows can stealth.

Guardians can freeze them and use saber reflect, not to mention warding call as well

Sentinels have Guarded by the force and force Camouflage

Scoundrel has disappearing act and Dodge

Smuggler has Dodge and Flash Grenade

Vanguard has Neural Surge which doesn't hold for very long...but better than nothing.

Commando has....Nothing to stop a group from attacking for a short duration so he can get away!

 

You suggested stealth for Commando... Everything you say is henceforth irrelevant.