any info on 2.6?

[da_jon]

All I know is there is no reason that a DPS class should be underperforming in PVE and excelling in PVP the way this class is. The other DPS classes do extremely well in PVE and PVP without any sacrifice, so there must be some middle ground somewhere. I have seen this suggested before somewhere, someone said make maul autocrit on duplicity procs for more reliable (less RNG) but lower its base damage. Its just one thought, not even saying that is a viable or perfect solution. But there has to be something that can be done.

[HaoZhao]

All I know is there is no reason that a DPS class should be underperforming in PVE and excelling in PVP the way this class is. The other DPS classes do extremely well in PVE and PVP without any sacrifice, so there must be some middle ground somewhere. I have seen this suggested before somewhere, someone said make maul autocrit on duplicity procs for more reliable (less RNG) but lower its base damage. Its just one thought, not even saying that is a viable or perfect solution. But there has to be something that can be done.

 

Um, this isn't true at all. Many builds that are viable in PVE are road kill in PVP. Sorcerer and Mercenary healers have been a gigantic joke in PVP for as long as I can remember. DPS juggernaut is rarely taken seriously, and neither is Lethiality for both operatives and snipers. As I mentioned before, concealment operative is the worst PVP DPS spec in the whole game. It's even worse than madness assassin. It's just that bad.

 

Making maul go critical on duplicity is ridiculous. You're basically saying that you want a guaranteed way to take off 1/3 of someone's HP in warzones with just one hit. Critical maul really, really hurts. You want to do 5% more damage in PVE at the expense of turning war zones into a complete circus. Assassins with guaranteed critical mauls would be even worse than the current hybrid powertechs that everyone is trolling with.

[da_jon]

Again, I stated that I do not personally know the solution. All I know is, there needs to be balance between PVE and PVP. I don't care if that means we get separate skill trees for PVE and PVP. It just needs to be balanced. Assassins are a fun class to play, but no one wants to be excluded from endgame ops because they will get better DPS if they take a mara and 3 snipers, instead of bringing a skilled assassin that knows his class and plays it exceptionally.

[RynZelara]

That's not a major problem. Your rotation is fine w/o crushing darkness, just cast it when you have a low chance of being hit.

 

..................I......I have no words for this. I clap for your complete and total ignorance.

 

Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness is an integral part of the rotation. It does more damage without double ticks, on average, than a LS/Dist. It CAN double tick, further increasing it's damage output on average. Each of those double ticks plays a key role in reducing the cooldown of Mental Alacrity/Polarity Shift. And more MA/PS means more chances to double tick with Dist/LS and TkWave/CL.

 

Knowledge (and proper use of it) is the building block of understanding. Please acquire some.

[HaoZhao]

Again, I stated that I do not personally know the solution. All I know is, there needs to be balance between PVE and PVP. I don't care if that means we get separate skill trees for PVE and PVP. It just needs to be balanced. Assassins are a fun class to play, but no one wants to be excluded from endgame ops because they will get better DPS if they take a mara and 3 snipers, instead of bringing a skilled assassin that knows his class and plays it exceptionally.

 

And I know that we need world peace. Unfortunately stating that doesn't really mean anything.

 

BioWare isn't going to split class trees on PVE/PVP lines. If you get excluded from ops because you do 5% less damage than this other class, I have a solution for you. Type /gquit in the game. Any guild that treats its members like garbage over something dumb like that is not a guild worth being in. I say this as someone who groups up for war zones with guild members who have trouble breaking 100K DPS. If your guild leaders aren't trying to make operations fun for everyone and are instead trying to turn them into a second job, then you're in a really, really bad guild. You have my condolences.

[aeterno]

I'm just gonna throw this out there...

 

All ACs should have one of the talent trees renamed "PVE spec" and the other "PVP spec" and balanced accordingly. You could then even give them pve and pvp only abilities via the trees.

Must have dual spec tho.

Edited January 3, 2014 by aeterno

[Ottoattack]

There isn't. You can't make maul stronger in operations without making it stronger in war zones. The issue in PVP is that deception has an insanely powerful burst. Reckless gives you a critical shock and/or discharge which triggers explosive strikes. I'm not sure if you've ever been hit in the back with a critical maul, but it really hurts. Players don't get the same HP as operation bosses. Go into unranked and you'll see most people with less than 30K HP. The full burst from assassin eats through 30K HP in seconds.

 

Yet, on the competitive PvP seen dec. sins are under performing. Outside the burst window, which competent players will mitigate, sin does not have much to offer. Simple solution is take from burst and give sustained. If we remove the reset on recklessness and buff sustained dps instead in form of voltaic slash, shock or forum charges would not that be better for both PvP and PvE?

[JediMasterSLC]

You can forget about either of those classes getting a buff because they are both OP in PvP and they still haven't figured out how to buff for PvE without making it even more OP in PvP.

 

Neither shadows nor guardians are OP in PvP, in any spec.

[JediMasterSLC]

That's a bad idea.

 

Better opener: (FR) Shoot First > Blaster Whip > Dirty Kick > Cover > Sab Charge > FR Backblast > Sucker Punch > Sucker Punch again if proc hits > Blaster Whip > Sucker Punch.

 

This, or something very close to it.

[JediMasterSLC]

I'm just gonna throw this out there...

 

All ACs should have one of the talent trees renamed "PVE spec" and the other "PVP spec" and balanced accordingly. You could then even give them pve and pvp only abilities via the trees.

Must have dual spec tho.

 

Absolutely not!!!!!! That is literally the worst idea ever. Not even kidding. Do you know how mad that would make A LOT of players?

[JediMasterSLC]

..................I......I have no words for this. I clap for your complete and total ignorance.

 

Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness is an integral part of the rotation. It does more damage without double ticks, on average, than a LS/Dist. It CAN double tick, further increasing it's damage output on average. Each of those double ticks plays a key role in reducing the cooldown of Mental Alacrity/Polarity Shift. And more MA/PS means more chances to double tick with Dist/LS and TkWave/CL.

 

You're obviously talking about PvE, I don't care about that. Yes, optimally a lightning sorc that is completely free casting should use crushing darkness on CD. In PvP, you're not often free casting, and because you don't have pushback reduction on crushing darkness, it is foolish to cast it while being hit. The point of my post was that while giving crushing darkness pushback reduction would undoubtedly help the spec a little bit, it's not one of lightning's core problems in PvP.

Edited January 3, 2014 by JediMasterSLC

[Bugattiboy]

My comment did not target sages.

 

http://www.torparse.com/statistics

Here is somewhere you can get some insight.

Incidentally, he IS a Sage player.

 

And he does pplay the game a lot. A lot more than you.

 

And he just provided an actual link where you can spend 5 minutes and SEE who is doing what DPS.

 

I bet this particular would-be-troll is a simple lol-smasher. Or a faceroll slinger.

Has no ever heard that some say that before? I'm talking about non-SWTOR related definition. And no, I don't steal oxygen in the manners you are implying.

[Karkais]

[*]A fairly significant DPS boost for Operatives/Scoundrels.

Ummmmm what? Did these actually need a damage boost? Are you sure you got the advanced class right?

Edited January 4, 2014 by Karkais

[crunchbarry]

First off, Happy New Year everyone! I am back in the office now from the holidays so we are right back to some yellow posts

 

Game Update 2.6 first and foremost will mark the launch of Galactic Starfighter! That will mean the introduction of:

• The Gunship unlock available for F2P players.
  
• A new Gunship variant.
  
• Two Bomber variants!
  
• ...and more! We will talk more about this next week.
  

Also, Game Update 2.6 will come with a few class changes, here is just an overview of some of what you will see:

• A fairly significant DPS boost for Operatives/Scoundrels.
  
• Mercenaries/Commandos will now have a skill to eliminate pushback on Tracer Missile/Grav Round and Power Shot/Charged Bolts.
  
• Sorcerers/Sages will now have a skill to eliminate pushback on Lightning Strike and Force Lightning/Disturbance and Telekinetic Throw.
  
• Mercenaries/Commandos can now cast Kolto Shell/Trauma Probe on more than one target at a time.
  
• Mercenaries/Commandos can now use Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot on themselves while Combat Support Cylinder/Combat Support Cell are active.
  

As always, look for the 2.6 patch notes for a full list of all changes that are coming! That is just a preview of what is to come.

 

-eric

 

Any plans on optimizing the new 4vs4 map? As soon as engagement happens my game freezes for about 5 or so seconds, with 2-3 second freeze intervals afterwards. I have a gaming pc. The game runs fine everywhere else.

[EzioMessi]

First off, Happy New Year everyone! I am back in the office now from the holidays so we are right back to some yellow posts

 

Game Update 2.6 first and foremost will mark the launch of Galactic Starfighter! That will mean the introduction of:

• The Gunship unlock available for F2P players.
  
• A new Gunship variant.
  
• Two Bomber variants!
  
• ...and more! We will talk more about this next week.
  

Also, Game Update 2.6 will come with a few class changes, here is just an overview of some of what you will see:

• A fairly significant DPS boost for Operatives/Scoundrels.
  
• Mercenaries/Commandos will now have a skill to eliminate pushback on Tracer Missile/Grav Round and Power Shot/Charged Bolts.
  
• Sorcerers/Sages will now have a skill to eliminate pushback on Lightning Strike and Force Lightning/Disturbance and Telekinetic Throw.
  
• Mercenaries/Commandos can now cast Kolto Shell/Trauma Probe on more than one target at a time.
  
• Mercenaries/Commandos can now use Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot on themselves while Combat Support Cylinder/Combat Support Cell are active.
  

As always, look for the 2.6 patch notes for a full list of all changes that are coming! That is just a preview of what is to come.

 

-eric

 

This *full* release of GSF, will it include the ability to queue for GSF and warzones simultaneously? Something that should have been there from the very start and it's a no-brainer to not have it?

 

Other than that, kinda stoked for the patch. Sure hope my Sage can get a few casts off without, you know, getting the entire cast time reset by one massive hit.

[Raansu]

That's a bad idea.

 

Better opener: (FR) Shoot First > Blaster Whip > Dirty Kick > Cover > Sab Charge > FR Backblast > Sucker Punch > Sucker Punch again if proc hits > Blaster Whip > Sucker Punch.

 

Except you're not bursting anyone doing that. And most good scoundrels use combat stealth to keep bursting. By the time FR dot is gone you are doing shoot first again. Again, in a longer fight, yes I would not do BB after SF, but in a burst skipping BB is pretty stupid.

[Raansu]

Yes they did. But remember, 16man places LESS responsibility on the individual. There are so many other DPS in group. Guardians are "viable." But they aren't competitive. In a big dps pool, they are takeable. But in a teeny tiny 4 man dps pool, they kinda look like low man on the totem pole and could be the last choice in the entire thing, just like shadows and vanguards. I'd like to see who used a DPS guardian in an unnerfed Dread Guard 8man group. None. Nor a Shadow. (unless there was a wildberry...)

 

And for those complaining about scrapper mobility (feel ya there), Vigilance Guardians have a similar problem. You see, 25 percent of the damage of a Vigilance guardian is a melee channel. This melee channel is a melee channel, meaning you have to A: get close to use it, B: stay within range, and C: do this for a whole 3 seconds when the boss could potentially leap away. This melee channel is highly RNG dependant. Depending on luck, you could get it every 15 seconds, or once every 30-45 seconds, depending on luck. This is because proccing it runs on two abilities at timers of 9-12 seconds, each with a 30 percent chance. You have 2 chances to get it every 12 seconds. For a 15 second per proc gap, you would need it to proc nearly every single time. In a long fight by any circumstance, that is VERY unlikely. In addition, most parses ON the world leaderboards have this proc rate or slightly less, in addition to an amazing crit rate. And guess what? They are STILL one of the worst dpsers in game for PVE with this amazing and unlikely luck! Imagine when we get those 30 second natural cooldowns SEVERAL TIMES IN A ROW! DPS falls. Rapidly.

 

As for PVP, the Vigilance Guardian, and several other Dot classes, do not do much damage in arenas. Burst is king in PVP, and its showing. Dot classes have no abilities to counter said healers, so unless they are given burst and change the ENTIRE identity of classes, they are stuck in the bottom of the totem pole. My suggestion? Give dots healing reduction. Reduce incoming heals with dots. Maybe a bit overpowered, but with proper tuning, could reproduce the effects of burst WITHOUT changing the identity of a class in PVE. In addition more melee classes need aoe DR. Seriously. Smash is underpowered in PVE and somewhat OP in PVP. If more classes had AOE DR, smashing would be basically getting a nerf in PVP and be untouched in PVE. In PVE, they should be getting something more in single target damage, albeit not before Vigilance. The spec itself is far too close to Vig in single target output at least for guardian, and FAR more stable. Many guardians who can sustain 3.1k in focus have been switching it as the "chance" to get 3.2k in vig isn't a fair trade off to inconsistent DPS.

 

Guardian Tanks need SOME threat help. They need to have an opener of threat for saber throw, in order to hold threat properly. Right now, if a DPS gets lucky with a crit on their gap closer, they can take threat from the get go, unless the tank asks for a ridiculous multiple GCD wait before charging, potentially reducing dps by a large amount. Precasted flybys are AWESOME yo.

 

Only thing vengeance needs (as far as burst goes) is some damn surge talents so that the force scream auto crit hits for something worth a damn instead of the average 4k crit it hits for (or change sundering assault to be an armor pen in shien stance). BW also needs to fix the crit rating in general so that impale can crit more often. My impale hits for 6-7k when it crits but its extremely rare because of the ****ed up crit rating since 2.0. Either add some surge to the tree to make force scream auto crit hit harder or bring back the auto crit to vicious throw.

 

As far as the MS reset...I hate the rng on it, I really do, but its hard to balance something that can hit for over 15k in a full channel. The proc being tied to two over 12s cd abilities is really terrible and the proc rate should definitely be increased. Either that or leave it at 30% and put the proc on something we can spam like other classes have with their low proc rates. It's a lower proc but they can use the ability with no CD to get the proc.

[TACeMossie]

Only thing vengeance needs (as far as burst goes) is some damn surge talents so that the force scream auto crit hits for something worth a damn instead of the average 4k crit it hits for (or change sundering assault to be an armor pen in shien stance). BW also needs to fix the crit rating in general so that impale can crit more often. My impale hits for 6-7k when it crits but its extremely rare because of the ****ed up crit rating since 2.0. Either add some surge to the tree to make force scream auto crit hit harder or bring back the auto crit to vicious throw.

 

As far as the MS reset...I hate the rng on it, I really do, but its hard to balance something that can hit for over 15k in a full channel. The proc being tied to two over 12s cd abilities is really terrible and the proc rate should definitely be increased. Either that or leave it at 30% and put the proc on something we can spam like other classes have with their low proc rates. It's a lower proc but they can use the ability with no CD to get the proc.

 

I think the best moves would be:

 

1. Burning purpose now lasts twice as long, but does the same DPS. Same with burning blade (this doesn't stack, but with how strong blade storm is this means you have a couple of seconds spare just in case)

 

2. Increase Zen Strike Proc rate to 15/30/45% and add slash to the moves that triggers it. Also remove debilitation, and make Zen Strike reduce the target's speed by 33.33/66.67/100% so it does the same as debilitation without the skill points required.

(or if you wanna go full vanguard Ionic Accelerator on this, make Zen Strike have a 15/30/45% chance with strike and a 25/50/75% chance with everything else.)

 

This drops the RNG issues by quite a bit, and gives more damage from the DoTs.

BTW I currently dont have SWTOR installed to check what the current values are (new computer, still updating) but if someone gave better values (e.g. BiS 72s or non-optimized 78s) that would be nice.

Edited January 4, 2014 by TACeMossie

[aeterno]

Absolutely not!!!!!! That is literally the worst idea ever. Not even kidding. Do you know how mad that would make A LOT of players?

 

About as many as are perpetually mad due to balancing issues?

[Alec_Fortescue]

This year needs a crafting app. I want to send my companions for gathering missions while I am at work :[

[SenatorPalpaTANG]

There isn't. You can't make maul stronger in operations without making it stronger in war zones. The issue in PVP is that deception has an insanely powerful burst. Reckless gives you a critical shock and/or discharge which triggers explosive strikes. I'm not sure if you've ever been hit in the back with a critical maul, but it really hurts. Players don't get the same HP as operation bosses. Go into unranked and you'll see most people with less than 30K HP. The full burst from assassin eats through 30K HP in seconds.

I think a big part of the dilemma with Deception is Electric Ambush. The fact that they can reset recklessness potentially every 15s makes it a very tough balancing act.

 

The funny thing is, Dec specs can't depend on those resets in Ops or Arena beyond using Force Cloak, so they only get 2 rounds of near-auto crits per engagement. Meanwhile in WZs they can slip out of combat very easily between kills and chain recklessness all game long.

 

IMO that talent needs to be redesigned. Make sins less dependent on their super burst openers and it becomes a lot easier to buff their sustained dps for pve.

[madlinn]

What kind of joke is this? For what do I need class changes if there is no content? This is really poor. I would like to see a new operation or at least NiM mode for Oricon.

[Luckygunslinger]

What kind of joke is this? For what do I need class changes if there is no content? This is really poor. I would like to see a new operation or at least NiM mode for Oricon.

 

Maybe because the current stage of content is still an issue for the weakest classes in game? HM DP/DF are still a struggle at times for some healer and DPS classes. We could see another Drop it like it's Hoth down NiM Council with 4 Jugg DPS after everyone says it's impossible but still, there are classes when NiM Drops that people will say "No, you're not going because you're a Jugg/Sin/PT." That's why we need buffs, to prepare for new content.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Luckygunslinger

[Raansu]

What kind of joke is this? For what do I need class changes if there is no content? This is really poor. I would like to see a new operation or at least NiM mode for Oricon.

 

The irony of a pve player complaining about not getting content when 99% of the content released is for them. These changes are for pvpers, and heaven forbid we get a few patches dedicated to pvp.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Raansu

[Aries_cz]

The irony of a pve player complaining about not getting content when 99% of the content released is for them. These changes are for pvpers, and heaven forbid we get a few patches dedicated to pvp.

 

Actually, lot of the changes for Commando/Merc are looking great for healing in PvE.