Commando Changes Coming in 2.7

[jedip_enguin]

I find these changes arousing.

[venomlash]

Wow, Gunnery is going to tear it up in warzones. Guaranteed Curtain of Fire procs, pushback immunity to its rotational attacks, the Cover Fire slow applying as soon as the Full Auto channel starts, cheaper HIB, and easy access to Combat Shield? Killer. Might actually make the spec ranked-viable in the right hands.

 

My impressions overall?

 

Combat Medic: will benefit from the shorter CD on Tech Override, which is useful for burst-healing while on the move.

 

Gunnery: very good improvements, as explained above. 100% CoF procs might make the spec a little TOO easy, not to mention boring. Combat Shield will do the most for Gunnery because Gunnery has 30% uptime on Reactive Shield if under constant attack or if DoTted up, with the Reflexive Shield talent. Yeah yeah, shorter CD on Tech Override, yay, better mobility.

 

Assault Specialist: slight buff with Full Auto doing 4 hits and being immune to pushback. Full Auto isn't used much in a proper Assault rotation, but it's helpful when running low on ammo, and the 4th tick gives it an 81% chance to proc Plasma Cell at least once, up from 71% with three ticks and up from 56% with two ticks (because currently you often lose the last one to pushback, another problem solved here). Tech Override blah blah, will let you instacast Plasma Grenade half the time if you use it on CD.

 

Hybrid: I've been toying with a 2/28/16 hybrid I call "Rapid Fire" for a while. (I've seen others running their own variants here and there as well.) It uses Plasma Cell, maintains DoTs, debuffs armor with Grav Round, and gets a twofer out of Charged Bolts, proccing both Curtain of Fire and Ionic Accelerator. Not viable for hardcore raiding, but fun to play around with, and it'll benefit a lot from the Curtain of Fire buff, since having to spam Charged Bolts for 19 ammo a pop is how you run dry in the spec. It'll still be gimped, particularly in the burst and defensive departments, but it'll be a lot smoother.

[Bleeters]

Hot damn.

[Master-Nala]

Hot damn.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Will dust off my Mercenary.

[Bleeters]

Gunnery: very good improvements, as explained above. 100% CoF procs might make the spec a little TOO easy, not to mention boring.

I'll take boredom over wishing on a star that CoF actually procs reliably any day.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Bleeters

[KeyboardNinja]

Holy buffs, Batman!

 

Given that the luckiest Arsenal parse on the board right now (mid-3.6s, if memory serves) is lucky precisely because Barrage/Curtain of Fire proc'd almost exactly on the ICD, I don't think this change is particularly overpowered. The additional change of making HiB ammo neutral is most definitely a substantial buff; one which will in all likelyhood make Gunnery parse a lot closer to Assault. I don't think that's particularly unfair. Assault should be ahead of Gunnery, simply because of the DoT setup and the lower burst, but Gunnery should be close enough that it potentially worth using on any boss that isn't a training dummy fight.

 

I'm actually a little disappointed that Assault isn't being toned down a bit. It really is doing far better than it should be, IMO.

 

The lack of changes to healers is good. Very good. Baseline 60s Tech Override will help quite a bit in PvP and PvE, and everything else about the spec is in such a crazy good place right now that it really doesn't merit changing.

Edited February 26, 2014 by KeyboardNinja

[venomlash]

I'll take boredom over wishing on a star that CoF actually procs reliably any day.

 

I feel you. I once went 35 seconds without a single CoF proc. Just spamming away Grav Round, using Full Auto on its cooldown, tossing in HIB and Demo Round...it was surreal. RNGsus frowns on us.

[Essence_of_Light]

Congratz Bioware! You actually managed to have some decent changes for DPS Commandos/Mercs this time instead of nerfing us, ignoring us or making up useless changes!

 

Now if only this would happen more often.... took them long enough to do this already....

[CommanderKeeva]

Hey folks,

 

Here is a list of the currently planned changes for the Commando in 2.7:

 

General

• Tech Override now has a base cooldown of 60 seconds.
  
• Full Auto will now deal 4 ticks of damage instead of 3, with the first tick of damage occurring at ability activation. The total damage of the ability is unchanged, so each new tick of damage will do slightly less than before.
  

 

Combat Medic

• Combat Shields is now a Tier 2 Skill.
  
• Efficient Conversions is now a Tier 3 Skill.
  

 

Gunnery

• Overclock now reduces the cooldown of Tech Override by 7.5/15.
  
• Steadied Aim now prevents 50%/100% of pushbacks towards Full Auto, Charged Bolts and Grav Rounds.
  
• Curtain of Fire now has a 33%/67%/100% chance to occur when using Grav Round or Charged Bolts.
  
• Special Munitions will now reduce the cost of High Impact Bolt by 3/6/9 Heat/Ammo while in Armor Piercing Cell.
  

 

Thanks everyone, see you on PTS!

 

-eric

 

These changes are great! I'm ecstatic to try them on out on the PTS tomorrow!

 

As for removing the RNG from Curtain of Fire, it's exactly what I've been asking for, so thanks a lot! Personally, I don't think that this is going to make the spec any more boring than in already is. I mean this will not decrease the amount of skills we're using, it will just make it so that you don't have to press Grav Round like crazy while it's casting, then step out of the channel and use Full Auto if Curtain of Fire happens to proc. This was the single most annoying thing for me about the spec, having to spam Grav Round then manually cancel it to use another skill.

 

Also, both other turret specs (Sharpshooter/Marksmanship and Telekinesis/Lightning) had all RNG whatsoever removed and their procs made predictable. (As it was done with Scrapper/Concealment and Vigilance/Vengeance).

So if all those specs deserve to be RNG free, dare I say, why should the Commando be subjected to the whims of Random Numbers? I, for one, absolutely hate RNG. I'm happy to work with procs as long as they're (close to) guaranteed, that's why I prefer Assault to Gunnery atm. Your rotation should be in your own hands. It should not be dependant on any random numbers. I don't mind decreasing the damage on Full Auto to compensate or increasing the internal timeout, just please get rid of the RNG forever.

[CommanderKeeva]

May be, but I don't want an OP spec.

 

If the spec turns out to be OP, I recommend an overall damage nerf, instead of reverting to the random Full Auto proc. Have consistent, predictable mechanics, then adjust the damage as needed.

 

However, I don't think that's going to be the case. Assault is already a good 500-600 DPS ahead of Gunnery, so this will merely close the gap somewhat. Even so with these changes, I don't think the damage is going to exceed Assault's damage, which is just as well, since in Assault you have to set up and manage 3 DoTs simultaneously. Assault has a higher skill cap and higher potential difficulty at the cost of a more difficult rotation.

Edited February 26, 2014 by CommanderKeeva

[diadox]

Wish they'd put Combat Shield in tier 1 instead of tier 2 in order to make it more reachable for Assault. I have a hard time putting less than 8 points into Gunnery, and tend to put 10 more often than not. Only 4 points into Gunnery is not plausible. Edited February 26, 2014 by diadox

[Petvin]

These changes are great! I'm ecstatic to try them on out on the PTS tomorrow!

 

As for removing the RNG from Curtain of Fire, it's exactly what I've been asking for, so thanks a lot! Personally, I don't think that this is going to make the spec any more boring than in already is. I mean this will not decrease the amount of skills we're using, it will just make it so that you don't have to press Grav Round like crazy while it's casting, then step out of the channel and use Full Auto if Curtain of Fire happens to proc. This was the single most annoying thing for me about the spec, having to spam Grav Round then manually cancel it to use another skill.

 

Also, both other turret specs (Sharpshooter/Marksmanship and Telekinesis/Lightning) had all RNG whatsoever removed and their procs made predictable. (As it was done with Scrapper/Concealment and Vigilance/Vengeance).

So if all those specs deserve to be RNG free, dare I say, why should the Commando be subjected to the whims of Random Numbers? I, for one, absolutely hate RNG. I'm happy to work with procs as long as they're (close to) guaranteed, that's why I prefer Assault to Gunnery atm. Your rotation should be in your own hands. It should not be dependant on any random numbers. I don't mind decreasing the damage on Full Auto to compensate or increasing the internal timeout, just please get rid of the RNG forever.

 

Sage still has RNG left though, Telekinetic Momentum and Mental Momentum, that 30% chance is very unreliable.

[cs_zoltan]

Just as a heads up, the Barrage proc can only occur once every 8 seconds. I forgot to mention that in the original post.

 

-eric

/5char

[BobaFaceroll]

From the Merc version of this thread...

 

Just as a heads up, the Barrage proc can only occur once every 8 seconds. I forgot to mention that in the original post.

 

-eric

[LordKantner]

Well, the hybrid spec is now stupid easy viable, 5k dps here we come. Edited February 26, 2014 by LordKantner

[Petvin]

Damn more grav round spam......................... fun

6 sec was fine i think.

[KeyboardNinja]

Well, the hybrid spec is now stupid easy viable, 5k dps here we come.

 

Yeah, this is really concerning. Barrage/Curtain of Fire needs to be tied to Armor Piercing Cell, otherwise it will be trivially easy to run in Plasma Cell and double-dip on procs: Curtain of Fire with Ionic Accelerator. Something like 2/28/16 (edit: Kantner ninja-edited his post while I was typing my reply, so this now looks a little redundant). Buffed Full Auto once every 8 seconds precisely, free High Impact Bot once every 6 seconds, Grav Round (ideally) once per HiB and double CB to nearly guarantee the proc.

Edited February 26, 2014 by KeyboardNinja

[MillionsKNives]

Well, the hybrid spec is now stupid easy viable, 5k dps here we come.

 

I only took a very brief look at that spec, but aren't Cell Charger and Ionic Accelerator contradictory skills? The former requires the Armor-piercing cell and the latter requires the Plasma Cell.

[LordKantner]

8 seconds is actually perfect, that extra GCD can be used for an Incendiary round, Plasma Grenada, Electro net, etc.....

 

In the Hybrid spec of course...

 

And Cell charger was just a filler, you could easily put that into tenacious defense.

Edited February 26, 2014 by LordKantner

[Keypek]

Well, the hybrid spec is now stupid easy viable, 5k dps here we come.

 

Exactly why i said on page 2 that bioware would be stupid not to make CoF require high energy cell to work. If they let this go live without that simple change I don't know what to say after they've spent the last year randomly nerfing stuff that didn't need nerfed in an attempt to kill hybrids on classes like vanguard when all they had to do was restrict spec trees staple ability to the appropriate stance or cell.

[Ryokusen]

Wow really these changes will help a LOT both on pvp and pve for mandos. Gunnery was always an easy going spec so I dont really see the issue some people are pointing out. Waiting for the gurus to try it out but my guess is that we should still be spamming grav round (due to the 8 sec lock) so the spec should still feel the same but with more consistent procs and less hammer shots.

And agreed please kill the hybrid before live patch (but after the geared guys play a little with it )

Also props to bioware on these recent balance patches, they've been for the most part spot on

[LordKantner]

Exactly why i said on page 2 that bioware would be stupid not to make CoF require high energy cell to work. If they let this go live without that simple change I don't know what to say after they've spent the last year randomly nerfing stuff that didn't need nerfed in an attempt to kill hybrids on classes like vanguard when all they had to do was restrict spec trees staple ability to the appropriate stance or cell.

 

I only comment since you've made this mistake several times, not out of common dickery.

 

I think you are referring to Armor Piercing Cell. High energy cell is for vanguards.

[ML_DoubleTap]

Yeah, this is really concerning. Barrage/Curtain of Fire needs to be tied to Armor Piercing Cell, otherwise it will be trivially easy to run in Plasma Cell and double-dip on procs: Curtain of Fire with Ionic Accelerator. Something like 2/28/16 (edit: Kantner ninja-edited his post while I was typing my reply, so this now looks a little redundant). Buffed Full Auto once every 8 seconds precisely, free High Impact Bot once every 6 seconds, Grav Round (ideally) once per HiB and double CB to nearly guarantee the proc.

 

Wouldn't this be really hard on ammo? You don't get the passive venting from Cell Charger, or the cheaper Charged Bolts from Hyper Barrels. You also don't get the either of the buffs to recharge cells from the medic or assault tree. It's tough to say without trying it out, but I'd think you're run out of ammo pretty fast with few ways to get it back.

 

edit: also wouldn't get the cheaper Grav Round from Special Munitions.

Edited February 26, 2014 by ML_DoubleTap

[odawgg]

Woohoo!

[KeyboardNinja]

Wouldn't this be really hard on ammo? You don't get the passive venting from Cell Charger, or the cheaper Charged Bolts from Hyper Barrels. You also don't get the either of the buffs to recharge cells from the medic or assault tree. It's tough to say without trying it out, but I'd think you're run out of ammo pretty fast with few ways to get it back.

 

edit: also wouldn't get the cheaper Grav Round from Special Munitions.

 

Daharel already has a hybrid parse that is higher than his best gunnery parse on The Ebon Hawk boards. Same hybrid, it's just that in 2.7 the RNG will be removed and thus the ammo eased tremendously.