To the Devs working on Disciplines: Remember the NGE?

[LordArtemis]

The "greater good" is balance in a game where balance is everything...everything from PvP to PvE revolves around balance and the traditional trinity roles.

 

I disagree Tux. Everything in PVP and endgame PVE progression revolves around balance and trinity. Balance is not everything in the PVE casual content side of the game, which represents not only the likely majority of players but the majority of content as well.

 

The likely majority casual PVE playerbase is unlikely to care about or be effected directly by balance issues IMO. Therefore this balance problem is likely only a problem for a minority of the playerbase, and will likely always will be that way.

 

This move has nothing to do with more content...where did you get that idea? It's about balance and making it so that a 5 level cap increase doesn't break the entire flipping game.

 

Because spending less time, resources and effort on the neverending balance crusade can translate into more casual PVE content.

 

And again, end game progression and PVP is not the entire flipping game IMO Tux. It is a minority portion of the game, the majority portion of the game is the PVE leveling storyline and side quests. That is the majority content, and that is the content that the likely majority casual playerbase most likely engages in.

 

So this change only indirectly helps the majority of players, in so far as it likely reduces changes to abilities that require reassigning points, nerfs and changes to abilities that hurt casual PVE for the sake of PVP or progression, and frees up resources, otherwise dedicated to balance issues, that can be applied to PVE content.

[Kourage]

Now I know there are going to be trolls, fanboys and cult followers trashing my thread here, and I am prepared for that.

 

That said, DEVs, before you introduce the Disciplines system to the game, in effect dumbing down the game from a chess game to a checkers game, I highly recommend you go read, and re-read the history of the NGE in SWG.

 

Keep in mind, while you have a larger group in SWTOR, you have many of the old SWG customers, and many of them this is fresh in their mind. You also need to ask yourself, who was asking for this change? The customers or the employees? Because ever lame excuse I've seen it was "it will make it easier for us" and not "our customers were asking for"

 

Here is an article where the President of SEO bemoans the utter stupidity of changing the game the way the NGE did: http://www.edge-online.com/news/star-wars-galaxies-changes-complete-and-utter-fail-says-soe-president/

 

If you are going to radically change the game this much, you need to be 100% absolutely fraking sure you are not going to enrage your customers and destroy the social network of the game by doing something that makes players leave the game.

 

Don't repeat history and piss off your current customers. If even a 1/4 of the customers dont like this system it will cause major problems for SWTOR.

Did you have any constructive criticism of the Disciplines or were you just living and ranting in the past about a different company you still hold bitter feelings for? This topic is a waste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings!

 

Today, we bring to you Disciplines, a major overhaul to the class system that will be coming live with Game Update 3.0! At its very core, the Disciplines System replaces the current Skill Tree system while offering a wider array of impactful utility choices to expand their character and the ability for a character’s identity to surface much earlier in the level path. The Disciplines System changes the way we think about and develop the classes themselves, which will translate into a more balanced game and the capacity to expand levels and abilities more often. We’re excited about this system and the possibilities it unlocks for the future.

Say Goodbye to the Skill Trees

 

After much discussion, the Skill Trees that have been with us since the launch of the game have been removed. While we hope to maintain the feeling of progression with each level, players will no longer get a single point every level to invest in an array of skill boxes that we felt resulted in the burying of class identity, uneven power gains, and crazy-town rotations, depending on where you were in the tree. Instead, we created three Disciplines per Advanced Class, named and themed after the original Skill Trees (for example the three Disciplines for Commando are Combat Medic, Gunnery, and Assault Specialist, all very familiar names, themes, and play-styles from the skill tree era). For each of these disciplines, we took a look at all of the skills from their tree ancestor and imported everything that defined the identity and rotation of that tree and laid them out in a level-based progression, along with quite a bit of combining, cutting, creating new, and balancing along the way. No longer are you forced to purchase skills that are, in essence, necessary for your character to function; you simply get them automatically as you level up and progress down what we call the Discipline Path. Much like the old Skill Trees, each path is made up of active abilities, passive abilities, and a new type of progression concept called a utility selection, which we’ll explain later in the blog.

 

A Little Discipline is Good for You

 

From a player’s perspective, interacting with the Discipline system couldn’t be easier. Our goal was to design an elegant system that brings forward class identity without sacrificing the challenge of mastering your role in the process. We have combined the interface and process of taking an Advanced Class and discipline all into a series of linked panels that you access in much the same way you previously accessed the skill tree. Once you are level 10, you can simply open up that interface and are presented with the options for each Advanced Class available to you. After selecting an Advanced Class, the next panel of the interface describes each of the three disciplines available and allows you to select one. You can preview each of them to see what they are all about, and once you see one you like, you simply select and commit it! The chosen discipline path is automatically set to your current level, so if you want to abandon and switch disciplines (similar to resetting skill points on the trees), you can take on the challenge of a new role with ease. To make sure newer characters could immediately feel the identity of their chosen discipline at level 10, we’ve made sure that the very first things you get tend to generate a big impact to the type of character you want to be: healers get a nice heal, tanks get good defense/threat, and DPSers get a nice attack ability for their rotation. Tanks no longer have to grind 30 levels before they really start getting “Tanky” abilities; they can start being tanks right away.

 

What are Utility Selections

 

One of the most important goals for Disciplines was to make sure that the player had real choices that actually mattered as they advanced throughout the game. So after we finished pulling out all of the skills that we thought were really important for a Discipline’s play style and rotation, we took the remaining skills from each of the three Advanced Classes, cut some of the extraneous ones, created some exciting new options, polished old favorites, and put them into a selection pool available to all members of that Advanced Class. The end result is greater versatility. As an Engineering Sniper, do you want to gain AE damage reduction when you entrench? Well now you can, it is no longer for Marksmanship only. Each Advanced Class’s utility selections are divided up into three tiers, with each tier requiring a certain number of utility selections before unlocking. We also wanted to make Utility selections quick and easy to change around, so as long as you aren’t in the middle of combat you can bring up your new discipline window, reset your utilities, and quickly choose new ones.

 

Why the Change

 

While Skill Trees appear on the surface to provide flexibility and choice, in practicality they give very little of either. Players of a skill tree all tend to take the same skills in roughly the same order, with only minor variations on which utility choices they pick up by the end of their leveling system. With Disciplines, we can focus on creating strong and fun play styles from level 10 on, without having to worry about how people are spending 50 skill points and whether some people are making bad decisions or if others are finding crazy untested combinations that vastly exceed what we want to happen. Attach to that the idea of expanding the amount of and type of utility each player has access to and you get a system that creates better and more balanced characters with a stronger identity while allowing players actual choice. We also continued to run into a significant problem expanding the Skill Trees for level cap increases: development time. Each of the Skill Trees were balanced based on an assumption of points and how players must spend their points to get what they need to perform in combat. When we add more points (as well as more skills themselves) to the trees during a level cap increase, all of that balance is thrown off kilter and must be reset for every Advanced Class. This results in a massive amount of time spent every level cap increase simply redoing and rebalancing the Skill Trees over and over, preventing us from spending time actually doing cool new things. So to sum up, we’ve created Disciplines for stronger and earlier role specialization, more utility, more flexibility, better balance, and more development time for class improvements - letting our designers do more for you!

 

Get Ready for Disciplines

 

When you log into the expansion for the first time you will be prompted to choose your desired Discipline and utilities, and you are off and running. With this reorganization of the class system we’ve strengthened the identity of each class path and made the choices a player has available immediately impactful to their character. Coming up we are going to do a blog for each particular discipline for every class, so you can really get a feel for the changes coming to your specific style. We’ll also show off all of the cool new things we are adding to the classes thanks to this flexibility. All of this is just the beginning of the journey – we can’t wait for your feedback!

 

 

Is there something in there you want to refute

Edited October 15, 2014 by Kourage

[LordArtemis]

"...While Skill Trees appear on the surface to provide flexibility and choice, in practicality they give very little of either."

 

I love it. Even the devs admit the current system only gives the illusion of choice. It was and remains a very poorly designed system to fool players into thinking they are getting customization.

 

This change simply pulls back the curtain IMO, and may even offer MORE flexibility, though still not much.

[Kalfear]

The NGE was a complete revamp of the entire gameplay of SWG. It was called "New Game Experience" for a reason, although the decision to so fundamentally change a game that late in it's life-cycle was incredibly risky to begin with. The fact that the players of the old game thought many of the changes made the game worse instead of better caused that risk to blow up in their face.

 

The Discipline System isn't even in the same ballpark as the NGE. It only changes the way the skill trees are presented and eliminates hybrid builds. It has no effect on the basic combat system. The Disciplines have been designed to preserve the playstyle of the Specs they replace, but wrapped up in a package that is easier to balance and gives players access to key abilities at an earlier level. Comparing that to what NGE did is ridiculous.

 

Well said

Well said

 

One thing though. I know they keep denying it (the fanboys) but truth of matter is (as found in SOE investor financials regarding SWG) SOE had been losing money on SWG for some time and NGE had to be done to attempt to stop the bleeding.

 

Remember this was NOT a F2P era game where a cartel shop would fly and add a new line of revenue to the game. They lived and died on subscriptions and the subscriptions had hit a terminal point.

 

The fanboys keep moaning about NGE but the financials show that the NGE actually did turn it around somewhat and bring in new subscribers. Not nearly enough mind you, but sub numbers went up, not down, after the introduction of NGE.

 

The revisionist history by the fanboys finding these vague articles in unknown sources drive me nuts personally. All they need to do is go back and look at investor information from back then.

 

Anyways, your right they not even in ball park.

 

NGE was complete overhaul of failing game

Disciplines are attempt to remove unplanned variables from PVP and try to create a easier balance to design for.

SWG was losing money

SW:TOR made 161 million dollars in profit last year

And the list of opposites between the two games just grows from there.

 

Ive no clue if disciplines will be good or bad as of yet

but I'm willing to take a wait and see attitude on it

Its NOT the system I wanted btw (Nor would SWGs system be desired), I wanted KotOR 1 and 2 systems put in honestly.

 

SWG is starting to remind me of some cult classic movie.

Failed outright in theaters but gathered a small but vocal following after wards that allows it to be shown once every few months in a midnight showing of a run down theater. Yet those few in attendance insist its the greatest thing ever made.

[Raansu]

I'm speaking of them for any use -- my 55 Scoundrel is a giant mess (and admittedly more of a struggle to play in certain spots than other characters) because none of the trees appear worthy pursuing in full. It's a rotten build because nothing looks worth taking (I'm not at home so I can't get into details of why right now). Doing endgame group content with that character wouldn't change the massive mountain of MEH that is the upper half of all three trees.

 

 

 

 

Only if there's a "capstone" skill you give a damn about for that class.

 

Aaaaand there it is. You have just proven that you have no idea how to play this game and have zero understanding of the class skills.

 

I don't agree with your single player games should be reduced to single player format. I think in a lot of ways Swtor makes a great single player game in a mmo format personally think of it as KOTOR3 but it forces grouping to much. There is nothing wrong with group play if thats what you like to do . It's Forced group play that I have an issue with .

 

Let your community decied . If all grouping is completely optional and your not going to miss any thing ( content or gameplay altering rewards) then the players who want to group will group the players who don't wont . If it turns out the majority of your player want to solo then yes there will be higher que times for groups .

 

Which is what the complaint is with the solo reasoning . People want to "force " others to group who don't want to simply to reduce their que time and to me that type of thinking is a completely selfish mindset with similarities to a dictatorship not a free society

 

Grouping in this game is optional, but at the end of the day this game IS AN AMMO. Time to pack up and go play something else dude. This genre is not for you.

[Max_Killjoy]

But see, that is EXACTLY what they're eliminating with this update Max...that entire middle section of nearly every freaking class that had to expand with fluff skills for 2.0, is being eliminated so we didn't have to add in MORE fluff "skills" for 3.0.

 

The worst part of many of the current tress is the top, which the part they're inverting to give out as soon as possible now... which is also what makes some sort of allowance for blended builds even harder to come up with in the new system.

[Raansu]

The worst part of many of the current tress is the top, which the part they're inverting to give out as soon as possible now... which is also what makes some sort of allowance for blended builds even harder to come up with in the new system.

 

The removal of hybrids is a good thing.

[Jimvinny]

I'm speaking of them for any use -- my 55 Scoundrel is a giant mess (and admittedly more of a struggle to play in certain spots than other characters) because none of the trees appear worthy pursuing in full. It's a rotten build because nothing looks worth taking (I'm not at home so I can't get into details of why right now). Doing endgame group content with that character wouldn't change the massive mountain of MEH that is the upper half of all three trees.

 

 

 

 

Only if there's a "capstone" skill you give a damn about for that class.

 

This is quite astonishing to read about that class in particular, because none of those trees are any good at all until you get into the upper tiers of talents. For you to say they are "meh" shows how little you understand about the class, and gives a fair bit of perspective on how little value your opinion should hold.

[LordArtemis]

Well said

Well said

 

One thing though. I know they keep denying it (the fanboys) but truth of matter is (as found in SOE investor financials regarding SWG) SOE had been losing money on SWG for some time and NGE had to be done to attempt to stop the bleeding.

 

Remember this was NOT a F2P era game where a cartel shop would fly and add a new line of revenue to the game. They lived and died on subscriptions and the subscriptions had hit a terminal point.

 

The fanboys keep moaning about NGE but the financials show that the NGE actually did turn it around somewhat and bring in new subscribers. Not nearly enough mind you, but sub numbers went up, not down, after the introduction of NGE.

 

The revisionist history by the fanboys finding these vague articles in unknown sources drive me nuts personally. All they need to do is go back and look at investor information from back then.

 

 

The irony of you discussing the detriments of revisionist history with respect to the NGE...

 

If it wasnt for those stubborn facts, charts, reports and quotes folks posted to completely refute your view you might be able to pass this off as true....

 

But naturally your "view" on how or why the NGE happened was soundly rebuked. That will not stop you from trying though, will it Kalfear.

 

Ill give this to you...you are certainly most persistent. That is admirable. A bit silly in this case, but admirable none the less.

[Jadescythe]

I don't agree with your single player games should be reduced to single player format. I think in a lot of ways Swtor makes a great single player game in a mmo format personally think of it as KOTOR3 but it forces grouping to much. There is nothing wrong with group play if thats what you like to do . It's Forced group play that I have an issue with .

 

Let your community decied . If all grouping is completely optional and your not going to miss any thing ( content or gameplay altering rewards) then the players who want to group will group the players who don't wont . If it turns out the majority of your player want to solo then yes there will be higher que times for groups .

 

Which is what the complaint is with the solo reasoning . People want to "force " others to group who don't want to simply to reduce their que time and to me that type of thinking is a completely selfish mindset with similarities to a dictatorship not a free society

 

I can make your point in reverse. Many players only play this game specifically for grouping up. I would hazard a guess that MOST players gravitated to this game for some sort of group activity, even if that may be random groups such as group finder or solo warzones. It doesn't make sense to create all content with solo and group players in mind. It's very easy to make solo content group friendly by simply giving the option to group up, but changing group content to be solo friendly is another monster.

 

Mechanics have to change that require multiple people. AI may have to be programmed to fill the roles of teammates that were supposed to be there. It doesn't give them the freedom to go crazy with development knowing it will have to function in some form as solo content as well. And most of all, this takes additional time to create the same content. Everyone is still only getting 1 flashpoint, but they are taking the development time of 1 and a half or 2.

 

Solo players have their place, but there will always be forced group content if you want to completely participate in all areas of the game. There was nothing in the fine print of this game saying it would be able to be played solo in all aspects. BW has moved from a very solo-friendly, story heavy leveling experience to a group driven end-game that actually makes it EASIER to group up for (tactical flashpoints). No one wants to force you into their group, they want the game to be multiplayer and for the dev time to be resourced as such. Asking them to spend extra time turning group content into solo content is being selfish.

[Max_Killjoy]

Aaaaand there it is. You have just proven that you have no idea how to play this game and have zero understanding of the class skills.

 

The skills on the trees all have these very nice tooltips that make it clear what they do.

 

 

The removal of hybrids is a good thing.

 

You really enjoy arguing from your conclusion, don't you?

Edited October 15, 2014 by Max_Killjoy

[azudelphi]

The worst part of many of the current tress is the top, which the part they're inverting to give out as soon as possible now... which is also what makes some sort of allowance for blended builds even harder to come up with in the new system.

 

The BEST part of most trees is the top... name the abilities you think are bad.

 

As best I can tell:

Sentinel: Merciless Slash, Blade Rush, Force Exhaustion - All Good Abilities

Guardian: Guardian Slash, Plasma Brand, Force Exhaustion - All Good Abilities

 

Commando: Kolto Infusion, Demolition Round, Assault Plastique - All Good Abilities

Vanguard: Energy Blast, Fire Pulse, Assault Plastique - Fire Pulse is the only one I don't fully understand, but it is rotationally key.

 

Sage: Salvation, Turbulence, Sever Force - All Good Abilities

Shadow: Slow Time, Clairvoyant Strike, Sever Force - I am less familiar with the Shadow Infiltration spec, but I am confident the other two are good

 

Scoundrel: Kolto Cloud, Flechette Round, Hemorrhaging Blast - All Good Abilities

Gunslinger: Burst Volley, Incendiary Grenade, Hemorrhaging Blast - All Good Abilities

 

So... which top tree ability is available to you that you think is bad?

[Jadescythe]

The BEST part of most trees is the top... name the abilities you think are bad.

 

As best I can tell:

Sentinel: Merciless Slash, Blade Rush, Force Exhaustion - All Good Abilities

Guardian: Guardian Slash, Plasma Brand, Force Exhaustion - All Good Abilities

 

Commando: Kolto Infusion, Demolition Round, Assault Plastique - All Good Abilities

Vanguard: Energy Blast, Fire Pulse, Assault Plastique - Fire Pulse is the only one I don't fully understand, but it is rotationally key.

 

Sage: Salvation, Turbulence, Sever Force - All Good Abilities

Shadow: Slow Time, Clairvoyant Strike, Sever Force - I am less familiar with the Shadow Infiltration spec, but I am confident the other two are good

 

Scoundrel: Kolto Cloud, Flechette Round, Hemorrhaging Blast - All Good Abilities

Gunslinger: Burst Volley, Incendiary Grenade, Hemorrhaging Blast - All Good Abilities

 

So... which top tree ability is available to you that you think is bad?

 

To be fair, Turbulence is pretty much crap when you compare it to what you get in the Balance tree by skipping it. But it also won't be the top tier talent in the tree any longer, only a mid tier. Which certainly makes sense.

[_NovaBlast_]

I can make your point in reverse. Many players only play this game specifically for grouping up. I would hazard a guess that MOST players gravitated to this game for some sort of group activity, even if that may be random groups such as group finder or solo warzones. It doesn't make sense to create all content with solo and group players in mind. It's very easy to make solo content group friendly by simply giving the option to group up, but changing group content to be solo friendly is another monster.

 

Mechanics have to change that require multiple people. AI may have to be programmed to fill the roles of teammates that were supposed to be there. It doesn't give them the freedom to go crazy with development knowing it will have to function in some form as solo content as well. And most of all, this takes additional time to create the same content. Everyone is still only getting 1 flashpoint, but they are taking the development time of 1 and a half or 2.

 

Solo players have their place, but there will always be forced group content if you want to completely participate in all areas of the game. There was nothing in the fine print of this game saying it would be able to be played solo in all aspects. BW has moved from a very solo-friendly, story heavy leveling experience to a group driven end-game that actually makes it EASIER to group up for (tactical flashpoints). No one wants to force you into their group, they want the game to be multiplayer and for the dev time to be resourced as such. Asking them to spend extra time turning group content into solo content is being selfish.

 

Will just agree to disagree. Possible solution to solo play accessibility in swtor would be simply allowing me to use my full crew as my "group".

[azudelphi]

Will just agree to disagree. Possible solution to solo play accessibility in swtor would be simply allowing me to use my full crew as my "group".

 

Why not group with people? Generally, a moderately skilled player in moderate gear will always outperform the companions.

[Jadescythe]

Will just agree to disagree. Possible solution to solo play accessibility in swtor would be simply allowing me to use my full crew as my "group".

 

Take something like Aurora Cannon in Section X or Ancient Pylons in Eternity Vault. These would have to be completely reworked since they cannot be done without multiple people doing tasks at variable times. It's not a matter of having a companion do something for you.

 

The puzzle type fights are some of the most enjoyable to figure out and that is lost on a solo player. Everything would just be a tank and spank with no additional value over the content you can already do as a solo player. Literally every encounter would have to be designed with solo players in mind to make the content enjoyable.

[Max_Killjoy]

The BEST part of most trees is the top... name the abilities you think are bad.

 

As best I can tell:

Sentinel: Merciless Slash, Blade Rush, Force Exhaustion - All Good Abilities

Guardian: Guardian Slash, Plasma Brand, Force Exhaustion - All Good Abilities

 

Commando: Kolto Infusion, Demolition Round, Assault Plastique - All Good Abilities

Vanguard: Energy Blast, Fire Pulse, Assault Plastique - Fire Pulse is the only one I don't fully understand, but it is rotationally key.

 

Sage: Salvation, Turbulence, Sever Force - All Good Abilities

Shadow: Slow Time, Clairvoyant Strike, Sever Force - I am less familiar with the Shadow Infiltration spec, but I am confident the other two are good

 

Scoundrel: Kolto Cloud, Flechette Round, Hemorrhaging Blast - All Good Abilities

Gunslinger: Burst Volley, Incendiary Grenade, Hemorrhaging Blast - All Good Abilities

 

So... which top tree ability is available to you that you think is bad?

 

I'll have to check when I get home and into the game, it's been a while since I've bothered to look at them.

 

It's not just that they're all actively bad, some are underwhelming, some seem way too dependent on circumstances, and some are just... not interesting.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Max_Killjoy

[hadoken]

The irony of you discussing the detriments of revisionist history with respect to the NGE...

 

If it wasnt for those stubborn facts, charts, reports and quotes folks posted to completely refute your view you might be able to pass this off as true....

 

But naturally your "view" on how or why the NGE happened was soundly rebuked. That will not stop you from trying though, will it Kalfear.

 

Ill give this to you...you are certainly most persistent. That is admirable. A bit silly in this case, but admirable none the less.

 

Yea he's got a really funny view of the situation. I wonder if he was an SOE investor then or something, trying to justify his losses.

[Raansu]

I'll have to check when I get home and into the game, it's been a while since I've bothered to look at them.

 

It's not just that they're all actively bad, some are underwhelming, some seem way too dependent on circumstances, and some are just... not interesting.

 

So in other words, you have no clue what you're talking about?

[Delta_V]

The worst part of many of the current tress is the top, which the part they're inverting to give out as soon as possible now... which is also what makes some sort of allowance for blended builds even harder to come up with in the new system.

 

What? Ok, you're going to have to spell out exactly which trees you are talking about, because offhand, I can only think of two or three specs with lackluster top talents. The majority vastly improve the performance and flow of the spec.

 

Sentinels: Merciless Slash for Watchman does great damage while resetting the CD of another vital ability. Blade Rush in Combat is vital for proccing your Dispatch and auto-crit Bladestorm, which are key to the spec's burst ability. In Focus, Force Exhaustion produces stacks of Singularity, and more Singularity stacks means more uber-powered Force Sweeps. Not to mention all three specs have passives in the upper third of their tree that considerably boost their output.

 

Commandos: Bacta Infusion for Combat Medic is an excellent free, instant heal that vastly improves resource management, increases your healing output, and makes you much better at responding to burst damage. Demo Round for Gunnery is just excellent damage all around, and not picking up Curtain of Fire near the top of the tree is just foolish. Assault Plastique in Assault is the only one that I feel is kind of weak, as the spec has other dots for proccing its key abilities so it isn't vital for the function of the spec, but it is still a dps increase over not taking it.

 

Guardians: For Defense, just look at the tooltip for Guardian Slash; the shear number of perks tied to that ability is ridiculous. The existence of the hybrid tank spec owes more to the strength of the lower abilities in Vigilance than the weakness of the top of the tank tree, and even then, the hybrid makes considerable sacrifices for a little more durability. For Vigilance, Plasma Brand is vital for the stacks of ZenStrike, because not taking it drastically increases the time between Master Strikes, which is a *bad* thing. And Focus is the same story as for Sentinels.

 

Those are just the three classes I am most familiar with, and of them, only 1 out of 9 specs has a top tier ability that could be considered weak. So trying to argue that most top tier talents aren't worth taking is a load of crap.

 

edit: dang it, took too long to post, and someone beat me to it

Edited October 15, 2014 by Delta_V

[azudelphi]

I'll have to check when I get home and into the game, it's been a while since I've bothered to look at them.

 

It's not just that they're all actively bad, some are underwhelming, some seem way too dependent on circumstances, and some are just... not interesting.

 

They are almost always key abilities. Take the top tier of the Madness tree (since you mentioned you have a sorc).

With Creeping Terror y your Force Lightning hits 25% harder against targets affected by it, in addition to continuing to tick away itself.

Thundering Blast gives some burst, as well as a chance to proc Chain Lightning to instant cast and be free. Not to mention TB auto-crits against enemies affected by your Affliction. Not to mention TB has a 30% chance to do 30% more damage; RNG burst.

 

Yeah, a lot of the abilities on their own are meh... but they fit into a rotation and gain synergy with the other abilities in the tree or base abilities. Very few are lackluster when those effects are factored in.

[LordArtemis]

Yea he's got a really funny view of the situation. I wonder if he was an SOE investor then or something, trying to justify his losses.

 

Yea, I don't know. He has clung to this for some time, because he needed the NGE to be about saving the game from death for some reason.

 

It's a very odd stance to take to be sure.

[Max_Killjoy]

Take something like Aurora Cannon in Section X or Ancient Pylons in Eternity Vault. These would have to be completely reworked since they cannot be done without multiple people doing tasks at variable times. It's not a matter of having a companion do something for you.

 

The puzzle type fights are some of the most enjoyable to figure out and that is lost on a solo player. Everything would just be a tank and spank with no additional value over the content you can already do as a solo player. Literally every encounter would have to be designed with solo players in mind to make the content enjoyable.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of puzzle mazes.

 

Instead of insisting that they all be taken out or changed. I just don't do those FPs / OPs. I do AC as part of the credit grind once or twice a week, it's not hard to find a group for that at some point between the resets on the weekly.

[Kalfear]

 

But naturally your "view" on how or why the NGE happened was soundly rebuked. That will not stop you from trying though, will it Kalfear.

 

.

 

well there is a liar her eLA but sorry you only need to look in mirror

 

but only you would claim investment reports from a company (that been linked 1000000 times over for you, so not going to again) less reliable then some fan site report

 

But hey, you newest set of blinders are very flashy and colorful!

[LordArtemis]

well there is a liar her eLA but sorry you only need to look in mirror

 

Lol Kalfear. You never cease to disapoint.

 

but only you would claim investment reports from a company (that been linked 1000000 times over for you, so not going to again) less reliable then some fan site report

 

Kalfear. You were rebuked. Over and over again. I understand that that frustrates you, but you need to come to terms with it. Posting the same inaccurate information over and over is just sad.

 

But hey, you newest set of blinders are very flashy and colorful!

 

Thanks. I liked the pair you use and decided to get my own.

Edited October 15, 2014 by LordArtemis