Mando/Merc changes in 3.0 (official news only)

[AMightyKnight]

Please dont discuss stuff from other sources in this thread.

 

With yesterdays livestream it might be a good time to start a good time to start a discussion about the new Mandos in 3.0.

 

 

We already know from the first livestream two weeks (?) ago that we will get a replacement skill for Full Auto called Blazing Shots. This skill will be castable while moving if we choose to use the utilitiy option.

Channeled abilities came up on the stream as well yesterday.

As dulfy wrote in her notes (Dulfy.net Livestream Notes) , channeled abilities will (continue) to start to happen as soon as you execute them.

This is already the case with FA obviously (since 2.7), we get a first damage tick immediately. But its nice to now the wont change it for the new Blazing ability.

Much more importantly however, resource management. While there may be many more changes impacting this, the fact that channeled abilities will consume resources over time instead of up front. This is a huge QoL improvement for us and should give us noticeable more breathing room with ammo management.

 

Also no pushback for channels is great. Or not? It could mean Gravs will suffer. Currently we enjoy 100% pushback reduction with Steadied Aim, so this might change.

 

What else, the accuracy changes. What i understood from the stream, we will lose those +3% Accuracy from talents (maybe the +9% Aim as well if they decided to change the 'boring' stuff). They changed the math a bit so we should get more accuracy for our accuracy ratings but i would personally stack up on a extra 186 BIS accuracy enhancement or two for 3.0. Afterall, its not likely we'll get BIS 186 from Basic Coms.

 

And then there is Alacrity.

It really sound like the stuff will finally work. Just hope the dont forget the little unimportant talent called cell charger which gives us 8cells every 6secs. They have to speed it up as well to make it worthwhile.

An interesting question might be if we can use alacrity enhancements in the new gear. Personally i doubt it. It sounds like we have to stack even more accuracy, so bringing surge rating up will painfull enough.

 

Last but not least, the UI changes. With all the sutff they did, i'm just hoping the found the time to finally build a ammo percentage display for Mandos. Its has to happen at this point.

 

Is there anything else we 'can' talk about atm?

Edited October 31, 2014 by AMightyKnight

[Y-Yorle]

And then there is Alacrity.

It really sound like the stuff will finally work. Just hope the dont forget the little unimportant talent called cell charger which gives us 8cells every 6secs. They have to speed it up as well to make it worthwhile.

 

They said on the stream Alacrity will reduce internal (proc) cooldowns as well. I would figure if you had 20% alacrity, your 6 seconds internal cd on it would be reduced to 0.8 * 6 = 4.8 seconds.

[goeblu]

And then there is Alacrity.

It really sound like the stuff will finally work. Just hope the dont forget the little unimportant talent called cell charger which gives us 8cells every 6secs.

 

As for cell charger, it looks on Reddit that we are keeping this talent except it will be regan like vanguards. This is reddit tho and may not be correct.

[venomlash]

From the first livestream, they said that every AC is getting an equivalent to Inspiration/Bloodthirst, a big raid utility buff usable once every 5 minutes. Usable everywhere except in arenas.

Commando/Mercenary will get Supercharged Celerity, which increases everyone's alacrity by 10% for 10 seconds.

 

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/07/swtor-disciplines-livestream-notes/

 

Also, they said in the second (most recent) livestream that cleanses for all healer classes are going to have a 12s cooldown, I believe, and that DoTs from mobs can be cleansed and so can stuns of all kinds (except presumably scripted stuns like in the final boss of False Emperor). Player DoTs will be uncleansable, but still purgeable.

I hope that if they keep some version of Psych Aid/Cure Mind (currently makes cleanse also work on Mental effects and do a small heal) they make it reduce the cooldown of Field Aid/Cure, at least outside of PvP areas. I think the livestream had some comment in it about how if the longer CD on cleanse makes PvE content problematic, they'd change it. I think the flat 12s cooldown would make it very difficult for an on-level group (without off-healer DPS) to clear the DN-314 Tunneler in Hammer Station HM due to needing to cleanse a debuff twice in ten seconds or risk the tank dying.

Edited October 31, 2014 by venomlash

[Heezdedjim]

Dev Blog is up:

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/game-update-3.0-class-changes-commando-mercenary

 

First question I have: What is this about passives "reducing pushback." I thought in earlier streams they said pushback is just going away and won't affect anything anymore.

[TACeMossie]

Dev Blog is up:

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/game-update-3.0-class-changes-commando-mercenary

 

First question I have: What is this about passives "reducing pushback." I thought in earlier streams they said pushback is just going away and won't affect anything anymore.

 

What they said is no more pushback on Channels, e.g. Full Auto/Unload. Charged Bolts/Power Shot, for example, will still have minor pushback in order to make up for the significantly increased mobility, so melee classes can somewhat catch up.

 

Pyro, for example, has 1.5 seconds prone to pushback as an enforced turret, and 4.5 seconds that can be interrupted, over 15 seconds. Seems a bit unfair to give them that without a sacrifice

[TrigPt]

They said no pushback for channels but still pushback for casts Edited November 7, 2014 by TrigPt
quoted wrong post so deleted quote

[TrigPt]

I like how what was once the top tier combat medic skill is now available to all. guess it was never really that top tier

[AMightyKnight]

Dev Blog is up:

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/game-update-3.0-class-changes-commando-mercenary

[/Quote]

 

Allright, here we go. Sort of.

 

Many Trooper abilities have had their resource costs and damage values slightly adjusted to make Energy Cell resources more manageable. Usually, this means the cost of an ability was slightly reduced along with its damage or healing, but for some abilities, the opposite may be true. For example, many abilities that formerly required 16 Energy Cells now require only 15 and damage or heal for slightly less, but many abilities that formerly required 8 Energy Cells now require 10 and damage or heal for slightly more. The 3.0 changes to channeled abilities have also aided Troopers with their Energy Cell management. Since channels now charge resources with each tick of damage or healing, that means Troopers can begin using channeled abilities at lower Energy Cell levels without slowing their resource regeneration rate.

Why cant they just say what they actually did to each ability? ts not like the information isnt outthere.

Basically whoever wrote this is correct.

The cost reductions basically implies to three of our four main abilities (Grav, Demo and HiB) and - in combination with a change to cell charger and the new channel regen - greatly improves our ammo management.

If you do the math it still doesnt mean we can completey forget about Hammershots, but we are down to using about 4 per minute at worst.

 

Commandos should find that the Gunnery play style has not changed significantly, but that it is now a little more mobile than it was before the 3.0 update.

Uhuh. More like we are extremely mobile compared to whats live. Basically we only have to stop for casting Grav rounds with 3.0.

Our rotations will change as well. The need for activating skills based on ammo status is pretty much gone and we have to integrate Vortex Bolt.

Unfortunately they didnt tell us the cooldown of the new ability, so we still cant talk about it.

 

What they said is no more pushback on Channels, e.g. Full Auto/Unload. Charged Bolts/Power Shot, for example, will still have minor pushback in order to make up for the significantly increased mobility, so melee classes can somewhat catch up.

Its very likely they put Combat Shield in the utilities, so you can work with that to reduce pushback further.

Edited November 7, 2014 by AMightyKnight

[andiegirl]

Boltstorm sounds like fullauto upgraded.

do we remove fullauto from bars when we get it?

 

the ability says shares cooldown with full auto

[AMightyKnight]

Boltstorm sounds like fullauto upgraded.

do we remove fullauto from bars when we get it?

 

the ability says shares cooldown with full auto

 

Yes, as say said on the first livestream, its intended as a replacement for Full Auto.

[CrazyOldMystic]

My concern is not so much the adjustments as the ability choice. I currently do not run a full scale Hybrid. I currently run almost a full arsenal. When I fight I use every ability at my disposal to terrorize, confused, and to kill my targets. From death from above, to sticky dart, and to flame thrower. What I would like to know is are we loosing any abilities? Changes are normal losing abilities can really screw you over. I can tell they are upgraded so I think we are loosing our aoe blaster ability to make room for the new one. Does anyone have any solid info on this?

[AMightyKnight]

We cant discuss stuff they havent revealed yet.

But dont worry about it, there is no reason to think we lose anything beyond what they said in the blog (Kolto Bomb).

 

Also your aoe Blaster ability (you are referring to Sweeping Blasters?) has nothing to do with Boltstorm.

As they said in the first livestream, its a replacement for Full Auto. It should basically work just like it.

[Heezdedjim]

Yes, as say said on the first livestream, its intended as a replacement for Full Auto.

Well that's pretty stupid. Why don't they just make it a passive that upgrades Full Auto instead of adding yet another ability that obsoletes one we already have? Collapsing uselessly duplicated things like this was, so they said, one of the main, major points of this entire exercise.

[AMightyKnight]

Its probably just easier to build a new ability than buffing/nerfing it according to each skilltree.

 

And it dont see this as an issue. Just ignore the old Full Auto in the ability menu and thats it.

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

Boltstorm sounds like fullauto upgraded.

do we remove fullauto from bars when we get it?

 

the ability says shares cooldown with full auto

 

Boltstorm/Blazing Bolts is a complete replacement for Full Auto/Unload for Gunnery/Arsenal. So yes, you remove Full Auto/Unload from your hotbar.

[Adovir]

Well that's pretty stupid. Why don't they just make it a passive that upgrades Full Auto instead of adding yet another ability that obsoletes one we already have? Collapsing uselessly duplicated things like this was, so they said, one of the main, major points of this entire exercise.

 

The reason is because, forced march. This way you dot have them all being able to cast the same abilities while moving. Also they can tayler it to the specific spec, ie mag shot is doing internal and elemental damage and has a dot I think, can't remember too well. This is just a way to make it so they can buff things with out adding new talents or baseline buffing and accidentally over doing it for one spec and doing it right for the next

[ArchangelLBC]

Confirmed ammo counter, and Blazing Bolts looks awesome, and apparently we're going to have much easier ammo management.

 

Things are looking very good for commandos in 3.0 I think.

[MegatronShredder]

I skimed through the stream and haven't gone back to look at it yet but did they ever preview the animations for the kolto shot/med shot that replace the rapid shot/hammer shot heal or mention that the animation will not change?

 

I kind of will miss the green laser of heals on my commando if it was changed. I still miss the old rapid shot heal.

[AMightyKnight]

Confirmed ammo counter, and Blazing Bolts looks awesome, and apparently we're going to have much easier ammo management.

 

Things are looking very good for commandos in 3.0 I think.

Yes indeed.

I build a simple spreadsheet with the new stuff.

Its very nice, Vortex Bolt fits perfectly between CoF procs, so we can use it on cd and maximize Blazing Bolts attacks just as we did with proced Full Auto.

Ammo Management is far less tight now, we basically have to use only one Hammershot after each second CoF proc.

 

I skimed through the stream and haven't gone back to look at it yet but did they ever preview the animations for the kolto shot/med shot that replace the rapid shot/hammer shot heal or mention that the animation will not change?

 

I kind of will miss the green laser of heals on my commando if it was changed. I still miss the old rapid shot heal.

Nothing changed, green beam of death is used for med shot Edited November 8, 2014 by AMightyKnight

[BobaFaceroll]

Nothing changed, green beam of death is used for med shot

 

So weak. There isn't a better time to finally fix that disparity between AC mirrors. Give the new heal a less [blatantly] obvious animation please.

 

Hurray for a proper ammo counter on both sides though.

[Sindariel]

"Target Tracking", our crit damage multiplier talent in Arsenal spec no longer includes Unload nor it's replacement Blazing Blots. The talent only includes Rail Shot, HSM and Priming Shot, the 3 least used abilities.

 

This will make Arsenal a full attack power spec, again. Very frustrating. -.-

[TezMoney]

Can we have a moment of silence for the tell tale sound of rapid shots healing someone thrice?

[MegatronShredder]

So weak. There isn't a better time to finally fix that disparity between AC mirrors. Give the new heal a less [blatantly] obvious animation please.

 

Hurray for a proper ammo counter on both sides though.

 

Well now everyone will have med shot so it's less obvious to see who is a healer commando except for when they look at your cells/cylinders because Medshot/Kolto shot are now general abilities for all specs to use.

[AesirUesugi]

By my calculations as an Arsenal Gunnery merc we lose:

 

9% Aim from Ironsights

3% Range and tech Accuracy bonus (no longer in Advanced Targetting)

100% Pushback reduction on Tracer Unload (now BB) from Stabilizers

3% ranged and tech crit chance (Hired Muscle)[/b]

__

Plus a few more that I'm not too concerned about.

10% instead of 25% damage bonus on BlazBolts (or Unload)

30% crit on Rail shot and priming shot instead of unload. (BB)

... a few more but I'm getting lazy

 

But that's just from looking at Discipines trees and comparing to skill trees. Especially for the first 4 things. I'm not 100% sure can someone enlighten me as to where those skills are gone to because they might have been moved into a passive the way Crit reaction is now in Advanced Targetting. Those pushback protections are pretty indispensible.