What was the reason for removing certain abilities?

[The_Lost_Bean]

I remember when I first started playing a Knight that it had an ability that NPC melee users still use where they swung and did 180 degree turn, did a backstab then did another 180 degree turn and finished with a baseball like swing.

 

Stopped playing for quite some time before coming back only to find that the ability was gone, can't remember what it was called.

 

I know that all melee based NPCs still use abilities that were removed from player characters. Why did they do that?

Edited March 27, 2017 by The_Lost_Bean

[mmmbuddah]

I remember when I first started playing a Knight that it had an ability that NPC melee users still use where they swung and did 180 degree turn, did a backstab then did another 180 degree turn and finished with a baseball like swing.

 

Stopped playing for quite some time before coming back only to find that the ability was gone, can't remember what it was called.

 

I know that all melee based NPCs still use abilities that were removed from player characters. Why did they do that?

 

They just replaced them.

 

What bothers me most is why the hell smugglers got their slice droid cc taken away! We have absolutely no 60 second CCs now for flashpoints or ops......same with sents if I recall correctly

[psandak]

I remember when I first started playing a Knight that it had an ability that NPC melee users still use where they swung and did 180 degree turn, did a backstab then did another 180 degree turn and finished with a baseball like swing.

 

Stopped playing for quite some time before coming back only to find that the ability was gone, can't remember what it was called.

 

I know that all melee based NPCs still use abilities that were removed from player characters. Why did they do that?

 

You are talking about "Master Strike" and two things happened:

 

1. They renamed it "Blade Dance" because they coded something so that any "strike" ability got a buff and they did not want "Master Strike" to get that buff.
    
   
2. Then later, they removed the 3 second channel and damage over time of that ability and reworked the animation.
   

The ability is still there and does the same amount of damage overall but it is no longer damage over a channel/cast time, it is instant and the animation is different.

 

The advantage of this change is that one can use the ability on the move. Master Strike/Blade Dance is a key ability for certain disciplines and to have it be effectively negated by multiple events - opponent moving out of range, a stun or interrupt being using, hamstrung these disciplines.

 

Debate has raged over the new animation (some like it, some hate it), but most feel the change of damage effect was a positive change.

Edited March 27, 2017 by psandak

[Mubrak]

What bothers me most is why the hell smugglers got their slice droid cc taken away! We have absolutely no 60 second CCs now for flashpoints or ops......same with sents if I recall correctly

 

Tranquilizer / Sleep Dart? A 60 second cc. Granted, it has to be used before combat, but it may allow you (and the rest of the group) to skip the fight altogether. Won't work for adds, ofc. but flashbang works wonders to give the tank some extra time.

 

I don't see the point of taking away slice droid, but it doesn't really bother me much. Barely used it outside of hammer station, and even there I was more often than not just marking the mara's primary target.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Mubrak

[Edyn]

I miss the old Ravage animation that they removed. The fact that it was a channel never bothered me and the new animation looks really sloppy and rushed to me. When they change things like this, I wish they'd at least give players the option of using the old, what they consider inferior, version. With how much I use Ravage in combat, I'll take the non-mobile, polished-looking channel over the cheap and tacky mobile version any day. Options never hurt anyone and have the potential to please everyone.

[Eoshadow]

They don't seem to be big on options without a PVP purpose and in my opinion all of these changes were directed toward PVP. Using the Operative as an example, they didn't "need" to remove Snipe as it had limited usefullness to the class in PVP with the other changes, but they did anyway.

 

In PVE/RP where you might benefit from/enjoy a wider variety of attacks and the likelihood of an interrupt on the channeled move is less, the deleted moves gave you options and variations in play style. But not anymore, which just further enhances the inherent limits on variation of this game.

 

Playing a Vanguard through a class story and always having to stand right next to a group of enemies with a Blaster "rifle" (which technically should have a combat effective range in excess of 300m) while being supported by a Gunslinger "sniping" at range with 2 blaster pistols... yeah

The assigned class roles just feel very (too) specific and specialized.

 

But that is also a limitation of this Star Wars based MMO, where your two weapons options are only Blasters or Blades compounded by the fact that there is really no difference between the variations of weapons under those categories because they chose a format where subclass/weapon are fixed as one and the same.

 

If the game was made such that a character could equip different weapons and the different weapons had different attributes and move sets IE pistol, carbine, rifle, slug thrower, all being different ranged weapons then sure specify what each role would be. But that's just not how the game was designed and I don't think it could make that jump.

This is SWTOR not GW2

Edited March 27, 2017 by Eoshadow

[americanaussie]

Tranquilizer / Sleep Dart? A 60 second cc. Granted, it has to be used before combat, but it may allow you (and the rest of the group) to skip the fight altogether. Won't work for adds, ofc. but flashbang works wonders to give the tank some extra time.

 

I don't see the point of taking away slice droid, but it doesn't really bother me much. Barely used it outside of hammer station, and even there I was more often than not just marking the mara's primary target.

 

Unless I'm mistaken sleep dart doesn't work on droids.

[josephxp]

Unless I'm mistaken sleep dart doesn't work on droids.

 

Yup, doesn't work... but no players are droids... so PvP logic useless.

[Kissakias]

I remember when I first started playing a Knight that it had an ability that NPC melee users still use where they swung and did 180 degree turn, did a backstab then did another 180 degree turn and finished with a baseball like swing.

 

Stopped playing for quite some time before coming back only to find that the ability was gone, can't remember what it was called.

 

I know that all melee based NPCs still use abilities that were removed from player characters. Why did they do that?

 

its worse for vanguard, i left him as semi range+melee and now is 100% melee, i hate it so much and i cant change him at least his advance class coz of speeders -pets and other bound stuff :/// so crap class vang is now

[SithKoriandr]

I still want a buffed up Project, rather than the ability that replaces it

[Mubrak]

Unless I'm mistaken sleep dart doesn't work on droids.

 

No it doesn't. But that doesn't mean that Ops now have "absolutely no 60 second CCs now for flashpoints or ops".

Edited March 28, 2017 by Mubrak