What are we actually testing?

[SirCaldric]

I understand what we're supposed to test, I did read the posts. But it doesn't really make sense to me.

 

Were there any actual new abilities or passives? Why were we given pre-made skill loadouts when they all seem to be the same from Live? What are we testing exactly, if the already existing skills work with the class they already exist for...?

 

I may be stupid and can't see the point, so please, someone enlighten me because I literally have no clue what I was doing other than using a preset loadout of already existing skills. Thank you.

[Voroschuk]

I agree. It'll make more sense if we could get every combat style like we got guardians here, without new abilities, and with "restricted flexibility", so we could jump in some group content and pvp and see how they work together and against each other.

[LJ_Gibbs]

I understand what we're supposed to test, I did read the posts. But it doesn't really make sense to me.

 

Were there any actual new abilities or passives? Why were we given pre-made skill loadouts when they all seem to be the same from Live? What are we testing exactly, if the already existing skills work with the class they already exist for...?

 

I may be stupid and can't see the point, so please, someone enlighten me because I literally have no clue what I was doing other than using a preset loadout of already existing skills. Thank you.

 

I agree. I thought we were supposed to test this whole "play any force class through the (insert class here) story."

 

My guess was they also want to test the whole "you are a/an (insert class here) , will (insert other force class here) work as well?

 

It's never really been clear... are we testing if you can switch from let's say guardian to sage? Is that even a thing? Are we going to be able to switch "on the fly"? Much like we cannot switch advanced classes now... are they just giving us that ability? If so, what does that have to do with the "base abilities" we have now?

 

As of right now, it seems as though we are "redoing" the ability system.

[Przemo_No]

I fully agree.

 

i am not sure what is the purpose of this "test" but as for now, it is less that useful.

out "new" character has been deprived of at least half of abilities and, frankly, is simply like handicapped version of what we are already used to live with.

 

One thing came to my mind: perhaps it is a test for those users, who demanded tha the game is "too easy" and wish to spend more time on levelling and being "immersed" . Well, maybe for those indiviuals it makes sense, but in my opinion it doesn't.

 

I was just enough to actually create new character and (knowing what different disciplines can already do) trying to play this verion, was like I going back to the kidergarden and find that all my toys were taken off me.

 

So, sorry, but no more "testing" for me, at least at this stage,

Edited July 9, 2021 by Przemo_No

[robwettengel]

Excellent question. I don't think it should be looked at as a test, rather an unveiling of some of the new mechanics coming with 7.0 for our review and feedback. The view is severely limited since we're only seeing one of the classes, and it is beyond pointless for me as I only do the melee classes for story, and I rarely engage in PVP with them--I find having to chase after my prey to get them into saber range to be very irritating and no fun at all. Engaging a target from meters away and frying them with lightning is far more my play style.

 

I also mainly play Sorcs so getting all these abilities dropped on me at once onto my action bars with a class I haven't played in months and it was a jarring experience. In the future, perhaps they could open PTS Toon transfer but limit it only to the specific class(ss) that they want to evaluate. That way we would know where everything is and have no need to rearrange abilities, etc. on hotbars.

 

It is nice not having any level scaling; I had forgotten what a joy it was to go back to lowbie planets back in the day and one-shot everything in sight.

[Savej]

We're testing just how much backlash BW is going to get for removing half our class's functionality.

[SirCaldric]

Thanks for all the replies, I wrote the OP being completely ready to be called an idiot for not seeing exactly what we're testing, but it looks like I'm not the only one confused about this!

 

I agree. It'll make more sense if we could get every combat style like we got guardians here, without new abilities, and with "restricted flexibility", so we could jump in some group content and pvp and see how they work together and against each other.

 

I hear ya, though I/we did go into this knowing it was only the Guardian combat style. But I was expecting it to be... More than just different skills in different loadouts?

 

I agree. I thought we were supposed to test this whole "play any force class through the (insert class here) story."

 

My guess was they also want to test the whole "you are a/an (insert class here) , will (insert other force class here) work as well?

 

It's never really been clear... are we testing if you can switch from let's say guardian to sage? Is that even a thing? Are we going to be able to switch "on the fly"? Much like we cannot switch advanced classes now... are they just giving us that ability? If so, what does that have to do with the "base abilities" we have now?

 

As of right now, it seems as though we are "redoing" the ability system.

 

I believe that eventually this will be a thing, so we can play a Jedi Knight story with say Shadow abilities and equipment, as I thought that was kind of the whole purpose of combat styles. Testing a Knight with their pre-existing Guardian class in different skill loadouts of pre-existing skills seem... Pointless to me? More on that in a second.

 

I fully agree.

 

i am not sure what is the purpose of this "test" but as for now, it is less that useful.

out "new" character has been deprived of at least half of abilities and, frankly, is simply like handicapped version of what we are already used to live with.

 

One thing came to my mind: perhaps it is a test for those users, who demanded tha the game is "too easy" and wish to spend more time on levelling and being "immersed" . Well, maybe for those indiviuals it makes sense, but in my opinion it doesn't.

 

I was just enough to actually create new character and (knowing what different disciplines can already do) trying to play this verion, was like I going back to the kidergarden and find that all my toys were taken off me.

 

So, sorry, but no more "testing" for me, at least at this stage,

 

I actually think they haven't removed half of the old abilities, I just think that they limited the loadouts for some reason. If the true reason behind the combat styles was not just to expand which story/class skill set you have, but rather cut down on the available skills for what they consider redundancy or whatever, I'm not so sure...

 

I also wanna point out that they have moved both the Jedi Knight and Jedi Guardian skills into one category, i.e. the combat style just plainly written as "Guardian", so it is fair to expect that there won't be anything like base Jedi Knight skills available if you wanted to use another combat style, say Jedi Sage. Because on Live right now, when you pick a story and class, you get Jedi Knight skills and Jedi Guardian skills, the Knight skills being available to both Guardian and Sentinels, if you know what I mean.

 

 

We're testing just how much backlash BW is going to get for removing half our class's functionality.

 

Haha, well... As I wrote earlier, since they mentioned "loadouts", I think the other skills do exist and we aren't seeing the full spectrum. They did write that we are using preset builds of different varities. But that just makes me baffled as to what the point of the testing really is.

 

 

TL;DR

 

We're Knights using the Live Knight and Guardian skills in different preset loadouts. What does this accomplish exactly?

 

EDIT: After finally coming across this (I guess I'm an idiot for not finding it sooner) and clicking on "show spoiler", I finally understand what the test was all about. It also explains why some skills like Saber Throw is missing, and I made a post about that.

 

I hope that helps clears it up for anyone else.

Edited July 10, 2021 by SirCaldric

[Gericke]

I have to admit that I was also totally confused by the "testing". I was under the impression I was going to play a Jedi guardian and see how I got new skills each few levels but no - I had to go to fleet as none of the trainers would speak to me. I had to get zapped right up to level 75 and have my toolbars filled with a mash of skills in no sensible order.

 

I think I will not bother to test until there is something that can actually be tested for gameplay thanks.

[SOULCASTER]

We're testing just how much backlash BW is going to get for removing half our class's functionality.

 

Ill be honest, I LOL'd

[casirabit]

I think the real problem is what a lot of people thought they were going to do. People in the forums have been thinking they could mix and match abilities because that is what they wanted. They wanted to use some abilities from one tree and pick others from another tree.

 

While not a fan of losing some abilities, I had tempered my expecations because I did not see how they could actually do that, though they still might, because that would mean a lot of rewriting abilities. Some wanted to have stealth on their guardian, but yet still have the other abilities.

 

That might explain why testing to some doesn't make sense because it doesn't fit what they wanted or expected.

[mike_carton]

I think the real problem is what a lot of people thought they were going to do. People in the forums have been thinking they could mix and match abilities because that is what they wanted. They wanted to use some abilities from one tree and pick others from another tree.

 

...Some wanted to have stealth on their guardian, but yet still have the other abilities.

 

That might explain why testing to some doesn't make sense because it doesn't fit what they wanted or expected.

I didn't have any such expectations. I did understand the LiveStream clearly.

 

And I'm disappointed in what we have on PTS and how they rolled it out. I wrote the details in other posts and won't repeat here and I feel the thread title is very apt.

Edited July 10, 2021 by mike_carton

[Savej]

I think the real problem is what a lot of people thought they were going to do. People in the forums have been thinking they could mix and match abilities because that is what they wanted. They wanted to use some abilities from one tree and pick others from another tree.

 

While not a fan of losing some abilities, I had tempered my expecations because I did not see how they could actually do that, though they still might, because that would mean a lot of rewriting abilities. Some wanted to have stealth on their guardian, but yet still have the other abilities.

 

That might explain why testing to some doesn't make sense because it doesn't fit what they wanted or expected.

 

But we aren't testing combat styles or loadouts, we're testing heavy nerfs to guardians (and juggernauts) and dumbing down of the game in general (assuming the nerfs are not just to those classes). This was not mentioned in last week's stream.

[Schnefetku]

From what I see, the thing being tested here is:

if they chop off three of your limbs and then let you choose one of them to be sewn back, would you like it and enjoy the change?

And the answer is: no.

[theSCARAYone]

I think the primary thing they are testing here is our patience with slower than sprint speed mounts

[SirCaldric]

From what I see, the thing being tested here is:

if they chop off three of your limbs and then let you choose one of them to be sewn back, would you like it and enjoy the change?

And the answer is: no.

 

That or our patience, but your version works too!

 

EDIT:

I think the primary thing they are testing here is our patience with slower than sprint speed mounts

 

Ah, beat me to it...

Edited July 10, 2021 by SirCaldric

[Nickodemous]

Thanks for all the replies, I wrote the OP being completely ready to be called an idiot for not seeing exactly what we're testing, but it looks like I'm not the only one confused about this!

 

 

 

I hear ya, though I/we did go into this knowing it was only the Guardian combat style. But I was expecting it to be... More than just different skills in different loadouts?

 

 

 

I believe that eventually this will be a thing, so we can play a Jedi Knight story with say Shadow abilities and equipment, as I thought that was kind of the whole purpose of combat styles. Testing a Knight with their pre-existing Guardian class in different skill loadouts of pre-existing skills seem... Pointless to me? More on that in a second.

 

 

 

I actually think they haven't removed half of the old abilities, I just think that they limited the loadouts for some reason. If the true reason behind the combat styles was not just to expand which story/class skill set you have, but rather cut down on the available skills for what they consider redundancy or whatever, I'm not so sure...

 

I also wanna point out that they have moved both the Jedi Knight and Jedi Guardian skills into one category, i.e. the combat style just plainly written as "Guardian", so it is fair to expect that there won't be anything like base Jedi Knight skills available if you wanted to use another combat style, say Jedi Sage. Because on Live right now, when you pick a story and class, you get Jedi Knight skills and Jedi Guardian skills, the Knight skills being available to both Guardian and Sentinels, if you know what I mean.

 

 

 

 

Haha, well... As I wrote earlier, since they mentioned "loadouts", I think the other skills do exist and we aren't seeing the full spectrum. They did write that we are using preset builds of different varities. But that just makes me baffled as to what the point of the testing really is.

 

 

TL;DR

 

We're Knights using the Live Knight and Guardian skills in different preset loadouts. What does this accomplish exactly?

 

EDIT: After finally coming across this (I guess I'm an idiot for not finding it sooner) and clicking on "show spoiler", I finally understand what the test was all about. It also explains why some skills like Saber Throw is missing, and I made a post about that.

 

I hope that helps clears it up for anyone else.

 

Thanks for link, from it I was able to find this https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20210708

 

I think it explains a lot.

[SirCaldric]

Thanks for link, from it I was able to find this https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20210708

 

I think it explains a lot.

 

Ir's always nice to have a more clear view of what this was supposed to be, isn't it? I still think this particular testing phase is a disaster, but I will reserve my opinion on the actual changes until we have at least a little more meat on there to bite into.