Questions That Deserve Answers

[robwettengel]

These are questions I believe the whole community would greatly benefit from having answered. If anyone wants to add on any others—please feel free, I’m certainly not the be-all-and-end-all of all things SWTOR. To characterize myself: I’d say that I am a hardcore casual player. Why combine the words hardcore and casual—isn’t this oxymoronic? By hardcore casual I mean someone who typically logs in daily and will run unranked WZs, play through story content and do vet FPs and chapters. I am not interested in BiS and min/max stuff—just aiming to have fun.

NOTE: Please bear in mind that I am a humble military historian of modern Europe; not a computer programmer or game designer. I am merely commenting as an intelligent, critically logical end user of the product with my thoughts and suggestions re: improvements to the game.

 

1. Game Balance

 

A perennial problem that any MMO is going to have the further it gets away from launch and the more levels and abilities are added to the game.

 

- It is possible to simply separate PVE (solo (including MM) and group) and PVP so that PVE ability balance can be maintained separately from PVP ability balance? Doing this would enable PVP and PVE players to cease all the acrimonious sniping at each other, especially when new tweaks drop.

- If this is not possible, can we please be told why this cannot be done? My understanding from other folks here on the forums is that WoW has implemented this separation, so why isn’t SWTOR following suit? Honestly, when we get down to it, a separation between the two should have been with the game since launch just to ease the whole process of balancing for the different dev teams over the years.

- Different game modes already exist in the game (solo, vet, master). There is also already a toggle to ensure that certain abilities cannot be used in WZs (rocket boost comes to mind). The PVP toggle could serve as the signal to the engine to enter a “PVP mode” that would pull abilities from some sort of “PVP power listing” that would list abilities and their damage output that would be just for PVP. It seems to me that most of the code is already present; but would just need to be repurposed.

 

2. LotS Changes (loadouts)

 

- We know that a lot of stuff is subject to change, but some basic answers need to be provided and I think these questions are core design decisions that should have been fully settled before putting anything on PTS:

 

--How often are we going to be able to change loadouts? Given that we can’t change gear or utilities in WZs, it stands to reason that this will also be true of loadouts. Is this a valid assumption? Outside of PVP, how often and/or under what circumstances can we change them?

 

The pruned abilities are causing the player base (at least those of us using the forums and running PTS) quite a bit of concern. Is this ability picking based upon training or loadout. Hypothetical example: Is a Sith Sorc going to have to pick between Crushing Darkness and Affliction in 7.0 and forever be closed off from using the ability that wasn’t selected? Or is it only closed off for Loadout ZapZap but Loadout Blast ‘Em! can still get the other ability? It stands to reason that with multiple loadouts (that I chose to assign those cheeky names to) will permit different ones being assigned different abilities, so abilities may not be being totally removed after all. Are we getting all panicky over nothing?

 

--Being able to name loadouts would greatly facilitate switching towards them on the fly.

[LordCamTheGreat]

3. Will current set bonuses and tacticals be both viable and rebalanced for the newest expansion and level increase?

 

As part of Onslaught, the current gear system was implemented and intended to off horizontal progression that would be added to over time. This didn't happen and the tacticals and sets we were given at launch were more or less all we got. The gearing and tactical system worked really well, it has been my favourite endgame gearing system so far because you can get the "best" gear without needing to do things like operations. However, some tacticals are considered near useless and many more will be completely useless with abilities being pruned - hence the need for more to be added alongside rebalancing of current ones. The onslaught gearing system worked amazingly, it does not need to be thrown aside for something new.

 

4. How many loadout slots will we be given?

 

Considering the amount of options that will be available to players - a smuggler for e.g. can choose between 24 disciplines across Republic and Empire and each discipline contains (currently) 8 or so ABC choices to make - how many loadout slots will we have? Further:

 

5. How will equipment be stored and shared across both loadouts and characters in a legacy.

 

There is simply not enough inventory space to accommodate on the fly gear swapping between multiple classes, something that will be made even more difficult for players with lots of alts who might also want to swap to a class that another character currently has the gear for. Will gear be moved into a separate storage system similar to how materials were moved into a legacy shared storage?

 

6. Are there any plans to rework parts of the ABC system to accommodate player wishes for certain abilities (saber throw, saber reflect, transcendence, force camouflage) to remain baseline amongst other things?

 

These concerns have arisen in nearly every thread here and what's more, Jackie even acknowledged the consensus that players wish certain things to remain baseline. There is clearly an acknowledgement and compilation of feedback, but we have seen nothing as a result of it. We need a yes or no, not silence please.

 

7. Will there be more frequent PTS iterations and open discussion between the balance team and players before launch to address concerns about balance?

 

Same as above, there is very little time before the expansion launches and there is not enough time to test everything being added to the game, especially if there is any hope or chance for changes to be made.

[TrixxieTriss]

You do realise the new set bonus gear, tactical’s and amplifiers are the real reason the devs are finding it too hard to balance or that TTK in pvp seems too long sometimes.

 

As unpopular as it would be, removing some of the gear or replacing some or changing how some of works would be a better solution to the balance problems the Devs themselves “created” when they added this stuff in 6.0.

 

People need to realise their excuse that it’s NOT the abilities causing the imbalance and TTK issues and is misinformation and a deflection from the mistake Bioware made when they added all tthis gear.

 

It’s annoying that they can’t own up to this mistake and it’s disappointing that they are lying to us about the real reasons. That’s what makes me angry about these changes, that they think we are ALL stupid and can’t see the smoke and mirrors they are trying to use to justify these changes.

 

Bioware, just own up to it and we can move forward. Don’t blame abilities that have been in the game for 7-9 years.

Edited August 10, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[Kass]

You do realise the new set bonus gear, tactical’s and amplifiers are the real reason the devs are finding it too hard to balance or that TTK in pvp seems too long sometimes.

 

As unpopular as it would be, removing some of the gear or replacing some or changing how some of works would be a better solution to the balance problems the Devs themselves “created” when they added this stuff in 6.0.

 

People need to realise their excuse that it’s NOT the abilities causing the imbalance and TTK issues and is misinformation and a deflection from the mistake Bioware made when they added all tthis gear.

 

It’s annoying that they can’t own up to this mistake and it’s disappointing that they are lying to us about the real reasons. That’s what makes me angry about these changes, that they think we are ALL stupid and can’t see the smoke and mirrors they are trying to use to justify these changes.

 

Bioware, just own up to it and we can move forward. Don’t blame abilities that have been in the game for 7-9 years.

 

 

This is what the X on a treasure map, when decoded on the internet, really looks like folks!

 

Maybe they think that pruning is the lesser of two evils, because they can point to Jonny Nerf-Herder and obfuscate...?

 

It would be less invasive to the combat system to dial back or change the Set-Bonuses, than chopping off abilities - people are being kind when they call it pruning.

 

When a doctor says son we have to 'amputate' he doesn't say... don't worry, we just need to prune one of your limbs.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Kass

[Sounders_Fan]

When a doctor says son we have to 'amputate' he doesn't say... don't worry, we just need to prune one of your limbs.

 

this feels more like: We are going to amputate both of your legs, but good news you get to choose 1 prosthetic leg to replace them.

[LordCamTheGreat]

You do realise the new set bonus gear, tactical’s and amplifiers are the real reason the devs are finding it too hard to balance or that TTK in pvp seems too long sometimes.

 

As unpopular as it would be, removing some of the gear or replacing some or changing how some of works would be a better solution to the balance problems the Devs themselves “created” when they added this stuff in 6.0.

 

People need to realise their excuse that it’s NOT the abilities causing the imbalance and TTK issues and is misinformation and a deflection from the mistake Bioware made when they added all tthis gear.

 

It’s annoying that they can’t own up to this mistake and it’s disappointing that they are lying to us about the real reasons. That’s what makes me angry about these changes, that they think we are ALL stupid and can’t see the smoke and mirrors they are trying to use to justify these changes.

 

Bioware, just own up to it and we can move forward. Don’t blame abilities that have been in the game for 7-9 years.

 

I did say "rebalance" for a reason you know.

 

It's not just set bonuses and tacticals that increase the TTK. As an example:

 

The operative can gain a 6 second cooldown on its roll, but this is only overpowered when combined with the concealment passive that makes them invulnerable. Neither of the other operative specs gain this TTK boost.

 

Mercenaries gain nearly all of their defenses through utilities, not tacticals and not set bonuses. Utilities double the effectiveness of their kolto, give them a 40% heal etc. What's more, they have gained a new ability that flat out makes them immune to single target attacks for 6 seconds. Tacticals and set bonuses don't do that.

 

 

Sure a 6 second roll on concealment operative, 2 cloaks and grit teeth increase TTK, but removing current gear will not suddenly drastically reduce TTK across the board. Another issue is that the amount of health players have feels like it has scaled at a higher rate than the amount of damage you do.

 

 

Certain tacticals and set bonuses are an issue, but so are utilities and increased health levels.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to lose abilities. I also don't want to see current tacticals go to waste again when they could be rebalanced to offer new ways to play. If the devs need to rebalance all npc fights because we are losing abilities, they might as well have left all the abilities in and rebalanced the npc fights for current player power levels.

 

PVP is an entirely separate thing and straight up should be balanced different to PVE, there is no reason for that not to be the case.

Edited August 10, 2021 by LordCamTheGreat

[Kalnarius]

3. Will current set bonuses and tacticals be both viable and rebalanced for the newest expansion and level increase?

 

As part of Onslaught, the current gear system was implemented and intended to off horizontal progression that would be added to over time. This didn't happen and the tacticals and sets we were given at launch were more or less all we got. The gearing and tactical system worked really well, it has been my favourite endgame gearing system so far because you can get the "best" gear without needing to do things like operations. However, some tacticals are considered near useless and many more will be completely useless with abilities being pruned - hence the need for more to be added alongside rebalancing of current ones. The onslaught gearing system worked amazingly, it does not need to be thrown aside for something new.

 

5. How will equipment be stored and shared across both loadouts and characters in a legacy.

 

There is simply not enough inventory space to accommodate on the fly gear swapping between multiple classes, something that will be made even more difficult for players with lots of alts who might also want to swap to a class that another character currently has the gear for. Will gear be moved into a separate storage system similar to how materials were moved into a legacy shared storage?

.

 

Well for 1 if you look at the fact that we had the same set bonuses from rise of the hutt cartel until end of kotet just more improved item rating, then look at the fact that most of Onslaught was more about tacticals, amplifiers and replacing old set bonuses with new set gear I really do not think we are going to be getting completely all new sets across the board. Not say there may not be new sets for those specs or classes neglected by onslaught I just do not think that with the resources they are investing into Loadouts, Combat styles (advanced classes being ripped off base classes) that they really have the resources to actually scrap a system they just put in place. With what we got from the last set bonus gear run was 4 expansions worth of content before they actually replaced them in Onslaught we could almost expect the same amount of time if the game lasts that long before they replace these set bonuses.

 

for your number 5, i would say that is a bit of a concern we almost need a seperate inventory for the gear sets going forward especially if you are carrying lots of gear for loadout swaps either between PVE/PVP or various classes for role wise like tank, mdps, rdps and heals depending on group. A system like FFXIV would be nice but that also comes with its own flaws gear is automatically put into each category of gear storage say weapons will go in weapons, chest will go in chest, gloves will go in gloves. While that is nice it can be problematic in its own right because any gear you get drops or loot will automatically go into that. I think if Bioware does a storage system like that we would need to manually put gear over there so we dont put the wrong pieces or accidentally deconstruct the wrong pieces of gear. Like saying mixing tech frag trash and your actual various loadout gear. We do need a seperate inventory tab where we manually put get into that we are carrying because the current inventory is too small to handle the amounts of gear a lot of people will end up carrying.

 

 

 

For my own questions:

1. i would say it would be nice to have loadouts with names so you can tell if its for PVE or PVP maybe CC or actual combat like with Shadows have the tactical for double CC use is not meant for combat itself so being able to switch for that would actually be nice but being able to tell which set you actually went in for which situation. And yes i do see PVE runs being able to switch loadouts on the fly where as I dont see PVP being allowed to switch. Mostly the reason for this being people would up and exit location to switch loadouts and come back to cheese system which takes more time out of the run than just allowing a switch. It will become problematic with people trying to kick non-stealthers out of groups but then you would be more reliant on running with friends and guildies than you would be with pugs. Though if nothing else you can temp switch to a stealther and when you get to where you are fighting switch back to what you were running as bypass having to actually play as a stealther just stealthing.

 

2. with the obvious combat styles during cutscenes are we still going to be locked to the same class restrictions of like kills (force lightning, saber, vibrosword, etc) from the base class or will it be tied to our combat style? If so will Sentinels/Marauders and Slinger/Mercs finally be able to show both weapons in their cutscenes rather than just the 1?

 

3. Considering the timeframe that left before launch there is not actually lot of time for the PTS. Will be seeing something like Onslaught and that phase 2 will be basically loadouts/combat styles which have to probably be coming out in the next 2 weeks in order test which that seems like will be 3-4 weeks by itself and Phase 3 which will end up probably be R-04 anomaly testing which reflects Phase 1, 2 and 3 for Onslaught not doing every class template for early testing of the classes but releasing it phase 2 and 3 after players have had a good idea of what is coming. While that does not actually bode well for the other combat styles in altering things before launch that seems effectively what we are looking at. People are saying anniversary release but that would not actually give enough time for bug fixes before december holidays while people are on vacation so that shortens the timeframe of what is going to be able to be tested significantly if they are adding each class a given rate it will be feburary or march before we are looking at launch of LotS. So knowing a time table of Phase 2 and 3 would be nice to know going forward.

 

4. Making a logical assumption that loadouts will be a credit/cc sink like outfit designer any ideas how much of a credit sink it will actually be for live? There is people wanting like 2-4 loadouts then some are wanting 12-24 loadouts which if it goes the route of outfit designer the max will be around 16 loadouts or will be more like 10 as max? I know this will be more likely answered in Phase 2 but the first part this probably wont be answered as much in PTS.

[AdjeYo]

Well for 1 if you look at the fact that we had the same set bonuses from rise of the hutt cartel until end of kotet just more improved item rating, then look at the fact that most of Onslaught was more about tacticals, amplifiers and replacing old set bonuses with new set gear I really do not think we are going to be getting completely all new sets across the board.

 

They did change somewhere between rise of the hutt cartel and before kotet ended. They did a whole thing where they standardised all the set bonus so every dps had an autocrit, tanks all got reduced taunt cooldowns etc. I don't recall exactly when this was, but I'm 100% sure this was at some point after rothc.

 

Also I feel like with the changes they're making, they'll have to either make new set bonusses or adjust some set bonusses. Take Guardian DPS for instance. Right now Descent of the Fearless is the go to set, but with the removal of Force Clarity from Guardians it'll literally be useless. What other set are they supposed to wear now? I don't think there's any set that would actually have any offensive purpose for Guardians with current PTS changes.

[Damask_Rose]

These are my questions too. My brain has shut down thinking about the ability prune. I will adapt. I might not like it, but I will adapt, as long as Bioware is true to their word and rebalances all content so I can continue to solo the content I like soloing. (Don't laugh! Sometimes you have to close your eyes and hope a miracle!)

 

Even though the questions I have have been brought up, I think they bear repeating.

 

1. How many different loadouts will we have access to, and will they cost us credits/cartel coins?

2. Can these loadouts be easily tweaked, or will we have to redo them from the ground up every time we make a small adjustment to our gear? Will armor and weapons be recognized by shell so we can swap mods or amplifiers without adjusting the loadout?

3. How will gear be handled? Will we get a seperate gear backpack? (If we do, for the sake of us who share gear between alts, could it pretty please be legacy wide like crafting is now?) Surely we aren't going to have to carry 3+ different gear sets in our one and only pack? If we don't have legacy gear storage for loadout and I forget a piece when transferring sets from one character to another, will there be something to let me know before I swap gear and am missing something?

4. Will we be able to switch loadouts in instances?

[Kalnarius]

They did change somewhere between rise of the hutt cartel and before kotet ended. They did a whole thing where they standardised all the set bonus so every dps had an autocrit, tanks all got reduced taunt cooldowns etc. I don't recall exactly when this was, but I'm 100% sure this was at some point after rothc.

 

Also I feel like with the changes they're making, they'll have to either make new set bonusses or adjust some set bonusses. Take Guardian DPS for instance. Right now Descent of the Fearless is the go to set, but with the removal of Force Clarity from Guardians it'll literally be useless. What other set are they supposed to wear now? I don't think there's any set that would actually have any offensive purpose for Guardians with current PTS changes.

 

They changed from classic to rise of the hutt cartel. Classic the set bonuses were a lot different than what we had from the 1st 4 expansions. We also actually had PVP and PVE set bonuses back then where as until onslaught we really got no set bonuses for PVP. It came the same time they ripped the set bonuses off shells and put them on armors. I have shells from rothc to kotet and they share the same set bonuses actually all that changed was their stats and appearances that was the only thing that changed from RotHC to Kotet.

 

Honestly with the PTS lists no clear indication that FC is a 100% removed as until you actually see the full tree like they did for the sentinels you cant really say. they only did path A and path B for guardians in dev notes and you cannot pick the 3rd option yet either so FC could actually still be there just hidden in Path C. If they would have actually give a clear indication of trees in game in the preliminary PTS of LotS of these classes that would have gone a long way too. But then again they could be changing DotF/FC to be sentinel/marauder only and even then for like concentration its either that or go stationary grit (its berserker without the negative aspect of increases damage taken) because very little in the way of viable sets. Which has me thinking we will be getting additional set gear for the neglected classes or specs. I dont see them going completely away from these sets and tacticals because that most of the reason for onslaught in the first place was new set bonuses and implementation of tacticals and amplifiers. Though to be honest if bioware was smart some of the set bonuses from rothc-kotet would honest be better for some classes than the 2nd, 3rd or even the 1st options for classes. The only issue with it actually reimplementing the old sets as viable options would be trying to get amplifiers would work properly and changing the lvl range number to actually suit the higher lvls. It is not ideal but it could be a option.

[Kalnarius]

These are my questions too. My brain has shut down thinking about the ability prune. I will adapt. I might not like it, but I will adapt, as long as Bioware is true to their word and rebalances all content so I can continue to solo the content I like soloing. (Don't laugh! Sometimes you have to close your eyes and hope a miracle!)

 

Even though the questions I have have been brought up, I think they bear repeating.

 

1. How many different loadouts will we have access to, and will they cost us credits/cartel coins?

2. Can these loadouts be easily tweaked, or will we have to redo them from the ground up every time we make a small adjustment to our gear? Will armor and weapons be recognized by shell so we can swap mods or amplifiers without adjusting the loadout?

3. How will gear be handled? Will we get a seperate gear backpack? (If we do, for the sake of us who share gear between alts, could it pretty please be legacy wide like crafting is now?) Surely we aren't going to have to carry 3+ different gear sets in our one and only pack? If we don't have legacy gear storage for loadout and I forget a piece when transferring sets from one character to another, will there be something to let me know before I swap gear and am missing something?

4. Will we be able to switch loadouts in instances?

 

For your 2 i think it would be save over feature like be in the loadout tweak it and save it but that will probably cost creds to save it the loadout overtop the old 1. Which if that is the case doing something like the credit reset for amplifiers could work in this case where they reset each week back down to 20k not saying that will be the loadout reset price but that could be a way of going about it. If players are tweaking too much and driving their tweak prices up too high.

 

your 4. I am assuming inside flashpoints and operations you will be able to because you are either going to have to wait for people to exit area switch loadout and rezone back in for switches which will be a way people cheese the system that will be more time consuming that just saying oh hey you can switch specs whenever. You can switch specs now in raids and operations it just is not very practical and being rushed into switching all your gear and utilities during a run is as almost as time consuming as people exiting outside of a ops changing their stuff and coming back into the ops as another class. There maybe stipulations of how many times you can switch inside a ops or how many times with a given time limit period you can switch loadouts i am not sure they can actually do that but if they could it would make changing inside a FP/Ops something you will have to think about. Say a 5-10 minute cooldown on loadout switches when inside dungeons and operations which also is a thing about the stealth or kick groups. You could literally end up with all healers or all tanks and be force to actually fight bosses in Vet and MM FPs that way or wait for timers to wear off before you actually fight bosses which would kind of defeat the purpose of stealth skipping if you are hindered by needing to switch back to something for actual combat or that is actually capable of doing well in fights.

 

Almost everything you said i actually asked in my post before yours lol.

[AdjeYo]

They changed from classic to rise of the hutt cartel. Classic the set bonuses were a lot different than what we had from the 1st 4 expansions. We also actually had PVP and PVE set bonuses back then where as until onslaught we really got no set bonuses for PVP. It came the same time they ripped the set bonuses off shells and put them on armors. I have shells from rothc to kotet and they share the same set bonuses actually all that changed was their stats and appearances that was the only thing that changed from RotHC to Kotet.

 

Honestly with the PTS lists no clear indication that FC is a 100% removed as until you actually see the full tree like they did for the sentinels you cant really say. they only did path A and path B for guardians in dev notes and you cannot pick the 3rd option yet either so FC could actually still be there just hidden in Path C. If they would have actually give a clear indication of trees in game in the preliminary PTS of LotS of these classes that would have gone a long way too. But then again they could be changing DotF/FC to be sentinel/marauder only and even then for like concentration its either that or go stationary grit (its berserker without the negative aspect of increases damage taken) because very little in the way of viable sets. Which has me thinking we will be getting additional set gear for the neglected classes or specs. I dont see them going completely away from these sets and tacticals because that most of the reason for onslaught in the first place was new set bonuses and implementation of tacticals and amplifiers. Though to be honest if bioware was smart some of the set bonuses from rothc-kotet would honest be better for some classes than the 2nd, 3rd or even the 1st options for classes. The only issue with it actually reimplementing the old sets as viable options would be trying to get amplifiers would work properly and changing the lvl range number to actually suit the higher lvls. It is not ideal but it could be a option.

 

You are incorrect about set bonuses. It took me a while to dig it all up, most links lead to dead sites. But eventually I tracked down a website that has kept its pages about the old set bonuses up. Let's take as an example Juggernaut dps, since I main Juggernaut (and tanks are a bad example as set bonus stayed the same with 2.0 release)

1.0 the set bonuses were:

PvE:

• 2-piece Lowers the cooldown of Enrage or Combat Focus by 5 seconds
  
• 4-piece Reduces the minimum range of Saber Throw by 10 meters
  

PvP:

• 2-piece Intercede or Guardian Leap heals you for 8% of your total health
  
• 4-piece Increases all damage dealt by 10% for 5 seconds after using Force charge or Force Leap
  

 

Then with 2.0 (rothc) as you said they added new set bonuses (though some stayed the same):

PvE:

• 2-piece Reduces the minimum range of Saber Throw by 10 meters.
  
• 4-piece Increases the damage dealt by Force Scream or Blade Storm by 8%.
  [/List]
  PvP:
  
  • 2-piece Intercede or Guardian Leap heals you for 8% of your total health.
    
  • 4-piece Increases all damage dealt by 10% for 5 seconds after using Force Charge or Force Leap.
    
• 
   
  With 3.0 they did a major rework of all set bonuses. Creating 6-piece sets and also standardising the set bonuses (all 2-pieces for dps granted a 15 seconds damage increase, all 6-pieces an autocrit). They also made PvE and PvP set bonuses the same, though mixing PvP and PvE gear wouldn't get you the full set bonus. You needed either 6 PvE pieces or 6 PvP pieces. Here's the one for Jugg dps:
  
  • 2-piece Sundering Assault or Sundering Strike increases damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
    
  • 4-piece Reduces the minimum range of Saber Throw by 10 meters.
    
  • 6-piece Activating Saber Throw will grant Vindicator’s Critical Bonus making your next Impale and Furious Strike or Overhead Slash and Concentrated Slice critically hit. This effect cannot occur more than once every minute.
    

   

  With 4.0 they slightly altered some set bonuses, though not all. Specifically for Juggernauts they made the 0m minimum range of Saber Throw baseline and added a new set bonus, as well as changing the activation of the 6-piece:

  • 2-piece Sundering Assault or Sundering Strike increases damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
    
  • 4-piece Increases the critical chance of Ravage or Blade Dance by 5%.
    
  • 6-piece Activating Force Scream or Blade Storm will grant Vindicator’s Critical Bonus making your next Impale and Furious Strike or Overhead Slash and Concentrated Slice critically hit. This effect cannot occur more than once every minute.
    

   

  As you can see, by far the largest change (apart from the complete overhaul of 6.0) was with 3.0, when set bonuses were more standardised, however with almost every major expansion there was at least some adjustment to set bonuses. I don't expect a major overhaul like with 3.0 or 6.0, that seems unrealistic (and unpleasant, as it would require a bunch of extra farming). I do expect they will adjust certain set bonuses as needed due to changes with combat styles, or introduce a few new ones if needed.

   

  As for Force Clarity, we can be sure that Focus Guardians won't be getting it, as they showed the whole path for Focus Guardians. I think we can pretty safely assume that Vigilance and Defense also won't be getting it, but sure thechnically they could. Still Focus Guardians would need either an adjustment to Descent of the Fearless or a new set bonus.

   

  Source on the set bonuses:

  1.0: https://ootinicast.com/2013/02/pve-and-pvp-set-bonuses-1-0/

  2.0: https://ootinicast.com/2013/05/pve-and-pvp-set-bonuses-2-0/ (these changes are also listed in swtor.com/patchnotes, though the other ones aren't listed in the patch notes as far as I can tell).

  3.0: https://ootinicast.com/2016/02/pve-and-pvp-set-bonuses-3-0-2/

  4.0: https://ootinicast.com/2016/02/pve-and-pvp-set-bonuses-4-0/

Edited August 13, 2021 by AdjeYo

[TrixxieTriss]

I really wish they’d go back to the old 4.x set bonus system for pvp. I know they won’t, but it would be much easier for them to balance classes if they did. Edited August 14, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[LordCamTheGreat]

Separating PvP and PvE abilities and gear really would be the best design and balance decision but it seems highly unlikely this will happen before the supposed PvP overhaul that will happen next year alongside the tech and ui improvements.

[TonyTricicolo]

Question: Will the Out of Combat Health/Energy regeneration play out as the story class or combat style?

For example, Bounty Hunter has Recharge and Reload which shows the character fiddling with his bracer and testing out the flamethrower. If I use Commando as a combat style will it show Trooper's Health/Energy regeneration where you load rounds in to the chamber and rack the slide?

Edited August 16, 2021 by TonyTricicolo

[LordCamTheGreat]

Question: Will the Out of Combat Health/Energy regeneration play out as the story class or combat style?

For example, Bounty Hunter has Recharge and Reload which shows the character fiddling with his bracer and testing out the flamethrower. If I use Commando as a combat style will it show Trooper's Health/Energy regeneration where you load rounds in to the chamber and rack the slide?

 

I imagine it will be dependent on your combat style and not base class because on the PTS at least, there is no "bounty hunter" (base class) tab, only advanced class tabs containing all your abilities and passives. Further, if you go dark side as a consular it makes far more sense to use the inquisitor (assassin/sorcerer) seethe regen than goodie goodie meditation.

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Question: Will the Out of Combat Health/Energy regeneration play out as the story class or combat style?

For example, Bounty Hunter has Recharge and Reload which shows the character fiddling with his bracer and testing out the flamethrower. If I use Commando as a combat style will it show Trooper's Health/Energy regeneration where you load rounds in to the chamber and rack the slide?

 

Considering these are class abilities I would expect them to change when you change combat styles. If I understand correctly, your base class won't affect the abilities you have, only the combat styles you have access to. These combat styles will determine what abilities you get, and this includes out of combat health/resource regeneration.