Questions for the Balance Team regarding Mercenary/Commando DPS

[ArchingBeast]

Hello to the BioWare Team!

 

My name is Neophyte, and I love playing SWTOR, and especially Mercenary/Commando DPS, in higher class (master mode) raids. Now, with the current update, I, and many others in the raiding community feel like that the Mercenary/Commando DPS subclasses are underpowered. We take for evidence of said lack of DPS the following two Sources. First off, the current Operations Dummy Parses, so the amount of time it takes a class to kill a 6.5M Operations dummy with shattered armour applied. These can be looked at and analysed over at parsely.io. Adding to that, we also have the complete dataset of all operations parses uploaded to parsely in story mode and veteran mode operations, with DPS ratings of different the different parent classes compared on IxParse.com. These two datapoints we take as hard evidence that both DPS specs of the class need to be buffed.

 

However, I do not want this to be a one-sided exchange. I feel like the best feedback we players can give is feedback that corresponds with, and builds on, the teams vision for the class and game, where the players can for example provide suggestions that may not be apparent to the team, but fit their ideas for the class. As such I'd like to ask a few targeted questions as to what the teams philosophy for the Innovative Ordnance (IO, Assault Specialist on Pub) and Arsenal (Gunnery) DPS subclasses, as well as Mercenary defensives and utilities in their entirety, is.

 

For the sake of simplicity, I will only keep using the Imperial side terminology, as its the one im most familiar with. I am also in active correspondence with other Mercenary players, both PvE and PvP focused, and together we had lots of discussions about the class and class specs.

 

I plan to bring both sides together, our thoughts as to what needs improving, together with what the Balance Team have in mind for the class, so that both sides collectively may lead to reasonable solutions in a future forum post I will write, that will discuss all the players thoughts as well as Your philosophy and will field my proposed changes to the specs, which will mostly tackle the new ability tree choices.

 

With that said, here are the questions I'd like to ask you. None of which should contain any bias or judgement on the game's state, so apologies if they may come off as having such, English is a second language for me.

 

 

• How seperate do you think the Burst (Arsenal) and the DoT (IO) should be in terms of damage output in different scenarios? Right now, the IO is probably the DoT spec with the best ability to burst, with a deadly combo of instant Abilities together with the incredibly strong DoT via Super Charged Gas (SCG), while Arsenal has very few damage spikes for a burst class and at this moment needs to optimize ticking a DoT induced by the tactical choice, in theory lending itself more towards sustained damage output. Do you think this is an optimal relationship between the two specs?

 

 

• Compared to the other ranged classes, how mobile do you think the Merc should be? With the sniper inherently needing to stand still, and the sorc mostly casting/channeling and currently using one of its two movement abilities to increase dps, should the Merc be the most mobile ranged spec in the game?

 

 

• What do you think should be the philosophy with defensive cooldowns (DCDs) of the merc? Right now, the Sniper deals with damage via staying in cover and having mostly two small DCDs with short cooldowns to deal with damage spikes, while also potentially being abled to skill into lasting, powerful damage reduction DCDs. The Sorcerer deals with damage similarily, mostly via passive Damage Reduction through built up stacks, while also having short, powerful damage reduction tools, self healing capabilities and a singular „screw you“-ability for all damage types that have a value attached to them. The Merc deals with damage differently, using mostly his variety of lasting DCDs with long cooldowns, with little passive resistance (aside from the fact that its the only ranged DPS with heavy armor) with little to actually deal with short spikes of damage thats non reflectable, especially if its of the AoE type. Is this what you believe should be the way the Merc plays out?

 

 

• How do you view the Raid/Group Utility the Merc brings to the table? Right now, it fields a raid buff (that is rarely used on the DPS classes), some off-healing abilities and a soft stun. This lacks very much behind the Sniper that can field a group shield, a variety of passive defensives that are very useful in tons of fights and a targeted root, and the Sorc, which has has extricate, can choose a raidbuff and can potentially bubble an entire group before or in a fight, ensure survival in some situations. How do you evaluate the balance of these raid utilities?

 

 

• Do you think some classes should be inherently weaker than others? Right now, the Arsenal has a fairly low entry point in learning it when starting out, as its very straight forward. Should this also mean that the ceiling of the class should as such also be accordingly lower?

 

 

I and many others would very much appreciate an answer, with details very welcome. I will write another forum post with my proposed changes in the near future, and I hope I can count on your insight to refine and narrow down my suggestions.

 

Thank you.

[xXSistros]

I would add another question:

 

Is the Class played as intended by you?

With the Tactical in 6.0 IO players shifted over to the "Power-Shot-Rotation", concentrating their whole playstile on SCG stacks. On the one hand, this leads to (imho) an exciting and challenging playstyle, because players have to decide when to be mobile and when to stand still, track their Stacks and so on. On the other hand, this "Meta" Playstyle causes some Mechanics to be completely omitted. Volatile Warhead for example, our sub 30% execute ability, is only used if the target is about to die in seconds. But we also get more Dot damage sub 30%, which makes Volatile Warhead completely useless in the great majority of fights (I can't speak for PvP however). So either you take it out or rebalance it, so that this mechanic can be used at least situationally.

The same problem sadly goes with many of the Combat style Choices: Early Volatile Warhead simply doesnt do the damage of SCG stacks, so nobody is gonna pick that. The longer dot on Thermal Detonator also is objectively stronger, so no one (in PvE) picks the harder Single Hit TD. So to be honest, IO Merc doesn't have that much Combat Style "Choices", while the "Meta" Choices are relatively weak compared to other Combat Styles (Pyro PT for example got a flat DPS Boost on his burning dot, compared to IO's 50% Tick Chance...).

 

And Arsenal... the Author already stated the main Problem. Burst Class without much Bursting Capacity and a Sustain Tactical, so the Spec really ist in No man's Land now...

[Cyanbloodbane]

I share the concerns with the DPS in particular. Seeing some parses where classes are doing 30% more than my merc is not fun to say the least.

[Iceslasher]

Thankyou!!!!!!

[Xarthisius]

Errr... bump before the 7.1.1 balance changes (especially the first paragraph).

 

As two side notes:

1. Should such posts be placed in the Suggestions section?

2. Sometimes I wonder whether or not the developers take into account such balance changes also in view of solo play. Story is of course nothing difficult but maybe heroic missions? Like, IO may need more time to "kill" an operation dummy but one cycle of their rotation will kill an elite mob in solo environment and hence needs to be nerfed (this is just a made-up example - don't flame me). It sounds unlikely but so many things were made in the game towards solo players prior to raiding players requested changes...

If that is the case, then the balance change could be separated between operations/flashpoints/uprisings, pvp (which is already happening in some skills, like stuns etc.) and open-world content (world bosses should probably be put into the operation bag).

Like Mag Bolt damage increased by

- 5% when fighting op/fp/up bosses

- 1% open world content

- 3% other players.

[Zawar]

Again the lack of Commando DPS balance compared to other classes is ignored by the dev's. But hey, at least they are fixing the fluff stuff which no one gives a crap about. How about hiring dev's and management who can address and prioritize the real issues with this game?

[Gibonski]

7.2 has dawned upon us and we did not hear a single word on balancing. Is that intentional, it that the way things should work? I can see a huge problem with our class, especially Arsenal spec tree, that is constantly being dismissed and hidden behind meaningless changes.

Can we have a dps boost? Maybe a stronger dot that gives us some more sustained dps?

 

Thanks in advance, to anyone who's reading.

[Henyk]

22 hours ago, Gibonski said:

Maybe a stronger dot that gives us some more sustained dps?

 

Giving DoT/sustain to basically burst spec generally is not good idea, only temporary "patch" solution (but it's not for sure)

[Flexgoliath]

I dont really care how they fix it but they need to fix the dps in PVE.  Being the lowest dps spec in the entire game for over a year is not acceptable.  The recent PTS changes do not improve it enough.