Class Balance Changes Feedback

[roinopouf]

8 minutes ago, Sikssix said:

My apologies, Smash spec is an older term for Concentration.

Well, Concentration parses the highest, which is why they're nerfing it.

But it only does so because people are clicking off Zen after using it to instantly get the ability to generate Centering. Doing so isn't so bad for the rotation as the effect is only a loss of Focus that gets offset by the second usage of Zen.

Basically, they get an extra autocrit, complete uptime for the Zen implant bonus (+5% damage) by abusing an autoclicker to click Zen's buff off.

It is what should be removed because it cannot be pulled off by playing normally (no autoclicker), especially in ops context. And they're using the high parses from those abusers to determine that a nerf is needed...

[vanluina]

12 minutes ago, Sikssix said:

It's a serious set back I really hope and wish they don't go through with these changes, but I need to prepare when they do go forward with it, it's not if they do, it's when they do.

But why? Why do the devs talk about listening to feedback, then give the middle finger to our feedback every time?

[xxSHOONYxx]

1 hour ago, Sikssix said:

Their rotation is a bit funky and I will be testing it once I can, however, they placed the dummy's health at 3.5M, which is subpar to what it needs to be at, which will be either 6.5M or 10M

Parse modules changed in hp, the 3.5m is actually 6m hp now. You cancheck on the total damage done. And dreadful orb was not removed, it's used to summon hateful entity

Edited November 11, 2022 by xxSHOONYxx

[Sikssix]

58 minutes ago, roinopouf said:

Well, Concentration parses the highest, which is why they're nerfing it.

But it only does so because people are clicking off Zen after using it to instantly get the ability to generate Centering. Doing so isn't so bad for the rotation as the effect is only a loss of Focus that gets offset by the second usage of Zen.

Basically, they get an extra autocrit, complete uptime for the Zen implant bonus (+5% damage) by abusing an autoclicker to click Zen's buff off.

It is what should be removed because it cannot be pulled off by playing normally (no autoclicker), especially in ops context. And they're using the high parses from those abusers to determine that a nerf is needed...

It currently parses the highest because of an exploit.  That is just the dummy, check how they are used in operations and PVP when you can.  

[Sikssix]

On 11/11/2022 at 7:20 AM, vanluina said:

But why? Why do the devs talk about listening to feedback, then give the middle finger to our feedback every time?

It has been done for the 7.0 PTS.  I spend an excessive amount of time (totally not for the log mounts really) to verify and adjust.  From the time when PTS was available to when it was released, not much, if any, were changed between the two builds.  

Edited November 12, 2022 by Sikssix
It was totally for the log mount and holo log mount

[Sikssix]

54 minutes ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

Parse modules changed in hp, the 3.5m is actually 6m hp now. You cancheck on the total damage done. And dreadful orb was not removed, it's used to summon hateful entity

What was I thinking that was used to obtain slightly extra DPS they removed?  It was something we were able to make too, I forgot what it was.  Let me double check the pull then.

 

Have corrected myself from my previous post.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Sikssix
Correcting self.

[Aethyriel]

1 hour ago, roinopouf said:

Well, Concentration parses the highest, which is why they're nerfing it.

they're not nerfing it, they're shuffling skills around and you end up with the old rotation and DPS.

[vanluina]

19 hours ago, Shabir_Dhillon said:

Balance Changes Coming to Game Update 7.2

Hey everyone, Shabir here with another round of balance changes. On this pass, we took a look at Tanks across all 3 disciplines and made adjustments to bring up their Threat generation as well as  damage in line with our targets for tanks. There are also adjustments made to Marauder/Sentinel and Mercenary/Commando. We look forward to seeing your feedback on these balance changes and will post updates on any changes that may occur in this thread. Be sure to check out these changes on the PTS and leave feedback here. Thanks and take it easy. 

General

• Threat generation has been increased for all tank combat styles.

 

Assassin/Shadow

Darkness/Kinetic Combat

• Depredating Volts/Cascading Debris damage has been increased by 5%

• Mounting Darkness/Pulsating Force now increases Discharge/Force Breach and Wither's/Slow Time’s damage by 30%, up from 20%. 

• Energize/Particle Acceleration now additionally reduces the Force cost of Shock/Project by 15 while in effect. 

• Assassinate/Spinning Strike now has a 100% chance to trigger Energize/Particle Acceleration.

• Spike's/Spinning Kick’s stun duration is increased by 1 second. 

• Spike/Spinning Kick now applies 10% damage reduction to the user whenever it deals damage for 6 seconds.

• The Dark Forces/Light Forces ability mod now heals for 2% of max health whenever damage is dealt to a taunted target, up from 1%. 

• Increased the damage reduction given by the Dark Charge/Combat Technique passive ability from 2% to 5%. (15)

• Severing Slash/Cleaving Cut has been redesigned for Darkness/Kinetic Combat. It now does the following:

  • Strikes targets in a cone, dealing weapon damage, immobilizing targets for 2 seconds, then slowing them for an additional 6 seconds once the immobilize effect wears off. (68)

• The Ward of the Continuum tactical has been redesigned. It now does the following:

  • Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward now has 10 charges and Dark Bulwark/Kinetic Bulwark can no longer restore charges. Consuming a charge of Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward increases defense chance by 1%. This effect stacks up to 10 times and lasts for 20 seconds or until Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward is reactivated. (43)

• Fixed an issue where Reckless Defense/Potent Defense was incorrectly adding multiple stacks with Depredating Volts/Cascading Debris.

• Gloom Ward now does 50% more damage upon Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward breaking from damage.

• Increased the duration of Reckless Defense/Potent Defense from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. 

 

Juggernaut/Guardian

• The Warmonger/Battlefield Command utility has been redesigned. It now additionally enables Vicious Throw/Dispatch or Hew/Whirling Blade after using Force Charge.

• War Master utility has been redesigned per discipline, with Immortal replacing War Master with a new utility called Field Commander/Front Line Veteran.

Vengeance/Vigilance 

• War Master's has been redesigned to add movement-impairing and push and pull effects to the immunity granted by Unstoppable. It now grants 20% damage reduction while Unstoppable is active. War Master no longer grants Vicious Throw/Dispatch from Force Charge/Force Leap.

• Brawn has been replaced by Deafening Defense/Commanding Awe, which increases damage reduction at all times and by an additional 15% while Endure Pain/Enure is active.

  • Deafening Defense/Commanding Awe was previously a passive gained at level 1, although hidden from the tree. This is now part of the ability tree at level 51.

Rage/ Focus

• War Master's has been redesigned to add movement-impairing and push and pull effects to the immunity granted by Unstoppable. It now grants 20% damage reduction while Unstoppable is active. War Master no longer grants Vicious Throw/Dispatch from Force Charge/Force Leap.

Immortal/ Defense

• War Master has been replaced by Field Commander/Front Line Veteran. It reads:

  • Force Charge/Force Leap finishes the cooldown of Disruption/Force Kick and grants Unstoppable, granting immunity to interrupts, stuns, knockdowns, incapacitating and movement-impairing effects, and effects that push or pull you around for 4 seconds.

• Conquering Defense/Abating Defense - Increases shield chance by 4% and reduces the cooldown of Saber Ward by 30 seconds. Crushing Blow's/Guardian Slash’s damage is increased by 12%. 

• Lash Out/Lunge - Retaliation/Riposte consumes 1 less rage, has its damage increase by 12%, and no longer causes a global cooldown. In addition, melee and ranged defense is increased by 3%. 

• Crushing Rage/Guardian Focus is being replaced with Crushing Grip/Stasis Mastery. 

• Crushing Grip/Stasis Mastery - Dealing damage with Crushing Blow reduces the cooldown of Force Choke/Force Stasis by 2 seconds and generates one additional Rage/Focus. 

• Aegis Shield/Warding Shield is replacing Targeting Assault mod. 

• Aegis Shield/Warding Shield - Dealing damage with Aegis Assault grants a barrier of protection to up to 8 allies within 10 meters for 6 seconds.

 

 

Marauder/Sentinel

Annihilation/Watchmen

• Deadly Saber’s/Overload Saber’s damage has been increased by 3.5%. 

• Devious Wounds/Smoldering Burns now lasts for 6 seconds and increases bleed damage by 5%, up from 3%. 

• Juyo Mastery now additionally increases bleed damage by 1% per stack of Juyo Form.

• Pulverize/Mind Sear now resets the cooldown of Dual Saber Throw/Twin Saber Throw and has a 30% chance to trigger, up from 20%. 

• Swift Demise/Acceleration Victory no longer grants stacks of Swift Demise from Annihilate/Merciless Slash. Instead, it increases Vicious Throw/Dispatch damage by 10%. The rest of its effect is unchanged. 

• Damage done by the Blood Fury/Burning Zen ability mod has been increased by 6%. 

• The Bleeding Center/Burning Center ability mod now generates 4 rage/Focus whenever Berserk/Zen is activated. 

• Force Fracture damage has been increased by 10%. 

• The Juyo Rend/Juyo Melt ability mod has been redesigned. It no longer increases the damage of Force Rend per stack of Juyo Form. Instead, it causes Force Rend to immediately grant 6 stacks of Juyo Form and build 10 Fury/Centering stacks. 

• The Draining Center/Melting Center ability mod has been redesigned. It now reads: 

  • “Force Rend deals twice its initial damage whenever it consumes a stack of Berserk and heals you for 50% of the damage that it deals.”

Fury/Concentration

• Reduced the critical strike damage bonus given by Vehemence/Fervor from 10% to 5%.

• Decreased the Fury/Centering stack bonus given by Furious Discovery/Zealous Revelation from 6 to 4. 

• The Furious Rumination/Focused Meditation ability mod has been redesigned. It no longer grants a guaranteed critical hit after activating Berserk. Instead, this has been moved to the Gravity Fissure passive. 

• Gravity Manipulation has been redesigned and renamed Gravity Fissure. It now reads: (60)

  • “Obliterate/Zealous Leap and Force Crush/Exhaustion each consume 1 less rage. Activating Berserk/Zen causes your next direct damage attack to critically hit.”

Carnage/Combat

• Shard of Mortis critical hit chance bonus per stack has been reduced from 25% to 15%.

 

Powertech/Vanguard 

Shield Tech/Shield Specialist

• Payday/ Disruptor Rifle - Payday/Disruptor Rifle benefits from Heat Screen’s cooldown reduction in addition to Heat Blast. 

• Thermal Screen - Thermal Screen tactical correctly applies its effects to Payday/Disruptor Rifle.

• Payday’s/Disruptor Rifles damage is increased by 12%. 

• Ion Overload - Shock has its duration increased to 9 seconds. 

• Flame Engine/Pulse Engine - Firestorms/Ion Storms damage increased by 50% up from 40% when Flame Engine/Pulse Engine is triggered and proc chance is increased to 75% up from 50%. 

• Shield Vents/Shield Cycler - Ion Gas Cylinders damage is increased to 10% up from 5%. 

 

Mercenary/Commando

• Rocket Out/Propulsion Round is taking Hydraulic Overrides'/Hold the Line’s place on the ability tree as a level 68 mod choice.
• Rocket Out/Propulsion Round includes the utility Smoke Screen.
  • Smoke Screen: Rocket Out/Propulsion Round generates a Smoke Screen when used keeping you from being pulled or lept to and making you immune to interrupts and ability pushback for 4 seconds. In addition, taking melee or tech damage within 4 seconds of previously using Rocket Out/Propulsion Round, refreshes its cooldown. These effects cannot occur more then once every 40 seconds.
• Jet Escape/Tenacious Defense no longer reduces the cooldown of Rocket Out/Propulsion Round but instead increases the duration of Hydraulic Overrides/Hold the Line by 4 seconds.
• Rocket Out's/Propulsion Round’s cooldown reduction from Jet Escape/Tenacious Defense is now the default cooldown for Rocket Out/Propulsion Round.

Innovative Ordnance/Assault Specialist

• Innovative Particle Accelerator/Ionic Accelerator - Rate limit reduced from 7.5 to 7.0 seconds.

Please, please put the 10 Fury you gain back onto Draining Center, without that, you have to delay Berserk/Force Rend for 3-5 cd's and it just kills the flow and DPS of the spec. 

[ThatRonin]

Testing out these changes on the PTS as you have them is just making another spec not suitable for raiding. I highly suggest not moving forward with these changes and leave Annihilation as it is. Marauder as a whole right now is fine. 

Clearly this needed more testing on your part as 2k-3k parse loss is just unacceptable if we want to smoothly perform our rotations as we've developed them or if we want to do damage we have to deal with RNG fury generation and can't keep rotation up time at all. There are a lot of good suggestions to nerf Anni, if that's your goal, without killing the spec in this forum already. 

I can only hope you listen to us for once and don't move forward with terrible changes for no reason. You have other classes to focus on and help, go help them. Marauder is fine as it is now. Really wish you'd speak to players about changes so you know what we're struggling with, make changes, then get feedback. Be a much better system overall. 

[roinopouf]

2 hours ago, Sikssix said:

It currently parses the highest because of an exploit.  That is just the dummy, check how they are used in operations and PVP when you can.  

Yes that's what I've been saying... And said exploit can be pulled in raid...

 

2 hours ago, Aethyriel said:

they're not nerfing it, they're shuffling skills around and you end up with the old rotation and DPS.

They honestly made weird things. I missed the 6 to 4 centering from Zealous Leap, which by itself denies the exploit rotation.

I guess we'll go back to old rotation, since the new 7.0 one (which used the extra focus mod) will be less powerful than opting for Criticality.

Overall, still gonna be a nerf with the crit dmg reduction I think.

[Keetsune]

36 minutes ago, roinopouf said:

Yes that's what I've been saying... And said exploit can be pulled in raid...

It's not even worth it. Fury is the worst of 3 specs that mara has for PVE even if you abuse berserk cancel no mater how you do it, manualy or via macro. It's best singletarget spec in the game on papper/dummy, but in real fight it's unreliable and has lack of team utility. The only reason to use it in PVE is if you are a real fan of it. So i don't see a problem with berserk cancel, imo it's add some tyrhard moment to class which is fun for some players as myself, the only problem with it that you can macro it, but it's up to the players.

[Elvarania]

15 hours ago, codydmaan said:

What exactly would change the rotation here? Even choosing burning center in skill tree I'm hitting 31-32k on a 6.5m dummy. The rotations/priorities are already smooth as it is. Are we talking about removing the x4 forcemelt damage after zen? That would be a nerf, then the extra burn damage would be totally nessesarry.

 

 

The nerf is not the 4x Force Melt damage (which is compensated by minor passive damage increase on other abilities).
The nerf is the 10 Centering that activating Force Melt builds. Currently in the rotation, we use Zen before a filler and Force Melt so the 6 Zen stacks activate on 2 Cauterize/Overload and 4 Force Melt stacks. We cannot build Centering during Zen, so the passive 10 stacks contribute towards the next 20 we generate after Zen, meaning that once Force Melt comes off its 12s cooldown, we have 30 stacks of Centering and Zen is ready to be used again.

The nerf here that is masquerading as a buff is that we will not be able to use Zen for each use of Melt, unless we either delay/elongate the rotation, or just use Zen for Cauterize and Overload. It makes the rotation much less precise and results in a DPS loss that is, as many others have said here, unnecessary. This is even more poignant because the OP states the changes are to 'smoothen' the rotation. What they are intending will do the opposite.

What needs to be nerfed is the group-wide healing, for sure. Sentinels will always be in-demand due to their raid buff and Transcendence, but Concentration is often unviable in PvE due to Zealous Leap landing you in bad stuff, and Combat requires Hidden Power and full Focus to utilise it correctly. Therefore Watchman is the go-to spec but some people definitely use it to compensate for poor healing. Therefore a healing nerf is to be expected, but not a nerf to the rotation and thus our DPS.

[Elvarania]

3 hours ago, vanluina said:

Please, please put the 10 Fury you gain back onto Draining Center, without that, you have to delay Berserk/Force Rend for 3-5 cd's and it just kills the flow and DPS of the spec. 

I agree with this. Nerf the damage, sure, but retain the 10 stacks of Centering it will build, otherwise you are not 'smoothing' the rotation at all, you are elongating it. Judging by the majority of posts here are focused on Annihilation/Concentration and not many other proposed changes, you should be able to tell the community is very adverse to this change.

[TylerBott]

1 hour ago, Elvarania said:

The nerf is not the 4x Force Melt damage (which is compensated by minor passive damage increase on other abilities).

 

No, the 4x to 2x initial melt change is a very significant nerf. It decreases the damage dealt by force rend by approximately 29%, which results in around a total 6% total dps loss, which is very significant. It's not the only aspect of the nerf to this tree choice, as you pointed out; it also makes the rotation clunky and unreliable for getting berserk back by the time rend comes off cooldown. But the change from 4x to 2x on initial hit is, nonetheless, a very significant dps nerf, that is not nearly made up by the smaller increases in other abilities. 

[roinopouf]

1 hour ago, Keetsune said:

It's not even worth it. Fury is the worst of 3 specs that mara has for PVE even if you abuse berserk cancel no mater how you do it, manualy or via macro. It's best singletarget spec in the game on papper/dummy, but in real fight it's unreliable and has lack of team utility. The only reason to use it in PVE is if you are a real fan of it. So i don't see a problem with berserk cancel, imo it's add some tyrhard moment to class which is fun for some players as myself, the only problem with it that you can macro it, but it's up to the players.

It's far more flexible and reliable than Combat and Watchman actually.. It peaks lower, but always performs decently.

The cancel abuse is objectively impossible to pull off consistently without macro on the long run / outside of dummy parsing, so it's not a skilled mechanic.

[roinopouf]

1 hour ago, Elvarania said:

What needs to be nerfed is the group-wide healing, for sure. Sentinels will always be in-demand due to their raid buff and Transcendence, but Concentration is often unviable in PvE due to Zealous Leap landing you in bad stuff, and Combat requires Hidden Power and full Focus to utilise it correctly. Therefore Watchman is the go-to spec but some people definitely use it to compensate for poor healing. Therefore a healing nerf is to be expected, but not a nerf to the rotation and thus our DPS.

As far as my experience go, Leap doing its thing is manageable except for one encounter in which it's absolutely unplayable (Revan).

The main issue with Combat is that it requires a very specialized gear to get to alacrity threshold.
Hidden Power is just an extra bit that shortens the opener by 2 very weak GCDs.

I think Watchman has a legacy reputation of being the strongest (always has been on paper, but harder to pull off in about half of the encounters) and has the extra healing factor, which is nice. That's what makes it go-to.

[Elvarania]

18 minutes ago, TylerBott said:

 

No, the 4x to 2x initial melt change is a very significant nerf. It decreases the damage dealt by force rend by approximately 29%, which results in around a total 6% total dps loss, which is very significant. It's not the only aspect of the nerf to this tree choice, as you pointed out; it also makes the rotation clunky and unreliable for getting berserk back by the time rend comes off cooldown. But the change from 4x to 2x on initial hit is, nonetheless, a very significant dps nerf, that is not nearly made up by the smaller increases in other abilities. 

Oh, for sure, it's a big DPS nerf. I don't disagree with that. I think that the other passive damage increases will compensate for it a little.

BUT, if there was a choice of the two, I would rather keep the damage nerf but retain the 10 Centering stacks to keep the rotation the same. Otherwise it's just going to make the class feel, as you say, clunky and unreliable for no apparent reason. The best thing they can do, as many others here have echoed, is just leave Melting Centre unchanged

[Geoteach]

23 hours ago, Shabir_Dhillon said:

Balance Changes Coming to Game Update 7.2

Hey everyone, Shabir here with another round of balance changes. On this pass, we took a look at Tanks across all 3 disciplines and made adjustments to bring up their Threat generation as well as  damage in line with our targets for tanks. There are also adjustments made to Marauder/Sentinel and Mercenary/Commando. We look forward to seeing your feedback on these balance changes and will post updates on any changes that may occur in this thread. Be sure to check out these changes on the PTS and leave feedback here. Thanks and take it easy. 

General

• Threat generation has been increased for all tank combat styles.

 

Assassin/Shadow

Darkness/Kinetic Combat

• Depredating Volts/Cascading Debris damage has been increased by 5%

• Mounting Darkness/Pulsating Force now increases Discharge/Force Breach and Wither's/Slow Time’s damage by 30%, up from 20%. 

• Energize/Particle Acceleration now additionally reduces the Force cost of Shock/Project by 15 while in effect. 

• Assassinate/Spinning Strike now has a 100% chance to trigger Energize/Particle Acceleration.

• Spike's/Spinning Kick’s stun duration is increased by 1 second. 

• Spike/Spinning Kick now applies 10% damage reduction to the user whenever it deals damage for 6 seconds.

• The Dark Forces/Light Forces ability mod now heals for 2% of max health whenever damage is dealt to a taunted target, up from 1%. 

• Increased the damage reduction given by the Dark Charge/Combat Technique passive ability from 2% to 5%. (15)

• Severing Slash/Cleaving Cut has been redesigned for Darkness/Kinetic Combat. It now does the following:

  • Strikes targets in a cone, dealing weapon damage, immobilizing targets for 2 seconds, then slowing them for an additional 6 seconds once the immobilize effect wears off. (68)

• The Ward of the Continuum tactical has been redesigned. It now does the following:

  • Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward now has 10 charges and Dark Bulwark/Kinetic Bulwark can no longer restore charges. Consuming a charge of Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward increases defense chance by 1%. This effect stacks up to 10 times and lasts for 20 seconds or until Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward is reactivated. (43)

• Fixed an issue where Reckless Defense/Potent Defense was incorrectly adding multiple stacks with Depredating Volts/Cascading Debris.

• Gloom Ward now does 50% more damage upon Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward breaking from damage.

• Increased the duration of Reckless Defense/Potent Defense from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. 

 

Juggernaut/Guardian

• The Warmonger/Battlefield Command utility has been redesigned. It now additionally enables Vicious Throw/Dispatch or Hew/Whirling Blade after using Force Charge.

• War Master utility has been redesigned per discipline, with Immortal replacing War Master with a new utility called Field Commander/Front Line Veteran.

Vengeance/Vigilance 

• War Master's has been redesigned to add movement-impairing and push and pull effects to the immunity granted by Unstoppable. It now grants 20% damage reduction while Unstoppable is active. War Master no longer grants Vicious Throw/Dispatch from Force Charge/Force Leap.

• Brawn has been replaced by Deafening Defense/Commanding Awe, which increases damage reduction at all times and by an additional 15% while Endure Pain/Enure is active.

  • Deafening Defense/Commanding Awe was previously a passive gained at level 1, although hidden from the tree. This is now part of the ability tree at level 51.

Rage/ Focus

• War Master's has been redesigned to add movement-impairing and push and pull effects to the immunity granted by Unstoppable. It now grants 20% damage reduction while Unstoppable is active. War Master no longer grants Vicious Throw/Dispatch from Force Charge/Force Leap.

Immortal/ Defense

• War Master has been replaced by Field Commander/Front Line Veteran. It reads:

  • Force Charge/Force Leap finishes the cooldown of Disruption/Force Kick and grants Unstoppable, granting immunity to interrupts, stuns, knockdowns, incapacitating and movement-impairing effects, and effects that push or pull you around for 4 seconds.

• Conquering Defense/Abating Defense - Increases shield chance by 4% and reduces the cooldown of Saber Ward by 30 seconds. Crushing Blow's/Guardian Slash’s damage is increased by 12%. 

• Lash Out/Lunge - Retaliation/Riposte consumes 1 less rage, has its damage increase by 12%, and no longer causes a global cooldown. In addition, melee and ranged defense is increased by 3%. 

• Crushing Rage/Guardian Focus is being replaced with Crushing Grip/Stasis Mastery. 

• Crushing Grip/Stasis Mastery - Dealing damage with Crushing Blow reduces the cooldown of Force Choke/Force Stasis by 2 seconds and generates one additional Rage/Focus. 

• Aegis Shield/Warding Shield is replacing Targeting Assault mod. 

• Aegis Shield/Warding Shield - Dealing damage with Aegis Assault grants a barrier of protection to up to 8 allies within 10 meters for 6 seconds.

 

 

Marauder/Sentinel

Annihilation/Watchmen

• Deadly Saber’s/Overload Saber’s damage has been increased by 3.5%. 

• Devious Wounds/Smoldering Burns now lasts for 6 seconds and increases bleed damage by 5%, up from 3%. 

• Juyo Mastery now additionally increases bleed damage by 1% per stack of Juyo Form.

• Pulverize/Mind Sear now resets the cooldown of Dual Saber Throw/Twin Saber Throw and has a 30% chance to trigger, up from 20%. 

• Swift Demise/Acceleration Victory no longer grants stacks of Swift Demise from Annihilate/Merciless Slash. Instead, it increases Vicious Throw/Dispatch damage by 10%. The rest of its effect is unchanged. 

• Damage done by the Blood Fury/Burning Zen ability mod has been increased by 6%. 

• The Bleeding Center/Burning Center ability mod now generates 4 rage/Focus whenever Berserk/Zen is activated. 

• Force Fracture damage has been increased by 10%. 

• The Juyo Rend/Juyo Melt ability mod has been redesigned. It no longer increases the damage of Force Rend per stack of Juyo Form. Instead, it causes Force Rend to immediately grant 6 stacks of Juyo Form and build 10 Fury/Centering stacks. 

• The Draining Center/Melting Center ability mod has been redesigned. It now reads: 

  • “Force Rend deals twice its initial damage whenever it consumes a stack of Berserk and heals you for 50% of the damage that it deals.”

Fury/Concentration

• Reduced the critical strike damage bonus given by Vehemence/Fervor from 10% to 5%.

• Decreased the Fury/Centering stack bonus given by Furious Discovery/Zealous Revelation from 6 to 4. 

• The Furious Rumination/Focused Meditation ability mod has been redesigned. It no longer grants a guaranteed critical hit after activating Berserk. Instead, this has been moved to the Gravity Fissure passive. 

• Gravity Manipulation has been redesigned and renamed Gravity Fissure. It now reads: (60)

  • “Obliterate/Zealous Leap and Force Crush/Exhaustion each consume 1 less rage. Activating Berserk/Zen causes your next direct damage attack to critically hit.”

Carnage/Combat

• Shard of Mortis critical hit chance bonus per stack has been reduced from 25% to 15%.

 

Powertech/Vanguard 

Shield Tech/Shield Specialist

• Payday/ Disruptor Rifle - Payday/Disruptor Rifle benefits from Heat Screen’s cooldown reduction in addition to Heat Blast. 

• Thermal Screen - Thermal Screen tactical correctly applies its effects to Payday/Disruptor Rifle.

• Payday’s/Disruptor Rifles damage is increased by 12%. 

• Ion Overload - Shock has its duration increased to 9 seconds. 

• Flame Engine/Pulse Engine - Firestorms/Ion Storms damage increased by 50% up from 40% when Flame Engine/Pulse Engine is triggered and proc chance is increased to 75% up from 50%. 

• Shield Vents/Shield Cycler - Ion Gas Cylinders damage is increased to 10% up from 5%. 

 

Mercenary/Commando

• Rocket Out/Propulsion Round is taking Hydraulic Overrides'/Hold the Line’s place on the ability tree as a level 68 mod choice.
• Rocket Out/Propulsion Round includes the utility Smoke Screen.
  • Smoke Screen: Rocket Out/Propulsion Round generates a Smoke Screen when used keeping you from being pulled or lept to and making you immune to interrupts and ability pushback for 4 seconds. In addition, taking melee or tech damage within 4 seconds of previously using Rocket Out/Propulsion Round, refreshes its cooldown. These effects cannot occur more then once every 40 seconds.
• Jet Escape/Tenacious Defense no longer reduces the cooldown of Rocket Out/Propulsion Round but instead increases the duration of Hydraulic Overrides/Hold the Line by 4 seconds.
• Rocket Out's/Propulsion Round’s cooldown reduction from Jet Escape/Tenacious Defense is now the default cooldown for Rocket Out/Propulsion Round.

Innovative Ordnance/Assault Specialist

• Innovative Particle Accelerator/Ionic Accelerator - Rate limit reduced from 7.5 to 7.0 seconds.

It appears you are dropping dps on classes for the top DPS, but not raising it for the bottom classes, per parsing. The gunnery/vigilance commando/merc were made unplayable in PVE with 7.0. TK/lightning  had 10% removed. You are now removing dps from tanks. I do not see any balancing, just a reduction. At this point, I have to question if there is a formula that is used to calculate the dps per class spec and if it is used for these calculations? I then must ask if any one of the Devs plays these classes in PVE, because I am pretty sure they would not be reducing the production of classes they play, if they play at all (a clear bias against ranged classes in pve is beyond question). We love this game and pay to play it. It is 10 years old with very little content or engine changes, as compared to other MMOs, such as the W and F franchises, so we really do care if we are still subbed. Listen to feedback. Revert abilities to previous outputs. Do not make changes when the feedback received goes against what is put in place. It may hurt the pride of the coders, but it is the passion of the player base with which you toy. Please do not alienate it further.

[Sikssix]

1 hour ago, roinopouf said:

It's far more flexible and reliable than Combat and Watchman actually.. It peaks lower, but always performs decently.

The cancel abuse is objectively impossible to pull off consistently without macro on the long run / outside of dummy parsing, so it's not a skilled mechanic.

Fury/ Concentration being flexible?  Could you elaborate?  That spec feels very wonky and it's as flexible as a steel rod honestly.

[Deaconik]

1 hour ago, Venturax said:

Isn't Sentinel combat nerfed enough? Instead of balancing it with the other 2 specs, you nerf it more?
Why?... Leave it alone please!
Been playing combat since game launched, and It's horrible to see every year it getting more nerfed and hard to keep up with the other 2 specs or even other classes...
The devs should play all 3 specs on a dummy for 3 mins each and balance them. ( also for other classes, of course) Ut combat... its painful to watch. 

Combat is one of the top parsing specs in the game, what are you talking about? People just don't play it because Annihilation is easier to play and has bigger raid utility...

Edit> Alsi IMO anni is more fun to play than Combat, but that's me.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Deaconik

[NicoleMay]

The annhi changes, while mostly harmless, are annoying. Seems like I'm always just 1 ability shy of having 30 stacks, and depending on how much resource I have, it may take 2 extra hits before I can Zen.

I'd rather keep Annhi the way it is on live. This re-tweaking is getting annoying. Madness at least needed it because the tactical was broken, but Annhi is fine rotation wise now. Just leave it alone, or properly buff it along with every other spec.

[vanluina]

On 11/10/2022 at 1:31 PM, JackieKo said:

• How does the adjusted threat and damage output of tank classes feel?
• Darkness Assassin and Annihilation Marauder’s rotations have been smoothed out, does this feel better or worse than 7.0?
• The Ward of the Continuum tactical has been redesigned to synergize better with Darkness Assassin mod choices. Have you tried it? What do you think?
• What are your impressions of the redesigned Annihilation mod choices?
• How do you feel about the overall state of tanks in PVE?
• How do you feel about the overall state of tanks in PVP?
• What do you feel tanks are missing in PVP or PVE?
• What are things you would like to see in the future for tanks?
• What are your impressions on the itemizations around tanks?
• Medals and Achievements for PVP
• Would you like to see additional achievements added on a bi-seasonal or seasonal basis?
• Do achievements motivate you to play more PVP?
• Do you feel medals should be easier or harder to achieve?
• What actions in PVP would you like to see represented in medals?
   

Please, please do not implement these changes. Nobody likes or wants these changes, long time Marauder players have already posted YouTube videos about how much they hate it. If you put these changes forth, Annihilation will be practically unplayable because of how clunky the rotation will be. 

The proper way to handle Anni is to give is a significant healing nerf, while giving it a slight DPS buff. Don't do the opposite and nerf the DPS while buffing the healing. Please don't kill my favorite spec. 

[JCDenton]

13 hours ago, vanluina said:

But why? Why do the devs talk about listening to feedback, then give the middle finger to our feedback every time?

They don't have the process or the budget for real iteration. By the time something gets to us on the PTS, that's the direction they've chosen and its what they're going to do, because they can't have spent that time and money on nothing. The PTS is for small numerical changes, not big directional changes, we can get attack X to do 12% instead of 15%, but that's it.

[vanluina]

27 minutes ago, JCDenton said:

They don't have the process or the budget for real iteration. By the time something gets to us on the PTS, that's the direction they've chosen and its what they're going to do, because they can't have spent that time and money on nothing. The PTS is for small numerical changes, not big directional changes, we can get attack X to do 12% instead of 15%, but that's it.

That's being cash flow centered, not long term centered.

Sure, saving yourself some money today by not un-doing some stupid changes might make sense today, but in the process if you continually piss people off by screwing their favorite specs, sooner or later people will just stop playing, then you as a game developer are eliminating your player base by not actually listening to their feedback. 

[vanluina]

On 11/10/2022 at 1:31 PM, JackieKo said:

• How does the adjusted threat and damage output of tank classes feel?
• Darkness Assassin and Annihilation Marauder’s rotations have been smoothed out, does this feel better or worse than 7.0?
• The Ward of the Continuum tactical has been redesigned to synergize better with Darkness Assassin mod choices. Have you tried it? What do you think?
• What are your impressions of the redesigned Annihilation mod choices?
• How do you feel about the overall state of tanks in PVE?
• How do you feel about the overall state of tanks in PVP?
• What do you feel tanks are missing in PVP or PVE?
• What are things you would like to see in the future for tanks?
• What are your impressions on the itemizations around tanks?
• Medals and Achievements for PVP
• Would you like to see additional achievements added on a bi-seasonal or seasonal basis?
• Do achievements motivate you to play more PVP?
• Do you feel medals should be easier or harder to achieve?
• What actions in PVP would you like to see represented in medals?
   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DeTNACwA4A&t=1081s

Here's an example of what us Marauders think of the changes, we hate the Anni changes, don't make these changes.