Item Level Scaling for 'Chapters', Story Content, and Combat System in General = Not Balanced

[Erikku]

Are SWTOR developers actually just done with this game's combat system or something?

The reason I ask this is because for years, possibly over a decade now, the scaling of equipment and behavior of various combat mechanics in SWTOR have been just terrible. I see lots of story content added with full voice dialog, many areas to explore, updated items and equipment - Clearly content is being added. However, PVE combat mechanics have stayed relatively the same (i.e. buggy movements, awful level scaling [situational], instant-death). The combat system still reminds me, occasionally, of combat in Star Wars: Galaxies, which is just Sadge. We're in 2024 and combat mechanics, in even older MMOs, are light years ahead of SWTOR.

I'd like to focus specifically on the 'Content- Chapters' - for DPS players - although probably by no means limited to that discipline. Here, we encounter some really terrible mechanics that plagued the game when I played many years ago - and seem as bad as they were then! But I only played 'Story' mode. I'm item level 334 and it seems Veteran is still completely broken.

On 'Veteran' difficulty, for example, DPS players at level 80, 320+ will come across strong, elite, and even some normal battles where it is quite common to be one or two-shotted by any of them, depending on how the story starts. I often have to use 'Force-Cloak' in order to reset a battle and get an even footing. In my opinion, I should not have to.  The reason this happens is because as the story battle scene loads in, the player is ALREADY starting to take damage in some cases! That's just broken.

If I click on the unit see no particular special buff or special case that suggests this unit would do more damage than usual. It just does, almost as if there was just some brainless scaling algorithm that placed that enemy's damage output, hp, and defense some multiple above the player's, regardless of what level or equipment level the player has! Meaning there's effectively no possible way, at least for DPS players, to complete the Chapters without just instantly dying in an overwhelmingly large number of situations! That is just a ridiculously unfair thing to do to players; "Here's some instant death for you, because we're too lazy to tune the game properly", is the frame of mind. Furthermore, it may actually suggest that the Lv.80 player is required to downgrade their gear to the max level of the story, in this case, Lv.70. For the player to have to screw around finding that out the hard way is insane.

As a DPS player, it's impossible to complete these without many deaths, but there should be meaningful reasons why it happened, not b/c of bad enemy scaling, movement glitches, or just ability bugs or hangs in general. The player should never have to settle for any particular role with the story content. It should be manageable with any combat role. If the player is 'pulled-in' or 'knocked-back' by various mechanics, for example, there's almost always some weird instant teleport effect to with, especially when these mechanics happen during a various 'phases' on bosses. Additionally, damage scaling is wildly exaggerated against DPS (possibly tank or healer also?) in various circumstances, and here are some of the worst I had experienced on 'Veteran' difficulty:

• Spoiler

  • Chapter X: Anarchy in Paradise - In the battle with Tayvor Slen, the control terminal phases are incredibly fractured. 'Skytroopers' drop in from rappel lines, but are not target-able until the animations are completed, yet the player may still be damaged, by them, in certain circumstances. Add to this the other gimmicks from Tayvor himself, and you have a completely uncertain and frustrating time deal with problems you shouldn't have to, the worst of which is of course the item level scaling issue.
  • Chapter XI:  Disavowed - The battle with 'Atherna', during the 2nd half of the battle, 2 'Knights of Zakuul' will appear which will easily destroy the player and their companion when added with the other trash mobs. In fact, 'Knights of Zakuul' have terrible scaling issues in general during the previous chapters anyway, b/c for stealthed players, they would be revealed instantly all throughout that campaign, forcing the player to use their 'Force Cloak' or similar skill to 'reset' the battle.
  • Chapter XII: Visions in the Dark - Quite possibly the most broken of them all (I'm sure later chapters will be awful as well), the 'Vaylin' battle. As a DPS player, even when using the 'Energy Shield' and 'Medical Backpack', this is practically unwinnable (at least for DPS).

   

In all of the above instances, a level 80 player with 320 or above item level equipment, has to deal with a ridiculous amount of boss scaling and that is unacceptable. The developers should have addressed this years ago and have just been ridiculously lazy about it, expecting the players to simply find out "the hard way" and "look it up online".  In general, the combat mechanics are bad, but story chapters are particularly stupid and broken.  And, as far as I can tell, nothing is being done to improve this nonsense, so the immersion isn't completely screwed up. I understand challenges and tricky battle mechanics, having played a lot of PVP but this clearly isn't done right!

[xordevoreaux]

I have trouble with Vaylin as well. My guildies do not. I had a guildie help me. She wiped out Vaylin in under 30 seconds.

Scaling isn't the issue. I am.

Edited January 21 by xordevoreaux

[ThanderSnB]

Some classes might not be viable. I've done all them with a Lightning Sorcerer though. If you have one of those that might be an option. Increasing item level does make a difference. It's noticeable going from 324 to 340. Even with green gear, everything just goes down faster when you have 340. Vaylin is still really hard even with the ability to kite and 340 gear, but it is doable. It took me many attempts though.

This is all Veteran mode. I can't help with Master chapters. Some of the easier ones might be possible solo, but the hard ones I think have to be done in a group now. I think they award OP-1s now, which to me is a sign that Bioware considers Master chapters to be group content. They are no longer tuning them to be soloed.

[ZUHFB]

1 hour ago, ThanderSnB said:

This is all Veteran mode. I can't help with Master chapters. Some of the easier ones might be possible solo, but the hard ones I think have to be done in a group now.

it was always meant to be group content

[ThanderSnB]

12 minutes ago, ZUHFB said:

it was always meant to be group content

No, the higher difficulties were supposed to be solo challenges. That's why only the group leader gets credit for the mission. Other party members can help make it easier, but they don't get anything in-game for helping.

[ZUHFB]

11 hours ago, ThanderSnB said:

No, the higher difficulties were supposed to be solo challenges. That's why only the group leader gets credit for the mission. Other party members can help make it easier, but they don't get anything in-game for helping.

Hmm, thats kinda weird, when it came out I did it together with another member from the raid team because we just assumed it could not be solod. I recently solod all the chapters but I was tryharding so if this is meant to be soloable it should get nerfed. Then again, they keep breaking things they don't touch so maybe its better they just don't.

[SteveTheCynic]

12 hours ago, ThanderSnB said:

That's why only the group leader gets credit for the mission

That rule about who gets credit applies to *all* content that happens in a "Personal Phase".  Origin-story instances do the same thing (i.e. they are "class"-locked personal phases)- only the instance owner gets credit toward the story.  The key difference is that in most KotFE/ET chapters, only the group leader can be the instance owner.

[ZUHFB]

13 hours ago, ThanderSnB said:

No, the higher difficulties were supposed to be solo challenges. That's why only the group leader gets credit for the mission. Other party members can help make it easier, but they don't get anything in-game for helping.

I went back to check, all of kotfe can be solod including the bonus chapter, different story for kotet though

suggest chapters I should try to solo, only exception is kotet chapter 2 since I truly believe its not possible

Edited January 22 by ZUHFB

[jamiesafc]

Not to be rude but I feel like this may be a skill issue. The veteran mode are meant to be a challenge and don’t expect to clear them first time, some of the harder fights you need to learn as you would in an OPs. From memory I did veteran with 336 gear and purple augments,  certain casts need to be interrupted, certain you need to avoid. Some you need to make sure you pop a DCD. Can you LOS the boss to pull it with any adds and do AOE damage. It’s all a challenge worth doing. I am currently working through MM chapters with 344 fully optimised gear and it’s difficult but rewarding to get through. May need help on a few fights in the future but so far been able to solo it all. 
Story mode is there for a reason, for people to enjoy the story content and VM and MM are a challenge to enjoy if you wish. 

[Przemo_No]

While the Vet mode is obviously more challenging, I think, the issue lies elsewhere. I figured that whichever Chapter I have to do and my "story" companion is not on level 50 (that's majority of cases) it causes heavy issues because they die like flies and are unable to help with healing. (not to mention tanking!) The mechanic is clearly broken, because if you survive the initial fights in any chapter, the situation starts to improve and suddenly the companion "gets more brains" and avoids enemy attacks or heals themselves/me more effectively. I have experienced that few times, and usually the remedy is to re-start the chapter. And btw I rarely attempt to do Vet content without improved gear (334/336/higher).