By Geldarion
Briefing
Welcome to the war, comrades. Today is a news piece. Let’s get to the briefing. PvP news is brewing!
More after the Jump…
I am very excited for the coming of the new Warzone and the new Patch 1.4. We have had some information (finally) about some of the changes coming.
Developer Blog
There was a Developer Blog for Patch 1.4 about class changes and changes in the way the Resolve mechanic works. There has since been a lot of complaining about nerfs and changes (as per usual), but there has been a clarification post by Allison Berryman on the forums as well.
Crowd Control
A lot of balancing is going to happen, especially when it comes to crowd control. Let’s make a quick list of the most important CC-related changes:
- Bounty Hunters, Troopers, Consulars, and Inquisitors are getting their long range stun reduced from 30 meter ranges to 10 meters.
- Overload/Force Wave, the Inquisitor and Consular PBAoE knockback will be changed to knockback only enemies in a 15 meter, 120-degree cone in front of the Inquisitor or Consular. They also knock back all targets instantly now.
- Resolve will now not be added for overlapping times while being CC’d. In other words, if you are stunned for 5 seconds, you get 5 seconds worth of Resolve, whereas now if two people stunned you for 4 seconds each with 3 seconds overlapped (still only 5 seconds), you would get 8 seconds worth of Resolve. This is simply counting CC once and once only, no double-counting.
My opinion on the CC changes
The class changes have been designed with limiting the rampant CC in mind. These are good ideas, and though the Consulars and Inquisitors will be unhappy (and are unhappy), this was frankly very needed. Such a short cooldown on such an annoying skill was ridiculous.
The Resolve changes, however, weren’t exactly what I had in mind whenever I would think the words “fixing the Resolve mechanic.” The articles kept saying “melee powerhouse” like melee players aren’t completely incapacitated by a simple root. On the one hand, melee players won’t suffer quite as much from random knockbacks anymore. But still, Bioware, make roots affected by and add to Resolve!! Currently, you can be chain rooted with no way to get out of it. I can understand slows not being on the Resolve mechanic, but roots are as debilitating to a melee character as stuns are to a ranged character.
Class changes unrelated to CC
The following are my favorites of the class changes that are coming:
- Mercenaries and Commandos are getting an interrupt!
- Mercs and Commandos are also getting a snare on Kolto Missile/Kolto Bomb with the talent Kolto Residue.
- Merc/Commando talent Afterburners/Concussive Force will now make Rocket Punch/Stock Strike root the target.
- For stealth classes, their in-combat stealth skill is getting a naturally shorter cooldown.
- Scoundrels and Operatives now basically have a quick sprint, as Sneak will now increase movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds, and can be used out of stealth.
My opinion of the class changes
In general, I like the changes. Especially because the Commando/Mercenary and Consular/Inquisitor are both getting their stuns nerfed. Sages and Sorcerers are not really getting anything good, but Shadows and Assassins are getting a lot of extra goodies.
Unfortunately, some of the changes are rather detrimental to…you guessed it! Melee players. It seems like melee players are going to get really screwed on this patch because there are a ton of slows and roots being added to these classes.
New quickslot bars
In other news, Allison Berryman said that they will be adding more quickslot bars sometime this year. This is exciting, as there are a lot of buttons in this game, and I need another bar so I can put my mini-pets on it!
Gabe Amantangelo Interview
Over on Gamebreaker, there was an interview with PvP Principal Lead Designer Gabe Amantangelo. Some really cool things in this interview:
- A lot of people who aren’t necessarily “PvP people” play Warzones due to their availability.
- He actually wants a 20% gap between a fresh level 50 and a fully geared PvPer.
- They will be introducing a Recruit gear, Mark II in the next patch.
- They will be creating a level 50 bolster mechanic.
- They want Ranked Warzones, Season 1 to be more than just a “they’re off, flip the switch, now they’re on” type of thing.
- They are testing other PvP modes.
- It is likely that free-to-play will be slightly sooner than Season 1.
- They are working on revitalizing world PvP.
- Ilum has an event that will come sometime “soon,” but that is slated for January probably.
Overall, this is making me really excited about the changes coming to PvP.
What do you think about all of this news? Are you as pumped as I am?
Use this information well, soldier. Fight for victory and die with honor. Till our next briefing, DISMISSED!
Personally, I have issues with some of the changes purely from the fact that I don’t PvP. At all. And I’m never going to. I am too busy and barely have enough time to run a daily HM FP and occasionally raid with my guild. So when they make class changes based on PvP combat feedback, I don’t particularly think it is the proper approach. Considering again, how little this game is actually tested, I give the changes a week before other classes are crying nerf and we go through this whole thing again sometime down the road.
I understand that tweaks are always going to be needed for balance, but I wish they’d take in the accross-the-board play styles of the players more into account.
I think that the changes would be better if they made more abilities like “Guard” or “Taunt” in that they provide different effects in PvP as to PvE.
Anyway, we’ll see how it all plays out. Seems going live for a few months is how this game gets tested anyway…
I can totally understand your outlook on this. PvP and PvE are very different games. As the clarification post that Allison Berryman said, they know they affect the PvE gameplay with the change. But they did increase the range of the knockback, and they did make it instant. As for the stun changes, Gunslingers have survived with no problem with a 4m stun 😉
But it is true, they are different games, and it would be nice if they had a mechanic that could just tweak skills based on the situation. Of course, then you have to remember a bunch of different dualities for skills lol.
I don’t understand the secretiveness of not allowing people to bugtest this stuff on the PTS for weeks. There is no way to possibly test every boss of a raid if it takes you multiple weeks to get to the final boss. If the PTS is only open two weeks, then it is a little ridiculous to expect us to find the bugs immediately.