Weekly Community Q/A

[Anamodiel]

I'll try to keep this thread updated with anything important that gets mentioned in the Community Q/A's from the SWTOR website.

2/10 - http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-feb-10th-2012

Important things of note from this week:

USLeatherneck: Will Bioware implement Target of Target (including a visible cast bar above the portraits) in the new UI?

Gabe Amatangelo: Yes. Target of Target on primary target and party frames will be part of Game Update 1.2. Primary target already has a visible casting bar on live right now. In Game Update 1.2 target of target frames will have visible casting bars as well. Additionally, there will be various customization features in all of those frames (e.g. repositioning).

Aurozia: Will there be a dual specialization system in the future? Will there be a possibility of changing advance classes as well?

Daniel Erickson: We have no plans for switching advanced classes - which we see as fundamentally different class designs- but dual spec is in the works and coming soon.

[xFingersx]

Im excited about the dual spec for sure, but switching advanced classes would have also been really cool.

[Fuse]

And OP. Each AC is too unique. I'm glad they're not implementing that.

[Anamodiel]

Dual-spec: Yet another reason why I need to level up a Commando. I would love to be able to switch between Heals and DPS. I realize you can do that as a Sage, but we have an overabundance of those and Troopers have great DPS.

God, I wish I had more time.

[xFingersx]

Just pay an asian lol

[Tecknik]

And OP. Each AC is too unique. I'm glad they're not implementing that.

I'm against infinite AC swaps, but I do feel like each character could be granted one swap, if not two.

One, in the case that you pick one AC and realize down the road that it's not what you're really looking for.

Two, in a case where you swap and realize you shouldn't have swapped.

Yes, I understand the "Well just roll a new character blahblahblah" mentality, but not everyone has the time to just roll a bunch of level 50s.

I don't want to switch ACs, but I know there are plenty of people out there who do.

[xFingersx]

I don't think it would be OP by any means... It would just save you the time of rolling an alt just to choose the other AC, but I can see why as a dev. they wouldn't want you to be able to do such things, since they want as much money as possible from you, but I still think it would be a neat feature.

[ZephixLeer (Zephic)]

Dual-spec: Yet another reason why I need to level up a Commando. I would love to be able to switch between Heals and DPS. I realize you can do that as a Sage, but we have an overabundance of those and Troopers have great DPS.

God, I wish I had more time.

I can't say the Commando is recommended if you're looking for "great DPS." At least, not in PVP. I've enjoyed playing a Commando, but I rolled it anticipating it being one of the better end-game DPS classes, which it is not.

Gunnery talents suggest it should work as a burst-damage ranged class, while Assault should be sustained, DoT. However, while Assault is worked as suggested, the DPS is very low. Gunnery in bursting, but also low against anything but light armor. I'm hitting for maybe 1500 with grav round on any given player in PVP.

People whine about Commandos in PVP when they get hit over and over by grav round. That's because it reduced armor on each hit, and it has the potential to do serious damage on someone who is already in light/maybe medium armor. However, usually I'm not really allowed to just stand there and hit someone over and over. I tend to get focused or iterrupted a lot. Only dumb players take serious damage at the moment from a commando.

-However, I will say that if you wait a bit, that all may change. Two very serious skills for the commando are currently bugged. Full Auto and Mortar Volley are both bugged and show especially so in PVP.

Once resolved, full auto and mortar volley will drastically increase commando damage.

I've tried probably 10 different talent specifications so far, specifically for PVP. The best one I've found so far is a hybrid combat medic/gunnery setup. It works great for survivability, and I can go damage if needed pretty easily. Though, the DPS is still really low, and I'm doing amazing if I can get 100k damage in a WZ. But, it does end with a 50% split on healing/dps usually. 100k healing, 100k damage.

 But, since this isn't really a commando thread, I'll leave it at that.

I've probably already ranted for too long about this, considering the topic.

[Anamodiel]

Sorry, I'm thinking in terms of PVE. Grav Round is the bees knees in PVE.

[ZephixLeer (Zephic)]

Yeah, I like Gunnery in PVE.

I did still have issues when we did hard mode directive 7 though. It was me, Broin, Arawnz, and Likwid. When we got to that giant robot in the hallway with the two buttons, we hit the enrage timer every single time. I just couldnt pump out enough DPS. Those little repair droids took me like 5-6 grav rounds to kill. That's a 1.5 sec cast time each, so that seems short, like 7.5-9 seconds, but when you add having to knock them back/stun them, and being low on ammo because you have to pump out as much dps as possible on the boss... it just isnt quick enough.

The issue with ammo is that it costs 2 ammo (if specced properly) to cast, so you're out of ammo in just 5-6 shots or so (i cant do the math right now.. not in front of my home pc so i can see my ammo bar) or you have to slow down your casting to let ammo regenerate. Having a higher regeneration rate at less ammo used (closer to full,)  it is best to slow your casting down slightly and let it regenerate.

That boss makes it hard to do.

The other side of this is that I probably need better gear. I'm using the Champion combat medic assault cannon, so it's up there, but probably not BIS for hard modes. I need to do some more searching there.


-Anyway, point is : If you just want to DPS, there -are- other options, though commando is a LOT of fun, and can certain dish out the DPS... i just think there are faster DPS classes out there for both PVE and PVP. The commando plays more like a highly survivable PVE class with high damage, but not as much as other classes. Less DPS, more survivability. *shrug*

-Last note here: They do provide some nice bonuses for the larger OPS though; probably more than -some- hardmodes, in fact. The armor reduction on bosses, and the CC/off-heals are kind of nice.

Really helped to be able to off-heal on the last boss in directive 7, too. Even if it was probably harder than having a different DPS class for that huge robot thing i mentioned earlier.

[Tecknik]

I would just like to say that I'm a Gunnery Commando and have never had an issue laying down DPS.  Ask just about anyone I've ever run with.  If you're playing the class right, you shouldn't have a problem either.

As far as ammo costs and running out of ammo, that's all in how you're doing your rotation.  You should be popping Grav Rounds 5 times to hit your proc (and make sure you hit 5 stacks of your armor debuff), then firing off Demolition Round, followed by High Impact Bolt (which if you're geared and specced right has a 0 ammo cost).  Throw in a proc'd Full Auto, and maybe a Charged Bolts.  Mix in Hammer Shot every so often (No ammo cost) to do damage while you build back ammo.  You should have two points in Cell Capacitor (Combat Medic Tree) so that you gain an extra 2 ammo when you pop Recharge Cells, which you should be doing usually right after that rotation.  You should also have two points in Cell Charger so that every time you crit you're getting an extra ammo.  You should be utilizing Reserve Powercell, as it gives you a free cast of whatever you want.

Making sure to take advantage of everything I can, I lay down high amounts of DPS and never worry about slowing down my casting.

As far as the "Less DPS, more survivaility" comment, I think you've got that reversed.




For the Bulwark fight in HM D7, you shouldn't have been DPSing those droid at all.  You should have been CCing those droids as soon as they showed up and focusing your damage on the boss.  By the time your CC wears out, the next droids are spawning and the first ones disappear.  Rinse and repeat.  If you're specced properly, your CC should only have a 45-second cooldown as opposed to 60.

[likwidtek]

Tecknik can you post a link to your spec?

[Tecknik]

I'm at work right now, but off the top of my head this looks right - http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800McZMIkbRrdRkfzZd.1

I'll double check when I get home.

[ZephixLeer (Zephic)]

Can't say I agree with the whole being reversed on my "less dps, more survivability " comment.

I've seen other classes pump out more DPS than us. I've also seen them die faster. The smugglar classes would be one example.

So while we have more survivability (heavy armor, awesome combat medic heals), we have less DPS than they do. Just what I've seen so far. But, maybe I don't know how to play my class, as you've said. I don't do a lot of PVE and focus on PVP so far.

What kind of damage are you seeing on bosses? -Grav crits, demo? I'm curious how far away I am.

 -Also, it was our first time doing that boss, we weren't aware the droids disappear if you just CC the first ones. We'll have to try that next time.


One quick note as well. There has been some speculation on the forums about alacrity and how much it really helps. For gunnery, alacrity is pointless. Here's the tread I had been following a bit.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=270251&page=2

Specifically, the post by EthicsGradient, quoted below:

Because your gunnery procs are stuck on cooldowns which are a multiple of 1.5.

Say you chain-cast grav rounds at 1.5s, the first one critting and proccing curtain of fire, by the time the third cast finishes you can have another ammo proc from a crit and a another CoF at the 5th grav round.
i.e. your procs are at 1.5s, 4.5s, 7.5s

If you're chain-casting 1.3s grav rounds and the first crits and triggers CoF you can't have another proc until your fourth grav round at the earliest and curtain of fire at the 6th grav round.
i.e. procs at 1.3s, 5.2s, 7.8s

Full auto makes up a large part of your rotation and dps with curtain of fire while cell charger is crucial for sustaining ammo for dps.
Alacrity will lower your dps sustainability if you have any of it and for small-medium amounts will lower your medium-term dps. It will only reliably increase burst damage, which is why it isn't as poor a choice for gunnery pvp.

I've seen this in action, when wearing my combat medic PVP gear (lots of alacrity) and setup as a gunnery spec. Problems with procs are rampant.

The even bigger issue, of course, is that you burn through ammo much, much faster and end up without any left and no way to regen fast.  AFter your first reload anyway.
(probably why I had my issues, in fact; since I like alacrity in PVP and wear my PVP gear for hardmodes right now. I'm working on a centurion set of eliminator gear that would probably be better for me currently in HMs.)

[Anamodiel]

Chyp: Can we expect to see any animation/damage timing consistency changes between factions?

Georg Zoeller (Principal Lead Combat Designer): Yes. The animation team has been working on a new set of animations for abilities like the Trooper's Mortar Volley to provide closer matching of animation timings and improved combat responsiveness. We expect to roll these changes out with Game Update 1.2.


Zennis: Has there been any discussion to streamlining the Space Port process? Perhaps allowing speeders in the Space Ports besides the Fleet?

Brian Audette (Senior Designer): We've absolutely heard what the fans are saying and have been exploring options to address these issues. While we are still investigating allowing speeder use in Space Ports, we've also been looking for other ways to get people from point A to point B with greater haste. One such feature will specifically affect planets that have Orbital Stations instead of Space Ports such as: Tython, Korriban, Hoth, and Belsavis. We'll be adding an option for players to go directly to their ships from the surface shuttles as opposed to having them run through the Orbital Station to their airlocks. This feature and some additional tweaks will start showing up in Game Update 1.2.


deusBAAL: Will you be providing a LFG tool? What will be its features? How will it be intended to work and when can we expect it to go live?

Daniel Erickson (Lead Writer): We are hard at work on a much more robust LFG functionality that will quickly help put groups together while still offering the flexibility to decide how you group and what sort of people you want to be grouped with. We'll release more details as we get closer to release.


LthalSavy: Will there be any way to implement a quick travel to your ship?

Georg Zoeller: Not in the short term, but it's something we've been discussing on and off. Currently, given how easily available fleet travel passes are on the Security Vendor, we don't think adding this is necessary.


IsACoolGuy: Will any new emotes be added to the game? The Jedi/Sith meditation thing that NPCs do looks pretty cool, will emotes of that nature become available to players?

Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): We do have some new emotes planned. Even cooler, we now have tech that allows us to grant emotes as rewards for various game systems. In Game Update 1.2, we have several emotes planned as unlocked rewards of the Legacy System. My favorite is the special dance that is so inspiring that your companion feels the urge to boogie down with you.


TrueDND: Currently, the incentive to choose other Crew Crafting Skills outside of Biochem is minimal due to the fact that, once you reach max level, all gear that is acquired through PvE and PvP is better than all crafted equipment and mods (mostly through the Commendation and token vendors). Is this being looked in to?

Georg Zoeller: Absolutely. With the upcoming Game Update 1.2, we are adding endgame crafting for all professions. This includes augment crafting, the ability to crit-craft custom (orange) gear with augment slots, new endgame schematics, new color crystals, expanded and improved research and reverse engineering and much more (we're up to 4 pages of crew skill related patch notes in 1.2. alone)

Combined with new features such as the ability to extract base-mods from purple items (including the set bonus) and the improved color matching feature, crafters of all professions will find themselves in a lot of demand once the update hits.


Toxin_Polaris: Do you plan to have mini-games like swoop races or pazaak? And if so what is the priority for this? Can we expect them this year?

Damion Schubert: We love mini-games, especially the ones that speak to the heritage of KOTOR. When would something like pazaak make its way to you? Hard to say - it's not on our immediate horizon, and we'd most likely do it at a point where we want to make a large splash.


Twaggy: I find it troublesome to compare mods/enhancements/armoring/hilts/crystals that are installed in my armor or lightsaber. Will you be implementing something that lets you see the stats of what you have (like the comparability you can do of the boots - boots or jacket - jacket)?

Georg Zoeller: This is a convenience feature on our list of things to look at once the higher priority UI features and community requests have been addressed. We definitely think it's a good idea, but where it falls in terms of prioritization makes it impossible to give you an ETA at this point.


TheJestersHat: What is BioWare planning to do about performance issues that people get with Warzone, open world PVP, and general FPS issues?

Damion Schubert: We have an internal strike team that is fully devoted to ensuring that the game runs better and faster, especially on low end machines, and we consider this team's work to be a crucial internal initiative. You should see evidence of this work as soon as Patch 1.1.5, when we will be introducing a new 'very low' setting to shader quality, which should drastically increase the number of mid-to-low machines the game can run well on, especially in Warzones and Operations.


Frung: Have you considered adding a "companion" loot roll option?

Damion Schubert: We've discussed it and have a design for it - when we do this, we will make it so you can only roll 'need' on items that your advanced class is meant to use in one of its specs. I do not currently have an ETA on this feature.

 
Belthazaar: I like my ships but, I was wondering if or when we will be able to purchase, make, or steal a new and different ship beyond the one that we currently get from our class quest?

Damion Schubert: Unfortunately, the nature of our ships as central story areas for all of our class content, and all of the associated triggers and cinematics that must therefore be done on the ships, means that giving players new ship models, particularly interiors, is very, very hard for us. We will probably look at addressing this instead by providing a greater sense of ship customization at some point well in the future. But it's someplace we definitely want to go!

WE NEED TO FIND OUR FURIOUS ANGELS UNIFORM NOW.