Weekly Dev Q&A for Fridays

[caladein]

The problem with Revivification is that current encounter design doesn't make the positional requirement an issue.  The rooms are relatively small and there just aren't the mechanics that make the group scatter or force you to split up the melee clump so you can just cast it as soon as the boss gets moved to its new position.  Even Soa's jump phases have lulls that allow Sorcs to heal heavily instead of forcing the group to rely on instants.

[Zetor]

Heck, a lot of times I cast Salvation even if it's just going to hit one target because it's a strong HOT and I really don't run out of force as a healing sage. I guess it comes back to the resource system again...

[Sjofn]

Yeah I plop it down even if it's only going to hit two people because whatevs, man. It's just way, way, way better than the other two AE heals. I would like them to bring the other two up (because yes they can move while casting it and I am glad they're upping the player cap on them but they still blow it out the ass comparitively) but I wouldn't be surprised if they wind up nerfing Salvation instead. Because it's not balanced at all, and it's pretty lame for the troopers and smugglers (and BHs and IAs).

On the other hand, trooper healing is totally more fun.  

[Paelos]

Yeah Fordel, that counts. However it does raise some horrifying points. The idea of AoE healing scaling is similar to the AoE tanking debate.

Our own players have no issues clearing any of the content in the game, on all difficulty levels, with any healer spec. Data from the Live game shows Operations, at all sizes, being successfully run with Commando and Scoundrel healers.

This statement alone scares me. Is that your metric? We can do it, so you should too? Your players designed the fucking game. Of course they can clear the system. Can the regular dumass do it on either class? That's your standard.

Also the stance from Georg Zoeller is argumentative. He's actively saying he disagrees with the players that scoundrels lack tools for short burst healing. When he talks about balance he then talks about nerfing Sorc healers. Ugh.

[Paelos]

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-feb-17th-2012

Q&A for the 17th is up. Here's my summary of the questions:

1 - Will there be server wide seasonal/special events?

A - Yes, with special rewards that will be one time only. Soon!

2 - Will you put in the /roll command for ML?

A - Yes, in an upcoming weekly patch. Very soon!

3 - Is show/hide headgear coming as an option?

A - Yes, it's not in 1.2 though. In the works.

4 - What about hoods? Can we pull them up/down?

A - In the works. Also not in 1.2 but is in 1.3 likely.

5 - Will you deal with the AH interface, and when?

A - We hear you, and we are working on it. Watch here for news.

6 - What about mobile apps? I want to send out companions.

A - We dream of this. We want this. We have no idea when though. It's hard to code.

7 - Can we mod our pvp gear into a design we like better and keep the bonuses?

A - Yes, set bonuses will be carried by armoring mods.

8 - Do you have chat bubbles in the works?

A - They are on the list. They were in beta, but they wrecked performance. We have to get past GUI customization first.

9 - What is the healer class design philosophy?

A - (You'll have to read this on your own, it's long)

10 - What is the exact mechanic behind taunt? Does it equalize threat like a traditional taunt?

A - They work two ways: instantly put you at the top of the list, and put a short duration effect on the target to attack you.

11 - How are you going to combat Warzone AFKers and deserters?

A - 1.2 will deincentivize this behavior, including removal of the bag/quest system, and direct purchase of equipment with commendations, as well as 14 new objective medals and participation scaling. Also, we're putting in a votekick with a requeue debuff.

12 - 16 man ops are much harder than 8 man with no loot difference. What do you plan to do to offset this imbalance?

A - It's not intended that way. We will patch in 1.2 to make 16 man ops easier due to the coordination involved.

[Fordel]

Yeah Fordel, that counts. However it does raise some horrifying points. The idea of AoE healing scaling is similar to the AoE tanking debate.

Our own players have no issues clearing any of the content in the game, on all difficulty levels, with any healer spec. Data from the Live game shows Operations, at all sizes, being successfully run with Commando and Scoundrel healers.

This statement alone scares me. Is that your metric? We can do it, so you should too? Your players designed the fucking game. Of course they can clear the system. Can the regular dumass do it on either class? That's your standard.

Also the stance from Georg Zoeller is argumentative. He's actively saying he disagrees with the players that scoundrels lack tools for short burst healing. When he talks about balance he then talks about nerfing Sorc healers. Ugh.

His players and the other thousands doing operations? I'm pretty sure it's the latter more then the former there. 

[Paelos]

I don't think it really matters if people can complete the content with a given setup. What he doesn't go into with that comment is the percentages. Sure it CAN be done with those classes. Is it being done regularly? I don't know for sure. Plus he listed his guys first in that comment. It's a sort of insight into how he ranks the worth of his testing metrics. Some will think I'm reading into that, but whatever.

[Sjofn]

I am fine with them taking their time on the healing thing, because I am positive at least half the "problem" with the non-sage/sorc healers is the way they heal is different from the way anyone who has played a heal class has healed before, and some of them are going to be able to make the shift and some of them are not. That doesn't mean the other two classes are "bad" or need rebalancing.

I tend to agree with them, by the way, that scoundrel/operatives DO have tools to deal with burst healing. And the sorc "nerf" you see is a bug fix.


EDIT: Basically the AE healing is the big glaring thing in my eyes, that needs to be fixed before anything else.

[Paelos]

AE healing and AE tanking I think are both off in the game.

[Fabricated]

The 16-mans being harder thing is weird. I've only done normal mode raids so far and I haven't noticed much difference at all.

My guildmates say that hardmode is -way- different. They've cleared 8-man HM Eternity Vault and Kagarra's Palace, but literally got curbstomped by the first boss of EV in 16-man HM.

Also:

8 - Do you have chat bubbles in the works?

A - They are on the list. They were in beta, but they wrecked performance. We have to get past GUI customization first

Yeah, mods are never ever happening. They're literally battling HeroEngine's UI APIs just to get the UI functional.

[Wolf]

my buddy that's doing raids says they finished everything on nightmare, or whatever the hardest thing is, this week. Thing is they're running with something like 8 DPS BHs. I'm starting to thing the lack of combatlog is mostly there to cover the shitty balance at the endgame. Then again I have like 5 characters between 40 and 30 and none at max, so I might be just talking bullshit 

[eldaec]

Whenever people complete shit for the first time it will be with some bizarre emergent build, I wouldn't worry.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing random scrubs complain about being unable to complete normal mode shit. If randoms can't do nightmare or even hard without few fotm characters then honestly I give zero fucks.

[Phred]

I don't get, there's 8 classes and 8 storylines.  No idea why you'd need more.

two specializations. Both play very differently. In retrospect having both guilds on the same server is a bit of a drag.

[Threash]

I don't get, there's 8 classes and 8 storylines.  No idea why you'd need more.

two specializations. Both play very differently. In retrospect having both guilds on the same server is a bit of a drag.

Thats why you do one republic and one empire, that way you play all 8 classes and all 8 storylines without repeating any.

[Sky]

I will at this point apologize for suggesting rolling on the same server with SLAP. I would also like a few more slots and considered rolling a couple alts on a separate server....though then you don't get legacy 

[Merusk]

I don't get, there's 8 classes and 8 storylines.  No idea why you'd need more.

two specializations. Both play very differently. In retrospect having both guilds on the same server is a bit of a drag.

Thats why you do one republic and one empire, that way you play all 8 classes and all 8 storylines without repeating any.

Yeah, this is what I'm doing.

[Phred]

I don't get, there's 8 classes and 8 storylines.  No idea why you'd need more.

two specializations. Both play very differently. In retrospect having both guilds on the same server is a bit of a drag.

Thats why you do one republic and one empire, that way you play all 8 classes and all 8 storylines without repeating any.

Sorry I didnt see the only correct way to play the game in the intro or loading tips.

[Sjofn]

Plus for those who like them (LIKE ME  ) the different romances can be worth flipping gender for. Some of them, anyway. I can't see me giving a fuck about romancing Kira over Doc ever but I'd like to romance Vector (my IA is ALL MAN) sometime, I'd like a romance that doesn't make me want to punch a puppy on my smuggler, etc.

[Nevermore]

My secret hope is that part of the Legacy system is a bit like the old veteran reward system from CoX and certain thresholds will open up more slots.  But nice as it would be, it's not something I seriously expect.  On the other hand, they might sell extra slots at $10 a pop.

[Lantyssa]

For classes I have plenty of slots.  Four classes, two advanced each.  Now I may not have a full suite on each side, but I can get the feel plenty well enough.

What will be a problem is when they add more species.  Then there won't be nearly enough slots.

[Merusk]

They won't add new species before they add the race-swapping and server-switching mechanisms. 

[Nebu]

They could print money if they allowed people to change species for $$$.  

Step 1: Make wookies a playable race that is Republic only.

Step 2: Charge $$$ for species and faction changes.

Step 3: Buy hookers and blow.

If they're bold, they could repeat this 3 months later with a cool, Empire only species.

[eldaec]

I am genuinely surprised that the game still has no RMT shop. In a good way.

[Paelos]

If I could make an Ortolan dual weilding JK Sentinel, I'd resub.

[01101010]

If I could make an Ortolan dual weilding JK Sentinel, I'd resub.

I foresee a lot of those little guys with snub noses then.

[Phred]

They won't add new species before they add the race-swapping and server-switching mechanisms. 

Ya by that time we can move the 5 active people in bat country to another server. :)

[amiable]

This statement alone scares me. Is that your metric? We can do it, so you should too? Your players designed the fucking game. Of course they can clear the system. Can the regular dumass do it on either class? That's your standard.

Also the stance from Georg Zoeller is argumentative. He's actively saying he disagrees with the players that scoundrels lack tools for short burst healing. When he talks about balance he then talks about nerfing Sorc healers. Ugh.

I think that response was the most enlightening.  Georg is VERY defensive there because he knows he is fucked.  They created 2 types of healers with "energy based regen" and they know if they buff their healing too much then they will have to deal with overpowered healers.   That is the entire reason end-game game is balanced around enrage timer crap.  However a side effect of the enrage timer is that Sorcs will always out-perform energy based casters because they can go balls-to-thewall for the entire fight and not really have to worry about their mana pool disappearing in the time frames that fights allow. 

Arguing with a straight face that operatives "can clear end-game content" is absurd.  The question that needs to be answered is :  can a skilled group with operative healres (and no others) clear nightmare raid content.  I have never hear of this being done and I am pretty sure the answer is no.  Already  I am seeing recruitment posts for end game guilds that are asking for healers specifying that Operative healers should not apply.  You can lie to the player base all day long, but the number crunchers are not being fooled.

[Shatter]

Thats funny cause my main was a 50 Sorc and Im on my third scoundrel / operative class and healing wise the 2 aren't even close.  Oh well GW2 comes out this year, f*ck Bioware and their BS

[Cyrrex]

Chat bubbles!  Coming soon!  Maybe.

[Fabricated]

Scoundrel/Operative and BH/Trooper healers could be fixed if one of their primary healing stats also affected their resource generation. This is only from observing them healing in raids however; it seems like Trooper/BH/Scoundrel/Operatives can heal "average" damage for literally forever but 1/2 waves of spike damage and they're done unless people can survive long enough for them to stand around until their resources come back.

[caladein]

To an extent, yes.  Additionally, Operatives can deal with "average" damage taken while running around the entire time.

Over a two years' worth of raid encounters, I don't think Operatives will come down to a numbers problem.  But when all you're looking for across eight fights (and two where you don't really heal at all) is max throughput while being able to mostly stand still, that's what it's going to look like.

[Bunk]

Ya know, listening to everything from the "end gamers" on these boards kind of gives me a new perspective on the whole Trammel/Felucia thing.

[amiable]

To an extent, yes.  Additionally, Operatives can deal with "average" damage taken while running around the entire time.

How?  Our hot certainly cannot even keep up with average damage and instant heal requires TA, which is only granted from random procs (and only once every 6 seconds) on our hot and from hardcasting.

To the contrary: if you are healing on a IA you are just as imoable as the other classes because you need to hardcast to generate TA and get the KI/SP train rolling.

For real burst healing you need to either hardacst KI repeatedly or alternate it with the crappy 20 energy 1 TA heal, which will run you out of energy very quickly.  As long as you have a TA you can repeatedly cast the insta on someonw who is sub 35%, but that uses a global cooldown and really doesn't heal for much (you will get more throughput from chaining KI).

Recuprative nanotech is a joke as it requires very specific positioning and heals for not very much.

In moderate damage situations I can heal forever by alternatiing KI/SP on the tank and rolling some hots, but if there is burst more than once every 2 minutes, I am screwed.  And if there is heavy Aoe I am also screwed.

Edit:  I would also kill for a hield I could throw on other players.

[Nebu]

Scoundrel/Operative and BH/Trooper healers could be fixed if one of their primary healing stats also affected their resource generation. This is only from observing them healing in raids however; it seems like Trooper/BH/Scoundrel/Operatives can heal "average" damage for literally forever but 1/2 waves of spike damage and they're done unless people can survive long enough for them to stand around until their resources come back.

Healers need help from the other players.  Know when to use interrupts and when to blow defensive cooldowns.  With Ops and Merc healers especially.

[caladein]

To an extent, yes.  Additionally, Operatives can deal with "average" damage taken while running around the entire time.

How?  Our hot certainly cannot even keep up with average damage and instant heal requires TA, which is only granted from random procs (and only once every 6 seconds) on our hot and from hardcasting.

To the contrary: if you are healing on a IA you are just as imoable as the other classes because you need to hardcast to generate TA and get the KI/SP train rolling.

For real burst healing you need to either hardacst KI repeatedly or alternate it with the crappy 20 energy 1 TA heal, which will run you out of energy very quickly.  As long as you have a TA you can repeatedly cast the insta on someonw who is sub 35%, but that uses a global cooldown and really doesn't heal for much (you will get more throughput from chaining KI).

Recuprative nanotech is a joke as it requires very specific positioning and heals for not very much.

In moderate damage situations I can heal forever by alternatiing KI/SP on the tank and rolling some hots, but if there is burst more than once every 2 minutes, I am screwed.  And if there is heavy Aoe I am also screwed.

Edit:  I would also kill for a hield I could throw on other players.

Rolling Kolto Probe stacks with Recuperative Nanotech and Surgical Probes to spot heal does a good bit of healing.  But you're working 20 times as hard (in large part because the Operations frame is garbage) as a Sorc dropping Revivification for similar results and you don't have another gear to shift into it.

You're spot on on the rest though.

And as for interrupts, there's a single fight where that comes into play.  Team/individual defense cooldowns and medpacs are still nice though.