Patch 1.3

[Zetor]

Pre-50 sure.  

I had two rank 60 toons about 2 months in and thought that the pvp was still pretty enjoyable.  I'm sure that it's a bit top heavy now though.

In my experience pvp was ok for a diku (I got to champion level on my vanguard, centurion on my sage and gladiator on my operative), but the responsiveness issues really pissed me off; I gather that's been mostly fixed by now, though. Class balance is actually not bad (you have your glass cannons, endurance classes, bruisers, etc), but gear's been a problem even 1month after launch when the catasses in full battlemaster were pwning fresh 50s in greens (in 4man premades no less). But then, gear-driven pvp shittiness and pugstomping/premade steamrolling is a given for all dikus.

Ilum however... yea, let's not talk about Ilum  

[Fordel]

Pre-50 PvP is mostly fine yea.

Post-50 PvP is all about the matchmaking possibilities of your particular server (or lack of them) and the horrible gear grind. I gave up on 50 cap PvP pretty much entirely.

[Ingmar]

Ilum is actually basically shut off at the moment isn't it? They revised the whole process to basically leave it out.

[Fordel]

Yea, pretty much.

[Nevermore]

So playable Cathar, a level cap increase, planet Makeb, and HK-51 as a companion just got announced at E3...

...along with the game going F2P for levels 1-15.

No word on it being DLC or something.

Isn't that all the things from that survey someone linked?

[Ingmar]

More or less, I didn't hear anything about the 3 character slots yet, nor about whether or not there will be a price attached (as listed in the survey.)

[Sjofn]

I don't want a level cap increase, I already have too many fucking buttons on most of my characters, and level cap increases ALWAYS mean more goddamn buttons. ><

[koro]

So playable Cathar, a level cap increase, planet Makeb, and HK-51 as a companion just got announced at E3...

...along with the game going F2P for levels 1-15.

No word on it being DLC or something.

Isn't that all the things from that survey someone linked?

Yep, that a bunch of people decried as bullshit. It's official now though.

[proudft]

I don't want a level cap increase, I already have too many fucking buttons on most of my characters, and level cap increases ALWAYS mean more goddamn buttons. ><

Maybe at level 51 we'll lose some buttons.   Extra incentive to level!

[Sjofn]

I would settle for new buttons that combine or replace previous buttons. But no new buttons please.


Exception: Giving shadows/assassins space charge and JKs/SWs space death grip is allowed.

[Fordel]

Give Commando's/Merc's a real interrupt too while we are dishing stuff out.

[Lantyssa]

You should give it a try.  Huttball is an interesting concept and the pvp was about the only thing that held my interest after the first month.  It's not terrible and relatively balanced for an MMO.

PvP is the only thing which ever holds your attention after that long.

[Threash]

Playing huttball the first few weeks after launch still ranks near the top of the most fun i've had in an MMO so far.  New huttball maps would have me back in an instant.

[Jherad]

Patch notes are up on the test server:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=463539

I was going to spoiler them here, but they are HUGE and too awkwardly formatted to copy and paste nicely.

[koro]

The buffs to AoE tanking, especially for the Guardian, are very welcomed.

No buffs to Scoundrel/Commando healing, though, which is kind of a bummer.

[proudft]

That is indeed a long list.  I wonder if I will be able to remap the next target key yet.   

[Sjofn]

No buffs to Scoundrel/Commando healing, though, which is kind of a bummer.

Not especially needed, imo.

[Paelos]

•Collision has been added to the Hangar to prevent players from falling out of the area.

•Ironfist's difficulty in Hard Mode has been reduced.

•Increased the delay after the reticule appears before the lightning strike when fighting Vokk in Hard Mode.



Those caused me to quit the game when I did. Glad they are finally fixing that horrible instance.

[Ingmar]

The amount absorbed by Blade Barrier now scales properly based on character stats.
Soresu Form now generates 100% additional threat while active.
Blade Barricade: Riposte now increases melee and ranged defense by 1% per point and lasts 12 seconds.
Guardian Slash has been slightly altered. The ability still applies 3 stacks of armor reduction. Damage dealt by this ability has been reduced, but when the target is affected by 5 stacks of armor reduction, Guardian Slash now deals damage to up to 2 nearby enemies, spreading 3 stacks of armor reduction to those enemies and knocking down Standard and Weak targets. It does not deal damage to sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies, and continues to generate a high amount of additional threat.

Well then! That blade barrier one could be huge.

EDIT: I also really like the smuggler changes, especially to illegal mods and to contingency charges on the Saboteur spec. 

[koro]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94RhUCyXoYs

They ruined Project.  

Also, character transfer info: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/20625-character-transfer-details-revealed

June 12th.

[Evildrider]

Isn't the fix to project to make it more inline with the Sorc version though?

[Ingmar]

Clearly they should have made the sorc version as ass-slow as the consular one. 

[Evildrider]

Clearly they should have made the sorc version as ass-slow as the consular one. 

And wtf is up with the Sniper buff?  Seriously there are like 3 snipers in every lowbie match I have now.. oh and the rest are marauders ><

[Ingmar]

I don't get the impression that those changes are going to make a big difference pre-50.

[koro]

Isn't the fix to project to make it more inline with the Sorc version though?

Yes. That part's fine. I'm just sad that they make the item that you Project pop up at the enemy instead of at you, so you never get to really see what amusing things you're beaning the mob with.

[Evildrider]

I don't get the impression that those changes are going to make a big difference pre-50.

Yeah but I'm talking about it's effect on 50 PvP hehe.  

[Ingmar]

You said lowbie matches! J'accuse!

[Evildrider]

You said lowbie matches! J'accuse!

Haha... well I was pointing more towards the fact that they are already fotm along with Marauders.

[Fordel]

My OP stockstrike talent got nerfed finally. awwww :(

No more 30% crit chance from 2 points, a mere 16% now. 


The Vanguard AE changes are interesting, should work out nicely I think. Storm, AE AE spread.

[koro]

Aw, I missed the Stockstrike nerf. I liked seeing 1500 Stockstrike crits every other hit. :(

[Fordel]

16% is still quite a lot for 2 points. I'm running like 20% crit before that talent, it's still a very high chance.


I didn't realize SuperCHarged cell didn't already effect Ion Overload (the DoT), and now it's going to be able to spread AE by doing shit I already do anyways. Plus the general threat increase. That's very nice. My one question is how long does the Static Charge buff last, like will I have to Storm in then immediately explosive surge twice before the buff fades, or will I get like 30 seconds to play with my two free surges?

[Nevermore]

So Shadows having 10% less DR than the other tanks was too powerful, so let's nerf it as well as the self healing that was supposed to make up for having 10% less DR than the other tanks. 

[Fordel]

I'm pretty sure there self healing more then made up for that DR difference, which was the issue.

[koro]

Yeah, I've heard a lot of "Shadow is bar-none the best tank" talk from folks before, but I never knew how accurate it was.

[Fordel]

http://www.swtor.com/blog/class-changes-and-balance-game-update-1.3

Explanation of why things were changed.



That's an ugly paste, the link is much prettier.