2.0 on PTS

[Ingmar]

Initial patch notes: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=600569

Too long to repost, even spoilered.

[Fordel]

Break it up into chunks you slacker!

[Jherad]

Sorry about the formatting, I'm also lazy 

[Jherad]

[Nevermore]

Ah, I see where we're getting our extra button space from now.  They're nuking all those 'only affects weak target while CCed' long cooldowns that no one ever used anyway.

[Ingmar]

No one but tanks doing their dailies. 

[Ingmar]

Note also this doesn't include changes to talents, you have to look at the tree itself on the PTS for now to see those changes (that's where the smash nerf is hiding for example.)

[Fordel]

WTB Talent Tree's pst.

[koro]

No one but tanks doing their dailies. 

Pretty much. Losing Savage Kick is a massive hit to my soloability.

[Fordel]

I used the sniper version on my operative when I got bored and went behind cover. 

[Ingmar]

I don't think I'd call it a massive hit - it isn't like I'm going to start dying now that I can't Elbow Strike things - but it would slow me down a bit. Possibly the increased damage on Guardian Strike makes up for it, or something in the trees, though.

[Fordel]

My Vanguard is getting a new pewpew thing to fill the gap anyways.

[Sjofn]

It's not just tanks that use 'em, I use them pretty often on my healers, so that's kind of a bummer (also tumult had a good animation, dammit). Still, could be worse. :P

[Nevermore]

Eh, I could never remember to use it on my tank Shadow.  I do like the animation but Spinning Kick uses the exact same animation, which is where I see it anyway.  I guess I could use Tumult right after Spinning Kick if I really wanted to twirl in place twice in a row. 

I mean, I'm not all rah rah I'm glad their gone or anything.  I just won't be sad to see them go.

[koro]

So there's also brand new armor sets in the game now, with new models and everything. Some of them are pretty cool. Others, not so much

[PalmTrees]

I'll miss those hit them while stunned powers. Used them pretty regularly.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, what fucking gives with that ?  I love my Pommel Strike.

[Lantyssa]

I used the while-stunned powers all the time.  They were somewhat annoying to use given the short time-span, but they contributed to a lot of my damage.

Qyzen Fess: Flush Prey no longer deals damage or immobilizes the target, and it can no longer be used against a target in cover.

I had to laugh at this one.  Flush Prey cannot be used on targets in cover.  Uh...?

[DraconianOne]

Skill Tree updates on SWTOR Spy

[Ironwood]

That new immortal tree sucks ass.

[koro]

You're out of your mind. That new Immortal tree is amazing. AoE absorb bubble on your group when you AoE taunt?  Lots of Retaliation cooldown reduction, talents that bring both Saber Ward and Invincible down to 2.5 minute cooldowns, 6% more damage reduction on Dark Blood, sweeping Fury's redesign providing better overall Rage management, better +defense on Blade Barricade...

I'm pretty excited, and with the much more frequent Retaliations, along with the Ravage damage bonus being moved to Immortal and getting a boost, it's looking like a lot of threat problems are being mitigated as well.

[ajax34i]

Group-absorb on your group (excluding yourself) when you've just AoE taunted every mob to not hit them and hit you seems a bit pointless.  Otherwise, the tank tree seems more tanky (Soresu form no longer recharges your Rage bar when you get hit, though), and they've just removed the choice to cross-spec into that "immunity to stun when you force-jump" by making it Shien-form only.

They've also moved the 31-pt talent ability to 36-pts, instead of creating a new (better) 36-pt, and it's unclear at this point what they're doing with defense/shield secondary stats - the PTR forum seems to have some complaints that 33/50/50 defense stats aren't possible anymore, more like 17/19/19.  Maybe the gear that allows 33/50/50 only drops from the paid expansion planet or something.

[SnakeCharmer]

Ah, I see where we're getting our extra button space from now.  They're nuking all those 'only affects weak target while CCed' long cooldowns that no one ever used anyway.

I used them religiously on my Sents/Maras and Sins/Shadows, especially on my Sents and Maras.  Instapoofing trash mobs with it cut my overall TTK for groups way down.

(Note I used it with AutoHotKey so I never actually had to worry about pushing the button).

[koro]

The AoE damage bubble is going to mostly be helpful in raids with phases that have a lot of raid-wide AoE damage going around, but it'll mostly be of help in PvP.

Soresu Form's rage-when-hit mechanic is being shifted to Endless Rage, a new passive.

[Fordel]

Skill Tree updates on SWTOR Spy

Excellent! Trying to parse the changes without the actual trees is a pita.

[ajax34i]

it'll mostly be of help in PvP

Question is, will an Immortal spec be more popular for PVP, then.  The ability is pretty deep in the Immortal tree, and if PVP'ers spec the PVP tree then the "it'll be of help in PVP" parts will be useless.

[Fordel]

I have no complaints with my Shield Tech tree, its basically the same as it was before but with a few more passive bonuses.

[koro]

There is no such thing as "the PvP tree" for Juggernauts.

[Fordel]

The people raging about "smash monkeys" on the official forums would disagree probably. 

[koro]

Well yeah, but that particular tree is also getting the dogshit nerfed out of it come 2.0. It's currently also flat-out better in PvE as well.

[Nevermore]

Kinetic Combat seems almost completely unchanged after a quick look through.  3 new talents and a nice buff to Impact Control.  They rearranged a lot in Infiltration and Balance though, so that might change how to spend those last 10 points.

[Ingmar]

The only thing I don't like about the new Defense/Immortal tree is the two 2 point talents at the start of the tree, neither of which are very compelling after the change to Sundering Strike.

[koro]

Do you mean Ravager and Enraged Sunder?

Enraged Sunder is really nice, since the current version gives Sunder +1 Rage, while the new one gives +2. With the way Sunder is by default in 2.0, it has 3x the cooldown for only 2.5x the Rage generation. For non-tanks, Sunder will be giving 7 Rage, while for tanks it'll be giving 6, after the Soresu form penalty. Combined with the tier one Vengeance talent Improved Sundering Assault, that's 6 Rage every 12 seconds, instead of 5 Rage every 15, which is better than we get right now.

As for Ravager, being in Immortal instead of Rage makes it easier for tanks to get, and the bonus damage will help out with threat quite a bit. It makes up for losing the free Force Screams after leaping, to me.

[Ingmar]

Focus (or Rage) isn't really something I run into a lot of trouble with. As for the other option, I barely even use Master Strike, as single target threat really isn't a big issue either, at least in the sorts of content I do. I pretty much only use it if I'm doing solo dailies to speed them up a little. Minor quibble though, I will take the extra focus one, probably.

[koro]

I guess my perspective is colored by the fact that most of my play on my Juggernaut's done either in dailies or in operations, where I'm a main tank. Threat generation is a major problem with Jugg/Guardian tanks right now, and they're currently the only tank requires to put their taunts into a damage rotation just to keep up with threat.

The restored extra damage on Crushing Blow and the extra Ravage damage is going to be a huge huge help.