tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1538233114133115363.post1219820522223546352..comments2024-03-26T20:47:12.919+00:00Comments on Going Commando | A SWTOR Fan Blog: Thoughts on Disciplines after the LivestreamShintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1538233114133115363.post-55766416736234013412014-10-14T17:38:28.935+01:002014-10-14T17:38:28.935+01:00I can understand that the reason the tanking (and ...I can understand that the reason the tanking (and healing, and good DPS) abilities are so far up the skill trees is to prevent precisely this sort of 'tank-mage' abuse, but I still think that Bioware has gone too far in the other direction. I'm still not convinced that going from a state where there is a single 'optimum' build for each skill tree with a few extra skill points that can be distributed in peripheral skills as the player chooses to a state where there is a single build for each Discipline with a few points where the player gets to pick a few peripheral skills is any sort of improvement.<br /><br />Killing hybrid builds -- one of the goals of the change to Disciplines -- could have been done just as easily by taking the bottom-tier skills that people would take outside their primary tree and putting them in _every_ tree, and then making your choice of tree exclusive -- you pick your tree and then can only pick skills from _that_ tree. It would still have let them move 'signature' abilities down to much lower level without having hybrid builds screwing up balance, and each tree could have been broadened, with different branches giving slightly increased damage, or slightly increased range, or slightly reduced energy cost, giving more actual customization that could be done within a tree.<br /><br />I have concerns that, for any given choice of Discipline for an advanced class, there will turn out to be a single optimum set of picks from the Utility pool, reducing what little effective personalization of characters we can do now around the 'good' builds for each tree to cookie-cutter electronic dolls we play dress-up with as their sole individuality.srmalloyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03331203633105846275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1538233114133115363.post-17894291493400215222014-10-13T20:25:00.810+01:002014-10-13T20:25:00.810+01:00That's a good point about Vengeance, I'm n...That's a good point about Vengeance, I'm not surprised I forgot about something after all that time. Though I think it actually <i>started</i> before that, when they moved away from making tanks rely on threat and increased their dps...Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1538233114133115363.post-91340004403151293302014-10-11T02:08:10.867+01:002014-10-11T02:08:10.867+01:00The tanking issue in WoW was caused by how Vengean...The tanking issue in WoW was caused by how Vengeance worked. Vengeance was originally intended as a system that let undergeared tanks hold threat against folks that were high-end raid/ops geared. Vengeance scaled too well, so well that a self-healing tank in the best gear could routinely heal their full health pool every few _seconds_. Some tanks were able to stay alive for minutes until the berserk timer hit with everyone else (24) in the group dead. The problems with Vengeance is going away in a week as Blizzard will be replacing it with a new system.<br /><br />I do think the Discipline system will help in that it will be easier for Bioware to know that each spec will always have x abilities. Under the current system they can't even be assured that everyone has their top-of-the-tree ability. If they can reduce the number of groups that feel you need to have N people of Y class specced as W to progress in HM and/or NIM *cough*bring the player not the class*cough* then the Discipline will be a success.<br /><br /><br />Piperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02806715175358510444noreply@blogger.com