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Topic: The Assassin Questions to the Devs

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Xinika the Omnispawna
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The Assassin Questions to the Devs

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http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=730854

The Assassin Questions

Forming the Assassin questions was not a walk in the park, but thanks to the awesome Assassin / Shadow community, we were able to pinpoint most of our problems. Though this could've easily been expanded or watered down into several misleading details, we're going to get right to the point without wasting your time. The Assassin questions are straightforward because our problems are right in the open.



Madness in PvP

The Madness Assassin has been grossly revamped from its original state pre-xpac, which in turn has caused many players to become repulsed by its current playstyle. Due to the changes, Madness also suffered a dramatic hit in PvP, losing access to its Insta-Whirlwind utility and the loss of Maul procs which also goes to hurt its burst potential. In addition, the spec suffers from being far too easy to kill (having no true stealth benefits) with no real execution power to actually down targets beyond fluff damage, therefore making it seemingly a useless fighter on the field in comparison to what other classes / specs can do.

With no team utility, lack of kill power and absurdly low survivability, what exactly is the purpose of a Madness Assassin on the battlefield? Are there any plans to alter or change the viability of the spec in PvP?



PvE Assassin's Capability

Both DPS specs of the Assassin: Deception and Madness currently suffer from their own unique hindrances that puts us behind on the DPS markers by a fair amount.

Whilst Deception may be performing solidly in PvP, its PvE mirror isn't exactly optimal, suffering from high fluctuations spawned by RNG elements such as the ability to land critical hits which may make or break Deception's DPS output or the current rate limit's incarnation. Due to its dependency on high surge talents, the spec can perform exceptional when the stars align, but when they don't, it severely falls behind.

Then Madness' target switching capability seems lacking whilst the rotation itself feels clunky, as if something is missing. It is the only spec that does not utilize the signature ability Maul. The top-end Madness ceiling feels low, relative to the balance norm. A burst filler such as Maul, Force Lightning or even a proc that triggers Assassinate could help to solve the missing link and raise the DPS ceiling in line with similar classes.

The stated intent of all DPS classes is to perform within the 5% bracket. Do you actually feel Assassins are performing up to par in that design intentl?



The Phase Walk Enigma

While Phase Walk finds a solid use in PvP or even for the Assassin Tank in PvE, the PvE DPS variants of the Assassin have practically no use for the ability. Outside a random escape or perhaps a near impractical situation, is it safe to argue this ability was solely formed for the tank or geared specifically for the Assassin’s PvP arsenal?

If so, are there any planned changes to make it more viable for the PvE DPS Assassin?



Feedback

  • The Assassin tree currently suffers from a requirement between Impose Weakness and Voltaic Slash that the Shadow variant does not.
  • Force and Tech abilities still bypass Force Shroud occasionally. The tooltip expresses 100% resistance. Are there plans to alter the tooltip or fix this game-breaking mechanic?
  • Debuff / Buff tracking issues that may cause irritation, mainly in Madness.
  • Dark Protection can use a slight adjustment to its uptime that may allow the Assassin more flexibility.
  • Due to PvE Darkness changes, PvP has suffered a hit. The Assassin tank is a less mobile and an outright inferior tank in comparison to the highly mobile, highly defensive juggernaut who also contains an absurd amount of group viability compared to the Assassin tank.
  • Changes done to Madness immunity procs have not helped the spec at all in PvP. The core problems still remain.
  • Changes to Maul and VS have not solved Deception's sustainability issues.




Notes
A special thanks to KBN, along with both Shadow and Assassin communities for helping to organize this. We seemingly do not have a dramatic set of problems, but we do walk on some thorns. Our issues may not require major overhauls, especially in the case of Deception which performs smoothly in PvP. I'd also like to thank the staff at BW, including the developers and Eric Musco for giving us this opportunity to voice our concerns. Thanks once again.



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Manhattan
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Xinika wrote:

 


Force and Tech abilities still bypass Force Shroud occasionally. The tooltip expresses 100% resistance. Are there plans to alter the tooltip or fix this game-breaking mechanic?


 

I'm curious are you suggesting 100% force/tech resist is game breaking or that it not resisting 100% is game breaking?



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Xinika the Omnispawna
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Kamdus wrote:
Xinika wrote:

 


Force and Tech abilities still bypass Force Shroud occasionally. The tooltip expresses 100% resistance. Are there plans to alter the tooltip or fix this game-breaking mechanic?


 

I'm curious are you suggesting 100% force/tech resist is game breaking or that it not resisting 100% is game breaking?


 It's not resisting as stated, which leads to some amazingly bad outcomes. Such as door caps, spells / abilities going through which may cause a loss or win in arena etc.



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