SWTOR Patch 5.4 Class Changes: Lethality Operative and Ruffian Scoundrel

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Below are the expected changes to Lethality Operative and Ruffian Scoundrel Disciplines that Bioware is planing to introduce for SWTOR Patch 5.4 in August. These are not final.

Operative Lethality

Corrosive Assault weapon damage has been increased by 13.97% but it no longer triggers Toxic Blast damage
Corrosive Assault no longer deals additional damage per poison effect. Instead, Corrosive Assault weapon damage now triggers additional damage from your periodic poison effects
Toxic Blast now costs 10 Energy and deals 14.29% more damage

Scoundrel Ruffian

Brutal Shots weapon damage has been increased by 13.97% but it no longer triggers Sanguinary Shot damage
Brutal Shots no longer deals additional damage per bleed effect. Instead, Brutal Shots weapon damage now triggers additional damage from your periodic bleed effects
Sanguinary Shot now costs 10 Energy and deals 14.29% more damage

DevNotes

The text below is a direct quote from the Bioware Compat Dev team with their reasons why are the above mentioned changes needed and what the goal for this discipline is. To better understand their means, check this post: SWTOR Class Balancing Explained: How it works and why is it NEEDED

The Lethality / Ruffian discipline was overperforming, so we made a few changes that lower its DPS down to the appropriate target. Corrosive Assault / Brutal Shots saw the bulk of the changes for Lethality / Ruffian because the ability was responsible for the bulk of the discipline’s damage. The triggered damage from Lethality / Ruffian periodic effects is less than the poison / bleed damage from the Corrosive Assault / Brutal Shots ability which it is replacing, causing overall DPS output to go down.

The increase to Toxic Blast’s / Sanguinary Shot’s cost along with the fact that it is no longer triggered by Corrosive Assault / Brutal Shots weapon damage means that its overall effectiveness has been reduced as well. We increased the energy cost of Toxic Blast / Sanguinary Shot because energy management for Lethality / Ruffian was trivial to the point that Adrenaline Probe / Cool Head and Rifle Shot / Flurry of Bolts often never needed to be used by the discipline.