Bioware is introducing more changes to gameplay as tanks in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The studio is changing how Crit affects Shield and Absorb, said community manager Eric Musco!
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UPDATE: On 2nd of August community manager Eric Musco announced that due to critical bugs discovered with this change, it has been pushed back to 5.9.3 or even further. The Tank Changes are not happening in 5.9.2 for sure.
Quick heads up, this change will not be happening for 5.9.2. It is still something we would like to do in a future update (likely 5.9.3) but there are some critical bugs we discovered which prevent it from being introduced in this patch.
Based on heavy feedback regarding the viability of tank classes in PvP, Bioware Austin is introducing an additional change to the tanking disciplines for all classes. It will affect the way Critical hits are affected by Shield and Absorb.
One of the topics we have seen quite a bit of feedback about is the viability of tanks in PvP. There are a few reasons for this which we would still like to address down the line, but we have one change planned for 5.9.2 which we hope will help their survivability in PvP. This will also help incentivize tanks to wear tanking gear in PvP.
As it is currently in the game, only regular hits are affected by the tank’s Shield and Absorb procs. The planned change will allow Critical Hits to also be affected by these two stats. This should lead to a far greater chance for tank players to mitigate incoming damage when focused by damage dealing classes in PvP.
Currently, only regular hits from players can be impacted by shield procs. By including crits, this gives the potential for much more damage mitigation for tanks when being targeted by DPS classes. Here is a very basic example. Let’s say a normal hit would do 1,000 damage and a critical hit would do 2,000 damage. You are a tank and when your shield procs, you reduce damage by 25%. Previously you could reduce the normal hit to 750 damage, but would always take the 2,000 from a crit. After 5.9.2 you can also reduce the critical hit damage down to 1,500. This allows shield and absorb to be a direct counter-stat to Crit Rating for DPS classes.
The way Musco worded his post, means that this change will only have effect in PvP, because he speaks of “hits from players”. PvE players should not expect the EndGame suddenly to become a face-roll :)
Game Update 5.9.2 was originally announced to be targeting a July release. At this point there is still no official confirmation what will be included in it and when its release date will be. If you want to stay on top of things and never miss the latest news and updates, sign up for New Posts Notifications from VULKK.com.
