The combat changes initially billed for helping casual players while leveling have turned into lite balance changes that are hopefully meant to be a bandaid until we get proper full reworks in 8.0.
Table of contents
Assassin | Shadow
Deception | Infiltration is getting a small DPS and survivability buff. In addition, one of the level 73 talents is getting buffed to make it more competitive with the alternatives.
Assassin | Shadow General
- Avoidance | Celerity (lvl 73 talent) now reduces the cooldown of Jolt | Mind Snap by 3s (up from 2s), Unbreakable Will | Force of Will by 45s (up from 30s), and Force Speed by 5s (no change)
This change is geared at making Avoidance | Celerity more competitive with Shroud of Madness and Reaper’s Rush | Cloak of Resilience and Stalker’s Swiftness, which is a good thing. There’s no point in offering choices no one picks.
Deception | Infiltration
- Duplicity | Infiltration Tactics proc now increases the damage dealt by Maul | Shadow Strike by 25% (up from 20%) and it can now occur every 8s (down from 10s)
- Dark Embrace | Shadow’s Respite proc now reduces damage taken by 20% (up from 15%)
The buffs to Deception | Infiltration are centered around buffing Maul | Shadow Strike, likely because it’s been somewhat cast aside in the priority as a result of the Awakened Flame and Blade of the Elements tacticals. However, I’m not sure if these buffs will be enough of an incentive.
The bigger issue with Deception | Infiltration has to do with Voltage | Clairvoyance. Maintaining 2 stacks is excessively punishing and extremely frustrating that the buffs from the ability tree talents don’t apply when Voltage | Clairvoyance is granted by other abilities.
I don’t think it’s worth clinging so tightly to the ability-centric standard for the ability buffs in the tree. Voltage | Clairvoyance is tightly integrated with Voltaic Slash and Deception | Clairvoyant Strike and Infiltration that it’s okay for that to be the focus.
It certainly makes more sense than some other ability buffs that have been shoehorned in, like the insanely powerful DoT applied by Rail Shot | High Impact Bolt that’s somehow a buff to Incendiary Missile | Incendiary Round for Pyrotech PTs I Plasmatech VGs.
Loosening this stance on ability buffs would also enable Annihilate | Merciless Strike and its underutilized proc to be the focus of an upgrade in lieu of the current dumpster fire centered around Rupture | Cauterize.
Sorcerer | Sage
Sorcerer | Sage changes are aimed at reducing DPS survivability in PvP and buffing the sustained DPS of Lightning | Telekinetics.
Sorcerer | Sage General
- Increased the base Force cost of Resurgence | Rejuvenate to 60 (up from 50)
- Increased the base Force cost of Static Barrier | Force Armor to 55 (up from 45)
- Increased the base Force cost of Dark Heal | Benevolence to 85 (up from 75)
- Increased the base cooldown of Unnatural Preservation | Force Mend to 40s (up from 30s)
The most common sentiment about Sorcerers | Sages in 7.0 is that Madness | Balance has excessive survivability and burst potential in PvP.
Raising the Force costs of the 3 on-GCD abilities all Sorcerer | Sage specs have access to reduces the overall longevity of DPS specs, primarily in PvP where you will run out of Force eventually as a result of using these abilities if you survive long enough.
Increasing the cooldown on Unnatural Preservation | Force Mend is a different matter. That’s a direct nerf to the survivability of all 3 specs. It does synchronize the cooldown with the 20s duration of the Deionized | Force-imbalanced debuff, making Endless Barrier easier to use, but that’s not worth it.
If the 33% cooldown increase were accompanied by a 33% boost in healing output, it would make more sense, but we aren’t getting that, so I’d say the goal is to nerf sorc survivability.
The cost increase to Dark Heal | Benevolence also contradicts the semi-recent addition of the proc Reserved Darkness | Reserved Light to Lightning | Telekinetics, which makes Thundering Blast | Turbulence increase the healing dealt by Dark Heal | Benevolence by 30% and allow it to be activated instantly.
It’s frustrating that all Sorcerer | Sage disciplines are getting their survivability nerfed when there’s such a vast chasm between Madness | Balance and the other two specs.
Lightning | Telekinetics
Like Arsenal Mercenary | Gunnery Commando, Lighting | Telekinetics is getting a small buff to its sustained DPS and spike damage potential.
- Convection | Clamoring Force now increases the critical damage dealt by most non-filler abilities by 15% (up from 12%)
- Convection applies to Chain Lightning, Halted Offensive, Crushing Darkness, Thundering Blast, and Lightning Flash
- Clamoring Force applies to Telekinetic Wave, Power of the Force, Mind Crush, Turbulence, and Telekinetic Gust
- Forked Lightning | Telekinetic Momentum now has a 30% chance (up from 25%) to produce a second damage instance to the same targets for 25% damage
- The chance remains doubled while Polarity Shift | Mental Alacrity is active at 60% (up from 50%)
Broadsword has chosen to accomplish this task by increasing the critical damage of non-filler abilities by a further 3% and increasing the frequency of the Forked | Momentum ticks.
It’s nice and all, but neither of these changes really improve the more significant issues plaguing the class, namely the gaps in survivability and AoE potential between it and Madness | Balance.
I’d also like to draw attention to the original patch note that does not describe how Convection | Clamoring Force actually works. Below, you’ll find the in-game descriptions for the referenced effect, followed by the unaltered patch note that misinterprets it:
Increases the critical damage dealt by Chain Lightning, Halted Offensive, Crushing Darkness, Thundering Blast, and Lightning Flash by 12%. Force Speed gives 2 stacks of Convection, which allows Lightning Strike and Lightning Bolt to be activated instantly.
Increases the critical damage dealt by Telekinetic Wave, Power of the Force, Mind Crush, Turbulence, and Force Gust by 12%. Force Speed gives 2 stacks of Clamoring Force, which allows Disturbance and Telekinetic Burst to be activated instantly.
Convection/Clamoring Force bonus crit damage up from 12% per stack to 15% per stack
Game Update 7.7d | Star Wars: The Old Republic
After reading those descriptions, it’s understandable that one might misinterpret the effect of the proc because of the way it’s written.
It shouldn’t have been combined with the proc in the first place, nor should procs ever be granted as part of the same effect as a passive because it breeds this kind of confusion.
Under the hood, the critical damage boost is a distinct discipline passive that was formerly called Reverberating Force | Reverberation that was granted around the same level it is now.
Madness | Balance
- Force Leech | Force Serenity heals the caster for 40% of damage dealt baseline (down from 50%)
- Parasitism | Focused Insight still brings it up to 80%
I’m not gonna sugarcoat it—I hate this change. It’s so clunky. There are other ways to nerf the spec’s survivability without eliminating the 1:1 conversion of enemy health to your own health that defines SWTOR’s flagship lifesteal ability.
The devs also forgot to change the wording in the tooltip, which still reads 50% base lifesteal.
Other sources of Madness | Balance self-healing include:
- Parasitism | Focused Insight, which grants 10% lifesteal to some of your DoTs and doubles the lifesteal of Force Leech | Force Serenity and Death Field | Force in Balance
- Death Field | Force in Balance and its variant, which steals | reclaims 10% of the damage dealt
- Vitiate’s Malice | Warden’s Vigor, a proc added recently that makes Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw heal for 15% of the damage dealt for 12s after using Death Field | Force in Balance
- The unique effect of Static Barrier | Force Armor for Madness | Balance, which is just the former Corrupted Barrier | Life Ward utility
Instead of ruining Force Leech | Force Serenity, I’d much rather they start by removing Vitiate’s Malice | Warden’s Vigor and halving the healing dealt by Static Barrier (1% per second to 0.5% per second). I also feel strongly that the healing from Force Barrier and Enduring Bastion be redistributed to the baseline ability.
These changes completely ignore the major structural issues with Madness | Balance, which I explained in detail nearly two years ago after changes were announced for 7.3.1.
Corruption | Seer
- Reduced the base Force cost of Dark Infusion | Deliverance to 45 (down from 50)
- Rally | Keeper of Peace was not mentioned
- Efficacious Currents | Preservation (passive) now reduces the Force cost of Static Barrier | Force Armor by 25 (up from 15)
The changes to Corruption | Seer only partially neutralize the cost increases to base healing abilities, though they are only partially effective because Dark Infusion | Deliverance is not used nearly as often as Resurgence | Rejuvenate.
Even if the abilities were being used equally often, they’re only reducing the cost of Dark Infusion | Deliverance by 5, while the cost Resurgence | Rejuvenate is going up by 10.
I didn’t mention the cost increase to Dark Heal | Benevolence, which is not covered at all, though I think that’s a good thing because the ability is not meant to be spammed, only used with its proc.
Corruption | Seer received a rework at the end of 6.0, so it’s in better shape than many of the other specs touched by 7.7d, though I think the spec would benefit from significantly longer cooldowns on Innervate, Roaming Mend, and Revivification | Healing Trance, Wandering Mend, and Salvation so that there’s more space in the rotation for bubbling, Dark Infusion | Deliverance, and resource management.
Mercenary | Commando
Both Mercenary | Commando DPS specs have recieved minor buffs to damage output, though there are no healer changes, which is notable considering the other two specs got tweaked this time. It’s possible those will come next.
Also notably absent is a redesign on Rocket Out | Propulsion Round. Right now, Mercenary | Commando mobility is substandard. They have their much stronger and more available movement ability locked away in the tree because it’s too difficult to use.
This has the knock-on effect of weakening the combat style’s survivability because one of their key DCDs, Responsive Safeguards | Echoing Deterrence is pitted against their only real movement ability.
Survivability also remains unreliable in Operations because many of their abilities, like Chaff Flare | Diversion and Trauma Regulators | Trauma Stabilizers don’t mitigate AoE damage, in direct conflict with their tooltip descriptions.
Innovative Ordinance | Assault Specialist
Innovative Ordnance | Assault Specialist is getting a buff to its sub-30% execute window, though I think it’s more about smoothing out the rotation.
- Reduced the rate limit of Volatile Warhead | Hyper Assault Rounds to 12s (down from 15s)
- Superheated Shot | Scorching Bolts now increases the armor penetration of Mag Shot | Mag Bolt by 35% (up from 30%)
Since the rotation lasts 15s, the same as the previous duration of the rate limit on Volatile Warhead | Hyper Assault Rounds, you’d get the proc at exactly the same time sub-30% every cycle, but that time was dependent on exactly what point you went below 30% in the rotation.
This could cause a conflict with Volatile Cinders | Hyper Cinders where the procs would frequently overwrite each other unless you took Missile Blast | Explosive Round out of the rotation and used it immediately when procced.
Adding a bit of desync will cause Volatile Warhead | Hyper Assault Rounds to float around more, making it less necessary to heavily prioritize Missile Blast | Explosive Round.
It would be nice if Volatile Cinders | Hyper Cinders also made Volatile Warhead | Hyper Assault Rounds able to hold 2 charges, but this is good enough.
Arsenal | Gunnery
Just like Lightning Sorcerer | Telekinetics Sage, Arsenal | Gunnery has received a small boost to their sustained DPS and spike damage potential, with more substantial problems being ignored.
- Riddle | Rotary Cannon now increases the critical hit chance of Blazing Bolts and Priming Shot | Boltstorm and Vortex Bolt by 15% (up from 10%)
- Target Tracking | Deadly Cannon now increases the critical damage bonus of key abilities by 35% (up from 30%)
- Target Tracking affects Rail Shot, Heatseeker Missiles, and Priming Shot
- Deadly Cannon affects High Impact Bolt, Demolition Round, and Vortex Bolt
Arsenal’s | Gunnery’s AoE potential is nowhere near that of IO | AS and its PvP spike damage is completely unreliable, largely thanks to one of the lamest talent choices in the game, the level 39 Heatseeker Missiles | Demolition Round ability tree buffs.
We need the ability to make Heatseeker Missiles | Demolition Round autocrit during Supercharged Gas | Supercharged Cell. We need a way to make all of those missiles | rounds to deal full damage to secondary targets. We need thermite warheads that set the target ablaze.
Medicine Operative | Sawbones Scoundrel
Operative | Scoundrel Healers are getting minor buffs to their healing capabilities, including destandardizing the duration of the cleanse cooldown for healers.
- Moderately increased the healing dealt by Surgical Probe | Emergency Medpac
- The base cast time on Kolto Injection | Underworld Medicine base cast time reduced to 1.7s (from 2s)
- Reduced the cooldown on Toxic Scan | Triage (cleanse) to 10s (down from from 12s)
No one will complain, but this is not what the spec needs. It feels like the devs have noticed the spec is unpopular and have just decided to throw buffs at it to see if that gets people to play it more.
Throughout SWTOR’s entire history, the only time Operative | Scoundrel healer is popular is when it’s been noticeably overpowered, and then it gets played way too much.
Operative | Scoundrel survivability needs an overhaul which will ultimately require Broadsword to bite the bullet and nerf stealth so that its unique DCDs in PvP can remain without ruining its viability in PvE group content.
Kolto Probe | Slow-release Medpac also needs to be redesigned so that external software isn’t so essential to keep track of it and so that healers can’t fall behind if their probes fall off.
I think it would be interesting to turn Kolto Probe | Slow-release Medpac into a charge-based ability that doesn’t have a cooldown or set duration. Perhaps they stay on until the target reaches 100% and you can stack as many as you have charges available.
Surgical Probe | Emergency Medpac could instead act as an early removal tool Kolto Probe | Slow-release Medpac while Diagnostic Scan causes each of your probes to tick with each tick of the channel. Kolto Infusion | Kolto Pack could do the same over the duration of the HoT.
I would think 4-5 charges with 1.5x the healing per tick of a single probe currently could be a decent place to start, with further customization added through other ability tree talents.
Marksmanship Sniper | Sharpshooter Gunslinger
In addition to improving the raw damage output of the ability, a singular change influences the level 39 talents that buff to Penetrating Blasts | Penetrating Rounds, Agitating Energies tactical, and Refraction Point tactical.
- Penetrating Blasts | Penetrating Rounds now ticks 6 times (up from 5)
This has a significant impact on the overall damage potential of the spec, enough to bring it in line with other ranged direct damage specs. B-0 Differential Targeting System is left in the dust, but everything else remains intact.
Unfortunately, the number of bolts fired during the animation and the associated SFX have not been adjusted, so the percussive rhythm of Marksmanship | Sharpshooter you hear remains the same.
I plan to update the Marksmanship | Sharpshooter guides with fresh builds to reflect this change soon.
Juggernaut | Guardian
Juggernauts | Guardians have little room to use Sweeping Slash | Cyclone Slash, except while leveling and trying to rip enemies out of stealth in PvP. Still, it’s nice to return to the idea that every combat style has a spammable AoE ability, even if it’s not the best.
- Sweeping Slash | Cyclone Slash is once again a baseline ability for Juggernauts | Guardians and has been replaced by the talent Path Carver | Trailblazer, which has the following effect:
- Increases the damage dealt by Sweeping Slash | Cyclone Slash by 15%
- Projected Scream | Blade Burst now makes Force Scream | Blade Storm deal damage to up to 8 enemies within 5m of the target, meaning the AoE is a sphere rather than a cone
There’s no reason to ever take Path Carver | Trailblazer in any spec, even if Projected Scream | Blade Burst wasn’t made easier to use. There is barely a reason to use Sweeping Slash | Cyclone Slash in the first place, and Force Scream | Blade Storm is a fairly strong ability in all 3 specs, so enabling it to deal AoE damage is just better.
If Broadsword wants to make Path Carver | Trailblazer more competitive, I’d recommend migrating the slow effect from Projected Scream | Blade Burst and offering to extend the range of the cut by swinging the lightsaber at a distance with the Force, Kreia and Dagan Gera-style.
Closing Thoughts
If these changes are just meant to tide us over until the inevitable, but unconfirmed release of 8.0, I’d say it’s good that they’re being economical with the bone they’re throwing us.
If there aren’t larger changes on the horizon, I’m deeply concerned. Most of the changes are a light step in the right direction.
From where I sit, it’s clear that just like with everything else that came with 7.0 proper, the devs ran out of time to finish making the ability trees.
Some combat styles and specs have rich tapestries of interesting, balanced choices that can be combined together to create a variety of unique, viable builds. Other specs come in one of two flavors.
They either have balanced options, but they’re all so weak, dull, and really only fit together one way, or they have 1-2 interesting talents that get used for everything.
There’s also the whole burst vs DoT spec angle. Broadsword never said it, but 10s burst potential is now balanced at the combat style level, rather than on a per spec basis.
Yes, you heard that right, DoT specs offer just as much burst as their direct damage counterparts now, but they still have vastly superior AoE potential and often better survivability, meaning it makes little sense to play a burst spec for any content.
