Let’s Talk About the Balance Changes in SWTOR 7.7.1

Alongside tweaks to the default choices in ability trees for casual players, there are a few actual balance changes coming with SWTOR’s 7.7.1 update.

This time, default ability tree talent choices are being adjusted for the following disciplines:

• Arsenal Mercenary | Gunnery Commando
• Lethality Operative | Ruffian Scoundrel
• Lightning Sorcerer | Telekinetics Sage

Below, you’ll find all of the balance changes from Update 7.1.1, extracted from the rest of the patch notes for your convenience:

Assassin | Shadow

• Level 73 ability tree option Avoidance | Celerity now reduces the cooldown of Force Speed by 7s

Given this is the second buff to Avoidance | Celerity, Broadsword is clearly trying to nudge this talent into being a valid choice alongside Reaper’s Rush | Stalker’s Swiftness and Shroud of Madness | Cloak of Resilience.

While this may seem minor, I am confident that this change is emblematic of Broadsword’s other balance efforts.

From where I sit, it’s obvious that they want every choice to be viable somewhere. Keep in mind that ability trees are meant for the entire game, not just the only type of content you play.

Even though it may feel like there isn’t ever a real choice for you at some level ever, there usually is; it’s just that an alternative is better in another type of content. After all, what’s the point of offering a choice if it’s never worth taking?

*coughcoughFuriousPowercough|coughForceClaritycoughcough*

I think we’ll see this iterative approach to other talent choices in the coming updates, though Broadsword is barking up the wrong tree by buffing Avoidance | Celerity. The problem is with Shroud of Madness | Cloak of Resilience in the first place.

As I addressed in my recent discussion about uneven balance, stealthing out ought to function more like a stronger Force Camouflage and have a 3 minute cooldown. With such changes implemented, there would be a place for Celerity | Avoidance without this most recent buff for DPS specs in some boss fights and PvP.

Arsenal Mercenary | Gunnery Commando

• Default level 21 ability tree choice changed from Proficient Tracing | Proficient Gravitation ▶ Signature Shot | Gravitational Bolt
• Default level 43 ability tree choice changed from Power Overrides | Overclock ▶ Chaff Flare | Diversion
• Default level 51 ability tree choice changed from Jet Escape | Tenacious Defense ▶ Energy Rebounder | Reflexive Shield
• Default level 64 ability tree choice changed from Power Shield | Combat Shield ▶ Kolto Surge | Adrenal Surge
• Default level 68 ability tree choice changed from Responsive Safeguards | Echoing Deterrence ▶ Rocket Out | Propulsion Round
• Default level 73 ability tree choice changed from Gyroscopic Alignment Jets | Parallactic Combat Stims ▶ Trauma Regulators | Trauma Stabilizers

Broadsword’s Apparent Approach

Most of these changes just switch the default to the strongest option that practically everyone takes for all content. I expect all of the generic utility choices for Mercenary | Commando to follow Avoidance’s | Celerity’s suit.

These changes are harder to make because they’re a bigger part of Mercenary | Commando survivability and have knock-on effects for Powertech | Vanguard, which use some of the same DCDs.

These same DCDs function quite differently for each spec and combat style as you can see below:

• Powertech | Vanguard
  • Passive that increases duration of Energy Shield | Reactive Shield by 3s
  • Talent to enable activation of Kolto Overload | Adrenaline Rush to activate while controlled and act as CC break
  • Pyro Shield | Electro Shield talent enables Energy Shield | Reactive Shield to deal reactive damage
• Pyrotech | Plasmatech
  • Passive for Kolto Overload | Adrenaline Rush that offers a massive cooldown reduction upon taking damage and 30% DR, which is sufficient to make you functionally immortal.
  • Talent that makes activating Kolto Overload | Adrenaline empower your next Thermal Yield | Durasteel Armor or Sonic Missile | Sonic Round. This also creates a perverse incentive to right click off Health Monitor | Fired Up so it goes on cooldown faster.
  • Passive that reduces periodic damage taken by 30%, reduces the cooldown of threat drop by 10s (very non-standard), and offers 10% internal/elemental DR
• Advanced Prototype | Tactics
  • Talent that makes activating Energy Shield | Reactive Shield make your next Kolto Overload | Adrenaline Rush trigger at and heal up to 45%
  • Passive for Energy Shield | Reactive Shield that offers it a massive cooldown reduction and chance to absorb a tiny amount of damage on a separate rate limit
  • Passive for Sonic Missile | Sonic Round that increases defense and resist chance by 35% for 6s on threat drop
    • Compare to Chaff Flare | Diversion
• Shield Tech | Shield Specialist
  • Kolto Overload | Adrenaline Rush heals you for 2% of your max HP each second while above 35% max HP
• Mercenary Commando
  • Talent for Kolto Overload | Adrenaline Rush that increases its trigger point and healing value to 60% and doubles the healing output
    • Competes with Energy Shield | Reactive Shield talent that grants pushback protection, interrupt immunity, and increases healing received by 20%
    • Competes with Kolto Overload | Adrenaline Rush 5s cooldown reduction on Supercharged Gas | Supercharged Cell activation
    • Competes with Progressive Scan | Successive treatment while moving
  • Talent for Energy Shield | Reactive Shield that makes you gain a stack of a 4% heal whenever you take direct, single-target damage (unmentioned), stacking up to 40% max HP and healing when shield expires
  • Talent for Energy Shield | Reactive Shield that offers it a massive cooldown reduction and chance to absorb a tiny amount of damage on a separate rate limit
  • Optional ability Chaff Flare | Diversion grants single-target, direct 35% defense chance and 2 charges of Force/tech single-target, direct damage absorption for 6s
    • Compare to AP Sonic Missle | Tactics Sonic Round

For the Mercenary | Commando ability tree to be balanced, Powertech | Vanguard DPS survivability needs to be standardized at the combat style level and buffs should be the same where possible.

• Chaff Flare | Diversion is baseline free with fixed damage types for all DPS
• Energy Shield | Reactive Shield 15s duration
• Sonic Rebounder is tank-only, built into Sonic Missile
• 30% AoE DR during all DCDs as passive
• Gut PT | VG DCDs and put them in the tree.

I think it would be neat to do something like this below for talent choices for both Mercenary | Commando and Powertech | Vanguard:

Level 68 Default Ability

Though Responsive Safeguards | Echoing Deterrence ▶ Rocket Out | Propulsion Round is notable.

I agree that the reflect and movement abilities are both compelling options on paper, but Rocket Out | Propulsion Round is way too hard to use to get you to move forward, to the extent that it presents accessibility issues for players with limited dexterity.

I can’t imagine that any casual player will bother to learn how to use it and just take it off their bar so they don’t yeet themselves off a cliff.

Rocket Out | Propulsion Round is a textbook example of a button that gives less technical users anxiety about pressing anything for fear they might accidentally set their computer on fire.

Tracer Missile | Grav Round Default Change

Triple Trace | Grav Trio is a lot better for solo content than Signature Shot | Gravitational Bolt, though the former does not make sense from a design standpoint, which may be why it was changed.

Triple Trace | Grav Trio is a solid starting point, but as an explosive, it ought to deal damage in an area around the primary target rather than somehow firing additional ordnance.

Operative | Scoundrel

Operatives | Scoundrels got a buff to their roll and Lethality | Ruffian had a few default choices tweaked.

General 

• Level 60 ability Exfiltrate | Scamper cooldown changed from 8s to 7s

This change is most impactful in PvP as it enables you to roll every 5th GCD instead of barely missing it.

There aren’t a whole lot of combat styles with that small of a rotation cycle, but when used on cooldown, it will enable Operatives | Scoundrels to reliably roll the spike damage from:

• Rage | Focus
• Fury | Concentration
• Carnage | Combat
• Snipers | Gunslingers

Lethality | Ruffian

• Default level 27 ability tree choice changed from Curbing Strategies ▶ Sly Countermeasures | Sly Surrender
• Default level 51 ability tree choice changed from Infiltrator | Sneaky ▶ Advanced Cloaking | Flee the Scene
• Default level 64 ability tree choice changed from Endorphin Rush | Keep Cool ▶ Med Shield | Med Screen

Just like with Arsenal | Gunnery, these defaults only showcase the most unbalanced choices in the ability tree by shifting it to the most popular one.

That being said, for casual players, I don’t think it’s wise to make Operatives | Scoundrels take a buff to Evasion | Dodge over access to a hard stun with the shortest cooldown in the game (30s vs otherwise universal 60s cooldown).

Debilitate | Dirty Kick is far more valuable than Sly Countermeasures | Sly Surrender in both solo content and PvP. The latter really only shines in Operations.

Sorcerer | Sage

Lightning | Telekinetics has received changes to default talent selections and Corruption | Seer has received buffs to counteract the nerfs introduced in 7.7d.

Lightning | Telekinetics

• Default level 21 ability tree choice changed from Forbidden Knowledge | Mysteries of the Force ▶ Suppressive Current | Dormant Tremors
• Default level 51 ability tree choice changed from Defiance | Resistance ▶ Lightning Barrier | Telekinetic Defense
• Default level 64 ability tree choice changed from Unnatural Vigor | Valorous Spirit ▶ Surging Speed | Metaphysical Alacrity
• Default level 73 ability tree choice changed from Emersion | Egress ▶ Corrupted Flesh | Mind Ward

Again, we see the same approach for Lightning | Telekinetics defaults as with the other disciplines changed in this patch.

I would have stuck with Emersion | Egress and switched Unnatural Vigor | Valorous Spirit to Backlash | Kinetic Collapse. Both are optimal in PvP and solo content. That being said, Surging Speed | Metaphysical Alacrity is a safer choice that works just fine for all content.

Corruption | Seer

• Reduced the Force cost of Rally | Keeper of Peace to 45 Force, bringing it in line with the recently reduced cost of Dark Infusion | Deliverance.
• Level 43 discipline passive Reconstruct | Force Shelter now also reduces the Force cost of Resurgence | Rejuvenate by 10

Broadsword is fixing their accidental nerf to Sorcerer | Sage healers following an attempt to reduce the longevity of Madness | Balance that also unnecessarily hurt Lightning | Telekinetics survivability.

I’m still salty about Force Leech | Force Serenity secretly healing for 80% of damage dealt instead of 100%, too.

Powertech | Vanguard

• Increased the cooldown of Quell | Riot Strike to 18s (up from 12s)

With the Hitman | Frontline Defense talent, Powertech | Vanguard had access to the shortest interrupt cooldown in the game, unattainable by any other combat style.

Since interrupt cooldowns are somewhat arbitrarily balanced according to the overall range of the spec, Quell’s | Riot Strike’s cooldown was far too short for a combat style that can do all but one of its abilities from 10m away.

This nerf is a small step in the right direction, but Powertech | Vanguard still requires a ton more work, far more than any other combat style.

I also want to mention that Advanced Terminator Droid | Suppression Droid, the revamp to Stealth Scan for PT | VG is one of the most broken overpowered abilities in SWTOR’s entire history, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Keeping Perspective

It is important to keep things in perspective. I have been critical of some of the devs’ choices for defaults, but they are just defaults.

Players can change them at will and players who choose not to read or engage with the ability tree system at all will continue to struggle with anything their companion can’t do for them.

In addition, while some of my criticism may seem a bit harsh, I want what’s best for the game, as does Broadsword. I don’t want anything to be overpowered or underpowered or for my favorite disciplines to be stronger than the rest.

Balance is an ongoing process. While there are issues, the state of SWTOR’s combat balance is better today than it has been throughout the entire game’s history.