SWTOR’s 5th 8.0 PTS iteration includes level 85 changes for all 3 Mercenary | Commando disciplines. We’ll explain what they are and what we think about them.
General Changes Approach
The changes on the PTS are very, very preliminary. Each combat style is getting one of their baseline abilities replaced with a version that adds a unique additional function for each discipline at level 83, like the second ability each class gets at level 15.
None of the unfinished business with ability trees and talent choice design have been fixed (yet), it’s just that new ability and a “new” passive at level 83, though that passive is almost always just that spec’s most popular tactical item.
It seems like they’re intending to make the most popular tactical less ubiquitous, rather than just balancing the alternatives properly, and the fact that they’re doing it this way has the potential to create even more imbalance without eliminating this flavor of the month issue because they’re going off of popularity rather than actual power level or intended use case.
Many players are not even aware that tactical items exist, nor that they’re designed like ability tree choices where they tend to be optimal against a specific enemy and content type, whether it be a boss (fight), trash mob (solo content), or player (PvP).
Some players just pick the one, usually the single-target sustained option meant for boss fights and end up doing worse in other types of content and end up disengaging rather than learning.
Tactical items also cost a lot of Tech Fragments and Credits and take up unnecessary inventory space while acting as an incentive against having alts.
Really, each discipline has ~3 tactical items that should just be migrated to their own new talent choice in the tree. The ones that need rebalancing or refining can be addressed individually.
So far, it feels like they’re trying to use a single size screwdriver to fix a bunch of specific and unique problems, but sometimes that screwdriver just doesn’t fit. I don’t think the same one-size-fits-all approach will work here like it did with Ability Trees because the problems for one spec aren’t shared by another.
Mercenary and Commando
The Mercenary | Commando discipline is not really getting a transformed ability at level 83. Instead, Vent Heat | Recharge Cells is just getting upgraded to trigger Supercharged Gas | Supercharged Cell while venting Heat | recharging Energy Cells:
- At level 83, Vent Heat | Recharge Cells now also vents | recharges 25 Heat | Energy Cells immediately upon activating an ability that consumes Heat | Energy Cells and vents | recharges 50 Heat | Energy Cells over 6s (up from 3s). In addition, Supercharged Gas | Supercharged Cell is active for the 6s venting | recharging period.
This is ability has become quite overcomplicated and the change they’re making doesn’t have much of an impact.
You get a total recovery of 75 Heat | Energy Cells up from 50 before and the brief Supercharges Gas | Supercharged Cells, but it’s not really the unique effect that these 8.0 changes have been marketed as.
Yeah, I mean, technically the effect is distinct because Supercharged Gas | Supercharged Cell has a different effect for each discipline, but it’s quite a departure from the likes of Force Lightning | Telekinetic Throw or Frenzy | Valorous Call.
It would be better if Vent Heat | Recharge Cells just got a second ability charge and maxed out your resource regen rate. That way, you’d get back to a comfortable Heat | Energy Cell level and have a charge of Vent Heat | Recharge Cells to keep in reserve for mistakes and ensure that there isn’t any downtime when you aren’t using the ability on cooldown.
At the very least, in order to prevent durations from clipping, the Vent Heat | Recharge Cells buff should instead just build up 10 stacks of Supercharge while venting hot gas | recharging Energy Cells, like how Rage | Focus builds up after using Enrage | Combat Focus as Rage Juggernaut | Focus Guardian or Berserk | Zen as Fury Marauders | Concentration Sentinels.
I would much rather that Broadsword specialize Death from Above | Mortar Volley instead of Vent Heat | Recharge Cells. It’s so simple, you’d just have to at the following effects:
- Arsenal | Gunnery fires Heatseeker Missiles | Demolition Rounds as part of the channel
- IO | AS sets enemies and the ground on fire for a set duration
- Bodyguard | Combat Medic fires off a couple of Kolto Missiles | Kolto Bombs
- All 3 disciplines get Hydraulic Overrides | Hold the Line for the duration of the channel
I would say that it’s not rocket science, but Death from Above is all about slinging missiles…
Arsenal and Gunnery
Arsenal | Gunnery is getting their essential and overpowered Primed Ignition tactical rolled into the discipline as a passive at level 83.
- The Primed Ignition tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Arsenal | Gunnery and has been renamed to Burning Shot | Burning Bolt
- Burning Bright will become optimal in all content while Gyroscopic Stabilizers continues offers insufficient benefit to be worth buying
Primed Ignition is one of the most powerful single-target sustained tacticals in the game in terms of how much raw damage it contributes. Burning Bright is no slouch either but it doesn’t hold a candle to Primed Ignition.
The fact that Mercenaries | Commandos will get both means they’re getting a pretty substantial buff to single-target damage output that will reflect how wildly unbalanced this approach to migrating the most popular tactical to the tree is.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get both, though it feels wrong that Heatseeker Missiles | Demolition Round will be the definitive weakest heavy hitter that Arsenal | Gunnery has since Rail Shot | High Impact Bolt has the autocrit and Priming Shot | Vortex Bolt now has multiple tacticals and a BiS ability tree talent buffing it.
Innovative Ordnance and Assault Specialist
IO | AS is getting Energized Charges tactical rolled into the discipline, which will leave them in the exact same tacticals desert that AP PT | Tactics VG has been in throughout 7.0.
- The Energized Charges tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Innovative Ordnance | Assault Specialist and has been renamed to Energizer
- Overwhelming Offense will become optimal in all content
- Jettison, Cool Your Jets, and Power Cycle may see some experimentation in PvP
- Magnetized Shrapnel won’t be worth purchasing for PvP (or use in PvE) because it does next to nothing
- Continuous Fire won’t be worth purchasing for solo content or use in select boss fights because it requires you to use a completely different rotation for limited benefit and conflicts with the Eruptive Flames talent
Before we get into the tactical items, we need to discuss an IO | AS-specific issue with Vent Heat | Recharge Cells granting Supercharged Gas | Supercharged Cell.
IO | AS already has nearly 100% uptime on the effect thanks to the now-built-in Energized Charges tactical and rate of Supercharge buildup, so the transformation will not yield much of a benefit at all!
It’s not necessarily bad that that Energized Charges is getting rolled into the discipline as a passive. It is by far and away the best tactical IO | AS has access to. The problem is that its alternatives do barely anything or come with complicated drawbacks.
Tactical Items won’t really matter as an IO Mercenary | AS Commando, and if that’s your very first combat style you use at level 85, you’ll probably conclude that tacticals don’t do much in general and aren’t worth your time or hard-earned credits and Tech Fragments.
Broadsword ran into the same disengagement problem with utilities where players wouldn’t bother reading all of them because they read the first couple rows (which were the weakest ones by design) and reasoned that all of them would have the same low impact and not bother to pick any of them.
Then, they complain the game is too hard even though they don’t have all the tools they need, and now we’re back to the move to ability trees where one of the big problems they wanted to tackle was situations where you could end up having no buffs/passives/perks/utilities selected.
Bodyguard and Combat Medic
Mercenary | Commando healers are getting the Running Restoration tactical rolled into the discipline.
- The Running Restoration tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Bodyguard | Combat Medic
- SC-4 Treatment Scanner will be used for most PvE content with Kolto Vapors only being worth considering in 16m+ groups and Power Cycle being the most reliable and flexible option for PvP
This is a good change. Currently, there are situations where Running Restoration would be super nice, but it’s hard to justify taking it over the raw healing potential of SC-4 Treatment Scanner or the PvP versatility of Power Cycle or the large group value of Kolto Vapors.
Now, healers will get Running Restoration all the time and still get to take the tactical specialized for the type of enemies they’re facing.
