Bio Engineer Archive

The most pressing issue is that Creature Handler was "balanced" due to the Creature Balance, yet the rest of the balance never occurred.

Nothing has been done to compensate handlers in the 11 months since that happened and it will be at least half a year before the Combat Update does get pushed through. It has killed the profession and driven myself and many long-time handlers to quit in disappointment. Moral around here is abysmal because of all these things.

Well first of all, thanks for dropping by personally and asking what's wrong with it

I don't want to make a list simply because i am no master in ch so i don't know what the biggest problem is. Though there are a few things i do know.
As a proffesion that is combat orientated we use more skill points than other elites, though we get very little offensive skills in return. Creatures don't do enough damage, or you can't summon enough creatures. This plus the fact that we don't get defense bonus, different damage types, no mitigation, and poor AI make it not a real good class at the moment. As i said I can be wrong but this is what i found out after playing ch.

Remove the ability to entertain while AFK, especially the ability to provide entertainer buffs while AFK. This is the single biggest issue facing the entertainer professions, it's been the single biggest issue for over a year, and hey, you've already promised to remove it. All I'm asking is for you to follow through on that promise and to do it before everyone here quits out of disgust. In other words, soon. Not next year.

Thanks.

Message Edited by DrakkoFett on 10-11-2004 03:56 PM

Hello Tiggs. Nice to see you.

What is the most pressing issue for Commandos? At the most basic and general level is our inability to survive in a PvP environment.

Defenses:
Commandos ranged special attacks are limited to melee range, yet melee defenses are the lowest of all the ranged professions. We spend more time on our backs than the worlds oldest profession.

DPS:
Commandos have no ability to gain additional weapon speed or accuracy since the Armor and Clothing attachments that drop are "Heavy Weapon" mods used in Beta, but our actual in game modifiers are weapon specific (Flamthrower Speed / Accuracy, HAR Speed / Accuracy, and LLC speed / Accuracy for our BH Friends). Coupled with the LOW speed and accuracy modifiers we receive in relation to other professions, we are completely outgunned in Damage Per Second (DPS).

Armor Piercing:
Further, we have no non-consumable armor piercing weapons. The Launcher Pistol, Flamethrower and HAR, are all AP0. We are the only profession that has no certed AP non-consumable weapons, and the only acid weapon that can't shoot through a tin can.

Now that might be a result of the Consumable heavy weapons we have access to. However, the AP characteristics are only useful when we HIT our targets. That is a much less frequent occurence with Consumable weapons than should be the case. Commonly referred to as being unable to hit the side of a barn when you are standing next to it. These weapons are also relatively slow for the damage performed. These weapons are short stacked for the price, and are said to be difficult to manufacture by the Weaponsmiths. As a result, there is a low demand since the DPS to cost ratio is out of whack.

Grenades:
Our grenades kill us faster than our enemies. They are very short stacked, and are affected by a bug that requires about 9 seconds to use the weapon, regardless of weapon speed.

What to do?:
You already said that you have the lists Garvin has submitted for quite some time now. I won't keep going. But what could be done to tide us over to the revamp?

1) Release the Combat Revamp Documents: We believe it's a good thing for commandos, but can't understand why SOE won't release the Revamp Documents going on 45 days since presented to Correspondents. Even worse, why SOE won't release a statement on releasing the documents is beyond us.
2) Change the AP settings on our weapons. Launcher AP1, FT AP1, HAR AP2 or 3. That would go a LONG way to helping our ability to damage higher level content in PVE.
3) Change the Flamethrower and HAR Speed/Accuracy to "Heavy Weapon Accuracy." This will make our DPS problems in balance (Master Commando would have the same accuracy and speed mods as a Master Rifleman), and SIMULTANEOUSLY allow the Armor/Clothing Attachments to work. If you feel generous, set the BH LLC tree to Heavy Weapon too to help them out. We're not greedy.
4) Could you maybe make it so the grenades don't kill us when we use them? Pretend we are throwing a bomb droid. They don't kill their user if the user is in the blast radius. And if you can increase stack size or figure out the bug on the grenade speed, it would be welcomed.

I bet you were hoping for short concise posts. But we are so broken, it's hard to keep it simple.

Rien - Master Commando
Corbantis

Message Edited by Latenighter on 10-11-2004 11:02 PM

Hi,

my highest priority issue _by_far_:

Unattended Gameplay / "Buffbot"ing

And it even can be solved through a change in policy. Just make it
a forbidden way to play.


Next on the line:
- Communication with our correspondents. They are very aware of the
problems of the profession
- Broken Dance animations
- Dances with just 3 Flourishes

regards