Combat Medic Archive

I'm fairly new to being a combat medic, and therefore dont really have much experience with how things worked prior to the +1 change. However, I have come across a few frustrating balance related issues that could be addressed. The largest impact that the +1 change had was on small scale PvP. Many of these changes I would argue are good, because they added some balance to a previously unbalanced system. It would be a lot of fun to pop around a corner, lay an AOE DOT on a large group of people, and then run away, knowing that they would probably be incapped in 30 seconds. However, this is not a balanced play mechanic.

The downside of this change is that there is no longer as much of a reason to fear combat medics. Getting poisoned in the absense of a doctor should probably be a fairly lethal thing. Being able to bleed to death should also be a possibility...it makes the role of a healer in a group that much more important. As things are now, getting poisoned in small scale battle has no bearing how a battle will conclude. Because of the damage over time action of our offensive abilities, I often find myself incapped(and generally dead shortly after, since people will frequently ignore the fact that they're getting shot at by one or two others to get a kill). In one encounter, I was teamed with my commando friend, and we were fighting three rebels who were FP farming the guards in the imperial outpost on Talus. I first engaged the rifleman of the group with a mind disease, and followed up with a mind poison, but was incapped and then killed around the same time the first poison tick went off. The group then finished off my partner, and we both cloned. However, by the time I had cloned, the rifleman was incapped from the poison/disease combo, as they didn't have a doctor in their group (or at least I assume that was the case). If this poison/disease combois working as intended, then I'd actually suggest that this is not a problem. If you've taken doctor to use up the rest of your skillpoints, then you have to suffer the concequence ofa reduce direct damage output, and therefore expect to be an easy target to the regular combat folk. However, if I have time to both poison and disease my target, there should be heavy concequences for that target that require the attention of another player to fix. In other words, I agree with the fact that the combat medic is a support class, since without a direct damage combat skill, you're probably going to lose if you go toe-to-toe with a combat oriented character. The support provided should be meaningful, however...granted, a target with one health is either a sitting duck or has fled the battle already, but causing an enemy to flee is not the same as being able to defeat him.

In large scale PvP, the effect of the +1 change is less relavant. The combat medic is akin to a mage in other MMOG's, as I see it. This analogy works well for both small and large scale battles- one on one, the mage will probably lose to a regular combat character unless the mage employs some pretty sneaky tactics. However, when properly supported, the mage works as what I have heard people lovingly refer to as a "force multiplier." The CM will be a primary target for the enemy, once they figure out who it is, but this problem can be lessened by having a proper support structure in place. Large scale, long duration combat is really where the combat medic shines. You might not get many kills yourself, but if you're trying to raid an enemy base, the diseases you used on the enemy will slowly wear them down, making the invasion much easier.

In PvE, the combat medic is lackluster at best in terms of offensive abilities. Basically, when compared to the damage output of other characters in PvE combat, poisons dont stack up. A poison that ticks for 600 damage has approximately the same damage output as a gun firing without any specials (60 DPS is actually a pretty good weapon), so the damage done cannot compete with any of the pure damage dealing characters. This isnt a problem in itself, although it essentially relagates the CM to a healing role in order to provide meaningful support to the group. Unless you're fighting some of the very mean creatures in the game, the target will frequently die before the first, or maybe the second poison tick. In theory, the CM would truly shine against creatures like Kimogilas and Krayt dragons, who have increadible resistances to regular damage. This is true until you have a commando use his flame attack on the beast. Again, this wouldnt necessarily be a problem, as the commando is a direct combat class that specializes in doing heavy damage at the cost of not having diversity in the moves available to him/her. However, the reason the commando does lots of damage is not because of the direct damage done by the weapon...rather, it is because of the damage over time effect of the flamethrower, wihch is more efficient at both dealing damage and causing wounds than our poisons and diseases.

Since there is a class that can best us in what our primary specialty is supposed to be using only one of the four trees in their class, I'd say there is a balance problem. I'd have to ask for the removal of flame DOT, as I've always felt that it is horribly unbalanced. It effects both PvE and PvP combat. Versus a well buffed target in PvP (well buffed because the direct damage effect, which i do not feel is unbalanced, will kill most unbuffed targets in one hit), the DOT is essentially a vastly superior version of our entire class, since it will tick on the same timer, but do twice as much damage while at the same time causing fairly heavy wounds. Also, since it causes both damage and wounds at the same time, I'd bet that it will incap the target. In PvE, the commando can use the attack to place a 4000+ point DOT attack on a creature with 100% resistance to heat...in this case, the direct damage effect is irrelivant, and the DOT wil kill the creature way faster than it would have died had the DOT had not been placed. I'm not trying to steal the commando's thunder with their damage output...I'm just wondering why the combat medic's primary way to provide damage support is vastly overshadowed by a primary combat class' secondary ability.

Since I'm a windbag, I'll summarize my points:In small scale, short duration PvP, it often feels that combat medic abilities are useless. Given the nature of the beast, I doubt this should be changed, however. In large scale, long duration PvP, combat medics shine. In PvE, combat medics are generally relagated to a purely healing position, since their damage dealing abilities are essentially irrelivant in light of the damage outputs of direct combat classes.

My proposed solutions: Remove or reduce the commando flame DOT effects. Give combat medics something to do in PvE combat that involves some combat so they dont have to become expensive medics...this could be achieved by increasing CM power and then subjecting CM DOT effects to the 75% damage reduction in PvP. This is probably not a practical solution, however, since this would require CM poisons to doa maximum of about2500 in PvE to retain the same effectiveness in PvP that they have now.

Ack, i forgot to adress the other points you mentioned in your post.

Faction points should be awarded much like experience is currently handled. If you contributed to the death of a target, you should get points when it dies. This would have two benefits: it would allow combat medics to actually get some faction points, and would remove the "gank fest" feel that PvP sometimes has now. This could also reduce some of the less than logical incaps that happen now...people will go out of their way and frequently get killed trying to get a DB when had they paid complete attention to the battle, things would have turned out better for them.

Faction points should not be awarded for healing aligned faction members. Can you say exploitable?

The recent changes to the effectivenss of doc cures is good. It still typically takes two applications to cure a very strong poison, and before it could take four or five to have the same effect. Without a viable counter, we cannot justify having any power. If doctors are able to reliably counter our abilities, then it is justifiable to allow us to deal significant amounts of damage. On the topic of doctor AOE cures, I'd say that if this were to happen, the +1 change should be reverted. This would allow a doctor to fairly reliably counter poisons and diseases before they ever have a chance to tick, which would be fine in terms of balance. However, if thepenalty for not being able to counter istoo light, it kind of trivializes what the CM does. In other words, it's easy to heal, and even if you cant heal it, it cant kill you, so dont worry.

Flamethrower cures would be excellent. This wouldnt change the fact that a commando is essentially a better combat medic, though.

- I have adjusted my game play to make this a non-issue. I am just as effective as I have always been. Poison and disease are not effective in PvE. They do far too little damage to be effective.

- In PvE faction its working just fine. In PvP I am having a harder time collecting faction points from the people I poison because now when they take off running they don't drop from the poison like before.

- It would be neat but honestly I could see this being exploited.

- It seems fine the way it is. An AoE cure would nullify a Combat Medic's combat effectiveness.

- There is already a cure. Swim. What would be nice though is some places to swim on every planet (like a tub in every med center).

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Pahdbacca wrote:

Hi again!

Please post on any balance issues you feel strongly about as a Combat Medic.

Please stick to you own opinion an any 1 issue and post on it once, either yes or no. If you wish to argue or debate, please create a new thread or go to an existing one. (Please, no flaming)

Topics I wish to include in the State of the Profession under this topic include:

• The +1 HAM Cap on DoTs. Does it bother you and if so, how much has it affected you in solo PVE and PvP, and Group PvP and PvE


• Faction points and DoTs


• Faction points and Healing


• Doctor poison and disease curing ability (including the posibility of AoE cures)


• Flamethrower cures

Thanks in advance

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+1 HAM cap: If nobody else's weapon stops doing damage at +1 HAM then why does ours? Does a BH have to whip out a pistol to kill someone after taking 99% of their HAM down with their LLC?

Faction points and DoTs: Maybe they should give a set amount of FP per succesful poison landed? hardly the best of ideas but SOMETHING should be done..

Faction points for healing: No offense, but what's the point? Medics, Doctors and Combat Medics have been complaining about his from DAY ONE and no one seems to care..

Doctor AoE cures: If this goes in I will full expect a FULL refund of the point difference between Master Doc and Master CM. They would then get non-ranged Stim Es(= to us but not ranged), Buffs (+ over us), Revive (+ over us), Cure states(counter to other classes), cure disease (counter to us), Cure poison(counter to us)AND AoE cure poison (counter to us)compared to our ranged heals and poisons. Not only would they be our 'negative' balance they'd also have more and better tools than us. Now that Ranged heals need LOS we have to put ourselves in harms way almost every bit as much as them and their non-ranged heals.

Cure Fire: If the devs can't see how stupid not having this in already is, then I have little hope for the game. Seriously.

Personally, I think doctors should have gotten an 'innoculate' pack that would have been able to reduce our disease/poisons in any number of various ways. Perhaps an innoculated person would have poison/disease stop at +1 HAM instead of EVERYONE or maybe the innoculate pack would have ratings to offset our poisons/diseases (meaning if a poison pack did 200/tick and the innoculate pack could maybe stop 125-150/tick--all based off the normal crafting requirements or potency/duration as poisons/buff packs). It would also be nice if any such innoculation packs also had as strict or even stricter ingredient requirements as our poisons--if its fair for us then its fair to them if they have to run to almost every planet harvesting/looking for said ingredients..

Well, the 1 point Ham thing does suck because it puts a limit on our primary weapon, but I've adjusted my gameplay to fit this change. It did address the issue of looting rights, but it seems like a heavy price to payjust to have the right to loot a CDEF pistol and 160 credits. One thing I will admit, with this 1 point thing, disease in PvP has become a real weapon. I find myself throwing a disease first, and a posion second. Most professions require a heavy action cost for their specials and you can't special with a full black action bar. And unlike damage, you can't cure wounds in the heat of combat. A bleed to the health bar, a disease to the action bar and a posion to the mind bar is a deadly combo. And with the delay between throwing posions having been reduced, it's actually possible to allow your target to get into range and throw your posion/disease. Before, it wasn't really feasible because it took sooo long between the time I threw a posionand the timeI could throw a heal. Still, I'd like to see either our DOT tick off upon application, like fire, or have the same delay we suffer applied to the fire DOT. Can't tell you how frustrating it is to throw a posion C on a commando who's chasing me only to see the message, "you catch on fire!" followed immediately by a -570 appear in red over my head. And that's not just 570 damage, it's 570 wounds too! That's balance? No wonder my ENTIRE GALAXY is full of PvP commados. Oh yea, and the cure to fire is to swim right...awesome. Unless you're on Tatooine.

I agree with those who say faction points should be based on damage dealt. As was said, I lack the combat skills to take on the higher level, higher faction point-paying missions and I've conceded to knowing that I'll never get a deathblow in group PvP. That's fine, I can handle supporting my group to get the kills, but that leaves me only two options for gaining faction:

1. Do 1000 low level faction missions

2. Solo PvP. But, with my combat effectiveness reduced because of the 1 point thing, solo PvP isn't very successful for me without some REALLY great tactics and a little luck. Now I enjoy a good challenge as much as the next guy, but so many people say we shouldn't be able to stand toe-to-toe with pure combat classes, then how exactly are we supposed to get any faction points?

Faction points and healing? Unnecessary if faction is based on damage dealt like xp.

I don't really have any input on the doctor thing because I never run into any doctors when I'm PvPing. Most of the time, the posion/disease is instrumental in getting me the kill, or people just shoot or burn me to death before my posion becomes a factor. But I rarely see it cured.

my balance issues

1. CM poisons are viewed to be too strong for PvP and too weak for PvE and cause complaints from other proffesions since they have no PvP reduction.I suggest an increase tothe damage of standard poisons (no advanced components used in the crafting process) so that they are equal torifleman bleeds and then apply the 75% PvP reduction


2. Disease tick intervals need an adjustment so that they tick faster or make it so they cause 50% of the potential damage on impact. PvPers are still dueling each other to "cure" disease avoiding the damage that should be applied to their ham. Another option would be to add different status effects to the different disease packs or to change the decay on death system to a better death penelty that most people would try to avoid if possible, but couldn't prevent if death happened.


3. Only CM's and CH's are able to attack someone from beyond 64m. This seems a bit unfair to the other professions


4. the +1 cap to dots does hit the PvP CM's harder than expected. If the change is to stay, a new method of distrubting faction in PvP should be developed. The proposed change so that faction is distributed in the same way as combat experience seems to be the best method. Also some new weapon specials and defensive abilities should be added to the CM tree to give the PvP CM a better chance of survival. The defensive abilties could come in the form of new crafted medicine packs.


5. Item decay is a very harsh for the PvPer, many have stripped down to their undies. I would recommend that faction armor and equipment bypass the decay on death. This would help to give the PvPersome protection and clothingoptions,promote the GCW, and give the game a better Star Wars feel.

My few ideas on balance:

-I think the dmg we do in PVP is fine, we do less damage per second than any combat class (even afer they get their dmg reduced by 75%). I would only be in favour of a 75% reduction added to poisions IF and only IF our base poison damage was increased dramatically to be in line with other professions dmg. This would balance us in PVP and also balance us in PVE as well as we could do some decent dmg vs creatures then too. IE if a poision C made with the best components did 1400-1500 dmg per tick (assuming a tic is 8 secs)BASE dmg, then that would work out be 187 dmg per sec which is less than any good pistoleer or sniper or BH can do. It would also mean we would do 375 dmg per tic in PVP which is less than we do now and would quiet some of the L33t Doods who cant stand to be beaten even when they use no tactics. I think this would be pretty fair and besides, we cannot stack poision dmg on one stat like u can do with bleeds and fire. When i see a guy with a power hammer, hit a targets' mind pool 3 times and get a 3k mind dmg per tick bleed, i think how is a 300 or even a 500 point dmg poisiontick considered out of balance? And poison can be cured in 1 application of an antidote, where as bleeds need up to 15 or 20 applications of first aid to cure (for a big one)and fire cannot be cured with out water, which is not an option most of the time, you'll die b4 u get to a creek. Also, we have to CONSTRUCT every charge of our weapon, no other class has to pay for Bullets or charges of their weapon like we do, and they dont have to spend hours scouring the furthest corners of the galaxies for the ingrdients to do so, and THEN on top of that, pay up to 3k cr for a meagre 50-100 units of some resources which will make us around4 poision packs (of what 22-35 charges a pack?). Keep that in mind.

-the +1 cap, im against it due to it not making any sense - people can die of bleeding and burning and poision in real life and so should they in the game, but on the other hand, a fix needs to be put in place to prevent kiting too - as any reasonable CM would say that that whole situation was giving us the grifer title. I thing the idea of Doc's getting a "innoculation pack" as suggested eariler on in this thread (cant remember your name but thats a gr8 idea!) to reduce poision dmg for a period of time is awesome. Some othersuggestions: my suggestions to put in place instead of a 1+ cap for poision would be: 1) make it so thatif you reduce 2 or more stats of a player to +1 point and those 2 stats are poisioned, then they incap, but only if u reduce 2 stats to +1. 2) Put a timer on the +1 cap, so that after a stat hits +1 it stays there until the poision is cured or expires (or they get a mind heal, in whcih case the poision wiull start ticking again). Then after say 20-30 seconds, if the poision hasnt been curedand the stat hasnt moved from +1, then they incap.

-Fire damage needs to be fixable, everyone can see this and i think it should be a Doc skill in the tree that lets them heal disease and poision. then give them a water baloon schematic

thats my thoughts on the matter.

For the correspondent, Ill explain 2 more issues with the poison +1 HP.

Issue 1 - Doctors no longer are needed to cure poison, all you have to do is wait. I had a raid a few days ago occur on my base. I hit the enemy with an AOE poison, they had no doctor....technically they should have all died. Instead what they did was pull back 300m(a safe distance), setup a camp, waited for the poison to fade then came back. They did this 3 times! No doctor! This +1 HP has COMPLETLY altered bleeds and poisons usage. Poison is a joke..

Issue 2 - Its also an exploit. I now get tells from people WANTING to get poisoned. Got 2 medics in hospital healing, they run out of patients, instead of waiting for more, they ask that I duel and poisoned them both(knowing it wont incap them) and they use stim packs on each other till it fades. This nets them thousands of experience very quickly.

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Pahdbacca wrote:

Hi again!

Please post on any balance issues you feel strongly about as a Combat Medic.

Please stick to you own opinion an any 1 issue and post on it once, either yes or no. If you wish to argue or debate, please create a new thread or go to an existing one. (Please, no flaming)

Topics I wish to include in the State of the Profession under this topic include:

• The +1 HAM Cap on DoTs. Does it bother you and if so, how much has it affected you in solo PVE and PvP, and Group PvP and PvE


• Faction points and DoTs


• Faction points and Healing


• Doctor poison and disease curing ability (including the posibility of AoE cures)


• Flamethrower cures

Thanks in advance

---

#1 As many know I viewed ourselves as way too powerful before this patch hit in pvp. It has affected me, but not in a bad way as I view it. We were always ment for the support role, and this does not change much at all, except for the fact that I nowdisease first then poison. We augment any and every group were in pvp or not, its the way it should be instead of the 1vs1 PvP kings we once were.

#2 I definately want to see faction points added in. As it is now, I dont even bother and let friends get them and spend them for me(the empire doesnt like mon cal much)

#3 Same as #2

#4 I think the ability for docs to cure is just fine now. Granted I havent gone up against any other CM against the patch, I have cured other people and tested my new cures to see how well they do.

#5 This is a mixed one for me. I would like to see a cure, but being a doc I never die from these because I am always buffed from the minute when I log on to the minute I log off. And, as it is now, you cant do more wounds to a person than their base stats - 1(which I would rather see changed because it does mess up the way disease works on buffed people making it near meaningless). I would rather see them make wounds work the way they should than a cure honestly. Oh, and I havent died from a commando lately because of that, even having them flame me head on I have managed to get that 1point of mind in before they get me.

I also do not like the +1 HAM "fix"not because I can't work around it, but more that it didn't seem to address the problem but rather band-aided it... A solution that made sense AND solved the problem would have been better in my opinion... Now dont ask me what the solution is cause I don't know, I've seen some in other posts that I thought were better thought out, but I do know that I'm NOT a game developer...

A couple ofissues I have that arent on the list but have been bothering me:

The inconvenience of mounts in combat i.e. inability to heal while mounted...

The range of the mind heal... It currently feels like it should be a Medic or Doc ability... Why hamper a ranged healer with a contact heal?

As faras FP goes, I can never keep up with system spam enough to notice when I get FP or not so I don't really have an issue with it sorry...

Long' Sahpoone - MCM

I have to say I think the +1 HAM cap on poisons is just plain ridiculous. I am a TKA and got tired of people kiting me all the time. So I took up and mastered CM to help protect myself against kiters. I thought it was a great strategy. I hit them with a mind poison if they attack me at range and then I can beat them down while they are busy trying to stay alive. Either way they would get incapped and their kiting tactics wouldn't be so amusing. I was so excited to finally have a viable way to fight pvp.

The very next day came "the patch". Now I am back to being kited and they have absolutely no fear of dying. They laugh at me when I hit them with a mind poison because I have no other ranged attack and they can just stay more than 20m away from me and I can't do anything about it.

In big pvp battles, I throw an area mind poison and get a bunch of them. They all run a few meters out, have their master doc cure them and they come back and db me since they threw everything they had on me when I tossed in that area poison. All the area poisons do now is make me a huge target for every ranged weapon out there.

So now I have surrendered CM and have decided to just master brawler for something to do when I'm bored. I will have no way to defend againstkiters and will thereforenot do any more faction missions. After having CH nerfed to death with more on the way, I gave that up. Now I master CM and they nerf it to death. I'm tired of this nerfing nonsense andam for the most part quitting this game. I will still probably get on and play from time to time but it is impossible to get serious about this game when they constantly nerf everything to death because all the commandos and bounty hunters are whining about how overpowered we are. Give me a break!!!

You want advice on how to help the CM profession? Get rid of that +1 HAM cap and make it so poisons can incap again. If it weren't for that this profession would be awesome again.

I'm also curios why CM dots got the +1 HAM cap but Commando FT's didn't. Oh, probably because it was the Commandos who werewhining the loudest.