Commando Archive
Thread: A Look at Commando
Knightcrest wrote:
StarNick wrote:
No, we need a new system that can incorporate AoE and other measures to "power-up" specials from other professions, rather than just giving a weak AoE (or a full AoE that will aggro multiple enemies on a non-tank) and weak state effects. I agree with TK-132, that even if we get full AoE once again, it won't be fully balanced...especially if our damage gets increased or the AoE gets increased to compensate. Rather, a more hybrid and diverse system needs to be put in place giving our weapons distinct roles like specials (ie a PFT can do strong AoE, burn, and Heat damage...a RL can punch through armour, no AoE, but has a small chance to KD, rather than both having AoE, and thus the PFT be chosen over the RL each time because the RL's useless damage-wise)
Hmmm a funky idea came to me at lunch today...
It seems that most commandoes want to use all the weapons in their disposal to an equal effect with each having it's own damaging capability and own "special effect". Since the Devs have proven incompetent in making an Adv. RL or Adv. LP (even though an advanced laser rifle, advanced scatter pistol were very easily switched in a couple days in beta...)... why not leave the certs as is and the weapons as they are with one exception. Modify the AoE on a couple... making a few non AoE weapons so that Commando can remain useful in all situations. Now comes the tricky part... take damage away from the weapons and have skill mods in the skill boxes for Heavy Weapons damage (read: like unarmed damage is calculated)... as a Commando gets more training and gets more boxes he/she/it gets stronger and more efficient in their destructive power. Players would not be able to dabble to attain the full firepower of a Commando, however would still be able to make use of heavy weapons in a tree they chose to some extent. This leaving a Master Commando as a powerhouse with his full arsenal keeping the Devs from having to make an Advanced version of each weapon to keep a commando having all weapons viable, but some more useful in certain situations.
Rocket Launcher - Chance to KD with Medium Armor Break(65m)
Plasma Flamethrower - Chance to burn, blue flame with no AoE (25m)
Flamethrower- Chance to burn with wide AoE range (25m)
HAR- Chance to blind with no AoE (50m)
Heavy Acid Stream Launcher- Chance to blind with very high AoE (50m)
Lightening Beam Canon- Chance to burn, slow vehicles with no AoE (65m)
Heavy Particle Beam Cannon- Chance to stun with no AoE (65m)
Launcher Pistol- Low Armor Break ability with very narrow AoE (35m)
Proton Rifle- Highest Armor Break level, high damage, no AoE (65m)
Grenades- Same as before but much faster timers... Cryobans should snare longer thana fraction of a second, Protons cause an Armor Break (40m)
Leave the 'nade line mods alone. Add in Heavy Weapons Damage Mods in x/1-4/1-4/1-4. Since BH is a 4 in offense and have specials.... a Commando's General Ranged Speed and Accuracy mods should be NO less than a BH's general ranged mods.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
This idea is genius. I really love it better than anything else I've heard. I've dreamed of something like this just couldn't put it into words. I would love to see every commando weapon be able to used for a purpose with equal effectiveness. Having AoE on everything isn't right, this needs to be more controllable. I like the idea of giving speed and accuracy mods to the heavy weapons to put them on par with the general mods of BH, which commando is supposed to be more damaging than. It is not fair to me that a BH can get Pistol and Carbine-specific mods by stacking with another ranged profession, but the best a commando can do is dabble in something else to get +10 general mods. It would preserve balance and keep the powering-up role of commando in tact if heavy weaps had its own mods. In order to keep dabblers from becoming overpowered they can split the mods up much the way they did it with Creature Handler when you used to way back in the day be able to control the best pets with only two lines of CH. They can put +2 or +3 mods in every box so in order to build the best commando you have to master. This would give commando the heavy hitting 5 rated power they were promised without destroying the powering up role, having to add specials, or having to add new weapons.
Gaaaaaaaah!
2 years I've been a Commando..2 years..
And we're still broken.
When does the pain end? When?
Man - don't you just hate it when you write a long post and with one false move you wipe it. Sheesh.
Ok, I'll make it shorter then. The problem with Commando is the same thing as the basic problem with the rest of the CU. It's the levels system and the way they implemented it. I'm not sure if it was Holo or Q, but one of those guys said "levels still suck". Never more true than now.
All weapons have a combat level associated with them. The CL of a weapon determines their basic DPS. There are definitely caps on damage, speed and wound for all weapons. I suspect they are tied to DPS. If they designed the system anything like EQ2, than all weapons of a certain CL should have similar DPS. This is their way of balancing the professions. Therefore, if you are a master Commando, the PFT and LBC are your only heavy damage weapons. Everything else will give you less bang for the buck. This is assuming they don't fix grenades any time soon (and I think that's a safe bet).
So you have 2 heavy damage weapons. Problem is that elemental damage figures into the DPS of a weapon (I am a WEaponsmith, so I have played around with this and can confirm it). As we all know, elemental damage isn't working right now. So we are relatively underpowered because part of our damage really isn't there. Add in the AOE factor. I don't know about you, but it seems like a lair of critters aggros on me when I just equip a PFT. I can't count the number of times I've been fighting Tortors or Huf Duns, toss a grenade and all of a sudden have a Wrix or Kima nipping at my heels. AOE does next to no damage, yet it aggros everything.
So if all of your weapons have serious flaws, what do you do? Use another weapon, of course. I have been leveling my Commando up the Smuggler tree. I find that I do about as much damage with much less hassle using a pistol. So I have all these cool weapons in my backpack and I'm back to using a FWG5. How screwed up is that?
There are ways to fix it, none of which will happen. But here is my wish list anyway.
Fix grenades. Please make them worth the time and effort for me to make and use. Right now the only thing they are good for is pissing off the lair next to you.
Move all theformer "consumables" to CL 50. The WS in me can tell you these are resource hogs. It makessense to me that they should all be powerful. Keep the states as they are. Make the DPS about thesame for all of them. That would finally make these weapons useful.
Keep the Launcher pistol where it's at. Move the FT down to CL22. Give us an assault rifle/carbine at CL 30/40.
Move the Rocket Launcher to Master Commando. Make it ahigh damage weapon that a has a long cool down period. Allow us to "power up" the RL by using charges that would apply grenade like states or elemental damage at the cost of an even longer cool down time. Asopposed to the Smuggler's Last Ditch, this would be more like an opening salvo.
Give us an advanced assault rifle/carbine at CL 54. Cert it however you want. I'd settle for a quest where you can chooseone or the other. You choose carbine and you can't use the rifle - ever and vice versa.
While we're at it, give us Commando missions. Infiltrate, sabotage, demolition or eradicate. Plus, just to spice things up, make it like the upcoming Smuggler revamp where we get visibility on BH terms if we're too successful.
OK, strayed far off topic. But that's where it is and where it should be. My 2c