Commando Archive

PreCU, Commando was a one trick pony. We relied on one weapon: The Flamethrower. Over time, as armor increased, defensive stacking was "discovered", along with various and repeated nerfs to our one viable working weapon, Commando was reduced to obscurity. In fact, we became a party favor: We were the loud, obnoxious drunk that downed a bottle of Everclear, then spit it out over a lighter....Good for a few laughs, then pointed at and laughed at for our own stupidity.

The vaunted CU was to bring balance to us. It was to bring us in line in viability as a profession with every other profession in the game. We would have purpose. We would have role. We waited patiently for months. Over a year, actually, for this holy grail of SWG-dom to be brought into fruitiion.

The promise of the CU cometh....

Commando was promised to be:

"Commando
Primary Role: Heavy Weapon Specialist
Secondary Role: Medium Range Damage Specialist
Offense: Very Strong(5)
Defense: Moderate(3)
Crowd Control: Minimal(1)

The Commando is the specialist of Heavy Weapons. An entire line of unique heavy weapons are available in the Commando's arsenal. The Commando also receives many bonuses making them more proficient with standard weapons when combined with other profession skills. Whatever the damage dealing requirement is for a situation, the Commando has the answer. "

This is a direct quote from Thunderheart's outline of the Combat Upgrade - Profession Overview. This can be found here: Profession Overview

Further, Commando is found to be in the Damage Dealing category as per the Combat Profession Role diagram, found here: Combat Profession Schematic

Commandos 'round the Galaxies rejoiced! Once again would we assume our rightful place as a profession to be feared on the battlefield.

The CU cometh...

"The Commando is the specialist of Heavy Weapons. An entire line of unique heavy weapons are available in the Commando's arsenal"

Agreed. We do have an arsenal of Heavy Weapons at our disposal.

However,our weapons are drastically underpowered in comparison to the SAC cost and slow speed. The high SAC cost and slow speed are meant to prevent us from being overpowered, and being spammed repeatedly to overpower our opponents. By way of comparison, direct stats from two of my weapons:
Proton Rifle:
Attack Speed: 2.8
Damage: 516-1032
Elemental Damage: None
SAC: 119
Damage versus mob: 1238 pts of damage, using Advance Quickdraw

Plasma Flamethrower
Attack Speed: 2.64
Damage: 531-1034
Elemental Damage: 89 (Heat)
SAC: 108
Damage versus mob: 1340 pts of damage (1251 pts of energy damage, 89 pts of heat damage). using Advanced Quickdraw

FWG5 (Pistol)
Attack Speed: 1.99
Damage: 339-916
Elemental Damage: None
SAC: 65
Damage versus mob: 1099 pts of damage, using Advanced Quickdraw

The clear winner here is the FWG5. The difference in damage output of the FWG5 and the other two "Heavy Weapons" is completely negated by the SAC. In two shots, where as the FWG has done 2,198 pts of damage, it has only used 130 pts of the action pool. By contrast, the Plasma Flamethrower has done 2680 pts of damage, but used 216 pts from the Action pool. The Proton Rifle has done 2476 pts of damage, but used a WHOPPING 238 pts from the action pool. The inbalance between a "pistol" and a "heavy weapon" increases exponentially the longer combat lasts. We dont "power up" the FWG5, and the Pistoleer specials do nothing for our heavy weapons...

Ahh..Heavy Weapons...

We are supposed to have innate AoE in our weapons. 100 percent to main target, 40 percent splash to area targets. There is a time and place for AoE. Because of this AoE, built into our weapons, it makes Commando completely unwanted in highend PvE, due to the nature of AoE aggoing everything within its radius...Even if the AoE worked correctly, it is obsolesed by true AoE specials available in other profession that dish out 100 percent damage to all targets within its cone. This by its very nature makes Commando weapons pointless (and obsoleet), when you can get the sameintended result (lots of damage over a wide area, covering many targets), doing more damage, for less skill points (and higher mods), for less "diminishing returns" in the form of lower SAC, higher damage

to be continued.....