Commando Archive
Thread: ATST Changes on TC...It's A GOOD Time to be a Rebel Commando...
For those interested in the upcoming changed to the ATST check out:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=13525
Some Highlights:
- AT-ST’s have less armor but more Hit Points
- For use PvP or Faction Missions Only
- DoTs that can effect AT-ST’s are only Fire
- Non-Creature Handlers can have 1 pet (ie, 1 AT-ST)
Looks like a lot of Imperials will be joining the CH ranks to be able to call multiple ATSTs...and when they do, their improved hit points won't mean much when you consider the weaker armor, blast damage and fire dots...
In other words...Rebel Commandos are singing in the streets...Break out the Flame Throwers and Rocket Lauchers...we havin ourselves a BBQ tonight...errrr....next patch...
Looks like a lot of Imperials will be joining the CH ranks to be able to call multiple ATSTs...
They mean that only CHs can have multiple pets out, they are still limited to one AT-ST active at a time but they might be able to call their CH pets as well however that sounds overpowered so I'd assume they mean AT-ST or having multiple CH pets.
I didn't get that from what I read...I'll quote 2 lines specifically:
With the Creature Handler Profession changes, Creature Handlers will be able to have more than one pet (up to 3 pets) and everyone else will be able to have a single pet.
and...
The Creature Balance definitely needs a post all to itself, but as it pertains to the AT-ST’s, it is currently a pet.
From that I gather that ATSTs are counted as pets, and by the new rules, CH's can have up to 3 pets out at a time depending on their CH level...so in essence, a Imp Master CH could possibly have out 3 ATST pets...Did you read somewhere where it specifically said that ATSTs go agains that "pet" rule?
i think that sucks.
I agree with them taking out only 1 metal chicken. I agree with them attacking faction enemies only.
I disagree with the reduction in atst protection and only be affected by fire dot.
Firstoff, reducing protection makes atst vulnerable to ALL classes, not just commando. A rifleman in this case will take down the atst faster than commando will. They can target a specific ham bar, we cant.
Fire dots should not affect the machine at all. The result of this will be naked banzai flamesingle commandos. naked and banzai because they will expect to get killed and will have put their armor away in bank or droid storage...but the flame dot will stick and severely damage if not kill the atst.
It takes away the niche of the atst as an impressive weapon and also takes away the commando's niche as the only class that has a decent chance at taking it down.
This change has, effectively, made our heavy weapons skill tree largely irrelevant. Heck, before it was the rocket launcher that made this tree worth it, for heck, it was the only weapon we actually had something we could use against effectively.
Firstoff, reducing protection makes atst vulnerable to ALL classes, not just commando. A rifleman in this case will take down the atst faster than commando will. They can target a specific ham bar, we cant.
Not sure I agree here...The Armor level is decreasing but the Hit Points are going way up...and the ATST still has it's normal resistences...so it will take a rifleman longer to kill an ATST then a Commando because our attacks are it's special weaknesses. What other profession does fire damage? our niche is still there...
Fire dots should not affect the machine at all. The result of this will be naked banzai flamesingle commandos. naked and banzai because they will expect to get killed and will have put their armor away in bank or droid storage...but the flame dot will stick and severely damage if not kill the atst.
Burning Napalm on an armored vehicle will do nice damage...and the longer it burns the more damage it can potentially do...so I agree with the Fire Dot on machines...Poison, Diseaseand Bleeds don't make sense on a machine so it makes sense to remove them...but fire does damage a machine...go pour gas on your car and light it up...watch in burn, does it continue to do damage over time?or does the flame go out quickly with little damage?
It takes away the niche of the atst as an impressive weapon and also takes away the commando's niche as the only class that has a decent chance at taking it down.
This change has, effectively, made our heavy weapons skill tree largely irrelevant. Heck, before it was the rocket launcher that made this tree worth it, for heck, it was the only weapon we actually had something we could use against effectively.
How so? ATST's are still very vunerable to Blast Damage...and also the Flame DOT...so we are officially going to be labeled ATST killers...what other profession can do both that type of damage? We have the 2 weaknesses of the ATST in our tree's...other the other professions have to deal with the higher hitpoints and heavy damage the ATST can still dish out...
It reality, this is a very good thing for us...maybe not for the ATST owner, but definitely for us...
BH does fire damage dot damage too.
They leaving resistances as they are? I thought they were lowering them too. Ok if thats the case then they trading armor rating for HAM. Which in itself is stupid enough, even if they make it medium armor it means weapons like laser carbines and laser rifles will not get the 50% damage reduction of ap3they got before.
for example, heavy armor , 70% energy resist atst now:
laser rifle/carbine special hit...lets say it hits for 1000 damage.
laser's are ap2. so they take1X50% armor rating damage reduction. 500 damage. then 70% reduction.. 150 damage per shot.
New patch:
atst dont take the damage reduction of 50% since the lasers penetrate its ap2 armor. 1000 damage straight up. 70% resist: 300 damage.
In essence, SOE would have to double the HAM of the ATST to make it be equivalently resistant to other classes as before. And i seriously doubt the atst will now have like 30k something HAM (if so, then we can throw the rocket launchers away for we'd need 4 shots in the same ham bar to kill it.. and with 66% chance of not hitting the same ham bar, our chances just got a lot worse).
Then think pistoleer stopping shot + launcher pistol.. brrrr!
Go pour gas on a militarytank and light it on fire. thats a better comparison. even a light tank will do.
my biggest concern is this patch will make the commando into a suicide monkey which will bring the nerfing of the flamethrower. It will make the imperials not even use the ATSTs because theres always a flamer monkey around... especially those flamesingle1 box holding dabblers that haul around 3 grauls. master commandos penalized for the actions of easymode dabblers.
I would rather they make the rockets better at killing atst by letting us fire at a specific ham bar with the shoulder weapons (and yes, let atst keep heavy armor and resists and increase their ham a bit). Right now killing an atst with a commando is a matter of LUCK, not skill. 33% chance of the rocket hitting the same ham bar... and there is not much skill in banzai flaming the metal chicken and watching it die as you are incap or db'd.
Go pour gas on a militarytank and light it on fire. thats a better comparison. even a light tank will do.
Gas to a car would be comparable to Napalm to a Tank...does Napalm damage a tank? That's where my comparison comes in...If you light up a tank with Napalm it would do damage, and the longer it burned the more damage it would do...even if it's just wearing down the armor making it weaker...
As for HAM...someone on the Valcyn forum reported (and they could be totally wrong...they had a few other errors in their post) that ATSTs are being up'd to 55K....I've never owned an ATST and only actually fought 1 or 2 (killed both times...but that was before the blast damage vunerability being added in)...
I'm hoping the Dev's remember a statement that they made when they first introduced ATST's...they made it a point to say that they expected Commando's to be the sole profession best at taking out ATST's. I've never played BH, so I don't know if they have a Flame Dot or do fire damage...but we have both a Flame Dot and Blast Damage...Commando's going on a ATST killing spree won't get us Nerf'd I don't think...not if the Dev's hold their own words true...it would the the ATST's fault for it's destruction...if their is a Rebel commando around during an attack, don't use your ATST unless your willing to lose it, or kill the commando before he can target your pet...it's all about Strategy....
55k?
may as well add the heavy weapons tree to the same spot as the HAR tree then. heh. I see 14 more points to spend in another proffession in the near future.. grenadeers uber alles.
The only reason a tank wouldn't kill a guy with a flamethrower is because they would be laughing to hard.
*shrug* but it's still the best way to take down an ATST in game.
remember:
fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to.....COMMANDO hehe