Doctor Archive

For first 14 pages of the latest Combat Balance thread Dev blab about how they are going to balance the core 14 combat profession.

But have no fear, Doctors always have and always will be most important part of combat and here are some bones they threw our way.

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Thunderheart wrote:

• Combat Medic and Doc are included. Buffs will be addressed, but in a "rock, paper, scissors" sort of way.

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http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=52520#M52520

now what any of us get from this is just speculation and I speculate that this can mean that effectiveness of buff wouldn't really change much. especially they mentioned over and over again that armor will definately be changed (read nerf) and "defense stacking" will be thing of past.

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Thunderheart wrote:

Yes, defense stacking as we know it will be gone, but we will have a balanced mix and match way to blend the professions. THis is something we will be looking at a lot in beta.

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Add to that we have statement (I think on pg 14) that Jedi will not change much, maybe lowered a bit to bring them within the overall range, which mean most combat profession will be far FAR weaker than they are now in terms of firepower (read MEGA-nerf). They called current weapon "off the scale".

Now most important statement is Dev saying they want combat to be like group effort

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Thunderheart wrote:

Briefly touching on your points:

• We will continue with mini-publishes.


• The team's thinking is that we want to keep the full range of playstyles, but we really want to add a dynamic rock, paper, scissors game play and for that, you need a rock, some paper and some scissors. Players will have a lot of adjusting to the new system - - which is why we pulled back and decided to do it all at once. Considering all of the core combat changes, the HAM revamp and how this all comes together, there will be an adjustment period. We're not just balancing "what is", we're balancing the existing game and giving it more strategy. Because its so different, we are doing this slowly, taking in the feedback and moving to the next stage with firm footing.

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i.e. Any group that seriously think about going to advanced planet and actually survive gonna have to have healers along.

So what we have is new combat profession that have much much worse armor than what they have now, with much less defense and wet noodle of weapon.

If they nerf the Buff by huge amount, it'd be really hard to keep anyone alive. Add to the fact that HAM system change where secondary buff doesn't render special action cost meaningless, I don't see how they can really make buff too much weaker.

At least that'll be my argument during the combat balance beta and I'm gonna stick to it!

I also get a feeling that there might be a debuff (perhaps change to way CM's poison/disease work) that address our buff instead of flat out nerf.

At any rate, we have lot of work to do so that after the combat balance, we doctors come out smellen like roses.

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BadgerSmaker wrote:

You've made quite a few assumptions there... based on some rather vague comments from the Devs.

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OFCOURSE I did! Thats all any of us get to do in the forum.

Unless someone have ability to see into the future or is sleeping with one of the Dev who actually call the shot, all any of us have is speculation tainted by our own hidden desire and agenda based on helthy helping of assumptions rooted in half memory which itself is from reading previous developer's post and/or someone else's post in this forum.

Anyone who tell you otherwise is probably a used car salesman

or maybe even a politician

I might even call em a lawyer but we are trying to keep this forum kid friendly so I wouldn't say that.

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Thunderheart wrote:

• Combat Medic and Doc are included. Buffs will be addressed, but in a "rock, paper, scissors" sort of way.

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IlyaMasool wrote:

OFCOURSE I did! Thats all any of us get to do in the forum.

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BadgerSmaker wrote:

Heheh, fair enough then mate.

But I think its safe to say that around February next year will will be looking at a vastly different game, and you seem very protective of your Doc Buffs... you may have to give them up in their present state in order to pave the way for "magical balance".

Or they might screw the game up completely... who knows.

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nah. I have absolutely zero fear for my choosen profession. Buffs are nice, but I am not too creazy about em. Seeing as how they are really doctor's worst enemy.

No matter how much things change in MMOG, some things cannot change. the most basic of all principle.

People play a game.

People fight other things/mob/players.

People get hurt.

Now once people get hurt, they have to get un-hurt.

This happen in couple of ways traditionally.

People sit and wait to get better
Someone actively heal them

Now there are only few ways someone can actively heal them.

They heal themself by skill
They heal themself by item
Someone else heal them

And that someone is us healers.

For me, buff should serve only one purpose. To create a "buffer" zone of safety margin so that healers can keep everyone in the group alive. It should never replace true healers and to that effect I hope to see the combat balance go that way.

Not only am I prepared to give them up in their current state of (Full Buff + Armor + Stim-B = no doctor needed), I hope to help them on their way.

My ultimate goal is to make sure that Doctors are the most important profession in SWG universe. People should log in and say

"Man I can't find doctors anywhere! oh well might as well head to space and fly my X-wing till some more doctors log in"

I think that time is coming soon!!!!

and I keep saying GOOD!

I will be very happy to be useful as something other than a buffbot.

I made a case of stim e's back in feb. I have only used about 5 of em since then.

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IlyaMasool wrote:


"Man I can't find doctors anywhere! oh well might as well head to space and fly my X-wing till some more doctors log in"

I think that time is coming soon!!!!

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I beg of you all of you, before we throw a tantrum about nerfing Doctors....

If they rebalance the entire combat system including doctors, whatever role we have now will be smaller, but we as Doctors will still have a role in combat preperations, and thats whats count.

Im sure all professions that today benefit for the all Solo super buffster grunge, will feel that they are hit hard because their ability to increase peoples abilities are diminished, but if all groups are hit equally hard, then we will still be a part of the game economy.

We will still be able to Healdamage, We will still be able to Healwounds, and to some degree we will still be able to Buff peoples stats. Give the game a month after the combat rebalance is introduced, and you will probably see that most prices will return to normal.

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IlyaMasool wrote:
For first 14 pages of the latest Combat Balance thread Dev blab about how they are going to balance the core 14 combat profession.

But have no fear, Doctors always have and always will be most important part of combat and here are some bones they threw our way.

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Thunderheart wrote:

• Combat Medic and Doc are included. Buffs will be addressed, but in a "rock, paper, scissors" sort of way.

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HAHAHAHA, Whenever someone talks about balancing in the rock/paper/scissors fashion, they mark themselves as a simpleton who has no imagination. Cheers, everyone now can see where their game is headed.