Teras Kasi Archive

I'm still trying, as many are, to get a handle on defense (being an armorless wookie makes me particularly interested in this subject) - Mr_Heavy, i know you're in almost daily contact with the Devs on our CoB and will put a giant, triumphant post up when it's been answered - but there's another question that needs attention -

SUMMARY: melee and ranged defenses stack and get rather useful at higher levels. dodge/counter/block (DCB) stack only if you're holding a weapon that has that modifier and you only receive 1 modifier at a time. So fencer/pistol dodge stacks but only when weilding a pistol or 1h sword. If a fencer/pistoleer wields a rifle they get 0 dodge bonus. See the excellent fencer post (under references below) for all the details.

TK ISSUE: we don't have any bonuses to DCB so as things stand now we get exactly 0 benefit from bonuses we receive from other professions while weilding vibros/unarmed. I think Defensive Acuity is supposed to be an all-purpose DCB modifier, meaning when we weild vibros/unarmed we should get the defensive bonus from any other profession - i.e if you're a TK/pistoleer you should get your pistol dodge + defensive acuity modifier when wielding either knucklers or a pistol. If you're TK/Rifle you should get rifle block + DA modifier when either unarmed or wielding a rifle.

THIS IS JUST MY GUESS AT HOW DA IS SUPPOSED TO WORK. I'm virtually certain this isn't how it currently works. Mr_Heavy, can you let us know what's up?

BACKGROUND/SOURCES
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=fencer&message.id=11313
The above post @ the fenser board seems puts to rest the conflicts we saw here:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=rifleman&message.id=29443
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pistoleer&message.id=26354
In addition the Thuderheart the Dev. Champion of the Players is addressing the issue here: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=862648

I've looked for info on DA, my apologies in advance if this is already handled elsewhere.

Ravana de Bria

In my opinion. Defensive acurity should remain it's own modifier. It should never stack with any of the other mods. TKA is the only elite combatprofession that comes off of a single specialization requirementand has so many unique skills unto itself. Allowing this skill to work with any other weapon specific mods IE dodge, counter attack and block. Would be making the strong even stronger.

While I can understand where you are coming from on wanting these stackable special defenses. We still don't know how well this skill works seeing as how it's been broken ever since the patch. Also in Thunderheart's last thread about the upcoming combat changes. I think we just all need to be patient over the next 4 months and see how things pan out.

As for the effect of this on our profession - i don't think we're looking at an overpower issue. For example, as it stands now pistol/fencer get a defensive advantage over carbineer/fencers. This doesn't make P/F better than C/F, just more defensive. Balance-wise, well, if you're a fencer and are annoyed with kiters, you might decide carbines' knockdowns are more important that defense. It provides creative options, not overwhelming power.


As for being patient over the next few months during changes, a) it's not clear any of the proposed changes will affect DCB stuff (though if the whole combat system is being uprooted then I'm sure they'll be affected in some way b) if we just knew how it was supposed to work and how it's possibly intended to change we'd have some ability to constructively plan our characters. It will take me, at my rate of play, at least a month or two to make master of a second profession, i'd really like to have some kind of educated guess as to which secondary profession to take now, not find out 3 months from now that the profession I picked is, say, the ONE profession that just doesn't help TK defense at all.

-Ravana