Blog Update

Hey guys, what's up? Sorry for being inactive during last month but I was in vacations and I didn't have an easy access to the internet.
Anyway, I'm back to my HQ and I'm ready to roll once more. To be honest, SWTOR isn't at its best right now and there aren't really any news going on. Things are the same for the past months and we're all waiting for news about new content.
What troubles me the most are the secresive about the stuff they are working on. They have announced an expansion and we really haven't got nothing more than a ridiculous small trailer.
I'm still planning to play the game, I'm enjoying it but I have already accepted that it's prime is gone. Let's hope that F2P would bring a fresh wave of players back to game.

SWTOR: Scoundrel PvP Montage #2!

Hey guys, a fast update,


I've just uploaded a new Scoundrel PvP Montage video.


Check it out!

The Art of Trolling #3!!!

Hey guys, as I wait for 1.3 I play as more WZs as I get. Having free time and frapsing almost all of my matches. I have some interesting footage and I decided to do another addition to the The Art of Trolling series. I hope you enjoy this! :D

2 New Videos!

I have 2 new videos to share with you guys.


The first of all is a "romancing a companion" video and shows what happens if you try to romance 2 of your companions at the same time.


The second one is a Scoundrel PvP montage, the first of the series. Even it would not be the best PvP you'll ever seen, I hope you'll enjoy it!


See you around!

Group Finder Preview and Scoundrel PvP Video!

A new video, a Scoundrel PvP Video as I talk about Group Finder


ENJOY! :)

SWTOR's James Ohlen shares the formula behind PvP nerfs

Massively: A forum post states that the expertise stat is now a lot more valuable in PvP than it used to be. The slope on the diminishing returns appears to be less steep now, and PvPers definitely seem to like that concept a lot more than when they would mix other armor types together in order to level out their stats. Can you explain the reason behind the changes, and specifically, what that means to players stepping into PvP with a fresh level 50?


James Ohlen: One of the functions expertise serves is to divide our PvP gear and PvE gear. For example, we don't want a situation where you want to play the PvE operations endgame, but the best way to do that is to spend several weeks playing warzones in order to get a PvP gear set. Thus, a PvP set will have significantly lower raw stats than a PvE set of the same level and will receive a budget of expertise to compensate. The bonuses you get from that expertise in PvP should effectively reverse the situation, so a player in a PvE set will be at an equivalent disadvantage if he jumps into PvP without earning the lower-level PvP gear set first.


What we found prior to patch 1.2 is that because the PvP endgame was much more accessible than the PvE endgame, many PvE guilds were using warzones to get endgame gear instead of playing through the flashpoints and normal-mode operations. In addition, the original PvP gear only had expertise on the armoring, hilt, and barrel, which made the modifications and enhancements in that gear more effective than intended in PvE.


To address these issues in patch 1.2, we increased the gap between PvE and PvP on the new War Hero gear, sacrificing a greater percentage of stats and giving more expertise in return. We also extended this to the modification and enhancement item mods, introducing expertise there and further increasing the total expertise budget. In fact, the final expertise budget on War Hero was so high that we had to retroactively add some "bonus" expertise to the existing PvP gear in order to avoid creating too much of a gap between the top and bottom end PvP players.


Unfortunately, this also meant that players stepping into PvP with a fresh level 50 who has no expertise will be destroyed by players with expertise, leading to a very frustrating experience (and this experience was already pretty rough prior to patch 1.2). To address this, we introduced a relatively cheap "recruit" set of PvP gear designed to give them enough expertise to get into the PvP game and allow them to starting earning the good stuff. As PvP gear continues to advance in future seasons, new "recruit" sets will be introduced to ensure fresh 50s always start at a reasonable point.




Prior to 1.2, the stat bonuses to damage, damage reduction, and healing from expertise were fairly even across the board. Now we are seeing pretty significant differences between those three bonuses. I understand the expertise stat is designed so that changes like that can be made fairly easily without disrupting the PvE game. What were you seeing prior to 1.2 that prompted that type of significant change?


Expertise was designed so that the damage bonus and the damage reduction effectively cancel out for two players with the same amount of expertise, and this should remain true in patch 1.2 as well. However, the way the damage bonus and damage reduction are applied changed in patch 1.2, and this resulted in the two values no longer being the same on the character
sheet.


Prior to patch 1.2, these values were additive, like so: Damage * (1 + Attacker_Exp – Target_Exp)


This system was simple and worked for players with similar amounts of expertise but breaks down for large differences in expertise values. For example, consider player A with 50% expertise fighting player B with 0% Expertise. When A attacks B, he does 150% damage, and when B attacks A, he does 50% damage. This means Player A gets a 50% damage boost as intended, but that 50% DR boost means he gained 100% survivability (player B is doing 50% damage, so he now must deal twice as much damage to kill player A).


In patch 1.2, this formula was changed so that these values are now multiplicative, like so: Damage * (1 + Attacker_Exp) / (1 + Target_Exp)


So using our 50% expertise example again: When A attacks B, he still does 150% damage, but now when B attacks A, he does 1 / (1 + 0.5) ~= 67% damage. On player A's character sheet, this shows up as 50.00% damage boost and 33.33% damage reduction, which are inverses of each other (player A deals 50% more damage to player B, and player B must deal 50% more damage to order to kill player A). Note that they'll still cancel out for two people with the same Expertise value, just as they did pre-patch 1.2.


Healing is on a completely separate balance axis, where we use expertise vs. trauma to get the healing rate we want in PvP. We were pretty happy with the healing rates before patch 1.2, but the expertise budgets on the PvP items increased dramatically, and that in turn increased the healing bonus to unacceptable levels. We considered increasing trauma to compensate but didn't like how much this penalized healers without expertise, so instead we decided to reduce the percentage of healing boost per point of expertise. The goal was that a player in full Battlemaster should end up with approximately the same percentage of healing boost before and after patch 1.2, despite the increased amount of expertise on his gear.




Sorcerers and Sages were hit pretty hard in the update. Some players have said, "Good, they needed to be nerfed," because there have been instances of Operatives and Mercenaries being passed up for flashpoints and operations because Sorcerers could "do a better job." However -- and I'm sure you've heard it -- Sorcs and Sages are complaining that their viability in PvP has been greatly reduced because when they face, for instance, a Sentinel, he can literally prevent them from ever being able to drop their major heal. Did this change accomplish what you'd hoped, and why do you think players are having these reactions?


We've actually answered this question publicly several times, but it seems when players don't like the answer, they keep asking hoping it will change. The fact is, Sorcerer and Sage healers were in a position where they could completely bypass resource management, which is intended to be a large factor of successful healing gameplay. In PvE, they're right where we want them. In PvP, there are ways to counter the health hit you take in managing your resources, and short of telling players what to do and when to do it, we're comfortable with how things are playing right now. That's not to say that we're "done," and things won't change again. But healers are actually closer to target than they've ever been in the past.


In PvP specifically, I think it would be a fine argument to make that we've increased the minimum skill required to play a Sorcerer or Sage healer, but currently we're not buying that they are ineffective or have less potential than other healers. What I am concerned about and have my eyes on, specifically, is that this skill requirement is too high for comfort. The difficulty in addressing this issue comes from finding just the right way to improve ease of use and accessibility without affecting throughput and resource management. Again, we're never "done," and it's likely that future changes to Sorcerer and Sage healers will aim at addressing this specific issue, but it's extremely unlikely that we'll go "whoops, we went too far" and undo what we've already done. So don't keep asking if that's what you're hoping to hear.




The post says, "We will likely take some minor to moderate action about the overall DPS being higher in the near future by adjustments to the magnitude and duration of offensive relics." Can you elaborate on what some of those changes are going to be?


In PvP, we've found that the combination of relics, adrenals, and powerful, short-duration buff abilities have led to more burst damage and shorter kill times than we originally intended. However, we are happy with the amount of sustained damage the relics offer, and our PvE content has been balanced around those values. Our current plan is to reduce the magnitude of the relic buffs but increase the duration. So they'll contribute less burst damage to a short PvP fight, but their damage contribution to a flashpoint or operation boss fight will remain approximately the same. However, this plan has not been finalized yet, and we are looking at other ways to reduce burst damage as well. So this plan may differ significantly from what eventually goes live.


Also, the post mentioned an issue with stacking debuffs. Do we have an update for that yet?


We're actually in the midst of finalizing and verifying the code that prevents like debuffs from stacking with one another. If we like what we see, we'll have this fix live "soon."


I love the overall vision for PvP in general, and it's been said that SWTOR has some of the most balanced PvP in MMOs. Where do you feel you sit with that balance currently? And what provisions have you taken to help maintain that balance or improve on it?


Balance is hard to quantify on paper but relatively easy to qualify with first-hand play experience. That means that everyone has an opinion, but those opinions are very difficult to validate. Like I've said before, all of our math comes with a great big coefficient in front of it called "assumptions," and it has a massive effect on the end result of that math. Such a massive effect, in fact, that so far whenever we find an imbalance, it's our assumptions that change and our formulas that stay the same.


Currently, we're "happy" with where we sit balance-wise in a global aspect of the game, but all that really means is that we're not up all hours of the night pulling out our hair screaming, "How do we fix this?!" Instead, we're coming in to work each day calmly asking, "How do we fix this?" That's the job, after all.


Balance going forward just means keeping up our vigilance and staying aware of current issues and coming up with valid ways to address them. Everyone has an opinion on ways to address the various balance issues that surface, but the truth is we spend the vast majority of our time finding and addressing issues that we hope to never allow to surface. The rest of the job is figuring out which fix works for the game and doesn't mess anything else up. I'm not sure it's possible to install balancing provisions (at least not any players would welcome), but we are being as proactive as possible.


Thanks, James for speaking with us. We'll talk again soon!

Critical and Surge caps!

After parsing as much as I could and while I was trying to adjust my stats to optimal. I decide to post the results of my research and the things that I find in the internet.


First of all, I'll have to determine what cap is. One rating is caped when it has reached the maximum number/percentage. For example reach 100% critical chance, when all of your attacks are critical. As you already know most of the rating have a diminishing scaling when you stack them. What I'm going talk now is soft cap. Soft cap is the point where a stat suddenly becomes less useful and another stat becomes more valuable.


Here is the graph that I found on mmo-mechanics:

As you can see, from a point and further, stats like surge and critical etc have a breakpoint, when if it reached, it stops to be optimal. Here:


SOFT CAP


Surge: 300 rating
Critical: 450 rating




An example to what soft cap, is surge rating. At 200 rating, you have 72% critical multiplier whereas 250 rating rise it to 76%. That means that the 50 rating that is spend to surge could be another stat that would benefit you more.




A general small guide to gear up is:


Accuracy, up until 100% cap
Surge, up until 300
Crit, up until 450
Power




Power on the other hand has no cap. In general you should know that power boost your baseline attack/heal and is a stat that increase your performance directly. I would just healer to focus more to power than surge/critical as they should be depended on RNG critical heals.




Finally, a small tip. You can get critical not only from your critical rating and your main stat but also from some of the base stats of other classes.


WARRIOR/KNIGHT: Strength AND Willpower
BOUNTY HUNTER/TROOPER: Aim AND Cunning
INQUISITOR/CONSULAR: Willpower AND Strength
IMPERIAL AGENT/SMUGGLER: Cunning AND Aim


So, if you are a min-maxer, don't forget to add some more datacrons to your hunting!

New Abilities Suggestion

Bioware has done a good job with classes’ abilities. They've created interesting rotations and playstyles. For me, the addition of cover classes is revolutionary and something closer to modern warfare. The feeling I have thought is that they could do better in some things. Most classes don't have enough utilities or I think they should have a more dynamic playstyles. I have some abilities I would suggest. I know that they cannot changes classes midgame but they could surely change some with an expansion.


For Warriors/Knights both AC:


     Disarm. 90sec CD. Cho mai is used a lot by both Jedi and Sith. It would last for 12sec and it would prevent abilities that require a weapon.
     Force Deflection. 30sec CD, last for 6 secs, the Jedi/Sith uses the Force to defend an attack and reflect it back to the attacker.


For Juggernauts/Guardians:


     Battle Prowess. 120sec CD. For 12sec you deal and receive 20% more damage, you are allowed to use Vicious Throw/Dispatch during the duration and you are immune to slows and throwbacks.


For Marauders/Sentinels:


     Cower in Fear. 60sec CD. Incapacitate your opponent for 60sec/8scs in PvP. Effect breaks if any damage is dealt after 2secs.
     Chasing Throw. 20sec CD. Throws your main hand lighsaber, doing little damage, increase your speed by 30% for 4secs.


 Both classes should have disarm abilities that are popular in SW universe and movies. Plus, the reflect ability is something that is also used by the Jedi in the movies when they deflect back their enemies weapon blasts. Now, a big dps CD is missing in Juggernauts/Knights dps rotation that's why I believe Battle Prowess will come in hand. Finally, a Marauder/Sentinel has enough dps but lack in Crowd Controls. Another stun will help them kite and survive better than what they have now. As Juggernauts/Knights have more mobility I believe Marauders could get a small sprint.




For Inquisitors/Consulars both AC:


     Battle Meditation. 180sec CD. Increases the party's damage and healing done by 15%. For me, Battle Meditation is the most iconic Force ability in the Old Republic era and would make many people happy if it's implanted.
     
For Sorcerers/Sages:


     Force Mark. 120sec CD. Marks an opponent for 30sec. Every time that the marked opponent receives damage from the Sorcerer/Sage, heals up to 3 allies standing in 15meters for 30% of the damage from the marked opponent takes. If an ally is marked then any heal he receives from Sorcerer/Sage, damage up to 3 enemies standing in 15 meters for 30% of the healing done to the marked ally.
     Force Slow. 40sec CD. Any enemy inflicted by this ability has his next channeled or casting ability used after 6sec to have it's time to activate increased by 100%.
     Dreadmaster. Strikes fear in the enemy, causing him to cower in fear for up to 20 sec.  Damage caused may interrupt the effect.  Only 1 target can be feared at a time.


For Assassins/Shadows:


     Shatterpoint. 240sec CD. Increase your abilities critical chance by 40% for 12sec.
    Precognition. 180sec CD. You are immune to all damage for 8sec. You also do 50% less damage.


Battle meditation is an ability that I was surprised that didn't make it to the game. Especially when there's only one advance class with the ability to increase the performance of a group. For me, Inquisitors/Consulars are the most polished and all-around class and they don't need a big change. Force Mark is a very interesting ability as it’ll give a twist that is needed in a mmo. Force Slow gives a strong weapon against healers and other ranged dps. Assassins/Shadows are in need of a big dps CD. Also, fear fits into sorcs/sages. Shatterpoint is also a very interesting Force Power in the SW universe that could fit in the Assassins/Shadows story, as the seeker of Force knowledge. Same goes for Precognition. A strong defensive CD, mostly for the assassins dpsers than the tank. In general, the SW universe has very interesting Force Powers that could spice up the force users gameplay.






For Imperial Agents/Smugglers both AC:


     Carefull Shot. 90sec CD. Disarms the opponent for 12secs. A really, really good ability that is missing right now.
     Duty Calls. 180sec CD. Whenever you are attacked by an enemy your moving speed is increased by 4% for 12sec. It can stack up to 5 times.


For Operatives/Scoundrels:


     Erradicate. 180sec CD. Attempts to break the damage reduction shields and all invulnerabilities. Needs to be in cover.
    Tactital Superiority. 120sec CD. For the next 6sec all of your abilities don't consume the Tactical Advantage buff.
    Cloaking Area. 180sec CD. Creates a an Invisible Area in 10m around the Operative/Scoundrel for 6sec. Enemies are confused and can't target into or out of the cloaking area.


For Snipers/Gunslingers:


     Emergency Countermeasures. 180sec CD. Decrease the CD of all of your abilities by 50%.
     Sniper's Patience. After remaining stationary for 4sec you get sniper's patience that increases your next Snipe or Ambush critical chance by 3%. Stacks up to 5 times.
     Master Marksman. 120sec CD. For the next 20sec it allows the Sniper to shoot Snipe out of cover and while you are moving. Every Snipe that is shot consumes a Sniper's Patience buff. Any melee attack you receive has a 50% chance to restore a Sniper's Patience buff. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6sec.




IA/Smuggler should have a Disarm ability, a defensive CD needed in game. As class with no sprint, no charge and with little mobility a small moving speed buff is needed. Operatives/Scoundrels got nerf when their burst was reduced. Right now it's a class that has little chance in a head on against most melees and ranged. Eradicate will break the defense of their opponent, forcing them against a wall. Tactical Superiority will help them hit harder against kiting opponents. Snipers/Gunslingers are a class of area denial, where they can protect their spot pretty easily. The problem is when they'll get force to battle in close quarters. Sniper's Patience and Master Marksman will give Snipers/Gunslingers the chance to kite, to maintain their range against melee. Also, a stationary covered Sniper that is an upper level, cannot be charged, cannot get countered from Warriors/Knights. Give Snipers mobility and give Warriors the chance to land on them.






For Bounty Hunters/Trooper both AC:


     Gravity Generator. 30sec CD. Places a gravity generator that pulls all enemies up to 15m to its center. Then it slows them for 50% until they leave the generator’s range.
     Carbonite Shell. 180sec CD. You create a carbonite shell around you that makes you invulnerable to any damage. Lasts for 6sec.
      Repelling Shield. 45sec CD. You use your shield to absorb an attack of an enemy and in the next 6sec you can unleash it back to an opponent.




For Mercenaries/Commandos:


     Matter Transmitter. Place at your feet the exit of a matter transmitter device. After that, every 40sec you can use a second matter transmitter and enter into the hoop that it's created and be transmitted to the exit.
     Warmachine. 21sec CD. 20m range. Fires a barrage of missiles that explode on contact, doing high damage and increasing all damage dealt for 15% for the next 9sec. The missiles can hit the target even if the enemy is not in line of sight.


For Powertechs/Vanguards:


     Armor of Retribution. 60sec CD. The heat of your armor burns every enemy that attacks you in melee range for 30sec.
     Cold Blood. 60 sec CD. Powertech gains his calm and rally his allies removing all Fear and Disorient effects from party and ops member. This ability can be used even when the user is afflicted with such effects.


Bounty Hunters/Troopers are in a very interesting spot in my opinion. Heavy geared, can take a beating... Really, really like them. They still need some more dynamic playstyle. Gravity Generator is a nice crowd control ability that can be follow by Death from Above/Mortar Volley. Carbonite Shell will give a big defensive CD that would mostly help the dps than healers or tanks. Mercs and Commandos are quite good right now. They lack mobility as Arsenal/Gunnery and even though they get some in Pyrotech/Assault Specialist, they lose some dps. Instead of giving more instant abilities I suggest Matter Transmitter. Same goes for Warmachine that would be a nice and unique ability. Totally worth against fleeing enemies that try to hide behind a crate to heal themselves up. Right now, mercs/commandos feel like a stationary turret. Even if it's intended, I believe that it would be fun to give them some kite ability. Powertechs on the other hand are extremely well designed. Great mobility, lots and lots of abilities the only thing I came up with is a dot against melee and a CD to remove fear to give them some more fast paced action.


OVERALL


In general there are many interesting abilities but are not equally scattered. For example Marauders/Sentinels seem to be more interesting than Juggernauts/Guardians dps, especially in PvP. Marauders/Sentinels get a healing debuff, a sort vanish and stealth, a health regeneration and finally a major dps increase, whereas Juggs/Guardians only have an extra charge to their allies, a temporary increase of health and a defensive cooldown. I hope my suggestion would mostly instigate of a more all around abilities, with more mobility and versability. DPS rotations are mostly fine and with the changes in AoE heals I'm mostly happy with the healer experiences so far.

1.3 would launch sooner than what we expected?!

Every Friday is a Community Q&A where SWTOR’s Devs answer to some questions from the community. I was thinking covering the Q&A and give my 2 pennies for each answer but instead, I decided to write about something that was caught in my attention. The signs are showing that 1.3 would launch sooner that we expected!

What are my clues? Here they are:

Lovarboy: Will we get dual spec with Game Update 1.3?

Daniel: Unfortunately, no. Game Update 1.3 is being kept a bit leaner to get the Group Finder and the next stage of Legacy in the game as fast as possible. After that we’ll be returning to some bigger updates and we’re hoping dual spec makes it for the next one.

The above answer along with the sudden pull of rated warzones makes me to believe that they did it, not because the system was broken but because launching server-only rated PvP would just be pointless. Groups would fight the same opponents all the time and there would be no point on the rating system. I believe that they decided to leave it rest for a while and when they will have the cross server queuing perfected, they will launch it. The other side of the coin is the server transfers. Right now, they don't have the technology to pull it out, to copy a character and transfer it to another server. If you remember, during 1.2 PTS, they were copying the level characters manually. So, they want to solve the cross-server problem once and for all.

Another of their big announcements for 1.3 is the group finder. I know that they said it would be server specific but don't say lies to ourselves. When they'll have the technology to do cross-server PvP, cross-server flashpoints would be followed. I don't know what they are going to do with the leveling PvP though. They should either allow a cross-server queue where they'll have brackets or they'll stick with the already existed, bolster system.

So, I won't be surprised if 1.3 is similar to 1.1. They would might add Nightmare Mode for Explosive Conflict and that's it for PvE. Unless they pull some more bosses to the Operation, but I find it very unlikely. I expect the next tier to be launch probably around the end of summer.

That's it for now. I'm thinking about doing a revamp of what we already know about 1.3, so if you are interested, stay tuned!

Juggernaut Vengeance Spec, Abilities Breakdown

After spending my time playing Rage PvP, I decided to try WZ as Vengeance. My spec is 3/31/7, I don’t really know if it’s the best but as I was in a rush to kill some reps I decided to go with this anyway.

My server is quite dead and I had a long queue so I decided to try the PvP dummy. My PvP gear is quite lame, mostly of Champion parts and not customized, with low critical and surge rating. That means that my dps was quite low but when I used my parser to analyze my damage, I got some really interesting results.

FORCE SCREAM, IMPALE, SHATTER. WHICH IS THE STRONGEST?

As you can see, the order is Force Scream>Impale>Ravage>Shatter from higher to lower. Bad thing with the parsers right now, is that all 3 bleeding dots that are results of Force Scream, Impale and Shatter have the same name but different ability ID. That means that they are measured differently but cannot say which one is which. Looking through the talents I know that all three abilities have a 9sec CD and that Shatter has the strongest dot. So I would say that Bleeding #3 is Shatter, Bleeding #1 is Impale and Bleeding #2 is Force Scream.

That means that the order changes to Shatter>Ravage>Impale>Force Scream.  I already use Shatter and Impale first, to get a standard critical Force Scream and I use Ravage on CD. Ravage is 3 sec casting ability but the 2/3 of its damage is done at the first 1.5sec of its duration with the final blow landed at the end.

I’ll play my Juggernaut more this week, I’ll try new builds and I would try to gear up a little. So expect more details and more abilities breakdowns in near future.

Suggestions for SWTOR future, Personalisation of Class Abilities

With the introduction of 1.2 I believe Bioware made a step to the right direction. They seem to listen to their customers and try their best to implant new ideas and tools for them.
As a player myself, I decided to think about the state of the game and I believe that some changes as well as some new addition would make this game a more fun and interesting experience. I'm really really enjoying the game and I'm seeing myself playing it for years from now.


From now on, and time to time, I would post some of my suggestions. I have already mailed them to Bioware but I wanted to share it with the rest of you. Today, I would talk about THE PERSONALISATION OF CLASS ABILITIES.

Right now, you can’t adjust the game spec and skill tree to your own personal test. Most of the time there’s only one BEST spec to play. Most of the abilities are no brainers and for me at least, there was not a single moment of hesitation to which skill to use for my built.

I know that most people want to tune their class to their personal taste. For PvP for example, there are people that play a Jedi Guardian and want more stuns in the game. There are others that prefer more slowing effects, others that want big bursts and finally some would want a more all-around spec. Right now, there’s no way to do that and it’s something that’s missing in my opinion.

So, why don’t implant the Mass Effect’s power system? Every 5 level, give players a power point and let him put it to one of his abilities. Each of his abilities has 3 stages. Enhanced, Empowered, Devastating. Every time he put a point to an ability, that ability gets an improved effect and finally when he has put all 3, he could choose between two evolved abilities.

Let’s take for example, Jedi Knights Force Stasis. If he puts a point to Force Stasis, the Force Stasis will increase the damage done by 10% and has 33% chance to slow the enemy by 50% of his normal speed for 3sec. A second point would increase the damage done by 20% and has 66% chance to slow the enemy by 50% of his normal speed for 3sec. The third point would increase the damage done by 30% and has 100% chance to slow the enemy by 50% of his normal speed for 3sec. Plus, at the Devastating stage, the player would be able to choose between two forms of Force Stasis.

a) Connection with the Force. Force Stasis becomes an instant ability.

b) Force Barrier. While you channel Force Stasis you become immune to all effects and attacks.

Another example could be Force Push. Level 1 to 3 would increase the damage dealt by Push and at Level 3, the players would be able to choose between two different versions.

a) Force Slam. The Force Push is so strong that throws the enemy on the air and then slams them on the ground for 2sec

b) Force Shockwave. All enemies in a front cone are pushed.

A final example could be the Mercenary’s Power Shield. Level 1 to 3 could increase the duration and the shielding percentage. Devastating Power Shield could have those two choices.

a) Omni-Shield. Reduces the heat cost of all your abilities by 50% and increase alacrity by 30%

b) Multi-Shield. When you activate Power Shield all of your healing abilities would place a shield on affected target.

Try to give both final abilities a PvE and PvE usage. Also, each one must be something different and tempting, so good to be needed from the players and would frustrate them to be able only to choose one. That way, no best-builds, no butter cutter would be made and each player would build his spec based on his personal playstyle.

That's for now, I'm looking forward for your suggestions and opinions.

Sith Juggernaut Rage Spec Burst DPS Guide/Tutorial

After spending some time with my family and friends, I'm back in game and I'm pushing myself through the 1.2 content. With the introduction of dummies, I decided to make a video guide about jugg's rage spec burst damage. Through the next days, my old guides would be updated and new ones would be posted. Also expect more and more videos on youtube so, I recommend you to subscribe in my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kingofkalamos/

Hope you'll like the guide and I'm looking forward for your thoughts and comments