Quote Hey folks,



Below you will find the upcoming changes for Engineering and Saboteur coming in Game Update 5.3.



Quote: Note: All changes below are currently in development and are subject to change before being released.



Sniper

Engineering Reduced the damage of Plasma Probe by approximately 10% and reduced the effectiveness of its slowing effect to 50% (down from 70%)

Reduced Cluster Bombs given by Imperial Methodology from 2 to 1

Increased energy generation on exploding Cluster Bombs given by Imperial Methodology from 5 to 6

Reduced Electrified Railgun damage by 20%

Added Takedown to Electrified Blast, yielding an Electrified Railgun stack from using Takedown

Gunslinger

Saboteur Reduced the damage of Incendiary Grenade by approximately 10% and reduced the effectiveness of its slowing effect to 50% (down from 70%)

Reduced Contingency Charges given by Insurrection from 2 to 1

Increased energy generation on exploding Contingency Charges given by Insurrection from 5 to 6

Reduced Blazing Speed damage by 20%

Added Quickdraw to Hot Shot, yielding a Blazing Speed stack from using Quickdraw

DevNotes: To bring the Engineering / Saboteur discipline down to its DPS target, we made several changes. We changed skills that affect Cluster Bombs / Contingency Charges to both reduce damage output and overall energy regeneration slightly, because we found Engineering / Saboteur was swimming in too much energy and dealing more damage than intended. But those changes weren’t enough to bring them all the way down to their DPS target, so we also reduced the damage dealt by Electrified Railgun / Blazing Speed and Plasma Probe / Incendiary Grenade to finish the job.



We didn’t like that Engineering / Saboteur players might sometimes need to choose between using Takedown / Quickdraw to deal damage or Snipe and Fragmentation Grenade / Charged Burst and Thermal Grenade to keep Electrified Railgun / Blazing Speed rolling on their target, so we added Takedown / Quickdraw to the list of abilities that can apply and refresh Electrified Railgun / Blazing Speed.



There are also two more changes we’ve made not related to damage that affect Engineering Snipers / Saboteur Gunslingers. The first is shown in the notes above, where we reduced the effectiveness of Plasma Probe’s / Incendiary Grenade’s slowing effect because it now has an 8 meter radius (up from 5 meters prior to 5.0). We gave it a larger radius in 5.0 because it deals its damage over time, making it easier to avoid than other area of effect attacks like Death Field / Force in Balance and Smash / Force Sweep which deal their damage instantly and only have 5 meter radii. But with the new, larger radius for Plasma Probe / Incendiary Grenade, the old 70% slow turned out to be too strong, so we are toning it down in the 5.3 update.



The second change isn’t listed in the notes above because it isn’t a change specific to Engineering / Saboteur. It’s not even a change that has any effect on PvE. For a very long time now, single-target damage over time effects have not interrupted characters from capturing PvP objectives, largely because if they did it would make capturing PvP objectives extremely difficult (nigh impossible, some might say). But until now, that hasn’t prevented all of the area of effect damage over time abilities in the game from interrupting a character who is trying to capture a PvP objective. In 5.3, this will be changing: all AoE DoT abilities, including Plasma Probe / Incendiary Grenade, will be joining Toxic Haze / Bushwhack as abilities that do not interrupt a character who is in the process of capturing a PvP objective.



This change is intended to make it easier for attacking teams to capture PvP objectives and reduce the frequency of stalemates in certain PvP Warzones. It is a small change, and it affects few abilities. For example, abilities like Death from Above / Mortar Volley and Suppressive Fire / Sweeping Gunfire which require a character to actively maintain a channel and are not considered “damage over time” effects in SWTOR will still interrupt an enemy character who is trying to capture a PvP objective.



Eric Musco | Community Manager

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