Darth Hater

In most modern MMORPGs, it is the dedicated PvP population that usually identifies most glaring class imbalances, and The Old Republic is no exception. What sets Star Wars: The Old Republic apart is that the imbalances that our friendly neighborhood PvPers have shone a spotlight on are structural problems that apply to every facet of the combat system, not just a few specific abilities. Join me after the jump as we cover the basics of TOR’s combat system and discuss how that combat system presently gives certain classes an advantage.

The Basics

Combat in the Old Republic is pretty standard for veterans of RPG type games: a player selects an attack, the random number generator (RNG) rolls for a hit, then rolls for a critical hit, then rolls for damage and some of that damage will be mitigated by the target’s armor. This basic premise works very well, since the majority of attacks from every class deal either Kinetic or Energy damage—types that armor directly mitigates to the target. Remember that mitigation percentage you see when you look at your character sheet? That is how much Energy and Kinetic damage will be mitigated automatically. In addition to the “basic” damage types, there are two other damage variants that are much harder to mitigate, but at the same time make up far less of the damage output of most classes: Elemental and Internal. These two damage categories are mitigated, however because basic armor does not raise Internal or Elemental mitigation, players who rely on those damage types, such as the Dirty Fighting or Lethality skill trees for the Smuggler and the Imperial Agent, have an easier time dealing with heavily armored targets.

All in all the nuts and bolts of the damage types are quite sound. Unfortunately, the way combat ratings and attack types are set up is a very different story.

Combat Ratings

Before we deal with the elephant in the room of attack types, we first need to define and explain some of the combat ratings that play into the situation. We will be dealing primarily with Absorption, Accuracy, Critical Rating, Defense Rating and Shield Rating in this discussion. I realize that this is not all of the combat ratings that are available in SWTOR, but Alacrity, Power and Surge Rating do not have a major role in the structural issue that is at play here, and as such will not be dealt with right now.

Shield Rating

In most MMOs, there is a defensive stat that gives a player a percentage chance to mitigate a good chunk of damage, beyond their base armor rating. In TOR, that stat is Shield Rating. The base chance to shield an attack for a defensive player is 20 percent, 5 percent from their shield and 15 percent from their defensive stance. Shield chance directly opposes Critical chance, such that if the attacking player has a high enough critical hit percentage, and the defender has a high enough shield chance, the chance for a “normal” hit can potentially be reduced to zero.

Absorption Rating

Absorption Rating is a supporting stat that pairs with Shield Rating, increasing the amount of damage reduced by a successful shield. The base absorption amount is 20 percent, but with enough stacking players can potentially get into the mid to high 30 percent range or even higher. Considering that the base mitigation for most endgame tanks is in the 40-50 percent range (may be slightly higher or lower depending on the level of gearing and which tank AC the player is) you can see where these additive mitigation bonuses start to become quite impressive.

Critical Rating

Critical Rating is the offensive stat that directly opposes Shield and Absorb Rating. This combat rating both increases the player’s chance to achieve a critical hit, but with a high enough percentage can potentially overrule a target’s shield chance. Confused? Here is an example (note: we are using fictional numbers here to illustrate a point. The odds of this scenario actually happening in the game are extremely remote, but it does exist).

A Sniper takes a shot at a Vanguard. The Sniper has a critical hit chance of 55 percent, while the Vanguard has a shield chance of 50 percent. Because the critical chance will override the shield chance, the Vanguard would only have a 45 percent chance to shield against the attack.

Defense Rating

Defense Rating does one thing and one thing only: increases a player’s chance to avoid an attack. Preferred more by the Juggernaut and Guardian ACs, but still very useful to all Tanks, Defense Rating is directly opposed by Accuracy.

Accuracy Rating

As the name implies, Accuracy increases the chance for all of a player’s abilities to hit a target. The base accuracy for a player’s basic attack is 90 percent, and 100 percent for their other attacks. Once a player begins to stack Accuracy over 100 percent however, they begin to override their target’s Defense by a commensurate amount. For example, if a player has 105 percent accuracy, their target’s Defense chance is reduced by 5 percent.

The Big Problem: Tech and Force attacks

Now that we have the definitions out of the way, it is time to get to the crux of the issue: attack types. All of the defensive oriented combat ratings we have just defined—Absorb, Shield and Defense Ratings—will only function against Melee and Ranged attacks. Unfortunately, there are two other attack types, Force and Tech, which completely bypass everything except Armor mitigation. What is worse, several Advanced Classes, most notoriously the Commando/Mercenary, Sorcerer/Sage and Scoundrel/Operative ACs, rely almost entirely on Force and Tech based attacks. These Advanced Classes completely bypass defenses with the vast majority of their attacks.

I personally believe it is a fundamental flaw in the combat design of the game, and until changed both PvP and PvE aspects of the game will suffer. In PvP, if BioWare tones down the offensive capability of Tech and Force heavy ACs, it would both unfairly punish those classes but at the same time potentially relegate them to the status currently occupied by Scoundrels and Operatives. However, increasing the defensive capabilities for tanks, or anyone else, would give some classes—most notably Marauders/Sentinels, Snipers/Gunslingers and DPS Juggernauts/Guardians—that already struggle against defensive-oriented targets even bigger fits.

In PvE, the same problems would create different symptoms. If Flashpoint and Operations designers consciously create content to thwart Tech and Force based attacks, then groups will gravitate towards stacking the deck with those very characters, since Melee and Ranged attack based characters are going to be at an even greater disadvantage. At the same time, tanks and healers could face unreasonably scaled encounters, especially if designers decide to give a boss or two a repertoire of nothing but Force or Tech attacks.

The Solution

The answer to all of these problems is simple and obvious: change Force and Tech attacks to not bypass Defense and Shield Ratings. Once BioWare makes that change they can sit back for a while, collect their metrics on damage output, mitigation and healing totals in both PvE and PvP. With that information in hand the team can confidently make necessary adjustments to classes based on a level playing field, and not have to worry about an extra set of variables that gives a massive advantage to certain attack types. Until that occurs, however, the combat system in the Old Republic will be unbalanced.

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For in depth information about combat mechanics and theorycrafting, check out the following two threads on the official forums

Tanking: A Primer

Understanding the Defense and Shield Mechanics for Tanks in PVP