Lead Designer Michael Backus, posted a lengthy forum post that details the companion balance changes they plan to do based on . Check it out: 463u45
Companion Balance Changes | 11.23.2015, 05:28 PM
Hello, everyone.
My name is Michael Backus, and I’m the fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic and our customers, we cherish your and value all of you, and I feel you deserve to hear this information directly.
I would like to go over why the changes were made, what we’ve learned, and what’s going to happen going forward. There’s a short summary at the bottom if you want to skip the Why’s and get to the What’s.
Why the changes were made
Combat balance is a tricky thing. So many factors contribute to the question of, is this too easy or too hard–ability rotations, number of enemies and their abilities, player play style, player skill level, player class choice, Companion role, and even how well your possible hit those goals. We posted our goals with different content types recently, here.
The one thing that was obvious was that Companions were overpowered in 4.0. We came to this conclusion, not only from come back and collect your loot. We want combat to be engaging, to be fun. We want combat to be something, since you do it for so many hours, that can challenge you. If it’s too easy, we risk players not being engaged and getting bored. If it’s too hard, we risk players leaving and not even trying certain content anymore.
So, in 4.0.2 we toned down Companion power significantly to be in line with our stated goals. And that’s where the problem occurred.
What we didn’t realize was how with playing differently than we had expected. I’ll give you an example.
Emergent Gameplay
[Heroic 2]s. gear for your level and didn’t think of yourself as that skilled, you’d probably find a friend to you so you could both reap the rewards together.
With Companions being the power level they were, “everyone” began enjoying them. And that was the point that we hadn’t realized. By reducing Companion power, we took that away from a lot of you. You could still engage in [Heroic 2]s and beat them, but they had become arduous, even grindy to many players.
Our misstep was in not realizing that our goals we had set no longer fit with the game all of you were enjoying. The emergent gameplay that was created didn’t fit what we had embraced as our mandate within the Design Team.
Going Forward
So, what does that changes coming in tomorrow’s patch, below. And I assure you, we will continue to carefully watch how content is being enjoyed and adapt as necessary.
- level and character level will determine exact amount.)
- Companion damage has been increased by roughly 15%. (Influence level and character level will determine exact amount.)
- Companion base stats have been increased by about 15%. (Influence level and character level will determine exact amount.)
Specifics
- Companion channel heal power increased by 61%
- Companion single target heal power increased by 42%
- Companion single target heal over time power increased by 43%
- Companion base stats increased by 15%
Star Fortresses
Which balance Star Fortresses independently of Companion power, but still make it challenging without making it impossible for many players.
So, in conclusion, or the tl;dr for the internet savvy:
- We will be increasing Companion power. It will not be as powerful as before, but the changes will be significant.
- Heroic Star Fortresses will get a new moniker to denote that it’s a different type of challenge. And we will balance Star Fortresses independently of both Companion power and [Heroic 2]s to ensure they are tuned appropriately.
Thank you for reading and we look forward to more of your as these May the Force be with you,
Michael Backus
Lead Designer
