In Case You Forgot, What Is Changing In Patch 2.7

Besides all that “new content” and “flashpoint” tomfoolery, here’s what is happening in Patch 2.7 (important according to me.)

Quality of Life Changes To Reduce reliance on RNG

These affect both DPS specs of sorc/sage and the arsenal/gunnery tree of merc/commando

Sorcerer

Lightning

Lightning Barrage now has a 50%/100% chance to grant a Lightning Barrage charge when using Lightning Strike on a target affected by the user’s Affliction. A Lightning Barrage charge causes the user’s next Force Lightning to channel and damage twice as fast.

The chance to trigger Lightning Storm is now 100% (up from 60% for Lightning Strike and Thundering Blast and 20% for Force Storm) and is based on ability activation rather than dealing damage with Lightning Strike, Thundering Blast, or Force Storm. The 10-second rate limit remains, and Force Storm now shares a rate limit with Lightning Strike and Thundering Blast.

Madness

Wrath now builds up a charge whenever the Sorcerer deals damage with Force Lightning. At 3 charges, the next Lightning Strike or Crushing Darkness is activated instantly and deals 35% more damage.

Mercenary

Arsenal

Barrage now has a 33%/67%/100% chance to occur when using Tracer Missile or Power Shot.

RNG = fail.

Aoe targeting changes

New options are available for the Ground Target Area of Effect reticle:

Sticky Ground Target Reticule – When active, this option makes it so your Ground Target Reticule doesn’t disappear if the target location is out of range or the ability otherwise fails. Example: Bounty Hunter attempts to activate Death From Above, but their target location is out of range. With this option active, the GTAoE reticule will persist and allow the player to instantly attempt to use the ability again. If this option isn’t active, then the reticule will disappear and the player will have to click again.

Quick Ground Target Activation – When active, pressing a hotkey that belongs to a GTAoE twice will use the ability at the feet of the Player’s target. Example: The Player has the Pass the Huttball ability saved to Hotkey #3. The Player targets an ally and then presses 3 two times. The Huttball Pass will be activated at the feet of the targeted ally. If this option is turned off, then there are no changes to the existing behavior.

This one will be awesome for healers and dps alike – including, once again, sorcs and sages. Sorcs/sages really win this patch.

Standardized labeling for item levels.

All equippable gear pieces have their Item Rating displayed in the tooltip. Weapons and armor have not changed.

In the equipment tooltips, mods/enhancements now display their Item Rating in parentheses instead of their Item Level.

While unequipped, mods/enhancements display their Item Rating in their tooltip.

About. Freaking. Time.

Operative Changes

TL;DR Arguably buffs for PvE, definite nerfs for PvP.

Exfiltrate has been redesigned. Using Exfiltrate grants a charge lasting 10 seconds that allows the player to Exfiltrate again within a 10 second window, after the second roll the ability goes on a ten second cooldown. If the charge is not used during this ten second window the ability remains off cooldown to be used again at a later time. In addition the energy cost has been removed making the ability free to use and the player no longer Exfiltrates a shorter distance if snared.

This prevents “chain rolling” but is actually a boon in PvE as it allows you to get out of the bad without using up your energy pool.

Surgical Precision now grants Tactical Advantage when Surgical Probe is used regardless of the target’s health, but this effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.

No more spamming your instant on low health group members to keep them alive, but an overall throughput boost during the course of the fight.

Agent/Smuggler Flashbang Changes

Nerfed for Snipers/Gunslingers, Stays same for Operatives/Scoundrels. The baseline is reduced to one target for agent/smuggler, and then bumped back up to 5 targets in the operative/scoundrel advanced class.

Imperial Agent

General

Flashbang now only blinds a single target.

Operative

Preparedness now allows Flashbang to blind up to 5 targets within 5 meters.

Yep… a little confusing, but it ends up as a sniper/slinger nerf. Probably also a PvP motivated change.

What are you excited about (or hate) for Patch 2.7?

Comments

In Case You Forgot, What Is Changing In Patch 2.7 — 9 Comments

Sean on April 8, 2014 at 2:25 pm said:

The Sticky Ground Target reticle, if it lets you place the reticle while the power’s on cooldown, will be a very welcome QoL improvement. It’s not an issue for Force Quake or Lightning Storm, which have been the ‘I forgot where I was in my rotation; screw it, blast _everyone_ while I figure out what I’m doing’ power for my Sage and Sorceror, but for classes that have longer recharges on their AoE — the Commando Grenade Volley, for example — I typically find myself closing with an oblivious spawn while it’s on cooldown, and then having to wait for it to cycle before I can even _start_ looking at where I need to place the reticle for maximum effect.

Quick Ground Target Activation would have been _enormously helpful in a KDY flashpoint I ran yesterday, where my Commando (Gunnery spec) wound up bumped to primary healer on a four-DPS team for going up against the stage elites and the hacked security droid endboss. Not having to separately place Kolto Grenades while I’m targeting the Sentinel playing tank with my Hammer Shot heal would have let me spread the healing better.

I need to play with Force Sweep/Smash in its new version before I decide whether it’s actually a nerf; being able to place the center of an AoE offset from mobs to better catch a scattered group in the AoE has always been a key to better DPS output, as well as mitigation when you get knockdown or the todtentanz of Sith lightning AoEs.

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- Njessi on April 8, 2014 at 2:35 pm said:
  
  I would consider the change to force sweep as an “annoyance” for PvE. It doesn’t really rise to the level of a nerf but it will be an enormous pain in the ass for groups. The one you targeted will inevitably be the one to die first, and then you’ll be getting the “you have no target” red letter spam whilst your ranged buddies are gleefully placing their lightning and whatnot wherever their little hearts desire.
  
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  - Sean on April 9, 2014 at 12:00 pm said:
    
    After playing with this one, I have to agree that it’s an annoyance, particularly because the attack is functionally a PBAoE (point blank AoE); if it’s centered on the character, why should it need a target? To keep people from being a jerk by spamming it on the fleet? Sorcs, Sages, Troopers, and BHs all have Ground Target AoEs with the potential to be equally spammy in crowds, but none of them had a primary-target requirement added. If the attack is supposed to be an AoE centered around your _target_, then that breaks the animation and the concept of the power — up to five targets within five meters of your target, who can be up to five meters from you, so with your lightsaber in your hand, you’re whaling on mobs that can be ten meters away from you, rather than five targets around you who are within five meters of you.
    
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Traitine on April 8, 2014 at 7:22 pm said:

I’m looking forward to Pike buffs, and Gunship nerfs! PvP terminals in every warzone, and candy for all the children of the galaxy!

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mooftak on April 9, 2014 at 7:56 am said:

Well, the new fps emp side were well received by my friends and I. Hoping to hit 55 this weekend on my commando (52) so I can check out the fps rep side. The most interesting thing I’ve noticed is that apparently I’m the only person/one of 2 or 3 in my guild that pays attention to patch notes and news in general. My merc guildie did enjoy the changes to gunnery/whatever. My operative healer buddy didn’t even notice changes, but he’s not real observant. The sorc I ran with was positive about the lightning changes after I pointed them out. Overall, it’s like changes in general. Some may irk you but you’ll learn to live anyways. Looking forward to your overall impressions.

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- mooftak on April 9, 2014 at 8:06 am said:
  
  One thing that irked me in guild chat, I can share here since they don’t read things on the game, thanks for the outlet, is people complaining about skill tree resets. Come on people. Talents changed and you need to re-verify what you want because what you had is no longer valid. It’s not a hard concept.
  
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  - Njessi on April 9, 2014 at 11:32 am said:
    
    Agreed. Having said that, nobody around here has ever queued for something and then discovered the complete lack of spent skill points (shifty eyes).
    
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    - Sean on April 9, 2014 at 12:08 pm said:
      
      I have to admit that the pulsing of the ‘skill tree’ icon isn’t that obtrusive, but I would expect that having to click ‘OK’ on a pop-up window telling you that your skills were reset and the skill points refunded would clue a player in that they would want to review the characters skill point allocation before engaging in combat. Perhaps a minor UI change that would make the ‘skill tree’ icon flash red and more brightly after a skill reset would draw people’s attention to the fact that their character isn’t how they left them.
      
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      - Njessi on April 10, 2014 at 10:19 am said:
        
        Actually it did give me a popup with an “ok” last night. But it comes up just like the guild MOTD when you login and without thinking I was like “yeah yeah ok.”