SWG Tales

I got a little creative with my character the other night at like 2 am on my last respec ever (this month).

I had skill points all over the place in seemingly unrelated professions and skill trees...all in an effort to boost my acc and defense stats.

My speed with a rifle suffered as a result, but I knew that would happen and was prepared for it. I was less concerned with speed, and more with damage per shot. Riflemen rely on hard hitting specials, not the ability to fire weak shots quickly, so it seemed a good trade.

After all was said and done, I had my ranged acc (while holding a rifle) to be 288 without any kind of buff or skill attachment. My CL had dropped to 70, but I thought I would still be ok. I mean, 2800 ham is still pretty good right?

Wrong. I came across a few level 80 spawns literally right after my changes had become permanent. I was still doing the same amount of damage per shot as I was before the change, and I still seemed to be cooling down about the same (I didn't time it, but there wasn't a noticable change, even though my speed had dropped significantly).

Only difference was that I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. When I was Mrifle and MBH, I couldn't miss. But Seriously, I don't think I could find my ass with both hands with that template. I checked my combat logs and found that on your standard level 80 mob, I missed nearly 1/3rd of the time. Leading me to believe that there is a dodge modifier associated with combat level. I haven't read anything to support it, but its the only thing I can think of. The difference between your combat level and your opponent must translate into some kind of "to dodge" modifier for the npc. I don't know if it works the other way, as I didn't look to see how often they missed me. Anyone else notice this kind of stuff?

Good stuff Krussh and it makes me wonder.

In may respects I consider this combat revamp the "WoW revamp" because the combat systems are almost identical now. Everything from the graphic icons to the cooldown down mimic the World of Warcraft combat system. Most of all the new combat ratings for players mimics the level of characters vs. enemies in WoW.

Now with that in mind if, for example, you are a level 40 character in WoW and you go up against a level 50 enemy the biggest, most noticable trait is how often you will miss and how often the enemy will either dodge, parry or resist your attacks/spells.

All of this leads me to believe you are right. It seems combat levels translate into "This enemy is more skilled in combat than you are therefore you won't be able to beat it in a fight." Realistically that doesn't make sense but what can ya do? Its all a game and games need mechanics.

I think it was just you were rifleman. Were you master rifleman? I have a friend who's been grinding up for master, and at 4444 rifleman, he misses about a third of the time he shoots at mobs, and these mobs are all his level.

My initial template was master rifleman, master bounty hunter.

And I didn't miss. There was the occasional off shot when trying to use an attack that caused a state change (as I think there is an acc penalty for a lot of those shots), but my critical and head shots (my 2 big damage attacks) very very very rarely missed when I was CL 80.

The same held true for when I dropped down to CL 70, but literally, only against mobs of my caliber.

I think it was just you were rifleman. Were you master rifleman? I have a friend who's been grinding up for master, and at 4444 rifleman, he misses about a third of the time he shoots at mobs, and these mobs are all his level.

I was a Master Rifleman long before I mastered any other profession, and even at my lowest CL level (60 something), I'd rarely ever miss with my rifle.

Everyone missinterpreted me. I was refering to the miss rates for NONE master riflemen. Master seems to always hit, but from what I've seen none masters can't hit the broadside of a barn save for about a fourth of the time. So basically, I was asking if he was still a master rifleman or just had some trees in it.

Rebecca Taash. CL: 69
Capable of taking out jedi bounties of up to 170k solo.
Unable to take on level 71 MOBs without extreme difficulty.

CL is completely based on pve. Except the added health.
So all in all it really depends what your trying to accomplish.
Personally I never did alot of pve anyway... and now if I do, I can always be level 80 by grouping with others. So, being level 69 is totally worth it for myself.

One of the things I am really starting to love about this game is all the diversity in playstyles.

Nyase wrote:Everyone missinterpreted me. I was refering to the miss rates for NONE master riflemen. Master seems to always hit, but from what I've seen none masters can't hit the broadside of a barn save for about a fourth of the time. So basically, I was asking if he was still a master rifleman or just had some trees in it.

Ah. After my respec, I only had 1 tree in rifles. And you are right, non masters can't hit shit.

Rebecca, does grouping with level 80 PC's actually give you adjusted health? I was under the impression that it didn't really do anything other than change your number superficially to 80.

Everyone missinterpreted me. I was refering to the miss rates for NONE master riflemen. Master seems to always hit, but from what I've seen none masters can't hit the broadside of a barn save for about a fourth of the time. So basically, I was asking if he was still a master rifleman or just had some trees in it.

Whoops, sorry about that. Yeah, you're right that a non-master can't hit jack.

Combat level is huge for pvp as well. Only in bounty hunting could i possibly see it not mattering. Your level effects the amount your damage modifier does to the other. If they are a lower level than you it does higher than normal and if they are higher than you it does lower than normal. Therefore not only do you have less health at below level 80, but you do less damage as well.

DuoXDuoX wrote:Combat level is huge for pvp as well. Only in bounty hunting could i possibly see it not mattering. Your level effects the amount your damage modifier does to the other. If they are a lower level than you it does higher than normal and if they are higher than you it does lower than normal. Therefore not only do you have less health at below level 80, but you do less damage as well.

Is that written down anywhere from a dev? That would make sense, but I am not seeing a noticable difference in damage output between level 70 and 80. Does the modifier only apply to PvP or to PvE as well? I have jack in PvP experience, so I don't know.

I haven't been in PvP for quite some time but I was almost positive that the Dev's said that it would not have an impact on PvP and only in PvE. I may look on SOE later and see if I can find where I read that.

if I remember right, I THINK it was a 10% scale..

say you are lvl 70, and the enemy is lvl 75...each level you are below means you deal out 10% less damage and take 10% more damage

in this case you would deal 50% less and take 50% more

Well, here's what I don't like about the cmbt lvl thing...

There seems to be a huge gap between lvl 15-54 players as far as group mobs/ missions/ weapons go. Going with a new character with no help... it's generally easy to grind out lvl 5 ((as a marksman)) and just max out skills before lvling across the board. With brawler, and really to a degree, at all lower levels... the con system seems a little broken till we get up to about level 20... then it appears to work fine. On weapons... there is a big gap between available lvl weapons for newer players that makes it a bit more tuff than it should be.

Additionally... if you switch from your elite masteries and try to grind out a new profession... you almost 'have' to take lvl 80's to get xp... but your fighting at lvl 1 for the 'new' xp which makes it much more difficult. Just a few holes in the system I see so far.

Of course, grouping eliminates most of this... but to those newer gamers that go out to solo for the first time may wind up with some very bad experiences. I've had to nursemaid my brother, Vespasian, back into the game a little. Had I not though... it's clear the unbalanced con system would've already chased him off again. Patience is key... and hopefully they are looking at a few of these issues.