Now that I have heroicly won the position of Medic Senator by default, I would like to seek the input of the greater medic community regarding what changes we would like to see to our profession. Here I list, in descending order of priority, my personal thoughts as to what changes we should seek first based on my perception of how much I think the medic community desires them or will benefit from them & compared against projected ease of implementation. In the spirit of reclaim-what-we-had-before-adding-new-stuff, the first several items on this list are changes that SOE also made following GU16.
1.
DOOM! - "Increased Doom chance to 20%." (
Game Update 20)
Seems fairly self explanatory. This is a doubling from the current value of 10% DOOM! chance. Who doesn't need more DOOM! in their lives??
2.
Reckless Stimulation - "Reckless Stimulation now recovers more action and drains less health."(
GU20)
Unfortunately, the actual values of the action heal & health costs of the new Reckless Stimulation were not featured in the patch notes. My hope is that somebody has record of what the values were following GU20, which can be used for easily fixing it in this iteration of our game. If anyone knows whereabouts these values can be found (in addition to numerous other action cost values changed in that same update) I would greatly appreciate your sharing. If no record can be found, I would like to seek community input regarding the new values.
3.
Damage Decrease - "Damage reduction effects should now consistently be calculated after damage increase effects. (
Hotfix 19.5)
As it works currently, damage decrease applies additively in opposition to damage increase in accordance with the formula:
[unmodified damage] * (1 + damage increaese] - [damage decrease]) = [actual damage]
For example: if a dirty, filthy smuggler has stacked 60% pistol damage increase & you have stuck him with Thyroid Rupture (25% damage decrease) their damage against you will equate as:
x * (1 + 0.60 - 0.25) = 1.35x, where x = [unmodified damage]
However, following Hotfix 19.5 the equation was reorganized so that damage increase & decrease apply multiplicatively as such:
[unmodified damage] * (1 + damage increaese]) * (1 - [damage decrease]) = [actual damage]
Using the scenario with the same unscrupulous scoundrel mentioned above, damage would be calculated under the new formula as:
x * (1 + 0.60) * (1 - 0.25) = 1.2x, where x = [unmodified damage]
Notice that the new formula results in less damage taken, meaning increased utility of Thyroid Rupture & Flurry (not Jedi Flurry, did you know Medic's can have a Flurry attack too??).
4.
Bacta Grenade - I haven't found in the patch notes when Bacta Grenade was fixed. It may have been omitted from the patch notes, as I think that this also occurred during GU20 (but if you find it in the patch notes let me know). Regardless of when this occurred, I am certain that Bacta Grenade was eventually disconnected from Bacta Ampule. Currently, Bacta Grenade is widely considered useless because it puts Bacta Ampule & Bacta Spray on cooldown in addition to itself. It is the only heal that triggers cooldown on two other abilities. Bacta Grenade has a lower Heal/Action Cost than does Bacta Spray (even if considering only a single target) & has a lower Heal/second than Bacta Ampule. So currently there isn't any situation that makes Bacta Grenade preferable to both of its competitors at the same time. Once unlinked from Bacta Spray, Bacta Grenade became situationally appropriate when damage is focused on one target rather than spread out more across a group. Even then, it seemed to be considered a bit lack luster. I would like the community's input on what else, if anything, should be changed about Bacta Grenade. I would be satisfied with an increase to its base heal value, but would like to read if anyone has more creative ideas.
5.
Innate Armor - "Enhanced Armor moved to tier 3 and is now linked to Increased Armor. Unlinked all Medic buffs from the Field Survival Tree. Energy Armor and Kinetic Armor changed to innate armor." (
GU20)
Our uncreatively named expertise boxes, Kinetic Armor & Energy Armor, each grant +300 Innate Armor (all protections) & +600 of either Energy or Kinetic protection. As of GU20 these were both changed to be just +900 Innate Armor & the boxes were renamed to the equally uncreative Increased Armor & Enhnaced Armor. These boxes were linked together, but became unlinked from the group buff abilities. This provided a net gain in all armor protections.
6.
Drag Corpse - "The Drag Corpse ability has been removed from the Expertise tree. Drag Corpse is now available on the profession wheel at level 10." (
Hotfix 20.1)
Pretty self-exaplanatory. Drag Corpse is a convenient ability, to be sure, but I usually refuse to waste a precious expertise point on it.
7.
Swift Heal - The Swift Heal skill will now work on Bacta Ampule and Bacta Grenade. (
Hotfix 19.15)
Also self-explanatory. Not a big deal currently because Bacta Ampule has such a short cooldown & high action cost anyway & Bacta Grenade is dumb until an above-mentioned fix is made, but still, it would be nice to have this working properly. I haven't actually tested Bacta Grenade in our current game to make sure that it cannot swift heal, but circa GU16 on SOE's servers it was broken. However, I do know first hand that Bacta Ampule does not swift heal properly.
Now let's get more open-ended. The following areas of concern may have been slightly tweaked by SOE but were never rectified to the satisfaction of the player base. Although I am listing them numbered separately, keep in mind that these areas have interlocking parts, & they all somewhat relate to speccing medic for damage. I realize that likely won't ever be a super popular thing to do, but I personally feel as though the changes mentioned above made medic plenty formidable on the healing front. What I write below is my analysis of certain underappreciated features of the medic profession to provide background on their current state to the many medics that have never used them & my thoughts on bringing life to those features. This is just me spit-balling. I try to be detailed, but don't think that means anything is set in stone. If anyone thinks a different approach would be more fitting, I would like to read it. Keep in mind when critiquing these ideas that the goal is to increase diversity in medic setups, NOT TO MAKE MEDIC OVERPOWERED. Also keep in mind that these are more involved changes & new territory that SOE hasn't touched; as such these will (presumably) require more development time & should require implementation on a test server prior to implementation on Omega.
8.
DOT/Damage Boxes - Poison Knuckle (PK), Deuterium Rounds (DR), & the in-the-way boxes leading up to them are not widely used. They're generally considered to be not worth the point-investment for a marginal damage increase. The descriptions of these are a tad misleading. They do not add a DOT application chance to your default attacks. They actually add a chance to fire a secondary attack (which is named Deuterium Rounds or Poison Knuckle in the combat log) at a rate of ~3% per default attack (5% per second) for DR (using carbine) & 5% per default attack (5% per second) for PK. This secondary attack can crit/strikethrough & can be blocked/glanced. Based on my testing, if the initial default attack is missed/dodged/parried, then it does not have a chance to trigger a secondary attack. It also seems as though the secondary attacks can be missed/dodged/parried, but does not even register in the combat log if this occurs. If the secondary attack hits, it will apply the DOT. The secondary attack is ~50% of weapon damage & the DOT itself is 5-6 ticks (almost always 6), each for ~50% the damage of the secondary attack's main damage type (kinetic or energy portion) at zero armor. Crit/Gb on the secondary attack does affect the damage of the DOT. Although I haven't specifically made note of it, this presumably means that stacking weapon damage/strikethrough will also increase the DOT damage while blocking the secondary attack may decrease DOT damage. PK does NOT stack with the Neurotoxin poison DOT. SOE chanced Poison Knuckle to causing an acid DOT in GU20: "Poison Knuckle changed to an Acid DoT." I am not certain if DR stacks with any other fire DOT.
I rather fancy the idea of a medic DOT damage spec that makes use of DR or PK. It would be nice to have the DOT strength, DOT application chance, & damage from the preceding box all increased. I was thinking that Carbine Accuracy could be reduced to a 2 point investment for a 7/15% carbine damage bonus, while Melee Accuracy could be made a 2 point investment for a 10/20% melee damage increase. The secondary attack could be increased to somewhere in the range of 75-100% of default attack damage, which, I expect, should also increase the damage of the DOT itself. It would be nice if the DOTs could be made into stacking DOTs which could stack perhaps up to three times, similar to Spy's Fang. To have a chance of stacking the DOT in a semireliable fashion, I would think the chance to trigger the secondary attack should be increased to 10% chance per second at the very least. If the DOT stack were reducible by only 1-2 at a time by DOT purge abilities and could be reapplied quickly enough this could add a bit of PVP utility. I am not actually sure if Affliction Intensity & Affliction Duration on the Medic Specialization page affect this DOT as it is now, but I certainly think they ought to. I will have to test that later.
Additionally, as someone who knows what real life deuterium is, I would like to add that the name Deuterium Rounds makes no sense. I think we should rename it to Combustion Rounds (or maybe something like Phosphorus Rounds if we want to keep a more sciencey sounding name)
EDIT: I have since tested Affliction Intensity & Affliction Duration regarding DR/PK. Affliction Intensity works. Affliction Duration has no effect.
9.
Flurry/Burst - Each of these Boxes unlocks a new line of single target attacks that do a moderate amount of damage & sticks a debuff on the target. For each of these abilities the cooldown is ~8 seconds & the debuff duration approximately matches that, allowing the debuff to be reapplied as soon as they expire unless the attack misses. The prerequisite boxes for each of these are quite underwhelming, providing 5% critical hit chance. As just a start to make these more appealing, I would think they should be upped to perhaps 3/6/10% crit & 1/2/3% Strikethrough for a 1/2/3 point investment. I realize that would seem like a lot to other professions, but to a medic I think it will still be a fairly mild gain in damage.
Flurry is a melee only ability. Although Flurry can't shine the shoes of Thyroid Rupture, I do like to use it for PVE. In PVP it is much less effective because to use it one must be 4m away from the target. This is not where a medically normally likes to be because this is within the range of Dire Root, Pistol Whip, & all self-centered, targetless AOE. It's also worth noting that all 5 levels of Flurry give the same 10% damage decrease debuff. This makes it preferable to use Flurry 1 to save action when one doesn't care about dealing a small amount extra damage by using a higher level. I think it would be nifty if Flurry's damage debuff escalated by perhaps 2% per level, which would make it 18% damage reduction at Flurry 5. Additionally, I think Flurry should have a decreased chance to be dodged/parried which ascends with it's level. Perhaps -6% per level up to -30% dodge & parry chance on Flurry 5. In addition to providing incentive to use the higher level ability, this will help the debuff stick in PVP. Notice I am NOT suggesting that the debuff should be changed to include dodge/parry reduction, I just want the Flurry attack itself to hit reliably.
Burst is a more PVP oriented ability already. The debuff it applies reduces opponents crit chance by 3%, increases crit chance & strikethrough chance against them by 5% each. Just like with Flurry, this does not scale with ability level. I think it would be nice if the chr, crit vulnerability, & st vulnerability were each to increase by 1% per ability level up to 7% chr & 9% crit/st vulnerability for Burst 5. Burst itself also ought to receive a decreased chance to be parried/dodged to help the debuff stick. Burst is much less dangerous to use in PVP than is Flurry, because of that I would say it should receive only half of the dodge/parry reduction (-15% to each at Burst 5). I suspect if all of these conditions are met Burst will make an excellent companion to Paint Target.
10.
Stiker's Set - Firstly, I must confess that I have never actually owned this set or used it for my own medics. I've always though it should be viable for a non-AFK play style. Aside from making buff-bots useful, Striker's set appears to be geared towards allowing medic to work as a hybrid damage/healer class rather than purely as a healer, & could theoretically work nicely towards that end in conjuncture with the above-mentioned DOT & Damage expertise boxes. Improving those would make Stiker's set more useful without even altering it directly. Still, I think Striker's set could stand to grant an additional base stat or two (I'm thinking constitution &/or luck) & also add a fast-attack chance to Burst/Flurry in the amount of 15-25%. Additionally, it might also be possible to have it grant an increase chance to fire DR/PK in the amount of 5-10%. With that, it might just become combat viable in addition to the above changes.
I welcome the input of anyone & everyone!! Don't be afraid to ask if anything needs clarification or examples. I'm obviously not above breaking out the calculator to show what I mean with math.
Should any of these be reprioritized?? Should any of these not happen?? Is there anything I didn't include on this list that you want sooner rather than later??
Let me know what you think!!
