Interview: En Masse Entertainment COO Patrick Wyatt on Bringing TERA to the West


At GDC 2012, I interviewed En Masse Entertainment COO Patrick Wyatt on bringing TERA, a Korean MMORPG game, to the West (North America, Europe).

Here are notable segments from our conversation:

  • 1:02: respective roles of the developer (Bluehole Studio, BHS) and the publisher (EME)
  • 2:08: specific changes being made to the game for the West. In terms of process, BHS owns making the game code changes, and EME facilitates this process by designing the changes to be implemented and synthesizing feedback from the community
  • 6:27: how BHS is making different versions of the game for different locales
  • 8:30: Patrick confirms that the core combat mechanics remain unchanged for the West
  • 9:24: the hitbox implementation. Range/reach across hitbox sizes has been normalized, so a Baraka and Popori have the same reach for attacks. Character size does influence easy it is to be hit or healed
  • 10:56: decision to go with Frogster as the publisher for EU TERA
  • 11:42: establishing EME as a premier game publisher, in terms of their relationship with game developers and the community
  • 17:02: EME’s analytics capabilities to understand what players are doing

For more discussion on this interview, see the thread on the TERA official forums.

Let me know your questions and feedback.

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Posted in Business Analysis, Interview, TERA, Video

GDC as a Bellweather: the Gaming Industry is Shifting Towards F2P and Cross-Platform


The Game Developers Conference is the world’s largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event. As the target audience is not the gaming public, the focus and feel of GDC is very different from other recent conferences that we attended, such as New York Comic Con back in October 2011. We didn’t see a single cosplayer. Most of the sessions are hosted by developers sharing their insights and experience with various properties or companies hawking their upcoming games, platforms, and tools.

When I attended GDC back in 2010, “Social” was the big buzzword as there was a lot of attention paid to the burgeoning Social Gaming market. Skimming this year’s schedule, “F2P” (Free-to-Play) and “Cross-Platform” are the hot keywords.

Why the shift in focus?

Let’s talk about F2P first. In a nutshell, the business model is to entice players to download and try your game and convert some of them to paying customers. The concept has been around for years and as the Internet’s infrastructure has matured, it has become an increasingly cost-efficient and viable distribution platform.

Most Social Games have been F2P from inception, as the games are very lightweight to download, require no separate (e.g. Facebook Apps / Games) or minimal (e.g. App Store) installation, and have viral incentives to encourage players to rope in their friends.

However, the traditional gaming markets, PC Gaming and Console Gaming, have their roots in physically-shipped boxed products and the games were – prior to a few years ago – impractical to distribute en masse online as the game downloads were huge relative to the average customer’s bandwidth. The costs of real-world distribution are significant.

The synergistic rise of high-speed Internet access by ISPs and the maturation of CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) has made it feasible and viable to distribute even large games over the Internet. E.g. everyone I know playing SWTOR, which launched 3 months ago, downloaded the 20GB game instead of waiting for installation discs. Contrast this to Blizzard’s The Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft just 5 years ago, where I dragged my wife with me to Target in the East Bay to stand in line with hundreds of other diehard WoW gamers at midnight to buy the game. (The game sold out about a dozen people after us, and there was a near nerd-riot LOL).

So the distribution side of making heavyweight MMORPGs F2P is there. But what about the monetization side? This in my opinion is the bigger challenge. How do you create a game that is sufficiently enjoyable without paying that it attracts and retains players, while still providing virtual goods and other perks that a fraction of the playerbase will gladly pay for? And how do you do this for massively-multiplayer games without creating a game that is essentially “Pay-to-Win”?

F2P is a bad word to the majority of MMORPG players, but that is mainly due to poor design and implementation rather than the concept being flawed itself. I’ve had both positive (Knight Online back in 2005-2006) and negative (Allods Online in 2010) experiences with F2P properties. Back in KO, one of my guildees, a pizza shop owner down in Brazil, was forking out hundreds of USD a month to maximize his enjoyment of the game, and I became a monthly sub ($15 USD) because it was worth it to me as a full-time working stiff who valued his free time.

The PC and Console Gaming industries have the benefit of watching what has worked with Social Games, which have proven that players will pay for convenience and for virtual goods, e.g. cosmetics / customization / in-game items, etc. Microtransactions FTW.

It’s only in recent years that some of the larger mainstream MMORPGs have transitioned to F2P, e.g. Turbine’s LOTRO and NCSoft’s Aion. Industry analysts and bloggers have been predicting the end of P2P (Pay-to-Play) games for a few years now, and while the industry is moving in that direction, P2P games are not dead yet – see EA/BioWare’s SWTOR and ArenaNet’s upoming Guild Wars 2 launch.

One huge reason why games are still P2P is that game developers need to recoup their sunk costs to reach product launch. E.g. the estimates for SWTOR have ranged anywhere from $100-200+MM USD. (The ironic thing: the most common complaint I’ve heard about SWTOR is the lack of endgame content or issue-free content. But hey we’re gamers and we’re never satisfied, amirite?).

And here’s the basic problem: how to make a P2P game scale its customer base over time. Having a hefty (e.g. $50 USD) price tag is a significant deterrent to acquiring new customers. Arguably no developer has figured it out aside from Blizzard with WoW, and even Blizzard started offering WoW to level 20 for free last summer.

As MMORPG developers sort out F2P, what I expect to happen is for the large-scale AAA-quality launches, e.g. the RIFTs’, SWTOR’s, and GW2’s, to be continue to be P2P at launch to recoup the sunk costs, and for those games to eventually transition to F2P but with mechanics that entice players to pay on a recurring (subscription) basis, expansion basis (GW / GW2), or microtransaction basis. We’ve already seen Trion Worlds offer new mounts (spider!) for a microtransaction even though the game is P2P and requires a monthly sub. This shift from P2P to F2P for a given game may be necessary to achieve a sustained net-gain of customers over time after the initial “burst” of customers at launch. And to do it right means that the developer would need to consider F2P mechanics before the game transitions from F2P to P2P.

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Posted in Aion, Allods Online, Business Analysis, Guild Wars 2, LOTRO, RIFT, SWTOR, World of Warcraft

Quick Hits from the SWTOR Guild Summit


BioWare revealed many key features for Patch 1.2.

Here are some of the notable takeaways from the livestream. My comments in italics.

Quality of Life Improvements

  • Sprint (out-of-combat movement buff) will be available at level 1. Thank. Freaking. Goodness.

UI Changes

  • Customization
    • You can move / re-position elements
    • You can resize individual elements or the entire UI
    • You can export your UI settings (XML file format), so you can share them with other players. Unfortunately you can not export keybindings
  • They are adding Target of Target as a UI element
  • Companion bar will be separate instead of an overlay
  • Mouseover targeting is not making it into 1.2
  • No ETA on macros. What they are ruling out are macros that affect combat directly
  • No ETA on API for addons
  • No plan on adding a separate bar for Stealth, just as there is in Cover

General PVP

  • Valor Rank will not be a gate / requirement for gear – it’s merely a measure of how long you have been PVP’ing. Unarmed Brawling combat will be unlocked at higher ranks. It appears it will be more for Prestige and for fun
  • Stats on PVP gear are getting re-worked. My hope is that with the changes PVP gear will be the best option for PVP for each slot, which is not the case now. Right now the DR cap is too low for Expertise, which makes slotting all PVP gear a waste
  • Tab targeting is being worked on. So many people have complained about this, so it’s good that BioWare is looking at it
  • You can target players by clicking on their nameplate. BRB need to rename character to “Tau” and guild to “Mvn”

Rated Warzones

  • You have two options for queueing for Rated Warzones
    • solo for 8v8. I think having solo queues for Rated Warzones will be hilariously fun. People in the chat over on GAMEBREAKER speculate that this will be a lot of Assassin/Shadow and Operative/Scoundrel, and I’d throw in Sentinel / Marauder as well. Those 3 classes are the strongest for soloing and most difficult to shutdown in terms of their DPS. Regardless, it will be an entertaining option while you are waited for guildees / friends
    • 8-person group for 8v8. Finally, we can run full 8-person groups! The catch of course for smaller guilds is having 8 players available and online that make for a functional comp. As Leiralei tweeted, it would also be great for smaller guilds if you could queue as a 4-person team, and get paired up with another same-size team.
  • There will be a “pre-season” for Rated Warzones at the start of 1.2, and the the “regular” season will begin. What this means exactly is not clear, but some people are speculating that pre-season will be used to bracket people at the start of the regular season. TBD.
  • Rating will be at the individual level, as opposed to the team level. Prior to this announcement, I was concerned that Rank warzone teams would have a fixed roster, a la WoW’s Arena. The issue here is that creating teams with fixed rosters can create schisms within guilds and you need the same team members online to be able to run. Having the rating at the individual level will allow for much more flexibility
  • Best-in-Slot PVP gear will come from Rated Warzones. I have mixed feelings about this. IMO titles / bragging rights are sufficient reward for the cream of the crop. Giving them a gear advantage will make PVP even more faceroll, especially against lesser-ranked opponents in whatever context. When Blizzard largely removed the Arena Rating requirements for epic PVP gear in Cataclysm, it created a much more level playing field, where outcomes were determined based on skillful play and coordination (and composition)

Multi-Spec

  • They are targeting Dual Spec shortly after 1.2
  • You have to manually click gear to swap sets, i.e. no predefined gear sets

PVE Difficulty

  • Normal Mode is being replaced by Story Mode
  • Nightmare Mode Operations will drop different loot and have additional mechanics compared to Hard Mode Operations

Companions

  • Regarding same-gender relationships
    • They don’t want to just take the existing storylines / voiceovers and re-work them – that isn’t storytelling
    • They did have some romance relationships that did not make the cut due to budget reasons
    • They will come out with same-gender relationships with the Story Updates later this year

Population / Distribution Numbers

  • Overall population breakdown across all server types
    • 57% Empire
    • 43% Republic
  • The population is more lopsided on PVP servers, but Georg did not say by how much
  • Not surprisingly, Sith Inquisitor is the most popular class, with almost one-fifth of the entire game population

UPDATE (2012/03/07): Dulfy took in-depth notes from the livestream, so check out her post. She has a kick-ass blog, so make sure to follow her on Twitter.

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Posted in Commando / Mercenary, Guardian / Juggernaut, Gunslinger / Sniper, Livestream, PVP, Sage / Sorcerer, Scoundrel / Operative, Sentinel / Marauder, Shadow / Assassin, SWTOR, Vanguard / Powertech

Sage / Sorcerer Healing Guide for PvP


Guide Overview

This guide takes a look at a couple Sage/Sorcerer healing builds that I use for PvP. I go over the builds, abilities, gear, and some general and Sage-specific healing tips in this guide. I play a Sage so I’m going to use the Sage names for talents and abilities but include the Sorcerer equivalent in brackets.

Ryndar is my Sage healer, which i focused on leveling through warzones. At that point there was only one bracket, which led me to come up with the 29/12/0 build (you can get Resplendence [Force Surge] and Force Wake [Electric Bindings] together at 48) to help survive the last couple levels to 50. With a lot of the Imperials still ahead on gear, I kept this build for the increased survivability while in the 50s bracket. Once I got comparable gear, mostly Champion and some Battlemaster, I swapped to the 31/8/2 build for more healing utility at the cost of survivability. With 1.2 I’ve switched to running 22/19/0 for added efficiency and more survivability.

Please post your feedback, tips, and questions!

Revision History

  • Apr 12, 2012: updated guide for 1.2.
  • Mar 31, 2012: added a new potential build for 1.2 PvP Healing.
  • Feb 23, 2012: added Force Potency [Recklessness] to Section 5, Force Speed Sage Tip, expanded on Rescue [Extrication].
  • Feb 20, 2012: added Rotations to the Guide.
  • Feb 17, 2012: updated to account for the 1.1.3 stat change.

Table of Contents

  1. Talents
  2. Healing Abilities
  3. Salvation [Revivification]
  4. Healing with Conveyance [Force Bending]
  5. Other Skill to Keep in Mind
  6. Stats
  7. Gear Sets
  8. Builds
  9. Rotations
  10. General Healing Tips
  11. Sage/Sorcerer Healing Tips
  12. About the Author

1. Talents

Instead of including every talent, I look at some of the key talents to take or avoid from a PvP prospective.

Seer [Corruption]

  • Immutable Force [Dark Mending] is a must, as these 2 points are a ~16% increase to Deliverance [Dark Infusion] heals, allows you to cast more faster. and with Conveyance [Force Bending], the cast time will drop to 1.5 seconds.
  • Wisdom [Haunting Presence] should be skipped, as there are more useful talents to spend 2 points on (2% more healing if you heal for 200k in a match will net you 4k more healing, which is one critical Deliverance [Dark Infusion] heal at 50).
  • Psychic Suffusion [Force Suffusion] is skipped in the 29/12/0 and 22/19/0 builds, as Salvation [Revivification] isn’t a part of this build, so it would only help Force Quake [Force Storm]. For the 31/8/2 build it increases the healing of Salvation [Revivification] by 10% and it is better than your other two options, Valiance [Dark Resilience] and Wisdom [Haunting Presence].
  • Rejuvenate [Resurgence] and Conveyance [Force Bending] are must-haves. Conveyance [Force Bending] helps augment Sage/Sorcerer healing but is not as helpful as the pre 1.2 version. because it allows you to adapt to the situation at hand: get a fast burst heal, help gain force back, etc.
  • Valiance [Dark Resilience] is no longer required for Egress [Fadeout]. Valiance [Dark Resilience] isn’t really a great talent, but the advantage that Egress [Fadeout] gives in PvP for creating a gap against melee classes is useful for helping your survivability. The Egress [Fadeout] bonus will allow you to gain 1~2m on a melee opponent and, coupled with Confound [Conspiring Force], will help you get just out of range more often than with just Force Slow.
  • Healing Trance [Innervate] is a must for getting a “decent” quick heal into Sage/Sorcerer rotation. and Resplendence [Force Surge] are both must-haves as they give you a way to gain Force back without the health loss from Noble Sacrifice [Consumption].
  • Confound [Conspiring Force] helps to create a gap against melee classes. 20% is not much but you only need 5 meters to out-range melee classes. Keep in mind that currently the snare is only applied on a fresh application of Weaken Mind [Affliction], so you need to let the DoT drop off in order to reapply the snare.
  • Salvation [Revivification] is a choice you make for an extra healing option versus survivability. Skipping this allows you to get Force Wake [Electric Bindings] for survivability and utility.

Telekinetics [Lightning]

  • Inner Strength [Electric Induction] and Mental Longevity [Reserves] help with your Force management both by causing Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] to generate more Force and by making everything cheaper.
  • Disturb Mind [Exsanguinate] helps with preventing nodes from being capped (remember, DoTs interrupt caps) and also increases the duration of the snare from Confound [Conspiring Force].
  • Telekinetic Defense [Lightning Barrier] is an obvious choice, given how powerful Force Armor [Static Barrier] is in most situations.
  • Force Wake [Electric Bindings] is the extra survivability you can get by trading out Salvation [Revivification]. This really helps your survivability by rooting anyone you knockback (charges/leaps cannot be used while rooted, giving you time to LoS (Line-of-Sight) after your knockback against melee classes). The root lasts 5 seconds if no damage is dealt and a minimum of 2 seconds if they take damage. Something to keep in mind is that roots are not part of the resolve system. So if you use Force Wave [Overload] while your enemy is resolve capped it will still root them; great for stopping someone in the fire pits in Huttball.

2. Healing Abilities

Now let’s look at the Healing abilities you get as a Sage/Sorcerer. I’ll address Conveyance [Force Bending] and what it does to the heals in a later section and also take a more in-depth look at Salvation [Revivification] in its own section.

  • Benevolence [Dark Heal] – This is an inefficient heal that you should really only use when Deliverance [Dark Infusion] is locked out due to an interrupt or to bait an enemy interrupt. The reason is that you’re looking at roughly the same amount of force but only half the heal amount. With 1.2 change to Conveyance [Force Bending], this will likely be used more but is not going to out heal most damage dealers.
  • Deliverance [Dark Infusion] – This will be your main heal. It costs roughly the same amount of Force as Benevolence [Dark Heal] and heals for twice as much. With the increased cast time (new Conveyance [Force Bending]) this will likely take a back seat to Healing Trance [Innervate] in more “pressing” situations. When talented and with Conveyance [Force Bending], it also provides the equivalent of two Benevolence [Dark Heal] heals in half the corresponding time (i.e. 2 Benevolence [Dark Heal] heals take 3 seconds and 1 Conveyance [Force Bending] Talented Deliverance [Dark Infusion] takes 1.5 seconds).
  • Rejuvenate [Resurgence] – This ability doesn’t really heal for much but is very important to keep in your rotation. You want to cast this ability every chance you get in order to get the Conveyance [Force Bending] buff. Keep in mind that the Conveyance [Force Bending] buff does last 4 seconds longer than the cool-down for Rejuvenate [Resurgence].
  • Healing Trance [Innervate] – This is another ability that you want to use as often as you can. When this ability critically hits with any of the heals, you get a buff that will allow you to use Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] without a penalty to Force regeneration if you have Resplendence [Force Surge]. The heal for this is decent but you’re still using Deliverance [Dark Infusion] as the main heal.
  • Force Armor [Static Barrier] – This really isn’t a heal, but it might as well be. When talented it becomes efficient and will generally allow you to get off heals that you normally wouldn’t be able to.

3. Salvation [Revivification]

Personally I don’t think Salvation [Revivification] is very good in most PvP situations, so I made a build that dropped it in order to gain Force Wake [Electric Bindings] for some extra survivability. The reasons I’m not a fan of this ability in most PvP situations are that it is a 2 second cast that is a ground-targeted AoE, people have to stand in the area for 10 seconds to receive a noticeable amount of healing, and it costs 100 force (91 with talents). In most cases people are going to be moving around a lot, so landing it initially will be tough and then standing in it will often be detrimental, especially for melee classes that are chasing enemies. There are situations where Salvation [Revivification] is useful but more often than not I think you’re better off using another heal. To this extent I believe there is more situational advantage to having a root from Force Wake [Electric Bindings] than having Salvation [Revivification], especially if you’re having survivability issues.

If you do take Salvation [Revivification], then you want to get around 17 total ticks of its heal in order to get an amount of healing and force usage roughly equivalent to two Deliverance [Dark Infusion]s. As this ability ticks once per second and lasts 10 seconds, you’re looking at landing it on 2 people for 9 seconds, 3 people for 6 seconds, 4 people for 5 seconds, and so on (this does not count the initial landing of the heal). Something to keep in mind, mostly for raiding/PvE situations, is that Salvation [Revivification] can heal up to 8 people simultaneously (not sure how it determines who gets healed).

I was mostly running the 31/8/2 build now that my gear is better, and as I mentioned above I rarely use Salvation [Revivification]; maybe 2~3 times in a Warzone. I would recommend that you give this ability a try and see if it fits with your playstyle, but do not rely on this ability too much. Use Salvation [Revivification] to complement your healing instead of making it part of your core rotation. One thing I do is use Salvation [Revivification] early while nobody really needs healing (or I just topped people off) and my Force is relativly high, as the 10 second HoT can help heal once people start to take damage again.

4. Healing with Conveyance [Force Bending]

Now that we’ve looked at the healing skills for a Sage/Sorcerer, let’s take a look at how they change when you apply Conveyance [Force Bending]. Conveyance [Force Bending] is key to rolling out good heals in a reasonable amount of time.

  • Rejuvenate [Resurgence] – This ability is key as it applies your Conveyance [Force Bending] buff. Something to keep in mind is that this spell has a 6-second cool-down and Conveyance [Force Bending] lasts 10 seconds. Using Rejuvenate [Resurgence] early (even if not needed) and holding on to the Conveyance [Force Bending] buff can allow you to get the Conveyance [Force Bending] effect on two different spells very quickly.
  • Benevolence [Dark Heal] – With the increased critical chance this heal will heal for roughly the same amount as a non critical Deliverance [Dark Infusion]. This can be handy if someone needs healing quickly and Healing Trance [Innervate] is on cooldown. With the cost reduction this becomes as force-efficient as Deliverance [Dark Infusion]. If the target isn’t missing much health then this will be your go to spell after a Rejuvenate [Resurgence]. Another tactic is to bait an interrupt by casting this spell and then follow it up with a Deliverance [Dark Infusion] or Healing Trance [Innervate] after being interrupted. Knowing your enemy is important for this and if you’re playing against the same enemies you’ll pick up on some behaviors (e.g. do they interrupt any ability or only healing abilities, do they interrupt consistently or forget to interrupt some times).
  • Deliverance [Dark Infusion] – The reduction in Force cost helps maintain your force allowing you to avoid having to use Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] as much (or not at all). The decrease to cast time allows this spell to be your staple heal without giving the enemy a large window to interrupt.
  • Healing Trance [Innervate] – The critical chance increase makes this almost guarantee giving the Resplendence [Force Surge] proc. Something to note is that the Conveyance [Force Bending] buff isn’t consumed by the initial casting of Healing Trance [Innervate]: this allows you to start casting another ability to get the Conveyance [Force Bending] effect as long as you start it before the last tick of Healing Trance [Innervate].
  • Salvation [Revivification] – Using Conveyance [Force Bending] will help mitigate one of the major issues with this spell (high force cost) but if your critical chance is low, it’s probably better to save Conveyance [Force Bending] for Healing Trance [Innervate]. Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] will give you 40 force (48 with the extra Force talents), while Conveyance [Force Bending] will reduce the cost of Salvation [Revivification] by 30 force.

5. Other Skills to Keep in Mind

Here are some skills that don’t heal but that you should keep in mind while healing. I’m not going through all the other skills, as the principles can be applied to other abilities (i.e. Force Stun [Electrocute] and Force Lift [Whirlwind]).

  • Force Wave [Overload] – This 20-second-cool-down knockback is a real life-saver and using it at the right time can change the course of a fight. With Force Wake [Electric Bindings] this can allow you to create a gap in order for you to get some healing on yourself or others without taking damage. Keep in mind your LoS options for after you knockback and what gap closing potential the enemy has.
    For Example, against an Assassin you don’t want to use Force Wave [Overload] until you get them to use their Force Speed. To create this opportunity use Force Slow and the 20% speed boost from your Force Armor [Static Barrier] to create a minor gap. Most Assassins will use their Force Speed to catch up to you, giving you the perfect opportunity to Force Wave [Overload] and create a gap. Another option to get them to use Force Speed is by using your own Force Speed to create a gap.
  • Force Potency [Recklessness] – This can help you overcome high damage situations by giving direct heals an increased critical change. Keep in mind it only affects direct heals (i.e. Deliverance [Dark Infusion], Benevolence [Dark Heal], Rejuvenate [Resurgence]), meaning Healing Trance [Innervate] and Salvation [Revivification] will not get this effect. Because it can affect Rejuvenate [Resurgence], make sure you use it after you cast Rejuvenate [Resurgence] to save a charge for another heal. Most likely you’ll end up using it on Rejuvenate [Resurgence] anyway after casting another heal but in case you have an opportunity for a long cast heal, it is good to try and save the charge.
  • Force Stun [Electrocute] – Instead of healing through damage, you can use Force Stun [Electrocute] to create a gap yourself or give yourself time to heal an ally. Make sure that you don’t just use this defensively. Using it to help drop an enemy healer can force the enemy to play defensively, leading to a reduction in damage to your allies.
  • Force Speed – Similar to Force Wave [Overload], the key is not to use this ability every chance you get, but to look for an opportunity to capitalize on the effect. Knowing where you can LoS and what your opponent has to stop you is key. Another use for this is to get to a location for a key Force Wave [Overload] (like the bridges in Void Star) or to catch up to an ally that needs a heal immediately. Keep in mind with Telekinetic Effusion [Lightning Effusion] the cool-down is dropped to 20 seconds allowing you to use Force Speed more often.
  • Mind Snap [Jolt] – This ability is often overlooked, but having a 30-meter interrupt can help prevent damage (interrupt a Tracer Missile, Grav Round, etc) and also help bring down an enemy (interrupt an enemy healer). Don’t get caught up always trying to heal through damage, look for opportunities to prevent the damage before it happens.
  • Force Slow – Mostly used to create a gap against melee opponents to prevent damage, but also remember it can prevent the enemy from kiting your allies.
  • Restoration [Purge] – This cleanse helps keep you away from Warriors and Assassins. Both use Force-based slows that you can cleanse. Also remember, cleansing a DoT early (Curshing Darkness) can prevent a lot of damage. The trick is identifying which abilities can and can’t be cleansed. A general rule of thumb is that you can cleanse anything from a Force user (Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular).
  • Rescue [Extrication] – This can help to prevent damage if you’re coordinating with a player (pulling them away from melee classes or near a LoS location). The major part to keep in mind is that you both need to be on the same page, as if the person you are pulling runs right back in, then all you really did was lower their damage and use up a global cool-down. The best use I came up with is to pull an ally near one of the Healing “items”. Keep in mind you can use this pull people away from melee to give yourself some breathing room before you heal, but also remember that this does use up a GCD so your target could end up in a worse position before you can start healing.
  • Revival [Reanimation] – Your combat Resurrection ability. As of 1.1.1 it was changed to revive at 25% HP instead of 1% so it’s now usable in actual combat situations. This can help keep a node defended for longer and is really helpful in Voidstar to allow an ally to avoid the re-spawn door. Do keep in mind that they will only have 25% of their HP so giving them a shield after they pop up and some heals is going to be a must (they do pop back up out of combat so they can use out of combat abilities right away).

6. Stats

For primary stats you’re looking at Willpower and Endurance. Pretty straightforward: Willpower increases your healing, damage, and critical chance, while Endurance increases your survivability.

I haven’t done extensive testing but my general stance for secondary stats is Critical Rating > Power > Surge Rating. The major reason for this is that Healing Trance [Innervate] critical hits are your way of getting Force back. Conveyance [Force Bending] works to accomplish this, but if you’re using Conveyance [Force Bending] on Healing Trance [Innervate] then you’re not getting its effect on another ability. There is a diminishing return on Critical Rating and Surge rating. The post from tuskake goes more in depth on this but it looks like you want around 300-400 Critical Rating and 100~200 or so Surge Rating. After that point you will want to focus on Power. With the 1.1.3 change to Surge Rating I would keep the same stat order but the number for Surge Rating changes (150 Surge Rating gives ~18% instead of ~23%).

7. Gear Sets

There are four different sets you’re going to be looking at for level 50 gear, two for PvP and two for PvE. The set bonuses are listed below and are followed by my thoughts on the set bonuses and which pieces I picked.

PvP
  • Force-Master
    • (2) Reduces cool-down of Crushing Darkness or Mind Crush by 1.5 seconds. Crushing Darkness or Mind Crush damage heals you for 0.5% of your max health.
    • (4) Increases range of Shock and Jolt or Project and Mind Snap by 5 meters.
  • Force-Mystic
    • (2) Reduces the lockout debuff duration of Static Barrier or Force Armor by 3 seconds.
    • (4) Consumption or Noble Sacrifice restores 3% of your max health over 6 seconds.
The PvP Force-Master (2) set bonus piqued my interest until I realized just how small the 0.5% heal was. The (4) set bonus didn’t really interest me, as I need to stay within 30m to heal my target, so the 5m boost in range would not come into play most of the time.

The PvP Force-Mystic (2) set bonus is invaluable, as cutting 3 seconds from the lockout allows you to get your powerful Force Armor [Static Barrier] up more often on more targets. The (4) set bonus seems limited though, as a 3% heal is not the most powerful bonus, with 16k HP you’re looking at getting an extra 480 hp over 6 seconds.
PvE
  • Force-Master
    • (2) Reduces cost of Lightning Strike and Force Lightning or Disturbance and Telekinetic Throw by 2.
    • (4) Affliction or Weaken Mind damage has a 10% chance to increase alacrity by 5% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 20 seconds.
  • Force-Mystic
    • (2) Reduces cool-down of Innervate or Healing Trance by 1.5 seconds.
    • (4) Increases total Force by 50.

The PvE Force-Master set bonuses could be nice if you’re going damage, but if healing is your main focus then you’re probably going to want to skip this set.

The PvE Force-Mystic (2) set bonus is a good bonus to get. Cutting 1.5 seconds off the cool-down of Healing Trance [Innervate] allows you to use it one global cool-down earlier. The usual rotation will involve Rejuvenate [Resurgence], Deliverance [Dark Infusion], and Healing Trance [Innervate] (in no particular order). Due to the 3-second channel on Healing Trance [Innervate], you’re looking at roughly 6 seconds (will change with Alacrity), meaning you need to use 1 more global cool-down in order to have Healing Trance [Innervate] up again (most likely Noble Sacrifice [Consumption]). This is going to drastically improve your Force management while still outputting good healing. The (4) set bonus gives you an extra heal in your force pool and, more importantly, increases your Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] restoration by 4 Force (total with Mental Longevity [Reserves] becomes 52).

Considering the diminishing return on Expertise, you want roughly 550 unless your aiming for a PvE 4 set bonus. With Battlemaster gear, 550 Expertise is achieved with 11 pieces leaving you 3 pieces for non PvP gear (to maximize your stats). If the set bonuses don’t mater then your generally looking to fill these three pieces with the Matrix Cube, Bracer, and Waist. If your looking to get a 2 set bonus then any 2 of the set pieces can be traded, while keeping the Matrix Cube. The reason you can trade any 2 set pieces is that between equal tiers (i.e. Champion vs. Columi, Battlemaster vs. Rakata) the only difference is End, Primary Stat, and Expertise.

Pre 1.2 – I went with getting the 2 pieces of the PvE Force-Mystic and 3 pieces of PvP Force-Mystic. The Healing Trance [Innervate] cool-down reduction, in my opinion, is the best set bonus of all the sets for healing. The PvP Force-Mystic set bonus is helpful, and having 3 pieces of this set allows you to get some extra Expertise. If getting the PvE Force-Mystic set is not an option, or will take time, and you have access to more PvP gear, then I would go with completing the PvP Force-Mystic set. Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] is used constantly and the 3% healing (even though not much) will still help restore small amounts of damage that you receive. The PvP Force-Master set bonus might look good to accomplish this while adding damage, but you’re looking at a total of 2% health over 6 seconds with a 15 second cool-down. On the other hand, Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] is already part of your healing rotation and would be providing 3% over 6 seconds with roughly a 9 second cool-down (Resplendence [Force Surge] will follow the 9 second Healing Trance [Innervate] cool-down).

The changes to Expertise in 1.2 has caused me to change to using full set of PvP Force-Mystic for PvP. Losing the cooldown reduction to your much needed quick heal hurts but the extra healing and survivability outweigh what is lost.

For Relic slots I’m using the Matrix Cube and the PvP relic that gives Power on use. The rest of my gear is PvP gear to get myself as clost to 550 Expertise.

8. Builds

Here are the healing builds I have used with my Sage and recommend. Each build has its own advantages and disadvantages. Both are designed with PvP in mind and there are specific talents that should be dropped if your focus is purely for PvE (e.g. Confound [Conspiring Force]).

Survival Healing – 29/12/0 – Sage [Sorcerer]: This build gets Force Wake [Electric Bindings] out of Telekinetics [Lightning] to help with survivability in PvP. The main idea for this build is to stay alive through your own actions instead of relying on your team to cover you, mostly because the cover is always welcome but not always available. Valiance [Dark Resilience] also helps to offset the change to Resplendence [Force Surge] and Noble Sacrifice [Consumption].

Survival Healing 2 – 27/12/2 – Sage [Sorcerer]: A slight change to the 29/12/0 build by dropping Egress [Fadeout] to get 6% more Willpower from Will of the Jedi [Will of the Sith].

Full Healing – 31/8/2 – Sage [Sorcerer]: This build takes Salvation [Revivification], the 31-point ability from the healing tree, to give you another option for healing. I still do not use Salvation [Revivification] too often in Warzones, maybe two or three times in a 15-minute match, it’s helpful to have when the few right situation comes up and helps to offset Noble Sacrifice [Consumption]. I recommend playing with the 29/12/0 build first to get used to healing with the core healing spells before adding Salvation [Revivification] to your tool set. I’ve seen a lot of sages and sorcerers rely too much on Salvation [Revivification] instead of using it to compliment their healing.

Survival Effusion Healing – 22/19/0 – Sage [Sorcerer]: This is a post 1.2 build designed to gain extra Force efficiency as there is no “safe” way to regain force in PvP any longer. The idea is to drop Resplendence [Force Surge] along with a couple other points in order to go higher in the Telekinetics [Lightning] tree.  The idea is to get Telekinetic Effusion [Lightning Effusion] which reduces the cost of 2 Force abilities by 50% after a Force attack crits. This is achieved efficiently with Telekinetic Throw [Force Lightning] as it costs 28 Force (after talents) for a 3 second channel (passive Force regeneration will give 24 Force) that hits 4 times and if any hit is a critical then the next two heals you use are at 50% cost. If you follow with 2 Deliverances [Dark Infusions], you end up saving 50 Force and with the new longer cast time you will passively regenerate 40 Force (5 seconds of total cast time). I also look at picking up Kinetic Collapse [Backlash] to help augment my survivability. Another boost is that Effusion lowers the cooldown of Force Speed to 20 seconds. The addition of Blockout [Suppression] also allows for a more disruptive interrupt by locking out abilities for 6 seconds. This build will still require further testing but from what I’ve seen so far it looks like it could work (not as well as pre 1.2).

9. Rotations

Post 1.2 – With the changes to gear and cast times these rotations are no longer applicable but I am leaving this section to get an idea of how to think about rotations.

There is no magic rotation that you will always use in PvP.  A lot of what your going to do will come down to the situation your in and reacting to what your opponents are doing. I’ll lay out some of the common scenarios that you may run into and my typical rotation in those situations. The goal with these rotations is to be as flexible as possible and I don’t cover every possible case. You will need to adapt depending on the situation but these rotations can give you a framework to build up from.

  • Scenario 1 – If your allowed to free cast and nobody is really in need of healing (everyone above 70% hp and no threat of of large burst damage) then you want to run a force efficient rotation.
    • If you don’t have Conveyance [Force Bending] start with Rejuvenate [Resurgence]. Otherwise go straight into your rotation of Healing Trance [Innervate] and cutting off the last tic with Deliverance [Dark Infusion] followed up with Rejuvenate [Resurgence]. If you got a Resplendence [Force Surge] proc then I use Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] otherwise I use Force Armor [Static Barrier]. Then you repeat the rotation. You’ll need to add another ability if you don’t have the PvE Force Mystic 2 set bonus. The reason for the Rejuvenate [Resurgence] after your Deliverance [Dark Infusion] is so you have your Conveyance buff available to you in case you need to change your rotation. The idea here is to get the Resplendence [Force Surge] proc as often as possible to maintain/gain as much Force as possible.
    • *Rejuvenate [Resurgence]* => Healing Trance [Innervate] => Deliverance [Dark Infusion] => Rejuvenate [Resurgence] => Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] / Force Armor [Static Barrier]
  • Scenario 2 – If your allowed to free cast and you need to burst heal (someone is hovering around 30~70% hp and you think they will live longer than 1.5 seconds) then you want to put out as much healing as possible.
    • If you don’t have Conveyance [Force Bending] start with Rejuvenate [Resurgence]. After checking this go into Deliverance [Dark Infusion] followed with Healing Trance [Innervate] and then casting Rejuvenate [Resurgence] afterwards. Once again, if you got your Resplendence [Force Surge] proc then use Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] and if you didn’t use Force Armor [Static Barrier]. You’ll have to add another ability if you don’t have the PvE Force Mystic 2 set bonus. The idea with this rotation is to put out a large amount of healing rapidly.  This works great if you know who is going to be taking a large amount of damage.  Because your using your Conveyance [Force Bending] proc on Deliverance [Dark Infusion] you’ll most likely see yourself losing Force the longer you run this rotation.
    • *Rejuvenate [Resurgence]* => Deliverance [Dark Infusion] => Healing Trance [Innervate] => Rejuvenate [Resurgence] => Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] / Force Armor [Static Barrier]
  • Scenario 3 – If you need to heal someone immediately (someone is is around 10~40% and/or you expect a large amount of damage soon) then you want to buy time for them to LoS or for you to get some heals in.
    • If your target doesn’t have the Force Imbalance [Deionized] de-buff then start off with Force Armor [Static Barrier].  You’ll want to follow quickly with Healing Trance [Innervate] to give them some breathing room. If you have Conveyance [Force Bending] then cut off the tail end of your Healing Trance [Innervate] with Deliverance [Dark Infusion] to get the 1.5 second cast. If you didn’t have Conveyance [Force Bending] then go with Rejuvenate [Resurgence] into your Deliverance [Dark Infusion]. If your target is still in trouble then skip using your Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] and move into the rotation from Scenario 1 or 2 if you can free cast. The idea with this rotation is give yourself or another healer time to heal a person, ideally trying to bring them outside of the execute range (<20/30% depending on class) as quickly as possible.
    • *Force Armor [Static Barrier]* => Healing Trance [Innervate] => *Rejuvenate [Resurgence]* => Deliverance [Dark Infusion]  => *Noble Sacrifice [Consumption]*


These are a few of the common scenarios and what I try and do when I run into those situations. This does not cover everything and depending on what is going on you’ll have to adapt. Try to move around whenever your using a string of instant cast abilities and remember to keep Conveyance [Force Bending] so you can go into a “powerful” rotation without having to cast Rejuvenate [Resurgence] first.

10. General Healing Tips

  • Identify Line-of-Sight options in a map, as LoS is a huge component of healing (it’s a huge part of everything really). Know when to break LoS to prevent damage to yourself and how to maximize your LoS so that you can heal more people. For this I usually sit just past a corner. This allows me to have a huge LoS and if I get in danger or see a lull in the fighting I can back behind the corner to cut off a large amount of area for people to see/target me.
    For example, on the west side after the bridge on Voidstar there is a stack of crates that will block LoS.
  • LoS is important for the target you’re healing also. If you’re trying to heal melee classes that are chasing someone that went around a corner then you are probably not going to get off a long cast heal. Don’t waste your time starting the heal if it’s not going to land — move and start the heal from a better angle.
  • Try not to go back to the same locations after you die. This will keep the enemy guessing instead of always looking towards the same corner to find you. The longer it takes people to find you the longer you get to heal undisturbed.
  • Know the class that is attacking you. Each class has a wealth of abilities at their disposal but they can’t have them all (know common builds or powerful talents). The most important thing to keep in mind is the rate that your opponent can interrupt you. Juggernauts have an 8-second interrupt cool-down, while Sorcerers have a 12-second interrupt cool-down. Also, understand how specific abilities give you information about your opponent’s spec.
    For example, knowing that an Assassin has the pull limits what other abilities he has and what you need to watch out for (in this case most likely full tank or running a tank/balance hybrid meaning he is running a 12-second interrupt instead of a 10-second interrupt). Knowing the Assassin has the pull also lets you know that his Force Speed will remove snares and roots, so you should save your Force Slow for after he uses Force Speed.
  • Earlier I mentioned using Benevolence [Dark Heal] as a way to bait the enemy’s interrupt so you can maintain your Conveyance [Force Bending] buff for another heal. This principle also applies to other situations. If you notice you’re being interrupted consistently, think about throwing in a heal with the intent of it being interrupted, and follow up with the heal you really want. Keep in mind Commandos and Mercenaries are the only class that do not have an interrupt (i.e. interrupt with a lockout effect).

11. Sage/Sorcerer Healing Tips

  • Rejuvenate [Resurgence] early and often. Conveyance [Force Bending] lasts 10 seconds, which allows you to Rejuvenate [Resurgence] before you get into a fight so that you have Conveyance [Force Bending] ready and waiting for when a person starts taking damage, instead of having to use a GCD on Rejuvenate [Resurgence] once the fight has already begun.
  • As stated above, Conveyance [Force Bending] is not consumed immediately by Healing Trance [Innervate], which allows you to start another healing ability before the channel finishes and get the effect from it. A recent Q&A has pointed out that Conveyance [Force Bending] was not intended to effect multiple abilities so this may change (it could be referencing the bug that allows Conveyance [Force Bending] to be used on two Deliverance [Dark Infusion] heals back to back). One thing to keep in mind, with the current system, is that if you start your Healing Trance [Innervate] and the Conveyance [Force Bending] buff wears off you do lose the critical chance bonus for the rest of the channel.
  • Use Force Armor [Static Barrier] before you get into a fight. This creates 2 effects, the first being that you can gain the force back from using it before the fight starts (more important if you’re using Force Armor [Static Barrier] on your whole team). The second is that it puts the Force Imbalance debuff on early allowing you to reapply Force Armor [Static Barrier] earlier in a fight.
  • Deliverance [Dark Infusion] and Healing Trance [Innervate] both root you while casting, so try to move around the battlefield while casting your instant cast abilities (Force Armor [Static Barrier], Rejuvenate [Resurgence], etc.). Use that time to head towards/change  pillars, to hide yourself to try, or keep people from singling you out as the healer. Remember being on the move makes it harder for melee damage dealers to hit you (have to chase you) and allows you to get out of range from range damage dealers.
  • Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] is an interesting way of getting Force back. Unfortunately in a PvP situation it tends to not be useful unless you have Resplendence [Force Surge]. The reason for this is that it will net you 28 Force (20 without Mental Longevity [Reserves]) if you don’t have Resplendence [Force Surge]. Basically you’re getting 48 Force at the cost of 15% of your health and 25% force regen rate. Default regen is 8 per second so you lose 2 per second. That means over 10 seconds you lose 20 force. The net force you gain without Resplendence [Force Surge] isn’t even enough to heal the damage that you took to yourself. In the end I tend not to use Noble Sacrifice [Consumption] if I don’t have Resplendence [Force Surge] ready. The one time I will not hesitate to use it without Resplendence [Force Surge] is if I have Conveyance [Force Bending], Healing Trance [Innervate] is ready, and I don’t have enough force to use Healing Trance [Innervate]. There are times when you should use this to help heal someone else, but remember if you are in danger it will hurt you more than it will help.
  • If you have a spare GCD, re-buff your allies. Most people overlook the 10% damage reduction that the Consular/Inquisitor buff gives against Internal and Elemental damage.
  • A fun trick with Force Speed is to find gaps to jump that most classes are unable to jump.
    For example, you can jump from the lower catwalks (between the fire pits) in Huttball to the center (by the acid pit) without falling into the pit.
    For example, in Voidstar you can use Force Speed to jump over the gap in the bridge room without extending the bridges.  You have to time your jump near perfect but the center platforms are just close enough to make that jump.

12. About the Author

I mostly play healers in MMORPGs and decided to try writing a guide. Please post comments and questions.

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Posted in Guide, Sage / Sorcerer, SWTOR

TERA PVP: Where Latency and Hitbox Size Affect Outcomes


I’ve been reading through the comments posted on YouTube for my first TERA video, and Beta testers reported combat issues related to latency.

This morning I watched the last set of duels that I streamed on Saturday, and from the footage it looks like latency (or lag) impacts the quality of PVP combat.

Check out the following TwitchTV video for duels between Razer (level 5 Female Elin Slayer) and Kennedy (level 5 Female Elin Archer):
http://www.twitch.tv/taugrim/b/308466267

At several points in their duels, what Kennedy and I saw was the same: Razer was able to hit Kennedy even though it looked like Razer was clearly out of melee range. This prevented Kennedy from knowing where his opponent was, and therefore how to target and how to counter. Given that I saw the same thing that Kennedy was experiencing, we wondered whether the issue was Razer’s Internet connection. He checked and his ping time to our Vent server was low.

Keep in mind the latency occurred in 1v1 combat with very few players nearby. That said, the issue really isn’t whether the Beta server was tuned, how many people were nearby, etc – rather the issue is that given the importance of positioning in combat, TERA is by design more sensitive to latency (lag) compared to your typical non-action MMORPG. Games typically have higher “lag” as the number of combatants increases, so there is the risk that the quality of combat in TERA may drop in mass PVP.

Aside from the latency issue, in TERA the hitbox is based on character race, gender, and size. The benefits of being small (“it’s harder to hit me”) outweigh the downsides (“it’s harder to heal me”). I’d rather take less damage than be easier to heal, because that would mean there is less reason to heal me in the first place. In general, I believe that character race, gender, and size should not have any meaningful impact on game combat, to allow players the flexibility of creating a character that suits their personal preferences not game mechanics.

UPDATE (2012/02/13 noon PST): before you pull the “OMG NOOB TERA IS IN BETA” card, keep in mind TERA went live in Korea on January 25, 2011 – over a year ago. What is in Closed Beta is the version of the game that is being managed and operated by game publisher En Masse for NA.

Developers tend to localize games for new markets with via language (text and voiceovers), tweaks to XP, and content availability, not via changing core game mechanics. I observed this with Aion, which was live in Korea before going live in NA in 2009 and with Allods Online, which was live in Russia before going live in NA in 2010.

So what we can reasonably expect are fixes per Beta testing related to the localization process and changes to En Masse’s server environment and infrastructure, but probably not to the core game code itself.

UPDATE (2012/02/15): some folks are claiming that FPS games have lag too, and that it isn’t a big deal.

Let me frame a critical distinction between FPS combat and TERA combat.

In FPS games, you can run and gun – the action of firing a weapon does not cause you to move in a predefined path. Weapons in FPS games have a “reload” timer but they do not in themselves restrict mobility, unless the player chooses to do something like aim their weapon by using a scope.

However, in TERA, when you use an attack ability, you move in a fixed path for that ability. Keep in mind one’s ability to attack and defend are heavily dependent on positioning.

Therefore I expect lag in TERA to be more detrimental than lag in an FPS.

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Posted in PVP, TERA, Video
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