Dev Blog: Smuggler Class Changes

Bioware has posted a blog post by Austin Peckenpaugh, senior designer, regarding the changes made to the smuggler class (and the imperial agent). The other classes will be covered in the coming days.

If you want the changes made to a class in 2.0 in outline in a simple manner that's just what the smuggler/imperial agent posts do and I imagine the posts for the other classes will as well.

You can check out the smuggler post here or the imperial agent version which really is pretty much the same, here.

In addition to changes specific to the smuggler class some of the changes made to the general combat systems such as how alacrity, shields and accuracy works where also outlined. Since this is stuff that everyone might benefit from knowing I've quoted it below for your convenience.

Alacrity Improvements: One of the big changes to combat systems is the way that Alacrity works. Prior to this update, Alacrity came with a tradeoff for some classes, and it was nearly useless to other classes. The faster you attacked, the more resources you would spend, and that only worked if you had channeled abilities or abilities with activation times.

Now, Alacrity will increase the activation speed of all abilities, including instants. We haven’t just shortened the global cooldown, either. When activating any ability quicker, its animation will also play quicker. This makes some attacks look and sound very cool. Furthermore, Alacrity increases resource regeneration by the same rate, helping you to recuperate resources more quickly as you spend them more quickly. Now more Alacrity is strictly a good thing.

DoT Improvements: We’ve changed the way we evaluate damage over time effects, so it should now be less costly to keep your DoTs up and to spread them around.

Shield Improvements: We’ve changed the way shields work to allow them to absorb any incoming kinetic or energy damage regardless of the source (melee, ranged, Force, tech – doesn’t matter). This has significantly increased the importance of shields, and the game has been rebalanced to account for such a major adjustment.

Accuracy Matters: In 2.0, all Elite (gold star) and tougher enemies will have additional defense chances against Force and tech attacks. As a result, Accuracy Rating will play a pivotal role in optimizing your sustained damage in boss fights. Prior to 2.0, Accuracy Rating was valued very differently from class to class (or even spec to spec), and while it’s still different for each class or spec, that difference is now much smaller. In effect, all damage-dealing roles will find Accuracy Rating much more useful than before.