Redesigning the Powertech class

Star Wars: The Old Republic is, for the most part, a pretty well done game.  There are many things I enjoy including:

• Beautiful environments
• Fantastic job capturing the Star Wars fantasy
• All things considered, above average server stability for an MMO launch.

On the other hand, the class design isn't as much to my liking.  Despite the superficial appearance to be like WoW's class design, I find it more cumbersome.  The biggest offender is simply the sheer number of skills every class is given.  I thought it would be a fun exercise to redesign the class, trying hard to keep the general vibe

I chose to redesign the Powertech as this is the class as I'm most familiar with, having leveled it to 50 and played around with all 3 specs.

In terms of design goals I believe the designers at BioWare probably want

• A class kit that is singularly flexible enough to handle solo, Flashpoint, Ops and PvP environments
• A class kit that provides skill differentiation in both PvE and PvP environments; allowing highly skilled players to outperform players who are either not as knowledgeable or not as adept at playing the class.
• Skills that support a variety of PvE activities.  Class skills and PvE design cannot be designed in a vacuum of one another.  So the mobs will still spawn in groups of 4.  There are weak, normal, strong and elite monsters and those mobs should feel different from one another.

In order to understand the choices I made, here are some of my philosophical guidelines:

• Depth is good, complexity is bad.  Skills which add complexity but not a lot of depth should be streamlined.
• The skill system should be left roughly as is in structure.  New skills learned at the trainer, talents that improve your skills and sometimes introduce new skills at 11/21/31.
• I am assuming that many UI improvements will be made across the board.  If the UI was always going to be as is, I'd have made even more aggressive changes.  I am assuming that eventually the game will have a "PowerAuras" style spell notification, better buff monitors, better enemy cast time bars, and better resource level visualization.  The quality of information a player has can make a skill seem better or worse.  For example, if skill A has a 15% chance to become active every time you use skill B, the quality of this mechanic is highly dependent on how well the proc triggering is communicated to the player.  If the only feedback you receive is the icon on the bottom bar going from grey to lit, I would cut the mechanic completely.  

Bounty Hunter Shared
1. Thermal Sensor Override - Instant - Cooldown: 120s - Your next ability generates no heat. Effect lasts 15 seconds.
2. Stealth Scan - Instant - Cooldown: 20s - Range: 30 m - Fires off probes that scan the area for stealthed opponents. Probes last for 10 seconds.
3. Shoulder Slam - Instant - Cooldown: 45s - Range: 4 m - Slams into the target with a rocket-propelled shoulder charge, dealing 2253 - 2315 kinetic damage to weak and standard targets or 1613 - 1676 kinetic damage to strong targets. Only usable on incapacitated targets.
4. Kolto Overload - Instant - Cooldown: 180s - Restores 15% of maximum health over 10 seconds.
5. On the Trail - Instant - Cooldown: 1200s - Finishes the cooldown on Electro Dart and restores 2% of maximum health every 3 seconds. Requires an active companion. Lasts 1 minute.
6. Energy Shield - Instant - Cooldown: 120s - Reduces all damage taken by 25% for 12 seconds.
7. Sprint - Instant - Increase movement speed by 35% while not in combat.
8. Electro Dart - Instant - Heat: 8 - Cooldown: 60s - Range: 30 m - Fires an electro dart that stuns the target for 4 seconds.
9. Death from Above - Instant - Heat: 25 - Cooldown: 60s - Range: 30 m - Rains death from above, firing a volley of missiles at the target area, dealing 11840 - 16519 kinetic damage over the duration. Standard and weak targets are knocked down by the blasts.
10. Determination - Instant - Cooldown: 120s - Removes all incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.
11. Flame Thrower - Instant - Heat: 25 - Cooldown: 18s - Torches everything in a 10-meter cone with a flamethrower, dealing 1593 elemental damage over the duration.
12. Rail Shot - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Fires a very powerful shot at the target that deals 1404 - 1591 weapon damage. Only usable against incapacitated targets and targets suffering from periodic damage.
13. Explosive Dart - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Fires a dart that will detonate after several seconds. Standard and weak enemies enter a state of panic while the dart is active. The explosion deals 858 - 923 kinetic damage to up to 3 nearby enemies when it detonates. Standard and weak targets are knocked back from the blast.
14. Combustible Gas Cylinder - Activation: 1.5 secs - Loads your blaster with combustible gas, giving all of your blaster attacks a 10% chance to deal 1295 additional elemental damage over 6 seconds. Only one cylinder can be active at a time.
15. Unload - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Unloads your blaster into the target, dealing 587 - 690 weapon damage every second. Weak and standard enemies caught in the blaster fire are stunned for the duration. Fires both blasters if dual wielding.
16. Rocket Punch - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 9s - Range: 4 m - Engages the jetpack, allowing you to strike the target with a heavy punch that deals 2205 - 2415 kinetic damage.
17. Hunter's Boon - Instant - Cooldown: 6s - Range: 30 m - Increases the target's Endurance by 5% for 60 minutes. If the target is a party member, all other party members are also affected.
18. Rapid Shots - Instant - Range: 30 m - Fires a quick stream of bolts, causing 670 - 817 weapon damage.
19. Vent Heat - Instant - Cooldown: 120s - Rapidly vents 50 heat over 3 seconds.
20. Missile Blast - Instant - Heat: 25 - Range: 30 m - Deals 1535 - 1587 kinetic damage to the target and 198 - 233 additional kinetic damage to up to 3 nearby enemies in a 5-meter radius. If the primary target is a weak or standard enemy, it is knocked to the ground.
21. Recharge and Reload - Instant - Regenerates health and vents heat while channeling. Not usable in combat.

Powertech Shared
22. Explosive Fuel - Instant - Cooldown: 120s - Increases ranged and tech critical hit chance by 25% for 15 seconds.
23. Carbonize - Instant - Heat: 8 - Cooldown: 45s - Encases up to 5 enemies within 8 meters in carbonite, stunning them for 2.5 seconds.
24. Sonic Missile - Instant - Cooldown: 45s - Range: 30 m - Fires a missile at taunting enemies and nearby enemies to attack for 6 seconds. Enemy players have their damage reduced for 6 seconds unless they attack you
25. Flame Sweep - Instant - Heat: 25 - Torches up to 5 targets within 5 meters for 437 - 561 elemental damage.
26. Grapple - Instant - Cooldown: 45s - Range: 30 m - Fires a grapple line that pulls the target to the Bounty Hunter and generates a high amount of threat. Cannot be used on targets in cover.
27. High Energy Gas Cylinder - Activation: 1.5 secs - Loads your blaster with a high-energy gas cylinder. While active, all internal and elemental damage dealt is increased by 5%. Only one cylinder can be active at a time.
28. Quell - Instant - Heat: 8 - Cooldown: 8s - Range: 4 m - Interrupts the target's current action and prevents that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds
29. Neural Dart - Instant - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Fires a neural dart that taunts the target to attack for 6 seconds. Player targets deal 30% less damage when attacking anyone other than you. Effect lasts 6 seconds.
30. Guard - Instant - Range: 30 m - Guards the target while it remains within 15 meters. While active, the target takes 5% less damage and generates 25% less threat. In addition, 50% of all incoming damage from enemies is transferred back to you. Requires Ion Gas Cylinder.
31. Flame Burst - Instant - Heat: 16 - Range: 10 m - Fires a burst of flame at the target that deals 558 - 622 elemental damage.
32. Hydraulic Overrides - Instant - Cooldown: 30s - Grants 8 seconds of immunity from movement-impairing effects, knockdowns and physics and increases movement speed by 30%.
33. Ion Gas Cylinder - Activation: 1.5 secs - Loads your blaster with ion-charged gas, giving ranged attacks a 15% chance to deal 253 additional energy damage. While this cylinder is active, threat generated is increased by 50%. Increases armor by 60%, decreases all damage taken by 5%, and increases shield chance by 15%. Only one cylinder can be active at a time. Ion Jolts can only occur once every 1.5 seconds.

Shield Tech
34-1. Heat Blast - Instant - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 10 m - Discharges 8 heat into a fiery blast, dealing 443 elemental damage.
35-1. Jet Charge - Instant - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Jumps to a distant target, dealing 447 kinetic damage, interrupting the target's current action and immobilizing the target for 3 seconds. Cannot be used against targets in cover.
36-1. Oil Slick - Instant - Cooldown: 60s - Sprays the immediate area with oil. Nearby enemies become unbalanced and their accuracy of ranged and melee attacks is lowered by 20% for 18 seconds.

Advanced Prototype
34-2. Immolate - Instant - Heat: 8 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 10 m - Sprays the target with fuel and ignites it into a fireball that deals 623 elemental damage.
35-2. Rectractable Blade - Instant - Heat: 16 - Range: 4 m - Plunges a retractable blade into the target that deals 380 kinetic damage and causes the target to bleed for 459 internal damage over 15 seconds.

Pyrotech
34-3. Thermal Detonator - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Hurls a thermal detonator that adheres to the target and detonates after several seconds. Standard and weak enemies enter a state of panic while the explosive is active. The explosion deals 949 kinetic damage when it detonates. Standard and weak targets are knocked back from the blast. Shares a 15-second cooldown with Explosive Dart.
35-3. Incendiary Missile - Instant - Heat: 25 - Range: 30 m - Fires a missile that explodes on contact, igniting the target for 216 elemental damage and an additional 689 elemental damage over 18 seconds.

First Pass - Obvious Cuts
First trip through I just cut or merge all of the low hanging fruit.

• Thermal Sensor Override - CUT.  I think this skill adds a high skill differentiation, but is very hardcore in it's current incarnation.  There is a lot of high level play that involves using it only when you're high on heat and are going to cast an expensive spell but the complexity:benefit ratio is off. The skill adds a small amount of depth for a large amount of complexity.
• Shoulder Slam - CUT.  I don't think players benefit from the existence of this skill except possibly in PvP.  One might argue that it gives players the ability to do a small amount of situational burst but in reality the situations are narrow, the targets are limited and the burst is small.
• On the Trail - CUT.  This ability feels like it's for solo PvE and world PVP.  The best use is probably to help players get past an otherwise difficult progression blocker in the storyline, or to add an interesting beat to world PvP.  The PvE progression blocker case should probably be solved as a systemic level not class design, with either blockers that get easier to defeat or short-term and expensive stims that could be used to beat a blocker.  World PvP probably doesn't need this either.
• Sprint - This ability should be a passive that is always active, 35% when not in combat.
• Determination - This ability is  not needed.  CC breakers are more important when the pace of combat and lethality of skills is high, so being able to break out of a CC is more important.  The pace of PvP combat in SWTOR is lower, so people can just suck up being CC'ed.  This also keeps the person who used the CC ability from being confused as to why it ended early.  CC breaks can be interesting though, so the functionality could be just as easily rolled as a talent onto one of the existing skills (as is already being done for those classes that talent into a second CC break)
• Kolto Overload and Energy Shield - MERGE.  I totally agree with the idea of defensive cooldowns, but I don't see why you need 2.  Merge these into 1 with a 60 second cooldown that recovers health and reduces incoming damage
• Explosive Dart and Missile Blast - MERGE.  These two skills a very similar in their function from the player's point of view.  They are AOE skills.  In theory if you are dealing AOE, it gives you an AOE "rotation" to use, but you already have additional AOE to use in the form of Flame Thrower and Death from Above.  I don't think I need 4 skills in my AOE rotation
• Sonic Missile - CUT.  While I appreciate the value in this skill, encounters can probably be designed without it

Making the above cuts and sorting the skills into categories for additional design simplification I got:

Non-Combat Skills

• Recharge and Reload
• Stealth Scan
• Hunter's Boon
• Combustible Gas Cylinde
• High Energy Gas Cylinder
• Ion Gas Cylinder

Utility

• Overloaded Kolto Shield
• Electro Dart
• Vent Heat
• Carbonize
• Grapple
• Neural Dart
• Hydraulic Overrides
• Quell
• Guard
• Explosive Fuel
• Jet Charge (Shield Tech)
• Oil Slick (Shield Tech)

Close Range Damage

• Rocket Punch
• Flame Burst
• Heat Blast (Shield Tech)
• Immolate (Advanced Prototype)
• Retractable Blade Advanced Prototype)

Close Range AOE

• Flame Thrower
• Flame Sweep

AOE Damage

• Death from Above
• Explosive Missile Blast

Ranged Damage

• Rail Shot 
• Unload 
• Rapid Shots 
• Thermal Detonator (Pyrotech)
• Incendiary Missile (Pyrotech)

Second Pass. Refining the specs  

Many of the talent trees add a few new skills that overlap the functionality of previous ones. The result is that players usually end up using both skills but it's a math problem to figure out which is better and why.    The second pass involves trying to retain some skill differentiation, keeping each tree feeling unique, and looking at a meaningful rotation for each spec.

Close Range Damage.  

Many of the Bounty Hunter Core skills are not melee, however 2 of the 3 trees are.  In fact the signature spell for the Pyrotech is Flame Burst, which I never understood because it doesn't work well with the Pyrotech tree.

The intention is obviously to provide a decent rotation for melee usage.  I would argue that you only need 2, at most 3 abilities to make for an interesting single target rotation. (you should use your encounter design to allow for usage of utility skills, target switching, switching to AOE, and occasionally needing to be at range to shake things up.  Only 3 abilities at melee is too few if you never did anything else but you shouldn't be fighting target dummies)

With that in mind, I think Flame Burst is the only Core skill needed.  Mostly because the Pyrotech doesn't need additional close range abilities.  I would move Rocket Punch to be Shield Tech only. 

This gives for Close Range combat rotations

• Shield Tech: Rocket Punch when available. Talents and gear can make Rocket Punch available more often.  Heat Blast on cooldown every 10 seconds. Spam Flame Burst Otherwise
• Advanced Prototype: Keep Retractable Blade DOT up. Immolate on cooldown.  Spam Flame Burst Otherwise
• Pyrotech: Spam Flame Burst

Close Range AOE

The Pyrotech, as a ranged class, doesn't get any close range AOE, although to be nice one could just let him use the ranged AOE abilities.  At close range you only need 1, maybe 2 AOE abilities.

That leaves Flame Thrower and Flame Sweep.  Flame Sweep could be baseline, whereas Flamethrower could easily become Advanced Prototype only.

This gives for Close Range AOE rotation

• Shield Tech: Spam Flame Sweep
• Advanced Prototype: Flamethrower if you can channel, Spam Flame Sweep otherwise
• Pyrotech: Use your ranged AOE rotation or spam Flame Sweep

Ranged Damage

The core bounty hunter kit is ranged, so you'll see a few more attacks here than melee, but there doesn't need to be many.  The biggest improvement can probably be found by improving baseline abilities rather than introducing completely new ones with heavily overlapping functionality.

Rapid Shots is basically auto-attack, and can stay.  Unload is a very niche spell that basically says "do more damage if you can channel and spare the heat".  Rail Shot serves a good purpose as a cooldown button you hit when it's available, which is probably enough for the core kit.

If Rail Shot is there, rather than introducing duplicate cooldown-controlled abilies, Pyrotech can enhance it instead. Furthermore, while I appreciate the design behind Thermal Detonator, I think it's too subtle.  If the decision is a tradeoff between doing more single target damage and more AOE damage, that decision is already captured by the opportunity cost of your cast times, heat allocation and GCD usage. Having to flip a 15-second cooldown between one usage and another seems like overkill.  I could cut Thermal Detonator completely, or if you want to be really awesome, make it an upgrade to Explosive Dart that just let's it do more AOE damage and balance accordingly.

This gives Ranged single target rotation of

• Shield Tech: Rail Shot on cooldown, unload if you can stand still and spare heat, rapid shots otherwise
• Advanced Prototype: Rail Shot on cooldown, unload if you can stand still and spare heat, rapid shots otherwise
• Pyrotech: Keep Incendiary missile up, Rail Shot on cooldown, unload if you can stand still and spare heat, rapid shots otherwise

Ranged AOE

The ranged AOE int he original class got merged in pass 1, so the classes all share the same rotation

• All specs: Death From Above if available, Explosive Missile Blast otherwise

Third Pass - Evaluate gameplay value

For the third pass, I'm going to just ruthlessly cut to see what would happen if you wanted to retain 95% of the gameplay for reduced complexity.  One might argue that reduced complexity means you have more room to complexity in future content with better mechanics to get more depth than we're losing now.

• Hunter's Boon - CUT.  Party buffs have some social merit but doesn't add any combat depth.
• All 3 Cylinders - CUT.  This is tough.  The main reason to have this mechanic is on the theory that you might perform a role other than your spec.  For example you might be tank spec but need to DPS for a while.  Or you might be DPS spec but you're going to tank a Flashpoint and can't afford the credits. Unfortunately it doesn't work at all in practice \because so many abilities in the trees rely on you having a Cylinder active anyways.  For example, if you are Shield Tech, half your talents turn off unless you're using Ion Gas Cylinder. Using anything but Combustible cylinder in Flametech tree causes your main DPS ability to turn off half the time.  As a result, the "off-spec" Cylinder mechanic is already gone.
• Electro Dart - Merge with Carbonize.  Carbonize re-design - Shoot at a target.  Encase that target plus up to 5 targets around it in carbonite.  40 second cooldown.
• Neural Dart - Cut.  Give Shield Tech a passive that builds a taunt into Rail Shot.
• Guard - Cut.  The amount of gameplay value added by this ability is super small.

The Final List

Recharge and Reload - Instant - Regenerates health and vents heat while channeling. Not usable in combat.
Stealth Scan - Instant - Cooldown: 20s - Range: 30 m - Fires off probes that scan the area for stealthed opponents. Probes last for 10 seconds.

Overloaded Kolto Shield - Instant - Cooldown: 60s- Restores 15% of maximum health over 12 seconds.  Damage taken is reduced by 25% during this time.

Vent Heat - Instant - Cooldown: 120s - Rapidly vents 50 heat over 3 seconds.

Carbonize - Instant - Heat: 8 - Cooldown: 40s - Shoot at a target.  Encase that target and up to 5 enemies within 8 meters in carbonite, stunning them for 4 seconds

Grapple - Instant - Cooldown: 45s - Range: 30 m - Fires a grapple line that pulls the target to the Bounty Hunter and generates a high amount of threat. Cannot be used on targets in cover.

Hydraulic Overrides - Instant - Cooldown: 30s - Grants 8 seconds of immunity from movement-impairing effects, knockdowns and physics and increases movement speed by 30%.

Quell - Instant - Heat: 8 - Cooldown: 8s - Range: 4 m - Interrupts the target's current action and prevents that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds

Explosive Fuel - Instant - Cooldown: 120s - Increases ranged and tech critical hit chance by 25% for 15 seconds.

Flame Burst - Instant - Heat: 16 - Range: 10 m - Fires a burst of flame at the target that deals 558 - 622 elemental damage.

Flame Sweep - Instant - Heat: 25 - Torches up to 5 targets within 5 meters for 437 - 561 elemental damage.

Rail Shot - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Fires a very powerful shot at the target that deals 1404 - 1591 weapon damage. Only usable against incapacitated targets and targets suffering from periodic damage.

Unload - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Unloads your blaster into the target, dealing 587 - 690 weapon damage every second. Weak and standard enemies caught in the blaster fire are stunned for the duration. Fires both blasters if dual wielding.

Rapid Shots - Instant - Range: 30 m - Fires a quick stream of bolts, causing 670 - 817 weapon damage.

Death from Above - Instant - Heat: 25 - Cooldown: 60s - Range: 30 m - Rains death from above, firing a volley of missiles at the target area, dealing 11840 - 16519 kinetic damage over the duration. Standard and weak targets are knocked down by the blasts.

Explosive Missile Blast - Instant - Heat: 25 - Range: 30 m - Deals 1535 - 1587 kinetic damage to the target and 198 - 233 additional kinetic damage to up to 3 nearby enemies in a 5-meter radius. If the primary target is a weak or standard enemy, it is knocked to the ground.

Shield Tech Skills and Talents

Rocket Punch - Instant - Heat: 16 - Cooldown: 9s - Range: 4 m - Engages the jetpack, allowing you to strike the target with a heavy punch that deals 2205 - 2415 kinetic damage.

Heat Blast - Instant - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 10 m - Discharges 8 heat into a fiery blast, dealing 443 elemental damage.

Jet Charge - Instant - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 30 m - Jumps to a distant target, dealing 447 kinetic damage, interrupting the target's current action and immobilizing the target for 3 seconds. Cannot be used against targets in cover.

Oil Slick - Instant - Cooldown: 60s - Sprays the immediate area with oil. Nearby enemies become unbalanced and their accuracy of ranged and melee attacks is lowered by 20% for 18 seconds.

Advanced Prototype Skills and Talents

Immolate - Instant - Heat: 8 - Cooldown: 15s - Range: 10 m - Sprays the target with fuel and ignites it into a fireball that deals 623 elemental damage.
Rectractable Blade - Instant - Heat: 16 - Range: 4 m - Plunges a retractable blade into the target that deals 380 kinetic damage and causes the target to bleed for 459 internal damage over 15 seconds.

Flame Thrower - Instant - Heat: 25 - Cooldown: 18s - Torches everything in a 10-meter cone with a flamethrower, dealing 1593 elemental damage over the duration.

Pyrotech Skills and Talents

Incendiary Missile - Instant - Heat: 25 - Range: 30 m - Fires a missile that explodes on contact, igniting the target for 216 elemental damage and an additional 689 elemental damage over 18 seconds.

Of course, no design ever exists in a vacuum, a few downsides with the approach I've taken:

• Less skills may make level-up feel less satisfying
• Some players prefer having lots of skills, and appreciate anything that allows them to feel a sense of mastery
• Encounter design may need to be more varied to compensate for skills being simpler. Fights with no interesting mechanics are going to feel extra boring.
• While this would all be fine for a game pre-launch, post-launch it is disorienting to make significant changes to a class.