BioWare talk changes to classes coming in The Old Republic patch 1.4; namely crowd control, the Resolve system and stealth

BioWare are reducing the range of crowd control abilities, to prevent off-screen control of targets and to make those skills “more readable, more predictable, and less chaotic” in their effects.

To that end, Electro Dart, Cryo Grenade, Electrocute and Force Stun will all have their ranges nerfed to 10 metres. Snipers and Gunslingers, back in your seats; Flash Bang and Flash Grenades have been picked out as exceptions integral to play in those classes, and will both retain their 30 metre range.

Overload and Force Wave have been redesigned, knocking back all targets within a 15-meter 120-degree cone in front of you; they’ll now work instantly too, rather than leaving you hanging until the end of the ability animation.

The Resolve system - designed to prevent players from chaining crowd control effects - has been a cause of some pain for groups; a common scenario BioWare cites is the accidental stunning of the same bad simultaneously, making the target immune to control and leading to some thoroughly bished and rightfully irked players. The issue has been solved, using Maths:-

“We’ve adjusted the gain logic of Resolve such that simultaneous and overlapping control effects no longer linearly add together their Resolve gain values,” says senior designer Austin Peckenpaugh on the TOR blog. “Instead, using a crowd control ability on an already controlled target now applies reasonable Resolve gain values by comparing the incoming control effect to the greatest of existing control effects.”

BioWare are also set to add new abilities and tweak others across several classes for the good of PvP. For Mercenaries and Commandos, there’s a new 30-metre interrupt, Disabling Shot, which halts the target’s current action and prevents them from using that ability for another four seconds.

Sorcerers and Sages are to be made less vulnerable thanks to Unnatural Preservation / Force Mend, an instant moderate heal, costing no Force and coming with a 30-second cooldown. What’s more, Force Speed’s cooldown has been reduced from 30 to 20 seconds for Consulars and Inquisitors.

Elsewhere in the patch, BioWare have revamped stealth gameplay with the aim of making Scoundrels, Operatives, Shadows and Assassins more viable for group play. Disappearing Act / Cloaking Screen and Force Cloak now all have two-minute cooldown times, Flee the Scene / Advanced Cloaking further reduces the cooldown of Sneak by 7.5 seconds per point, and Infiltration Tactics / Duplicity causes your next Shadow Strike / Maul to deal 30% more damage and cost 75% less Force.

All in the name of encouraging stealth classes to “contribute well to lengthy fights or lend support to teammates”, in BioWare’s words. For more, visit the blog.