Jan 13, 2012

Posted by in News | 28 Comments

Game Update 1.1 Introduces BioChem And Cybertech Nerf – No More “Golden Ticket”

The most hardcore of PVP and PVE players will have noticed, by now, that BioChem and Cybertech were very good professions, largely because of a handful of items in each: the BioChem-only medpacs and the Cybertech grenades. However, they were too good in the eyes of BioWare, and were nerfed accordingly in 1.1 (this coming Tuesday).

It says, "You picked BioChem as your profession - you win until it gets nerfed!"

Georg Zoeller shared with us the thought process behind the nerf.

As some of you may have already noticed from our patch notes for Game Update 1.1, we’ve made adjustments to several high-end, purple, player crafted items on the BioChem and Cybertech professions. Simply put, we reduced their overall impact on gameplay and I wanted to explain why it was necessary.

BioChem crafted medical kits were too good. In fact, they were too good both in the amount of healing they provided (often more than half a character’s health) and the frequency they could be used (every 90 seconds!). This was negatively impacting the game for everyone else. We’ve seen significant chatter both in and out of game about how players not picking up the BioChem professions would be ‘stupid’ and ‘gimping themselves’. This indicates that a small number of competitive players have been denying access to high end content based on whether a player has the BioChem Crew Skill.

Cybertech grenades, especially when stacked with additional power-ups and other temporary buffs, were creating combat damage burst potential higher than we were comfortable with and caused player versus player engagements in the game to resolve faster than intended. In fact we have additional changes to classes and consumables currently in internal testing to deal with faster than anticipated kill times in player versus player combat in a future patch.

The design intent for the game is that your choice of crafting profession should not become a requirement or ‘gating’ mechanism for participating in competitive content (PvP) and high end endgame challenges. While we certainly want players that engage in the crafting game to reap rewards for their effort, we don’t want one or two crafting professions to become the de facto ‘must have’ choice for everyone, which is what happened here.

We are extremely careful with this type of change, and understand that it can be frustrating for our players when we make them. Please understand, we make these changes not because we like to mess with your character, but because they are required to ensure a level and fun playing field for all players of the game.

At the same time, we understand that people that changed their profession because of the events described above will likely be unhappy about these changes – and while it’s easy to say ‘that’s how it goes in MMOs’, making modifications like this is something we’re always cautious about doing. At the same time, both player feedback and the data gathered from hundreds of servers made it very clear that this issue needed to be dealt with decisively now with only a small minority of players at endgame level and the vast majority of our characters in their 20s to minimize the number of affected players.

TL;DR: Fancy words for ‘we nerfed BioChem and Cybertech endgame products’ because they were so good that players started considering them mandatory. Your choice of profession is not supposed to be the deciding factor for participation and success in endgame content. We still believe that BioChem and Cybertech are very worthwhile Crew Skills, especially considering the significant fortune players with these professions are able to realize on the GTN… they are however no longer the ‘golden ticket’ into endgame content.

What do you guys think about this?


  1. Lars Hesselberg says:

    Bah, leveled Cybertech even before I knew about the grenades, and sure, they do a ton of damage, but at least give us something else then to play with?

    Rest of Cybertech is just pointless.

    • The mods you can make are far from pointless. I do wish there were some sought after gear that could be crafted like earpieces or something that is not easily obtained via questing/flashpoints.

      • Except, they totally are pointless. You can get better armoring and equal-level mods from dailies, so why bother buying them from Cybertechs off the GTN?

        • This exactly, which is the same problem as all the other crafting skills except Biochem. They seem great for 49 levels, and then you hit 50 and they become completely pointless.

  2. Doesn’t change my choice in Biochem. Reusable everything is just too handy to not have for pvp/raiding even if they reduce the values.

  3. wildfires says:

    Well it has already started with changes this happend in SWG and I see it coming here. Pisses me off when there is something good and people cry about it and a company changes everything. Forget this game it is going to be nerfed into the ground in a few months because of crying I see it already PVP messes up everything in games.

    • Then quit, I see the point to this nerf. Adjustments happen, especially when elitists see fit to to say stupid thing like ‘you have to have biochem maxed to raid with us’. If you need to rely on pots you clearly do not have a good enough healer.

      • Its not about having a good healer, the static buffs that biochem gives are just too good compared to any items other skills can make. For example the tanking stim has 124 end 55 def(or something along those lines)and persists through death making it the best stim in the game. The medpac isnt what they need to be nerfing here, I hardly use it as a tank.

  4. I have a question. This is the first mmo I have started at release. Is it normal for mmo developers to be this sloppy with game design? I understand there are going to be adjustments, nerfs, bugs,..etc, however, I really don’t understand how Bioware even let this get into the game. I am perplexed by having to nerf the medpac 1 month into the game, when every “raider” or “pvper” new this was as powerful as it was the minute they saw the tooltip. Same goes for Eternity Vault, not sure how you even allow it into release ass buggy as it is.

    I see incoming top to bottom overhauls of most of the game systems in this game, at its core this game is awesome fun, but most systems seem underdeveloped and unpolished. After reaching 50 I am a little dissappointed at this time.

    • sporkwind says:

      At release? Heck yeah. At release all MMOs are buggy as hell. That’s part of the fun.

      Add to that you’ve got a from scratch economy, tons of unknowns, etc and releases arn’t exactly the easiest things in the world.

      The most important part was to get the basics going which they did, and to keep the servers up, which they’ve done in spades. Even with the queues initially, this was the smoothest launch I’ve ever been a part of.

      • Interesting, with all the hype people generate with regards to Bioware I guess I was expecting a more polished, developed and thought out game systems.

        • Holy crap, I’ve played just about every major MMO that has been released in the past fifteen years and TOR is by far the most polished out off the gate.

          Bioware has done an amazing job so far. Adjustments like this are the nature of the MMO beast.

          • I also have played just about every MMO since way back with Ultima Online. TOR is by far the most polished out of the gate too. This is one of the only MMOs where crafting is not a mind-numbing experience and is actually enjoyable and USEFUL.

          • Are you serious? I don’t see crafting as any different than it was in other mmos. It appears crafted goods are going to be worthless once everyone gets into raiding.

            With regarding being the most polished, this games end game isnt even close to as polished as RIFT. End game in swotor is very very buggy, EV is horrible right now.

      • Yes, there are always adjustments to an MMO at release like this. The scope of this game is much larger than anything you played before. The fact that bugs/issues can be fixed after release means some things take priority over others. If this was a console game that would be a problem, but it’s not and problems can and do get fixed.

        Other problems arise when people use/abuse the game as it was never intended by the developers. We are players can and do break things because we do the unexpected. So patches are released to address them. World of Warcraft was a buggy mess when it first released, today it is a well oiled machine. Stick with it and I am betting Bioware gets to the well oiled machine stage. They are already off to a much better start than Warcraft did.

  5. Chris Grooms says:

    My thoughts? Good job making the two only useful professions worth having. Now crafting won’t be worth having at all. It’s already bad enough in this game.

    • I seem to be doing just fine with Synthweaving.

    • Really? Are you that shortsighted? Do you really think it’s right that in order to be competetive EVERYONE would have to have one of those two professions – since they are game breaking OP as they stand currently?

      Thankfully these changes are going in quickly – as opposed to a certain other MMO that waits months to make needed changes (Drums anyone?)

    • Cool. You keep complaining about crew skills, while I roll around in my credits selling color crystals on the GTN.

  6. White Fox says:

    Darn it! I haven’t even been taking advantage of my grenades! #fail I guess it makes sense, I just hope they don’t take away the stun effect, cause I’m severely lacking in that department as a JK: Sentinel.

  7. ScytheNoire says:

    They provide an unfair advantage to the point that it imbalances the game. They need to keep things balanced and not have mandatory requirements, as that just destroys the rest of the market for other stuff. Personally, I hope they make more changes like this, because currently the game is broken for PvP.

  8. Chanticleer says:

    First the QQ. What about all the money I have sunk into Biochem to get these wonderful toys to begin with. It is hard enough to get credits in the game as the market hasn’t quite taken off yet.
    Now the realism, if it’s broke, fix it NOW. That’s the best way to do business. I agree with the Doctors when they wished they had spent more time with beta and a larger beta group. Many of these PR Troll fests could have been stopped in beta. 50% of the professions have been nerfed, if the other 50% could get buffed into usfulness we might just be onto something!

  9. Funny people are complaining and even crying, about the game in one way or another ..
    I have biochem too, because I had seen how powerfull it was, since i could read about it the first time on the net…ok so its been changed so what .. tháts the fun of a mmo… things changes.. and we have to follow the flow..
    A game like this is very conservativ, and changes upsets people, because changes do make people unsecure.. like in real life… So I say hell yes, change things, i like a bit of caos ..
    I like to find my path through it, please change things, so i can have a challange, and make it hard for me ..my credits are not made to show a fleshy green number, when i push “I” Last thing i want is this well oiled WoW mashine.. for me its nice to have some grains in the mashinery….
    But thats only my personal opinion, and ofc i respect others, that dont feel like this .. but please stop crying so, and try so see it as a challange.
    Even i find bugs in the game, and some inbalace of this and that… people- where is your spirit of beeing at the frontline, doing a bit of pioneering.. guess most that write here are from the US.. so you had been pioneers ones..find your inner american way of “we can do it..” thats what i miss a bit…….
    with nice greetings
    Kassad Teslatree of Frostclaw

  10. sucks, might make me cancell my game, nerf medpacks but not operatives. fail, l2add more warzones as well

  11. the real issue is that level 50 medpacks are not available for purchase on vendors. just leave bio alone and add comparable level 50 ones to the vendors, problem fixed.

  12. It looks like a lot of people havent read the patch notes…

    The med packs will still be reuseable and give a brief bonus to max health….

    The grenades will still be reusable but have equal damage to the grenades everyone else can use…

    I dont see a problem here…move along QQ’s

  13. Great… First Smuggler DPS gets kicked in the junk thanks to QQ over PvP and now my med packs which I can use ONCE every 9 mobs.. (averaging a fight takes 10 seconds)are being ruined. What’s next, removing shield chance from Tanks!?

    Absolutely stupid and unnecessary…

  14. crkhobbit says:

    Funny, last now I was just wondering how long before my precious Rakata Medpac of Awesome would get nerfed. I have almost 19k health as a tank and this thing heals me for like 8k including the hot.

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