Hello everyone, the Empire/Republic classes are exactly mirrored, although with different names for abilities/talents. Wouldn’t be a nice if there is a nice chart you can reference when you are talking with your peers on the other side who plays the same class as you? Or how about when you are doing a warzone, wouldn’t it be nice when you encounter an enemy player on the other side who is the same class as you so you know exactly what abilities they are using?
What about when you are leveling and you want to know precisely at which level you are getting new abilities?
Well, I compiled some information from various databases and created this handy chart that I hope you will find useful
Couple of formats are offered for ease of browsing – the regular text format which you can use ctrl + f to search for an ability, the picture format you can save to your computer, the PDF format and the Excel format.
Click on the individual links to go to the appropriate section
Just out of curiosity… what do you think about people claiming that Imperial characters are overpowered compared to Republic ones? People keep telling me that, when the abilities of each class are exactly the same with slightly different animations (rocks instead of lightening, etc.).
http://dulfycleric.wordpress.com dulfycleric
I think most of that is largely rumors/speculations but from time to time there are some grains of truth in it. The bounty hunter/trooper resource management system are not exactly mirrored. BH I think have a 0-100 heat manage bar and troopers have a 12 ammo resource bar. I know bioware done its best to mirror the two but it is kinda hard when they are not even in the same scale.
At times there are also broken abilities specific to one side’s mirror class. For example the troopers have some abilities with a channel time that don’t cause damage until half the channel is over and I don’t think this is the case for bounty hunters. A more solid example is the sage/sorc aoe heal. The sage AoE heal had a large initial tick while the sorc one didn’t. This was fixed about a week or two ago – sage’s version got nerfed to match sorc’s version.
Yeah, I did notice the difference between resources with a BH/Trooper… I think that it would make the trooper harder to heal with, since I almost always have to use the free attack between the more fun attacks even in dps. Seems like a lot of the sages vs. sorcerers stuff though is people responding differently to seeing different animations in pvp and getting mad when they lose.
http://psynister.wordpress.com Psynister
Other differences exist as well, which aren’t bugs, but merely animation differences. The example Grace mentioned with Rocks vs Lightning for instance is a good example. When a Sorc uses their version of the ability the animation is just lightning in your hand and on the target, it’s an instant animation and the damage is instant. For the Sage version of the spell the animation is you lifting a piece of of the terrain out of the ground, up to about shoulder/chest level, an then flinging it at the target with the damage dealt as the item collides with the target.
If you’re to look at it in terms of reality, the damage from Project shouldn’t happen until the item hits the target, but in terms of game balance the damage needs to be instant. If a Sage and a Sorc go at it 1v1, each with all variables equal in terms of spec, gear, and so forth and you have them cast the exact same mirrored spells at the same time with crits and other RNG factors removed for equality, the Sorc will win because of damage delays based on animations.
In D’s example of a Trooper’s Mortar Volley versus a Bounty Hunter’s Death From Above, it’s similar but not quite the same. True, the BH does deal damage sooner than the Trooper, but the Trooper also does damage after the channel is completed where the BG does not. Another point to be made about those two mirrored spells though is that the BH deals damage 6 times throughout their channel and the Trooper deals damage only 3 times. Individual shots from the BH hit for half as much of course, but it’s more frequent hits which means more instances of spell knockback and triggering reactive buffs such as the Commando’s healing shield that heals in reaction to being hit.
There are definitely some issues that could use some love from the developers in terms of balance, and those are just a couple of examples. Overall though, I think they’ve done a fantastic job so far with balancing classes against each other as well as factions. I’m a Republic player, so I’m on the losing side of most of those issues, but even then it’s just another aspect of your class to learn and figure out how to make it work and maximize your performance with what you’ve been given.
dulfy
Hey Psynister, that is a really good write up of the differences between the two – thank you!
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShadowKittehRawr Herp
The work and datagathering yuo have done on this site is mind boggling. You totally rock =)
Often a time I have thought to myself “man I wish i could find a empire class to republic class skill translatin list” and ZOMG here it is, and VERY nicely done at that! Kudos aplenty!
Mrwimmer
Love you for this. I rolled a Shadow and could only find good spec guides for Assassin. Took forever to figure out which skills meant what. Keep being awesome
http://www.facebook.com/christistheonlyanswer TheHonourable Brian Armstrong
Don’t gunslingers use blaster pistols? I haven’t created either sniper or gunslinger, but I do know that snipers have some insane long-range attacks. Is this also true with gunslingers?
Zub74
The assassin’s ability (4) Force lift should be reversed with Whirlwind. C:
(I play as an Assassin and know this first hand, not a rumor)
Sam Ponder
I’m just now seeing this… Very nice Dulfy!!
GameEntity
Very useful. Thank you very much.
TooCool
Would be awesome if there where icons
Dristan Young
it would be nice to see an updated version of this list!
Julian Brennan
Yeah an update (with icons) would be top. Came here to translate Kick-Bot’s Sorc PVP healing guide into a Sage guide but that didn’t work out…
Mirai^_^
Yes please.
I am returning player and I feel lost with all the changes
