• Commando, officer, and smuggler profession and expertise updates; new stackable damage over time effects; addition of a particle slider and other UI improvements. 
  

• Combat Modifiers Block Chance, Dodge, Evasion Chance, Parry, Critical Hit and Strikethrough Chance are now under a diminishing return formula.
  
  
• Commandos and bounty hunters share the same armor break debuff. Both professions can stack the debuff to 5. Armor break on players reduces based on a percentage, while armor break on non-players is a flat amount. See the profession notes below for more details.

• Debuff purge abilities decrements a debuff's stack. This means if you have a debuff with a stack of 3, and you use a debuff purge ability that will reduce/remove 2 debuffs, the stack is reduced to 1.

• Stasis can be used on beasts.

• Commandos receive a free expertise respec upon logging in to Game Update 4.

• Commandos can apply stacks of a damage over time (DoT) effect up to an increment of 10. If two commandos are using the same elemental type weapon, they can both increment the DoT stack. If the owner of the buff stack switches weapons and applies a new stack of dots, the original stack will go away. If two commandos are using two different elemental weapons, both can have a stack of their respective elemental type.

• A new commando weapon has been added, the CC-V 'Legion' Cryo Projector. This is a cold elemental spray (flamethrower) heavy weapon.

• The Crusader M-XX Heavy Rifle elemental damage type has been changed to electricity.

• The C-M Frag Storm Heavy Shotgun elemental damage type has been changed to kinetic.

• Using heavy weapons with low action no longer give the +TOO TIRED+ message.

• The kill meter is incremented as the commando deals and receives damage.

• The ability Empowered Attack has been added to the profession wheel, which improved damage from rifles, carbines and pistols for a short duration. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.

• The ability First Aid Training has been added to the profession wheel, which improves healing effects for a short duration. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.

• The ability Double Time has been added to the profession wheel, which boosts the commando's run speed for a short duration. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.

• The Cluster Bomb expertise has been added in the Commando expertise tree. When used, this ability will throw a grenade which will then fracture into multiple smaller bomblets over a large area. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.

• The Killing Spree expertise has been added in the Commando tree. When used this ability, fires an additional attack at a nearby engaged enemy when the commando attacks. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.

• Modified Killing Grimace increases the number of additional attacks made during Killing Spree by 1 per point.

• Blow Them Away has been modified to increase the bomblet count of Cluster Bomb by 1 per point.

• The Remote Detonator debuff is a -100 Precision maximum from expertise instead of -50 Precision. Its cooldown has changed from 120 seconds to 20 seconds.  Its damage bonus maximum from expertise is now 100% instead of 60%.

• Armor Cracker's name has been changed to Armor Shredder. This is a new ability that works identically to Riddle Armor except that it reduces the armor of any enemies within 5m of your current target.

• Riddle Armor and Armor Shredder apply the armor break debuff. Armor break may have up to 5 applications per stack and reduces NPC armor by 400 per application. Armor break reduces Player armor by 4% of player total per application.
  
  
• The base cooldown on Riddle Armor/Armor Shredder has been lowered from 30 seconds to 13 seconds.
  
  
• Improved Riddle Armor reduces cooldown on Riddle Armor/Armor Shredder by 2 seconds per point.

• Keen Eye only works with ranged weapons, including heavy weapons.

• When a commando activates Mirror Armor, any NPC enemy aggressiveness towards him is cut in half once.

• Diagnostic Armor has been modified to a 1 point expertise.

• Marksman is a new 3 point Tier 5 expertise connected to Heavy Ammunition. Each point spent reduces action cost by 4% for the commando if they are using a rifle or carbine.

• The expertise Suppressing Fire also suppresses movement speed towards the commando by afflicted targets.

• The expertise Improved Suppressing Fire increases glancing blow vulnerability of the target, movement suppression of the target, and cone width of the attack.

• Position Secured has been modified to grant 200 Strength in addition to existing functionality.

• Position Secured can no longer be removed by the player by right clicking.

• Improved Position Secured is a new 3 point expertise. Commando action cost reduced by 10% per point while in Position Secured.

• Base of Operations has been modified to grant 1000 armor and 5 critical chance to the commando and his or her group.

• Base of Operations can only be used while the commando is in Position Secured. This is no longer a standalone ability, but is applied automatically to the group if the commando enters Position Secured.
• Short Fuse is a new expertise below Packed Explosives. This is 1 point expertise that decreases the fuse time on the commando's grenades by 1 second.

• Enhanced Luck is a new 2 point expertise added to the bottom of the Assault tree. Each point spent grants the commando 25 Luck.

• Added Special Lethal Beam special attacks purchasable in the Heavy Weapons expertise line.

• Added Special Focused Beam special attacks purchasable in the Heavy Weapons expertise line.

• Added Tibanna Gas to Heavy Weapons expertise, which increases heavy weapon damage by 2% per point, 4 points maximum.

• Added Enhanced Fuel Canisters to Heavy Weapons expertise. This expertise reduces the action cost of specials with heavy weapons by 5% per point as well as increasing chance to apply a DoT effect passively by 1% per point, 4 points maximum.

• A new ability, Stand Fast, is a one point expertise. Damage against the commando is reduced by 60% while Stand Fast is in effect. Stand Fast lasts for 12 seconds and is on a 10 minute cooldown.

• Improved Stand Fast is a three point expertise. Each point spent improves Stand Fast by 5% damage reduction, increases duration by 2 seconds, and lowers the cooldown by 2 minutes.

• Increased minimum damage range on Devastation bonus; maximum damage range remains the same.

• The Juggernaut heroic jewelry set cooldown has been altered from 15 seconds to 4 seconds.

• The Frontman commando jewelry set effects have been adjusted. The enrage ability cost has been lowered to 5000 health and the cooldown to 90 seconds, as opposed to 7500 health and 140 seconds.

• Officers receive a free expertise respec upon logging in to Game Update 4.

• Officers can toggle Tactics, Focus Fire, and Pistol Drillmaster group buffs on (instead of being on a timer). The first toggled skill mod is granted to an officer at level 7; more toggled buffs can be obtained by purchasing the Leadership expertise.

• Leadership expertise can only be purchased up to 2 points now. Officers still receive the +30 buff duration when both points are purchased.

• Level 90 officers can create two types of rally points; one is offensive and one is defensive. Rally points must now be placed at least 10m from the officer and no more than 64m away. Group members who stand in this area (indicated by the red or blue particle) receive a combat buff.

• Rally Point abilities are affected by the same action and cooldown modifiers as all other group buffs.

• A group system message command, /sysgroup, has been added for officers only, beginning at level 18. Officers can send system messages to all group members with this command. When an officer types %TT in the /sysgroup message, the target's name is inserted into the message. The default colors for the message are light blue for the officer's name and red for the officer's text. The officer can change the color of the text by inserting hex color combination before the message; for ex: \#00ff00 Move out!

• A new expertise tree, Misdirected Anger, has been added in third column of the Squad Command expertise. This expertise is a skill to transfer hate from the officer to a group mate, up to 25% of hate when all three points are spent in the expertise.

• Core Bomb and Grenade are now stackable DoTs; Core Bomb is a fire DoT and Grenade is a poison DoT. Both can be applied at the same time.

• Core Bomb can stack up to an increment of 5.

• The White Phosphorous Grenade ability has been changed Dioxis Grenade; this DoT can be stacked up to an increment of 10.

• Paint Target now has a default maximum range of 32m.

• Advanced Paint Target now has a default maximum range of 64m.

• Fixed an issue with Advanced Paint Target's particle effect not lasting through the entire debuff life.

• Identify Weakness and Advanced Paint Target are now linked.

• The Pistol expertise line has been updated. Officers now receive a new attack that does an extra 50% damage over normal white damage.

• Drillmaster now gives everyone using pistols an extra 5% damage on top of other bonuses.
• Dire Strikes now gives the player up to +8 range for pistols.

• The Target Selection expertise has been reduced to 2 points and moved into the Identify Weakness tree. This expertise now grants a 10% action cost reduction per point spent, up to 2 points.

• Base Supply Drop has been modified to take the officer's level into account. There is a mid-ranged version of items starting at 45 and a higher ranged version of items starting at 75.

• Sniper Techniques has been removed from the officer description at character creation.

• Environmental Purge now will remove half the stack of DoTs on you. If you only have one DoT with a stack of 1, it will remove the DoT. It will also prevent any additional DoTs from being reapplied while it is active.

• Increased Environmental Purge's DoT immunity to 10 seconds.

• The Officer Kinetic Expertise Armor increase now displays in the combat section of the skill mods UI.

• New icons have been added for bleed damage over time abilities.

• Focus Fire, Scatter, and Last Words have been moved one column over in the expertise window.  

• Officer group buffs will now apply to beasts.

• Smugglers receive a free expertise respec upon logging in to Game Update 4.
  
  
• Sly Lie, Fast Talk, Half Truth, Fake ID, Innocent Cargo, Underworld Boss, Long Odds expertise bonuses for the Smuggling system have been moved to the profession wheel and are now free.
  
  
• Gun Oil and Elbow Grease have had their abilities moved to the profession wheel. Gun Oil now reduces action costs by 5% if the smuggler is wielding a pistol.  Elbow Grease now reduces action costs by 5% if the smuggler is wielding a melee weapon.

• Corrected an issue with Spot a Sucker; the damage reduction chance is random, but the average was getting worse the more points that were spent. This fix allows the damage reduction to increase, based on points spent.

• Spot a Sucker supporting expertise have had their percentages increased

• Lucky Break and Feeling Lucky debuff cooldowns have been reduced so they can occur possibly more than once per fight.

• The Off the Books cooldown has been reduced to one minute.

• The Modify Pistol reload animation should now play on anyone observing the smuggler.

• The description of Wretched Fate has been updated.

• Pistol damage has been increased by 50% on special actions that can use a pistol.

• Break the Deal expertise now grants the "Gunslinger" title; Bad Odds expertise now grants the "Swashbuckler" title.

• Overridable armor bonuses are now 1475 per point spent in expertise.  Underworld Boss is now overridable armor instead of innate armor.

• Double Deal now has a maximum 20% chance (10% per point spent) to reset Off the Cuff's cooldown, instead of dealing damage to two targets.

• Fake Goods now decreases False Hope's delay by 1 second per point spent (minimum 1 second delay).

• Smuggling Missions for PvP should double the Improved Pistol Modules for the reward.
  
  
• Added Skullduggery, a new debuff that increases the chance for an affected target to miss and is affected by the smuggler's Luck.
  
  
• Added Eat Dirt support expertise, which increases the chance of Skullduggery.
  
  
• Added Blindside support expertise, which increases the duration of Skullduggery.
  
  
• Added Impossible Odds, a new debuff that increases the chance for an affected target to be hit and is affected by the smuggler's Luck.
  
  
• Added Sleight of Hand support expertise, which increases the hit chance of Impossible Odds.
  
  
• Added Loaded Chance Dice support expertise, which increases the duration of Impossible Odds.
  
  
• Added Pistol Whip, which is a new line of attacks that do damage with a pistol or melee weapon.
  
  
• Added Beat Down support expertise, which increases the duration of Pistol Whip's stun debuff.
  
  
• Added Flying Tackle support expertise, which adds a percentage chance to stun a target hit by Pistol Whip.
  
  
• Added Blaster At Your Side expertise, which adds a flat damage bonus to all attacks based on the smuggler's level.
  
  
• Added Shoot First, which is a new line of attacks that do damage with a pistol or melee weapon.  Shoot First has a side-effect of putting a bounty hunter into combat, if that bounty hunter has the smuggler as a bounty target.
  
  
• Added Nerf Herder, which is a new buff that allows a target to be rooted the next time it is critically hit by the smuggler through a special action.

• Ambush now applies the Armor Break debuff. Armor Break may have up to 5 applications per stack and reduces NPC armor by 400 per application. Armor Break reduces Player armor by 4% of player total per application.
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  Added Advanced Armor Break expertise, which adds 10% critical hit bonus to Ambush line of attacks and 2% Damage Bonus.

• Bounty Hunters will still apply a crit vulnerability debuff when they hit with the new armor break.

• Changed bounty hunter expertise icon that grants Ambush Mark 3 thru 8 to look the same as the commando Riddle Armor icon as they fire the same debuff.

• Flawless Strike no longer applies Flawless Bead. The three Flawless set bonuses have a 10% chance to apply Flawless Bead 1-3. Flawless Bead reduces the target's defenses against your next special attack.  Flawless Bead will be removed by the next special attack.
  • Flawless Bead 1: Reduce Dodge, Block, Glancing and Parry by 25%.
  • Flawless Bead 2: Reduce Dodge, Block, Glancing and Parry by 50%.
  • Flawless Bead 3: Reduce Dodge, Block, Glancing and Parry by 100%.

• The Master Crafted EE3 bolt is now red and the sound when firing has been changed to the EE3 carbine sound.

• Reduced the value of Enhance Block from combat block chance 100 to combat block chance 50.

• Fixed an issue with decoys not respecting /showbackpack and /showhelmet.

• Fixed an issue with decoys coming out with stealth buff.

• There is now a particle slider option located in the Graphics tab of your Options menu. This slider will limit the number of non-essential (i.e. not weapon fire related) particles you will render. This option will not affect mesh particles like holograms or holo-emotes

• The Quest Helper can now be hidden or shown via the Options menu in the Interface tab.

• Image design terminals will no longer show your helmet/backpack if you have those options turned off.

• Added flytext for entering combat; this text can be turned off via the Options menu in the Combat tab.

• When firing a heavy weapon using auto-aim, the weapon will now correctly fire at the intended target even when the mouse cursor is moved over a HUD window like the chat window.

• Emotes will now use your intended target (if in auto aim mode) or your look at target (if in manual aim mode).

• Typing %TT in spatial chat and /sysgroup will now give you the name of your look-at target while in manual target mode, and your intended target while in auto-target mode.

• Fixed an issue where screenshot files could be overwritten. Screenshots are now placed in the <Star Wars Galaxies Install Path>/screenshot folder.

• The Krayt Gunship Control Device in datapads should now be displayed as a gunship instead of a heavy fighter. This only applies to new ships and not existing ships.

• An issue with the ARC-170 that caused the screen to shake has been corrected.

• IG-88 and stormtrooper dowels have had their punctuation fixed for their item descriptions.

• Each boss in heroic instances has a chance to drop a limited draft schematic of the new CC-V 'Legion' Cryo Projector. This can be taken to a Munitions Trader to create the actual weapon.

Great updates!  Now I don't know which I like better, officer or commando.    Can't wait to try them out when the server comes back up.

TCPrime and TestCenter will both be coming up shortly with Update 4.

 

Gameplay:

• Combat Modifiers, Block Chance, Dodge, Evasion Chance, Parry, Critical Hit and Strikethrough Chance are now under a diminishing return formula.
  
  

Eep! We need to know the formula for defenses! Now!

And doesnt diminishing returns on dodge and evasion pretty much make them completely useless? They dont need to get worse anymore than they already are imo, just block(which was double nerfed apparently ) and crit

But diminishing returns was an excellent solution to block/crit stacking tbqh

• Combat Modifiers, Block Chance, Dodge, Evasion Chance, Parry, Critical Hit and Strikethrough Chance are now under a diminishing return formula.