On June 6th, BioWare posted a community blog about some of the class and balance changes coming our way in Game Update 1.3. You can read the full blog here. The in-progress PTS patch notes in reference can be viewed here. Some interesting information was revealed on the blog concerning the changes being made to tank classes and DPS classes.

The classes hit the hardest this round include the Assassin/Shadow, Juggernaut/Guardian, Sniper/Gunslinger, and both Bounty Hunter/Trooper trees. Austin Peckenpaugh, Senior Designer, goes into some detail about why changes were made, and what BioWare’s long term goals for various balance issues are. Major balance adjustments can often be frustrating no matter the side of the spectrum a player’s character may be on, and it isn’t often that the community sees the reasoning behind decisions made. It’s a very nice to see some of this reasoning.

Last week, I wrote an editorial about the outlook of hybrid classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In it, I discussed the stance BioWare is taking with the nature of the hybrid tax, and why I think it’s a good stance to take for a game like SWTOR.

In my many years of enjoying and researching hybrid characters in MMOs, I came to realize that there are two different definitions for the word ‘hybrid’ in these games, and I wasn’t able to touch on that second definition and why it’s important to TOR last week. So, I thought I’d pick that subject up for another round.