The devs could have completely alleviated the 1st round 1 shot nonsense with nothing more than making armour related damage mitigation % curve better fit the damage growth curve and making defense up work better. Instead, they added an additional unregenratable shield mechanic. More things to go wrong when their track record has shown time and time again they are not capable of making this game not so riddled with bugs and couldn't design balanced and fun gameplay even with the simpler older system of health.
Now, they obviously overestimated the power of shields and cranked the PVE enemies's damage up to 1-shotting the shield of your lvl 73 g8 Jedi. Heck, at the last node of canitina lvl 6 (Dooku), my lvl 72 maxed out HK-47 had both his shield almost 1 shorted away, then finished off with an IG-86 assist attack. HK-47 isn't exactly a glass cannon.
Congratulations devs, you've significantly reduced arena 1 shotting at the cost of making 1 or 2 shotting the norm in PVE even with maxed out lvl 73 characters. This is just like any deal with the devil, getting one thing right at the cost of everything else.
What should have been done was to get a mathematically competent game mechanic designer who understands how damage vs. health should be balanced instead of just tacking on additional complexity and potential for serious and even more complicated problems. Instead, we have a case of when in doubt, just bolt on more parts and hope for the best. Common sense is no longer common.
EA Staff (Retired)
