'Star Wars: The Old Republic' update brings balance to the force with control and class changes

The incoming update for "Star Wars: The Old Republic" brings changes to crowd control and certain class abilities tweaks, as well as an overhaul of stealth spec gameplay.

An upcoming update for Star Wars: The Old Republic will bring changes to the game's crowd control and class systems, including tweaks to specific class abilities adapting to these changes, BioWare announced today on the game's developer blog.

The update adjusts the range at which players can control a target in order to make the action "more readable, more predictable, and less chaotic in effect" for other participating players. Force abilities such as Electrocute and Force Stun now have reduced target ranges, while others now have timed set up, activation, and cooldown periods ranging from 20 to 30 seconds.

Teams casting multiple abilities at once will no longer benefit from their attack values adding up; BioWare has tweaked the system by matching the greatest ability in use against the incoming ability from the target to determine a hit. Therefore unorganized teams will no longer accidentally make targets immune to a control effect when using overlapping abilities on an already-controlled target.

Restrictions and boosts have been added to certain class-specific abilities to accommodate the above crowd-fighting system changes. Classes with stealth abilities have also been tweaked to better serve their teammates in large or lengthy group fights. A full list of these changes is available on the developer blog.

BioWare promises that The Old Republic's classes will be under "constant evaluation," and that future changes will be made to "address usability issues, improve quality of life, and make the most non-invasive changes [they] can to correct emerging balance issues."

Star Wars: The Old Republic will be free to play beginning this November.