Are the classes in TOR *really* mirrored across factions?

Question

I know that the intent in The Old Republic was that the factions would be balanced by having the same classes available to each faction, albeit with different names and animations.

But after playing the game for a while, I'm not sure I believe this anymore.

One example:

While it's true that the Republic Commando and the Imperial Bounty Hunter share the same abilities, the bounty hunter uses "Heat", which goes from 0 - 100, and the Commando uses "Ammo", which goes from twelve to zero.

Comparing one of their first abilities: Rocket Punch and Stockstrike, the Bounty Hunter's version uses 16 heat, and the Commando's version uses 2 Ammo.

Converting Ammo to an equivalent amount of heat 2/12 ~> 17 heat.

Am I missing something, or do Bounty Hunters get fractionally better abilities?

Are there other differences between the faction classes, such as talent trees, or even non-mirrored abilities? Are the classes in TOR really mirrored across factions, or only approximately?

Answer 1

I've found one case where an ability is different between the mirrors, but even beyond that there are definitely some differences between how the mirrored abilities themselves play out. The differences mainly seem to be in the animations used (and the speed differences therein) as well as travel time from projectile to target. As such, most of these differences have very little effect except in PVP, where a few seconds can be critical.

Just for the sake of context, here are the mirrors:

  - Jedi Knight      <-> Sith Warrior
  - Jedi Consular    <-> Sith Inquisitor
  - Republic Trooper <-> Bounty Hunter
  - Smuggler         <-> Imperial Agent

Obviously maintaining a list of every single difference would be unwieldy not to mention probably end up outdated, but here are some differences I've found to illustrate my point:

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• Bounty Hunter's "Unload" doesn't get interrupted if you take damage, but the Trooper's Full Auto does. This makes the Bounty Hunter's ability better.

• The Bounty Hunter's Death From Above starts applying its damage immediately, compared to the Trooper's Mortar Volley which takes a few seconds before damage starts being applied.

• The Sith Inquisitor's Shock does its damage immediately, whereas the Jedi Consular's Project ability has a longer animation and a travel time.

• Smuggler's Dirty Kick stops the forward movement of the smuggler, where as the Imperial Agent's version does not stop the forward movement of the agent.

• The Imperial Agent's Flash Bang is on a 60 second cooldown, but the Smuggler's Flash Grenade is on a 90 second cooldown. They otherwise appear to be identical. They plan to patch it soon.

• The Imperial Agent's Backstab happens instantly. The Smuggler's Back Blast animation takes longer.

• The Imperial Agent's Explosive Probe animation is quick and damage happens almost instantly, whereas the Smuggler's Sabotage Charge has a longer animation plus the damage isn't applied until the charge travels to the target.

• I see at least one example of ability difference (assuming TorHead can be trusted). The Consular gets a level 46 ability, Unity, which lets them and their companion reduce damage by 50% for 15 seconds. The Inquisitor has a level 46 ability called Sacrifice which nearly kills their companion, but heals themselves 40%. Pretty different effects. This is biggest difference I've seen, and haven't heard of any others like this.

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So to answer your question directly, no, they aren't perfectly mirrored. I think the animation speeds have a much larger impact on how the mirrored classes play differently, as opposed to the minor round-off problem in the conversion such as that between heat and ammo. But even then, the mirroring is close enough that it probably won't matter to anyone except in PVP.

Answer 2

They are balanced, but not mirrored, for example, the Republic Smuggler (either sub) is stronger than the Imperial Operative, but what the Operative lacks in strength, it makes up for in stealth. And the Smuggler is also much faster than the Imperial Sniper, but what the Sniper lacks in speed, it makes up for in range and strength.

Answer 3

There are a few discrepancies between classes but for the most part they are the same. Many differences are with animations--the Sith Sorcerer and Jedi Sage have abilities that are the same but the Sage's animation has a travel time while the Sorcerer's is instant. This is of little consequence because you can still move while the animation is firing if you're not casting/channeling an ability.

Some more significant differences do exist between the Trooper and Bounty Hunter that I know of. The Bounty Hunter's Unload will always tick three times even when they suffer pushback from being attacked; the Trooper's takes longer to start hitting and can actually lose one of the three hits. Another issue exists between Death From Above and Mortar Volley where Mortar Volley doesn't actually start doing damage until 2.2 seconds into the channel where DFA does damage at 1, 2, and 3 seconds into the channel. These issues are reported issues and will hopefully be fixed.

As for Ammo versus Heat, they are the same. The Trooper regenerates ammo marginally faster than the Bounty Hunter cools down which balances out this marginal ability cost difference.