The Old Republic for Dummies

[DarthParametric]

Concerning the companion talk icon incorrectly appearing, it is slated to be fixed in 1.1.3 which should be rolling out to the live servers on the 14th.

[Prime]

Finally picked up TOR, hope to have some time to install and setup tonight. I guess I should start reading this thread!

[Lynk Former]

Protip: Install it on a Windows 7 PC, not Mac OSX... *looks around*

[Mav]

I've had a few people ask me where the respec vendor is on the fleet, so I copypasta'd a quick map, note the map is for the Republic Fleet, though I imagine the Imperial Fleet Respec vendor is in the same general area (combat training room). Also Pubs, the guys you're looking for is an ugly purple rodian, he wont be marked as a vendor on your map, you'll just have to talk to him.

 

[DarthParametric]

There is also one on Dromund Kaas for Empire players, in the market area to the righthand side (opposite the class trainers) as you face the bank. I think he is a Duros from memory.

 

For the fleet, I think the Empire fleet layout is rotated 180 degrees compared to the Republic one.

[snommism]

I've had a few people ask me where the respec vendor is on the fleet...

 

I always say (a few times a day) "The south most guy in the combat training area."

[Miltiades]

I've finished Corellia with my Mercenary just yesterday and am nearing the "'endgame' content when I arrived on Ilum. I've been looking for some guides on certain endgame content on the 'net, but none are really clear. Specifically, I would like to get my hands on the Mercenary's Columni Gear. I know it involves Hard Mode flashpoints and commendations of some sort (?), but can somebody explain to me in easy terms what I need for gear like that, what I have to do for it, how good my gear needs to be for these hard modes, etc?

[snommism]

First you get the dailies, then you get the Hard Mode Flashpoints, then you get the operations.

 

At this point you should be in as much orange gear as you can be, then start doing the quests for daily commendations (on Republic side the quests are on Belsavis & Ilum). With these dailies you can get armorings, barrels/hilts, mods and an earpiece.

You don't have to be fully decked out depending on the other 3 in your party to start running Hard Mode flashpoints, but it helps. Each one will drop a certain Columi piece, and you will get some Columi & Tionese [sic?] commendations (don't forget to pick up your daily & weekly quests). Trade these commendations to vendors of your class on the fleet.

Once you get some of that (again, depends on your skill & your party on how much you **have** to have) you can start running operations. The bosses in the ops will drop "assigned" loot in normal mode, and regular "roll for" loot in hard mode.

 

The breakdown is as such, in order of worst to best:

orange with items from dailies slotted -- from dailies

Tionese -- from commendations from HM FPs and ops

Columi -- from HM FP, ops & commendations

Rikata -- from hard mode ops

 

(I'm probably misspelling all the names)

[DarthParametric]

I can run some dailies with you Miltiades if you want. I haven't played for about a week as I was getting bored with the Inquisitor. The Merc and Jugg have been twiddling their thumbs on the fleet since hitting 50 weeks ago waiting for someone else to catch up. If you are keen just send me a PM with when you'll be on. Probably going to be finalising some ME2 Sheps in the meantime.

[Miltiades]

Thanks for the answer, snommism, and DP, sent PM.

[mimartin]

Alright I pretty much stink as a healer in the level 50 flash points that I have tried.

 

Although from what I’ve been reading I’m not the only one that sucks at healing with a sawbones. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=282986

 

So I’m going to give my main problems and see if anyone has some advice.

 

1. Energy runs out in longer fights. How I solved this in solo was to fire my default blaster attack until I built up energy enough to use heal again. I would usually do this in combination with a flash grenade or dirty kick in order to buy myself a few moments. Diagnostic Scan also works here for building up energy, the problem is it takes forever to cast and provides very little healing. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=281921

 

Cool Head which is the best way to regenerate energy has a 2 min cooldown. So after I use up the energy from it, sometime I still have 1 min to wait for Cool Head to be an option.

 

I’ve been told not to attack in combat, but I’m thinking that means do not attack with attacks that take energy. Is it alright for me to use the default attack that restores energy? Could that cause me to pull aggro from the tank? I wouldn’t think the default attack would draw more aggro than a big heal, but I don’t know.

 

2. Second is a problem, but there really isn’t a solution. About the only heals I have while moving is Slow-Release Medpac (which only heals a moderate about of health over 18 seconds and cost 15 energy) and Kolto Cloud (which will heal 4 target, up to 30 meters away but only within a 10 meter radius). This one seems to work, but it is very under powered even with Healing Hand, Smuggler Technology and Homegrown Pharmacology. So my problem is how to stay out of harms way, but within the range of everyone in the group while also keeping them all within my line of sight. If they are out of sight (behind cover or up a ramp), I cannot heal? Best I can do is cast Kolto Cloud and hope they are with 10 meters of whoever I targeted.

 

3. Is it bad form to leave in the middle of a fight? No that isn’t what I mean, but when I suddenly get aggro, can I disappear to get the mob off my butt? I know I have the ability, but isn’t that going to suddenly put the mob on someone else? If I had already used Surrender (30s cooldown) and used the shield probe (not sure of correct name for a smuggler, but it is the same as the imp agent), should I use Disappearing act and then reappear to start back to healing? Disappearing Act does have a 3 min cooling off period, so I like to save it for the in-combat revive that sawbones has.

 

4. Anything else anyone can think of? Jeff, Mav, Kus and Lynk have been really nice about it, but I know I suck at this so far. It is the first time I played a MMO and the first time I’ve done a healer, so if anyone has any ideas I would appreciate them. I hate to let my friends down even in a make believe world.

 

Loved the smuggler story and I have really had fun playing her, but from what I have read today I may have really gimped myself by choosing that class as a healer. Should have done like Lynk and did more planning/research before the game was even out.

 

This is my build right now. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#701rffrdGRRdsZ0M.1 if you have any tips.

 

From everything I've read today, if you are going healer, Jedi Sage is the way to go. They are saying even trooper healer is a better fit. Which I cannot believe that is the case.

 

Edit one more question: With my Wookiee I almost constantly had Upper Hand in battles. While playing in a group, I only seem to get upper hand when I spam slow-release medpacs. What is great about Upper Hand for a smuggler is then I can use Emergency Medpac that cost no energy only upper hand. Left out the question: Is there a way for other class in the group to give me upper hand beyond killing an enemy?

[snommism]

I might not be the best help as my sawbones is only level 35, but I also have been running HMFPs and Ops (hard & soft modes) on my main for just over a month now.

 

Although from what I’ve been reading I’m not the only one that sucks at healing with a sawbones. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=282986

I personally see that as a challenge But I tend to play the "crappy" class.

 

How I solved this in solo was to fire my default blaster attack until I built up energy enough to use heal again.

IMO, you should be healing 100% of the time when in a group. Unless you are consistently wiping to a boss' enrage timer because the party just isn't putting out enough DPS.

 

Diagnostic Scan also works here for building up energy, the problem is it takes forever to cast and provides very little healing. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=281921

Its small, but used in place of the aforementioned blaster attacks might make up for it.

 

Cool Head which is the best way to regenerate energy has a 2 min cooldown. So after I use up the energy from it, sometime I still have 1 min to wait for Cool Head to be an option.

Its not drastic, but you also have pugnacity (i think is the name/spelling)

 

I’ve been told not to attack in combat, but I’m thinking that means do not attack with attacks that take energy. Is it alright for me to use the default attack that restores energy? Could that cause me to pull aggro from the tank? I wouldn’t think the default attack would draw more aggro than a big heal, but I don’t know.

see previous comment. IMO, tank makes sure they have aggro, DPS makes sure things die, healers keep everyone healed.

 

So my problem is how to stay out of harms way, but within the range of everyone in the group while also keeping them all within my line of sight. If they are out of sight (behind cover or up a ramp), I cannot heal? Best I can do is cast Kolto Cloud and hope they are with 10 meters of whoever I targeted.

I think your tank should be keeping things off you. If you are getting hit then you need to call out "get these things off me!"

 

No that isn’t what I mean, but when I suddenly get aggro, can I disappear to get the mob off my butt? I know I have the ability, but isn’t that going to suddenly put the mob on someone else?

To be blunt, this is the tanks concern. Your concern is keeping everyone healed and you have to be alive to do so I think if the above mentioned suggestion for the tank to regain control of the fight fails, going invis is a viable option.

 

Disappearing Act does have a 3 min cooling off period, so I like to save it for the in-combat revive that sawbones has.

Just a heads up for operations, all healers (or just sages?) also have battle res, and they share one cool down, so be sure to confirm who is getting res'ed.

 

4. Anything else anyone can think of?

As I said at the top, I'm not the absolute best to give advise, but I would say to tweak your spell rotation. I try to make sure everyone has HoTs (slow release) on, especially since that gives upper hand, spam medscan and throw the larger heals as needed.

 

Loved the smuggler story and I have really had fun playing her, but from what I have read today I may have really gimped myself by choosing that class as a healer.

This makes me very excited to get the last 13levels on my Sawbones! I really enjoy the underdog classes. Speaking from a developers point of view, I really don't think it is even possible for them to be as terrible as people say, I just assume most people want to play the click to win classes. So personally I would stick it out BUT, you can always re-roll, leveling is not that difficult.

 

This is my build right now. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#701rffrdGRRdsZ0M.1 if you have any tips.

Looks like a very solid build. The only difference between that and mine is I didn't put any points into "anatomy lessons" (reduces cost of atk spells) as I don't attack, and "scar tissue" (reduces dmg taken) as I don't plan to get hit. Instead, I put the points in "survivors scars" & "no holds barred"

 

From everything I've read today, if you are going healer, Jedi Sage is the way to go. They are saying even trooper healer is a better fit. Which I cannot believe that is the case.

Sage does have its benefits, I've heard their best quality is their AoE heal. Personally I will never roll one because they have been titled the best. I don't have any experience with trooper healers over level 30 so I can't comment there.

 

I hope that helps some and good luck!

[mimartin]

I personally see that as a challenge But I tend to play the "crappy" class.

I took it as a challenge on solo mode too, but now the crappiness is spilling into group side. In solo I got pretty good, towards the end I was getting through battles even out of cut scenes without trouble. I sure the same thing will happen here after practice, but the problem is this practice is not only getting me killed, but others.

IMO, you should be healing 100% of the time when in a group. Unless you are consistently wiping to a boss' enrage timer because the party just isn't putting out enough DPS.

The problem usually isn’t the boss, the problem usually is everything else usually takes notice of me at some point during the battle, especially turrets.

Its not drastic, but you also have pugnacity (i think is the name/spelling)

Thanks…I haven’t been using pugnacity properly at all. All I knew is it took consumed an Upper Hand, never had a problem with energy in solo mode so I just forgot about Pugnacity. I can see now that while it is true it is not drastic, it will be of great use in groups. Thank you…

I think your tank should be keeping things off you. If you are getting hit then you need to call out "get these things off me!"

I’m not blaming the tank. He seems to do a really good job at keep things off of me. The DPS seem to be doing a good job of killing to when they are not dying because I’m having problems with my job. I know some of it is my gear, haven’t done enough to upgrade my gear above from the gear I had at the end of the main quest. Got my first great piece on the last hard flashpoint, so I hope equipment helps. Maybe I should be doing flashpoints on the normal setting, but I have to do what the group is doing.

 

Looks like a very solid build. The only difference between that and mine is I didn't put any points into "anatomy lessons" (reduces cost of atk spells) as I don't attack, and "scar tissue" (reduces dmg taken) as I don't plan to get hit. Instead, I put the points in "survivors scars" & "no holds barred"

From my reading today, I am thinking about giving those spec a go. Only reason I’ve been holding off is in case I needed to do dailies alone. Need some more guild member at 50.

I hope that helps some and good luck!

If nothing else it got me to relook at Pugnacity which I think will help with one of my biggest problems. Again thank you. It really sucks to be a healer to set there watching someone die because of a lack of energy hoping someone will get you Upper Hand before the end.

[snommism]

I took it as a challenge on solo mode too, but now the crappiness is spilling into group side.

Yeah this is where I can't help as I've yet to do group on my healer

 

The problem usually isn’t the boss, the problem usually is everything else usually takes notice of me at some point during the battle, especially turrets.

I meant that's the only time I've asked healers to add to the dps, when we couldn't beat the enrage timer on a boss because we weren't hitting hard enough.

 

 

I know some of it is my gear, haven’t done enough to upgrade my gear above from the gear I had at the end of the main quest. Got my first great piece on the last hard flashpoint, so I hope equipment helps. Maybe I should be doing flashpoints on the normal setting, but I have to do what the group is doing.

Normal mode flashpoints won't do you any good after 50

You should be in as much orange gear as you can, filled with as much daily bits as you can (see my post a few posts up).

 

If nothing else it got me to relook at Pugnacity which I think will help with one of my biggest problems. Again thank you. It really sucks to be a healer to set there watching someone die because of a lack of energy hoping someone will get you Upper Hand before the end.

Glad I could help with that at least I know I don't have extensive exp with endgame sawbones but I am familiar with the class up to 37 (and beyond in theory) (and I do have a lot of endgame groups exp).

 

I forgot to mention the first post, and almost forgot again. We do have a level 50 sawbones in guild, within 24hours of hitting 50 she took part in a successful (normal mode) EV run (I wasn't there so I don't know if she got carried by the other healer (8 person team)). We're about to (literally minutes from now) run hard mode EV now so I'll try to keep my eye on her and let you know.

[DarthParametric]

If you are getting attacked then blame Lynk. It's the tank's job to hold aggro.

 

Healers have never interested me much, so I don't really have much of anything to offer in the way of advice. However, the one thing I have seen repeatedly stressed by long time healers discussing strategy is to not over-heal (i.e. you don't need to heal someone back up to 100% to be doing your job). I've seen various forums posts covering recommended rotations and strategies for healers. Check out the Smuggler forum on the official site - I'm sure there will be something there to help.

[mimartin]

You are correct the overhealing thing is one of my problems. The only heals I should be spamming according to what I have read today is Diagnostic Scan and Slow-Release Medpacs to keep energy up and Upper Hand at the ready.

 

Another example why it is me and not Lynk that is the problem. All those big heals are pulling aggro too fast. I'm all for blaming Lynk for any and everything, but in this case it is me.

[Lynk Former]

@ DP: Perhaps you should know more about the mechanics of the fight and the situation we were in before you start criticizing me.

 

The reason mim was getting so much agro was, as he said, he was using his big heals instead of his small ones. This is because he wasn't geared up at all for hard mode flashpoints and he didn't have that much in the way of daily commendation modifications to be as effective as he probably should have been.

 

We were basically fast tracking him and trying to get him gear as quickly as possible and skipping a few steps along the way. It may mean that situations come along where he has to use abilities unnecessarily that end up pulling agro away from me.

 

It's not entirely possible for the tank to hold all of the agro 100% of the time like you seem to expect to do. That's not how it works at all. The way it DOES work is that the team needs to work together to manage threat together, this includes the healer and the dps in the group, not just the tank. Healers need to heal smartly and DPS need to manage their dps level so they don't generate too much threat to pull it away from the tank but at the same time have enough dps put on the boss so it doesn't enrage and **** us all up.

 

As I said before, since we were fast tracking mim and trying to get him Columi gear as quick as possible, this balance wasn't being met. It took us a few goes during that one particular boss battle to figure out the balance... which is standard operation for a lot of boss battles, particularly in a hard mode flashpoint or an operation.

 

With each failure we were able to learn and adapt and figure out how to work with the imbalance and succeed in the end. That's how it works, we don't just give up if we fail once or run away and say "i give up" cause it seems too hard and leave the others to die, that's not how teamwork works.

 

Every time mim pulled agro, I'd taunt and get the agro back on me... the PROBLEM however in this particular situation is that mim is extremely fragile in the state he was in. Even a second of agro pulled meant that his health dropped like a stone. The next problem is that there are 3 different targets I needed to worry about who were all spread out over a wide area. The main boss and then two turrets on either side of the boss which are fare enough away from each other that the AOE taunt is only effective on ONE of the targets at a time which means that I can only effectively taunt TWO of the THREE enemies off of mim, Jeff AND Mav (who are also fragile themselves but not as much) all at once.

 

But as I said, after a few tries (not too many) we figured out a way to work with the imbalance and we finally defeated the boss even though it took out mim and then Jeff at the end. Mav and I managed to hold out, long enough at the end to take out the two turrets after the boss fell. We also cleverly shared agro at the end so we could make sure that we held out for longer to take out the turrets and all survive to claim our prize.

 

In a perfect world, I'd hold agro 100% of the time, the DPS and the healers would get no damage and I'd be the only one need healing... but that NEVER happens in an MMO, not even with the best tank on the entire planet because there are things in this game that prevent that from happening simply because they're built into the mechanics of the fight to throw each member of the team off and MAKE you find a way to work around the fact that your obvious skills won't help you so simply.

 

As I've discovered, that's what makes MMO's cool and I find it really silly when people start complaining cause they don't have a perfect set of skills to hold agro all the time or some crap like that. Every characters moveset is meant to be imperfect because you're meant to play with others and you're meant to use all of the skills of the group to compliment each other and find a balance to defeat the enemies.

 

 

 

 

TL;DR

It wasn't my fault and it wasn't mim's fault, we just needed to find a way to balance the teams abilities to defeat the boss... which we did, and mim got his Columi chest piece out of it. We win, hurrah!

[snommism]

I forgot to mention the first post, and almost forgot again. We do have a level 50 sawbones in guild, within 24hours of hitting 50 she took part in a successful (normal mode) EV run (I wasn't there so I don't know if she got carried by the other healer (8 person team)). We're about to (literally minutes from now) run hard mode EV now so I'll try to keep my eye on her and let you know.

She did fine healing in hard mode eternity vault, last night. I didn't really ask the other healer if she was having to work overtime to pick up slack or anything but I know we had little to no deaths. Even if the other healer was picking up some slack it would be hard to judge as the sawbones has some pretty poor gear ><

 

Good news though (and some bad for sages I guess):

We plan on improving the overall Area of Effect healing performance of the Mercenary/Commando in the next major Game Update (1.2) by increasing the number of targets affected by Kolto Missile/Kolto Bomb.

 

As for Scoundrels having no tools for short burst healing, we don’t agree with that assessment. A scoundrel, for example, is capable of producing rather significant burst healing output by using Upper Hand gained from Underworld Medicine or Kolto Injection to trigger an instant Emergency Medpack or Surgical probe when needed. That said, we certainly think there’s room for improvements (and our upcoming Game Update 1.2 has a sizeable chunk of such improvements). For example, we are shifting the healing created by the Kolto Cloud ability to be front loaded in 1.2 to allow it to act as an emergency Area of Effect healing tool.

 

Finally, the perception of a specific class being not desirable can also be affected by the desirability of other classes. For example, Sage/Inquisitor healers are currently able to exceed our intended healing performance at times by affecting multiple heals with the same Conveyance/Force Bending buff. Game Update 1.2 will remove the ability to do so.

[mimartin]

She did fine healing in hard mode eternity vault, last night.

 

Thanks that is good to hear.

 

I pretty much think I can get this down now. Just can't believe I was doing so many things wrong. Between not setting up healing frames, because I felt they just got in my way, to not using all my ablilities because I didn't fully understand them. I was being hard headed about this. Being sturborn served me well in completing the game solo as a healer, but it was just being stupid in groups.

[snommism]

I pretty much think I can get this down now.

And that is good to hear!

 

Between not setting up healing frames, because I felt they just got in my way,

Enlighten me on these healing frames please

[mimartin]

This quy can do it better than me.

 

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[Lynk Former]

He means Operation Frames (or "Raid" Frames in other games) which are usually only used when you turn a party into an operations group. There's an option in the preferences so you can have a regular 4 man party use the Operations frames thus allowing you to customise their placement and size, making it easier for healers to do their thing...

 

I use them myself despite being a healer because it allows me to keep better tabs on the status of the other players in my party and who is taking damage so I can immediately take the threat off of them when playing as my vanguard.

 

Here's a screenshot to show you what I mean... don't mind the other stuff happening in it...

 

 

...I have the frame size set to MAXIMUM but you can adjust the size and the positioning to your liking very easily.

[mimartin]

Help with Crew Skill...

 

Alright I have no clue what I'm doing wrong with crew skills. I know on my first character I just waited too long before starting them, so I had to purchase crafting material from the network to make any progress with Biochem, but with my second character I have killed and scanned anything and everything and still can’t keep up with demand. It has been far better than my first try and she is about as the same level in biochem as my smuggler, but do I just have to breakdown and purchase materials from the network to get anywhere? Or do you have to constantly retrace your steps and kill the same thing over and over to have sufficient materials?

 

Bioanalysis is great, I’m motoring right along with it, even have it maxed out with my smuggler. Diplomacy is easy too. Had to add on to my cargo hold to store all the materials it nets me, too bad it isn’t a better assortment.

 

I am really tempted with my next character to just give him/her Gathering and Mission skills and then sell that stuff on the Network and buy what I need off the Network.

[ChAiNz.2da]

do I just have to breakdown and purchase materials from the network to get anywhere? Or do you have to constantly retrace your steps and kill the same thing over and over to have sufficient materials?

 

Pretty much.

 

A lot of people ask why I fret over the amount leveling up and equipment costs when I should be tripping over credits. Well, my vice is skill missions and once you hit lvl 5-6missions, they can get horribly expensive, especially trying to crit purple resources (which most biochem prototypes blue/purple use) Beats having to re-trace steps over a planet.

 

I will harvest nodes when I come up to them during my missions, but I'm not about to go traipsing around a planet just for resources. Plenty of time to do that after I hit 50.

[Miltiades]

So, having searched on the web, it seems some flashpoints on Ilum (which I haven't done yet) give daily commendations. Can anyone confirm this, but more importantly, is it worth doing for dailies, knowing these FPs probably take at least an hour to complete?