The Old Republic for Dummies

[mimartin]

Well the game does depend heavily on these abilities. Didn't learn a lot about their dependencies and what they did with my smuggler until I got to level 50. Just played the game like I would any other non-MMO and it has really hurt me and my groups at level 50.

 

Didn't really learn from my mistake and haven't learned the trooper abilities either, since my trooper depends so much on Lynk's Priss (hell if I wanted to use all my abilities with my trooper everything would be dead before I was hitting the third button). Of course without me and my companion healer Priss would be dead all the time too. I really think Elara and Priss have something going on behind Manta's back because Priss gets way more healing than Manta.

 

My mistakes shown, I do pay attention to all my abilities now with my agent and shadow. With my agent I know to use toxic dart before using Shiv or other blade abilities. I know every way to get Upper Hand as fast as possible with my sawbones now and I know how it affects my other abilities.

 

You will be surprised just how much better stuff works, when you figure out what makes what work faster and better. I know with my smuggler I was in such a hurry to see the next part of the story that I really didn’t experiment to see what worked best. This attitude cost me dearly. I spent needless hours grinding to get overleveled, made even harder because I only fought Elites or higher if it was a quest, so I was not getting the extra xp for killing higher level NPCs. I finally started figuring it out about Belsavis at level 41. That was when I killed my first Champion. I went through 90% of the game without killing a Champion. Hell my shadow has already killed at least 4 or 5.

 

Sorry long story short. A little homework now will save you all kinds of time and grief later.

 

Know this isn’t saying I will not help you, just trying to give you some help in understanding the game. Take my advice or not; I’m still here to help you or anyone else in the guild.

 

If you decide to respec… the guy is on the fleet in the combat training section. Map at the bottom above the Imperial map.

 

http://www.gamezone.com/products/star-wars-the-old-republic/originals/respec-swtor-guide

[CrisG]

I really really do appreciate the advice, and listen to it all, and am trying to learn to use technique istead of just brute force, i am learning which abilities to use with which, but there is a lot to remember .....so it will take time. I am up to level 30 if you want to do those bonus missions on Nar Shaada, each level helps me play bettter as it gives me more time to learn in combat, back when i was low level and died fast it was hard to learn. Now it is better and more interseitng., Alderaan is interesting ...a nice world and some interestijng quests. I reallly enjoyed a couple of the quests on Tatooine, the Czerka one with the dig site was a lot of fun as i love archacology and that allien trapped in the machine was spooky...

 

thanks again to all,...each day is a new step...and i will keep trying. It may be better for me to respecialize if that is possible, i will think about it tomorrow, sleep now.

[Miltiades]

If you're not already sick of all our advice, I got one more thing to add (which I hope hasn't been mentioned, with all the walls of text going on ). I've seen you mention that in certain boss fights, you feel you're pretty much done for when your companion falls. Since you're a Tank, though, the boss should always be focusing on you, not your companion. There are two useful skills for this, Taunt (which taunts one mob at one time) and Challenging Call, taunting all mobs within a certain space. So what I'm trying to say, in the not-so-ideal case you're no match for a boss, it still should be you who dies first, because you have his attention.

 

That's what you should keep in mind. You're the tough one, your companion does the most damage (or heals). In all honesty, I haven't found the Jedi Guardian spec'd Tank as that much more a challenge than other classes. I tend to breeze through groups of mobs, almost as fast as my merc does. But yes, a Guardian spec'd DPS should be easier to play. So if it really doesn't work out, respec!

 

In any case, I've got the same class and role as you, so if you need further advice, you may always ask.

[mimartin]

I wrote yesterday that I knew nothing about my skills as a trooper, last night it was proven. Went on a class mission without Lynk's Priss and died at least 5 times. Wasn't even a boss, just a 2 weaks, 2 turrets and 2 strongs. This was complicated because Elara refused to heal in this room. After a crash course over chat with Lynk and Mav, they told me enough about my skills to make the rest of the mission pretty easy and Elara decide Priss wasn't coming and finally decided to heal Manta...

 

Lesson learned, even if you don't use the abilities at least know what is available. Fight was pretty easy once Mav told me how to cc one of the strongs for 60 seconds. Never used that because Priss would have everything dead in 60 seconds.

 

All this was made worse, by Lynk and me being already grouped and him watching me die...over and over again.

[CrisG]

i am experimienting with freezing one of the enemies to try that out, but thanks the advice is ALWAYS welcome always.....and i found being at level 30 made a huge difference even over 29, so i will try this a bit longer before giving up, i have not paid for the Taunt skill yet, in fact some of the recent skills are so expensive i am hesistant to get them, i mean 7,000 for a skill? give me a break Bioware. anyway, ya, i have the money, have saved over 120,000 now, but it is hard to spend it after working so hard for it. ..but i will try to learn about the skills as much as i can, it is hard to know as there are so many of them, and some of the skill points are so intricate, i really have no clue about that skill chart and just guess as best i can. there should be a tutorial of some sort for all those skills, there maybe something in the manual, i will go look at it today. anyway, ys, it has been hard, been dying fast in the past, but currently it may be better, tho some of the ambushes are just silly there are so many foes, i just got thru a boss battle in which about 12 high level bugs AND a boss bug emerged from a hidden room and there were also two zombie trainers and some more bugs in side cells, alla t once, it was just too much. I ended up being luck because while i was frozen, the jedi master sent thru and killed them all. I am not sure if it was intended to do that, but it worked and i was able to level up shortly after.

[RogueJedi86]

What sort of Trooper are you, Mimartin? I'm a 45 Vanguard, I don't remember a one minute duration crowd control. If you're a Commando, for some reason my mind says you should be paired with M1-4X and healing him. I see Commando healing as 4X tanks, and Vangaurd tanking as Elara heals. But I have a Vanguard so I have bias there, about only myself being in the dirty fray.

[Lynk Former]

Advanced classes that can be Tanks don't have any form of 60 second CC, all other classes do.

[RogueJedi86]

Which is why I assumed Commando. But I was asking to make sure. I usually only call my characters their class when I refer to story, and AC when I refer to gameplay.

[CrisG]

we do have a freeze we can use, but it is only 9 seconds....so have to try several things. there sis a push back that helps, also. And a kick that interrupts the enemy action.

[mimartin]

Which is why I assumed Commando. But I was asking to make sure. I usually only call my characters their class when I refer to story, and AC when I refer to gameplay.

 

It is a Commando... Strictly DPS and I have to use Elara and Lynk's Priss has to use Risha. Group rules....

 

We are the 4 women of the apocalypse...

[CrisG]

Looks like i wont be in fora while, for some reason my install borked itself, i didnt do anything to it, and it wants to re install close to 1 GB of main assets....Support said to re install the game if that does not work...so have fun in there and i will catch up when i can.

[RogueJedi86]

Why are the group rules that? If I had a Commando, I'd use 4X(I already take him to quest conversations a lot). M1-4X is one of TOR's best companions. Put Blizz and M1-4X together and insanity would occur. Blizz the good cop, 4X the BRINGING IMPERIAL SCUM TO JUSTICE cop.

[Lynk Former]

Cause it's a girls only club, that's why

 

Together as a team of 4 (2 players, 2 companions) we have Priss, Manta, Risha and Elara... but yeah, in that one instance when mim was by himself he could've used 4X.

 

However, in our regular group, I'm basically tanking the entire time while the 3 DPS blitzkrieg the mob and Elara heals me constantly. Works very well, fights are quick, enimes are dead.

[RogueJedi86]

4X is technically a genderless robot. Loophole!

 

Girls only club, but then you refer to Mim as him? I'm lost.

[Lynk Former]

Our characters are girls (we're both dudes in real life) XD and 4x has a male gender personality chip, so he's out XP

 

But enough of this pointless back and forth... mim and I are playing just for kicks with my gunslinger and his commando, we're all about the flash and just going through the story, we're not really playing it seriously... if you saw my skill tree for my gunslinger you'd understand, it's all about being flashy.

[Pho3nix]

I always use Elara with my Commando... it just works really well with her healing me

[Lynk Former]

Yeah, plenty of folks use healers with their DPS. I mean I even went through the entire game with DPS + DPS with my Marauder. There's not really one set strategy to rule them all...

[CrisG]

question...about a mission on Alderaan, it is the one where you have to chase a spy , nasty green woman with a mean attitude into the castle of thule, well i made it to the throne room with her and the Duke and two guards. You have to kill the two guards and defeat her, but the guards, at least one ofthem appears to be bugged. I killed him three times, ie his life bar ran out all the way three times but he would not die. This makes the mission unwinable. Has anyone else found this happening? just wondered. I am going to go to sleep and see if it is still messed up tomorrow, it was a pain as it took a long time to get down there and now i have to do it all again. Wish there were more save points in this game, it is messed up to have to repeat long sequences over something like this. btw, it was the guard on the left, facing the throne, i decided to focus on one of the three and he was it. I did notice she was easier to defeat as my companion had worked on her and she was over 1/2 defeated by the time i died after beating that guard three times. I guess i can try defeating her first. the scene may be coded to change when that happens.... but the instructions are to kill the guards and to kill her, but they are seperated on seperate lines so maybe you are supposed to kill her first and then them.

[mimartin]

Yeah, plenty of folks use healers with their DPS. I mean I even went through the entire game with DPS + DPS with my Marauder. There's not really one set strategy to rule them all...

 

DPS + Healer is my favorite combination. With my healer I went through most of the game with a Tank, but now I pretty much use Risha for dailies. They take about 1/2 the time to do than with the Wookiee. Plus she is geared the best since she can wear my hand me downs.

 

My Shadow has used the healer companion exclusively since the moment I got him. Don't believe I have died either since getting the healer (if you don't count walking into a pool of Lava on Ord Mantell).

 

Even with my Trooper, the problem the other night wasn't with my companion. The problem was I did not know my abilities. After a little coaching I made it through no problem and there was technically a harder fight at the end (which it wasn't because I knew what to do thanks to Mav and Lynk). Had I really thought about which companion to use, I still would have used Elara. Not only does it fit my style better, but she is the only one I have geared right, since she is the only one I use.

 

Only Toon I use DPS and Tank is my Agent, but that is because my Operative can heal a little too and I'm not a big fan of the healer.

 

@CrisG - Sorry don't know the mission... Is it a class mission? If you can't figure it out before tonight, give me a yell and I will try to help.

[RogueJedi86]

As an Armormech, all my Trooper companions(excepting 4X) are geared right. It's so convenient to be able to make armor that all of them can use. Plus it has the bonus of giving them a unified squad look fitting Havoc Squad.

[mimartin]

I think Lynk got Priss crewskills up to date yesterday, Haven't really done much with crewskills with my Trooper. We pretty much run and gun when playing these two. Brem keeps their implants up to date, but haven't done much else. If I'm taking the time to do crewskills it is usually with Brem. Been thinking about just changing Manta to a collector to help stock Brem and Leyn'a with materials.

[Lynk Former]

@ RogueJedi86: Unified... NOW. Before 1.2 it was just a mess of different coloured clown armour. As for crewskills for your trooper, mim. Don't waste money on them unless you're really going to use them for the guild. If you just want armour, then I have a wide selection you can choose from which I can craft Manta pretty easily.

 

Otherwise, the only reason Priss is crafting is because we don't have anyone doing Armstech in TWC. Priss is there to fill that gap.

[RogueJedi86]

They had a unified look before 1.2 too, since I crafted each companion in a single set. The same Aim heavy set in the 20s, with the 30s diversifying to favor Power for Elara and Crit for Aric. The crafted sets do have a unified look, so it wasn't a mess of clown armor. Plus no color sync for companions yet.

 

But it was easy for me because of how I spend what feels like weeks on each world before I leave, giving me an overabundance of resources to make many sets and have some leftover.

 

And to address the elephant in the room(for me), I see a lot inside jokes and remarks from y'all. All the references to this Priss person. I play on Space Slug, how about y'all?

[Miltiades]

Oh, don't get me started on Priss. What a foul, foul creature! Haha.

 

Anyway, since most people here are in the LF guilds, it's safe to say most of us play on the Vornskr server.

[mimartin]

TAnd to address the elephant in the room(for me), I see a lot inside jokes and remarks from y'all. All the references to this Priss person. I play on Space Slug, how about y'all?

 

Most of us are on Vornskr. Home of the Walking Carpets and the Imperialist Meatbags.

 

As to Priss that is Lynk's gunslinger. Lynk's main toon is a Trooper Vanguard. Mine is a Smuggler Sawbones. So we decided to make these two to play together. We've already seen the other story, so this is an opportunity for us to see it from another’s perspective. We are not playing it in a normal matter from fighting to the conversations. Lynk’s smuggler is purely in it for the credits, while my trooper is by the book. This makes for some truly confusing and unintentionally funny conversations it also makes for some funny conversations in chat with each of us wanting Priss to win the roll in some conversation or rooting for Manta to win the roll so we accept a quest.

 

If you want to do another Alt on Vornskr please do and join one of the LF guilds. We are semi-nice at least on Fridays and Sundays.