The Old Republic for Dummies

[Lynk Former]

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.

That's because I get the BEST armour for my characters and companions... not the ones that simply match So naturally their armour matching ends up that way either way.

 

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.

My Vanguard is lv50 with Rakata gear and Columi/Tionese gear for the companions, no problem with armour now.

 

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?

Yeah, most of us are on Vornskr and part of the official LFN guilds on there.

 

Priss is my feisty dark side Gunslinger.

 

[mimartin]

Priss is my feisty dark side Gunslinger.

 

That abandons her friend.

 

@CrisG Just thought of this, you seem to make your class quest the priority quest for a planet. In my experience with the class quest usually have the harder bosses. You may want to do the other quests before tackling that on the next planet and see if that helps.

[RogueJedi86]

Since I was massively overleveled(45 now and ready to go to Balmorra, a 32 world, and I've been 5-10 levels overleveled since my early 20s), my companions were in the best gear by wearing crafted gear since the quest reward gear was too few and far between(an entire planet to get an entire set, and I had to choose between one companion or the other?), and too low level to be of use.

[CrisG]

ah good idea Mim, i will see how that works. It is hard to delay seeing the story sometimes but i will take your advice gladly thanks and thanks for the help yesterday that was fun taking on that Champion, a first for me and it was exciting.......it is fun to work in a group, i learn a lot from watching the experienced players and it is fun to share...a lot of fun.

 

I havent seen Priss in "person" yet, but have chatted with her and she seems quite nice. All that armour sounds nice too, i went shopping for armor on Fleet yesterday but what i had was better than anything i could buy, so i just kept going. But i did invest in all the Skills i could get and will work on learning them next.

[mimartin]

If you don't get too far ahead and have the time, perhaps we can tackle the Nar Shaddaa bonus this weekend. Although I need to play Manta some over the weekend. Priss left Manta behind, so I have to catch up and beat Lynk to 50. That is if I can stop playing the Shadow.

[RogueJedi86]

Yeah I just do my class quests in pace with the world quests. You've probably noticed that class quests "coincidentally" go through most of/all the major questing hubs on a planet, getting you to do all the other quests by taking you near where you can get others. (It kinda ruins the story immersion for me slightly, knowing my story is dictated by excuses to go to each of these hubs, but it's okay.) So you should probably be doing all the quests in each hub too, unless you're pretty overleveled(and don't feel the obsessive need to do everything on a planet before you leave).

[mimartin]

I do them as they come, but I've been helping CrisG here and there, so I know he is actually underleveled right now. He is also new to MMOs, playing as a tank and also has an extremely slow internet connection.

 

Thinking back to my first playthrough when I was new to MMOs and handicapped as a healer, over-leveling and extra mod/companion gear quest rewards is what got me through many class quests boss without calling Mav or Lynk for help.

 

@crisg - RogueJedi86 is right, don't leave the section, but you may want to do all the quests in that section before doing the class quest. Then if it doesn't work go do more and come back. That is what I did with Brem... Still have problems give me a call.

[CrisG]

thanks m, i have been doing that pretty much, working thru all the quests i can, and adding as much good value equipment to both my self and my companions as i can. I live in a small town in the mountains of colorado with only one T1 line and even tho i have High speed internet, it takes time every time i link in to load up the screen so it is slow.... i do appreciate the help as you have, and keep working hard at what i can do on my own, got many of the extra quests done in Nar Shaddaa last night, and leveled up to 32 which was nice, i still have few missions to finish over in Alderaan, but they are all to do with elites so i will wait until i get ahead a bit more. It seems most of the Guardian quests have elites or high level bosses, I actualy have my eye on a few of the Heroic quests back on tatooine to try to do on my own once i got leveled up a bit to try to get extra points. thanks again.

[mimartin]

Yeah they all have elites as bosses at the end of class quests. Haven't done the Jedi knight yet, but the main difference I've noticed between the smuggler and the consular is at the end there are usually mutiple stronger targets in the Jedi class quest (at least in case of the consular).

 

Sorry I couldn't go with you to Nar Shadda last night, the end of chapter one and start of chapter two in consular story line took forever. 1 death, but just took time to kill everything. Even had a champion in it that was optional...of course I had to try to kill it. I died with the champ having 1% health...the other NPCs killed her, so no do over there.

[CrisG]

glad they got that champion, i have that happen a lot, down to the final tiny bit and they get me there were a bunch of elites in the quests in Alderaan and i got tired of being killed so i started on the bonus stuff in Nar Shaddaa and got some done but there are some heroic ones that i would use help with, have some stuff to do but will be back in the game this affternoon and evening

[CrisG]

Thanks again Mim and Lynk for the help working on my skill points conversion i am switching over from a Tank .....and on my equipment, much appreciated. I will work on getting things set to rights today.

[Miltiades]

Question: How many custom (orange) armor sets are available to each class that can be crafted? Crafted because of the extra augment slot, of course. Because I've been looking for schematics for Bounty Hunter armor, but from what I can gather, only a handful of armor sets (Electrum, Diatum, Chanlon and two or three more) can be found via schematics. If this is true, the choice is quite limited (I'm not really a fan of what I've seen for the Bounty Hunter so far).

[Lynk Former]

There are a few but we don't really know how many exactly. You could look through torhead's armormech schem list manually to see what's listed that's orange or purple with slots... http://www.torhead.com/schematics/catg/1/sort/name,reqprofessionlevel/page/1 may take you awhile though lol.

[mimartin]

Reply to CrisG from the WB thread.

 

This has nothing to do with WBs.

 

Don't you have some type of stun now? At least a 1 min one. Stun an enemy and then attack the other as hard and fast as you can, companion should be attacking the same one as you. However, if you see the AOE on the ground, get out. You should also have interrupts; use those to prevent them from casting AOE effects. The secret is not to attack everything at once. You had everything on the bridge except the boss on us with 10 seconds, which became a real pain because my healer was so busy healing you and himself that I never got healed the entire battle. Which was a real pain when you have a mob of over 10 attacking you, then on the boss…I would have stunned him and killed the other two before attacking him, then even if you die, you only have him to deal with the second try.

 

So by attacking too soon, I mean you need to look at what you are up against and decide how to approach it before attacking. Know if you are dealing with two Elites or two strongs and change your strategy to give you the best chance of finishing it. Stun the higher levels and kill the lower first and then work your way up. If you have to wait between mobs for the cool down of stuns and interrupts. Especially when you going up against a type of NPC that gives you trouble.

[Miltiades]

As far as I know, the classes who can tank don't get a CC. At least, the Guardian doesn't have one, no. A few skills than can incapacitate mobs for a few seconds, yes, but it's not enough for the tactics you describe. Either way, focus your attention on the weaker targets first and either send a companion tank on the strong mobs or get a healer to keep your health up.

 

@Lynk: Yeah, already went through that list. I'm hoping for a better database soon, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, guess I'll have to figure it out on my own. I hope they'll make changes along the way that'll allow us to wear the armor we want to wear and get the maximum out of it without having to resort to a very limited amount of sets that can be crit crafted. If only some of the sets would have augment slots, oh I'd be a happy man.

[mimartin]

Well he had CCs last night in the forum of Leyn'a, but he aggro the the entire room before I had a chance to use them. The only person I've seen tick off that many NPC at once is Lynk either as Lynk or Priss. My plan was just to CCs one and let CrisG do all the killing, help him get a understand of what to do. Also figured my healer could heal him since he doesn't have one yet. However, my plan went out the window when he attacked while I was still recouping my force from the angry mobs we just killed.

 

Thanks Mitiades, I really have no clue what abilities the Guardian has, so any help is really appreciated. I also have no clue why anyone would play one when the Shadow is soooooo much better.

[Lynk Former]

I do it on purpose though for the lulz

[mimartin]

I do it on purpose though for the lulz

I know you do, and I know you have done it to test me too in the past. Which I'm happy about that now because it helped me out a lot last night.

[CrisG]

Mim I am sorry i did not understand your stragey,

 

all i understood was that you wanted me to do the fighting...which is what i tried to do. I dont know what CC means. In the area i needed help, that final room with the Sith and the three other Imperials, i just needed to kill him, understand i had spent hours in that setting already killing everyone else several times over and i did not need to do anything with them to advance the quest but i was not able to kill that boss on my own no matter what abilities i used. I am stuck with the Guardian but to be honest, i am not able to kill many bosses no matter what I do until i am three or four levels above them and the elites are still trouble. I am stuck again to be honest, having to kill of Darth Angle, but his is at the same level I am at and there is no way i will survive long enough to even have a chance to kill him yet. So I will try to visit other worlds and level up with any quests i can do even if they are higher level worlds. I hate to keep asking for help, ....but my abilities are just not good enough to deal with bosses until i can get my own healer. I asked Biwoare about it thru support and they said it was part of the game design to force us to play in groups, that was why the bosses are so tough. I always welcome help...if you want can you explain what you intended to do in that room that you helped me in last night? What i recall was entering it, and almost as soon as i was near the boss, he vanished in to some form of cloaking, which he had not done before....so i was not sure where he was.....

 

when you say you planned to CC one of the others, does that mean freeze them? i have a stun ablitiy but it only lasts nine seconds and has a long cool down period so it is not someting i use much. So as i say, i welcome advice, but i dont know what to do without having some way to learn it...there are no instructions with the game on technique or strategy for the various classes ....and so i have had to guess and just end up trying to use what does the most damage ....which does not work with most bosses.

 

lulz is another code word i do not know.

 

UPDATE: i read the previous page, and htanks for your reply on that ...i was not sure what you meant by WB... ah World Boss, ok now i understand, ys sorry for posting that in that thread......i think it was...and i also dont know what AOE effects means ...sorry.

 

i ddint try to get everyone going at once, and i dont have a freeze of any duration, just a very short one. I dont have an interrupt that is easy to use either, a kick and a skill that does stop action but you have to use another skill first ...so it is cimplicated. So i usualy focus on the weakest people first, and try to kill them off and plan on being killed a couple of times and even having to go back to the med station before i can start to work on the boss. So i do try to stategize to that degree but to be honest the skills i have even with the list that Lynk gave me just dont make the Guardian very good in a close fight...... i dont mind worki8ng hard and fighiting hard and dealing with a long series of enemies but these super powerfuls bosses are really making this a hard proccess for me and i keep hoping i can get to some sort of level to be safter or to get my own healer companion .

[mimartin]

Don't worry about it...

 

I'm use to fighting everything in the game at once from playing with Lynk and Leyn'a is actually good at it. CC is crowd control. Something I believe you are going have to learn in order to enjoy the game. Don't worry about it; I had to learn the same thing while going through the game with my healer. I've always played games up until TOR with the attitude of killing everything in an area. In ME, KOTOR and TSL I would run into the middle of an area and kill everything. Well that strategy will not work real well in TOR. You are going to have to exam a area and figure out the best way to accomplish the quest requirements.

 

Don’t take this the wrong way, I enjoyed fighting 10 npc at the same time last night. I like the hectic situation and knowing a mistake may spell doom. However, it was not teaching you the proper ways to get past that part on your own. Much like me being too depended on Lynk’s Priss with my trooper. The strength of my Shadow is stealth and crowd control. I can stun an enemy while we kill the others and then perform a few devastating attacks on the stunned enemy. What I was going to do in the battle last night was stun the sith lord and allow you to kill the other two without him attacking you , then after you kill them you would have killed the Sith Lord with my healer healing you. However that was before I found out you have no crowd control. So I’m somewhat stumped at you best strategy as every class I’ve played has had some form of CC, even if it was the as little as my trooper.

 

Just understand in the future that when you play with my shadow or later with my sawbones, neither is wearing heavy armor. My shadow is actually in light armor, so please allow me to use my class strengths to at least somewhat control the damage I subject her to. So allow me to go in CC someone and then get the first blow. Also do not attack the enemy I CC, that will be the very last person we kill even if we break the CC. In that case I will CC them again with a lesser and shorter CC to give us time to kill the rest.

 

Nine seconds is better than no seconds, so use it on the strongest and attack the other as hard and fast as you can. Then when the 9 seconds is up order you companion to attack that one while you mop up the lesser ones.

 

I have no clue how you people play this game without stealth and CCs.

 

My first suggestion for crowd control without a real CC ability is don’t run across the middle of a room and once you know the spotted you , stop and fight before trying to run past the next mob. You can do that stuff in the open world, but in an enclosed area all your going to do is up your repair bill. Your companion drew aggro from everything in the room within 5 seconds and then I got it from her when I attacked what was attacking her. You’re lucky I like you because when I saw you across the room and saw all those red dots, I really thought about dropping out of combat and running for the hills. Please don’t take this as an insult or moaning, I’m not, I had a lot of fun doing that, it is just unfair to you because I’m teaching you the wrong way to get through a quest solo.

 

AOE - Area of Effect - means it is a power that can effect more of a area that a single person.

 

Crowd Control - CC

[Lynk Former]

I play as one of the only other classes that doesn't have a CC ability. I can say pretty confidently that's it's very easy to defeat a mob of enemies much stronger than you without CCing one of them.

 

All you need to do is to know your classes strengths and weakness and to know when to use certain abilities, when to save others and which abilities have a strong effect if used in combination with another ability.

 

Sadly, if you don't know the basics of how that works, you're going to end up finding every boss on your class quest or the standard planet quest to be tough despite everyone else finding them easy to moderate.

[CrisG]

thanks a lot for all the help and assistance, i sent you a thank you gift Mim and thanks Lynk and all others, i have to return to real and my real work for a while, SWTOR was taking to much time and effort and was not something i can dedicate the time to right now, i hope i can come back and good luck with the Guild, sorry i will miss the boss fight good luck with that. and thanks again.

 

Cris

[mimartin]

@Lynk, Mav, Jeff, CrisG, Kus and everyone else I've grouped with in TOR, I would like to apologize. Over the past few days I have discovered I have been doing something a very fundamental thing wrong. This largely has to do with DPS and not healing, but I am sure it can only improve my healing abilities too. I’m astonish that I could be doing something so fundamentally wrong and still be able to not only complete the story line, but get so far along in the after 50 area. I not going to say what it is, let’s just say I live up to the title of the thread (pretty sure Lynk will figure it out the first time we play dailies together again).

 

I will say I would not have figure it out without doing operations and playing different classes (can’t believe I only figured it out after getting my 4th toon to level 37. Thank you all for being so patient with me and I really hope I have given you all a good laugh.

[snommism]

Over the past few days I have discovered I have been doing something a very fundamental thing wrong.

I'm dying to know what it was.

 

I too have learned things about myself, improved my rotations, discovered skills I never really utilized while doing ops. Mostly in the infernal council, that fight can be rough.

[mimartin]

I'm dying to know what it was.

 

I too have learned things about myself, improved my rotations, discovered skills I never really utilized while doing ops. Mostly in the infernal council, that fight can be rough.

Way more fundamental than that...

 

Let's just saying I was using the mouse too much and the keyboard way too little, so I was wasting soooooo much time between attacks. Still may not be doing it right, but now I'm using the mouse and keyboard. Attacks now are way more fluid and extremely fast.

 

Ok, we all know now I am a console player.