Jump to content

metaldragen

Members
  • Posts

    84
  • Joined

Reputation

10 Good

Personal Information

  • Location
    Indiana
  1. I have a similar system that is 1 generation older, but the same level of components: Intel Core i5-2500K CPU (roughly equivalent in Intel's product line to the 3570, but previous generation) Asus P8Z68V-Pro Motherboard 8GB RAM EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked Video Card (equivalent to GTX 670 in Nvidia's product line, but previous generation) I run @ 1080p resolution with maxed settings and get 70-90 FPS consistently except on fleet when I dip down to the 40s occasionally. Your system should easily hit the same numbers (and most likely will be higher much of the time).
  2. Some good picks OP. Only thing I would add: I think Thandie Newton (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0628601/) would be perfect for Temple. Also, I think Kate Beckinsale as Watcher 2 or as the female agent would be a better casting.
  3. But the question is unimportant to begin with. It's not about hitting the hardest, but keeping the person alive. Personally, I only have a Merc and a Sorc at 50 that are specced heals (I have a lowbie scoundrel alt, so I can't speak to their heals). As for my merc, I can crit around 6K fully raid buffed and with the residual buff on my target (this is in a mix of BH/Rakata and a couple columi stragglers and no augments - about 1800 aim, 800 bonus healing) using my Rapid Scan. On my sorc, I can hit about the same, but I'm also less geared than my merc (a mix of Rakata/Columi with a couple BH - about 1600 willpower and 600 bonus healing). However, I would underscore the fact that, when the situation calls for it, I'd much rather be playing my merc for the ability to dump heals fast - I can effectively instant cast 3 heals in a row - Emergency Scan, Power Surge -> Rapid Scan and Kolto Missile. I like my sorc, but not crazy about dual resource classes.
  4. It isn't really about which one is necessarily better, but balancing your stats. Jugg/Guardian tanks prefer Defense first. Ideally, you should aim for 25% defense, 50% shield, 50% absorb. What this means is that you want to keep these stats in relative balance with regards to the ratios they have to each other. Also, certain stats are worth more once you acquire a certain amount of another stat. For example, defense hits very hard diminishing returns early on (hitting 25% defense is somewhere in the neighborhood of 400+ defense rating) and each point beyond that adds a very small percentage (less than 0.01% per point IIRC). At that point, shield and absorb are more valuable because each point in them will add more to your total survivability. Also, their DR curve starts higher. Keep in mind the purpose of each stat also - defense is the chance to completely avoid damage (very high amounts of this make your damage profile spiky and can cause your healers some grief), shield is the chance you have to absorb some portion of the damage taken with your shield and absorb is the amount of the damage taken that will be absorbed when an attack is shielded. Having a high amount of shield and low absorb means that while you will shield more often, you'll take more damage overall because you are not absorbing as much. Similarly, high absorb and low shield means the same because while you can absorb larger amounts of damage, you won't be shielding attacks as often. And because of the way things are itemized, you'll sacrifice at least 1 other stat to stack one higher. All that being said, there's a good thread ( http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/thread-1042.html ) over at MMO-Mechanics.com about Jugg/Guard tanking. It's a bit dated now (most info is from 1.2), but most of it still holds true. It's got a lot of good general info as well as math for diminishing returns and optimal stat priorities.
  5. There's not really a rotation to speak of since many of our abilities are on cooldowns and we don't have a constant resource pool. It's more about priorities, using certain abilities on cooldown and reading the fight and being able to react and adapt. For trash: Throw saber at an enemy then jump to a different enemy (ranged) and let the group close in on you then smash and sweeping slash to get aggro and spread sunders. Use force scream on cooldown for the sonic barrier (extra mitigation) and crushing blow and smash on cooldown to maintain threat and sunders on the group. The rest is priority - use sundering assault on cooldown and basic attack for rage gen, use vicious strikes to dump rage, interrupt where necessary, force choke/backhand for interrupts/mitigation/runners. Alternatively, some tanks like to jump to a ranged enemy away from the main pack and force push them to the rest of the group then jump again and then smash and sweeping slash. This works well on groups that are mostly ranged enemies. Use your taunts if you're having trouble controlling the group. Also, Intimidating Roar is handy for crowd control. For bosses: Throw saber then leap in and smash. Then sunder, force scream, ravage, crushing blow. Toss force choke in at some point for rage gen (since with the spec, it's no longer channeled, it's just bonus rage and damage), use interrupts when appropriate and backhand for extra threat (since most bosses won't be interrupted or stunned by it). Again use force scream on cooldown for the sonic barrier mitigation. Use taunt as necessary to regain threat if you lose it. However, as the tank, you need to learn the fights and their mechanics ahead of time so you know when taunts are appropriate. For instance, the final boss in Battle of Ilum will stealth and drop threat and reappear and randomly attack a member of the group. You need to have a taunt available to regain threat on the boss because he does a lot of damage to that person. Also, some bosses are not able to be taunted and are therefore "un-tankable." Basically what you want to do is build a lot of rage at the start (saber throw and jump is 6 rage) then dump that rage on applying sunders first, then rotate through your high threat abilities like crushing blow and backhand to maintain a threat lead over the DPS at the beginning of the fight. By the time you've rotated through your high threat abilities, you shouldn't lose threat to the DPS for the rest of the fight apart from mechanics. Also, use guard. If there is a melee DPS in your group, toss it on them since they'll get the most benefit from it. If not, toss it on the highest ranged DPS. For trash, I'll generally toss it on the healer. This makes it easier to grab threat from them if they pull a straggler, but opinions vary on who you should guard, so use what you think is best. Just keep in mind that guard is not set and forget - each encounter is different and guard can and should be swapped around as necessary.
  6. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#101hMGdudMdfzZcRMZ0M.2 That is a pretty standard tank build. The comments below are geared specifically to PvE tanking. Immortal comments (about points not spent): 1) Battle Cry is only going to be useful pretty much once per fight - not worth the 2 points. 2) Intimidation is only really useful on trash and generally picking up trash is not an issue and slowing them won't really add anything, so being able to do it for free and on a reduced GCD isn't worth the 2 points. 3) Thrown Gauntlet - Force Push is cool, but only usable on some trash and can be dangerous if you're not watching where you push mobs. 4) These talents are really the only talents in the tree that do not directly affect the 2 things you want: threat generation and mitigation and therefore are useless to a PvE tank. Vengeance comments: 1) Single Saber Mastery, even after the 1.3 nerf is still mandatory. 2) Stagger is worthless except against trash and once you've jumped to them, you've already either sundered or smashed which should mean they aren't going to be running away from you anyway. 3) Improved Sundering Assault is now not as useful as it once was since Crushing Fist now applies 4 stacks to all enemies hit by Smash, but it's worth more than Stagger since you might have tank swap fights, or be forced to go off-rotation and let sunder fall off, and you have to put in 2 more points to get to... 4) Dreadnaught is a must for any warrior build - 6% more main stat is just a given. 5) Accuracy vs. Unyielding - I chose to put my spare point in Accuracy so I can worry less about itemizing accuracy on my gear. However, a lot of people will say accuracy isn't that important to a tank, and I'll agree. However, hitting the enemy for 200% threat for 100% damage done is better than missing for 0% threat for 0% damage done. You could just as easily throw this point into Unyielding for some extra rage generation since some bosses do like to stun or incapacitate you. I've found that generally I don't have issues with rage gen so I chose Accuracy. You could also choose to put this point into Ravager in the Rage tree. It really is a flexible point. Rage comments: 1) Decimate is a must since Crushing Fist makes Smash apply 4 stacks of sunder to all enemies hit. This talent allows it do more damage (bonus) and be used more often (better crowd control).
  7. I'll also call BS. Like someone above, I've healed all tier 1 HMs and NMMs as a merc healer and never had any issues. And I've healed several successful SM ECs (once with 2 merc healers) without any issues. Never had the ability to run a HM EC on my merc (she's an alt), but I don't doubt I could handle it just fine. My guild is 4/4 HM (my main is a Sniper) and we generally use 2 sorc healers (since that's the group makeup we've used since 1.1, pretty regular group) but our second progression group uses a sorc and a merc and they have story on farm and are progressing through hard mode (1/4 and are working on the tanks). Mercs are not the best group healers, but I'll put us up against anyone else for single-target sustained and burst healing (spoiler: we'll win). To be honest, I'll postulate that the reason these people are deriding your abilities is that they've been able to form lazy habits of not having to avoid damage due to sorc bubbles and puddles. Edit: I'll also add that your job is not to DPS in a group setting if you've joined as a healer. All you're doing is wasting heat putting out lower numbers than a pure DPS specced toon will do and when the damage hits, you'll be at a disadvantage immediately due to that.
  8. I would classify myself as Championship. I want to complete all of the hardest content in the game and enjoy doing so. Timing of it (world or server firsts) doesn't matter to me as long as I have the personal and guild accomplishment of having completed the content. I don't particularly "like" min/maxing, but I do it anyway to ensure that the above can be achieved. I don't care about PvP at all. I play it occasionally for a break, but I am seriously casual about it.
  9. 1) This is a Star Wars game. 2) When you say Star Wars to some random person, one of, if not the, first things that will come to mind is lightsabers. 3) Characters wielding lightsabers have many many parallels to characters from the existing story (films, books, comics, etc.) and so are easier for people to associate with. 4) There is no clear parallel for the agent class in general within the existing canon. 5) Wielding 2 lightsabers, no matter how ridiculous, looks awesome 6) We know from the guild summit all the way back in March (?) that the agent class was the least played (among all classes on both factions). I've seen this improve since their healing was buffed and many ranked warzone teams on my server run with Operative healers, but they are still low. 7) Right now, the general consensus seems to be that Snipers will be the new Flavor of the Month in PvP once the (to the PvPers minds) "inevitable" nerfs to Powertech/Vanguard and Marauder/Sentinel come. Thus also decreasing the number of Operatives. 8) Also, lightsabers are cool and sexy (and my first and main toon is a Sniper, but I have 1 of each class on both factions). They can't force people to roll a class that doesn't appeal to them and the fact of the matter is that a dual lightsaber wielding character is much sexier than a generic spy archetype within the Star Wars lore.
  10. It's kind of hard to give advice when you don't specify what your spec currently is, what your gear is like, etc. With that said, in general, either Marksmanship or Lethality are going to be good end-game DPS for PvE (with the slight nod to Lethality currently). Marksmanship is all weapon-based turret, whereas Lethality is a DoT spec and gives you a little more mobility since you don't need to rely as much on cover (both DoTs and WB/Cull can be cast without being in cover). The reason Lethality is slightly ahead in DPS is because a lot of your damage comes from DoTs, which are internal damage and are not mitigated by armor. All of the marksmanship abilities are weapon-based kinetic/energy and are mitigated by armor. This is the pretty standard 31/7/3 marksmanship build. I choose not to take Siege Bunker since not standing in the fire is 1 of 2 jobs you have as a DPS (I'll let you guess the other one), and Heavy Shot will just piss off the tank during trash fights (and could cause adds). Also, Diversion and Imperial Demarcation are useless outside of PvP and solo PvE. This is the pretty standard 2/8/31 Lethality build. The hard part about this spec is a lot of the abilities in Lethality are useless in ops and PvE in general. The 2 points in Slip Away could easily be put into Shiv (or even Flash Powder) but all 3 are worthless, you just have to have those 2 points to advance up the tree. Again Countersrike is pretty much useless outside of PvP, but reducing the cooldowns on your defensive abilities (Hold Your Ground) is handy for those tough fights and you have to put in 2 more points to advance up the tree. The only thing to consider is that Lethality does have AoE (Corrosive Grenade) so you need to be aware of that in FPs/OPs with trash pulls if CC is being used. As for Engineering, I have no personal experience with it, but I've read that it's a good spec for PvP and it can be decent in PvE, but it's highly reliant on procs for energy regen and AoE for damage. As for rotation advice, the only thing I can say without knowing what you are doing now is to make sure you are using Orbital Strike when energy allows, even on single target fights. Even with the long cast time and cooldown, it is still one of the highest DPS abilities we have.
  11. The differences are purely cosmetic: 1) Different ability names (though the effects of said abilities mirror each other) 2) Different animations for abilities 3) Different story 4) Different companions and companion stories (though you, like all classes, will get a companion of each archetype: healer, ranged DPS, melee DPS, ranged tank and melee tank) Really it boils down to what story you want to play and what faction you identify more with. Personally, I have leveled both a Sith Warrior (Immortal Juggernaut - tank) and a Jedi Knight (Combat Sentinel - DPS) to level 50 and I found the Sith Warrior's story to be better (and you will get the same story no matter which advanced class you choose - e.g. the Juggernaut and Marauder have the same story) but the Jedi Knight's story is not the worst in the game by far. If you are looking for more advice gameplay wise, the Sith Warrior gets their healer companion earlier than the Jedi Knight so that is something to think about if you will be playing solo a lot.
  12. That is the Ten-Kilometer Killer. I use this one on my sniper.
  13. I'll add a bit more flavor: As a Sith Inquisitor Sorcerer (Empire), you have 2 DPS specs - the first is the Madness spec which is heavily DoT-based. The other is Lightning which is (obviously) based more on direct damage and AoE/chain damage. These 2 would be roughly equivalent to an Affliction Warlock and an Arcane Mage respectively. The mirror on the Republic side is the Jedi Consular Sage which has mirror abilities though the animations and looks of the specific spells are different. The Paladin equivalent is harder to mirror to a SWTOR class. As the poster above said, a Sith Inquisitor Assassin or Jedi Consular Shadow are going to be the closest. Even though they wear light armor, they have the ability to tank with a self-buff and "stance" that boosts their defensive stats. In addition, they have the ability to do a small self heal with their main channeled spell. That is the extent of their healing abilities (it's balanced more around the idea of mitigation due to their light armor rather than true healing). However, if you are looking more for your Paladin equivalent to be a semi-durable DPS with the ability to heal, the Commando Trooper or Bounty Hunter Mercenary are going to be closer. These classes both get 2 base healing abilities that you can cast on yourself even if you spec for DPS. However, these classes are not tanks and have very few defenses other than their heavy armor.
  14. Except Eternity Vault is the same: the mission for EV is actually called Endless Horrors, but the zone is The Eternity Vault. EC is the only operation so far whose commonly accepted name (Explosive Conflict) is also the name of the quest. However, the naming mostly comes from what the devs call the ops in public communications (videos, forum posts, interviews, etc.). This is also why you'll see EC also referred to as Denova in chat (and also to avoid confusion with the similar looking EV).
  15. Speaking as one of those plate armor healers (who also has a 50 sorc specced corruption): As a sorc you have: Knockback, 4 sec. stun, 8 sec. mez, bubble, force speed, interrupt (!) and a slow (multiple depending on talents) Mercs have: Knockback, 4 sec. stun, 8 sec. mez, 25% DR shield I think the interrupt alone makes up for the armor difference, but you also have a 100% DR shield (for somewhere in the neighborhood of 3800 damage depending on gear) that is on a MUCH shorter cooldown (17 secs with PvP set bonus vs. 2 min cooldown) and can be cast on any ally, plus force speed to move out of range of stuff much more quickly. And then you have a base ability to throw a slow on someone (and if talented, have your DoT also apply a slow) and, also if talented, get a speed boost from using the bubble.
×
×
  • Create New...