What was the equivalent of Chain Lightning for Sages again ? I don't have any Sorceror ...

You will get OH SO KILLED

 

You might kill a few here or there but soon it will be clear why it's a 4 player thing. And some of those heroics actually requires several players to activate stuff.

 

Oh, yes. We were nuked. It was a level 31, not merely level 29, so at level 36 (with full blue 35 gear) she wasn't quite overpowered enough. And Khem Val's nowhere near geared properly.

 

But then I ganked my first pub, which was nice. Actually it wasn't nice. It wasn't very fun at all. It was some poor level 29 gunslinger who was struggling with the scenery, already down to half HP, and I just kind of absent-mindedly let loose with Chain Lightning, red-misting the gunslinger and the scenery he was struggling with.

 

I was expecting more of a fight... like, some kind of epic duel but... the poor thing. The poor sod. The poor bastard. I just kind of feel sorry for him. (I mean, she is Light Side, ya know?)

Edited July 14, 2014 by Rimbosity

What was the equivalent of Chain Lightning for Sages again ? I don't have any Sorceror ...

 

I asked my brother, the dog, and he replied, "telekinetic wave."

I did finally figure out why I was medaling so much in the warzones at first: I was hitting a lot of first-time achievements. Now that I've got a lot of those achievements already... I actually have to work for my medals.

 

It seems she still can medal quite a bit.

 

The overall damage over time she does isn't much, for the reasons listed above -- the strategy of staying the hell away from any attackers, and cast time. But when the casts get off, they really, really hit hard. But mostly, she benefitted in this instance from Rykem, who made her effectively invincible. I swear, two-thirds of those healing points all poured into Squirrelcorpse.

 

One comment my brother, the dog, made about Ancient Hypergate: "Don't bother defending the middle. If you get both pylons, then your opponent can't get any points." As the large number of Objectives achieved by my Zap Witch shows (not to mention the big victory), he has a point. That said, don't try to steal it right at the beginning. I've had opponents try doing that (and tried it myself), and it usually means nothing. It's more beneficial to go mid-game, when some of the opposition is in the respawn holding area and few are actually around to defend.

 

A Zap Witch also isn't going to cap anything if she doesn't have a healer nearby making her nearly indestructible, anyway.

I have a great deal of respect for the players who know the strongest combinations for their roles, especially in a PvP environment; which is so hyper-competitive.

 

I have a great deal more respect for the players who look at the discarded, discredited, or unused specs and looks at the hidden possibilities. Players like you are the people who probably get the least amount of sympathy, and probably no small amount of hate, for not preforming at optimal levels. Yet its people like you who find the new play-styles and the new techniques a class is capable of. Today you are writing amusing anecdotes about an unused spec. perhaps a year from now, you will be writing 'The Zap Witch Guide to PvP.'

 

Not to say you might be the chosen one or anything. Perhaps Squirrelcorpse's destiny is just to be amusing. Either way, you provide the sort of vibes I like to see on a form.

 

/hat_tip

Great thread! I subscribed and voted it 5 stars

 

A couple of things, in case you're not aware:

 

1) You can respec any time you want, as much as you want, for free if you're a sub (which you obviously are). There is a respeccy guy in the training area, at about 1:00 on the Imperial Fleet.

2) You can change the role Groupfinder thinks you want just before you click the "Join Queue" button and it will save your settings. So uncheck "Healer" and save your server some grief!

Awesome thread; very enjoyable! If I was on Bastion I would be sure to throw a guard on your butt ;-D

Squirrel, I feel obligated to make sure your little fluffy squirrel tail stays alive as long as possible, even if you are a sissy lightsider . Hope to run into on The Bastion at some point, this is an epic thread. Edited July 17, 2014 by Jekan

You made me spec Lightning just to try it....

Thanks to all of you for the kind words.

 

Sorry for not having an update in a while -- the machine I was using for the game gave up the ghost. It has since been replaced with a machine that can do the graphics at "Ultra" settings. Muahahahahaha...

 

Fidelicatessen: Yes, I can respec at will, which is what I'm using to experiment with the tree, although I really don't have enough points to do any realistic kind of experimentation. I'm learning by going up as high as I can first, and may double back later. I wouldn't even think of using this power to change into Madness or Healing, because where's the fun in that?

 

Xakthul: The great thing is, there is no way this experiment can fail: Even if Light PVP Lightning is a total clusterf**k, it's fun just to try, and "fun" is the whole reason to do such a thing. So even if I "fail," the worst thing that happens is I had an absolute blast trying it.

 

---

 

Meanwhile, I'm spending some time in the Class story line. I just finished up Alderaan, and I have a bone to pick with a certain jedi:

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2014 by Rimbosity

Yeah, Alderaan is a bit of a weird beast.

 

But I'm having fun being able to solo guard a pylon at lvl 15 with Lightning....

I must regretfully announce that Lord Squirrelcorpse's master, Darth Zash, died peacefully in her sleep last night after a bout with pneumonia.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, in PvP, it's not so much about the damage you can deal out as much as it is the damage you can get away with before you get caught.

I must regretfully announce that Lord Squirrelcorpse's master, Darth Zash, died peacefully in her sleep last night after a bout with pneumonia.

 

 

BWAHAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING, I ELECTROCUTED HER AND TRAPPED HER SOUL IN MY DASHADE

 

watching her and khem val argue with himself/herself is the best thing in the single-player game

 

 

Yeah, in PvP, it's not so much about the damage you can deal out as much as it is the damage you can get away with before you get caught.

 

Oh yes. It's even better when she talks from Khem XD

Something just happened tonight that has never happened before, and I have to share it.

 

Tonight's my second night in a row to do my Daily PVP WarZones after a hiatus of nearly a month. Last night, my attempts were like a methed-up hamster with hot sauce on its paws with all the random button-mashing I was doing. Tonight was a little better, but not due to my own efforts.

 

I drew an arena, which has happened before.

 

I aggro'd the entire opposing force almost immediately, which has happened before.

 

I fought valiantly for every last second of life, which has happened before.

 

In the first and second rounds, I died almost immediately, which has happened before.

 

In the third round, however, I survived the entire round.

 

That's never happened before.

 

The secret sauce was none of my doing. The secret sauce was another player, who decided to guard the poor little weakly Zap Witch. In the first round, I got separated from the group, so the guard no longer worked, but the team won regardless. In the second round, the opposing force did a good job of basically keeping Squirrelcorpse in permanent stun mode, so it took several minutes, but she did eventually die (taking the poor guard down with her). But on the third round, somehow, the opposing force wasn't able to permanently stun her. And then she was able to begin to get her real attacks off, including the chains that really matter.

 

And because of this, my dear friends, where the first two rounds took a few minutes to finish, the third round was over in mere seconds.

 

Oh.

 

So that's why they always go after me.

 

Edit: Props to Pbr-streetgang, the character who made this experience memorable.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Rimbosity

LEVEL 40

 

The Alacrity Experiment

 

Squirrelcorpse's armor is now all orange, so I took her to the local Modification Commendations dealer to get her geared up. Gear priority remains Willpower above all else, naturally, so I pick up Resolve whatnots whenever possible. Implants seem to favor Endurance and secondary always seems to be Endurance, although I'd favor Power.

 

Which brings up an interesting thing. Enhancements for the high 30s have a couple of pairs that both looked very interesting; one that boosted Crit/Surge, and one that boosted Power/Alacrity. Should I mix? Nah, let's stack. So I went with full Power/Alacrity. Power stacks nicely, and Alacrity is just super, super useful for a Zap Witch, because all of the fun things have a cast time or channel time.

 

She doesn't hit as hard since she doesn't crit as often vs. the gear she had previously, but she can attack much faster and the base is more painful.

 

---

 

Oh, and I ran through Taris with Ashara. She's fun. She's fully geared, too, focused entirely on Strength/Endurance as is appropriate. She has a cape! And two beautiful custom-built blue lightsabers. She also has about 1000 HP fewer than Squirrelcorpse. Not sure how that happened, but it was a blast charging through the ruins of Taris as a pair of over-leveled and fully-equipped DPS monsters.

 

But Ashara is hard to please, apparently. I was really hoping for blue-orange alien love, but alas, this isn't Mass Effect, so I either have to be Light Side (easy), not kill Jedi (hard, especially when I'm Light 3 and the Jedi are bloody dark) and buy her gifts (very hard).

 

I'm having to go the gift route, and so far, THIS has been the most-efficient use of all that Alacrity I now have, even better if I can throw Polarity Shift on.

 

---

 

I guess I have to say something about PVP to keep on-topic, so here it is: Guys, seriously, if you get into an arena and the other side has a Zap Witch, seriously... KILL THE ZAP WITCH FIRST. She should go down easy and, if you don't, she will nuke you. I was part of a successful Arena battle where Squirrelcorpse was basically ignored by the opposing team.

 

It went very badly for them.

 

I just hit Hoth and I'm actually not over-leveled for it, so I'll probably be hitting up the WarZones more. We'll see how gearing for Alacrity works then.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Rimbosity

I tried Alacrity on my sage (healer) once, but quickly found my way back to willpower. The difference seemed negleteble and the heals suffered to much. But each to their own.

 

Arenas, I find, are very situational. I would rather go for the level 32 sniper than the level 51 sorc, as the primary focus is to make the match 3vs4. This assumed there are no healers and the sorc is not side-healing and the sniper is not guarded. Most of the time I am just thrilled if my team-mates will focus the same target heh.

I tried Alacrity on my sage (healer) once, but quickly found my way back to willpower. The difference seemed negleteble and the heals suffered to much. But each to their own.

 

Arenas, I find, are very situational. I would rather go for the level 32 sniper than the level 51 sorc, as the primary focus is to make the match 3vs4. This assumed there are no healers and the sorc is not side-healing and the sniper is not guarded. Most of the time I am just thrilled if my team-mates will focus the same target heh.

 

Let me be very clear on the Alacrity Experiment: I'm not choosing it over Willpower, I'm choosing Power/Alacrity over Critical/Surge on my orange gear's Enhancements, none of which boost primary stats (at the planetary vendor, at least). I always pick Willpower over anything else otherwise.

 

As for making the arena 3v4, as you point out, that's a fool's game if there's a tank or healer who knows what he's doing on the other side. Even if you do go after the weakest player and make it 3v4, I've very often seen that not pan out; I've been on several teams that've won arenas despite Her Lordship Squirrelcorpse being the first player out.

 

What makes the Zap Witch so horrifying in Arenas is that her hardest-hitting attacks, Force Storm and Chain Lightning, are multi-target attacks that slow and possibly stun the players they hit, AND they support each other (i.e. Force Storm triggering instant, no-force-power-required Chain Lightning). The problem with multi-target attacks that hit hard: Whomever the healer/tank guards, the rest of the team gets slaughtered. So in a few seconds, she's taken a huge chunk of your entire team's HP out, and meanwhile she's likely put shields on her own team, so the opponent is going to have to work that much harder to even get that first hit point knocked off of the Zap Witch's side.

 

Really, the best defense, the ONLY defense, is to kill the Zap Witch quickly. It's not about making the battle 3v4; it's about preventing her from making the battle one-sided.

Guys... uhm... guys...

 

...I don't feel very good right now...

 

...guys? A little help? cough, cough

 

---

 

Well, I don't know if it's favoring Alacrity, being on two very unbalanced teams, or just rusty play, but the WarZone effort was pointless last night. Two heavy losses, and not much Squirrelcorpse could do about them.

 

But I'm thinking a little from column A, a little from column B. Spending time doing class quests seems to be bad for my PVP/WarZone habits, and I have to re-learn the patience and field awareness needed to be effective. This is very much not a button-mashing class for such things. PVE? Button mash away; PVP? No.

I'm overdue to update and just broke a nearly seven-day losing streak in warzones, so let me tell you how it is.

 

How it is, is this. Alacrity is great -- but Power is better. I know this because the Alacrity+Power Enhancements I was using just all went past their sell-by date last week, and I upgraded to Alacrity+Critical Enhancements. Actually, I was at my comms limit (WZ and Planetary) AND I was 5 levels higher, so it was time to re-gear. Yeah, that was a week ago, right when the losing streak began.

 

---

 

The victory was one of those victories that you cherish, that you later tell your grandchildren about. 'Twas Novare coast. I went to the East side to cap the close node while the team went to Central, which we capped soon enough. It's definitely an advantage to cap first, as the opponent has to completely overtake it to point it back at you, and in the end, that might have made all of the difference.

 

Their side capped West, and then, aside from a small contingent at Central, sent everyone East. We couldn't hold them, so we soon saw East fall, and then I saw Central begin to.

 

We fought to regain East, but they were throwing the kitchen sink at it. In desperation, the Ops leader shouted, "Stealthers, go West! At least we can try and pull some of them away."

 

Squirrelcorpse does not stealth, but neither does she back down from a fight any more. No, the zap witch who would spend her days hiding behind everyone else hoping she would go unnoticed is long gone. Modern-day Squirrelcorpse is shifty and has ways to deal with people who attack; she can Overload (with 100% chance to hold in place), she can stun with Jolt, she can heal herself like crazy, she can run like hell -- and she can fight back with lightning blasts that really, REALLY hurt.

 

A teammate was waiting for backup, and the lone defender was knocked out in short order. Before the capture was complete, half a dozen opponents had shown up; however, so had half a dozen teammates. We captured the node, but then lost Central, and Ops leader posted an expletive in the chat.

 

Man to man, we were outgunned. And now our shields were more damaged than theirs.

 

Finally, however, we retook East and Central while they wasted resources recapturing West. East held, but Central was hard fought. For many cold minutes, we charged Central using every power in our arsenal just to interrupt their capture and then, just when it seemed all was lost... their ship's shields failed.

 

Our ship's shields were themselves at only 6%.

 

The scoreboard tells the tale. Squirrlecorpse had the second-highest ranking of all her teammates, but tactics overcame being overmatched.

 

---

 

And I really think that's the moral of the story. You can waste time and resources and do some serious mathematical analysis to try and come up with the optimal build, but if you don't know how to use the character, you're not going to find success. On the other hand, you can use a build that's far from optimal (hi!), but through cunning and awareness, win the day.

 

---

 

That said, there are definitely things on the Zap Witch side that are nice to have.

 

I've rebuilt, taking all points out of Shock. While Shock was obviously useful to have at the beginning, since so many of the real power centers around Lightning Strike, putting any points into Shock -- or even putting it on a valuable key-bound slot -- is a waste of effort. I use it less often than I use my cooldowns.

 

Speaking of Cooldowns, Polarity Shift -- which cuts your Alacrity down by a tiny fraction -- HAS become part of my WarZone rotation, and is keybound, which I've never done with a cooldown before. Skills like Chaos Nexus on the tree make it easier to use, and being able to go through your rotation in 2/3ds the time means you're doing just that much more damage and able to respond to a changing situation (e.g. drawing a mob of hungry attackers) that much faster.

 

---

 

There is no greater feeling than that feeling you get when a mob of foes attack you in a warzone, and you suddenly realize you aren't dead -- someone is healing/guarding you.

 

It's genuinely difficult not to let an evil cackle or "Muahahahahaha!" fly when this occurs, because then you realize you can fire up those nasty hard-hitting Area-of-Effect attacks with utter impunity. It's just fun. And that's how you end up with 342k damage and 121k healing in a single warzone.

 

---

 

Meanwhile, I'm running with Ashara. Going Light means she agrees with almost everything I do. And let's face it -- that blue-tentacled orange-skinned chick is rendered to be easy on the eyes. On the other hand, won't she get cold dressed like that?

There is no greater feeling than that feeling you get when a mob of foes attack you in a warzone, and you suddenly realize you aren't dead -- someone is healing/guarding you.

 

Greatly emphasized !

 

As someone who is NEVER being helped by others (at least in lowbie PvP), THIS suddenly came as a pure shock !

 

Uah ! Someone is healing me ! THE HORROR ! THE HORROR !

Edited August 24, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer

Greatly emphasized !

 

As someone who is NEVER being helped by others (at least in lowbie PvP), THIS suddenly came as a pure shock !

 

Uah ! Someone is healing me ! THE HORROR ! THE HORROR !

 

So Squirrelcorpse is on the cusp of level 50, and is grinding Kuat Drive Yards and Unranked Warzone dailies to get there, and I can now tell you that this isn't the thrill it was back when. For one thing, I've gotten accustomed to it. For another, even when not healed, Squirrelcorpse is now powerful enough that she can hold her own for quite some time, frequently even able to escape when gang-assaulted.

 

This'll probably all change when she's facing other level 50s and folks with expertise on their gear.

 

---

 

Let's talk skill trees and rotations, shall we?

 

It's a few levels behind, but the center column is the important thing. What's probably most important is what isn't on here, so let's cover those, going from the bottom up.

 

Chain Shock gets zero. There is nothing Chain Shock can do that Force Storm can't do better. Notably, Force Storm does as much damage, but does it repeatedly (over time); Force Storm also triggers Lightning Storm for that "free" Chain Lightning hit. It helped when I realized that double-tapping Force Storm instantly launches it on your currently-selected target.

 

I've put nothing into Lightning Effusion; except for some really nasty boss battles, effects like Lightning Storm, gear with lots of Willpower and the general cast time of others generally means she almost never really needs to worry about force cost.

 

Suppression also gets nothing. I'm rarely close enough to a target for Jolt to be of any use, and Whirlwind just hasn't been very useful.

 

Lightning Strike is the thing I use now when I don't have anything else to do, and even then, I almost prefer Force Storm. My lightsaber looks pretty, but that's all it does.

 

---

 

On the positive front, the rest of the skills all work to support each other.

 

Static Barrier is always the first thing I do. If I'm in any kind of real battle -- a boss fight or a warzone, that is -- I'll hit Polarity Shift early, usually after Crushing Darkness. On a mob, I'll start with Force Storm and then the instant Chain LIghtning that comes from Lightning Storm. On a single target, Crushing Darkness to get periodic damage going; then Affliction, so that Thundering Blast will auto-crit; that triggers Lightning Storm, so Chain Lightning follows that, then Force Lightning, which should tick twice due to Affliction activating Lightning Barrage.

 

What's neat about this class choice is how these various items on the skill tree work together; if you use the right skills at the right times so that these effects support each other, you do significantly more damage than if you don't.

 

---

 

While I've gone pure Light in all my RP conversation choices, it's not enough. I've abandoned my Scavenging crew skill to compensate in favor of Diplomacy to compensate. As a bonus, this gives me companion gifts and, surprisingly enough, once you hit class 3 companion gifts, there are actually some things that Ashara likes. As I'm choosing light side options and running with her exclusively, this isn't as big of a need for me as it would be a Dark Side female Sith Inquisitor, but I'll take 'em anyway... not the least because I need lots of gifts for Andronikos and Khem Val.

Should add one more thing.

 

There are several skills on the tree -- Force Haste, Electric Bindings and Backlash -- who get full points because they are all about keeping Squirrelcorpse alive when she gets gang-attacked.

 

And one other thing.

 

She's woefully under-geared, because I'm waiting for 50 to get Rakata (Makeb) mods for everything. It'll be Resolve (1:2 Endurance:Willpower ratio) for the base pieces and mods, and I'll probably go Quick Savant (Alacrity, Endurance, Power in that order) for the Enhancements. Quick Savant worked great around level 30, so I'm hoping it'll be great at 50 too. I still prioritize Power over Alacrity, but I prioritize both of those over everything else, and I don't recall encountering a Power/Alacrity Enhancement...

I like Lightning now... My main is a Grey Sorc.... Gonna try and find a screenshot of him....

I like Lightning now... My main is a Grey Sorc.... Gonna try and find a screenshot of him....

 

Welcome to the club! Just don't get caught with your feet in standing water; Darth Barfolomew always keeps an eye out for such things, thinks it's a funny prank...

Welcome to the club! Just don't get caught with your feet in standing water; Darth Barfolomew always keeps an eye out for such things, thinks it's a funny prank...

 

Yeah... Got electrocuted when I tried to do Manaan.... Not fun.

 

Anyway, I'll just leave this here