Okay... So for a while I've been breezing through KOTFE and KOTET with minimal difficulty. Even the climatic battle against Vaylin in chapter 8 wasn't terribly hard once I figured out the mechanics.

 

I've played through chapter 9 (story mode) until the part where I have to defeat Vaylin's spirit. This time I have no companion. I've figured out the overall mechanics of the fight; stay in melee range, use the healing memories to heal yourself or hurt her, run like hell when she starts charging up Overload, stunbreak out of Force Slam, etc. But I can never seem to get her past 40% health. I've modded all of my gear past level 200, and I'm playing as a Sith Assassin tank spec. Should I switch to DPS? I've been stuck here for weeks, and this is my first time playing KOTET lightside, so any advice is appreciated.

Make sure you haven't accidentally bounced into Veteran mode or something silly like that.

If you are having trouble doing enough damage to her you may want to try to utilize the healing pools more to hurt her than to heal yourself, if you're able. IIRC it only takes 4 of those to completely kill her, unless that has changed.

 

Otherwise you can try upgrading your gear another tier or more (especially your mainhand) to squeeze out more damage output, or augmenting if you haven't done that yet.

 

If that doesn't do the trick try ask someone to group with you. Another person should help you clear it and if it is someone that ran the content often they can tell you what you were doing wrong.

You can't always find the healing pools when you need them and when you can find them, you can't always get to them in time. Vaylin's psycho telekinetic slamming move inflicts a lot of damage that you're pretty guaranteed to be defeated when it's over or low health that you're panicking about healing in time. There must be a trick to it? I've watched a few videos of players defeating Vaylin solo and I can't seem to get how they did it. I'm starting to think it;s impossible.

By the third time you're defeated you need to metagame. Exit the scenario, go to your fleet, and repair yourself at a vendor. Your equipment has become useless. Otherwise you need repetitive patience. You are damaging her, but you absolutely must get out of the glowing circle when she's floating in the air sitting preparing to unleash her power. Just one hit will mean you'll lose. If you can't find the healing circle try hiding from her on the other side of the staircase where you are. Even if the healing circle is not there it may bide you time to look for it and reach it. You will need to do this several times.

 

Certainly it helps if you have your own healing power, but use it when she's floating and you're out of the circle. It's a waste while fighting, but individual circumstances can vary and an emergency healing is enough to survive to her next floating to get out of the circle and heal properly.

Does she do that when she’s about to do that telekinetic slam thing where she repetitively slams you to the ground over and over again or is that a separate instance?

You can't always find the healing pools when you need them and when you can find them, you can't always get to them in time. Vaylin's psycho telekinetic slamming move inflicts a lot of damage that you're pretty guaranteed to be defeated when it's over or low health that you're panicking about healing in time. There must be a trick to it? I've watched a few videos of players defeating Vaylin solo and I can't seem to get how they did it. I'm starting to think it;s impossible.

It's not impossible. When you are being slammed, use your stun breaker ability, the one that says "Purges incapacitating effects" or something similar in it tooltip, to break the slam ability. Sorcerers and Sages can also use the "big" bubble to break stuns, even though it's not officially a stun breaker.

It's not impossible. When you are being slammed, use your stun breaker ability, the one that says "Purges incapacitating effects" or something similar in it tooltip, to break the slam ability. Sorcerers and Sages can also use the "big" bubble to break stuns, even though it's not officially a stun breaker.

 

Do sorcerers have a stun breaker ability and if so, where do I find it? I assume the Abilities feature? Aren’t you not able to use any abilities when you’re being slammed?

Does she do that when she’s about to do that telekinetic slam thing where she repetitively slams you to the ground over and over again or is that a separate instance?

No. She floats when she's casting the big huge enormous knockback. From the moment she starts floating, you have ten seconds to get outside a big pale red circle on the floor. There's a little "fence" at the edge that you can use to see that you have escaped.