So, I've dusted off my old concealment operative. Transferred him over to a more active server, etc.

I've looked up builds and the like, and I've been playing my old AP Powertech for the time being (which I mostly remember how to play), but I can't remember **** about my old Operative, so:

Any good PvP guides for Concealment, post 2.7? Even pre 2.7, really. I honestly don't know what's changed (gear wise, rotation wise) etc, and could use a leg up.

Don't want to saddle my teams with complete uselessness as I fumble around trying to remember what's what.

Any links/referrals would be greatly appreciated, mentlegen.

you need Snave.

He is a good pvp-er, willing to help and stays positive even if we get nerf after nerf.

Another quick question!

I'm about to ding to 55, wondering what I should do with my comms!

I've got max of ranked and regular.

I was thinking about splurging 3500 ranked for knife/rifle first for the extra tech power. Suggestions as to how I should go about spending my ranked comms or my regs for that matter?

Another quick question!

 

I'm about to ding to 55, wondering what I should do with my comms!

 

I've got max of ranked and regular.

 

I was thinking about splurging 3500 ranked for knife/rifle first for the extra tech power. Suggestions as to how I should go about spending my ranked comms or my regs for that matter?

First thing you should get with your comms are relics imo.

First thing you should get with your comms are relics imo.

I can grab those in about 10 games though, Obroan anyway.

Should I be running all power/surge and main stat/power relics?

I believe the current math says Power Relic and Main Stat Relic.

I'm sure someone will correct me if that's not still the case.

So, I've dusted off my old concealment operative. Transferred him over to a more active server, etc.

 

I've looked up builds and the like, and I've been playing my old AP Powertech for the time being (which I mostly remember how to play), but I can't remember **** about my old Operative, so:

 

Any good PvP guides for Concealment, post 2.7? Even pre 2.7, really. I honestly don't know what's changed (gear wise, rotation wise) etc, and could use a leg up.

 

Don't want to saddle my teams with complete uselessness as I fumble around trying to remember what's what.

 

Any links/referrals would be greatly appreciated, mentlegen.

I'm not sure what server you're on but if you're ever on The Red Eclipse feel free to look me up and I'll be happy to run through the basic with you. I don't really have a permanent rotation but if you watch my videos or saved streams you should get a good idea of what I'm going for, generally speaking its:

Acid Blade - Hidden Strike - Explosive Probe - Lacerate - Acid Blade - Backstab - Shiv - Lacerate - Lacerate

Chuck a stun or DoT in there if it's applicable, that all depends on what the other person does to retaliate and if you watch me I'll generally chuck a corrosive dart in there some where because most classes will create space so it's a move to use whilst you're closing them down again. If they have high armour remember corrosive dart is internal damage so isn't mitigated.

With your comms I'm sure there probably is an "optimum" way of doing it but to be honest I personally haven't found it makes much difference what order you do it in. Solo ranked is soul destroying but it's a quick way to get ranked comms but your team will hate you because you play a under powered class and will be under geared. Ignore them, solo queue is riddled with bads and at least you're trying to get better.

I'd recommend getting in to a PvP guild and trying to join their premade groups for normal warzones. This should greatly increase your chances of winning and the amount of comms you get in the shortest amount of time. If you don't know any good pvpers just find out who the good players are on your server and ask to join them for some games. Most PvPers have an ego that needs feeding so tell them they're amazing and your hero to increase your chances of them taking you along.

There are two basic specs that people run for a concealment PvP build:

This is the spec I use. I personally don't feel the benefit from having a movement increase on shiv but YMMV, I also personally stack some alacrity in my gear mainly because the drop in surge in almost nothing and I noticed no decrease in damage from doing so. Alacrity decreases the GCD and increase my energy regen by .2 which isn't huge but IMHO it's better than 2 seconds of speed and 2%(ish - I can't remember the actual number off the top of my head sorry) of surge.

This is the other spec people use which has the movement increase on shiv. Give it a try and see if you prefer it.

Gear wise you don't want to go over 200 crit rating, with about 160 rating, gear and talents you'll have around 25% which is generally considered "optimum" . I'm not 100% sure on this myself because I never did the theory crafting behind it but considering a lot of our abilities have very steep damage increases on crit I'll probably investigate this some more at some point. For the time being aim for 25% and put the rest in to power. We get pretty much a passive 6% increase too and another 15% on backstab and hidden strike, if you're returning from a long break you're going to be amazed by how much lacerate can crit for now.

Incoming text fest:

Most important thing here is you're going to need to learn how to play like a stealth class. If you're always in the middle of the fight you're doing it wrong. If you're constantly having 3 people on you then you're doing it wrong. Learn how to sap cap in novere, civil war and voidstar, it doesn't matter what your gear is like if you can pull that off and it wins games.

Exfiltrate - our roll - learn how to get the maximum distance from it. Rolling off a ledge will effectively double the length of your roll making it far more efficient and if you know the sweet spots in huttball then you're a nightmare to stop from scoring. If you go in to my past broadcasts on twitch and look for the ones labelled HB / Huttball / QHB then you'll be able to see what I mean. I cannot stress this point enough, literally every operative I speak to says "yeah I know about that roll thing" and I'd comfortably say 90% of them don't use it when they should. If you ever get stuck node guarding it's the perfect time to experiment and look for those little dips in the map you can launch off, get in to the habit of spotting them and using them. It'll be second nature in no time.

Mess with the enemies heads as much as you can. I'm confident in taking a solo guarded node from anyone in the game and even if I don't get it I know I can make them twitchy about defending. Lets assume I can't solo take the node 1v1 does that mean I should give up? Well that's a subjective question. In novare coast where you channel to cap you need to kill them to take it, if you can get them low and get them to call for help there is nothing wrong with you using cloaking screen and running back to the main fight as soon as you see help on its way - this means they'll have two people defending and will give you a brief numerical advantage in the main fight.

If I can't kill the defender in civil war then I can sap cap him, use sleep dart and then quickly LOS them and start capping - this will take practice. If they break, flashbang, LOS and cap again. Doesn't matter who they have defending ANYONE can get sap capped if they're not careful and especially if they're underestimating you. This process is significantly easier in ancient hypergate where it's a 6 second cast. You should take that node 1v1 100% of the time. If they have an assassin or operative guard simply start capping, as they open on you to interrupt flashbang and start capping, if they break, cloaking screen, sleep dart and start capping. You can sleep dart and flashbang 1v2 but that require them both to not have breakers. Try it at the end of the round if they have two visible defenders, if you're lucky they'll both use their breakers allowing you to do it next round.

You do not have to take the node in order to have been effective. If they keep 2 people back for the whole game I have done my job and given my team a significant advantage. Stalling the enemy from capping buys your team mates vital seconds to get their own caps off and you may not get the recognition for it you deserve but the reward of a job well done is the job itself. If you watch my latest movie "Snaveheart" you can see me holding nodes in ancient hypergates and civil war for quite frankly, ridiculously long periods of time.

Shield probe is on a 20 second timer now, use it and use it whenever it is up. You will take enough damage in the 10 seconds to get the most of it assuming someone is hitting you, there is no point in delaying its use for the big hit when you can absorb the same amount of damage earlier and have it ready again ASAP. Despite this buff if you get focused then you should expect to die and to die quickly. Good teams will focus you down first and it will suck, make them work for it, make them chase you, make sure that you sell your life for the highest possible price. Kite them around, pull them away from your own healers and away from objectives, get them out of position and over extended if you can.

Mark and target healers. Cannot stress this enough, even in bad gear we can shut healers down so they're focusing on healing themselves and running away rather than keeping their team alive. Some times it's impossible to stay out of the main fight and in those circumstances you need to look for healers and anyone who has health over 35k or under 28k - they are likely to have poor PvP gear - you will mess them up and you will mess them up fast.

I've probably missed a load out here but feel free to PM me any thing you want to know

Always remember the concealment operative battle cry: PVE GEAR SORCS!!!

Great post Snave, as always. It is my first time trying a scrapper and your videos and guides motivate me to continue playing despite all the naysayers. I'm nowhere near your level of course but a at least I don't suck completely as I did in the beggining, so some progress has been made.

Regarding your rotation do you try to keep one stack of Tactical Advantage up at all times (like in the pve rotation) or do you consume it straight away?

Also, could you post your AMR just so we can get an idea on what pieces of gear to get come level 55?

Keep pumping out those video montages, they're great (love the music too). Short video guides of handling different classes 1V1 would be fantastic too.

Great post Snave, as always. It is my first time trying a scrapper and your videos and guides motivate me to continue playing despite all the naysayers. I'm nowhere near your level of course but a at least I don't suck completely as I did in the beggining, so some progress has been made.

My level isn't so high mate, you'd be amazed at what you can do with editing

Regarding your rotation do you try to keep one stack of Tactical Advantage up at all times (like in the pve rotation) or do you consume it straight away?

I hate to give this answer all the time but it really depends on who you're up against. Lacerate is a pretty big hitter so using it ASAP has merits if you're trying to burst someone down within your opening sequence, other times it's better to sit on 2 stacks if you're waiting to burn someone down on a hard switch or waiting for the healer to get slow and finish them within a stun. One thing I use quite a lot is stim boost to get the extra TA as like a "execute" type move, it's on a pretty long cooldown so it's not ideal but I have found it to be very effective at filling any holes that may appear in my rotation and you can always line it up for when you already have two stacks for some severe lacerate spamming.

Also, could you post your AMR just so we can get an idea on what pieces of gear to get come level 55?

Here's an AMR link for my gear for some reason the end stats are completely different to what I have but the actual items are correct.

Actual stats I have (outside warzones) are:

Cunning: 3088

Accuracy: 104%

Crit: 25.87% (will likely reduce this to 25%)

Crit multiplier: 75.03%

Alacrity: 4.06% (6.2 regen

Power: 986

Bonus damage: 1338.7 (it's 1478.8 when bolstered)

Expertise: 2018

Keep pumping out those video montages, they're great (love the music too). Short video guides of handling different classes 1V1 would be fantastic too.

I'll do another one when 2.8 comes out, no real need to do one until then to be honest. I keep wanting to do commentary / voiceover for one of my games but when I ask people to pick a game out of my past broadcasts no one ever bothers so I'm assuming no one really wants to see that.