Hello there guildy's, your friendly neighborhood OP leader is here to help guide you down the path to serious raiding. Many gamers see HM content as a mark of a good gamer and want that badge of honor. Others simply want better gear to show off and have fun with. The reality of HM's though is they can be grueling and push players to their limits, so let's do just that. Let's push you to your limits and then break the boundaries beyond that.

 

First let's explain what qualities are needed in a good raider! Then we can break down raiding into the three core roles. If you want to be a good raider its up to you, but sometimes a little direction can propel you forward. First things first: let's look at the tools you need to be an asset and not a hindrance to an operation.

 

General Game Concepts

 

These concepts are basic to SWTOR. You will need to have these concepts down if you hope to do tough endgame content. Understanding all the concepts will propel you forward into high-end raiding. Build on these concepts with other tools like key-binding and you will be a force to be reckoned with.

 

Core Attributes

 

Responsiveness - This key attribute is what makes and breaks most players. The time it takes you to target, move across the battle-field, activate abilities, and make judgment calls all affect your viability in end game content. If you cannot respond properly or efficiently you will wipe your raid repeatedly, due to missed mechanics, enrage timers and the like. Train your mind to respond quickly to what is happening around you and react appropriately. Control schemes, knowledge of the game, and general good "common sense" all affect this aspect of your game

 

Operation Awareness - If you can understand what is happening around you, you will be much better prepared to respond in the correct manner. Being aware on a basic level may mean avoiding a red circle spawning on the ground, While being aware on a much more complicated level may mean keeping track of HP levels on multiple mobs while interrupting your current target. Raid awareness will help you multi-task and avoid the "doom tunnel". This tunnel I speak of is when players get so caught up in individual tasks that they lose sight of the over-arching goals. A player needs to understand what is happening in the operation at all times, being reliant on self for information primarily.

 

Game Knowledge - This would include your understanding of your class, the enemies you fight, other classes and how all of this interacts. Understanding why a tank positions himself the way he does is different then simply knowing that the add or boss will be positioned there. Memorizing a rotation is one thing, understanding why that rotation is so is another. Your rotations will never be as complete or effective if you don't understand why they are set up in specific ways. Their are various systems that affect DPS, healing, and tanks. Learning these game specific systems will help you understand the "why" and help with the "how". Knowing the "why" is very important in this game, because it will change the "what" in everything that you can accomplish.

 

Precision - This final area is what holds everything together. Knowing what to do and doing it well is two different things. If you get amazing DPS parses, but take excessive damage in raid your not being precise as a DPS. If your out-going heals are great, but you constantly run out of Mana your not being precise. If you can hold aggro and have great mitigations, but your always out of position with mobs your not being precise. Killing targets in the best order, healing in the most efficient manner and taking the least amount of damage possible are all expressions of precision. A little precision will elevate your game to a new level.

 

Controlling pulls - From level 1 to 60, you will be encountering "pulls". "Pull" refers to initiating combat with a localized group of enemies that usually all "aggro" or attack at the same time in a specific area. These pulls have a general radius that they guard and won't follow you outside it. Your job is to not bite off more then you can chew and deal with enemies in manageable portions. Killing things quickly, avoiding damage, and crowd-control all play a part in controlling the pull.

 

Kill order - It can be surprising how many DPS don't get this basic concept down. In any pull there will be a variety of enemies to kill. Each enemy usually has a different amount of HP. When the pull starts your going to take the most damage because the enemy pull is at full strength. As you defeat enemies the pull steadily gets weaker and weaker, lowering incoming damage. For this very point, it stands to reason that you should almost always kill the weakest enemy first. Take them out of the equation because that means less incoming damage. If you don't kill the weakest enemies first it generally makes the pulls unnecessarily harder and in some cases undoable.

 

Crowd-Control - Sometimes due to the composition of the group you may need to CC, which is short for crowd-control. Using abilities that take certain mobs out of the fight will greatly help with some of the tougher pulls. Once something is CC'd, you should not "derp" and break the CC. Some of the most annoying moments in this game, is watching a player break a CC, because of carelessness. Stuns that break on damage are typically the longest lasting, some up to a minute. Stuns that persist through damage usually last only four seconds. The standard CC is one that lasts for a min.

 

Group Threat - The group as a whole will be generating threat, the key is to keep that threat largely on the tank. DPS should never start a pull and generally attack the weakest targets to help control threat. Going straight for the strongest target is the most irresponsible thing a DPS can do. Instead look for healers being attacked or weak mobs just sitting there. Let the tank have the "big" enemies and give him time to generate some threat. Healer threat wont be an issue if at least every mob has been hit by DPS or tank.

 

DPS

 

Your primary role is kill your target as quickly as you can while taking the least damage possible. DPS is science, The damage you can deal is purely mathematical. Their is one maximum damage rotation you need to know and then execute. The execution is the hard part and can mean the difference between exceptional numbers and average. Execution includes how fast it takes to activate abilities and in the right order.

 

Melee DPS - Your the most mobile in terms of DPS for your team. You generally will be more fluid then ranged DPS, because most of your abilities are instant cast. Instant cast abilities can be used while moving, yet many players do not utilize this advantage melee DPS have. Learn to play with key-binds and most of your abilities will be available to you on the move. Use "gap closers" effectively, to minimize your down-time on DPS. Melee DPS are especially vulnerable to "cleaves"-- never stand in front of an enemy if possible. Always assume the add or boss has a cleave, until its confirmed it does not. "Eating" cleaves shows poor raid awareness and responsiveness. Melee DPS are only required to be 10 percent ahead of the highest person, to "rip" threat; while ranged have to be 30 percent ahead of the highest person to "rip" threat. Anyone outside of 4 meters is considered a "ranged" character.

 

Ghosting - Ghosting is a melee technique you can use to efficiently maintain DPS on different targets. Ghosting allows you to use the GCD of your instant cast abilities, to travel quite a distance on the battlefield. From the moment you see your GCD go off and the animation start, the damage from your abilities has been delivered. We are talking about instant cast abilities now, not channeled or casted abilities they require the player to remain motionless.

 

Noting in your mind that the damage has been delivered allows you some interesting possibilities. One you can react quicker to red circles or conal attacks that boss's deliver. This will also allow you to switch targets at the right moment to maximize your DPS up time. Never wait for the GCD to finish or the animation to end, move as they go off and "Ghost" to your new desired location. This is not a "make or break" technique, just a subtle way to show you have masterful control of your character.

 

Ranged DPS - You bring DPS constancy to the raid, your superior range allows you continue to DPS, when melee may not be able to. Ranged DPS tend to have greater AOE potential and should generally kill adds. Positioning is key with ranged, you want to be able to DPS as many things as possible without moving. Gaining a central location is usually key. Ranged DPS sometimes contract "turret syndrome", because their abilities are channeled and they must remain still. The goal of a good ranged DPS should be to overcome this weakness and stay raid aware. Ranged DPS are much more likely in a general sense to "eat" damaging circles on the ground and not respond to mechanics that require movement.

 

Targeting - Understanding when to click target and when to use "tab targeting" is essential to efficient DPS, anyone who tells you otherwise probably could improve quite a bit. It is not humanly possible for you to switch targets "clicking" as quickly, as it is using tab targeting. Having said that though, when their are large groups of enemies up, clicking can be faster then cycling through an endless list of adds. Tab targeting is always going to be more precise then click targeting, because quite simply it minimize the risk of human error and "frame blockage". Frame blockage occurs usually for tanks, but for some DPS, when adds or the boss block your field of vision to such a degree that they make targeting other adds or bosses difficult. Remember targeting should rarely be difficult and you don't want to be struggling with it.

 

If you don't use tab targeting, learn to use it. It is more responsive then click targeting. If you don't like tab for targeting, rebind a new key to function in that capacity. Click targeting has its uses but is more specialized to healing and specific DPS situations. Always line up your next target to DPS and minimize DPS down-time as much as possible, especially true for DPS that channel many abilities.

 

Rotation - Knowing "the" rotation is key. Learn the best, most damaging rotation, then don't change it and repeat till its habit. Their is only one best rotation and no room for "self-expression". DPS rotations are pure science and require a great deal of precision to get down perfectly. Your goal with your rotation is to get to "DPS constancy", which means your DPS does not greatly fluctuate and remains consistent. Try to understand how your class's rotation works and you will begin to intuitively execute it better.

 

The first thing you need to know about your rotation is how you "open". The opener should do the most damage in the least amount of time possible. These usually tend to be bursty, which can lead to you "pulling" threat. Your rotation will diverge into a core rotation that will usually be built on proc's and priority based. Few classes have a static rotation where the priorities are always the same. Finally you need to learn to manage your resources whatever they may be. Most classes have a way to restore energy, ammo, or force in some capacity. Your basic attacks should only be used to control your energy flow and not be spammed in most cases. Try to keep your rotation as "clean" as possible, remembering to keep your most damaging abilities on cool-down at all times.

 

Offensive Cool-downs

 

Using offensive cool-downs is key to maximizing your DPS. Every class has optimum times to use their cool-downs and these need to be learned. Cool-downs include abilities, relics, and adrenals, whether you use them all at once or at key moments is your mission to discover. Most cool-downs are simple, use them at the start of a fight and keep them on cool-down, but some fights have important "Burn" phases that you need to keep cool-downs ready for. I recommend if you have a "main-toon" you raid with consider giving them the Bio-chem profession. Not using adrenals is lost DPS and some players don't want to spend the money to buy them, if that's the case for you, switch to Bio-chem and make them yourself.

 

Target Priorities

 

When possible kill order should always be as follows weak, standard, strong, elite, champion, boss. Eliminating the weakest enemies first ensures the enemy's overall DPS is lowered as quickly as possible. Letting weak enemies survive longer then they should is just bad, don't be bad, be awesome. Choosing the correct targets will make the healer and tanks job much easier. Tanks hate DPS that attack the strongest enemy and compete with the tank for threat let the tank have it. Probably there's an add beating on a healer, that would greatly appreciate your intervention. View yourself as a secondary tank when it comes to healers, nothing should ever be hitting them period. Help the tank keep ALL adds off the healers.

 

Interrupts

 

A DPS that can not interrupt well and consistently, is not a good DPS. Interrupting enemy channels and casts is one of the most important roles you have in a raid or group, particularly melee. A true interrupt will work on any enemy or boss, unless they have the "unshakable" buff. Knockbacks, stuns, and pulls can function as pseudo interrupts, but wont work on all enemies. The standard interrupt cool-down is 8 seconds, but some classes have 6 second or 12 second cool-downs. Interrupting abilities is your contribution to damage mitigation and shows you are a responsive and a capable raider. If you don't feel comfortable interrupting or feel you miss interrupts often, you probably click to interrupt. Never click to interrupt, always key-bind it. If there is one thing and one thing only you key-bind, it should be your interrupt.

 

DPS most critical attributes - Responsiveness, Precision

 

Tanking

 

Your two key concerns are holding threat and controlling the fight, second maximizing your damage mitigation to yourself and the raid. You need to position adds and bosses in the most effective way possible. A good understanding of the games systems is key to proper tanking otherwise you will gear incorrectly and hurt your overall mitigation. Knowing the perfect balance of defense, shield, and absorb are key to your success.

 

Sometimes patch's completely change how your mitigations work, you need to keep up with these changes. Being aware of as much of the battle-field is very important to tanking, don't let healers take needless damage protect them. Tanks need to keep track of all adds and the boss, sometimes at the same time. Flashpoints are the best place to learn how to tank groups of enemies. Your goal should not only be to survive, but shrug off the damage you take. The right mind-set will help you take your game further.

 

Mitigation - As a tank you have a plethora of mitigating mechanics at your disposal. The first is your armor it is your base mitigation and is static. Its the simplest of the three and is based mostly on armor rating and some tree skills. The second form of mitigation is defense, it is an all or nothing stat, but has the possibility to mitigate the most damage. Avoiding an attack means you mitigate 100 percent of damage, but you cant shield what you avoid.

 

Which brings us to shield and absorb, this stat supplements your armor rating because they mitigate together as opposed to defense. Your shield has a chance to mitigate the hit, then whatever was not mitigated, can be absorbed partially by your armor. Your shield rating determines how often your shield reacts and absorb determines how much that reaction "absorbs" or mitigates. The overall mitigation is much lower with absorb, but it reacts more often then defense. Keeping a balance of all three is important, but they compete for priority with each patch, keep up with the current standard.

 

Threat - All the mitigations in the world wont help, if the enemies don't "stick" to you. That is why threat generation is so important and each tank generate threat at different rates. Similar to DPS you have to learn the most threat-building rotation you can and learn to hold against the most bursty DPS. Any tank can hold threat, but you need to fully understand threat and how it works to hold it.

 

There are two core ways to generate threat. One is damaging abilities that gain a threat buff from your tank skill tree and some abilities that generate a flat amount of threat. The second is taunting, taunting builds threat on a percentage basis and gets exponentially more powerful, the more cumulative threat has been built against your current target. You should very rarely open with a taunt or AOE taunt, most pulls require damaging abilities to tank effectively. Taunts don't build cumulative threat, they buff existing threat by a percentage. They will usually put you above the highest threat holder by 30 percent, including yourself. The thing is 30 percent of 0 threat is still 0, so if know threat is not on the table you better have a good reason to taunt, because your not generating any threat this way.

 

DPS generate threat of course by damage and some small heals. Healers generate threat based on their heals, but the threat is halved. The dangerous thing about healers is more, that the "healer-aggro" goes out to every mob on the field for every heal they cast. Healers will often pick up aggro if stray weak and standard mobs are not killed first. Tanks should usually "tag" an elite or champion then help DPS kill weak and standard enemies. If "healer-aggro" is not managed properly, early, it becomes challenging to redirect threat to you, with anything short of a taunt. Gaurds can help with this healer aggro mechanic, but most tanks would prefer to keep that guard on a bursty DPS, as a tank, make that call. (Melee DPS only have to beat the current tanks threat by ten percent, while ranged have to beat current threat by 30 percent to pull threat)

 

Taunt boosting - Because of the way ranged and melee threat works, taunting at the right range is important. Many bosses will stay about 1.25 -1.5 meters from you, this means that your taunt will only boost current threat by ten percent. To get the full 30 percent boost, move away from your target enough to hit the sweet spot. Hitting a taunt at ranged is like doing three at melee, which is a massive boost.

 

Targeting - Tank targeting behaves very similar to DPS, but the key is to never "blow" your taunt on the wrong target. Always check your target and make sure you have the right one, again "tab targeting" or bound targeting will greatly help with target selection accuracy. Clicking will sometimes be the wiser course of action, as a tank decide what the best course of action is and react quickly. If you target slowly, your tanking will suffer tremendously.

 

Defensive cool-downs - These can have a huge effect on your survivability when used at the right time. Each tank has a varying amount of these cool-downs and needs to be intimately acquainted with how they function. Defensive cool-downs can be broken up into two groups.

 

Proactive cool-downs are used throughout a fight to preempt incoming damage. They can be used to smooth out the damage you take against heavy hitters like "Nefra" or if you know a high damage mechanic is coming. Relics and adrenals are your go-to proactive cool-downs, but there are other abilities available to the various tanks that can be used as well. Not taking a lot of damage means you require less healing and as such allow that healing to go else where, if its needed.

 

Reactive cool-downs are generally much more powerful. These are used in reaction to certain abilities that boss or mobs have and at the start of big pulls. They usually turn you into a brick wall and make you "OP" for a short duration, these ability gems can often save the healers a great deal of healing if used properly. The other use for these is quite intuitive, when you are close to dying or your off-tank is. Buying the healers time to get you back up, can sometimes mean the difference between wipe or kill.

 

Positioning - This is a very important aspect to tanking. As the tank, you control the pace of the fight and need to get your spacing down pat. The rest of the raid will depend on you to hold and position adds and bosses. Some fights call for more positioning then others, but in general its on the tank to get this right. Learn the best way to position a boss, so that the raid can have maximum up time on DPS. Always face the boss away from the raid and try to keep cleaves to a minimum.

 

Tanking most critical attributes - Game knowledge, Operation awareness

 

Healing

 

You are the last hope of your raid, you stand between victory and total defeat, you are the healer and carry the weight of your raid team. Nothing is possible unless you can perform your job well, healing is a big responsibility in a raid, but the most fluid in terms of how its played. Judgment calls is what you will be doing all raid long and you must judge correctly or people die.

 

Reactive Healing - This would probably be the most straight forward method to heal. You see someone take a lot of damage, so you react to that with responsive heals, that execute quickly. Sages are very straight forward for this in "Healing Trance" and "Force Mend". Healing Trance is a fast exectuting and hard hitting spell, with such a short cool-down it can reliably deal with damage spikes often. Sages can react to damage spikes well and are close with commando's.

 

Reactive healing could also be called "burst healing" and like burst DPS, they peak and valley quite a bit. Bursty healing is great, it saves tanks from certain death and generally is great for "oh no" moments. The main drawback with this style of healing is the "valley" of their rotation or available spells. Sages for example can not keep up with constant and consistent damage the way a Commando can (They can keep up, they just work harder for it). Sages have been buffed over the course of recent patchs and now with good set bonuses. Noble sacrifice was always essential to maintain force, but now its buffed to the point that its easy to maintain force. Use noble sacrifice its good with respendance its OP.

 

Sustained Healing - The most efficient type of healer in the game, if the damage stays consistent these healers can heal for ages without letup. They are able to deal with constant and consistent damage extremely well, having all the tools needed to make sure their resources do not run out. The major problem with sustained healers is they in general struggle when damage spikes get too high. Not being able to deal with damage spikes as effectively as Sages means Scoundrels to a degree, have to be more proactive in their healing.

 

Using ablilties like "Trauma Probe" and "Slow Release Medpack" properly allow for these classes to keep the heals constant. In general they are very resource efficient. Pound for Pound they have the most cost effective heals in the game. Sustained healing is actually the harder of the two types of healers to master. The reason for this is you do not have the same breathing room a Sage has in terms of your reaction times. You have to be proactive and carefully manage damage spikes. Damage spikes will break your back if you panic and burn through your resources too quickly.

 

Target Priorities

 

Your priority should always be the tank, yourself, then DPS. If your tank goes down its usually all over. Most operation fights will not allow you to lose tanks and be successful. Adopt one rule as a healer and that is; Tanks don't go down!. be willing to sacrifice DPS, before tanks, but having said that its better to keep everyone up if you can of course. Always try to spread heals out when necessary and focus them when the tanks take a pounding. Good judgment is needed to determine when you switch targets and who gets the heal at that time.

 

Single target healing - Healing a single target is the basic job of a healer. Usually the tank will be the main person you single target heal, so have a rotation designed to keep single targets up well. The problem is many times multiple targets require healing and single targeting them individually is not efficient. When this happens you need to look at your AOE potential and mix that in. Scoundrels used to be the best single target healers in the game, but they lost the crown to Sages in 3.0.

 

AOE healing - Healing groups of allies is always better then healing one at a time. The catch to AOE healing though is it does not heal people up as quick. Pound for pound AOE healing is by far, more efficient then single target. AOE healing is more for the DPS and yourself. Of course AOE healing does not work if people are not stacked to receive it. The sage is proficient at AOE healing, but the Commando and specifically the Scoundrel excel at this.

 

Resource Management - Managing force, energy, and ammo is key to healing effectively. Healing a lot of people and doing good numbers is great, but if you run out of juice, your stuffed. Always keep a rhythm to your heals and try to regen as much resources as you can when the healing is not so intensive. Each healer manages their resources differently, learn how they work and adapt.

 

Cleansing - This is the equivalent to DPS interrupts, if your not "cleansing" as you heal, your really not being as efficient as you could be. A good healer will try to cleanse everything they can and prioritize who gets the cleanse first if needed. Each fight will put slows, dots, and other negative effects get rid of these with a cleanse. Think of cleansing as proactive healing, you are removing the negative effect before it can do any real damage. If your slow on the cleanses your raid will definitely feel it. Key-binding your cleanse is a good idea, similar to the way DPS, key-bind their interrupt. Some fights are incredibly difficult without cleanses then suddenly become a joke, once you realize you can cleanse the worst of it.

 

Over healing - If you over-heal, your wasting heals. Never heal someone at full health and try to use an appropriate heal for how low their HP is. HOT's are fine to apply to someone at full health, as the fuction of a HOT is proactive not reactive. If you chronically over-heal, you will find your self starved for resources and often not able to keep up the raid as easily. This takes practice and good judgment, but a great healer will always give the right heal to the right person and not waste a single GCD.

 

Class Definitions of healing

 

Scoundrel's are in the middle between reactive and sustained healing.

Commando's are the best sustained healers in the game.

Sage's have amazing reactive healing capability.

No matter the composition you can be successful, but having certain class combo's make things easier.

 

Healing most critical attributes - Responsiveness, Operation awareness

 

Operation Terminology

 

Mechanic - during a fight with a mob or boss, anything that requires a specific reaction to what is happening.

 

Enrage Timer - The time before the enemy, becomes more powerful with increased damage and abilities

 

Aggro - How much the enemy hates you and will target you. Threat is the same thing.

 

Rotation - A string of abilities used in a certain order and at specific times, to achieve maximum effectiveness.

 

CC - Stun that breaks on damage and lasts a minute (crowd-control)

 

Interrupt - Stopping the cast or channel of an ability, hence interrupting it.

 

Channel - Abilities that require user to be motionless to function.

 

Trash - General enemies that exclude bosses and mini-bosses.

 

Cleansing - Using abilities to remove negative effects on players or yourself.

 

GCD - Global cool-down, after every ability is used, it has a 1.5 second cool-down.

 

Cleave - Attacks, usually melee, that can hit multiple targets at once.

 

Key Binds

 

Learning to use key-binds effectively will be one of the biggest game changers, you can experience. Look at the best players in your guild and ask yourself if they use key-binds, the answer is usually yes. Key-binds allow you to string together complicated execution patterns effortlessly. If you combine this with tab targeting, you can taunt one target, switch targets, stun the next, force-push the third, and get back on the one you taunted first ,in just a few seconds. The transitions happen so fast your group may not even realize how quickly your executing your abilities. They may think "hes a good tank", but not understand "how" hes a good tank. Understanding the "how" is so important, in becoming a better player.

 

Is key-binding for you?

 

Ask yourself a few basic questions first

 

1. Do I understand why key-binds are superior to clicking? Some will say that clicking is no worse then binding, but they obviously have never tried key-binding. I say this because I never ever, ever met a clicker that switched to key-binds and could play at a high-level, go back to clicking. A clicker will never out-perform a "true" key-binder ever. (the exception will be healers, an experienced clicker healer can still out-perform a "green" key-bind healer) This goes beyond parses on a dummy.

 

2. Am I willing to put in the effort and time needed to learn key-binding? Switching to key-binding will feel very awkward at first, but very soon, you will enter a world where your moves activate quicker. If you have patience and determination I guarantee you will nail key-binds, but if your prone to giving up easily in the face of challenges you wont. You may reason in your mind "I don't really need key-binds", but again it comes down to how good do you want to be. You can either be the guy that can "do" the content or the guy that can "smash" the content. Each individual will ultimately determine if they have what it takes to key-bind.

 

3. Do I want to be awesome at this game and not just average? Average can get you through a lot of the content, but awesome will allow you to play ALL the content. Awesome will allow you to be best in slot geared, awesome will guarantee your not left out of content because the OP leader says "we need the right people". This is a personal choice a player can be as good as they want to be, it just comes down to being willing to learn and change.

 

Heal-binding - The only exception to the binding rule is healing requires some clicking. In fact, if you were to go solely key-binding as a healer, you would be gimping your possibilities. Due to the nature of healing and choosing targets appropriately, clicking the raid frames is, the most efficient way to select your targets. Also the raid-frames do not suffer from "frame-blockage", in the same way that tanks and DPS suffer from this, in their target selecting.

 

The nature of healing being so clicker friendly, is also the reason many healers find DPS and tanking so much more challenging, because those classes do not benefit from a clicking set-up. The drawbacks of clicking are the most reduced on healing of any role in this game, some may never notice any problem with their controls till they switch to DPS or tanking. Having said this though, healers will still greatly benefit from using binds to activate abilities and clicking to choose targets. This is the most effective way to heal in the game.

 

How to Key Bind

 

There are many, many ways to keybind. Some are good, others are awesome. Its up to you to pick the set-up that works for you. Any kind of key-binding is better then no key-binding at all. Talk to different gamers that bind and learn what they use. Gather some information then build your own binding control scheme. SWTOR has a very robust binding system it does not include macros, but macros are more for convenience vs function anyway. If you really want to use macros get a macro mouse or keyboard, then program them in. They can help, but are definitely not make or break.

 

Island_jedi's key-bind set up - I was taught this set up from a veteran WOW PVP'r and it has changed my game considerably. Essentially the first thing to look at is how does your camera move. If your using arrow keys or awsd to turn your camera. don't! That is very "slothful", controlling your camera effectively, is huge in an MMO.

 

Controlling the camera - Using the mouse to control your camera is the best way, period. The sleek and seamless motions of the mouse give you lighting fast reactions to what is happening on the field. Holding the left or right clicker depending on what you have in settings will allow you to spin your camera very, very quickly. When you click both right and left mouse buttons you move forward and here lies the brilliance of this control scheme. Your camera and movement are melded into one, so wherever you move the camera; that's where your "toon" will look, then run and because you can turn the camera so quickly with a mouse, your reaction times will increase. Use the mouse for movement, its far more responsive then moving with keys on the keyboard.

 

Activating Abilities - This is another beautiful thing about this key-bind setup, your entire left hand is free to hit keys. You can now key-bind the entire left side of your keyboard with out lifting your hand. Once your mind memorizes the key layout, it will behave very similarly to a console controller and give you many keys to activate abilities. I typically will keybind Q through Y, A through H, and Z through V. This gives me 16 key-binds that I can easily reach with fingers and my hand does not lift off the keyboard.

 

Since your using the mouse for movement, using the keys on your mouse for ability activation will be very cumbersome, unless your still. I have a 12 key MMO mouse and only use the keys for cool-downs, summoning mounts, and other filler. I prefer to have both hands working together, but separate at the time same time. What I mean is, each hand is dedicated to either movement (My right hand) or Activating abilities (My left hand). The nature of this control scheme is, its very easy now to keep my rotation up at full speed, while staying in constant motion, if need be. You can really see how this layout greatly benefits PVP, but also works fantastic in PVE.

 

Mouse-binding - We mentioned 16 available keys to comfortably reach on your keyboard with Island_Jedi's key-bind method. Now lets add the remaining 16, bringing the grand total to 32 possible key-binds. Using an MMO gaming mouse I have 12 buttons on the side of my mouse. Now these are mostly utility moves, as my main rotation is on the keyboard. The last 4 binds come from the mouse wheel up, down, and click; and finally the auxiliary button on top of the mouse, below left and right click. The major advantage of this setup is, no modifier keys. I discourage modifier keys and would prefer to have all my abilities ready, without me having to change what a certain key does. I feel for the sake of accuracy having a key do the same function every time, is better.

 

Because with this setup, your mouse is your primary method of movement, its better to not bind abilities on your mouse, that benefit from movement. having one hand do movement and the other abilities is much better, then trying to move with the mouse and click abilities with your thumb. Secondary bindings work great on the mouse like cool-downs, med-pacs, summoning mounts, etc.

 

Freedom of choice - One of the nicest things about this key-bind setup is you can make any of those 16 keys behave in any fashion you want. Which key "tab targets" or which keys are your rotation are all up to you. I like to use V to tab target, many players wont like that, so use a different key. The choices are endless with this control scheme and theirs still plenty of ways you can tweak your settings to fit YOUR play style.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Island_Jedi

good thread, i appreciated the reading. thanks island

Good guide, but a few points:

1) You should mention dcd's for dps and heals as well, or make them a genral thing, not only tanks. Since you're referring to raiding, in a lot of fights there's raidwide damage you can't avoid, so everyone should use them, if the situation requires it. Same for raidwide buffs and cooldowns like sniper shield or bloodthirst.

2) Interrupts: Same as above, should be mentioned for healers and especially tanks too. Basically, as of now, I can only think of two bosses where you need to interrupt(Draxus and Kephess in EC). And in most cases, dps interrupts alone aren't enough.

3) Cleanses: Same as interupts: Every dps that can cleanse, should do so, if it's required. Even some tanks can self cleanse(Shadow and Guardian)

Other than that really good

 

And a question: You exclusively move with the mouse? If yes, how do you strafe for kiting purposes?

Well written and good guide. Everyone who wants to get into raiding should read this.

I didn't read the whole thing in depth, but I've taken a closer look at healing section, since I've been maining a heal recently and I disagree with a few points. Is it possible you wrote this before 3.0?

 

Reactive Healing - This would probably be the most straight forward method to heal. You see someone take a lot of damage, so you react to that with responsive heals, that execute quickly. Sages set the bar for this in "Healing Trance" and "Salvation". Healing Trance is the fastest executing and hard hitting heal in the game, [...]

While "Healing Trance" is a very good heal it's a 3 second (baseline) channel, so I wouldn't call it "fastest executing". Also since 3.0 it's less "hard hitting". The Commandos "Sucessive Treatment" has a higher baseline single target heal over the same 3 second channel for example, although the cooldown is longer.

"Salvation" on the other hand is not a good example for a quick executing heal for someone who takes a lot of damage. It's a 10 second hot that, since 3.0, heals for less per tick than the Sages self heal from Bubble with the "Live Ward" utility. It's still a decent aoe heal, especially since not everyone needs to stand in range when cast and you don't need to keep standing on it once you have the buff, but "Wandering Mend" is by far the better burst heal in combination with Conveyance.

In my opinion Commandos/Mercs are the better reactive healers than Sages/Sorcs. They have more quick cast and instant heals at their disposal.

 

Sages for example can not keep up with constant and consistent damage the way a Commando can. (They can keep up, they just work harder for it) When damage is relentless you will notice the Sage over time gets worn out and force can be depleted if not managed correctly. [...]

Sustained Healing - The most efficient type of healer in the game, if the damage stays consistent these healers can heal for ages without letup. They are able to deal with constant and consistent damage extremely well, having all the tools needed to make sure their resources do not run out. Commandos are the baseline for sustained healing and while they do have some reactive healing options, they really shine in their proactive and sustained role. The major problem with sustained healers is they in general struggle when damage spikes get too high. Not being able to deal with damage spikes as effectively as Sages means Commandos and Scoundrels to a degree, have to be more proactive in their healing.

 

Again since 3.0 and with the Sages/Sorcs 4-set bonus they have the best/easiest ressource management. Even if you get low on force you can get it back up within a few gcds.

I do however think Commandos and Scoundrels have the better sustained group healing due to "Trauma Probe" / "Slow Release Medpac" and them having better aoe heals. However don't underestimate the proactive value of "Force Armor" (the Sage bubble).

 

Commandos and Scoundrels are the best single target healers in the game. [...]

AOE healing - Healing groups of allies is always better then healing one at a time. The catch to AOE healing though is it does not heal people up as quick. Pound for pound AOE healing is by far, more efficient then single target. AOE healing is more for the DPS and yourself. Of course AOE healing does not work if people are not stacked to receive it. The sage excels at AOE healing and sets the precedent for it.

Again since 3.0 Sages are better single target healers than Scoundrels in my opinion. And Commandos and Scoundrels both better aoe healers. Salvation does not heal for as much as it used to by a long shot. As said above it's still a good aoe heal due to its changed mechanics, Commandos and Scoundrels are still better at aoe healing though.

 

Over healing - If you over-heal, your wasting heals. Never heal someone at full health and try to use an appropriate heal for how low their HP is. If you chronically over-heal, you will find your self starved for resources and often not able to keep up the raid as easily. This takes practice and good judgment, but a great healer will always give the right heal to the right person and not waste a single GCD.

 

I agree with this. I would however add, that it's also a bit class dependant. Scoundrels who keep up "Slow Release Medpac" on multiple targets will over heal more, but if you can afford it it's sometimes better to keep 2 stacks up even on full health targets than to reapply 2 after the damage occured.

 

I would also add a dps portion to the healer section. If you don't need to heal, don't just stand around or over heal. Throw in some damage on the enemy instead.

 

Anyway I hope a lot of people will read your thread and learn something from it. Keep up the good work.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Azzrayel

I pray there are some dps out there who read this...more specifically the cleanse yourself if you can part. That would be amazing if dps used their self cleanses more often. Or in a more general sense: "Everyone...you have a debuff bar. You need to understand what's on it"

Commandos and Scoundrels are the best single target healers

 

Good joke man.

While there are some big lies about some stuff the guide is good startup for noobs tho.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Dark_Mithrandir

Taunt boosting - Because of the way ranged and melee threat works, taunting at the right range is important. Many bosses will stay about 1.25 -1.5 meters from you, this means that your taunt will only boost current threat by ten percent. To get the full 30 percent boost, move away from your target enough to hit the sweet spot. Hitting a taunt at ranged is like doing three at melee, which is a massive boost.

 

This isn't exactly true. A taunt at a range of 0-4m gives you 1.1x of the highest threat. <4m gives 1.3x, so it's not technically three times better than a melee taunt.

Good joke man.

While there is some big lies about some stuff the guide is good startup for noobs tho.

 

Point them up, please.

Unless taunts have changed since pre 3.0, the information provided is false. I would recommend reading Dulfy's tidbits on it from her website or below:

 

 

Point them up, please.

scoundrels being good single target healers and sages being the best aoe healers are pretty big ones.

Point them up, please.

 

People will do that work for me, some already doing.

Ok i do another quite easy:

 

The guide says healers are more clicker friendly? good joke

Healers are very clicker unfriendly imo.

By clicking people in the ops frame i do not call people a "clicker".....

 

If i've to say what's the best class for a clicker that is definetly a rDps class.

 

Scoundrels are the worst single target healers atm... just saying

Edited March 11, 2015 by Dark_Mithrandir

Not a bad overview of endgame for newbies, i'll be recommending it for my DPS and Tank friends if they ask. However I agree with the others, you got your Healers mixed up. Sages being the best at reactive and Commandos being the best at Sustained is the most glaring issue for me right now while Scoundrels being good at Single Target is slightly misleading as they can do better as AoE Healers in most scenarios. Edited March 11, 2015 by yucu

I severely disagree with your definitions of proactive and reactive CDs. There is no discernable difference between DCDs. There is however, a difference in playstyle.

Reactive CDs in no way turn you into a brickwall more than proactive DCDs smooth out healing. There is simply knowing when and where to pop your DCDs. You didn't even specify damage type for certain DCDs.

This guide is somewhat passable for noobs in the most general sense, but if you're looking to get better at raiding, this guide is meh at best.

Thanks for writing this guide. While we may quibble over details, any attempt at trying to improve the raiding ability of the community is always welcome.

 

I take it that this is intended to be a primer on raiding. So, I'm not sure if my comments are pertinent, or if they might belong to more "intermediate" or "advanced" discussions.

 

First, a guildie posted this essay on raid awareness. Although it's written in the context of playing WoW, almost all of it translates directly to SWTOR. It's an excellent read and some of what I say draws from the article.

 

User Interface

Being a proficient raider requires that you be able to multitask well, i.e. track and respond to simultaneous events and respond accordingly. For instance, if you are tanking Unit 1 during the Sword Squadron fight, you will need to keep up your rotation in order hold threat while responding to the Rapid Fire, Ground Burst Missile, and Mega Blast mechanic. Furthermore, you have to keep track of Unit 2's changes in aggro in order to properly execute the tank swap. Each event imposes a cognitive tax. There is obviously a limit to how much any person can multitask. One thing that we can control, at least to some degree, is how easily we can track certain events. The easier it is to track an event, the less of a cognitive tax that event imposes. This is where user interface comes in. Most beginning raiders will just play with the default user interface, but this set up is not ideal. For instance, the target of target window is not enabled, information text on the target is not enabled, etc. It's crucial to set up your user interface so that it becomes easier to track events, thereby imposing a smaller cognitive tax. For example, healers can enlarge debuffs on the ops frames, making it easier to track cleansable debuffs and to respond quickly. (I remember before we had the ability to resize debuff icons. Cleansing the Writhing Horror debuff was such a pain in the ***.). The idea here is that less your eyes have to move across the screen or squint to get information, the more likely it is that you will respond to mechanics in a timely manner.

 

TL;DR Customize your user interface so that it becomes much easier to get important information quickly.

 

Here are some other points that deal with raid awareness, but are not directly UI related.

 

Camera zoom: During most encounters, your camera should be zoomed back to 100%. You can even zoom your camera back further than 100%. I generally keep my camera at 130%. Having your camera zoomed back means that there is more information available for your to see, and thus can increase your raid awareness.

 

Cooldown text: This is not part of your User Interface customization, but is essentially the same thing. If you go to Preferences > User Interface, you have the option to enable and modify your cooldown text. This is extremely useful for executing a rotation well and anticipating the use of cooldowns.

 

Parsing

Parsing, if beginners are aware of it at all, is usually associated with dps and epeen contests. This is an extremely naive view about parsing. Parsing provides a wealth of information to all three roles. As someone who primarily tanks, parsing provides me with damage profiles of each boss fight, so that I know which defensive cooldowns are effective against which boss abilities. Combat logs tell you how a fight transpired, and why members of the raid group were killed. Parsing not only gives you your dps, but atso tells you your dtps (damage taken per second) which is just as important a metric as dps for damage dealers. It also provides healing and effective healing metrics, as well as a profile of healing done by ability and target, all of which is useful information for healers.

 

Moreover, parsers like Parsec and StarParse provide combat timers, which alert you to relevant events occurring in game. This is a tremendous tool that allows players even more power to anticipate and respond to raid mechanics.

 

Another point about dtps. People always ask about what a good dps should be for a certain fight. I stated that all players should also be keeping track of their dtps. Here's a general rule of thumb about dtps. For most fights, dps and healers should be taking less than 1000 dtps. Appropriately geared tanks should be taking less than 2000 dtps for most fights. If you are taking more than this, and you are not in some exceptional circumstance (e.g. 5th dps off tanking Torque), then it is likely that you are either taking avoidable damage or not using your defensive cds effectively.

 

TL;DR Anyone who is serious about raiding uses a parser. Download and learn to use Parsec or StarParse.

 

VOIP

I don't have to spend too much on this one. If you want to join a serious progression group, then it almost certain that you will have to use either TeamSpeak, Mumble, or Ventrilo. Download all three and have them set up. Being able to communicate aurally during boss encounters increases raid awareness and is vital for raid coordination. This is especially true of fights that are coordination checks, such as HM Blaster, HM Coratanni, HM Revan, as well as Draxus, Calphayus, Operator IX, etc.

 

Okay, here are some smaller points about what the OP said initially.

 

Tanking

To elaborate on what the OP said about cooldowns, the difference between a good tank and an average tank is that a good tank uses defensive cooldowns proactively, whereas an average tank uses them reactively. This is what I mean. An average tank will generally pop a defensive cooldown when they see their health get too low. Basically, this is the "oh crap!" method of using cooldowns.

 

A good tank knows when the big hits in a fight will occur, what kind of damage that hit will be (melee/range or force/tech and kinetic/energy or internal/elemental), and will anticipate those by popping the appropriate cooldown just before those hits arrive. For instance, in the HM Bulo fight, a good tank will know when Scatterblast and Exonium Carts will occur and will save their cooldowns for those events. A good tank will also have cooldown ready for kiting adds to blue circles.

 

This point about anticipating and playing proactively generalizes to all three roles. All boss fights have at least some RNG elements in them. Having said that, the same boss fights are largely predictable. Doing a raid is analogous to playing in an orchestra. You'll play better if you know what to expect, rather than having to react every time you pull. Good raiders will know when to expect certain mechanics and will tune their rotation, offensive, and defensive cooldowns accordingly.

 

A little pro tip for Vanguard/Powertech tanking that is an exception to the "don't open with a taunt rule." If you have the 192/198 four piece set bonus, then it is actually better if you open with a taunt. With that set bonus,, and with a talent that procs your Stockstrike/Rocket Punch off its cooldown, you can shave up to 6 seconds off your single target taunt cooldown if you open with a taunt and use Stockstrike/Rocket Punch every time it's available. This means that if you space your taunts correctly, you will have 18 straight seconds of guaranteed aggro. That should be plenty of time to secure threat.

 

Healing

Just a small point here, since I don't want to dog pile the OP on his comments regarding healing. While it is true that overhealing is generally undesirable, some amount of overhealing is needed for Scoundrel/Operative healing. Scondrel/Operative healing has always been about managing HoTs. You have to keep your HoTs up in anticipation of incoming damage, so that your HoTs will heal your target while he/she is taking damage. Applying HoTs after a target has taken significant damage can often be too little, too late. As such, keeping HoTs up will result in some inevitable overhealing.

 

I want to reiterate the point that I made earlier about anticipation. Good healers, just like any other role, will know the fight and know when to expect incoming burst damage, and will plan their heals accordingly. Good healers always play proactively in this sense.

Yes the guide was written before 3.0 and is intended more for newer players not veterans. The healing section especially changed a lot after 3.0. That section needs to be edited a bit. Ty for the feedback though.

I severely disagree with your definitions of proactive and reactive CDs. There is no discernable difference between DCDs. There is however, a difference in playstyle.

Reactive CDs in no way turn you into a brickwall more than proactive DCDs smooth out healing. There is simply knowing when and where to pop your DCDs. You didn't even specify damage type for certain DCDs.

This guide is somewhat passable for noobs in the most general sense, but if you're looking to get better at raiding, this guide is meh at best.

 

I guess technically your right, you want to be proactive with all cooldowns, but some are more reserved for specific boss mechanics then others. Saberward and reactive shield for example are usually saved for key moments, while smoke grenade and saber reflect are kinda just thrown out more often, except saber reflect is a bit more reactive then the smoke bomb. enure and adrenaline rush are examples of reactive cooldowns if you want to define it that way. Medpacs are also a reactive cooldown.

 

So I severly disagree with your overreaction to the post. I do think adding damage types would be good though, so ty for that.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Island_Jedi

Not a bad overview of endgame for newbies, i'll be recommending it for my DPS and Tank friends if they ask. However I agree with the others, you got your Healers mixed up. Sages being the best at reactive and Commandos being the best at Sustained is the most glaring issue for me right now while Scoundrels being good at Single Target is slightly misleading as they can do better as AoE Healers in most scenarios.

 

yes I copy and pasted this from the original guide I made. Forgot to update the healing section.

Thanks for writing this guide. While we may quibble over details, any attempt at trying to improve the raiding ability of the community is always welcome.

 

This was an attempt to help with the problems the "sm warriors" are having. My writing style and explanations are very simple and easy to understand. I have seen some very technical guides, that are written very roboticly making them technically accurate, but a hard read. It is very noob friendly this guide. There are some technical problems in the healing section but honestly even with the typos on single target vs AOE a brand new healer can learn a thing or two.

 

If your a progressive raider then I would recommend dufly or the forums for your class specifically. This guide is simply meant for newer players. Elitist that are not helping the community with your toxic L2P comments and inability to provide practical help, can shove it. You dont like my guide well guess what its not for you, its for the noobs. Get off my back Iam trying to help. TY Sawonlee there will always be haters.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Island_Jedi

Well written and good guide. Everyone who wants to get into raiding should read this.

I didn't read the whole thing in depth, but I've taken a closer look at healing section, since I've been maining a heal recently and I disagree with a few points. Is it possible you wrote this before 3.0?

 

I literally changed like four sentances, but ty for that. The healing section should be more accurate now. I was really tired when I posted this and forgot to read the healing section, so .

Edited March 11, 2015 by Island_Jedi

From a tank perspective, the worst sins I see commited by other tanks in pug runs are:

1) Hoarding taunts like gold or a weapon of last resort instead of using it almost on cool down (You can literally build enough threat up halfway through Bulo to focus on positioning the cleave to clear paths for pirate management instead of trying to hold threat.

2)Opening up with a low threat move (Just because it's cool to open up on the boss with your Saber throw as a Jugg doesn't mean it's a good idea

3) Opening highest threat on a boss that has phases that where the first phase doesn't not include tanking the initial enemy which make it a waste to use (i.e. Using jet charge on Brontes instead of just explosive dart her and saving the charge for the hand)

 

Good guide for begginers I guess (I've only read snippets of it so far)

 

As pointed out Op healers were the best single target healer (key word was). Now BW decided they should be raid healers instead.

 

As a hybrid key binder and clicker I just my style

Edited March 11, 2015 by FerkWork

yes I copy and pasted this from the original guide I made. Forgot to update the healing section.

 

Ok that makes more sense now, was wondering what was going on.

Unless taunts have changed since pre 3.0, the information provided is false. I would recommend reading Dulfy's tidbits on it from her website or below

 

what is false?

what is false?

Read the spoiler under the original post.

I could be wrong--and sorry if I am--but taunts are percent based. Everyone has a meter--per say--of their threat on any certain target. Thus, every single target taunt brings the tank's threat meter to 10% higher than the previously highest threat, and forces the target to attack the tank for six seconds. The aoe taunt, then, would affect all targets within the scope of the taunt similarly: the tank gains 10% of the highest threat and aggro for six seconds until he has to rely on his/her own threat generation.

Read the spoiler under the original post.

I could be wrong--and sorry if I am--but taunts are percent based. Everyone has a meter--per say--of their threat on any certain target. Thus, every single target taunt brings the tank's threat meter to 10% higher than the previously highest threat, and forces the target to attack the tank for six seconds. The aoe taunt, then, would affect all targets within the scope of the taunt similarly: the tank gains 10% of the highest threat and aggro for six seconds until he has to rely on his/her own threat generation.

 

how is that different from what I said? dulfy does not mention the 30 percent boost from range so.... 10 percent is melee range. Better check your **** before you say something is false. dulfy does not make mention of the 30 percent boost that dont mean it aint there.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Island_Jedi

People will do that work for me, some already doing.

Ok i do another quite easy:

 

The guide says healers are more clicker friendly? good joke

Healers are very clicker unfriendly imo.

By clicking people in the ops frame i do not call people a "clicker".....

 

If i've to say what's the best class for a clicker that is definetly a rDps class.

 

Scoundrels are the worst single target healers atm... just saying

 

healers click ops frame, and not themselves and not the tank.

the others are doing it wrong