A geared up commando can lay down some serious firepower, yes right now agents and sorcs make all other classes laughers, but lets think about what we can do in general while waiting for pvp content/balance patches or a new game.

Some of this is obvious to vets, like any guide should be.

Commandos are a huge threat to the other team, after a few 4.5k demo crits you are gonna get targeted (or if they see you casting a heal at some point).

Positioning

Catching people at range, or becoming a secondary target are your best bets. Getting jumped by stealthers/caught by a melee train out in the open flat is gonna be bad.

A good agent will typically go after a healer before a commando. Setup shop near one, and keep dropping scanners at smart times. Even those big hitter agents don't like trying to take on this combo.

If there are no good healers to buddy up with, find a good ledge where you can drop a stealth scanner below on. with 2 knockbacks you can buy some time to burn down a pesky mdps.

Setup hoy keys for mobile burst rotations

Think out what you are going to do when a hard hitting dps gets on you, before one does.

AR can be used to either insta heal you or start a fasting hitting dps burst:

AR -> Grav -> HIB -> demo puts a huge burst, toss a sticky -> stock strike full auto (snare + damage) as they run back should finish them.

Its a lot of buttons with cooldowns, but until you can fluidly chain combos on the move, and then stop to hit a few grav rounds you are toast.

I strongly recommend buying a Razer Naga mouse, younger players may not be worried about carpal Tunnel, but us old farts are.

Warzone fun

Cheap kills are fun. My 2 favs are: AoE knockbacking people off bridges in voidstar, and knocking people into fire/goo then stunning them in it for fast kill in hutball.

Aoes are good for taking out cappers, and burning down clumps of players.

Gear! & Burst burst

You flat out need to gear up in this game, if you are below 50 mod up everything to max.

50s should have all purples with over 450 expertise min, until then don't cry. Also get your matrix relic and go get all the aim datacrons

When in warzones find and use the red power ups, and keep a stock of aim stims, and pvp surge consumables.

Our goal is to have lower warzone damage because we are killing fast. We want to see huge kill counts with a smaller amount of damage, ie fast effective dps vs fluff that gets healed. This means you should be assisting someone, for the fastest possible kill.

Get or make root grenades, and stay well stocked on heal pots. There are some sweet crafter only purples for both.

Taking out healers

We are only dps class without an interrupt! but stock strike speced to knockback, our aoe kb and stun will all stop a cast (3 semi handy interrupts)

Mercs: tap them to get them to bubble. don't try to dps them when bubbled, cc/mez them and take out someone else. once the bubble drops they are a fairly easy kill.

Ops: I really have not seen one that can stay in my field of fire. They can try to escape via stealth, so i keep ready to stealth scan.

Sorcs: these are the hardest to deal with imho. Best bubble in game, so many stuns and then they can hit the turbos. If they are off to side I try to cc/mez. If others hitting them, I try to help burst down and save a stun for when they try to flee

Teaming up

Commandos are not the greatest solo class, but rock in groups. I typically team up with a few mdps (sent/shadows) and a healer.

My number 1 priority is to help keep primary healer alive, either emergency heals/ cc / call out in vent to get more help. This includes dropping stealth scanner once in a bit in back lines to prevent agents sneaking up.

Number 2 priority is to use Concussive Round to take out a hiding healer / ranged dps away from aoes and such so it does not get broken immediately

Number 3 priority is to emergency heal someone on our team / side or use cc to prevent a friendly death

Number 4 is what you spend 90% of the time doing, and that's burning down people in melee train & shooting anyone trying to cap. If I see a big clump of people i will hit some mortar /aoe.

As the guy in the back, you have a great view of the fight and can be calling out problems team needs to adjust to.

... Teaming up

Commandos are not the greatest solo class, but rock in groups. I typically team up with a few mdps (sent/shadows) and a healer...

All good info but I wanted to highlight this, teaming up is critical. Commandos aren't Rambo and work best with a team.

All good info but I wanted to highlight this, teaming up is critical. Commandos aren't Rambo and work best with a team.

I have to add that pushing the line of skrimish is something people need to learn though. Putting pressure is very important at all the WZ's. It's really easy to just sit back and take pop shots at the lowbee.

But if there's a lvl 50 healer present he should be put under pressure by the commando. Burst > heals.

hmph. well, only 29 here, still haven't got demo round, but I can try a few tips.

as the others have said, don't rambo, keep to the back and apply pressure.

In this game, whoever is in the health deficit is almost guaranteed to lose. Since as gunnery you get grav round cheap and as AS you get demo round dot, tab targeting and using these abilities will help the front lines tremendously, as two full health players can kill 4 lower-health ones with correct use of abilities.

A player with 1% health can still do as much DPS/healing/CC as a player at 100% hp, don't go chasing a sorc with bubble on when there's a sniper who can do significant damage to your team right in front of you.

please, spec into the concussive charge/stockstrike knock-backs. In hutball, a cammando using these actually can be a good ball carrier via knocking people off the catwalks, in voidstar you can knock people off the bridges, and in alderaan the opposing team takes longer to capture a base. If there's one situation to rambo, it's when five people are capturing an objective/planting a bomb and that one concussive charge will stop all of them.

Does increased aim actually cause you to hit harder in PvP? I was under the impression that bolster kinda made everyone the same and expertise was the only stat that brings something new to the table.

You have been mislead. Start stacking that AIM and get to work.

Does increased aim actually cause you to hit harder in PvP? I was under the impression that bolster kinda made everyone the same and expertise was the only stat that brings something new to the table.

Yes you need aim. Look at you paper doll stats for it, make it bigger and look at the diff.

...But if there's a lvl 50 healer present he should be put under pressure by the commando. Burst > heals.

Agreed, positioning is important (covered in OP IIRC) and we should have a good view of the field. If I see a healer and start to DPS them so they're distracted.

Yes you need aim. Look at you paper doll stats for it, make it bigger and look at the diff.

Agreed Dooger. AIM is our main stat, I recommend everyone find a Biochem buddy and get blue AIM stims from them. They last 1.5 hours (or is it 2hours?) and persist in death so they are great in WZs too.

Anyway, blue aim stims are good.

are u sure that we arent rambos? i really think that after tanks,troopers are the best class to be in enemy fire.

at 50 as gunnery trooper i have 17700 hp and 30 % mitigation that with 5 grav round it get up to 40 % and we have defensive cooldown and we can useone instant cast big heal on us.

if we have tanks on our bg group let them tank,but really if you havent tank it is better have the trooper focused than heals,smuglers or dual wields jedi.

btw i have full champion gear on bags and i prefer go to pvp with my full rakata because i prefer 1500 hp and 200(more or less) aim than 12 % mitigation and damage from expertise.

as gunnery at random pvp(not premades) i fell that we are very powerfull.

as solo i can kill to everyclass but some OP that hit me for 7k(less than 10 % of OP that i have found) and some IA that can lock me with interrupt,mezz,interrupt,stun,knowback,interrupt so i cant grav round him.

sorry mine bad english i am spanish and this is my 2 cent

Most if not all dps classes ignore some or all armour, and many attacks armour does not effect.

Hps go fast with melee able to hit us for 4k a pop.

Most if not all dps classes ignore some or all armour, and many attacks armour does not effect.

 

Hps go fast with melee able to hit us for 4k a pop.

sorry but that is false,80 % of all atacks are weapon damage or kinetik damage and armour is for those atacks.

only elemental damage bypass the armour and that i can think only trooper tank have elemental attacks on rep side.

Most if not all dps classes ignore some or all armour, and many attacks armour does not effect.

 

Hps go fast with melee able to hit us for 4k a pop.

From the ranged dps classes only dot specs with one or 2 dots that do internal damage really avoid armor. Commanda are at the forefront of ignoring armor in which they ignore 52% following that its gunslinger/snipers with 20%. The majority of sorc attacks do not ignore armor.

Considering nearly all specs in this game (21/24) do damage not impacted by shield/defense stats the only true defensive stats in the majority of pvp is armor and expertise and commandos are extremely high in it.

sorry but that is false,80 % of all atacks are weapon damage or kinetik damage and armour is for those atacks.

only elemental damage bypass the armour and that i can think only trooper tank have elemental attacks on rep side.

No it's very true. Take a second look. With the exception of the sniper/gunslinger pretty much all of a classes hard hitting attacks are based of internal or eley damage. Also are you positive that kinetic damage is affected by armour? I was under the impression it wasn't...

Take a look at our own class. Next the sniper/gunslinger we are prolly the next most reliant on weapon damage but still only full auto and HIB are weapon damage.

If you don't believe us run over to the tanking forums and see all the QQ about how useless def is in pvp.

From the ranged dps classes only dot specs with one or 2 dots that do internal damage really avoid armor. Commanda are at the forefront of ignoring armor in which they ignore 52% following that its gunslinger/snipers with 20%. The majority of sorc attacks do not ignore armor.

 

Considering nearly all specs in this game (21/24) do damage not impacted by shield/defense stats the only true defensive stats in the majority of pvp is armor and expertise and commandos are extremely high in it.

Let me clarify.

Pvers last pvp game was Warhammer, heavy armour there capped at 75% damage reduction on types it stopped on an even level foe.

A cent geared Trooper here has 30% damage reduction from armour, which is why tanks in this game when focus targeted which to their defensive "stance" (ie bullets etc whatevah) http://www.torhead.com/ability/c5XO0xa/soresu-form to increase their AC up 60%

DPS classes then get abilites to reduce AC, like our armour piercing bullets and grav or bypass of it with something like http://www.torhead.com/ability/9oznugi/precision-slash

With over 500 expertise and 30% armour reduction, getting hit for over 4k is common.

Our best defense is los, range, then our bubble / guard and obviously heals.

Sure ungeared non assisting scrubs are not a danger, but troopers standing out in open get smoked fast, vs skilled opposition.

The only targets premades dont instantly smoke are guarded ones or really good healers, that bubble/run all the tricks (I run in a premade mostly, so thats what I see all night) or a few decked out tanks in their protective mode and spec.

I'll give a little pvp pointer for my fellow commandos.

Use terrain to your advantage, that is a big must. If there is a bridge or a higher ground you can get to make it your goal to be at that spot. When you get there position yourself if you can, if a melee gets in your face you can just knock them off/back to the point it will take a few sec for them to get back up to you, which gives you time to ether kill them off or heal.

Los can be your friend and life savor in warzones, it will block other range attackers and can provide a "safe haven", example in huttball if you need to heal the ramps (the ones near the two jets that can throw you up in the air), if you need a los spot to heal, those are perfect spots to heal yourself or reload without being in the open and having a big target on you.

If you are fighting against a range and you're near a spot where you can los them and heal do so, that can change that fight into your favor pretty quickly.

 

please, spec into the concussive charge/stockstrike knock-backs. In hutball, a cammando using these actually can be a good ball carrier via knocking people off the catwalks, in voidstar you can knock people off the bridges, and in alderaan the opposing team takes longer to capture a base. If there's one situation to rambo, it's when five people are capturing an objective/planting a bomb and that one concussive charge will stop all of them.

Yup. If there's two commandos specc'ed in that. Especially in huttball, you can literally escort each other to the finish line by alternating concussive charges.

Let me clarify.

 

Pvers last pvp game was Warhammer, heavy armour there capped at 75% damage reduction on types it stopped on an even level foe.

 

A cent geared Trooper here has 30% damage reduction from armour, which is why tanks in this game when focus targeted which to their defensive "stance" (ie bullets etc whatevah) http://www.torhead.com/ability/c5XO0xa/soresu-form to increase their AC up 60%

 

DPS classes then get abilites to reduce AC, like our armour piercing bullets and grav or bypass of it with something like http://www.torhead.com/ability/9oznugi/precision-slash

 

With over 500 expertise and 30% armour reduction, getting hit for over 4k is common.

 

 

Our best defense is los, range, then our bubble / guard and obviously heals.

 

Sure ungeared non assisting scrubs are not a danger, but troopers standing out in open get smoked fast, vs skilled opposition.

 

 

The only targets premades dont instantly smoke are guarded ones or really good healers, that bubble/run all the tricks (I run in a premade mostly, so thats what I see all night) or a few decked out tanks in their protective mode and spec.

The main point of my reply is that armor isn't useless and that the majority of attacks/abilities in the game do not ignore armor.

This doesnt mean that commandos should stand in the open (not sure why you even mentioned that as I never implied it). The best defense is not being hit/focused in the first place.

Regards to commando DR. It gets closer to 50% with battlemaster gear. Basically 50% reduction on many attacks not including expertise, which would bring it down to 6x% reduction. This doesnt mean we can be proper tanks (need higher damage reduction), but compared to many of the other classes it does help. Also the 4k crits are coming from mercs/ops who use skills to reduce armor.

gottcha. At the same time

Good shadows, merc, agents, heck even Jugs have no problem hitting a trooper for 4k.

Maurders should in theory be able to as well, our server seems light on good ones.

I guess my point is when we call targets mercs are soft targets unless speced out for heals/ and the no interrupt bubble.

Which brings up a good point, if you are specing for pvp heals, grabbing combat shield is a must.