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Crash Course to Operations?


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Im not the most experienced Op player but ive done a few here and there and they generally follow some basic need to knows.

 

1: Gearing. Your gear should be at bare minimum full 230 purple with mk 10 augments in every slot. 236 golds would be better but because of bolster the 230 purple will get you through most story mode ops satisfactorily.

 

For hard mode or Nightmare mode Ops you will need at bare minimum 242 gear or higher fully augmented to even compete on DPS or especially as heals where a failure to contribute during several boss fights crunch times can end with a team wipe

 

2: Rotation. Rotation Rotation Rotation, To regularly perform in Operations you MUST know your rotation of abilities to maximize your damage and or healing. an Operation isn't like a FP where you can just spam out heals or basic attacks. you NEED to know precisely when and how to apply your healing abilities or damage abilities for maximum effect to avoid boss enrage timers, heal through damage spikes and burn down bosses in the burn phase of the fights

 

Dulfy has several solid guides on proper gearing and rotations I highly recommend her page for this.

 

3: What do my abilities do? A sort fo add on to the above. The reason a lot of players tend to spam abilities is because they don't understand what they do very well and how theyre meant to interact with their other abilities in the rotation along with the procs and talents and utilities they choose.

 

Learning what each ability does is crucial to success in Ops

 

 

4: Do your homework. Look on youtube and here on the forums and on Dulfy for guides to each operation you want to join Spend time studying each boss fight so you can learn the mechanics of each fight. many boss fights have multiple mechanics and layers to them which you need to be aware of. knowing these mechanics is the difference between a successful fight and a full team wipe.

 

5: learn the lingo. Know what each of the terms ive used above means, its helpful so you know what people are talking about. in an op and can adjust your performance appropriately

examples:

1: Spike, A period of time usually in a boss fight where the bosses damage SPIKEs or goes up on one target or on the raid via a mechanic or ability

2: Tank swap, a mechanics from a boss or fight causes the tank to need to drop agro and switch to an offtank so the heals can top the tank off who then retakes agro

3: Crunch times: also known as Burn phases or the like. Moments in a boss fight where the team blows their cooldowns and just throws everything they have damage wise at the boss in an attempt to burn it down before it enrages or unleashes a teamwise kill move.

4: Enrage timer. pretty self explanatory a time limit on a boss where if the team does not kill it fast enough the boss enrages gaining a massive damage buff which quickly swamps the healers abilitiy to heal the Op through the fight usually resulting in a team wipe.

 

 

those are just some of the lingo Ops use theres more and its helpful to learn it.

 

5: Know your roles. This might seem some what self explanatory but its amazing how often ive seen players forget their basics.

 

The tanks job is to front line the fight keeping the bosses agro on them,

 

the off tank is there to handle extra adds and to swap out with the Main tank as needed

 

DPS is exactly that they're there to BURN the boss at all costs. Some DPS can and should act as spot heals when needed but only in an emergency and only as needed to aid the main healers easing their job

 

healers; Main job is to keep everyone alive prioritizing the tanks first then them selves, then the DPS as needed. A good healer does triage during a fight, if the tank goes down then the heals are going to go down shortly after due to healing being a higher agro then DPS in many cases. However some DPS can rapidly outstrip the Tanks agro wise and may need a brief burst of healing to save them as the tank gets agro back. Furthermore DPS are vital to every boss fight because if they go down the damage falls off and a boss might enrage.

 

 

Knowing your role and how it intereacts with a specific boss fight is vital to the success of an OP.

 

that's all I can think of off the top of my head, some more experienced Ops players may and probably will have much more in depth advice for you.

 

Good luck with your Ops. :)

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As an addendum to catsi' post I would also recommend running Eternal Championship, I do not know or remember if the EC still level syncs with you but some of the mechanics there are also present through the operations. Things like kill order, enrage timers, burn phases, ETC. It would be a good way to get your bearings on how most of that content works.

 

I would also recommend, if it is your first time doing an operation and you're not fully comfortable within your role yet, to run only EV and KP until you feel comfortable with your role. As they are the easiest operations out there and you should be able to complete it easily and get some Operation experience, I'd say avoid Gods from the Machine until you're experienced as that is a more challenging operation than the others, even in SM.

 

As for how the loot works, each boss in an operation drops a specific unassembled gear piece. I believe Dulfy also has a list of the set pieces so if you're trying to get gear it is a good way to check the loot table. There is also a chance to drop sometimes speeders and decorations, although some speeders only drop in Nightmare/Master mode. They also drop a CXP pack as well as crafting materials needed for endgame crafting. Usually it's up to the Operation Group Leader to pick the loot rules, ask them before the raid starts and follow them and you should be fine. Oh and as a last note Story More operation drops legendary tier 2, Hard/Mode drops legendary tier 3 and I believe the last boss of each Nim/Master drops legendary tier 4 with the previous bosses dropping components or other tier 4 pieces but not legendary ones, if I am mistaken please someone correct me.

Edited by FlameYOL
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SM ops can literally be done naked. Gear for SM is el o el.

 

Every HM except GODS can be done with ease in 230 gear.

 

NIM can be done in 240 gear maybe 242 for some of the harder bosses.

 

Those new gold 236/240 augments are nice, but people completed plenty of NIM before them. Don't need them at all.

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Thanks all for the advice. I have just one more question. I run DPS ranged Mercenaries using two quick bars, any suggestion on the abilities I should run on the main?

 

As others have suggested go to Dulfy: http://dulfy.net/2017/02/05/swtor-5-0-arsenal-mercenary-pve-guide-by-sabz/

Arsenal is the easier of the two merc dps specs. Innovative Ordinance does more damage but is significantly more challenging to get the rotation right (and there is no guide on Dulfy for it or it's commando mirror)

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SM ops can literally be done naked. Gear for SM is el o el.

 

Every HM except GODS can be done with ease in 230 gear.

 

NIM can be done in 240 gear maybe 242 for some of the harder bosses.

 

Those new gold 236/240 augments are nice, but people completed plenty of NIM before them. Don't need them at all.

 

I think since OP is new to ops, gear will definitely be an important factor. It's of course less relevant when one is a skilled raider farming NiM mounts and timed run titles. Things like augments can make a substantial difference with regards to how the bolster works - some extra stats, a slightly larger pool of health, all provide some leeway for errors to someone learning a fight.

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I think since OP is new to ops, gear will definitely be an important factor. It's of course less relevant when one is a skilled raider farming NiM mounts and timed run titles. Things like augments can make a substantial difference with regards to how the bolster works - some extra stats, a slightly larger pool of health, all provide some leeway for errors to someone learning a fight.

 

Fair point, although I don't like people relying on gear so much.

 

Far too often I see DPS doing 7k and going "if I was full geared I could do 10" and it's like no...going from 246 to 248 iLVL wont make you do 10k, maybe 7.5k, the rest comes from doing your rotation correctly and knowing your class. People out way too much emphasis on gear in this game, I have had so many people tell me I can't go to a raid because my gear is bad. Gear in this game doesn't matter much, more so matters for DPS but for tanks and healers once your like 240 iLVL you can do anything if your good.

 

Just the other day we did a TFB NIM with one of our DPS only being 238 iLVL and we didn't run into any DPS checks. (Though I will admit having 3 melee on dread guards and one of them being under geared was very rough on the heals)

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