Wow heck of a nice guide! What do you recommend for the skill tree you've mentionned some of the cool and must have skills.

But I did not find yet how many points total do we have for the skill tree anywhere. Do we have a maximum amount total or per spec? If we do have a limited amount what are the skills we should have and the points to put in there besides the ones you've mentionned?

That is if you are comfortable sharing your build

I haven`t gotten my starship yet, is there anything worth mentionning for the Smuggler in there? Such has which kind of upgrade should we focus on getting or which part should we focus on upgrading?

im not finding any thing good for scoundrels. energy management is complicated. heals are proc based and we get chewed to bits fast. i feel like i live in force choke in pvp.

any sugestions? i could us them

You talk about 'F' for Crouch(cover) and the middle mouse for Taking cover(or rolling into cover, or putting up portable cover) when in fact the F key will do both. In the early stages of Beta there was a difference between the two, now it seems that they are on in the same.

 

1.If you have no target 'F' will put up PC.

2.If you have a target and there is no gumby 'F' will put up PC

3.If you have a target and there is a gumby 'F' will roll you into the gumby.

 

With rolling into a gumby bugging out Aimed Shot I just run to the cover spot and use Shift+F.

 

Great write up by the way.

I forget about which one does which ('F' and Middle MOUSE), as I switched them around. But I found it useful to use keys for both. I use middle mouse much more often, because it gives you the ability to choose the direction you're facing much more easily.

As a gunslinger, does portable cover completely replace the crouch ability or can you switch between natural, portable, and crouching cover?

Yep.

Wow heck of a nice guide! What do you recommend for the skill tree you've mentionned some of the cool and must have skills.

 

But I did not find yet how many points total do we have for the skill tree anywhere. Do we have a maximum amount total or per spec? If we do have a limited amount what are the skills we should have and the points to put in there besides the ones you've mentionned?

 

That is if you are comfortable sharing your build

 

I haven`t gotten my starship yet, is there anything worth mentionning for the Smuggler in there? Such has which kind of upgrade should we focus on getting or which part should we focus on upgrading?

You get 41 points total, I believe. And I went mostly with the Sharpshooter tree. Have been liking it. While I'm only level 35, as I go up, it seems to focus less on charged abilities, and much more on using combos intelligently for high powered instant attacks.

This is what I've decided on my build so far. Not sure where to stick the rest, but most likely Dirty Fighting. For must-haves, I'd say Ballistic Dampers and Cover Screen for defensive stuff. Snap Shot, Trick Shot, and Recoil Control are great. Lets you have a quick one-two punch as soon as you go for cover. Foxhole helps immensely with action regeneration. Trip Shot is great, especially for PvP, because it essentially let's you kite for 5 our of every 12 seconds (less with resolve). While it breaks on damage, it let's you set up an Aimed Shot. Similarly, in conjunction with Spacer and Percussion Shot, will let you keep melee enemies at bay for a bit.

This is generally what I do when combat starts:

Smuggler's Luck to make my Charged Burst a crit.

Flourish Shot on enemy, to lower defenses.

Take Cover.

Use Charged Burst (with Snap Shot, it's an instant cast). Juicy attack. Set's them up for Trickshot.

Trickshot. Another juicy instant attack.

Thermal Detonator. Medium instant attack. Knocks back the target, makes them "Weakened". Substituted for Flash Bang if the enemy is Strong or Elite.

Now that they're weakened, Headshot. Juicy attack.

Sabotage Charge. Instant cast, next attack will be doubly juicy.

Aimed Shot. Charged cast, but very powerful. Doubly so with Sabo Charge.

Trickshot Again.

And if the enemy is still standing, Quickdraw.

The only thing I really have to say, is to AVOID Burst Volley. I tried it for a few levels. Someone is likely going to disagree with me, but I believe wholeheartedly that Burst Volley is complete and utter crap. I've studied its effects, and found that it essentially does the following: Shaves off 0.1 seconds off of the Charged Burst activation time, three times, every 30 seconds. Saving a TOTAL of .3 seconds activation time, every 30 seconds. For three points, not worth it.

im not finding any thing good for scoundrels. energy management is complicated. heals are proc based and we get chewed to bits fast. i feel like i live in force choke in pvp.

any sugestions? i could us them

Unfortunately, Scoundrel isn't my specialty. I only got to level 20 on my Scoundrel in Beta. But I will say that cover for a Scoundrel is only really useful if you're trying to not get shot as a healer.

taking cover behind an item sometimes bugs out my heals. but just crouching in the open dosnt.

seems scoundrels are not very common or wanted atm

taking cover behind an item sometimes bugs out my heals. but just crouching in the open dosnt.

seems scoundrels are not very common or wanted atm

You have to be careful. Sometimes line of sight will prevent you from seeing your target. The object you're crouching behind has to be low enough that you can pop out over it.

That guide helped a lot, thanks again.

Keep the good work mate.

Wonderful information here ... thanks for taking the time answering the questions.

Does anyone have any experience with the commando side of things, in particular a recommended balance of healing and DPS that makes sense. Just wondering if this game encourages going deep into skill trees or cherry picking the best of all areas.

And for what it is worth, I am mostly PvE but will be trying PvP to see how it is in this game.

Would it be possible to get this cross-linked over to the Agent forums? This is some GREAT info here.

If anyone wants to post this in the Agent forums, by all means. Just make sure to give me credit

hey yall, great post gassy.

got a couple ?'s... i have a problem with natural cover. when i get into natural cover some of my abilities will not work like aimed shot or charged shot. they will use their activation time then when the animation is supposed to go it cancels the shot. and this will happen behind large and small natural covers. this happens a lot to me because of this i dont use natural cover pretty much at all instead depending on PC. anyone else got this problem?

and anyone having a problem with take cover moving their toon across the screen to some random cover instead of just popping up PC which would put u in a better spot to fight then the cover the game wants to put u at. i have been attacking a group, pop pc to start the fight then when i kill one and try to move just a bit like a meter or so to have a better angle it will choose a random cover spot nearby to move me to instead of popping the pc again. this i really annoying when it moves u into range of another group of mobs.

im a gunslinger btw, lvl 35.

thx again gassy for a great post.

ps dirty kick ftw, my greatest joy is killing someone with a kick to groin lol

Thanks for the guide! I'm new to MMO and SWTOR, so all this info is really helpful. I just started playing smuggler a few days ago and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

What is the best way to get the green gumby to toggle through the different potential cover points like show in this image? http://www.ethanguillemette.com/cover4.jpg

Is it just controlled by movement/camera rotation or is there some other way to tab through them?

Thanks, great guide. I have a question about my crewskills. I have scavenging, investigation and armstech for my gunslinger. Now i'm starting to think I should have gone for cybertech. Any advice from you guys. I haven't crafted a lot, so I can still switch.

It's a matter off preference. If you like to upgrade your equipment, specifically your armor, I'd go with Cybertech. With Cybertech, you can make Armoring to increase the armor value of your orange gear, Mods for both armor and weapons, ear pieces which are a great source of stats (and don't drop very often), grenades, starship parts, vehicles and droid parts. It's really nice being able to take those custom armor pieces you pick up in the early levels, and upgrade them with purple level 40 mods.

Thanks for the guide! I'm new to MMO and SWTOR, so all this info is really helpful. I just started playing smuggler a few days ago and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

 

What is the best way to get the green gumby to toggle through the different potential cover points like show in this image? http://www.ethanguillemette.com/cover4.jpg

 

Is it just controlled by movement/camera rotation or is there some other way to tab through them?

Ah, that screenshot was from a video posted ages ago. Previous build. Back then, you pressed a button to show all cover points. It is no longer an option (people were complaining because you essentially had to use one key to show cover, and another key to enter it, every time you wanted to use cover).

It's a matter off preference. If you like to upgrade your equipment, specifically your armor, I'd go with Cybertech. With Cybertech, you can make Armoring to increase the armor value of your orange gear, Mods for both armor and weapons, ear pieces which are a great source of stats (and don't drop very often), grenades, starship parts, vehicles and droid parts. It's really nice being able to take those custom armor pieces you pick up in the early levels, and upgrade them with purple level 40

Thanks for the info. You confirm what I was expecting After doing some research. I have already switched to cybertech, but thanks again for the confirmation.

Ah, that screenshot was from a video posted ages ago. Previous build. Back then, you pressed a button to show all cover points. It is no longer an option (people were complaining because you essentially had to use one key to show cover, and another key to enter it, every time you wanted to use cover).

I still see these in game though. Are they just there now to show you recommended cover points? I can't seem to get the green gumby to show up on these points, so without that, it seems useless since I can just go cover in place/crouch wherever I want.

THanks for your work! I'm trying to love my gunslinger and am only lvl 16. I'm confused with stats though. Aim first, then endurance? Is cunning any use as a gunslinger?

I'm usually heals, and wishing we could rechoose an advanced class. But until then, I'm enjoying the whole rolling around and taking cover. But I find I'm really easily killed compared to my Consular that I'm leveling at the same time as heals.

Is there much difference between light side and dark side smugglers specifically the scoundrel? Or does it matter much?

No. Currently Light Side versus Dark Side has no real effect on combat. However, it should be noted that due to a huge oversight on the developer's part, staying neutral (neither light or dark side) prevents you from using Relics, which are a nice buff boost. I believe they're working on more options for neutrals however. But note that the relics you can use for Light Side offer the same stats as the ones for Dark Side. Ultimately, there is no difference between them. Except that going dark side will really put a damper on your love life, what with all the dead flesh and crazy glowing eyes

got a couple ?'s... i have a problem with natural cover. when i get into natural cover some of my abilities will not work like aimed shot or charged shot. they will use their activation time then when the animation is supposed to go it cancels the shot. and this will happen behind large and small natural covers.

As far as I've heard, Skripe, this is a pretty common bug (esp with Aimed Shot).

I've heard that it has something to do with *rolling* into natural cover instead of just *crouching* behind natural cover. It seems (at least from what I've noticed after hearing that) that if you roll into nat cover, Aimed shot will frequently get bugged and always cancel/interrupt itself, but in crouching behind cover this either doesn't happen, or happens less frequently. This seems to be pretty true from my personal experience.

But hopefully some of the more seasoned Slingers here can shed some light on official dev responses/workarounds/etc.

HTH

I got my first taste of tanking behind cover last night. A cutscene followed by an elite and two normal mobs (that had the HP of silvers) had Bowdar dead before I could start unloading on the elite.

Now usually this is game over, but I threw a flash grenade, hunkered behind something on pure reflex and use a medipac. Then it was like, 'oh well, dead'. What's my surprise in seeing a series of 'cover, cover, cover!' floating over my head.

Hee. After a couple of tries I stayed hunkered down when the elite did his channeling and only popped out when he was auto-attacking. Poof, dead elite.

Thanks for the tips on crouching behind cover. I didn't know that green shields meant full reduction and that even though my portable cover was shining into an object I was still getting full avoidance. I assumed it would be animation and icon specific for the difference between the two protection types but instead it seems to be true line of site calculations for whether or not they hit a natural barrier. I am truly impressed.

Yeah, you truly can get creative with cover. Even stairs can be used to get full reduction, if you position yourself a few steps from the top of the stairs. Same thing with hills and mounds.