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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

Bilirubin

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Posts posted by Bilirubin

  1. I just found any tank gear I could and put that on. Shadow Tank gear as you level is generally pretty rare, so you take what you can get rather than picking and choosing generally.

     

    When given options (such as with mods as quest drops), mitigation stats take priority (shield, absorption, defense; try to get your shield and aborption percentages equal and stack as much Defense as you care to otherwise), followed one of two combinations dependent on personal choice: Willpower over Endurance (re: Resolve Hilts and Armoring) or Endurance over Willpower (re: Force Wielder Hilts and Armoring). While you're leveling, the additional Endurance will do next to nil for you (Tharan will rarely let you drop below 90% health), especially after you get Tharan while the Willpower will actually increase your kill speed (and therefore leveling speed). I would only stack the Endurance if you really truly afraid of dying in a spec that is renowned for punching through pretty much anything it finds while solo.

     

    Would you take a +10 defense even at the expense of willpower (say -5)?

     

    At level 30 I think my defense/absorb are both roughly 16%, with willpower and endurance both around 400 (with willpower above endurance by 20-30 points). Off the top of my head--will post actual stats when I get home and can check.

     

    Am I stacked appropriately for my level? I ask because I've been prioritizing willpower over just about everything else, and fear I might have been slightly off in those decisions.

  2. I leveled from 1-50 as pure Kinetic tank the entire way and never ran into any problems. My kill speed was excellent (when I tested progression through a phase with a similarly geared Inf Shadow, we actually got to the end at the same time because he had to spend so much time healing whereas I left every fight at full health) and downtime was virtually nonexistent once I got Tharan (~25).

     

    The thing to keep in mind while leveling Kinetic is that the first 20 levels are boring as bejeebus (DS and Saber Strike spam with occasional breaks for Force Breach) and you're generally pretty Force starved. Once you get over the hump levels though, it's all gravy. From 30+, I leveled *way* more efficiently than any other Shadow I met and many of them were having so many problems that they respec'd to Kinetic because of how easy I was rolling through everything.

     

    QFT.

     

    I just hit 30, having progressed to this point with all my points in the kinetic tree, and it was 1) boring, but that made it easy to learn basic combat mechanics, and 2) filling in my 3rd tier has suddenly changed everything. Plus the taunt. But never impossible. (Well, other than the imperial surgeon, the only champion that I could not topple and just decided to go around in the end. But it was a solo heroic 2+ so I don't feel bad or anything)

  3. I've been kinetic combat tree since level 10 and it wasn't any problem getting to 30 (my current level--two-3 hours per night isn't nearly enough time to keep up :) ). Just have to know your abilities, and use your interrupts. Its not exactly exciting gaming, but its not at all hard, even for an MMO n00b like myself.
  4. Not to mention force leap pulls aggro from everything that the tank needs to get back. The Sentinel is beginning to be one of those classes I'm starting to become weary of grouping with.

     

    Sadly agreed. In fact now that I have Tharen I can almost solo all heroic 2+s (I had to mind maze then escape one champion on Nar Shaddaa that proved too much for just us alone, but took down the rest) so I'm getting more impatient about getting a group together.

  5. THose bonus quests from Taris really add up.

     

    I think a lot of people did not like Taris and so skipped a lot of the quests there.

     

    Yeah I heard a lot of complaining about Taris, but I figured its better to head to a planet overleveled, so I spent my time doing every quest, heroic, and the flashpoint, and picked up the most relevant datacrons for good measure. But by the end I was thinking "***, can't the Republic army do ANYTHING for themselves?" :D

     

    I was spending time just looking around on Taris, and I really appreciate the effort the devs put in. The picture box, especially straight above, was awesome.

  6. Hello. I am Bilirubin, and I am a Shadow Consular. :D I frigging love this character, I love the melee, I love the light sabres, I even love chucking huge rocks around that do (at current level) 500+ damage. Its the perfect blend of battle and force, and suits me to a T.

     

    I also like the community in here: the helpful posts and theorycrafting have been extremely valuable to me as I have worked to learn MMO mechanics (I am a twitch and fire FPS player for the past odd 15 years or so).

     

    Awesome work all--please keep it up!

  7. Glad things have clicked for you!

     

    I'm a level 24 kinetic shadow (so far, plan to go kinetic balance hybrid), and have never felt wanting for anything but more threat generation. I'm still working out the basic mechanics of how to play an MMO as I go, and am reading every thread for helpful tips and tricks. Have only used slow time sparingly since I got it, but I will try it a little more and see what I think.

     

    Of course I was thinking about Force Slow...apologies.

  8. Glad things have clicked for you!

     

    I'm a level 24 kinetic shadow (so far, plan to go kinetic balance hybrid), and have never felt wanting for anything but more threat generation. I'm still working out the basic mechanics of how to play an MMO as I go, and am reading every thread for helpful tips and tricks. Have only used slow time sparingly since I got it, but I will try it a little more and see what I think.

  9. No kidding, I specced out of kinetic leveling about 10 levels ago because i was a nub and geared wrong for it. Read 3 of Kitru's posts in random threads and want to go back.

     

    Heh. I'm leveling Kinetic and am wondering when I can be arsed to assign my balance points. Was thinking of going balance hybrid but might just wind up standard after all. BUT many levels to go before then.

     

    Also more props to Kitru's generous knowledge sharing!

  10. Lesson 3: Knowing which abilities to interrupt on caster fights is *very important*. Many casters have a "basic" cast that they use that doesn't deal appreciable damage (Lightning Strike and Disturbance are the most common example). Do not interrupt these. These same casters have a small number of exceptionally dangerous casts that you *must* interrupt, because, otherwise, they'll take out a third of your health (Forcequake, Force Lightning, Project Storm, Force Storm, and Orbital Bombardment are the most notable). Interrupt these with anything you've got: Mind Snap, Force Stun, Low Slash (if Inf), Spinning Kick (if Kinetic), whatever you've got that can interrupt. If you can't interrupt it, move as far away from the effect on the ground as humanly possible: many of these abilities have larger areas of effect that the marker on the ground denotes. If you can't get away from it (or it is a single target rather than AoE ability), do *not* be afraid to use Resilience: 100% immunity to Force powers can be a *godsend* when fighting casters, especially when a big, angry beatstick power gets through.

     

    This bit really improved my game tonight. I'm a FPS player and haven't yet learned everything to look for in this kind of game. I perhaps overdid it, interrupting p much everything, so have to learn to be more selective on that front, but the interruptions made taking down some elites much much easier. Thanks!

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