feliix
-
Posts
52 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Posts posted by feliix
-
-
But I'm going to have to say I very much doubt you are killing the heroic bosses with a DPS companion if you are not significantly geared (IE, not still running around in your 156 gear). If you are significantly geared and have not acknowledged this, you're being kind of disingenuous because that's an important factor.
If you are significantly geared, then sure. But not by anybody running around in baseline gear will really be doing this.I'm insignificantly geared. You can definitely do this in 156 with Nadia and a tank. But to do
so, you have to get in all the right interrupts, stuns, and where appropriate move away from strong
attacks. Nadia, needs all the best shadow at level DPS gear you can give her (you can swap
with her when you want to instance as DPS instead of tank). Cooldowns need to be available,
make sure Nadia's high dps attacks are not on cooldown from previous trash.
I'm not sure it would be possible as say, a balance shadow with Nadia, since I haven't actually
tried that, yet! But I do have a 49 balance shadow, that leveled through pvp. Maybe I'll try Nadia
for dailies if I can give up pvp at 49.
-
Get Nadia as soon as possible, she's awesome, and shares your gear.
Pre-nadia, I leveled as balance. You can choose the healer that is easiest
for you to gear. Why balance? Mainly because it was fun, we had instant lifts,
and with the latest patch, instant lifts are back I think! Really fun to use the cc's
for the various level situations.
But once you have Nadia, I'd say tank spec. Put all your best DPS gear on Nadia.
Be sure to leave her explosive jumping skill active (it will make for interesting pulls
where you'll struggle to keep aggro off her, and her vocal emotes sync up hilariously
with the leaping force explosions). She is just incredibly fun with a tank spec player
character. For some champions, I'll use Theran. But most, it's Nadia.
Even post self heal nerf, she's just more fun, albeit much riskier. As others have
suggested, bleed spec on Nadia. If the enemies are very low HP, they'll die fast
regardless. If they have enough for a tick or more of bleed, then it was the right
choice. Ideally I guess you'd swap her around, but for leveling, it's just less
hassle to keep her in bleed all the time.
-
I am not a guilded player, also don't pug story mode ops.
So on my shadow tank, and ops healer, no raid gear, just
quest items, and a few heroic 4 man items.
For the shadow tank, cooldowns, interrupts, and Nadia.
For the reaping fields guy, fight in your healing puddle,
Nadia with all dps options enabled. He dies before he
can finish his second dps cycle. I can only imagine how
terribly easy this is with raid gear.
My healer, it's actually a bit harder, but still, it's interrupts
and cooldowns. Treek in tank mode. If I miss an interrupt
Treek dies and I have to kite a bit. My dps companions are
not geared enough to see how that would work.
Botherium beast, on shadow tank I just melee, interrupt
extract, and sprint to one shot healing tentacles. Stand in
healing puddle, and use Nadia for dps.
Now in raids, I do agree that shadow tanks need some help.
Personally, I don't like losing the self heals, but it's hard to
justify a shadow tank for a run of the mill guild, when easier
tank options are available. But for soloing and 4 mans, shadows
are fine in tank mode.
-
Gameplay wise, treek is probably the single best companion there is, she wil be better then every other healer or tank in their own role, and be able to switch them as a bonus.
That being said, that stupid comic relief furball is the single most unepic companion one could think of, and I wouldn't want to be caught dead running with her.
I actually like her vocalizations and animations. I hardly ever read what she's saying,
just like the japanese anime kind of wild emotion she expresses. Once in a great while
I'll read what she's said, and it's always been ok. I never liked ewoks in the star wars
movies. So I understand not liking her based on that. But it's been a long time since
the introduction of "ewoks" to star wars. I quite like the way treek fits into swtor.
A well geared healer, or tank character will work better with a geared dps companion.
Treek provides a really good option for weak/moderate geared characters, or very
high DPS characters at max level. For levelling, she is absolutely best for any
character that uses aim as a main stat. And arguably best overall for any
character (I prefer using a companion that uses the same main stat as
the main character for economy and ease of upgrading).
-
So question...how exactly do you get her? I know you have to pay points to unlock her quest, and then you have to pay more points to make her available on all toons? Is that correct?
If you have legacy 40, you have 2 options. 1 million credits at a cartel bazaar NPC for her "contract", OR
you can use cartel coins. Less than legacy 40, you have to use cartel coins to get her "contract" through
the cartel shop.
You then click on her "contract", it turns a quest available icon on for a robot NPC in the cartel bazaar.
Now you're on your way to acquisition of the Treek companion.
Once you've done an acquisition questline for Treek, you could choose to make her available to
all characters on that legacy account. The way you do that, is log out and wait a few minutes (20?).
Log back in, open up your inventory, and in the corner you'll see a "collections" icon. Click on that,
it brings up a GUI page, early on you'll see "specials", near the top of the collections GUI page.
Click on that, and fumble about, you'll see the option to make treek available to all characters on
the legacy account.
-
I was completely non-receptive to the treek companion. Mainly due to it's ties
to the cartel market. I personally find the whole "packs" thing unappealing.
So Treek gets lumped in there.
But I had a ton of cartel coins from never spending and accumulating as a
subscriber. With a new smuggler healer at 55, I decided to try Treek out
as a tank.
I put mostly blue modifications in her gear, 50-55, with a mix of aim/tank and
aim/dps items. Whatever I could craft myself on my cybertech main character.
My verdict after Orincon? Treek is completely worth it as a tank, probably good
as a healer also. As an undergeared new 55 smuggler healer, I was able to
solo that tower gold boss with his "reaping the fields" attacks. Which was actually
tougher than the champions in the heroic2.
My guess is Treek would also be good for a very high DPS character as a
tank/sometimes healer. As long as you killed stuff fast.
I'm not sure how she would work out pre-55. Perhaps best with a main character
that also uses aim. Otherwise keeping Treek geared as you level might be a
hassle.
-
Well they have no choice but to if they want to win. Pub side always has at least 2 healers per match. But that doesn't mean they actually target them.
As far as sub-55 pvp goes, I'm often top heals republic side. And I think the imps notice that,
so they do indeed target me. But I'm a balance shadow. So no. Republic is not stacked with
healers every match. And yes indeed, some imps do target top heals in a warzone. So I have
to disagree with this post, unless... Unless you include "self-healing" classes as healers.
Then I guess, ok. Republic is stacked with self healing shadows, and sentinels.
-
I'm on Begeren Colony, and play sub-55, 55 (non-ranked) WZs
regularly. No lag at all since 2.0 patch. I'm on the west coast,
on a high end PC with 2560x1600 screen. Using graphics settings
suggested by Nividia (all pretty much at highest settings).
Once in a great while, I'll run into the ability activation lag issue.
-
Some prefer watching a woman, some prefer watching a man,
this game allows you to watch either gender as a character.
Feel free to watch men if you want, no need for anyone to
understand that, your preference, whatever it is, is fine.
There's also the voice acting.
-
I've just unsubbed as well, and I've been here since launch.
I've been here since launch, may play sometime after lunch. Still subscribed. But I
haven't played for a week. So please consider me for the stuff giving as you cheerily
exit!
-
You need to think about your class and chosen specification when
choosing a main companion to level efficiently with. If you're a shadow
consular, then it's Nadia. She "inherits" all your old gear as you level.
With her, it's best if you tank, but she can work as a tank for a dps or
healer. The main thing is you don't have to expend resources on her
gear, since she just gets your "hand me downs".
Smugglers, it's probably Risha or Gus. Bounty hunter, Mako is so good,
and shows up so early, she might be worth the hassle of gearing as you
level. For troopers it's easy.
Pick a companion that uses your same gear, and plan out your spec for
leveling up with that companion. Works great.
-
Force lift can be a great way to control aggro in some pve situations
when combined with typical line of sight trickery.
A shadow tank can initiate a bogus cc, which grabs initial aggro.
As the aggro'd group closes, real cc can be applied, non-cc'd
enemies continue on to the shadow tank.
Since you used LOS after initial aggro, the CC is safe from AOE.
Pretty specific to pve, but it's one of the perks for a pve shadow.
Late edit for increased clarity:
For the purposes of this thread, the shadow tanks lift is considered "bogus",
keeping in line with earlier ideas expressed in this thread.
The shadow tanks "bogus" lift initiates aggro, the shadow tank being out of
line of sight "pulls" the now aggro'd group. "Real cc", would be applied by
other members of the shadow tanks group as the aggro'd pack closes
(e.g., sage lift, smuggler slice, commando conc. round). For a tough pack
you can even get other pre combat cc's in prior to the shadow lift for an even
more controlled situation.
-
<doubled post deleted>
-
A nice overarching goal would be to use your mouse
for fast camera movement, and character rotation, and
a keypress for forward, or strafes (left or right).
Avoid moving with your "backwards walk" key. Instead,
re-orient your character with a much more fluid (and fast)
mouse input.
And keybindings. SWTOR provides a great interface for
altering your keybindings. Very intuitive. Try it out!
A nice keybinding approach is to shift over your "forward/
backward/StrafeLeft/StrafeRight/RotateLeft/RotateRight"
from "WSAD" towards the right a bit. For example, you
could move over to "RFET". That will give you more
"real estate" right next to your primary movement keys.
Use the keys in the immediate vicinity for your most
important keybinds, the more critical the keybind, the
closer it should be to your "home" (e.g., "RFET")
position. You can place a tiny nubbin of keyboard
compatible cement on the "R" to help you remember
that position without looking.
Once you have that all set up, head over to a training
dummy, and practice moving in a circle while using
your offensive and defensive skills. Circle left, and right.
Attack while on approach, attack while running away.
Start slow, gradually increase the pace of your keyboard
inputs.
After a bit of that, you'll see a large improvement in the
fluidity of your attack/defense/heal sequences.
-
I'm currently leveling up, mostly with Kira. Watchmen spec.
The vast majority of my questing is at orange level (on Hoth
at the moment). Most of the quest rewards are not usable
since they outlevel my character.
I was surprised. Most other classes, there is much more call
for using a healer. But with watchmen spec, keeping gear up
to date (for you, and especially for Kira) means there is no real
need to use the healer companion.
Take skills that increase your healing, and cc (valor for increased
centering, zeal for burn effect healing, close quarters, watchguard,
focused leap). Other than that get the damage increasing skills.
Use your cc, keep up your dots, target Kira at dangerous enemies
first, you clean up weaks before helping her out.
Doc of course, also works. But it's slower, so I find I mostly bring
him out for conversations so he can get some affection points.
-
If you look over time, there is a ton of absolute garbage information
presented on this forum. If someone wants to spew out "feelings"
based opinions in a game built from math, it's ok. But it is clearly
not anywhere near optimal. That kind of post is always going to
draw flack in a thread looking for "best".
I really, really appreciate kitru, and other math based posters that
provide informed opinions, and have taken the time to bolster
those opinions with math.
Even if I'm a player that can't be in a guild that is clearing top end content
easily, it's nice to optimize my balance dps or tank shadow as best I can.
That simply would not be possible if everyone posted their wild hair notions
with no supporting math. Or well spoken, reasoned opinions as to why
certain optimizations work better than others.
Providing math, and detailed analysis, is simply fantastic. Kitru and keyboardninja
come to mind, but there are also others.
Thanks. For being patient. Your well written and informed posts are a boon
for the swtor community.
-
There's another option to that noted above.
Once you hit valor cap (40) in pre-50 pvp, you get the
ability to purchase ranked tokens. If you do it right,
you can be capped on normal and ranked tokens
by the time you hit 50. Once you cap the higher level
tokens, I'd convert valor over to hp and damage reduction
pvp stims until 50.
-
While it's important to note that shadows never, ever
kick privates or shoot people in the back with a shotgun.
Probably, one of the main things to note, is that a shadow
will not heal another person. No green healy animations
from a shadow.
Scoundrel: green healies, dirty kicks, sucker punch/backblasts,
robot/biologic long cc's
Shadow: pole sabers (but no pole dancing), can throw rocks and
whack things with it's pole saber (sages have to keep their
saber in their pocket to throw rocks).
-
Sorry OP, I really, really like that sabotage charge, and other skills automatically
trigger a cover mechanism reposition. As a smuggler healer, that becomes an
awesome tactic in pvp, still great in pve. Throw some heals out in certain areas
of a map, as your green healy actions generate player hate, and they reconvene
on you, throw a sabotage charge! If you're positioned well, you get a super fast
reposition.
Throw your charge, invis/dodge, then reposition for more heals or attacks.
The forced cover animations and repositioning can be a huge advantage.
Just play around with it a bit.
-
One fun way to level is to put 3 points in
Bedside Manner (increases cunning), and
2 points in Underworld Medicine (100%
chance to grant upper hand). Then...
Jump to dirty fighting, work your way up
to Dirty Escape (3 points ranged/tech
critical chance, 2 points alacrity,
2 points dirty escape).
After that start, focus on anything that
increases your healing output from
sawbones.
In pvp, you kick everything, hit them
while they're recovering from your kick,
and heal.
In pve, yes! Again, kick all the red things!
Retarget and do some green healy stuff,
then kick again! Lots of fun, worked well
for questing, h2/4s, and flashpoints.
-
One fun way to level is to put 3 points in
Bedside Manner (increases cunning), and
2 points in Underworld Medicine (100%
chance to grant upper hand). Then...
Jump to dirty fighting, work your way up
to Dirty Escape (3 points ranged/tech
critical chance, 2 points alacrity,
2 points dirty escape).
After that start, focus on anything that
increases your healing output from
sawbones.
In pvp, you kick everything, hit them
while they're recovering from your kick,
and heal.
In pve, yes! Again, kick all the red things!
Retarget and do some green healy stuff,
then kick again! Lots of fun, worked well
for questing, h2/4s, and flashpoints.
-
Another vote for Nadia. She wears the same gear you do, the
rewards from dailies tied to your class? Shift some over to Nadia
when they're no longer a direct benefit to you. Give her a crit/surge
oriented focus, and a dps oriented dual bladed lightsaber. Add some
power after you get her to 30%+ crit and 70%+ crit damage. Turn on
all of her offensive abilities (even the blast them hither and yon thing).
If you want to have the option of vanishing out of combat, turn off her dot.
Then all you have to do is keep aggro off her! Do everything you can as
tank to keep from hearing her distressed emote, and you'll clear through
the dailies very fast.
You'll still need a geared up Theran for soloing some of the white starred
champions, h2s and h4s, but even there... As you gear up it's much more
interesting to make it work with Nadia.
That's assuming you're a tank spec of course. Maybe, Zeniths heavier armor
is a factor when you expect your companion to semi-tank. But if you yourself
are the tank, the fun of having a super dps Nadia can't be matched by Zenith.
Zenith also does not share your gear rewards, making him more problematic
on equipment.
-
The old animation for project was clearly inferior to it's mirror skill
imperial side with regards to pvp. Huge, unending tirades raged
about the imbalance. In my opinion, it looked great. Those great
looking, massive rock throws meant imperials could dodge your
attack in certain scenarios. I liked it, despite the unending forum
rage against project at that time.
The new animation, perhaps not as impressive looking. But
functionally, it's on par with it's mirror skill. The parity is nice,
and certainly is something to "like".
Maybe an easy compromise would be to have the old animation
style in effect for PVE encounters, newer more balanced animation
for PVP. Sure, people would still complain, but it would be a whole
new crop of people! Maybe it could be a lore thing, along the
following lines:
Having a PVP animation, and different PVE animation for project makes
my head hurt, making me feel unbalanced. It also interferes with my
ideas about the lore regarding yanking septic tanks out of the ground
to hurl at my enemies. FIX IT!
-
Scoundrel healing tree. But for fun, get some "dirty fighting" tree points early on:
No Holds Barred (3)
Black Market Mods (2)
Dirty Escape (2)
Other than that, typical sawbones, adding in the 3% healing points
from "scrapper" tree very late in your leveling process.
Keeping Bowdar and Akavvi up while they have aoe skills turned on
is really fun. Turn off their aoes if you want them to fight safely in situations
where you need to keep both your sap and slice cc's unmolested. Get good
at directing them to keep aggro off you, and use dirty kick with abandon!
You can solo just about any heroic2 while leveling, and many heroic4s.
What you learn doing this also works exceedingly well in flashpoints.
Pvp, maybe you'd change it up a bit at very high levels. But a heavy sawbones
with a good dirty kick is great in lower level pug pvp.
If you are significantly geared, then sure. But not by anybody running around in baseline gear will really be doing this.
perfect companion for solo pve Shadow?
in Shadow / Assassin
Posted
Probably my favorite shadow/companion pair up is player-tank +
Nadia. Pre-55, you just use her as a dps gear bank (gear her up
as you would gear yourself in dps form, pretty much). Early on that
means she just inherits your "hand me down" items. As you get up
in levels, she can be a repository for the gear you use when you
respec to dps.
The problem with Nadia, is you don't get her until late. But that kind
of fits with 12xXP. You can rush story quests and get her relatively
fast, but you still will not have her at your lowest levels.
The healer options for a shadow (treek/theran), are both more of a
problem to keep geared up, as they do not share your gear. If you
have another high level character, that could be a good reason to
choose one or the other (aim/treek, cunning/theran).