feliix
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Posts posted by feliix
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Is this what tank epeen debates look like?
Definitely not! It looks like a well thought out discussion regarding the finer points
of threat generation for shadow tanks. Especially during the opening moments of
an encounter. Later in the discussion, it meanders a bit into overall rotation and
potential problems with long term threat generation.
I really appreciate the time taken in this post (and others) to help clarify the reasoning
behind different approaches to tanking for shadow.
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Is this what tank epeen debates look like?
Definitely not! It looks like a well thought out discussion regarding the finer points
of threat generation for shadow tanks. Especially during the opening moments of
an encounter. Later in the discussion, it meanders a bit into overall rotation and
potential problems with long term threat generation.
I really appreciate the time taken in this post (and others) to help clarify the reasoning
behind different approaches to tanking for shadow.
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I'm very low level, focusing on heal talents and maybe 2 points in
the slow-release medpack tier. I've had no problems at all in
appropriate level flashpoints or 4+/2+ heroics. I use whatever
oranges came my way, upgrading modifications as the various
commendations make them available.
It's pretty easy to get healer oriented cunning and even some
power gear around taris. One thing to do is challenge yourself
while soloing. Use less cc, or grab extra enemies.
Concentrate on maintaining awareness of upper hand and
pugnacity. Use whatever tools you have (blaster whip,
underworld medicine, etc...) to keep your upper hand buff going.
Don't let pugnacity drop. Even pre slow-release medpack, you
get cool head pretty early. Use that after energy depletion on
a burst heal phase.
Maybe, my opinion regarding lower level 4+/2+ heroics is biased
due to applying my cc whenever possible. Though there have been
quite a few no brainer attack everything groups. Those were tougher
to heal, but still worked fine.
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Well, one nice thing for everyone is the sharding. It tends to reduce the
competition for this kind of quest item. Another is that such items have
a very fast respawn. So best not to get too upset.
However... If you're a class that can stealth, anytime you see someone
running up to ninja the quest objective you're killing an NPC for... Just
instant stealth to throw aggro on the person that thinks they're going to ninja.
Then while they fight, just take your quest item and go.
It's funny, I've actually had people rage at me in general over that. They
come in expecting to ninja a quest item while I'm fighting, I stealth, to give
them the fight. Then they get mad when I take the quest item?
Maybe as some have stated, they're role playing dark side, and don't like
being played for a dark side fool.
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But that is what is happening right now. *Every* Shadow Tank will run around with Tharan Cedrax, for example, as no other Companion is viable for them. Customization would change this.
This is not true. As a shadow tank, by far, Nadia is my favorite. The trick as a tank
is to really pay attention to gearing her up well, and focusing her on dps. Save a few
hand me down oranges from early in your leveling process (get 2 pairs of pants from
alderaan, save an old chest, feet, etc...). When you go through the process of updating
your characters tank slots, also pay attention to Nadias gear slots.
She is just incredible with a tank when geared. She snares, has a great pulsing aoe
that she casts all the time, and does that spectacular explode and leaping thing. But
for that to work, she has to be able to put out the dps (since your tank dps is a bit
lacking).
Keep aggro off her, and the enemies will go down.
The only time I get Theran out (he is also very geared/focused for healing), is for
strong champions, or groups situations where we lack heals.
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As far as how they function, my favorites are Theran/Holiday and
Nadia. On both, I've really payed attention to gearing them for
heals on Theran, and DPS for Nadia. My character is a female shadow
tank, and Nadia especially, makes for spectacular, and fast battles.
Nadias at 10,000 affection, Theran/Holiday, 9,600? I'm not sure
if that affects their conversations. Regardless, I completely disagree
on Nadias low health emote. To my ear, it sounds despairing, and I
do everything I can as a tank character to keep aggro off her. It's
not pleasant to hear, and she usually dies shortly afterwards since I
can't heal her. So... She fits very well with a tank.
Theran was a bit obnoxious early on, but he seems a lot nicer as his
affection goes up. Other than that brief, strange and weird phase
early on, he's a nice pair with Holiday. And the heals/Holiday stun
mean I can handle lots of very strong champions with just a little
thought.
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As a shadow tank, Nadia is absolutely my favorite companion.
I've geared her up as dps, and she is awesome for that. And her
hair brained comments are my favorite part. Basically, if it's
not a heavy champion/many elites fight, Nadia is out to make
the enemies die fast. Otherwise it's Theran and Ms. Holiday.
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Only monitoring my performance is not good enough. I know I'm good. It's everyone else I'm concerned about.
So play a different well known game where the culture standard is spamming
meters every trash pull and braying/complaining. Or as some have mentioned,
found your own guild and require all members to submit formal meter reports if
you absolutely despise pandas...
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I personally thought this was the best pvp I've experienced in a long time...I am having a blast!
You're totally missing the OPs point. Some people enjoy raging in mmo's. This is
clearly a senseless rage thread! Get with the plan!
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The quest will frustrate you with all the other bugs that might occur aboard that ship. When I did it, every time there was a spawn, the entire spawn would charge at me. I'm talking 20 standard guys charging at me and Tharan. That s**t was ridiculous.
As a shadow tank, I found that hilarious, and it led to quite a bit of fun. I had quickbinds
for Theran passive/aggressive, and Ms. Holiday deployment. When the army pounced, I'd
hit a few silvers, deploy holiday, and place Theran on passive. Next was a sprint to hide
in some far off alcove. Then re-activate Theran. He'd heal us up, the evil horde gradually
triapsed in. We'd damage a few, then deploy Holiday run/hide again.
It was kind of slow, looked insane, and mostly, it was rediculous fun.
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My main is a consular shadow tank. Nadia already has the ability
to tank, just outfit her with tank gear. If I place her in all shadow
consular tank items, she's quite survivable. But as a tank character,
I really appreciate having her as melee aoe dps. She's awesome!
And her crazy hair brained personality is my favorite. I'm also leveling
a sage, so fully intend to use Nadia as a dps/tank when she's available.
With the low aggro heals talent, I think she'll work out fine. Maybe have
a nice keybind for redirecting her main attack so it's easy to refocus her
on anything that is aggro'd to you.
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There was a great post on sage leveling some time back. It seems
to be buried so I can't point you to it. However, I did set up an ASCII
point allocation guide to follow based on it. Basically, this leveling build
focuses on longevity and damage. With just a little bit of thought, you
can solo heroic2s. It also functions very well in a group setting, not optimal
there, but more than adequate to fulfill a dps role.
10> / inner \ (tk) 1 ---+ +--- \kinesis / (bl) 2 <3011> \strength / (tk) 2 | |12> \........../ (tk) 3 | | ForceInBalance (bl) 1 <31 | |13> / mental \ (tk) 1 | | /psychic\ (bl) 1 <3214> \longevity/ (tk) 2 ---+ | \barrier/ (bl) 2 <33 +--- \......./ (bl) 3 <3415> concentration (tk) 1 ---+16> \................/ (tk) 2 | +--- / psychic \ (tk) 1 <35 | | \projection/ (tk) 2 <3617> telekinetic (tk) 1 | |18> \.defense./ (tk) 2 | | blockout (tk) 1 <37 | | \........../ (tk) 2 <3819> disturb mind (tk) 1 ---+ | +--- tidal force (tk) 1 <3920> TKwave (tk) 1 ---+ | +--- TKeffusion (tk) 1 <4021> will of jedi (bl) 1 | | \............/ (tk) 2 <4122> \........../ (bl) 2 | | | | TKbalance (bl) 1 <4223> empowered (bl) 1 | |24> \ throw / (bl) 2 ---+ | POmind (bl) 1 <43 |25> \...../ (bl) 1 ---+ +--- clamor force (tk) 1 <44 |26> upheaval (bl) 1 | +--- \ / (tk) 2 <4527> \ / (bl) 2 | | \............/ (tk) 3 <4628> \......../ (bl) 3 | | | | TKmomentum (tk) 1 <4729> /critical\ (bl) 1 ---+ | \................./ (tk) 2 <48 | | containment (bl) 1 <49 +--- \............../ (bl) 2 <50
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The original poster seemed to mostly be focused on early levels, with
an additional question for later game. As for opening with project...
Well, at higher levels you can indeed get it all, at least for now.
You can proc PA pre-pull, invis, get pre combat cc's off, and throw
your PA buffed project followed by a move to a cc safe combat
area.
Just whirling blow pre combat, proc PA, then do your pre combat cc.
You'll still have time on PA for a buffed project. And by the time you
move to a cc safe battle location, your force will have regenerated.
Or just eschew project and start off with a double strike.
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Datacrons are awesome. No one is "required" to do them. Yet they're a good
perk for people that are not "min/max/super-efficiency" leveling. Probably
my favorite aspect of them is helping someone else find one, pretty nice
feature to help out strangers. It really provides the opportunity to add
an unexpected bit of nicety into this game.
If your reason for playing is to min/max? Dont' waste your time until post 50.
You'll find it much easier and much more efficient to get them after gearing up
a bit at maximum level.
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Stealth is very useful for setting up some cc pre-pull.
Just be careful about application, and try to drag the
engaged enemies away from the cc when you pull.
You'll get mind maze at level 20.
Shadow strike is very expensive for a tiny bit of
additional damage as a shadow tank, there are
probably other things you can do at various levels
that more efficiently use your available force.
My typical low level tanking pull started from stealth
for a mind maze, leave invis with a double strike,
kite to a fight location that drew enemies away from
the cc.
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I play a shadow tank character, but leveled a lot through
tatooine with a sawbones/bowdar pair (2/4heroics). I had
no real interest in a sawbones/smuggler until seeing how
much fun a well played sawbones/bowdar can be.
The toss was awesomely funny. Sure, we lost a few quest
mobs over the cliff, and yes, we got extra packs. But it was
funny, and we still prevailed.
Maybe, bowdar is not optimal, but playing a sawbones with
bowdar seemed like a convincing way to have fun.
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I also enjoyed the space combat, but given that I really like
quests and flashpoints for levelling, it was too much exp
overall.
If I'm thorough about quests and flashpoints, I end up way
powerful at the end of say, Taris. Which is fine. If I did the
space combat, or pvp with regularity, I'd probably have a phase
of being super overpowered for quests and flashpoints.
So I don't do the space combat or pvp for now, I'll save that
for max level, when exp doesn't matter.
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No problems at all here, about a 2 year old i7. I was having
an intermittent problem that I traced to the motherboard, changed
that and everything is just awesome now.
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My suggestion would be to start with a remap of the
typical WSAD movement keys to "RFET" with
"D" for "turn left", and "G" for "turn right".
What this does, is open up more space to the right
for fast, pinky finger keybind access. Also use the
space to the immediate right for frequent access
keybinds, lesser access abilities can be pushed
farther right of your "home position".
If you have trouble "remembering" your shifted
home position, place a small dab of keyboard
compatible cement on your shifted forward key.
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Quizen is pretty much an overpowered companion if you
keep his gear upgraded. If you're having trouble with him,
make sure to pull up his character screen and take every
quest upgrade you can for him. There's a nice Quizen
weapon upgrade on taris. Also be sure to take a look at
any random drops for more Quizen upgrades.
Turn off his aoe attack if you're using your super opener
cc (mind maze).
Depending on your spec, you may want to go with your
healer companion once you get to Nar Shadaa.
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Always people around for my gaming experience. I think this is
a nice balance. I hardly ever see anyone in the galactic trade
area, why bother? We're all new characters, so there is extremely
limited need for anything outside of quest/flashpoint items.
My suggestion for "power" gamers that did whatever to race to 50?
Roll another character, no one cares about your fast 50 achievement,
no one will mind you joining in and having fun with other people
levelling.
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Always people around for my gaming experience. I think this is
a nice balance. I hardly ever see anyone in the galactic trade
area, why bother? We're all new characters, so there is extremely
limited need for anything outside of quest/flashpoint items.
My suggestion for "power" gamers that did whatever to race to 50?
Roll another character, no one cares about your fast 50 achievement,
no one will mind you joining in and having fun with other people
levelling.
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Better early level initiation tactic seems to be Stealth in -> Shadow Strike primary threat ([50]50/100 Force, 1.5s) -> Breach([70] 42/100 Force, 3s) -> Possibly other AoE -> Wave([90] 34/100 Force, 4.5s) -> Stun([110] 26/100 Force, 6s) -> Possibly TK Throw or Project ([140] 8/100 Force, 8s; [155] -7/100 Force, 7.5s; [185] -21/100 Force and 9.5s for both). Looking at the numbers, making it work in full requires some sort of buff to regen (See: One With The Force), cost reductions, or something of the sort. However, as long as you get up to about Wave you're nailing the essentials.
Grabs threat on everything, debuffs
I pretty much follow this approach as a low level shadow tank. It works out really
well, and people are usually amazed at the aggression I generate. I'm at level 19,
so still no mind maze for a nice cc.
Some of the ideas later on about better rotations, are I think, oriented on higher
level tanking. At low levels, time is an issue, plus the lack of abilities. Getting
in the shadow strike throws all initial aggro on the tank, and is easy to communicate
to your pug members. The wave is useful in that you can indeed use it to get a
better clustering on the pack early in the battle through careful application, and it
gives you some time to spread some other aggro with other abilities.
Another wonderful tool to control pulls, is lift. You can do it from long range,
and I find it's an excellent way to set up LOS pulls. Sure, as a tank you only
get 8 seconds, but everything has to come to you, and other people can
get in their better cc's as the enemies run into your chosen battle area.
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The coloring for the pre-order crystal is actually my favorite.
I prefer it to any other color, and will regret having to shelve
it when it's stats fall behind.
People have different opinions, and keep in mind, not everyone
sees the same pixels due to system differences.
Gunslinger or Scoundrel?
in Combat Styles
Posted
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.