Jump to content

devilinhell

Members
  • Posts

    43
  • Joined

Everything posted by devilinhell

  1. The info I have is that the helm I saw that dropped in a [Heroic 4] on Hoth called [Deconstruction Efforts], it was called [syncronics Lacquer Mesh Headpiece] and had cunning/endurance stats (see last pic below). Usually I'd be able to take the name to Tor Fashion, but it doesn't show up anything useful there or their armor galleries or any swtor sites on google search. Anyone know where I can buy/find or trade commendations for it? Here's a better closeup look at it: Front http://i.imgur.com/1O2i8bn.png Side http://i.imgur.com/CqSKm6q.png Stats http://i.imgur.com/daqxH6P.png
  2. Omg, I was just about to post a new topic about identifying a helm and saw this pic, in which it randomly appears. Does anybody please have more information on the helmet that the operative, to the right of the trooper, is wearing? The info I have is about a similar looking helm I saw that dropped in a [Heroic 4] on Hoth called [Deconstruction Efforts], it was called [syncronics Lacquer Mesh Headpiece] and had cunning/endurance stats (see last pic below). Usually I'd be able to take the name to Tor Fashion, but it doesn't show up anything useful there, on their armor galleries or any swtor sites on google search. Anyone know where I can buy/find or trade commendations for it? Here's a better closeup look at it: Front http://i.imgur.com/1O2i8bn.png Side http://i.imgur.com/CqSKm6q.png Stats http://i.imgur.com/daqxH6P.png
  3. I was playing the game in Fullscreen, when I saw a monument with lots of straight lines and noticed how jagged the straight lines were. While I use High Quality settings in the game's video options, I usually leave my video card software on the default / highest performance settings, i.e. no antialising, to get the most fps possible with my setup. However, I have AMD Catalyst drivers, I experimented with the video software settings and found a way to dramatically increase visual quality with very little to almost no fps loss. I think it really makes the game look much better. This is what I changed in the AMD Catalyst Control Center application panel under 'Gaming > 3D Application Settings': Anti-Aliasing Mode > Override application settings Anti-Aliasing Samples > 2x Anti-Aliasing Method > Supersampling Before http://i.imgur.com/ZPE05uT.jpg After http://i.imgur.com/yKxR3j4.jpg
  4. I just wanted to add my voice in dissatisfaction. I'd like Bioware to take a moment and think a bit deeper than usual. For a company renowned for its storytelling, it really seems they don't understand the psychology involved. First of all, they should be aware that there are a huge amount of people who are quietly reevaluating SWTOR after the 1.3 patch. They are watching to see if it's worth coming back and staying for the long run, with a record number of offline hours for the week, a terrible impression is being made for them. Every time the servers go offline it ruins the immersive element of the game. Btw I include even having the game open in the background as sustaining its immersion as the it feels like returning to the story is a second away. It can be subtle, but holidays and other such days as the 4th of July are times when people have a kind of heightened memory or awareness due to it being a relatively 'special' time. We're told that it's a 'different' day even if it might seem arbitrary to us, it has an effect. It is at those times that people are in a state to create lasting memories and if one is in an MMO space during that time it has a high potential to create a bond. That bond, that illusion of immersion with the player's personal 'real world' special time, is valuable to companies and their name brands. It's similar to product placement in movies. Associating your product with people's personal lives is worth way more than some minor tweaks that could be postponed to a non-holiday (or 'a less potentially product bonding-rich day'). Even breaking the immersion for 10 mins might as well be the same as 2 or more hours, it's interrupting the dream, breaking the REM cycles and missing your chance to imprint your brand on the player's subconscious, which is what produces loyal, committed and paying customers.
  5. I would like to suggest the addition of options to change the font face and size used in the game. I've been impressed with the improvement in graphics since leaving after month one and coming back for 1.3, it looks amazing. However, the one element that's holding things back is the font being used. I am sure that with a different font, along with customization through the interface editor, it would make the game look exponentially more polished. I'm aware that font substitutes cannot be radically different or they may cause layout issues, but even subtle fonts would work. I know that this game was made in a way to appeal to warcraft players, but as someone who dislikes the visuals of WoW, I would like SWTOR to get as far away from that cartoonish look as possible and cooler, slick, modern font choices would go far towards that look.
  6. If this comes in blue (or any non-orange color) can someone post a screenshot?
  7. Every other thread I've read says that alacrity is a big no-no based on calculations not just speculation. There was a long discussion on it here: http://www.torhead.com/forum/Trooper+and+Bounty+Hunter/topic/623 The conclusion was that arsenal dps mercs should avoid adding alacrity at all costs.
  8. Here's some stuff I've been thinking about, I would suggest this rotation: - thermal override - fusion missile - pop buffs/stims like relic/reusable reflex stim to max crit% - 3 tracer missiles minimum, but if crits are occurring keep firing them until buffs wear off - unload, first - heatseeker, second - 2 tracer missiles (if 5 heat signatures aren't there yet) - rail shot (ideally use at 5 heat sigs) - unload/heatseeker every time they proc, unless debuff is low, then tracer missile again After this initial ration, it becomes a priority system, more like a juggling act, not with really a set order. Using Heatseeker before Unload seems like the natural sequence, but someone in another thread mentioned he got much better results when switching them up. I tried it myself and he was right, overall significantly more heat dissipation through crits. You might be able to work Explosive Dart in there, some skills can be piggybacked following right after thermal override + fusion missile with zero heat like Heatseeker. You also may want to 'weave' Rapid Shots in between every other skill once things start heating up. Keep the heat signature refreshed at 5 with Tracer Missiles. Concussion Missile can be seen as a heat reducer, since cc'ing a hard target allows your heat time to dissipate, before re-engaging. Get your shield up when you start taking focus damage. Rocket Punch and Jet Boost can be used as interrupts along with Electro Dart. Using two Electro Darts back-to-back through Heroic Moment is fine and can be a breather to heal up or cool down. Use Vent Heat to bring you down to the lowest tier of heat. Don't burst heat up to max and Vent Heat, you'll still get stuck in a high heat bracket. Better to get maybe around 75% heat then use it. In some cases, like fighting a boss, it's possible it may take longer than two minutes, in which case using Vent Heat sooner rather than later allows it to cooldown in time for another use.
  9. The best Bounty Hunter armor set in the game imo, especially including helm, is the Mandalorian reward set from the Taris Heroic quests series. These pieces are adaptable orange, so you can wear them all the way through by upgrading mods. The colors and style of the suit reminds me of what Boba Fett wore in the original trilogy. I'm just hoping they patch before I hit 50, so I can custom mod this gear with end-game crit bonus mods, like the 30% Tionese set. I would say there are a surprisingly large number of poor looking armors in-game for every class, which is kind of strange given all the cool stuff they show us in trailers, I wish I knew what the thinking was behind their decision. Taris Heroic Quests series rewards
  10. As much as I'd like one, if I was gambling I would guess a 0.00% chance it would ever happen. Do you really think they would add or modify a brand new skill post-beta? Have they done so with any other skill or class? I guess they'd have to add it to the trooper counterpart tree also.
  11. Haha, ok fair enough, if it helps, I actually misunderstood that 'People will reconsider inviting you for dps', to mean the opposite, such as people would reconsider in wanting low-heat mercs even more than other classes. Ok, in any case, good to have that clarified. In other news, I discovered the cause for the heat problems I was facing, which originally started my reading threads like this in the first place... somehow 'High Velocity Gas Cylinder' accidentally got switched off and so no cylinder was ticked. Imagine the agony of doing a full day of quests with a broken linear heat system (the horror *shudders*, wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy). I did find it sort of reassuring though that I was still managing enough heat/damage to be able to beat all the silver/gold bosses even with almost no procs for my levels. But, on the bright side I now have as a consequence read tons of guides and relevant info, so very quickly now at level 41, everything falls into place instead of seeming random. I see it as simple as playing a mini-game inside the game, kind of named 'Unlock-the-Icons': while prioritizing heat below 40: 3 Tracer Missiles = 5 heat signatures = hit Heatseeker Missile (this occurs routinely) Tracer Missile until something procs: 5 Tracer Locks = hit Rail Gun 1 Barrage = hit Unload The first time properly using a Heatseeker with 5 signatures for +2k damage was like the first hit of a drug, a clear incentive to use the system instead of strong-arming through baddies. I could visualize coding a script to juggle these variables and balance them together with pattern matching. Anyway, I can't wait to get 30% crit gear and hopefully by then update patches will allow it so it can be added to my cool looking Mercenary Elite orange armor.
  12. Why would someone want it? Well, the second one was the inspiration for rolling a Arsenal Merc. This was after getting my Sentinel up to level 42 and getting fed up with a lot of dynamics that require micromanagment and failed to synergize. Seeing the simplicity of Tracer Missile opened my eyes and I saw the light... the light at the back of a humble homing missile that guided me through 40 levels.
  13. That's great people can verify such iffy things with proof by looking through game files such as below.
  14. Just an FYI to anyone wanting to get a complete set of blue armor, you can skip Last of the Tarisian Pirates 4+ Heroic - Greaves and trade in commendations from the equipment vendor for it plus the merc belt, also the full-set looks great.
  15. Use a free image hosting service, you can't embed images on this forum, only link to them.
  16. Excellent and informative thread, I just wanted to clarify a few things: http://www.torhead.com/ability/dgwdKFk/terminal-velocity So, this means that Mistato's hunch was right according to TempestasSilva's numbers and Gariuys was wrong twice in both disputing Mistato's hunch and for suggesting alacrity.
  17. Wow Devoter, I'm sorry you're so dumb and obviously a noob, but I'll try to speak at the level of a 6 year old so you can keep up. I explicitly stated: 1. That mercs are ranged. 2. Being forced into close-quarters would be an appropriate penalty for the benefit of an interrupt. Let me explain how skills work. I'm sure you would like a single 'IWIN' button on your bar, with zero penalties, but someday you might learn that every skill needs to be balanced either through cooldowns, energy or mechanics. You're obviously a noob if you think having a penalty-free interrupt added, in addition to Tracer Missile which every other class sees as an 'IWIN' button and wants to nerf, could possibly ever happen. Given that Jet Charge is already in the Powertech skillset, it's far more realistic to add it 'as is' to the Mercenary line. Look at even what JohnAntilles above is saying: This is exactly the kind of fair and appropriate criticism you're going to get from every other class about adding an interrupt. Try to keep up with the conversation. Also Devoter, maybe you should devote yourself to a dictionary and figure out how to spell 'hardly' next time before wasting our time with another worthless post - talk about being stupid.
  18. Today I learned of a skill called Jet Charge. It's deep in the Shield Tech tree of Powertech: This would be perfect for arsenal merc, even if we're mostly ranged, being forced into close quarters could be the balance for the positives.
  19. I also see a similarity with Jedis and mercs playstyles. Mercs using one gun and go tanking are like Consular/Sages using one saber who also tank. Mercs who dual wield blasters are like Sentinels/Marauders using dual sabers who are more into DPS. There are 2 things I liked about the sentinel over merc, a) interrupts and b) heals from DPS. Using the Watchman tree gave you heals when you burn your enemies, which was a nice incentive system. And interrupts (Force Kick every 6 seconds) are one of the single most enjoyable game mechanics, cuz it feels great to have actively engaged using hand-eye coordination and timing to prevent an opponent's skill that instead would've hit like a truck.
  20. As a Mercenary, being at the top of your game means not only hunting down the best bounties but also researching the data needed to stay competitive. I have noticed a distinct lack of guides for arsenal specs around here, so I hereby present this latest trophy. All credit for this guide goes to Amethyst, who is the original author and was found at: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1055439-Bounty-Hunter-Merc-dps-guide-(Arsenal-Spec) http://www.torhead.com/forum/Trooper+and+Bounty+Hunter/topic/623/ I would encourage reading the followup posts, along with superior formatting of the guide, in those links for some further discussions and updates that have taken place about the guide. I especially want to bring attention to this unique and useful skill chart: Ability analysis, in order of damage-per-heat (efficiency) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/StormKnightx/SWTOR/mercarsenaldph.jpg ____________________________________ Merc dps guide (Arsenal Spec) I've been working on a guide on our guild forums for PvE dps as an Arsenal spec Mercenary Bounty Hunter and reached the point where I figured I would share it on here, as it might help people. Things to note: - This is a PvE DPS guide (not PvP, but the build does pretty well at pvp anyway). - Sustained dps is different to blowing away a handful of standard/weak mobs when doing missions. Talent Build This is always one of the first things everyone wants to know. What talents should I take? Well, there's not really much of a choice available. Bodyguard = healer Pyrotech = PvP dps (lower sustained dps, more burst and utility) Arsenal = PvE dps (highest sustained dps and what this guide is about) I play as Arsenal spec, which is what this guide is all about. http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/bounty_hunter/mercenary/#::f2ef12efef2e2fe11fe2fe3f11ef6: Filler Talents The build above is pretty much set in stone, other than a few filler talents noted below. you can change these around if you like: Power Barrier - defensive talent that may well save your *** in fights. I think it has the edge over Integrated Systems, but you can swap them if you like. Jet Escape - I've taken this because I like to PvP here and there, so a reduction in cooldown on Determination is handy. Feel free to substitute for elsewhere in the tree. Pinning Fire - mostly a PvP talent, but could be useful in PvE when you need to slow a target for some reason. Feel free to replace with another talent. Surgical Precision System - I put this in because sometimes you NEED to throw a heal when under fire. Can be the difference between success and death. Bounty Hunters don't DO losing. An Explanation of Key Talents You could just take my word that you need all of the other talents to be awesome, but I'll give you some reasons why, so you can pass on the advice to fellow Bounty Hunters and help them dominate dps as well. Many of the talents you'll take are fairly explanatory, such as +3% accuracy, +6% crit, +X% damage to ability Y. I won't go into these, they should be fairly obvious. Tracer Missile - this is your primary single-target ability and the one that does most damage to initiate with. It also debuffs your target up to -20% armour. Other classes can also place this debuff. They don't stack. This ability replaces Power Shot. Light 'Em Up - debuffs your target quicker, means more damage sooner. Terminal Velocity - with a decent crit value, this really kicks in and is what allows you to keep nuking your target hard without pausing. Barrage - the +25% damage from this makes Unload worth using over tracer missile. See the section below about ability priority. Heatseeker Missiles - instant cast attack for decent damage. Stats Value & Priority (gear & mod choices) AIM This is without doubt your number 1 stat. If there is ever the choice between Aim and another stat, you take Aim. Aim gives you: - Ranged Damage bonus. - Ranged Damage crit % chance. - Tech Damage bonus. - Tech crit % chance. - Healing Power (heals CAN be handy at times - though this is clearly not a priority) POWER Power adds to the damage of your attacks in much the same way as Aim does, but doesn't increase the crit % chance. CRIT Your chance to cause a critical hit, which will inflict at least 50% more damage (and trigger various abilities). As a base, you have a 5% chance of any attack scoring a critical hit. You want to get your crit % to a decent level, to ensure Terminal Velocity procs fairly often. SURGE This increases the amount of damage done by your crits. As a base, a critical hit does an additional 50% damage. ie. an attack that would normally do 1,000 damage will instead do 1,500 on a critical hit. I've not done the maths yet on how well surge works, but given we want a decent crit %, we should score fairly frequent critical hits with all of our abilities and thus having those crits hit harder can't be a bad thing. ACCURACY This is your chance to hit your target. Regardless of how much damage your attacks do, you need them to actually hit your target. You have a base accuracy with Rapid Shots of 90% and accuracy of 100% with your special attacks. Your offhand blaster has a penalty. Increasing your Accuracy over 100% will subtract from the target's defense. There's no real way to know how much defense mobs or bosses have at this time though, so it's difficult to say how good this stat is in PvE. An Important Note on Alacrity and why you don't want it What does alacrity do? "Reduces the time needed to activate or channel abilities, so they can be executed more quickly." So this applies to both Tracer Missile and Unload, two of your primary dps abilities, so it would seem alacrity is good for Mercenaries, as it allows them to damage their target quicker, right? Wrong. edit: perhaps the most important argument against alacrity for a merc is that it does NOT reduce the global cooldown of 1.5 seconds. This means that, whilst it reduces the time taken to fire a Tracer Missile, you are still limited to a maximum of 1 ability every 1.5 seconds, so ONLY Unload gains ANY realistic benefit. Heat build-up is the single biggest limitation on Merc dps. If you're reading this, I am assuming you have a Merc and are familiar with what happens when your heat bar fills up - you end up standing there just hitting your default attack. That's because heat management is a vital part of playing the Merc effectively (again, see below). You will already be using Rapid Shot a fair amount, rather than Tracer Missile, to keep heat down to a manageable level. Itemising alacrity, would mean you are able to use more abilities in a given space of time, so giving you better "burst" but overall, heat will still limit the amount of abilities you can use. Also, If you take a careful look at Terminal Velocity, you'll see that it can only activate once every 3 seconds at most. However, Tracer Missile has a 1.5 second activation time, making two of them back-to-back exactly 3 seconds. Even with the ability queue system in place, you can maybe add a few milliseconds gap between them. If you gain ANY alacrity at all, then you'll bring a double activation of Tracer Missile under 3 seconds and start to lose out on the important proc from Terminal Velocity. * As a note, at max level, it may be possible to gain enough alacrity to bring it down to close to 1 second per activation, which may be worthwhile, but even then, there's still the issue of heat build-up from an additional acivation of the ability. * Further note, see my additional post further down this thread on the maths behind alacrity itemisation OK, enough background, how do I do this awesome DPS? First, let's take a look at the abilities we have at our disposal and an analysis of their damage compared to heat and time. Note that this is currently using the damage values from my lvl 50 character. I've got a mixture of well-modded orange gear and pvp epics. Ability analysis, in order of damage-per-second (max nuke) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/StormKnightx/SWTOR/mercarsenaldps.jpg Ability analysis, in order of damage-per-heat (efficiency) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/StormKnightx/SWTOR/mercarsenaldph.jpg The rotation I use on a boss, or other tough target, is reasonably simple. I start off with Tracer Missile x3 (puts a full 5 stacks of Heat Signature on target). From that point, I follow the priority order: Fusion Missile > Unload > Heatseeker Missiles > Rail Shot > Tracer Missile > (Missile Blast) > Rapid Shots Fusion Missile - solid damage + a DoT. Especially good against heavily armoured targets. Heatseeker Missiles - not only a solid damage ability, but can be used when moving. Rail Shot - instant activation, so can be used when moving. Unload - the torhead tooltips display too low a damage value. Use it. Tracer Missile - your default attack when the ones above aren't available. Missile Blast - usable when moving. Don't ever use when standing still. Rapid Shots - use for heat management purposes only (see below). Notes: For an Arsenal merc, some people say that Power Shot is OBSOLETE and you should NEVER use it. As my spreadsheet shows, this isn't quite true, but it's in practice, there's enough abilities to try to remember, so you're better off just sticking with using tracer missile as your filler attack. Edit - Power Shot cannot proc Terminal Velocity either, which makes it very much inferior to Tracer Missile - thanks Ighox Fusion Missile does AoE damage, so be careful of any targets that you don't want to do damage to. Also half of it's damage is a DoT. Missile Blast is on there as it is an instant and can therefore be used when moving. If the fight means you need to run for some reason and you are on low heat, you are better off using Missile Blast than Rapid Shots. Heat Management You see those 4 little arrows to the right of your heat bar? That shows how quickly your heat bar is cooling down. You want to keep that on 4 arrows, or at worst 3 arrows. The higher your heat rises, the less arrows you have and the slower your heat dissipates. You need to keep a careful eye on your heat bar as the proc from Terminal Velocity is a random chance, so sometimes you can nuke like crazy and other times you need to be more careful. As a general guide, whenever your heat exceeds 30, at the point where you want to activate your next ability, use Rapid Shots instead of the ability you would normally use within your priority order. There is perhaps one exception to this. If the stack of 5 Heat Signature is about to expire from your target, you should throw another Tracer Missile to prevent the debuff expiring. According to the in-game tooltip, your heat dissipation per second is: 0 - 40 : 5 heat per second 40 - 60 : 3 heat per second 60 - 80 : 3 heat per second 80 - 100 : 2 heat per second Yup, that's correct. At this time, the 40-60 and 60-80 categories are both 3 per second. Don't go over 40 heat!!! If you do need to nuke really hard for a short duration, don't despair, you have Vent Heat for exactly that reason. Don't be afraid to use it! ***? Where is Death from Above you noob? Ah the awesome Death from Above. With a cooldown of 60 seconds, it can't really be placed within a rotation or priority order for dps. This ability is awesome for boss fights that have spawning adds, along with your other AoE abilities (something the Bounty Hunter excels at). As for using it on a single target, you can see from my spreadsheet it's not your best option for single target dps. - written by Amethyst
  21. No, Mercenary has 2 DPS and 1 healing tree. I specced in Arsenal which gives you the infamous 'Tracer Missile'. It's like shooting lightsabers from my back in missile form. I also see a similarity with Jedis and mercs playstyles. Mercs using one gun and tank are like Consular/Sages using one saber who also tank. Mercs who dual wield blasters are like Sentinels/Marauders who are more into DPS. There are 2 things I liked about the sentinel over merc, a) interrupts and b) heals from DPS. Using the Watchman tree gave you heals when you burn your enemies, which was a nice incentive system. And interrupts (Force Kick every 6 seconds) are one of the single most enjoyable game mechanicsl, cuz it feels great to have actively engaged using hand-eye coordination and timing to prevent an opponent's skill that instead would've hit like a truck.
  22. I just rolled my first time merc and didn't know they didn't have an interrupt. Out of all types of skills 'interrupts' are the funnest part of the game. By contrast, my Jedi Sentinel has a talented Force Kick, which brings it down to 6 seconds recharge, making for the highest amount of interrupts out of any class and makes it extremely entertaining to beat bosses through quick reactive hand-eye coordination.
  23. What would be suggested, with a Watchman spec, as a priority for skills in order to yield the highest and most consistent returns on heals through burning? If it matters, I am more concerned with self-healing, not the rest of a party. Also, what is the best case scenario (max healing) one could get through a combination of skills? If the only way to self-heal is Merciless Zeal, critical hits with burn effects, and Zen boosts the amount we heal more than anything else, then should one focus on keeping Zen up as much as possible? In that case, would putting points in skills that build Centering as quickly as possible then deliver the most heals? Based on this, which skills are the best investments for building Centering?
  24. If you press the PrtScrn button, it takes a screenshot, then you can post and get it identified.
  25. Haha, watching the video is funny. I am quite certain that I'm one of those rare keyboard Sentinel players, with extensive gameplay experience, who does not suffer from this particular problem. The one that I get frustrated by is when pressing a skill button and it doesn't 'pop' or go off, the button color changes while being pressed and then goes back to it's original state. There is no animation or stuttering, it's just like squeezing the skill button. I can press the button multiple times and it may go off after 4 or 5 squeezes, but sometimes it won't go off no matter what. That's when I try using another skill, then go back and try to squeeze it off again, which sometimes works or may continue being 'unpoppable'. As a side note, I recall reading in another thread that a beta player mentioned how most of these problems/bugs only started happening after Bioware started implementing the Ability Queue system. So, I disagree with some people who are saying that it's a huge issue to reprogram the entire skill and animation system... they really just need to remove the Queue. I have mine set to zero, but of course the problem still persists.
×
×
  • Create New...