Anyone else think that the high level solo quests are way too difficult?

[denodak]

I find that I'm having a LOT of trouble with gold elite mobs as an Infiltration Shadow. It just seems like there's no way to solo half the mobs in my story quests. I hadn't really had a problem until right around level 40-45. Now it seems like every other quest has a gold elite mob that's even one level higher just slaughters me.

 

I've tried everything; stims, medpacs, tanking companion, dps companion, healing companion--nothing works. I usually just end up dying for or five times and giving up or having a friend come help out. So instead of questing to level like any normal MMO, I end up skipping most quests and PVP'ing or running with a Flashpoint group until the quests become green and I can actually do them on my own.

 

I'm tempted to just re-spec as a tank and level that way, but that doesn't sound like any fun to me and I'd rather not do it.

 

Just wondering if anyone else feels the same way.

[Rejectoo]

Kinetic Shadow here and I have not had issues with this. Some close fights but hey I have been a level or two below the class quests when i have done them and managed to win sometimes not the first time but no more than a few attempts.

 

I have never done an Inf build so would not know the issues there. But you might want to look at level too if you are 3 to 4 levels below the mob you might have issues with even hitting might be missing a bunch I have seen that too with one of the bosses seems I missed a lot or did not hit has hard has I would have on equal level.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Rejectoo

[internaty]

I got the same with sage.

 

Generaly mobs have extreem health and we lack the dps to kill them befor we run out of force cc etc.

 

I can kill them or find aid to kill them generaly speaking but still they sure dont feel as epic as jedi's shoud be.

Edited January 5, 2012 by internaty

[XcomCaveRat]

I found that in PvE, survivability is usually better than superior damage, particularly since shadows posses various cc abilities.

 

Respec as balance or kinetic (or hybrid), have Tharan Cedrax healing you, and it will make a huge difference. Ive gone against elites 4-5 lvls above me.

[Phantar]

I'm a level 39 Sage and I have tried out both Balance and Seer for leveling. As Balance I lack the healing to keep my companion alive when the damage starts coming in and as a Seer I lack the damage to kill the stronger mobs before they kill my companion.

I'm not willing to rule out the possibility that I just suck but it seems like there was an absurd leap in difficulty from around 35+

I honestly don't know if I am going to get this character to 50 if I almost die every fight.

[oddmyth]

Only problems I encounter are trying to solo heroic 2+ and heroic 4's by myself.

 

Gear up yourself and your companion always do your best dps upgrades through commendations as quickly as possible in any given zone, for shadows that's usually getting a new hilt), use your offensive and defensive cooldowns correctly and use medpacs made for your level.

 

I usually take on two strongs and an elite and come out with full health.

[elvigy]

The only tip I have really, as a Seer, is to not try to unload on Elite mobs. Outliving them is the key. DOT them, CC them, bubble Qyzen and heal as needed. Throw in some DPS as you feel you can spare it, but you're a lot better conserving your Force for CCs, DOTs and heals.

 

Between your interrupt, stun, Force Wave, bubble, and heals, you should be able to just outlast the mob as Qyzen slowly chips away at their health with a little help from your DOTs and the occasional Telekinetic Throw.

 

Edit-Some of this obviously doesn't apply directly to OP, as a DPS Shadow. But if you have Theran out, you should be able to use his stuns and heals.

Edited January 5, 2012 by elvigy

[Phantar]

The only tip I have really, as a Seer, is to not try to unload on Elite mobs. Outliving them is the key. DOT them, CC them, bubble Qyzen and heal as needed. Throw in some DPS as you feel you can spare it, but you're a lot better conserving your Force for CCs, DOTs and heals.

 

Between your interrupt, stun, Force Wave, bubble, and heals, you should be able to just outlast the mob as Qyzen slowly chips away at their health with a little help from your DOTs and the occasional Telekinetic Throw.

 

While that is sound advice and I appreciate it, it's not very motivational.

I appreciate classes have different strengths and weaknesses but it feels a bit extreme that I should have to fight an elite for anywhere between 2-5 minutes while almost every other class can kill it, and it's adds, in under 1 minute. It's simply not productive or efficient to level like that.

 

I really hope that I am just missing some key factor in playing a Sage and when I figure it out it'll be smooth leveling right up to 50 but at the moment it seems insurmountable and I am just not enjoying the process.

[Norumaniac]

I respeced to tank at lvl 42 and lvled to 44 really fast. I was able to kill lvl 47 elite mobs (as 44), but lvl 48 elites just kick my ***.

 

Basically what i do is kite and stun when i can, using Project and Force Breach. Telekinetic throw at 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows also. Force Slow is another cool ability you should use as well.

 

I used the healer companion btw.

 

Edit: i forgot Kinetic Ward, use that too.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Norumaniac

[CrexRex]

I run a Kinetic Sage and at lvl 44. Elites up to 2-3 lvl are easy and go down in under a minute. Key is to have Qyzen with full modded lvl appropriate armor, and yourself of course (I believe Qyzen had about 9k HPs at lvl 35). Every planet gives out about 30+ commendations through quests (you have to do all bonus quests for max commendations) and from mobs dropping them. Usually can get 1-2 armor upgrades per planet. One for Qyzen and one for me, or buy multiple armoring/mods/enhancements for either one of us. Also very important, you have to upgrade Qyzen's Techblade as you enter a new planet. His DPS is as important as his tanking. All planets have a weapons vendor at the starting zones.

 

Elites, I basically have Qyzen bubbled and engage first. Then I go all out on the Elite. At around the Elite's 40% HPs, I start healing Qyzen and let him finish off the Elite. Never any danger of losing. Although might take 1-2 tries as you go higher up the Elites have newer powerful spells you have to learn to interrupt. If the Elite has friends, just focus all your DPS on the Elite and make sure Qyzen is on it too (cntrl+1). With the combination of your Kinetic Wave and Qyzen's AE spells, the adds will be dead by the time the Elite is at about 50%.

 

Spell rotation is obviously very important for max DPS, got mine from the Sage's guide sticky'd on this forum.

 

So basically for Elites. Max HP/armor for companion, max DPS first part of the fight and close it out by keeping Qyzen alive while he finishes off the Elite. Most Elites I do not even need to heal Qyzen. I'm talking about healing during end-of-planet storyline Elites.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited January 5, 2012 by CrexRex

[ZenBones]

I got killed badly by one of the first class quest bosses on Belsavis, until I googled what its AOE effect does (and the fact that it's not interruptable), and then once I realized I just needed to move out of range at certain times (and make sure Fess does too), then the fight was cake.

 

I'm a balance/kinetic hybrid shadow, for what it's worth.

 

I'm finding the fights harder, yes, but completely doable as long as I realize what CC/interrupts/distance issues I need to take into account for that particular boss. The post-level-36 bosses require more than just a good DPS-out vs DPS-taken ratio.

Edited January 5, 2012 by ZenBones

[Boarg]

I find that I'm having a LOT of trouble with gold elite mobs as an Infiltration Shadow. It just seems like there's no way to solo half the mobs in my story quests. I hadn't really had a problem until right around level 40-45. Now it seems like every other quest has a gold elite mob that's even one level higher just slaughters me.

 

I've tried everything; stims, medpacs, tanking companion, dps companion, healing companion--nothing works. I usually just end up dying for or five times and giving up or having a friend come help out. So instead of questing to level like any normal MMO, I end up skipping most quests and PVP'ing or running with a Flashpoint group until the quests become green and I can actually do them on my own.

 

I'm tempted to just re-spec as a tank and level that way, but that doesn't sound like any fun to me and I'd rather not do it.

 

Just wondering if anyone else feels the same way.

 

Infiltration soloing puts a lot of emphasis on meticulous pull management and using all your tools. (which IMO makes it very "fun") It's pretty weak for zerging pulls.

 

 

Use Tharan....make sure his gear is good and set to med watch. Holiday is generally very useful for Infiltration.

 

Always start combat from stealth and with Mind Maze applied to biggest mob possible. Kill weakest targets first - ones that can be eliminated quickly.

 

Pay LOTS of attention to what mobs are casting, and rotate Mind Snap, Low Slash, Force Stun, (Holiday), and potentially Force Wave to interrupt as many casts as possible. Most mobs that do significant damage do them with casted and channeled abilities...often elminating these makes their damage output negligible. Combine use of the stuns and incapacitates with spending Find Weakness procs on Shadow Strike. Resilience can be substituted for some of these, too.

 

(make sure you understand the synergy of all your dps abilities and talents to do max dps, too)

 

USE ALL YOUR COOLDOWNS REGULARLY! They make a huge difference. This includes talented Blackout, Force Potency, Deflection, Channel the Force (for really nasty pulls), Relics, and Unity and Battle Readiness when you get high enough.

 

The idea is to take large pulls and essentially reduce them to sequential 1v1 fights through CC and quickly burning weak targets. Infiltration's control and damage in 1v1 is very effective and allows Tharan to keep up on healing. Getting focus fired by multiple mobs makes Infiltration drop health pretty fast, even with companion healing.

 

If you can't finish an entire pull, Force Cloak after burning down one or two mobs and start again with the reduced pull.

 

It's likely best to use a Shield Generator when soloing, even with Shadow Technique on, because it still gives the 5% shield chance.

 

Before breaking a Mind Mazed target, consider letting your Energy bar recover and Tharan catch up on healing a bit.

 

In trying to 1v1 champion/boss type mobs that Tharan tends to steadily lose ground with your health bar, try using Combat Technique instead and make sure to keep the Force Breach debuff up the whole time. It burns the mob slower, but it makes it drastically easier for Tharan to keep up on the healing.

 

Working like this, pulls with two gold elites plus a couple weak or a silver strong mob should be pretty easy to handle if you're not significantly under the mob levels. Pretty much, this equates to Heroic 2+ quest pulls. Heroic 4 pulls generally will not be workable if you don't drastically over-level the mobs.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Boarg

[Golin]

as a sage I will agree that unless I have Therzan healing non stop fights can get a bit annoying. Not hard mind you, just that I need to heal up after lots of them. I am using a tk build with rotation of weaken mind, turbulence, tk throw, project, disturbance, then repeat. Any ideas on how to make my rotation better?

[Lctl]

Hum, im 42 atm and never had a problem with any quests or mobs( strong or elite )

 

Im seer specced. Never had troubles.

 

Imho, when you lvl as a seer you gotta realize its your pet job to kill stuff, you cc and heal,while you cast an ocassional dot or two, thats mostly it.

Send iresso ( like him more than qyzenn) if you want to play it safe or if your cofident of your healing/ interrupts, just go with nadia.

 

I normally use iresso for champion mobs or spiky elites, and nadia to clean everything else.

 

Cc and healing your pet is great

 

Also, nothing stops ya from asking for help, a friend or in general chat

Edited January 6, 2012 by Lctl

[AlatarTheGrey]

as a sage I will agree that unless I have Therzan healing non stop fights can get a bit annoying. Not hard mind you, just that I need to heal up after lots of them. I am using a tk build with rotation of weaken mind, turbulence, tk throw, project, disturbance, then repeat. Any ideas on how to make my rotation better?

 

I find pairing the right companion for the opponent(s) matters a lot. Fighting a bunch of Sith requires Theran to heal so I can DPS and interupt, while taking out non-force mobs or fighting a single opponents (or 2 while one is lifted) is much easier with Fess. And I am making an effort to keep both Fess and Theran well equiped with gear.

[Gerudan]

I'm playing a level 50 Seer Sage and I didn't have any problem.

 

Just keep your equip and the equip of your companion good enough.

[Morvoldo]

sorry but i agrea with the Op and i have also noticed that since level 40 shadows have gotten weaker mainly on Voss (which is a hard planet anyways) but we seem to now lack any dps, some elites dont even get touched by our stuns and refering to elite quests where you gotta kill an elite boss of some sort is now on Voss done by summoning them so we cant even use our stealthed abilitys or even cloak as they disapear ready to be resummoned, so shadow spec is totally gone outa the window, i'm iInfiltration also and before i was kicking arse so to speak now i can barly tackle a few mobs, they see me in stealth so i realy have to be quick to Mindmaze or thats it i'm screwed seen as most good abilitys require us to use in stealth.

 

its just bad, some others are having same trouble others are not but most of the time there higher than the mob anyways Or Sages Not shadows

 

and i have run FP and done some HC but have to carfull as i have that connection lagging crap thats going about with this damn game trouble is i like the game

Edited January 6, 2012 by Morvoldo

[Karkistos]

I'm having the same issues as the OP as an Infiltration Shadow. I've tried every cooldown and consumable in the book and I just can't seem to manage the 42+ solo quests (even the story ones specifically designed for 1 player and their companion). Tharan seems to give me the most success, but not enough. Eventually I was able to progress in the story quests, but it took a lot longer than it should have to get the right string of lucky crits and defense procs in order to just scrape by with a victory.

 

Even using Combat Technique and a shield generator (which I think is a bit silly, should I not be able to use my spec's abilities to complete SOLO missions rather than relying on other spec focused abilities?) I still can't survive long enough to do enough damage to the elites on a reliable basis. This is an extremely silly way to have to level, and it leaves me being about to begrudgingly switch to Kinetic Combat to have any chance of progressing further.

 

I don't think the Infiltration spec is weak overall, i tend to dominate in PVP, and put out some damage in group PVE play, it's just these darn solo quests that are doing my head in so to speak. I don't want to switch to Kinetic Combat just for this and gimp myself when i want to do some Warzones or DPS in Flashpoints.

[Morvoldo]

Fed up now been trying to level on Voss as a shadow tryed all 3 specs now and every damn quest has an elite boss at the end i cant even down 1 of em popping everything all CC i have they just dont do anything even Theran cant heal me through there damage, this spec does no damage at all hardly since level 42, quests shouldnt be a struggle and the Class one is the worst.

 

cant continue this game like this before i could solo everything and elites were a nice challenge now its just perfectic.

 

shadow spec has for me gone awfull, i now want to be a sage but realy dont want to re-level all the way to 46.

 

is this the way Voss is or is it me...probly both i do not know but at the moment i'm hating this game.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Morvoldo

[denodak]

I don't think the Infiltration spec is weak overall, i tend to dominate in PVP, and put out some damage in group PVE play, it's just these darn solo quests that are doing my head in so to speak. I don't want to switch to Kinetic Combat just for this and gimp myself when i want to do some Warzones or DPS in Flashpoints.

 

I agree. Aside from questing, I'm having a blast with the spec. In fact, I procrastinate doing solo quests by PVP'ing and running Flashpoints, both of which I think Infiltrations hold up really well.

 

is this the way Voss is or is it me...probly both i do not know but at the moment i'm hating this game.

 

It's not you, it's Voss. That whole planet had me banging my head against my keyboard. Last night I went through about 100k in repairs before I just said screw it and begged some random stranger to help me through the solo quests. And this was AFTER going out of my way to level twice and then coming back to old quests.

 

I'm not asking for them to be easy. I just think the difficulty (at least for this particular spec) is WAY too high at the moment.

[Rejectoo]

Fed up now been trying to level on Voss as a shadow tryed all 3 specs now and every damn quest has an elite boss at the end i cant even down 1 of em popping everything all CC i have they just dont do anything even Theran cant heal me through there damage, this spec does no damage at all hardly since level 42, quests shouldnt be a struggle and the Class one is the worst.

 

cant continue this game like this before i could solo everything and elites were a nice challenge now its just perfectic.

 

shadow spec has for me gone awfull, i now want to be a sage but realy dont want to re-level all the way to 46.

 

is this the way Voss is or is it me...probly both i do not know but at the moment i'm hating this game.

 

 

I went to Voss at lvl 44 and am lvl 48 now even did the Horics tanking at lvl 45 so not sure what you are talking about. I think you need to check your gear and play style.

 

I just soloed the Voss bonus quests last night and took me from 47 to 48.

 

I did the trials quest solo at lvl 44 and it was rough and got beat with in an inch of my life even used heal pot once but not seeing what you are talking about.

 

It is all about tactics and gear. I have 13k+ HP at 48 and Theran is decked out with best gear i can find him and mods and armor I can make him at this level. I bet some of my pets have more HP than some of you. Theran is close to 10k

 

I even dueled a Champ with 400k Hp with a Vangard at 46.

 

Too add you want some cheese with that wine. Geez yall want it all handed to you on a silver platter. Learn to play the game and the class and you might not cry so much.

 

I have not had any issues at all with game play sometimes I think it is too easy. I mean come on elites in games I played in the past meant a group and I can do them in this one even those 2 to 3 levels higher with me and a pet that is to me a bit to easy but since I am not has hard core has I use to be then I will expect and let it slide.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Rejectoo

[Morvoldo]

but are you Kinetic spec, as i did use it but i think i'm specced wrong as still using Crit and accuracy, should i throw defence in there or is it not needed.

 

my gear is up to date as most from planet before as i farm the comms i change my gear with whats available except theran and Nadia are only a little bit geared up as cant afford it, i try and give them my old and what i find and com spares

 

(dont want to tank just want to do these quests)

 

Sages seem to have no trouble , so why do shadows

Edited January 6, 2012 by Morvoldo

[oddmyth]

Infiltration Shadows shouldn't be using Theran unless you are actually going to tank the mob!!

 

You aren't going to tank a mob in Shadow Technique, switch to Combat Technique or alternatively use Ingresso/Qyzen, up their gear, and get them to tank for you. So you can go Shadow Technique and destroy them from behind.

 

Use your CC wisely. If you are approaching a pack of mobs, sap one of them so that you can take him out of the fight.

 

Don't be afraid to kite mobs with Force Slow and attack out of melee range. Use range as a way to wait for cooldowns to finish/ let your tank get aggro / let Theran heal you. Use line of sight to break up the damage from ranged opponents.

 

Even as a Kinetic Shadow I use all these tricks constantly. It took me 6 attempts to kill Stark, but I did it, by keeping aggro on him and using line of sight to break any of his casts that I couldn't stun or interrupt him on. This game isn't a cakewalk and you will need to learn to use your entire arsenal of abilities to do well at it.

 

Remember to always kill the weakest mob first, then strong, then elite. They all put out considerable damage so letting weaks and strongs live while you pound on an elite will never work in your favour.

[Rejectoo]

but are you Kinetic spec, as i did use it but i think i'm specced wrong as still using Crit and accuracy, should i throw defence in there or is it not needed.

 

my gear is up to date as most from planet before as i farm the comms i change my gear with whats available

 

(dont want to tank just want to do these quests)

 

Sages seem to have no trouble , so why do shadows

 

 

I have a heck of alot easier time than a Sage healer in my guild cause if there is not bonus 9 times out of ten I can stealth though and do the quests faster than killing though.

 

I was going to put in a couple of spoilers. These will I am sure be nerfed but has of right now it is working the way the game was designed but no point in putting it out there right now. It is not the way it works in other games I know for a fact.

 

I like to learn classes and play them the best I can. I was on EQ Bards and was very into Vangaurd Bards and helped Sony make that class with lots of work and input to them. I was a Sony community rep at one time so I know the testing and time to do this. It is not perfect the game but it will get there I am sure of it.

[denodak]

I went to Voss at lvl 44 and am lvl 48 now even did the Horics tanking at lvl 45 so not sure what you are talking about. I think you need to check your gear and play style.

 

I honestly think that it's an Infiltration problem at this point. I don't think anyone here is arguing that it's too hard to level as Kinetic Combat. I'm 46 and there are still lot of regular quest mobs on Voss that you can't take on by yourself unless you're able to gimmick the fight by kiting using LOS. There are at least two fights that I can remember that took me at least 6+ tries to beat before I gave up and went and did something else.

 

Generally as Infiltration you end up being either too squishy for Theran to keep up or Qyzen or Iresso don't last long enough because you can't heal them.