Soloing heroics/elites: when you say you "take no damage"... what do you mean?

[Avanaco]

Alright, I see people say this a lot around here: "I solo X heroics and always kill X elites and I never go below 85/90% whatever health".

 

Now, I have a couple questions for those who make these claims:

 

1. Obviously you're specced shield. Cool. What's your gear? Are you running all def/absorb/accuracy while leveling? Or are you running aim/end for leveling speed?

 

2. How's your companion (Elara or Mako if you're a BH) set up? Med watch + all DPS abilities turned off? (And if so, how the hell do you make them STAY OFF? )

[Ironcleaver]

I played a Guardian to 50 and am now working on my Vanguard (shield spec) and the differance is staggering.

 

• Elite + two Strong, my level or lower, No problem
  
• Some Solo Elites (all doable, but some are harder then others becasue they do more elemental damage), my level or lower, No problem
  
• Some Champions (same as the elites), my level or lower, No problem
  

 

Aim, End, Crit are my main focus. Overall my mitigation, damage reduction, shielding, ect.. are all very close to what my guardian's at the same level -but- I just seem to be taking a ton less damage. On a bigger fight I just pop a purple med-pack and adrenaline and my health pops right back up. Normally I end fights at or near max health. Zero downtime between fights and I go on my merry way pulling another group.

 

I just do not fear elites like I did with my Guardian. I can not tell you why my Trooper takes less damage then my Guard, but it is there (both using blue/orange gear with a pinch of purple).

 

My companion is Elara, nothing special but keeping her gear near the level of my own but a pinch lower (bassically my gear I out-grew).

Edited January 8, 2012 by Ironcleaver

[Avanaco]

Yeah I got a buddy playing a Guardian tank and I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference between what he can pull off and what I can pull off... but specifically what I'm wondering about is all of these kids saying that they solo such and such "without any HP loss". It sounds really ridiculous, and makes me wonder if they're literally running around leveling with all def/absorb gear.

 

Or I dunno, maybe it's the biotech. Lol... I went armormech, still regretting that.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Avanaco

[Ironcleaver]

They could be, I have yet to try that myself. I will say though, I use my spamable attack a lot (hammer shot). I just want to make sure I have a healthy ammo pool incase something happens. It might take longer to get a kill but yeah I generally take very little damage in a fight.

 

If I maxed my defences by going all shield, and defence - I guess I could see someone taking even less damage. With as little downtime as there is at the moment though, I personally feel going full defence is a waste pre-50 and just hurts ones dps and slows things down.

 

With stockstrike all juiced up (talents), it's one of my few abilities i use in a longer fight.

 

I wish I went Biochem with my guardian though - the health med packs and hour buffs are killer. Few hundred more HPs and extra defence for free? Yeah I'll take that. heh

[dargor-]

I played both and the only difference I noticed is that the Guardian does less damage than the Vanguard.

 

Stuff also dies way faster early on with Jorgan compared to almost any other class' starting companion.

 

Trooper companions are also ALL wearing heavy armor, which makes your 2-man team tougher than say the Guardian and Kira.

Edited January 8, 2012 by dargor-

[Ironcleaver]

Or I dunno, maybe it's the biotech. Lol... I went armormech, still regretting that.

 

I know how you feel. My guardian is 400 in Sythweaving and I don't even touch it. When I ask my guildmates if they want anything it's always the same old "Naa, I have an ornage I'm holding onto", or simular. :-/

[Avanaco]

I know how you feel. My guardian is 400 in Sythweaving and I don't even touch it. When I ask my guildmates if they want anything it's always the same old "Naa, I have an ornage I'm holding onto", or simular. :-/

EXACTLY, man. I've got oranges I'm holding onto, and my Elara is holding onto oranges, I just keep upgrading with mods... I'm dropping armortech as soon as I figure whether I want to go bio or cybertech.

[Asolar]

I used Elara dorne as soon as i got her and never used anyone else (except at class quest part where you have to) I have been shield spec all the way and it just amazin for lvling and the dps is more than fine.

In many fights i dont get under the 80% mark for the simple reason of her healing and all my damages reduction abilities/talents. Im also biochem and as sayd many time already, it those help alot.

Keeping Elara is gear up to date was very importent for me to, it helps alot for her heals. Aim/power/aclarity are her primary stats you should look for, and crit/surge as extra.

 

On your soloing heroic +2 elites and take no damages at lvl 50, i dont think that would happen unless you have t3 pve gear.

I think when they say take no damages they just mean they can really soak up a lot of beating cause we are super tanks

[Lirethion]

I guess I am lucky because I do not need Elora My wife plays a Healing Commando and I play a Vanguard shield So I can keep ugly as Dirt Aric out heh

[SteveRB]

Well I don't know about other people, but I can solo a single equal leveled melee champion by running around in circles and spamming hammer shot at him. With a talent ion cell will slow the target by 50% for 2 seconds, and aric can do all the real damage.

[canobeansPL]

Biotech and defensive cooldowns make a big difference to the amount of health you end up with. Generally what people mean by "I end fights @ full hp" is that by the time your shield, grenade, adrenaline, medpack and 2 relics run out, the fight with elites+silvers is usually over, Elara pops her next 2 heals and you're back up to 90%. Because of all the defensive cooldown goodness you simply don't get into a situation where you could lose a significant portion of your HP.

 

Champions are a different matter, but then either a Champion deals more damage than you can mitigate/heal, in which case if you win you end up with any amount of HP between 100 and 1 per cent... or it doesn't, in which case you end up with he fabled "almost full hp bar".

 

As an additional note: I'm personally not at 50 yet (48), so I run a full damage kit on my shield spec, for leveling purposes. (I choose Reflex armoring/barrels over Commando when possible and have settled on Power/Surge as my enhancement of choice. I guess you can tell I have an unhealthy love for Stockstrike). Anyway, it really speeds things up when it comes to killing things and doesn't necassarily hurt your survivability very much. The only problem with it is when you encounter snobby know-it-alls who are convinced you absolutely must have tank stats to deal with stuff you encounter while leveling.

Edited January 9, 2012 by canobeansPL

[Avanaco]

As an additional note: I'm personally not at 50 yet (48), so I run a full damage kit on my shield spec, for leveling purposes. It really speeds things up when it comes to killing things and doesn't necassarily hurt your survivability very much. The only problem with it is when you encounter snobby know-it-alls who are convinced you absolutely must have tank stats to deal with stuff you encounter while leveling.

True that. Heh. It would take FOREVER to kill anything if I stacked all absorb/shield/defense instead of having some accuracy, aim and power.

[aRtFuL]

Actually it is very easily for Vanguards to solo some elites and champions - for some of those melee boss you can kite them around using plasma cell slow (for assault or tactics/assault spec) and we'll receive very little damage.

 

For the cast time elites and champions if you time and use all your interrupts you will also receive very little damage because they will be unable to do anythign big.

 

For the range commando type of elites/bosses you can also keep on popping in and out of LOS and dot them and receive little damage.

 

Whether these methods are possible to pull off an a given circumstances actually depend on how many elites there are and how much space you got to work with more than anything.

[Darguth]

I tend to take the highest rated armor I get, favoring Endurance over Aim and defensive stats over offensive stats when I have a choice. With Armormech I usually always have a choice.

 

I keep myself decked-out in the latest blue-quality gear with Endurance > Aim and defensive stats. I typically get "Critical" blue schematics for some reason, so that helps add a bit of an offensive punch while leveling. Elara gets decked in similar gear only Aim > Endurance and favoring Power, Crit, and Surge.

 

Between Elara's heals and the multitude of defensive cooldowns available (Reactive Shield, Smoke Grenade, Adrenaline Rush, Cryo Grenade, No Retreat, *AND* 2x defensive Relics; plus a healing pot if you really need it) you can weave them together such that you pretty much always have one of them ticking away against the really tough Champs.

 

I just hit level 40 and this has worked great so far. I can typically take champs 1-2 levels higher than me and finish the fight with 50% or more health. I grabbed the lv. 40 PVP gear set with defensive stats (Republic Commando or something to that effect). I'll likely try to swap out the Accuracy mods when able, as I don't really need them in PVE yet but we'll see.

 

I also haven't found that leveling with defensive stats has been all that inconvenient. I literally never have to stop between pulls. Sometimes I move on to a second pack while Elara gets the last few kill shots on the previous pack. So, I don't think it has really slowed me down at all. The few times I've been forced to use a non-healer Companion you realize just how much "killing but taking more damage" really slows down the gameplay actually.