Anyone else just feel 'meh' pre 50? (a bit of questions thread)

[chickdigger]

Believe it our not some people aren't 50 a few weeks after release! Sure it would be nice if I had access to the ability to guardian flip around like yoda and other fun higher lvl stuff...

 

Anyhow, near 32 on aldaaran. Can handle myself pretty decently pure vig spec. But something just feels off... As a JK, never once have I felt like a B.A. For the most part I feel like a man in a comedy sketch swinging around a giant trout. Most boss fights takes a few tries, and if you miss 1 interrupt chance, you pretty much are dead (would be nice if combat skills CD reset after you die...). Same with accidentally tagging 2 mob groups, might as well just lift your hands off your keyboard/mouse, cause you dead.

 

Am I doing something wrong? Or is this how most 'paladin ish' classes play in mmos (don't dabble in them much) for solo pve/leveling?

 

Is focus better for leveling? Should I focus on STR vs endurance mods?

 

Hearing stuff gets better after you get Doc and/or reach mid 30's, how much better is that exactly?

[FtenEQ]

Been Defense specced with Kira since I got her.

 

Notes:

 

Do not ever miss an interrupt that is available during a boss fight. Interrupt should be one of your easiest to hit keybinds because you need to get that off every time.

 

Using End/Str mods, enhancements, etc because I'm the tank, kira does tons of the deeps.

 

I can't speak for some of your other points. As defense I've felt like a ****** plenty of times. Instant channel Force stasis one mob, Stun/Opportune strike another, kira burns down another normal, not to mention the Blade Storm/Force Sweep stuns.

 

You should also use cooldowns while grinding, not just in your best chance of dying. Most of your killing is either groups of 3/4 normals or 1 strong/1normal and you can really blow through them if you cycle defensive and offensive cooldowns constantly during these smaller, easier fights.

 

Also, make sure you once in a while use your companions expanded bar for certain fights and just in general. I tend to know that Kira's +criticals Cooldown is ctrl +10 automatically default keybound. She can really rip it up with that up.

 

Make sure you use all the tools available.

 

A:S:S: Always Stay Stimmed. If you're not stimmed, you need to be. I use the str stims and they just make a ton of difference. Along with Medpaks you should probably have very little downtime.

[chickdigger]

What is the most 'efficient' spec for leveling? Hearing Focus is good for mob cleanup due to powered up sweep.

[neocoma]

lvling is meh ...not heroic not special not strong. just meh. Youfeel like the padawan gimp armed with a woodstick.

 

At 50 with gear it gets better, yet not on par with other classes, however.

[Zhijn]

Everyone, or the same persons keep saying "level 50 is where its at". Dont know, im only level 36 with both my JKG and SWJ (love the story, not to happy about the class). I find every normal fight "the fight of my life" on JKG/SWJ at L36. xD

 

But if you can keep yourself geared to equal the mobs i think you should be fine at whatever your doing. I however have had little to no success in trying to become main tank in HC4/FP (random grps) since level 30 onwards, swear i can feel people roll their eyes if i say im a JKG/SWJ tank, its pretty frustrating.

 

Anyway, level 30+ i think being defense spec is where its at (unless you pvp i gues focus is where its at). Gear up Kira untill you get Doc and just hope for the best. =)

 

And dont forget to keep your own gear up to date, it'll hurt you way more then any other class if you dont.

[Talraen]

A good place I found to check if you are "doing it right" is on Balmorra, the second zone you can pick up a 2+ man heroic for droid parts. The opening pull to the zone is 3 Strong level mobs. Try solo these in Shien form! It's not easy, esp doing it on level, but it can definitely be done (I did it full Vigil specced) but its very tricky - you will need to use the right CD's at the right time, and just about every CD you have.

 

Another thing you can do is use Kira to soak up some damage before you go in guns blazing.

 

- As for the larger mob pulls, don't use force sweep until your 20% reduc from Leap has ended

 

I'm no pro - this class is strong as anything if you are using your CD's consistently

[MimicUnleashed]

From my angle my 50 Jedi Guardian (Vig) was an absolutely awesome story. I loved every second of it, even if it was completely unforgiving of 1 single screw up. However the gameplay is horrible. Even at 50 I'm working hard to DPS in the same general area as a Smuggler (GS) friend. He can blow out 7k crits like they're candy. I'm pushing my gear and proc limits to nab a 4.5k crit every so often. I have burst, dots, and minor CC, but I feel like a jack of all trades and master of nothing. I'd sell my T7 to a Jawa to feel like I'm half as heroic as my level 20 Trooper alt.

[Calax]

I think guardians are just way to gear dependent compared to other classes.... if just one tiny piece of gear is behind, all of a sudden you're fighting an up hill battle at every corner.

[JinsGhost]

If this is solo PvE you are talking about then I really can't see why you would go into one tree all the way. Guardians are perhaps the most group dependant class in the game. If you go all defense spec your DPS is worthless. If you go all damage you can't tank and mobs will eat your food. I specifically built my Guardian using a specific build I found on here tho I am having a hard time finding the thread now. It's basically an 18/23 build focused on PvE by yourself and it really works.

 

Trees are also very decieving. Take a good look at what's in it and you will see alot of skills that either have little to do with your actual role (most tanking skills are available in the first 5 tiers of defense and the best imo is in the vigilence tree, go figure) or are so situational that unless you have it pre planned when your are going to use or are twitch enough to just pull it out of thin air then your wasting creds on skills you dont use. After I got saber throw my entire rotation changed, focus and threat jumped up huge and I was able to solo pretty much right through corellia (where I am now and just dinged 50) with doc. If yu insist on using kira understand she will pull aggro from you because if you gear her full her dps is incredible but you will have to regen after every 2-4 mobs depending on how your built.

 

I really wish I could find that thread, it used oto be stickied called secrets to Guardian tanking or something. I wanted to give that OP mad props because his build basically allowed me to be able to solo without being dependant on anyone other then who my companion was. In a group things are giant face roll. Except for colocoid war games, I hate that fp.

 

The only way to really solo using a guardian is to know what skills you will use all the time and make it a priority in making those skills a s strong as possible.

Edited January 20, 2012 by JinsGhost

[Calibretto]

To be honest yes, I've felt pretty meh throughout the leveling experience (44 now). I've enjoyed the overall storyline and as a Defense specced tank I die very rarely, but yeah, I've never felt bad ***. I think they need to buff the survivability of JG's who go DPS spec and rework some of the Defense tree to be more "tanky."

 

My eyes were really opened when I started playing a Trooper alt. I know comparing two separate classes is a slippery slope but if you haven't tried it, Troopers DEFINITELY feel bad ***. Every 1 minute you can wipe out an entire group of mobs with a single move (Mortar Volley). You have a few aoe attacks which really jack people up, you've got multiple abilities that knock enemies down, your damage is high, your armor even early on is brutal looking - all in all it's just a blast. I prefer my Vanguard's panic buttons more and they get a self heal later on. Plus, being that you have a lot of ranged abilities, you can easily take out big time elite/golds by just kiting them around. Basically no fear; if the mob hits too hard, kite it instead of face tanking it like the Jedi.

 

My Jedi is still my main but each time I log on I devote more and more of my time to my Trooper.

[drogpac]

alderaan was owning me, even with me being higher level for it. I didn't care for that planet at all. the weak mobs did too much damage.

 

other than that, the only lag i felt as a class was 18-23. I felt fine the rest of the time.

[Calibretto]

alderaan was owning me, even with me being higher level for it. I didn't care for that planet at all. the weak mobs did too much damage.

 

other than that, the only lag i felt as a class was 18-23. I felt fine the rest of the time.

 

I guess the op's point is about feeling "fine." I think it's about feeling epic, heroic, bad ***, whatever you want to call it. I've been completing all the content just "fine," and have even been able to solo some heroic 2's once I got Doc. While that's cool and all, the class to me still doesn't feel awesome. Again, referencing my other post, compare that to my Trooper which is running in and melting face as quick as I can find mobs to kill and I've got an issue.

 

Edit*: Edited to say "I've got an issue" with it, because some might be enjoying it just fine. My opinion is that the class needs some work.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Calibretto

[Rokkimies]

I actually enjoyed quite ok before I got Doc. With Doc I rolled in enjoyment for 4 levels or so and everytime I got closer to 40 I started to spam spacebar more and more just not to hear NPC talking the same stuff about parts and droids anymore.

 

After 40 I started to have this feeling that I'm not sure if I want to quest anymore, I usually love questing since level ups mean more skills and variety for gameplay. Except that every levels started to seem a bit copy.

 

At level 45 It took me 2 days off the game because I didn't want to hear about any NPC's destroyed droids which parts I was suppose to collect, again.

 

45-49 I was pretty much forcing myself through, I got Overhead slash in my defense spec and was thinking that it will be so cool from now on, it wasn't. 10% away from lvl 50 I was doing the last class quest stage (pre-nerf), had one try, read stuff about forums, logged out and haven't logged in for 5 days now. I'm not going to until they do some serious fixes for my precious little guardian. Like parry/deflect animation disabling attacking and all the rest discussed over and over again in forums.

 

Quests starts to repeat themselves very heavily and voiceovering begins to annoy more than anything, at least this happened for me. Especially the cutscenes where your character only *presses the button* are super annoying and I got the feeling that I just want to get the quests done with, never caring what the so called story behind it was.

 

I'm all in the lore and some people hype the SWTOR to heavens because of it. But the lore gets really thin at the end IMO, itäs all about those f-ing droids and the parts some slacker mechanic wants back.

 

/rant

 

Edit: typos.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Rokkimies

[CriticalMasses]

Everyone I know personally has gotten to 38-39 and slowed down or stopped leveling completely. They all say the same thing. "It's becoming a grind" meaning the quests are boring and long and wading through all the trash is bleah.

 

I had to push through but liked Voss better. Corellia is a nightmare though, I still haven't finished the side quests on Corellia, it is just so hard to take. That "Green Planet" quest was 3 hours of never-ending awfulness for a really sub-par reward.

 

This is on the JK side. On the Sith side (mirror classes) they are still enjoying the story and most are 50.

 

The last 10 levels was mostly sheer boredom. Voss was the only exception for me.

 

The only dialogue I paid attention to after 40 was my companion characters and a few of the sith and jedi council dialogues. everything else was (Space bar, space bar space bar).

 

So yeah, it got REALLY old.

Edited January 20, 2012 by CriticalMasses

[Atamasama]

Eh, I dunno, I got to Quesh around 40, and it was pretty bleak and dull (both the missions and the environment) but luckily very short. I'm almost 44 now and I'm on Hoth and having a pretty good time.