Leveling as Scoundrel is much harder than before

[Lijun]

I played a Scoundrel when the game launched but have since switched to another server and have started a new Scoundrel this week.

 

I have leveled almost every class atleast into the mid 20s (other than Vanguard) and I must say Scoundrel feels very weak compared to the other classes at the lower levels.

 

The last time I leveled as a Scoundrel, the class was fun and it didnt seem 'weak' or a real chore to level as the class, now it does.

 

One real problem with this is that I am much more knowledgable about the game play, and pretty much have this character all buffed up with the best gear and bio stims/adrenal etc, best barrel/mods for him etc... but he still feels weak and fragile.

 

I am not totally sure what they did to this class, but I am not even sure if I should go on leveling the class considering it feels like much more work than any other class I have played. Even my playing tank or healer spec of other classes felt more powerful than I do right now as a Scoundrel.

 

This is not so much a 'QQ' post, but more of an observation about the class and the game in general. Like I said, I played almost every class, and just wanted to share my experience and my dissatisfaction with this class right now. I do know some of the lvl 50 Scoundrels are saying 'the nerf wasnt that bad' but from my experience I am noticing a significant difference in the strength of my character in the lower levels, compared to when the game launched and especially compared to any other class in the game right now, I thought leveling as a healing Sage was a pain, until I started this new Scoundrel.

[HyunTheGun]

All the nerfs were made to skills you don't get until level 40. They should not have affected scoundrels below that.

[tinybabychickens]

Im at level 46 on my first smuggler, and cant attest to any earlier smuggler gameplay, never played the beta, however I cant imagine a 20ish smuggler being in any way affected by the recent smuggler changes.

 

youll be unscathed by the K.O., Shootfirst, and Flechette round changes, which is roughly 90% of the griping I see on the forums. I cant say if any changes were made from earlier versions of the smuggler, but from what I can tell not much has changed outside of those areas.

 

20-40 wasnt the easiest time Ive had levelling a character. I found that if you get caught off guard for something youre not prepared, youre in a fair bit of trouble, and while luckily we can vanish, it still meant unexpected pulls could mean trouble as a smuggler.

 

On the contrary, any fight I saw coming, I could plan for with cc and really had no problems save the lightspring quest which i beat on maybe my third time around. When you can plan ahead you can deal with most situations, soloing a lot of elites and champions included, but you are extremely fragile when taken off guard.

 

However once you get Guss Tuno at 40 or whatever, that basically changes and everything is a breeze.

[Lijun]

Ok thanks for the replies. It is possible that because I didnt have much experience with other classes when I made my first Scoundrel that I thought the class was pretty solid. Then after leveling other classes like Commando, Sage, Shadow, Sent and going back to Scoundrel leveling I guess I just feel much weaker compared to them.

 

There could be something else I am missing also, but I just feel weak. I dont feel like a pack the 'punch' I think I should. I feel like I am 1/2 glass cannon, the glass part.

[Noon]

Ok thanks for the replies. It is possible that because I didnt have much experience with other classes when I made my first Scoundrel that I thought the class was pretty solid. Then after leveling other classes like Commando, Sage, Shadow, Sent and going back to Scoundrel leveling I guess I just feel much weaker compared to them.

 

There could be something else I am missing also, but I just feel weak. I dont feel like a pack the 'punch' I think I should. I feel like I am 1/2 glass cannon, the glass part.

 

 

Surprised you had an easier time with a Sentinel.

 

I played a Scoundrel/Sawbones during Beta and had a blast. At launch I made a Sent, leveled him to 50, and everything was allot slower (not saying it was terrible or difficult, just slower), so just recently I made a Scoundrel/Sawbones and I've gotten em leveled up to 25; and haven't slowed down at all. Hell, I have been able to solo all of the Heroic +2 quests; which is something I couldn't do easily on my Sent.

 

Not sure if Scoundrel is nearly as awesome as it was in Beta (miss having portable cover), but its still fun.

[LionRampant]

I've rolled like...5 scoundrels on 2 different servers. Honestly. Most reached level 25 at least.

 

They are the single worst class for levelling around. The playstyle is horrible and clunky - it's not *hard* or anything it's just slow and unrewarding compared to every other class.

[OniGanon]

I levelled and play hybrid Sawbones. Fights were a bit slow but stealth let me skip most of the fighting and survivability was a bit ridiculously good past lv30, allowing me to take on multiple Elites or a lone Champion in relative comfort.

 

In contrast, I've found levelling my Marauder was a breeze until Quesh, where it rather suddenly became a nightmare that has continued on Hoth. Almost every pull seems to be a desperate fight for survival, especially when they involve multiple Strong mobs (which has been happening with alarming frequency). I often catch myself thinking, while struggling to not-die, that I could do the same fight on my Scoundrel half-asleep.

Edited February 11, 2012 by OniGanon

[Varus_Praetor]

I've got a lvl 46 sorc and a lvl 41 jugg. While I'll agree that the scrapper scoundrel levels slower than my sorc, it's not by that much. I absolutely destroy groups of mobs compared to my jugg. I've been soloing a lot of heroic 2+ quests and am currently level 22.

 

So in short, I'd say it's just you. I expect to take a major hit past level 40 due to the nerfs but am hoping some of that gets corrected before I get there.

[Findulidas]

I have no problems what so ever. If you have trouble leveling you are doing something wrong and thats really the only thing worth talking about when your leveling on your own.

[Boozsha]

I'm not having any issue with leveling. The class seems to level just as fast as any of the others I've been leveling.

[Bealsebub]

Pebkac

[Raice]

You're probably just used to the more powerful/higher level Scoundrel game play. They haven't done anything to the class except for Flechette Round and KO, which until you hit lvl 40 - you will simply not be effected by it, and ONLY if you level Scrapper.

 

Scoundrel is a hard class to play at early levels anyway. That's just how it is. The reason for this is because each of our trees are sort of one trick ponies, and we don't get the really good abilities until late. Essentially, the usefulness of each tree is in the latter part, whereas the other classes - its in the early part.

 

So if you're leveling all of the classes to 20, and then realize Scoundrel is under-par... well... it's always been like that.

[Karizza]

I have played the three trees and a combination of them. Since the nerfs the shock damage is not as great at level 50. The class is dependent on Upper hand which pigeon holes what you have to spec. Sustained damage is probably the weakest of all the classes in the game. The power management is just plain awful. Dodge never seems to do much. It will be a slow leveling character as the dps is low in comparison to energy spent. Expect to do a lot of white damage as it is a power hungry class all the time. Defense is average to poor. They do make a decent healing class, but lack the defense to survive very long in large PvP battles. Playing the healer attracts the enemies target cursor pretty darn fast.

 

If i could respec out of the class I would do it in a heartbeat. Or never even attempt to level one to begin with. The story was good in PvE. The grind to 50 seemed long and underpowered. While the Smuggler was deemed overpowered with burst and probably deserved nerfs. It does need to be looked at and an overhaul of the upperhand/abbility useage. It desperately needs help on energy recapture and use.

[Raice]

I have played the three trees and a combination of them. Since the nerfs the shock damage is not as great at level 50. The class is dependent on Upper hand which pigeon holes what you have to spec. Sustained damage is probably the weakest of all the classes in the game. The power management is just plain awful. Dodge never seems to do much. It will be a slow leveling character as the dps is low in comparison to energy spent. Expect to do a lot of white damage as it is a power hungry class all the time. Defense is average to poor. They do make a decent healing class, but lack the defense to survive very long in large PvP battles. Playing the healer attracts the enemies target cursor pretty darn fast.

 

If i could respec out of the class I would do it in a heartbeat. Or never even attempt to level one to begin with. The story was good in PvE. The grind to 50 seemed long and underpowered. While the Smuggler was deemed overpowered with burst and probably deserved nerfs. It does need to be looked at and an overhaul of the upperhand/abbility useage. It desperately needs help on energy recapture and use.

 

I agree with this. The whole class is messed up and needs a complete and total overhaul. Nerf aside - the other two trees that weren't affected already performed rather poorly compared to every other AC Tree in the game. And not by a little, either.

 

As it stands... Scoundrel is "okay". You can play it... but you're never going to be exceptional with it, and you will always be out-shined by any other class. It really offers absolutely nothing that isn't already done - better. It has nothing to do with your Gear or any of that. The design of the class simply has too many one-trick pony tactics that are easily exploited by all of the other ACs.

[vartius]

I have played the three trees and a combination of them. Since the nerfs the shock damage is not as great at level 50. The class is dependent on Upper hand which pigeon holes what you have to spec. Sustained damage is probably the weakest of all the classes in the game. The power management is just plain awful. Dodge never seems to do much. It will be a slow leveling character as the dps is low in comparison to energy spent. Expect to do a lot of white damage as it is a power hungry class all the time. Defense is average to poor. They do make a decent healing class, but lack the defense to survive very long in large PvP battles. Playing the healer attracts the enemies target cursor pretty darn fast.

 

If i could respec out of the class I would do it in a heartbeat. Or never even attempt to level one to begin with. The story was good in PvE. The grind to 50 seemed long and underpowered. While the Smuggler was deemed overpowered with burst and probably deserved nerfs. It does need to be looked at and an overhaul of the upperhand/abbility useage. It desperately needs help on energy recapture and use.

 

You aren't getting the most out of our abilities. Dodge + Disappearing Act is the best defense in the game, it only needs fixed to avoid sorc abilities. Then we could get out of any trouble every few minutes. Defense Screen doesn't have that long of a cooldown at all, 15secs then 45 secs of cooldown. I only have energy problems when I am not using pugnacity. In that case, I asked for them.

 

With our CC abilities and stealth I feel like I'm playing the pve game in god mode. Divide, conquer one with shoot first, norm melee rotation and next mob with sabo charge, vital shot & backblast opener.

 

In pvp I've had to learn to play to the fights I'm in. Stay at max range and open distance if numbers are bad for melee. Spam thermal nade, vital shot, shrap bombs, sabo charge, freighter fly-by, even charged shot to keep the option to get out of range and safety without burning cooldowns. There are Line of sight cover walls near melee areas in the warzones.

 

Pop defense screen in tough melees. Save dirty kick and tendon blast to lock up kills.

 

Don't be ashamed to run to some deep line of sight cover, heal up and re-engage. I know ahead of time when I am going to get dropped, and often enough I choose against escaping because I am holding an objective as long as possible.

 

Healing is 30m if you are much closer and getting enemy attention then you are too close to the action. You can be out of range to enemies but still heal allies.

Edited February 13, 2012 by vartius

[dexitronic]

I don't see any problems with leveling IMO. Currently level 37 Scrapper-spec, and just arrived on Hoth. Overall, it's been very easy to grind through mobs and solo questing, especially once I learned Disappearing Act.

 

I've heard other people using Bowdaar as a primary tank for leveling but honestly, as much as I love wookies, I'm not a huge fan of him. Every cottin-pickin time I'm by a ledge he throws a mob off, and usually the fall doesn't kill them and the stupid POS ends up bringing half a room of aggro back up to me. I've found Corso to be a fantastic companion tank. Between the harpoon and his AoE abilities I'm rarely being targeted, which makes for good escapes when need be. (Poor corso tends to die a lot lol)

 

The biggest problem I have is dealing with multiple elites, they're too strong to quickly mow down with AoE, and if I can't keep 1 CC'd they usually wreak havoc on Corso and if I'm lucky I'll get at least 1 down before having to DA.

 

I wouldn't mind a true sprint ability, one that gave you a 5-10 sec speed boost to put some distance between myself and the mobs before using DA. Sometimes DA doesn't work properly and I, or my companion, remain in combat.

 

And as for PvP goes I destroy pretty much everyone that tries to jump me/a fellow pub/I choose to attack. Just last night I was questing in the geothermal plant on Hoth (my server has a much much larger imp population) and repeatedly face-rolled this one 45 powertech that was just trolling for pubs, as well as a 41 sorcerer and 39 marauder. Haven't done any WZs yet tho.

[Varus_Praetor]

I've never felt underpowered as scoundrel. Now levels 1-10 were horrible, granted. As soon as I got back blast and stealth I became a wrecking ball. I solo heroic 2+ that I never could on my Jugg (although not as easily as my sorc due to the inability to both heal and dps).

[kaberf]

You guys aren't even considering stealth nerfs here..

 

Bioware has been caught doing that, you know. Without meters it's hard to detect. They're underhanded at Bio and they really keep punishing Republic players for some reason. It's very odd.

Edited February 17, 2012 by kaberf

[Larce_Apollo]

Ok thanks for the replies. It is possible that because I didnt have much experience with other classes when I made my first Scoundrel that I thought the class was pretty solid. Then after leveling other classes like Commando, Sage, Shadow, Sent and going back to Scoundrel leveling I guess I just feel much weaker compared to them.

 

There could be something else I am missing also, but I just feel weak. I dont feel like a pack the 'punch' I think I should. I feel like I am 1/2 glass cannon, the glass part.

 

LOL....

 

yeah of course scoundrel is gonna seem harder when you rolled the face roll button masher classes that require little to no thinking, well shadow needs a bit of stratagy to play, bt the other 3.....

[AKIHA]

I agree with this. The whole class is messed up and needs a complete and total overhaul. Nerf aside - the other two trees that weren't affected already performed rather poorly compared to every other AC Tree in the game. And not by a little, either.

 

As it stands... Scoundrel is "okay". You can play it... but you're never going to be exceptional with it, and you will always be out-shined by any other class. It really offers absolutely nothing that isn't already done - better. It has nothing to do with your Gear or any of that. The design of the class simply has too many one-trick pony tactics that are easily exploited by all of the other ACs.

 

I totally agree too with this.