Pro tips - Race to 50

[Fallenlore]

The short short version (SB's). Rolling my 4th level 50 toon, need a ranged dps on Pub side. Have already done all the stories on Pub to 50. Can't stand smuggler mechanics (cover). My other toons have cleared HM EV and KP, but they need a ranged dps for the 2nd ops group.

 

I need to get a Commando to 50 asap. What's the best spec to use along the way? What's the best pet to use as well?

 

Will have 50's to run me through FPs and HM's on the planets. I'm looking for a pure regular quest churning machine. Kill 2-3 regular mobs with 1 strong very quickly, and can take on an elite from time to time.

 

Hoping to get it done under 3 days /played, perhaps 2 weeks total time. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

[BobaFaceroll]

Gunnery spec with either Dorne or Jorgen as your pet. Jorgen (Ranged DPS) will mean a little more resting after some pulls but most things are easy enough at lower levels that you'll just steam roller past them without trouble. Dorne (Healer) for harder stuff, with more and more use as you reach higher levels where Strongs magically become tougher than Elites.

 

Other than the weapon (Assault Cannon vs. Blaster) both pets use the exact same gear. You can pimp them both out with just one set of gear, keep both their weapons up to date, and change between them as needed. Just move everything but the weapon around and a few seconds later you're ready to rock with a new pet.

[Fallenlore]

At what levels do you get those companions btw? Also do they use the same gear as you so you can give it to them as hand-me-downs? I generally experienced that fighting groups of mobs quickly was the fastest way to blaze through the planet quests. You still have to contend with the boss at the end, but 90% of all fights is with groups of 3 or higher. So which main abilites should I hotkey to use in those situations?

 

I know commando's have plenty of aoe abilities, but are any of them spammable (like grav round)? Would like to try to keep it simple and use 4-5 buttons on the way to 50 if possible. Thanks.

[Aritok]

3 Level 50 toons, and dont know that you dont get the companions at special Levels?

 

Aric Jorgan after Ord Mantell.

Elara Dorne after Taris.

[JLapp]

I know commando's have plenty of aoe abilities, but are any of them spammable (like grav round)? Would like to try to keep it simple and use 4-5 buttons on the way to 50 if possible. Thanks.

 

Not really. You get hail of bolts at some point which doesn't have a cooldown but I think it costs 4 ammo so you might be able to use it 4 times before being completely out of ammo (which you want to avoid).

 

For AOE abilities, Mortar Volley, Plasma Granade, Sticky Granade, Pulse Cannon and occasionally hail of bolts all have their uses.

[LeonidasSith]

0-50 in two weeks, and I have a full time job, and work out everyday.

 

1)Choose Gunnery spec

2)Use only Jorgan as your companion.

3)Get orange gear for both yourself and Jorgan

4)Get the Gun from the final Heroic 4 on Coruscant for yourself. Get Jorgan an orange gun with Coruscant commendations.

5)Do the bonus series on Taris, and gear yourself and Jorgan with the best possible mods, enhancements. Armoring is expensive, just buy whatever you can, skip any other items. This goes for other planets from here on.

6)Upgrade your barrel every planet, and give Jorgan your old barrell. He'll be 1 level behind you, but that's fine. Unless you get one as a quest reward.

7)Do only solo and 2-man heroic quests after Coruscant. Skip pvp, 4 man heroics, flashpoints. Get your ship upgrades when you can, and do the space missions, they give great experience. Your companions' affection also unlocks conversations which can give 10-14k xp each. Boost Elara's affection with gifts, Jorgan will get affection increases from leveling.

 

Hit the GTN once in a while and look for upgrades if you can afford it.

Mow stuff down. Profit.

Edited February 27, 2012 by LeonidasSith

[Fallenlore]

Yeah I reference by level range. For instance it's set that you get sprint at 14 and a mount at 25. But I tell folks you get your ship around level 18-19 ish. I got Jorgan already, wasn't sure if the other pets were the 3rd and 4th pets (assuming your 2nd is a ship droid of some kind?). So usually a level range helps (like you get the healer pet on the Guardian around mid 30's, and for the Jugg around late 20's).

 

0-50 in two weeks, and I have a full time job, and work out everyday.

 

1)Choose Gunnery spec

2)Use only Jorgan as your companion.

3)Get orange gear for both yourself and Jorgan

4)Get the Gun from the final Heroic 4 on Coruscant for yourself. Get Jorgan an orange gun with Coruscant commendations.

5)Do the bonus series on Taris, and gear yourself and Jorgan with the best possible mods, enhancements. Armoring is expensive, just buy whatever you can, skip any other items. This goes for other planets from here on.

6)Upgrade your barrel every planet, and give Jorgan your old barrell. He'll be 1 level behind you, but that's fine. Unless you get one as a quest reward.

7)Do only solo and 2-man heroic quests after Coruscant. Skip pvp, 4 man heroics, flashpoints. Get your ship upgrades when you can, and do the space missions, they give great experience. Your companions' affection also unlocks conversations which can give 10-14k xp each. Boost Elara's affection with gifts, Jorgan will get affection increases from leveling.

 

Hit the GTN once in a while and look for upgrades if you can afford it.

Mow stuff down. Profit.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I usually avoid pvp, and spacebar through all but the class quests since I've seen em all. I grab an orange modable weapon, chest, and legs minimal and an orange weapon for my main pet as well. Just keep upgrading those as I go but I use quest greens for my pet since I'm sorta lazy.

 

I usually farm Hammer Station and Athiss, sometimes Mando raiders for modables until I get an almost full set. That and I save all the Heroics on a planet till the end and have someone run me through them all at once. I skip the bonus series though, as I often start to outlevel the next planet.

[withonor]

I would spec Combat Medic and keep Jorgan and M1-4X as up to date in gear as possible. Healers in this game can do ridiculous damage, so you can still down things as easily as if you were DPS. Use Jorgan for most things, use M1-4X for times when you need a tank, on some elites and basically all Champions.

 

A healer with a tank companion can solo anything, if you have the patience. The patience to kill things is often quicker than the patience of finding a group to do it.

Edited February 27, 2012 by withonor

[Fallenlore]

Yeah unfortunately I don't have that patience. I'm assuming you're talking about Heroic 2+'s right? Those I save until I'm done with the planet and call in a level 50 to steam roll me through.

[BobaFaceroll]

At what levels do you get those companions btw? Also do they use the same gear as you so you can give it to them as hand-me-downs? I generally experienced that fighting groups of mobs quickly was the fastest way to blaze through the planet quests. You still have to contend with the boss at the end, but 90% of all fights is with groups of 3 or higher. So which main abilites should I hotkey to use in those situations?

 

I know commando's have plenty of aoe abilities, but are any of them spammable (like grav round)? Would like to try to keep it simple and use 4-5 buttons on the way to 50 if possible. Thanks.

 

Jorgen: First companion, so starter area

Dorne: Taris, so by L20

 

Every pet in your crew wears Heavy armor and is Aim based. They can all wear your hand me downs. Jorgen uses an Assault Cannon, so he can use your old weapon, while Dorne uses a blaster pistol. Everything else they use will be the same, including a generator off-hand. Keep each of their weapons current and you can swap every other piece between them to use either ranged DPS or healer as needed.

[Fallenlore]

Is there a rundown somewhere on which pet does what?

Edit: Checked the sticky. It was section 6, must have missed it earlier.

Edited February 27, 2012 by Fallenlore

[Fallenlore]

Got to 20 and finally got Gav round, nice ability. I'm close to getting the healer companion on Taris so we'll see how she plays out. Full sets of Trooper gear (along with guns) from multiple Hammer Station / Athiss runs thanks to some guildies.

 

So far it's a lot of fun blowing stuff up. I'm frankly surprised by the sheer amount of aoe's commando's get. That and I can take on champions like a . . . champ with Jorgan.

[ChromeLight]

Got to 20 and finally got Gav round, nice ability. I'm close to getting the healer companion on Taris so we'll see how she plays out. Full sets of Trooper gear (along with guns) from multiple Hammer Station / Athiss runs thanks to some guildies.

 

So far it's a lot of fun blowing stuff up. I'm frankly surprised by the sheer amount of aoe's commando's get. That and I can take on champions like a . . . champ with Jorgan.

 

Not sure if we are playing the same game though, here's my bad experience:

 

Aric is just an over-estimated, over-glorified gunslinger with

- No cover to reduce pushback or dmg

- No talents to reduce cast time

- Clad in heavy armor

- His DPS goes lower than Tanno Vik when the mobs are slapping him

 

Aric is crap after Level 20+.

Can't even solo Taris Heroics 2+ (1 Gold + 2 Sliver Mobs) with Aric

- Tried Gunnery Spec and Combat Medic Spec

- Ammo is a problem at early levels.

- +6 Levels above mob, using Purples at current Level

- Taris mobs have this annoying disease that reduces health and armor by a stacking %.

- CC'ed the Gold, Turned off all AoEs

- Combat Medic Spec kills too slowly, doesn't heal enough, not enough ammo to Re-CC the gold

- Gunnery Spec doesn't shine at low levels so you get the picture that you can't do enough dmg or even heal.

- Combat Medic or Gunnery Spec can't hold aggro and prevent mobs from slapping Aric.

- Aric will always be stuck at casting Aimed Shot.

 

Playing Aric is survivable until Taris. As for Taris, you will have to skip trying to solo Heroics. Taris is both a chore and a drag.

 

You will start to shine as Gunnery with Elara at Nar Shaddar.

 

Mobs get harder at Tatooine. Normal mobs in Class quests (after cutscenes) can kill you with ease.

 

Remove Full-Auto from your rotation until you spec Curtain of Fire. Full-Auto is a DPS and Ammo Loss without the correct upper level specs.

Edited February 29, 2012 by ChromeLight

[Fallenlore]

Yeah we are playing a different game all together.

 

My wife and our guild are all willing and able to run alts thru stuff. So all the FPs and Heroics are gathered up and run thru by myself (perhaps another alt) and a level 50.

 

Trying to solo Heroic 2+'s on a planet by yourself without help is a waste of time imo. It takes too long to kill stuff and the rewards aren't justified, plus we don't even get our CC until level 22. You can say the same about all the quests, but if you can't solo normal planet quests or class quests, that's an issue all on its own.

 

So my focus as a Trooper is planet and class quests. These consist of mainly groups of mobs, which the trooper excels at. It took a while before my other classes got even some sort of aoe ability, and troopers have 3-4 by the time they are 20 which is amazing. So planet and class quests are steamrolled through atm.

 

Plus I got the FPs gear from Hammer Station and Athiss. I can't wear the level 21 set until next level but once I put it on, I'm fighting effectively as a level 25ish toon. That and my companion has the matching set so we are a force to be reackoned with.

 

When I get into the 30's and 40's and it starts to slow down I'll post back here. So far it's smooth sailing. Im debating on if I really need a healer pet at all vs Jorgan and I blowing stuff up together. Granted his reaction time is a tad slow, but I keybinded his quick shot ability to get him in combat faster.

[Fallenlore]

Just got Dorne and man she rocks! Theres now no slowing down between pulls unless I'm low on ammo. For regular groups, I can fight them continueously. I think only elites make me slow down to replenish ammo.

 

Soloed some Heroic 2+'s on Nar Shadaa without issues with Dorne and finally my CC ability. I haven't felt this OP since my hybrid sorc got his healing companion. It's just non stop killing blowing through mobs like tissue paper.

[bootsakah]

I have a 50 Commando and a 50 Vanguard. First time thru the game was on the Commando. I ran with Aric up until about Voss & Hoth where the mobs suddenly hit a hell of a lot harder and took 2-3times longer to kill. I switched to Elara at that point, and it only slowed things down a bit. However, I could go from group to group without having to stop.

 

Second time thru on my Vanguard (tank spec) I played with Elara the whole time (once getting her on Taris). It was definitely much slower killing the mobs, but I skipped thru all the movies which made up for the lost time.

[bootsakah]

Torhead list of companions:

http://www.torhead.com/companions

 

Ranged DPS - Aric you get at the end of Ord mantell (about lvl 10)

Healer - Elara you get at the end of Taris (about lvl 20-24)

Tank - M1-4x you get at the end of Nar Shadaa

Tank - Tanno Vik you get at the end of Balmorra

Melee DPS - Yunn you get at the end of Hoth