Bilirubin Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Hi all. Just started a smuggler alt, and haven't yet found a sticky with the very basics of the class. What are my primary stats, and what should I be stacking when I get the chance heading towards the gunslinger advanced class? Also, what is the best advice that you can give now that would have saved you huge headaches when you first started out/ TIA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikinai Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Well, cunning is our thing. I also like crit and surge, others may have varying ideas about this, but as a saboteur I just like my bombs to go boom super duper big time. Is there anything I'd do differently, hmmm, not that I can think of. Basics of smuggling gunslinger style, cover cover cover, get in cover and fire away. Let Corso tank em, turn his harpoon off though, and just blast away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordXalas Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Well, cunning is our thing. I also like crit and surge, others may have varying ideas about this, but as a saboteur I just like my bombs to go boom super duper big time. Is there anything I'd do differently, hmmm, not that I can think of. Basics of smuggling gunslinger style, cover cover cover, get in cover and fire away. Let Corso tank em, turn his harpoon off though, and just blast away. if ur using corso don't turn off harpoon but you will have to micro manage him. you will have to click flameguard for corso all the time so he actually gets into melee range and get the armor buff (things will get easier once bowdaar comes along since you wont micro manage him). Just go into cover and depending on your spec you will use a certain rotation. Since i'm a sharp shooter i roll into cover while bowdaar dashes. I use smugglers luck while i get a instant charge burst with snap shot then use aimed shot with the 1.5 cast time then i use trick shot. but if you're just beginning roll into cover and flurry of bolts and charge burst is going to be it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 (edited) Thanks all! I just got Corso last night, and the harpoon has been annoying but to this point not a problem. Perhaps I will just turn it off. Can I say smuggler is EZ mode compared with consular (at least so far)? Of course, the consular was my first ever MMO character so that added to the learning curve. But just a few hours of play time at level 10. I even managed to take out the elite guarding the red shard datachron at level 6 alone. Its so different fighting at 30m compared with 3m. I will not be abandoning my consular of course, but its a very nice contrast in play styles. Edited March 15, 2012 by Bilirubin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvershadows Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 (edited) Hi all. Just started a smuggler alt, and haven't yet found a sticky with the very basics of the class. What are my primary stats, and what should I be stacking when I get the chance heading towards the gunslinger advanced class? Also, what is the best advice that you can give now that would have saved you huge headaches when you first started out/ TIA! Cunning, crit (to 45-50 percent or so percent with your buff @ 50), surge, accuracy. Live it, learn it, love it. Oh also - because I noticed you said advice that would have saved me a huge headache lol. I'm an experienced MMO'er and because of that I didnt really have any headaches, but the major ones I have noticed people have are - *** XX quest is too hard - As a gunslinger, you will need to make use of nearly EVERY SINGLE ABILITY you get for a very long time. Eventually depending on spec you can stop using things like sabotage charge (as dirty fighting I never use it, it's just a waste of energy) or whatever ability you have that just doesn't work with your spec. But in the beginning, you will need everything. That means you will need to interrupt (and know which spells you must interrupt - death field is a BIG one - any heals). *** My companion dies too fast - Well duh, gear them better. Your companion is every bit as important as you are. Your opinion and mileage may vary as to which companion you want to use, but I used Corso exclusively on all three of my smugglers (and yes I'm working on a fourth, rofl) and have found him to be an excellent tank with enough damage to take care of business (on my sawbones he pretty much kills everything while I heal and throw out a few back blasts). Make sure your companion of choice is geared, make sure you learn the ins and outs of their abilities, and MAKE SURE you have EXCELLENT control over them, are able to move them out of aoe's and then back in, etc. Remember that all quests are balanced around you and a companion, so plan accordingly. *** I die a lot in pvp - Yea well you have two guns and you're in medium armor. You may as well have a sign above your head that says "TARGET ME PLEASE LOL" Learn how to be mobile even while using cover, learn to pick targets of oppurtunity, and most important - learn the art of pre-kiting. Pre-kiting is a term that originated in Dark Age of Camelot's hardcore 8vs8 pvp community. It differs from normal kiting in that you begin to run away before anyone even gets close to you, whearas regular kiting you wait until the last minute to run. The best way to accomplish this is a little trick I use - place an imaginary box around your character that extends about 10-15m away from you. Whenever ANY ENEMY comes into that imaginary box, RUN AWAY. This will discourage people from even trying to target you, especially if you run into packs of friendly players. *** Corso gave me a quest that makes me have to run through an imperial fort, WHINE! - Suck it up. He does it to you not once, but twice. There's a tunnel on Tatooine you can use for the first one. Or you can just be lazy like me and stealth/corpse run throught he imperial fort. Whatever. *** Lightspring is too hard! See whine number 1: This is a quest that will require you to think smart. I won't spoil it for you here, but what I will say is this - Corso's harpoon is your friend, make sure you reel in the whale to the bridge. You'll understand this when you get to the quest. *** I hate Corso! - Yea well, he probably hates you too. He's just too nice to say so. *** I don't like Corso's harpoon! - TURN IT OFF. It isn't for gunslingers anyway, its there to put mobs in position for the scoundrel's backblast. If you're having trouble with him holding aggro, once he gets his mid 20's ability (Can't remember what it's called, flame something or other, its an 8 meter range aoe fire ttack) what you do is, target the mob you want to kill first, then DO NOT TELL CORSO TO ATTACK, just tell him to use THAT ONE ABILITY. He will run up into range, use the flame shield and his grenades, get tons of threat and let you throw bombs/fire those blasters like crazy. His harpoon IS useful for you sometimes (see Lightspring whine), but you need to learn when to manually trigger it. An often overlooked feature of his harpoon is that you can use it to interrupt a mob that is casting a heal or a huge aoe like death field or force storm when your own interrupt is down. Then the mob is in range for you to dirty kick it the next time it tries to cast, then you have your interrupt ready. You can lock casting mobs down VERY WELL if you use Corso's harpoon correctly. I could probably think of 20 more but they're mostly silly and/or people are just... not too bright. Maybe I should make a sticky called "Tips to Help New Smugglers Not be Whiny Babies" Edited March 14, 2012 by silvershadows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 LOL thanks for the tips! Not sure what abilities I have at (almost--just a few hundred XP off) 10 that are interrupts. I assume dirty kick is one. Any others or are they still coming? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvershadows Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 LOL thanks for the tips! Not sure what abilities I have at (almost--just a few hundred XP off) 10 that are interrupts. I assume dirty kick is one. Any others or are they still coming? You'll get a 30 range interrupt ability, yes, you can use dirty kick as one (though mobs will immediately try to cast again after the stun wears off usually), also you will get an aoe pushback that you can use while in cover that serves as another, plus corso's harpoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aetou Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Cunning, crit (to 45-50 percent or so percent with your buff @ 50), surge, accuracy. Live it, learn it, love it. This isn't true. Cunning as much as you can. Crit to 300 (30%ish without the buff, 35% with). Surge to 200 (70-75% ish.) Power. Power. Power. (Accuracy is unavoidable.) Taking more Crit and Surge than that is bad, you hit diminishing returns and are better stacking more power at that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvershadows Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 This isn't true. Cunning as much as you can. Crit to 300 (30%ish without the buff, 35% with). Surge to 200 (70-75% ish.) Power. Power. Power. (Accuracy is unavoidable.) Taking more Crit and Surge than that is bad, you hit diminishing returns and are better stacking more power at that point. Right, but at the start and while you're leveling up you aren't even going to reach the level of diminishing returns. My characters didn't reach the 35-40 percent crit range or the 70 percent surge dmg rating till centurion/champion gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Had a good night in my first warzones last night. Finished my first PvP quest and my first daily. Once I figured out this class plays a bit more like the FPS I am used to, the kills just started coming. And the difference between 30m and the 3m I am used to with my Consular? Wow. So I'm building the sharpshooter tree right now. Are there lower level abilities that I will be dropping in favour of advanced abilities as I get them, or is this going to be a serious button mash come 50? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvershadows Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Had a good night in my first warzones last night. Finished my first PvP quest and my first daily. Once I figured out this class plays a bit more like the FPS I am used to, the kills just started coming. And the difference between 30m and the 3m I am used to with my Consular? Wow. So I'm building the sharpshooter tree right now. Are there lower level abilities that I will be dropping in favour of advanced abilities as I get them, or is this going to be a serious button mash come 50? I'm dirty fighting so I can't tell you too much about the sharpshooter spec, since I've been dirty fighting since the game was released and my other smugglers are sapper/sawbones scoundrels. I will say that usually there is at least one or two abilities you will eventually drop in favor of a talented ability or that simply doesn't make sense for you to use anymore once you have the full complement of your particular spec's abilities (i.e switching out power shot for tracer missile on an arsenal merc bounty hunter). It's usually easy to tell which ones you need to drop (on my smuggler for example, switched sabotage charge for shrap bomb) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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