Levelling advice..

[thetrenentss]

So ive been levelling my sentinel and loving every second of it... still do but now he is level 32 it just seems the fights have just jumped up in difficulty.. is this normal around this level? or am i letting my gear and my companions gear get low? i use all my commendations to buy mods but there is never enough when you have to buy extra for the lightsaber then the clothes etc...

 

Should i switch from biochem to artifice? or just keep pounding it out to 40 when i get my main attack..

 

levelling as watchman btw..

 

thanks guys

[Mal-Sharran]

So ive been levelling my sentinel and loving every second of it... still do but now he is level 32 it just seems the fights have just jumped up in difficulty.. is this normal around this level? or am i letting my gear and my companions gear get low? i use all my commendations to buy mods but there is never enough when you have to buy extra for the lightsaber then the clothes etc...

 

Should i switch from biochem to artifice? or just keep pounding it out to 40 when i get my main attack..

 

levelling as watchman btw..

 

thanks guys

 

Although I'm Watchman now, I leveled 10-50 as Combat. My Sentinel is my first toon, and I did virtually every quest and bonus quest on every planet for the sake of being thorough. The first time I said '***, this just got hard' was the bonus content on Nar Shaddaa. The strongs and elites suddenly became like 1.5x harder than I had experienced up to that point.

 

Although Biochem has been nerfed and will likely be nerfed again, it's still extremely useful both while leveling and at end-game, especially for a class like us who has no ability to heal in combat (for any real amount, dot heals don't count).

 

So long as your gear is within 3-4 levels of your current level (so at 32, it shouldn't be less than level 28 gear) you should be fine. Your biggest concern is keeping your weapons sharp. Always upgrade them first, armor second. Your damage output is directly linked to how up to date you keep them, much more so than your armor.

 

At 32, you don't have Doc yet. You're on...Alderaan? Your best bet is still to keep T7 out and updated the best you can. Kira is fun but not very practical. Keeping T7 in tip top shape is a pain, droid parts are just stupid.

 

A lot of people use their tank companion in this fashion. Say there are four mobs. You tell T7 to attack one, he leaps in and subsequently does an AoE on all of them. Then you attack the exact one T7 is attacking, because he has the most agro and you don't want to pull off of him. However if you're having trouble (which can only mean T7 is dying too soon) then you should leap to a target that is only lightly held by T7, either by his AoE taunt or AoE damage. You SHOULD be able to peal this off of T7 and tank it yourself, making T7 last longer, basically making each fight 1v1.

 

Watchman is uber beast at 50, but I really can't comment about leveling with it. If you continue to have trouble, try Combat, I had zero issues with it and felt rather OP the whole time I was leveling.

[Mrrshan]

Watchman here as well, At 35 I got Doc and used him almost exclusively.

I always used my commendations to upgrade my weapons first and whatever was left went into armour. To be honest the quest rewards and drops were enough for me. Until I got Doc i used T7 and sent him in first. If you quest in the outside world you can simply use mount - dismount and mount again and he's back at 100% hp.

 

I didn't even use Biochem, I had Synth all the way up and sometimes crafted some armors but the skill was quickly left behind.

 

The sentinel is all about how you play, if you take damage, pop a defensive skill, always try to use your aoe's in a smart way. For example you jump into a group of mobs, you pop the aoe which stuns them for a bit, then concentrate on the weakest enemies first, take them out then move up the difficulty ladder. If you fight droids don't forget you can cc them for a whole minute while you kill their friends.

 

Every single skill you have can be used and should be used. Don't pop your defensive skills when you're not taking enough damage, keep them for when it gets ugly. Watchman has some solo heals so they can keep you up as well. The skills which do some form of cc are your friend. Use them all the time as they'll give you a bit of breathing space.

 

Keep your skills up to date, your aim is high damage first, take them out before they can take you out. When you fight elites always aim to keep your dots up and running and don't be shy to use your 20 min cd skill if it looks like you're gonna die.

[Belly]

I prefer to level with Kira, it's a little harder but your combined DPS is quite good if you are both geared decently. Use pacify and Force gentle choke for the elites, save Force camo for when things get dicey.

[Mikbrd]

Pretty much used Kira, but once I got Doc I never went back

[Game-Hermit]

Although I'm Watchman now, I leveled 10-50 as Combat. My Sentinel is my first toon, and I did virtually every quest and bonus quest on every planet for the sake of being thorough. The first time I said '***, this just got hard' was the bonus content on Nar Shaddaa. The strongs and elites suddenly became like 1.5x harder than I had experienced up to that point.

If you're doing every quest and bonus you should be able to level in your sleep because you'll be drastically over leveled. I usually have to skip two entire planets before I hit alderan just to keep things my level. Usually it's taris and and a 50/50 split between nar shadaa and tatooine.

 

Keep your skills up to date, your aim is high damage first, take them out before they can take you out.

This is good advice. Tanking in a group the healer's resource efficiency is the main thing so defense is important. In all other cases damage is far more important than defense. If something dies sooner it can't hit you as many times. Like they say, "the best defense is a good offense". Say you have two people; bob and frank. Bob has twice as much damage as frank and frank has twice as much damage mitigation as bob. Frank will only be taking half the damage of bob, but bob kills twice as fast so he only gets hit half as many times. They'll both be at the same HP percent after killing a mob. The difference is that bob kills more mobs in the same period of time so he levels faster. Weapon upgrades always take priority over armor upgrades for leveling.

Edited March 17, 2012 by Game-Hermit

[Malus_Rex]

Best thing to do is PvP to outlevel your worlds a little bit. That way it is easier to cope with worlds and you can use Kira with ease.

[Chessack]

Best thing to do is PvP to outlevel your worlds a little bit. That way it is easier to cope with worlds and you can use Kira with ease.

 

You absolutely do not need to PVP to outlevel your worlds. Just doing all the quests (including bonus series) on the lower level worlds (up through Tatooine) will permanently over-level you for the rest of the game. And that just means soloable quests. You don't even have to do the heroics. Add those and some FPs and you'll easily be perma+5 to all content until 50.

 

By far that is the easiest way to deal with things being tough. However I find being that overlevelled un-exciting. I prefer to be no more than +1/+2 to the content and preferably on-level if I can be (I have never been able to be, though, because I can't bring myself to skip THAT much content). I try to keep vague track of what quest hubs I am more or less skipping and I will pick those up on my next alt.

 

Anyway, if you are having trouble at 32, you will need to make sure...

 

1. You are properly geared with items no more than -2 or -3 to your level in all slots. I don't personally follow this rule very strictly, but then I have not had trouble. If you are having trouble, gear up.

 

2. Your companion is properly geared with similar quality/level items to yours. Same comment -- I do not strictly do this, but then I have not had trouble. If you are having trouble, gear up your hench.

 

3. You have properly set your companions ability use so that they are using the right ones at the right times, so that they are in the right stance, etc.

 

4. Against strongs and especially elites, interrupt, interrupt, interrupt. By 32 you should have several options (Leap, Kick, Stasis). Talent them up whenever possible to improve them and reduce CD times.

 

5. Against grouped things of multiple difficulty levels, target and chew up the weakest thing first. The main difference between strongs and normals is not damage output but hit points - they do more over the long run because they last longer. But on a per-shot basis they don't do all that much more damage. So if you waste time chewing down a strong while 2 or 3 normals are peppering you, it's almost as bad as if you are fighting 3 or 4 strongs at once. Instead use AOEs, Zealous, and Strike/Slash to quickly dispatch the normals. Then you can focus on the strong.

 

6. Against an elite with "assistants" do the same thing but make sure you also have your comp tank the elite temporarily. This is easier to do with T7 than Kira... you might want to tank the elite if you have Kira and just have her take out the normals. She can do this pretty quickly. BTW this is why I hardly ever use Kira... not because she can't do it, but I find tab-targetting between the assistants and directing her attacks is more annoying than it is worth. It's easier to let T7 tank the elite for a few seconds in a "set it and forget it" kin d of way, while I take out the normals. Against singleton elites, however, Kira is the more effective partner, because you can tank at least as well as, and often better than, T7 even when he's geared.

 

And let me repeat, again... vs. strongs and especially elites... interrupt is your friend.