swtonewbie Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Yeah I have been using Khem consistently and he always seems to to get killed with a decent sized mob or a couple strong NPC's but for the most part I can heal with seethe afterward or dismiss and resummon as long as I don't get attacked by another mob. Overall though he seems to be the best for me as I just reached lvl 40 Yah i dont know if that was intentional on BW's part, but tanking companions with average or above average gear do get roflpwned quite a bit. On a standard 4 mob pull, in the time it takes me to kill 3 mobs, Khem kills 1. My assassin is Synthweave too so i keep Khems gear pretty up to date, but he still comes out of 4-5 mob packs with 50-60% hp. I have a set routine on how to burst down 2-3 mobs. Actually 2, because 1 routine requires tumult to be off CD (it has a 45s CD). The other routine, if tumult is on CD i just substitute a maul or something. The key is to not panic and mash keys, focus on doing the most dps while spending the least amount of resourse. Examples would be not to cast Project when you dont have 2 stacks of Circling Shadows otherwise Project will use 45 force instead of 22 force. Or try not to do Shadow Strike if you dont have Infiltration Tactics up, because your Shadow Strike will cost 50 force, instead of 25. Sometimes you have to Project or Shadow Strike when you dont have those buffs up, but you want to try and minimize that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wardrich Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Voss will suck if you are running as DPS with a DPS or even a tank companion. Almost every group you come across has a Strong in it and some of the storyline quests have you fighting an elite followed up by another elite with no out of combat cooldown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZRated Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Well, I spec'd back to darkness and got to lvl44. I decided to completely revamp my gear. I have an alt that is synth 400 and had him reverse a whole set of "blue" gear...some with augments. I kept the boots, legs, gloves as orange gear and stuffed them in with purple bulwark enhances, purple mods, purple armors (also have alts that are 400 cyber and artifice now...been crafting like mad). This made a HUGE difference along with some of the tactics mentioned in this thread. I have found that running Ashara as I play tank was best for me and my play style as far as taking mobs down quickly and not having to revive/heal up a companion every fight. I was able to boost my resistance/armor to 35%, my shield chance to 36% and my absorb to 40%. I also found that NOT running guard on Ashara was making a positive difference. Needless to say, my Assassin is back on track. I will agree that fights after cutscenes can be a bear since you can't really stage how you want to open it up... but I found a "combo" that works pretty well as an opener against those "no choice" fights.... Overeload-electrocute-spike gives me time to get my defense powers up and let Ashara start doing her damage. Although you pretty much blow your cc away right off the bat... it saves on taking the alpha strike as I know it to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZRated Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Also.... as I said in my first post. I am trying NOT to spend 99% of my time running the class "doc". I leveled my Marauder up to 50 and probably spent half the game with Quinn just so I had a damage buffer. I really wanted to use the other companions on a regular basis with my Marauder but I spent more time spamming medpacks, reviving myself or companions (other than Quinn), and when I got into a quest Elite.... I usually had to pull Quinn back out to finish it. Right now with my Jug and Assassin I am leveling... I only have to pull out the Docs when I am fighting a Champion in the zone. I love playing the assassin and jug now...My marauder will probably go on the shelf once these 2 hit 50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinybum Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 When I can pick my enemies, and get the jump on them, I'm ok. But when I get hit with any kind of surprise encounter or one I can't stealth away from, i'm toast. It wouldn't bother me so much except that the game seems to set me up into so many bad situations. When I was levelling my (Deception) Assassin, every conversation found me with my fingers resting ready on two keys - Electrocute and Force Cloak. Zap'em, bug out and plan your attack while FC's on cooldown. There's no clock running, the target's not going to come looking for you if you're out of aggro range and the break helps you stay calm, focussed and ready to kill. It saved my bacon more times than I can count. Things got even sweeter when I got Force Shroud as added protection against in case I screwed up my timing and someone managed to slip a DoT in ahead of my disappearing act. (It could be worse: try being a Sniper when the guy's a melee specialist and you start a couple of metres apart. "Oh Lord, bless this thy flashbang, that I might try and get a bit of distance to up the chances of not wiping yet a-#@*%ing-gain...") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooTheDay Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 (edited) When I was levelling my (Deception) Assassin, every conversation found me with my fingers resting ready on two keys - Electrocute and Force Cloak. Zap'em, bug out and plan your attack while FC's on cooldown. There's no clock running, the target's not going to come looking for you if you're out of aggro range and the break helps you stay calm, focussed and ready to kill. It saved my bacon more times than I can count. Things got even sweeter when I got Force Shroud as added protection against in case I screwed up my timing and someone managed to slip a DoT in ahead of my disappearing act. ) Force cloak helps alot. But not always. Am fighting Talz's now and they detect you when you're stealth-ed and cloaked. In addition, my last fight was against one of them after a cut scene. I Force-cloak'ed out. But then as soon as you're done, you get attacked by the Champion. No time to react, can't cloak, can't do...anything. I left another mission cuz, it leaves you stuck in a dead end halway by a locked door. While your companion is trying to unlock the door, you have to fight wave after wave of droids. First two aren't bad, but I get hurt. Third wave has grand-daddy driod, and I'm already hurt, and, of course, can't really heal much. *Splat* Even if i Force Cloak out of the first wave, I can't FC on the 3rd. And even if I FC out of the 3rd... where will I go? It's a dead end hallway. About the only shot I have is to get in a cheap Maul or something, but ...it don't help. I just think the game is set up for toe-to-toe fighters. I'd love a mission every once in a while with an near-unbeatable boss that you could stealth around.. or maybe assassinate, rather than just beating on. Seems like the class is focused on stealth, but the missions are all rock'em-sock'em. --roo Edited March 24, 2012 by rooTheDay typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooTheDay Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 geez why didn't y'all *tell* me I needed a different companion. After spending time tweeking my tree and my armor and my skills and my fighting style, I picked up Talos and took him into battle in place of Ashara, and I'm a death machine. Fights that I was not even a contender in before, I'm walking away less than 10% down on life points. *Shrug* --roo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinybum Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 (edited) I left another mission cuz, it leaves you stuck in a dead end halway by a locked door. While your companion is trying to unlock the door, you have to fight wave after wave of droids. First two aren't bad, but I get hurt. Third wave has grand-daddy driod, and I'm already hurt, and, of course, can't really heal much. *Splat* Even if i Force Cloak out of the first wave, I can't FC on the 3rd. And even if I FC out of the 3rd... where will I go? It's a dead end hallway. About the only shot I have is to get in a cheap Maul or something, but ...it don't help. Oh yeah, I remember that one. FC out and you can summon backup from the companion window. I just think the game is set up for toe-to-toe fighters. I'd love a mission every once in a while with an near-unbeatable boss that you could stealth around.. or maybe assassinate, rather than just beating on. Seems like the class is focused on stealth, but the missions are all rock'em-sock'em. I agree. The number of bonus missions where you have to kill [n] trash mobs seems to go against the whole "Sneak in, whack the target and sneak out again" ethos of the class. geez why didn't y'all *tell* me I needed a different companion. After spending time tweeking my tree and my armor and my skills and my fighting style, I picked up Talos and took him into battle in place of Ashara, and I'm a death machine. Fights that I was not even a contender in before, I'm walking away less than 10% down on life points. *Shrug* --roo I very rarely use Talos - I replaced Khem with Ashara and then Xalek took duty as my usual wingman. I might have to pop a medpack in some fights and Xalek does feel an overwhelming need for a mid-fight nap from time to time, but things go *so* much faster! Edited March 24, 2012 by Shinybum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remusrwolf Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Hmmm, maybe I'm spoilt because I've played rogue style toons in a few MMOs, but I'm specced Deception and stack Willpower/Crit/Endurace and I really don't die very often even on Belsavis and Voss. I use Khem as tank and occasionally taunt aggro off of him to have a larger hp pool, still, he inevitable dies in the big chain style or elite mob fights. The cutscene thing is an issue but if you were to compare to say WoW (for arguments sake) it's not NEARLY as big an issue. If you keep your finger on the stealth button you can hit it straight away out of cutscene, the mob will still detect you and go after you but you get your dark embrace buff. Also in boss fights against several (usually two norms a strong and an elite) you CAN kill say two of them, force cloak, walk out of aggro range, seethe, stealth and walk back in and kill the other two. Anything that is dead, does NOT reset (unlike WoW). It's also just a matter of crowd control using many of the tips mentioned in this thread, mindtrap a strong and kill 3 norms, wait for your force to regen before you kill the strong etc etc etc. And I agree, the chain quests that end in a series of tougher and tougher fights and finally an elite are not forcing you to tank- they're forcing you to use your resources in an efficient and controlled way. Watch your buffs and act appropriately. For The Empire (but mostly for fun) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafaman Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 One more thought. Having played several alts now, it seems to me this happens in every class at various points. Seems to impact some more than others I think. But in general, it forces you to look at your strategy and tactics and come up with something new. After you readjust, things will speed up again. But I did find it interesting that certain levels are markedly different in difficulty yet they are only one level apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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