Help with choosing a new class

[darko_nope]

Hello everyone,

I've been playing SWTOR for almost 2 weeks now.

I have a lvl 36 Jedi Sentinel, and I'm very happy with the game. Following the unlocking of the legacy system I was looking forward to creating a second character, probably empire-sided, just to have a little difference with the story and everything. I was thinking of a non-force using char, narrowing it down to smuggler/imperial agent or trooper/bounty hunter. Which one of these do you think has the best survivability and is best suited for solo playing? Thank you : )

[Estimate]

Wife plays an Agent, and i a BH. Both are decent, but from watching my wife, I'd say Agent.

 

Get some more references here before you decide though.

[Revan-the-knight]

Id definatly Coose either the Agent or the SIth Inquisitor, THe Inquisitor for the mystery, the power and the overall story of being this manipulative mastermind, or the Agent, for seeing the undercover perspective of a Imperial fighting for the very people he will never understand, the Sith

[Elyx]

Played both as well. heck played almost everything.

 

here's the skinny on the two non force classes.

BH (Merc/PT). probably the most straightforward of the 2 to play. PT is a melee DPS/Tank AC (Advanced Class). Merc is a Ranged DPS/healing AC. Mercs are VERY popular right now due to their ease of playstyle (though they can take some work getting maximum DPS out of). PT is just as much fun, but i think the tank option makes many players a big gun shy. But they are an excellent tank, and do great DPS in their DPS form. they use blasters for both AC's (mercs use 2). pretty much blast them to pieces playstyle, with some bombs and lots of lighting things on fire. Heavy armor, main stat is AIM

 

Agent (Operative/Sniper) - more complicated to play then the BH (but not horribly so). More involved playstyle, also the least played class in the game. Operative is a melee/ranged hybrid that can DPS or heal. Sniper is a full blow DPS only AC that is mostly ranged. Medium armor, lots of sneaky stuff, especially the Op. stealth, low blows, sneak attacks....poison/gas attacks, etc. uses CUNNING as primary stat

 

Out of the 2 storylines, the BH is a hunter style mercenary race kind of plot...fun and engaging. The Agent has a very 007-ish secret agent story, probably one of the best in the game. Either class is fun to play, and both are wanted at end game (YMMV pending guild and peeps you run with).

Edited August 6, 2012 by Elyx

[DPCummerbund]

I have a BH that just hit 40, so I'm not done leveling yet, but it has been a blast (so to speak) to play. I would suggest Mercenary over Powertech as an advanced class, as Powertech is more crowd control and (from what I understand) PVP oriented. You do plenty of damage as a Mercenary, and with heavy armor your survivability is high. You also have a few self heals.

 

You also get your healer as your very first companion, which helps a lot. I haven't played another class yet that got a healer right away.

 

I really like the story line for BH too. It has a lot of twists and turns.

 

Best of all, I think the BH is very intuitive to play. The Resource bar for bounty hunters is Heat. If you use a lot of attacks that heat you up too much, you'll need to cool down. Little pew pews with your blaster don't generate much heat, but don't do much damage either, while huge missile explosions do a lot of damage but generate a lot of heat. It all makes sense and is really fun to play.

[Elyx]

I have a BH that just hit 40, so I'm not done leveling yet, but it has been a blast (so to speak) to play. I would suggest Mercenary over Powertech as an advanced class, as Powertech is more crowd control and (from what I understand) PVP oriented. You do plenty of damage as a Mercenary, and with heavy armor your survivability is high. You also have a few self heals.

 

You also get your healer as your very first companion, which helps a lot. I haven't played another class yet that got a healer right away.

 

I really like the story line for BH too. It has a lot of twists and turns.

 

Best of all, I think the BH is very intuitive to play. The Resource bar for bounty hunters is Heat. If you use a lot of attacks that heat you up too much, you'll need to cool down. Little pew pews with your blaster don't generate much heat, but don't do much damage either, while huge missile explosions do a lot of damage but generate a lot of heat. It all makes sense and is really fun to play.

 

I found the Merc quite enjoyable as well. Initially avoided it (our guild had a ton), but eventually leveled one. The dual blaster was always a fun idea for me, but I didn't like how the gunslinger worked (hate the "cover" idea). It's also nice to be able to offheal if needed (or heal yourself if you pull the wrong aggro in a PuG)

 

Small note on the PT: They're actually a Tank class, with 1 tree for tanking and 2 for DPS, similar to how the merc is a healing hybrid: one for healing, and 2 for DPS. The merc actually has more CC ability then the PT. I think the "PvP" bias that some may see for the PT is due to the PT being mostly melee class for one, and two, most of their skills are instant cast. Mercs have a cast bar, whether they're shooting things or healing things, and cast bars are prime targets for interrupts, making is difficult to accomplish stuff in PvP as a merc. But the PT is not more PvP oriented then a merc is....probably just easier to PvP with.

[DrewFromPhilly]

I have a lvl 50 powertech bounty hunter and really enjoyed progressing that character, but I definitely prefer my imperial agent. I have that toon at lvl 49 and hope to be 50 in a couple days, but the story missions and the writing is fantastic with the class. Also, the class is a bit more complicated and requires some finesse I would say but it's a lot of fun as well. I went operative and play as a healer which I had never done before in an mmo but actually really like. BH mercenary class can be healers as well but they don't get stealth heh

 

Either way I think you'll have a lot of fun.

[Ashu-ri]

I would Agent first, Bounty Hunter second, but that's just me. I have both.

[stuffystuffs]

Do you want the new toon to be another DPS? Heal? Tank?

 

My suggestions (for Imperial/Non Force users)

 

Heal: Imperial Agent -> Operative

Tank: Bounty Hunter -> Powertech

DPS: Imperial Agent -> Sniper

 

Sniper DPS is different from Sentinel considering it's ranged...so that might me a nice change of pace for you.

[Legolose]

Hello everyone,

I've been playing SWTOR for almost 2 weeks now.

I have a lvl 36 Jedi Sentinel, and I'm very happy with the game. Following the unlocking of the legacy system I was looking forward to creating a second character, probably empire-sided, just to have a little difference with the story and everything. I was thinking of a non-force using char, narrowing it down to smuggler/imperial agent or trooper/bounty hunter. Which one of these do you think has the best survivability and is best suited for solo playing? Thank you : )

All I got to say is Sith Sorcerer

[Owsley]

Go Agent. Best class story in the game. Edited August 7, 2012 by Owsley

[XmaceukX]

Bh power techs are a pretty decent class there easy to play with decent dps and survivability.

 

The class story line is also good with a few lol moments.

 

Me and a merc were soloing in the foundry last night level 38/37 with just makos as healers and it was working fine, right up to the point when it added players to the group and the makos left because of group limit in the middle of the Hk assassin droid fight haha.

 

This is the first tank i have played and have had a lot of fun with it its pretty much easy mode.

[ekimmak]

Here's my experiences with the classes that don't use the force:

 

Bounty Hunter/Trooper:

 

Vanguard/Powertech:

Pretty good class. Seeing as you get healing companions very early in the game, you can take the tanking tree and wear down almost anything by war of attrition. Alternatively, they're notorious for being the highest burst DPS in PVP, and the assault/pyrotech tree, at least when you get high enough for all the interesting skills, can deal out a lot of damage in short order, provided the RNG is right.

 

Mercenary/Commando:

A lot of people say this is a useless class, and should be ignored. I'll admit, it is weak in some areas, but I don't think it's that bad. For a start, it has the best ability combination for clearing out trash mobs in the game. Going DPS relies a lot on cast times, and annoyingly, is useless in PVP when you've got a good person interrupting your attacks. It is capable of dishing out a hell of a lot of damage, though. The healing tree has quite a bit of damage mitigation, and provided you can predict who is going to take the most damage, you could theoretically be a better healer than the other two. It's definitely the tankiest of all healers, as you can use the shield and AoE power during a supercharge to make you almost immortal, provided you don't get stunned or KB'd before you can land a heal. A good class for soloing UNTIL you get to something that needs interrupts. That is a definite minus.

 

Agent/Smuggler:

 

Sniper/Gunslinger:

A very reliable DPS, and perhaps the only counter to Sentinels/Marauders and other non-stealth melees. You get your finisher ability much earlier than any other class, along with mez protection, interrupt protection, pushback immunity... a lot of sweet tricks here. The catch is that you're a mostly immobile class, even more so if you take the left tree as marksmanship/sharpshooting relies on your two abilities that demand cover. The downside is that these classes get their healing companion relatively late, so you'll need to burst things down when soloing.

 

Scoundrel/Operative:

Another class that people say is gimped except for healing. The class is dominated by an upper hand/tactical advantage buff, which slightly boosts damage and can be used for some of the better skills. It's a stealth class that likes to be in melee, and plenty of CC. If you are going to take this, then don't expect people to be after your DPS. Sadly, it seems to be heals or bust these days, considering that their unique DPS tree has been nerfed every patch since release, and the shared tree is simply better on their other AC.