Advice on companions and tactics

[Elyx]

So, decided to roll a gunslinger so I could experience the smuggler story. I've leveled quite a few different classes, including a sage, shadow, juggernaut, merc, and Operative. the gunslinger will be new to me, and i was looking at companion selection and specs and had a few questions:

 

1) looking at the trees, they remind me in ways of my operative trees, but obviously different. I like the idea of a nice balance between mobility and prone damage, but i hear sharpshooter really is the choice for PvE DPS (I do no PvP whatsoever).I hear that dirty fighting has the best mobility, but is it comparable enough for damage compared to SS?

 

2) I also noticed that the smuggler gets their healer last out of all the other classes. seems almost painful from the perspective of a DPS only class (as a comparison, my jugg got her healer at lvl 20). for those playing the GS, what were your preferred comps for leveling?

 

3) What were the hardest levels for your GS, and how did you adjust your approach/performance to compensate? an example would be my Shadow was getting his behind handed to him on Alderaan. I was still using Qyzen with notably bad gear....once I switched to tharan (healing) with a solid DPS spec I was fine. how did you manage to adapt to those "gear check" points in the leveling process with yourself or your companion?

[Lightning_]

Gunslinger specs can (very roughly) be subdivided in:

Sharpshooter - single-target damage

Saboteur - AoE damage

Dirty Fighting - DoT-based damage (that'd be the same tree as Lethality on your Operative, but with 30m range).

 

Dirty fighting is indeed the most moblile spec (because of the three specs it's the one with the least required time in cover), but honestly mobility is only needed in PvP. It's not like you'll be kiting mobs or something. For levelling I would not recommend DF because it only gets effective at level 40 or so, before that it'll be just a bunch of DoTs with which you're somehow supposed to kill mobs. However, once you reach 40 (or even 50), take a look at DF because it becomes very good for endgame PvE.

 

Sharpshooter is sort of a default levelling spec. It's the most straightforward to play, and versatile for all occasions. The only downside is that you'll have to spend 100% time in cover, but once again - it's not a problem for levelling.

 

Saboteur can be fun in levelling as well because there are lots of mob groups that can be AoE'd. So it may speed up the levelling process, although energy regeretation may slow you down a bit. For endgame PvE it's sometimes a nuisanse though because if some mobs need to be CC'd, you won't be able to unleash full AoE damage.

 

As for companions, not having a healer is not a huge problem, but it may make you die more (I'm a bit reckless in moving around the map and aggroing mobs, so when levelling I died a lot, whereas on my Scoundrel healer I could avoid or outheal almost any fight). I used Corso until Alderaan and Risha onwards (bringing Corso sometimes for the hardest fights). It's important to know that Gunslinder has no CC (except droids), no stealth, no healing. So it's a DPS race to kill the mobs before they kill you, and Risha helps a lot with that. Biochem is a great help for Gunslingers, giving them extra HP to play with.

 

I levelled my GS a long time ago, and I don't really remember any difficult levels. It all seemed quite smooth. If you level in Sharpshooter spec, you'll achieve the best potential from level 36 onwards (with Trickshot and Speed Shot). So levels 30-35 may be a bit hard. However, if you're an experienced player, levelling as a Gunslinger should not be hard.

Ah yes, and Lightspring (the final quest on Tatooine) was very hard in my time. But I heard it was nerfed.

 

Have fun with your Gunslinger, it's an awesome class

[ThatGnome]

Lightning has given you very good advice. The only thing I'd suggest is having Cybertech rather than Biochem, and use the grenades you can make to add to the AoE damage. You have better crew skills for Cybertech as well.

 

Yes, this does imply I went saboteur. While AoE is back at breaking CC, I didn't find that a problem when levelling. The Gunslinger (and Sniper) really are lacking in CC of their own anyway. Grenades are one of the few ways to get some.

[topspyn]

Well -- and this is just me, and I'm awful at this game -- I've actually had little to no issues in PvE (soloing). I'm level 30 and don't have a healing companion (and obviously can't heal myself), and haven't really missed it. Me and Corso/Bowdarr mow down things so fast that I can just heal afterwards and continue. I mean I've only died a handful of times, everyone being to me just being bad LOL.

 

I'm sure other people can offer real advice, but I'd recommend just going out there and having fun. When I started the game, I really wanted to be a Sith. I rolled this guy because I wanted to play with my friend, and he was already a Jedi so I figured I'd pick something else. And I've been having a blast with the class, which is odd because even when reading SW books and so forth (yes, I'm a nerd) I only really usually really like Jedi and Sith characters. The Slinger has just been that fun to where I don't notice the difference.