Returning player - Dying as Sith Marauder

[-Averis-]

I left the game a long while ago for various reasons. One of which was the hard time I had soloing as my main character, a marauder.

 

I've come back and tried to do some of the solo content dailies on Corellia. First fight in an instance, a group of normal mobs (about 3-4) and one silver killed me almost outright. Quinn was really almost useless (and no, he wasn't on passive).

 

So, what do I need to do to play this class solo for something as simple as dailies? I'm pretty much full carnage. Should I bring another companion instead? Is it expected that I have raid gear? Is Correlia to high for me? My character is pretty much a new 50 with only a couple FP pieces.

 

Any advice would be great!

 

Thanks!

[AsiriusNazriel]

Okay so first and foremost, you need to gear up your companion. Secondly, you may consider switching to Annihilation for the time being, until you get your Marauder and Quinn geared.

 

Normally, you shouldn't have any issues with Carnage or Rage if your healing companion is geared.

 

Definitely do FPs for the better PVE gear and to earn BH comms.

[-Averis-]

Thanks for the reply.

 

So Quinn is the one I should be using. I'll have to look at his gear. What are the key stats that he needs?

 

I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm super rusty now since I've been away for so long. Jumping on to a level cap character like that was a bit jarring. I tried to remember the best way to deal with a group, and what skills to use, but it didn't work out too well.

[verfallen]

Annihalation has noticeably better survivability through the self heals that are even superior to a darkness (tank) assassin. I mostly used vette, even for the "hard" fight on the last class quest of corellia with no issue whatsever. Same for the story's last boss 2 phases.

 

DPS wise, both pull the same number, so you might want to simply get geared a bit, then respec to carnage if you prefer it. There is a good topic comparing their parse right now, feel free to read it up a bit.

[rgizzie]

Ok...this goes with any toon you are leveling. Gear gear gear is very very important. I have died 1-2 times soloing from 1-49 with my latest toon. The best way to get gear is to a mix of pve and pvp. Always take the token for gear as a reward unless the reward is an increase on all stats. I never pick companion gear as a reward either. I pic that up along the way with NPC drops or daily rewards in PVP. Also use the galactic trade net work and PVP vendors to supplement. Don't spend money on level 2-3 speeders until you are way past 50. Also make sure you pick how you are going to play the game as far as light or dark and stick to that side every time. That will help with relics and good weapons when you reach certain levels. Also get datacrons. (Though I have not gotten one yet and will do this after I hit 50) . I also don't spend money on certain skills from trainer. Like speeder training 2-3 as well as some powers that only work on incapacitated targets. Save money anywhere you can and you will be surprised how much money you have to spend on decent gear.

[AttonStarkiller]

If you feel your Quinn isn't healing you well enough, you might turn off his cc (carbonized stream). This ability is channeled for 8 seconds and that's 8 seconds he'd not healing you.

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

Even though my Mara is lvl 23 i can still say (from leveling a Merc healer to 50) that if your companions are not geared your going down. In the case of Mara you will want quinn (though Jugg should also want quinn but my dad says that Jaesa is best...) Quinn needs Cunning, Power and Alacrity. Cunning is his main stat, Alacrity decreases Channel Times (which is a GODSEND for healers) and Power increases raw healing/damage. For your gear you want (this is based on your tree abilities) Carnage/Rage Strength, Power, and either Dodge or Accuracy (accuracy for armor piercing or Dodge for more often retaliation procs for less CD on CoP [if you have the tree ability at baseline Annia for that]) Annialation Strength, the Crit RATE, then Power. Crit RATE is important because of your bleed crits heal for 1% (which can be usefull) power is less important for Anni because you are doing more DOTs than raws.

[verfallen]

Even though my Mara is lvl 23 i can still say (from leveling a Merc healer to 50) that if your companions are not geared your going down. In the case of Mara you will want quinn (though Jugg should also want quinn but my dad says that Jaesa is best...) Quinn needs Cunning, Power and Alacrity. Cunning is his main stat, Alacrity decreases Channel Times (which is a GODSEND for healers) and Power increases raw healing/damage. For your gear you want (this is based on your tree abilities) Carnage/Rage Strength, Power, and either Dodge or Accuracy (accuracy for armor piercing or Dodge for more often retaliation procs for less CD on CoP [if you have the tree ability at baseline Annia for that]) Annialation Strength, the Crit RATE, then Power. Crit RATE is important because of your bleed crits heal for 1% (which can be usefull) power is less important for Anni because you are doing more DOTs than raws.

 

 

There are many misconceptions in your post.

 

1st - DoTs ARE affected by force power, and therefore power. As any DPS build, you want to reach 30% or 35% crit chance, then you stack power, to get the most result per point of stats. Accuracy to 100/110% (regular/special) then surge till you drown Actually you might want to keep stacking crit and surge till the middle 40s. Since I have an artificer, fine tuning enhencements is easy for me, giving me the 35% nearly 100% acc and 75,25% surge as a fresh 50. Recruit gear is mostly inferior to mine.

 

2nd- Accuracy reduces defense chance, it doesn't had armor penetration. Ex. 105% accuracy will be unblockable if you have 5% defense. The damage you take from it remains the same.

 

3rd - alacrity is useful, but I would not put it before surge. Mainly, companion healers have one heal on cast, rest is instant (kolto jolt, kolto bomb, and the HoT I never remember the name off) Crit and surge remains always important stat for anything that is not a tank. Think of alacrity as a good place to dumb stats once surge is high enough.

 

4th - Unless its for an heroic, both mara and jug can use pretty much any companion they wish. Quinn makes it easier, no question's asked, but its very doable, as I said, to do even the hardest "fights" with vette or jaesa out. Makes them go faster too. However, I would not suggest it to carnage marauder for solo PvE, since a big shortcoming of the spec is survivability. Marauder is a medium armor class that if not using a tank will draw a lot of threat, but also is right off the start in harm way. For exemple, sniper draws the same ammount of threat, but it takes a while before melee gets to it, and ranged have an issue hitting it. And carnage lacks any defensive boost.

 

Ex. Cloak of pain is vastly uneccessary for annihilation unless its an hard fight, making it a nice oh-crap button. Carnage will use it if a strong is in the group.

 

 

5th - Its not BAD per say, but retaliation cost a lot of rage to fit in your rotation. I understand using it to keep Cloak of pain up with cloak of annihilation, it IS a good way to augment your survivability at the cost of your dps for when you are soloing things, but you have to understand its very gimping to pump defense in a mara. For raids, its a totally DON'T, since many fight are dps races.

Edited November 5, 2012 by verfallen

[anwg]

Are you using your CCs, as well as Quinn's, what about your defensive cooldowns?

 

Charge in, smash which stuns the normals for a few seconds, once that is over use intimidating roar. Also both force scream and ravage will stun normal mobs, and Quinn has an ability that mez a mob for 8 seconds.

 

In general, kill normals first then strong and elites.

[verfallen]

I'd advise against leaving the carbonite stream on auto if you really want it, keybind it somewhere, so you can tell quinn to CC a target.

 

Otherwise, he'll sometimes be ccing a normal rather than healing you (since its channeled, he stops healing also for the full 8 seconds)

 

 

You should normally still be able to clear regular fights without blowing all your cd and your sole CC.

[Melodis]

Sorry about resurrecting an old thread, but I wanted to put my 2¢ in.

 

I leveled 1-50 as Carnage. I quit playing my Marauder multiple times because I couldn't survive most fights even with Quinn. Even at 50 Carnage was tough to do anything with. I tried Annihilation and I didn't like the rotation at all.

 

I've personally settled on Rage for dailies and PVP. I don't even need Quinn anymore. While I use Pierce a lot, I can even use Jaessa and still do fine.

 

Don't get me wrong. I love the Carnage spec. For PVE it's my favorite. But most of the time I still just use Rage.

 

Rage has increased my survivability and most of all my enjoyment of the class. I can jump into groups of 5 to 6 normal mobs and easily take them down.

 

Keep your gear up to level (within 2 to 3 levels of your current), use Rage and you'll have an easier time leveling.

[verfallen]

Rage is a thrash cleaner alright. But annihilation can take on elites much better. Carnage is good damage, but it is the poor child spec for solo leveling, and you'll need to be overgeared to clear daily H2 solo with an equally geared quinn.

[Melodis]

Rage is a thrash cleaner alright. But annihilation can take on elites much better. Carnage is good damage, but it is the poor child spec for solo leveling, and you'll need to be overgeared to clear daily H2 solo with an equally geared quinn.

 

I don't neccessarily disagree. I just don't like Annihilation.