scotthomas Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Note: I'm happy to be flamed and proven wrong on this. Please let me know if you have other ideas. I've just started levelling a Jedi Sentinel using HK-51 exclusively, (because he's awesome and fits my character's personality). I'm coming to the realisation that running with a pure DPS team could become something of a credit drain, between: * Crafting or buying decent droid gear for HK (I've only gotten one droid part reward so far, and I don't think it was too stellar, so that's not really something I can rely on). * Having a Biochem alt craft "you+comp" medpacs to keep us both alive while fighting stronger NPCs. * Maybe buying some decent gear for myself I'm only at L15 so I know I don't have the full ability complement yet, but I've fully levelled a Sith Marauder and I came to rely heavily on Quinn's healing (and minor CC ability). I imagine things will be much the same with the Sentinel as they're mirror classes. Perhaps more seasoned Sentinel players can tell me if I'm putting myself at a disadvantage running with nothing but DPS, or provide some strategies that could mitigate it. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberTronX Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 (edited) Honestly you can run with whatever comp you so long as you're semi-competent with your class. I had HK on my merc from about level 20 onward, and double ranged dps was just amazing to use. My opinion on HK at low levels is this: You're buying something to micromanage as well as have fun with, not a super serious companion. Decently geared he does amazing dps while you level, but it can and will get expensive to keep up with the items he needs to stay competitive with other comps. While leveling my marauder, I felt slightly squishy, and ended up using Quinn (healer comp) for the majority of my leveling. Now this may be because a year ago it was my first toon, and I didn't have my head completely wrapped around the gearing system or all of my abilities as I do now, but looking over the forums at the time, a lot of people were saying they were a somewhat squishy AC. Anyway, while leveling, I'd rather just have the most fun possible, and if you're taking so much damage with him that every pack of mobs is a fight to the death, I'd switch to something that can take the strain off your health bar. When I leveled my juggernaut and my assassin, I went with ranged DPS, because tanking was an absolute joke, and all I wanted was strong dps that could get on a target as quickly as possible. Recently I leveled a sorc, and for that I used a melee dps companion with all the aoe moves turned on autocast. Reason for this was I was surviving fine against packs of mobs, and I wanted a dps comp that would charge in, and hold aggro on straggler mobs while I focused on whatever I felt like. When I got my range-ish tank comp later in the game, I found him so squishy with his stock gear, and his dps so low that I just switched back to that melee dps. Basically I've found that having as much dps as you can, while not finding it too hard to kill strongs or elites, is the best and fastest way to go. Edited May 10, 2013 by CyberTronX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swtonewbie Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 When the game came out my first toon ever was a Sith Marauder. I had been playing WoW for about 4-5 years, and i have both played as my main a tank and melee dps (mainly rogues). I would consider myself above average because gear being equal, i usually end up out dpsing other players. So TLDR i'm not a nub when it comes to melee dps. Having said all that i played my SW, and ended up playing with only Quinn as my comp. But around mid 30 i decided to gear up Vette and Jaesa, but i had to switch to Quinn a lot in Belsavis and in Voss i ended up upgrading Quinns gear and using him full time. I didnt think much of it at the time cause this is like a year ago. But just a few days ago i rolled a Sentinel and i decided to always use Kira, even on boss fights. So far i've completed my Ch 2 story and playing a Sent has been the most frustrating class i've played so far. I've only died once but i was only half paying attention to the game. Every other time though i get to 50% hp sometimes lower, sometimes a bit higher. At times it doesnt even seem like using my defensive CDs helps. On harder pulls or series of hard pulls I use (or stagger use ie every other pull) rebuke, saber ward, pacify or zen but it seems like RNG plays too much of a role, so even with CDs i still sometimes come out with mid to low HP. I know i can do it, but it's just very frustrating. I've leveled 2 merc-arsenals and 1 commando-gunnery to 50 and I went dps/dps the whole way and i didnt have nearly the same amount of problems. TLDR dps/dps sentinels and marauders make me want to nerd rage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swtonewbie Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 (edited) I had HK on my merc from about level 20 onward, and double ranged dps was just amazing to use. My opinion on HK at low levels is this: You're buying something to micromanage as well as have fun with, not a super serious companion. If you know how to use it right a dps merc/commando has tons of CC so packs of standard mobs dont cause any damage to you at all. This is not an exaggeration...when i say 'dont cause any damage' i mean you can CC the pack to the point where you take almost zero damage or very little to where you stay above 90-95% hp. Strong and elites can be nuked down before they kill you. Sents and Marauders dont have that kind of CC. Just a few examples of the CC vs normal mobs that i'm talking about: -explosive dart = single target stun/panic leads to aoe knockdown -missile blast = single target knockdown -unload = single target stun -death from above = aoe knockdown -fusion missile = aoe stun/panic Three of those are on a very short CD meaning you can use them on every pull. Two of them are on longer CDs, but you can alternate between packs and you can even add your dps comps aoe to it to kill packs faster. You can walk up to a 3-6 pack of standard mobs use exp dart, missile blast and unload on three separate mobs and negate their damage (as well as multiple mobs with exp's aoe effect). Thats a lot of CC...but not all classes have this advantage. Mobs get spread out more in later levels meaning 1 spec'd/buffed smash wont kill everything. Edited May 10, 2013 by swtonewbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotthomas Posted May 10, 2013 Author Share Posted May 10, 2013 (edited) Totally off my original topic... Recently I leveled a sorc... Yeah, I just finished levelling a Sorc healer. Between the healing, the Force lighting, the Force shielding, the AoE lightning, strong CC and DPS/Tank companions, that class is criminally all-round competent. I actually wound up going Elite-hunting on most worlds, just to keep it interesting! Easily my favourite character class so far. Back to our regularly scheduled broadcast... Edited May 10, 2013 by scotthomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swtonewbie Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Totally off my original topic... Yeah, I just finished levelling a Sorc healer. Between the healing, the Force lighting, the Force shielding and with DPS/Tank companions, that class is criminally all-round competent. I actually wound up going Elite-hunting on most worlds, just to keep it interesting! Easily my favourite character class so far. Back to our regularly scheduled broadcast... hehe same here, i leveled my sage to around 29 or so but in the past i could never get one past 18. This time though i used the far right tree (balance i think its called?). I can just dot-dot-dot and lay down a Force in Balance (the level 20 talent) and packs will just drop. I guess early levels just frustrated my cause i would cast disturbance, pebble or fling poo but a mob would troll me and stay at like 10 hp. So i had to send my comp to it, or waste a cast to overkill the mob or i ran in and did my melee attacks. But now that i have dots, and aoe nuke and spammable fling poo its not much of a problem anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberTronX Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 (edited) Totally not turning this threat into a sorc circle j... Leveled a sorc healer with tank comp, was painfully slow compared to lightning spec + ashara. I used Andronikos on my assassin, and like I said dps spec + melee dps on my most recent. That combo was even more lolzy when I got the final ability in the lightning tree - thundering oneshot. To be honest, I never used CC unless it was two strongs and an elite or worse. That was with my merc + HK. I just burned everything before it ever got to me. Also, I turned off HK's threat reduction stuff and let him tank one of the strongs occasionally. Also found he does a little more dps when he's not rolling around dropping threat. Edited May 10, 2013 by CyberTronX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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