Anyone have a scoundrel levelling guide

[VagusWarrior]

Everywhere I see it's talking about using something called Shoot First lots, but I'm only level 12...I don't get that for like 24 more levels. Anyone have a guide on what to do at lower levels? I'm playing DF, I have a Trooper Medic so I'm really not interested in playing Sawbones.

[thegreebler]

No interest in sawbones have you? A greebly healer that has stealth, AND coming out of stealth gives you TWO Upper Hand charges! Not interested in the best of all things??

 

GREEBLED YOU ARE! AND GREEBLED SHALL YOU EVER BE!

 

GREEBLE GROBBLE!!!

[iddqdwtf]

I would like to enter this thread as i need the very same information.

 

I DON'T want to heal, so sawbones is no option and i will NEVER PvP, so which tree would you suggest? The middle one imho, as the right one is all about bleeds and the enemies just don't live long enough to be worthwile, amirite?

[mikebevo]

Kind of hard for someone to write a leveling guide as it would change everytime you leveled and got a new ability.

 

My rules for leveling, and I did level a sawbones on my orignal character (main) and I leveled a DPS Operative Concealment (middle tree)

 

Leveling on any class is easy, provided you follow some simple rules.

 

1. Keep gear within 3 to 5 levels of the level of content (depends on your skill and experience).

2. Keep companion gear up to date (same as above)

3. Interrupt use them.

4. Use defensive cooldowns

5. Don't stand in fire

6. Use CC abilities when you have them (although I no longer do this)

7. Know kill order, weak to elite, but know when to violate the rule, kill the healer or stunner first.

8. Learn your abilities.

 

For a scoundrel, I suggest using CCs at least until you figure out the class and if you gear is on the low end. You have two CCs, one for organics and another for droids, so CC the human first. Then Shoot First or another higher power opener on the lowest level enemy (or healer/stunner) in the group, then CC the droid. Remember you can reCC the droid even in combat, so kill organic first. and just reapply CC to droid as needed. Use dirty kick and flash grenade as short term crowd controls as needed. Interrupt when you can and don't be afraid to use defensive cooldowns.

 

You don't get a healing companion until Hoth, unless you buy Treek, so investing some point in sawbones tree may be useful. I didn't on my operative, except the increase in cunning and she was fine as a off healer keeping myself and companion up.

 

As a scoundrel you are not a leaping smasher, plan your fights, use stealth and crowd control to your advantage, interrupt and use defensive cooldowns and you can easily solo the content and even do heroic 2+ and some 4+ solo. You just have to play smart.

 

Even if you both wanted to heal, I would reccomend leveling as dps, it is way faster and easier IMO. My advise when you reach 55, you may want to change your mind, getting groups thus getting gear is sooooooo easy on a healer.

Edited February 6, 2014 by mikebevo

[Stevegasm]

I'm only level 27 on mine. At level 12, there really isn't much of a wrong spec, because nothing really makes a big impact just yet. I'm in the Scrapper tree, with Sucker Punch, and Flying Fists, and now Round Two being pretty important to my killing. The feel of is such that I kill my first two targets really fast, the third a little slower due to waiting for Round Two and Black Blast, and the fourth dies fast. The burst is insane.

 

The rotation is like this:

Vital Shot (if I need to travel to next target)

Back Blast

Blaster Whip

Vital Shot (if not already up, and a Round Two proc is necessary)

Sucker Punch (x2 if necessary)

Quick Shot filler if I have energy for it.

 

Stealth only if you feel the need to CC an organic, otherwise, just send Corso or Bowdaar in to grab everything. Well, you can stealth if you want to practice your approach for Shoot First for later on, but if you're the one that opens, you're going to get a good round of enemy focus fire until your companion can grab everything and you'll be too low level to deal with it. You can switch Back Blast and Blaster Whip position as you see fit based on remaining health. No sense using Back Blast on something almost dead when you can save it to kill something else.

 

I haven't tried Dirty Fighting yet, but the AOE doesn't seem very conductive to leveling this class, and doesn't appear to hit it's power spike until late while the Scrapper is strong really early. Not a huge fan of DoTS while leveling in this game either, as nothing lasts long anyway, and you're often better off dispatching as much as you can with high burst. Scrapper also has a movement and stealth buff and is really energy efficient. If I was DPSing FPs, I think I would use DF though (I always heal, so never got to try). I found the class to be pretty slow to level in the 10s though, but in the 20s, it's extremely quick.

 

This is all in addition to mikebevo's info of course. You're not going to kill stuff with bad gear, and you'll have trouble without CC on some pulls. This class, more than the others, seems reliant on good gear to survive. At the very least, keep Flashy up to date with commendations as well as your shotgun (shotguns are cheap on the GTN). It's only 11 every odd level. I find it most efficient to get moddable gear, be a Cybertech and make my own armor mods, and use commendations to buy mods, enhancements, and barrels, for both me and my companion.

[iddqdwtf]

Don't forget to ue Blaster Volley when you can hit 2 or more targets with it, it's devastating, and thanks to the fact that you gain Upper Hand when killing an enemy, you can often use this ability back to back.

 

Edit: I am not 20 by now (1 level away) and so i don't have Sucker Punch yet, maybe it will be the better UH spender, but if you have a bunch of clumped foes it's really realyl good.

Edited February 11, 2014 by iddqdwtf

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

Personally, I love the Scrapper tree for both leveling and endgame, my Operative leveled as Concealment, and now I have a level 25 Scoundrel going Scrapper. the Punch sound effect in this game is so satisfying...

[iddqdwtf]

Well it's quite the opposite for me. I hate the main attacks being two melee punches, i mean hey: i wear a blaster and a freaking shotgun, why would i hit someone with my fist? I hate this a lot, it's really really boring

[Garik-Tru]

I am very new to MMO's; this is my first. But I am a pretty dedicated gamer. I like to read guides on how to do things properly, mostly so I can understand what I should be considering while I'm playing.

 

Leveling guides are definitely nice, but looking at endgame guides provides a TON of information. If the guide is well-written you can usually adapt the advice to the leveling situation. With that said, here is the guide to Scoundrel DPS at Dulfy.net...

 

http://dulfy.net/2014/01/05/swtor-dirty-fighting-and-scrapper-scoundrel-dps-class-guide/

 

I am no expert on this, because my scoundrel isn't yet even level 20, but for my other classes, I've used endgame guides to develop my play to competence. So how would I adapt this endgame guide to leveling play?

 

First, read the overall commentary on how the class is used in endgame. In this example, it compares the Dirty Fighting Spec to the Scrapper Spec. What can you learn from that? Energy management is going to be an issue for both, but it will probably be harder for the Scrapper...even during leveling. The other thing you can note is that Dirty Fighting does a bit better DPS than Scrapper, but to do so it uses DoTs while Scrapper relies more on burst. While leveling, burst is probably more important than steady DoT because mobs you encounter during leveling have pretty low hitpoints and will die before your DoTs expire. DoT (Dirty Fighting's realm) is more valuable when the mobs you fight have high hitpoints like FP bosses and endgame content. Therefore Scrapper is probably the better Specialization to use for leveling as long as you don't run into energy management issues.

 

Next in order of importance is how to build your rotation. The commentary on all of the abilities for your chosen Specialization is still quite useful, even if you don't have them all available to you yet! Just ignore the abilities you don't have and focus on the ones that you do. Note how various talents affect the abilities you currently have and use this information to prioritize their use in combat. This analysis will also tell you what order you will pick the talents in your tree.

 

An example: Let's say you are a low level Dirty Fighting Scoundrel. You just opened up the 2nd tier of abilities. Do you pick Mortal Wound (Vital Shot has a 25% chance to tick twice) or Open Wound (Vital Shot lasts longer)? During leveling, the DoT applied by Vital Shot rarely expires because the mob dies too quickly. Mortal Wound is therefore a better short term choice for leveling because it increases the overall average damage you do whether Vital Shot expires or not.

 

One thing you might consider is that abilities that are NOT taken in an endgame guide might have some good use during leveling. For instance, in endgame operations, reduction in mob/boss movement speed is not usually a big deal (they are often tanked in place), but during leveling a ranged dps spec might want to limit melee mobs from being able to easily target you. Thus, while Feelin' Woozy in the Dirty Fighting Spec doesn't get any love in endgame play, you might find it very useful while leveling. Its up to you to decide how you are going to play. Just make sure your reason for doing so is based on solid ground for what you are trying to do with your class. Dirty Fighting, for instance, is more of a hybrid ranged/melee DPS so it might not be at all important to slow mob movement during leveling.

 

So, it is possible to use an endgame guide is a leveling guide. You just need to take their conclusions with a grain of salt and use your own ideas to see how to use only part of the skills that those guides assume you have.

 

Hope this was helpful!

 

Garik

[Sinapus]

1. Sneak around.

2. Throw Corso at enemies

3. Profit!