A PvP a Day...

[DeLaaNie]

Alderaan:

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/14v74zt.png

 

The Sorceress Supreme was able to hold off three peeps for a short while until an Operative showed up to assist. We did lose the node once when a sneaky Guardian took the opportunity to hide behind the node and cap it while I was facing two Shadows. After a bit, more teammates showed up and we took it back.

 

At one point we had all three nodes but lost the middle. It wasn't a biggie since by that time, we were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead!

[DeLaaNie]

Huttball:

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/1zbe6tc.png

 

Hatred Assassin. Kept me busy for a good part of the match lol. He tried his best to kill me and I tried me best to run away. My heals kept him at bay somewhat, until a Juggernaut was able to join in the action and take him off of me. An Operative assisted the Assassin, so I kept my Juggernaut up and he started to tear both of them to pieces. I assisted with killing the Operative, and as soon as the Assassin's HP was low he fled and cloaked out.

 

I couldn't catch him since my own Speed was on CD, but he give me a good show and that was fun. I put out a "bounty" on their Operative who kept scoring, lol. We had a lot of interesting duels all over the place, but the one thing I don't like are those stupid air vents. They never blow me the way I want *giggity*!

[DomiSotto]

Oh, noes, I did not get any Huttball matches yesterday! You, guys, are both lucky. Banderal, that’s totally fun, and wow to that Sage that had the presence of mind to pull ya!

 

@DeLaaNie – I was a little short I think, but if you have your 162s it’s not that bad. I have noticed that Operatives/Scoundrels are actually hard to counter on the Sorcerer. And, nice Alderaan!

 

I think I made it to the bottom of the barrel. I am also paying way less attention to win/loss, focusing on being a healer with just doing simple things like interrupts or AoE spams/waves when absolutely necessary. I think it’s presumptuous of me to try to do what the DPS are there for. The new thing was that someone in my Guild was also running the zones, so that’s an additional bit of fun, as we pug either the same side or opposing side almost every zone. He’s miles better than I am, but v.nice.

Edited March 10, 2015 by DomiSotto

[Banderal]

The air vents in HB... I find that if I enter from the "outside", that is, first run to that little space between the vent and the wall, then move into the vent from that little space... if I do it that way it ALMOST always at least puts me on the catwalks vs. out in the middle again.

 

Got both the daily & weekly done on my shadow. Started bad with a pipeball leave-a-rama. One guy even ended up back in the game after leaving. He stayed the second time, I guess he just gave up on getting anything else.

 

Then I backfilled into a AHG after the enemy had obviously ninja'd our pylon. But we rallied to win that one. Take THAT quitters! A second AHG was a heart breaking 759 to 761, no joke, TWO point loss. Then finished up with a good solid AHG where there was a lot of action at both pylons. One round they had the only pylon, and we were fighting over both and managed to take theirs from them with 3 seconds left! That finished them off, because they ended the round with zero pylons.

 

Then brute-forced my way through my PT-T daily & weekly. 3 games of getting rolled over, and 1 VS that we won because the other team had 5 healers and so could not clear enough of us from the doors. Yipes, level 30 - bottom of the bracket.

 

Gonna switch to my lowbie healer next...

[Banderal]

Healer wasn't too bad. Started off with a ACW where they kept leaving my healer alone to guard mid while we traded off nodes back and forth and back and forth with the enemy because my team couldn't guard a node worth crud. But luckily they were really good at taking them back, so we won.

 

Then had an arena where they had a tank and 3 dps, we had 2 dps and 2 healers (the other healer a level 10 operative). They focused me first, and I led them around and around quite a ways before they finally brought me down. Pillars are a healers best friend. But they still won the first round. Then the next two rounds they seemed to abandon that strategy, and they mostly left me alone to heal, so we made a comeback and won the next two for a final overall win (the op did a nice job healing too).

 

Finished up with a VS where I was focused quite a bit, but the team was really good. We raced through to the data core in round one, and held them off from planting even the first door in round two. So 3 wins in a row for daily and weekly all at once. Nice change after the PT-T run. Here's a screeny of the VS final score (for DeLaaNie, who likes screen shots ) of what crappy healing I do when pretty much it all comes from bubbles because I die soon after I spawn.

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/4jls4.png

[DeLaaNie]

Novare:

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/28bs58n.jpg

 

Got the "Unbeatable" achievement.

[DeLaaNie]

Tatooine Arena:

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/286wbp4.png

 

I detest arenas.

[DeLaaNie]

Voidstar:

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/24b1dog.png

 

Woo 50 photos!!!! We made it to the datacore so fast my head is swimming, lol. Lookie all those fancy medic medals I got!

[AlrikFassbauer]

I never got to the Datacore. Others were always faster. I don't even know how it looks like. Being a Peeler makes life hard. Peelers *never* get *any* great moments ...

[Vashir]

This is terrible. I'm stuck at work on a double reading all the fun stories and wanting to get back in the fight!

 

I've been toying with the idea of starting to record my matches, because some of the highlights are giggle-worthy. Yesterday I kept getting matched up for huttball against another imperial team, and I'm quite sure a particular leap-happy jugg from the other team despises me. On no less than three separate occasions he jumped to me to try to stop me from getting a pass, flying majestically through the air with lightsaber held high... and each time he was immediately bounced back into a huttball trap for a quick full-to-zero death. Thank you, overload + utility!

 

He also managed to get the ball on one occasion, and slowly, painstakingly plodded along the pipe with a healer keeping him topped off while two of my team's dimmer sparks took potshots from our goal area, providing what must have looked like very tempting targets. I hung out in stealth behind them thinking, 'wait for it... wait for it... wait for iiiiiiit...'

 

*Jump!* *Boom!* Denied, again. Poor fella.

[Banderal]

This is terrible. I'm stuck at work on a double reading all the fun stories and wanting to get back in the fight!

 

LoL. I've resubbed twice mostly because of this thread. Hmm... I wonder if Domi is secretly a BW PR person!

[DomiSotto]

Nope, but I just found out that I have been remotely and unknowingly involved in a dust-up with Betshada. Some bright bulb decided to crowd-fund a mod for Skyrm that had a NWN2 Obsi character (!) and she integrated a bit of my old (free and crappy) files for the char into that masterpiece. Morale: don't litter in the Bio/Obsi games, children.

 

@Vashir: Aww, a tough life of Assassins/Shadows....

 

@Banderal: Hitting Level 30 builds character! And thank you for sharing on the air traps. I wish there was a method to where you land. Hmm. You know, PT-T is actually not that bad in the midbies. Just stick with it, and you will be a T-34 in no time

 

As for facerolls, heh, I think I am becoming a bit of a connoisseur myself. Though I actually had one Alderaan yesterday when the enemy team camp their snow in the end, so I kept obsessing over them not hitting us, and looking off the wall at grass… and they just waited what left of the zone out. Then it dawned at me… I am usually on the other side. That’s why it’s so weird.

 

Wow, DeLaaNie, sorcery suits you! Unbeatable sounds cool! I’ve noticed Invincible a few times, but I dunno if I ever made it to Unbeatable. I just stopped paying attention to that tbh, too focused on learning.

 

I cleared Pub/Imp Dailies yesterday under the watchful eyes of my kindly mentor. The player has awareness I can’t ever dream about. One thing s/he did, that I have never seen before, is when my poor toon got pulled by a VG s/he pulled it (my toon, not the VG) right back.

 

Basically, for me to get to the mediocre level I strive for, I need to drill in the new habits. Remember that I am not a tank. Nor a DPS. No trying to ‘save the day’ and cap. See the team, stay alive, stay on the move/hide but don’t LoS, heal continuously *and* those who need it (!) and don’t blow my bubble early (facepalm).

 

Of course it was Tuesday, so we were running against the Republic premades both sides, and the Pub premades are fearsome. As in they grab the datacore, and we can’t go past the first door… or their Sage having a time to toss a snowball while dismantling my toon. I think the only easy zone we had all night was an arena where we pulled new pub players against us (with 2 of them being in PvE gear) – the guys just melted the off Makeb’s surface, and the worst that happened was our DPS-Sage got focused to 75% of health.

Edited March 11, 2015 by DomiSotto

[DeLaaNie]

Huttball:

 

http://i61.tinypic.com/dqzrd.png

 

Made a goal and pulled an ally to score. Got killed once when my heals froze up, other than that they kept about 3-4 people on me as much as they could. They did not make many goals, but they know how to keep a healer preoccupied so they have to be commended for that.

[DeLaaNie]

...

Basically, for me to get to the mediocre level I strive for, I need to drill in the new habits. Remember that I am not a tank. Nor a DPS. No trying to ‘save the day’ and cap. See the team, stay alive, stay on the move/hide but don’t LoS, heal continuously *and* those who need it (!) and don’t blow my bubble early (facepalm)...

 

I usually make them force me down to about 2% HP before I hit my barrier. That way I can still squeeze in some heals or hurts, and it makes them think they are going to get the kill. If you don't have it, you may want to invest into the Egress utility; I sometimes wished I had it when going up against Assassins and Juggernauts.

 

You can still be a DPS (as I am) but just remember that healing takes precedence, so when it comes to doing damage, rely on Crushing Mind and Affliction. This is the reason I am a fan of DoTs because they allow me to maintain my natural playstyle (in this case, a healer) while doing damage to my enemies and helping my allies to kill faster. I once placed both on an enemy that was harassing an ally, then switched to heals and the combination of my DoTs and my ally's own attacks felled the enemy in no time.

 

You don't necessarily need to stay alive all the time - sometimes that respawn can work in your favour in Huttball so you can heal your homies that are defending your own goal post. Just remember to place HoTs and bubble on yourself (Roaming Mend is the bee's knees) keep your Force Speed and Unnatural Preservation ready, load up your enemies with DoTs, and stay on the move as much as you can and you'll do swell. I didn't have any trouble during my 30s - 50s simply because I made my enemies work for me, lol.

[Banderal]

Yeah... Tuesday. Ugh. Well, I had about 5 hutt/pipeballs in a row, with terrible results. Every. Single. Team failed completely to play HB, and just deathmatched. It was heart breaking.

 

Finally, had one good match towards the end, imp vs. imp. We were outmatched, but we were having some luck with last minute saves, so we had it tied at 1 v 1 with about 2 minutes left. Then... oops... my team's slight underdog status finally caught up with us, and they made 2 quick scores. We lost that one.

 

Had a nice AHG though. We were winning just through good, solid play. Killing more of them they they did of us. Running orbs when possible. Responding well to inc calls from the pylon. Last round, we were up by a hundred or so, but left only one pylon guard! He's an operative, and I see the call for help. I activate my little speed boost and go "racing" to help. I see he is mezzed! I see the guy is capping! If he takes it they will surely win. I'm hitting the "leap" button over and over... the cap is almost finished... <suspense music is building!>... WOOSH, I leap and interrupt his cap with what had to be a fraction of a second to go. Then the operative comes out of the mezz and tears the guy apart, because he was like a lvl 59 op.

 

Then I grouped up with another level 30 I know (a DPS operative), and had a great AHG game where we started with the "leader" asking us to please leave and level up, because we were just going to be fodder and lose the game for them. I ended up middle of the board with some ok protection, and not a single death because I was careful to RUN THE HECK AWAY when I got low on health. Plus a lot of pylon rescuing when the inc calls came (since I stayed near "our" door to mid for easy escapes, so I was usually closest to the pylon anyway). The other level 30 did most of the guard duty, called incs good. We beat them something like 700 to 50. Yeah, us level 30s. So worthless.

[DeLaaNie]

...Yeah, us level 30s. So worthless.

 

You should've slapped him in the face with your medals, lol.

[Banderal]

I cleared Pub/Imp Dailies yesterday under the watchful eyes of my kindly mentor. The player has awareness I can’t ever dream about. One thing s/he did, that I have never seen before, is when my poor toon got pulled by a VG s/he pulled it (my toon, not the VG) right back.

 

Yep, I wish I could do that quick enough. I still have trouble remembering I have pull. I was in my one and only arena tonight (thankfully!) and tried to plan a pull of whichever of their toons got too close. Instead they got me first. How embarrassing. But I did have presence of mind to hit my speed boost while I was in the air, and shield as soon as the global cd ended, so that I could get the heck out of dodge right away. But we still lost that one.

[Banderal]

You should've slapped him in the face with your medals, lol.

 

We actually got a fair amount of support from the rest of the team too. I think once they realized we had *some* idea of what we were doing, and therefore were not going to be total liabilities, that helped. The orange-text-guy actually didn't say anything else the rest of the match.

[Banderal]

You can still be a DPS (as I am) but just remember that healing takes precedence, so when it comes to doing damage, rely on Crushing Mind and Affliction. This is the reason I am a fan of DoTs because they allow me to maintain my natural playstyle (in this case, a healer) while doing damage to my enemies and helping my allies to kill faster. I once placed both on an enemy that was harassing an ally, then switched to heals and the combination of my DoTs and my ally's own attacks felled the enemy in no time.

 

I have the same trouble I guess Domi does here. If I start worrying to much about things like helping to DPS, or stopping the caps, or trying to cap, then I forget to heal! So I can only afford to do those things when the "heal load" is really light. I guess that's what separates good healers from those like me. I have good heal numbers if I can depend on my team to watch the doors, stop caps, grab opportunities to plan bombs, make smart passes & moves in HB. But if my team is "derping", as they say, then my heal numbers drop through the floor because I find I'm not only not focusing on healing, but I'm drawing attention to myself by firing off AOE over the doors in VS to stop caps or something like that.

[DomiSotto]

The pops were slow to start yesterday. I got into an AHG to start with, at the end of which someone expressed that we should play 8x8 heals, so I decided that the Pub side is not happening, switched to my Sorcerer and started running Yavin while in queue, hoping to finally finish kills achievement so I can put Andronicus on the perma-slicing-purples duty & slice up some creds for a char server slot.

 

I also purchased field respec on both of my Sage and Sorc. When I have time, I will experiment with re-specing and seeing how spells re-arrange on re-spec. I think I would be more comfortable with switching to Madness/Balance from Corruption/Seer, if they tweak Madness/Balance a little.

 

The pops started to pick up a little, with an initial faceroll of my really weak Imperial Pug by a really strong Pub premade. Peels, what peels? Then I got into an Arena where we should have rocked, seeing that I’ve pulled x-heals duty with my PvP-sensei & we had a tank and a DPS. Alas, our tank was not inclined to do anything tanking-like (guard, for one). So, we’ve lost, but at least in a good company this time.

 

But! In the swift reversal of fortunes which is what the zones are all about, we have also had two more Arenas with a composition of 3 healers to one DPS against a DPS+Heals (Imperial side) and against the full trinity set-up on the Pub Side. I was co-healing on the Imperial side, and on the Pub side, sensei was the Serenity-DPS. The first one was won by the ‘nobody dies till acid’ strategy, on the second one, believe it or not, the Team Sage dismantled the trinity, because the tank was not switching guards (apparently).

 

One of them awesome premades also won a Huttball match on our side (4:4, isn’t that exciting!) I did what I could to hide, get ahead, heal the carrier and well, be sort of useful. I am still badly embarrassing myself with my pulls. They either not happening in time or it’s a wrong person (and I don’t want to know just how unhappy that wrong person is!).

 

As for the philosophy of healing, I thought it over a few times, and, well, I think what my kindly mentor is trying to get through my thick head is that you get to trust your team no matter what it looks like. I agree with DeLaaNie that some small amount of DPS and, of course, self-defense helps under certain circumstances. Still, Trust Your Team is what I am going to try to achieve.

 

And, I just finished my Exhumed set save for the relics-ear & implants, I have my 6-pc bonus! My Sage is piling the comms for Dark Reaver MH, and my Sorcerer is starting to buy the Exhumed relics-ear & implants. Relics are less of a priority for me than the earpiece-implants, since I have the augmented Obroan ones. Really, really fast gearing, tbh.

 

Oh, and a blast from the past: I can now manage a Marauder, the bane of my existence when I just started out back when! I know it’s nothing to write home about, but baby steps... I am still incapable of healing through/eluding 1+ DPS focus or a single Assassin or an Operative, and, on occasion, a Mercenary. I was also beaten down by a Juggernaut/Guardian who pushed-leaped me, but normally I am managing the running away from them thing.

Edited March 13, 2015 by DomiSotto

[DeLaaNie]

I have the same trouble I guess Domi does here. If I start worrying to much about things like helping to DPS, or stopping the caps, or trying to cap, then I forget to heal! So I can only afford to do those things when the "heal load" is really light. I guess that's what separates good healers from those like me. I have good heal numbers if I can depend on my team to watch the doors, stop caps, grab opportunities to plan bombs, make smart passes & moves in HB. But if my team is "derping", as they say, then my heal numbers drop through the floor because I find I'm not only not focusing on healing, but I'm drawing attention to myself by firing off AOE over the doors in VS to stop caps or something like that.

 

No, it just takes some practice. Don't worry about what you have to do, just do the first thing that comes to your mind. Since you used Voidstar, let us continue to do so. If you are currently healing your mates who are in the middle of a scrub and you notice a lone enemy sneak behind the foray and attempt to cap, then by all means blast him to kingdom come! Your team would be more grateful that you prevented the placement of a bomb over their survival since survival would take a backseat in this instance.

 

I forgot which healer you are, but if you possess HoT skills (I think they all do but I am unsure of the Mercenary) just use those and save the channeled and casted heals for when you get a chance to pull them off. In the case of the Sorceress and the Operative, you have healing skills that perform two functions which are AoE and HoT so become familiar with those and place them in an area your teammates would most likely be able to have quick access to them.

 

Wait, you just said "firing off AoEs" so you must be a Sorcerer, lol. In that case just do two things for now: focus on heals and cap prevention with Force Storm only. You already know this but I'll repeat it anyway: you don't have to channel Force Storm for its full duration since you can just use it in bursts to keep them busy. At the same time, place Revivication on the door then follow it up with a Force Storm so that when your allies approach the door they will be receiving heals and damage assistance simultaneously from you. I guess in a sense you would be doing DPS but in this scenario it is more of "cap defense" versus "straight damage".

 

After you become comfortable with being able to heal and defend a node, then try using Affliction only as your main attack. You will become so accustomed to using it that it will be second nature to you and won't take away from your ability to heal. Lastly, I also try to focus on objectives as much as I can because the nature of the matches state that objectives win the game for you. Yes I will still heal, DPS, and defend as the moment calls for it, but usually I try to be the one that plants the bomb or helps to score a goal, or tears opponents to pieces to keep them off my allies, etc.

 

Funny thing is, I love it when I have four people trying to kill me because that means the match ends up being seven versus four in my favour so I always try to make myself as visible as possible!

[DeLaaNie]

...And, I just finished my Exhumed set save for the relics-ear & implants, I have my 6-pc bonus! My Sage is piling the comms for Dark Reaver MH, and my Sorcerer is starting to buy the Exhumed relics-ear & implants. Relics are less of a priority for me than the earpiece-implants, since I have the augmented Obroan ones. Really, really fast gearing, tbh...

 

I'm getting really close to having all of the PvP pieces available to me once I reach level sixty. So far I only need about three thousand commendations more.

[DeLaaNie]

Huttball:

 

http://i60.tinypic.com/2la8z75.png

 

Smelly 'Pubs!

[DeLaaNie]

Voidstar:

 

http://i61.tinypic.com/2dkibuh.png

 

'Pubside needs to be nerfed!

[DomiSotto]

I'm getting really close to having all of the PvP pieces available to me once I reach level sixty. So far I only need about three thousand commendations more.[/qoute]

 

Awesome! If you could store any leftovers in ranked comms, you might be able to get some of the left side pieces immediately converted too.

 

Nothing to report from yesterday for me. I don't know what is happening, but there was no pops, then I finally got into an AHG on the imperial side, and then I got not just carried, but plain dragged through ToS. I'll see the Underlurker in my nightmares for years to come. Gonna try to catchup on the zones today, may the queue gods be kind to me.