Star Fortress Heroic no longer soloable...

[Grayseven]

I'll admit, I'm a casual player. I've only recently gotten somewhat hardcore into the game, with the release of 4.0. I do forget my stun sometimes, I do forget to pop my shield and have a bad habit of staying in one spot. Maybe that is the difference. But I've been grouped with ppl who have seen me fight in other H2's and they say I'm doing everything right, so they have not idea why I'm so weak in soloing H2 SF's. Maybe the game just hates me, idk, lol

 

It's the hardest Heroic 2, in my opinion. It has elements of HM FP's that make it a Heroic that you have to know and practice in order to beat.

 

People that take the time to run this H2 solo are well on their way to learning their characters well enough to be a good part of an Ops team...again, just my opinion...because it forces you to learn you character like nothing else in this game outside of HM FPs and operations.

 

This is the kind of solo content that creates players ready for harder group content. You don't see things like this in MMO's any more, especially this one.

[Ghisallo]

To the OP I will be testing it on my Commando this weekend... Did it on a Vigilance Guardian yesterday, affection 18 Lana. What did I find? It was much harder BUT still got through. The biggest thing that made the difference? You MUST interrupt and CC. If you do not it is going to hurt A LOT. You must prioritize trash, especially on the cores, if you keep focusing on the sun guards you and your healer will die, those trash adds go down easy but hurt. You may have to use Heroic moment. Before you didn't have to interrupt big hitting attacks, CC mobs or even get out of red... You could just swing your light saber like an axe and power through.

 

You also have to look at the design. I think the over powered state of companions made people miss this. Inside the SF are clickies to give you buffs. To get these buffs you need level 10 with various members of the alliance. You get an achievement for doing it solo WITHOUT clicking on them. So the intent obviously was to grind first. Get level 10 with all of the alliances so you can get the buffs. While you are doing that you are also getting more gear. THEN you do the SF until you have even better gear. THEN you do it solo WITHOUT buffs for the achieve. There is no point having the alliance mechanic and the special achieve for not using that same mechanic if it was supposed to be soloed out of the gate.

 

The problem is that the OP companions made us miss all of this because the grind was completely unnecessary, thing is whether you like the grind or not the Devs expected that to be a later step of your heroic story. I mean does it make any sense to go from "we just made this alliance last week and after 5 years we are kicked the Eternal Empires butt!!!!! Yay!!!!!"

Edited November 19, 2015 by Ghisallo

[NJMorf]

Honestly, I am ok with the PvP gate myself, just not as a gate to an entire chain of mission, but for the companion for that specific mission only.

 

I hate PVP. I did the bare minimum of it in order to unlock 4X on my main. Somehow managed to win four times, but the other 12 losses were like pulling teeth. I absolutely will not do that again for any of my alts, but I wasn't really planning to take more than one of them past the "unlocking the SF heroics and getting some free resources along the way" stage, luckily.

 

Anyway, back on topic:

 

Completed the Belsavis heroic today on my Defence Guardian: all 208 gear except for 216 relics; no augments; L25 Nico mostly on DPS; one stim, a few medkits.

 

Deaths: once to the Praetorian (knocked off the edge, so that's not the fault of the nerf), once to the 2x elite + 2x strong group in the Ephemeris room (comp was still on DPS, would have been fine if I'd put him to heals).

 

I set the comp to healer for the champions and while the fights seemed to take a little longer, they didn't feel all that much harder, even with the stat drop taking Nico's additional damage from about 3600 upper limit to about 2400. Overall, the FP took me about as long to solo as before the patch.

 

I did see someone suggest that some of the star forges are harder than the others. I can't say that I've noticed this, either. I assumed that they were functionally identical with some random layout changes/bonus missions decided when the instance is spawned. Is this not the case? What's supposed to be harder about whichever one's supposed to be the hardest?

Edited November 19, 2015 by NJMorf

[NJMorf]

I absolutely disagree with the 20 match thing...that's brutal, even for me. 4-8 would have been fine...20 creates hard feelings.

 

Hear, hear.

[Avalyssia]

I did see someone suggest that some of the star forges are harder than the others. I can't say that I've noticed this, either. I assumed that they were functionally identical with some random layout changes/bonus missions decided when the instance is spawned. Is this not the case? What's supposed to be harder about whichever one's supposed to be the hardest?

 

I didn't notice too much difference either, still boring as hell.

 

The harder ones are Alderaan and I think Voss (but I'm pretty sure it was Nar Shaddaa). The Alderaan Exarch summons adds that lower healing and damage - you can one hit them but trying to tab target them can sometimes be annoying. The Voss Exarch (someone said it was Voss but I'm so sure it's Nar Shaddaa) heals himself - complete pain in the a** and it's like endlessly smacking on a rock. You can burn your interupts on them but he heals when you run out of interupts anyway so I prefer to save my interupt for impaling strikes.

[Viraxis]

Well, that was fun...

 

Main DPS Commando, mix of 208/216/220 gear, all augmented with 208.

 

Lana in healing stance, rank 49 influence.

 

---

 

Death, death, more death... the difference is night and day, she's useless now.

 

Oh, I suppose if I went and smashed my head against the wall for 2+ hours, I might get lucky and muddle through it, but no thanks.

 

Glad I finished all 6 before the nuke from orbit. This won't make me group for them, this will make me never do them again.

 

Oh joy, less to do, less reason to sub.

 

I am going to say what everyone hates to hear. L2P. If you can't clear that as a commando in that gear with the companions as they are now, then you probably don't belong in an Heroic by yourself.

[Dornaa]

I did see someone suggest that some of the star forges are harder than the others. I can't say that I've noticed this, either. I assumed that they were functionally identical with some random layout changes/bonus missions decided when the instance is spawned. Is this not the case? What's supposed to be harder about whichever one's supposed to be the hardest?

 

Overall the SF are the same but a couple of the paladins are harder than others. Plus, some Exarchs are considered harder than the others due to mechanics. Such as Alderaan which has adds which reduce your healing and damage that you have to kill while the Voss Exarch has a heal.

[Caelrie]

The OP is wrong. I did it just fine with a level 40 companion and wrote my findings HERE.

 

You just can't faceroll the SF H2, you have to actually play.

 

How did you get your presence up to 4400?

[Bobs_YourUncle]

Fwiw, I just got a chance to solo the alderaan SF heroic. Took about an hour and a half, died fighting the third exarch room once, then died once at the last fight. On those two fights I had to use heroic moment, the turret, and the heals from the hurt guy. I'm mostly in all 216 augmented, except my relics are 60 pvp ranked ones. I used Lana at 27 influence, and have 2260 presence, as well as all the legacy skills.

 

For the time and effort it took, I think ill be grouping up for these lol.

[Viraxis]

How did you get your presence up to 4400?

 

That is very easy to do if you use a single companion. Mine is at 44 on one toon from simply doing the Star FOrge chain tom completion and running all planetary heroics on 3 toons. Add in all the basic comms (basic crystals now) that was laying around on all my toons and it is very easy.

[damonskye]

That is very easy to do if you use a single companion. Mine is at 44 on one toon from simply doing the Star FOrge chain tom completion and running all planetary heroics on 3 toons. Add in all the basic comms (basic crystals now) that was laying around on all my toons and it is very easy.

 

You realize that your definition of "very easy" and the definition of "very easy" from many of the rest of us who don't have time to chain heroics on three separate characters over and over again are completely different, right?

[Sarfux]

This is a perfect example of how you can admit that yes there was a problem with comps being *somewhat* OP, but also acknowledging that Biofail swung the nerf bat way too hard....AGAIN.

 

For all those douchenozzles saying that the nerf was correct...I hope you all get cold sores.

Well don't be mean like that

 

I am in the boat of "yes companions were overpowered and needed a nerf" but I believe they went TOO far with doing it 50 percent. The reason why I liked companions before also was because they took away the ability to gear them, I thought them boosting all their numbers fit them great! Since we couldn't gear them anymore. It was hella fun! Then I thought "this is a little TOO overpowered" and I was in favor of a nerf a little bit.

 

But not this much. I feel they should bring the numbers up some more. I can still do my solo heroics and all what I was doing before but... 50 percent was too much. And this is coming from a huge staunch defender white knight biodrone fanboy :eek: BioWare. Just bump it up a wee bit more. Please? .

Edited November 19, 2015 by Sarfux

[Viraxis]

You realize that your definition of "very easy" and the definition of "very easy" from many of the rest of us who don't have time to chain heroics on three separate characters over and over again are completely different, right?

 

 

Each planet's heroics take what around 30min max if that long? The patch has been out for how long? Are you expecting to get to max influence with someone playing 15 minutes a night?

 

There is no way BW can balance a game to where the very casual player who plays maybe an hour or 2 a week can do everything in short order yet keep players who spend much more time than that busy with something to do.

 

Very easy meant it wasn't difficult. Yes it takes some time but is very manageable. I had a free Saturday a couple weeks back and did all the heroics on a toon while I warzoned in between. It was easy for my time investment.

[canuckly]

sorry folks i don't believe for a second any of you wanted just a little nerf you wanted god mode companions and to hit 1 button so you have an easy time doing heroics and star fortress by yourself because you can't get anyone to group with you because you're a terrible player

 

oh and guess what the majority of people on the game you know the thing you play not the forums the thing you go to whine about whatever the flavor of the month is not many are actually complaining about the companions it's all here just like every other hot topic

 

oh but the games population is down that must mean people are unsubbing at leaving the game well that is well crafted theory another could be that Battlefront and Fallout 4 are recent releases and i know many in my guild that are busy playing both or 1 of those games

Edited November 19, 2015 by canuckly
added more content

[canuckly]

I do play, I know the rotation for my class, and am very skilled with it, even in pvp, but the H2 SF's are still a stopping point for me. It has to be the difference in armor types. I see ppl who say they have no trouble solo'ing H2 SF's, yet almost always those ppl wear heavy armor. Then there are those who state that they sometimes have trouble but can do it after a couple of deaths. Almost all those ppl are wearing Medium Armor. The ppl who say they can't solo it, even with high inf companions are almost always Light Armor classes. They really need to balance it so that any class can do H2 SF's solo, no matter what armor type they wear.

 

sage with 192 6 piece set bonus and comms mod and enhancements i got the 4 buffs but prior to knowing about them i never used them and soloed star fortress just fine with heroic moment and the raid buff and unity Senya healed at Rank 50 and i got through without the alliance buffs and with 192/198 armorings 208 mh 220 offhand

 

so again i will keep saying this people need to

 

L2P

 

i know i know strange concept but people with light armor such as my sage can do this solo without the alliance buffs

 

also these forums posted a day or so before the patch hit you all had ample amount of time to solo this with god mode companions before the patch hit

[Shirvington]

I'll add my own experience here:

 

I was on my dps operative (full 208 pvp gear, augmented) for the first SF I ever attempted, Heroic just for kicks. No Alliance specialists influence, no terminal buffs nor ability boxes. I don't remember which planet. When I got to the Exarch, I set my rank 17 T7 to tank and attacked.

 

T7 got destroyed in seconds, and I was left companionless. I was forced to dot and kite the boss while self-healing. A couple minutes later, I stood victorious over the Exarch's crumpled body. I basically soloed SF completely solo, all by myself with no companion.

 

Long story short, if I can solo the last boss in Heroic SF with no companion, the companion nerf should have no affect on certain classes ability to solo SF.

 

I feel this is a L2P issue, even for classes with no self-heal. Keep aggro off your companion, use your defensive cool downs smartly, don't stand in red, and interrupt the right abilities. The Exarchs use ground-targeted abilities with long cast times, and if you need health, stop your damage and move away, allow him to cast it and move out of red while your companion heals you.

 

Edit: Don't forget to use Unity and Heroic Moment!

Edited November 19, 2015 by Shirvington

[robertthebard]

He was speaking for the planet heroics. Not the star fortress the star fortress heroic is designed to be a TActical, meaning with players at least a 2nd one, not like planetary heroics

 

Go in game. Push Y, by default, to bring up your Legacy. Scroll down to the Star Fortress section, check out the achievements. Come back when you have facts, instead of guesses.

[Alssaran]

Go in game. Push Y, by default, to bring up your Legacy. Scroll down to the Star Fortress section, check out the achievements. Come back when you have facts, instead of guesses.

 

And again: Just because there is an achievement (which adds a substantial amount of points and a title to your legacy) that says you have to do it solo doesn't make running it solo the status quo.

Come back when you have facts, instead of guesses based on a single achievement.

[Ghisallo]

Go in game. Push Y, by default, to bring up your Legacy. Scroll down to the Star Fortress section, check out the achievements. Come back when you have facts, instead of guesses.

 

Tbh your both kinda wrong, if you think everyone should be able to do a H2 SF as soon or almost as soon as they are eligible.

 

Should you eventually be able to solo a H2 SF? Yes BUT look at the mechanics AND the achievements. The achievements are not just for doing them solo but doing them WITHOUT using the alliance buffs which require a reputation of 10 per faction to get. There is also the Solo mode. You can do the weekly for the SF with the solo mode and get twice the rewards if you do H2 SFs. So there is an internal progression.

 

Step one do other weeklies and solo SF as you build up alliance faction so you can use the buffs inside the H2. Continue this whole process until you have the gear and companion affection to get the "without buff" achievement. So yes you are right, it is designed to be soloed BUT it was not designed to be soloed as soon as you were eligible to enter, which is what the overpowered companions permitted you to do. A H2 SF is there to be part of a path of overall progression, or grind if you dislike it.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Ghisallo

[aisaelo]

I can't wait for the next Mass Effect. Because this is really bad. It's Star Wars prequel bad. Edited November 19, 2015 by aisaelo

[mcfardo]

Star Fortress is actually a Flashpoint, not a Heroic. The same was for the two Czerka SMs and Black Talon and Esseles, all 4 were tuned for 2 people.

 

The 4.0 patch notes even lists Star Fortress as a Flashpoint.

 

Then they put it into the GF.

[shippper]

Sf just not soloble. but planet heroics can be don with companions. its just required more time but its ok. at least its not faceroll anymore. and in SF only problem its final encounter.

[aisaelo]

Tbh your both kinda wrong, if you think everyone should be able to do a H2 SF as soon or almost as soon as they are eligible.

 

Should you eventually be able to solo a H2 SF? Yes BUT look at the mechanics AND the achievements. The achievements are not just for doing them solo but doing them WITHOUT using the alliance buffs which require a reputation of 10 per faction to get. There is also the Solo mode. You can do the weekly for the SF with the solo mode and get twice the rewards if you do H2 SFs. So there is an internal progression.

 

Step one do other weeklies and solo SF as you build up alliance faction so you can use the buffs inside the H2. Continue this whole process until you have the gear and companion affection to get the "without buff" achievement. So yes you are right, it is designed to be soloed BUT it was not designed to be soloed as soon as you were eligible to enter, which is what the overpowered companions permitted you to do. A H2 SF is there to be part of a path of overall progression, or grind if you dislike it.

The thing is in Star Wars and Kotor, your character should be able to defeat SF, easily.

 

What they failed to exploit is the Emperor. Now that guy could have been a raid boss.

 

How does it make sense to need to team up against the SF boss at all if you're a Jedi for example. It makes no sense to me.

 

Nobody should have to grind and if we have to group they should increase the reward.

 

I don't even know why I care, once I play all the class storylines I'm out of here.

Edited November 19, 2015 by aisaelo

[RubyRiver]

I'll add my own experience here:

 

I was on my dps operative (full 208 pvp gear, augmented) for the first SF I ever attempted, Heroic just for kicks. No Alliance specialists influence, no terminal buffs nor ability boxes. I don't remember which planet. When I got to the Exarch, I set my rank 17 T7 to tank and attacked.

 

T7 got destroyed in seconds, and I was left companionless. I was forced to dot and kite the boss while self-healing. A couple minutes later, I stood victorious over the Exarch's crumpled body. I basically soloed SF completely solo, all by myself with no companion.

 

Long story short, if I can solo the last boss in Heroic SF with no companion, the companion nerf should have no affect on certain classes ability to solo SF.

 

I feel this is a L2P issue, even for classes with no self-heal. Keep aggro off your companion, use your defensive cool downs smartly, don't stand in red, and interrupt the right abilities. The Exarchs use ground-targeted abilities with long cast times, and if you need health, stop your damage and move away, allow him to cast it and move out of red while your companion heals you.

 

Edit: Don't forget to use Unity and Heroic Moment!

 

OK, I'ma hafta call BS. I tried the same thing, All for One cheeve, with a Sniper rated mostly 216 with bits of 208 and 220, fully augged to 208. T7-01 was a fully loaded rank 50 and roled as healer. I was able to withstand the Exarch's barrage for maybe 2 1/2 minutes before T7 almost instantly succumbed and I was destroyed soon after. The Exarch wasn't even worn down to 30%.

Oh, and this was 2 days ago, just before 4.0.2. I tried to solo the SF again not an hour ago and quickly died when the first mob got stuck in the ceiling and decimated my rank 50 Treek healer and my same sniper.

[StefanInter]

He was speaking for the planet heroics. Not the star fortress the star fortress heroic is designed to be a TActical, meaning with players at least a 2nd one, not like planetary heroics

 

If it was designed to be a tactical it would be in the tactical gf que but it is not...