How to make IA gameplay bearable?

[ARavingLooony]

So I've heard from practically....well...everyone that the IA has the best storyline out of all the classess. Trouble is that I find the IA gameplay sooooo boring due to how they don't have any fancy force powers and seemingly all their abilities need time to actually activate i.e u have to wait till the bar fills up before they shoot. Are there any IA subclasses where most of the abilities are insta-cast?

 

Same issue with the smuggler too, I'm enjoying the story but the gameplay/combat is a different story.

[Chryptyk]

You're a marksman sniper I'm guessing? You could try engineer or virulence, or if you prefer melee you can try as a concealment or lethality operative.

[Rebamcfan]

Operative's both DPS specialitzations (Concealment and Lethality), are instant-hitting, while Sniper's Engineering and Virulence both hit their targets at once, save for cooldowns.

Marksman is simple to play though, especially once you learn the rotation with powerful moves. Not saying that Engineering or Lethality wouldn't be good either (I play as Virulence myself, love to apply those poisons on enemies ^^).

[Nmyownworld]

At low levels, characters do not yet have much energy management. That happens at higher levels. I get the same feeling when I replay a Sith Warriror. I'm used to my level 70 Sith Warrior abilities (no problem generating resource), but when on a very low level SW yeah, sometimes in Heroics I'm smacking mobs with my basic attack until I get back Force resource. If your character is high/max level, resource management is about the rotation.

You're a marksman sniper I'm guessing? You could try engineer or virulence, or if you prefer melee you can try as a concealment or lethality operative.

This is an excellent suggestion. Try a different specc or IA Advanced Class.

 

For the record, I don't think IA has the best class story of all. It's nice, and worth playing, though.

[Sinhammer]

So I've heard from practically....well...everyone that the IA has the best storyline out of all the classess.

 

Going to go out on a limb and say a lot of people say this because you get to horizontal tango your way across the galaxy. As a fem agent you can sex up an NPC at like level 3 for absolutely no reason at all. I mean story-wise it's absolutely stupid that it's a choice. Like just "oh I'll have sex with him to make him go away". It's poor writing at its best. Then add to the whole James Bond sexcapades the fact the IA gets the "cool" ship (which has always looked out of place in the game btw, but whatever), it's no wonder so many proclaim it the 'best story'.

[Suzsi]

Going to go out on a limb and say a lot of people say this because you get to horizontal tango your way across the galaxy. As a fem agent you can sex up an NPC at like level 3 for absolutely no reason at all. I mean story-wise it's absolutely stupid that it's a choice. Like just "oh I'll have sex with him to make him go away". It's poor writing at its best. Then add to the whole James Bond sexcapades the fact the IA gets the "cool" ship (which has always looked out of place in the game btw, but whatever), it's no wonder so many proclaim it the 'best story'.

 

My agents dont do this and I still say its the best story.

 

Its interesting, you learn a lot about how the imperial intelligence works. It has reveals. It has moments of things being totally beyond your control. Its the only class story that gives you a specific choice near the end that no others do. Its a very indepth story compaired to the others. I mean Jedi and Sith Warr stories are basically go hunt down this sith/jedi rinse and repeat on every planet. They get tedious fast but the agent story i found to be engaging all the way.

[Sinhammer]

My agents dont do this and I still say its the best story.

 

Its interesting, you learn a lot about how the imperial intelligence works. It has reveals. It has moments of things being totally beyond your control. Its the only class story that gives you a specific choice near the end that no others do. Its a very indepth story compaired to the others. I mean Jedi and Sith Warr stories are basically go hunt down this sith/jedi rinse and repeat on every planet. They get tedious fast but the agent story i found to be engaging all the way.

 

I'm not saying there aren't those who enjoy the mystery and intrigue of the story. It's why I enjoyed it. I'm a network engineer (among other things), so personally I enjoyed anything having to do with being all cloak and dagger and splicing into this and hacking that blah blah. But I stand by my original statement of why I think a lot of people like it.

[AscendingSky]

Going to go out on a limb and say a lot of people say this because you get to horizontal tango your way across the galaxy. As a fem agent you can sex up an NPC at like level 3 for absolutely no reason at all. I mean story-wise it's absolutely stupid that it's a choice. Like just "oh I'll have sex with him to make him go away". It's poor writing at its best. Then add to the whole James Bond sexcapades the fact the IA gets the "cool" ship (which has always looked out of place in the game btw, but whatever), it's no wonder so many proclaim it the 'best story'.

 

Don't project your personal issues onto other people's thought processes please.

[Ralei]

Don't project your personal issues onto other people's thought processes please.

 

haha for real.

 

I hate agent gameplay as well. The last one I did was during double xp so I was overleveled for everything and I used stealth to skip as much combat as possible.

[Phenglei]

As a fem agent you can sex up an NPC at like level 3 for absolutely no reason at all. I mean story-wise it's absolutely stupid that it's a choice. Like just "oh I'll have sex with him to make him go away".

 

That particular storyline option never made sense to me.

 

The guy initially wanted money in exchange for not blowing the agent's cover. I have to wonder ... If you're willing to do something as drastic as having sex with the guy to get him to keep quiet, then why not just give him the money he wanted in the first place?

 

Why anybody would think that going to bed with that creep would be preferable to just paying him off, I have no idea.

 

Pay him off ... or better yet, just kill him. I mean, you're working for the damn Empire, and you're posing as a pirate. In both cases, ruthlessness and violence are supposed to go with the territory, aren't they?

[Elessara]

That particular storyline option never made sense to me.

 

The guy initially wanted money in exchange for not blowing the agent's cover. I have to wonder ... If you're willing to do something as drastic as having sex with the guy to get him to keep quiet, then why not just give him the money he wanted in the first place?

 

Why anybody would think that going to bed with that creep would be preferable to just paying him off, I have no idea.

 

Pay him off ... or better yet, just kill him. I mean, you're working for the damn Empire, and you're posing as a pirate. In both cases, ruthlessness and violence are supposed to go with the territory, aren't they?

 

I always play female characters and I never realised you could sleep with the guy lol. It really doesn't make sense but neither does bribing him. You can't trust him and if you leave him alive there's always the possibility he might talk or demand more money. Best to just kill him and chalk it up to a dispute between pirates.

[Ralei]

What if she had my reaction and was like, "Hey, a cute Zabrak ... let's see if I can spin this in my favor."

[ARavingLooony]

So I recently started playing an concealment IA and I constantly seem to find all my abilities constantly being unable to be used i.e running out of energy or whatever it is way too quick and having to rely on the default ability. This never happened on any of my other chars and always have all my other abilities ready.

 

Am I doing something wrong?

[Icykill_]

So I've heard from practically....well...everyone that the IA has the best storyline out of all the classess. Trouble is that I find the IA gameplay sooooo boring due to how they don't have any fancy force powers and seemingly all their abilities need time to actually activate i.e u have to wait till the bar fills up before they shoot. Are there any IA subclasses where most of the abilities are insta-cast?

 

Same issue with the smuggler too, I'm enjoying the story but the gameplay/combat is a different story.

 

Try playing a lightning Sorc. There is only one ability that is a non instant and most mobs die before you even need it.

[rantboi]

Try playing a lightning Sorc. There is only one ability that is a non instant and most mobs die before you even need it.

 

you can't do agent story on a sorc though

[IoNonSoEVero]

It's taken me a while to get a character through the agent story, and I'm honestly not enjoying it as much as the Sith stories. I prefer the lightsaber/Force powers to shooting at stuff. But I do like all the veiled same-sex flirts that seem to be there (the female agent can't go off with Samara but a lot of their dialogue is obvious...) even though there's no official SSR in the vanilla stories. And the agent does have an amazing ship, although it took me a minute to figure out how to get out of it. I also like most of the NPCs the agent deals with in Intelligence, like Keeper and Watcher 2.

[ForjKlahaa]

So I recently started playing an concealment IA and I constantly seem to find all my abilities constantly being unable to be used i.e running out of energy or whatever it is way too quick and having to rely on the default ability. This never happened on any of my other chars and always have all my other abilities ready.

 

Am I doing something wrong?

 

At low levels, laceration is mainly what you'll be using to do damage and not much else. This consumes tactical advantage, so the basics are:

 

Single target: backstab from stealth, lacerate until you can't, shiv, lacerate until you can't, overload shot if you have the energy or rifle shot until shiv is ready, shiv, then lac lac lac, shiv, lac, lac lac etc. If you think the fight will last long enough to make a difference, use corrosive dart at the beginning to apply a weak-ish DoT. Refresh this if it falls off.

 

Multiple targets: backstab from stealth, toxic haze, lac, shiv, lac, shiv etc. I don't recommend carbine burst because the damage is really poor, it's hard to aim right and it uses too much energy. It's quicker and easier with trash just to kill them one by one.

 

Basically you want always be spending your TA on lacerate and when you have none you want to get it back with shiv. Backstab also grants TA. Toxic haze (which requires TA also) will incapacitate and CC a group of standard enemies (and apply a damage-over-time) so you can pick them off one by one and get out of the fight without being hit. On low level planets in decent gear, one lacerate will one-shot a standard enemy. It hits pretty hard. If you're moving from group to group, you might still have TA from the last fight so you can use toxic haze straight away from stealth and then backstab, so you go straight into lac without having to shiv.

 

Overload shot hits hard but drains so much energy that it is only worth it if the fight's about to be over or you have a lot of energy. I rarely use it early game except to finish someone off.

 

If you set your comp to tank you can also use backstab on cooldown, to do a lot of damage and gain TA. If they heal however you won't be able to get behind the enemy until you get crippling slice at around level 40, which will stop them from turning for 4 seconds so you can run behind to backstab them. This is a good way to fill up your shiv/lac downtime - shiv doesn't take very long to come back up and should be ready after 2 GDCs. You can also use debilitate and flashbang to get behind the enemy to get in an extra backstab or two but they both have pretty long cooldowns.

 

Eventually, you will get volatile substance which is basically like putting a poison bomb in them which goes off after a few seconds causing massive damage. Apply this at the beginning of the fight and reapply on cooldown. It will be your hardest hitting ability.

 

If an enemy is ranged outside the main group, use fragmentation grenade to knock him down until you can run up to him to kill him. Only standard enemies will be knocked down but it still does damage in the meantime. Later, you'll be using holo-traverse and exfiltrate to quickly get to ranged enemies but frag grenade is still useful if either is on cooldown or your enemies are ranged far apart. Don't use frag grenade in melee range as it costs too much and the damage isn't worth it.

 

If you need TA in a hurry > stim boost.

If you need energy in a hurry > adrenaline probe

 

If you are doing heroics where there is one or more elites/champions, take one of them out with sleep dart from stealth and kill the others first before tackling him. Do not use toxic haze or any AoE or you will break the stun and wake him up. A tank comp also has an AoE they will use that will wake him up so if you really need to keep him out of the way, use a healer or turn off that ability (which kinda gimps them). If this happens, use debilitate and then flashbang when it wears off to give you some breathing room.

 

You don't really need to worry about self healing in solo content but if you need to heal in a pinch, if you don't have TA, use stim boost > kolto infusion. If you have TA, use KI first then stim boost to get back in the fight. The only other healing ability I really use is toxic scan which will cleanse most effects but I use it mostly to get out of any slows as you always want to be moving.

 

Didn't mean to write so much. Hope this helps.

Edited November 12, 2017 by ForjKlahaa

[Darkfalconheart]

So I've heard from practically....well...everyone that the IA has the best storyline out of all the classess. Trouble is that I find the IA gameplay sooooo boring due to how they don't have any fancy force powers and seemingly all their abilities need time to actually activate i.e u have to wait till the bar fills up before they shoot. Are there any IA subclasses where most of the abilities are insta-cast?

 

Same issue with the smuggler too, I'm enjoying the story but the gameplay/combat is a different story.

 

I am not sure about the best story. I played it once and found it meh. Didn't even keep the character, as I'd never play him again. It's certainly the most non-typical SW story among the class stories, but I found it bland, badly written and uninspired for most of the time.

[Cuiwe]

So I've heard from practically....well...everyone that the IA has the best storyline out of all the classess. Trouble is that I find the IA gameplay sooooo boring due to how they don't have any fancy force powers and seemingly all their abilities need time to actually activate i.e u have to wait till the bar fills up before they shoot. Are there any IA subclasses where most of the abilities are insta-cast?

 

Same issue with the smuggler too, I'm enjoying the story but the gameplay/combat is a different story.

 

Well, those classes ARE quite acquired tastes when it comes to gameplay. Stories are just fine, a SW James Bond story and a SW Guy Ritchie thing. But the gameplay...the most divisive ever(even Knights with that Rogue Combo system of theirs is less divisive). But I feel like ever since 5,0(or was it 4,0? Something Zakuul), they've been greatly improved in their gameplay style:

 

-> Outside of Marksman Snipers / Sharpshooter Slingers, you don't even have to use Take Cover anymore. Or you can use it for a quick Snap Shot every 12s or so. Engineer / Saboteur are especially mobile since that update. The only thing you need to channel or Cast Time is Series of Shots. Every 6s or so. Dirty Fighting is still quite static(Cull, Series, Snipe / Dirty Shot{whatever}), but you don't have to TC anymore.

 

-> Concerning Operatives / Scoundrels, they've much ground to cover. I'd like if the TA / UH mechanic (didn't exist) wasn't so closely tied to Shiv / Whip. Because outside of Shiv / Whip, Lethality and Ruffian have no incentive to be in melee range. I'd like for those two disciplines to get another way of generating TA / UH. Also, the DoT spread, while greatly improved recently, is still quite nonsensical. Why do we have Corrosive Grenade then? Wouldn't Poison Shot / Poison Stab or something be better then(Buckshot for Scoundrels)?

 

So, there's that. They're still an acquired taste.

[Suzsi]

That particular storyline option never made sense to me.

 

The guy initially wanted money in exchange for not blowing the agent's cover. I have to wonder ... If you're willing to do something as drastic as having sex with the guy to get him to keep quiet, then why not just give him the money he wanted in the first place?

 

Why anybody would think that going to bed with that creep would be preferable to just paying him off, I have no idea.

 

Pay him off ... or better yet, just kill him. I mean, you're working for the damn Empire, and you're posing as a pirate. In both cases, ruthlessness and violence are supposed to go with the territory, aren't they?

 

You can flirt with the guy to get what you want then turn him down for the actual sex part anyways. Thats how I usually do it considering my chars are LS so im not just gunna shoot him. You never once have to take the flirting in the agent story all the way, its simply an option for those who RP a char thatll have sex with anyone.

[Eshvara]

What if she had my reaction and was like, "Hey, a cute Zabrak ... let's see if I can spin this in my favor."

 

Was my initial thought, the character face palmed after...I guess it wasn't a pleasant experience?

Oh well.

[Cuiwe]

I am not sure about the best story. I played it once and found it meh. Didn't even keep the character, as I'd never play him again. It's certainly the most non-typical SW story among the class stories, but I found it bland, badly written and uninspired for most of the time.

 

Why do you find it uninspired?

 

I mean, I don't like it because it constantly meanders around and has "...BUT THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED1" moments(which annoy me). Also, Ernst Stavro in Star Wars? Manipulating the Emperor / Vitiate? You *********** kidding me? And the story in itself's too cold and professional for my liking. I much prefer Trooper.

 

But maybe people prefer Agent's personality? Who knows.

 

The story in itself's very interesting and actually, imo, quite nicely written. With no expectations from players' side(like Trooper and it's exactly why Trooper story failed).

[Icykill_]

you can't do agent story on a sorc though

 

I know 😉

[ARavingLooony]

Try playing a lightning Sorc. There is only one ability that is a non instant and most mobs die before you even need it.

 

Already played a lightning sorc; its my main actually :-) was the first class I played when I started playing SWTOR

[ARavingLooony]

At low levels, laceration is mainly what you'll be using to do damage and not much else. This consumes tactical advantage, so the basics are:

 

Single target: backstab from stealth, lacerate until you can't, shiv, lacerate until you can't, overload shot if you have the energy or rifle shot until shiv is ready, shiv, then lac lac lac, shiv, lac, lac lac etc. If you think the fight will last long enough to make a difference, use corrosive dart at the beginning to apply a weak-ish DoT. Refresh this if it falls off.

 

Multiple targets: backstab from stealth, toxic haze, lac, shiv, lac, shiv etc. I don't recommend carbine burst because the damage is really poor, it's hard to aim right and it uses too much energy. It's quicker and easier with trash just to kill them one by one.

 

Basically you want always be spending your TA on lacerate and when you have none you want to get it back with shiv. Backstab also grants TA. Toxic haze (which requires TA also) will incapacitate and CC a group of standard enemies (and apply a damage-over-time) so you can pick them off one by one and get out of the fight without being hit. On low level planets in decent gear, one lacerate will one-shot a standard enemy. It hits pretty hard. If you're moving from group to group, you might still have TA from the last fight so you can use toxic haze straight away from stealth and then backstab, so you go straight into lac without having to shiv.

 

Overload shot hits hard but drains so much energy that it is only worth it if the fight's about to be over or you have a lot of energy. I rarely use it early game except to finish someone off.

 

If you set your comp to tank you can also use backstab on cooldown, to do a lot of damage and gain TA. If they heal however you won't be able to get behind the enemy until you get crippling slice at around level 40, which will stop them from turning for 4 seconds so you can run behind to backstab them. This is a good way to fill up your shiv/lac downtime - shiv doesn't take very long to come back up and should be ready after 2 GDCs. You can also use debilitate and flashbang to get behind the enemy to get in an extra backstab or two but they both have pretty long cooldowns.

 

Eventually, you will get volatile substance which is basically like putting a poison bomb in them which goes off after a few seconds causing massive damage. Apply this at the beginning of the fight and reapply on cooldown. It will be your hardest hitting ability.

 

If an enemy is ranged outside the main group, use fragmentation grenade to knock him down until you can run up to him to kill him. Only standard enemies will be knocked down but it still does damage in the meantime. Later, you'll be using holo-traverse and exfiltrate to quickly get to ranged enemies but frag grenade is still useful if either is on cooldown or your enemies are ranged far apart. Don't use frag grenade in melee range as it costs too much and the damage isn't worth it.

 

If you need TA in a hurry > stim boost.

If you need energy in a hurry > adrenaline probe

 

If you are doing heroics where there is one or more elites/champions, take one of them out with sleep dart from stealth and kill the others first before tackling him. Do not use toxic haze or any AoE or you will break the stun and wake him up. A tank comp also has an AoE they will use that will wake him up so if you really need to keep him out of the way, use a healer or turn off that ability (which kinda gimps them). If this happens, use debilitate and then flashbang when it wears off to give you some breathing room.

 

You don't really need to worry about self healing in solo content but if you need to heal in a pinch, if you don't have TA, use stim boost > kolto infusion. If you have TA, use KI first then stim boost to get back in the fight. The only other healing ability I really use is toxic scan which will cleanse most effects but I use it mostly to get out of any slows as you always want to be moving.

 

Didn't mean to write so much. Hope this helps.

 

wow....thats a lot more complicated than any of the other classes. I have a Sith warrior and Inquisitor, bounty hunter and smuggler (though I rarely play him as the combat is just as boring as IA) and I can play those characters with one arm behind my back and still get a good amount of dps from them.