What am I doing wrong?

[Tashim]

Honestly, at any point if you feel that your DFA isn't facerolling normal mobs, then you probably need to upgrade your weapon. All of your gear matters, of course, but I find that none make as much difference as your weapon rating. By leveling with good barrel mods (blue or purple) that I never let get more than 4 levels old, DFA stayed faceroll all the way to 50.

 

While I likely took it to more of an extreme than was necessary, making sure your weapon doesn't fall behind is the single biggest improvement to your overall effectiveness that you can make.

 

I suspect the biggest problem that people have in the mid 20s, is spending all their credits on speeder training, and not keeping their gear as up-to-date as they should. While its all good to get there faster, you need to be able to wtfpwn when you arrive for it to really count.

[Lord_Abraxas]

I can only 2nd the point that your problem probably lies within your gear.

 

I'm 42 so far and have never experienced that gap the OP talks about. I'm cybertech and only use customizable gear, meaning my gear is allways up to my current level or above (with blue/purple mods/armorings).

 

I've found that I can reach up to 65% damage reduction and so far I only died two times while Questing (one was by getting sprung by a hostile player while I was at 50% and the other was due to an elite patroll that hit me after going into a fight with my Stun on cd) and not went bellow 30% on any other location (with mako).

 

Gault as he isnt a healer makes it less convenient (as you ahve to heal yourself ibnetween fights) and so I never tried him for extended periods of time. Your Droid could help you out if you lack insurvivability as he is a pure healer (I'd take him instead of mako if I could somehow convince him to heal me but not run into melee like a lunatic -.-).

[MajinMLF]

Had a similar issue after lvl30+

 

Problem is - mobs HP get logarithmic higher - but your DPS output stays linear.

You can compensate this a bit with exceptional gear for you and your companions - i was a straight DPS build at that time - i found it very hard from 37-40 - maybe also depends on the planet.

 

After lvl40 it somehow got easier again. At lvl45 i had trouble with some elite of my level (e.g. the fight on Voss with the final beast of the trials who leaps at you).

 

However, i now switched to the hybrid spec - heavily focused on healing + tracer missle - this is only viable when you enough talent points of course - but here is the deal

 

Kolto Shell is awesome, i no longer drop below 90% with Mako also healing in any elite fight - also i tried to kill a lvl45 champion at lvl46 and it was a very easy fight to solo him - surely depends on the mob class (was cannon range with long casttimers) but i wasnt able todo this as DPS merc

[Thugtwo_onethree]

With Pyro build, i over heat really fast. So, with arsenal, what i have learned to do is, CC the strongest mob, or the melee one that will get in your face. Once you have that pattern down, start bombing 1 after the other. When the mobs get close to you, use rocket pack. As soon as the first target you focused dies, switch to the nearest one, and hit them with the rocket punch, by this time, your rocket pack will be off cooldown, you can then pop vent heat to edge out just in case you were tossing missiles. Especially the one that stacks. Any mobs that get in your face, remember you go 2 different push backs, you are ranged, and pretty much keep having the range that requires you to keep your self safe.

 

This is all off of Arsenal build. I got used to it fast. Always use your cooldowns, minding your heat, venting it, and as you progress, select talents that help vent heat. I am full arsenal right now, would love to put down some on healing for the vent heat, but i can wait.

 

Remember, always keep a distance. The stronget hitting mob, always use electro dart when possible. If they get in your face, use the knock backs, you have 2 to choose from.

[TempestasSilva]

Thanks everyone for responding. I am on way to work so don't have time to reply to each post, but I am now level 39 and things seem to be much better not 100% sure why but it is as long as I use Mako.

 

 

When do you start healing? When you have only 75% hp left? I usually wait until I am around 30-40% HP left.

 

Glad its going better. Two quick things.

1) If you are DPS, yeah I would use Mako and make sure here gear is the best it can be. Gault works great for me, but I am full Bodyguard. So I DPS and heal both of us.

 

2) Even as a a Bodyguard, I don't let health bars drop below about 60%...ever. You cannot spam heal and if you let health bars drop to 30%...all you can do is spam and pray even as a Bodyguard, much less as Arsenal speced.

[Yazule]

So I just hit level 40 and put on my complete lvl 40 pvp gear set, and have to say I feel pretty good right now =)

 

Aim is at 925, with crit chance at 24%

 

Also got heatseeker, any advice on what kind of rotation now with heatseeker?

 

heatseakers biggest buff comes after 5 TM shots, much like unload, so when you have 5 stacks use HS + unload for bursting, if you are quick the last TM wont even be hitting when Unload starts hitting and to it is unload +2 big hits. If you have heat to spare drop our other insta missle in with HS before unload giving 3 bangs within a second followed by unload to burst them to oblivion.

 

*edit* dont forget to rail shot either before or after unload to add in a little extra punch (stacks still needed to be optimized) */edit*

Edited January 6, 2012 by Yazule

[HugoJenkins]

Merc/ arsenal hybrid spec, look it up, it's great for lvling and pvp. I personally leveled as body guard and found that I rarely ever died and could solo any mob in the game w/o much trouble minus a gold healing mob.