Heroic Star Fortress - soloable?

[Suzsi]

Hey all - I did manage to solo a couple heroic star fortresses on an old JK sent when KOTFE was released. I've created an alt Jedi Knight (I'm desperately wanting those exarch boots as I lost my last ones either sold or hiding on one of my characters)

 

So, my char is level 75, 280 gear give or take, Lana is level 50 influence. If I get my alliance up to level 20, will I be able to solo these heroics or am I screwed because she's level 75?

 

Any advice? Thoughts/feelings?

 

I'm in Australia so grouping up doesn't happen very often, it's rare for me to even see people in my guild so soloing them is pretty much my only option.

 

Whats the reward difference between heroic and veteran?

 

Veteran SF is only one of all the FPs that was designed to be soloable. It presents quite a challenge but is managable. I'd personaly stick to veteran for SFs but thats just me.

[TrixxieTriss]

It's probably useless replying to this old post, but I'm sufficiently annoyed and frustrated to do so anyway...

 

Back when I was 70, it was time consuming but not particularly difficult to solo veteran mode star fortresses with shabby tanking gear and lvl 20 Lana healing me. Not so any more. I can get to the exarch (final boss) readily enough, but that's where I hit the wall. Back in KOTFE I used the "brilliant" tactic of standing with my back to the wall and interrupting only the exarch's self heals. Now he rips me to pieces if I try that. Ok, fair enough, except that I can't prevent him from healing, since after I interrupt his heal, he re-casts it 5 seconds later. I tried Nar-Shaddaa and Voss both several times, and finally gave up disgusted, since barring some glitch and/or extremely good luck, it just doesn't seem possible to solo these now...

 

I ran into issues a month or so ago too. Since then I’ve worked out how to make it easier.

1. Make sure your Companion is lvl 50

2. Make sure you have a competent Companion for the role you put them in (they aren’t all as equal as you think)

3. Be geared in proper set bonus for your class and take a few tacticals with you (to change as needed)

4. Get the affection rating up of you base specialists like Hylo, etc, to lvl 10 (this made a huge difference for me because I had already done 1-3)

5. When you do the SF, activate all the terminals to get the specialists abilities for the end fights. I don’t need to use them myself, but it will make it easier.

Edited May 8, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[Suzsi]

I could never get past the Voss one solo, did get past all the others though. Voss was always more difficult for some reason, I can't recall off the top of my head what made it harder.

 

Going in duo makes a big difference though, with just 1 friend and 1 extra healer its suddenly much easier to do veterans without the headaches.

[Ruvalie]

It's probably useless replying to this old post, but I'm sufficiently annoyed and frustrated to do so anyway...

 

Back when I was 70, it was time consuming but not particularly difficult to solo veteran mode star fortresses with shabby tanking gear and lvl 20 Lana healing me. Not so any more. I can get to the exarch (final boss) readily enough, but that's where I hit the wall. Back in KOTFE I used the "brilliant" tactic of standing with my back to the wall and interrupting only the exarch's self heals. Now he rips me to pieces if I try that. Ok, fair enough, except that I can't prevent him from healing, since after I interrupt his heal, he re-casts it 5 seconds later. I tried Nar-Shaddaa and Voss both several times, and finally gave up disgusted, since barring some glitch and/or extremely good luck, it just doesn't seem possible to solo these now...

Not being soloable at level 70 with "shabby tanking gear and lvl 20 Lana" is a different matter from not being soloable at all. Try getting to level 75 and ilevel 306. If you can do everything up to the exarch there's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to defeat the exarch though. Rather than standing in one spot, run around and dodge the attacks. Use the boosts and extra abilities from the alliance specialists, and heroic moment. Play in dps spec rather than tank. I've done it (recently) so it is definitely doable.

[Suzsi]

Not being soloable at level 70 with "shabby tanking gear and lvl 20 Lana" is a different matter from not being soloable at all. Try getting to level 75 and ilevel 306. If you can do everything up to the exarch there's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to defeat the exarch though. Rather than standing in one spot, run around and dodge the attacks. Use the boosts and extra abilities from the alliance specialists, and heroic moment. Play in dps spec rather than tank. I've done it (recently) so it is definitely doable.

 

There is a reason to do veteran SF before waiting until 75 with full gear though.

It should be doable sooner because its tied into the KOTFE KOTET story lines where you get bonuses in the story for having completed all the starfortresses in veteran mode. Its utterly useless waiting until after the fact. This is one FP that should not scale up to be difficult at 75 in full gear.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Suzsi

[Ruvalie]

There is a reason to do veteran SF before waiting until 75 with full gear though.

It should be doable sooner because its tied into the KOTFE KOTET story lines where you get bonuses in the story for having completed all the starfortresses in veteran mode. Its utterly useless waiting until after the fact. This is one FP that should not scale up to be difficult at 75 in full gear.

I've never played KotFE/KoTET (was using a boosted character and doing it for decos), so I didn't know that. If you need it to play those storylines, then I agree they should make it playable at the minimum level for those expansions. (Although since xp gain is so fast, it's totally possible to be level 75 before doing KotFE.)

[TrixxieTriss]

I could never get past the Voss one solo, did get past all the others though. Voss was always more difficult for some reason, I can't recall off the top of my head what made it harder.

 

Going in duo makes a big difference though, with just 1 friend and 1 extra healer its suddenly much easier to do veterans without the headaches.

 

It was bugged for a long time. About 1 in every 3 attempts the boss in the send last room before the arena would bug out. It’s been fixed now (I think). It’s not bugged out for me since 6,3

[TrixxieTriss]

I've never played KotFE/KoTET (was using a boosted character and doing it for decos), so I didn't know that. If you need it to play those storylines, then I agree they should make it playable at the minimum level for those expansions. (Although since xp gain is so fast, it's totally possible to be level 75 before doing KotFE.)

 

It is playable if you do the solo version. The veteran version is a heroic and requires 2+ people. It was never designed to be played solo. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be if you practice and gear up right and do all the things I mentioned in my earlier post.

 

If you are doing it at lvl 70, I feel it is actually easier because Bioware do something with the scaling if you are lvl 75.

Edited May 9, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[Ardrossan]

There is a reason to do veteran SF before waiting until 75 with full gear though.

It should be doable sooner because its tied into the KOTFE KOTET story lines where you get bonuses in the story for having completed all the starfortresses in veteran mode. Its utterly useless waiting until after the fact. This is one FP that should not scale up to be difficult at 75 in full gear.

 

You get one line of dialogue, off-camera from theron while on Voss at the beginning of kotet. I heard these same rumors about ooooh extra story content and put a lvl 65 through it, only to discover that the result was pretty lackluster.

[Suzsi]

You get one line of dialogue, off-camera from theron while on Voss at the beginning of kotet. I heard these same rumors about ooooh extra story content and put a lvl 65 through it, only to discover that the result was pretty lackluster.

 

I didn't even know about the extra line of dialogue. I was talking about the bonus quest during the battle on Voss that auto completes if you've done the veteran SFs.

 

And something else during the battle of odessen which I've forgotten now, was a while ago I did it.

 

The point being if you're gunna do them, its pointless to do them after the fact, when the entire purpose of them was the KotFE/KoTET storyline.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Suzsi

[SteveTheCynic]

I ran into issues a month or so ago too. Since then I’ve worked out how to make it easier.

1. Make sure your Companion is lvl 50

2. Make sure you have a competent Companion for the role you put them in (they aren’t all as equal as you think)

3. Be geared in proper set bonus for your class and take a few tacticals with you (to change as needed)

4. Get the affection rating up of you base specialists like Hylo, etc, to lvl 10 (this made a huge difference for me because I had already done 1-3)

5. When you do the SF, activate all the terminals to get the specialists abilities for the end fights. I don’t need to use them myself, but it will make it easier.

Of this list, items 4 and 5 are the most important. Item 5 (open the specialists' crates) gives wicked cool special abilities, especially the turret that Aygo provides - tanky as all farble, and healable by your companion - but you can't *do* item 5 if you haven't *also* done item 4.

 

Ixaltara (see my somewhat grumpy post near the bottom of page 1) did Nar Shaddaa in 304s with no set bonus other than two pieces of The Victor, and no Tactical at all(0), using a rank 23 one-weapon melee companion (Nadia). For reference, even if the other relative-power bugs are ignored, one-weapon melee is the worstest possiblest combination for a (healer) companion in tight situations.

 

Also, you left out the other items that do seem to cause people difficulty:

6. Know how your class works and which abiltiies do what. (The "Reyelria'kinth" rule.(1))

7. Apply all the other rules (er, guidelines) and procedures that keep you alive in tough fights.(2)

 

(0) Not even the entirely useless Krall's Accord that you get from finishing Onslaught, since she still hasn't *begun* Onslaught, much less finished it.

 

(1) After one of my characters, ironically in this discussion a Lightning Sorc, who reached Black Talon at level 16, and went with a group who were assembling to do it. She had ... inadequate ... gear, let's say, but as she was the highest level in the group (the otherse were 10, 12, and 14), she pulled lots of aggro, and had to facetank the bonus boss. With her health in free-fall, I had to stop fighting for a while to read my ability tooltips. The Reyelria'kinth rule, therefore, is "don't wait until the middle of a big fight to find out what your abiltiies do"...

 

(2) Move out of enemy floor telegraphs (aka "Don't Stand In Stupid"), interrupt dangerous enemy abilties, etc.

[Hiskias]

Since some people seem to be missing my point, I'll repeat it here: I cannot kill the final boss at all because of the self heals. Other than that, the fight is manageable. It is a slap in the face that after having interrupted his self heal once, he recasts it after just a couple of seconds.

 

I tried it with my lvl75 ilvl280 jedi consular and imp operative, with lvl35 Lana healing me (she really should put more effort to it...) Other than the final boss, the difficulty level seems about equal to what it used to be in KOTFE. I don't need better gear or anything, I just need to be able to interrupt the heals, which I'm not. That mechanic alone destroys the whole thing for me.

[EllieAnne]

Just did it myself.

1) Make sure you are lvl 10 with your advisors to get all 4 weapons.

2) I did it with a tank (iRating 306) and lvl 50 healer. It was a grind and did drop a couple medpacks but in all honesty much easier than I thought it would be. I tried it with a mDPS (iRating 306) and lvl 50 healer. DPS had no special abilities like shielding or self heals. I also chose to do it without any assistance from my advisors for the achievement. I died once on the way but just could not get passed the sun reactor mobs. I made it to the 3rd room IIRC and just got curbstomped. Figuring that was the worst toon to do it on and handicapped myself for the achievement, that says to me that it is definately possible. Later this week. I'm going to take my best SF toon (probably BH healer with lvl 50 DPS) and run it with no advisor assistance. I'll let all y'all know how I do.

[EllieAnne]

Since some people seem to be missing my point, I'll repeat it here: I cannot kill the final boss at all because of the self heals.

 

Is that the Voss one? Gives you Leyta as a companion? That one was nearly impossible for me even running with someone and full lvl 50 companions. It actually took 2 days because we rage-quitted after dying so many times. After the first day I read up on the advisor weapons and we were able to do it then but you have a point that 2 interrupts on him are much better than 1.

[mike_carton]

Since some people seem to be missing my point, I'll repeat it here: I cannot kill the final boss at all because of the self heals. Other than that, the fight is manageable. It is a slap in the face that after having interrupted his self heal once, he recasts it after just a couple of seconds.

 

Many classes have a short stun ability that also works as an interrupt. In addition to a straight-forward interrupt ability.

[red_onion]

I tried it with my lvl75 ilvl280 jedi consular and imp operative, with lvl35 Lana healing me (she really should put more effort to it...)

 

I would highly encourage anyone with a companion set to healing to use a ranged companion, not a melee one... it's a pretty noticeable difference in my experience. Also, 35 is not 50... 35 influence is pretty good but there's still certainly room for improvement.

 

Other things to consider is using the environment to your advantage, when the boss breaks the windows they create aoe zones that they themselves take harm from if you can kite them to the right spots. There's even a cool "Playing with Fire" achievement if you kill them that way.

 

Also on the topic of interrupts... some abilities do act as a secondary interrupt in addition to the ability itself. Be aware of what all is at your disposal and you may have a solution right under your nose. Of course, the boss might be immune to them and negate that in which case your criticism is valid.

[HiltoftheDragon]

Many classes have a short stun ability that also works as an interrupt. In addition to a straight-forward interrupt ability.

 

The issue with some of the boss mechanics are that they will continue to cast the ability back to back until its successful. You can have as many interrupts as you want but you will eventually fail at interrupting the cast. This boss mechanic happens in many other areas of the game rather than just SoV.

 

I agree though that interrupting said abilities correctly and efficiently will buy you more time....albeit, the amount of time bought is minimalistic at best with the insane cd's they have.

Edited May 10, 2021 by HiltoftheDragon

[SeCKSEgai]

It is playable if you do the solo version. The veteran version is a heroic and requires 2+ people. It was never designed to be played solo. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be if you practice and gear up right and do all the things I mentioned in my earlier post.

 

If you are doing it at lvl 70, I feel it is actually easier because Bioware do something with the scaling if you are lvl 75.

 

As someone who was active before heroics were "heroics", the original fights typically required the standard team of 4 - 1 Tank 1 Healer 2Dps as even the trash mobs were generally champion rating.

 

Since it was unrewarding, time consuming and not worth the effort, people rarely bothered. So, they were turned into "heroics" where 2+ essentially meant player and companion was sufficient. The heroic 4s however are expected for more than one player, tho some can definitely be solo'd while others have mechanics that need to be activated by additional players.

 

Star Fortress heroics dont need BiS gear to be done solo but they also aren't as mind-numbingly easy as a typical +2. An HM level raider will be familiar with the tools and tactics needed to succeed relatively effortlessly but a more casual player will struggle or outright fail.

 

For me Vet SFs are a slog. I have full sets of every one of the armor sets rewarded and have all the achievements except for the one that requires me to complete the binocular quest, so not even conquest is generally enough of a motivator to go back in.

[HaoZhao]

When they launched, I solo'd all heroic Star Fortresses with a level 20 companion and old 208 PVP gear filled with expertise.

[FreeToSWTOR]

I have this video of me taking on the self-healing boss while undergeared at 240 with no tactical and with just a level 1 T7 companion. The purpose is to show that it's doable, even when not properly interrupting boss heals.

 

 

I'm just a average and casual player so there will probably be criticism but that's fine. The only people who really seem to be struggling with SF are average and casual so this is for you guys.

[Mokkat]

just completed on heroic with a Smuggler (Ruffian) 290 ish gear, lvl 50 hk51 on heals, no alliance buffs.

Things I will remember about my first Star Fortress (Veteran/Heroic) :

I died a hell of a lot (x 5 per boss encounter)

prison break was fun

skipping a lot of mobs (a class that can stealth smooths progress through the challenge)

first boss was a struggle until I sorted out positioning (either hk51 getting thrown off the platform, or myself)

pre-fina bossl encounter = endless waves of mobs, ... very very tedious, (but not difficult)

end boss fight (when you finally get there) comparatively easy, getting to the fight was far harder.

having a lvl 50 companion healer is vital

 

it isn't easy, but it is doable. If you fall, get up and try again, persistence pays.

 

I wish there were some way to share progress on this mission within a legacy, because even for one toon, completing the entire mission chain (of which 6 heroic runs..)

Edited May 12, 2021 by Mokkat

[Hiskias]

I have this video of me taking on the self-healing boss while undergeared at 240 with no tactical and with just a level 1 T7 companion. The purpose is to show that it's doable, even when not properly interrupting boss heals.

 

 

I'm just a average and casual player so there will probably be criticism but that's fine. The only people who really seem to be struggling with SF are average and casual so this is for you guys.

 

It would be more useful with the boss' cast bar visible. Now I couldn't see if and when you interrupted his self heal. When I tried to do it, he kept healing so his health stayed somewhere between 50% and 75%, so I just gave it up.

 

I noticed elsewhere that other bosses, too, recast an interrupted ability (almost) at once. If this is intentional, it is a stupid mechanic, since an interrupt should put the ability on cool down. I'm rather thinking that it's in fact not intentional, but a side effect of some fix or tweak or whatever, but since it doesn't outright crash the game, the devs have decided to call it a feature and leave it as is. The game is full of such features, after all. My "favorite" one is the barely functioning companion crafting interface, but that's another story entirely that could be written volumes about.

[FreeToSWTOR]

It would be more useful with the boss' cast bar visible. Now I couldn't see if and when you interrupted his self heal. When I tried to do it, he kept healing so his health stayed somewhere between 50% and 75%, so I just gave it up.

 

I noticed elsewhere that other bosses, too, recast an interrupted ability (almost) at once. If this is intentional, it is a stupid mechanic, since an interrupt should put the ability on cool down. I'm rather thinking that it's in fact not intentional, but a side effect of some fix or tweak or whatever, but since it doesn't outright crash the game, the devs have decided to call it a feature and leave it as is. The game is full of such features, after all. My "favorite" one is the barely functioning companion crafting interface, but that's another story entirely that could be written volumes about.

 

I was trying to make a point of interrupt not being necessary with my post. The only time I properly interrupted his self heal was around 3:55. Any other time you see me interrupt in the video was instinctual or a borderline panic move, my interrupt is in slot "2" of my quickbar.

 

To be fair, I was playing a dot spec so I was dpsing the entire time even when immobilized or jumping around the platform so I don't have to interrupt his heal.

 

What class and spec are you playing? I can give it a try and come back with some tips or a whole new video if you prefer.