Uprisings Question

[RBWTOR]

A friend and I have been playing through the game together and we got to the part in the storyline where the Uprisings take places (right after KOTET). We had some fun ripping through a couple story mode Uprisings, but when we tried a master mode, we got ripped up. We didn't think it was because it was impossible to do, but more because our companions needed too much micromanagement to stay out of area effects, etc.

 

So my question is:

Have you had success with a 2-man master mode uprising? If so, which did you do and what was your group makeup?

 

Or, are there some that (mechanics-wise) would be more doable with 2 humans and 2 companions?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Gelious]

It has nothing to do with your companions. Master Mode uprisings are one of the more difficult types of content in this game, on par or even more then Master Mode Flashpoints. They are not meant to be 2-manned with 2 comps, but rather with 4 real players, and not just 4 random dpsers, but the tank-healer-dps combo.

 

If you insist on 2-maning. maybe try Veteran Uprisings first, before going to Master Mode, see if you can do it.

 

Unfortunately with the current gearing system only final boss of Uprising drops loot, which makes them not particularly popular compared to FP. Also Uprisings are completely irrelevant to the main story itself, so you can ignore them and won't lose anything.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Gelious

[Sundown]

So my question is:

Have you had success with a 2-man master mode uprising? If so, which did you do and what was your group makeup?

We just recently did the Uprisings to get the achievements in all modes. Composition was mostly a Shadow tank and a ranged DD (Slinger or Mando) with companions.

 

Only Uprising that proved a little more difficult was "Trial and Error" 3rd Boss, because the AOE in the small room is rather nasty, but once we figured out it required kiting it was easy and we got all achievements (except for the 4 Rakghoul ones for obvious reasons).

For the rest of the Uprisings I don't recall any issue.

[phalczen]

Also Uprisings are completely irrelevant to the main story itself, so you can ignore them and won't lose anything.

 

They're not completely irrelevant. Lana and Theron have a conversation about them in the final scene of KOTET, right after the credits roll. They also form much of the impetus for why the Order of Zildrog rises up.

 

To borrow a quote from another IP, "[The Eternal Alliance's] very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe."

 

I mean, they are as relevant to the story as Star Fortresses, or the entire Dread Masters story line from KP through DP, or the Scions telling us about the Machine Gods of Iokath.

[Ardrossan]

They're not completely irrelevant. Lana and Theron have a conversation about them in the final scene of KOTET, right after the credits roll. They also form much of the impetus for why the Order of Zildrog rises up.

 

To borrow a quote from another IP, "[The Eternal Alliance's] very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe."

 

I mean, they are as relevant to the story as Star Fortresses, or the entire Dread Masters story line from KP through DP, or the Scions telling us about the Machine Gods of Iokath.

 

But does your completion of them have any impact on the story? Doing the SF Voss heroic has a marginal impact on Wrath and Ruin, for example.

[phalczen]

But does your completion of them have any impact on the story? Doing the SF Voss heroic has a marginal impact on Wrath and Ruin, for example.

 

 

They have no more impact than the dread master story, and less than the Gods of the Machine operation and the Voss Heroic star fortress.

 

Alternatively, they have as much impact as you want them too. Contextually they were meant to fill in the gap of in game time between the end of KOTET and the events on Iokath... remember they had to wait for the radiation levels to fall sufficiently to send a scout team. They probably had to send them early because of the intelligence about a super weapon received by the Alliance, Republic, and Empire. For Theron’s act In the Umbara flashpoint to betray the Alliance and claim it’s rotten from within, there has to have been some violence, like the uprisings. You can’t attribute it to the war erupting on Iokath because Shan had to plan his undercover mission starting with the betrayal on Iokath... so the violence he uses as an excuse has to be the Uprisings.

 

[Gelious]

They're not completely irrelevant. Lana and Theron have a conversation about them in the final scene of KOTET, right after the credits roll. They also form much of the impetus for why the Order of Zildrog rises up.

 

To borrow a quote from another IP, "[The Eternal Alliance's] very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe."

 

I mean, they are as relevant to the story as Star Fortresses, or the entire Dread Masters story line from KP through DP, or the Scions telling us about the Machine Gods of Iokath.

 

Errr, no. First of all, Order of Zildrog rises because one brain-dead fanatic from Horizon Guard (a.k.a. Vaylin elite guard) couldn't let go of the past and enlisted some like-minded people and also a couple of NPC who were pissed at PC for various reasons.

 

Star fortress are not relevant at all. Literally the only thing they change is autocompletion of a bonus mission in one chapter. Omg, how important.

 

Machine Gods are not important either, there is never any follow up after you talk to Scions and receive the quest. Zildrog is important since he obliterates the Fleet, but has nothing to do with Iokath or Scions.

 

Dread Masters are a completely separate story told via ops and daily zones and to compare that to uprisings is an insult to the storyline.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Gelious

[phalczen]

Errr, no. First of all, Order of Zildrog rises because one brain-dead fanatic from Horizon Guard (a.k.a. Vaylin elite guard) couldn't let go of the past and enlisted some like-minded people and also a couple of NPC who were pissed at PC for various reasons.

 

Star fortress are not relevant at all. Literally the only thing they change is autocompletion of a bonus mission in one chapter. Omg, how important.

 

Machine Gods are not important either, there is never any follow up after you talk to Scions and receive the quest. Zildrog is important since he obliterates the Fleet, but has nothing to do with Iokath or Scions.

 

Dread Masters are a completely separate story told via ops and daily zones and to compare that to uprisings is an insult to the storyline.

 

What the heck are you smoking? The machine gods are the basis for zakuulan mythology. Valkorion was intermittently thought to be either Izax or Zildrog reincarnated. They are the superweapon everyone is fighting over. Not doing that mission is equivalent to never completing the DF/DP operations at the end of Oricon. The scions tell you that you when you defeat them you will be worthy of possessing their shells, a reference to looting the control modules that let you walk around the planet as them. Then they tell you that you will be able to use them to defeat the other side in the war.

 

The Star Fortresses are mentioned during your conversations with Lana while searching for fresh water during KOTFE 4 and again at the beginning of KOTFE 9. The assault on them is intended to occur alongside events in game between chapter 9 and chapter 14. We know this because they were developed at KOTFE launch and were the repeatable group content to fill the time between launch and when chapter 10 came, but more importantly they exclusively mention Arcann meaning their assault and destruction is part of the process of combating him until you finally learn of Gemini Prime. Not to mention that as you rank up influence with Alliance Specialists you gain bonuses in them... also reflective of you building up the strength of the Alliance during that time.

 

I’m saying that the level of relevance of Uprisings is similar, or analogous, to those other examples, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

 

But we’ll just agree to disagree.

[Ardrossan]

I’m saying that the level of relevance of Uprisings is similar, or analogous, to those other examples, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

.

 

The problem is that there's very little connection. Yes, they're brought up in the story, but they're brought up whether you do them or not. There's no story reward for doing SFs [or uprisings apparently], other than

 

Literally the only thing they change is autocompletion of a bonus mission in one chapter. Omg, how important.

 

The dialogue should change whether you completed these missions or not. Ideally there should be gameplay advantages too [like skipping the dreaded walker battle, for instance]. Theron should be able to point out the uprisings and the specific role the outlander played in suppressing them if you actually did them. Don't even get me started on Gods. Instead they're all disconnected from each other.

[mike_carton]

To the OP:

 

The difficulty level for the Uprisings varies wildly. The first set of 5 are easier (mob HP, mob strength, mechanics) and even among them the difficulty varies. That is true for FPs and Operations as well, as we know. It is possible to solo some MM Uprisings with augmented 306 gear and a level 50 companion; true for more VM Uprisings. "Trial and Error" was apparently consciously designed to be the most challenging and it shows; even VM is no joke (solo) and the MM version is downright impossible to solo once you get past the first boss, Marlon Fenn.

[Gelious]

They are the superweapon everyone is fighting over. Not doing that mission is equivalent to never completing the DF/DP operations at the end of Oricon.

 

No they are not. Superweapon everyone was fighting off was the thing that wiped all life on Iokath, that throne thingy. that Acina/Malcolm tried to repair and got killed by it instead.

 

And for the love of god, stop trying to compare GFTM to Dread Masters. When you finish Dread Palace you get a story cutscene, dialogs, and choice. When you kill Izax you get nothing. The modules are never references in story, cant be used outside Iokath and only useful for PvP achievements. Surely we can't considre those as part of story...

 

Not to mention that as you rank up influence with Alliance Specialists you gain bonuses in them... also reflective of you building up the strength of the Alliance during that time.

 

Alliance Specialists do nothing outside the Star Fortresses. And strength of the Alliance ends up irrelevant too - you get the same events with specialists at rank 1 and rank 20

Edited August 5, 2020 by Gelious

[phalczen]

No they are not. Superweapon everyone was fighting off was the thing that wiped all life on Iokath, that throne thingy. that Acina/Malcolm tried to repair and got killed by it instead.

Are you for real? Theron Shan literally describes the superweapon as being tested on Zakuul millenia ago. Tyth speaks to you while you are on the throne. The superweapon referred to in the Iokath story is the Machine Gods, not that thing ARIES used against Vaylin and her Forces and yours in KOTET 4. The civil war is what killed all sentient organic life ("The Builders") on Iokath ... its left a little murky whether the two sides in the civil war annihilated each other with the Gods +/- Fleet +/- Gravestone/Zildrog, or whether the droids revolted as well, but the Gods were definitely involved in the end of The Builders. Read the codex entries and re-watch videos on YouTube. Even the teleporter to the ops entrance is labeled "Superweapon Control."

stop trying to compare GFTM to Dread Masters. When you finish Dread Palace you get a story cutscene, dialogs, and choice. When you kill Izax you get nothing.

I said it was analogous. Both ops are preceded by a story arc whose composite missions closely mirror the type of missions you will have in the subsequent daily area. Both ops are capstone missions to said story arc, but do not have to be completed for a player to advance to the next part of the story. Both areas have reputation tracks associated with them.

 

It is true there are some differences between the two operations, as you say there is a short cutscene with a L/D choice at the end of "[OPS] The Dying Light," whereas GotM is left open ended. I have given you clear examples of why I believe GotM is more connected to the player's story arc than the Dread Masters, which is another difference between the two operations. The fact that they have differences does not preclude comparisons being made. After all, that is sort of the definition of "comparison."

Alliance Specialists do nothing outside the Star Fortresses. And strength of the Alliance ends up irrelevant too - you get the same events with specialists at rank 1 and rank 20

The amount of NPCs changes, the background conversations you hear when you pass by them changes, short cutscenes become available. That's three things besides SF right there. In the math I was taught in school, 3 > 0. Its about a sense of immersion. Odessen feels, sounds, and looks different on my one or two characters than have all alliance alerts done and all specialists up to rank 20, than it does on my characters that only have a few alerts done and specialists to 10.

[Gelious]

Are you for real? Theron Shan literally describes the superweapon as being tested on Zakuul millenia ago. Tyth speaks to you while you are on the throne. The superweapon referred to in the Iokath story is the Machine Gods, not that thing ARIES used against Vaylin and her Forces and yours in KOTET 4. The civil war is what killed all sentient organic life ("The Builders") on Iokath ... its left a little murky whether the two sides in the civil war annihilated each other with the Gods +/- Fleet +/- Gravestone/Zildrog, or whether the droids revolted as well, but the Gods were definitely involved in the end of The Builders. Read the codex entries and re-watch videos on YouTube. Even the teleporter to the ops entrance is labeled "Superweapon Control."

.

 

No ****! Of course it named "Superweapon Control." Do you know what ELSE is located in that area, besides the entrance to the op? The THRONE, a.k.a the actual superweapon controls, on which you sit at the end of the storyline to shut it down before it obliterates all life on planet. That is the superweapon. The giant robots are just some other weapons. Maybe meant to be its guards or support or whatever. And they were the ones tested on Zakuul.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Gelious

[Ardrossan]

Alliance Specialists do nothing outside the Star Fortresses. And strength of the Alliance ends up irrelevant too - you get the same events with specialists at rank 1 and rank 20

 

You need them at rank 10 to be useful in the SFs.

 

They should have been better utilized, however. Battle for Odessen and Endtimes are two chapters where high versus low ranks could have meant an easier or more difficult / neutral battle. Or at least less mobs. Similarly in End Times, the gadgets you pick up during that bonus mission should have come only from optional alliance recruits, not Gault and Yuun. If you didn't recruit them, you shouldnt get the help.

 

There should have been better rewards for max level specialists too. tf do i care about a new speeder mount? At least it was sellable. A max level Beywan shouldn't leave the alliance, or at least there should be the option to persuade them to stay, perhaps if the char is lightsided or chose peacekeeper or just something. A max level Dr. Hutt should have been able to give a clue about Gemini 16's listening capabilities. A max level Sana Rae should have been able to predict at least one FU plot element, whether it be Malgus, Scourge/Kira, Vinn Atrus etc. A max level Hylo should have made an optional sidequest to use the Adegan crystals picked up on Umbara to create stealthed alliance ships. LS: Blockade runners, Neutral: Spy ships, DS: Bombers.

[phalczen]

Battle for Odessen and Endtimes are two chapters where high versus low ranks could have meant an easier or more difficult / neutral battle. Or at least less mobs. Similarly in End Times, the gadgets you pick up during that bonus mission should have come only from optional alliance recruits, not Gault and Yuun. If you didn't recruit them, you shouldnt get the help.

 

There should have been better rewards for max level specialists too. A max level Beywan shouldn't leave the alliance, or at least there should be the option to persuade them to stay, perhaps if the char is lightsided or chose peacekeeper or just something. A max level Dr. Hutt should have been able to give a clue about Gemini 16's listening capabilities. A max level Sana Rae should have been able to predict at least one FU plot element, whether it be Malgus, Scourge/Kira, Vinn Atrus etc. A max level Hylo should have made an optional sidequest to use the Adegan crystals picked up on Umbara to create stealthed alliance ships. LS: Blockade runners, Neutral: Spy ships, DS: Bombers.

 

I can agree with most of these ideas, though I suspect they were mostly out of scope. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the immersion, but some functional impacts would have been nice. As you say, the need for the umpteenth speeder (when really the only one visually worth having is Hylo Visz's) isn't enough incentive to rank up influence on your umpteenth time through KOTFEET. But having an easier time doing master mode replays would be a better incentive.

 

No ****! Of course it named "Superweapon Control." Do you know what ELSE is located in that area, besides the entrance to the op? The THRONE, a.k.a the actual superweapon controls, on which you sit at the end of the storyline to shut it down before it obliterates all life on planet. That is the superweapon. The giant robots are just some other weapons. Maybe meant to be its guards or support or whatever. And they were the ones tested on Zakuul.

 

If you are incapable of seeing and listening to dialogue right in front of you, reading codex entries, and looking at clickable items in the world, I cannot help you. You are just wrong on this aspect. When you sit on that throne in the op you control the droid bodies based on the control module you use. I'm guessing you have never done that, so the obvious remains obscured for you.

 

But we're way off topic at this point.

[RBWTOR]

Thanks for the responses! We dropped back and did more uprisings on easier difficulties just to see what they're like and have fun with them. I think we'll try again and see if we can't get at least one of these master mode ones done!

 

We just recently did the Uprisings to get the achievements in all modes. Composition was mostly a Shadow tank and a ranged DD (Slinger or Mando) with companions.

 

Only Uprising that proved a little more difficult was "Trial and Error" 3rd Boss, because the AOE in the small room is rather nasty, but once we figured out it required kiting it was easy and we got all achievements (except for the 4 Rakghoul ones for obvious reasons).

For the rest of the Uprisings I don't recall any issue.

 

We've been playing a Vanguard (tank) and a Scoundrel (damage) with level 50 companions, so not quite the same, but similar. You give me hope!

 

To the OP:

 

The difficulty level for the Uprisings varies wildly. The first set of 5 are easier (mob HP, mob strength, mechanics) and even among them the difficulty varies. That is true for FPs and Operations as well, as we know. It is possible to solo some MM Uprisings with augmented 306 gear and a level 50 companion; true for more VM Uprisings. "Trial and Error" was apparently consciously designed to be the most challenging and it shows; even VM is no joke (solo) and the MM version is downright impossible to solo once you get past the first boss, Marlon Fenn.

 

That's a good tip about the first 5 versus the second 5. We had originally tried "Divided We Fall", which is in the second set, so we'll aim for something in the first set when we try again later. If you have a specific "easiest" to suggest, we'll probably try it as our first shot!

I found these pages for the two lists:

 

http://dulfy.net/2016/11/30/swtor-5-0-uprisings-guide/

http://dulfy.net/2017/01/25/swtor-5-1-uprisings-guide/

[mike_carton]

That's a good tip about the first 5 versus the second 5. We had originally tried "Divided We Fall", which is in the second set, so we'll aim for something in the first set when we try again later. If you have a specific "easiest" to suggest, we'll probably try it as our first shot!

 

Fractured used to be considered the easiest. A huge number of players regularly farmed it heavily at one time. "Crimson Fang" and Firefrost are less challenging than Inferno and "Done and Dusted" as well. All subjective, of course.

Edited August 18, 2020 by mike_carton

[RBWTOR]

Fractured used to be considered the easiest. A huge number of players regularly farmed it heavily at one time. "Crimson Fang" and Firefrost are less challenging than Inferno and "Done and Dusted" as well. All subjective, of course.

 

Thanks!