Ranged toons in trouble

[gottaloveme]

I am playing the chapter on Nathema where Vaylin breaks her conditioning.

My sith went through that chapter easily. My agent and smuggler aren't getting past the first mobs.

I've improved Lana's influence but still not happening. My sith is LVL 73 and smuggler and agent are respectively, 77 and 80.

Operative is 267 gear and is a gunslinger. Smuggler is also a gunslinger and 239 gear.

Is there a second ranged ability that would suit the purpose?

Thanks.

[The_Hightower]

Is the chapter difficulty set to story?

Is your companion set to the right role?

You can summon 1 to 3 buddies to help you => invite them to your group => right clicking your portrait => Menu Group => Summon ... for story mission (dunno the exact wording of the last)

For the level 80 toon you can get 324 item rating gear at the Conquest Commendations vendor on the fleet.

Gunslinger is usually fine for this chapter, using Hunker Down and kicking the mobs off the bridge can be done for the first mobs. The mobs in front of the building require to move out of the voids and sometimes staying away from your companion. Afair you can also break some of the attacks by breaking the line of sight to the mob by moving behind a column.

Skilling "Cool under Pressure" (selfheal, level 64 left ability choice) and "Dodge Stance" (level 27 , left ability choice), also helps a lot. Regarding the self-heal, the other choices, i.e., a) the additional damage from the blaster AoE is not worth it in most situations and b) the cooldown reduction on bag of tricks and making this a defensive cooldown may sound nice but the cooldown is still 2:15 min, i.e., during that time the selfheal heals yourself twice your total health.

[gottaloveme]

Thankyou.

I've tried Lana on heal and tank. Little better on tank. And yes, story mode, as always. As to being part of a group, cannot do.

I have done this before, got one smuggler up to darth malgus chapter.

I will go with your advice and see how it goes. 😁

Appreciated.

 

[SteveTheCynic]

14 hours ago, gottaloveme said:

I've improved Lana's influence but still not happening. My sith is LVL 73 and smuggler and agent are respectively, 77 and 80.

Operative is 267 gear and is a gunslinger. Smuggler is also a gunslinger and 239 gear.

This is a big part of your problem, especially for the Agent/gunslinger at level 80.  For your level, you have sub-par gear.  Level 80's get penalised for using gear that's below 324 or so when they are in areas with a sub-max level cap, but you're using 267...  The smuggler should be using at least level 75 gear, rated at 270 to 306, rather than 239, which is the weak end of level 70 gear (level 70 gear runs from 230 to 248, and the power increases faster than purely linearly, so 239 is closer in actual strength to 230 than it is 248 even though the numeric difference in *rating* is the same in both directions).

[gottaloveme]

Thanks. I'm looking at better gear from the commendation vendor.

It takes a little longer to wrap my head around these things, but I will stay on target.