PvP tips and stats

[Elrojo]

Hi guys,

Wondering from the people who PvP in SWTOR regularly if they can provide some pointers to me, and others about how to be effective.

I am a scoundrel and I have spec'd healing "perks" but I don't seem to be able to out heal any significant damage, then as soon as people work put I heal I just get ganked.

So any tips (other than to lvl)

Also can you provide some info on who is good vs who.

[noobas]

I got a bit of advice.

1. Never be first in (DPS first, tanks second, healers/CC last)

2. use pillars, and ramps and LOS in general to stay OUT of opponents LOS

3. ALWAYS travel in a group

4. check your travelling partners specs (DPS profs will (SHOULD!!!!) get killed first so they should be your first priority, tanks should be guarding DPSers, healers, and CC profs (good tanks will always guard DPSers, because CC'ers aren't make/break, and ideally it's useless to guard healers becuase they shouldn't be under attack: you should be furthest from battle), you heal DPS/tanks and AOE heal, guards tank damage for DPS, and DPS kills the other guys. CC profs just screw with the other team so they can't function well. <-- the more this happens, the more wipes you'll see, however, if sages are dpsing (I could be wrong here), you may see poorly functioning groups... Sages that focus on force chokes/ whatever the pubes do, is way more efective as it takes people out of the battle instantly).

5. same as a sniper, you can use location to produce extraordinary effects: spend 1-2 minutes if things are quiet getting into a location where you can see a lot, and you're out of normal LOS/range of melee. Use this location and heal from there.

6. MOST importantly, once you're in a reasonably safe location (read: not under attack), don't look at the fray... look at your sidebar (left side of screen) to target your allies. note which are close by the blacked/greayed out ones, then use that to target priority targets, keep the ones alive you can and pull out ALL the stops, use everything you can even long recharge skills, because if the fight is close and your side wins, they will be annoyed and spread out a bit and be less organized next time... A couple well timed heals makes a MASSIVE difference, mainly, because if an alpha fails on a strong DPSer, it means he'll have a full next alpha to remove one of the opposing force and, many profs have to wait a bit before engageing in hard DPS again (even the DPS profs).

7. Offensively, use dots to limit capping ability for opponents: dots tick for 15 seconds, so thats 15 seconds you've got where that guy CAN NOT cap a point. Use bombs/CC to disrupt non-priority opponents. IE, don't use a root/blind on someone under attack, use roots on the melee dude running in to start mayhem. use blinds/interupts on sorcs to limit their CC ability <-- makes people go apeshit.

8. in 1-1 fights, Kite, kite, kite and kite and use LOS to screw with your opponents. kite melee, turn around, face them, run backwards and shoot them with your basic shot (flurry of bolts I think), root them and get more range between you, dot them, and keep moving backwards. Against snipers/ranged, find pillars and move between them, heal while behind/out of LOS, then pop out and blast, move back, move out of LOS, use a dot, make kills slowly, while emphasizing defence use your interupts liberally for hard hitting attacks like tracer missile, lightning chain and aimed shot and master strike. 15s recharge on interupt, so you can almost spam it.

vs ranged profs, get the hell out of the open, in the open is where kills are made and you go to recon. like, in the turret WZ, go under the stairs, behind the pillars, around the back, hide in crannies, heal up, charge up, pop out and dot!, run backwards firing then ROOT! jump behind a pillar for 8 seconds of respite and heal, then relocate them and spam flurry, dot again, bomb, stun, whatever, and find your next pillar.

Kiting will take some time to get used to, mechanisms have been added in game to make it extremely difficult to kite (unlike AO, where you can shoot through the back of your head), so, strafe-run is extremely effective, as is running backwards. But, in both cases, your opponent often has a moderate advantage that they can see forward and shoot while you can't. Therefore, your kiting MUST produce the effect of defence!!!!! The BEST defence is where they are taking damage, and they are not/can not do damage on you. In other words, you have them dotted and they can't see you. Hence, use pillars/ramps/LOS to your advantage ALL the time. Practice it in every single WZ. Imo, turret/voidstar are the best for these. There is seriously awesome terrain for mega tactical combat. hanging out in the middle is like holding up a big sign asking for alpha fodder... choose your locations out of sight for the rushers, and in sight for your comrades. if you get targetted, MOVE. (same as AO for the large part).

[Chrisax]

Do you know if Force Quake (AoE mini earthquake, if I can say "earth") hitting and destabilizing enemies in its area several times prevents capping?

[noobas]

I don't know chris.

[Chrisax]

I need to try. A good opportunity for being massively ganked if it doesn't work!

[Bredin]

Resolve is the mechanic that prevents chain-CC in SWTOR PvP. This keeps you from being CCd over and over (and over). This post about it is very informative.

[Mud]

force quake does keep from capping

[Elrojo]

I still dont really get Hutt-Ball. I'm not even sure i have seen the ACTUAL hutt ball. I just seem to reun around trying to kill people and trying to get on the upper ramps to shoot down at people.

My issue with the scoundrel pvp is that there is not inate healing and all ofthe HoT style healing is very brief and also not high (at my lvl).

My HoTs are usually over 15 seconds and only really restore a max of about 800 HP. The other is 3 seconds and is only 800 also. My 2nd heal, this kolto thing, only heals for about 800 and then my primary heals for about 1200-2.5K (random as hell). It takes about 2 seconds to do the heal and i cant be moving. As you would well know this isnt nearly fast enough and isnt nearly high enough and drains my strength or w/e after about 6 casts in a row.

My dodge perk is all of 3 seconds. YEP 3. This means literally that the other dude has to be hitting Q (old school) as i perk or it's wasted. I mean 3 seconds......

I seem to always get in the position where it is chain heal myself, and hence i cannot move or it breaks the heal. or chain heal someone else and again not move. I try to range as much a possible but they just find you and gank you quick smart.

So far I just dont like it. DD profs seem to be much easier. Its almaost back to AO days where the doc heals once and everyone calls you and you die.

I think scoundrel needs either higher defence (perhaps it does with better gear), some sort of absrob or reflect chance, a faster heal, that has a chance to HoT even, or a longer HoT. Also it would be nice for "perk" heals.

Anyhow thats my wish list

[Bredin]

My issue with the scoundrel pvp is that there is not inate healing

Think about re-rolling to Biomech. The infinite-charge heal kits are VERY nice.

[noobas]

Just a FYI rojo, scoundrels are at the TOP of the nerf list right now.

sorcs/sages are second, but theres endless QQ over scoundrel survival.

If it's not working for you, consider the following:

1. perk into the sab tree, get the utility belt that makes you disappear.
2. sneak into a dudes space, and bomb the F8ck out of him, stun x4
3. if you don't kill him, pop your in fight disappear, and move away.
4. survive to fight again at your disgression

This tree may be a lot more fun to play for someone who hasn't got a solid healing set yet.

[Elrojo]

I do respect that while I post here about dying alot I am not in PvP gear and I've only done a few WZ, about 15 or so. But in general I see that melee seems to do much better than ranged.

Every other prof seems to have better CC than me. I have a kick that stuns and a tendon blast that snares, but recharge on both are horrific and the kick is short range so it defeats the purpose of being ranged. I find I'm never really able to get away because of the fact it's usually 3 v 1 or so.

At this stage it really is like doc in AO PvP. In 1v1 survivability is good, but don't expect to kill. More than likely just hope to stay alive long enough for help (which never comes) in mass PvP where numbers are even I can keep a guy alive, but if they are outnumbered or find me then i don't last long at all. I assume this is where mr tank comes is, but no one does it.

I have one perk for disappearing, I need to try, but the hot bar set up is horrible. When I crouch the hot bar auto changes to and I cannot cycle the bar.

I guess a well geared scoundrel with more abilities would be very handy, but sub level is tough. I'm not going to perk and reperk just to be useful. I don't like having to be in one set of play to level up and then change at the end as it doesn't support learning your toon. This is like crat 1-219 is one set of rules, but when you get to 220 just redo everything and play differently. Well no thanks.

Tbh I tried trooper and it was way easier. Perks are faster, lower recharge, better defense and dmg was just easier to come by.

Anyhow I will persevere and see how I go

[Bredin]

...the hot bar set up is horrible. When I crouch the hot bar auto changes to and I cannot cycle the bar.

You can display an extra quick bar on the side of your screen. My UI configuration has the expanded quick bar below (so two rows) with an extra quick bar on the right side. I have my companion quick bar on the left side..so i have 4 total quick bars showing.

Tbh I tried trooper and it was way easier. Perks are faster, lower recharge, better defense and dmg was just easier to come by.

You should re-roll trooper! I've had a blast.

[Chrisax]

Also you have an option somewhere to prevent the hotbar from automatically changing when you crouch as a Smuggler. And use the second hot bar for more functions.

That said, go hardware:

http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/keyboards ... vices/7246

18 programmables keys x 3, each key being able to welcome a macro.

[Elrojo]

Ya bredin I know about the extra hot bars, but they are so stupidly placed. You kinda have to turn off chat and move the raid style display to get to all of the buttons. Plus then you have like healing ones all the way to the left then attack ones all the way to the right and so forth.

I find it difficult to use the mouse in pvp because I try to target with the mouse and then move and also spam the hotbar. But I dont have enough hands to move a mouse, use WASD and also spam hotbar numbers. So then i use the arrow keys and target with tab, but it is a bit hard to see who you are killing as the target is at the bottom of the character and not the topyou can never be sure if you are targetting the guy you want or the one to his left. and with no default attack . I like the mouse though because of the 3D nature of Hutt ball. Needless to say I am not too useless at the towers one where you grab left, middle and right, and not so bad at that bomb one. I am just useless at hutt ball.

Also chris I am not going to buy an external keyboard for my laptop just so i can manage SWTOR PvP.

[Bredin]

I am just useless at hutt ball.

There are two camps, those who love huttball and those who hate it. I hate it. If a person says they like huttball somewhat, do not believe them! They may be pretending to sort of like huttball but deep down they hate it. I think many fall into that category. I am available for in-game hate sessions about huttball if you just want to talk to someone.

Also chris I am not going to buy an external keyboard for my laptop just so i can manage SWTOR PvP.

ergo: Rojo = cheap

I found this guide about badge scoring very interesting.