The fact that every crit on your dot heals you for 2% of your life is pretty sweet to me and medium armor. Shadow is wearing light and only heals 1% of their life if they spec balance.
The sentinel actually has a bunch of short cd defensive abilities. Rebuke, which can be talented to have almost 100% uptime, Pacify, Blade Ward, and the synergy between Zen and the healing on DoT crits talent. Plus the temporary invulnerability of a talented...whatever the vanish is called.
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Having finally reached 36, I would just like to say that Hidden Strike is glorious.
With companion help, Hidden Strike, Shiv, Debil, Evisc, Backstab, Shiv will kill a Strong (or be an Overload short).
Having finally reached 36, I would just like to say that Hidden Strike is glorious.
With companion help, Hidden Strike, Shiv, Debil, Evisc, Backstab, Shiv will kill a Strong (or be an Overload short).
It is nice, isn't it. Please, enjoy it while it lasts.
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cptruggedI think it has something to do with free will.Registered Userregular
I'm really loving my DPS scoundrel. The aesthetics of pistol whipping, shotguning, and nut shoting may be the most entertaining thing I've done in this game so far. Damage seem's solid as well. I just wish the shotgun got used for more attacks.
Odd question. So the operative has shiv.. which I would think would use the damage of the vibroknife as a base. Well the scoundrell has the pistol whip, which is in no way related to the scattergun. Are these abilities at all related to the actual weapon damage? Are the offhands nothing more than stat devices to up tech damage?
Yep, offhands are just for tech/force power and stats, but that power is hugely important. Your offhand is your second most important slot.
It makes gearing dual wielders a bit easier since they can have an orange in their offhand.
Jephery on
}
"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
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cptruggedI think it has something to do with free will.Registered Userregular
Yep, offhands are just for tech/force power and stats, but that power is hugely important. Your offhand is your second most important slot.
It makes gearing dual wielders a bit easier since they can have an orange in their offhand.
And that's so odd, cause I could have sworn that vibroknives and scatterguns both have min-max damage values like other weapons. Weird that those would be added to the stats but completely unused.
Man, I had the easiest time deciding which AC I would play on each of my repub/empire dudes so I have differing playstyles on each, until I got to smuggler/Imp Agent. I just can't decide who I want to be the long range cover guy, and who I want to be the stealthy guy. Sniper rifle vs. double guns, dagger vs. close range shotgun blasts and nut kicks. It's too god damned hard to decide!
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cptruggedI think it has something to do with free will.Registered Userregular
I do kind of wish there was a way to stay in stealth while your companion gains initial agro. But I can see how that could be a dangerous road to exploit town.
Lightning wins. Madness is a fun pvp spec, but Lightning is fucking retarded. My buddy who's a healer specced Telekinetics on his sage the other night to run a flashpoint, and it was obscene. Keep weaken mind on, use turbulence every 9 seconds and it's guaranteed to crit, oh and you have +50% crit damage bonus deep in that tree so it's mack trucks. Also, the AoE you spec into hits like a truck too. Then, Disturbance gets spammed until one of the many cool procs like the double speed telekinetic throw pops up. It has a lot of procs to watch for, but it's bananas.
According to the spreadsheet calcs at Sithwarrior.com, the hybrid Madness based spec 0/13/28 spec is the highest dps spec for Sorc. But if you look at all the specs they vary in dmg from 1102-1197 DPS. So basically it doesn't really matter which spec you run: lightening, Madness, or hybrid. I like the hybrid spec since it is better in pvp (no CD on Force lightening and chain shock) and the dmg is much more constant. This is mainly due to the fact that Thundering Blast has a CD and with its long cast time I find it annoying in movement based fight.
Time is a flat circle
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Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
So I just got to pick my advanced class and I chose Gunslinger and now I have these skill trees and I'm am lost
How many points do I get? What are good things to get? I dunnoooo
edit - and like seven hundred crew skills to choose from
Forever Zefiro on
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
You get a total of 40 points, and each "level" of skills requires 5 points in the "level" below it to unlock it (so I need 5 points in the bottom row of the Sharpshooter tree to unlock the second level of Sharpshooter talents)
This is basically my Sniper build (IAs version of Gunslinger):
I think its a pretty good PvE build, there are better PvP builds though. Oh and the 2 points in Cool Under Pressure can basically go anywhere.
As for Crew Skills, those are crafting professions. You can only have a total of 3 crew skills at a time, but you can only have 1 crafting skill at a time (so you could have 3 gathering/mission skills or 1 crafting and 2 gathering/mission skills, but not 1 gathering/mission skills and 2 crafting skills). Personally, Id go with either Cybertech since you can make mods which can go into anything and armor mods that can go into armor (and grenades, and earpieces, and robot parts, and ship parts, and speeder bikes...its kind of a hodgepodge), or Armstech which can make guns and stuff for guns, or Biochem since it can make potions/reusable potions/potions to heal others, implants, stims and adrenals (basically short term stims). When you talk to the crafting trainers, youll get a codex entry, so check your codex and see what you want to make.
Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
Ok cool, thanks for the tips
Yeah I read the codex entries but I just didn't know exactly how well they translated into the game world, the weapon building, armor building and mod building all seemed pretty useful
Also, as a Smuggler, I'm about 50light/50dark and it blows that from what I can tell there's no benefit to this, you should either go all one way or the other
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
The fact that every crit on your dot heals you for 2% of your life is pretty sweet to me and medium armor. Shadow is wearing light and only heals 1% of their life if they spec balance.
Medium armor isn't that amazing. Even if Shadows don't spec into the tank tree, they have the ability to pick up armor boosts that will get them at least to medium armor, if not above it. Also, the healing on dots is really not that significant. Most regular mobs won't live long enough for your dots to take enough effect to make it worthwhile. It's only ever useful for soloing elites, and even then I'd argue that it doesn't heal nearly enough incoming damage for it to be worth it. I've leveled a couple classes up into the 30s, and seen my girlfriend also level a few. So far, Marauder has been by far the squishiest, unless they have a cooldown ready to use.
If shadow, the AC that can actually spec to be a tank feels too squishy for you, then I guarantee you that a marauder will feel like wet tissue paper by comparison.
The fact that every crit on your dot heals you for 2% of your life is pretty sweet to me and medium armor. Shadow is wearing light and only heals 1% of their life if they spec balance.
Medium armor isn't that amazing. Even if Shadows don't spec into the tank tree, they have the ability to pick up armor boosts that will get them at least to medium armor, if not above it. Also, the healing on dots is really not that significant. Most regular mobs won't live long enough for your dots to take enough effect to make it worthwhile. It's only ever useful for soloing elites, and even then I'd argue that it doesn't heal nearly enough incoming damage for it to be worth it. I've leveled a couple classes up into the 30s, and seen my girlfriend also level a few. So far, Marauder has been by far the squishiest, unless they have a cooldown ready to use.
If shadow, the AC that can actually spec to be a tank feels too squishy for you, then I guarantee you that a marauder will feel like wet tissue paper by comparison.
Except I have no intention of specing into the tank tree. Comparing DPS trees, it doesn't seem possible for the infiltration or balance shadow to be sturdier than the watchman sentinel (or whatever the far left tree is for marauders)
Feel free to go for it, but I think you will be sorely disappointed. Survivable is probably the last term I would use to describe Marauders/Sentinels, even from a PvE perspective.
"Sorely Disappointed" is the title of my autobiography. This would be a "mild annoyance" at best. Psh.
... I feel sadder now.
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DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
Okay, can someone explain "alacrity" to me? I don't see it as a stat anywhere on my character sheet yet a lot of sniper abilities increase it. Would it be safe to say it's the same as haste from WoW? And I hate that it's not a definable stat anywhere that I can look up!
You have to switch your character sheet's view to Tech or Force to find it.
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DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
I swear I looked at the tech tab on my agent, but it wasn't there. But thank you. That was driving me crazy. Sniper volley really makes a difference because of said bonus.
I am a level 42 Balance Sage. I am loving the tree. With force in Balance and Forcequake, and I can make trash PvE mobs die quick, and with my DoTs, and endless pebbles, I can do some pretty harsh damage to champs and elites in Heroics, also balance has skills that boost my CC lift.
But, now I can't decide what to do with my last 10 skill points. I like to be able to side heal and throw up shields a lot too. I'm thinking of putting that 10 points into the healing tree. But, do you think that that will ultimately gimp me as a DPS player? Old fears of not being top DPS and getting the threat of being kicked from raids are still there from that other MMO.
Honestly, having heard about the tight enrage timers on HM FP bosses, you may still end up having to spec for more DPS in this game, but without a combat log, nobody may be able to tell that you're the one holding back kills, heh.
I played balance on my wife's sage for a while for pvp/pve fun times, and while I did like it, I liked Telekinetics a lot better. Once you hit 40 on TK and you have +50% crit damage and guaranteed crit turbulences every 9 seconds, the single target dps is just berserk, and they get a 2nd talented AoE too(Telekinetic wave) so I never missed force in balance. You might give it a shot and see how you like it. I kind of dug it just because you cast a lot of disturbance, and I like the graphic of that spell too.
If you can post your current build, it'd be easier to suggest where we'd put the last points.
EDIT: I actually did take the top of the balance tree, so I have 31 points in that one, but for some reason, cant get the skill tree calculator to recognize that when it gives me the link.
I just put points in force crit in the healing tree, 9% reduced cost on force spells, and +100 force pool in the TK tree, then I chose your capstone in Balance, because it is a nice DoT on bosses/elites that live more than 18 seconds.
I know force is not an issue when you're casting TK throw, but if you want to be able to offheal in a pinch then the 9% cost reducer and the +100 force synergizes well with the faster deliverance talent you took, so you could emergency off heal just using deliverance.
I don't think it would be the most optimal spec for pve or anything, but it would be nice to pvp in and if you like it, then hey, ride the train until you run into something that forces you to change. If it were me, I would swap the 2 points in balance out of the thing that makes your lift affect 2 more targets and put them in the one that makes your DoT crits heal you for 1% max health, because that utility is nice, and honestly you rarely need to lift anything that isn't elite or at least strong, so that talent is marginally useful IMO.
Thank you, I think that is what I will go with, you have been most helpful. But, I actually use to have the skill that healed me for 1% and found it pretty useless, to be honest. And I use it less to pick up additional mobs than to reduce the cool down on force stun.
Right on. I could see that, and especially since it's only on crits that's probably more of a pvp talent. I imagine in pvp there's a lot of tab targetting and casting weaken mind, so the talent would proc a lot more than in a pve environment, and more frequent stuns are always good.
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
This is most definitely not a DOT/HOT game right now. Aside from bosses, no PVE mob lasts long enough for a DOT or HOT to matter. My only toon who uses DOTs is the Sniper because Cull ticks more often for every poison DOT on the target.
I think Watchman Sentinels are the most ideal DoT spec right now, because when their DoTs crit they get 2% max health back, and they get a basically permanent 15% extra crit chance on their DoT ticks, of which they have many. Vigilance Guardians also put DoTs on, though it's just part of the playstyle, not really much of a synergy thing.
If you're a solo player who rolls with a companion, elites will definitely live long enough for DoTs to matter though, though just like any game, they really shine in pvp and on bosses.
I think Watchman Sentinels are the most ideal DoT spec right now, because when their DoTs crit they get 2% max health back, and they get a basically permanent 15% extra crit chance on their DoT ticks, of which they have many. Vigilance Guardians also put DoTs on, though it's just part of the playstyle, not really much of a synergy thing.
If you're a solo player who rolls with a companion, elites will definitely live long enough for DoTs to matter though, though just like any game, they really shine in pvp and on bosses.
It appears that balance Shadows are also very dot-centric. They get a similar health regen off dot crits, and get a dot crit damage bonus too. However, their dots are on some longer CD's, so they basically weave them in between Double Strikes and the likes. Once I learned this, and tried it out in pvp, I became an unstoppable force. With a healer occasionally tossing heals on me, I literally died a whole 3 times in an entire Alderaan game.
Yeah, I rocked a balance spec on my wife's sage for a bit, so I know about force in balance.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Alacrity really seems like balls.
After playing around with Sniper Volley with my Sniper for awhile, I decided that 9% alacrity means dick all and that seems actually pretty high as far as alacrity bonuses go.
It reduced the activation time on Snipe from 1.5 seconds to 1.4
I also don't think alacrity lowers the GCD, so any less than 1.5 would be wasted any way. Alacrity is for healers in this game, specifically for sage healers, since deliverance, healing trance, and salvation all benefit nicely from it. you can tell they itemize alacrity on the healing gear, and I haven't really seen it on the other people's gear.
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Hard cover. I've seen other people report this in-game too.
In fact, i've noticed there's like a one second delay after I fire, when i'm ducking back down, where I can get hit too.
Ha, funny.
The fact that every crit on your dot heals you for 2% of your life is pretty sweet to me and medium armor. Shadow is wearing light and only heals 1% of their life if they spec balance.
With companion help, Hidden Strike, Shiv, Debil, Evisc, Backstab, Shiv will kill a Strong (or be an Overload short).
It is nice, isn't it. Please, enjoy it while it lasts.
Odd question. So the operative has shiv.. which I would think would use the damage of the vibroknife as a base. Well the scoundrell has the pistol whip, which is in no way related to the scattergun. Are these abilities at all related to the actual weapon damage? Are the offhands nothing more than stat devices to up tech damage?
It makes gearing dual wielders a bit easier since they can have an orange in their offhand.
"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
And that's so odd, cause I could have sworn that vibroknives and scatterguns both have min-max damage values like other weapons. Weird that those would be added to the stats but completely unused.
According to the spreadsheet calcs at Sithwarrior.com, the hybrid Madness based spec 0/13/28 spec is the highest dps spec for Sorc. But if you look at all the specs they vary in dmg from 1102-1197 DPS. So basically it doesn't really matter which spec you run: lightening, Madness, or hybrid. I like the hybrid spec since it is better in pvp (no CD on Force lightening and chain shock) and the dmg is much more constant. This is mainly due to the fact that Thundering Blast has a CD and with its long cast time I find it annoying in movement based fight.
How many points do I get? What are good things to get? I dunnoooo
edit - and like seven hundred crew skills to choose from
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
This is basically my Sniper build (IAs version of Gunslinger):
http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400rsrbdMoRgzZbcMZh.1
Which translates to this smuggler build
http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700rsrbdMoRgzZbcMZh.1
I think its a pretty good PvE build, there are better PvP builds though. Oh and the 2 points in Cool Under Pressure can basically go anywhere.
As for Crew Skills, those are crafting professions. You can only have a total of 3 crew skills at a time, but you can only have 1 crafting skill at a time (so you could have 3 gathering/mission skills or 1 crafting and 2 gathering/mission skills, but not 1 gathering/mission skills and 2 crafting skills). Personally, Id go with either Cybertech since you can make mods which can go into anything and armor mods that can go into armor (and grenades, and earpieces, and robot parts, and ship parts, and speeder bikes...its kind of a hodgepodge), or Armstech which can make guns and stuff for guns, or Biochem since it can make potions/reusable potions/potions to heal others, implants, stims and adrenals (basically short term stims). When you talk to the crafting trainers, youll get a codex entry, so check your codex and see what you want to make.
Yeah I read the codex entries but I just didn't know exactly how well they translated into the game world, the weapon building, armor building and mod building all seemed pretty useful
Also, as a Smuggler, I'm about 50light/50dark and it blows that from what I can tell there's no benefit to this, you should either go all one way or the other
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Medium armor isn't that amazing. Even if Shadows don't spec into the tank tree, they have the ability to pick up armor boosts that will get them at least to medium armor, if not above it. Also, the healing on dots is really not that significant. Most regular mobs won't live long enough for your dots to take enough effect to make it worthwhile. It's only ever useful for soloing elites, and even then I'd argue that it doesn't heal nearly enough incoming damage for it to be worth it. I've leveled a couple classes up into the 30s, and seen my girlfriend also level a few. So far, Marauder has been by far the squishiest, unless they have a cooldown ready to use.
If shadow, the AC that can actually spec to be a tank feels too squishy for you, then I guarantee you that a marauder will feel like wet tissue paper by comparison.
Steam | XBL: Elazual | Last.fm
Except I have no intention of specing into the tank tree. Comparing DPS trees, it doesn't seem possible for the infiltration or balance shadow to be sturdier than the watchman sentinel (or whatever the far left tree is for marauders)
Steam | XBL: Elazual | Last.fm
... I feel sadder now.
But, now I can't decide what to do with my last 10 skill points. I like to be able to side heal and throw up shields a lot too. I'm thinking of putting that 10 points into the healing tree. But, do you think that that will ultimately gimp me as a DPS player? Old fears of not being top DPS and getting the threat of being kicked from raids are still there from that other MMO.
I played balance on my wife's sage for a while for pvp/pve fun times, and while I did like it, I liked Telekinetics a lot better. Once you hit 40 on TK and you have +50% crit damage and guaranteed crit turbulences every 9 seconds, the single target dps is just berserk, and they get a 2nd talented AoE too(Telekinetic wave) so I never missed force in balance. You might give it a shot and see how you like it. I kind of dug it just because you cast a lot of disturbance, and I like the graphic of that spell too.
If you can post your current build, it'd be easier to suggest where we'd put the last points.
This is my build, if I did this right: http://r2-db.com/skill-tree/calculator/12/jedi-consular/jedi-sage#build=c000000000000000000ieidje7ei1
EDIT: I actually did take the top of the balance tree, so I have 31 points in that one, but for some reason, cant get the skill tree calculator to recognize that when it gives me the link.
http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GZfZcrcRsrkrcz.1
I just put points in force crit in the healing tree, 9% reduced cost on force spells, and +100 force pool in the TK tree, then I chose your capstone in Balance, because it is a nice DoT on bosses/elites that live more than 18 seconds.
I know force is not an issue when you're casting TK throw, but if you want to be able to offheal in a pinch then the 9% cost reducer and the +100 force synergizes well with the faster deliverance talent you took, so you could emergency off heal just using deliverance.
I don't think it would be the most optimal spec for pve or anything, but it would be nice to pvp in and if you like it, then hey, ride the train until you run into something that forces you to change. If it were me, I would swap the 2 points in balance out of the thing that makes your lift affect 2 more targets and put them in the one that makes your DoT crits heal you for 1% max health, because that utility is nice, and honestly you rarely need to lift anything that isn't elite or at least strong, so that talent is marginally useful IMO.
If you're a solo player who rolls with a companion, elites will definitely live long enough for DoTs to matter though, though just like any game, they really shine in pvp and on bosses.
It appears that balance Shadows are also very dot-centric. They get a similar health regen off dot crits, and get a dot crit damage bonus too. However, their dots are on some longer CD's, so they basically weave them in between Double Strikes and the likes. Once I learned this, and tried it out in pvp, I became an unstoppable force. With a healer occasionally tossing heals on me, I literally died a whole 3 times in an entire Alderaan game.
Yeah, you'll find yourself squeeing in glee everytime a few sith stack next to each other, as you reach for your Force in Balance button.
After playing around with Sniper Volley with my Sniper for awhile, I decided that 9% alacrity means dick all and that seems actually pretty high as far as alacrity bonuses go.
It reduced the activation time on Snipe from 1.5 seconds to 1.4
I find the heals of the operative appealing.
I find the more constant play style of the assassin appealing (mostly melee attacks, doesn't have to deal with cover)