#swtor pve

[medbasement]

Raptus’s fight is really pretty, and you can only stop and appreciate it when Dead on the Bridge

[rum-inspector]

What ever got into me to go do PuG flashpoints with low level operative healer when I haven’t played anything for week or two... Didn’t get sleep late last night and saw Ebon Hawk finally at standard so that’s what I guess :P

But the “hero story” of the day was getting backfilled into Foundry (they had been trying and failing HK) and eventually fighting Revan 3v1 and getting to throw in a few back stabs in between heals when one of the dps got knocked out of the platform and never got back to fight in time (no one had resurrect in combat ability so they had to run alll the way back and seeing their health bar start to drop accidentally pulled something while at it) I mean, for once pve left a sort of good taste but oh my were my hands shaking, probably my whole body was stressed to bits even if there were no wipes and very rarely anyone went below 50% health (well I did, forgeting to heal yourself is my achilles heel) it was difficult for me.

[rum-inspector]

@angry-healers your submit page seems to be broken? But any how, I just wrote a draft about how good PuGs been lately when this happened...

4-man run (flashpoint, like dungeons I hear), with 3 dps and healer. It's not impossibly hard content, even 4 dps can do it if they rotate boss aggro between them thanks to complimentary healing stations.

Dps dies, shits on the chat, I die, we wipe, one dps leaves. I should have as well. Any how, another DPS fills in, try again.

The same shitty mouth gets themselves killed outside my healing range. I spend precious time trying to find their body and revive. No thank yous, more shit. Fight goes on. Tough midway boss. I haven't got time to read the chat, too busy killing adds while keeping tabs on health bars of others (and mine, which was my first wipe mistake, not focusing heals on myself as we got no Tank) after the fight is over I see the shitty mouth have had time to type when others were busy playing.

All the usual rubbish, and then some specifically for me, things like "not a single heal" - there was not a second my quite visible damage reduction bubble wasn't on him and everyone else. According to this guy, I did nothing but stand around. Well, standing in one place for several seconds at a time is pretty essential for a stationary healer... one of the reasons I did have trouble healing this boss without a tank was I had to constantly move around and having to "waste" my heals on myself when I did get to “just stand aside”. This class' animations aren't flashy either (handy in pvp when it's harder for enemy to figure if I'm casting heals or dps) so I guess it may look like I'm doing nothing unless you actually took notice how our poor melee dps trying to be a make-shift tank was standing in AoE and not dying.

They even had the nerve to initiate a kick vote on me. Which I guess was declined by others since I wasn't, but I did what I should have the first time they got toxic and just took the loot and quit. I wish the team saw what he did and kicked him instead.

*now that I had time to calm down, I figure that dps had no clue how other classes work? Or group dynamics? Or how to adapt their style in less than ideal situation. I know I haven't mastered the art of healing yet, but still I'd say my biggest mistake here was not quitting the moment they made the first dps leave. Not like heals have to wait too long in queue anyway... Won’t be making that mistake again.

[swtorgonewrong]

5-man parties have different rules than soloing. Here are the things you need to know, that are so 'obvious' nobody will ever think to tell you.

I FOUND IT!!! THE PERFECT PVE GUIDE for N00bs!

It’s written for WOW, but the roles are pretty much the same for SWTOR 4-man flashpoints. This guide is very well written and writer seem to understand new people (no strange acronyms that so many swtor guides are filled with or heavy reading with overly detailed/complicated/advanced tricks) and even past the guide, the writer’s comment on it addressing the gap between new players vs. people with experience is very well worded.

Just in time for the light vs. dark event, which will force participants into doing flashpoints, not all of which are soloable. If you’re mainly solo/pvp, do read the guide above! Since swtor match making doesn’t work quite so well, and dps overrule other classes by far please take notice that if your group is missing a healer or a tank (sometimes both) you can’t play as pure dps as in the guide, but have to tank and heal yourself! So before you go blaming others, see that your OWN gaming style is adjusted to the group eg. if your dps is geared better than the newbie tank, help them. If you don’t have a healer, make sure you all heal yourselves before going for the next pull.

Old timers who have to use group finder, please remember now more than ever THERE WILL BE LOTS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER DONE THOSE FLASHPOINTS YOU KNOW BY HEART so, please, please, please be nice to us, or if you can’t stand n00bs ASK and leave the group in the beginning instead of in the middle or worse, getting n00b kicked before trying to help them :| If there is a mechanic to beat the boss and you know it etc. explain it. At the very least share your knowledge if your team wipes clearly because someone didn’t know what to do. No one benefits from assholes calling others idiots when they were the ones holding crucial information.

(you know I’ve been playing nearly a year and I’ve never even heard of Taral V or Maelstrom prison and those are supposed to be tied to your story or something...)

[swtorhints]

Soloing Flashpoints

With stronghold decorations dropping in low level flashpoints in 2.9 and the need for credits to purchase precious Tatooine real estate (what Jawa junk dealer sold you on THAT idea???), you're going to be tempted to run a lot of low level flashpoints solo so you don't have to compete on rare drops or share the creds.

But you will bring a companion. They usually let you have it all, so very nice of them.

Gearing. Companions mostly benefit the same way your character does from stats. Main stat is good, power is good, some crit is good, so is surge. Tank companions benefit from the same defensive stats and from I've read don't seem to favor defense vs shield drastically enough to stack one over the other. Accuracy isn't a factor unless you are planning on soloing flashpoints on your level. The same general rule of real stats being better than endurance works, except sometimes it's important that your companion actually make it through a fight. Remember HK-51 likes aim and cunning equally, and in a pinch both stats provide the same tech bonus for cunning or aim based healers, so use the highest level stuff you got.

Management. Make sure they are in a stance. DPS companions have an AOE v. Single target stance OR Bleed v. Armor piercing stance. You probably want to swap the first kind back and forth, but the Bleed is almost always better as far as I can tell. Toggle Passive on and off. Some bosses have weird mechanics and this is the only way to move your companion. Ctrl + 2 toggles this, and Ctrl + 1 causes them to attack. ` toggles companion quick bar size, or just click the "+" in the corner. You might actually have to pay attention to what your companions are actually doing for once.

Presence? I have no idea how effective a presence stim would be, considering my own characters have presence in the 800-900 range thanks to datacrons, a level 50 human, and maxed affection and completed conversations. I wouldn't gear for it. (Also, max out at least one group of companions to 10000 for the legacy-wide bonuses to accuracy, healing received, max health, surge, and crit chance!)

Treek is an OP healer.

So you're ready to go solo in group content! What can you actually do?

At max level with pretty much any gear, you should be able to do all pre-50 flashpoints except Colicoid Wargames, which requires at least two for the puzzle.

Level 50 Storymodes, like Battle of Ilum, are also very easy with even level 50 gear, but you have to start using your head when mobs are no longer greyed out. Lost Island and Kaon Under Seige can be difficult even in storymode, regardless of gear.

In contrast, Kuat Drive Yards at 55 can be ridiculously easy (especially if you're only looking for named elites who drop boxes and can just stealth past all the other enemies to see if it's worth your time). The other tacticals are a little more difficult thanks to enrage timers more than anything else. 

People who dedicate a lot of time to challenges like this are now soloing level 55 HMs. So it's really down to you. I personally find it simply takes too long to solo most 50 HMs and tacticals and would rather breeze through them with a friend (you can click the heal boxes so long as you have a group, so one buddy solves that).