Wait, you want me to HIT them with my gun? [Scoundrel/Operative thread]

[kildorn]

Consular -> sage is just More Range, More Force.

Consular -> shadow seems a bit stranger.

[caladein]

As Lantyssa says, the transition for Operative is terrible; I would add that it is bad in ways that should been seen miles away and likely would be fixed by replacing or morphing Snipe/Explosive Probe into abilities Operatives could use without cover (or, more creatively, make Cover in general more interactive with the Operative).

You do replace Snipe at 10 though.  I don't know how much we need a replacement for Explosive Probe now considering we can use Shiv normally.

I think having both different ranges and weapons animation-wise IA is doomed to a bit of clunkiness.  The same sort of dynamic between Snipe and Overload Shot happens with Headshot and Eviscerate.

[Lantyssa]

Consular -> shadow seems a bit stranger.

Yes, this is what I was talking about, just in Inquisitor -> Assassin terms.

It's clunky as hell, and the Shadow/Assassin is left with sub-par 1-10 skills that the Sorcerer/Consular gets an immediate upgrade to.  They need to transform or be upgraded in some way, too.

[DraconianOne]

It didn't really bug me much, but that's because I found kick to the nuts/shotgun to the head to be entirely too hilarious a combo to care about the rest of it.

This. I deliberately screw up my rotation (what there is of it) any time there's a vague possibility of being able to kill a mob with either NutKick or Back Blast. It never gets old.

[eldaec]

I was thinking about taking my agent through scoundrel - lethality. Problem I'm seeing is that battles are generally over faster than dots can be useful. Anyone having luck with dot spec?

[kildorn]

Not sure about a pure DoT spec, but I can say that post 30 fights last long enough for my vital shot to wear off twice against anything meaner than weak trash. Before 30, nothing lasted more than 10 seconds ever.

[Tyrnan]

So, does every Smuggler giggle when Slow-release Medpac procs Upper Hand, or is it just because I'm playing a Twi'lek female?  

I'm only 25 with 1 point in the Talent Skill so it's not too annoying yet, but I'm picturing it with a 30% proc chance for the rest of my career and can't help feeling it's going to eventually end up getting on my nerves.

Edit: and do Operatives do anything similar? Was playing one and enjoying it until I had to make the Smuggler to play with a friend, but if I'm stuck listening to giggles it may drive me back to the dark side.

[luckton]

No no, the good/evil laugh occurs whenever you get an Upper Hand/Tac Adv.

[Tyrnan]

Really?  Can't believe I never noticed it before. It must have been drowned out by the noise of me smacking them in the back of the head with my blaster and has nothing at all to do with the fact that I'm getting old and daft(er).

[caladein]

I don't know if it happens when you gain ANY Tactical Advantage, I've never heard it on Shiv or Hidden Strike, but "the giggle" definitely occurs when you proc one off of Kolto Probe or Laceration.  (Don't know if it did the same thing with Surgical Probe, didn't have it for long.)

[luckton]

I don't know if it happens when you gain ANY Tactical Advantage, I've never heard it on Shiv or Hidden Strike, but "the giggle" definitely occurs when you proc one off of Kolto Probe or Laceration.  (Don't know if it did the same thing with Surgical Probe, didn't have it for long.)

That's probably the kicker then.  Shiv and Hidden Strike are 'given' TAs; you know you'll get one when you use the ability.  The laugh is for the HoT/DoT procs to let you know "Hey, you got a TA/UH.  Go fuck up/mend up someone's day."

[DraconianOne]

Is Sawbones DPS really bad or is it just me being really bad?

This is for solo play before some smartarse makes a comment about being a heal spec.

[luckton]

Is Sawbones DPS really bad or is it just me being really bad?

This is for solo play before some smartarse makes a comment about being a heal spec.

As the IA mirror, I would say that it's not bad, you just have to play differently.

Like we've been talking about in the other thread, there are some skills that you won't/shouldn't use.  The way I play my Operative solo is one that pretends to be Lethality spec.

- I run in with my companion guns blazing and keeping my grenade on cooldown.
- Once I'm in range, I keep Shiv and Backstab on cooldown.
- Use Flashbang and Debilitate to get those Backstabs in if your comp. isn't focusing on them.
- Keep Eviscerate on cooldown.
- Keep Stim Pack up.
- Keep Kolto Probes on you and your comp.  Once it's speced to generate TAs on tics, you can use Carbine Bursts to lay waste to everything a lot more frequently.

[Khaldun]

Sawbones DPS seems...ok...to me. But basically that's compensated for by the fact that you don't have to do a huge amount of the content. The stealth mechanic, thank the maker, is actually functional in this game big-time, unlike in WoW, where Blizzard really doesn't want you to skip content. If you had an all-stealth instance team, something that's actually possible, you could skip a ton of trash. More importantly in solo play, there are many quests where I don't have to fight a damn thing, which is immersive (e.g., the quest story only makes sense if it's not me killing half the Imperial forces in the galaxy) and efficient. I also can get a fuckton of nodes that other people would have to fight through crap to get at.

[kildorn]

Note on skipping trash pulls: Fordel was apparently level 50 before hitting the last planet. I dinged 50 on my last quest on said planet with my scoundrel.

Trash provides a huge chunk of your XP, as much as I like skipping it.

As for sawbones DPS: It's not terrible, but it's a lot slower than a real DPS spec. However, it's unkillable. So I run with a DPS companion that puts my hardest hitting abilities to shame. Shoot first crit for 1.7k! Oh look, my companion's spammy damage attack crit for 2.3 ><

[zardoz]

Sawbones dps is ok but don't use your tank companion except you want to solo champions mobs.
 Use your dps companion e.g. Risha with the aoe powers and have fun.

I did skip every bonus objective on my way to 50 except I got a multistage one.
We have stealth use it, prefer with the +3 points in Sneaky. As a sawbones you have the option to use your hot/group hot and
emergency medpac and just run past the mobs. Use Disappearing Act if you take to much dmg. :P

[Khaldun]

I'm on Belsavis at level 43.5, just beginning it, and that's with skipping trash in a lot of cases. As long as you actually do the quests, and do bonuses when they pay off, it's not really a problem. If greens were more useful or needed, I'd probably kill more trash just looking for green drops.

[Sky]

Most purple drops I've seen coem from random trash mobs.

[rattran]

There seems to be a select number of different blue/purple/orange world drops from trash on each world. I spend a bunch of time grinding different trash groups on DK trying to work out whether Op sucked, or I was just doing it wrong (a bit of both), and got 2-3 of each of about 9 items, orange saber, purple shield, purple gen, some blue gear. And a pile of greens/grays.

Saw the same thing on Balmorra with my Jugg doing the same thing.

[Draegan]

Been playing an Op for the last week and now I'm level 24.

Doing Nar Shadaa now and playing concealment specced and I've essentially gotten everything up to the third tier in the tree.  I'm thinking that instead of going up even more, than I should go up and get the HOT in the Medicine tree.

In any case, I'm a wrecking machine and shit just dies, how did everyone else level their Op, build wise?

[caladein]

I leveled as a healer until about 40, but then I switched to Concealment once the grouping opportunities thinned out.

As for stealth, I still use it to get around most groups but I do a test pack or check Torhead to see if there are any bonuses attached to mission I'm doing.  (I think the only bonus I left undone knowing about it was my last Chapter 2 story mission, just couldn't find the mobs for it.)

I got 50 doing the Voss Bonus and some of Corellia, but I wound up skipping Quesh and Hoth before then just to get my story moving.

[DraconianOne]

Been playing an Op for the last week and now I'm level 24.

Doing Nar Shadaa now and playing concealment specced and I've essentially gotten everything up to the third tier in the tree.  I'm thinking that instead of going up even more, than I should go up and get the HOT in the Medicine tree.

In any case, I'm a wrecking machine and shit just dies, how did everyone else level their Op, build wise?

As a Sawbones Scoundrel I found I could quite happily steamroller my way up to and through Nar Shaddaa although I got to 25 soon after reaching the planet (and after skipping most of Taris). I only did my story quests on Tatooine and have stareted Alderaan at level 27 (just 28 last night). I'm no longer steamrolling (but I may be under levelled).

[Khaldun]

As a fully specced 43 sawbones, I'm not having any trouble with content now. Essentially on boss + 2 normal fights, I just open with a stun, get Risha or Akaavi loaded up with DOT heals, grenade and quickshot the flunkies and let the companion tank. That usually gives me enough time to then start healing the companion when the flunkies are down. I can keep them up through almost anything (it's actually good practice for my healing/energy regen rotation) and when the boss is at about 1/3 health I can usually switch to dps and get it down quick.

World PvP it's basically a rogue thing in a 1-on-1 fight. Tranq the companion, Shoot First the player, crotch-kick 'em and it's pretty much all over already. Haven't done enough warzones to really evaluate how to do stuff there, but the healing AOE once I get it should help a lot.