Hard Mode Flashpoints

[Azuredream]

The difference in healing ability has been overstated, but I think SI healers are definitely superior. It's hard just going by anecdotal evidence though.

[Evildrider]

The new flashpoint is pretty  .  I think it's my fave out of them all.

[Nebu]

I did another HM BT run tonight with a BH healer.  It went very well, much better than the last 2 times with a SI healer.  Our healer had no problems keeping us all up and when I asked him how he liked healing as a BH he said he loved it.  Maybe people just have to adjust to the heat based resource that BHs have and unlearn trying to play their healer like they have a mana pool, which is probably why the SI seems like the superior healer.

Not to be a buzz kill, but try having them heal a different hard mode.  BT is trivially easy and can be run with 3 players and a companion with almost no trouble.  When you run into a boss that can spike multiple 5k hits on players, you'll see where the heat mechanic can't come close to a sorc/sage's 600 force power pool and AE healing ability.

[kildorn]

The main difference I've seen is that a sorc has a larger buffer for pressure phases (meaning that they can dip farther into their mana pool on a sustained basis than the non mana healers), and a vastly superior AE Heal.

When I got the smuggler AE heal I assumed nobody but the tank ever took damage if things were going right, because what crazy fucking dev would put AE fights in a game with that as the primary AE Heal.

As for BH/Commando healing: I love it on it's face, but I've yet to play in hard modes with it. Really, I do NOT want to futz with hard modes without a combat log. I had enough of a rude surprise with Bulwark's completely random graphic-less 5K hits.

[Nebu]

I'll just say this: One of the best players in our guild (and one of the best gamers I've played with in all my years) plays a Merc and tried healing Sector 7 hard mode.  After several attempts at one of the bosses, he respecced to dps and vowed not to heal again until they fix Merc healing.  For the record, both he and our powertech tank were reasonably well geared for the instance, used stims, adrenals, and med packs as necessary.  

Since then our sorc has healed everything and we race through hard modes without issue.

[caladein]

I made the same decision as your Merc player with my Operative with regards to flashpoints.

Operations are another matter thankfully (at least through normal mode) as I really feel like I can leverage my class's strengths a lot better there between Cover protecting me from certain boss mechanics and having fantastic mobility.  Even Recuperative Nanotech makes a good showing on Soa where Revivification just isn't practical during some key healing phases.

Double Sorc might still be better than a Sorc and an Op or Merc, but I'm happy enough with how my guild's doing that I'm not considering racing a Sorc to level cap like I was a few weeks ago.

[Sky]

Maybe I'll buy one of those crazy expensive razer mice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104577

[Riggswolfe]

Maybe I'll buy one of those crazy expensive razer mice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104577

That's very nice! How programmable is it? I've respecced my scoundrel to DPS and am quite happy. Would it be possible for me to use this mouse to spec to fire off certain abilities for me that aren't on my main hotbar?

[ajax34i]

I have the M500, and beware that two of the buttons will be the wheel being able to be clicked sideways (left right).

The Logitech Intellipoint(?) software lets you create multiple profiles, and lets you assign any keys to buttons.  I think it autodetects what executable you're using for the current game and switches to the profile you assigned for it.  I haven't explored the macro functionality yet.

I've reprogrammed my buttons to function as arrow keys and the strafe keys, for movement.  You can definitely bind any toolbar key to any button, but the SWTOR UI won't let you use any abilities on a toolbar if the toolbar isn't visible on your screen.  I have abilities on the bottom center bar, and when I hide it the keybindings for the bottom center stop working altogether.

[Sky]

Yeah, I only bind the forward and back buttons, in most mmo for pet attack/back off. In TOR I have back bound to hutball, but I'll bind hutball to forward if we ever do VOIP because I like push-to-talk on the back button. I don't use the software, just in-game binds.

And that's one of my few gripes about the TOR UI. When companion abilities weren't persistently off, I'd keep the bar up on the left...so I couldn't use any of the hotkeys on the left bar (because it was hidden 'under' the companion bar).

[murdoc]

I got one of the Razer Naga mice last year for my birthday with the twelve thumb buttons on the side. It took about a week to get used to it, but now I almost never use the number keys, it's awesome.

[Rasix]

Those comfortable to use?  They look rather bulky, but I've been meaning to replace my Death Adder, which is starting to behave erratically.  I have a $75 gift card for Amazon still sitting around from Christmas.

[Sky]

After my experience with the razer tron mouse, I'm not sure I'm cut out for a mouse with buttons in the thumb spot. Also, I'm a sucker for logitech ergonomics, I never realized how much I love their thumb rest until I didn't have it.

[Nebu]

After my experience with the razer tron mouse, I'm not sure I'm cut out for a mouse with buttons in the thumb spot. Also, I'm a sucker for logitech ergonomics, I never realized how much I love their thumb rest until I didn't have it.

I find the Razer mice to be much more responsive and accurate.  I also love me some thumb buttons.

[rattran]

I love my deathadder, but the side buttons were wonky on swtor until I set it (swtor) to win2000 compatibility mode.

[Sky]

I talked about it in one of the zillion threads. Love the technical specs of the mouse, the ergonomics suck. I also love thumb buttons, just not placed where my thumb grips the mouse. The Logitech (and most of the razer) set them at the top of the thumb cavity, which is perfect. Also, the razer mouse is angular, so it dug into my palm and index finger; I was also getting some cramping from gripping it /under/ the thumb/right side buttons.

Those Naga mice are wicked tempting, but I'd want to buy it from somewhere I can easily return it (the tron mouse was a wootoff, I'd chew up what I paid for it shipping it back, most likely).

[Fabricated]

I'm still using an old G5. The finish has never worn one bit since I bought it years ago, it's been dropped dozens of times, and it runs great. The pads on the bottom are jussst about to start being a problem however. Gonna be bummed to replace it because I can't find something of similar quality.

[murdoc]

Those comfortable to use?  They look rather bulky, but I've been meaning to replace my Death Adder, which is starting to behave erratically.  I have a $75 gift card for Amazon still sitting around from Christmas.

It came with three different things you can put on the right side of you, where your palm is. I picked the largest one and I found that to be the most comfortable. They also give you little nubs to put on the thumb buttons to assist with getting used to the buttons.

I find it a little awkward using the bottom row (10, 11 and 12) but other than that I love it. It does take a good week of use and I found it hard to adjust to a character I had already been playing. It was easier to use with a character that I actually leveled with it.

[Mazakiel]

I stepped into my first HM tonight, and man.....it was rough.  I think the tank was DPS spec'd and geared, because he couldn't tank for shit.  After he got kicked, we gave a go at the last boss using the other sorc's Khem Vhal, and actually did better.  We had another person come in and tank it so we could finish, and it went much more smoothly. 

Any BC people with 50s who are still playing want to try to get a guild group together some night to knock some HMs out? 

[Nebu]

Something to know about HM's:  Some mobs seem to have no aggro table... they can't be taunted.  This happens a lot in boss fights.  Second, companions generate more aggro, faster and do a reasonable job as tanks.  After you run an instance a few times, you'll get the system down.  We usually just have the dps burn the regular, then strong, then tough mobs in that order.  Aggro becomes less of an issue for the tank and they have an easier go of it.  

[Mazakiel]

Trash wasn't a problem, really.  It was BT, which is supposed to be the easiest one.  He couldn't stay alive fighting the bosses.  We basically had to either all toss heals on him when we could, and thus hit the enrage timer, or stick to DPSing and have him either lose aggro or just get stomped into the ground.  We made it to the last boss through luck and battle rezzes, but had to replace him to finish. 

[Jherad]

I'm still using an old G5. The finish has never worn one bit since I bought it years ago, it's been dropped dozens of times, and it runs great. The pads on the bottom are jussst about to start being a problem however. Gonna be bummed to replace it because I can't find something of similar quality.

Using a G5 myself - I'd left it back in England when I emigrated here, and picked it up when I went back to see the folks for the holidays. Still by far the best mouse I've ever used. The texture, shape, weight and accuracy are fantastic.

[Trippy]

The scroll wheel on my G5, which was never great to begin with, it flaky enough now that it's bothering me. The G500 is basically the new version of the G5 so I've got one of those on order to try.

[Nebu]

Trash wasn't a problem, really.  It was BT, which is supposed to be the easiest one.  He couldn't stay alive fighting the bosses.  We basically had to either all toss heals on him when we could, and thus hit the enrage timer, or stick to DPSing and have him either lose aggro or just get stomped into the ground.  We made it to the last boss through luck and battle rezzes, but had to replace him to finish. 

It gets easier as you get geared and BT is a great place to start.  Just having a decently geared tank will make things much easier as aggro and healing won't be a struggle. 

[Sky]

I'd be willing to try BT hard mode with Komoto, but as I've said elsewhere, his gear is pretty ragged. Should probably run through the end of Ilum at least.

Playing my Shadow makes me really wish I had taken biochem, though. Permanent stims and medpac (haven't even gotten to adrenals yet) is just too awesome for tanking.

I've found I enjoy tanking for the most part, but the gear requirements mean I'll probably never do anything at the end game with it.

[Furiously]

Might want to spend a few minutes each day running the belsavis heroics. If you are willing to take a few deaths the can be completed fairly quickly. The ilum one is fast too. That will get you an awesome enhancement and a lot of commendations might get you a mod or armor piece too. And a 50 weapon for one of your companions.

[amiable]

I just started hardmodes with my guildees, and I have to say I am not very impressed.  The whole thing just smacks of incredibly lazy design and over-reliance on insta-kill mechanics and gear checks.

Enrage timers:

- half the bosses have them
- In fights with movement mechanics this is punishing on even well geared melee.  I would much prefer to have an undergeared ranged than a geared melee on many of these fights.
- the timer seems too short for many of these.
- You can exploit the lol pathfinding abilities of many bosses and kite them around objects while you slowly whittle them down after they hit enrage

Trash:

-  Do I really need to wade through 15-20 pulls to get to the next boss?  I had flashbacks to the Molten core.

Instakill

- many bosses have instakill mechanics that give the player literally no time to react, punishing folks for standing in the fire is one thing, having them die instantly is quite another.  We lost the end BT fight because our tank was a second too late getting out of bubblegums ridiculuous AOE

I've been healing on my operative and I have to say it actually is not too bad.  Of course I just spam 2 heals over and over again.

[Paelos]

Hardmodes so far have been frustrating but not difficult in the traditional sense. I agree with amiable's assessment on the trash and insta-wipe mechanics. There's very little you can do on a fight that has the insta-kill except focus on it. On the republic side, the last boss spams a quick targetting recticle on the ground and it 1.5 seconds he fires the insta-kill force storm. Where it really hurts you is when it's targetting your healer, who is constantly moving rather than healing because that's all that matters on the fight.

I just did Hard Mode Kaon yesterday. The bosses? One shots. The trash? Wiped us 11 times. It's just so many running, dark, weird pulls where shit runs in from nowhere or explodes from the ground in ambushes. Very annoying. Trash gets to 10% and explodes. Trash screams at you and knocks you 30 yards backwards. Trash has a skill that CC's a player until it's interrupted. IT'S FUCKED UP THAT THE TRASH IS WORSE THAN THE BOSSES.

[Nebu]

This game is very dependent on gear, the use of cooldowns when they're up (especially relics), and using the best spec/rotation.  If you can manage to have a run without bugs, things go pretty quickly.  Other than the new flashpoint, most can be done in 30-40 minutes or so.

We all had full sets of champion/centurion gear before we started hard modes, so I'm not calibrated on trying them without at least a purple in every slot.  Once you have at least tionese in all slots, things go pretty well.  If your tank and healer are well geared, it's very easy.  Work on getting them set up first.  Our healer dps'es on just about everything but boss fights now. 

My big annoyance is that each class has a very distinct pve and pvp spec.  Without dual speccing, I have to respec every time we run hardmodes to make things the most efficient.  Sure, we do fine running them when I'm in my pvp spec, but you can feel the drag it places on the group.

[Sky]

I really don't like all the little short CDs like relics and adrenals.

[amiable]

Hardmodes so far have been frustrating but not difficult in the traditional sense. I agree with amiable's assessment on the trash and insta-wipe mechanics. There's very little you can do on a fight that has the insta-kill except focus on it.

When I think of the epitome of fun dungeon fights I usually hearken back to some of the mechanics in LOTRO where they gradually ramp up the difficulty throughout the fight through different phases and punish you for poor play, not arbitrary gear checks.  For example, take the hard mode forge end boss from mines of moria.  Distinct phases, with errors in the later phases causing gradaully increased problems that eventually overwhelm the party unless they stay on top of adds, movement, etc...  Wow also had a lot of good mechanics too where a fight ramped up in difficulty if it took too long.

Here it's just: you hit the 2 minute timer, you die.  You stood for .5 seconds in the wrong place, you die.  You didn't get your dot cleansed in the first global cooldown(partially because of our TERRIBLE healing interface), you die.  Even when we win I don't really feel a sense of acomplishment, I just think "Oh good, I guess we made the timer."

It's like the un-patched stonecore instance from WoW (stupid instakill mechanics) except here it is practically every boss :-(.

[Zetor]

Yea, I posted the same thing a page or two ago. Hard enrages are lazy design... there are plenty of things they could've done to make a fight harder and harder as it goes on so that a low-dps but very coordinated group can still win.

Most of my guildies are pretty good at following directions and moving out of the fire, but some of them aren't so hot at maximizing their own dps. Back in WOW-BC we one-shot Netherspite (beam boss requiring good planning/execution) every time, but struggled with Moroes (dps-intense fight with a 'soft enrage' since Moroes puts a new bleed on someone every time he vanishes) due to how low our dps was... and no, we didn't stack healers or anything. Something tells me running hardmodes with guildies is not going to be a very fun experience :P

[Khaldun]

I would just give anything for a completely different boss mechanic that was more about improvisation and unpredictability. I really hate this kind of gameplay where it's about memorizing and reproducing an elaborate choreography. Like something that was more akin to going up against a human-controlled boss only without the high probability of the controller being a douchestain.

[Zetor]

Isn't the last boss [well, set of bosses] of Boarding Party / Mandalorian Raiders kinda like that? The problem with such encounters: most players hate them. Especially if the enemy NPCs ignore traditional aggro, use player abilities (and are susceptible to effects that affect players but not bosses) and try to do 'intelligent' stuff like CC-ing party members, interrupting heals, healing each other, cleansing CC and debuffs, ...

Obligatory wow links - BRD tier 0.5 arena fight (vanilla), Priestess Delrissa (BC), Faction Champions (WOTLK). I personally love these fights to death, but I understand that this POV is a minority. :P

[Khaldun]

Right. But I think that's because of the operant conditioning employed in most MMOs: the boss is a lever I press to get my cheese, give me my electric shocks with non-cheese-getting until I learn the pattern of levers to press until I can get my cheese every time. Not "this is like PvP only less douchefilled", which really does make for a better experience in the long haul.