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Star Wars: The Old Republic |OT| EA: "Let's blow this thing and go home!"

agidot

Member
I guess I didn't really mean binds. It's not a huge thing pressing 1 - 5, ctrl+1 - 5, etc. It's just learning all those icons and which one does what and when I should do it.

Like I'm only level 12 on my smuggler but I'm already sitting there looking at my action bars and wondering if I should attack the guy this way or that way or AAAAGH.
Why can't it be just like this shot hits for a lot, this is your main "spammable" attack, this one has a dot, this one interrupts, etc. Instead it's like this one does 100 - 120 damage. This other one does 110 - 140 damage but is on a slightly longer cooldown! This third one is a shorter range, has yet another different cooldown, and does some damage inbetween the other 2~

Just spam charged burst and use aimed shot when it's off cooldown.
 

erragal

Member
The smuggler is the republic version of the operative I think :(
So I guess I just suck.


I know if I stick with it long enough I'll get used to it but... learning sucks!

It's not about sucking, it's like you said at the end: Learning. Most of the abilities serve as a specific tool for a character in a specific situation.

Are you playing the scoundrel or the gunslinger? Scoundrel does play like the operative and that class has one of the simplest actual DPS rotations. You'll find that as you level and apply points to a tree a lot of the damaging abilities become less important.

Looking at the Operative/Scoundrel you have Backstab, Shiv, Overload Shot, Lacerate, Acid Blade and Stim Boost as your main DPS abilities (Names are different for the scoundrel). If you never want to do anything but hit enemies you can manage with just 6 buttons plus your basic attack. Sniper/Gunslinger main dps rotation is similarly streamlined as well. You end up with two aoe abilities (A reusable one and a slight cooldown ranged one) and the rest of your abilities are situational.

I would suggest anyone unhappy with the number of abilities not to roll a Juggernaut/Guardian tank with biochem consumables.


EDIT: I will mention there are some superflous abilities. Mostly those 'incapacitated non elite enemy finishers' which are clearly just junk filler. Savage Kick also seems like a filler ability for the Warrior. For operative the 'extra stealthy stealth' ability is probably unnecessary, outside of that I use every single one of his 22 hotkeys while I'm playing and would be less effective without them.
 
It's not just you. As I've leveled I've figured out which actions are sidebar worthy, but my apparent rotation is made up of 7 abilities that are used often and 3 ~1M cool downs.

I probably can manage end game with that many, but it really is too many I think. They should have trimmed the amount of abilities down.

For BH powertech tanking I have 6 abilities in the rotation, 2 more for aoe tanking, 4 cooldowns, 2 relics, 2 taunts, 2 cc. I couldn't do it without my naga.

Also I f'n love the fact that ops groups are 8 man. I setup my own free ventrilo server for the guild(free ventrilo servers have a max size of 8 people)
 

RotBot

Member
I think I found an infinite affection glitch for Mako on Nar Shaddaa.
After the Eidolon kills Mako's friend in the cantina
, you can
keep clicking his body
to repeat an affection gain dialog. I did it about 10 times and ended up with over 400 affection from the end of that mission.
 

Izayoi

Banned
For BH powertech tanking I have 6 abilities in the rotation, 2 more for aoe tanking, 4 cooldowns, 2 relics, 2 taunts, 2 cc. I couldn't do it without my naga.

Also I f'n love the fact that ops groups are 8 man. I setup my own free ventrilo server for the guild(free ventrilo servers have a max size of 8 people)
The ops that will be worth running in the long run (Hardmode stuff) are 16 man, though.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
Ironically in beta a common complaint was how few abilities you had in game. Several months before release they slapped in a bunch of new abilities into the game and now your seeing lot of complaints everywhere that there are too many abilities! There were bunch of gaps in leveling up where you didn't get any new abilities and they created some new ones to give you the feeling of getting abilities on a regular basis which I think has created some of this bloat.

Well I really think they misstepped there and listened to the wrong crowd of people. They've gone too far in the other direction. I never had a raid/heroic rotation in my 7 years of WoW that exceeded really more than 4, maybe 5 abilities used regularly, plus a couple of CD's. Adding more than that really just makes things more convoluted, not complex.

For BH powertech tanking I have 6 abilities in the rotation, 2 more for aoe tanking, 4 cooldowns, 2 relics, 2 taunts, 2 cc. I couldn't do it without my naga.

Fun, to me, isn't having your left hand dance all over the keyboard. This is too much.
 
The ops that will be worth running in the long run (Hardmode stuff) are 16 man, though.

As long as the rewards are good, people love the hardmode flashpoints for quick and easy runs.

Well I really think they misstepped there and listened to the wrong crowd of people. They've gone too far in the other direction. I never had a raid/heroic rotation in my 7 years of WoW that exceeded really more than 4, maybe 5 abilities used regularly, plus a couple of CD's. Adding more than that really just makes things more convoluted, not complex.

In a sense yes, but also disagree to a point. They put in a bunch of abilities which are redundant which I think is what is wrong, but having a bunch of abilities to use is not bad at all IMO. Complaint many have had with WoW and other MMOs is how it's just you repeating the same 3 abilities over and over again for long periods of time. Having you use more abilities and doing more in general is something I like as it keeps me active and involved in group content instead of just sitting there pressing the same 3 buttons without having to really think about it.

The problem really is not that, though,if you want to use only a couple abilities in TOR you can easily, it's up to the player to what they use, but what they did mess up on was some classes have abilities that just really are not needed because of redundancy. Sith Warrior for example has pommel strike and savage kick, abilities that are exactly the same pretty much except one just does more damage making the other redundant, why do I want this taking up space on my hotbar? I don't. They could have trimmed some of this fat.
 

Mattdaddy

Gold Member
Can I create a macro for my Jedi Knight that binds sundering slash and regular slash, so that I can just hit one button and sundering will be used if it's off CD, and regular slash will be used otherwise? Would be much easier than juggling the two back and forth, but I have no idea how to do this...
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Can I create a macro for my Jedi Knight that binds sundering slash and regular slash, so that I can just hit one button and sundering will be used if it's off CD, and regular slash will be used otherwise? Would be much easier than juggling the two back and forth, but I have no idea how to do this...
I don't think there are macros in swtor.
 

bill0527

Member
Can I create a macro for my Jedi Knight that binds sundering slash and regular slash, so that I can just hit one button and sundering will be used if it's off CD, and regular slash will be used otherwise? Would be much easier than juggling the two back and forth, but I have no idea how to do this...

You can't create macros yet.
 

frequency

Member
It's not about sucking, it's like you said at the end: Learning. Most of the abilities serve as a specific tool for a character in a specific situation.

Are you playing the scoundrel or the gunslinger? Scoundrel does play like the operative and that class has one of the simplest actual DPS rotations. You'll find that as you level and apply points to a tree a lot of the damaging abilities become less important.

Looking at the Operative/Scoundrel you have Backstab, Shiv, Overload Shot, Lacerate, Acid Blade and Stim Boost as your main DPS abilities (Names are different for the scoundrel). If you never want to do anything but hit enemies you can manage with just 6 buttons plus your basic attack. Sniper/Gunslinger main dps rotation is similarly streamlined as well. You end up with two aoe abilities (A reusable one and a slight cooldown ranged one) and the rest of your abilities are situational.

I would suggest anyone unhappy with the number of abilities not to roll a Juggernaut/Guardian tank with biochem consumables.


EDIT: I will mention there are some superflous abilities. Mostly those 'incapacitated non elite enemy finishers' which are clearly just junk filler. Savage Kick also seems like a filler ability for the Warrior. For operative the 'extra stealthy stealth' ability is probably unnecessary, outside of that I use every single one of his 22 hotkeys while I'm playing and would be less effective without them.

I'm a Gunslinger. It's not super complicated yet but I'm already starting to feel overwhelmed at level 12. But yeah... learning. Not sure I want to commit the time or effort to learn. That's my biggest problem with the game right now.

I don't want to just hit people. I want to be as effective as I possibly can with my class.

Fun, to me, isn't having your left hand dance all over the keyboard. This is too much.

I agree.

More buttons doesn't make it more tactical or more involved for me. It just makes it unnecessarily complex. From what I've played of this game, it's not any more tactical than something like WoW. But I have like 2x more active buttons already than my wotlk mut rogue had.

My decisions in combat should be how I should react to what is happening (interrupts or whatever). It's not fun for me when my decisions in combat are which attack out of 8 I should be doing right now.


I usually main a healer in MMOs and I planned to roll one in this game after I get the hang of things. But I don't even want to think about how complicated healing in SWTOR is if a simple DPS-only class already has me overwhelmed.
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
the game is not complicated, quit worrying. Just stick to a few abilities and have fun.
 

Won

Member
Take down an imperial fleet with you bare hands. Become hero of the republic. And all you get as reward is some pants......


Well, I hit 50 at last. No idea what to do now. I guess I sideline the character till there are more 50s for flashpoints and PvP has proper brackets.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
Complaint many have had with WoW and other MMOs is how it's just you repeating the same 3 abilities over and over again for long periods of time. Having you use more abilities and doing more in general is something I like as it keeps me active and involved in group content instead of just sitting there pressing the same 3 buttons without having to really think about it.

The number of 3 button classes (DPS at least) is minimal. I've taken rogue, warrior, death knight, hunter, enhancement shammy, and mage to raids and the only one accurate to the 3 ability complaint was the mage. And even that was spec/time in WoW history dependent. If someone complains about DPS classes in WoW not having enough abilities, they should back away from the arcane mage because it's essentially an invented problem otherwise.

My issue is that 7 or 8 buttons in a rotation versus 4 or 5 is that it's not harder to track. Everyone is still going to be able to do it, the mental and reaction ceilings haven't been raised. You'll still find that you'll be sitting there not really thinking about it, but instead of it being 5 buttons, it's 8. However, you're now unbinding other buttons in order to fit the additional 2 or 4 abilities on the left side of the keyboard, or you're buying a mouse with 16 buttons, or you're playing hand aerobics.

--

Sorry if this comes off as harsh, I don't take personal issue with you. I just see the happy medium between too few and too many abilities really to be 5 or 6 on the high side.
 
I usually main a healer in MMOs and I planned to roll one in this game after I get the hang of things. But I don't even want to think about how complicated healing in SWTOR is if a simple DPS-only class already has me overwhelmed.

A DPS in TOR is only complicated if you make it so. Really you should only be using several abilities that work the best for you. Lot of the abilities are just situational or utility that you are not going to use often. For DPS you should just set up a simple rotation of abilities for yourself.

Tanking and healing is where it gets more complex as you have to manage lot more abilities and it's more like old school MMOs of having to be more attentive. Tanking is not simple aoe taunt spam here for example.
 
I wouldn't worry about having to know which abilities to use when until you are higher level, at least 40 I would say. At that point you have the skill from the top of your skill tree and rotations become much more apparent. At 43 I'm only using maybe five skills in total due to the way abilities and bonuses sync up.
 

erragal

Member
My issue is that 7 or 8 buttons in a rotation versus 4 or 5 is that it's not harder to track. Everyone is still going to be able to do it, the mental and reaction ceilings haven't been raised. You'll still find that you'll be sitting there not really thinking about it, but instead of it being 5 buttons, it's 8. However, you're now unbinding other buttons in order to fit the additional 2 or 4 abilities on the left side of the keyboard, or you're buying a mouse with 16 buttons, or you're playing hand aerobics.

Who has a 7 or 8 button single target DPS rotation exactly? All of them are right around five when you take out the basic attack which is basically your auto-attack. Is that the thing that's causing everyone problems? The fact that you have to actually click on your autoattack?

How are you having to unbind buttons? That only seems realistic if you have some upper limit to the number of keybinds you're willing to memorize/use. If there is a limit then you do have a mental/reaction ceiling where you can't managed to react to that many different situations and you have to choose which ones you want to not be prepared for.

More buttons doesn't make it more tactical or more involved for me. It just makes it unnecessarily complex. From what I've played of this game, it's not any more tactical than something like WoW. But I have like 2x more active buttons already than my wotlk mut rogue had.

My decisions in combat should be how I should react to what is happening (interrupts or whatever). It's not fun for me when my decisions in combat are which attack out of 8 I should be doing right now.


I usually main a healer in MMOs and I planned to roll one in this game after I get the hang of things. But I don't even want to think about how complicated healing in SWTOR is if a simple DPS-only class already has me overwhelmed.

You might have 2x more 'active buttons' than your mut rogue (An absurdly simplistic dps class I might add) but you don't have 2x the pure ST dps abilities. You can probably be 99% effective at your level by popping into cover and spamming Snipe/Explosive probe...I'm not sure what you find to be so overwhelming about that.



I will say this: Healers are not more complicated than DPS. The healing toolbox in this game is very narrow and I use a very small number of keybinds when healing. You might find it to be more to your liking.
 

Interfectum

Member
TOR DPS rotations complicated? Really? You guys realize you don't have to use every ability in your arsenal right? Use what gets the job done, adjust as needed.
 

Jrmint

Member
Speaking of rotations, wondering if this is how most Gunslingers are playing.

Here is what I do (level 12).

Open with Aimed Shot
Use the Charged shot buff and then hit Charged Shot.

If they're still alive I'll throw a Thermal Charge on them and then Charged Shot to blow it up.

In AoE I'll use the Grenade and Blinding Grenade if it's up, and then single target the strongest guy.

I'll just Quick Shot and right click if they are weak, no sense going into crouch for that I think.

This what you guys are doing mostly?
 

Won

Member
I will say that the "rotation" of my Scrapper Scoundrel may not super complicated, but it also it doesn't really seem to be fun. Lots of abilities that work together in rather annoying ways.
 

notworksafe

Member
Legacy name. My sith is Lord Francine Blacksun.

And now I have created her long lost brother, Jedi padawan Chest Blacksun.

They don't even know of each other. And they're fighting on opposite sides of the gulf of this great war.

It's tragic, really.

Wait...so Legacy names are set account wide? So I shouldn't have named my character Tacoface Delicioso? Crap.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
Who has a 7 or 8 button single target DPS rotation exactly? All of them are right around five when you take out the basic attack which is basically your auto-attack. Is that the thing that's causing everyone problems? The fact that you have to actually click on your autoattack?

How are you having to unbind buttons? That only seems realistic if you have some upper limit to the number of keybinds you're willing to memorize/use. If there is a limit then you do have a mental/reaction ceiling where you can't managed to react to that many different situations and you have to choose which ones you want to not be prepared for.

Gunslinger. I can speak to this better when I'm not at work (when I actually have the game and my bars in front of me). Also, you can't "take out the basic attack" as you're still using it. It's an attack.

TOR DPS rotations complicated? Really? You guys realize you don't have to use every ability in your arsenal right? Use what gets the job done, adjust as needed.

For leveling sure. If you think this isn't going to change on the high end, you'll likely be mistaken.

Not complicated, convoluted.

So I shouldn't have named my character Tacoface Delicioso? Crap.

This name is awesome.
 
I will say that the "rotation" of my Scrapper Scoundrel may not super complicated, but it also it doesn't really seem to be fun. Lots of abilities that work together in rather annoying ways.

I love Scrapper. Kick to the groin, blaster-whip, sucker punch. All day. :3
 
I'm getting this weird issue where I go from 80 fps with max settings to 20-30 no matter what area I'm in or settings I'm using. The only temporary fix I've found is to reinstall graphic drivers, but it comes back soon after and now it's coming back immediately. Any ideas?

Using a GTX 460 with an i5@4ghz.

I have a GTX 560 ti and I get frame rates from 25-60+

Very inconsistant.
 

EDarkness

Member
The problem I have with smuggler/gunslinger is the "cover" mechanic. Ugh. I jump behind some cover only to have the mob standing right next to me while I'm standing behind "cover". Heh, heh. I laugh every time that happens. They should just crap the whole thing and come up with something else, in my opinion.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
The problem I have with smuggler/gunslinger is the "cover" mechanic. Ugh. I jump behind some cover only to have the mob standing right next to me while I'm standing behind "cover". Heh, heh. I laugh every time that happens. They should just crap the whole thing and come up with something else, in my opinion.

The portable shield is fine but using the surroundings as your cover mechanically doesn't work well. It also gives LoS issues about 70% of the time and doesn't trigger the Charged Blast with no cast time either.
 
So I got to level 11 with my Sith Warrior and became a Marauder even though some folks said it's not a great class. I saw a few points saying the right rotations are needed, etc. I considered Juggernaut but I'm not interested in tanking, did it way too much in WoW.

The game is fantastic so far, my only complaint is for them to fix V-sync. I had to use Dxtory to limit my FPS to 60 otherwise my GPU sounded like a jet engine (Getting 120 fps in certain areas).

As for marauder, I've only put into the skills to increase my off hand damage, which tree is most beneficial for soloing? The Annihilator tree looks pretty good.

Does GAF have a guild? I'm on the same server as you guys.
 

erragal

Member
Gunslinger. I can speak to this better when I'm not at work (when I actually have the game and my bars in front of me). Also, you can't "take out the basic attack" as you're still using it. It's an attack.



For leveling sure. If you think this isn't going to change on the high end, you'll likely be mistaken.

Not complicated, convoluted.

Aimed Shot, Charged Burst, Speed Shot, Flurry of Bolts, Trick Shot, Basic Attack (BTW you can right click on the enemy to do this, doesn't have to be keybound if you're really hurting for keybinds). You'll have rapid fire every 90 seconds and quick draw might be usable in execute range.

I just don't buy the complaints that DPS rotations are too 'convoluted'. If you strip it down to 3/4 abilities it becomes far too simple and you can't have a true priority system in place.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
Aimed Shot, Charged Burst, Speed Shot, Flurry of Bolts, Trick Shot, Basic Attack (BTW you can right click on the enemy to do this, doesn't have to be keybound if you're really hurting for keybinds). You'll have rapid fire every 90 seconds and quick draw might be usable in execute range.

There's something more basic than flurry of bolts? What the shit. I've clearly missed something there.


I just don't buy the complaints that DPS rotations are too 'convoluted'. If you strip it down to 3/4 abilities it becomes far too simple and you can't have a true priority system in place.

Then perhaps we can have a happy medium of 5 or 6, like I've been saying.
 
1. What are legacy names?

2. What's in the January patch?

Legacy names are part of the legacy system, it's your surname or you can make it part of your legacy under your name like another form of title. If you choose one, all your characters share it.

The jan patch is unknown, all that has been said is a new flashpoint is being added, and the Palace Operation is getting extended and improved with more content. They only gave that as a sneak peek so what is is coming in the patch is not known.
 

Blitzzz

Member
Speaking of rotations, wondering if this is how most Gunslingers are playing.

Here is what I do (level 12).

Open with Aimed Shot
Use the Charged shot buff and then hit Charged Shot.

If they're still alive I'll throw a Thermal Charge on them and then Charged Shot to blow it up.

In AoE I'll use the Grenade and Blinding Grenade if it's up, and then single target the strongest guy.

I'll just Quick Shot and right click if they are weak, no sense going into crouch for that I think.

This what you guys are doing mostly?

I'm a 23 gunslinger and this is pretty much what I do... gunslinger skill tree takes advantage of charged shot/aimed shot so those will be the primary attack skills. You don't really need all the basic smuggler shooting skills (vital shot etc)

The problem I have with smuggler/gunslinger is the "cover" mechanic. Ugh. I jump behind some cover only to have the mob standing right next to me while I'm standing behind "cover". Heh, heh. I laugh every time that happens. They should just crap the whole thing and come up with something else, in my opinion.

Use "take cover here" instead. It just drops a shield down where you stand.
 

Ricker

Member
I kinda hate Taris because of the awful map and the ghouls get annoying fast but damn the Heroics are fun as hell...game is addicting.
 
Sage's have a shit ton of skills. Especially when you consider their hybrid role. Multiple heals, shields, debuffs. It's like playing a holy priest, shadow priest, and warlock (from WoW) all at once. It's not overwhelming, I just need a lot of screen real estate.
 

Juice

Member
Legacy names are part of the legacy system, it's your surname or you can make it part of your legacy under your name like another form of title. If you choose one, all your characters share it.

The jan patch is unknown, all that has been said is a new flashpoint is being added, and the Palace Operation is getting extended and improved with more content. They only gave that as a sneak peek so what is is coming in the patch is not known.

Thanks!

I heard that virtually all non-flashpoint quests are unique to each class, so there's actually a ton of content if you roll each class. True?
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
so pvp. What exactly differentiates each other? Abilities is one right? the higher the lvl the more abilities you have. But does regular armor make a difference or do i need to buy some of that pvp armor with commendations?
 
Thanks!

I heard that virtually all non-flashpoint quests are unique to each class, so there's actually a ton of content if you roll each class. True?

No thats not even remotely true. Most quests are shared by all classes in a faction.

Edit: There are plenty of unique class quests, so you do get a good amount of content with each different class.
 

EDarkness

Member
Use "take cover here" instead. It just drops a shield down where you stand.

Yeah. I know. Use it all the time, but it sucks. Especially since melee guys run in and start pounding on you even though you're "behind cover". Ha, ha!! It's a stupid mechanic in my opinion.
 
Thanks!

I heard that virtually all non-flashpoint quests are unique to each class, so there's actually a ton of content if you roll each class. True?

There is shared content, majority of it is shared amongst the faction. Each class has unique content yes, but its only a portion of the content.

Yeah. I know. Use it all the time, but it sucks. Especially since melee guys run in and start pounding on you even though you're "behind cover". Ha, ha!! It's a stupid mechanic in my opinion.

What are melee guys supposed to do? Course we are going to come over there and stab you
 
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