SWTOR: Scoundrel PvP Montage #2!

Hey guys, a fast update,


I've just uploaded a new Scoundrel PvP Montage video.


Check it out!

The Art of Trolling #3!!!

Hey guys, as I wait for 1.3 I play as more WZs as I get. Having free time and frapsing almost all of my matches. I have some interesting footage and I decided to do another addition to the The Art of Trolling series. I hope you enjoy this! :D

2 New Videos!

I have 2 new videos to share with you guys.


The first of all is a "romancing a companion" video and shows what happens if you try to romance 2 of your companions at the same time.


The second one is a Scoundrel PvP montage, the first of the series. Even it would not be the best PvP you'll ever seen, I hope you'll enjoy it!


See you around!

Group Finder Preview and Scoundrel PvP Video!

A new video, a Scoundrel PvP Video as I talk about Group Finder


ENJOY! :)

Guide: Operative Concealment PvE!

PROLOGUE


Hey people!


A very good friend of mine is a hardcore WoW's rogue player that raids and pvpes in top guilds. I respect his knowledge about the mechanics of his class and also for his fast decisions and reactions that are needed to play in high level.


During summer we had long talks about SWTOR and we had both decided to reroll to this new game. The Blizzard gave to him a Rogue's only legendary and his mind changed. I unsubscribed from WoW and started playing SWTOR. He was thinking playing the game later and I gave him my account to try it out. He was thinking playing an Assassin but I persuaded him to try Operative. And he did. And he loved it. Now, I have an Operative on my account and I have to say that I love her! They have an amazing playstyle that is really really strong even after last patch's nerf. I've seen a lot of Operatives PvPing but almost none at PvE. At least none dps as the few ops I've found where healers.


That's why I decided to make this guide for Operative's Concealment PvE. So, let's start.




1. SPEC


This is the spec that I use 3/31/7. It's NOT based on the most dps output possible and it's more of a starter for operation. It based on mobility (melee classes need to be fast in fights with a lot of adds, shit on the ground etc) and survivability (you can't dps if you are dead.

This is the spec with the most dps output: 3/31/7




2. ENERGY


Energy is very similar to WoW's Rogue but it's not linear. That means that it regenerates depending to the energy's level. That means:

ENERGY LEVEL	REGEN PER SEC
0-20	2
21-40	2.5
41-60	3
61-100	5

Now, there an ability call Stim Boost that recovers 3 energy every 3 sec for 45sec. It has a 35 sec CD and must be up ALL THE TIME.

With Stim Boost up the regeneration changes to this:

ENERGY LEVEL	REGEN PER SEC
0-20	3
21-40	3.5
41-60	4
61-100	6

Another way to get energy fast is Adrenaline Probe that recovers 50 energy in 3 secs with a 2 minute cooldown.

3. ABILITIES

Rifle Shot Basic attack costs no energy use it on your rotation to keep your energy from dropping.

Hidden Strike Highest damaging ability, grants Tactical Advantage and can only be used from stealth. Use it as an opener.

Shiv Use it to gain Tactical Advantage.

Laceration Requires the Tactical Advantage buff.  Has 50% chance to proc a second free attack that would also refresh Tactical Advantage if the target is poisoned.

Backstab Hits like a truck, must be always used after Acid Blade. Must be behind the target to use it.

Acid Blade Buff the next Hidden Strike or Backstab and applies a ridiculesly strong DoT over 6 seconds and increase armour penetration by 30% for 15 seconds. Backstab must followed. Needless to say, this is the funeral of every boss.

Fragmentation Grenade AoE attack. Hits up to 5 opponents.

Overload Shot. Short ranged attack, should be only used when you have plenty of energy and the rest of you abilities are on CD.


Corrosive Dart a good DoT that must be ALWAYS be up. If it's up, Laceration will refresh Tactical Advantage.

Orbital Strike AoE damage to be used on CD. One of the strongest AoE attacks in game


Adrenaline Probe Not a damage ability but still must be used on CD. Use it when you want to burst


Cloaking Screen. Not a damage ability, puts you back to Stealth. Use it on CD with a Acid Blade buffed Hidden Strike following it.

4. TACTICAL ADVANTAGE

Tactical Advantage is the core ability in Operative playstyle. Defeating an opponent or activating Shiv or Hidden Strike puts you in a position of Tactical Advantage, increasing all damage dealt by 2% and enabling the use of executions for 10 seconds. Up to 2 charges of Tactical Advantage can exist at once.

Abilities that generate TA:

Shiv

Hidden Strike

Plus defeating an opponent give you TA. 

Abilities that consume TA:

Cull

Laceration

Stim Boost

Carbine Burst

Kolto Infusion

Remember, Tactical Advantage increased damage by 2%, so you should always have at least one stack up at all times if it's possible. Before using an TA consuming Ability, use Shiv to get 2 stacks before losing 1 and keep 1 stack up.

5. ROTATION


So, the rotation goes like this. Start with stealth and then use Hidden Strike. That gives you 1 TA. Use Stim Boost, that will consume the 1 TA. Acid Blade time then. It would be a preparation buff that does nothing until you use Backstab. 30% of the target's armor is ignored and a poison DoT is applied that lasts for 6 secs.  After that use Shiv to get 1 TA, Laceration will actually have a chance to consume and refresh your TA and keep it up. Use Corrosive Dart to have your DoT up as long as you can. As soon as your energy falls under 60 use Adrenaline Probe and try to have it on CD. Only reasons for not use it asap is that either your energy is high at the moment or you decide it to keep it to use it later with your Adrenals, Relics and the rest of your CDs. After that use Rifle Shot if your energy drops under 80. Also, use Cloaking Screen after the initial burst and the use of Adrenaline Probe and follow it with a Acid Blade buffed Hidden Strike. Use it on CD.


When you are in the the fight there's a priority list.

1. Stim Boost  must be always up

2.  Shiv to get TA


3. Adrenaline Probe to regen energy

3.  Rifle Shot to keep your energy up.

4. Cloaking Screen to get back to Stealth

5.  Acid Blade follow by

6. Hidden Strike if you are in Stealth or if you are not

7.  Backstab. 5, 6 and 7 must be always be used on CD. Those are you strongest hits

8.  Corrosive Dart to keep your DoT up

9.  Laceration. costs 15 energy. Use it when you have 2 TA and Stim Boost is up

10. Overload Shot. Cost 17 energy and only use it when you have high energy and you are out of melee range from the target or on burning phase.

6. STATS

Your Primary stat is Cunning. Your gear must always have Cunning.  For every 140 Cunning you get 1% crit and also, 1 Cunning gives 0.2 tech damage. As for the secondary stats, accuracy until you reach 100% and then I would suggest Critical and Surge for starters but DON'T stack more than 40% ratio. It seems that after a point critical and surge need much more rating to increase the percentage. After that, go for Power. It's a basic, normal,  very linear damage increase. Alacrity is useless, avoid it like Hell.

7. PvE TIER BONUS

• 2 pieces: Increases the critical chance of Backstab or Backblast by 15%.
• 4 pieces: Increases maximum energy by 5.

EPILOGUE

Anyway that's my guide for Operative Concealment PvE, just quite basic but I hope you find it useful. I will try to update the guide as much as possible, please comment to contribute.

See you around

List of CCs per Class

I've noticed during the past days, at picked up pugs something a little risky. Most pugs have 2 melee dps. Worse, some pugs don't have enough classes with CC abilities. Even though all classes have their stuns/interrupts/slows not all of them have long CC abilities that would take a mob out of battle for a minute. So, this is a small list of CCs per classes to be able to plan ahead when you're forming your groups:

1. Slice Droid – Imperial Agent
2. Sleep Dart – Operative
3. Disable Droid – Sith Marauder
4. Whirlwind – Sith Sorceror
5. Mind Trap – Sith Assassin
6. Concussion Missile – Mercenary.

Remember that CCs will make your life easier. Some bosses that are unbeatable otherwise will be a piece of cake with the correct coordination and correct CC.


See ya!

PvP: Sith Juggernauts vs Operatives!

During the past days I've noticed threads and posts about operatives being overpowered on pvp situations. As I've pvped a lot and I have encountered myself being overunned and overkilled by operatives dps, I decided to write down some tips to how to counter them.


First of all, operatives are NOT overpowered. I don't claim that the classes are balanced on 1v1 as they are intended to be. For me, pvp in general, is not 100% balanced but it's close to that. If you don't want to be dead all the time, try to use your abilities wisely, stuck up with people because  those 3 warzones we are 
playing are all about focusing on goals and not deathmatches. 

Stealthy bastards!

Now, let's see the abilities of an operative. For now on, I'm referring to operatives speccing on the Lethality tree.


They obviously have stealth. In SWTOR, stealth does not provide you with complete invisibility. To be trully undetectable you have to use Sneak, that lasts for 8secs and it's on a minute long cooldown. When operatives are in battle, they can get in stealth again with Cloaking Screen. Those two abilities provide a 100% stealth rating.

Operatives uses acid by using the Acid Blade ability. As the tooltips says: "Coats your instruments in acid, causing your next Hidden Strike or Backstab to deal an additional 1247 internal damage over 6 seconds and increase armor penetration by 50% for 15 seconds. This ability does not respect the global cooldown and does not break stealth."

That puts a powerful dot on their targets and many of their abilities tend to do extra damage to people that are suffering from the acid effect.

The main game mechanic of operatives, both to healers and dps alike is Tactical Advantage. I'll use again the tooltip: "Defeating an opponent or activating Shiv or Hidden Strike puts you in a position of Tactical Advantage, increasing all damage dealt by 2% and enabling the use of executions for 10 seconds. Up to 2 charges of Tactical Advantage can exist at once.". The tactical advantage not only provides 2-4% damage bonus but also the ability to enact skills that are otherwise unavailable, such as: Kolto Infusion (a 1.5 sec healing ability), Laceration (a beastly attack that does a ton of damage, has a chance to add a dot and when the dot is applied, you get a Tactcal Advantage) and Stim Boost (gives 3 energy every 3 secs for 45 secs). These skills are versatile, and when used properly will allow the operative to handle numerous situations with ease.

On top of that, operatives have two CCs (8secs is enough for pvp) Flash Bang that's an AoE stun (up to 5 players) and Debilitate at 45sec and 60 sec CD.

Now, what good operatives do. They open you with Debilitate, their 4 secs stun and it will give you a full resolve bar. They will re-stealth and will now open you with Hidden Strike that will throw you down for 3 secs. After that, Eviscerate, Backstab, Shiv and you are dead.

How to counter it. They will expect you to break their first CC and YOU MUST NOT DO SO! You should keep your CC breaker for the throwdown ONLY! Due to animation you still need to stand up, that means one more second before you'll be able to use your abilities. When you are back on your feet, use your defensive CDs. All of them and use a medpack. It's a shame that you must waste them on only in a 1v1 encounter but it's the only way to counter them. Even tanks cannot absorb or mitigate their burst so it's a necessity. If you are quick enough, you'll have enough health to fight back. In the case that you have all of your CDs proceed on CC them. Force Choke them, slow them and bring them on their knees by putting pressure on them. What's out for their Evasion ability that will give them 100% dodge to all attacks for 3 secs, so what's out and don't waste 2 GCDs during that. Now, remember, Juggernauts have the ability to withstand a lot of damage where as Operatives have tools to avoid getting hit. In a straight 1 on 1 situation they won't be a match for they heavy armor user so they'll try to run to health themselves. They have Sever Tendon that will slow you for 50% for 12 secs. Don't let them get away. Charge them, interrupt their heals and burst them.

Remember, this is an ideal 1v1 fight and during your game you'll encounter different playstyles and situations, so try to react accordingly. The best way to improve yourself is by practice, so find an operative and duel with him a lot. That way, you'll learn their tricks and abilities and you'll make your own tactics to counter them.

Hope this guide was helpful and I want to conclude it with some thoughts. Operative's burst is a beast but it's also true that they are a glass canon. Same goes for marauders and snipers for example. Juggernauts and assassins on the other hand have more sustained dps but they both have enough armor and defensive cooldowns to balance their gameplay plus a lot of pushs, stuns and CCs. They have the tools to withstand the burst and then fight backs. As the operatives have their long cds and can't burst ever 5secs the same goes to juggernauts, that can't shield wall every half a minute. I play a Juggernaut and I have to say, I CHOOSE MY BATTLES!

If I don't have cds, I don't run towards the mayhem. If I don't have cds and I see both imperial agent's advanced classes I run away. If my saber ward is on cd and I'm opened by an operative I'm dead. But that's once in a while.


Remember that if your opponent outgears you or/and outlevels you, you are dead. In the end, there's a point of no gear=no fun.


Thanks a lot, see you around and remember.


DON'T HATE THE GAMER, HATE THE GAME (epic meal time reference)