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BlazerBlade
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1 - 12-01-2011, 01:55
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So... I have been playing this for 3 builds now and wanted to share the best PvP guide that I have read, this was posted in the guilds public forum that I am a member of. This should help everyone out , it helped me out a ton.

PvP has gear rewards for those at level 50. The gear is really quite worth having for those that enjoy a bit of the rough and tumble. Additionally, a vendor on Vaiken station has pvp weapons available for a wide range of levels.

Where is the pvp gear?

The "first" place to get pvp gear is the market in Kaas City. There you'll find the gear that has expertise in it. I suggest picking these pieces up once hitting level 50 so your commendation grind is more palatable. Look for the class trainers in the market area and near them one will find the gear vendor. The other place to find pvp gear is at fleet (formerly Vaiken station). If you travel to the northeast quadrant, you'll find gear vendors of many ranks available.

What class should I roll?

Currently I suggest all players to roll in this order: Mercenary, Operative, Sorceror. Ranged characters have a generally much less frustrating time killing enemies. Additionally, the previously mentioned classes have the ability to heal themselves while in combat. It only takes 2 talent points to make a class capable of self-healing, that's it. For those who refuse to roll one of these three classes, get ready to die ALOT. Where these players will relish not dying an entire warzone, characters that cannot self heal will die a dozen times every match just because the accumulation of damage taken catches up to the player.

What if I really want to be the guy who rolls something different?

Expect to die alot. That said, hope to have someone heal you OR, as I do, break away from combat and use one's out of combat heal. I personally save my "vanish" ability for the purpose of healing between fights. As most classes don't have this ability, I suspect they just die and get used to dying in order to "heal up". That said, non-healing classes do have an advantage or two.

What if I don't mind dying alot or believe I will always have a pocket healer?

Powertechs get an interrupt ability that mercenaries do not. Snipers get an AoE push that Operatives do not. Assassins get stealth, which sorcerers do not. All melee get an ability to deflect damage and ignore tech/force attacks for a short time. Expect any class spec'd for DPS so pretty much SUCK in warzones until fully geared at 50. Those that spec tank will probably feel a bit more successful, but only if there isn't another tank in the group hogging up the tanking duties. One or two tanks is ok in a warzone, more and the team suffers too much from the loss of dps.

Are tanks good in pvp?

I play a tank. Yes they are good. No I do not recommend playing one. For the same reason that people don't want to play a healer, one should not play a tank. A tanks job is to suck up damage for other people. Unless I am running the ball in Huttball, I am shielding someone taking damage. That means I generally look for the most nubly looking player and put my shield on him so when the enemy focus fires on him, I suck up the damage. Because my shield has a short range, I spend alot of my time following a nub around in a warzone (at least until he wanders off). So in short, don't roll a tank unless you want to protect nubs. If one rolls a tank and does not guard other players, its a waste. Might as well roll dps, at least then one's character will make a difference because tank dps is VERY low.

What's the formula for getting pvp gear?

First, let me suggest not buying a pvp weapon unless you really need the upgrade. Secondly, don't worry too much about getting every piece of 50's blue pvp gear from the kaas market. That said, here's the way to gear up in 50's purple pvp gear:
Do your daily pvp quests available in the northeastern quadrant of Fleet. At 50 you'll need to complete objectives in Ilum (more later) as well as win a warzone. In addition to daily quests, one will also find weekly quests worth doing as well. Daily quests reset at 7pm pdt. Weeklies usually reset the day of maintenance Tuesday, but we'll see since I've seen it reset Monday as well.

As you get commendations, save them up to buy the purple loot bags one gets for completing dailies at 50. These boxes contain tokens to get a piece of purple quality pvp gear as well as the appropriate commendations to buy a piece outright. As of this writing, the Gladiator boxes give gladiator pieces and Centurion commendations. The Battlemaster boxes give battlemaster quality gear and Gladiation commendations. As battlemaster gear is only slightly better than gladiator gear, and it seems gladiator bags may provide outright gear more often that battlemaster bags, consider getting the gladiator bags first until one has a decent set of gear.

Ilum?

Ilum is presumably the world based PvP zone for "any" number of people to participate in. Theorhetically there should be areas the two factions will fight over to control. It is a very large map with 5 objectives. Players come here each day to complete their daily objectives by either taking nodes or killing an enemy while possessing the "defender" buff. To gain the defendor buff, one must be in the vacinity of a node controlled by one's faction. As with all objectives, a 5 minute timer will prevent the immediate recap of an objective. Thus, having lost a node, one must wait 5 minutes before they can be retaken.

Each side has a base possessing two cannons that act as an objective to the other side. When at the enemies base, clicking on one of the enemy cannons will cause one's toon to fire a rocket. When both cannons have been destroyed, the faction to which they belong to may attempt to repair them by using the console located nearby. Defending one's base comes with considerable advantages as one can hop on a particle cannon (four located on each side) and fire its cone effect attack for a period of time. It causes a massive amount of damage, cannot be destroyed, but its user can be knocked off with a force or tech effect.

TIP: In large scale warfare, its much better to have long ranged attacks available. As those with the ability to cause damage to an enemy before he dies, will get an objective completed. Melee characters will find it very frustrating to approach a large force wihtout dying in seconds while cc'd.
 
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Ickz
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2 - 12-01-2011, 02:35
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From the two weekends I played, I played a sorc, assassin, merc, powertech, and operative all at lvl 15-16. It seems like playing a class with a heal tree wouldn't be as important if they fixed/changed how getting out of combat works. Right now the only way to get out of combat is for every target that you have damaged, or been damaged by, dies or goes waaaay out of range of you. It seems pretty broken. If it was changed to be like WoW where your out of combat timer starts as soon as you stop attacking/being attacked, you'd be able to use your self rest ability faster and more often.

Also, I have a feeling they'll eventually add something that nerfs healing for those not specced high in their healing tree. It did seem pretty imbalanced from what I played. For example, what exactly is the point of playing either of the two dps specs for powertech when you could be playing one of the two dps specs for merc. Melee class with no heals and one 45s gap closer vs ranged class with heals and does as much damage, but has no interrupt. I dunno, it's probably stupid to even try discussing what's powerful at this point when so much is bound to change after release.
 
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BlazerBlade
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3 - 12-06-2011, 14:55
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Resolve, Crowd Control (CC) and You

I'm not going to argue the merits and flaws of the current resolve/cc situation, instead I'm going to describe it and elaborate on how to take advantage of it.

First, what is crowd control (CC)?

Crowd control, or CC as it's abbreviated, was originally intended in MMO's as an ability used by certain low dps classes to make them worthwhile in a group. The abilities range from a short term stun that allows continued damage of the target, to a long term sleep used out of combat to make a mob no longer take actions until it receives damage. PvPers immediately saw the value in these abilities and adopted them for their own uses often to the scorn of those pvpers that didn'thave them.

In SWTOR we have three types of CC:
Snares: an ability that slows the target by a percent up to 100%
Mezz: an ability which causes a target to no langer have the ability to take action for a period of time or until damage is taken (whichever comes first). Sometimes these abilities can only be used against certain types of targets (droid) or when a target is out of combat.
Stun: an ability of a short term duration that prevents a target from taking action regardless of the amount of damage taken

In PvP the three above categories have specific uses to consider. First, one will usually always keep one's target snared so that one can keep on top of them as a melee, or away from them as a ranged. Even in a ranged versus ranged fight, putting a snare on the enemy will help to unbalance his gameplay a bit and reduce the chance he can successfully use LOS (line of sight) to avoid one. Second, Mezz can be useful in a small engagement where AoE will unlikely occur. For example, in Voidstar the disarm bomb ability is much shorter in length than the time a Whirlwind will take a player out of action. Lastly, stuns work best either in a chain with another player to maximize the amount of time an enemy has to endure damage OR when the other player is in a hazardous situation (environmental damage area). Additionally, stuns can be used a cast interrupt against healers OR as an actual stun to kill a player that doesn't know what he's doing or perhaps burned his CC Breaker earlier.

Secondly, what is a CC Breaker?

In SWTOR, every character has a stun ability and a CC breaker. The CC breaker is an ability that BREAKS CC. Different classes have different names for this ability. Not all classes have the same cooldown between uses of this ability. Not much more to say about that other than learn when to use it. Although all characters get a CC breaker, not everyone knows when to use it properly (to be elaborated on).

Thirdly, what is Resolve?

Resolve is SWTOR's method of preventing chain CC. Generally, for those leveling up through the pvp bracket, Resolve seems to do nothing. I myself have played part to numerous occassions in which I've been stunned, broken the stun with my CC breaker, only to get immediately stunned again. While quite frustrating, I eventually came to realize I was not using my CC break at the right moment.

Resolve is a bar that fills up next to one's avatar and the avatar of one's enemy. When the bar fills up, the person gains immunity to further CC. The length of this immunity is almost long enough to run a huttball from the beginning of the ramps to the goal with a bit of luck. The problem is, most players find that the bar doesn't fill up until they're just about dead. Even when the bar does fill up, the immunity doesn't matter until the cc that filled one's bar wears off. This is where an experienced player knows why resolve is kinda cool.

Finally, how do I take advantage of this system?

An experienced player uses his damage mitigation abilities in preperation of an incoming CC. Then, while stunned and taking a beating, he doesn't take as much damage as the enemy is hoping to inflict. Thus the CC wears off and the player resumes his PvP having SAVED his CC breaker. Now, when the player gets CC'd again, he immediately uses his CC breaker (because two stuns will fill the bar) and gains immunity to all further CC for a good length of time. Getting this to work in Huttball while carrying the ball works wonders since most players have no idea their CC won't work when the target has a white bar of resolve.

Its very important to remember that CC does not work on a player who has a white bar of resolve. Its also important to realize that using CC on someone will give them immunity to further uses once the bar fills up HOWEVER, resolve does not affect snares. So when the resolve bar fills up, one can still snare the player even to the point of zero movement. Furthermore, snaring a player does not increase his resolve bar. So use snares as often as needed without any worry. For those warriors with the ability to cause a 100% snare, remember that it will ALWAYS cause this effect. There is no immunity against it.

Another simple strategy to use regarding CC is to test a player's knowledge. Instead of opening up with one's awesome 6 second stun, try using a garbage mezz on the player. If one has an addition stun like many melee classes do, try using that first. A less sophisticated player will automatically use their CC breaker, thus allowing one to immediately follow up with the long 6 second stun whenever it tactically suits one. I use this strategy all the time.

In reverse, its important to know what stuns to break and which to eat. Anytime someone stuns one's character in a manner that throws one on the ground, beware using the CC break. A stun that floors a player will only last between 2 and 3 seconds. Stealthers will often mezz a player before starting a fight, just to see if the player will try to break it. If the situation will allow it, save one's CC break. Additionally, don't use a CC break on a snare unless absolutely necessary since snares usually have VERY short cooldowns and can rapidly reapply.

Examples of CC not to break include, snares that result from getting pushed. Snipers and some Sorcerors have a 100% snare they do when they AoE push people away. Unless one is taking damage or really want to kill the pusher, consider eating this one. If your character gets slept, don't break it. As mentioned twice above, abilities that cause a lose of control belonging to the "Mezz" class of CC breaks if one takes damage. So when tactically unnecessary for one to take action, just ride it out. There is only one objective in game that can be capped in the 8 seconds and that's the disarm bomb in voidstar.

So in retrospect, resolve may seem like a broken system, but actually has some interesting layers of complexity to it. Those players who know these tricks, will see that resolve not only does work, but can be gamed to working for one.
 
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BlazerBlade
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4 - 12-06-2011, 16:10
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Voidstar


Different versions of Voidstar have existed and each has had its flaws. In its current state, the game consists of two sides: attackers and defenders. The defenders have the task of defending two objectives at a time. The attackers have the task of somehow interracting with one of the objectives for 10 seconds without taking any damage. Should an attacker succeed in planting a bomb on a door, the defenders have 20 seconds to disarm it. The disarming process only takes 3 seconds, but as with the offense, defense must perform this action without taking any damage. The likelihood of disarming one of these bombs is very low however since, most players will collapse their offense to the bombed door in question. Since defense has a timeout period of when they can re-enter the match of up to 20 seconds, offense has the advantage since they can respawn and reenter without restriction.

Once the first pair of doors are broken, another set of objectives open up. This time, the attackers must use a control panel to bridge a gap. Unlike last time, the defenders do not get to reenter the fight when defeated. They must stay on the other side of the gap while attackers respawn right at the fight. As a defender, don't worry about killing the attackers so much as living long enough to delay their crossing. As an attacker, try to either clear the objective on a "fast break" before the defenders catch up, or kill them all off. Oftentimes defense will all collapse in on the previously bombed door, grouping into a nasty close-in fight through the tunnels that lead from area one to the bridge gap. During this time, use as much CC as possible to slow their advance in the hopes that someone ahead of one, is trying to cap before defense arrives. Note: once offense captures the bridge gap objective, defense will not have a chance to stop the bridge from occuring as they did with the previous door.

Next, offense will find themselves needing to cross an unrailed bridge. Defense meanwhile will either await them on the other side if they died during the last bit of fighting, or will play catch up from behind. Either way, both sides should try to push each other off the bridge as it results in automatic death. Meanwhile, stealthers should consider stealthing past defense to the undefended side since most players will somehow forget that stealth exists. If offense is on a fast break with defense lagging behind, the lead guy should cap ASAP in the hopes of continuing the momentum while the laggers should do their best to once again slow pursuers. Technically on a fast break, one should NOT kill enemies, as they will respawn ahead of one, but good luck teaching this strat to pugs.

The remaining portions of Voidstar represent a repetition of the previously explained themes followed by a final objective that has no channel time requirement. Overall, this warzone may seem complicated, but aside from the variations on a theme of capturing objectives, the match overall doesn't have alot a player can do to change the outcome of the game. With only two objectives at a time to fight over whose difficulty to overcome lessens with each set of objectives, generally it all comes down to player error on the side of defense in order for offense to proceed.

Since all forms of CC in the game last a shorter period of time than the duration needed to capture a door, CC does not exist as a proactive means of advancing. At best, during a cap, one can attempt a few things to give the capper some time. In the case where defense staunchly defends both doors, one can call for everyone to push a single door. Should defense continue to leave defenders on the other door, they'll have a manpower gap at the door in question resulting in a theorhetical period of time in which offense clears the door of defenders. So while the cap goes down, use an AoE push, if one has it, to push back the respawn defenders. Then use all the CC in one's repetoire to lock them down and hope they don't have a breaker. With a good team, maybe enough CC will exist to keep them away and allow for the cap.
 
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Heimdal
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5 - 12-06-2011, 18:53
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Not that some of the points aren't good in the first post, it's really kind of a crappy guide. More of a solo PvP guide I guess. Even then it is almost saying you won't even enjoy PvP if you aren't playing one of 3 classes that have heals. Why wouldn't Shadow/Assassin be listed with that? It's probably one of the best classes to be if you're going to just do solo PvP all the time.
 
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BlazerBlade
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6 - 12-06-2011, 19:56
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Well I would say that if you take x from guide and apply it to y with a group. Estimating that you have one healer per 4 man group in a warzone. ( Keep in mind that even though you can have 8v8 in warzones. Bioware also has restricted que groups to 4 man.) You will be very successful, I don't think my guild leader put in mind a group pvp guide because all that is missing is who is doing what.

I was running a BH power tech (Tank Class) and my Guild leader was a Sith Warrior we had two healers each time in our four man group and our win ratio was about 90% - 89% Keep in mind that you will more often then not be stuck with 4 other pug people and its a god damn ****ing nightmare right now. Because they want to zerg rush all time. Especially in Voidstar. I think that will pass over with time because people will understand you simply can not do that.
 
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7 - 12-06-2011, 20:09
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Alderaan Civil War

Alderaan Civil War has a battleground look similar to designs players have seen in other games in which players fight over control of some nodes. SWTOR's version of capture the nodes has three objectives for players to capture: an east cannon, a west cannon and a central cannon. Players start out in a dropship not too far from the battlefield and must choose a speeder to take them down to fight. At the start of the match, both speeders lead to the same place; later on, the speeders will take one down to the respectively captured node for defense. In order to gain access to these faster speeder routes, one's team must have captured that node. The middle route meanwhile, remains available the entire game.

ACW, as one abbreviates it, depends on coordination to win. Unlike Voidstar, players actually can change the outcome of the battle by applying different strategies to win. A few basic points to know follow:

Not all bases are equal. The side bases take longer to get to initially, but then have a much faster return flight once captured. Additionally, players reinforcing at the middle or just starting the game will find that the node to their left will take less time to travel to than the node on the right. Some people refer to this as strong side / weak side. Most certainly, players can see the fighting going on to the left (strong side) as they enter the game at middle, but they cannot see the fighting going on to the right unless they look during the flight time down or travel some distance to gain line of sight.

The middle isn't bad. Although the sides have faster reinforcement times, the middle has buffs postioned for the defenders to use. Located in the upper tier of the middle node, one can find a damage buff that lasts a good amount of time. The side nodes on the contrary, have their damage buffs located away from the node, better situated for an attacker to get ahold of. While the middle may take longer to reinforce, PUGs are more inclined to reinforce it than a side.

Strategy

Some people seem to think that holding the two sides represents the best way to manage the game. In many respects, the two sides do offer defenders the easier objectives to hold (due to the faster reinforcement time), HOWEVER, the side nodes suffer from their remoteness to one another. Traveling from one side node to reinforce the other may take too much time and more importantly, PUG players seem much more inclined to defend the middle than a side. Those that abandon the middle and attempt to take the two sides right off the bat, risk losing mid immediately. While they may gain their strongside easily as most groups don't attack that side, they will likely struggle to get the weak side because it will likely have some number of enemies present. So then, while they struggle with the weakside, those enemies who took mid without a fight will then reinforce THEIR strongside, and make taking the second side node difficult. In other words, since middle goes unfought for, the enemy can zerg immediately from there having captured it and then reinforce the remaining contended node.

Personally, I think it makes more sense to contend for all three nodes, then reinforce whichever node seems most likely to tilt. In this manner, one node will likely flip for one's side and another will flip for the enemy. Reinforce the third and then start taking the lead. By contending all three nodes, the enemy will not so easily know which node to stop defending, unlike in the previous example where the enemy abandons mid knowing that the enemy will keep fighting for the sides.

Players lose ACW as a result of poor response time. If at least one player would stay at each node and then call out incomings, the likelihood of losing the node would drop significantly due to the possibility players will respond to the crisis. In SWTOR players don't die within seconds unless SEVERELY outmanned. That means it takes time to kill someone and take their node. The time it takes represents the time others can move that way to reinforce. Ideally players will not only announce incomming, but they'll note where and how many. For example: east 3 or mid 5.

For my own part, I have always added ONE to my estimate of how many attackers I perceive since in all likelihood another will show up immediately OR await to spring out from stealth. Doing this also brings greater attention to the threat and negates the need to immediately update should someone else show up. Most importantly, since someone will likely show up during one's attempt to defend the node, by estimating an additional attacker, one can remain concentrated on the fight.

Some tips:
Whenever ones finds oneself side outnumbering the enemy during defense, immediately leave. Although it may seem attractive to continue mopping up the stragglers, the main portion of their force will have attacked the node less defended: hence why they seem outnumbered. In otherwords, when defense zergs up and starts mowing down attackers so that the enemy's numbers start to dwindle and remain in a low state, the excess of defenders should leave. Defenders should try to keep their numbers equal to the number of attackers, while attackers need to get their numbers to exceed the number of defenders.

When winning at a node, don't fight away from the node. Not only will fighting away from the node provide an opportunity for the enemy to "ninja" the node via stealth, it reduces one's gain of "defender" points. By standing in the immediate vacinity of a node, one gains defender points which in turn will provide a commendation badge at various break points.

Beware chasing down any tank that fights away from a node. Tank players have a tendancy to fight for a win much less than their own personal glory. As such, they will represent the most likely candidate to try and lure defenders away while a stealther ninjas from behind. Furthermore, should one start to fight a tank and realize that the node behind one has an attacker capturing it, the tank enemy has the ability to snare and pull one back away from the node, thus making one's chance of rectifying the error more difficult.

Beware a situation in which an enemy stealther keeps using a mezz to prevent an otherwise undefended cap. The stealther will have the ability to continue doing this nearly indefinately UNTIL one gets into combat. So if possible, try to be in combat while capping during such a situation or else the stealther will not come out of hiding. Instead he will stay in stealth and continue to use his mezz ability to stop the cap.

Before capping middle, always remember to look up. Surrounding the middle node circles an upper level. There one will likely find ranged players waiting to shoot those that cap. I cannot recall how many times a fight at mid has come to a seeming end, only to have the cap broken by someone standing in plain sight up on that second level. Always look up there.
 
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Heimdal
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8 - 12-06-2011, 20:48
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlazerBlade View Post
Well I would say that if you take x from guide and apply it to y with a group. Estimating that you have one healer per 4 man group in a warzone. ( Keep in mind that even though you can have 8v8 in warzones. Bioware also has restricted que groups to 4 man.) You will be very successful, I don't think my guild leader put in mind a group pvp guide because all that is missing is who is doing what.
Well of course you are going to be successful with a healer in a group. Doesn't mean that you need to play one to do well. It's clear that he thinks that healing classes are better for PvP, since Shadow/Assassin wasn't even mentioned as a good class to play with minimal stress of dying. It's not even saying to do it to heal other people, but to heal yourself. It's all about personal gain.

In reality though you're most likely going to end up dying just as much without at least 1 other person playing with you that you can work together with. I can agree that if you want to go solo queue for a warzone as a healer that you'll have better odds of winning for the team. 90-95% of every player just wants to blow **** up. Having even 1 dedicated healer can make a huge difference. But again this isn't really about that. It's like hey, if you can't heal yourself then you'll suck until 50. Just not true.
 
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Last edited by Heimdal; 12-07-2011 at 04:04..
BlazerBlade
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9 - 12-06-2011, 20:58
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Well regardless I hope it helps some people.. I haven't played a Sith Assassin but would you mind posting a bit about that class? And which advanced class you choose. Defiantly loved having one on my team for Alderaan I can say that much.
 
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10 - 12-08-2011, 20:36
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Huttball

Allow me to preface my guide on Huttball by saying that it is without a doubt my favorite warzone of all time in any MMO. I understand some people hate it passionately and while I can't understand why, I do know that some classes don't do as well in it as some others. Having said all this it may not surprise one when I say that Huttball has the steepest learning curve due to the amount of built in strategy it fosters.

Huttball represents SWTOR's take on the tried and true capture the flag idea. Instead of a flag however, players must carry a ball from the center of the arena to the enemy's goal line. Unlike previous iterations of this theme, Huttball has obstacles spread throughout the arena capable of causing sudden and humiliating death. Tribes players should be immediately successful at this game type. Furthermore, not unlike beach football, the game allows players to pass the ball an unlimited amount of times between themselves at the risk of an interception. Players that die, “respawn” back at their start area in a good position to play defense.

Note: As Huttball takes place not on a battlefield but a gladiatorial arena, it allows for members of the same faction to fight against their own. Some of my favorite moments have come from fighting members of my own guild as we found ourselves on opposite sides of a Huttball match.

Once the match starts, players have three ramps to choose from in order to cross a pit via either a lower or upper catwalk. Aside from confused or lagged nubs, everyone starts the game by choosing to run up the middle ramp. Once they get to the top, the majority of them drop down to a lower set of catwalks in order to quickly get to the middle of the map. Some of the craftier ranged players may decide not to drop down, but instead choose either the left or right upper catwalk for various reasons I will describe later.

The players whom decided to drop down then circumnavigate an acid pit blocking direct access to the huttball and start fighting. A few of them will ignore the fighting and try to the grab the huttball. Only one of them can click it first. Generally the guy who grabs the huttball first dies very badly, very fast because everyone on the opposite team focus fires him down. Personally, without the assurance of healing or someone to pass the ball to, I don't know why people grab the ball first.

With the original Huttball carrier dead, the slower team now gains control of the ball because when a player dies, the enemy player nearest to him gains possession. Assuming this new player doesn't die immediately and can remember which direction to run the ball, he will have four choices he can make: he can run forward, sideways, backwards or pass.

A player that runs forward will generally get overrun by players both pursuing him and respawning ahead of him. Generally players will choose to run forward if they have healers keeping them up, or some type of movement advantage like force speed / charge in order to get distance between them and their enemies. Without heavy support, don't go forward with the ball at the start of the game. Save running forward for fast breaks as described later.

Players that run sideways have access to these air jet things on the ground. Players that step on the air jet will find their character launched high into the air in a random direction. Although they will land on the ground not having taken any damage, where they land can end up putting them someplace worse than where they had hoped (like acid). Generally, players that run sideways hope to gain access to that upper catwalk mentioned earlier. It just so happens that the upper catwalks for both sides come together forming a square elevated around the middle of the board. Should the ball carrier end up on that upper catwalk, he may have the ability to evade players down below. Personally, I don't see why anyone would run sideways unless they didn't have a choice: the chance of landing right back in the middle seems to happen just as often as getting up on that ramp.

Players who run backwards may seem a bit confused at first glance, but actually they have the second best plan working for them. Although I didn't mention it earlier, the upper ramps forming a square around the middle of the board, have an access ramp up to them on the outside of the square. Thus, a player that runs backwards (or having cleared the acid pool forward only to change one's mind for some strange reason) can run to the outside edge of the map and access the upper ramps. By running backwards, many of one's enemies will end up as mere pursuers dogged down by one's own team and unable to target one due to the LOS issues that arise when circling up to the ramp.

Players that gain access to the upper ramp then must time the crossing of two fire traps that alternate on and off, avoid getting pushed off the ramp AND make it into their endzone before enemy respawn can zerg them down. Crafty defenders will time their stuns to stop the runner on top of a fire trap as he crosses. Consider the fire traps the PRIMARY means of stopping a runner at this point. Additionally, defenders who aren't mindlessly trying to DPS down the runner, will push him off the ramp using a tech or force push. Should the push work, the player will hopefully end up in the pit down below that players cross earlier in the match.

Most of the time, ball carriers who don't get fried in one of those traps, will get pushed down into the pit. Once down there, they can either make their way out along the outside edge of the map (possibly taking advantage of the speed boost in the middle followed by the health boost just outside the pit) or look for a friendly player to throw to since falling down into the pit usually means getting swarmed and killed by the other team's respawn.

To throw the ball, look for the new ability that should have appeared on one's hotbar upon entering huttball for the first time. Having used the ability, target a spot on the ground and aim the center of the targeting marker over the player one wishes to pass to. Whoever stands closest to the center of the circle will get the ball. Note: one cannot throw the ball while stunned. If one cannot see the AoE marker because the target stands above one, simple mouse over the side of the catwalk beneath the friendly player's feet and click. Although one will never see the AoE marker, the ball will get thrown anyhow.

Some players don't even bother with getting up to the top ramp. Instead of circumnavigating the acid pool, using the air vents or going around back to access the top ramps, some players just throw the ball to another player. Back in the beginning I mentioned that some crafty players didn't drop down the the lower ramp upon starting the match, instead they went either left or right and stayed up there on the top ramp. Well, such a crafty person, positioned on the top ramp, makes an excellent receiver at the beginning of the game. Players that run to get the ball at the beginning of the match and then immediately throw the ball up to a waiting receiver demonstrate usage of the best tactic for scoring points.

A lot of preforms will use a strategy such as this to quickly and painfully take control of a Huttball game. Although methods exist to stop this sort of strategy, I'm afraid I've run out of time to continue in this post and must save them along with other nasty tricks for the future.
 
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BlazerBlade
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11 - 12-09-2011, 13:40
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Warzone Scoring Guide


When players play a warzone, they get badges for completing various objectives. One can very readily filter the experienced players from the nubs by looking at the number of badges received. Players scoring 5 or less will receive a silver star and essentially distinguish themselves as having played a poor game. Much better players will score eight or more in a game.

Since the badges earned in the course of a warzone directly calculate into more valor, xp, credits and most importantly warzone tokens, let's examine how to maximize those badges and top the charts.

First, most players have a tendancy to look at their overall damage done and biggest hits. I don't know why this represents the metric people care most about, but let's put somethings into perspective. A player can get 1 badges for scoring over 2.5k damage in a single hit. Additionally, he can get another badges for doing a total of 75k damage. For those with the gear to manage it however, players do recieve and additional badge at 300k total.

2.5k single hit
75k damage
300k damage

So far, players stuck on doing big damage have earned 2 (exceptionally geared players 3) badges. If in the course of doing that damage the player gets a killing blow on an enemy, he gets another badge. He gets another badge at 10 and 25 kills respectively. For most players, this total of 5 represents the most badges they'll get in a match. Some however will get the coveted and extremely difficult to get assassin badge by running off into the middle of nowhere and thereby doing nothing for the sake of his team other than killing an enemy while he's out in the middle of nowhere. Yay! Six badges.

1 killing blow
10 kills
25 kills
1 solo kill

No, anyone that tops out at 6 badges and gets excited doesn't know about all the other ways they should have gotten badges.

First off, many players have the ability to heal but then don't use it. It only takes a 2.5k heal to get another badge. So for even those that don't spec for healing, should try doing their large heal a few times until it crits and thereby pops a badge. For those that do spec healing, one only needs to hit 75k healing total to get the next badge. Although the game needs healers, don't let the dps have alll the fun: try to cap a killing blow here and there. Drop some instant casts dots and spread some love around. There's not all that much reason why a healer can't get credit for players dying too. I pity the healer that works his butt off to keep everyone alive but then only scores 2 badges. Exceptionally well geared players can get another badge at 300k healed.

2.5k single heal
75k healed
300k healed

Secondly, players that roll tank capable toons, REALLY ought to tank some. At the very least, establish a lead or when one can't possibly win anymore, throw guard on some nubly looking melee guy who's going to get burnt down. While he dies, pop one's damage push off cooldowns, maybe use a taunt and watch as one's character gets a badge for 2k defense in one life, 5k defense total and then a little bit later, 10k defense in 1 life. That's three additional badges just for helping some nubly guy not die as fast as he otherwise would. For those that make a habit of guading players in need, like a healers, a huttball runners and that awesome dps on one's team, expect to get another badge at 50k total defense. Coupling these tank specific badges with the killing badges above will get one easily into the 8+ badge territory.

2k defense in 1 life
10k defense in 1 life
5k total defense
50k total defense

Finally catching badges isn't only about killing some random guys, healing some random guys or even shielding some random guys. Theres actually badges for doing something that helps the team as a whole. I'm not talking about scoring with the huttball, or capping nodes, for some reason these actions don't really count. But for those who guard a captured node or presumably kill and heal/shield huttball runners, expect to get something called “Defender Points” (not to be confused with the previously mentioned tanking stuff). Defender points when accumulated to 1k give a badge. Triple that amount and get another badge. Since, defender badges happen to those players that actually guard stuff think about that the next time one desires to leave a node unprotected. Those guys who spend an entire warzone zerging around chasing that oh so coveted assassin badge could get two badges just for guarding a node or a door. Go figure.

1k defender
3k defender points

In conclusion, don't be the guy that only scores 5 or 6 badges by games end. Don't zerg around aimlessly chasing that assassin badge. Defend a node, throw some heals or guard someone. Sure, some people get really excited to hit 400k damage in a warzone. Honestly, I can see trying to do that on occasion just to do it. But ultimately, players that want the badges that in turn will give them the tokens to buy pvp gear, really ought to focus on first winning the match, and secondly maxing their badges using the method above. After all, 8+ badges don't pay as well in a loss, and incidentally winning a warzone while only getting 5 or 6 badges doesn't pay very well either.
 
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Ickz
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12 - 12-09-2011, 14:03
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Can we expect your sith inquisitor guide tomorrow? :P

Rome's PvP Guide (v09.12.11) | Star Wars: The Old Republic

edit: Oh, you said you got the guide for a guild forum. Could just link to it instead of the walls o' text :P
 
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Last edited by Ickz; 12-09-2011 at 14:10..
BlazerBlade
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13 - 12-09-2011, 14:39
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haha yup ... its from my Guild leader and there you go.... Because of the forum wipe incoming is why I have posted stuff here for you guys to read.
 
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Rosencrantz
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14 - 03-17-2012, 08:53
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I pity anyone who picked their classes based on this guide. Sorc, merc, op dps was fun 1-49...not so much at 50 with end game gear.
 
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d0ur
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15 - 03-17-2012, 17:59
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why no mention of sniper? I've played vanguard to 50 and geared him out. yea he's fun and can guard in a dps spec and so on.... but playing gunslinger is just insane. i'm surprised this is the lowest played class(though i myself hated cover at first i forced myself to get used to it).

Merc and Sorcs are all that get rolled anymore. And unless the merc has all his buffs up he has to run away from my gunslinger because i will freaking destroy him. ditto for sorcs. GS probably doesn't get the love it deserves because you really dont get the super sick abilities until you are 30+ in trickshot, speedshot etc.. Once you've got those and aren't spamming charged bolt you can own everyone and their mother if you use your kites and CDs right.
 
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