Question about grouping and duelling

[Ekade]

If a level 80 and a level 56 are in a group for PvE, both are considered level 80 correct?

Are both considered level 80 if they duel eachother while grouped?

Is the level 56 brought up to level 80 for PvP as well?

[Jabe Adaks]

Good questions... I got no answers on this one. Anybody tried this?

Jabe

[Sai'nu]

Just tried this in game with Dasumi at the Entha Starport.

She's a lvl 56 tkm and Batak is a lvl 21 master brawler/ tk 0111.

First we dueled no armor and me with vks and her without ungrouped. She kicked my ass.

I grouped... and we were still in duel mode. She kicked my ass again though in pve I'd be considered 56 because of her. Also I noted earlier tonight with a friend that the npcs go after the strongest character.

So, apparently, lvl does 'not' affect the pvp lvl in group.

Also, /peace command for dueling no longer exists. So, your guess is as good as mine how to 'end' a duel. Hope that helps.

*** and this just in... apparently end duel is a 'fade' affect just like the environment now. It goes away if you stop attacking.

*** and make that /endduel to end duel. I remember this being /peace before though.

[Zannon]

Also I noted earlier tonight with a friend that the npcs go after the strongest character.

This is not the case 100% of the time. While fighting Aakunans last night, Dwilah (lvl 56), Krusshyk (lvl 80), and I (lvl 80) we found out that if there is a healer in the group, as soon as that person heals somone, NPCs will attack the healer and mob them. They attack whoever is doing the most damage to them first but it seems that if someone heals, then all bets are off and they go after the medic.

[Keer]

They attack whoever is doing the most damage to them first but it seems that if someone heals, then all bets are off and they go after the medic.

I can support that statement from personal experience as well. And ain't it grand!?

NPC AI goes after the strategic asset of the group, in this case the healer(which also tends to be the weaker of the group). This strategy enables the NPC to take the initiative away from it's enemy (you). An engaging feature to be fighting a smarter enemy.

[Ekade]

Just tried this in game with Dasumi at the Entha Starport.

She's a lvl 56 tkm and Batak is a lvl 21 master brawler/ tk 0111.

First we dueled no armor and me with vks and her without ungrouped. She kicked my ass.

I grouped... and we were still in duel mode. She kicked my ass again though in pve I'd be considered 56 because of her. Also I noted earlier tonight with a friend that the npcs go after the strongest character.

So, apparently, lvl does 'not' affect the pvp lvl in group.

Also, /peace command for dueling no longer exists. So, your guess is as good as mine how to 'end' a duel. Hope that helps.

*** and this just in... apparently end duel is a 'fade' affect just like the environment now. It goes away if you stop attacking.

/endduel

And thank you for experimenting to help answer my question.

[Ekade]

They attack whoever is doing the most damage to them first but it seems that if someone heals, then all bets are off and they go after the medic.

I can support that statement from personal experience as well. And ain't it grand!?

NPC AI goes after the strategic asset of the group, in this case the healer(which also tends to be the weaker of the group). This strategy enables the NPC to take the initiative away from it's enemy (you). An engaging feature to be fighting a smarter enemy.

I imagine the system works like WoW in that various actions have a "hate" or "threat" number assigned to them. Healing is probably given a high "threat", so it draws aggro.

This MAY be where the taking value of a melee character will benefit the group. Taunt would be what you use to pull the enemy off the healer.

I have been trying to use taunt a lot more lately. I have noticed that they do turn on me, even though the critter does not always turn to face me. I have not tried this on humanoid NPC's yet, however.

[Jabe Adaks]

From my experience, and I could be wrong: it seems the aggro hits the person with the most influence over hit points, positive or negative. If you have a healer that heals at 400 points per sec but the fighter is doing 500 DPS in damage I think the mob stays on the fighter. If the healer is tossing heals for much more the mob is going to go after them. Which means for us swordsman we should be using area taunt (which got fixed today) to combat that.

Jabe

[dillion]

You must remember that although you are brought upto a lvl 80, you get no additional defenses that the other PC has. You also don't get the additional Health that accompanies the higher lvl either.

[Krusshyk]

You must remember that although you are brought upto a lvl 80, you get no additional defenses that the other PC has. You also don't get the additional Health that accompanies the higher lvl either.

So basically there is no reason to have this system in place?

Are there any benefits to grouping with higher level players? As it stands, it seems like grouping with a level 80 PC would mean that your level 70 fighter, let's say, would get less xp for killing level 80ish enemies because his modified Combat Level is closer to that of his target.

Lame.

[Sai'nu]

I honestly believe the reasoning behind it 'is' for a degree of 'aggro' control. This forces the real 'tanks' to be tanks so the group can focus. But also makes you protect your healers. The system, indeed, seems to have 'no' purpose for the PvP environment; Rather, for the PvE with groups. At least, that's the focus I'm seeing for this system.

[DuoXDuoX]

jus cause your level is changed to level 80 doesnt cahnge the fact you dont have as many attacks or as much weapon speed so in the end level 80s gonna beat level 56 every time unless there all medical or something.

[Hashum]

You must remember that although you are brought upto a lvl 80, you get no additional defenses that the other PC has. You also don't get the additional Health that accompanies the higher lvl either.

Yes but the advantage is you don't suffer the additional damage from the lvl 80 critter your hunting and you don't suffer the negative affects to your damage modifier for attacking it either.

So while you may not have the extra attacks, defense, or health of a lvl 80 PC if you're smart and follow a plan you could solo these lvl 80 critters yourself as a lower level PC as long as you were grouped. Now I'm not sure if you have to be within range of a PC that's lvl 80 to have the benefits but worth taking a look at.

[dillion]

Grouping with a lvl 80 PC is not supposed to benefit you to the point where you are a lvl 80 PC. The level merely allows you to run in the group with them, because otherwise you'd get slaughtered.

Hash, you maybe able to solo them but you are still capped by your level on XP. I group with low level Jedi to help grind and at lvl 80 I recieve 1080 xp for a picket lvl 82. In my group lvl 42 padawan recieve 525 xp for the same kill.

Because of the lack of speed and abilities these guys have it would take them a while to solo this creature. And for only 525 xp there's almost no reason to try. This is why Jedi forums on SOE have been a buzz with frustration. Jedi gain lvls a lot faster than normal profs but they still have problem soloing things once they've reached that lvl. Without a group backing them up they could not progress.

With as good as XP is right now, even without the 2x xp, padawan can gain XP get killed by BHs and still make up the -xp in one grind session.