SWG Tales

I am looking for a list of things I should have to be as effective as I can be. Not uber, just reasonably good.

I need your advice on:
- BE Clothing: What bonuses and stats are good now?
- Armor: I am deciding between swordsman and fencer. Both use Combat armor. What are the armors I can use and what is considered to be decents stats for those armors? Should I convert my existing composite armor into one of these?
- Weapons: What are good weapons and what is a good DPS value for theem? What, if any, powerups should be used now?
- Food: I had ALL the good stuff for fencers pre-CU. Is any of it still worth anything? What should I have now?


In looking at fencer, it seems more like a class that someone would take to supplement an existing melee class. I could be totally wrong, maybe it does rock in ways I have not discovered. Seeing as that I don't have the skillpoints available to do stacking, I need to pick one profession.

Swordsman is loosely in line with my character concept so I am giving that a try. Ekade, raised as a very traditional twilek who still clings to those traditions, sees combat as an art and practices the old ways. Thus I am steering away from ranged weapons even though they are rocking right now.

I'm rambling again..


Any advice you have on the above would be greatly appreciated.

When it comes to melee, there's only four elite professions:

Pikeman
Fencer
Swordsman
Teras Kasi Artist

Pikeman

Well right now, I can say pikes are really for helping to slow down enemy/crowd control and offensively aren't "the bomb" in melee. Your strngth here is in slowing down your enemy with knockdown and then trying to intimdate them and givbe them other mod downers while they are down and then use your best shots to take them out before they recover.

Fencer

Great of you like winning with DoTs. I don't - so I haven't really considered it.

Swordsman

This is supposed to be the most powerful damage inflicting in melee right now. I am just starting to experminet with this, but honestly I am starting to think every melee fighter shyould have some swordsman. If you like really hurting things, this is the one to pick.

Teras Kasi Artist

As far as defense and having useful recovery skills, TKA is a must. TKA's will never worry about buying armor, dealing with expensive armor purchases or decaying and because we're not wearing armor. Due to the fact I can wear clothes while fighting, I ahve been able to free up 20 skill points that I used to have Exploration I.

Overall

Personally I think a melee template should consist of taking on master TKA (althought the moves mostly suck) and then picking out pike or swordsman moves that fit your style and skill points. For someone like yourself, with limited skill points, I would probably pass on TKA.

You should probably spec in to Master Swordsman (maybe try some pike) just to see if you like it. Then after you know how exactly you wanna inflict the pain, work on your defensive approach. This could be simply buying good armor or just using some spare skill points to partially crawl up TKA and buy some bio clothes with defense mods in it. Don't underestimate the new clothing, I have seen clothing that is affordable and has multiple +16 mods in it. You could probably get +25 ranged and melee defense just in clothing alone.

The only other tactic to perfect is once you decide on a range of moves to put on your toolbar, don't exclude the weak stuff from brawler. Mixing brawler moves that have 2 second cooldowns with your power moves will increase your ability to inflict damage dramatically. When putting your template together, decide what moves are worthy of your toolbar (make sure you have a good mix of weaker and stonger attacks) and play with sequences to see what order will keep your toon beating ass the fastest. I am still experimenting with this.

And remember, ranged is currently FotM.

Jabe

P.S. Here is a really nice roundup if you want to know more:
http://www.swgcenter.com/info/article.asp?ID=4004

Another question about gear..

Stims. What is the story on those? Do I need novice medic? Should I take novice medic?


Is there a compelling reason why I should NOT keep Master bralwer?

Ekade wrote:Another question about gear..

Stims. What is the story on those? Do I need novice medic? Should I take novice medic?

If you are combat level 60 or higher or plan on being 60 or higher, definitely dump medic. You can get 1000+ hp healing stims without it and get the 15 skill points of novce medic for something far more valuable.

Is there a compelling reason why I should NOT keep Master bralwer?

THe only reason to keep master is the generous +25 melee accuracy and +15 melee speed you get from it. Other than that brawler and the individual branches from it are really up for grabs as long as they're not pre-reqs for your chosen elite professions. With limited skill points the only advantage of dropping master would be to drop an entire branch you didn't need as well for the skill points. Just dropping the master box by itself would be a silly move.

Jabe

So is dropping the Master Box and one branch worth taking 1 branch is some other melee prof?

If so, what branch of what prof would you suggest?


Also.. *points way up* any thoughts on my original questions?

its hard to say ekade... fencer doesnt have strong attacks. swords has the power and impale from pike is strong. BUT that doesnt mean you have to suck in combat. just your role is going to be assisting the damage doers.

i say stay fencer/master brawler only other specials that would help you a lot are buried in pike/swordsman and you need more skill points to get em.

what you will be good at is:
Blind-advanced blind at master
Bleed-not uber dot (i hope it gets improved)
Bind-this slows action regen (good with stun)
lunge-a kd attack with longer range
cripple-this snares enemies (they run at walk speed!!)

thats my 2 cents

Jabe Adaks wrote:P.S. Here is a really nice roundup if you want to know more:
http://www.swgcenter.com/info/article.asp?ID=4004

From that I gathered 2 pieces of info that have me leaning even more towards swordsman..

-I Fencer

Primary Role: Close Range DoT Specialist (Damage-Over-Time via Bleeds)
Secondary Role: Close Range Crowd Control (Position Control)
Offense: Strong (4)
Defense: Weak (2)
Crowd Control: Moderate (3)

My comments.. for a DoT specialist.. the DOT is rather weak, bordering on insignificant. "Offense: Strong (4) " seems innacurate to me. The offense of a fencer is not that strong.

-J Swordsman

Primary Role: Close Range Damage Specialist
Secondary Role: Melee Tanking (Mitigation)
Offense: Very Strong (5)
Defense: Moderate (3)
Crowd Control: Minimal (1)

Given the fact that my "must have Dancer" template only allows for one elite profession, and given the fact that my character concept demands this be melee.. I am feeling more confident about swordsman.

Now I just need to go out and try it.


Although.. looking over TK on that link.. it still appears to be the creme de la creme of the melee professions.

Unarmed Damage +345

That alone hits harder than my weapons. Can any of you TK's provide feedback on how your armor bonus measures up?

I am starting to think I may have to try TKM too.

atm tkm means only a few things: no offense what so ever LOL and great defense (btw powerboost works again) the innate teras kasi armor +60 at master is just sick tho, stack that with a psg and you dont take a lot of damage. but you will not have any good attacks really...and the animations are not cool to look at, personally i say stay fencer, use the rantok blade and swing that F*cking lekku like you never swung it before!

Dariis wrote:its hard to say ekade... fencer doesnt have strong attacks. swords has the power and impale from pike is strong. BUT that doesnt mean you have to suck in combat. just your role is going to be assisting the damage doers.

i say stay fencer/master brawler only other specials that would help you a lot are buried in pike/swordsman and you need more skill points to get em.

what you will be good at is:
Blind-advanced blind at master
Bleed-not uber dot (i hope it gets improved)
Bind-this slows action regen (good with stun)
lunge-a kd attack with longer range
cripple-this snares enemies (they run at walk speed!!)

thats my 2 cents

My problem with debuffs.. or "states" is that most of them can be recovered from, and they don't last long, AND they don't have a much of an effect, especially the fencer bleed and blind.

I probably need to try it more.. but it seems weak on paper. It also seemed weak in game when I duelled a like-level TKM. The Fencer specials did very little for me.

Damage is something that is very real and it pays off NOW.


Besides.. I play low-DPS support char in another game. I need to enjoy whupping it up a little.

Dariis wrote:atm tkm means only a few things: no offense what so ever LOL and great defense (btw powerboost works again) the innate teras kasi armor +60 at master is just sick tho, stack that with a psg and you dont take a lot of damage. but you will not have any good attacks really...and the animations are not cool to look at, personally i say stay fencer, use the rantok blade and swing that F*cking lekku like you never swung it before!

I dunno.. I got soundly whupped by a TKM when I was a fencer.. twice.

I don't have a rantok blade. Where does one find a good rantok blade?

one finds one when one finishes one's last jabba mission... 1and1are1eleven? <------ to many ones Ekade?

Dariis wrote:one finds one when one finishes one's last jabba mission... 1and1are1eleven? <------ to many ones Ekade?

Yeah, but dont you have to turn that in to finish the misison?

I don't think I have one and I did the themepark twice with Ekade. I'll have to double check my houses and stuff.

What is the DPS on a rantok?

its fair...

but better than it was

if you choose swordwoman criticalhit/power attack are good, armor break is strong, and berserk adds power to all your attacks. consider master swords 0004 fencer (that gives you +50 general melee accuracy)

only critique i have to swords is that your defenses will be lower and stronger opponents will take advanage of that...whereas fencer can cripple and get away from certain death

Dariis wrote:
if you choose swordwoman criticalhit/power attack are good, armor break is strong, and berserk adds power to all your attacks. consider master swords 0004 fencer (that gives you +50 general melee accuracy)

only critique i have to swords is that your defenses will be lower and stronger opponents will take advanage of that...whereas fencer can cripple and get away from certain death

So you would recommend dropping Master brawler and a branch to add Fencer 0004?

I can see some value in "cripple and get away", but isn't the ultimate goal to kill your opponent?

Ekade wrote:

Dariis wrote:one finds one when one finishes one's last jabba mission... 1and1are1eleven? <------ to many ones Ekade?

Yeah, but dont you have to turn that in to finish the misison?

I don't think I have one and I did the themepark twice with Ekade. I'll have to double check my houses and stuff.

What is the DPS on a rantok?

to keep many rantok swords, you put the sword in your backpack, then cancel the mission, then go and take it again, repeat

I just checked the rantok on my wall and it was only 330 or so max dmg