PvP 101: A guide to Current Post-CU Combat

[Sai'nu]

I would like to ask that all of the community chip in here with helpful PvP guides/tips you use to survive.

From this gamer's point of view one must first Understand PvP to accept it and go along with 'any' type of meshing of RP/PvP.

So, my first few questions for the experienced gamers are this...

What are the best ways for solo classes to defend themselves in combat? What's the best Combo profession for one to have as it pertains to PvP? What foods/armor/weapons best complement any given class?
What attack icons should I keep on my toolbar if I'm a double class or a single class combat profession?


That should be enough to start with... I for one am looking forward to any insight the community has to offer.

[Nyvveck]

If you are PvPing in mass PvP (Theed, Bestine, AH, etc.), I suggest you use high energy resistance armor, along with a PSG, as you will be fighting mostly Jedi. If you are dueling someone for fun/RP reasons, decide whether you should use kinetic armor or energy armor based on the weapon your oppenent is using.

As the system is now, you won't survive long in PvP without some medic skills either, or at the VERY least good stims (Medic is still much better).

My personal template is Teras Kasi Master, Swordsman 0-4-4-4, and Doctor 4-0-0-4. I could be much better if I were to drop Teras Kasi and pick up Fencer (Teras Kasi doesn't help my template at all, it just takes skill points away...I get no good specials, and in PvP, it is better to wear armor as you can get the armor break resistant slice). However, I will never drop Teras Kasi, as I have been one since launch.

As for food, use any that increases your action regen or mind regen. Synthsteak is good to have around for when that Jedi KD's you.

If you have any further questions, feel free to send me a tell in game. I would be happy to answer any questions.

[Hashum]

Yes in PvP medic is almost essential. Even just Medic xx2x with a +25 healing efficency can allow you to heal in the range of 1000-1500 about every 5 seconds I believe. I don't remember exactly off hand but it's huge. Although I've heard they're nerfing this.

Root's are very helpful in PvP as well, and many Jedi or giving up Channel to pick up Force Speed and the Jedi root I forget the name off hand.

As for your tool bar the best specials are Armor break's, Power hit or critical hit specials, and KD's. The states aren't really very effective currently however blind to lower accuracy or indimidate can have some use in a close fight.

I'm by no means a PvP expert though but that's my two cents.

[Sai'nu]

Next Question... Which is 'most' suited for PvP combat now going by, of course, whichever type armor your profession allows...

Do I typically want higher energy protection or Kinetic? And should I have one a little higher than the other... how badly am I looking at getting 'surprised' should I take Kenetic damage over Energy with a higher Energy protection?

I know this is a bit general... but Should I expend the extra credits to keep a Personal Shield Generator on me for PvP?

[Hashum]

Next Question... Which is 'most' suited for PvP combat now going by, of course, whichever type armor your profession allows...

Do I typically want higher energy protection or Kinetic? And should I have one a little higher than the other... how badly am I looking at getting 'surprised' should I take Kenetic damage over Energy with a higher Energy protection?

I know this is a bit general... but Should I expend the extra credits to keep a Personal Shield Generator on me for PvP?

Well it depends on the type of PvP you want to be envolved in I would think. As well as the type of armor you can wear. Battle Armor is more well balanced against all damage types, and Assault and Recon are more geared to either Kinetic or Energy.

Now if you're a MBH and want to hunt Jedi you're going to want something with high energy resists which would be recon armor I believe. Or at least Battle Armor which is the middle, but assault armor if memory serves is weak against energy.

So a little more information would help. Kinetic is definately more useful in PvE but for PvP I'd say go with energy and get it sliced to resist armor break for the best coverage. Especially against Jedi I would think.

[Sai'nu]

I guess another question I'd like to ask is...

How has group PvP changed since the lowering of only 8 members in a party?

Are there really any advantages to this now?

[Viceroy Odantis]

The pre-fight preparation:

1) Armor....for top notch armor you'll generally, as nyvveck said, want energy due to jedi, however here's something to keep in mind.... Its a classic back and forth strategy. If i know everyone wears energy armor....guess what kind of gun i'm using? Always carry a kinetic weapon, even if its not quite as good...reason being...Most pvpers wear a PSG, this is roughly 2k energy..so even if they are wearing kinetic armor, this probably more than makes up for the weakness with the PSG. Right now that means kinetic guns are probably just a tad overpowered and its why you don't see a lot of cl54 and master level kinetic. For top notch here's a rough breakdown: Recon: 8114 energy, 4-5k kinetic, Battle: 7114 energy, 4k kinetic, assault: 6114 energy, 5k kinetic. All these would be made to defend versus energy. Obviously if the armorsmith focuses on balance these numbers change. If the focus is on kinetic just flip the numbers...Assault being 8114 kinetic, 4k energy...etc etc.

Final note on armor: Get it sliced for armor break reduction 75%, you'll thank me later.

2) Weapons: ALWAYS carry multiple weapons. I use the following:

UR-G8 pistol, sliced for crit chance, energy.

FWG5 sliced for damage (pre-curb converted) kinetic weapon, this is my main gun.

Featherlight FWG5, slice for speed, kinetic. This is my high accuracy gun. Witha scope attached from WS, the innate bonus included, i get +45 to accuracy just equipping this gun. I use it when i REALLY need a shot to land, such as a root or something.

Ion Stunner: Lower damage but elemental weapon. Elemental damage is "tacked on" after all other damage. So this weapon does great damage with LOWER specials, but loses something at high end. This is my "rapid fire" gun. I alternate Ranged Shot and Placed shot while using this. With such low cycle times on those specials i fire very fast and the damage is higher than with non elemental guns, great for saving energy and still dealing good DPS. Sliced for crit chance to boos tthe low damage specials even more

Proton Carbine: Longer range, elemental, sliced for speed due to lack of carbine mods. Good solid damage at longer range, when i'm a healer primarily i sue this gun a lot to stay out of harm's way.

ADV Laser Rifle: Sliced for speed, laser rifle has accuracy bonuses over t-21 becuase it can use a scope at creation. This is when someone is really getting out of range or for turret busting.

3) Powerups

Powerups or "Pups" are a great tool. No longer is there one definite winner. They are a + - system. If you get one that helps speed, it will hurt accuracy. If you get one that helps accuracy it hurts speed, etc etc. Make sure to keep SEVERAL of each type on you at all times. If you notice you are burning through action too fast, slide a SAC reduction pup on your gun. Learn to be quick at switching pups midfight, or use mezes if your template has them to delay. Don't let a speed or damage pup that cranks your guns DPS make you drool, the actual DPS calculation assumes you land every shot with no armor, so keep that in mind, sometimes damage/speed aren't the most important...depends on your style and templates.

4) Foods/Drinks

Basics for every template:

Ruby Bliel: Currently bugged, instead of reducing stimpack roundtime to 30 seconds, it instead lets you INSTANTLY finish your stimpack cooldown (take one immediately even if you just did) and then makes your NEXT stim only wait 30 seconds, but then it ends. Ruby bliel is a MUST HAVE for any pvper, a MUST. Look for 13 filling or lower, duration doesn't matter as the effect is not as described in the item.

Synthsteak/exo protein wafers: These were forgotten for a bit after the curb, people thought they were no longer worth it, as their duration is now seconds and not number of hits. With jedi and others hitting with speed buffs...trust me..seconds are nice. Carry both, synth has a huge filling and exo protein wafers have a filling that is recovered in 3 minutes or less.

Teltier Noodles/Blob Candy/Spiced Tea: pick 2
These are LONG TERM (45 minutes+) regen and health buffers respectively. The food stacking is always a bit glitchy and changing with every patch, but i suggest blob and spiced tea over teltier noodles since last i check teltier won't stack with blob. Keep in mind HEALTH REGEN is a worthless stat, even with 250 (cap of regen allowed by combined foods) it'll NEVER be a noticeable help.

Crispic: huge accuracy boost for melee, solid accuracy boost for ranged, decent duration.

These are all the ones I have in rotation, other use (spelling) Kijosk Swirl or something like that, it boosts HP, but i don't think its worth it, but that's just me. Visit the official chef forums for a full list of foods.

5) Spice

Keep the spice of choice for your template on hand IN BULK. Its cheap, its a great boost, and its downtime is ONLY 30 SECONDS now. Booster blue, Neutron pixie are the front runners, the occasional person using Muon Gold.

6) STIMS

You need good stims, period. 1200ish in power, try to get 18 uses or more in a stack. 60 second between stims, ruby bliel makes them able to be chugged.


7) "goodies" dunno what to call these...but newbs got the hookup. Create a new character..notice they get a random "stimlike" item that boosts +10 to accuracy or speed of a certain weapon. Buy these up like candy...they stack with EVERYTHING with no downside...+10 pistol speed for 5 minutes on top of everything else is nice.

8) Finally: Ca's and Aa's: skilltapes that boost your abilities are very nice. +25 is the cap. Make sure you have free sockets, if you are worried at all about "wasting" a tape because of applying it incorrectly, please ask someone, you can easily ruin a tape by using it ona piece that doens't have enough sockets or has other mod's already..etc

[toront]

I guess another question I'd like to ask is...

How has group PvP changed since the lowering of only 8 members in a party?

Are there really any advantages to this now?

Not really too many advantages to the group size limits. A few disadvantages, like not being able to see if someone in another group on your side needs a heal. The ability to see what other states are applied to group members is nice, especially in Ventrillo or Teamspeak, so you can tell them "hey you're stunned, watch your action" or similar things.


Also, to touch on Alonzo's foods section, I go with a combo of blob candy, spiced tea and kanali wafers. Blob candy is action pool and action regen, spiced tea is mind and mind regen and kanali wafers are health and health regen. They are all 45 minute duration with only 15 filling, so I try to pop them back to back while overt or expecting trouble.

Another good point, dedicate a toolbar to foods/spice. Always keep it full. When you get down to the last 1-2 in a stack of a food, pull another out of the crate and put it on the bottom row of the toolbar. Since you can't pull anything out of crates while in combat, always have extra out.

[Viceroy Odantis]

boy toront, we sure know how to kill a thread

[Novall]

I usually keep 2 stacks of each food, spice, and stim available in the backpack at all times.

They nerfed the bacta shot healing, so even with all the efficency its not that great a heal now.

multiple weapons are a must. I keep a Vexa Flechett, Adv Scatter, DE10 (high accuracy mod), and proton carbine on me at all times.

Attachments are also a big plus to stay competitive. I keep +25 carbine acc on the mando helmet, +25 carbine speed on my gloves, +10 to ranged and melee defence on my bracers, and +10 to healing effiency that I'll probably put in a pair of biceps. My accuracy is at 300 and speed is around 150, ranged and melee defence around 210 respectivly.

For ranged combatants, if your fighting melee opponents then you want to kite them. What is kiting? Its keeping them outisde of their effective range with keeping them inside yours. stopping shot/concussion shot/paralyze/kneecap shot/ect are the shots you want to focus on having. The more roots and snares you have, the better your chances are of wearing them down while keeping yourself safe.

Against ranged opponents is all about dealing the most damage and staying healed. Rooting a rifleman isnt going to do you much good if your a pistoleer...they can still fire at you from inside your effective zone. Using KD shots as well as states and delays are essential to breaking through defenses as well as decreasing their DPS. MBH's also have duelist stance which is a must use for every PvP encounter.

[Ekade]

Any advice for non-jedi melee types?

[Hashum]

Any advice for non-jedi melee types?

Well most of what Toront and Alonzo touched on is not Jedi specific. Melee users should have power ups as alonzo suggested, Crispic is a huge must have for Melee. It usually boosts accuracy by about 60-70 for Melee accuracy.

Depending on your Melee template you can either go with Innate TKM armor or buy your armor, if you buy your armor then again a high energy resistance for PvP helps and then as Alonzo said have it sliced for Armor break.

As to weapons I'm really not sure what to offer for advice there as I'm not familiar with them really. I've heard Fencer has some pretty decent weapon loots from RotW so you could pick up that pretty easily. Sorry I can't remember the name. And for Swordsman I know Power Hammer's are still pretty good but I don't know what else is out there that could be better.

And food/spices are also the same for everyone so any of the other suggestions they made would apply.

Novall also pointed out SEA's which can easily make a difference in battle. If you pick up some speed and accuracy mod's to help raise your DPS and chance to hit %'s you're going to be helping yourself out a great deal.

As for Melee special's they're pretty much the same, Armor Break from Swordsman is a big one, as is Center of Being from TKM, throw in a few KD's and I'm not sure what the critical/power attack is for Melee but you drop that in and your good to go.

[Novall]

Any advice for non-jedi melee types?

Stay close. Use KD and state the crap out of em. Remember that your innate armor is the best in the game. Your best course of action is to break 100 to speed and 200 to accuracy so that your hits land. I dont see any dodge or block modifiers like their used to be, so your going to have to rely on your innate armor alot.

Another thing to remember is burst run. I was dueling one of my members back before the lightning strike, and he was TKM/Doc. we fought around 30 mins and I could keep up with his healing because I could kite the heck out of him. He finally managed to get my health pretty low. I tossed a snare on him and he hit burst run to cancle it out getting right ontop of me. Luckly I healed the second he incapped me so I never hit the ground before he did an /endduel (always make sure your opponent is nutralized before you stop.).

Anyhow, that burst run saved his tail.

[Nyvveck]

I have been a melee'er since launch, so...

In melee, if you are fighting a ranged person, kiting is an issue. As such, you must use the enviroment to your advantage. Get out of the targets line of sight, make him come to you. Also, (here's my favorite) always carry a rifle you can use. When you get super snared by a combat medic, and are being kited, pull out the rifle to give the CM a little surprise.

Against Jedi, it is required that you have some medic skills in melee. If you are not a Teras Kasi Artist (and if you really want to win, even if you are a Teras Kasi...) get armor, and have it armor break sliced. Without the armor break slice, a MSabers Jedi can cut through you like butter.

The best weapons for every class:

Teras Kasi-NK-Nightblade or Knucklers of the Katarn (NK-Nightblade is better if you use a lot of specials, Knucklers of the Katarn are better if you use melee hit a lot.)

Fencer-Blade of the Great Tree (In the actual name, "Great Tree" is replaced by the wookiee word for it...which I will not even attempt to spell)

Swordsman-Powerhammers are still good, also look for the Two Handed Sith Sword and the NK-Executer.

Pikeman-Kimonian Greatstaff (I'm not sure on the first word...)

As for attacks...

The most damaging melee special is the Pikeman skill Impale, closely followed by the Swordsman skill Critical Hit. Next comes Head Hit (Swordsman) then Body Hit (Fencer), Leg Hit (Pikeman), and finally Combo Hit (Teras Kasi). Currently, the combat tab (and everything else really...) reads incorrectly for Combo Hit. It does about 1100 damage, opposed to the 300 that the combat tab would have you think.

Regarding Powerups:

I have built my entire template around getting as many hits in as possible. As such, my action is always being used up. So, I have found the best powerups for me to be SAC Powerups.

Stratagy:

My commen stratagy in PvP is to throw an armor break on the person ASAP. In a duel, that will be my first attack, followed by a KD. I then use my damage specials (Critical Hit, Head Hit, and Combo Attack). A commen tactic is to wait to KD the enemy a second time until his health is low, then unleash all damage specials on him. With luck (and a good "You cannot knockdown recovery while knocked down".) you can end a fight quickly that way.

Also, be aware that KD Recovery requires quite a bit of action...so always leave about 1/4 of your action in reserve in case you get KDed.

[Sai'nu]

I'd like to thank everyone for contributing to this so far... and you 'have' helped me to win one of my first 'informed' duels. Keep it comming...

Jedi against Jedi tips...

Melee against Melee...

The whole mix and match if you have information available/have experience in these areas.