Hard Mode and 50 content / PvP now

[Chrisax]

So it looks like we are now like 7 levels 50? And with a nice panel of professions.

We can start that Hard Mode / Operations / 50 PvP / etc. thing we wanted.

Let's find a first time? (No need to have everyone, we need to learn too.)

[Bredin]

I'm excited for this. Should I re-spec my commando to heals? Right now he is in a DPS spec. I have never reset my skill tree.

[Chrisax]

IMHO, don't reset anything before we try and test.

Also, making you unable to do "something else" than teams would be a pity, still IMHO.

Want to buy dual skill-tree!

It's amazing how SWTOR reproduced everything from other MMO's including all the flaws... It's a well know issue in many MMO's that, to be a good team/raid character, you have to make you a pitiful soloer because of too much specialization required killing versatility.

[Bredin]

TSW Plug Alert!!

It's amazing how SWTOR reproduced everything from other MMO's including all the flaws... It's a well know issue in many MMO's that, to be a good team/raid character, you have to make you a pitiful soloer because of too much specialization required killing versatility.

[Hyde]

I'm currently spec'ed almost 100% Defense ... and have some experience tanking in WoW (HUSH Mud, I didn't say it was GOOD experience). My spec is a bit more PVP focused, but should do fine in at least the basic HMs.

I won't be home until tomorrow night, late, so I am probably not up for it then. However, my wife is working Friday night so I should have all night Friday to mess around.

PS. I don't care who, but one of us needs to be a majority (31+ points) healspec ... Mud if he is able that night probably can do it with his current spec. But a dedicated heal spec seems to be at least as important here as it was in WoW.

[Mud]

I got joo heals

[Elrojo]

I guess it depends on the HM and hte bosses involved. At 43 I am almost completely heal spec'd on my scoundrel. I could keep a tank alive through a world boss, but i cannot keep other people alive. AoE effects as well as hitting me, just drains my energy too much. In these cases you need a good AoE healer or 1-2 secondary healers to pick up those fringe people like melee profs being hit by short range AoE.

Having said that I didnt find the world boss all that entertaining. It was really just a case of people dying and flying back over and over without the chance of being healed due to healing limitations.

I have a pretty full plate for about 2 weeks so I doubt i will be close 50 at any time before that. Though I might be around 47-48 by then

[Bredin]

I will stay DPS for now and see how things go. I just need to decide before spending champion commendations on gear.

[noobas]

I've done a few HM's. They aren't easy. We will need full specced tank/healers for any kind of success.

Also, don't expect success on any kind of HM with greens/blues. HM's are "hard" for a reason, the bosses are challenging, with lots of AOE's, hard main hits, usually uninteruptable and often have adds, AND, most importantly, ALL enter engraged mode. Ideally, you should be fully geared in mostly purples already, and have strong emphasis on your secondaries (ie. surge/crit for a healing scoundrel, defence/shielding/adsorption for a guardian). Of note, I'm in full centurian/champion gear on my DPS and my DPS wasn't that good. The main problem is lack of secondary specs like crit rating and surge at the benfit of expertise... which doesn't help in PVE.

Some more observations:

In cases where a boss does have adds, he will enter enraged mode if those adds are killed. And vice versa (if the boss is killed the adds enter enraged mode)
In most cases I've seen so far, for HM's, there are only rare occasions of bosses with adds (Taral V has one boss with adds)
Due to the first point above, it's important to do steady DPS on all mobs, so that when you do kill one the others can be knocked off quickly

I did taral V with another org (3 guys), who were well geared, tank had 19k HP, and these guys were hardcore raiders it looked like. And we couldn't beat one of the secondary bosses in Taral V.

[Hyde]

Of note, I'm in full centurian/champion gear on my DPS and my DPS wasn't that good.

PVP gear will always be a problem for PVE content. No question. <> 50% of your stat spend is done for a stat (Expertise) that makes zero difference in PVE ... which means that 3rd tier PVP gear will likely perform better than 1st tier PVE gear.

No worries, we're testing the waters. If we absolutely, horribly suck ... we at least gave it a shot and can work on stuff.

At the same time, while we're calling this a HM attempt, I'm pretty sure there are L50 "regular" Flashpoints that we're probably better off starting on. I know I don't have full purple gear yet and Chris's full purple Sage has more HP than my tank atm.

We're probably better off thinking of this as a first night of grouping in general and not focusing on the term Hard Mode ... I think we're just using that as a general description of any L50 4-man content ... and you're right ... HMs are a level above the place to start out.

That doesn't change that we are ready to get into some group content

[Bredin]

i have 2 purple armor pieces, im definitely not in uber gear

[noobas]

A very easy and cheap way to get your base rating up bredin is just to grab a orange item (even lowbie PVP armour, or a commendation item from a planet you have lots of comms for) and just buy yourself a purple armouring mod for 40-50k

If you go this route, you can have at least reasonably solid armour rating and damage mitigation on armour class for fairly low price.

FYI for anyone else (rojo for sure) When you're level 40-49, start buying up your purp mods, they are equippable at 49, and, you can have a full set of purple 49 modded gear which provides an AC class of 124. This is very good, as tier 1 PVP PVE offers only 2 better at 126 rating.

IMO, ideally, if you play thinking forward you can get all the stuff you need to set yourself up for level 50 from 1-49.

In SWTOR, theres only 2 stoppage points 1-49, and 50. Unlike AO, where theres about 15 stoppage points where retwinking/reequipping is necessary to maintain proper playability for normal play (1-10, 11-24, 24-49, 50-74, 75-109, 110-125, 126-149, 150-174, 175-199, 200, 201-204, 205-209, 210-214, 215-219, 220)

In AO, if you play smart you can get most of the stuff you need for the next level range and then equip it as you hit the level req, thereby minimizing the downtime while you're hunting for odds and ends. Same in SWTOR, basically, as soon as youre level 40 you should have already developed a strong crafting repertoire and be making money from crafting (i'm at 1.2 million and probably made 70% of that from crafting) and, everytime you're at the GNT search for the level 49 armouring mods. I had already bought myself about 4 armouring mods, a barrel, mod, and enhancement to immediately upgrade my weap from a level 45 purp modded pistol to a 49 purp modded pistol, plus upgrade all my moddable armour to level 49 purple (at least on armouring), all those upgrades cost about 350k I think, which really wasn't a big endeavour, because I just bought one piece at a time, anytime I had more than 40k kicking around.

Some cash saving tips: 1. dont get anything higher than the speeder upgrade 2. be very careful about spending cash on GNT for mats (it's almost always a better deal to buy purple crafting mishes for 10k and under than to buy mats) 3. loot everything, buy bigger inventory slots and loot farm grey crap and sell it. 4. farm the hell out of Rclickable mat thingies (for me it's plants/animals that have Rclickable corpses) grade 3/4/5 mats sell well, but, they also make useful items. mid tiered (QL 25-45 stuff, purples/blues) sell like crazy. Don't underestimate the market, build stuff, and fire it in the GTN. 5. Talk to hyde about slicing (I know nothing about it but I know he does).

[Bredin]

Thanks noobas, i'll look for those purple mods. Honestly I have not really worried about consistently upgrading my gear because I never seemed to need it. Ive done ok at PvP and completely plow through PvM content. I did my first level 50 bracket warzone today. Yeah, i need to upgrade