Oozo Strikes Back: 31-39 Vanguard PvP (Winning Warzones and Line of Sight)

by Raggok

Hello. 

This is my third movie in the Oozo Strikes Back series.  It will feature 31-39 Vanguard Assault PvP.  However, you might notice that I have picked up Gut so, technically, I will have to start referring to my movies as an Assault/Tactics hybrid movie.  I'm working towards a build that utilizes the synergy of the High Impact Bolt skills in the Assault and Tactics trees.  I'll let you know how that works out in the long run.

I've decided to split this movie into two parts.  The first part of this movie will be focusing on winning warzones and using line of sight.  There should be some tips and tricks in here that will be helpful for any class of any level.

I've added commentary to this movie, so I'll keep this introduction short.  Here are some of the topics covered in this movie.

• Being sneaky without having stealth
• teh top sekrit path 2 teh middel
• Avoiding fights to win
• Using DoTs to keep enemies from capping (nerf it?)
• Using line of sight to wall-hack without wall-hacking
• Using line of sight to waste enemy cooldowns
• Having some fun with Harpoon
• Winning with mobility in Voidstar

Experienced PvPers should already know much of the above, but hopefully there is a thing or two that some people haven't thought of before.

SWTOR PvP Forum Link
SWTOR Vanguard Forum Link

Intergalactic Vanguard Assault PvP Movie

by Raggok

So, I've mentioned before that Star Wars:  The Old Republic has given me the most challenges of any MMORPG I've played when it comes to winning 1v2s and 1vNs.  While that is still true, I did manage to pull off a 6 person chain kill during a warzone.  Unfortunately, Youtube disapproves of the song so I uploaded it to swtormovies.com.

For full disclosure I should add that this fight would not have been possible if most of the empire had not been Juggernauts.  They tend to be on the easier side to kite, particularly when lower level.  This movie generated some discussion along those lines on the official SWTOR forums.

Intergalactic Vanguard Assault

My next movies for the 31-39 level range are going to done with commentary (the first part of which should be up later today).  I'll most likely have a commented version of the fight linked in this post in a later movie.

Best,

Raggok a.k.a. Oozo

Oozo Strikes Back: 20-29 Vanguard Assault Trooper

by Raggok

Hello. This is my second Star Wars: The Old Republic PvP movie. The movie is a mixture of 1vNs, 1v1s, tricks, and humor. The 1v1s are all against red con enemy players.

I've picked up some nice abilities since my first movie.  Harpoon is a lot of fun.  I'm used to working with this type of ability already since I played a Death Knight in World of Warcraft.  You can use this ability to pull someone out of position, keep someone from getting away, disrupt a cast, or... my favorite... pull people into hazards in Huttball. My only complaint is that sometimes the ability feels unresponsive.  But, this might be a more far-reaching problem which I will address in a future post.

I also picked up Explosive Surge.  This is an instant cast short-radius AoE burst.  It's nice for pulling stealthers out into the open and for AoEing an objective when multiple people are trying to cap it.  However, it has a high energy cost... so it must be used sparingly.  Later in the game I will end up getting an ability specifically designed to uncover stealthers, so the usefulness of Explosive Surge is going to take a hit.  But for now, you will see me using it quite a lot in this movie as an anti-stealth mechanic.  

I also managed to get my Cybertech high enough to make the first level of grenades.  I'm using Seismic Grenades in this movie.  It's a ground target short-radius AoE knockdown that lasts for 4 seconds. It's great when you have an add come in just as you are about to finish someone off or as an escape mechanism.  It's extremely difficult to "get away" from bad situations in this game.  Almost every class has a long range stun, root, or snare.  People who are out of combat run much faster than you while you are in combat so you will get run down.  It's been challenging, but I do enjoy challenges.

This is not a movie where I play off of the zerg getting a ton of damage and never dying.  Last night I did that since I was done with this movie and wasn't frapsing. I ended up with top damage with the next highest person being 100+K damage below me with no deaths except for a suicide run at the very end of the match.  It was EASY.  Playing that way is easy mode, folks.  And, that is why I don't include that kind of footage in my movies.  Running solo in this game is HARD. In fact, this is the hardest and most challenging game I've played in recent memory when it comes to running solo.  Pulling off 1vNs is extremely difficult due to the time-to-kill a single player.  By the time you kill one player in a 1v2 you have used most of your main cooldowns, you are low health, and you are low on resources.

Now, it might be easier to pull off some 1v2s with a DPS/Healer Hybrid or a Stealth/Control Burster.  But, I haven't played those in this game so I can't say for sure.  I hope to find out some time in the future.  But, for now, I'm having a hell of a lot of fun trying to overcome the 1vN challenges of the game with my Vanguard.



SWTOR PvP Forum Link
SWTOR Vanguard Forum Link

The Argument AGAINST PvP Brackets

by Raggok

There has been a lot of conversation about enabling PvP brackets similar to World of Warcraft on the official SWTOR forums.  I'm against this for the following two reasons.

1. There are no cross-realm servers for PvP.  Everyone in the warzone is from your server.  Spreading people out over different brackets would most likely have a negative effect on queue times.  I'd rather being fighting higher level players than not fighting at all.
2. I like the option of PvPing with my friends even if they are not in the same level bracket.

The main complaint against having no brackets has been having to fight higher level players.  The bolster system does put you on a competitive level with higher level players but you will still be at a disadvantage since you may be lacking key skills and abilities that they have. This disadvantage differs from advanced class to advanced class.  As a trooper, I have not had significant difficulty killing red and orange con enemy players.  I'd accredit this to the trooper acquiring a good balance of PvP tools at lower levels.  In order to make the system work, the developers have to make sure that all advanced classes get their key PvP abilities at lower levels.  Every class needs a control and a  survivability ability available to them at lower levels.  If that is done, the complaints might subside somewhat.  Of course, there will always be players who blame their defeats on anything and anyone but themselves. :)

Later in the game, I'd advocate splitting the queues into two brackets.  A bolstered 10-49 bracket and a bracket exclusively for level 50s.  They'd have to wait until the level 50 population is high enough to support that, however.

Happy to hear any thoughts or disagreements that you might have.

Oozo Strikes Back: 10-19 Vanguard Assault Trooper

by Raggok

This is my first short movie for Star Wars: The Old Republic. At the moment I am running this linked assault build on my Vanguard at level 19. With 3/3 in Ionize Ignition, Ion Pulse has a 100% chance to process Plasma Cell. With 2/2 in Sweltering Heat, Plasma Cell has a 100% chance of snaring the target by 50% for 2 seconds. So, every Ion Pulse has a 100% chance of not only igniting the target, but it also snares the target for two seconds. Two seconds may not seem like much, but Ion Pulse is spammable. So, you can keep a target perma-snared until you run out of ammo. This is excellent for kiting, running enemies down, and peeling enemies off of friendlies.

The added bonus of Ionize Ignition is that it puts an elemental damage over time on the target. This allows for a more liberal usage of High Impact Bolt at lower levels. At the moment I am planning on an Assault/Tactics hybrid that takes advantage of the skills associated with High Impact Bolt.

Vanguard has a great mixture of long-range, mid-range, and short-range damage. I can kite if I need too, and I can melee if I want to. You can think of Ion Pulse as a 10m melee attack. Throw on the two AoE options and you bring utility to the table and the potential to put up big numbers on the scoreboard if you are inclined to go for damage rather than working objectives.

The only times I don't end up at the top or near the top of the scoreboard in damage with the Vanguard are the times when I'm working on objectives away from the pack. That is, either solo-capping or solo-guarding objective points.

Here is an example of me going for damage:

Here is an example of me working objectives.  Notice the lower number of kills, but the higher number of solo kills.  I was no doubt assaulting and defending nodes alone in this match.

Now, on to the movie. When I make a movie I take time considering what type of content I want to add. My movies focus mainly on solo PvP. This movie includes 1vNs and 1v1s.  The 1v1s are against orange and red cons only. I wouldn't want to watch a movie of someone going around and crushing gray cons, so I won't make a movie of me going around and doing the same thing.





One thing I have noticed about this game at low levels is that 1v2s are hard to pull off and 1vNs are near impossible.  The time to kill in a 1v1 is rather long and quite often takes a full ammo bar including a reload.  I find myself quite often killing one and dying to the second in 1v2s.  Once you run out of ammo and reload as a Vanguard you are hosed.  It's similar to being energy-starved as a rogue in the old days of World of Warcraft.  Another thing I have to get used to is the resource mechanic.  I can't remember playing any other class with a similar mechanic where the ammo reloads slower the less you have of it.  What this means is that I will have to learn to pace myself more and use reload ammo at mid-ammo rather than at low-ammo

I will make a concerted effort to get more 1vNs in my next movie, but I can see already that it is going to require gear and pots.

Official SWTOR PvP forum post
Official SWTOR Vanguard forum post

Testing New Computer with Sample Clip

by Raggok

Hello, anyone and everyone.  I got a new computer in anticipation of STWOR and Guild Wars 2. Basically, I wanted something where I could record fraps at 60 FPS for smoothness of video playback and the ability to slow-mo the video for key moves without it looking horrible. I'm very pleased with the results so far.  I typically run from 80-110 FPS in SWTOR on high settings at 1920x1200 resolution.  I run at 45-60 FPS with fraps running.

I'm currently working on a first movie for SWTOR.  It will feature level 10-20 PvP on my Vanguard Assault Trooper.  Here is the first segment.  It's still missing some added sound.

UPDATE: Full movie available above.

SWTOR Movies

by Raggok

This is the SWTOR wing of my Movie Library.

TROOPER

• Oozo Strikes Back 1 (10-19 Vanguard Assault)
• Oozo Strikes Back 2 (20-29 Vanguard Assault)
• Intergalactic Vanguard Assault (6 person chain kill)
• Oozo Strikes Back 3 (30-39 Vanguard Assault/Tactics with Commentary on winning warzones and using line of sight)
• Oozo Strikes Back 4 (35-49 Vanguard High Impact Assault/Tactics Hybrid with Commentary)
• Oozo Strikes Back 5 (Huttball Tips and Tricks)
• Oozo Strikes Back 6 (One Night in Ilum - Patch 1.1)