No Reward is Worth This! A Lovely Bug

I believe I was somewhere on Nar Shadaa when I encountered a belly-laugh-inducing bug.

Corso kept falling down. I would move, he would run over, then faceplant. 

We don't have time for this.

Alright, Corso, let's go...enough already. Okay, let's see if stealth snaps him out of it...

Great, now you're getting shot. In stealth. Pro, Corso, pro.

                                       Fine, I'm leaving without you.

Let's just say Bowdaar got to stretch his legs for a while after this...

Hear Me Baby? Hold Together: Energy and Smuggler Healing

 

I don't have quite enough experience with Smuggler healing yet to make a full-blown guide, but I can offer you some delicious food for thought in the meantime. Besides, I've been writing some puffy stuff lately, I have to throw a (saw)bone to you hardcore Smugglers.

Let's talk about energy.

As a longtime healer in WoW, I'm used to tracking a mana bar while healing. For all intents and purposes, you had a finite amount of resources (and therefore time) for each fight. When you ran out of mana, the fight was over. Exercising restraint in managing your casts, i.e.using mana-regenerating abilities or not always casting the most expensive heal, was a huge part of healing strategy.

Now, with our rechargeable energy bar (sounds like something you eat before a marathon), we can heal forever. Instead of having a countdown until we must stop healing, we have a limit placed on how many heals we can cast or how hard we can heal per unit of time. For instance, you might be able to cast five average heals or 2 big heals in any given 10 second window. And should you be overzealous at any point in the encounter, you risk not being able to heal at all.

This conceptual shift has to change the way we approach healing. Some rules have become apparent:

1. Never Cap on Energy: If at any point you allow your energy to cap, you are sacrificing healing throughput. You can always be stacking Slow-Release Medpacs if there isn't a lot of damage going around.

2. Never Stop Casting: Similar to the first rule, every second you stop casting is a throughput reduction. Regardless of your energy or incoming damage, you can at least cast Diagnostic Scan during lulls. It provides energy return (and thus more heals) even if the actual healing done is pitiful.

3. Keep Something in Reserve: The biggest challenge for Sawbones Smugglers right now is not getting too aggressive, especially if DPS is taking damage they shouldn't be. It's difficult, but try to hold a bit of energy just in case. Emergency Medpacs are a boon, allowing you to exploit Upper Hand as a second resource if need be.

4. Use Energy Regen Abilities: If there is HP to be healed, don't keep Cool Head on cooldown. The sooner you use it, the sooner you can use it again. More energy equals more healing.

I don't know about you guys, but I would be a bit scared to tank heal in a raid situation with the energy system. I feel like blanketing the raid with a stream of Slow-Release Medpacs, spot heals, and Kolto Clouds is more conducive to our heals/unit time limit. At that point, if we can't keep up with the damage it is the DPS' fault. Conversely, I would be hesitant to heal anybody but the tank if I were tank healing, which is neither productive nor fun. Could I get used to it? Yes, but I'm not sure I would want to.

How are you guys getting along with the energy healing system? Any horror stories? For those who may already be raiding: tank or raid heals?

They Would Be Crazy to Follow Us, Wouldn't They? Kiting in SWTOR

Nazbur (my close friend and longtime MMO buddy), Dunquinn (Phyona's super-cool mom), and I were cruising through our first Flashpoint, the Esseles, when we hit a bit of a snag. It was that bonus droid boss. You know, the one that you have to activate by hitting those two levers at the same time? Anyways, Droid Boss executed some nasty AOE-lightning thing (?) and Nazbur, his little droid companion, and Dunquinn all perished in a matter of seconds. (More to come on these two; they're excellent players.)

I had been throwing out some spot heals and occasional damage from cover, so now I was left alone with a lightning-infused droid meanie.

In a true stroke of martial genius inspired by Monty Python and O.J. Simpson, I ran away.

And that's when I noticed an interesting side-effect of SWTOR's lack of an auto-attack.

I could still do significant damage. Reflexes had kicked in and I was kiting the boss in a looping figure-eight around the room. Through years of hunter-pvp-induced muscle memory (and that alone, I'm no pro), I was jump-turn-firing every 1.5 seconds and managing to keep up a steady stream of damage. After a prolonged chase, the boss collapsed into a pile of scrap metal.

For those who don't know or aren't sure, kiting consists of attaching fabric to a firm frame and allowing wind to "fly" said kite while it is tethered to you via a long piece of string.

In MMO terms, kiting consists of dealing damage while keeping an opponent at a safe, comfortable distance. Generally,  the kiter will periodically snare or slow an opponent while maintaining dps on the run. One of the best methods for achieving this is jump-turning. As long as you are using the mouse to move rather than your W key, you can

1. Run away.
2. Jump.
3. Use your mouse to turn 180 degrees in the air.
4. Now that you are facing your target, fire off an ability using a hotkey.
5. Turn back 180 degrees before you hit the ground.
6. Continue to run away.

This definitely takes some practice, but once you get used to it, it will become second nature. And you'll feel like a total bad-ass.

As a smuggler in particular, you are gifted with so many instant casts that can keep up decent damage even if you are melee/scrapper specced or a cover-reliant Gunslinger. Keeping a vital shot up, flinging grenades, and filling in with blaster fire will keep their HP dropping, while abilities like Dirty Kick and Tendon Blast give you the separation you need. An important part of kiting is keeping yourself from getting slowed, so be sure to use Escape if you need to.

 In WoW, classes are dependent on either auto-attacks and their auxiliary effects or hard casts. For instance, as much as ~60% of a Rogue's damage came from auto-swings and poisons and an Arcane Mage needed to stand still for 2+ seconds to cast an Arcane Blast, their main attack.

In SWTOR, a class with ranged capabilities can decimate an opponent or mob or whatever while kiting. Keep that in mind when you're out and about, Smugglegoods! May the Force be with you, I guess...

Who's Scrappy Looking? A Rough Guide to the Scrapper Tree

If you were blindsided by the Smuggler advanced class choice presented to you at level 10, you may have struggled to adjust to your new abilities and playstyle. Let's say you chose to be a Scoundrel, maybe to try healing at some point. You were running around Ord Mantell for 10 levels, dodging behind cover and flinging Sabotage Charges all over the place and now you have stealth, too. But you can't use stealth and cover at the same time. You'll never Back Blast from cover and you can't fire a Charged Shot from stealth. Bioware is tearing you in two!

While the end goal might be to heal as a Sawbones for endgame, who wants to level as a healer? I know I would rather endure the consequences of beating a wookiee at dejarik! (Yes, I'm trying to make this as nerdy as I possibly can.) You have two DPS skill trees to choose from: Scrapper and Dirty Fighting. While Dirty Fighting, with its bleed bolstering and energy regen, has a lot of appeal for the long boss fights of endgame pve, it can't compare to the pure awesomeness that is an ability named "Sucker Punch."  More seriously, this early in the life of the game, the Scrapper skill tree seems to be one of the more developed, cohesive combat systems. The scrapper has incredible burst potential, a dash of survivability sprinkled throughout the tree, and a sort of cherry on top in the form of Flechette Round. Like a smuggler sundae.

So, if you've come this far and decided to be a Scrapper, you need to understand one thing: you are now a melee class. Say goodbye to little green kneeling men, say goodbye to Sabotage Charge, say goodbye to hiding behind things while Corso harpoon shots all of the wrong mobs. Your new job is to sneak up behind baddies while  your companion distracts them, shoot them in the back, kick them in the spacejunk, and finish them off with a powerful right hook.

Let's take a look at the skill tree, filled with the points I recommend for a leveling/pvp build (since it's nice to take a break from missions with a game of Huttball). Follow along here.

 

Here is my rationale for taking each. I will proceed in the order I think you should spend your points.

Tier One:

Element of Surprise: Critting on your opener (Back Blast early, Shoot First when you get it) is a huge part of your burst ability. Hopefully you'll be getting off more than a few Back Blasts as well, considering your stuns/incapacitates in PvP or your companion tanking while leveling.

Browbeater: More burst post-opener via Flechette Round and a bit of a kick to Vital Shot if the fight drags out. Helps with Strong/Elite mobs and Flashpoint bosses while leveling.