• Hail Guest!
    We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
  • Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
  • Hail Guest!,
    Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
  • Hail Guest!
    Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!

Guide: Understanding Combat Professions

B

BadgerSmaker

Guest
Guide: Understanding Combat Professions

I'd really like to put something together on players can optimise their chances of sucess against each profession.

Post away with you tactics vs others and I will assimilate them into our collective eliteness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Defence:

Shields - Shields now absorb 99% damage when activated. On hit the damage reduction is lowered by 1% and applies the energy reservoir effect which increases damage dealt by 1%.

Fumble (Mark 6) - Increases your chance to hit with a Glancing Blow by 40%. Lasts 15 Seconds with a 30 second Cooldown.

Stun (Mark 5) - 4 Second root and 100% chance of Glancing blow. If you are rooted by a BH, don't spam specials.

Offence:

Ambush (Mark 8 ) - Armor Break may have up to 5 applications per stack and reduces NPC armor by 400 per application. Armor Break reduces player armor by 4% of player total per application up to 20%. 8 seconds duration with a 6 second cooldown. Buying Advanced Armor Break from expertise also increases Ambush Damage by 2% and adds 10% Ambush Critical chance.

Dread Strike - Reduces Damage by 15% and Healing Potency by 50%. Lasts 15 Seconds with a 30 second Cooldown.

Flawless Strike - Flawless Strike is a damage attack that also grants a 6 second buff which increases the Flawless Bead proc chance by 25% (added to 75% base chance from the five piece set, makes it 100%). The Flawless Bead proc ensures that the next executed special attack cannot be Parried, Blocked, Dodged or Glanced. 25 Second Cooldown.

Sniper Shot (Mark 6) - High Damage attack, can only be used from prone.

Expertise Options

Carbine/Pistols vs Rifles.

PvP Heroic Jewelry Options

Bounty Hunter: Dire Fate set

  • +45% Cripple Fast-Attack Chance, a chance for cripple cooldown to be reset after using the Cripple attack.
  • +50% Dire Snare Chance while using cripple. Dire Snare cannot be prevented or dispelled through normal means.
  • +50% Dire Root Chance while using Traps. Dire Root cannot be prevented or dispelled through normal means.

Bounty Hunter: Flawless set

  1. Luck: 150
  2. Precision: 250
  3. 30 second reduction to Flawless Strike cooldown.
  4. Gain the "Flawless Strike" attack. Flawless Strike cannot be a Glancing Blow. Using Flawless Strike has a 25% chance to activate "Flawless Bead" which reduces the chance that subsequent attacks will be Dodged. Parried, Blocked or Glancing by 65%.
  5. Increases the chance of Flawless Bead to activate by 75%.

Summary:

As you can see, Ambush, Fumble and Dread Strike can be on you for half of the fight, most BH will try to spam all these in a massive opening damage dump combo and will often be successful. If you can break line of sight while these debuffs wear off then charge in while they are on cooldown you may have a better chance of triggering shields or killing them.

You can do some damage through shields but often it's better to seek cover while it wears off then take the BH when they are vulnerable.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Defence:

Stand Fast - 75%+ Damage reduction for 18 seconds, 4 minute Cooldown.

Position Secured - +200 to Strength and Precision, 30% Action Cost Reduction, 10% Devastation Chance increase, 20% Burst Fire Chance (proc with extra damage from weapon range), Critical Hit Increase 8%, Critical Hit Decrease 20%, 5% group Critical Hit chance bonus and + 1000 armour.

You'll Regret That - Procedure effect when snared with a maximum bonus of +4000 Armor

Offence:

Cryoban Grenade (Mark 2) - High damage AoE ACID attack, 30m Range
Fragmentation Grenade (Mark 3) - High damage AoE HEAT attack, 30m Range
Cluster Bomb - High damage AoE Kinetic attack, 30m Range

It Burns - Does about 1500 Damage and applies a DOT that has a duration of 15 seconds with a 2 second cooldown. Burn Down is an AoE version.

Expertise Options

Grenade/Rifles vs Heavy Weapons

PvP Heroic Jewelry Options

Commando: Frontman set

  • +250 Constitution
  • +25 Block Chance
  • +750 Block Value
  • Gain the "Enrage" ability. When activated, Enrage causes you to lose 7500 Health while you gain +10 to your kill Meter.

Summary:

If you can, stay out of grenade range (30 - 34m), if you do get within grenade range, keep moving in one direction to try and avoid the delayed detonations.

If the Commando activates Stand Fast, apply DoT's and snares and run for cover until it wears off.

Commando DoTs start at 350 Damage per tick, and can be stacked 10 times for 3500 damage per tick. Getting within flamethrower range will get you a 10 stack VERY quickly, otherwise Commando will have a 10 stack on you from It Burns in 20 seconds.

DoT resistance mods are futile and pointless. Absorbtion might be useful if you could guess which DoT type was coming, but not all DoT types have absorbtion mods.

Your best bet is an all out attack to trigger Stand Fast, get some cover while it wears off, try to clear your DoTs then wade in again.

Frontman Commandos will have high block chance and block value combined with high armour values, making them able to absorb large amounts of damage while macroing It Burns/Burn Down on you.

Commando's have no innate snare/root break, try to use this to your advantage.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Defence

Synaptic Stimulator - Removes up to two debuff effects.

Environmental Purge - Removes Bleed DoT.

Offence:

Crippling Vortex (Mark 5) - Area attack with 3 second Root then 12 Second Snare. 46 second cooldown.

Superior Firepower - Makes all AoE attacks hurt... a lot... make a point to avoid any AoE dropped by an Officer with this buff active. +125% AoE damage increase, +50% AoE critical hit chance, 30 second duration. 13 minute cooldown reduced to 3 minutes with expertise and 2 minutes with the Hellstorm set.

Shock Grenade - Powerful grenade with a 20m radius that includes a mild, 20 second snare. 3 second fuse.

Artillery Strike - The Officer's signature special. Has a 20m radius and a 64m range, but can only be used outdoors. 3 second fuse.

Core Bomb - Very powerful 20m radius attack that originates at the Officer's feet. The fire DoT is especially dangerous due to it's long application of 20 ticks. This is the only attack special that isn't based on your intended target. 3 second fuse.

Dioxis Grenade - The DG has a 20m radius and a 30m range. This bad boy hits twice for medium damage and applies an Acid DoT that can stack twice. 1 second fuse.

Expertise Options

Melee vs Pistols

PvP Heroic Jewelry Options

Officer: Hellstorm set

  • +25 Area of Effect Action cost.
  • +25% Area of Effect Freeshot Chance Area of Effect abilities include Shock Grenage, Artillery Strike, Core Bomb, and Dioxis Grenade.
  • 1 minute reduction in Superior Firepower Cooldown.

Officer: General's set

  • Rallypoint Duration Increase: 5
  • +30 Group Buff Action cost.
  • +50% reduction in Group Buff cooldowns.
  • 31.5 sec. reduction in Environmental Purge and Synaptic Stimulator cooldown.
  • +20% Swift-Heal chance. Swift-Heal resets the cooldown timer of your self heal ability.
  • +20% chance for Inspired Action when using the maximum rank of most combat special abilities. Inspired Action automatically activates the Inspiration group buff.

Summary:

Stay out of melee range, keep moving to avoid AoE. Damage debuffs can also save you if you time it as soon as you see their action drop fast, this is them dumping all their AoEs on you.

Keep moving in one direction to make sure you dont get caught in the AoE effects.

They have two snare breaks in "Charge!" and "Scatter!" both on three minute cooldown, their main tactic is to rush in and Crippling Vortex root/Superior Firepower/AoE you to death.

Hellstorm Officers can used this to great effect against groups of players in a "Suicide Bomber" style tactic.

General Officers will usually have an extremely defensive set-up and still have access to the insane area shock damage possible from area attacks, this makes them formidable opponents indeed.

The Bounty Hunter and Smuggler Dire Snare ability is particularly effective against Officers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Defence:

Stasis (Self) - 4 minute cooldown.
Stasis (Other) - 4 minute cooldown.

Bacta Ampule 6 - 1978 base heal, 3 second cooldown.
Bacta Bomb 5 - 8100 base heal (expect 10k+), 30 second cooldown.
Bacta Grenade 5 / Bacta Spray 6 - Grenade has 3220 base heal, 8 second cooldown. Spray is the area heal with 4000 base heal, 15 second cooldown.
Bacta Infusion - Heals for 540 every 4 seconds, for 44 seconds. Cooldown is about 11 seconds.

PvP Area Revive - 30 minute cooldown. 15 minutes with expertise.
PvP Resusitate Player - 30 second cooldown, 15 seconds with expertise.

Offence:

Nerve Gas - AoE DoT attack, 20 second cooldown.

Thyroid Rupture - Decrease target damage output by 25%. 15sec duration, 7 seconds cooldown.
Traumitize - Drain action from target, 2859 action damage, 12sec cooldown, 20sec immunity
Bacta Corruption - Reduce target's healing ability by 65%, 18sec duration, 30 seconds cooldown.
Rheumatic Calamity - Target loses health as action is spent. Health loss is proportionate to action used. (65:100 action to health loss ratio) 20sec duration, 60sec cooldown, 50m range.
Serotonin Purge - Remove a beneficial buff or effect from an enemy, cooldown ~6.5 seconds

Expertise Options

Doctor vs Combat Medic

PvP Heroic Jewelry Options

Medic: Blackbar's Doom set

  • 4 second Medic DoT Cooldown
  • 5 second increase in medic Debuff durations effecting Stasis Field, Bacta Corruption, Rheumatic Calamity, Electrolyte Drain, Traumatize and Thyroid Rupture.
  • +20% Debuff Fast Attack chance, resetting the cooldown of the last debuff used.
  • +20% Debuff Freeshot chance, eliminating action cost of the last debuff used.
  • +10% DOOM chance when using a targeted DoT or Debuff attack. Blackbar's DOOM (Diverse Organism Oblireating Malady) inflics the target with one or more of the following, provided you can already perform them: Bacta Corruption, Electrolyte Drain, Rheumatic Calmity and Thyroid Rupture. After a time target will start to bleed heavily. Finally they are subject to rapid oxidation and burst into flames.

Medic: First Responder's set

  • +20% Swift Heal Other. Swift Heal Other resets the cooldown of your single target instant heals when you heal someone other then yourself.
  • +20% Heal Freeshot Chance.
  • +20% Swift Revive Chance. Swift Revive resets the cooldown of all your revive abilities.
  • +60 sec. reduction to Evasion cooldown.
  • +2 minute reduction in Stasis (Self) cooldown.

Summary:

Stay away from Trauga Gas Canister at all times. This is their main form of DPS. Wear them out with DoTs and keep then snared and away from you. Once their action is running low, unleash what ever you have to take them out. If either of you are in stasis, stop using action and wait it to wear off.

Combat medics can make a real mess of you, if you see the Rheumatic Calamity icon, on your status bar, stop using action. Keep an eye out for the Thyroid Rupture icon, save a damage dump till after it has worn off. Bacta Corruption can be particularly unpleasent, be aware that your healing will suffer if this has been applied to you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Defence:

Force Run - Breaks snares, runs fast. 15 Second Duration with a 45 second cooldown.
Saber Block - Up to 75% increased chance to Parry attacks. 40 second duration with a 60 second cooldown.
Force Cloak - 30 Second duration with a 150 second cooldown.

Saber Reflect - A defensive state of mind that allows for reflecting melee and ranged attacks partially back on the attacker when parried within a 64m range.

Saber Shackle - Saber Shackle adds a 25% chance per point spent to snare and a 2% chance per point spent to root a target with Saber Throw.

Offence:

Force Lightning 7 - 3690 base Damage (expect 4500 or so), 18 Second Cooldown, Direct Attack (can be parried, glanced, blocked, miss or dodged).

Force Maelstrom 5 / Force Shockwave 5 - 3690 base Damage (expect 4500 or so), 20 Second Cooldown, Cone Attack (can be evaded, glanced or blocked).

Force Drain 5 - 2000 base Damage, 12 Second Cooldown, Direct Attack (cannot be parried or miss, rarely blocked or dodged, can be glanced)

Expertise Options

Dark vs Light Jedi

PvP Heroic Jewelry Options

Jedi: Dark Fury set

+35 Force Lightning Action Cost
+35 Force Shockwave Action Cost
4 sec reduction in Force Lightning Cooldown
4 sec reduction in Force Shockwave Cooldown
20% Fury Chance. Fury resets the cooldown of Force Lighting or Force Shockwave after their use.

Summary:

Jedi come in two distinct flavours, Light expertise specified Jedi are more suited to PvE with Dark expertise specified Jedi being possibly the most prevalent type of PvP opponent you will face.

A Dark Fury Jedi will lightning you to death in an instant by macro spamming 100% armour bypass Force Lightning/Force Maelstrom/Force Drain which will do over 11,000 Damage to you if they all hit.

Then factor in a 1 in 5 chance that Force Lightning/Force Maelstrom will proc +FURY+ and go into instant cooldown and you'll get hit with 4k or more again. This is all without any of those attacks rolling a critical hit, if they do you can add 50% damage or so.

The maximum range on all these attacks is 32m, the majority of Dark Jedi players are complacent and used to doing little more than spamming Lightning/Maelstrom/Drain for the win.

If you have damage debuffs, use them. Dark Jedi are extremely vulnerable to defensive rolls, if you can parry/glance/block/miss or dodge Lightning and then evaded/glance/block Maelstrom or just heal through or otherwise survive the initial lighning blast you'll have 14 seconds to kill the Jedi, but they'll usually put up Saber Block, Force Cloak/Force Run to stop you doing that, then come back and spam lightning on you again.

Light Jedi have a 10,000 health heal which cures DoT effects. When a Light Jedi activates Saber Reflect, stop hitting them and wait for it to wear off as you'll be damaging yourself otherwise.

Saber Shackle is a permanent root with no recourse timer, don't panic, just accept that you can't move and work on forcing the Jedi to Cloak/Force run. Conserve action but do enough damage to make them heal, once the 10k heal is out of the way, damage dump.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Defence:

Break the Deal - A debuff that lasts for 5 seconds and reduces the smugglers target damage output by 75%.

Spot a Sucker - A debuff that will decrease the smugglers target damage output by 40% and crit chance by 50% as well as increase the chance to glance to 50%, depending on the expertise investment of the smuggler.

Skullduggery - A debuff that will increase the miss chance of the Smugglers target. Autoaim adds 50 entries to the combat table out of 1000 (50/1000 = 5%). Skullduggery will add additional entries to the combat table depending on the luck of the smuggler. Skullduggery can potentially increase your miss chance of up to 40% but relies on the luck of the smuggler.

Call a Medic - Calls a medic NPC to heal the smuggler for a heal of ~4000 with a bacta grenade as well as buffs the smuggler with a +80 Constitution Buff. Can get a smuggler out of incap if he recieves the bacta grenade while incapped.

Offence:

Off the Cuff - Buff that forces next special attack to be a critical hit.
End of the Line - Buff that forces next critical attack to do double damage.
Cover Fire 6 - High damage 46m Cone AoE with snare effect.

Off the Cuff + End of the Line + Cover Fire 6 - Turns Cover Fire 6 into a guaranteed critical hit for double damage, with stacked damage buffs this can result in cone area attacks of 20,000 damage or more.

Lucky Break -A chain of random, uncontrollable procedural effects that is depending on eachother like pearls on a string. Feeling Lucky can trigger Lucky Break (Critical hits for 10 sec), which can trigger Card up your Sleeve (Double hits for 5 seconds). The whole chain of procs will have the smuggler apply critical hits for several seconds resulting in cumulative damage in excess of 20.000 damage for the duration of the proc.

Be aware that if the smuggler targets you while the proc is in effect you will suffer from a debuff, ensuring that critical hits will land on you. Critical Hit defense will not help you here.

False Hope -The target of the Smuggler as well as the area surrounding the target for up to 15m will have their defensive mods removed for up to 6 seconds and recieve a root for an identical 6 seconds depending on the expertise investment of the smuggler. Completely negates the effect of saberblock for as long as the debuff lasts.

Pistol Whip - By investing fully into the PW expertise with support expertise, the smuggler can root his target for up to 4 seconds, making the target unable to move, consume action or deal damage. The range of Pistol Whip is 6m regardless of expertise bonuses and the special can miss like any other special. The target can still use external heals and trinkets while PW is in effect. PW is often used in succession with Off the Cuff to decrease the failure rate.

Concussion Shot - With the Rogue set this becomes a 100% chance to Dire Snare.

Expertise options

Melee vs Pistols

PvP Heroic Jewelry Options

Smuggler: Rogue set

  • +250 Luck
  • +100% Dire Snare Chance while using Concussion Shot. Dire Snare cannot be prevented or dispelled through normal means.
  • +25% Concussion Freeshot Chance.
  • 1.5 second reduction in Concussion cooldown.

Summary:

Defence stackers will be especially vulnerable to Smugglers as Smugglers can effectively remove defensive combat rolls with combinations of Off the Cuff, False Hope, Lucky Break and Pistol Whip. Combined with high spike damage and excellent crowd control abilities they make formidable oppenents.

Smugglers are extremely vulnerable to DoT effects, action pool attacks and rooting specials.

____________




Defence:

Smoke Bomb - This ability can allow the spy to escape from combat and hide from enemies. Three minute cooldown.

Without a Trace - Just like the smoke bomb except that is puts the spy into a 30 second state where the spy can not be detected by any means, passively or actively, unless you deal an attack or damage.

There is no snare penalty with WoT so the spy can run at normal speed. At the end of 30 seconds the spy is automatically put back into normal stealth without having to hit any buttons. This is a spies best escape tool when needed. Three minute cooldown.

Decoy - Grants the spy a body double which all targeting is switched to. The decoy will take damage for 10 seconds then go away. The decoy will intercept all damage done to the spy as long as it is active. Any players attacking the decoy receive a 15% Critical Hit Chance Increase debuff. Three minute cooldown.

Avoid Damage - This ability grants the spy 50% chance to dodge direct attacks and 75% chance to evade AOE's for 15 seconds. Three minute cooldown.

Offence:

Preperation- 30% damage increase buff, 10 second duration, 3 minute cooldown.

Ambush/Snipe - High damage attack from stealth, 30 second cooldown.

Expertise builds

Melee vs Ranged

PvP Heroic Jewelry Options

Spy: The Razor cat set

Luck: 250
+500 Combat Offense: Strikethrough (subject to diminishing returns).
+20 All Action Costs Reduction.
+5% Indefensible Attack Chance. reducing the chance that attacks made out of stealth can be blocked, dodged and parried.
Masterful Grace. You are immune to many forms of movement speed reduction.

Spy: The Ghost set

Strength: 125
90 sec reduction in Preperation Cooldown.
+15 Preparation Duration
+25% Flawless Getaway Chance. Flawless Getaway reduces the cooldown timer of Smoke Grenade or Without a Trace to a minimum after their use.
+10% Perfect Opportunity Chance. Perfect Opportunity reduces the cooldown timer of Smoke Grenade or Without A Trace to a minimum after their use. restores 9999 action and reduces all action costs by 75% for the next 12 seconds.

Summary:

Once you know the name of a spy that may attack you, you can run a looping macro that targets the spy and spams all your attacks at once, anytime they come out of stealth near you they will get hit with everything you have. A spy can counter this by dropping a Decoy to absorb the damage of your attacks.

Spies will often take the opportunity to attack you when you are already in combat with another player or NPCs, this can lead to a lot of frustration on the part of the defending player, but like it or not, that's what a stealth class is all about.

Spies will also focus on players that appear to be prime targets, lower level or relatively unbuffed players are easy pickings for spies.

Melee spies are more significantly more effective than ranged spies at burst damage. Always move around to make it extremely hard for a melee spy to hit you. If a melee spy ambushes you, immediately move 5m away to get out of range.

Purchase Advanced Electrobinoculars from faction recruiters to give you +100 to detect hidden, this increases your chance to passively detect a Spy. Bounty Hunter and Jedi have active detect specials that can also reveal a stealthed spy.

Spies have three combat cloaks in Decoy, Smoke Bomb and Without a Trace, it's very rare that you will be able to force them to use all three of these and then reveal them from their final cloak. Ground based area attacks and heavy weapons should be deployed on the last location of the spy and then attempt to track the likely escape route.

Smugglers "Pistol Whip" is particularly effective against spies.
 
Top