Tactics: Operative/Scoundrel

[voyak]

Advanced Class Operative/Scoundrel

Player:

Play style: Concealment/Scrapper Burst Damage

Stealth class. Use it. It's Your bread and butter. Primary defensive skill (Vanish) as well as the biggest opener. Burst was significantly lowered by the nerfs we've recieved in almost all major patches so far, however with good gear You should be able to do fine against most classes. The role is mostly:
 

• finding stragglers/low health enemies (decent burst)
• killing or at least annoying enemy healers (burst down, interrupt, stun, mezz)
• ninja-capping weakened objective turrets/doors or defending it (with early call for help if there are more than 2 enemies)

Usually you don't want to be the one running into the middle of the blob of enemies hacking and healing each other.

Build:
3/31/7
(i'm using 5/31/5, links to come)

[/COLOR]

Rotation:
(AB) HS > BS > Lac > Stim > Shiv > Filler in wait for BS > (AB) BS.

• Try to keep up at least 1 TA, refresh Stim boost when available.
• You might throw a Corrosive Dart for regaining TA from Lac every 10 sec.
[/COLOR]

• Stun when needed (will elaborate more on stuns in apropriate forums for enemy classes)
  
• When out of energy use Adrenaline Probe when target is low health and You have need to make a few more hits. However dont immediately fire off all abilities as the Probe is restoring energy over time, try Rifle shotting target till the energy is at around 60
  
• Cover is our quasi-gap closer or escape from melee. Use it wisely.
  
• Keep in mind duet of Cover + Explosive probe, as it has 30m range and sometimes crits quite nice.
  

Play style: Lethality/Dirty Fighting DOT Damage

While stealth is still vailable, it's not the key ability as a DOTter, Your primary role is to help the team focus down enemies, slow them down and generaly weaken them. In some situations it's better than Concealment, especially against harder classes like Vanguard/Powertech, Sentinel/Marauder, as most of them think You are Burst-Melee DPS and will just ignore You as a threat and then all of a sudden die not knowing what happened. It's fun. Of course as long as they dont Cleanse all the time, but from what i saw even the better players forget about that very often. That might change with future UI updates.


Build:
7/3/31

Rotation:
CD+CG > WB > Cull > Shiv > Stim > Rifle/Filler > Shiv > Cull > Refresh CD+CG

• Your priority is to keep Energy up above 60 as often as possible.
• Refresh WB all the time, it's free.
• Use Cull often, it's Your main burst from 10m.
• Refresh Stim as it has lower CD and immediately restores 10 energy.
• Throw around CG often, as it'll slow enemies.
• ​Cover is our quasi-gap closer or escape from melee. Use it wisely.
  
• Keep in mind duet of Cover + Explosive probe, as it has 30m range and sometimes crits quite nice.
  

Play style: Medicine/Sawbones HoT Healer

Tactics
Never ever try and keep a node by yourself - you're not a tank or DPS. Call for replacement ASAP.
Node capping however is also your role as you have Stealth. Don't forget though that healing is your primary role, not node capping.

Basicaly keep KP up on everyone as much as you can.
For allies on low health, don't waste a KP. Instead spam SP. If you feel you can get them up then waste some energy with KPx2.
If you need to get an important ally up, don't beat around the bush. KI + SP to get them half way, KPx2.
Only cast Infusion if the ally can't wait the cast time for a KI. PvP gear has no %15 crit chance extra, so Infusion is ONLY for it's oh **** moments.
Always have a TA up as it boosts the healing of KP by 15%.

RN is a now basicaly a counter to an AoE, use it as such. Also, if you're not going to catch the ball runner cast it anyway as the extra DoT may help get the cap.
If in a group and x2 or more are taking damage (even a little), then keep RN on CD.

If you have the energe to spare, melee the rDPS and DoT the mDPS. Don't go to toe to toe with the mDPS.

Defense
You are highly mobile, but will spend the game with a mark over your head. You have a LOT of toys for defence which a DPS operative would use for offence.
Your worst enemy is a Marauder, but a careful rotation of Server Tendon and Debilitate with Flash Bang for emergancies should be enough to keep you alive.
Cleanse any dots on you (and others when time allows). As soon as focused, ensure that you have KPx2 on yourself.
A good OP healer will always be kiting his attacker and using LoS effectively.

Fake Casting
Diagnostic Scan is a great way to replenish energy fast(er). It's also a very useful Fake Cast. A good melee will interupt you. A bad melee will not, or blindly interupt the first channeled cast he sees. Most interupts are on a 12 sec CD, so if you're rooted for whatever reason (healing or CC'ed), cast a diagnostic scan every 12 secs or so to ensure your more important channeled cast KI is never interupted.

Build:
31/3/7
This is basically the cookie cutter PVE build but with 2 distinct differences.
1, I have points in Razor Edge As and extra 8% shiv damage is preferred healing speed as there are times you need to actually do some DPS
2, I have points in Slip Away to keep those pesky melee types away
I dislike hybrid specs as you lose RN which is an awesome group heal.

General Tips:

- Underrated ability Evasion, works as kind of defense. Increases dodge to 100%. Especially useful when running away from Ranged classes.

- Before using Vanish, use Toxin Scan immediately followed by Evasion. 95% of the time it'll remove all DoTs so You wont be knocked out of stealth. However this does not remove the Trooper/BH sticky grenade.

- Civil war tip: Your role is to stealth and disrupt the turret which the enemy is taking at their side, or support your team if they decide to go for the enemy turret, usually there will be only 1 or 2 players going for their side turret so you can easily take out 1 if you know how to play (), use insta stealth in combat, regain health if need be, kill the other (not guaranteed to survive but you will become a right pain in the enemies side and tie them up from capping at least.

- Huttball tip: A good tactic is to stealth close to the enemy spawn point, and kill, disrupt or slowdown any enemies leaving their spawn. Usually in a good match 1 enemy will come at a time instead of 3 of them if you are lucky. Another idea for your role as dps is to be constantly on the enemy healers. Players in huttball tend to abandon each other unless they are protecting their ball carrier. No one will give a crap if you are attacking their pretty looking sage/sorc.

- Voidstar tip: TOWER DEFENSE!!!, door defense that is . You are the watchguard for one of the doors, that is not being hit the most by the enemy or not at all. Usually a stealther may come but with your quick dps and good micro, you will kill them in seconds. If this is not the case you will atleast stop them from planting the bomb while you alert your team to your door being assaulted. One the attack, well you stealth the door that the majority of your team is not attacking and hope to plant.

- Novare Coast: Either be the defener of one of the side bunkers or constantly attack enemy healers south. Nothing more to it


Enemy:

Burst Damage Concealment/Scrapper

Spotting:

• Attacks and knocks down You for 1.5 second (1GCD) from Stealth.
• Usually trying to get behind Your back.
• more...

[/SIZE][/SIZE]
Dealing with this build:

• Pop low defensive first, or have someone throw guard on You. Sorcs should have their bubble all the time. Especially when defending a node and there not seem to be any threat.
• After being knocked from stealth immediately stun/kb him.
• He has 1 stun, 1 mezz and snare (usually talented to 2s root). Keep that in mind.
• Do NOT use Escape on the Opener. He'll usually stun You just after it, filling Your resolve bar.
• Kite, kite, Knock back, snare, snare, root, kite, kite, kite. It's the slowest running class without any real gap closer/decent speed boost.
• You can annoy one throwing DOTs from a distance to prevent him from going out of combat, thus giving him free restealth.
• After vanish immediately throw AOE (especially BH should launch off it's Stealth Detector)
• When Mezzed with Sleep Dart (from stealth) DO NOT hit Espace just yet (when he's still in stealth) because the first dart does not fill the resolve bar. You may loose the objective! Dart only works out of combat, so if he Darts You and he'll start capping, then You can hit escape and immediately attack and stun/mezz him.
• You can interrupt heals and do that!
• Interrupt Orbital Strike! (or Freighter Flyby)
• When he'll use Vanish, heal Yourself and pop defensive cooldown.
• When kiting run backwards and try to keep them in front of You as often as possible. Their main damage dealer needs a placement behind You (Backstab/Backblast)

[/SIZE][/SIZE]

DoT Damage Lethality/Dirty Fighting

Spotting:

• Throwing around corrosive grenades (that splash green fume) (30m) + spamming Corrosive Dart (30m)
• Using Cull, which has visual effect of round target aiming You (10m)
• Using Weakening Blast, visual cue is after the bolts hit You they splash green (10m)

[/SIZE][/SIZE]
Dealing with this build:

• CLEANSE! Especially after both DoTs are up. He only has two.
• DoT icon for Corrosive Dart (red background, dart with purple head)
• DoT icon for Corrosive Grenade (green backgroun, cylindrycal grenade with red stripes)
• He has 1 stun on short CD, 1 mezz and 2 snares (CG is AoE 30% snare). Keep that in mind.
• Kite, kite, Knock back, snare, snare, root, kite, kite, kite. It's the slowest running class without any real gap closer/decent speed boost.
• Interrupt Orbital Strike! (or Freighter Flyby)
• Run away from him, as Cull (10m), his main burst shot that deals internal damage based on the DoTs You have increases said damage.
• He needs Tactical Advantage for Cull, which he gains by hitting You with Melee Shiv ability (mid -level damage, 4m), so again, kite.

[/SIZE][/SIZE]

HoT Healer Concealment/Scrapper

Spotting:

• Throwing around Kolto Probes, drones that spray green kolto on his allies
• AoE Healing has 10m range, generates visual of green cloud of kolto around 4 target allies
• Spamming main heals from stationary position (Kolto Injection 2s, Kolto Infusion 1.5s)
• Spamming Surgical Probe while moving (instant cast, big probe droid appears on ally)

[/SIZE][/SIZE]
Dealing with this build:

• Interrupt! Knock back!
• First Stun, when escaped, Mezz. That will shut him down for some time.
• Save Your stun when going for the kill. Fire it off when he's around 30% health. It's because at that percentage, he has talented Surgical Probe that he can cast infinitely (with 1.5s GCD ofc)
• Dont interrupt fake cast (Diagnostic Scan, 2s channel) It heals very low and only restores energy.
• Save Your highest DPS for the end. After he launches his defensive CD (Shield Probe, 45s CD, around 1.5k absorb) he'll gain significant bonus for healing himself. Then fire off Adrenals/Relics to burn him down.

[/SIZE][/SIZE]


**********************

i propose something like this for all advanced classes, and topics like "Strategy: Huttball" for the warzones. I'm still at work so this is just a placeholder and the idea of what i have in my mind about this section of the forum. If anyone wants to add something here or start new thread about other classes/warzones, please do)

[Sindri]

I can only comment for DPS scoundrel but it translates into DPS op abilitys if you check up on the mastery paths.

Usually you don't want to be the one running into the middle of the blob of enemies hacking and healing each other.  

- Civil war tip: Your role is to stealth and disrupt the turret which the enemy is taking at their side, or support your team if they decide to go for the enemy turret, usually there will be only 1 or 2 players going for their side turret so you can easily take out 1 if you know how to play (), use insta stealth in combat, regain health if need be, kill the other (not guaranteed to survive but you will become a right pain in the enemies side and tie them up from capping at least.

- Huttball tip: A good tactic is to stealth close to the enemy spawn point, and kill, disrupt or slowdown any enemies leaving their spawn.  Usually in a good match 1 enemy will come at a time instead of 3 of them if you are lucky.  Another idea for your role as dps is to be constantly on the enemy healers.  Players in huttball tend to abandon each other unless they are protecting their ball carrier.  No one will give a crap if you are attacking their pretty looking sage/sorc.

- Voidstar tip: TOWER DEFENSE!!!, door defense that is .  You are the watchguard for one of the doors, that is not being hit the most by the enemy or not at all.  Usually a stealther may come but with your quick dps and good micro, you will kill them in seconds.  If this is not the case you will atleast stop them from planting the bomb while you alert your team to your door being assaulted.  One the attack, well you stealth the door that the majority of your team is not attacking and hope to plant.

- Novare Coast: Either be the defener of one of the side bunkers or constantly attack enemy healers south.  Nothing more to it



EDITED:  Whenever you are attacking a player in a 1 on 1 fight here is your opener and hopeful finisher if all goes to plan.

ALWAYS before entering combat with a new player load your shotgun or blade with flak round/acid blade.  

Now the hunt is on: This is how combat should go: Shoot first/Hidden Blade > Backblast/Shiv > corrosive dart > Pop a stim boost > Use Quickshot/Operative equivalent 1 or 2 times and then stealth out.  

Quickly put acid blade back on and stab the sucker again, repeat the same order as above but this time add in laceration once or twice, don't over use it as having TA is incredibly useful.  This is the best dps order for the scoundrel that I found.  Of course this is easily translatable into the operative.

If you find yourself against 2 enemies at any point when you began to attack one of them, just easily use cloaking screen and get out of there and find another victim for yourself.

[voyak]

Updated, thanks Sindri.

If anyone see an error or want to add something, please do.

Also I'm only familiar with this class as a player for pvp so atm I won't start anything for the other classes. But if You are, again, please do. It doesn't require that much formatting as I've done here. It's just a proposition. Strategies for warzones and general teamplay coming soon...

[Twyst]

Play style: Medicine/Sawbones Healer

Build:
31/3/7
This is basically the cookie cutter PVE build but with 2 distinct differences.
1, I have points in Razor Edge As and extra 8% shiv damage is preferred healing speed as there are times you need to actually do some DPS
2, I have points in Slip Away to keep those pesky melee types away
I dislike hybrid specs as you lose RN which is an awesome group heal.

Play style - DoT healer.
Basicaly keep KP up on everyone as much as you can.
For allies on low health, don't waste a KP. Instead spam SP. If you feel you can get them up then waste some energy with KPx2.
If you need to get an important ally up, don't beat around the bush. KI + SP to get them half way, KPx2.
Only cast Infusion if the ally can't wait the cast time for a KI. PvP gear has no %15 crit chance extra, so Infusion is ONLY for it's oh **** moments.
Always have a TA up as it boosts the healing of KP by 15%.

RN is a now basicaly a counter to an AoE, use it as such. Also, if you're not going to catch the ball runner cast it anyway as the extra DoT may help get the cap.
If in a group and x2 or more are taking damage (even a little), then keep RN on CD.

If you have the energe to spare, melee the rDPS and DoT the mDPS. Don't go to toe to toe with the mDPS.

Defense
You are highly mobile, but will spend the game with a mark over your head. You have a LOT of toys for defence which a DPS operative would use for offence.
Your worst enemy is a Marauder, but a careful rotation of Server Tendon and Debilitate with Flash Bang for emergancies should be enough to keep you alive.
Cleanse any dots on you (and others when time allows). As soon as focused, ensure that you have KPx2 on yourself.
A good OP healer will always be kiting his attacker and using LoS effectively.

Fake Casting
Diagnostic Scan is a great way to replenish energy fast(er). It's also a very useful Fake Cast. A good melee will interupt you. A bad melee will not, or blindly interupt the first channeled cast he sees. Most interupts are on a 12 sec CD, so if you're rooted for whatever reason (healing or CC'ed), cast a diagnostic scan every 12 secs or so to ensure your more important channeled cast KI is never interupted.

Tactics
Never ever try and keep a node by yourself - you're not a tank or DPS. Call for replacement ASAP.
Node capping however is also your role as you have Stealth. Don't forget though that healing is your primary role, not node capping.

[voyak]

Big thanks Twyst, updated and added a few "Dealing with" comments

[voyak]

added dealing with DoT Damage and Healer, and a bit here and there.

I will unify some of the tips later.