Need Republic Trooper advice from someone who got to level 25+

[looopy]

Basically I cannot decide whether to go vangaurd or commando

So I really would like to try range tank. But my fear is that the damage specs within the 3 vanguard trees will be pretty lame. Has anyone played the ranged tank at high levels? is it fun? is it revolutionary or does it just feel like any other tank? Would you recommend it? How is the acompanying story line?

And on the other hand how fun is commando healing? The big cannon looks really fun.

I really cant decide.

[Barnez]

Basically I cannot decide whether to go vangaurd or commando

So I really would like to try range tank. But my fear is that the damage specs within the 3 vanguard trees will be pretty lame. Has anyone played the ranged tank at high levels? is it fun? is it revolutionary or does it just feel like any other tank? Would you recommend it? How is the acompanying story line?

And on the other hand how fun is commando healing? The big cannon looks really fun.

I really cant decide.

I got a commando up to 30 during one of the summer beta tests. Its quite fun, I went DPS but I could still off heal when I needed too. Not as good as a full healer, mind you, but enough to keep people alive during those really scary moments.

The story line is probably one of the strongest that I played thru, though I didn't get most of the classes past 16. Its really engaging and is perfect if you're looking for the "one man army" feel.

[Deleted]

At level 25 the 2 dps trees 1 works by putting allot of fire bleeds on the targets and high impact shot.
You would just ion blast your target while keeping everything up on your target and using everything on cooldown till you run out and then normal shot.
Found it pretty fun to play though I havent played commando only vanguard.
Middle tree worked around high speed bullets but havent tried that talent tree.

[Kaesebrezen]

So I really would like to try range tank.

You are not a ranged tank. Basically all your DPS/Threat tools are melee range.

The only ranged abilities are from your Trooper class, but they deal horrible damage for their Ammo costs and not affected by talents. Basically i found High Impact Bolt to be the only useful ranged ability, but it requires a DoT on the target, which gets applied with a 100% chance by Stockstrike, which is melee range.

Generally you go on something like:
- Pull with charge
- if Aoe-Threat to Pulse Cannon/Explosive Surge
- if single-target apply -damage debuff
- stockstrike on CD for threat
- high impact bolt on CD
- then fill in with the highest damage/ammo ability not on CD, while keeping the ammo regen at 100%, else to basic attack.
- for burst threat you'll spam your ammo away and afterwards use your regen CD.

[ssambakd]

Hey there,

I played trooper because it was a class i thought I wasn't going to play on live. Now I know I'll play one haha. This might sound odd, but one of my favorite aspects of the trooper is the sound he makes. Lots of *BOOM* SMACK xD

I chose Vanguard AC because, again, it was something I was least interested in.
I did some intense leveling during this beta weekend (from Friday to Monday), and spent 90+% of my playing time on my trooper. So one thing to keep in mind for you is that i might have gotten a little bored by the end of the beta.

I LOVED the class and the AC but for live, i think i'll try Commando next time also, to add some different flavor while i do the same quests or warzones.

The Vanguard's tanking does indeed have some ranged advantage. It's easy to regain aggro of a mob farther away from you because you can just shoot at it lol. Sure your most powerful abilities as a Vanguard are within melee or 10m range, but you have times when you gotta use Hammer Shot (the free 30m range shot) anyway, and there are a couple other ranged abilities that are still effective as a Vanguard.

Still, as others mentioned, I want to emphasize that you're still going to spend a lot of time at close range against the mob or boss (most of them would just come melee you anyway).
Don't worry, you're good at it as a Vanguard/Powertech


As for dps,

I tried all 3 specs while leveling, and it gets better as you gain more talent points, as you might expect.
In my view, Tactics spec is more melee friendly and also tend to give you more Ammos to work with. That could also mean that it is a more "spammy" class. You deal a lot of elemental and internal damage that are not mitigated by armor (you specifically use "high energy cell" to best optimize this spec, and that specific cell increases your elemental damage).

Assault Specialist spec... now, this was an interesting spec. I was leveling as tactics first, then when i switched over to the AS spec for the first time and the second time (around level 14 then around level 19), I hated it. Tactics was just more effective until then, and I was having harder time killing elites or soloing a large group of mobs as this spec than I did with Tactics spec.

However, the AS spec becomes VERY fun and effective starting at level 26. Not only are you setting everything on fire (not to mention the trooper is all about "DIAF traitors! Burn, you mofos!"), you gain talents that give you a fun and powerful proc that resets the cooldown of a 15 second cooldown shot and let you use it free of ammo cost. That specific shot also recharges an ammo each time you use it on a burning target. Ah, it also resets the burn effect on the target lol.

I also found the AS spec effective on dealing with elites, which become more frequent and also more fun to fight against (imo) in later levels.


Again, though, I think i'll try commando as i've seen vanguard already, and although i had a lot of fun, it also had some things missing. The class can feel "spammy" at times, and that may be because i was still not high level or because i played it too much this weekend xD


p.s. oh, and you also get to kite melees with the AS spec. I got owned by Sith warriors as tactics, as it lacks any ability to kite. As an AS, you can slow melees and kite them at the sweet spot of 10m range, where they can neither melee you nor charge you. All the while you're still setting them on fire and using your "ion shot." Fucking owned! lol

On the other hand, i think Tactics spec at later levels can gain access to the slow effects on other trees (of course you can get them earlier by putting 7 points into one of other trees, but then you wouldn't really be a Tactics spec at that level lol). And the spec may be the most versatile one where you would switch between your ammo cell types depending on the encounter.