DISCLAIMER: The strategies in this guide are, as of yet, not fully tested. They are based on my experiences in several large hunting groups as well as observing other groups' tactics (or lack thereof). Also included within this guild are several potential solutions to major concerns in the PvE community since all the talk of balance and the impossible 95% failure rate against red cons.
This guide should provide a basic template that may need to be tweaked to your play style and the play style of your teammates, but it -should- be able to be applied to both PvP and PvE. In addition, this guide focuses primarily on the three main ranged weapon types - pistol, rifle, and carbine. Roles for other combat classes such as CH's or TKA's will have to be tweaked to the group they are joining. I may have a few ideas, but I know very little about these classes from personal experience.
Finally, many of these strategies may not appear necessary at this point in time (many people/classes can solo many red cons). This is soon to be changed, time to at least be prepared for it.
Table of Contents:
I. Primer on Damage
A. Min, Max, and Average Damage
B. AP values
1. Known issues
C. Speed issues.
D. Range issues.
E. DPS calculation.
F. Pools
G. DoT
II. Why group at all?
A. XP payout - how to determine if you benefit.
B. Social/Bragging rights
III. Typecasting hunting groups PvE
A. The Improv group
B. The Specialist group
C. The Mini-groups (Duo, Trio)
IV. What is my role in a group?
A. The Improv group member.
B. The Specialist group member.
C. The Mini-group teammate.
V. Miscellaneous issues, and potential solutions (not exploits)
A. Boss mobs, red cons, and Holocron's macabre prediction.
1. The solution
B. Harvesting/Looting
1. The scout update.
2. Looting rights, rotation, and prayer.
C. The 'bad-egg' teammate
1. The sacrifice.
2. The ditch.
VI. The 'perfect' group.
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I. PRIMER ON DAMAGE
In previous articles I have read on the boards, I have noticed a trend in calculating damage that can be misleading. This primer is how I have rated weapon against weapon in RPGs, MUDs, and now this game. I will always calculate damage in this way, it is your choice to follow the same or to go with other methods, I don't care. This is for people who have NO idea how to even START to decide which weapon (or weapon type) is better than another.
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MIN, MAX, and AVERAGE DAMAGE
The first, and probably largest discrepancy between my calculations vs. other calculations happens in this category. People base everything off of Max damage. For the purpose of this text, we deal with averages, and I will show you why.
FWG5 pistol: Damage, 39-156
DX2 pistol: Damage, 90-142
All calculations based on max damage will put the FWG5 above the DX2 (disregarding any AP value). However, the FWG5 will average 97 (97.5, rounded down) damage, and the DX2 will average 118.
True, the FWG5 could deal more damage than the DX2. Let's get into the technicals (skip this part if you don't care, read it if you don't believe me. ).
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FWG5 39 l--------------------117--------------------------l 156
DX2 90 l------------50----------l 140
l-------51--------l l--16--l
We have a total damage range of 117 (156-39). 51 times out of 117 shots will be below 90, the DX2's minimum. 50 times out of 117 shots will the damage be equal. 16 times out of 117 shots will the FWG5's damage be greater than the DX2's potential.
43% of the time, the FWG5 will deal less damage than the DX2 is even capable of doing.
42% of the time, the FWG5 and DX2 will average the same damage.
13% of the time, the FWG5 will deal more damage than the DX2 is capable of.
Out of 10 rounds, 1 (well, 1.3, but they day you do .3 of a shot, lemme know ) shots will deal more damage from the FWG5. With the FWG5, the remaining 9 shots will be split pretty much 50-50, doing LESS or EQUAL damage to the DX2, while the DX2 will consistently fire OVER 90 DAMAGE.
END gratuitous, circular explanation here, those who skipped it can pick back up now.
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AP VALUES
AP (Armor Piercing) is supposed to work as described in the 'advanced guides' section from the main SOE SWG site. Please take the time to read this, as it WILL eventually be accurate. For now, there are....
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KNOWN ISSUES
AP - None
This value works as intended. Against Armor Rating (AR) None, it deals full damage. Against AR - Light it does 50% damage, and so on.
AP - Light, Medium, Heavy
These values are currently bugged. Right now, an AP value of Light does full damage against AR - None targets. It SHOULD do 25% more, but it does not. AP-Light vs AR-Light DOES work as intended. The weapon WILL STILL DEAL FULL DAMAGE. And vs AR-Medium/Heavy, the damage is downgraded accordingly.
Conclusion, if you purchase a weapon with an AP value, save wear and tear on it by only using it against armored opponents to nullify or lessen the damage discrepancies. Use an AP-None weapon against AR-None targets.
NOTE: take into account the elemental hits - if you hit a target that has a vulnerability to the weapon type, the target counts as having AR-None and it responds in the same buggy way!
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SPEED ISSUES
Speed is a large factor, the faster you hit, the more damage you deal. It should be noted that the 'speed' stat on a weapon's info sheet is modified by the user's profession modifiers (carbine speed, pistol speed). Also, it should be made perfectly clear than no one... NO ONE... can perform an attack faster than 1 per second.
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RANGE ISSUES
Range is a big deal, especially between the Pistoleer and Rifleman communities. Pistols shine at close range, have large negative to-hit modifiers at long range EXCEPT that most pistol max ranges equal a rifleman's max range. That just shouldn't be, or the pistol should miss 99% of the time at said range. OR.. Rifleman should be given a -longer- range... either way, max ranges on pistols vs. rifles shouldn't be equivalent.
That arguement set aside, the following facts will still always be true:
Pistols are close range.
Carbines are Medium range.
Rifles are long range.
FYI, Carbineer will probably be the hardest to learn to strategize, as you must always try to stay at or near the ideal range of the weapon. Pistols will still function well up close, and Rifles will kick anyone's behind if they master Kiting. Kiting is managing to dip into range of a target, fire of some shots (usually Damage Over Time - DoT - hits), and move back out of range to avoid getting hit.
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DPS CALCULATION
DPS, or Damage Per-Second, is easily determined by Average Damage divided by Speed. The FWG5 from the above example has a speed of 1.9, giving it a 51 DPS. Adjust based on AR of targets.
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POOLS
Certain weapons excel in damaging specific pools.
Pistols damage Health
Carbines damage Action
Rifles damage Mind
Rifles, in 1 on 1 PvP should excel beyond a doubt, as they deal damage that can't be healed. As players (hopefully) are intelligent, they know to heal themselves, making the Pistols obviously higher DPS lessened by a healing factor. Same with Carbines. At novice medic, you can get (and use) stim-b's that heal from 200-350 health AND action in one use.
The trouble with the differentiated pools comes in PvE. Pistols have a higher DPS, assuming that what they're fighting doesn't have a ranged attack, they are going to mop the field with the sheer amount of power they pump out. Against ranged stuff, Carbines fare quite well, too, hitting action with a -very- pleasant DPS on average. Plus, the critters/NPCs don't ever heal. Well, perhaps, on occasion, you will notice a rebel or imperial medic heal himself or someone else, but that's too rare to even count.
This leaves the rifleman's biggest strong suit in the dust for PvE. At best, it means they take longer to kill something than a pistoleer or a carbineer. At the moment, there's nothing that can be done for this. EXCEPT that the riflemen now get the T21 with AP-Heavy. Nice.. they won't get their damage bonuses YET, but they will consistently deal MORE damage than pistols or carbineers against the biggest critters and eventually, against vehicles (AT-ST, anyone?)
Most (and I mean most, but not all) critters/NPC's follow a trend. Action is usually the largest pool, followed by health, followed by mind. I DO believe this was the intended in-game mechanic to even out PvE for the 3 ranged classes. The differences are usually slight, and I don't play all 3 weapons to know if the differences actually manage to equalize the difficulty and/or time spent killing something or not.
Finally, any of these weapons standard auto-fire will randomly damage a certain pool, giving you 33% chance to hit a pool other than the one your weapon specializes in.
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DAMAGE OVER TIME (DoT)
Some of the most powerful specials in any class are DoT attacks, or bleeding attacks. Healthshot 1/2, Actionshot 1/2, and Mindshot 1/2.
These effects can be stacked individually, but not cumulatively. MEANING multiple healthshot 2's are wasted, but Healthshot 1 and Healthshot 2 will make the critter bleed twice per round (although one will be a 'bigger' bleed than the other, as HS2 is STRONGER).
Other specials are pretty much self explanatory. I am omitting explanation on them. The only reason I singled out the DoT is to note the stacked effect, and nothing else.
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II. WHY GROUP AT ALL?
It is true that grouping, currently, provides little to no benefit due to the fact that higher level people can solo things that were meant to be grouped, reaping gigantic XP rewards they should not have access to. It would benefit these players to learn to adapt now, and for new players to learn to function this way early on.
The reasons to group are varied, you have to look at your short term and long term goals. Are you going for money, experience, or simply want to kill a Boss Mob (such as a Krayt)?
Money will not be covered here. If you're doing missions for money, they should be done solo or with at the very MOST 3 people. Small groups will be covered later.
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XP GAIN
This will be the larger factor for higher level people, but can and will apply even to the younger crowd wishing to join up with groups. A simple way to measure if you are benefitting is to create a base-line of experience.
Take an hour of your time to go hunt the things you would generally kill during a solo grind for XP. Whether it consists of blue cons, white cons, critters, or NPCs. Keep track of your XP gain for that hour total.
If you are not gaining you MORE XP in the group than your baseline dictates, then you are not benefitting. They are probably not taking down high enough level creatures for the size of the group, so the splits are resulting too low. They should be taking out creatures that will probably kill part of the group.
It's understood that dying while in a hunting party is not something that someone thinks of as 'fun'. There IS a way to keep it fun, and everyone getting XP. But THAT is for section V.
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SOCIAL/BRAGGING RIGHTS
Going after Boss Mobs is probably going to be an all master or mostly master group project. XP will be of little consequence, the purpose is to win with as few casualties as possible. And maybe take a photo of the group cheering around the corpse. It should be a rare occurrence to manage to assemble a team that can handle things like this, and should put you in the elite that can say "I was THERE!"
Again, deaths are inevitable. See section V.
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III. TYPE-CASTING PvE HUNTING GROUPS
I have made up this list out of my own head. You are not going to hear people in-game forming one of these kinds of groups by name. They are for the sake of simplicity when discussing further tactics, especially the "Where do I fit in" section.
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THE IMPROV GROUP
This is the group that's formed by one guy shouting in the middle of the village square that he wants 19 other people to go with him hunting whatever critter he wants to hunt. Typical qualities of this type of group will be utter lack of organization, and reluctance of the members to let any one person take on a 'leader' role, even for the guy who formed the group.
Further, these people will not, for the most part, care about YOU. You are an extra gun, and if you die, oh well. They will not take pains to protect you, you did your damage, now you're gone, so sad. More XP for them.
There will be a few in the group who will scramble to help heal teammates, but it's an all out damage fest with each guy wanting to reap the most XP off of a single kill. If organization cannot be attained before the group heads out, it's MY suggestion that you abandon this project, because you're probably going to die.
This sort of group can easily become what I fondly call a Specialist Group (see below) with proper organization.
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THE SPECIALIST GROUP
This will be a group that you or someone else forms to specifically revolve around one weapon type. This kind of group will ultimately be more successful, kill things faster, and will probably tend to be a little better organized than the Improv Group due to the fact that the person has to be more selective about who comes in, creating an 'eliteist' atmosphere which promotes comraderie.
Such groups can and should allow other weapons types into their ranks to flesh out missing numbers (depending on the size of critter you're looking to kill). Of course, that's provided that the additions learn their role as supplementary to the bulk of the group.
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THE MINI-GROUP
These groups almost always are made up of a few people who are already close friends. Goals will differ, but they will be more flexible as one is generally more willing to bend for a friend than they are for someone they just met. The strategies reflect this flexibility.
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IV. WHAT IS MY ROLE IN A GROUP?
When joining one of the kinds of groups above, your role is pretty much determined by the number of similar/dissimilar weapons to your own. The Improv Group and the Specialist Group entries are going to essentially cover both sides of the coin.
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THE IMPROV GROUP
The first thing you need to do is attempt to discern what kinds of weapons most people are using. Currently, chances are most people are pistol-users, so let's hypothesize that you are NOT.
Your role is not going to be to do your heaviest damage shots. You are going to be affecting a different damage pool than the majority of the group, and really working against them. You should be looking to protect your teammates with support fire such as suppression shot, or any other posture change shots (carbineers excel at this), or threaten/warning to keep the creature at bay (to keep any tank, whether it be creature or player as undamaged as possible).
While the immediate issue arises "They're not looking out for me, why should I care?" Because generally what goes around comes around. If you do well, you will be considered more 'valuable' to have, and they WILL want to protect you. Also, keeping as many of the group alive as possible keeps you hunting longer, getting more XP with less downtime.
When not using support fires, dealing damage instead, attempt to use a special that has a chance to hit any one of the three damage pools. (Such as Pistoleer's doubletap). If you do not have a special that does this, stick to standard autofire between posture-changes. This also saves you on HAM cost. Any little XP you might have gained extra from using headshot, legshot, etc won't compare to breezing through several large critters quickly.
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SPECIALISTS
So, you're starting a specialist group. Your role is quite straightforward, in honesty. Your job is to hit hard, hit fast, and stay alive. Specials that target a single damage pool are your friend (bodyshot, legshot, headshot), as are bleeding shots (health, action, mind -shot).
As the ones dealing the most damage, NPC AI will typically target one of the specialists as the primary threat and concentrate their fire.
Experienced Specialists should learn how to 'take the hits' when it becomes necessary, and how to force a new 'tank'. If you are taking damage that you can't heal quickly enough, back up and hopefully one of your fellows will step in the line of fire. BUT that doesn't mean the creature will stop attacking you. Use /peace moentarily until the creature finds its new target, then begin firing again. Ideally, multiple transitions will be made fluidly, spreading out the damage so no one is incapacitated or killed.
In the event one of the support combatants comes under direct fire, one who is at or near full HAM should attempt to identify the attacker and use similar tactics to draw the creature/NPC away from him.
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MINI-GROUPS
This is probably one of the most challenging and fun groups to stragegize in. It is essentially simple if everyone in the group is using the same weapon type. However, it may not always be the case, and this is where comraderie comes into play.
Decide who is going to need the most XP, and allow them to do the damage dealing. The other person (or people) will play the support role defined above. When randomly hunting, perhaps swap the roles on a rotating schedule from one lair/group to the next. When doing missions for money (XP is mostly a bonus), let the person who 'owns' the mission take the majority of the XP.
Support and Damage dealers must both learn to maneuver the 'tank swap' efficiently. In addition, when playing against 'killer' critters, it's always good to know effective kiting. If one person is incapacitated, it's a good idea for the other person to kite the NPC as long as possible to keep it from delivering a deathblow to his teammate, ESPECIALLY if the incapacitated person has the ability to heal. If you can keep them from dying, they can patch themselves up and hopefully find you to do the same. Sometimes, you turn into a sacrifice anyway, but it's worth it for a chance at both surviving.
An alternative to kiting is to stand over your friend and use constant warning/threaten/posture-change shots until they get up, but if you incap in the meantime, you're -both- dead. It's generally preferable to at LEAST try to leave one person behind to keep tabs on the wounded critter, making certain it doesn't get sneaky and magically heal itself.
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V. MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES, SOLUTIONS (NOT EXPLOITS)
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BOSS MOBS, RED CONS, AND HOLOCRONS MACABRE PREDICTION
Holocron has said, as a reference to what 'red cons' should be - "it should take 10 maxed out people to take one down, and half of those should die in the process".
The typical and immediate response is "How is that fun!?" But it can be... if you don't have to clone, and still get the XP when the creature dies.
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THE SOLUTION
One of the most underappreciated professions in the galaxy.. the Doctor. The Doctor has the ability to resurrect, given the proper supplies needed for the tool. A doctor has to be near master in order to create and use these special medical kits, so XP will not generally be a bonus for him. A group wishing to take down a Krayt will have to pool some cash to pay a doctor to accompany them.
Negotiating prices and 'when' to pay/get paid becomes tricky. A doctor is not going to want to get stiffed at the end of the grouping session, and a group is going to be upset if they fork over the cash only to have the Doctor split at the first sign of danger (or sooner!)
There are several places on the web that list schematics and required resources for just about everything in the game (swgcraft.com comes to mind). Do a minute of research, tally up the reqs for the resurrection medpacks (and stims, if there are no other medics with the group) and offer the doctor an agreed price PER RESOURCE used, multiplied by say... 50% - 75% of the group's total membership (20 people = probably will use 10-15 resurrection kits, and at most 3 stim-E's). NO REIMBURSEMENTS for packs that don't actually get used. It's a contract fee, the doctor agrees to have at least X number of supplies on hand at the start of the expedition, and non-negotiable after the virtual handshake.
Doctors should insist on being paid up front, and groups should comply. This is because if the doctor takes the money and runs, it's easy for 20 or so people to ruin that doctor's reputation by word of mouth. However, if a doctor provides service and is abandoned without payment, he is going to have next to no recourse for his lost resources and kits. He could try to discredit the individual group members.. but people rarely listen to the small voice when it's 20 against 1.
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HARVESTING AND LOOTING
An unfortunate state of some game mechanics makes forced 'sharing' of loot nearly impossible for the moment. However, the systems to make this easier are ready to be implemented or waiting to be fixed. Here's what you can look forward to in the meantime.
SCOUTS
Harvesting becomes an issue with multiple scouts in a party, especially when wanting to harvest the very large creatures (such as Kimos or Krayts). There is a fix on the way! All scouts in a group will be able to harvest off of every creature. The downside is you only get 60% of what you normally would, but since you can harvest off of every single creature instead of taking turns, it works out to your benefit in the end by a large margin.
LOOTING RIGHTS, ROTATION, AND PRAYER
Sadly, ninja looters will be a problem until group autoloot and autosplit are fixed. (on a personal note: I'd like to see it so that turning autosplit off has to be approved by the majority so the leader can't hoard all the spoils to himself).
Hopefully, the group hunting together has some sort of bond and agrees to a loot rotation schedule, though this is hard to enforce. And prayer? Pray that autoloot/autosplit gets fixed! ;P
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THE "BAD-EGG" TEAMMATE
Or, "What to do when someone doesn't play nice". Two methods I have heard of to rid oneself of a troublemaker within your otherwise smooth-flowing group (such as a lone carbineer refusing to do his support functions as he should be, and having a fit about you telling him 'what to do'). The "You're not the boss of me" syndrome seems to be quite common.
For the guy who has to try to be the hotshot, I recommend.....
THE SACRIFICE
If a critter you're fighting is nearly dead, finish it off like normal and find another before attempting this.. you don't want the guy to get -rewarded- for his tactics. Engage the group in combat with big critter. Dismiss the dunce from the group, and have the rest of the group /peace and retreat. The damage-hog will (hopefully) continue to fire at least long enough to draw the creature onto himself, and will likely die since he has no support.
Is this ethical? I think so. If someone is screwing with the good vibe of a group, he deserves what he gets. Asking them to leave is generally a good first step, but often people like that will not voluntarily leave such a good source of.... 'entertainment'.
If that doesn't appeal to you, or the fellow returns to attempt to sap damage off your groups hunt, you will have to try....
THE DITCH
Remove the person from the group (if he has not been already) and move to a new location. Not a great solution if your group was formed specifically to hunt say.. Krayts, but it is by far the most effective way to avoid a griefer. They have no way of knowing where you purchased your ticket to, and hence you leave him behind.
Should he decide to harass one or more members of the group with /tells then make quick use of the /report function.
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VI. THE 'PERFECT' GROUP
I know quite well that there are many ways to have a 'perfect' group, and that such a classification would change based on the goal of the group (lots of XP, bragging rights on killing a boss mob, etc) but I think that there is a good starting point no matter what the goal.
At least 50% should be of the same weapon type.
Have at least 1 out of every 4-5 with medic skills, or at least 2 completely non-combat medics who do nothing but heal.
1 doctor if deaths are expected, or to be extra cautious and avoid downtime
1 squad leader with Mobility I or higher - to improve overall group terrain negotiation, lowering travel time. Note that a rifleman, who by rights is the sniper of the game, who has exploration IV (scouting) will be able to move faster while PRONE while in the presence of a squad leader. Actually, everyone will have that benefit, but riflemen should appreciate that even more than the average combatant.
1 ranger with the ability to create a camp that has a food/chem crafting station. Should the doctor go over his contracted stim/medpack/resurrection kit quota, he may be re-contracted to make more. On long trips, a camp will also be needed to reduce mind wounds. Also, rangers are going to have a nice ability that will mask a whole group from critters (and possibly against NPCs, but that's still in the "we're thinking about it" stage).
1 entertainer for long cross-planet hikes. It would probably be good if the entertainer were also interested in combat, but not a necessity. Possibly would have to pay a completely non-combat entertainer (or Musician/Dancer) to accompany. Dancers and Musicians can also provide mind buffs if you watch them for a certain amount of time after you're healed. Nothing that compares to what a doctor can do (about a 50% increase for Master Dancer/Musician), but even that could come in handy.
Any and all other professions would be a boon to a group with these basic recruitment tactics. I hope you found some or all of this guide to be useful, and I'd actually like to hear success or failure stories, and details as to what might have gone wrong or what worked exceptionally well so I can improve my own grouping habits and perhaps put out a revised version of this guide in the future.
Take care out there!
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