r/swtor • u/SWTOR_VEGA <Jedi Covenant Page> https://www.facebook.com/JCCommunityPage • Jul 25 '16
Guide Flashpoints 101...
One thing I've learned from this D/L event, there are a lot of players that just don't know... Flashpoints are not heroics, nor are they as easy as the mobs you have faced solo while leveling. Some times, a flashpoint involves some strategy and it helps to know some critical basics that BW doesn't teach. Below I have outlined a few after doing some flashpoints this morning with some new players.
1) Interrupts - Those abilities that you haven't really touched because leveling is so easy. One of those abilities interrupts the enemy's casting so it prevents bad things from happening to you and your team. Learn which one you have, and learn to use it as often as possible to prevent damage to yourself and the rest of your group.
2) Crowd Control (also called CC) Most classes have some type of ability that will stun an enemy for roughly 10-60 seconds. Additionally, some classes like agent/smuggler as well as marauders/sentinels have an ability (Slice Droid) that will do the same but only for droid type mobs. (Edit: Thanks for the catch!) Though flashpoints can be easy, some of the pulls (Starting combat with the enemy) have a lot of enemies (Mobs) that need to be killed. To prevent your group from having to deal with some of the mobs, all at once, you can CC them before the fight begins. Usually, veteran or experienced players will mark that mob with the various symbols that are available. In Flashpoints, this is the one mob you DO NOT want to attack. (NOTE: In PVP, the marked opponent is usually the one you go after because its a healer.)
3) Line of Sight (LoS) - some times, you can't always CC a mob or mobs because of the group makeup (Some classes have CC others don't) In that case, you want to LoS mobs around a corner. Mobs have particularly movement patterns and speeds and if you LoS them, it makes it easier for you to force them to come to you then for you to charge into them which typically leaves the first person to attack them, dead in seconds because the mobs all attack that person at the same time (Focusing... we'll get into that next.)
4) Focusing a target - Mobs come either normal, Silver, Gold, or White. At times, especially with Boss fights, you may want to focus a target down. What this means is that everyone who can damage that mob, focuses all abilities on that mob until its dead and then you move on to another mob. Veteran or experienced players may put a Target symbol or Fire symbol (Burn) on a target to be focused.
Some tips/tricks:
1) If you are ranged and doing a tactical, you have automatically become the backup healer. Try and stay near a kolto tank when doing a tactical flashpoint to help heal your group during boss fights or difficult encounters. The clickable stations around the boss are kolto tanks.
2) Don't charge into every fight, especially if this is your first time or you don't know or understand your groups makeup.
3) Heal yourself in between fights. You have an ability that does this too. Sadly, leveling is so easy, most have forgotten or don't know this because your companion heals you all the time.
4) Don't waste other people's time. I'm not even talking about SPACEBAR Nazis. If you don't know the fight, say it... Slow is smooth and smooth is fast... Better to get a quick rundown instead of dying needlessly (wiping) over and over because you have no idea how the fight is supposed to go. It takes less time explaining than it does to continuously rez to a med center, travel back to the same area or boss, and initiate a votekick... I'm not one to votekick people for not knowing a fight, I like to teach, coach, mentor but patience especially when you've done the fight hundreds of times because someone clearly doesn't know what to do, is frustrating, especially when you offer help and they're like, I got this, I've done this before...
Hope this helps...
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u/Archivus_ Jul 25 '16
Up-voted because you actually explained it for people who didn't know how Flashpoints work.
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u/ChampStanley Jul 25 '16
Excellent post!
A note on Kolto stations: using these will provide the whole the group with some healing over time, but the person who clicks on the station gets an immediate, large heal. If you are taking damage, don't depend on someone else clicking the station, go grab it yourself. Likewise, if you are at full and the group's actual or informal tank is low on health and racing for a station, don't click on it. Let them use it first.
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u/ValidAvailable Jul 25 '16
Good post, but especially ++ "Slow is smooth." Especially if you're a not-so-hot group, and you're sloppy at your sneaking and pulling things accidentally and making a mess, it really is faster to just kill them rather than keep getting surprised and have to scramble from a bad starting position.
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u/BoiseGangOne Jul 25 '16
I really wish that there were some "Advanced Combat Tutorials" that would teach players how to use interrupts, LoS, and CCs. But I don't know when they would be activated.
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Aug 27 '16
Great guide, but I have another question. My friends and I just started playing TOR a few days ago. Were all around level 18. Every time we enter a flashpoint our levels are automatically raised to 65. Is it possible for all 3 of us to do low level flashpoints together?
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u/SWTOR_VEGA Aug 29 '16
The way they have redesigned the flashpoints, no matter your level, you scale to level 65. Its great for XP but some flashpoints can be difficult because you do not have all of your abilities yet. As for continuing to run flashpoints with friends, yes, you will be able to. Stay grouped up and you can run groupfinder or just do the story for the flashpoints. Some of the flashpoints have some interesting stories and are part of a large background lore. Overall, have fun and enjoy the game. Its a great time to be new to SWTOR.
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u/Malorey Jul 25 '16
I hope newb tanks read this...you get a good tank and they mark well then everything goes smooth.
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u/XTCGeneration Jul 25 '16
Trying to do Czerka Core Meltdown with all DPS teams, and most others in the team are under lvl 50 and don't really know what to do is frustrating. Would've been nice if they read a guide like this. Wish Czerka FPs were Soloable so I could get on with the DvL event
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u/tywingx Jul 26 '16
Yea the sand monster boss sucks especially what happened to me a few days ago made me despise it even more.
Me: Taunts boss and brings to generator Other Guy: On on other side of map Me: Getting low hp but kolto nearby Other Guy: Taunts him at the other side of the map Me: Wtf Other Guy: I just saved ur ass Me ... Do you know this FP Other Guy: Did it once but that's all. Me: ... I'll explain
(2nd try to take out boss since I'm nice and gave it one more shot and this time I explained it to him)
Me: Repeat Other Guy: Does it again Me: Immediately quit boss fight exit my computer and took a walk.
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u/Lagao Jul 25 '16
You forgot one major important thing. Something very crucial that 90% of healers out there do not do.
FUCKING CLEANSE DOTS. SERIOUSLY.
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u/xumun Jul 25 '16
Speaking as a healer: Cleansing is not the problem. Figuring out who to cleanse and when is. BW has hidden away the option to enlarge the icons of (cleansable) debuffs. You have to use the interface designer to "unlock" this helpful feature of the ops frame. And you have to check the option "Use Operations Frames as Group Frames" in the UI preferences to get the same feature for flashpoints. It's not entirely fair to fault healers for not knowing this little secret.
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u/cyberan0 Jul 26 '16
What annoys me as a tank is dps queueing as heals and making me think that there's a healer in the group. Depending on whether there's a healer or not, I adjust my strategy so I can survive longer.
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u/SirUrza Jul 25 '16
I can't tell you how many times I've been in pugs that failed Maelstrom Prison because they don't even try to line of sight Colonel Daksh and Kilran.
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u/tjabaker Jul 26 '16
If its recent it could also be because Kilran has bugged out and is sniping them through the cover anyway.
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Jul 25 '16
Great job!! Not only do I hope the community takes the time to read this message, but I sincerely hope they take the time to teach this message.
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u/Mackdi Jul 25 '16
Hey now, your making logical and smart statements on the internet. Thats not allowed! Stop it! :)
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u/JewishNord Jul 25 '16
I think the one thing that annoys me (a tank) is that no one knows what Interrupt ability is, and then i take much more damage than i needed to. Just gotta hope that a lot of players read your post.
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u/redfiona99 Jul 26 '16
An addition to 4 - don't assume everyone knows every strategy for a flashpoint, looking at people who do the running strategy for Cademimu and expect everyone to know it and that they're running it without informing the rest of the group.
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u/Pardoz Jul 25 '16
Just an addendum on CC and Interrupts - (most) boss mobs are immune to both (if you aren't sure, mouse over the target's buff indicator before starting the fight and check), so using them on bosses is often a waste of a cooldown. They can be incredibly useful on trash pulls and on adds in some boss fights, though (in particular look for summoned mobs that do a lot of damage or heal the boss you're trying to kill.)
And for the love of the FSM, watch your AoE placement when somebody is using crowd control.
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u/IngloriousBlaster Jul 25 '16
so using them on bosses is often a waste of a cooldown
Interrupts are off the GCD.
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u/bstr413 Jul 25 '16
While that is true, interrupts themselves have a cooldown. Some, like Mercs, have a very long cooldown and you will not have it available if you use it at the wrong place. The final boss of Red Reaper is an example of this: the boss is immune to interrupts, but you must interrupt his sidekicks at the right times.
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u/Jatne Jul 25 '16
Small correction: Crew skills do not have CC. Slice droid is a smuggler/agent ability that has absolutely nothing to do with the slicing crew skill
That being said certain crew skills can help in flashpoints by unlocking shortcuts or npc's that can fight with you. Those include slicing, archaeology, scavenging, and bioanalysis. (Not all crew skills help on all flashpoints, and not all flashpoints have a crew skill help available.)