BioWare lifted the NDA on SWTOR today. Hallelujah! So we can talk about the Beta finally :)
This is my first gameplay / guide video for the Commando advanced class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, spec’d as a Combat Medic @ level 16 in a Huttball PVP warzone. Commando is the mirror class for the Bounty Hunter Mercenary, so the material covered in this video is relevant to players of either class.
This video provides detailed educational commentary on the core mechanic (Ammo), PVP-related abilities, and analysis of match play in Huttball.
To see me PVP’ing live, check out the streaming schedule on Twitch.tv. My stream features real-time narration and commentary – and to the extent possible interaction with the Chat Room.
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Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Awesome as usual Taugrim! I can’t wait to see your guides develop for the trooper. I plan on going in as a Bounty Hunter leading my ragtag Dreampiece group again! Unfortunately we won’t be going RP-PVP, but I am definitely good to talk shop when the game releases!
We’re playing mirror classes then.
Let me know where you folks end up.
I don’t RP, but I’ve had great experiences on RP-PVP servers in terms of the community and faction rivalries. Plus you’re less likely to get players named AwesomeSauce or something banal like that.
Awesome vid. I have been looking forward to the NDA dropping to see your PvP vids.
Do you feel the Commando’s heals are too slow, casting wise? and or too weak?
In the video, the “Greater” Heal, aka Medical Probe, had a cast time of 3 seconds, 2.5 with talents.
In the patch yesterday, those times were reduced to 2.5 and 2, the latter which is fine for PVP.
The heal amounts are fine as well IMO.
Very informative! If you have the time I would love to see a bunch more of these 10 min. videos for other classes (including the other Trooper specs). Thanks!
I’ll be making videos like this for other classes that I PVP with.
Great vid as always. I’m planning on playing a Trooper and was wondering if you had any insight into the differences between Commando and Vanguard? Thanks.
VG is a tank, it can’t heal, and it has a ranged pull (Grapple).
I’m actually very curious about VG, so I may look into it after trying out Jedi Knight Sentinel.
So would you say Commando is a hybrid class (with functional but not amazing DPS) seeing as it can heal as well?
“Hybrid” is a loaded word. I’ll say that Commando feels like a class that can flexibly perform different roles in combat.
I cranked out around 200k damage @ 15 as a Combat Medic.
As I showed in this video, I did 100k/100k damage and healing.
And these are numbers I put up against and with players of much higher level than me.
I’ve managed to play two beta weekends, back to back and I don’t think we can apply the usual Hybrid term to these classes. I really feel that, heals in general are more supportive then outright roles. You can spec up a Healing tree and gain a couple more abilities out if it. However, you still have all your other tools to DPS, CC, etc. I feel that you aren’t punished for being versatile, unlike WoW (and other mmo’s) which limit your tools when you choose a spec.
I’ve played SI Sorc, Commando Trooper, Power Tech BH, and a few other classes to mid teens. All of them felt fun and interesting. The non healing builds do need a bit more help early on from heal specs, but really grow into their own in the higher levels from what I’ve seen and experienced. Especially the Melee specs. I find the game fun overall, especially the story while leveling. PvP is also enjoyable to me. Mainly due to not getting killed in under 5 seconds. My only complaint about PvP, is the length of CC and the time it takes to become immune to CC.
Btw Taugrin, the vid was great to watch. You got to admit though, Hutt ball is a range classes dream. Ledges and more ledges!
Wow the commando reminds me a lot of Druid in WAR and Shaman in WoW
Wow! Very informative! Thanks for putting this up. Am unable to get into the beta weekends as my pre-order code is not working. Have an open ticket ‘tween Bioware and BestBuy for couple of weeks now. (Sad, so sad.) Seriously reconsidering this game as a viable option if they don’t resolve this quickly. It is already past my predefined time limit for resolution. So whatever tidbits of information I am able to glean from you? Woot!
Hi Mary,
Sorry I missed this comment til today.
Signing up fo Beta has no association with Pre-Ordering. Some folks in the Beta Weekends has not Pre-Ordered yet.
That being said, if you have an issue, call the Customer Service phone number. It’s much faster for resolving issues than any other way from what I’ve heard.
Couple quick questions:
1.) How much did your Medical Probe and Advanced Medical Probes heal for? There doesn’t seem to be a huge difference in the video in terms of efficiency. It seems like, early on at least, there isn’t much of an HPS/HPA difference between the two.
2.) What is the default healing crit modifier? It looks to be 175%. (Your Hammer Shot has a 1.723 crit modifier in Huttball)
1. Here are the relative heal amounts (out of warzone):
MP: 550, 2.5 sec base cast (2.0 talented), 3 ammo
AMP: 394, 2.0 sec base cast, 2 ammo
So AMP is roughly 75% of the heal amount of the longer heal.
2. 2. That sounds about right. It seems to scale with gear or level. At 18, the crit bonus is ~40% outside of warzone but with bolster it’s about ~70%.
Glad you are going to play Swtor! shame iam a EU player tho!
Saw this first video linked over on Keen’s forum. Was very glad to see you picking this game up (as I will be too). Always enjoyed our PvP Healer conversations in Allods. Smellingsalts (salty) was my handle back then, I think.
Hey salty,
Thanks for dropping by, always nice to see a familiar name!
I’ll try to stick around and let you know how a tank specced vanguard plays out in PvP.
Thank you very much! I was having trouble deciding between operative and mercenary healing for pvp and was having trouble finding many command/merc healing videos, pve or pvp. What I really wanted to see how the combat support cell functioned in practice. I believe I will make an op and a merc healer, but that merc will be first. Nice to see non laggy pvp too, that was my main complaint during the beta weekends, but ill assume its because of how many more people there were due to the beta weekends
[…] SWTOR Trooper Commando PVP Video: Combat Medic @ 16 in Huttball (taugrim.com) […]
With your build would you be going a full 31 points into the healing tree? Or more of a hybrid set up? Been playing around with the talent calc off torhead.com for a BH was wondering how vital you think going 31 points in one tree would be.
If you’re playing a full-on healer, the upper talents and the 31-pt ability are important to have. BW did a nice job making the trees look attractive for 31+ pt investments, so that is what I would do.
Hey, thanks for all your awsome pvp guides. Your appearences in gbtvs the Republic is a really welcome one!
I was wondering how you feel about comparing gunslinger to comando. Is taking cover getting tedious or does it feel natural and fun?
I’ve been playing mostly melee pvp in WoW but Commando seems to be so much fun. I’m really torn about that too, melee vs ranged. I got to try Commando for a day in the stress test beta and for me ranged in SWTOR felt really different from ranged in WoW. What’s your take on that?
I’ll probably end up trying all ACs before i can make up my mind for what will be my main… :P
If you want to hear and see my take on Cover, watch my Gunslinger video:
TLDR: Cover works great in PVP
Thanks! And thanks for the tip on playing on RP-PVP servers, I might try that. I’m so tired of meeting and seeing those stupid character names.
I have been watching your gunslinger and commando medic vids and as are all your vids, they are excellent and highly educational. Now if i could get my 15 year old habbit of clicking toolbars out of my system and use keybinds instead i might not be such a terrible player.
Do you have any intention of going back to these classes for future tutorials or if not can you recomend other streaming collueges to watch? If not did you have in mind endgame builds for your gunslinger and commando medic. Thanks again for your work and your presentation with game mechanic explenations and reasoning behind actions taken during your video, set you apart from the majority of im a pro player do what i do or you are epic fail type presentations. Keep up the good work. :)
It’s a significant learning curve transitioning from clicking to keybinding but would be well worth the pain in the long run.
I already rolled a Sentinel alt, and will make some videos as he levels out of the teens.
Other classes are TBD.