Yellow Posts: Speeder, Armor, And High Level Planets

Forum poster benefit was baffled as to why the cost to purchase the level two speeder upgrade (210,000 credits) is so high for what appears to be a small speed increase (only 10% more speed). However, he did not realize that you get one additional benefit for your money: your chance to be knocked off of your speeder by a mob is significantly reduced. This is what responder Nicely noticed and Georg Zoeller, Principal Lead Combat Designer, confirmed:

Originally Posted by Nicely
I don’t know if this counts for anything, but I’ve noticed that I can take more damage before I am knocked off with the higher level mounts.

Georg Zoeller
That is correct.

Forum poster nezroy started a thread because he wasn’t sure how the armor rating on orange (i.e. moddable) armor is calculated. In short, it is determind by the armoring mod that you add to the piece of armor. As explained by Georg Zoeller:

Orange Armor gets it’s armor value from the ‘armoring’ mod you slot in. If you exchange it for something better, the armor value increases along with the stats.

It’s always the first mod in the list that determines the intrinsic properties of the orange items (e.g. armoring on armor, barrel on guns, etc.)

Hope that helps.

Forum poster IAmYourGod posted a complaint on the forums stating that that the high level planets feel lifeless and empty. Not many people talk in general chat and it is very difficult to find a flashpoint group, he says. However, according to Georg Zoeller, most players have not rushed to the endgame which is why the higher level planets “feel empty”:

The overwhelming majority of players are in the sub level 30 range of the game at this point, taking their time.

Rushing to level 50 comes with a price, and that is that it’s pretty lonely at the top for a while.  

Lastly for this week, forum poster Caelib complained that questing on the planet Quesh is far too difficult, even for players that out-level the content. However, there are several reasons that content might be diffiecult once you get to the higher levels, as Georg Zoeller explains:

We’re looking at this.

A few general notes on challenging fights.

One of the most important aspects of higher level fights against elites is to counter their special abilities. You are required to use your interrupting abilities (e.g. Distraction on the Imperial Agent) in these fights to prevent these enemies from gaining the upper hand. In the short term, stuns and ballistic attacks/knockback will also help, but your interrupt abilities have the added benefit of preventing the target from using their special abilities.

Make sure your companion is properly equipped and that their signature abilities are enabled. For example, if you rely on your companion to take the brunt of the beating in a fight, make sure their ‘defensive stance’ is activated. Turn off their area of effect abilities when you’re fighting single enemies – they are not efficient for these fights. You can enable/disable abilities by opening your companion panel (~ by default) and right clicking the ability. The green indicator on an ability tells you if a companion will consider the ability for use in their AI rotation.

Do not underestimate the benefit of stims and relics as short term efforts to turn the tide. Same goes for your 20 minute ‘heroic moment’ ability (the one that only works with your companion and triggers the music).

This sounds obvious, but make sure that your skill points (k) are distributed and that you’ve trained primary your abilities to level.

Finally, if all else fails, gaining additional equipment, levels or bringing a friend along to help with a challenging fight can be used to overcome temporary blocks. However, be advised that if you run into constantly very challenging fights, it is a good indication that your equipment might need updating.

All these notes aside, we are looking at difficulty issues constantly. If we find a trend that indicate a certain fight is broken or a specific advanced class has issues, we will act accordingly. If you want to provide additional insights, such as your character’s spec, your approach to combat, your companion or a particular fight you would like us to look at, please feel free to do so in this thread.

regards
Georg