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Outside My Comfort Zone

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I have always played healers.  The closest I got to DPSing is to play a DPS offspec of a healing class and TOTALLY SWEAR that I wasn’t going to heal with it… and then go ahead and heal with it.  I felt really exposed leveling without the safety net of a heal, even though in practicality, you can’t usually heal YOURSELF when you’re being pummeled by a mob.

I swore that this time I was going to have an alt that would DO DPS FOR REALSIES AND NOT WUSS OUT.  Remember, with a companion, I can have a healer, even if it’s not ME that is the healer.

Enter the Sentinel, one of the two advanced classes in the game (well, we’re not counting mirror classes here) where you CANNOT respec to anything other than DPS.  No tanking, no healing, I R GOING TO SMASH THINGZ.

As little jedi says, I’m “pewing the guys.”
I’m totally old enough to be a Master Jedi. Just call me Doogie.

I almost wussed out immediately.  Argh, I don’t GET this stupid focus thing.  Force is a bar that starts out full and goes to empty.  Simple. Focus needs to be gathered and burned.  LOLWUT.

What the fuck is this shit?

I was a hair away from switching to a Jedi Shadow because – well first of all, that whole force/focus thing but second, Sentinels get their healing companion so dang LATE.  Not only was I going to have to L2DPS, but it would be FOREVER before I’d have a pocket healer.  My safety net was quickly getting out of reach.1

But I gave sentinel another go and… I was ok.  I continued to level with Kira and just WTFPWN everything in the face before our health gets too low.  With neither of us being a “tank” the damage should be evenly distributed between us which, without a healer, is far better than the damage focusing on one of us.  And I was having fun.  More fun than with my so-called main, the smuggler.

Now, I could have used C2N2 as a healing companion.  But he doesn’t heal well and just punches things.

Whack! Sock!

So I stuck with Kira.  And suddenly I’m in the 30’s, on Balmorra, and about to (finally) get Doc and all I can think is… wow that was easy!

Older men ftw?

Also Doc is easy.  BSOCK imminent!2

I think he’s trying to draw attention to his crotch.
I couldn’t find a customization kit that wasn’t gross, so Doc is currently wearing the hat of shame.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m only leveling with Doc at this point and Kira is on ship duty, but I was surprised by how little I died without any heals.

I guess I shouldn’t say “easy”.  Because it’s not easy for a healer mentality to switch to DPS at all.  And I have to really concentrate like hell on what abilities to use whereas when I’m healing it seems almost automatic.  But easy as in “not a total fucking disaster where I have to QQ to my guildies every time I have to kill something with a star next to its name.”

Seriously, they card me every time I try to buy some death sticks. So unfair!

That, my friends, is how a healer 4 lyfe converted to a Jedi Sentinel pure melee dps main.  Oops.

  1. The sith warrior gets a healing companion before level 20 and I hate them.  HATE. ↩
  2. I narrowly avoided an early (and very surprising) BSOCK with judicious use of the escape key. ↩

Comments

Outside My Comfort Zone — 9 Comments

  1. My trooper is Commando spec and I’ve kept her as full on DPS and running around with Aric. I’ve pulled Elara out a couple of times when needed to keep me alive. Even with Elites it can go either way sometimes. I honestly think the first time I’ve regularly died taking on those gold stars is on Balmorra. Before, I was more than capable of burning them down like crazy with Aric as the two headed DPS monster.

    Given that my relationship with Aric is almost at max I’m considering pulling Elara out to adventure with me a bit more often. Especially since, again, Balmorra really kicks my ass if I let my mind wander even a scosh. But I love hearing Aric say his ‘You’re going down!’ ‘Firing!’ battle commentary as opposed to Elara’s ‘Let me help you!’

    I’m torn between two worlds.

    My Jedi Knight… I really need to respec her to be the tank side of guardian. It helps to know how to do that, I think.

    And your Jedi’s just a sweet little waif girl, isn’t she? (The horn jewelry is particularly nice.)

    Reply ↓

    • Yeah. Waify. In general I think that body type 1 makes them look… pinched? But I found a look I liked for just this one character and I love the idea of tiny little girl whupping ass with 2 giant sabers. The rest of my toons are types 4 and 2 with a preference for 4. Who knew that this one would end up being a main?

      Also with a commando, you CAN toss an emergency heal on your pet if you need to. With a sentinel, oh geez, nothin. I have a medpack…

      It’s true that the characters’ “combat sayings” can make or break your tolerance for leveling with them. Risha was as annoying in combat sayings as she was in EVERY OTHER ASPECT and I just couldn’t deal with it. Rusk occasionally says something like “Suicide mission a success!” which makes me scratch my head because, dude, we’re alive…

      Reply ↓

      • Bwah! “Suicide mission a success.” I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.

        I went with body type 1 for my Twi’lek smuggler because I thought it would suit her to be wiry. My Jedi Knight and Trooper are both type 2. So is my newly made Bounty Hunter. My Imperial Agent is the Amazonian 3 and my Inquisitor is 4.

        I must say that the Jedi robes on my Knight really… accentuate the booty.

        As far as heals go, you’re right. As a trooper, I do have two heals that I can throw on myself or my companion (as well as a medpack) but the Jedi Knight does not have that. It’s only by the power of our Jedi-ness that we survive. I think once I get my trooper to Tanno Vik (at last, that little douche nozzle has given me a planet wide runaround! At least I liberated a city while doing so. ‘Yeah, I’m looking for this demolitions guy… yeah, I guess I can liberate that city while I look for him. It’s on the way…’) I’m going to focus on my Knight some more.

        Or maybe I’ll be so excited to get off Balmorra I’ll continue with her. Choices, choices…

        Reply ↓

  3. Glad to hear that dps in this game can be fun too! I’m curious though, that decision to change your main seems to have come awfully quickly. Wasn’t your smuggler already further along? Is it just that you like dps more or was there something else about the smuggler that was putting you off?

    Reply ↓

    • Nah, I do like the smuggler… but you know you want to change focus when you’re like DROOLING to play your alt. I’m actually leveling the smuggler solo now (husband and I are in lock step on our mains) and I respecced to a more DPS build to make it easier. I’m doing a gear audit on Corso tonight because I had been using a DPS pet and Corso has fallen behind.

      Reply ↓

  4. Wow your sentinel does look quite young! Was amused by the Doogie comment. Quite appropriate XDD

    I know how you feel though with the lack of appropriate customizations. I’ve had to stick companions in the hat of shame before too. (Luckily, empire side if I just don’t like half their face it’s easy to get one of those Darth Malgus style masks and cover the lower half)

    Reply ↓

    • Well this is a bit of a zabrak problem (the young looking) because Zabraks don’t have makeup options. They have certain complexion options that might sort of be lipstick… but none that I really liked.

      Reply ↓

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