PVP Guide

Hey fellow Bloodfinians(?), there's been some really awesome PvP on the
server lately, and in an effort to keep that going and to encourage it's
growth I decided to start up a little guide. I'm going to try to cover
everything I can think of, so hopefully there will be something useful
for new players, and old. If you aren't sure how to go about getting
into PvP, or need some inspiration, then hopefully I will be able to
provide some useful information here to overcome that barrier for entry.

Since you can't do anything until you have a character battle ready, we
should start with the first choice you need to make; you'll want to
decide what you'd like to play. I would recommend that you eventually
have 2 or possibly 3 different types of toons that cover different roles
in a group, unless you're playing with the same group of players on the
same toons consistently, but we can get to that later. Your options at
their most basic level are Jedi, Ranged, and Melee. Within each of these
basic groups however, your role can vastly differ. A melee might be a
pure stacker who focuses on DPSing with their weapon, while another
"melee" template might be a TKA with Combat Medic who focuses on
applying and removing poisons and utilizing their combat profession
primarily for survivability.

The most popular combat profession on Bloodfin right now is undoubtedly
Jedi. Jedi have a variety of templates to choose from, they can focus
their efforts on tankier DPS specialization or focus completely on a
support role. As a DPS in Bloodfin's current state, Jedi doesn't
necessarily excel against any particular opponent, but has consistently
good damage against everyone. While certain Melee might potentially do
more damage against a Jedi, or a Ranged more damage to a Melee, the
Jedi's numbers are consistent against all of their opponents including
other Jedi. The other tree's available to a Jedi grant them possibly
some of the largest amounts of utility of any combat profession as well.
These abilities lead to immense support potential for the Jedi. Jedi
has hands down the best healing in the game, and the only consistent
mind heal. Jedi has the greatest potential mobility. Powers also offers a
variety of incredibly powerful support abilities. All of this makes for
a very well rounded character almost no matter how you choose to
specialize.

So you decided you don't like taking damage ever? Well then, melee is
definitely for you. Even the least tanky of melee specializations like
Pikeman and Fencer can take absurd amounts of damage, and TKA's can seem
virtually invincible if you don't have DoT's or a decent Ranged player.
Melee are the tanks of SWG and they do it incredibly well.

Master Fencer/Master Brawler/Pistoleer xx4x/Pikeman xx4x/Enhanced Reflexes (Enough to reach 100 Melee and Ranged Defense)

There are a ton of variations on Stacker specs, but these should give
you a pretty good idea of what you're trying to achieve. You basically
want your melee and ranged defense high enough so that with +25 to both,
you reach the cap. After that we stack from other professions to get
our Defense vs. States relatively high. It seems there is a point where
diminishing returns start to kick in heavily in your Defense vs. so
something like 70-100 before tapes works just fine.

Now we have some extra points to mess with. In the case of the first
template, you have something like 9-13 points left over. There aren't a
lot of things you can do with this. You can add them for more defenses,
but it's not particularly necessary. I have liked picking up x4x3
Marksman since I already have it for the Pistoleer defenses. This will
get you warning shot, and with a Quicktrigger pistol and some tapes, it
might actually come in handy if your group is lacking a Force Run
stripper. With accuracy tapes and snocake this also adds to the
potential DoT weapons in your arsenal. Although your accuracy wont be
the highest, you'd be surprised what actually sticks after a Fanshot or
2, same with your ability to successfully land a warning shot. This
isn't something to rely on, but something you can make attempts at while
trying to close the gap.

With the second template, we have something like 37-41 points left over.
This gives you a lot more options. I would personally pick up 3(or 4 if
you lose a little ranged defense)22x Medic, as it will probably be the
most useful to you if you're not in a group. Besides that, you can
experiment with the points as you see fit for your play style

Both of these templates also give you warcry2 which when used in a
coordinated group, can be an incredibly deadly form of crowd control
(silence) and one of the only crowd control abilities in the game.

#### **Melee + Doc**

====Master Pikeman, Swords or TKA/Fencer 444x/Doctor 3xxx/Enhanced Reflexes
x1xx (you can also sacrifice some melee defense from fencer to get 4xxx
Doc if you desire)====

Master Fencer/Pistoleer xx4x/Doctor 4xxx/Enhanced Reflexes 44xx

Both of these templates operate very similarly to their pure stacker
counterparts, but have more utility to bring to the group. They can
remove states, AoE cure poison and Disease, remove fire, and receive
massive heals to Action and Health pools. Although you'll find yourself
rarely using your heals, or state heals on others in group combat, it is
nice to have the self sufficiency to take some pressure of your healers
who can be healing squishier targets instead of you. The AoE removals
however are an invaluable asset in group. A well played doctor can
effectively neutralize an enemy teams combat medics, turning them into
cannon fodder essentially.

The TKA and Swords templates you receive higher damage mitigation from,
while Pikeman has the lowest mitigation but provides you with the
highest damage potential and AoE knockdown, and Fencer with the second
lowest mitigation, receives more states to apply; states like intimidate
and blind are what help a Fencer mitigate more damage.

#### Master TKA/Fencer 444x/Squad Leader xxx3

TKA x434/Fencer x44x/Master Brawler/Squad Leader xxx3/Enhanced Reflexes x3xx

Master Fencer/TKA xxx4/Squad Leader xxx3

You can choose Swords or Pikes if you'd like, but TKA and Fencer seem to
be the most ideal options on a support of this nature. The TKA specs
will allow you to mitigate damage the best, while the Fencer one will be
 most ideal for applying DoTs and providing additional state
application. Both of the TKA specs however, do receive some ability to
use Fencer DoT's if they take a Snocake. This can be a trade off as a
TKA often times can take another food in place of snocake because of
their absurd accuracy. The Master Brawler spec provides you with some
additional utility in the form of warcry2 at the cost of ~85 Unarmed
Damage.

I believe the way things are currently for Squad Leader that Retreat is
the only thing worth taking from Squad Leader if it means sacrificing
survivability in your template. If someone can make a compelling
argument otherwise, then I'd be interested to hear it.

#### Master TKA/Combat Medic 4xx4/3xxx Doctor

TKA x444/Combat Medic 4xx4/4xxx Doctor

Master Fencer/Combat Medic 4xx4/3xxx Doctor

With these your job is pretty straight forward, but incredibly
important. The first two templates will provide you with greater damage
mitigation. This can be incredibly helpful because often times a CM is
the first person targeted in an engagement. The problem is that TKA
doesn't offer as great of base Defense. Vs. and will be fairly easily
stated. This can be pretty scary when you essentially are constantly
being dizzied. With Fencer you sacrifice some of your damage mitigation
for much better state resistance. In addition, as Fencer you have access
to a massive amount of DoT weapons. Since your primary objective is to
keep the enemy team as DoT'd as possible, Fencer synergizes with your
group role a little more ideally. We pick up Doctor because we have the
points for it, and this provides your group with AoE poison removal. No
group can have too much poison removal in my opinion.

## **Ranged**

The current black sheep of Bloodfin, it's not uncommon to hear about how
bad ranged is in the games current state. Don't let this scare you away
though; while this is partially true, another problem is the servers
class imbalance. There are an incredible amount of Jedi out at any given
time, and they are essentially a hard counter to Ranged in the current
state of the game. With that said, in group PvP Ranged are incredibly
useful. They mow through an enemy teams Melee stackers, and are crucial
in trying to quickly eliminate an enemy Combat Medic from the fight.
Warning Shot is another thing that in the current state of the game,
makes ranged an incredible asset to their group; now you can remove that
pesky force run and quickly deal with enemies your group can't catch up
with.

### Common Specs

#### Master Rifleman/Master TKA/Pistoleer xx44/Marksman 44x4

Master Rifleman/Master Fencer/Pistoleer xx44/Marksman 44x4

The idea here is to keep your distance as often as you can, utilizing
your Rifle to dish out extreme amount of damage to the mind. With your
rifle out you are relatively squishy when it comes to Jedi and to a
certain degree some Melee (if they can close the gap). This is when you
suddenly morph into a Melee. Other melee professions are perfectly fine
choices as well, but TKA gives you the highest melee damage mitigation.
Since the ultimate objective is to be doing damage with your rifle, it
is in your best interest to try to make yourself as unappealing a target
as possible. Hopefully once you go into TKA mode, the damage done to
you will be virtually nothing (except from other ranged), and most
people will move to another target enabling you to gain distance and
switch back to your rifle again. An added bonus of TKA is you can also
attack the mind still, so you have two weapon types that target the same
pool.

If you choose something besides TKA, Fencer is the next strongest choice
in my opinion. It doesn't provide you with as much mitigation, but it
gives you access to a lot more DoT weapons when you're being focused.

**Rifleman CM**

Master Rifleman/Combat Medic 4xx4/Doctor 4xxx

Although not the most ideal CM spec, there is definitely potential here.
If you know you'll be running with a Squad Leader and feel confident in
your ability to kite, then it's a potentially deadly template. The
problems it suffers from is that CM and Doctor don't synergize as well
with the range of your rifles. You have to get in closer than your Rifle
range to throw Poisons, or to apply DoT removal to the majority of your
group. There are 13 points left over with this template. I recommend
experimenting with them in Doc, possibly 44xx or 4x4x, or some
combination of that. The wound treatment can be helpful, and the
increased med use can get you more potent DoT removal.

***Unfortunately in the current state of the server almost every***
other ranged profession is sub par compared to Rifles, but here are some
other less conventional templates that still might produce results in
the current meta. Hopefully these will be a good starting place to start
innovating yourself.'

#### Master Pistoleer/Master Fencer/Marksman x4x4

Pistoleer is an often overlooked profession, and in all honesty is
inferior to Rifleman in almost every way. This spec however does have
some viability to it, and it is really fun to play. You get access to
the two weapon types with the greatest availability of DoT weapons. You
have Warning Shot. You also have the survivability thanks to Master
Fencer. This was one of my favorite templates to play early on in live,
but over time and especially on Bloodfin, it's kind of fallen out of
favor. In the current PvP climate you'll find yourself mostly spamming
Fan Shot and AoE Blind to apply all the DoT's that you should have. Then
you sit back and watch it tick.

#### Master Pistoleer/Fencer 444x/Squad Leader xxx3

Master Pistoleer/Bounty Hunter 3x4x/Squad Leader xxx3

The first of these offers a lot of the same things as the Pistoleer
stacker template, with a little less survivability when forced to go
Fencer. You still have decent access to the Fencer DoT weapons once
you've taken a snocake as well. Squadleader provides an incredible asset
to your group, and gives you reassurance that you'll always be able to
keep distance. I'd recommend using the extra points in the Enhanced
Reflexes 4xxx. The choice is yours though.

The second is a much squishier build. You lose the ability to go into
Fencer mode. This relies heavily then on you being able to keep your
distance at all times. With Bounty Hunter you gain access to Eye Shot,
and you can get investigation 3. This lets you Bounty Hunt when you'd
like to give it a go, and in a group situation gives you the ability to
track a target you know is with the enemy group. Ultimately I wouldn't
recommend this one as strongly, but it is still pretty fun to play.

#### Master Pistoleer/Combat Medic 4xx4/Doctor 4xxx

Same as Rifles here. It synergizes a little better with the range of
your weapon, but your weapon damage is subpar compared to Rifles. It
does give you better access to additional DoT's though, through your
pistols.

That's it for this post. Hopefully there was something useful in here for everyone.

written by Falco Lombardi