Nar Sharddaa: Cartel Listening Station Guide

Nar Sharddaa: Cartel Listening Station

and

What to Expect in  Battle

You are in your ship and the game takes you on a pre-determined path but you do have to steer clear of the containers and other ships.

To fire upon enemy ships press the left mouse button for single shots and the right mouse button to fire the missiles. You only have so many missiles so shot wisely. Your protective shield regenerates when you are not firing so don’t fire constantly when there are no ships in front of you. Pressing the space bar makes you barrel roll and that will help dodge enemy fire from cruisers heading towards you and gunners on the ships.

Here is a video of the entire fight. It is not my video I found it on youtube.com. He does make the fight look much easier then it was, who knows this could be his 15^th try.

You will fail the mission if you:

• Run out of time
• Run out of health
• Do not complete the mission in the allotted time

To complete the mission you need to:

• Destroy 12 station turrets
• Destroy 2 station shield generators
• Destroy 3 station hangars
• Destroy 3 station antennae

Bonus Objectives:

• Destroy 60 enemy fighters

You receive bonus experience if you get this but it does not count against you if you don’t get it.

You can shot the enemy ships with the phasers (left click) and hit the shield generators, hangars and antennae with your missiles (right click). You will fly over the station several times so don’t worry if you miss.

Also, I thought this was difficult when I first tried it without upgrades. After I purchased shielding, extra missiles and all the other level 1 upgrades for my ship it was much easier. To buy all of them it will cost about 7500 credits. It is well worth is as the space battle went quite a lot smoother. So I recommend it. You can buy upgrades in any main city, turn on your vendor search on your M-map and look for “ship vendor”. He is usually located near the docks.

If you don’t complete it on the first try you can try again as many times at it takes. I did it several times before I managed to complete it. I had a blast doing this mission. Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew – shooting rebel scum is F.U.N.!

I have been hearing a lot of negative reviews about the space missions that it is a "tube shooter" meaning you can not fly anywhere you wish. I can see this being something players want and I can see BioWare implementing it in the future. For now, having the ship follow a set path helps me familiarize myself with the controls and my environment. 

What did you think of the first battle? Has the space fighting lived up to your expectations?

Standardized Questing (Levels 16-20)

Things got interesting at level 16 because my trainer gave me Healing scan. Woot! 

Three healing spells….what?!

Now I have a rotation….kind of.

I activate Combat support cylinder   (Bam!)

Then I use Rapid Shots.   (pew  pew  pew, it’s friendly fire!)

Shoot with rapid shots until it stacks to 30.

(Every click of Rapid Shots gives you 3 stacks. Press it 10 times & you will have 30 stacks.) 

It's Math!

Then press Supercharges Gas. This will increase your healing by 10% AND reduce your Healing Scan cool down by 100% (You still have to abide by the global cool down.)

That is a 12 second cool down that is GONE but this event only lasts 10 seconds so spam spam spam those heals & get everyone’s health caught up.

Once the 10 seconds are up you start back up with the Rapid Shots to build back up to 30 again. If you know a big pull or a big fight is coming up, don’t be afraid to let that 30 stack sit there. It has a 60 second countdown until it disappears. 


You can shot an ally to keep it stacked if you have to wait or stop and cast some larger heals. The stack won’t disappear on you until it counts down to 0.






At level 20 I got Kolto Missile through the talent tree. Here is what my tree looks like.

Kolto Missile (talent tree, min level 20)

Heals up to 3 allies within 8 meters of the targeted area for  478 - 542  health.

Heat: 16

Cast: Instant

You get your ship around level 18. With it come another companion, 2V-R8. 

Congratulations! It's a droid.

He's kind of a bonehead, his shooting skills are a bit...we'll let's say he trained at the Stormtrooper Academy.  I leave him on the ship & send him out on crew skill missions. Mako is still my main BFF,. (Best Fighting Friend)




Summary:

• Shooting your friend with healing bullets is awesome
• Got a new heal Kolto  Missile, it's an AoE heal
• 2V-R8 becomes your new servant
• placed 2 talent points in Critical Reaction
• Placed 2 talent points in Empowered Scan
• Placed 1 talent point in Kolto Missile
• You got your ship, it's pretty neat.

4 little perks in Star Wars The Old Republic that have me sighing with relief.

 So sorry, I need my space.

Inventory, Bag Space, Bank, Cargo, Vault or whatever you call it, in an MMO’s it is prime real estate.  I have agonized over selling or deleting items from my bags because I just didn’t have the room to hold onto them. The developers at Bioware seem to have really grasped the importance of this. There are separate sections for:

• Currency
• Mission or quest items,
• Your satchel that you carry with you
• Cargos hold on your ship that you can access in any major city.
• Guild banks haven’t been implemented yet but I hear “soon”

 I am positively giddy when I realized mission items went into a different tab and were not taking up bag space in my normal bag. When I need to collect 20 of those and 5 of those and 4 of those, I still have space left in my bag for my gathering and normal looting.

Buddies, pals, friends, comrades, Sidekicks

Companions are amazing. I currently have 2; I am a level 20 and have not acquired my third companion yet. I am excited about the possibilities. My character is a Chiss Bounty Hunter; her first companion is Mako. She is similar to a smuggler; she knows her way around a pistol and will heal you and any party members within range. She is also the main co-host to your storyline.

I have 2V-R8 also, he is a droid and a bit over zealous at his job. He’s not much of a fighter so I keep him on the ship to run errands and keep the place clean. 

Mako’s not much of a pick up after herself kind of girl. Having Mako help me is fun. Have you ever been hanging around in a video game with two of you friends wanting to run an instance or a flashpoint? Just say no to PuGs (Pick up Groups), summon a companion and go. I’ve played with some random people where I though an AI could do a hell of a lot better then this guy.

Also, If you are out in the middle of an area completing missions and that dreaded red text appears on your screen. “Inventory is full” Ugh, in many other games it meant walking to the nearest town or outpost, finding a vendor then heading back into the trenches. A frustrating situation for a beginning level player who finds everything she has killed is back and she must start over. But! Not anymore, your first companion joins your team about level 8 and they have a sell gray items option. They will take all the gray items in your bag & vendor them for you. How nice you are, thank you.

An overflow of good converts to bad. - William Shakespeare

You can be bad.  Not, my side thinks you’re wrong and your side thinks I’m a traitor.   I mean really, really bad. I’m a nice person in real life. Sometimes I get upset or angry but mostly I just want to talk about the problem we are having. You tell me what you want, I’ll tell you what I want and we can start compromising from there.

I follow the rules of the society I live in. I don’t speed, I do my job to the best of my ability, I don’t steal and I always pay my taxes. My mother taught me well.  At the end of the day, I look forward to shooting a Republic Commander in the face, just because he was there. I yearn to break all the rules I know I’m not supposed to break. Breaking the rules in a virtual setting can be a therapeutic stress relief for a person. 

Delegating - I don’t want to, so you have to.

Crafting in Star Wars has evolved into a situation I never thought possible.

I have three crafting skills. A main skill where I make something like medical packs, armor, or weaponry and two gathering skills.

The crazy thing is, I don’t have to do any of them. I delegate to my eager crew who stands at the ready to hunt some biological samples, scavenge scrap metal or do some underworld trading on my behalf. 




I am looking forward to finding more and more aspects of The Old Republic to talk about. What is your favorite?

Trust Me, I'm a Doctor. (Levels 1-15)

Star Wars The Old Republic has been live for 30 days today.

Have you picked a class you like best?

I've played a Smuggler, Consular & Bounty Hunter.

I am writing this blog to share my journey as a Bounty Hunter Mercenary healer. Not everything I do or try to do will be perfect. 

I'm a work in progress. 

Here are the main heal-y skills you will acquire by level 15. I don't do too much healing right now, even in flashpoints or groups. I watch heathpoints to get into the practice of it but I am mostly shooting the heck out of rebel scum.

Combat Support Cylinder (level 14)

While active, Rapid Shots charges your powercell with each use.

Charges increase all damage and healing dealt, up to a maximum of 3% at 30 charges.

In addition, targeting an ally with Rapid Shots will heal the target for 100% of your tech bonus healing.

Only one cylinder can be active at a time.

Cast: 1.5 seconds

Rapid Scan (level 1)
Heals an ally
Uses 25 heat

Cast: 2.5 seconds

That can be reduced to 2 seconds the 2/2 in Med Tech in your talent tree

Supercharged Gas (level 15) is going to be a very valuable button. 

Increasing all damage and healing dealt by 10% for 10 seconds.

Healing Scan: Cooldown reduced by 100%

Cast: Instant

Cooldown: 1 second

Activate Combat Support Cylinder + Rapid Scan + Supercharged Gas when things get scary, it’s a great boost but the buff only lasts for 10 seconds though you can press it again soon.

What fun, I am starting to feel like a healer class now instead of a damage class.

I put talent points in 2/2 Med Pack & 3/3 Hired Muscle. I looked at a few talent trees but I haven’t really studied them. I like to learn as I go. No sense worrying about where you are going to put your 38th talent point at level 15.


When you receive new gear Aim is what you want the most of right now. It will be several levels before you start seeing gear with secondary stats on it.

I play on a PvP server so my talent tree will be a bit different then a PvE server. I’ll be putting talent points into self-preservation as well. At least until duel trees are available or switching trees is an option. I will note the differences and include them in the summary.

Don't forget about Mako, you will get her around level 8. She's a great gunfighter and she will heal you and any party member's within range.  She likes credits, if you answer story questions with. "I'll do it for credits." You gain affection most of the time. 


As a sith, I planned on being bad, deliciously bad. But alas, Mako does not like it when I shot first then kick the answers out of them.


Damn it, she makes me be nice and I dislike her for it. Maybe she should give ME an affection gift. Like candy or something shiny. Oh oh, or a blaster!

Summary:

• Aim is the only stat you need at this time
• Use Combat Support Cylinder as often as you can
• Rapid Scan is the only healing spell you have right now
• Supercharged Gas for that extra large heal when you really need it
• 2 talent points in Med Tech
• 3 talent points in Hired Muscle
• Uh Oh - Better Get Mako

Be Careful out there and try not to stand in any fire.