Game Guides Archive
Thread: Venturing into the DWB (First Attempt)
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WildBil2Me
Wed Oct 13, 2004 8:20 pm
#1
A little background
My first taste of the Corvette left me bitter. I, and my most trusted allies, ventured onto the vette soon after its launch and were very un-politely asked to leave. Would we ever get an AV-21? A berzerker rifle?A cool Rebel Insignia shirt? The NPCs just seemed beyond us, determined to not let the Corvette be "powergamer" territory though we pressed on hoping that a group of slightly more than casual gamers could prevail.
Learning from our mistakes we took several attempts on the vette. Eventually we learned the ropes. Right after publish 10 nearly all of us became glowy on one trip to the Neutral Corvette. It was a defining moment in SWG, at least for me. Wednesday quickly became our Adventure night. In 6 consecutive Wednesdays we completed each of the Corvette missions for both the Neutral and Rebel badges. Over that time I've even learned to run loot and solo missions up to the vette which I've found extremely fun and insightful (really teaches you alot about food and timing for spice). But having gotten more than profficient we've outgrown the vette.
That brings us to today, our first trip into the Death Watch Bunker. Where to do you turn when you've tested your might and beat up a load of SBDs, Corsec and Imperials? Off to fight more SBDs and some killer Mercenaries obviously.
As a gamer who's casually made it this far I'm writing this both in search of advice and to share a casual gamers experience with a "powergamers dungeon."
The Bunker Attempts 1 & 2
We started with a group of about 15. Though 20 is obviously the choice number, our goal for tonight was simple. Test the water... see what we need to do to get better and dive deeper into what is supposed to be the most challenging aspect of the ground game. I read up, as best I could, on the bunker. Checked the maps, read the walkthroughs, and searched for tips.
I had no delusions. Justan interest in getting in and getting out. (probably too much of a delusion for any trip to the DWB but whatever.)
With 3 Master Doctors, 1 MCM, 1 Commando, 2 Swordsmen, a Fencer, a Rifleman, some TKM, plenty of medic, a Pikeman and a Ranger we headed down to the starting point.
Not completely sure wether to "clean and move" or just "move move move" we attempted cleaning the first room of Battle Droids. My goal was to get a sense of what challenge these would pose and to also get a feel for our groups strengths and weaknesses. LoS ended up cursing us as most of the NPCs behind the first door came flooding to our location. Hoping to open up the battle I tried moving our group to a larger room, to get some range and a better sense of the NPC force. We barely made it through the front door before finding ourselves torn apart.
Quickly we regrouped (cloned and re-buffed) and returned to the DWB. This time I adopted the more familiar run and gun technique that defines many Corvette runs. On this attempt we made it all the way to the first "keypad." Of course we pulled about 8 battle droids and 6 Death Watch with us. As the Bloodguards started spawning (an error on my part for attempting to force the spawn when we were already well matched with NPCs) the group managed to drop a few of the enemy before falling valiantly.
The Lessons
So we'll go again next week. We'll get buffed, tighten up our group, and inevitably pick up a few of the missing pieces for the group to function well (player wise).
The NPCs appear difficult but not impossible ...some better form of comunication is obviously needed. Either a well trained SL or moving to some type of VoiceChat will make the group function more effectively.
"Run and Gun" or "Clear and Move" really leave me at odds. Do we Clear a room and move... or run and bring aggro with us. Upon reaching the wide open room that accesses the first Key it seemed that we might have been able to handle the spawns that chased us. Once those were clear (and set to respawn in their original locations) initating the Bloodguards would probably be more manageable.
Clearing the early rooms and moving to the nextarea really seems risky with LoS being flaky enough to let DeathWatch see and hit me through structures though.
Any suggestions?
Night4554
Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:41 pm
#2
Teamspeak (or Voicechat) is important.
Clear and move is generally the better strategy. With a 4 minute respawn timer, don't get caught killing everything else, and then killing an SBD however, cause that will spawn everything back on you. Practice, practice, practice.
Clear and move is generally the better strategy. With a 4 minute respawn timer, don't get caught killing everything else, and then killing an SBD however, cause that will spawn everything back on you. Practice, practice, practice.
Tmar
Thu Oct 14, 2004 1:39 am
#3
i'd STRONGLY advise getting at least another rifleman there. Without one you have only one person (the rifles) capable of doing any serious damage to sbds which will mean you get no where as theres 1 per room at least.
With a group of 6 (with 2 rifles) I've got to the mine entrance switch (third traproom) so it is doable. Just takes a bit of practise.
Best of luck to u
Tmar
Thu Oct 14, 2004 1:42 am
#4
btw - run and gun vs clear and move... There are place to do both. When you reach the'corridor of death' as my guild have affectionatly termed it you'll see what i mean 
Jedi_Redemption
Thu Oct 14, 2004 4:55 am
#5
This is going to make plenty of people sick:
3 people can make it at least to the mines as long as there is communication:
1 TKM {For tanking purposes}
1 Pikeman {Electricity damage is key}
1 Jedi w/Master Saber
Here's the trick:
When you come down the ramp, hug the wall on the right side as not to draw the attention of the 2 sentry Battle Droids. Head through the first room, killing both Black Sun standing there. Head through the next door and hang a left {ignore the room on your right, you won't need to go in there} and down the ramp to the next big room. Here you'll find 2 Black Sun Henchmen and 1 Super Battle Droid. As long as your party is in good communication and is not using an AoE, you'll do fine to this point.
Draw the SBD and the 2 Henchmen into melee range and keep them there. With a TKM that is using excellent resist armor, you can tank the 2 Henchmen and the SBD almost indefinately. The trick here is to have your other party members attack the SBD with the most powerful attacks that they have and NOT USE AREA ATTACKS. If any one of your party does happen to use an AoE, the 4 Battle Droids laying sentry in the room to the left will tear your party to pieces.
The small room to the right here can be ignored as it contains a Super Battle Droid, a Death Watch Bloodguard and a Battle Droid. To be honest, there is no reason to go in there. The room to the left with the 4 Battle Droids is the next biggest problem. Draw all 4 of the Battle Droids into Melee Range and keep them there. This will significantly raise the odds of your team living to make it into the next room with ALL members intact. Electricity here is key, with Bounty Hunters and Pikeman being your best bet if you don't have a Jedi on hand.
Again, use no area attacks here and you should be able to wipe out all 4 of the Battle Droids in just under 2 minutes.
Move down the small hallway and take out the Black Sun Guard here, immediately moving into the large room to take out the Black Sun Assassins. Do NOT pull the level until your entire team is in place and ready to take on the mob of Bloodguards. There are two small off-shoot rooms and should be avoided for the time being unless you and the team are feeling really brave. Again, do not use area attacks as it will draw in the Battle Droids and SBD's from the next few rooms onto your position.
Once you've lived through the on-slaught of the Bloodguards and the named Death Watch that drops the key, heal up and head into the long hallway just past the key-coded door. Another trick here is, with a sizable group, just run down the hallway and drag all of the crap with you, dealing with it at the end. If you stop and face off against the Battle Droids and the SBD's, you'll end up taking on casualties that will hinder your progress later on.
Some key points you'll want to remember when trying to raid the DWB:
1. Melee Professions are your friends. Ranged professions do jack here and can cause more problems than they can good in the tight spaces. Area attacks are almost certain death in which a single Fan Shot or Advanced Strafe can bring down all of the uglies on your heads. Intimidate is what all of the Melee people should be doing to all of the human NPC's, while keeping the droids in melee range to help the ranged fighters from getting overwhelmed.
2. Combat Medics are awesome. This goes without saying in which a Master Combat Medic will be able to keep the entire room healed and at top shape while staying out of the mix of whatever the melee and ranged fighters are dealing with. Lots of area stims and throw some strong poisons on large groups of enemies.
3. Use Taunt often. If you happen to have only one or two doctors or maybe one Combat Medic and something is attacking said CM or Doc, then you'll want to taunt whatever it is to you. This is especially useful in the later areas of the bunker in which you have to taunt off Death Watch Wraiths, Ghosts and SBD's because they seem to pick the weakest link in the party and take that out first.
4. Do NOT open containers. This is most important, especially in the later rooms of the bunker. If you happen to open a container, a Super Battle Droid spawns immediately and starts attacking. While this might not be a big deal for a huge group, it can be an exceptionally hard enemy to deal with when you're knee deep in Death Watch. On your way back out of the bunker, hit every container...by that point, you're either finished, or almost dead, might as well get some loot.
5. If you're leaving, or have to leave, sacrifice. Let's face it, no one likes to die and no one likes to end up in the cloner. However, if you're in the middle of the Bunker and you have to leave, you might as well help out the rest of the team by taking the agro and letting them slide through to later areas. This comes in extremely useful if the party is relatively small and one member has to leave. By running into a room and drawing the agro out, you can give your teammates the ability to move onto another area without being attacked or touched.
This is the best that I can do at the moment, though if there is an interest, I'll give more descriptions on the other rooms in the Bunker.
WildBil2Me
Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:19 am
#6
This is incredibly insightful stuff. Thank you everyone for posting.
Next week I think we'll bring the goup down to the first key room in the hopes of spawning a few keys. Maybe collect a bunch of keys for the sake of practice and speeding up future trips (I know the keys are tradable so I'm assuming they can be used across multiple trips). If we end up bringing multiple groups I assume these would be of benefit.
With a little hard work and concentration learning each stage of the progression into the mines will make life much easier.
Night4554
Thu Oct 14, 2004 9:44 am
#7
That is a lot of good info, thanks for posting.
Keys can be used on other trips.
Protective Coating and Binary Liquid are the two rarest drops in the game, and you need one of each to enter the Forges to craft a jetpack. The jetpack base is the rarest loot item for the jtepack, because the jetpack stabilizer drops from the DW Overlord every time now.
To anyone who has gotten to the second door - when I got there, and tried unlocking it, I ended up with about 5 SBD's in the room - that's an unmanagable number for any group. Is this common?
And if you haven't seen this yet, stare lovingly.
Keys can be used on other trips.
Protective Coating and Binary Liquid are the two rarest drops in the game, and you need one of each to enter the Forges to craft a jetpack. The jetpack base is the rarest loot item for the jtepack, because the jetpack stabilizer drops from the DW Overlord every time now.
To anyone who has gotten to the second door - when I got there, and tried unlocking it, I ended up with about 5 SBD's in the room - that's an unmanagable number for any group. Is this common?
And if you haven't seen this yet, stare lovingly.
Message Edited by Night4554 on 10-14-2004 12:56 PM
Tmar
Thu Oct 14, 2004 10:33 am
#8
ah yer, have been about 3/4 of the way to mines with a fencer/tkm and a msabres/defender jedi too 
/me waves to raging'
Like i said, key is knowing when to fight and when not too
Tmar
Thu Oct 14, 2004 10:38 am
#9
Night4554 wrote:
To anyone who has gotten to the second door - when I got there, and tried unlocking it, I ended up with about 5 SBD's in the room - that's an unmanagable number for any group. Is this common?
Message Edited by Night4554 on 10-14-2004 12:56 PM
yes heh, expect to have to deal with at LEAST 3 and up to 7-8 if some retardAOE's
Tbh the key is getting them all in melee and having them pound on your tanks, let the tank take the hits, the docs heal them and the damage dealers kill them off asap.
Another tip. When fighting three (or more)sbd (provided you can tankthem ok) do NOT kill them one by one unless you can do it FAST. hit first one till its almost dead, the same for 2nd and 3rd then finish them all off at once, otherwise you're going to get stuck with respawn
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