Jedi Archive
Thread: *** The Great Dark Force Wielder Template: MPowers/MEnhancer/Healer 4040 (Lord Vartonis Update)
I was master powers master enhancer 3000 heal 0020 defender for most of the respec period but ended up deciding that I needed armor break and a little more defense so that I could do some of the kashyyk stuff easier and hold up better against the master doc/master tkm tempaltes i would run into. I ended up going 0400 saber master powers 4004 enhancer 4000 healer 0040 defender. This has been my favorite template. The saber specials and armor break help dps and are a nice fall back for when force gets low.
I figure the 2 lines of enhancer that i sacrificed were the ones i used the least anyway. Force armor just ate too much force and the resists, while good, did not make all that much of a difference in most fights for me. Improved force aura really helps cut the damage I take and I still get to have almost all of the abilities I really liked about master powers master enhancer. The down side is that I am down to a force pool of around 6575 with robes and a 56 regen, whereas the double master tempalte i had gave me 6900 force and 60 regen. That and it kills me to have 5 unspent skill points that i cannot do anything with,
That is my exact template as well. Its a mix of everything and its just what I like.
AnjelicaLightingrider wrote:
I was master powers master enhancer 3000 heal 0020 defender for most of the respec period but ended up deciding that I needed armor break and a little more defense so that I could do some of the kashyyk stuff easier and hold up better against the master doc/master tkm tempaltes i would run into. I ended up going 0400 saber master powers 4004 enhancer 4000 healer 0040 defender. This has been my favorite template. The saber specials and armor break help dps and are a nice fall back for when force gets low.
I figure the 2 lines of enhancer that i sacrificed were the ones i used the least anyway. Force armor just ate too much force and the resists, while good, did not make all that much of a difference in most fights for me. Improved force aura really helps cut the damage I take and I still get to have almost all of the abilities I really liked about master powers master enhancer. The down side is that I am down to a force pool of around 6575 with robes and a 56 regen, whereas the double master tempalte i had gave me 6900 force and 60 regen. That and it kills me to have 5 unspent skill points that i cannot do anything with,
Iwok wrote:
That is my exact template as well. Its a mix of everything and its just what I like.
AnjelicaLightingrider wrote:
I was master powers master enhancer 3000 heal 0020 defender for most of the respec period but ended up deciding that I needed armor break and a little more defense so that I could do some of the kashyyk stuff easier and hold up better against the master doc/master tkm tempaltes i would run into. I ended up going 0400 saber master powers 4004 enhancer 4000 healer 0040 defender. This has been my favorite template. The saber specials and armor break help dps and are a nice fall back for when force gets low.
I figure the 2 lines of enhancer that i sacrificed were the ones i used the least anyway. Force armor just ate too much force and the resists, while good, did not make all that much of a difference in most fights for me. Improved force aura really helps cut the damage I take and I still get to have almost all of the abilities I really liked about master powers master enhancer. The down side is that I am down to a force pool of around 6575 with robes and a 56 regen, whereas the double master tempalte i had gave me 6900 force and 60 regen. That and it kills me to have 5 unspent skill points that i cannot do anything with,
So how is that temp?
This was a GREAT write up!!!
If you do not mind, I will link it to my Template guide that has this exact template in it. 
DarthINSANUS wrote:
This was a GREAT write up!!!
If you do not mind, I will link it to my Template guide that has this exact template in it.
Feel free. I wrote it so many people can read it.
SEE MY OBI-WAN TRIAL AND LORD VARTONIS UPDATE NEAR THE BOTTOM OF PAGE 8 OF THIS THREAD. I will update the main post soon to add a detailed strategy and play-by-play guide to Lord Vartonis soon.
Greetings young padawans and fellow knights. 
Well, I *have* to post about this... I've been getting a lot of questions about my template, about life with no defender and no lightsaber at all, and I see powers-bashing threads left and right, so I decided it was time for a thread dedicated to this template. I've posted extensively about it already, but I figure this one will be my "go to" post when someone asks about it. I'm sorry if I started a new thread with this, but considering the wealth of information, I figured it warranted a new thread.
I'm Master Powers, Master Enhancer, Healer 4-0-4-0, a template I have dubbed "The Great Dark Force Wielder Template", also known by many as "The Emperor" (yeah, yeah, I know, Sidious used a LS pretty well in Ep.III, but to most, Emperor = no LS! He probably respec'd between Ep. III and VI) andI was actually quite surprised to see how many people have this template now. It seems frequent enough on the forums, but in-game, it's rare. I was MLS/MDefender/Healer 4-4-0-0 pre-CU and I got utterly bored. It's super powerful, especially with the Healer 3-0-0-0/Enhancer 0-0-0-2 FOTM variant, but it gets tired fast. I wanted an exciting and stimulating template, and this is what I found. I tried several other combinations, dropping some enhancer to get some defender, even MD, went back to MDefender/MLS just in case I missed it (I did not), but ultimately, I fell back to this.
There are several points to this post:
- You can be a great Jedi without *any* lightsaber skills and/or *any* defender skills.
- Powers is fun.
- Master Powers, especially when combined in my template, requires you to be very smart to be effective. You need to know your tactics well as almost nothing is passive about it.
- If you are into roleplaying and you're a dark Jedi, this is an awesome template.
- Finally: this is mainly a SUPPORT TEMPLATE! You will not really be able to solo high-end PvE content effectively without taking a lot of force regen breaks, and you will struggle vs other Jedi in solo PvP.
Now, I was reluctant to post this since the last thing I want is for my template to become a FOTM, but given that most people just need to have LS skills and how powers is kinda gimped right now, and how much work it takes to play it well, I know the masses will not flock to it since it is not an "I WIN" button at all. Remember, this is a post about the whole template, not just powers.
First of all, yes, the template is still currently kinda gimped. It's (currently on live, as of Publish 24)still expensive onforce as force armor drains you as you take damage, and the powers themselves cost a lot compared to lightsabers for such a lowDPS. Publish 19-24 nerfed a few things like heals and action mind/costs, but the template also got a LOT of love. Force armornow costs a lot less, choke works better (but is still mitigated by too many things like innate armor), force costs have been cut in half for the most part... Bottom line is the template is very viable but not uber. Given that warning, let's proceed:
Note: I added *some* force costs next to the name of some specials in the text where I have hard numbers. If there is a variant it's because it's hard to pinpoint the real number with force regen active. I will try to have all force costs soon.
THE GOOD
- You're a ranged Jedi!!! This is a key thing to remember. You will laugh at roots. All MBHs open with a root. Just reply with stasis until the root expires, followed by choke (FC: 150-155), sap, weaken (FC: 75), KD (FC: 75)and improved lightning (FC: 85). If they attack from more than 32m, just cloak, followed by /forceLaughter. If you cannot cloak because there are other peeps or mobs around, then switch to a rifle and fight back! Show them you're full of surprises.I know it sucks, but you should always have a fast pistol and good rifle on you... both sliced and power-up'd... "so uncivilized!"
- Max Force Pool: 6950! Since this is a double master with two-four's, you get the full 6950 force pool points, which you will greatly need! Add padawan robes or the Mustafar Jedi robes, and you can reach 7200 and even 7275!
- Powers look very cool. Shooting bolts of lightning out of your hands is just awesome. First of all most people do not expect it. The damage is decent, but it could be better. Force hit (FC: 50)is a decent default attack, especially once they cut the force cost on it. Lightning (FC: 85), weaken, sap, intimidate, stasis and suppression all have a direct lightning/beam effect that looks awesome!
- It's a crowd pleaser. Just yesterday (at the tme of the original post)I got attacked by 2 overt rebels in the MO while I was overt. I proceeded to a succession of sap, choke, lightning (FC: 85)and such and I could hear people say "Coool! Dark Jedi! Go Dark Jedi, go!!!" Even during the fight, about 2 minutes into it, my opponent said "Wow, no lightsaber...!" You see, the thing is the lightsaber envy has been replaced by lightsaber sickness... people just see and hear them too often. When they see a Jedi fighting with no lightsaber, they like it because it's original.
- You can still use a lightsaber. So don't worry about losing this aspect of the Jedi image. Jedi initiate gives us the certs for all lightsaber types and generations. Sure, you won't be able to craft a great one, but you can still use one with /saberHit for 300+ damage. If you plan on respec'ing to my template, I recommend crafting a dozen sabers first. It's always the same animation but it is better tha nothing. The sad part is i still do more damage at a lower force cost with my saber (with no LS skills at all) than with force hit (as a master powers). I miss more though. Melee/LS accuracy/speed foods & tapes can help you a little.
- Almost stress-free gaming. Whether you are overt and fear the gank squads or BH stalkers of the galaxy, this template takes away most of the stress because you never have to be jumpy and always looking at your radar. You just leave force armor on all the time in a looping macro, throw in force shield too for Jedi attacks (both last 30 minutes at a time), if you're overt, an infusion looping macro, and you're set. No one will be able to 2-3-shot you, which means that even if you get ganked by surprise, you can still easily recover and act. What do you do? Stasis them... all of them (stasis has a longer cooldown timer now, so stasis'ing many targets in a row might prove harder now and I'm not sure how long is the new cooldown). The key is *never* to have an auto-attack selected, this way you will not break your own stasis. Stasis lasts for 40 seconds... that's a long time in battle. Once your stalkers/gankers are stasis'd (it sticks well too), you can quickly heal the damage and asses the situation. How is your force pool? Is your food ready? How many opponents are there? Do I think I can take him/her/them? Are they buffed up, loaded on spice and food? What template are they? Then you can decide to fight or not. If you do, it gives you time to activate your macros, turn on defenses, take food, etc. If you feel overwhelmed somehow, just leave them stasis'd, FR3 out of there and cloak as soon as you can. Then just ignore the hate tells.
- Stasis is probably the best Jedi skill after cloak. You can truly change the odds in combat, whether it's PvE or PvP by taking out a few opponents for 40 seconds at a time. The problem is it breaks (as it should, or else it would be too powerful). So make sure you never have an auto-attack if you stasis. You also need to communicate the attack orders to your teammates as they might break the stasis by mistake. Everyone also needs to avoid AoE attacks. The best is if you are on team speak or ventrilo. Just verbally call out who is stasis'd and your guildies can focus on the others.I did this again last night with guildies and it rocked! We moved in a group of 6 Jedi/overt rebs and there was 4 of us. 10 seconds in the fight and I had half of them frozen. Now it's 4v3, much better odds, especially if everyone focuses on the same target. Soon you have 4v2.I had a poor BH stasis'd for about 2 minutes while we were pounding his Jedi friends. Expect the occasional "stasis is lame" comment" like I got last night, it's bound to happen. That guy probably was a Master Defender. Lastly, if you start to lose the fight or got ganked and don't want to fight, just stasis anyone on you, FR3 out of there, and cloak.
- Great crowd control skills.I already discussed stasis for crowd control, but there is more. Improved suppression is a great root, and it allows you to safely move out of range of lightsaber-wielding Jedi. You're a ranged Jedi, remember? It also works against all melee profs. They do not expect a Jedi to kite, and catches them off guard. Force intimidate (FC: 100)is an AoE and covers a very wide area. Awesome for both PvP and PvE. But watch it, in PvE, all aggros will turn to you. ForceKD is of course very useful, but with the same area aggro problem. Force wave is a snare and I find that with suppression (root) and stasis, I rarely get to use it. If others find good uses for it, let me know. The bottom line is your guildies will adore you with this template as you will make their life so much easier. I know mine are very grateful.
- Many will ignore you at first in large scale PvP. Just because you're not holding a lightsaber, many PvPers will keep you as an afterthough to be dealt with later, as you are not perceived as a big threat. Of course, some will catch on quick once they've been sapped and choked and got their ass fried by improved lightning (FC: 85)a few times. But on the upside, they easily lose track of you in a crowd since the glowstick cannot give you away.
- Cloak! Need I say more? If most non-jedi have saber envy at one point or another, I can assure you that most non-powers Jedi have cloak-envy at some point or another. Cloak has been slightly changed in Publish 19 so it has a longer cooldown, whichmeans you cannot recloak as fast if you just decloaked. This should not affect my strategies here. The Force Costis 145 for activation, 25 + (25 * Number of NPC's/Players/Mobs in 20m range) and it drains every 10 seconds. This means loading in Theed starport cloaked should leave you at 50% force pool once loaded. You can spy on enemy guilds and in enemy cities, act as recon scout to shuttle in cloaked before your forces move in, move in for that first tactical blow in PvP, or when you run low on force in a fight, you can cloak and then simply assist when needed, like healing or transferring force, both of which work while cloaked. Some guildies might take offense if you leave the fight and cloak, but if you use it as last resort, you were gonna die anyways, so not much help there. At least now you can come back in more quickly, and even have a few peeps chasing you around while your friends kill the others. Cloak is also great to avoid getting shuttle load killed when overt. You'll lose a lot of force once you get there if it's a crowded area, but at least you'll be alive if the zone is hot. Make sure you have no default attack or else you might be caught in an AoE that will cause you to attack and uncloak. Note that it only works if you travel with your own ship. You cannot use ticket terminals or ticket droids when cloaked. I once even cloaked, launched to space, hyperspacedand flew to Kashyyyk and I was still cloaked when I landed. Also, to meditate while cloaked, just meditate first, then cloak, the reverse does not work. Others will still see the meditation flashes though, along with all visible Jedi effects you use. Turn off your macros if you are doing cloaked recon among enemy territory, and stay silent. Anything you say appears in the spatial chat channel. The shadow bug has been fixed so no onecan know you are there.Even /target does not work anymore. Unfortunately, people can still use /follow yourname to track you. Of course, cloak is also useful to walk without harm in the corvette, NS caves, geo labs, Old Republic facility o Mustafarand the likes. It may not be honorbale or fair, but it's a skill andI use it. Doing the bolotaur quest in the geo lab or looting that corpse in the spiderclan cult cave for the Nym quest in Narmle was never this easy. And I solo'd the Old Republic facility for the History Lesson and Fragments of the Past ToOW quests in about 10 minutes. You can also easily do corvette loot runs, but will draw a lot of non-attacking aggros who will drain your force fast. Note: you *can* cloak in the starter/clone room in the corvette.
- Easy retreat! There is no template that makes it easier to retreat if you need to or want to. With stasis or suppression, followed by FR3 and then cloak, you will be very hard to kill. Most BH will eventually give up chasing you since they can never win, even with a gank squad. Expect to be taunted or called a coward in tells. No matter. I fight smart, and escaping unharmed is part of it. What do you achieve by sacrificing yourself for nothing anyways?
- AoE damage! Yes, you have quite a nice selection at that, and unlike double-bladed sabers or dervish, you do not have to be in the middle of the pack. Force KD (FC: 75)is one, but Force Throw (FC: 75)is another many neglect. Force throw apparently now has a stunstate in publish 19, not surehow effective it is though and if it really stops action regen. Force Throwwas also changed from an area to a cone. It creates a nice tornado of debris and dust, causing decent damage and theanimated effectis quite cool. Area lightning (FC: 135)is also great for damage as it gets multiple targets in a cone. Watch that slow zipper bar/warm up though, and the force cost is high.
- Choke! (FC: 150-155) Aaaaah, to be like Vader... the sound is great, the arc'd pinkish beam you shoot out is kinda sucky, but the damage is great. Unless you're dealing with a good or master defender, always apply choke early. Once it truly bypasses armor, it will be deadly... as it should be as a master-level skill. For now with Chokein publish 19, it apparentlyworks better but is still mitigated by innate Jedi armor and defenses. It is not affected by regular crafted armor or innate TKM armor. Based onsome PvPresults, in PvP it ticks for about 420 pts of damage6 times (initial damage + tick + 4 more ticks every 5 seconds). Against Lord Vartonis in the Final Obi-Wan trial, m choke with te lair crystal was ticking for 2700+ damage... his health was melting so fast I was lauging.
- Improved sap is devastating! It lasts a few minutes and severely gimps your targets mind and action regen. I almost always open with improved sap and choke (FC: 150-155)in PvP. Very very effective. Unless they are buffed, and on action regen food and spice, they will really struggle to keep up with those attacks. Sap was nerfed in publish 19 and the improved version cuts regen by 35% and lasts 60 seconds. Istillfind ituseful in PvP, and it is the only way I can kill a CM or doc BH... out-mind them!
- Great healing skills (for a Jedi at least). This template has great healing power since it has the ubiquitous 4-x-x-x Healer line, giving you the great 1500 heal and improved infusion. Make sure improved infusion is running in a macro while in combat or at any time while overt. Publish 19 introduced higher action and mind costs for healing, which decreases Jedi healing effectiveness. At least all jedi with healing are in the same boat here, but we do have to fear the master docs and CMs even more now. Recent action/mind costs changes for docs in publish 24 rebalanced things a little, but we're far from uber.
- Save your money, no more pearls! You heard me... you do not need a lightsaber, so no need to chase down those krayts and expensive auctions. It's still a good idea to have a decent lightsaber if you want to melee with saber hit a little, I can hit about 315 DPS with mine. I was lucky enough to craft my LS when I was MLS pre-CU, but if you pickup powers from scratch today, your base stats on your LS will suck. It was no matter to me since after 40+ pearl tunes, I was still stuck with a 20 FC saber. Now I just use it for show, andI use all colors since the special crystals barely give me anything.
- Force armor: It lasts for 30 minutes and gives you an additional+40innate armoron top of your innate +20 you get at Jedi Initiate, forexactly +60 (or 6000 armor). Leave it up at all times, but expect your force pool to start dropping if you get hit solid in combat. Force armor simply means that a % of your damage istaken from your force bar, at a lower ratio. Note that thedamage to force cost ratio is now much better since publish 19, where about 14-15% of your damage ends up as force costs (vs the 30+% from post-CU/pre-19), which is startingto make it a lot more interesting. Based on the latest results, improved force armor costs 150 to apply and acts like +4000 armor for 30 minutes, for a total of 6000 armor for a non-defender with FA2.
- Regain Consciousness is great! It's a great master-level self-rez ability, you can then jump right back in the fight. Expect people to accuse you of zerging. In all fairness, you'll be weak since you're coming back with low force and your force regen will be cut for a specific "downer" period. Make sure you cloak first to regen a bit, or wait for that one hit that will make a different in the fight, even with 10% force left. It's mainly a way to avoid cloning once dangers have been cleared. The other problem is it costs force to regain consciousness, and most Jedi typically die when they run out of force, which defeats the purpose. It also leaves you weak and kills the force regen and seems bugged. If it cost no force to activate and would temporarily hurt the force regen for a fixed amount of time, it would then be ok and would be a great skill. As it currently works now on live, based on feednack from MikeHammer: "If you die and you use the selfResurrect, your force regen gets cut to 50% for 30 sec. If you die again, and use the same skill again, you get another 50% reduction. So you're stuck with 25% of your original regen rate. However, this effect doesn't wear off after 30 seconds. In fact you're stuck with the reduced regen rate until the next server reboot." Publish 19 fixed the omission/bug where you still lost 50K Jedi xp for using it, at last!. We still have to deal with the force cost, which means it'll only be useful if you were quickly outdamaged and could not heal fast enough, not after a long fight leaving at 0 force. It's also not sure whether the regen bug where you use it a second time while still under the downer of the first is still around.
- Protection vs Jedi. With force shield up, and force absorb or feedback on a quick toggle, you have good protections vs other jedi and power wielders. Learn how to use them well. Against Lord Vartonis, these skills werea life saver.
- Decent resists. You may not be able to heal states, bleeds, poisons and diseases, but at least you can prevent against them. The protections from the Force Resistance line in Enhancerlast 15 minutes each or so at a time. Only problem is the protection values are borked for now since they are so low they have little effect. It's better than nothing, but hopefully they will get fixed.
- Advanced Force Run (aka FR3). Yes, I know, it was faster in the CU because it was bugged: it was stacking with FR1, which is why there were 2 FR bufficons under your name. You may not outrun a swoop, BARC or AV-21 anymore, but you'll approximately rival a speederbike, will run faster than almost anything else, and will get great terrain negociation, better than any swoop. It's an awesome escape tool and makes it fun to explore. And now that it is a toggle and can stay up as long as you have force (very low cost), it's simply wonderful! Watch out for that 95% damage reduction though, and do not forget to drop the toggle when you enter combat. Note: You can FR3 while cloaked. The new electrolyte drain/snare changes in publish 24 completely negate force run now, so make sure you buy Rancor Aid from a chef.
- Lots of other great skills to complement the template: channel, meditation, drain, speed. All essential skills for this template. Drain is great to get some force back since you lost it fast with this template. Drain has a longer cooldown now, so you cannot spam it as much. It should make JvJ fights more interesting), but really gets you hate tells.I'll stop using drain when defenders stop using aura. At least it will get balanced with a longer cooldown to avoid spam, which is good for everyone.I typically drain because I get drained. Channel is a must, you'll use it a lot since this template drains force fast. Speed is also essential for any power wielder. Speed is also lasting longer in publish 19, up to 12 minutes. Transfer, drain and stasis all have longer cooldown timers now.
- FRS hopes! Yes, I am hopeful my template will get better in the FRS. It might be tough to get past the first few ranks as the escape/running tactic might not work there in FRS duels, but we do not know what the future FRS will be. I already find this template great, and given bug fixes, slated enhancements announced at the last FanFest, a balance past and FRS perks, it will be awesome! And if the FRS turns us knights into perma-overts again, I know I'll be able to truly enjoy the game virtually gank-free as long as I have stasis, FR3 and cloak in my arsenal. All I'll have to worry about is losing my Internet connection and shuttle load kills when uncloaked.
THE BAD
- Force costs. Yes, it's bad... better, but far from ideal. You'll losefast compared to a lightsaber wielder and you can expect to lose about 10-15% of your force pool to kill a single CL80 mob in PvE. This is not a solo template. You can solo some stuff, but you'll have to be smart, use your skills well and take regen breaks often.The 50% or so force cost cutswe gotin publish 19made this template a lot more viable.I will publish more force costs details soon.
- DPS is still too low. We are not at the "alternative to lightsabers level yet". I agree that LS should always do more damage since they invest heavily in pearls and crystals. But considering the force costs of most powers specials, we should get slightly higher damage, esepcially for the lightning attacks that have warm-ups and cannot be spammed anyways. The fact that publish 19 finally fixed elemental damage and that powers do not have any elemental damage means we get even more weaker differences between us and lightsabers. The reason for this, according to dev Blixtev is: "Power's do not get an elemental damage addition, instead they have have a certain percentage oftheir damage bypassall armor (regular armor and TKA/Jedi Innate Armor). Right now only Lightning and Choke have an armor Bypass hooked up to them." Lightning is pure electrical damage btw. We'll have to see if things truly work this way and if things get fair for us. For now it does not seem to be the case.
- Force Strike is useless. It costs 75 force and the base unmitigated damage is 1000 (vs Force Hit which is 50 FC and 850 dmg.
- No lightsaber skills, no great animations. True, you will miss your lightsaber, especially now that the cool animations are back, but it's a price to pay. At least you can still hold a 4th gen and use saber hit, which is better than nothing. If you hold the saber, all lightsaber block mods we might get in the FRS should still apply too. You'll never craft a good saber ever again either as you'll have no experimentation at all.
- Low defenses. Wirh no defender, you have to rely on heals and force armor/shield to protect you, all of which will drain your force. You simply cannot tank with this template, and if you try, you won't last too long and will drain your force pool. Learn to play with friends for high-end (CL82+) PvE. This should still not be a tank template, but force armor is now muchmore effectivesince publish 19.
- Dabbling in powers for anything but cloak is kinda useless. For forced attacks and lightning (FC: 85) to even be remotely effective, you need master powers. You also need improved speed to cut down on the warm-ups, and you also need channel and drain just so you can get some force back during a fight, especially vs other Jedi. Meditation is not a must, but I like it as it will cut down on your frequent regen breaks between fights in PvP or PvE.
- Warm-ups/zipper bars. Yes they are annoying, especially since you can waste the attack if you get hit during the warm-up. Make sure improved speed is always running in a looping macro during combat, it will greatly help.I can understand the zippers on lightning, but force strike should not have one.
- Many improved and advanced specials are AoE. This means you will draw a lot of aggro in PvE. I wish we could use non-AoE versions of those, but the lightsaber wielders have the same problem. The thing is we have a lot of AoE attacks, which is both a blessing and a curse.
- Mind blast is not very useful as itplacesstun/dizzystates, as it's supposed to, but these states have little effect in combat post-CU.The only really useful post-CU state that works ok is initimidate (FC: 100).
- Cannot use FR1. Yup, this template is stuck with FR3 until they make the lower versions available separately. It's fast but useless as a movement tactic in combat since you have a 95% damage reduction, which FR1 does not have.
- Cannot heal wounds. I wish I could but you cannot have it all. You'll have to rely on those rare docs and better Jedi healers for wounds, and Master Healers and entertainers for BF. Since this is mainly a group template, chances are good you have a guildie who can heal wounds.
- Some of the powers effects are a bit sucky. I wish all the power effects shot straight at the target, instead of those arced beams that look so lame. Choke is a disappointing one, like hit and strike too. Lightning, suppression, stasis, intimidate and weaken look great.
- Hard to grind. Well it depends. If you grind solo, it will be an absolute nightmare since you cannot kill very fast and will drain your force all the time and cannot really tank well. If you are careful with non-groupvisibility, then grinding in group is easy as no running is required to hit every mob at least once, you just need to stay within 32m range of every target, which is easy compared to lightsabers. If you join a spin group, use your area KD or force throw. This one can either be very good or very ugly.
- The powers animations are kinda borked. There are powers-specific animations, where your toons clenches his/her fist to choke, and swings his/her arm to hurl power attacks, but they currently onlywork if you have a ranged weapon equipped. very odd. Even a lightsaber is not good enough, has to be a pistol, carbine or rifle. Hopefully it will get fixed soon. not game breaking but lame.
- More than 1 Master Powersin a group is about useless or at least loses value. If you have 2, then half ofyour offense is "shared". Imagine the outrage if only 1 MLS could dervish at a time.... well choke is not stackable even with seperate MPs landing them. This at least "seems" to be the way it *should* be since choking can only do so much harm over time, but it hurts MP templates in a group. Same goes for stasis, sap, intimidate, etc. (Thanks to Baracous for this feedback)
- General ranged speed mods do not affect powers. It seems that so far, the ranged speed FS line in Combat Prowess does not affect powers, which sucks.
- The ranged cybernetic arms do not help powers... I kinda understand why, but it's still disappointing. So don't expect to gain another +5-15m on your powers range... you won't.
THE UGLY
- Damage output is still way too low. This is really not the "alternative to lightsabers" combat template it is supposed to be. Maybe it'll get there, but for now, it's far from it.
- Choke is severely gimped right now as a master-level skill. On live as of publish 19, it costs150-155 inforce, innate Jedi armor affects it and defenders defenses (like aura)mitigate it. On the right target, it works awesome, on others, it's a complete waste. At least with the lower force costs, it's a lot better for non-Jedi/Defender PvP and PvE.
- You are virtually powerless against a Master Defender. Your DPS is too low, force cost too high, they have waaaaay too many defenses vs anything you can dish, breach barely works and you'll always run out of force before they do. As an example, choke causes about 40-50 damage per tick vs a MD. Drain might be a solution, but since it won't be spammable soon, we'll be out of luck. Besides, it's pointless since Avoid Incap just removes all chances of victory against them with this template. We'll see what the future holds. I wish Powers and Enhancer would get better. I do *NOT* want to see Defender nerfed.
- Force weaken (FC:75) is a decent skill, but it lasts15 seconds and the effect is too minimal. It's pathetic. There are reports stating weaken will be a ranged armor break, which means it should last longer. Force weaken essentially causes a temporary snare and also causes a damage/debuff. For example, on average in PvP, weaken will snare, cause 300-320 damage and also reduce the max health by 300-320, which means it's like it causes 600-640 damage, but they get 320health back within 15 seconds. Essentially, it's a finishing move only. Useless as a damaging move.
- Force breach is near useless. It costs a lot of force (FC: 300), only has a 50% chance of debuffing a buff, you never debuff the buff you were aiming for, the buff can be reapplied for a force cost lower than the one you paid to debuff, and avoid incap is not a buff, so it cannot be breached. Very very disappointing for a master powers skill. Now, since it seems breach does not cause damage, I have to test whether you can stasis a master defender when they are low on health (yeah, as if) and they activate AI. Being stasis'd they cannot move, attack or heal. So just breach the aura and other buffs during that 40 seconds, wait for their AIto drop 9since it cannot be breached), and then shoot improved lightning (FC: 85), which should finish them if the health was low enough (or as a high damage move at least). I have not tested this yet. If it works, I am moving this skill to "good". Stay tuned.
- Finally, you won't be popular. All your skills have insult equivalents. You'll be called a cloaker, drainer, runner, choker, stasis sticker, ... but I'd rather be called all those names rather than FOTM!
It's mainly the immature kiddies that cannot respect a player who fights smart. I do not have many popularity problems as most Jedi respect my skillful use of my template and group tactics, and they can really appreciate my courage to have ano-LS, no defender template. It's the non-Jedi mainly that do not understand.
OTHER USEFUL DETAILS
A Recap of Current Bugs in this Template
- I'm not sure if Elemental damage on force powers is working. This is hard to see as apparently our powers are supposed to be pure elemental. I'll have to investigate further. If anyone has details, let me know.
- People can use /follow to track a cloaked Jedi.
- Combat medics can *no longer* directly attack cloaked Jedi since they cannot /target themanymore to use CM attacks. AoE attacks directed at other targets where the cloaked jedi is the AoE should still work, but direct targetting ona cloaked jedi should not.
- Mobs still aggro cloaked Jedi and follow them around, even though they cannot attack them. This causes the cloak drain to increase as more and more mobs simply follow the cloaked Jedi.
- Turrets can attack and hit a cloaked Jedi. But now that I think of it, it kinda makes sense if turrets are automated by computers. If it's NPCs operating them, they should not attack. Could go either way.
- Mobs that are stasis'd still move around. They cannot attack but they twitch and slide to the location of the target they aggro (typically the enhancer who stasis'd them). This makes it hard to control crowds since all mobs eventually overlap with each other and it makes it impossible to call them out to your friends.
- The protection values from the Force Resistance line in Enhancerare borked for now.
- Borked powers animations that require a ranged weapon to be equipped to see them.
- Chokeis still mitigated by innate Jedi armor and defenses. Not sure if this is a bug or working as intended.
- The new Ranger revamp should bring changes to cloak, such as decloaking when you heal, force run, use a container, etc. Cloak will probably snare us too. Ranger tracking through electronic devices might detect us too. These are just based on preliminary and in-concept data, so don't panic and stay tuned.
Grinding Tips
- Forget about solo grinding this, stick to groups and try to deal with the visibility. Stay in your group, watch that saber/power/heal when blue dots are around and stay alert!
- Your priority should be on getting to 3/4-0-0-0 Healer fast for better heals and improved infusion! Cloak might be a good one too as it will save you from many BH to escape, same with force run.
- So get some healing, cloak and force run to evade the BHs.
- During those first few lines your non-jedi skills should be enough to fend off the MBHs. After that, once you reach the 70K paddy range, you should have all your healing and escape tools ready, which means BHs will leave you alone and won't accuse you of running in houses.
- Get force suppression fast too to root them in place when you escape.
- After that, grind in the order you want. I would do Enhancer first since it's better to get crowd control rather than higher damage if you grind in a group.
- Grind the "damage" skills last since you do not need them while grinding in group.
Popular Variants on this Template
- Master Powers / Master Enhancer / Healer 3-0-0-0 / Defender 0-0-2-0 (aka "The Force Witch"): No sap, but you get better innate Jedi armor, better defenses and basic aura. It's all about choices.
- Any other variant suggestions out there?
What is to come in future updates of this guide?
- Tables with force/action/mind costs and damages (where applicable) for all the specials in this template.
- More details on the various states, how they work, how to use them.
- Tactics you can use in PvP vs specific templates and also in PvE for various encounters.
- Special tactics for special quests, dungeons and the likes.
- Specific recommendations on how to grind it, and more details as in which order you should get the boxes.
- More alternate names!
- Anything else you'd like to see?
THIS TEMPLATE IS NOT FOR YOU IF...
- You like to play solo most of the time. You *can* solo, but you will need to take force regen breaks more often and it's not as easy as being MDefender.
- You want to be a tank.
- You want to be the main damage dealer that gets the kill.
- You want to be uber and not worry about all those tactics and applying the right special at the right time. You prefer a more "passive" combat type, like the pre-CU days with uber buffs, foods and armor, and just want to dish it out and absorb it all.
Just make sure it fits your playstyle.
Additonal link about building templates using Master Powers: Welcome to the Dark Side - Force Wielder Skills Specification Guide, by jimcabtv (Post-CU, Updated to Publish 19 Data)
So that's it! If anyone is considering this template, I hope this helps you decide if it's for you or not. Remember that this is mainly a support/group template and is not for people that like to solo stuff 90% of the time. If you already have it or something similar, hopefully it will help you play it, have more fun, and love your template. I'll try to update it later when future publishes affect the comments I made here. If you have tactics, comments, opinions, errata regarding this post, feel free to share with us here! Make sure you stay constructive.
This is by far the most fun character I have out of all my 13+ full-template toons across 5 servers. You can have fun with a Jedi too. Hope to see you out there. 
Enjoy!
Message Edited by SWGHottie on 10-31-2005 12:25 PM
Dont talk too nicely of the current state of Mpowers , then we might not get our crucial fixes
regards
you could always get some more fs skills- a point here or there. granted getting exp will be tough...
AnjelicaLightingrider wrote:
That and it kills me to have 5 unspent skill points that i cannot do anything with,
Drfoucault wrote:
Dont talk too nicely of the current state of Mpowers , then we might not get our crucial fixes
regards
Hehe, yeah, I know. But I'm hoping that devs will see how gimped the template is despite all the good things. There are after all quite a few bad andugly things, as well as a good list of bugs. Considering this affects one single template, I'd say it warrants lots of serious changes. And seeing how so many people still think Powers suck, we need bugs to be fixed and a solid balance pass when it comes to damage and force costs.
I am pleased to see so many people interested in the template now. When I first decided to go with this during the CU, before it started to be discussed more and more on the forums, people thought I was nuts to have no lightsaber and no defender skills. Many still think that, but there seems to be an avid following of force wielders out there.
If the devs want a fun FRS then they will *have* to make sure powers is a viable ranged alternative to lightsabers, not a complement. 
As soon as my edit button works I'll add more details, warnings and tactics related to this template. Anyone know how I can clicky this post from my signature? It says I cannot do HTML... 