Smuggler Archive
Thread: Feign Death explained
Ok I see alot of bad talk about Feign Death and has drawn the conclusion that somehow some people seem to miss the point. No offense intended but this is a very sneaky skill that takes some tactics to use.
Some basic info
assuming you know the REAL 1.01. stand still! etc.)
*What FD does is to wait for the NEXT blow that comes and then you will fall incapacitated.
Seems simple enough eh? But then you ran out and tested it. Maybe you thought it would be EQ'esque uber Monk FD and got disappoined. Drop at any time? Sorry there it aint. Now what seem to happen is youtake a huge hit and then the incapmeter starts up. It feels pathetic right? Newsflash criminal mastermind..it's one of the most powerful skills out there.
*If the next blow will incap you anyway, why let it be the Kusak stalker?
Beginning to see some light now? So you plan to take on a Kusak lair. Your midtrack somewhere and you can solo one of these choleric doggies. Bad news is they are social. So you thought FD would help you instead of the old scareshots whatnot. Yup, you were correct. FD was more reliable. Think about it, 3 Kusaks are breathing down your neck. Everyone else has to use their Ranged support skills, plenty of medicals and/or be such bad*sses they can take it on(at which point it's sad xp for them anyway...). You FD'd and they ran off. Think about it. You just saved yourself some frantic scareshots there that could have missed.
I see you doubt still. You say the doggie bit you hard so might aswell used the scareshots. Would have been the same result. Heh, then I say you went about it all wrong. See you concern yourself with the grownup doggies there. What you should have checked out are the pups. Why you ask, they're worth no xp or neglieble. We were talking good xp right? Correct again collegue. Glad your with me so far. It's actually easy. What you should have done was to place yourself with a lil' dog between you and it's daddy. What do you think had happened if you shot dad and the whole pack aggroes? Yup, lil' dog will get there first!
Getting that part now? When lil' dog runs up and bares his tiny fangs you do a Shakespearian deathscene that would convince Yoda himself you kicked the bucket. So what happened now? Yup, you shot the Stalker but let babydog bite you. You actually were incapped with almost full HAM bars. 'Wow' you say. You got hit for nothing and they left you at it. Dumb canines eh? Told you collegue.
*It doesn't matter how much HAM you got as long it's enough to FD. Or 'Not Thx, no xp stealing Probots today'
Ok, you shot the dog. Fooled it over and over again. But it wasn't that good anyways. The old BHeasily blasted and healed himself thru all that in half the time, Of course he could. He's supposed to be able to walk through hell and back while we sneaked thru the backway. But hey, you DID notice that you can have like 200 Health and still feign? It'll go negative, timer will start and you'll see it slowly raising. Ok, here'san explanation for the uninvited really; when feigned you suddenly have control over when to rise. What does this mean but that you can go and get coffe while your toon admires the sunrise?
Well now we get into some truly sneaky tactics. You see once upon a time there was a game called EQ and there was a class there called Necromancer. This fellow was nasty piece of work that could curse his opponents with all sorts of spells that would slowly eat away at their health. When his enemies got ticked about this he'd pretend he was dead with another spell. As you might conclude he'd liethere looking dead as a doornail while the mobs slowly died around him. This man(or woman) was truly awed and envied for his easy life andxp.
'Nice tale, so what?' you say. Ok listen up. You my friend are this man in SWG. I am a Pistoleer and actually hasn't concerned myself with the other weapontypes but we get something called Healtshot. This is what technically is called a DoT as in Damage Over Time. Mr Necromancers spells in my little tale just before. You probably has used that in some big raid fighting Kimos or similar but it seems so slow it's the only time worth using. Good point. But how about sticking one of those on that Kusak Stalker? And combined with your new understanding of FD this'll result in one dead doggie at no risk to you. Yea, you run out and try. I'll be here.
*You can fool anyone. In any numbers.
Back already? What was that? Mr BH laughed at you laying there while that red con Stalker slowly died. He said sure you won but it took ages. Of course he was right. You limited yourself there. The pack jumped at you right and you let lil' dog bite you. Or maybe you didn't care really since you just need enough to Feign. Doesn't matter as you learned. But very good. You're getting into the Smuggler mindset now. We're gamblers over all else! But what you did wrong was to just shoot big dog...
What you say? You'll try stickDoT shots on all the mobs in the pack but pups. Congratulations Smuggler you have discovered how it's done. As long as the mobs doesn't KB you can stick DoT's on any number of mobs as long as you have enough HAM to Feign. If they don't run out of range they'll mill around while you chuckle and hoodles of xp will fall in your lap. If it ticks out before they die just rise and repeat the process. It wont be worth it with all mobs although it will allow you to take on anything really. Find one that goes down on 1 shot and spawns in enough numbers ideally. Like 4 or 5 at a time. Experiment.
Hope this illuminated the ins and outs of Feign Death somewhat. It's a get out of jail card that should not be scoffed at. Btw in PvP HAM bars will go down when you do it but you will still be in combatmode so it's not a failsafe. But I guess it could be nice in big brawls.
/Krohz -Eclipse
Lovely post my smuggler friend. I must say though you have a way with words. Or is that a way without words. I aint sure there. Either way you had me confused for awhile. I like the post though.
Oh since we are gamblin folk who wants to take bets that someone screams nerf now that they know we can do this? I just wish I had FD already but I wanted my underworld 1 first. 10% was nice to me. FD is my next goal.
Cyras "TK608" DeValera - IXth Intelligence Officer If you choose your targets well, you'll find it gets easier with full aggro mobs over time. You'll learn how to stalk them one by one without aggroing the rest of the mob.
TK: Sure mate. I think your site is the best around for Smuggler info so I'd be honored
I was too quick to judge feign death at first when I saw all the downside, but after some messing around with it I actually kinda like it now. The only thing that still gets to me is the occasional "Cannot use while Running"
Other than that I've been healtshoting things and watching them die for a while. Until I got pistol whip that is. Then I just beat them senseless with my gun. Now that knockdown has been messed around with I'll probably go back to healthshoting like 4 reds and then feigning to watch them die. Just make sure you shot them at least 1 time in addition to the healthshot. If they die completely from healthshot you don't get exp.
Scactha wrote:
TK: Sure mate. I think your site is the best around for Smuggler info so I'd be honored
You're the first person I'm putting on the article page that I've been holding back for a bit. I really enjoyed reading this, even if the style is unconventional =)
Sengis wrote:necro
So if I learned my lesson properly... this thread was feigning death?
Aelik Orrigo: Smuggler, Pilot, and Ranger. Kettemoor 