Squad Leader Archive

Volatris,

I am a little confused about how squad leaders earn xp.It wasstated that they earn XP "from damage done". However, you stated in your main guide "As a real Squad Leader now, you have different needs. Doing damage is not your goal anymore." So do you receive XP from everyone elses damage too, or just your own? And if it is just your own, why would doing damage NOT be your main goal?

I skimmed through a bunch of posts and havent found an exact answer about how xp is earned. Sorry if I just didnt look in the right place, but I thought you would probably be able to answer the question easily!

Of course, anyone else feel free to answer this question. I addressVolatris just because heseems to be an extremely proactive SL poster.

Yes. Its a contradiction.

Your job is not to do damage, your job is to support the group. Getting XP does help the group the most. Doing crowd control, checking on others, selecting new targets, issuing orders, etc, these are your role.

However, Squad Leader XP is based on damage done by the Squad Leader, its roughly twice the Weapons XP you get.

Its a pain, but its how things are at the moment. So take a little from column A, and a little from column B...

Don't be totally selfless to the group, but at the same time, make sure you get at least a bit of XP

- Vol

Whoops its late... read that 2nd line : "Getting XP does NOT help the group the most"

*sigh*

So how is it beneficial for a Squad leader to have a bigger group. Is there an XP bonus for each person in the group? If not it seems that a group would only make it harder for you to get XP as you would be doing less damage (since you are helping them do more!).

Also, thanks for all the help and support for Squad Leaders. Your posts are obviously remarkable. I really do hope this profession doesnt just become a waste of time. I suppose if it does end up sucking, at least I'll be half way to being a Bounty Hunter like everyone else! </sarcasm>

In groups from 2 people to 15 people in Beta, I got more or less the same Squad Leader XP. Marginally better with the 15 person group, but not enough that the results really stood out...

I'll report back on exact metrics on this later this week after I've led some groups here in Release.

And I will continue to fight for Squad Leader with as much professionalism and patience as I can muster... if everyone else gives up and I'm the last poster left on this forum... darn it, if it takes 5 years, Squad Leader will be balanced!!!

I am with you man. While SL might be gimped right now I am doing it anyway in the hopes of some dev love later

I sent Cinco Barnes a private message about getting a Top 10 Issues pass on all professions like we did in Beta, as well as getting the specific profession designers more involved with the players and community leaders.

He likedboth ideas very much and said he and Holocron will be implementing that sort of developer stuff soon.

- Vol

Good job Vola, that's nice to hear

From my testing the formula is your combat XP x 2 then multiply this number by however many people are in the group. For 5 people in the group (including yourself)you will make the same xp as you do with your weapon. Also, pets and droids are included in the group total number.

WOW.

I just checked that against the numbers I was getting in my 12-person group last night.

That seems dead-on.

Excellent job calculating that!!!

-----------

However, this now promotes the use of 20-person groups to get Squad Leader XP. I refuse to run a gruop larger than 12 with the system as-is. I will not run zerg-fests.

Instead of rewarding the Squad Leader for helping a small group accomplish great things, this rewards a Squad Leader for being in the biggest group possible and doing maximum damage.

This will be changed in time Its just a bummer in the short term

I am not sure it really promotes 20-person groups. To first order, if you are in 5-person group, you get 1/5th the damage. 10-person gives 1/10th, 20-person gives 1/20th.... I am sure that is why they have the multiplier for the number of people in the group. It negates the effect of doing a smaller fraction of the damage. That seems pretty fair.

The main concern I have is the damage portion of the equation. It seems a bit counterintuitive to me. I am not SL yet but I do try to lead groups when possible. I find that I spend some amount of time during battles "barking orders" and not actually fighting. I am also a medic so I do try to heal as well. Do SL specific commands such as /rally and /vollyshot, etc take away from attacking time (i.e. lost damage opportunity)? It seems that what should make a good squad leader is LEADING people and not necessarily doing damage. Maybe performing any action while leading a group should lead to SL XP? Or a subset like damage or SL specific commands? I'm not sure I have a great idea yet but something just doesn't "feel" right with the way it is at the moment.

Aspiring Squad Leader

Asrewippoi, Naboo, Chilasta

Thats a good point.

To note, the Squad Leader specials, /rally and /volleyfire and such are very slow to use, they go in the combat queue like anything else, but have a pretty good delay built into them.

I am thinking SL XP should be based upon the damage the *group* does, or the XP the *group* gains...the better the group does, the more XP a SL should get. I think thats the simple idea, its just a matter of how we measure "better"