Squad Leader Archive

SL, while it sounds like it would be a good class to have around, really doesn't live up to it's expectations.

The passive defensive bonuses go mostly unnoticed, (not even sure if they do grant the ranged/melee defense they say).

/Rally buff gets more criticism than praise from the group members, (why the **** can'tI sit!!!?, I can't make a stimpack because of that crap. etc.) Not to mention it costs 178 mind for me, and i have 650 focus. It fails more than it succeeds, even at master.

/Retreat, whilea good idea, is almost never used in combat, mostly because when it gets to the point that most would call a retreat, the SLs HAM is too low, also the amount of time the burst run is granted is too low to escape from a group of agressive mobs. usually what happens when I actually can call a retreat when needed, I die, one mob stops attacking the group while it DBs me, then the other 4 kill the rest of the group as soon as their /retreat run wears off. I find myself using this ability as a PvP attack rather than a retreat, (an enemy sees that he has no chance of wining and starts running away, the group can't catch him because everybody runs at the same speed, when his burst run wears off so does ours and he gets away unless I /retreat to make the group catch up to him)

/Vollefire fails even more than /rally, even at master, costs so highI can do it 3 times before running out of mind/action, by which time the group still has failed to volleyfire. It isn't effective by any measure, my group kills things faster without a volleyfire, (mostly because it effectively takes one person out of the fight completely, that person being the SL). The time after /volleyfire command that you must wait before doing anything is far too long (I could kill the thing solo by the timeI can even fire after attempting a volleyfire).

/Boostmorale, the only ability I really use, mostly because of the new commando abilities, (anyone else notice that EVERYONE is a commando lately?), the burn especially. It redistributes that 800 health wounds that one poor burnt group member has, (nice that it calculates pets when distributing wounds, but doesnt cause or cure pet wounds, making it possible to heal the entire group's wounds almost completely, but also making it possible to completely wound the entire group into oblivion). It doesn't do secondary wounds at all, perhaps it should.

/Steadyaim only affects the next attack performed by a group member, and it really isn't much of a bonus. The cost is too high to be a one shot move, the aim ability from marksman is that way, and it costs nothing. Steady aim should last a minute or two, during which the entire group's chance to hit is greatly increased. Or redo this whole ability to make the whole group target the SL's target and give a bonus to to-hit on the first shot (do not make them open fire ont he target, it says aim, not fire).

/Formup good ability, relatively low cost, but how often is it used? Myself, I use it once in a great while, it does cure dizzy and stun, but not if you are dizzy , it also doesn't cure those effects on pets, which is understandable, (how many rancors do you know that can speak shyriwook?). It should cure dizzy/stun on faction pet troopers, but doesn't. Intimidate should also be cured by formup.

/Sysgroup a mostly unused and useless ability. It does nothing except make people say, "What was that?I saw a message but I couldn't read it 'cuz it blended in with the background, and I know I didn't gain xp from anything."

Experience..... It has nothing to do with your being a SL, in fact, if you do use some abilities in a battle, you gain LESS experience, because you spent your time rallying, ordering volleyfires and forming up the troops, using up all your HAM, doing no damage and therefore getting no XP.

Using SL abilities in a group should give XP when successful (larger the group, more xp).

Overall, SL needs some work.

Now here's a couple ideas for new abilities:

A mind heal ability, like a marching song, or perhaps a peptalk sort of thing. (nice name for it would be boost morale but that's taken)

A squad leader specific camp, (after all, we did have to do all that wilderness survival for scout), still thinking of what would be special about it, perhaps slowly heals BF the way other camps heal wounds.

An overt SL could have the ability to declare others, give promotions at areduced cost, (only if the SL has attained a rank higher thanthat he is promoting),command more faction pets than a non-SL, maybe have access to SL specific ones.

let me know what you think.

Master Squad Leader, Master Marksman, Master Sharpshooter

Just look for the only wookiee on corbantis with a T21 wearing a pink robe.

I have said this before but it bears repeating - the most valuable ability I have, as far as my group is concerned, is /sysgroup. Changing the color of the message through aliases and macros make it much for effective and my team fights with blazing speed and efficiency both against MOBs and in PVPbecause of my 'Target is %TT', 'Open Fire', 'Fire At Will', and 'Hold Your Fire' macros. Sysgroup messages let me make sure that everyone will see what I'm saying regardless of what window they are in or where they are standing. When used correctly and to its maximum effectiveness, /sysgroup is invaluable. In fact, if it ever gets taken out for any reason I would have to seriously rethink my career as a squad leader.

Also /steadyaim helps commandos hit, which is delicious. I'm pretty much batting a thousand when I use it for my cannoneers.

So, to sum up - I disagree with you heartily on /steadyaim and /sysgroup. Everything else seems like what we have all unfortunately discovered. I still <3 being a Squad Leader though.

Ok, i must admit /sysgroup could be useful, in your case it seems to see much use. But for my group it is almost never used, mostly because we use voice chat, which provides an easy way to communicate with your group quickly, and with much greater detail.

As for the steadyaim, if it seems to work for you, congratulations. For me however, i have +112 accuracy and i miss about 30% of my shots, with steadyaim, i still miss that much so i never saw any benefit, with a commando that only gets +85 to accuracy with a flamethrower (i think ?) that extra small accuracy modifier could make a big difference. I still think that if it only affects the next shot it shouldn't cost anything, or very little.