Squad Leader Archive

Okay, as I so gratuitously reported earlier today, I made Master SL. I used boostmorale once and gain 19 Action wounds but didn't do anything to my secondary strength wounds. I used rally a couple times, but not in the last week. I have never used volleyfire or steadyaim in combat. I used formup for the first time in a week yesterday because twoPCs were stunned by a Kimo. I haven't used /sys in combat since I found all caps gtell to work just as well and only having a /g switch to use. Okay, my point is lets hear it! What abilities do you actually use to success on a regular basis?

I primarily use just the passive group terrain navigation bonus. To me that is the most useful ability a SL can grant his squad. We go off hunting, and nobody has to wait on anyone to catch up. Also, no one has to wait on the pets to catch up either. FormupI rarly use, mainly because it doesn't seem to affect the pets 75% of the time. Volley and aim, I don't even have those. I've heard too much negative on them, and they don't seem worthwhile anyway. Rally I use ALL the time. It seems to really help my group's in melee. Everytime I get to a fight or before a fight starts, I /rally. Only complaint I've had from it in groups is from the group medic, and that was because I kept getting incaped from the lack of mind which he couldn't heal.

passive defense bonuses, everything else i've found worthless for the failure rate/cost and/or it doing a whole lot of nothing.

Do those passive bonus (range defense/melee defense) actually works?

From what I can tell, no. If they do work, then they're seriously weak because no one can see a benefit. Seems as if all defensive bonuses are disabled across the board, not just SL. This same defense bonus issue has been posted on other forums.

the only passive skillthat seems to work is the terrain movement. I dropped everything and started working on novice medic skills and my pets last longer.IF the passive bonuses are working then they are so little that it makes no difference weither they are working or not.

For wishful thinking

A damage multiplier that increases as you advance through the tree.

A healing multiplier that increases as you advance through the tree.

An ability to specify / lase / forcea target to facilitate better group coordination.

All would be nice, witha supersized order of french fries and large coke! hehe

I should add that the Targeting ability should not force an "unstyled" attack from the the group. Allow them to do whatever they want.

VolleyFire currently is not the answer.

I am going to respond to this from two perspectives.

The first is my Uninformed Perspective (P1). This is what I thought of the abilities when I knew nothing except what I could learn from visiting the Skills screen.

The second is my Informed Perspective (P2). This is after either having the abilities, or learning of their actual implementation on boards such as this.

System Message:

P1: Um...okay. Maybe that'll help me communicate and coordinate a group easier?

P2: Nope, didn't do that. Mostly just a novelty.

Group Terrain Negotiation:

P1: What is this? Man, what a weak bonus. I'm not buying that.

P2: Okay, level 1 Mobility is okay for groups that are going to be moving around, especially to help pets keep up.

Burst Run Efficiency:

P1 & P2: What a worthless ability.

SteadyAim:

P1 & P2: So, I waste an action to grant everyone else a bonus for one single attack? How is that worthwhile?

Volleyfire:

P1: It'll be worth getting Strategy 3 just for this! That should make groups a lot more coordinated and able to cut through groups of tougher mobs a lot easier.

P2: Oops, nevermind. It has a crazy delay, only interrupts everyone else to do a normal attack on the selected target (rather than their specials, which are five times as effective), and a high failure rate (you need Strategy IV to get that +10 boost to reduce the failure rate).

Form Up:

P1: Stunned and Dizzy? I hardly ever notice those effects. Dizzy's really bad once you fall down, though, so maybe it'll be all right.

P2: Oops, can't use Form Up if you yourself are Stunned, Dizzy, or in anything but a Standing posture. Plus, it doesn't affect pets. It's not that I just haven't used this, I haven't even been in a situation where I COULD use it and it would have DONE something.

BoostMorale:

P1: This is AWESOME! Average the damage of a group? That would make large groups nigh unstoppable!

P2: Whoops, it averages WOUNDS. No real benefit at all for mastering a skill tree.

Rally:

P1: "Buffers group against attacks." So it reduces damage for a short while. Okay, sounds all right to me.

P2: Hmm. Pretty costly. Sure does fail a lot. The little status modifier it grants says it's a to-hit bonus; that's not what the Skills screen description said. It seems to have little to no actual effect, and yhe primary use of this seems to be to trick uninformed group members into thinking that you're actually helping them.

Retreat:

P1 & P2: You're kidding me, right? I use tons of HAM to give my group Burst Run. If I've decided we have no chance and should run away, odds are I don't have tons of HAM to spend. Plus, in general, running away is not useful in this game.

Defense Bonuses:

P1: Okay, cool, my party won't get hit as often. Good deal.

P2: Wait, it doesn't seem to have any effect. The bonuses are either very small in the mathematics of the game, or aren't working at all. Either way, this isn't what I was looking for.

So, that's what I signed up for originally, followed by what I ended up actually getting. The most realistic outlooks is that the devs will (someday, eventually) fix the existing abilities so that they work and areactually effective and worthwhile. I might hope for a more comprehensive overhaul, but that seems exceedingly doubtful. Nevertheless, if what I signed up for was working, effective, and viable to actually use, I'd be happy enough.

Nice post Kaldimaar2. Now if we could only get the DEV's to give a sh*t.

I have to disagree with you on the /sysgroup thing. I find it_extreme_useful in getting people's attention and making sure everyone is on the same page, especially if you spam it 2-3 times repeatedly then follow up with a "I'll kick you out of the group if you don't follow" warning.

Then again, There are only 1-2 hunting groups going on at a time on Dathomir on Bria, and me being the only squad leader there, makes people want to join up because they know it will be organized. It gave me a lot of leverage in terms of enforcing group disclipine, and I think that's a big plus when you go hunt on dangerous planets where hunting groups are few and far in between.

Shindo Sephiro
Field Commander/Strategist/1/1
The only regular squad leader present on Dathomir
Bria

You can do the same thing with /yell, and again congrats on being a great group leader, but being a Squad Leader still gives you no bonuses to the group. The fact that you can make a kickass group and tear up the galaxy is great and all... but SERIOUSLY, please please understand and listen... can you not do the same thing as any other profession!!!? A novice Chef could do the same thing as you if they knew how to lead a group and they could actually give the group some food. You got respect because of your name and leading abilities, but definitely not because of your profession.

I hear ya Sephiro, but what you are talking about is your abillity as a leader, not the way the game works. Only problem I have was summed in Kil's post almost perfectly, our abilites cost to much, have no obvious effect.

Master Squad Leader

Master Sniper/Master Counter Sniper/Master Rifle Spec/Master Polearm Defense