Squad Leader Archive

im seriously thinking of going this way, im close to it now, having originally started down the BH PATH.

but from what i read, the skills arent very helpful and the xp climb is backbreaking.

someone tell me why i should do this class other than it makes sense for my char developent?

my long term goal is to be like rebel general or something and be a big PVP player,

after that i want to meet yoda and luke and open my fs slot

Right now there is little actual reward to being a Squad Leader. I think we all hope that our profession will be improved to be what we envisioned it to be in the future. For starters, just making the existing skills work correctly would be nice. But all elite professions have broken skills, not just the SL's. I can testify that a Ranger's advanced camps don't repel aggressive creatures. I read that the Smuggler's feign death skill will not stop creatures from deathblowing you. Some Bio Engineered pets can't be tamed even by a master ch...

The list of broken or inadequate skills for elite professions is very long. Basically any elite profession you choose now will not be working as intended, as the devs are focused on other issues now instead of fixing the profession bugs and balance. So being a useless Squad Leader right now is about the same as being a useless Ranger, etc...I think most of us see the potential for the SL professionthough, which is why many of us may be sticking with it.

The biggest benefit of being an SL right now as I see it: being a raid leader. Getting large groups organized with /sysgroup is helpful, and with mobility training getting your group from Mos Espa to the Tusken Fort is a bit easier since the non scouts can navigate the terrain better.

Yeah...in terms of gameplay there's not very many reasons to be a squad leader right now

- Barebones skill tree for squad leaders, some special moves are of dubious value

- No perk to Novice Squad Leader besides /sysgroup...thankfully people are still respectful of the squad leader title even though I can't really do anything special yet. /sysgroup tends to be pretty impressive to people in pickup groups.

- Depending on who you ask, pvp is either "okay" or totally broken, especially considering the covert TEF exploit. Therefore the whole pvp angle of squad leaders is underused and will be for a long time.

- Squad Leader experience needs a revisiting, if not an overhaul...personally I don't mind it too much, I'm a swordsman so it's easy for me to "lead from the front" and get a good share of experience (spin attack, area attack). Experience needs to somehow reflect successful special uses and the overall success of the group, right now it's directly proportional to the damage you deal just like everything else.

Of course, like guru said, almost every advanced profession has it as bad as or worse than we do. Personally I don't plan to master squad leader for a long time, I like to play equal parts solo and grouped and master swordsman will be my first priority.

Why be a Squad Leader? A Squad Leader is a Maestro of Military. He has his horns, his strings, his percussion, his brass and his woodwind! He starts off with a light flurry of violin to get things going, keep them on their toes. Then a surprise attack! The trumpets flare as the percussionists bang loudly in unison. Your army is an Orchestra, and you are the Conductor. What more could you ask for, really?...

...oh wait. You could ask forthe @#$%ing %$# $#@& SKILLS TO WORK! There are a few kinks in the system, but I'm sure SOE wants SWG to be a game that is very communitive and cooperative, where players step up and organize. I'm sure they'll give the profession abilities that supercede altruistic suicide. I'm sure they'll make it so that a Squad Leader is respected for his role, and that people will actually want to group with him. The Profession should be evenly pleasing to both sides. Of course, a leader wouldn't be a leader if he wasn't willing to sacrifice himself for his army in the heat of the battle (#$%@ you, Ayn Rand). But no one's going to WANT to sacrifice himself for his army in the heat of the battle, unless he has some pretty cool **edit** that hecan do when he's NOT sacrificing himself for his army in the heat of the battle. Like recruiting NPC's and training them like Creature Handlers do with creatures! Or being able to design Strategy Plans (i.e. Rainbow Six pre-production) that consist of a system of waypoints, where certain people go to certain areas at coordinated times (kind of like how they do it insports with "plays"). This would add a touch of real life skill to the game, naturally elevating some SL's over others. Just some ideas. We're hopeful.

Orodias Des'sett

Good morning!

There seems to be a growing trend of people sliding over to other classes mid-way through the SL tree. Bounty Hunter and Creature Handler, specifically, because they too branch off the same skills. I really don't know if anything can be done with that, but we're not looking to FORCE people to become Squad Leaders, we're looking to just make it an option competable with Creature Handler and Bounty Hunter. Whether it is or not to you is what I'm concerned with.

Hmm, recruiting NPCs...that would be fun, but it would make squad leader the new bandwagon class and we would get the creature handler controversy all over again.

What kind of NPCs are we talking here?

Well, being a Novice Squad Leader myself (as I'm sure many people on these boards are) I continually find myself wondering if this profession is really going to be worth it in the end or not. Hopefully, it will be, and the useless skills will flourish and become useful and work. Otherwise, people are just going to get angry with a do-nothing profession that requires the most coordinated game-time in the game. Also, I have a feeling that when PvP really gets going, SLs are going to be switiching like mad when they pull off an SL move and then get 1 shotted by a Rifle b/c their mind pool is already weakened. Also, if you're pulling off special SL manuevers, you simply are not getting anything in return for them, and you're actually being penalized for not doing more damage. Anyways - I might stay true to the SL path, but as the days progress, it seems more and more likely that I will simply stay on the path to becoming a Master Pistoleer, and will probably take up the BH Pistol skill tree as well.

Well, if I was attacking an enemy group of PCs I would definitely change my title to something random...but yeah, in an ambush the squad leader will take the first hit and that will make all his powers worthless. Oh well, compare it to real life military doctrine..."kill the officers first"

I have an Apprentice Dancer title I wear often when I don't want to be noticed as a Squad Leader

(Although I'm pretty widely known on my server, so its not all that helpful)

PvP: Decent Squads with a Half-Assed Squad Leader will win over a Great Squad with No Squad Leader just about 50% of the time due to the passive modifiers. (This is actually bad, as you could in fact have a covert Squad Leader 2nd account sitting at the bank of a hostile city doing nothing and giving you a huge edge...) Decent Squads with Great Squad Leaders will win over a Great Squad with No Squad Leader every time. Period. This is a class that is tooled nicely for PvP. However, keep one major thing in mind, the mind costs for some of the specials are so high, and a decent sniper will be watching the opposition looking for the squad leader.... one special ability and the rifleman has an ez one shot kill. In PvP, we shine like no other class, simply by nature of our special abilities, and god help us if we get any better, we'll be so godly in respect to PvP, we might as well painta giant red target on us that says, "attack me first".

PvE: Squad Leaders shine here as well, and in many respects, more so then PvP since you will typically be doing PvE far more then PvP. Your abilities alone allow you to influance the squad to such an extent that you will be able to take on harder encounters, with greater frequency, and fewer stops for downtime.

All this being said, there is one additional non statistical perk of beinga Squad Leader, by the very nature of wearing that title under your name, you are simply cool as hell. An elite group of people that have a real life extension into a game. Having accidently run across one other Squad Leader in real life (albeit on a different server) it was suprising to find just how close our personalities were.