Squad Leader Archive

I've put all plans for advancing in squad leader on hold. I picked this profession because I wanted to use my scouting skills without being a BH or creature handler. I do not enjoy crafting (BE) and I want to have skills that in some way benefit a group (not ranger, at least not now).

I'm not going to surrender my skills yet because I only have the novice box and two skill boxes. 10% of this experience I got from soloing with a droid and pet, 90% of this experience I got from camping. I chose scout as my starting profession because I wanted to explore the galaxy, not to camp. But if you're not in a clan it seems the only way to advance in this profession is to camp at static spawn points because that's the only way you are guaranteed to get a group. You can put a group together to "go hunting" or "go run missions" but you will have tons of downtime and people quickly realising that you are useless to the group.

Furthermore I just don't have the natural talent for getting people together...so maybe I brought this on myself when I start wondering why I have to fight against other squad leaders on my server to get any xp at tusken fort or narglatch cave. I like using strategy and tactics in battle, but finding even 5 people who want to group in the first place is a hell for me. Isn't this what army recruiters are for? But man, NO OTHER CLASS in the entire game interests me right now besides Swordsman. And if you ask me, being Master Brawler/Master Swordsman/Master Scout is a bit useless and boring. Smuggler is a pistoleer class who crafts so that's out of the question for me. Maybe I'll go for Commando again, which was my original plan before I found out that the class was completely broken.

When the monthly update comes out (any time soon?) I will try the faction approach to being squad leader...grind Imperial faction for 3 pets (as a zabrak I do mean grind), and search out Imperial players in town to attack rebel strongholds and kill people in pvp. This would be somewhat like what I envisioned squad leader to be all along. The experience that trickles in will be worse than soloing, but since the skill boxes are fairly useless right now I guess there's no rush. Furthermore I know a guy from gorathserver.net forums who's part of an Imperial PA and needs squad leaders...so maybe this will be the true path for me, even if it does take 6 months to master squad leader.

Sorry, this thread doesn't really make sense...I just needed to get my thoughts together after yet another frustrating night in the star wars universe.

Until they fix squad leader, my intention is to climb one tree only (for a total skill cost of 20), allowing me to stockpile massive quantities of squad leader exp, without spending them. I plan on doing the same with rifleman, creature handler, and combat medic. I would like like to whole-heartedly commit to squad leader and combat medic, but until some fixes are put into place, other professions are simply more fun. I intend to be ready to grab half the tree if/when the profession does get fixed. In the meantime, I'll be a novice in everything and a master of nothing.

Toxotes,

It seems that you have made a well-thought out decision, and I wish you best of luck on whatever line you go down. You said:

"NO OTHER CLASS in the entire game interests me right now"

I totally echo that. Pre-release I was thinking about how there were SO many professions to choose from, and now I wish for more. Perhaps I am being stubborn, but just too many things involve either just plain crafting or nothing but shooting things up.

I wish you luck in whatever you choose and hope you come back to us soon! Let us know what you decide on!

Void: thanks for the words of support. I see that we share the same view on the profession system right now...we have 32 professions but the vast majority of them involve grinding out either piles of corpses or piles of items to sell off. At least in old RPGs, when your character was locked into one class, they had to give each class a variety of skills to keep it interesting. I thought squad leader would be a good balance between a combat and non-crafting support class...but right now it's just not much of anything.

Like I said, I will continue to do my thing, I just won't worry about camping or grinding squad experience anymore. For me, the hardest part of it all is just getting a group started.

*walks into cantina*

"I need a few good men to wipe out the drall caves, who's with me?"

*all combat characters stare at blue twilek in fleshwrap*

"uh...any1 4 tusken fort?"

*pistoleer and rifleman start dueling*

Al-right...

*walks into hospital*

"We need a good medic for our hunting group"

*combat medic goes AFK*

"Will pay 2000 creds/hr"

*doctor starts shouting for an image designer*

Ooookay...

"All Imperial soldiers report to squad leader at Imperial mission terminal"

*Three covert imps stare at terminals and run off, one novice marksman comes up to beg me to help him finish his nuna mission*

15 minutes, 600 xp and 800 credits later, because I'm such a nice guy.../quit

When I try to organize a group on the boards the most powerful characters seem to think that it's good to be "fashionably late" (20 mins), so I have to keep playing tell tag with everyone while the handful of players who actually show up on time get bored and run off.

I'm not giving up just yet...I'm going to do some hardcore recon in the next couple days for a group event that I will advertise days in advance. A lot of effort, but I'm determined to make this work at least once. Then when the GCW upgrades come out with the patch, I will join an Imperial PA. Gaaah...this better be worth it some day.

Toxotes,

That does suck. I agree it can be tough to get pick up groups going when and where you want. I've never tried an organized event, but was thinking of getting one together soon via the bulletin boards, but maybe I'll try one first with ingame friends and see how it goes.

For your situation I might suggest the tougher planets. Seems like on Ahazi, there's hunting groups forming every 10 minutes or so. The last three times I went there I turned my title on, asked for an invite. Twice the groupmakers /makeleaderedme before I could even do anything. The third time I politely asked just as we got underway if he wouldn't mind /makeleadering me, and he was cool. I was fully prepared to just go and fight if any of them had wanted to be leader. I usually go out to the fort alone, and try to politely assert control there. Going at peak times is key, there's often loads of <LFG>s there, just invite them first. I also found it a good move to /tip any medics in your group very well. Keep them happy, keep them in your group, and they'll keep everyone else happy and in your group too. Also try to coordinate with other SLs, not always possible, but maybe they'd be willing to let you havea medic, or get the next coupla invites. I dunno, maybe I've just been getting lucky.

I agree though, there's a lot of head-in-the sand types, that don't want nothing to do with nobody. Those people bug me, but just gotta keep looking.I just joined a faction for the first time last night, and I ran into the "we're just doing missions" and they bolt offtoo. I think I'm going to just try and join existing groups, until I get my name out there a bit, make new friends, and look them up later on to group with. I think making contacts is key.

-Psquire

I bought this game hoping to become a Squad Leader Politician. I wanted to be mayor of a city with a crack cadre of Imperial Darktrooper bodyguards following me around.

Then the Politician profession was cut. Then I found out Squad Leader was useless and extremely difficult to grind through.

Maybe its time I threw in the towel as well, and pick up one of the working professions like Bounty Hunter or Creature Handler.

Wow, what a great, humorous post Trox. That was a good smile for the day. I especially loved this:

"we have 32 professions but the vast majority of them involve grinding out either piles of corpses or piles of items to sell off."

I agree with everything you said, definently a painful thought, especially to all of us gung-ho since SOE said "Squad Leaders are going to be a profession."