Teras Kasi Archive

I've read that a lot of players are not doing as well in PvP combat as they would like. While this may be a huge mistake, I'm going to post everything that I do regarding PvP, in hopes that it may shed some new light for struggling players.

Part I. The setup

My character is a Zabrak male. My final professions are teras kasi master, master doctor, novice scout, exploration I. When I had mastered my final profession, the first thing that I did was move away from the default stats and migrated them to full time PvP stats. My current stats are:

Health 900, strength 330, constitution 330, / Action 840, stamina 300, quickness 300, /Mind 1000, focus 500, willpower 900.

Now, I learned in the beta that the mind was going to be the key to PvP in most cases. Almost every action or special uses it, and it's the onlypool that cannot be "healed" with stims or medicines.I maxed out my mind pool, and then put the rest of mypoints intohealth and action,leaving just enoughin my secondary pools to wear my choosen armor (more on that next.)

For my equipment, I use a pair of high quality vibro knucklers ( thank you Plumpmonkey) and three pieces of composite armor -- the helmet, chestplate, and leggings. Neither my knucklers nor any of my armor is sliced, so I deal with full encumbrances. As far as the armor goes, I debated it for the longest time. Eventually, I tried it out, and found that being able to take 8 eyeshots in a row from a master bounty hunter, more than outweighs the loss of 267 focus / willpower. If you only get one piece of armor, I suggest the helm. In addition to the above listed, I also use 4 "Skill Enhcancement Attachments". I have two that add +3 to unarmed damage, one +3 to unarmed accuracy and one +3 to unarmed speed. I have no idea if they stack, nor if they even work, but I'll list them anyway.

One other point of mention: being a master doctor, I make sure I have fully enhanced stats anytime I am overt (except for last night, when I gotdrilled by 7 imperials camping the Coronet starport on Bria). Even with the composite armor, mystats are all well over 1.6K each with the exception of mind.This allows me to take quite a beating, and still have a fighting chance. I know of several good players that prefer to use spice to enhance their stats, it's cheap and readily available.

Part II. The encounter

Ok, so I'm boosted, armored, and looking for love in all the wrong places....what next? When it comes to ranged vs. melee combat, one major detail could determine the outcome of the battle before it even begins -- the location.

Unless there is a raid, or open war, I never, and I do mean *never* fight out in the open. Being able to choose your fights goes a long way towards ensuring your survival. If I'm fired upon at a distance greater than 15m,I have no problems with burst running away towards a city, or group of player structures. I once killed 3 imperials players, with 2 -3 storm troopers each, simply because they were average players, and they followed me into tight places where I could deal with them. Had I choosen to remain in the open, they would have destroyed me very quickly.

I never have my vibro knucklers equiped in PvPunless my enemy is on the ground. The two main reasons being that vibros will kill your HAM faster than you can say "head shot three". Even with the new changes to combat, using special moves with vibros equiped will destroy your mind pool in a lengthy battle. The second reason is even more important, vibros kill your range. An unarmed player has a much greater range without vibros equiped, and it's hard to win a battle if you can't hit your opponent.

So, how does one combat a kiter effectively when we can't use any special moves while moving, and we can't use our "weapon" while running (in most cases)? While I've certainly chased bounty hunters and pistoleers around for 8 minutes while they spammed their specials at me and I had no choice but to follow them using nothing more than regular attacks with my bare hands; I prefer to end the fight as quickly as possible. I always open with a /unarmed lunge without VK's equiped. This is a great posture change move, and gives me a range of 15m. After they are on one knee, I hit them with /unarmed knockdown 2 until they are prone. As soon as they are on their back, I equip VK's (hotkeyed) and hit them with either 1.) 2 - 3 /unarmed hit 3, *or* 2.) 1 /unarmed hit 3 *and* several shots the the specific pool that is lowest. Players take considerably more damage while knocked down, so I find it best to spend the HAM points and finish them while they are most vulnerable; if they get up and run, I may not get a second chance.

If my opponent is boosted or spiced, or I'm anticipating a long fight, I'll /lunge /blind /stun, /knockdown /headshot /headshot /headshot and repeat until one of us stays down. The addition of a blind and stun shot will go a long way in preventing you from taking extra damage while being given the "galactic tour".

Part III. Final tips

I use the old FPS (First Person Shooter) style of control. This means that I move with my keyboard: E,D,S,F, and I "look" with my mouse. This allows me to have all of my attacks as well as my weapon and armor hotkeys available to my primary fingers. I can unequip my helmet (if I need to regen mind in a hurry) and equip my VK's in a fraction of a second, as well as whip off 6 combat moves. I also have "clear combat queue" hotkeyed to my "A" key. Even in the best of fights, things can go horribly wrong in a hurry, and you don't want a bunch of specials queued up when your opponent gets up sooner than expected and you need range in a hurry.

Equilibrium will save your life. Most smart players are going to try to attack your mind pool -- it's usually the lowest pool and the only one that cannot be healed. Equilibrium takes your remaining HAM points and balances them out amongst the three pools. In a situation where you have a decent amount of health and action, but are about to incap from loss of mind, hit your equilibrium hotkey and watch as your three pools even out. It can only be used once every hour, so make sure it's a life or death situation.

Plan for short term. Do not fight thinking you need to conserve HAM so you can fight again. Plan on the fact that unless you get very lucky, or everyone in area is a coward or imbecile, sooner or later you're going to be outnumbered. Know that you are going to die and take out one opponent at a time. When outnumbered, focus on one opponent and stick with him/her until one of you drops.

If you have the ability to heal, heal early, and sparingly. I can't count how many times I've lost a PvP battle because I was 1/16th of a second late on a heal...to me, that is the worst way to go.

Do not use /unarmed hit 3 unless your opponent is on the ground. The animation is far too long and they will be 25m away from you by the time you stop impressing yourself.

Finally, try your absolute best to remain calm during the fight. I know that sometimes the adrenaline rush gets the better of us, but you'd be surprised at how many fights you can win if you just keep a level head. Remain calm and you'll not only win more fights, you'll probably have more fun.

Good luck,

Yesssss. Very good tactics you have. I enjoyed PVP a lot more before they added the 30 second timer on our posture change. It's almost impossible to fight a ranged attacked now since afterI posture change them, they just get up and run away before I can hit the knockdown. It seems like my Teras Kasi skills are completely useless, and I have to rely on my rifle and creature handling skills to win. It's very sad indeed.

I wish someone like you would open a Dojo and train some of us Novices.

Any masters out there on Bloodfin?

nice tactics....

i tried all what u said and still get OWNED !!! sometimes my pet manages to kill but im dead...

until they fix TKA vs Ranged....im making a new char...

Like they say...."If ya cant beat'em join'em"

Isn't Equilibrium Zabrak only? 'nuff said.