Dune Sea problems (SPOILERS)

[Jack Dell]

Anyway, I played a consular only to realise that I shouldn't have bothered. Jolee is as much a consular as any build I can come up with. After all, 70% of the game is played with Jolee ard... so I enjoy the use of high DC dark force powers anyway. The thing I need in my games (like this dune sea deadly ambush) is a tanker, strong in hitting and resilient against attacks (which guardians naturally are).

Excuse me sun facer, but youre wrong. The fact that you have to use stims and force buffs to be able to defeat hard battles while I need nothing as a pure consular pretty much says it all. If a consular can survive with less hp than a guardian then naturally it's because he gets hit less, which means less effort to win battles, which means that he is not at all useless. And sure Jolee is a good consular, but the fact that he remains neutral means that most of the time for most spells he will be using double the necessary fps, and also that he can't get the best Items for consular for being neutral, exclusive for lightside consulars. Either way, consulars are not worse than guardians. A scoundrel consular will be able to disable any enemy if done properly (with force powers) and even though he is less proficient at hitting enemies the -4 to defense penalty due to the disabled status will make it a lot easier, all the while getting sneak attack bonus. I breezed through tatooine, and this ambush did happen, but with double pistol wielding mission and jolee and my consular the fight finished and nobody could even touch me, or any of my NPCs either.

Consulars are not to be bothered? I think not. Force Powers are simply the best way to go through hard battles. Meelee is good sure, may own everything when you reach the end of the game sure, but I owned everything throughout the whole game, every single battle, and it was so much better than a Guardian. Of course this is my personal experience and not to take personally, but I always prefer magic over melee. Why would you bother fighting a really tough opponent when you can disable him for the whole battle and never take a hit? Only a preference of playing style of course, but I'd rather not be touched.

With force storm, you zapp the life outta them.. sure.. but with Kill, they stop moving.. stop attacking.. lose half their vitality points... and then, 2 turns later, they face a speeded master power attack crushing down their heads. They fall immediately of course.. since they only have half life left. In fact, with this tactic, many of my battles turn out to last only 2 to 3 turns.

I agree that disabling powers are the best. Kill is certainly one of the best powers I ever had. My most powerful build as of yet is a slightly lightside consular that uses dark force powers, like kill and insanity. Kill is amazing, I agree. I chose slightly lightside to get all the item bonuses and force valour, and a minimal penalty for all darkside powers. The increase in force points due to the items more than makes up for the penalties and you can make an extra 10 DC with Lightsiders than with Darksiders. (items and force valour) Force Storm is I think too costly to justify investing in.

[sun_facer]

Yes, I played a consular. And yes, your consular is rather impressive. I can tell that you have a preferance to a LS high dex consular.

I agree with you. A consular is powerful. And yes, with an inclination towards the side where a consular often uses powers, that consular can be pretty powerful indeed.

What I said, I said. I meant that I needn't have bothered playing a consular. I did not say that I recommend others not trying the consular. I am sure the fellow readers can choose for themselves. I prefered this form of play - teamwork... often requiring a good mixture of tankers and Jedi support. The game is fun; I play for fun. I have many other things to do; this game is not my life. Darn, life is just too short.

So,... with the little time I have to enjoy this game, I prefer to focus mainly on the guardian as my PC. At the same time, enjoy the prowess of a consular through Jolee. When i played the consular, I realized that often, Juhani could not fill the shoes of a superb fun-inspiring tanker properly... Big Z is pretty good... but not able to fill in all the way.. he is a scout after all. Not a soldier.

In line with the title of this thread, and using the deadly ambush as an example, having a different team would suffice to ensure that a consular would get through such a strange battle with ease. However, also in line with the focus of this forum, the gameplay I chose requires a tanker which the game did not provide. Hence, my PC has to be it.

Hence my statement => "I needn't bother."

As a token of appreciation, I have to say that the time I played as a consular was really fun, as well as refreshing.. the tactics I used when using the consular to lead the team had to be different. Choosing stats also was different. In fact, I also placed a lot of attention into the final set of equipment I had to purchase when my consular was level 20. However, I realised that the team was weak... and it pained me... maybe not everyone, just me. I realised that in all my games where I saved levels, the team were a little too far down in levels compared to my PC...

This battle in the dune sea is often a good reflection of how well I have groomed my team (not just my PC) for the rest of the game. And so far, a consular just was lacking in some ways.. for me.