Combat Tactics Analysis

In general, I am very pleased with the animations – They are fantastic! I love that the Smuggler’s pistol appears to have weight and recoil. The death animations are somewhat dramatic, funny, and most importantly – Believable. Just for future reference: I’m one of those people who love the Clone Wars and in turn SWTOR’s character art direction.

Clip #1

“Rather than relying on movement-impairing heavy armor, the Smuggler uses nimble footwork and the environment for defensive advantage. Shooting from reflex and instinct, the Smuggler is still a crack shot from any angle.”

Abilities Used: Cover (1st icon) and Burst (2nd, 3rd, or 4th Icon) – The actual names of these abilities are yet to be found.

The first Icon is absolutely, without a doubt, the ability used to enter cover. In my video analysis of Documentary 3, I noticed that the cover ability becomes active at a nice distance from the actual point – In other words, activating the cover button while still at some distance from the cover point may make the character quickly and automatically roll or jump to it. (*Update* I was just got around to listening to Darth Hater podcast #1 (great podcast I highly recommend it!) and they seem to confirm this from actually seeing the live demo.)

The firing ability used in this clip is shorter in duration, slower in rate, and more precise than the firing in clip 3. In theory, the ability is likely one of the icons above (2, 3, or 4) – They are the three cover exclusive abilities from Documentary 3 (at level 6). The game is still a long way off, so everything is subject to change and the icons could be placeholders / switched around.

Clip #2

“Primarily designed to stun or incapacitate a target for a quick getaway, the tricks of the Smugglers trade can also be used to buy a minute for a more carefully aimed, and often quite lethal, head shot.”

Abilities Used: Stun Grenade (first icon) and Head Shot (second icon) – The actual names of these abilities are yet to be found.

Also, note how quickly the two abilities are used in conjunction with one another – I believe this suggests a very low global cooldown and in return speeding up the feel of combat. This is something I suspected upon my analysis of documentary 3, but since no abilities were actually used in it was impossible to determine (once the player leaves cover (in doc 3) the out of cover abilities appear on screen and a short cooldown period is activated.) Perhaps these two abilities are made to be used in conjunction with each other – Head Shot doing double damage while the target is stunned?

Clip #3

“Quick, reckless, and unfailingly lucky, the smuggler can pop out from cover to fire a flurry of blaster bolts at multiple enemies. This maneuver breaks the enemies charge and provides cover fire to allow the smugglers allies time to set up a coordinated counter-attack.”

Abilities Used: Cover and Flurry (Spray and Pray) – – The actual names of these abilities are yet to be found.

The Smuggler in this video is currently in cover (note how she is leaning against the object) and this sets up a slight issue for me. While the flurry ability makes total sense as cover ability – considering that according to Bioware’s brief comments, it’s used to root (by the look of the clip, it’s an Area Effect root to boot!) enemies to allow team mates time to set up. As I was saying, my issue is with the icon. The icon above looks like It would fit the ability, but in video documentary 3, this icon was only available while the character was out of cover.

So what have we actually learned about the smuggler? I’m not seeing much in terms of actual damaging abilities – what I am seeing is Crowd Control. Smuggler’s have a ranged stun in the form of a non-lethal grenade and a ranged AE rooting ability in the form of a flurry. Also, lets not forget about the nut-kick we’ve heard so much about, which is likely to be another stun – albeit in melee range. And that made me realize something. In the articles that mentioned the nut-kick also said they followed it up with a BOOM HEAD SHOT! Does this mean there is no minimum range on our… ranged attacks?

In closing, Smugglers as a profession look to be more of a utility class that requires thoughtful and deliberate control to maximize effectiveness instead of an aggressive button mashing damage dealer – exactly what I am hoping for.