SLIPSTREAM - CH.17 (E)

Part of the Flashpoints series: a Mass Effect Shakarian Formula 1 AU

When she straightens up, Zaeed is leaning on the bar. He’s subjected himself to the dress code – shirt, jacket, bow tie – and it doesn’t even have the decency to look weird on him. His eyes flick down her torso, down the front of that beautiful, perfectly-sculpted dress and back up again.

“Buy you that drink?” he drawls.

Shepard hoped her memory had been embellished by the win back at Silverstone but even when she’s not fresh off a podium and smacked on adrenaline, Zaeed is – unfortunately – still hot.

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I've been grinding the Czerka Core Meltdown flashpoint because I want the Czerka Data Core decoration. Seems to be rare and info seems to be scarce, but it made sense that it drops from this FP considering the final boss.

.. and now I've found a forum post that says that with 7.5 the game "will correctly say it drops from [FLASHPOINT] Czerka Corporate Labs"

fml. I've been doing the wrong flashpoint 16 times rofl

As we head toward 7.0, I thought it would be a good idea to check in with a Spirit of Vengeance Survival Guide, 2.0. I have my own feelings about SoV - namely that it's boring, tedious and was tuned way too high for a main story solo flashpoint - but let's move on to the actual guide. 

This is a guide specifically for those of you who just want to get this flashpoint over with so you can move on. 

I personally would advise trying to knock this flashpoint out of your story progression BEFORE 7.0. We have no idea how hard content is going to be once you lose some of your abilities and utilities, so if you have any characters who are planned to continue with the main story, I'd take them through now while you have all of the tools in your toolbox and are familiar with them.

After literally months of complaints the devs finally toned down this flashpoint to a more manageable level, but there are still a lot of mobs that hit hard, and it's still really long. When I went through with canon Viri and Lana at level 50, with Viri fully geared toward 306, I moved right along through the flashpoint without difficulty or deaths. It still took almost exactly an hour. It's even longer when you're contending with Rass Ordo and a lot of cut scenes. 

You will want to gear as well as you can for this - you should not have to since this is a story/solo flashpoint in the main story, but it will help you here. Remember you DO NOT have to group to get good gear. There are numerous solo missions that will give you gear up to 306 - the Mek-Sha Tradehouse missions, Personal Conquest each week, solo flashpoints, including the Onderon weekly and daily missions. Other suggestions: 

1. Buy and use the Supplied Kyrprax Command Stim, available at any medical droid in the flashpoint, including the one when you first land on Ship #1. If you're doing this as part of the main story, you unfortunately still have Rass Ordo as your companion. Rass Ordo, despite being influence level 25, still has the AI of a cardboard box. You'd be better off bringing along a Jawagram as your companion. This stim will up your presence for an hour and make him slightly less incompetent. 

2. If you can, equip yourself with the Life Warden tactical. This tactical drops fairly frequently from personal conquest and other gold gear boxes. It essentially gives you an extra heal in a tight situation and can come in handy. 

3. Medpac on your abilities bar. You hopefully won't need this, but have it handy just in case. You may want to invest in the Supplied Kyprax Med Unit medpac, which will heal you AND your companion. 

Within the flashpoint, some general caveats. You're looking at quantity, not quality here. It's just a lot of NPCs piling in on you. 

1. KILL THE HEALERS FIRST. KILL THE HEALERS FIRST. KILL THE HEALERS FIRST. Just about every mob here has healers. They have different names on each ship: 

- Varad Churl

- Darmanda Medic

- Ashade Lorekeeper 

If you don't kill the medics first the fights will be even more interminable. Get rid of them. 

2. Remember there are kolto stations in a lot of the rooms, not just the boss areas. 

3. Be very careful because there are a lot of mob groups close together. Watch where you are blasting/Force-whatevering because you don't want to pull more than one group at once. 

4. Get your gear repaired as often as you can. If you've fought a tough mob and there's a medical droid nearby, go to it and patch up, even if it means you have to backtrack. 

5. Get really familiar with any AOE (area of effect) skills you have. Know where they are on your abilities bar and how to use them. Given the mobs in this flashpoint, anything you have that can clobber several NPCs at once is welcome.

Now, here we go.

SHIP #1: 

Banquet room: after you fight the first mob and take the elevator, you will find yourself in a large "banquet room" with a lot of mobs. Pick a straight line and go forward, taking care not to veer too far to the sides. If you wander, you'll invariably pull the mobs on the sides of the room. 

The rest of this ship is pretty straightforward; it's just a lot of mob NPCs converging on you at once, over and over again. 

Sat/Sun April 10th/11th, 2021 @ 8pm PDT

- Eternity Vault Operations Learning

- Minimum Requirements

--- Be level 70 or above and in basic level 70 gear (item level does not matter so long as the gear is level 70)

--- Know the basics of your class (read your ability descriptions and know what does what)

--- Be willing to listen, learn, follow call outs, and remain quiet during boss pulls/explanations.

--- Be on time or 5 minutes early

Mon/Tues April 12th/13th @ 3pm PDT

- Hammer Station and Other Veteran Flashpoint Learning

- Minimum Requirements

--- Be level 16 and above

--- No gear requirements

--- No ability knowledge requirement

--- Be willing to listen, learn, try out your character's abilities (flashpoints are for learning and practicing these), follow call outs, and remain quiet during boss pulls/explanations.

--- Be on time or five minutes early

Let me know if interested! Depending on turn out, I might do more of these. I can take up to 15 people for the operations, but only a few for flashpoints unless I have other leaders volunteering.

I will also be open to helping people who wish to learn their classes/roles better along the way. However you must ask for that help or I will not give it and instead focus solely on teaching the operations/flashpoints. Other questions related to SWTOR, but not the current content we are running are also welcome.

Voice Chat on Discord is preferable for ease of call outs and explanations, but will not be required. Joining without talking is fine if that is more comfortable. The Faction and Roles will be decided the day of depending on turn out.

[image: a swtor screencap showing Vokk, a human Sith lord, standing on a docking bay in a half circle of imperial soldiers. in front of him is Tai, a red sith smuggler. Vokk says “Kilran promised me a challenge, and this is what I get?” next, Tai says “I’m not afraid of anybody.” end image]

tai’s interaction with Vokk, who is probably the first Sith Tai has encountered since he got KO’d and left for dead on Korriban.

It should be noted, the dialogue option Tai clicked on was “You think you scare me?” but it was changed when he said it (cuz... SWTOR). however “You think you scare me” would have been much better because it would have been “You think you scare me?... Cuz you are right you absolutely do.”