SWTOR PvP Voidstar Warzone Guide

Beginner-friendly guide to the PvP Voidstar Map in SWTOR. Details the rules of the game mode, the Map layout and its secrets, class-specific and general recommendations, tips and strategies!

Introduction

The Voidstar is a prototype Harrower-class dreadnought that went missing during the Great Galactic War. This was the initial conflict between the Republic and Sith Empire where the Sacking of Coruscant took place.

After the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant, the Voidstar got lost in space with its crew going missing for reasons unknown. The derelict ship now floats in space with machinery going haywire, sparks falling from the ceiling, and cobwebs covering every corner of the ship.

With the rediscovery of the Voidstar, both the Republic and Empire seek to gain control of the ship to download the information about the ship’s schematics through the datacore. In this warzone, you’re simulating this battle for control of the datacore.

Your objective is to either attack or defend the Voidstar with the datacore either being captured or secured at the end of the match. This can be one of the more frustrating maps so proper knowledge on how to best perform in this map is crucial. Fortunately that’s why we’re here! In this guide we’ll be going over various strategies and common scenarios you can experience in the Voidstar Warzone!

Rules of Voidstar PvP Match

The Voidstar map will have opposing teams take turns being the attacking and defending team for the Voidstar.

The attacking team will need to plant bombs on doors and hack consoles to reach the datacore. The defending team must hold the attacking team off from completing these objectives. If the attacking team reaches the datacore, then the round is over.

The winning team is decided by whoever made more progress overall or who completed objectives in a shorter amount of time. Each round of Voidstar lasts for 7 minutes and 30 seconds so a game can last up to 15 minutes.

Let’s use a scenario as an example of who would win a Voidstar match. Team 1 starts the first round as the attacking team and takes 7 minutes to get as far as activating the bridges in zone 2. The timer goes up and the teams swap places.

Team 2 is attacking now and reaches the bridges in 2 minutes, the game would end with Team 2 winning the match. This is because they were able to complete the same objectives Team 1 did in a shorter amount of time.

The image above shows the Voidstar map in your HUD when you join a Voidstar match. For the purposes of instruction, I’ve included various zones lit up which normally only light up once they become active.

At the very bottom is Zone 1, this is the area the match starts out in where the attacking team will need to plant bombs on the door. The middle area is Zone 2 where attackers need to activate bridges and plant another bomb on a door. The top area is Zone 3 where attackers must deactivate security shields, plant a bomb, and reach the datacore at the very end.

Doors that are safe will appear as a green door symbol while doors with an active bomb on them will have a red marker and a timer. If a door is grayed out, it means that door is not yet active due to the zone being inaccessible at the moment. At the very top the text will indicate whether you’re in Round 1 or 2, if you’re defending or attacking, and how much time in the round is left.

There are 6 doors that can have bombs placed on them, two doors in each zone. On the left side of the image is a green marker indicating the door has no bomb on it. On the right shows the bomb with a red border around it meaning it is going to blow soon.

These bombs are interactable and can be deactivated by the defending team. Planting a bomb takes 6 seconds to accomplish with the bomb needing 15 seconds to detonate. Deactivating a bomb only takes 3 seconds which should be ample time for a defending team to disarm it assuming they aren’t under heavy fire.

Above are computer consoles that the attacking team can interact with. The left image has a bridge console that can extend the bridges in Zone 2 allowing the attacking team to reach the doors. The right image is a control console that deactivates the red security walls in Zone 3 to allow the attacking team access to the doors. Each of these requires 6 seconds to interact with before the security measures are turned off.

At the very end of the map are two computer consoles, this is the datacore that the attacking team is seeking to download. An attacking player will only need half a second to interact with this in order to end the round. Due to this, defending a datacore from an entire enemy team is next to impossible outside of hoping they were almost out of time for the round to begin with.

Voidstar Map Layout Overview

This is the map of the Voidstar. In Zones 1 and 2, the doors are referred to as West and East. Meanwhile, the doors up in Zone 3 are referred to as North and East.

For this map, it is better to refer to these doors as West or East instead of Left or Right as many do as this can often confuse the defending team as to which door is which.

Healing Node
Touching this instantly restores a large chunk of your health.

PvP Buff
This is a buff that increases damage done, healing done and reduces damage taken vs players by 15% for a short time.

Movement Speed Buff
This increases your running speed for a short duration.

High Traffic Zone
This is where you’ll often see a lot of movement, typically of incoming enemies or allies. You’ll want your eyes on these areas as this is where enemies will be going to or coming from.

Points of Interest on the Voidstar Map

This section of the guide details some of the unique segments of the map that you may hear being referenced by other players and would be a good thing to know them before you venture ahead and join the game.

Below are the various zones that will be referenced throughout the guide. Zone 1 is where the teams start each round at, Zone 2 is where you can find the bridges, and Zone 3 is the final zone that leads to the datacore.

Zone 1

In Zone 1, the defending team will have a platform that they jump down to from spawn. This can quickly allow access to either the East or West doors. Once you jump down from here, you’ll require more time to get to the other side due to obstacles and opponents being in your way.

If you find yourself here and everyone is rushing to one side, perhaps go to the other side to guard the underpopulated door unless you or someone else takes on the task of guard duty.

Zone 2

In Zone 2 will be two bridges that can be extended by the attacking team. In Imperial fashion, these bridges lack side rails. This can allow either attacking or defending teams to push enemies off the bridge.

The best way to survive against such attempts is to stay in the center and avoid being on the edges.

Zone 3

Zone 3 is the final area where both teems have a chance to compete. The attackers have two more doors to plant bombs to and access the datacore, while the defenders have to prevent their opponents from doing so.

Teleport Node Location Suggestions

Teleporting abilities such as Phasewalk, Hideout, and Hololocate are often used to gain distance from an opponent or to cut travel time. In the image above are location suggestions to put your teleportation node.

Primarily it’ll be the defending teams making use of such abilities more often in order to jump past walls and obstacles to help another side. Aside from cutting down travel time, they can also place these near healing nodes if they need to quickly heal up before going back to defending the door.

Attacking enemies will more often place these near the healing nodes as well so keep an eye out for their nodes. If you find an enemy teleportation node near a healing node, you can deprive them of it by taking it for yourself so they have nothing to teleport to.

Role-Specific Tips and Recommendations

Some of the images in this segment of the guide are from the Rishi Stronghold PvP Area. They are used to more clearly and easily illustrate the scenarios and situations described below.

Tank Recommendations and Guard Swapping

As a tank, you should be doing one of two things. You’re either defending a console or door from invaders or you’re in a conflict zone such as the Middle Zone. In either scenario, you should be guarding an ally that is nearby. 

It is imperative to know how to swap Guard when fighting alongside two or more allies. To do this, you’ll need the Guard Ability set to something quick to access (I use the F key). Next you’ll need to open your Interface Editor to make sure the “Target of Target” window is enabled. This should allow you to see something like this:

Nadia is looking at me and her target (me) is on the far right. This is what the “Target of Target” window enables. So if you’re in a battlefield, you can press Tab to swap enemy targets in front of you to see who they’re targeting. If the enemy is someone like a Sentinel/Marauder, Shadow/Assassin, or other enemies that can deal high damage to your ally, you need to guard the ally they are targeting.

The fastest way to do this is to set a hotkey to acquire the target of your target. To set this hotkey, go to Preferences > Key Bindings > Targeting and scroll down until you find “Acquire Target’s Target”. Set the key to something you can quickly and easily access (I use the `~ key, the one right next to the 1 key). Now you have no excuse to NOT protect your allies in an efficient manner!

Stay within 15 meters of your guarded ally so their damage is reduced by 50%. The other 50% of that damage will be transferred to you. This damage can be reduced through your tank stats such as Damage Reduction, Defense Chance, and Shield Chance! Guard Damage will break Stealth. The enemy group will likely begin to focus on another target that you aren’t guarding. It is then your responsibility to find out who they’re focusing next, target their target, and guard that ally and repeat this process as necessary. The ability to Guard Swap is one of the core skills that separates the bad tanks from the good tanks in PvP alongside DCD timing and Resolve Bar management.

DPS Recommendations

Your job is simple, you just kill the enemy team to allow your team to secure a console/door. Though it’s not as simple as it may seem, anyone can fire blaster bolts at someone all willy-nilly.

You must focus your fire on priority targets such as healers or squishier DPS units such as Sages, Sorcerers, DPS Shadows and Assassins, and DPS Vanguards and Powertechs. 

Utilize target markers to show teammates which target they should prioritize on. Typically a target with the Target symbol above their head takes first priority while a target with the Flame symbol above their head takes second priority.

Support Recommendations

Every combat style can provide support in some form or another as there is no dedicated support class outside of healers. Speaking of healers, you just need to heal your allies as usual with your priority being the tank if you have one (who should be guarding you).

Should all of your allied DPS fall in combat, you and the tank should have the means to stall hopefully long enough so your allies can respawn and run back. This is more easily done in the Middle Zone but can be harder to pull off in Snow or Grass if it’s being raided as it takes longer for everyone to reach there.

Let’s look at some of the many unique abilities among combat styles that offer great support for their team.

Gunslingers/Snipers have access to a great ability called Scrambling Field/Ballistic ShIeld. This creates a circular area with a 10 meter radius that reduces damage done to allies within the area by 20% for 20 seconds. With a 3 minute cooldown, this should be used wisely and during times when combat is very intense.

Stealth Scan is an ability that Troopers and Bounty Hunters can gain access to. When used, probe droids will scan an area for 15 seconds, detecting any enemy stealth units.

If an enemy stealth unit is caught, they’ll be immobilized for 3 seconds. Allies within the area also gain 50% movement speed so long as they remain within it but will keep the effect for 6 seconds if they leave the area.

This ability is great to use right after a stealth unit uses their combat stealth to disappear mid-combat. Catching them will throw them off and ruin their momentum.  Since this is on a 10 seconds cooldown with a 15 seconds duration, Stealth Scan can have a 100% uptime in an area. You can even link the two zones to increase the area where allies get increased movement speed.

Gunslingers/Snipers also have access to the Diversion ability which creates an area with a radius of 8 meters that reduces accuracy of enemies by 45% for 6 seconds.

This is good to use if you’re dealing with a lot of melee classes or classes that use a lot of weapon damage. Additionally, this can be used to pull a Gunslinger/Sniper out of cover even when they’re using the Hunker Down/Entrench ability which blocks most forms of CC!

Scoundrels/Operatives have access to the Smuggle/Infiltrate ability. When used, the caster creates a field around them with a 10 meter radius that lasts for 15 seconds.

Any of their group members within this field will be cloaked as well for the duration of the ability. Assuming perfect coordination and no movement speed bonuses, the group can move up to 100 meters while stealthed.

You will likely not see this being used as many Scoundrels/Operatives prefer the Trick Move/Holotraverse abilities for mobility. Regardless, get familiar with this ability as a well-coordinated team can do serious damage with this ability.

Tank Vanguards/Powertechs get access to the Riot Gas/Oil Slick ability. This ability creates an area with a 10 meters radius centered around the caster which lasts 10 seconds.

Any enemy caught within this area will have their movement speed slowed by 70% and their accuracy reduced by 15%. This is good to use in the console capture zone as the enemy is forced to exit the area and unable to capture the console, or try to capture the console while making them an easy target.

If you have a push available then you’ll be particularly useful in Zone 2. There are numerous ledges to push enemies off of but the bridges can prove to be the most deadly.

If you have something that makes you immune to physics or resist Force/Tech attacks, these will be useful to traverse the bridges safely.

If your combat style has access to an area ability that can be cast at a specific point, then you must keep an eye on the control point if you’re fighting near one.

Direct damage AoEs will stop an attacker from planting a bomb or hacking a console. Alternatively, it can prevent a defender from disarming a bomb. Direct damage AoEs are needed to stop a channel so indirect damage AoEs will not stop them.

Stealth Recommendations

Stealth units have the luxury of entering combat on their terms. In Voidstar their job is to act as recon, capture control points, and/or dispatch priority targets in group combat.

Non-stealth units will find it difficult to type in the midst of combat, meanwhile stealth units can tell their team about enemy movement while hidden away. While providing recon is important for your team, don’t let it be the only thing you do. Contribute to your team’s efforts by participating in group fights or capturing enemy consoles.

Communication is an important task for any stealth unit to perform. While they have the ability to type safely while cloaked, they should learn to abbreviate their words to cut down on their time typing. Here are some common abbreviations and terms used for PvP communication:

• DPS = Damage Per Second, typically to refer to a damage focused player.
• Tank = A player who focuses on defense, typically tough to kill
• Heals/Healer = A player who focuses on healing other players, they are
• AoE = Area of Effect, typically a damaging ability that hits several targets in an area.
• CD = Cooldown
• DCD = Defensive Cooldown
• GCD = Global Cooldown
• CC = Crowd Control
• Mez/Mes = Mesmerize stun, typically lasts 8 seconds and breaks on damage taken.
• Sap/Sleep = A mesmerize stun used from stealth
• Rez/Res = Revive
• Omw = On my way
• Cap = Someone attempting to capture an objective
• MVP = Most Valuable Player
• Thrower = Someone who is intentionally throwing a match
• Farming/Inting = The act of intentionally getting killed to help the enemy team
• Carrying = The act of helping a team member or the whole team to win when they would not have been able to otherwise.
• Pocket Healer = A healer who only heals one person, typically someone who queued with that player.

General Recommendations and Tips

This segment will give you more helpful tips that are not specifically dedicated to a class and spec that you may enjoy playing.

How to Guard an Objective (Bomb or Terminal)

What separates the good guards from the bad guards? Vigilance, discipline, communication, and knowledge. This role is a very important one and sometimes, not the most exciting one, but one that should be filled regardless of the situation.

In Voidstar, objective guards must be prepared to fight off numerous opponents regularly. Due to this, it is very important for them to know their rotations and how to use their abilities against certain enemies. DCD timing is very important here as a few seconds for the attacking team can grant them victory. Let’s go over the various aspects of guarding a door.

Lookout Duties and Communication

When you guard an objective, you must keep your eyes on the high-traffic zones as that’s where enemies will come from. This can be seen as the most boring aspect of the job by many but it is by far the most important one.

In the images above you can see highlighted areas. These areas are where you want to keep your eye on for incoming enemies. The moment you see an enemy coming, you need to type to your group how many are going to where. Let’s use an example scenario.

You’re guarding the west door at Zone 1 and see two enemies (highlighted yellow) coming your way. What do you type to your team?

While you could say “We got 2 enemies incoming to the west”, it’s inefficient. Instead you must summarize that to something like “2 inc west” or “2 INC WEST”.

Whether or not you use caps or not is up to you, just limit the caps to recon chat remarks and not standard chat. This allows your team to quickly know how many are coming to snow and how many to send your way, in this case at least 1 person.

If you were to just say “INC WEST”, this can cause your team to overreact and send the whole team there leaving a console unguarded only to find out there was only 1 invader. Use your nouns and adjectives when typing because people can’t read your mind and often lack map awareness.

Do not be one of those people who doesn’t state incoming or states incoming after they died or about to die. You must be proactive with your lookout duties to ensure the best odds at maintaining control of your door or control console.

Spacing

What is spacing? Spacing is your ability to keep your distance from your opponent when necessary. Why is this important? To deal with mesmerizes and incapacitated.

More often than not, the type of enemy that will be attempting to capture a console from you will be a stealth unit. They have access to a stealth mesmerize which will leave you unable to act for 8 seconds, this is enough time to allow them to plant a bomb or hack a console.

In the image above are highlighted zones in Zone 1, these are the areas in which you want to stand in. Standing out here will make the enemy spend a second or two running to get to the point if they incapacitate you, leaving you a second or two to react once the mesmerize wears off.

If they’re very dedicated towards capturing your console, they’ll have a backup incapacitate that can be used out of stealth. Spacing is very important so you can use that second or two to react in order to save your CC breaker ability for this second incapacitate. If you use it on the first, this makes you unable to get out of the second allowing them to capture the console with ease.

Spacing aside, I want to make one point very clear the moment you make enemy contact at your door.

Seriously, you need to be within kissing distance of the door when you fight at it. During the chaotic group fights, people will often try to sneak the door and sometimes negligent guards will let them get away with it.

Don’t be lured out by baits to an area outside the door capture zone. If someone is attacking you at range, cut off line of sight with the pillars or any cover nearby but DO NOT LEAVE THE DOOR ALONE!

A common trick enemies will use is to hide behind the console control point opposite of the guard (Zone 3). This prevents the guard from using any targeted abilities to stop their channel. Area abilities are a good way to get around this but if you lack a point and click area ability, a good substitute is to use the various V-9 Grenades made by Cybertech crafters.

I would recommend the V-9 Cartel Waste Grenade. These will deal the damage you need to stop a channel and not fill their Resolve Bar, all while slowing them by 70% for 9 seconds. This will allow you to fill their resolve bar with your own CC as you see fit.

Any of the Cybertech grenades work except the V-9 Pyro Grenade. That grenade deals indirect damage over time and will fail to stop someone from capturing the node. Keep in mind that the grenades share a cooldown of 3 minutes, so if you use one you can’t use the others until the cooldown is finished.

Number of Guards

Voidstar is a map where the defending team can get away with multiple guards on both doors. Though this really depends on the scenario and how the attacking team is spreading their numbers. If the enemy team is spreading their group equally on both sides, 4 guards on each side is a good bet.

If your side has a good chunk of guards but there’s no activity, the majority will need to leave to help the other door as it is likely overrun. The last person left to guard the door should remember their spacing, to communicate, and to fight at the door when contact is made. Stealth units like to sneak the doors with less activity so they should be prepared for this.

Stalling and Sacrifice

If you find yourself outnumbered and waiting for reinforcements, focus less on trying to defeat your opponents and more on surviving for as long as you can. At one point or another during your duties as a guard, you’re going to run into a situation with you having zero odds of surviving.

While you wait for reinforcements you must use your DCDs, Warzone Medpacs and Adrenals, and use the terrain to cut off line of sight from your opponents. Cutting off line of sight can prevent targeted abilities from being used on you so they will need to waste time repositioning to use that ability again. With enough time, you might just live long enough to get help or at the very least, ensure allies can defend as you respawn. 

If you’re a stealth unit guarding an objective, you can cloak out and head towards a nearby healing node. If that’s not available, use CC from stealth on anyone trying to capture the door to stall them further as reinforcements arrive (if they can). If you die protecting the bridge control consoles or the security barrier consoles in Zone 3, you’ll spawn in an area farther back where you’ll be unable to stop the attacking team.

The Best Console and Door Guards

Before we look at the following combat styles, I want to emphasize that any combat style can act as a Console/Door guard. It’s just that the following tend to excel more than others due to their kits and abilities. If you’re not one of these combat styles as a console/door guard, remember the tips above to maximize your productivity!

Kinetic Combat Shadows and Darkness Assassins

From personal experience, I would argue that the best objective guards are Kinetic Combat Shadows and Darkness Assassins. They have the durability of a tank and the ability to communicate safely as a stealth unit.

These two aspects fuse very nicely when guarding as they can move around while stealthed to get different viewing angles without revealing themselves.

They also have a passive stealth detection buff from their combat style which can allow them to see enemy stealth units if they get close enough. Though their strongest feature is the fact that they make excellent duelists and a well practiced Shadow/Assassin can take on just about anyone in the game.

Let’s go over some of their useful abilities as to why they make such great guards.

With the Whirling Blow/Lacerate abilities, the Shadow/Assassin can strike up to 8 enemies within 5 meters of them. This is a very cheap ability to use and can be spammed without end to prevent cappers from taking an objective.

The ability Deflection grants the Shadow/Assassin +50% Defense Chance for 12 seconds. On top of that, an area around them within an 8 meter radius decreases Force and Tech damage done to anyone caught within. Since Force and Tech damage is very prominent in PvP, this is an excellent ability for reducing damage from numerous caster classes.

The ability Force Wave/Overload is an AoE push that will knock up to 8 enemies back in a 15 meter cone. Targets hit by this ability will be immobilized for 5 seconds though direct damage after the first 2 seconds ends the immobilize effect. With this ability, they can stall an invading team for a good duration of time but even more so with a Rakata Freeze Bomb. The Rakata Freeze Bomb is a consumable grenade that when thrown, deals elemental damage and immobilizes up to 4 targets in the area for 6 seconds. When combined with Force Wave/Overload, the Shadow/Assassin can root 4 people for 11 seconds while barely filling their resolve bars.

If the Shadow/Assassin has the Dusk Ward passive from their ability tree choice, then even attacking them can prove counterproductive. Should all 15 stacks of their Kinetic Ward/Dark Ward break, all nearby enemies will receive a debuff that causes affected targets to lose 20% accuracy for 6 seconds.

DPS Stealth Units

Any stealth unit can serve as a great guard. With their ability to remain invisible, they can safely type incoming while being hidden from enemy eyes.

A foolish opponent may think the console or door was left unguarded, dropping their guard. If it’s one thing stealth units love (particularly the DPS variants), it’s getting the drop on an unsuspecting foe. DPS Shadows/Assassins and Scoundrels/Operatives make excellent duelists and should be able to deal with any 1v1 scenario they encounter during guard duty. Though they will be at a disadvantage if they are outnumbered, they can at least stall by using their mesmerizes from stealth as they wait for reinforcements.

Guardians and Juggernauts

Guardians and Juggernauts make excellent guards as for what they lack in subtlety, they make up for in endurance. Both DPS and Tank Guardians/Juggernauts have access to great self-healing, temporary hit points, and a strong DCD in the form of Saber Ward which will increase their defense chance AND decrease incoming Force/Tech damage by 25% for 12 seconds.

Guardians and Juggernauts should mind their spacing to prevent stealthers from capping the door. Let’s go over some of their unique abilities!

The Focused Defense/Enraged Defense is the Guardian’s/Juggernaut’s self heal ability. They’ll gain 12 stacks of this ability and whenever they take damage, they’ll receive healing. With this ability, a Guardian/Juggernaut can come back from the brink of death at full health. 

Awe/Intimidating Roar allows the Guardian/Juggernaut to mesmerize up to 8 nearby enemies for 6 seconds. This effect can be ended early upon taking damage. Once the effect ends, affected targets deal 15% less melee and ranged damage for 10 seconds. Being able to CC the entire enemy team is nothing to be trifled with. Though the damage debuff wouldn’t provide much use against Force/Tech casters.

Enure/Endure pain grants the Guardian/Juggernaut an additional 30% health for 20 seconds while cleansing all cleansable effects. Often used as a last resort, this gives the Guardian/Juggernaut some temporary hit points. If they don’t end the battle soon while low on health, they’ll end up dying once the ability ends. They also commonly pair this when low on health with Focused Defense/Enraged Defense so they can gain full HP with an extra 30% on top of their normal HP.

Warding Call/Invincible is found on Tank Guardians/Juggernauts. When activated, all incoming damage on them is reduced by 40% for 10 seconds. This ability speaks for itself as to why it’s useful for defending an objective.

Shield Specialist Vanguards and Shield Tech Powertechs

These types of tanks are not often seen in PvP due to their low damage output. If anything, they’re rather underrated as they can get some insane damage reduction with their abilities.

They have stealth detection to pull stealthers out, they have an AoE direct damage ability to deal with groups of cappers, and two decent self heals. Let’s look at some of their abilities!

Vanguards/Powertechs have access to the Reactive Shield/Energy Shield and Infused Kolto Packs/Energy Yield abilities. Reactive/Energy Shield will increase their damage reduction by 25% for 15 seconds while Infused Kolto Packs/Energy Yield applies a stack of the ability which increases their armor by 40% while increasing their damage done by 2% for 15 seconds.

If they take additional damage while Infused Kolto Packs/Energy Yield is active, they gain an additional stack of the ability up to 5 stacks. Each of those stacks add 40% armor and 2% more damage. When the ability is over, they heal 6% for each stack of Infused Kolto Packs/Energy Yield they had. This means they can restore up to 30% of their health after having super high durability.

Let’s put a number to this durability. A fully kitted 328 Vanguard/Powertech will have a base damage reduction of 46.76%. When they use Reactive Shield/Energy Shield, they’ll have 71.76% damage reduction. With 5 stacks of Kolto Packs/Energy Yield, they’ll have 66.86% damage reduction. When both of these abilities are used together, the Vanguard/Powertech gains a total of 91.86% damage reduction for close to 15 seconds.

Now on top of THAT, lets say they have the Supercommando Package. When they use Kolto Packs/Energy Yield, they gain a shield that absorbs 301609 damage for up to 3 seconds thus allowing them to safely gather all 5 stacks of Kolto Packs/Energy Yield unharmed when they get ganged up on. Their sheer durability with these abilities is just insane and shouldn’t be underestimated.

Explosive Surge/Flame Sweep is an AoE ability centered on the Vanguard/Powertech. This is a cheap ability that can be spammed to prevent cappers from planting bombs or capturing consoles easily.

Did the Vanguard/Powertech get locked into a mesmerize without their CC breaker? Well, good news! They have access to the Shoulder Cannon ability! With this ability, they can fire rockets at a target within 20 meters even while CC’d. Stunned, put to sleep, knocked down, incapacitated, Vanguards/Powertechs don’t care as they’ll just shoot missiles at cappers in the meantime.

Stealth Scan is a great ability to keep an eye out for stealth units and can also be used to pull out a stealther who used their combat stealth to exit combat. Put those stealth units back in their place and out in the open!

Capturing An Objective

Capturing an objective is also known as “capping” or to “cap”, while capturers can be called “cappers”. Oftentimes, an objective controlled by the enemy will have at least one person guarding it.

Those who are confident in their dueling capabilities should be attempting to guard or capture a console as it becomes a matter of skill when the fight between the guard and capper inevitably starts. Though we’ll be going over some dos and don’ts to improve your ability to take an enemy console by force or subterfuge.

Do:

• Do assess the situation when making your way to a console. Look all around your surroundings to see if there are any enemies also making their way there, how many enemies are already there, and what kind of enemy they are.
• Do understand your own limitations. Some combat styles naturally counter others, so knowledge of your combat style and other combat styles can vastly improve your ability to judge whether or not you can secure a console.
• Do remember to communicate what you see to your team. If you see one enemy guarding a console but 5 enemies are fighting somewhere else, that means there are 2 enemies unaccounted for.
• Do remember that it’s better to leave a console guarded by 2 enemies to focus your efforts with the bulk of your team so you can outnumber the remaining enemies.
• Do remember that you need a minimum of 6 seconds to capture a console, so a 4-second stun will not give you enough time to cap it.
• Do be mindful as to when you try to sneak a door in the midst of combat. If the battle is too close to the door, your odds of success are low. Try to have your team bait the defending team away from the door. Otherwise don’t waste your time spam clicking the door to no avail.
• As you advance throughout the map, be sure to spread out in an attempt to capture uncaptured objectives, particularly the control consoles.

Don’t:

• Don’t assume that an empty enemy console/door is unguarded. It’s far more likely that it’s being guarded by a stealth unit meaning you should be on your guard. Most stealth units tend to get cocky and use their mesmerize the moment you’re in range. If they do this, take advantage of this if they fill your resolve bar making you immune to CC.
• Don’t assume your team will capture a side console scot free. Oftentimes some enemies appear to a side console just to stall your team from capturing it. If you can, deal with these people by slowing them, incapacitating them, mesmerizing them, whatever it takes to allow your allies to capture the console.
• Don’t be selfish and try to be the only one to capture the console. If someone else has already started capturing it, act as their bodyguard until the console/door is captured and decide who will be on guard duty.

When it comes to which combat styles make the best cappers, it is no contest, not even by a long shot. The units best suited for the job are stealth units including Shadows, Assassins, Scoundrels, and Operatives.

While the DPS variants can quickly take out a target, healer and tank variants are just as capable of securing a node. This is done by using two mesmerizes which can leave an opponent unable to move for up to 16 seconds.

For Shadows/Assassins, they’ll want to use the abilities Mind Maze/Mind Trap and Force Lift/Whirlwind. For Scoundrels/Operatives, they’ll be using Tranquilizer/Sleep Dart and Flash Grenade/Flashbang.

Mind Maze, Mind Trap, Tranquilizer, and Sleep Dart can only be used while stealthed, so they’ll be the first incapacitates to be used. In the event the target uses their CC breaker to stop the capper, the capper can follow up with Force Lift, Whirlwind, Flash Grenade, or Flashbang to leave the target unable to act for another 8 seconds.

As soon as they are incapacitated again, the capper must immediately interact with the console/door to ensure that they capture it by the time the guard breaks free. If you’re a capper who just pulled this off, then congratulations! You are now the guard until further notice!

This type of combination isn’t limited to stealth units either. Commandos/Mercenaries have access to the Concussive Round/Concussion Missile ability which will incapacitate a target for 8 seconds.

When paired with a V-9 Seismic Grenade, they can also leave a target unable to act for up to 16 seconds. The same effect can be applied with a Guardian/Juggernaut using Awe/Intimidating Roar with a Seismic grenade!

If you see an enemy under the effects seen in the image above, please DO NOT attack them. Whoever incapacitated them likely wanted them to remain incapacitated and all of these effects are broken by damage. The incapacitated player WANTS you to attack them so they can break free and defend the console or door.

Voidstar Map Strategies

The following strategy scenarios are some that are rather common with their effectiveness depending on the placement of the enemy team. These will assume the enemy team follows the first strategy, the Standard Scenario, and explain how this can provide your team an advantage in the game. 

Standard Scenario

In the bulk of my Voidstar matches, the attacking team always seems to attack the west door first. I’m not sure why but that’s why I’m listing that as a standard scenario. Though sometimes they will start with the east side. That said, this is the expected attacking team movement for the voidstar map.

Due to the linearity of this map, there isn’t a lot of variety as they may often attack one door this moment then the other door the next moment.

Zig-Zag Stealth Scenario

This scenario is good for attacking stealth units. If you can, try to have your team attack with 7 people on one side. This will force the defending team to focus their efforts on that door. From there you must assess the other door.

If it’s guarded by 2 guards, you can wait for the other to leave or join the rest of your team to outnumber the enemies. If there’s only one guard, incapacitate them and capture the door. If you make it past, you must zig-zag your way through the map to throw off enemies, especially in Zone

In Zone 2, the defending team will have their attention drawn towards the side with the activated bridge. From there you’ll need to cloak out and head to the door on the opposite side to take advantage of the distracted defending team.

When you get to zone 3 head to the north console to deactivate the barriers and head east. The defending team will see that area deactivated and head towards the north door as it’s closer and needs immediate attention. If you bomb the east door in Zone 3, then it’s an easy trip to the datacore!