SW: The Old Republic Part 4

[Guest Slinky]

I did a couple of battlegrounds, but I thought it was strange how the levels mix. No range like WoW but completely mixed 10-40+. I was the ten, of course, and I felt sorry for my group for having a lowbie and a newbie rolled into one. Still, we won the first battleground handily and lost the next horribly, so I guess you never know what you'll get.

 

Hehe, that's SWTOR

[Calax]

Cant, what server are you rolling around on?

[Cantousent]

I just checked and I'm on Drooga's Pleasure Barge. I think it was at the top of the list and I thought, "hmmm, a pleasure barge? Could do worse." I was thinking I would reassess the server when I purchased a subscription. I'm pretty much sold, although I guess there's no hurry. I'll probably do it sometime this weekend.

 

Meanwhile, having gotten up to level 13 with my jedi guardian, I was thinking of trying either the agent or the smuggler next. I like the idea of a gunslinger type character.

 

I did karazan at level as a rogue, finished off ICC as a pally tank, and I did all the Cata raids as a healer. I was thinking I could make a tank because I think they tend to be most in demand, a ranged dps because it's nice to let go and smite folks, and a healer because I enjoy that role more than any other in end game raiding.

[Calax]

Well, the Operative uses a rifle or a sniper, no pistols (except in cutscenes), and the merc gets either single or double pistols depending on the advanced class you choose.

 

One thing you want to beware of is leveling up as a second *whatever* is probably going to be boring because you'll be doing the EXACT SAME missions as the first time.

[Cantousent]

I'm not worried about finding the quests boring. I didn't get tired of WoW because I'd done the quests before. I was tired of WoW because I'd done the quests ad nauseam. I can think of different ways I'd approach the quests for the Jedi Knight. I'm still in the honeymoon period. I don't want to go gonzo like I did for WoW, but I think getting to end-game content and trying out some of the raids would be a good thing. I don't know about using a random team generator, however. I think I'd rather find a guild, but since you can't walk ten steps in the game without some guild asking you if you want to join, I don't think that'll be a problem. I don't mind a little polite grinding in order to contribute to the guild, I just don't want to find that I let the game dictate my real life schedule. I think I can find balance with the force. :Cant's Obi-Wan expression icon:

 

I think I'm going to play a little of the Agent and go all out light side responses. I think it'd be interesting to see what I end up with in that scenario.

 

EDIT: I've been meaning to say that I think the reason your trial invite got lost, Spider, is because I used my shared acct with my wife. It's what I use for things like registering products and trial accts and the like. She says she thinks she deleted something about it as spam by accident. I'll wait til the end of the weekend to see if you want to try again in order to get the speeder or whatever it is. Frankly, you really just seemed to want to build the player base, and I can appreciate that to be sure. So, thanks for the thought, but no biggie. :Cant's broad grin icon:

Edited August 18, 2012 by Cantousent

[Calax]

*finishes his Sith Warrior storyline* Wow... I thought that would be more epic at the end there.

[Spider]

Yeah, the rewards don't matter to me. I've got plenty of speeders. I'm just glad you're liking the game.

 

If you want to play a gunslinger type character and go agent, then I suggest you go sniper, since the operative is a melee class (in spite of it having a blaster rifle, all attacks that matter are close range). Operative is great fun to play though (my main is an operative, although healer), so there's that.

[Cantousent]

My biggest complaint so far is that I can't bypass the dialogue. Maybe I missed something, but I can't see how to skip the damned stuff. Is it possible on the second run? I know Bio is always so excited about their voice over work, but I would be much happier if I could bypass the dialogue for the more boring quest lines.

[Calax]

Hit da spacebar. Seriously, you hit space and go through everything, while escape will back you entirely out of the conversation.

[Raithe]

Got my SIth Warrior to 40th.. which meant I could outfit him in some nice mixture of Armour of Savagery / Entropic Assault that I'd stocked up on via warzone commendations earned during the 30's... Currently have to decide whether to do some Taris bonus missions for the companion gear, or just head to Quesh.

 

Hm, although I'll probably take a break and push my Bounty Hunter through Voss and onto Corellia first before I do that.

[Nepenthe]

Been playing quite a bit, got actually headhunted into a guild. Probably going to do some work on my imp char, been tapping out the watchman rotation until I'm blue in the face.

 

Oh, and if someone wants an invite at all, I'll be happy to provide. I don't have enough speeders.

[Fighter]

Been trying some CS:GO. Still can't play that game. Mystifies me even after all these years.

[Labadal]

Can you complete the storylines in single player?

[Raithe]

Apart from the flashpoints and heroics, you can do pretty much everything totally solo. And even then, if you're x levels over, you can do most of the flashpoints and heroics.

 

They've geared it so that you can do each class storyline with no-one along, just for those people like enjoy that. But you can just as easily group up and handle it.

[Cantousent]

I don't mind grouping from time to time, but I tend to enjoy being a loner. I think the fact that every class apparently gets a companion makes it much much easier to solo things. When I did my Jedi Guardian, I tend to explore and kill more, so quests were easier when I finally got around to them. I think I did something similar as the Imperial Agent. I'm surprisingly happy with the Republic Trooper story line and I've gone straight through each mission. I finished all but the group quests on the planet and I'm only level 9 right now, which made a couple of the quests a little tougher to do relative to the other classes. Of course, my highest level character is level.... 12? 13? So I can't talk very authoritatively about any of them. I saw Nep's comment above and I sent him a message which means I'll have to start a new trial account and then purchase a subscription, which undoubtedly means I'll have to start over again with my characters. I don't want to take too much time leveling folks who're going to be dumped anyway. I'm going to hold off gaming until then.

 

BTW: Thanks a million, Super Cal. Like a lot of folks here probably do, I set subtitles on and then read and skip the voice over now. A couple of things I let play out, like that rat bastard... well, I don't want to give away any of the Trooper story, but some of the dialogue I just had to hear all the way through. Anyhow, if I had to listen to every second of dialogue every time, that would have ruined the game for me, so thanks again, man.

[Calax]

If you're gonna roll on Corellian Run, give a shout out and I'll join ya on a toon.

[Raithe]

Well, if you're still running on Corellian Run, I've got my assorted toon's there.

Republic have Smuggler Dhar and Jedi Knight Ehtiar, whilst Imperial Side is Sith Inquisitor Drayke, Bounty Hunter Khayul, and Sith Warrior Khael.

[Cantousent]

I'll make a toon on Corellian Run. I'll have to start over again anyhow, so what do you think, Republic or Imperial? There are story lines and voice over work I enjoy on both sides.

[Calax]

I don't really care... I've got my Guardian there, and an inquisitor, but that's really it.

[Cantousent]

...And I'm subscribed and online. I created a trooper on Corellian Run named, surprise, Cant. I plan on making a Sith Warrior. I think I'll make both dps. Later on, I'll make a tank and healer. For right now, I need to get the lay of the land and dps tends to be the simplest thing to learn.

 

EDIT: Only real regret is that I left some sort of purple drop on my level 8 trooper on the other trial acct. I don't know how rare purples are, though, so if it's not all that rare, no biggie. ...And if it is a really rare thing *shrug* no biggie. hehe

Edited August 20, 2012 by Cantousent

[Nepenthe]

EDIT: Only real regret is that I left some sort of purple drop on my level 8 trooper on the other trial acct. I don't know how rare purples are, though, so if it's not all that rare, no biggie. ...And if it is a really rare thing *shrug* no biggie. hehe

It scales to level, purple is the best for that particular level - meaning that it could be pretty useless in the grand scheme of things.

[Spider]

Pretty much. A purple that you find while leveling will typically be really good for 3-5 levels, then it'll easily be surpassed. So if you found it during the prologue, it would have lasted maybe 5 hours more or so.

 

A word of caution, if you roll a dps and is interested in doing flashpoints and such, be prepared for fairly long waiting times when using the group finder. There are many more dps players than there are healers and especially tanks, so the wait is longer for them. Especially at level 50, but it's also the case for the lower level flashpoints.

 

You still get in ques, and while I level a character and feel like doing a flashpoint, I start off by getting in a queue with the group finder and then go about my business, and typically a flashpoint will pop within 30 minutes to an hour. As long as one is patient about it, it's ok.

[Cantousent]

Oh, I've done the drill on WoW. At end game content, I like playing a healer more than anything. I just tend to enjoy feeling like I'm outside of the fighting keeping the group in the struggle. My intention is, if I find I still like the game in high levels, to make a tank and a healer. The tank because I like being useful and nothing makes you more useful than fielding a tank. The healer because that's what I want my role to be in end game raids.

[Spider]

Trooper has the advantage that with the right advanced class it's fine both as dps and healer (or dps and tank for the other one). So yeah, leveling as dps, then switching spec at the end game is a fairly good strategy.

 

Same with warrior, juggernaut can do both tank and dps, however it's dps specs are nowhere near as good as the marauder ones (although nothing apart from sniper/gunslinger is anywhere near the marauder, so there's that).

[Nepenthe]

Trooper has the advantage that with the right advanced class it's fine both as dps and healer (or dps and tank for the other one). So yeah, leveling as dps, then switching spec at the end game is a fairly good strategy.

 

Same with warrior, juggernaut can do both tank and dps, however it's dps specs are nowhere near as good as the marauder ones (although nothing apart from sniper/gunslinger is anywhere near the marauder, so there's that).

And it's worth noting that respeccing is free once per week (I have no idea how much the cost goes up, I've only done it once!)

 

As Spider said, if you like dpsing and maybe healing, both sides have alternatives that allow you to switch between the two just by respeccing (trooper and jedi consular on rep).

 

Also, it's worth pointing out (as it wasn't obvious to me), that it's the orange stuff that can be invaluable for levels. Orange gear is basically just containers for mods, and some slots (belts, bracers) are very exotic. If you don't particularly care about appearance, it's less important as you'll get better gear, but I'm still using my initial lightsaber and used the robe from the first flashpoint until last week.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Nepenthe