SW: The Old Republic - Episode VI (The Old Menace)

[Hassat Hunter]

The first (and only) time I did it was with someone who knew what's going on. I was at the controls, pressing buttons as commanded, so have no idea what the rest of the crew had to do.

Would like to replay it to learn... but, in BW's wisdom, it's one of 3 H4's that's *not* repeatable... hence giving everyone a headache never being able to find a crew for it (not to mention being stuck after long annoying solo segments, albeit switched off with some damn fine puzzle sequences. Wouldn't mind re-doing those too... without the whole hunt for droids/seeds

[Gorth]

Well, they are "repeatable", but you get no rewards whatsoever I think. Two of us ran the other two though the first heroics, despite having done it before, just so the 4 of use were at the same stage, ready to do the last one.

 

I sort of need to learn them, as I got four more level 55's (as my sniper has now dinged in at level 55 too and started on the quest) that need to do them

 

But as said, it was in the middle of the night (3 of us were from the Apac region) and we were all tired and bleary eyed, so not really thinking straight at the time.

 

But then, we also need to do the seeker droid heroics on Ilum afterwards, so practicing our team work and coordination skills as a group is probably not a bad thing.

 

Edit to add:

 

 

 

For the general "This is where we plan to go this year" news from Bruce Maclean

 

Interesting

 

Went and checked it on the official forums. More flashpoints can only be a good thing as can genuine expansions. Crossing fingers/knock on wood etc. that the longer cycle actually means more QA time. I used to buy the cartel packs (spent quite a lot of $'s), but refuse to spend a single dollar more on the new ones just released until I see them actually fixing existing bugs. Not just talking about the engine not handling robes clipping through everything (probably a middleware problem), but actual, glaring errors in modelling and mapping.

[NOK222]

2.7's two flashpoints sound interesting. I'm itching to see where they'll take this story.

 

Also another expansion this year.

Edited February 4, 2014 by NKKKK

[Maria Caliban]

I've played 350 games of Galactic Starfighter. My win percentage is 40%. The last five games I played, half my team didn't get one kill or one assist or any medals.

 

Part of me wishes that premades weren't allowed in the game. Yes, I know it's an MMORPG and people play to be social, but ease with which a premade dominates a match means flying solo isn't fun at all.

 

Part of me wishes that more Imperial (on Harbinger) could play. I mean, I know it's hard to be new, but I have no idea how half the team could be this bad.

[Guest Slinky]

People play in premades because, as you have undoubtedly noticed, pug teams tend often to be horrifying. Cthulhu level of horrifying. No matter the game. I had to stop playing World of Tanks couple years back as it was pushing me towards angry alcoholism at accelerating rate.

 

Want to lose faith in humanity? Play team based pvp game alone and enjoy.

 

 

[Spider]

I really liked GSF when it came out, thought it was just what the game needed. Another activity to spend time on while waiting for raids basically.

 

But after a few weeks I just got so tired of it and I haven't played a match since. Only having two maps available was fairly silly for one (especially since one of the maps favor the republic slightly) and both maps having the same game mode makes it worse. Though I'm not sure team deathmatch is that much more fun, at least it's something different.

 

So maybe if they add 4-5 new maps I'll get interested again, but I'm not even sure that'll be enough.

[Hassat Hunter]

^^
My experience.

 

And, well... gunships.

 

Can't say Team Deathmatch intrigues me. Like arena's in ground PvP, they actually function more as a deterent.

 

Also, new FP. Horrible. It's fun soloing... it's MADE for soloing. Yet decided to make a 4 man flashpoint out of it. And... that just doesn't work as I notice. Sadly, by the time it can become fun (since you can solo) it rewards are useless to it. Failure all around.

[Gorth]

I haven't tried the new FP yet, but hey, maybe they'll tweak it. If they created a bunch of new assets, they may as well try to adjust it to make more people happy.

 

Got peer pressured by guild into doing a "stand-in" job as DPS (which I suck at, even if respecced, as my gear is abysmal for damage dealing) in one of the dread something ops (a motley crew of chunks of people from various guilds), for a weekly thing. Just somewhere in the middle of the ops. Got the weekly alright and then kicked good by some Brontes figure, as I seemed to be the one of the few remembering the instructions, *trying* (and died trying) to kill the robots clockwise before it got zapped in one of the last phases :roll:

 

Still, the coms for the weekly were nice. I would like one day to play it from the beginning though. Started populating my new armour set with basic com mods and augments, so I can switch "on the fly" between Tank and DPS (got field respec a long time ago).

 

I'll probably transfer one of my level 55 characters to Harbinger this weekend, just to see if it works and because I don't have any connections in republic side on my current server anyway.

[Hassat Hunter]

It sounds great on paper... and all the ideas are good (lvl 15-55?, changes per run? reduces gf waiting times?)... but the execution? As said, they just made a solo sequence and let 4 people loose in it. What?

 

Hehe, Brontes (that would mean Dread Fortress, since I assume she was alone. If not, Dread Palace). I assume a lot of people die in the insta-death zap phase. It's a fun boss. Pain in DP though.

 

Just recently got some good mods for a tank setting (72+) so tried it out a bit. Since I never done it before, obviously sucked horribly, going to give a few more tries this weekend and hopefully learn more. Playing DPS I don't have 20 buffs on myself, as tank all the time. Makes it hard to figure out which to look out for and act on, and as such, haven't gotten it down.

DPS (78) works just fine though . Let's see what Dread Fortress HM brings this sunday (last time we tried we got stuck on the second boss, hope to get farther this time)...

[babaganoosh13]

The various inventory modules from the cartel shop are on sale again, I see.

 

Packing my computer up now, and taking it home. It was fun.

Edited February 10, 2014 by babaganoosh13

[Gorth]

Hope you had fun. I know I like the game, plays it way more than good is

 

Decided to put a hold on my excessive spending for a few days, just so I could get the "Fabolously/Exorbitantly Rich" achievement (or whatever that $10M+ achievement is called). Mostly my credits is spread amongst my toons, so I tried to send it to a single character.

 

According to the latest math geniuses on the forums, the most important stats for powertech tanks are all those that are *not* present in vendor gear. Defense, Shield and Absorption in that order is what to strive for. What the vendors offer is dropping the first two and get Absorption, Absorption and more Absorption. I wish Bioware would update that gear when they change game formulas. It may have been good gear in version 1.0, although I weren't around at the time to check.

mandatory weekly whinge about tank gear here>

 

They also haven't fixed the spelling error in the Oriconian demolisher (tank) implant, so it's dumped to the bottom of the list and looks like it's missing (as it isn't listed together with all the other demolisher gear).

 

Yeah, bug reported like 3 months ago, they still haven't fixed the typo in the name.

 

EditL Another bug, which I would consider in the "bizarre" category is, out of my 5 level 55 characters doing heroic space missions, my Sith Warrior has a strange bug where the Duma Strike mission gets magically replaced by Kantz Minefield overnight when logged out. Not a big deal, except it means he can't do the Duma Strike/Cha Raaba missions as a pair and get the weekend bonus. He can still get it, but he'll have to fly it twice then, the same day the first mission is available and then the same mission again without reward to get the double. Since it seems to happen consistently, I'm going to take a few screenshots of his quest log with datestamps next weekend.

[Gorth]

Double post, yay (rather than edit2 on the above).

 

Got two characters soloing the Oricon weekly now. I really need to find a guild on the Republic side of things some day. Those heroics are just too much hard work to be fun when soloing. Weekly rep cap is also a small problem (got 20 rep tokens amongst characters waiting for weekly rep reset). Only a problem for another week though, as I will have maxed out completely then. Same thing with Czerka (where you can at least us groupfinder for the flashpoints, beating heroics hands down in fun factor).

 

Just recently got some good mods for a tank setting (72+) so tried it out a bit. Since I never done it before, obviously sucked horribly, going to give a few more tries this weekend and hopefully learn more. Playing DPS I don't have 20 buffs on myself, as tank all the time. Makes it hard to figure out which to look out for and act on, and as such, haven't gotten it down.

Welcome to the wonderful world of tanking...

 

What class are you playing as tank? I've got a Powertech (main) a Shadow (only level 37 so far) and a Sith Warrior with two gear sets (tank gear is "only" the Oricon gear set for completing it plus shield, implants, saber etc.) and field respec (mostly plays as DPS, but can change to tank in a minute and a half).

 

It's very different in the group dynamics and like a spider, you meed at least 8 eyes in your head sometimes

[Spider]

Vendor gear is actively designed to be suboptimal. You need operations drops (and usually multiple copies) to get optimized gear for any class. But tanks certainly have it worse, not only is the stat distribibution fairly one sided, it's also very high endurance and low mitigation which is kinda meh.

 

Basically the only comm gear that's worth getting for a tank (looking at the ultimate tier here) is the earpiece and the offhand, and the offhand only for the armoring (I suppose one non-setbonus armoring is als ok). Healers and dps at least can get good mods, for tanks both mods and enahncements in comm gear is universally crap.

[Hassat Hunter]

Shadow.

 

Haven't really played more with it though... having a large break; not missing the game much...

[Gorth]

Weekly whinge about vendor tank gear time...

 

I took a look at the official swtor forums, in particular KeyboardNinja's tables for mathematically optimal stat distribution based on your available point budget.

 

Lets just say, life isn't fair. At least, for all my whinging, Juggernats/Guardians are even worse off. The gear on the other hand is tailor made for Shadows/Assassins and seem usable with very few changes (because their skills give them naturally high defense values, so the gear being way top heavy on absorption is actually a boon).

 

Ah well, my shadow tank is now level 40 and getting there. It will be a relief actually being able to just buy and use the mods from the gear.

 

Spent $10M on GTN to replace a number of enhancements (the junk ones full of  accuracy and alacrity) and my barrel to get a way better stat distribution. Still need to boost Defense, but at least it's getting close to 20% (and shield at 40%, damage reduction at 50.5%)

[Hassat Hunter]

I suppose that somewhat makes up for them ruining shadow as DPS... my main... :/

[Maria Caliban]

[Dialogue from every Heroic 4 I've been in]

 

"I'm putting a shield marker on the mob I'm going to CC."

"Okay."

"Don't attack it or use an AOE attack."

"Okay."

"Focus your fire on the mob with the orange gun marker."

"Okay."

 

*Tank leaps to mob with orange gun marker*

*I CC mob with blue shield marker*

*DPS opens fire on mob I just CCed.*

 

I have noticed that pure DPS classes are the most likely to do this. An operative/smuggler or guardian/juggernaut will often play smarter than a sentinel/marauder or a gunslinger/sniper.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Maria Caliban

[Raithe]

To be fair, I've often noted the autotarget has a habit of jumping to any CC'd enemies as the guy you were targeting died. And quite often that's just as you're hitting a button to send an attack and you find that original target is dead and the attack's occurred before you can control that target switch...

[Gorth]

Heh, don't get me started on companion AI (Artificial Idiocy?)... Happens regularly that companions not only break my CC as their very first action (melee tank/dps easier to micromanage), but the ranged companions will occasionally run far away and aggro sometimes very distant mobs, dragging you into a lot more fights than intended :roll:

 

But yeah, some single purpose specs players do seem to lack a bit of perspective. A personal put peeve is marauders/sentinels who is under the delusion that rushing and jumping, constantly aggroing mobs half a map away (especially bad in CZ flashpoints) somehow makes it go faster. Guess what, it takes longer to complete when the other 3 guys have to walk the entire way at 50% speed and no, you can't kill the mobs faster single handed compared to a team of 4 pouring fire into them. Idiots.

[ShadySands]

[Dialogue from every Heroic 4 I've been in]

 

"I'm putting a shield marker on the mob I'm going to CC."

"Okay."

"Don't attack it or use an AOE attack."

"Okay."

"Focus your fire on the mob with the orange gun marker."

"Okay."

 

*Tank leaps to mob with orange gun marker*

*I CC mob with blue shield marker*

*DPS opens fire on mob I just CCed.*

 

I have noticed that pure DPS classes are the most likely to do this. An operative/smuggler or guardian/juggernaut will often play smarter than a sentinel/marauder or a gunslinger/sniper.

 

I go through this with my wife every single time we play

 

I gotta say it does make it more entertaining if sometimes a little frustrating

[Humanoid]

I did no group content at all during my time in TOR so I'm amazed that crowd control gets used at all. By the end of my time with WoW it certainly felt like an obsolete concept except for a few novelty fights.

[Gorth]

In some hard fights, it's the difference between win and wipe. E.g. got two "Elite" turrets pointing at you? Stun one with "Slice Droid" and your party only takes 50% of the incoming damage for the next 60 seconds. Often invaluable (and often screwed up by gung-ho players, causing the entire party to die).

 

Shadow/Assassin tanks have a stun that doesn't even trigger combat, so the entire party can pick a fight on their terms... until above mentioned tunnel visioned individuals forget all about proper kill order (easiest to kill first, then harder etc.) and aggroes all the strongest enemies first.

 

So yeah, crowd control is very useful and often ignored by players with no clue how to tackle group content. Almost as bad are healers screaming for tank to put guard on them... seriously, somebody need to read the tooltip and understand how threat/aggro tables work. It does absolutely nothing *useful* for a healer and is wasted as it could have been put on a dps instead. Ah well, I know several good healers, teaming up with one of them from my guild regularly.

[Maria Caliban]

I'm soloing a Heroic 2+ with my sexy British healbot and half way through two other players charge on in and drop me an invite. I accept and healbot is dismissed for lizardman tanking companion. 

 

The heroic gets harder.

 

The lizardman tank has an AOE that he uses to break my CCs. The sentinel pulls instead of the lizardman tank. Despite being higher level, both of the other players are weaklings and I suspect lizardman tank has crap armor on, so I constantly have to heal them, which means I have more mobs shooting at me than lizardman tank or sentinel McPulling.

 

Eventually, I stop healing and focus on burning down the weaker mobs as quickly as possible. After they die, there's usually only an elite and a strong left so I use my CC then and finish them off.

[Spider]

To be fair, I've often noted the autotarget has a habit of jumping to any CC'd enemies as the guy you were targeting died. And quite often that's just as you're hitting a button to send an attack and you find that original target is dead and the attack's occurred before you can control that target switch...

 

Yeah, that's why you turn auto targeting off.

[Gorth]

Finally completed my first Binocular quest and got my just reward... a pair of binoculars

 

Not sure I'm going to go through this for all my toons though. Figuring out the mechanics was half the fun, but after a bit of trial and error and paying a bit attention, we eventually worked out the various obstacles.

 

The story ending was bad though. Not going to spoil it other than say I was disappointed.

 

Ah well, Seeker Droid is next I think. Time to get the gang together and head to Ilum.