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SW: The Old Republic - Episode VII (J.J. Strikes Back)


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Mechanically, no

 

You only need 7 in total to be able to have 1 with you and 6 on missions... if that is your only concern

 

For me this is KOTOR 3 so I want to experience all the companions and story

 

 

PS I spent a few hours trying to get a group together for Alchemy of Evil today but went in alone when I got no takers. I kept dying at the turret generator with it 87.5% powered up. Not sure why exactly but it would just go boom on me.

 

PPS I also found that I couldn't progress the Voss bonus series due to another missing quest giver just like Alderaan

Edited by ShadySands

Free games updated 3/4/21

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I can understand rewarding PVPers and I think that it is cool that they can get Pierce/M1-4X right away for being valor 40 or above but I don't think that making those people below that do 20 warzones (with wins counting for 2) is rewarding for anyone.... except maybe premades looking for easy prey. I can maybe understand why they thought it would be a good idea on paper but in practice you have a lot of PVEers either flailing about miserably or just sitting the whole match out which isn't very fun for them or everyone else.

 

I dunno, I don't think it's working as intended judging by the hate for it from both sides

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Yeah, but that's my point. If PVP isn't fun for you, you can easily skip out on one companion and not suffer for it.

 

Basically, you'll have to decided which is stronger, your desire to collect them all or your loathing of pvp.

there is already considerable unique rewards for pvp, yes?

 

the thing is, the pvp crowd is short-tempered, which is somewhat understandable given the unique nature o' wz.  the duration o' a wz is relative brief with fast-pace action that is unforgiving to a new player. clear win and losses and individual stats is recorded and displayed which heightens the predictable nerd rage resulting from being handicapped with pvp incompetents who is only present to acquire peirce & 4x.  wins also reduce number o' wz needed for the "weekly" so getting a pvp n00b in your group is annoying to the die-hard pvp player.  

 

regardless, it should been obvious that throwing pvp lambs in 'mongst the pvp wolves would cause discontent 'mongst both the lambs and the wolves. 

 

*shrug*

 

as an aside, Gromnir has now run through esseles with t7, qyzen and corso, and am confused by the resulting influence numbers.  choose all possible approval for t7 gets you right 'bout 7000 influence.  qyzen results in 5400... maybe a bit more as we gotta check 2 conversations to make certain we ain't flubbing 1 or 2 approvals.  corso is ~3500.  the thing is, previous to 4.0, t7 and qyzen were providing same affection gains: 455.  corso were relatively weak on influence gains with a mere 380, and jorgan actual were the king o' pre 4.0 affection with a 515 affection gain.  

 

black talon, btw, provided max o' +455 affection for all companions pre 4.0.  have not done serious farming o' bt influence, so am not certain what is the new totals, but from our limited experiments, we were not garnering uniform results from bt as we did in the past.

 

oh, and as one would expect, maxing affection/influence would result in 250 light side gain for all esseles runs.  kaliyo and khem were getting dark for bt with vette and mako being light.  am recollecting that the light or dark awards were actual a bit less for bt than esseles.  200 sounds right, but we didn't' bother to pay attention.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps  just noticed what the problem were with qyzen-- we weren't getting the legacy perk bonuses for dialogues.  am not sure if is a bug specific to the character or the companion.  since 4.0, we always take the legacy o' altruism and legacy o' persuasion perks.  that should give us +30% for dialogues and gifting.  inexplicable, we weren't getting on our qyzen esseles run(s).  will try with a different consular.

 

pps  after checking on a different character, qyzen gets 7020 influence from 1 run of esseles. am not certain why we cant get max influence on our other consular.

Edited by Gromnir

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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I hope it's a bug, but none of your old love affairs seems to appreciate courting gifts anymore. Those who had courting gifts as an "alternative" still love the alternatives, but couldn't care less about courting. Still hanging on to a pile of old purple courting gifts in case it's a bug that gets fixed. Trying to play one faction side through the missions on a couple of servers (bounty hunter/trooper on Harbinger, Jedi Consular/Sith Inquititor on Jedi Covenant etc.)

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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I hope it's a bug, but none of your old love affairs seems to appreciate courting gifts anymore. Those who had courting gifts as an "alternative" still love the alternatives, but couldn't care less about courting. Still hanging on to a pile of old purple courting gifts in case it's a bug that gets fixed. Trying to play one faction side through the missions on a couple of servers (bounty hunter/trooper on Harbinger, Jedi Consular/Sith Inquititor on Jedi Covenant etc.)

yeah, the problem with a few o' the romance companions is that they do not have a loving it option until romanced.  providing gifts, even with the 10k cap pre 4.0, were less efficacious with many o' the non-romanced-but-romanceable options.  kira for knight and risha for smuggler is prime examples. risha and kira love luxury, but only once you is romancing 'em.  sadly, the romance gift trigger no longer... triggers.  so, if for some reason you wanna bolster influence with kira, risha, doc, etc, you will have a more expensive route.

 

there is also a few core characters who simple do not have a love option for gifts.  is typical the early companions.  qyzen is the most obvious example for Gromnir as we were experimenting with the consular.  qyzen has weapons as a favorite, but no love.  the second available consular companion is theran and he has a favorite o' technology, but he loves luxury.  

 

dunno.  am not certain the developers fully considered their influence scheme.  

 

regardless, esseles and bt runs provide the largest single companion influence rewards in the game.  skip as much combat as possible and do a speed run can result in a very quick esseles and bt mission... is even faster for stealthy characters.  a ~7000 reward is nothing to sneeze at, particularly once you hit level 40 influence with a companion.  tier 6 gifts that cost 30 common crystals apiece is providing only a fraction o' the influence you would gain from an influence optimized esseles or bt run.

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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there is also a few core characters who simple do not have a love option for gifts.  is typical the early companions.  qyzen is the most obvious example for Gromnir as we were experimenting with the consular.  qyzen has weapons as a favorite, but no love.

Heh, Ashara for female inquisitors (my old assassin tank girl) springs to mind. She hates everything (or at least it felt so when levelling up). Had to buy a lot of purple junk to boost her affection pre-4.0

 

I'm a bit envious of your 7k+ affection. Only had time for one run, the aforementioned 4500 affection points for Mako. May need to practise a bit and see which companions reacts more strongly to certain answers (if at all). I suspect it's a better tool for some companions than others. but then, you really only need 1 or 2 maxed out companions (for the crits in crafting and gathering missions).

 

The data miner guy claims that companion healing is due for a nerf tomorrow. If so, glad I did get my one for all achievement already (and Macroth on the harbinger now has the title 'The One and Only'... yes vanity, not a nice trait, I know) tongue.png

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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Here is a guide on getting max affection

 

It's pre 4.0 so the numbers are much lower but the options haven't changed

we can say with certainty that some o' those "12" or "13" for qyzen is wrong, but not in a harmful way.  based on the format used in that guide, a few  o' those double-digit numbers should be changed to "0." 

 

good guide though and we will use when we level our powertech or sniper on harbinger.  thanks for sharing.

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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Looks like a big nerf to companions in the new patch but I can't say I'm surprised since they really were much better healers and could do more damage than a player ever could 

 

I have been stockpiling crates for my Jedi Guardian who is the next character I'm going to put through KOFTE

 

 

PS I hope the next chapters are longer/have more content

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Looks like a big nerf to companions in the new patch but I can't say I'm surprised since they really were much better healers and could do more damage than a player ever could 

 

I have been stockpiling crates for my Jedi Guardian who is the next character I'm going to put through KOFTE

 

 

PS I hope the next chapters are longer/have more content

the patch notes and developer board clarifications is a bit confusing... or not so much confusing as perplexing.  there is a nerf to companion's base healing, but benefits from boosting influence has actual become more significant?  is an odd approach to companion healing (and damage) overkill.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps guardian tanks is solid at the moment, but vigilance is a head scratcher.  am recalling the ridiculous pvp power o' smash juggs and guardians in an old build.  focus guardians and juggs would simple jump into largest concentration o' foes and release the kraken-- aoe stuns and op damage.  no fair.  smash were predictable nerfed and focus became a meh tree for guardians and juggs.  is odd, but is 4.0 vigilance that is making us recollect ye bad olde smash juggs and guardians.  vigilance guardian may now be the 4.0 aoe dps grand poobah.  vigilance?  plasmatech aoe damage were spiffy in 3.0, but 4.0 guardian may be superior as it is so ez to spam your aoe.  regardless, is just plain weird that vigilance is the aoe damage dealer for a 4.0 guardian. 

Edited by Gromnir
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"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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the companion healers have been nerfed hard.  am not sure how some folks with lower presence is gonna complete the makeb heroics solo.

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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Can you still solo star fortresses?

 

Can't check because it's still updating

in our first attempt, we used a newish 65 dps in mostly 208 gear and a heal companion with 49 influence, and got murderlized in star fortress when facing a named champ.

 

kinda funny.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps am not sure we would even try again at this point 'less we had a bubble sage.  

 

pps had better luck playing a well-geared tank... as a dps we would need cc and some survivability talents as our 49 and 50 influence healers is less efficacious than they were when they were geared with the purple 192 gear from the yavin weeklies.

Edited by Gromnir

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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Luckily you only need to do each of the 6 SF's once per toon, so I guess as far as I am concerned, I can survive actually teaming up with another human for that.

 

The whinging is strong on the bioforums at the moment though. Sudden shock and horror at discovering that they may have to use the solo mode for soloing SF's didn't sit well with a lot of people (also a bit funny watching the same 3-4 people constantly spamming the threads with the same message).

 

Personally, I'm more pissed off that the Find a Findsman quest is broken now, so my trooper can't start looking for companions. Broken the same way as Mako's All Work and No Play companion quest, you pick up the mission and only get the title No tasks and no quest triggers.

 

They seriously need to invest more in QA "over there".

 

I think I filed at least 30 bug reports from major nuisances to downright game stopping bugs the last 3 weeks.

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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I finally tried a heroic SF and it took me about 40 - 50 minutes instead of the 20 - 30 it took me last week. It's not terrible but for grinding such "samey" content it's pretty bad. I also died twice, once to a champion paladin and once to a gold knight, and I had to make liberal use of heroic moment and the specialist items/abilities.

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I finally tried a heroic SF and it took me about 40 - 50 minutes instead of the 20 - 30 it took me last week. It's not terrible but for grinding such "samey" content it's pretty bad. I also died twice, once to a champion paladin and once to a gold knight, and I had to make liberal use of heroic moment and the specialist items/abilities.

 

Unlike planetary heroics, I don't think the H2+ SFs are meant to be done solo as a matter of course: that's why there's two achievements for it, one with buffs and one without. With anoher player it's a 20' run, which isn't so bad.

 

I did two unbuffed runs on a jugg with a mix of craptastic 186-216 gear, had to switch from Vengeance to Immortal for the final segment (from the ambush in the holo room on), otherwise damage and threat become unmanageable. I died a few times because I'm a baddie and kept resetting the encounter with the Exarch in the third room until I realized I need to kill the elites first. Funny, neither the Exarchs, nor the Paladins I've encountered hit nearly as hard as the single-saber Zakuul Knights.

 

Took me a good long hour for each run, but I had a lot of fun. Not something I intend to do on a regular basis, though.

Edited by 213374U

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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I still don't understand why they made the h2 versions of the star fortress in the first place. they would for me have been obvious candidates for tactical flashpoints and the option to used group finder to complete that one off you need to do for each planetary sf to unlock the companion (and then grind the solo versions afterwards)

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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I still don't understand why they made the h2 versions of the star fortress in the first place. they would for me have been obvious candidates for tactical flashpoints and the option to used group finder to complete that one off you need to do for each planetary sf to unlock the companion (and then grind the solo versions afterwards)

dunno, but bio kinda backed themselves into the corner by stating that all h2s should be soloable and that folks should respond following 4.02 if a particular h2 were not... not soloable.  we took a newish vigilance guardian in 192 and 208 gear through h2 star fortress with a 49 influence comp.  now admittedly we likely chose a tough scenario as guardians is melee, got no cc and vigilance is now an aoe spec, but we got destroyed fighting the champs.   sure our influence rank with alliance recruiters were non existent, so no specialist items, but had (have) high presence, am knowing what we are doing... particularly on a guardian.  am also gonna note that a couple h2s on various planets (but particularly makeb) were indeed soloable for our fresh 65 jedi knight, but they were not easy.  am certain that a couple o' h2s would not be soloable for more than a few folks with less presence and experience.

 

we didn't have same dying problem with a tanky guardian, but the sf missions take a considerable amount o' time on a tank when comp is set to heals.  

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited by Gromnir

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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dunno, but bio kinda backed themselves into the corner by stating that all h2s should be soloable

Yeah, I noticed that. It's a heck of a lot of foot to fit in one mouth :sweat:

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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I'm guessing a lot of people can't solo them at all now since there were always people asking for help* on my server even with the super companions

 

I'm decently geared in 216/220 but it's still a bit of a slog since the enemies have so much health and hit so hard and I'm in light armor. I switched from lightning to madness for more healing and kiting but it still takes a while

 

 

*I mean help like they can't beat the exarch or knights or what have you and not just people looking for groups

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Well they didn't say they had to be "easily" soloable... ;)

 

Musco specifically stated that some heroics would indeed be "more challenging" after the patch. The SFs are still technically soloable, but then again, so are HM Flashpoints. The fact that there is a [sOLO] version of the instance should be a good indication that the H2+ version is on the harder side by design, but people who were clearing it by relying on massive companion overheals and now can't are understandably pissed.

 

Still, it's hard to dispute that "bait and switch" is a good way to describe the way this has been handled. They only came out with an announcement previous to the patch because dataminers had discovered and made public what they said amounted to a 70% nerf in companion heals. BW really needs to work on the way they engage the community. And this is coming from someone who actually doesn't mind the changes.

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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