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

[Spider]

Granted I haven't played WoW in years, but after group finder was introduced it never took as long as it takes in SWTOR. After they introduced cross server group finder and double speccing I never had wait more than mere minutes as a dps.

 

I think the main reason is bad group design. WoW has 1 tank, 1 healer and 3 dps while SWTOR has only 2 dps per group. 

 

Also, Esseles is the very first flashpoint on republic side. 

 

Waiting for raids in WOW at the moment when solo-queing as dps can lead to wait time up to half an hour to an hour. But sometimes it's faster. It varies a lot.

 

And sorry, misread Coruscant for Cordellia, so thought you were lvl 50.

 

So if no one is lining up for Esseles, then 12x xp probably is a bigger reason. Although it is kinda dumb that they force you into a group of 4 for what is balanced for 2 people (and can be soloed at level with some classes). At least it doesn't require tank and healer anymore I think (been so long since I did any of them)

[Gorth]

At least it doesn't require tank and healer anymore I think (been so long since I did any of them)

Correct, it's the progenitor of the "tactical" flashpoints and changed specifically because of Queue times and skills at Level 10-15 is a joke. Healers and tanks are no more healers and tanks than their dps Team members with off-tanking and off-healing capability. An oddity of the soon to be defunct skill tree System that they had to move role specific capabilities higher and higher up the trees to prevent all powerful hybrid specs (meaning roles are pretty much just a tag you get until reaching Level something like Level 30).

 

@Gromnir: Harbinger... I have a handful toons there and a single Level 55 dps commando I transferred there. Not that I really play my commando, but I used it to see if character transfer worked (because it sure didn't work verý well when we got kicked out of the Apac servers) and get all the unlocks and class buffs for the toons I started leveling up there. I might just look you up some day, although it probably wont be until end of 12x xp (early December iirc). Maybe i should respec the commando to healer. I read that cou can drop the silly looking assault cannons as they are not needed for healing capabilities.

[Gorth]

Just read the lastest developer post on the SWTOR Forums. Good Thing I didn't try very hard to use GF lately. They are indeed making all existing gear and commendations in your inventory obsolete, putting everyone back to the starting point. Also managed to Speed up crafting selling off most of my stock of "current" high end stuff, like Augments, Augment kits etc. (while still getting current premium Prices) as they are going to be the second rate, forgettable ones after 3.0

 

Edit: Should they change their minds and not introduce mk-10 kits and a new higher rating augment family, no skin off my nose, I still got a gazillion credits and can make new ones over time.

[Gorth]

Blowing dust off old thread...

 

Been doing exactly one L55 HM FP and one Toborro Courtyard since the last post (guildies needed a tank for both to get a few conquest points).

 

I must say I'm being rather sceptical regarding the whole "discipline" system at the moment. I can understand the reason behind it because of the raised Level cap, but considering that they never managed to fix the feeling of L50 game with 5 levels slapped on top of it, slapping another 5 levels on top of the previous 5 Levels (that already felt like they "didn't" belong), maybe adding more levels isn't going to make the game more enjoyable.

 

Ah well, time will tell. In the meantime, I'm playing as many alts as possible to Level 50 or thereabouts, not bothering with anything that gives classic coms or better.

 

Started playing on Harbinger too, leveling up alts there. Since the latest cartel packs had some stuff that was ridiculous expensive (and rare) and not wanting to pay 5000+ CC's for a big crate with little or no chance of getting it, I simply shipped a toon with 10M credits to Harbinger and did a bit of shopping. That cost me 1800 CC (for the transfer) and 2x240CC (approx) to do the account unlock the two armour sets bought for 1/4th of the GTN Price compared to where the toon came from (Begeren Colony) and no gambling involved whether I got the pieces or not (and Bioware still gets a few real world Dollars).

[Gorth]

So, 3.0 hit the street. Only tried it for a handful hours and...

 

Was completely underwhelmed. Technical issues I expected, so my expectations were well "managed" in that regard. No biggie, the next 20 hotfixes released the next 10 days will probably address the worst of the perfomance, stability etc. stuff.

 

Story has been unengaging so far. Didn't really expect anything extraordinary when they had to fall back on the Revan name.

 

Worst part is the feeling of having wasted the last year gearing up though. Effecively bombed back to the stone age and I just can't find the motivation to do it all over again.

 

Not because I don't like progress and gearing up would feel like improvement, but because whoever genius designed the expansion got the idea that you have to do it all over to get back to were you were a few days ago. It's not good psychology.

 

Nevermind the new skill and utility system whose main purpose seems to make the choice of class irrelevant as the goal now seems to be to make the all "play and feel" the same.

 

There are pretty much 3 advanced classes now, dps, tank and healer.

 

Only good thing I can say about 3.0 at the moment is, I had a blast with the 12x xp boost, just playing class stories for a few weeks.

[ShadySands]

I like the return of class quests even though I mourn the passing of hybrid builds

[213374U]

So, the end boss fight, the highlight encounter of the xpac is bugged and "can be rendered impossible to complete in many cases". Bravo. /golfclap

 

This, on top of the completely ridiculous lag and other pleasant occurrences should be a good reminder to never again deviate from my policy of waiting for stuff to go through a few patches before getting and avoid release days like the plague.

 

And now they are announcing that ability training costs are going away, triggering a -somewhat justified- riot from players that feel screwed over by an early access that should have more appropriately been labeled "open beta".

 

Personally, I'm not very impressed with the expansion myself. The new animations are uninspired with very few exceptions, the Disciplines system is nothing to write home about and appears designed solely so they don't have to account for hybrid builds, which seem to be wrecking ranked PVP (heh). The story doesn't feel especially compelling, although maybe I'm just tired of Revan and wish they'd put the character to rest for good. No new PVP content and meta favoring certain classes in PVP even harder than before 3.0 complete a rather disappointing experience for me.

 

I'm thinking it's entirely possible that the problems aren't so much with the game as with me, and this is simply a case of MMO burnout. But after going through all class stories I feel the game has little else to offer and no amount of cosmetic gear or new ops can change that...

[213374U]

So, the end boss fight, the highlight encounter of the xpac is bugged and "can be rendered impossible to complete in many cases". Bravo. /golfclap

 

So, despite this, I managed to complete the encounter by following the instructions of some of the brave beta testers in the SWTOR boards. The ending was more or less the same quality as the rest of the expansion, and, as expected, the plot completely destroys any real RP options for a Sith Warrior.

 

So far I'm actually liking the "feel" of the gameplay in 3.0, TTK seems to have gone down with everything dying faster but mobs, especially strongs, dealing more damage. This is from 55 on, as I have no lowbies at the moment. I played through the whole expansion with a set of augmented rating 156 gear, and I really don't see this damage nerf people are complaining about.

 

Also, other than buying entry level 55 gear, is there any use for basic comms at 55? What is the point of allowing a comm cap overflow if you can't buy anything useful with them until you hit 60 and any earned over the cap are lost? genius.jpg

Edited December 8, 2014 by 213374U

[Gorth]

I saw the damage nerf to a limited degree, doing some 55 HM FP's (the 2 CZ ones). Dps friends who normally dont have a problem managed to have the droid in the water enraging. Healing has also been notably nerfed (just a guess based on "feel" by around 30% at least). Oh, and mobs? Those mobs guarding the terminals towards the end of Meltdown killed my poor tank in their *opening* salvo

 

Yeah, just jumping in doesn't work anymore, better get your defensive measures up first, then throw accuracy and damage debuffs on them as first order of the day, then burn them down. It is actually fun not just wading through them (that was my old powertech tank at level 55 and in optimised 180 and dread forged) gear

 

I completed Rishi on my assassin tank and made my first level 60 with that one. Trying to decide if I should do Yavin next, level up my powertech tank next or also push a republic character through the process (got a guardian tank and a dps scoundrel as candidates there, as they are the only ones being close to finish makeb, i like to take those things "chronologically").

[213374U]

I saw the damage nerf to a limited degree, doing some 55 HM FP's (the 2 CZ ones). Dps friends who normally dont have a problem managed to have the droid in the water enraging. Healing has also been notably nerfed (just a guess based on "feel" by around 30% at least). Oh, and mobs? Those mobs guarding the terminals towards the end of Meltdown killed my poor tank in their *opening* salvo

 

Yeah, just jumping in doesn't work anymore, better get your defensive measures up first, then throw accuracy and damage debuffs on them as first order of the day, then burn them down. It is actually fun not just wading through them (that was my old powertech tank at level 55 and in optimised 180 and dread forged) gear

 

That may actually be a bug.

 

I haven't done any group content since 3.0 because I only pug and want to get a better hang of how specs flow before taking up the pug life again where it's carry or wipe, so YMMV. The damage nerf was intended and I have experienced no problems through the new content, but perhaps they *forgot* to adjust older content to new damage and healing outputs. I've heard that HM 55s are basically impossible to complete in "recommended" gear now because of that. Another example that the expansion was rushed. In the same vein, they are taking the servers down today to deploy another patch. Yes, after doing that yesterday.

 

Also, you made it to 60 on Rishi? I finished Yavin and was half a bar short of 60, and I popped XP boosts before accepting stacks of 3 rewards. How?!

 

edit: wrong links, bleh

Edited December 10, 2014 by 213374U

[Gorth]

Also, you made it to 60 on Rishi? I finished Yavin and was half a bar short of 60, and I popped XP boosts before accepting stacks of 3 rewards. How?!

Not sure exactly how, but I suppose a mix of rest xp, 3 hour xp boosts on cooldown, doing the flashpoints (soloed manaan and rakata leading up to it, the two Rishi ones with guildies in a group) and the side missions(everything except the one with the meat tree). Dinged in at 60 when getting the last reward telling me to go to Yavin. I'll double check when i get home, as it's possible I also had the legacy xp boosts from when I started that toon 2 years ago.

 

Edit: The legacy xp adds 30% xp on top of everything else for most activities if maxed out.

[Gorth]

Nope, no legacy xp. Just doing the flashpoints multiple times.

My assassin tank is now on Yavin and have to chose between an ops or a solo mode. I picked the "I'll decide later" option.

My powertech tank is not far behind, almost done with Rishi and level 59 (that one does have the legacy exp boost).

Started on pubside too, just wanted my smuggler to finish Ilum first. Skipped Makeb. Both Ilum and Makeb are mindnumbingly boring when you've done them a few times

The start on Rishi was fun. When facing the Rodian gunslinger, in true Han Solo style, one of your dialogue options is simply "Shoot First!". Made me laugh. Greedo Gorro never saw it coming

[213374U]

Nope, no legacy xp. Just doing the flashpoints multiple times.

 

My assassin tank is now on Yavin and have to chose between an ops or a solo mode. I picked the "I'll decide later" option.

 

My powertech tank is not far behind, almost done with Rishi and level 59 (that one does have the legacy exp boost).

 

Started on pubside too, just wanted my smuggler to finish Ilum first. Skipped Makeb. Both Ilum and Makeb are mindnumbingly boring when you've done them a few times

 

The start on Rishi was fun. When facing the Rodian gunslinger, in true Han Solo style, one of your dialogue options is simply "Shoot First!". Made me laugh. Greedo Gorro never saw it coming

 

I take it you spam them for guild runs or something. I find "tacticals" really boring so I don't do them any more than I need to. And the new 60 HMs are bugged as far as loot goes so I'm not bothering either, concentrating on leveling alts and crafting skills instead.

 

You can do the end boss solo mode now and finish the story — the bug has been fixed and it can be completed. The ops is different. Also there is a weekly that simply repeats that instance in solo mode, so better get used to it, heh.

 

I didn't like the whole pirate-y thing in Rishi very much, to be honest, but I suppose that running through the story with a scoundrel or bounty hunter probably makes more sense. I still don't understand why they assumed that "pirate" means "Pirates of the Caribbean" when drawing inspiration for the outfits you get from quests. It's funny because not a single NPC in the whole expansion wears that, and the gear from packs is totally different too. Oh well, free credits at least.

[Gorth]

I actually liked both of the new planetoids (comparing them to the old planets would be too flattering, size wise).

 

It was fun seeing the golfer again on the beach of Rishi. Normally he is found on Oricon where he practises his drive against one of the ship wrecks. One of those little easter eggs i suppose. There was also something that looked like a female Hulk, big, green and muscular girl in a yellow swimsuit.

 

Yes, the 17th and 18th century swashbuckling outfits were probably overdoing it a bit

 

The resource nodes on Yavin 4 are insane. I've done the daily twice now and pick up between 150k and 300k credits through slicing in less than 60 minutes. Then I noticed that one of my new pet peeves is going to be addressed, CZ flash points will be back in groupfinder so it's possible to queue for them to complete CZ weekly. Soloing Oricon (including heroics) was easy at level 55. It's a formality at level 60, so together with CZ its a small source of elite commendations. Not that commendation gear is worth buying anyway btw. If the old com gear was bad, this is somebodys idea of pointing fingers at players while laughing.

 

Edit: I guess I should end on a positive note, while i like the new places, one, they are new which is a quality all in itself. Two, they feel larger than Oricon and CZ and lack the insane mob density of those (and Makeb, which was awful at release). Landscape is beautiful. Another quick travel points/taxi on Rishi wouldn't hurt. Actually, adding a lot more stuff to do on Rishi wouldn't hurt as it's drop dead gorgeous to run around and explore.

[Gorth]

So, 3.0 hit the street. Only tried it for a handful hours and...

 

Was completely underwhelmed. Technical issues I expected, so my expectations were well "managed" in that regard. No biggie, the next 20 hotfixes released the next 10 days will probably address the worst of the perfomance, stability etc. stuff.

 

Story has been unengaging so far. Didn't really expect anything extraordinary when they had to fall back on the Revan name.

 

Worst part is the feeling of having wasted the last year gearing up though. Effecively bombed back to the stone age and I just can't find the motivation to do it all over again.

 

Not because I don't like progress and gearing up would feel like improvement, but because whoever genius designed the expansion got the idea that you have to do it all over to get back to were you were a few days ago. It's not good psychology.

I guess I'm gone from underwhelmed to throwing the towel in the ring...

 

If the adding of 5 additional levels in RotHC was bad, multiply it by a factor 3. Before 3.0 it felt like you had two games, a good game going from levels 1-50 and then a never seemless appearing addition of "end game" levels and grinding at 55. Another 5 levels didn't help making the game feel more "consistent". If they couldn't find a way to make the old extra levels feel tighter integrated to the game in 2 years, I doubt the new 5 levels are going to fare any better.

 

Quite telling I haven't played a single HM FP yet, as there is simply no incentive. It was bad enough I skipped those 4 fps when they were tacticals and easy as they were simply boring and uninteresting story wise. Adding more mechanics is not going to help when you don't get any rewards you can use for anything.

 

Which sort of brings me to the next point, whoever genius decided to invalidate all old gear and try to get people to hang around and grind a few more years may have shot himself in the foot, in my case, not going to happen. It doesn't help that most of the grind rewards are basic and elite coms and guess what?... you have nothing to spend them on (other as companion gear). Fleet vendor gear is now worse than ever and I did the math, the blue 178 gear you get when doing Rishi is *better* (less endurance more mititaion) than the elite com 192 gear you can buy (at least as a tank). Which means, the only way to progress is to complete (buggy) operations and hope for lucky loot rolls, rinse and repeat. That, or buy stuff for cool, hard credits from crafters.

 

Completed Yavin 4 with a handful toons and got their companions in shiny new 186 garbage gear, at least those who had old blue 148 mods. Banged my head a bit against the desk on Yavin 4 with the ridiculous resource nodes, picking up half a million credits every time through slicing. So much for trying to stop inflation. Only skill Bioware seems to hate is archeology, because most spawn points are the worthless colour crystals. They can't spell either. The material is called Ruusan and the resource nodes are spelled Russan (crystals). Seriously? As bad as the oriconian tank implant which I reported the wrongly spelled name 2 years ago. Not a priority apparently

 

Companion gear at rating 192?... nice. Except the big blades for your melee aim tank companions are botched. Named differently, yet identical (wrong for both tank and dps) stats and waaay too little stat budget compared to the rest of the companion gear. Very likely to never get fixed.

 

So, gone back to playing low level toons, enjoying low level stuff, even playing the odd warzone. Having loved the game for a long time, it seems like it's going on the backburner now. Didn't help that my usual friend circle got so pissed off at the gear changes that they all 3 left the game for good, taking part of the fun out of the game.

[Raithe]

Put a final burst in, skipped the non-class missions on the latter half of Voss and Corellia to wrap up my Agent's class storyline.  That was fairly entertaining, with some interesting twists back and forth.

The only one I have left to push through now is the Trooper, have to decide whether I want to sink the time in to get that done...

[Gorth]

Agent was my favourite story lines, but as a matter of taste etc. I quite liked the trooper story. Completely unrealistic of course, but it's a bit like the game version of The Dirty Dozen (or half dozen in this case).

 

Plot spoiler warning:

 

Chapter 1.

 

 

You start out as the only loyal special forces member after the rest of your squad turns traitor and joins the empire.

 

 

Chapter 2 & 3

 

 

Is you being tasked with rebuilding the squad, finding your team members/companions on the various planets and ends up going on your special mission (which was decently done involving your whole team)

 

 

No idea if you care about in-game romances, but the most interesting one was the one you couldn't get (as a male trooper). You'll know when you get there.

[Raithe]

Well way back when, when they did the big pre-release  "weekend" beta I spent the time playing the Trooper and got to about 2/3 of the way through Tatooine.

With my current Trooper I'm just wrapping up Tatooine, so now I'm ready for the fresh story of it all.

 

I have to admit, now that I've completed all the other class storylines, I've kind of poked a bit at the end-game stuff, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to throw in my subscription shortly.

I'll have a push to finish off my Trooper and  I'll be done unless there's anything really interesting added.  I liked how they had the whole "you can play solo, or you can play socially to do this game, all the classes have that option."  but the moment you hit the end-game, it's all operations and serious guild/large groups of friends playing the game. Otherwise there's just a few things to do that just grind, grind, grind, for credits and equipment. And unless you can get into the operations, you start losing out on the general storylines of what's happening.

 

 

[Gorth]

Solo vs. group...

 

While there are many things wrong with 3.0, they did actually make it easier for solo players. Previous tactical flashpoints (minus the CZ ones) are now available in solo mode, so you can play them as part of the new planetary story. The only thing you cant solo is the operations and traditional flashpoints, and you you really only want that if grinding or testing your skills constantly (or your patience in the case of pugs) is your thing. Bugs notwithstanding (and they are legion now), its perfectly possible to play through the class stories, Ilum, Makeb (which now has a bolster funktion too, so you can play from level 47 there), over the preludes to the Shadow of Revan expansion, ending at level 60 without doing group content, just saying

[Raithe]

Haven't really played much around with those things with 3.0.

 

Do tactical flashpoints do that automatically if you're not in a group, or is that something you have to set up elsewhere?

 

I've run through Illum and Makeb with a bunch of mine, along with the Oricron re-runs and such. I've got a handful of 55 to 53 level characters.

[Gorth]

For those flashpoints where solo mode exists, you can now pick it when talking to the "quest giver". Like in the past where you picked Normal or Hard mode at the entrance, some of them now has a third option, solo mode.

 

You get a buff that makes you and your companion stronger and you get a GSI Combat Droid as extra team member. The droid is a DPS/Tank/Healer that makes Treek look weak by comparison. Heck, even my well geared tank got a guard slapped on him by the droid while it proceeded to wreck the place and me trying to keep up

[Raithe]

Hm, Gorth do you know if you only get that solo option with the Shadow of Revan expansion pack on?

 

I was just having a poke, and I can't seem to get that option up from the droid quest givers for any of the tactical flashpoints.

[Gorth]

No idea, I preordered it, so had it since release

[Gorth]

Decided to give the "new" HM Flashpoints a go, just to see what they are about. Hadn't really bothered with them until now, as I found their tactical (yeah, what a misnomer, zerg rushing counting as tactics???) counterparts mindnumbingly boring and had only completed the Forged Alliance series like thrice before 3.0 (that is, 3 times out of 20 characters, simply couldnt be bothered with the 17 otheres). I thought Ilum and Makeb was boring after 1 playthrough, but those 4 fps take the prize.

 

HM Korriban Incursion was easy enough, went through it with 1 team member dying once in the first droid fight. Also took out the "bonus" boss (some unnamed elite officer).

 

HM Rakata Was even easier (including bonus boss) except... badly designed mechanics meant that both the tank and the other dps got killed by the wookie dragging blue circles everywhere which sucks when we were an all melee team. My scoundrel ended up facing the second guy and tanking (yeah, medium armour is awesome!) him from 70% health and ended up winning. Kudos to the healer, that was an outstanding job healing me through that.

 

HM Manaan... Jeebus, tediousness took on a new dimension. We only made it past the first boss, Sarissi or some such, before the healer decided real life was more fun and tank didn't want to hang around waiting for a new healer (left 10 minutes after healer). No idea if the remaining boss fights are similar tests of stamina and patience more than anything.

 

HM Tython... Didn't make it past first boss. Two of the guys in the pug just couldn't get their heads around the mechanics. Mind you, I caused the first wipe by misunderstanding the instructions, drag circle to shield droid and make it stay there. Oh, I made it stay there alright, the orbital bombardment killing both me and the shield

 

The 6 following wipes were caused by the other dps and healer not going anywhere near shield droids with the circles, nor did their subsequent replacements and people left, arrived, left, arrived etc. not getting the mechanic. In the end, tank and i both left. Enough misery for one day.

 

From the adventures of Gorth the Scoundrel.

[Raithe]

I thought I'd take the plung and picked up the Shadow of Revan.  Ran through it with my SI, and I have to say it worked quite well. Especially the option to solo the big story point flashpoints as part of the arc. Although to be fair, if you're doing that, the support bot pretty much tanks through the whole thing - kind of like it turns into story/easy mode. But I will say, doing the "face revan" and having all those named faces turn up as your allies instead of some group of random people from group finder did have an interesting epic feel to it. Even if it did turn it into a lack of challenge.

 

It would be nice if they gave that option for some of the other things. Ala the macrobinocular or corruption storyline arcs that end in Heroic 4+ that no-one ever wants to group for nowadays. I'd like to clear them away instead of having them stuck hanging there.