SW: The Old Republic - Episode VIII (May RNG Be With You)

[ShadySands]

I got an alert for her with a little bit of dialog. More than Shae Vizla which was really disappointing

Edited December 5, 2016 by ShadySands

[Gorth]

Just for fun, tried a star fortress in heroics mode with a guy looking for a group on Odessen. It was the longest and most painful star fortress ever. the mechanics are completely broken. With a tach accuracy of 110.14% and his force accuracy also being 110+ percent, between 80 and 90 percent of all out attacks got resisted, dodged, deflected etc. It just took forever and we wiped several time on the exarch. because we did so little damage, our healer companions invariably ended up having boss aggro. After persevering for 2 hours, the Belsavis boss was dead (lots of micro management of healers sending them running after us in passive mode to evade the boss until aggro was lost). Of course, the boss doesn't drop a single thing anymore. Way to go Bioware.

 

Edit: Of course we missed each and every interrupt (as they depend on accuracy too), so boss got pretty much a free run with nothing interrupted

[ShadySands]

A bit stuck because I don't know whether to keep working on GC with my assassin who is now rank 13 or go back to my main, a sorc, who is only level 66 or my guardian who is still 65. Since this system is not at all alt friendly and I don't have a lot of play time I need to pick one

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

A bit stuck because I don't know whether to keep working on GC with my assassin who is now rank 13 or go back to my main, a sorc, who is only level 66 or my guardian who is still 65. Since this system is not at all alt friendly and I don't have a lot of play time I need to pick one

From what I can tell, Sorcs got a damage nerf but still have the best DCDs and the range advantage and good off-healing, (Deception)Sins have the ability to maintain +15% DR and Force Regeneration for a long time, and Guardians are good for PVE but run into issues when focused in PVP when they aren't tanks. I'd say play what you want, unless what you want is a lot of alts in which case tough **** and go with sorc.

[ShadySands]

I'm having a hell of a hard time with the eternal championship on my sorc. My assassin just blows through all the rounds like nothing but my sorc can't beat round 7 no matter how many times I try it. I eventually got Bowdarr just by getting to and beating round 6 about 3 or 4 times

 

I'm really feeling that damage nerf switching between the two advance classes 

 

PS also doesn't help that the tournament is more melee friendly

Edited December 7, 2016 by ShadySands

[Gorth]

Our raid boss thought it was a good time to prepare for NiM ops (not even level 70 yet, so we started out getting the team levelled up). As soon as the rest had hit 70, off to HM DP while being silly under geared (216/220/224 stuff). It was.... educational and you realised how much being way over geared helped you get away with a the end of 4.0. Not at least thanks to the idiocy that was dropping BiS gear from HM EV and KP. Got our work cut out for us as gearing up is not a priority until the cluster**** that is the command system gets fixed.

[Gromnir]

I'm having a hell of a hard time with the eternal championship on my sorc. My assassin just blows through all the rounds like nothing but my sorc can't beat round 7 no matter how many times I try it. I eventually got Bowdarr just by getting to and beating round 6 about 3 or 4 times

 

I'm really feeling that damage nerf switching between the two advance classes 

 

PS also doesn't help that the tournament is more melee friendly

round 7?  the sith guy and the female melee combatant who rages once the sith dies? raven and nocturne... or somesuch?  we can do it with a burst sage in 208 gear, but our comp is 50 influence.  qyzen.  can't do it with a heals comp.  have to make our comp do damage for his role.  we also do damage and kinda spot heal and make liberal use o' the heal pylons.  key for us is killing the sith asap and making sure the one controller  bot dies instantly when the bots spawn.  otherwise, it is a matter o' staying focused on where the melee girl is in relation to the sith.  gotta make sure those stun circles pop up between darth and her.  

 

burst sage in 216 or better with pretty much all alacrity enhancements is how we were rolling right 'fore 5.0.  haven't tried since the expansion. (edit: is actual a smidge easier for us to do as a heal sage for eternal championship and switch our companions 'tween tank and damage.)

 

for Gromnir, the final battle with zoltar results in the most frequent deaths, but only cause t-7/aric jorgan is our typical companion(s) for our knight/trooper characters... level 50 influence from grinding esseles.  the entire battle is relative ez, save for the end and only 'cause ranged healers need be teased back into the center o' the arena every time the boss knocks 'em back into the electric field o' death. zoltar is a battle where we need a melee range healer who we can have attack the boss so as to stay in the center o' the arena. we use blizz on more than a few characters, but as he is ranged, he tends to get dead too frequent.  

 

oh, and not that anybody cares, but am rank 18 for command thingie and still not set bonus piece.  we do have one purple 230 implant, and two pieces o' moddable blue 230 gear. regardless, is gonna be a slow grind.  we like doing esseles runs for the refined isotope drops and the speed with which we can finish solo, but is soul numbing and we can't do more than 'bout three or four runs in a row without going robin williams nightmare mode

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited December 8, 2016 by Gromnir

[ShadySands]

Watching the livestream and they seem pretty dedicated to keeping the RNG and the new system as a whole

 

5 new uprisings coming in Jan most likely

CXP buffs to some activities

2 CXP for gold mobs now

blah blah blah

I tuned out

 

Just playing until my sub runs out

[Gromnir]

Arcann is a companion?  Thanks for the spoiler.  

standing on fleet also kinda spoils it as you can't turn around w/o bumping into a clay-faced arcann.

 

the companion-who-will-not-be-named has a war cry o' "ready to fight." to which we reflexive respond: "boom boom. out go the lights." is mildly annoying.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gorth]

for what it's worth, at least up to end of chapter 6, i find the story light years ahead of the first expansion. Figured i would finish it on at least one alt.

[Gromnir]

rank 25 and still not set bonus.

 

on the positive side, we got a couple 230 schematics and they is proving to be extreme lucrative. after all the esseles runs, we get loads o' the refined isotope stabilizer.  with right crafting choices, Gromnir is  receiving 'bout 1 million per isotope stabilizer.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

Sorc is now rank 5 and on chapter 15 of KotFE

 

I agree with Gorth that the KotET story is the better of the two but it's also one I'm less inclined to replay

 

Disappointed generic Dashade and Vette don't pick up influence during Black Talon runs

[Gromnir]

Sorc is now rank 5 and on chapter 15 of KotFE

 

I agree with Gorth that the KotET story is the better of the two but it's also one I'm less inclined to replay

 

Disappointed generic Dashade and Vette don't pick up influence during Black Talon runs

we got quibbles with the story o' kotet, and vaylin in particular, but we enjoyed the story from this most recent expansion more than perhaps any insular tor story thus far.  also, while we do not believe bioware necessarily succeeded with all the pilot-a-walker and infiltrate-the-party alternatives to the usual tor gameplay, we gotta give'em credit for doing reasonable well with the new approaches to content. 

 

as for bt and esseles companion influence runs, am not surprised 'bout vette or the dashade, but am admitting we were mighty disappointed when we realized our knight, our first kotfe character, couldn't take kotfe t-7 through esseles for influence gains.  found out the hard way regarding the limitation o' bt/esseles influence farming-- only works on the starting class companion, and has gotta be done previous to starting kotfe chap 1.  still haven't taken an inquisitor, smuggler or bounty hunter through kotfe precise 'cause we spent so much effort getting starting companions to influence 50.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps am also not a fan o' how our light-side guardian finished things with scorpio.  gonna need run through with a ds character and see if things end a bit different. 'course all our tor efforts is focused on our guardian's command ranks at the moment... though we got a neck-deep stack o' games we has been meaning to get to, and with the battletech beta just 'round the corner, and possible the torment release not too remote, am plagued by difficult choices.

[ShadySands]

I've switched back to my assassin for now because the Black Talon runs are done in 10 minutes instead of 15ish. I don't even kill anything except the bosses anymore... well the bonus when I get to Pub ship to get the bonus boss and everything is just stealth bypass or occassionally even just run to the objective then force cloak

 

Also making some decent money selling 230 crafted gear

 

Are you able to get the bonus boss in Esseles running it solo in veteran (tactical) mode?

[Gromnir]

 

 

Are you able to get the bonus boss in Esseles running it solo in veteran (tactical) mode?

no, which is why bt is better than esseles, but our three main on harbinger is pub. got a jugg, powertech and sniper we will eventually get to, but at the moment am kinda locked in on our guardian... and to a lesser degree, our vanguard and sage. still, we feel as if we is leaving +100 cxp and a refined isotope on the ground every time we pass the bonus boss, a boss which we cannot access without a second player simultaneous triggering a console.

 

oh well.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[213374U]

Hey guys I heard there's a new expansion?

...oh

[Gorth]

Tried a pair of hm (veteran?) uprisings yesterday. Not much to do on a lazy Sunday evening anyway. It was... Ok. At least a change from the same old flashpoints. None of us had really set foot in an uprising before, so didn't quite know what to expect. Also finished chapter 7 in the kofet story. Some gorgeous planet they constructed there. A shame it's likely to never be used for anything else.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Apparently you can grind Karaga's Palace for CXP, will probably do that after finals with my guild amd hope they don't nerf it. Ranked is supposed to give 700 for a loss ajd 1k for a win, so of that's popping it'll be a decent way to get CXP.

[Gorth]

Apparently you can grind Karaga's Palace for CXP

Yeah, works the same way as Bestia adds for levelling up. Kill the adds before first boss (gives 20 cxp each) and then leave and reset the instance. Rinse and repeat until bored to tears or weekly cap is hit. No, haven't done it. Levelling up a dozen alts via Bestia was more mind numbingly boring grind than any human player should ever have to suffer. Got lucky and found a group of Spaniards doing DF yesterday on Red Eclipse. Otherwise 95% of the chatter on fleet is looking for groups for grinding kp adds.

Game is more dead than it has been for years.

 

Did try two different pug groups for Ravagers with rather predictable results. One group couldn't beat sparky (no kidding), enraging first at 40% and in the best try got him to 25%. Second group was looking for a tank for master and blaster and onwards. Same result, got to burn phase a few times and couldn't beat the enrage timers. Yes, it was story mode. Sad state of affairs.

[ShadySands]

Well since you guys are playing the game wrong

 

Flashpoints + Operations

Silaraz, a Dark vs Light World Boss, no longer remains spawned on Tatooine, and now only appears during a Light Side victory state as intended.

Veteran Battle of Ilum now grants 300 Command Experience (up from 100).

Veteran Czerka Core Meltdown now grants 300 Command Experience (up from 100).

The Command Experience values of Command Experience items dropped from Flashpoint encounters has been increased.

Additional enemies summoned by Dread Master Calphayus in the Dread Palace no longer grant Command Experience.

Champion mobs prior to Jarg and Sorno in Karagga's Palace now reward 5 Command Experience (down from 20).

 

Forgot to mention that I've been going through the Jedi Knight story with the DvL character I created for that event. I hit level 70 on Taris but my bonus series is all messed up. I was able to complete quests out of order and it seems to have broken the whole thing. I put in a ticket two days ago and still no response but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I still have an active ticket from last week that hasn't been looked at either

Edited December 13, 2016 by ShadySands

[Gorth]

Well since you guys are playing the game wrong

Paint job on a pile of poo

 

Forgot to mention that I've been going through the Jedi Knight story with the DvL character I created for that event. I hit level 70 on Taris but my bonus series is all messed up. I was able to complete quests out of order and it seems to have broken the whole thing. I put in a ticket two days ago and still no response but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I still have an active ticket from last week that hasn't been looked at either

 

There is always so many bugs when they release major changes. I don't envy the CS people. Well, since Bioware doesn't seem to be happy that players don't play the game the way *they* want to, I took their not so subtle hints and went back a to my game of Pillars of Eternity. If they want me to play single player games, I'll stick with single player games that doesn't come with a monthly fee.

[ShadySands]

I just got the 5 year subscriber decoration but unless they announce a major overhaul before my remaining sub expires then I won't be getting a 6 year award since I already set it not to renew

 

The worst part of this new system is that it's a subscriber only "feature" so you have to pay to grind

 

 

Update on my Taris bonus series ticket. They closed it and suggested I try resetting the mission which if they had read the ticket then they would have know that I tried it already and it put me in an even worse spot. Just terrible customer service

Edited December 13, 2016 by ShadySands

[kirottu]

The worst part of this new system is that it's a subscriber only "feature" so you have to pay to grind.

It really goes against how F2P MMOs usually do their thing: you subscribe so you don't have to grind(so much).

[ShadySands]

Some good news from me for once

 

I didn't give up on the Taris bonus series quest ticket and they looked into further and let me know they found the bug and should have it fixed soon in an upcoming patch.

[Gromnir]

Some good news from me for once

 

I didn't give up on the Taris bonus series quest ticket and they looked into further and let me know they found the bug and should have it fixed soon in an upcoming patch.

well, that is something. our personal experience with ea/bio customer service has had us borderline postal a couple times. felt as if we had a bot responding to our queries as responses were frequent, well, non-responsive.  were as if we were getting pre-generated responses based on keywords in our ticket.  is not as if we do the Gromnir bit when writing a swtor ticket neither. 

 

just for funsies, am command rank 36 and still no set bonus piece. am s'posing it don't much matter as am only doing solo content at the moment anyway and will likely not do much group until we hit tier 2.  

 

in a ironic twist, harbinger, which were near constant ls dominant for the entirety o' the galactic command nonsense, has sudden seen a balancing with ds victories.  happened contemporaneous with the life day event.  life day brought out the dark side in the server. 

 

HA! Good Fun!