SWTOR: Catch-All

Vargen wrote:
b12n11w00t wrote:

As soon as you pick an advanced class you get an item box in your inventory that has the weapon and offhand for that class. Both orange. Did that not happen for you?

If it did, I managed to miss it on both my Trooper and my Inquisitor. Then again, I have about half a dozen item-filled boxes in my inventory from old preorder stuff so it'd be easy to miss.

Ah, it used the exact same icon as the Small Satchel of Crafting Materials that I kept finding in chests. That's why I missed it.

double

The Expansion Flashpoints allow for you to queue solo(you have to do a few leading up to and during the Revan content) but do some of the new operations? It would be cool to be able to get some operations loot without the need for a full on raid.

So you guys convinced me to fire this back up again.
I am enjoying myself much more than at launch or any other time I have come back to it.
It isn't that I can just do story missions to progress. It is that I have a choice to do the side missions or not and which ones I want to do if I choose to do them.
It also cuts back on the back and forth, running and hunting for quest objectives which makes is a lot more accessible.
So we will see how far I get this time around. My highest before was level 27 I believe. (at launch) I may just get to level 50 or 60 if I put the same amount of time into another character. (I am an altoholic and it is really evident in this game. Plus this games' ability bar spam is the worst which makes it really hard to go back and play previous characters.)

fangblackbone wrote:

Plus this games' ability bar spam is the worst which makes it really hard to go back and play previous characters.

Yeah, this game has a LOT of buttons.

I haven't done much beyond play my old main from 54 to 57 and then get a couple new characters up to ~13, so I haven't really had a chance to experience the Shadow of Revan advancement overhaul. Is it still the case that you have the vast majority of your buttons by the mid 30s, with just one or two coming towards the end/in expansion levels?

I forget at what level it starts, but yeah. At some point your advancement becomes mostly about enabling buffs/perks/etc. for your existing skills. You'll unlock a few new ones at the later levels (pretty sure), but mostly it's enhancements.

b12n11w00t wrote:
Vargen wrote:

My wife and I rolled new Sith characters on Harbinger since we have a couple friends there. Maybe the new leveling curve is nice overall, but the starting planets are kinda janky now. It's kind of hard to learn how to Assassin when none of my new abilities work because I don't have a double-bladed saber. Back when the game launched I was given the right weapons for my advanced class right on time. Now not only does that quest hit you several levels too late, it no longer gives you the items you need.

As a returning player I'm savvy enough to hit the commendation vendor on Dromund Kaas or pick up some crafting skills and make what I need, but a true newbie could really have a rough time of it.

Credit where it's due: running through Korriban gave me exactly enough special currency to pick up a mod-able weapon once I found the right vendor.

As soon as you pick an advanced class you get an item box in your inventory that has the weapon and offhand for that class. Both orange. Did that not happen for you?

There is one drawback on this one. For my Marauder, the bag only contained an off-hand saber. But the weapon I still had at the time didn't allow me to equip the off-hand saber, so I still had to wait until I got my main-hand saber. Until then, all the abilities that require two sabers still didn't work. I imagine Sentinel might be similar. The others are all probably fine though.

robkid wrote:
b12n11w00t wrote:
Vargen wrote:

My wife and I rolled new Sith characters on Harbinger since we have a couple friends there. Maybe the new leveling curve is nice overall, but the starting planets are kinda janky now. It's kind of hard to learn how to Assassin when none of my new abilities work because I don't have a double-bladed saber. Back when the game launched I was given the right weapons for my advanced class right on time. Now not only does that quest hit you several levels too late, it no longer gives you the items you need.

As a returning player I'm savvy enough to hit the commendation vendor on Dromund Kaas or pick up some crafting skills and make what I need, but a true newbie could really have a rough time of it.

Credit where it's due: running through Korriban gave me exactly enough special currency to pick up a mod-able weapon once I found the right vendor.

As soon as you pick an advanced class you get an item box in your inventory that has the weapon and offhand for that class. Both orange. Did that not happen for you?

There is one drawback on this one. For my Marauder, the bag only contained an off-hand saber. But the weapon I still had at the time didn't allow me to equip the off-hand saber, so I still had to wait until I got my main-hand saber. Until then, all the abilities that require two sabers still didn't work. I imagine Sentinel might be similar. The others are all probably fine though.

That means you skipped the quest that gives you your main hand. I can see this being a problem if you do side quests and over level (quest used to come up around level 7 or 8) to 10 before finishing that quest chain.

Nah, even if you skip all the sidequests it's easy to get to the point where you have the offhand saber, but still haven't gotten to the quest that gives you an actual lightsaber as a sith. I had it happen to me when I leveled one.

After a long stint with GW2 I recently reinstalled this game. The difference in how many abilities there are between the two is ... significant. My highest toon is a level 50 BH. Did not know where to start.

If you don't know where to start, I'd suggest just starting over. So much has changed, and leveling speed is crazy fast these days, so you've really got nothing to lose IMO.

I re-rolled my agent and jedi knight. Keeping the BH though. Once I studied the new skill progression system I was able to prune several abilities not related to my powertech advanced prototype spec. It's a bit easier to digest now.

Yeah I just sat there for an hour or so digging into each one of my 35+ characters learning what's changed. No way I'd start those folks over again.

b12n11w00t wrote:

Yeah I just sat there for an hour or so digging into each one of my 35+ characters learning what's changed. No way I'd start those folks over again. :D

The only one I've kept from my original batch was my SI that was at the endgame of the original game. That said, if it weren't so relatively quick to level up new characters, I'd tough out the re-learning process too

I just know me and there's sort of a threshold. If the character isn't passed Coruscant or Dromund Kaas then it's free game they can get replaced. But any past that and I just tough it out.

AnimeJ wrote:

Nah, even if you skip all the sidequests it's easy to get to the point where you have the offhand saber, but still haven't gotten to the quest that gives you an actual lightsaber as a sith. I had it happen to me when I leveled one.

Yeah, I did all of the side quests (I know them all by heart, so it was pretty easy anyway) and got my offhand halfway through Korriban, so well before the quest to get the mainhand.

I fired up a new agent/sniper. It took me about an hour to get to level 10 doing just story quests. I then made the "mistake" to do the black talon flashpoint. It wasn't really a mistake but it took me 40 minutes and I barely hit level 13 once it was completed. Still worth it for the first time through on the dark side
(the only reason it was a "mistake" was because I could probably have been 15-16 in the same time running around drommund kaas)

robkid wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

Nah, even if you skip all the sidequests it's easy to get to the point where you have the offhand saber, but still haven't gotten to the quest that gives you an actual lightsaber as a sith. I had it happen to me when I leveled one.

Yeah, I did all of the side quests (I know them all by heart, so it was pretty easy anyway) and got my offhand halfway through Korriban, so well before the quest to get the mainhand.

Shoot, we didn't do any "Exploration Quests" at all (not sure if there are any on Korriban though) and even skipped one and my wife and I were both level 13 by the time the story dealt with our sabers. We were using the XP boosts that the quests handed us though.

Wow, this game has not aged well. The UI is pretty bland, which is fine, but the combat is stale and the act of playing it feels like WOW from 2007. I mean, I need to see a trainer to gain abilities? Ewwwwww.

garion333 wrote:

Wow, this game has not aged well. The UI is pretty bland, which is fine, but the combat is stale and the act of playing it feels like WOW from 2007. I mean, I need to see a trainer to gain abilities? Ewwwwww.

You've always needed to see a trainer, and yea while this game is still button mashing... the animations that your characters do are a lot of fun to watch.

Depending on when you played last you may not know, but there's a UI editor available that allows you to customize pretty much everything.

It's not something that i play every day, but its one i definitely keep going back to for some lightsaber action.

garion333 wrote:

Wow, this game has not aged well. The UI is pretty bland, which is fine, but the combat is stale and the act of playing it feels like WOW from 2007. I mean, I need to see a trainer to gain abilities? Ewwwwww.

Coming back to SWOR after having leveled a couple characters in modern WoW, I kind of like having to train my skills. With the way WoW just hands them out I'm likely to forget that I've gotten them, especially since they always come when I'm in the middle of something else. Then I have to wade through my spellbook and figure out what's new and what's already on my bar somewhere. With Old Republic I get the new skills when I have time to pay attention to what I'm getting. I see how getting to a trainer could be a pain, but I've got a holographic trainer in my bag from some earlier expansion and in the newbie zones people were dropping those down all over the place.

As for the combat, there are about 30% more buttons to push than there ought to be but I think it still holds up. Or at least what I remember compares favorably to current WoW (which I still enjoy). Does group content still have the high-damage, low-HP mobs that the DPS has to find and burn down? I liked that. Made me feel more responsible and engaged since the encounters were more than "target the tank's target and do my rotation."

garion333 wrote:

Wow, this game has not aged well. The UI is pretty bland, which is fine, but the combat is stale and the act of playing it feels like WOW from 2007. I mean, I need to see a trainer to gain abilities? Ewwwwww.

The combat isn't as fun and dynamic as GW2, but I find the animation for the smuggler and melee classes disguises the old school feel. The trooper is more of a stand and deliver class, but that's on theme. GW habits die hard though, I tend to run around during combat, pointlessly as blaster shots follow me around corners.

I hear that. Took me a while to stop trying to dodge attacks.

Sorry, wasn't trying to just dump on the game, but I was shocked with how ancient it felt. I guess I expected it to have made some changes to this stuff since the last time I played was around launch.

I fired up WoW last week and they've at least made some concessions to their ease of use while this game feels a lot more like LOTRO. Guess they just don't have the budget to update to the extent that WoW has. I should mention WoW feels incredibly ancient anymore, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Got to play some this morning, and while I was running around Ord Mantell I remembered a tip that improves the game immensely. The first time I played I didn't figure this out until I had at least 1 character to max, maybe 2. Now that I've remembered, I had to come here and share with the other folks who are recent (re)arrivals. What's this incredible tip you ask?

Look up.

It's really easy to run around with your camera pointed slightly down. That's what the game defaults to. That's what you want for combat. That's what works best for every other 3rd-person MMO. But the way SWOR's planets are built,* most of the cool looking skylines and scenery will be hidden off the top of your screen. If you play the game with the camera in the usual position, the game is mostly mediocre ground textures and repetitive corridors. If you remember to angle your camera up a bit then it gets a LOT prettier.

Seriously. I didn't even realize that most of Nar Shadda has a sky until character 3 or 4...

*Alderaan and Tatooine are exceptions and show themselves off well. What I saw of the Dread Masters' planet was similarly well-done. I haven't checked out the later worlds yet.

I'm wondering if you actually need all these buttons or if you can just get by with a simple rotation if you aren't raiding/pvp. I haven't finished the latest expansion so not sure how much I need to actually fine tune things for end game.

Also just started a Jedi knight based on PC Principal from South Park. He's a Miralukan who's all about working out and violently crushing empire oppression of sentient species.

Empire officer: but you're a Jedi and I surrendered!

Me: A transdoshan is trapped in the Sarlaac pit what is the fur color of the oppressed bothan who is trying to save him?

Officer: I don't know!

Me: or maybe you just don't care - slices in two.

Spoiler:

fyi I'm not trying to make light of any real social justice issues - just enjoy the idea of PC Principal in space.

jdzappa wrote:

I'm wondering if you actually need all these buttons or if you can just get by with a simple rotation if you aren't raiding/pvp. I haven't finished the latest expansion so not sure how much I need to actually fine tune things for end game.

I'm not sure how much has changed for raiding, but no... you dont need them all for pvp. I only use 1.5 of my bars on a regular basis. The rest are situational, but i bind them so i can get to them quickly when needed.

Yeah the orange weapon thing is confusing; to simplify you get main hand after completing your starting class quest and a bag containing your offhand at level 10; the bag is not described that clearly so it can be missed as looking like any other bag of crafting materials or quest reward.

I've finally started digging into Knights of the Fallen Empire and, relative to the vase TOR content, it's really good. Story is a *a lot* heavier and I've found it much more compelling than much of the base game (Knight class). It has to be a bit vague with regards to your character a lot of the time (class references and such) and the core gameplay doesn't change (it's still mostly centered around whacking dudes on the head every 50 feet of map space), but I haven't minded so far. Also, seem like it's going to be short. It's something like 9 chapters(?), but so far each chapter averages roughly an hour of gameplay. This should time out well so that the new chapter they're publishing in February comes out right around the time I'm ready for it.

I returned to this game after years since playing. I bought the Amazon bundle pack which included 3 months of game time and like 2,400 in cartel market money. I haven't played since the cartel market has been added. Any suggestions on the best way to use my credits?