Quick Post : This is it

Well, I've gone and done it. Last night,  I closed my swtor account. I haven't played in weeks, and even the patch 1.2 wasn't enough to get me excited about the game.

Don't get me wrong. It's a great game. The leveling experience is a lot of fun. I just don't feel like logging on anymore. I haven't deleted my characters. And I'm not saying I won't ever play again. Maybe in a couple weeks I'll miss my little marauder and I'll come back. With me, anything is possible.

So it's not goodbye. Not really. 

But yeah, it is.

Quick Post : New Patch

I saw over on Targeter's blog that the next patch will be live this week.

I can't seem to get excited about it.

I do love the Legacy thing, and being able to determine how my characters are related to each other. But that's about it. I didn't even read the patch notes (which are, by the way, massive). All the class changes and talent reset only seem to annoy me. I don't feel like relearning everything and respeccing all my characters. Sigh.

Truth is, as you've probably noticed by now, I've been suffering from a lack of interest in Swtor lately. I've been going back to my first love, WoW and still find fun things to do, which I thought wouldn't be possible until at least next patch. But that's for my other blog. 

The point is, I still want to level my marauder to 50 and see her class story. But I won't be looking for a guild. And I won't raid. And I most likely won't create new alts. In fact, I've already started deleting some (juggernaut and assassin).

I might change my mind, because that's just what I do. Today I almost feel like un-subbing, and tomorrow I might fall head over heals for the game all over again. It's not a bad game, it's actually very fun. But it's not what I'm looking for right now.

I'm happy for all of you out there that feel at home in the Swtor universe. I wish you all luck and lots of fun! This is not goodbye, but I probably won't be posting often, unless the patch blows me away with its epicness!

Quick Post : Update

Just a quick post to let you guys know I now have a World of Warcraft blog as well! I love to write, and since I'm playing more WoW than Swtor lately, I decided to create a new blog to share my adventures in Azeroth. I didn't want one blog for both. They are very different games, and I love the Sith Code too much to mix it with WoW stuff.

And I promise to post here again soon™. With something actually related to Swtor. XD

Three months later

I decided to do as Kristalys asked, and think about what those first three months in Swtor have been like for me.

I've only been levelling so far, and I have yet to reach level 50 on any of my toons, so that's the only part of Swtor I know, but to me, this game is pure fun. I think my favourite part is the class stories. I've tried lots of advanced classes so far and enjoyed most of them, at least for a while. Each advanced class has a little something that is unique and absolutely fun to play, so I can't pick just one and run with it. The stories are so varied, and engrossing, you just have to know what's happening next! And the voices! I just never get bored of listening to myself (my characters) talk, for some reason. It adds a brand new dimension to the characters and their personality. It can make or break a character, if the physical appearance you picked just doesn't fit with the voice. I just love to try and create the perfect character for each class, to have all these elements work well together. 

So for me, the Swtor experience has been amazingly fun. I'm the kind of person who likes to create a lot of different characters, and who enjoys levelling more than anything, and I think Bioware did an amazing job at making the levelling experience incredibly enjoyable. For some reason, there's a voice in the back of my head telling me that I have to hurry and get a toon to level 50 soon so I can experience everything. But it occurred to me that I have plenty of time to see the endgame content before it all becomes obsolete. There will be time later to do dailies, and farm gear and raid. Right now, what's important is to have fun, to play the classes I feel like playing, and see all the stories of as many classes as possible, because those are really great stories that are totally worth seeing at least once.

So over the last three months, I've created a lot of characters, deleted some, and am quite happy with my little family of alts. I have a strong preference for the Empire classes, but I do want to eventually level at least one of each republic classes also, if only to see their story. 

There will come a day when I grow bored with the characters I have, when they are all level 50, and when there's no new content to see. But that day is still far away.

Quick Post : Still here

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of days, but I've been sick, so I haven't played much swtor. I've also been kind of sucked in some WoW activity lately, and am eagerly awaiting an invite to the MoP beta, so I'm not sure when I'll actually be able to have something to say about swtor. But I'm not going anywhere. I still love the game a lot. I'm just busy elsewhere at the moment.

Commitment Issues and Raiding

Warning : Wall of text incoming. 

Back when I was playing WoW passionately, I looooved to raid.

For all the WotLK era, Kizu and I were raiding together pretty casually. In Cataclysm, we got into - I'm not sure exactly how or why - a progression oriented guild. Not in a six-nights-a-week-five-hours-a-day kinda way, but progression was important to us. We wanted to be in the top guilds of the server. For many reasons, we didn't last long. in Firelands, we got 6/7 heroic pretty quickly. And then we hit the wall that is Heroic Ragnaros. 

Frankly, raiding was making me sick to my stomach at that point. I didn't even want to log on to raid by the time we got to Rag on heroic. I was hating the "push harder, kill faster" attitude, and more that that, I was hating my fellow raiders for putting so much pressure on us to succeed. We just couldn't kill him, and as time went on, we were getting more and more discouraged, and mean to each other, and you can imagine the rest.

I realize now that I was blaming the other's attitude when in reality, I was the one who made raiding frustrating for myself. I was worried that I was holding them back, which made me question myself and my abilities, which made me grumpy, which made raids anything but fun. It took me a while to realize I just didn't want to raid like that any longer. I've raided almost non-stop since Naxx, with a small interruption around the time Ulduar came out, and then, Firelands made me hate raiding. I say it was Firelands, but really, it wasn't the raid at all. It was me. I made myself hate raiding.

Here's a cute little Nerf to break the boring wall of text.

Yes, I have a point that has to do with Swtor. I'm getting there.

So now, in Swtor, I'm leveling a shit-ton of characters. Because it's a lot of fun. I don't even have a designated main. But I see other bloggers talk about raiding, (I know it's not called a raid, but I'm not saying Operating of Ops'ing. Sue me.) and I'm torn.

The raider in me is yelling "Come ooooon! Le's gooooo! Pick a toon already and make this happen, lady!" I want to experience everything in Swtor. I'm having so much fun with leveling, I don't want it to end. I want to level at least one of each Empire classes to 50. I want to run all the dungeons. I want to do dailies, and farm nice gear. I want to see some of the operations, if not all of them. But I'm worried that I'm not ready yet to make a commitment to a "serious" raiding guild. I'm not sure I want to spend a predetermined day - or two or three - each week, killing internet dragons, or droids or whatever, when I'd rather do something else, like level alts, or gather mats, or read a book or watch a movie! 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'd love to raid in Swtor. At some point. Hopefully before it all becomes obsolete. Because it looks like fun. It'd be great to raid maybe once or twice a week. Two to three weeks a month. Just sign up when you feel like raiding, and don't sign up when you don't feel like it. But I don't need - nor want - to see hardmodes or nightmare modes or whatever it is that they call it in Swtor. 

What I want, is to kill bosses with people that know what they're doing, but don't take themselves too seriously, and who don't get upset over a couple wipes, or killing new bosses at a slow rate. (I don't know what's the rush to kill all the bosses as fast as possible. You just get bored faster when you run out of new content to chew on.) I want to see the content, I want to have fun while killing bosses, preferably with friendly people that are serious about raiding when it's time to raid. 

What I don't want, is to feel like I have to be there every fucking day, wiping for three hours on a boss that just won't die. Because for me, that's just not fun. Wiping is part of it, sure. But I want to have fun, whether the boss dies or not. Not beat myself up for not progressing quickly enough, and not getting the server first, or some other nonsense. 

I know most guilds wouldn't want someone like me. It would make dealing with attendance and group composition a nightmare. But it's still what I want today. Maybe someday, I'll get rid of my commitment issues, and I'll find a fun bunch to raid with.

Planning Ahead - My Sniper Marksmanship talent build

I started a new Sniper alt not long ago, and you know what that means! Yes, another "Planning Ahead" post! Your mileage may vary, yada yada yada. The link to this build can be found here. Again, you could chose to use your points in a different order. I just went with what seemed most logical to me. Feel free to let me know if another order works better! There's always room for improvement. Also, I know there's another build, which I will probably try at some point, but this is the one I chose for now. More info on both builds can be found on SithWarrior.

Marksmanship

Tier 1

10-12 Marksmanship

13-14 Steady Shots

Tier 2

15-16 Precision Ambush

17-18 Ballistic Dampers

Tier 1 (Backtracking)

19 Cover Screen

Tier 3

20 Diversion

21-22 Snap Shot

23-24 Reactive Shot

Tier 4

25 Sniper's Nest

26-27 Between the Eyes

28-29 Sniper Volley (2/3)

Tier 5

30 Followthrough

31-32 Recoil Control

Tier 4 (Backtracking)

33 Sniper Volley (3/3)

34 Sector Ranger

Tier 6

35-39 Imperial Assassin

Tier 7

40 Rapid Fire

Engineering

Tier 1

41-43 Gearhead

44-45 Energy Tanks

Tier 2

46-47 Explosive Engineering (2/3)

Lethality

Tier 1

48-50 Lethality

The End of Act 1 : Sith Warrior Edition

Disclaimer : This may contain spoilers about the Sith Warrior questline. 

Quinn, Lyr, Andronikos and Kizu in Alderaan

Yesterday I finally saw the Sith Warrior Act 1 ending, and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

"I'm going to enjoy kicking
your face in."

All the time we were questing on Alderaan, all I could think about was how anxious I was to see the Sith Warrior's Act 1 ending, and get my new companion as well as the Lord title. All along, I chased a padawan called Jaesa that can see the light and dark side in anyone. Which means you can't exactly hide your intentions where she's around. Jaesa's master, Nomen Karr, tried to hide her from us, to protect her from Baras, whose spy network is compromised by Jaesa's unique ability to read people. In an attempt to lure her out of hiding, I had to (among other things) kill her parents by using force choke on them. That ability never ceases to amuse me. (Ever since I got the ability to actually do it in combat - around level 26 I think it was - I've been using it on cd. It gives rage, it keeps the mob from hitting you while you are channeling, and it's just plain fun to see.)

Being a Jedi sucks. When I grow
up, I wanna be a Sith!

After looking for Jaesa on Tattoine and Alderaan, I finally found her master on Hutta, where he tries to kill me to save his padawan. I had to defeat him three times before he finally gave up. (Those encounters were fairly easy with Quinn healing me. But I kept thinking, "What, you want me to kick your ass some more, stupid Jedi?") That is when Jaesa showed up, despite her master's order to stay away.

After I defeated her, Jaesa realized that the dark side is stronger than the light, and she wants to be a part of it. It really didn't take her long to jump ship. It's as if she was only waiting for an opportunity to switch sides. She finds the dark side to be a lot more easier, more enjoyable and more fulfilling than being a Jedi ever was. Well duh! Welcome to the dark side, Jaesa. We torture, we kill, we dance naked, covered in the blood of our enemies. Oh and we encourage you to fuck as much as you want. Hope you love it here!

I'm not sure  exactly why, but
the song "Bad to the bone"
comes to mind.

I'm quite happy that Lyr has got an apprentice who is as evil as she is. Lyr killed innocents, tortured people that had information on Jaesa's whereabouts, and she betrayed people that had helped her, only to get what she wanted, and it was all worth it. Jaesa's affection will be easy to gain.


So in conclusion, I'm pretty pleased with the Sith Warrior storyline so far. It's been good fun, and I'm looking forward to see what's coming next. I'm a bit sad though that Lyr hasn't been able to flirt with anyone, yet. At that point, my Sorcerer had shared sexy time with a fellow Sith. Quinn is pretty stuck-up, and hasn't been much fun in the romance department so far. Here's hoping that will change soon.

How Crew Skills forced me to roll another alt

Kizu and I finished Tatooine this week, so this weekend, we were ready for Alderaan and the end of Act 1 (which will be the object of my next post). As we were maybe halfway through the zone, Kizu pointed out that our gear was pretty outdated and suggested that we upgrade our orange pieces to kill more efficiently. Lyr being an Artificer, I started looking for enhancements and hilts to craft for us. It took a couple (way too many) tries for me to get the blue quality version of the Might enhancement I needed, and only one try for Kizu's Resolve enhancement. The same thing happened for the hilts. Someone out there must hate me. I also got us some neat +14 crit red crystals.

But we also needed mods and armoring! Kizu's Bounty Hunter is a Cybertech that can craft those, but since he was pretty low on mats, he made us only some armorings, and we bought mods with Alderaan Commendations. Needless to say, once we upgraded all our orange gear, we started killing mobs noticeably faster. I think we spent more time Saturday night crafting upgrades then actually playing. But that's fine, because it was fun.

Kizu's main being his Sith Assassin, his Bounty Hunter hasn't had much love in a while, except to do the space mission dailies occasionally for credits. In order to support us all the way through level 50 on his own, he would have to get scavenging mats solely through missions, which would be way too costly.

That is why I needed to start a new alt! Say hello to the new addition to the family!

Fredrick, my future Sniper

Fred will be our scavenging mats farmer, and our slicer for cash and augments. I know I said I wouldn't start another alt yet, but it's for a good cause! I blame crew skills for being so fun and the craftable stuff for being so good. The quality of the gear really does make a difference in the leveling process. Being able to craft our own item modifications is totally worth it.

Hopefully, I'll be able to level him enough this week so he can get level-appropriate mats for Lyr and Kizu as soon as possible.

Planning Ahead - My Juggernaut Vengeance (dps) talent build

Here is how I plan to use my talent points in the Vengeance tree (dps) for my Juggernaut. The link to this build can be found here. I found it on SithWarrior. As always, your mileage may vary. This is just how I see things. Feel free to let me know if my shit makes no sense.

Vengeance

Tier 1

10-12 Single Saber Mastery

13-14 Decimate (2/3)

Tier 2

15-16 Dreadnaught

17-19 Accuracy

Tier 3

20 Shien Form

21-22 Draining Scream

Tier 1 (Backtracking)

23 Decimate (3/3)

24 Improved Sundering Assault (1/3)

Tier 4

25 Deadly Reprisal

26 Ruin

27-29 Vengeance

Tier 5

30 Impale

31-32 Eviscerate

33-34 Savagery

Tier 6

35-37 Rampage

38-39 Deafening Defense

Tier 7

40 Shatter

Tier 1 (Backtracking)

41 Improved Sundering Assault (2/2)

Immortal

Tier 1

42-43 Enraged Sunder

Rage

Tier 1 

44-45 Ravager

46- 48 Malice

Tier 2

49-50 Brutality

The last 10 points (after you get Shatter) could be taken in a different order. You could decide to wait to finish Improved Sundering Assault at level 50 and get better talents before. I chose to do it this way because I like finishing a tree before switching to another, unless it makes more sense to add points in another tree earlier in the leveling process.

My characters : Focusing on what I have

I've been thinking in the last couple days about what I want to do with my characters.

Marauder Lyrestra
before she turned to the dark side.

Of the toons I have, the ones I actually plan on leveling to 50 are the marauder, the juggernaut and the sorcerer, and the Gunslinger on another server. (By the way, how anyone manages to solo level a sorcerer is beyond me. I geared Khem Val with the best gear I could find, and he still dies quickly, and my dps seems pretty low. I also feel very squishy. But since Jori was my first character on the server, that she's level 35, that her biochem is almost at 300, and that I'm rather fond of her, I've decided to suck it up and get her to the level cap. Eventually. Just not by myself. Yay for leveling buddies! To all of you Sorcerers out there, I just don't know how you do it!) 

Sorcerer Jori trading an
holocron for assassins.
Sounds plausible enough.

I have other characters as well : Alyss the mercenary and Ashan the Sith Assassin. The problem is that I don't really enjoy either playstyle very much. I find myself reluctant to put time on characters I'm not sure I even like. I love how Ashan looks, because he's one mean badass, but I really don't see myself leveling an assassin. As for Alyss, she will most likely be deleted in the near future. Maybe I'll replace her with a Powertech! With me, who knows?

So far, I've always started my characters on a whim, without thinking it through, just "hey! I wanna try that now!" and just went with it. Sometimes, I just feel like trying a new playstyle, and some other times, it's as stupid as wanting a specific look (like Ashan), or a pretty hairstyle (like the Gunslinger, but that one turned out to be lots of fun!) I would prefer to have some sort of logic in all this, so here are my plans for my beloved characters. 

Nass doesn't have much patience.
"Your breathing is now dependant
on my tolerance as well."

• Lyrestra the marauder is my favourite toon, and my first love in Swtor. (My first character ever was a marauder. I blame Kizu for changing my mind and making me roll a Sorcerer when we switched servers. /glare ) She will reach level 50 and will receive all the love she deserves. Her class story is one of my favourites so far. I'm really enjoying myself when I play this character.
• Jori the sorcerer's story isn't as enticing as Lyr's, but I've already put much time and efforts in leveling her and her crew skills, so she will reach the level cap as well, if only to craft stims and medpacs for the rest of the family. Leveling her alone has been a pain, that's why I'm looking forward to leveling her with my bf.  
• Nass the juggernaut was created because I wanted to have a romance with Jaesa, and because I like the male warrior voice. The playstyle is similar to the marauder's but different enough to be interesting. I'm confident I can get him to the level cap and have fun even if I've already seen the Warrior storyline with Lyr. I just love warriors that much.
• Ashan the Assassin most likely won't be leveled very far, not anytime soon anyway, but I just can't bring myself to delete him, because he's just too cool. So for now, I will store all my mats and whatnot in his cargo hold, and maybe I'll level him slowly, if I ever feel like it. 
• In the future, I absolutely want to roll an Imperial Agent (a sniper), most likely a human male. I already know I love the playstyle, and I've read many times how cool their story is. Ideally, I'd create this toon after I reach level 50 on at least one of my Empire characters, and maybe on my Gunslinger as well. Yeah. Good luck with that.

Annoyed Ashan is annoyed.

As far as the Legacy thing goes, I have a vague idea of how my characters are related. In my head, Lyrestra and Nass are together, married or not, I'm not sure yet, but they definitely care for each other. Jori is either Nass or Lyr's apprentice. Probably Nass', so Lyr can be a little jealous, and Jori can try to seduce her master. Ashan is Lyr's apprentice, and also her boy-toy. *wink wink* He and Jori do not get along at all, which amuses Lyr greatly. As for the Sniper, he will be someone's brother. I know, that's not much to go on, but he hasn't been created yet!

What about you? Did you have a plan in mind when you created your characters, or did you just create them randomly? Are you unable to delete characters for whatever reason, or on the contrary, is it easy for you?

Quick Post : I'm gonna need more character slots.

See what I did there? I asked for Legacy info in my last post, and I was handed a Guild Summit to answer all my questions! But seriously, I had no idea that was coming. I stumbled upon it yesterday and I was pretty excited. Lots of good stuff out there, coming our way. And some stuff I wish could come sooner (addons, macros, resizeable buffs and debuffs, same-sex romances, etc.) But still, it's pretty damn exciting. 

It was announed, among other things, that when you reach the level cap with a certain species, it gets unlocked for other classes across both factions. (Like you could choose a Chiss for a Jedi?) Am I the only one who thought : "Fuck, now I have to level a <insert your favourite race unavailable for your favourite class here > to 50!" ? In my case, that would be a Twi'lek. 

Twi'lek Bounty Hunter anyone?

Quick Post : Legacy

I googled "Swtor Legacy level cap" on a whim today, (because I'm curious and think of random stuff like that out of nowhere) and ended up on the Swtor forums, where I saw a screenshot of a guy who's Legacy was level 40 ... a month ago. My question is : how? How many characters has he leveled to 50? I have loads of free time and I have a couple alts already, and my Legacy is only level 4. FOUR! Am I the only idiot who's Legacy level is so low? 

Speaking of Legacy, I'm really anxious to get more info about it. Oh like maybe new playable races? Fuck me, I'd have to roll new alts! Or delete some I already have and remake them...  If I could roll a Togruta (Ashara Zavros' race) I would reroll ALL THE TOONS... no, but seriously, I would definitely make one. I don't care what class. They're just so damn cool.

WTB Legacy info nao!

Pew pew all the things

My gunslinger is now level 37, and officially my higher level character. I'm excited to finally explore a new planet (Quesh), since Balmorra  is old news if you have a level 20ish Empire toon (or 4, like me). And I'm starting to feel the "omg I want a toon at the level cap!" itch. I don't want the story to end, but at the same time, I want to see it, too! Although I don't know what I'd do with a level 50 character... but that's another story!

I watched the storylines of some of the republic classes on youtube, since I don't really plan on leveling anything but my Gunslinger to the level cap, and some of them were pretty good. Others were boring as hell. But it made me want to see what happens to my cutie little smuggler. And I also kinda want to see her marry Corso. Yes, I know, I'm lame. But they're so cute together.

Also, today, for the first time, I took my Mercenary, respecced her healer, and went into Hammer Station with the boyfriend and his RL buddy. I must say that I was level 24, so I really was outleveling the flashpoint, but we were only three, with the bf tanking (lvl 22 Sith Assassin) and the friend dps'in as a level 18 Sith Assassin. It was pretty easy, except when we aggroed the whole room at the beginning, on the first boss where the dps was low and we hit the soft enrage, and on the last boss when the dps got punted off the edge and fell to his death. It was not "hard" in any way, but it was a little less faceroll than the rest. I kinda enjoyed my experience, though my wrist was a bit sore with all the Rapid Shot spamming. It made me wonder if I'd enjoy the Scoundrel/Operative healing. Or if I'd even enjoy having/leveling a healer toon at all.

Back in WoW, I was a healer for a while, but I stopped a long time ago, when it stopped being fun and started feeling like a chore. But when the bf asked me today if I would be interested in trying to heal for him and his friend, I thought "what the hell, I'll give it a try!" I'm not sure I'd want to go all out healer and heal all the things all the time, as I have a strong preference for damage dealing, but healing sure is quite fun once in a while.

So I'm curious. Which class do you prefer for healing? And why? Do you level as a healer, or do you respec when you feel like healing a flashpoint/warzone? Or are you like me and prefer to punch mobs in the face? Let me know!

Quick Post : Today is a (somewhat) happy day

Know what today is? It's my birthday! (Yay for Life kicking me in the face the day before my birthday. But hey, life goes on!) I turn 26 today, and I spent a very nice day with my family! And this weekend, I intend to celebrate by drinking lots and lots of beer, and playing lots and lots of Swtor with my boyfriend! So if you see someone running around naked... that might be me. You've been warned!

Party!

R.I.P.

This is very off-topic, and I'm sorry, but my dog died today. She was 12. My mother took her to the vet where she was put to sleep. They discovered she had a cancer, and she was suffering, so they acted quickly. I just wish I could have seen her before it happened. Goodbye Virgule.

Planning Ahead - My Marauder Carnage talent build

Disclaimer : This post may or may not be a fairly obvious attempt at luring readers away from my previous fail post. I was planning on posting this soon anyway. Just sooner than expected! XD

My Marauder is level 21, and as for other classes, I decided to plan how to spend my talent points each level.  It might not be the best way to go, and your mileage may vary, but that's how I intend to do it, and I just thought I'd share it.

This tree comes from a very neat and very detailed guide I found on the forums. I suggest you look it up for more information on all three marauder specs, rotations, stats priority and more.

The link to this Carnage build on Torhead can be found here.

Carnage


Tier 1

10-12 Dual Wield Mastery

13-14 Defensive Forms

Tier 2

15-17 Narrowed Hatred

18-19 Enraged Charge

Tier 3

20 Ataru Form

21-22 Execute
23-24 Ataru Mastery

Tier 4

25 Blood Frenzy

26-27 Towering Rage

28-29 Enraged Assault

Tier 5

30 Gore
31-32 Rattling Voice

Tier 2 (Backtracking)

33-34 Defensive Roll

Tier 6

35-37 Sever
38-39 Overwhelm

Tier 7

40 Massacre

Rage

Tier 1

41-42 Ravager

43-45 Malice

Annihilation

Tier 1

46-47 Quick Recovery

48-50 Enraged Slash

Quick Post - Directions to the Gorinth Outpost (Balmorra)

Edit: 

OR if you're not a retard, there's an elevator right next to it. Thank you Njessi for making me less stupid.

Crew Skills are fun

Know what I did this weekend?

I crafted. And it was fun. 

I love crew skills. I love being able to send my companions to gather the mats I'm missing. I love being able to reverse engineer the things I make to get some mats back, and to have the chance to discover a better quality recipe. It makes leveling profession pretty exciting! Well, for me anyway. Maybe I'm just very easily excitable. And I actually enjoy going out of my way while questing to gather crystals, or plants, or whatever. Sure, it might slow down the leveling a bit, but I don't seem to care. I'm having fun. Never thought I'd ever enjoy gathering mats. But I am. And my goal would be to level every crew skill to 400. Lucky me, I have a shit-ton of alts!

I've been working on Artifice and Biochem mostly, as Kizu started an Assassin on the Empire server (fuck, I levelled a Jedi Knight to level 13 for nothing?!) and he needed some stuff to level faster. It's been quite fun. But I wish I had more companions. It would go faster. Would also be nice if my character could make herself useful. Because I send them to gather stuff, and craft stuff, and I just sit there and wait for them to come back. I suppose I could go gather some mats by myself, but it would be impractical, as I usually just stand by the crew skill trainer, so I can learn the next recipe.

I also played Lyrestra the Gunslinger a little this weekend. She's now completely done with Alderaan, and ready to start Balmorra. I must admit I was a little sad that the Republic gets to start on Bugtown, because I hate Bugtown, but hopefully I won't get to fight those damned Collicoids for too long. I really hope so. Fingers crossed. Fucking bugs...

On a side note, I had forgotten how much fun the smuggler/agent playstyle is. Made me want to role an Agent. Again. Maybe someday I'll be able to decide which race and gender I want to make it so I can actually level one past Hutta. 

Quick Post : Character update

So I figured out how to solve the two jedi shadow thing. (Since both me and the boyfriend were leveling one together.) I rolled a Sith Assassin instead!

(Apologies to Reznikov. I totally had to steal the look of yours. It just looks too damn good! They aren't exactly the same, but a bit close. The other tattoos aren't as cool. Please don't hate me!) I will totally get him the social pants from Kaas City's cantina, so he won't have to wear a skirt. Can't wait to get my double-bladed lightsaber!

And to actually level with Kizu, I decided to make a Jedi Guardian. I wanted to give it a try, as my Sith Warrior is a marauder. (That probably won't stop me from rolling a Juggernaut anyway.)

I made him pretty big and bulky, but he's a guardian for crying out loud. I wanted him to look at least a little threatening, even if he'll be dps. The hairstyle gives him some sort of "bad boy" look. I like it. But I think I made him more like a big softie teddy bear rather than a dangerous killing machine. Heh.

So yeah. A marauder, an assassin, a guardian and a gunslinger. Those are my main focus. For now.

I'm also still thinking about making a character over on Selly and Reznikov's server, cause I think it could be lots of fun! Although, I'm not sure what class I'd roll. Maybe (probably) another warrior, or maybe a lady Agent...

I'm making myself dizzy.  =/

It's hard coming up with an original title for the Sixth Image Meme... sue me.

Lovely Selly from a lovely starwar tagged me for the Sixth Meme that's been going around lately!

The basic premise is easy…

Go into your image folder
Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couln’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
Challenge six new bloggers.
Link to them.

I decided to pick a picture from my swtor screenshot folder, since this is a swtor blog. The sixth sub-folder contains pictures of my Gunslinger.

Corso: "More swamp gas? Oh, that's great. I don't think
I can hold my breath the whole time we're on Taris..."

This is the sixth screenshot, of Lyrestra and Corso somewhere on Taris. I took this picture because I completely agree with what Corso says. Apparently, he hates Taris as much as I do!

But if I go in my main image folder, where I pile everything that isn't a screenshot from a game,  the sixth sub-folder is called "Funny pics and vids". The sixth picture is this gem :

This picture, for reasons unknown, makes me laugh so hard. The look on his face is just priceless. I can't remember where I found it, but it was either on Damnlol or Memebase, which are a good way to waste hours of you life, mindlessly scrolling through thousands of funny (and other not-so-funny) pictures and comics.

I won't tag anyone, because I don't know who got tagged and who didn't, but everyone should feel free to do this if they want to, cause it's good fun!

CADD : Character Attention Deficit Disorder

Maybe you know by now that I change my mind a lot. And that I'm an alt whore.

Kizu doesn't have the time to level all sorts of alts like I do. So when he sits down and says "let's play Swtor" there aren't a thousand possibilities. He'll be either playing his Bounty Hunter or his baby Jedi Shadow. 

Me? Well. I used to play my Sorcerer with his Bounty Hunter. But I'm bored with her. Sure she shoots lightning and she is evil to the core. And I will most likely see her whole storyline someday. Just not soon. Because I've discovered that there are classes I enjoy more. Like the Sith Marauder for example.

/cue me sorting frantically through my Fraps folder (which already contains a gazillion screenshots 'cause I'm a bit crazy like that - god I wish windows xp allowed bigger thumbnails, this is a pain) for the perfect screenshot.

Lyrestra is Dark Side rank 2 on this picture.
The only reason I tolerate the mask is because
it doesn't hide her whole face, nor her hair.
Yes, I'm shallow like that.
On a side note, I wish Vette was evil.

But my Sorcerer was level 33 when I abandoned her, and the marauder was only, well, level one. So I've been leveling her - though I've given up waiting for rested XP. I want to play her, and I need her to be level 33 asap, to play with Kizu, but more importantly to see the end of Act 1 and get Jaesa in Alderaan. 

See, I'm a naughty girl. I love watching cut scenes on Youtube. Particularly the End of act 1 of each class and romances with companions. Since the moment I realized I could get a companion that would be pretty AND evil, I've wanted her. And I'm really sad that my Sith can't be a lesbian, 'cause she'd totally hit that. But anyway.

Lyrestra has been through Dromund Kaas and Balmorra so far. For some reason I can't explain, I just love Dromund Kaas. I love how it's all green and blue, I love the rain, the dark sky. I also love the quests a lot, particularly the Revanites part, Grathan's compound and the Dark Temple. I'm not sure what it is that appeals to me, but Dromund Kaas is always a lot of fun for me, maybe that's why I keep creating new characters.

He wants me dead for
cheating on him?
But it wasn't even good!

Balmorra isn't as much fun, but I liked it nonetheless. There's so much destruction to be done, so many people to kill! It would probably be a beautiful place if it wasn't for the war. I especially love the quest where a guy asks you to kill his wife for being a traitor. Poor girl is astonished that her husband could want to kill her for cheating on him. Maybe the funny part is that it's not even really about the classified documents that she supposedly gave to her lover, and more about her husband's pride.

Hopefully, today I'll be done with Balmorra and I'll be able to take a good chunk out of Nar Shaddaa. The less time I spend there and on Tatooine, the better. 

Now on the Republic side, Kizu has decided to start a Jedi Shadow. Now, that's a problem. See, we've decided to play Republic and Empire on different servers. On my Republic server, I already have a level 32 Smuggler (also named Lyrestra) which I love dearly.

I love everything about her, the story, the playstyle, the voice, the looks, and the companion/boyfriend Corso. He totally stole my heart. 'Cause he's such a sweetie. I leveled her quickly not because I was in a rush, but because I wanted to know what was coming next! And now I'm scared to see it end, so I've slowed down. In fact, I haven't played her in weeks, not because I'm bored with her, but because I don't want her adventures to end! I even considered leveling a second one, maybe as a male, to see the same story, but with different twists! And maybe I will. Someday.

But Kizu needed a leveling buddy, so I've decided to create a Jedi Shadow, too.

We didn't think this one through, though. Both our characters are females. So they have the same voice. And they wear the same robes. Heh. But I have to admit it's a lot of fun. Being able to stealth = win. We're still on Coruscant, since Kizu never feels like playing for long periods at a time. But it's been fun, and I look forward to playing some more!

Quick Post : Ugly gun is ugly - part 2

Now that's bett.... what? Still white and blue?!

Don't piss me off, I haz a water gun!

Also, a bonus : 

I think someone is
compensating for
something, here.

Quick Post : Ugly gun is ugly

Oh nice! A new gun! Wait...

White and blue for a gun is just so intimidating, you know? 

That is all. Carry on.

Guild ramblings

Ever since we started playing Swtor, Kizu and I have been leveling mostly together. I have alts that I play when he's not available, but we love to quest together whenever we can.

In World of Warcraft, we've always been in the same guilds. If one of us left, the other followed. We've been in a lot of different guilds over the years, but never have we been on our own for very long. In Swtor, we haven't even thought about finding a guild so far. We're both pretty shy, and even though we love making new friends, we haven't felt the need to be with other people. Yet.

Since we aren't planning on raiding anytime soon, we don't exactly need to find other people to raid with. I guess we could find a social guild and meet new people, but I just don't see the point. We two-man all the heroic quests, even the heroic4 ones, so it's not like we need help, really, and the only time we need to find people is to run flashpoints, which we don't do a whole lot of to begin with.

I've never felt at home in social guilds in WoW, but that might be only because I don't get what these people have in common. In a raiding guild, you know members are most likely focused on gearing up, grinding rep, badges or whatever, and preparing for raids. PvP guilds also have a common goal. Gearing up, and getting better at roflstomping other players, or whatever it is that PvP oriented players are after. But I don't know what makes a social guild feel like home.

Since I'm mostly "leveling characters for fun" oriented, I'm not sure where I fit in. I know Kizu plans on doing PvP at endgame, but I don't. I don't know what I'll be doing once I get bored with leveling and all my toons are at level cap. So far, I'm just trying to enjoy the moment and to not plan everything ahead, which is really hard for me.

I do miss the atmosphere that comes with a guild, though. The sense of membership, of belonging somewhere. I miss getting to know other players, and making new friends. I miss the (sometimes stupid) jokes. I miss being with other people, working towards a common goal. 

I guess in my case, what I would love is to be in a guild with other bloggers. I can relate to other players that write about their experience, even if I don't necessarily share their interests. If we don't share in-game goals, at least we'd know we have at least one thing in common : blogging.

How did you find your guild? Why did you feel you needed one? Are you guildless and happy to be?

Comparisons

When RIFT came out, I got in the beta, and I wasn’t impressed. It all looked like “a better version of WoW”, though I’m not sure it really was actually better. Granted, I didn't play for long, but there was nothing that made me go : "Wow, I want to play this game!" And the fact that their add said “You’re not in Azeroth anymore” was a huge turn-off for me. It sounded condescending. Like being in Azeroth was wrong, or lame. Well fuck you dude, WoW has been in my life for years, and I love Azeroth, so you’re gonna have to do better than that to impress me. But I’ve never really heard about RIFT since then, and I kinda just forgot it even existed. There must be thousands, if not millions, of people that enjoy RIFT and that’s fine. And I won’t say they made the wrong choice or that their game is lame, or that WoW is better. I chose WoW, I don’t really care what others do. Just don’t shit all over my toy.

Now Swtor doesn’t seem to want to beat other games to the ground. It’s almost as if games could co-exist and be successful without having to compare themselves to other games! So I can just discover the game, learn the mechanics, and explore this new world without constantly being reminded that it isn’t Azeroth and that some things are different? No way!

I do compare though, even if I try not to. There are some things I always wanted in WoW that are in Swtor, (Everyone can rez? Really?!? And I can heal myself between each pull, and I don’t need to buy food?! o.O) some stuff that I wish Swtor had that WoW has (I miss addons and UI customization a lot. And I strangely miss fishing and cooking, but I'm sure most of you don't), and some stuff I never even thought of asking for; like being able to look at the map AND walk at the same time without running into mobs! Companions that actually farm for you? Yes please! And the voice acting really rocks my world right now. I never thought I’d ever have so much fun questing! 

I'm not sure where I was going with this, but Swtor is amazing, and I'm glad I decided to play it. I still enjoy WoW, to an extent, and maybe it's just that Swtor is the shiny new toy and all, but I love playing both games right now, for different things. WoW for the raid finder mostly, and Swtor for the leveling experience and the story. Things change, and WoW isn't what it used to be. I most likely won't be buying the next expansion, because I'm less than thrilled about Pandaland, so I'm really grateful to have Swtor. 

Endless Torment - or what feels like it

Lyrestra the Gunslinger decided to just drop all her green Taris quests and get the fuck out of this mess.

Fuck that shit

So I thought I was done with Taris for a while... but then Kizu decided that, with our Empire characters, we should skip Alderaan and go straight to Taris! Gah!

Fuck me

So we did. Because I love Kizu. But - fortunately for me - it was late, so we only did a couple quests then called it a night. Can't say I'm in a hurry to play my sorcerer again. Though hopefully, the quests will be better on the Empire Side, and Kizu will take care of figuring out where to go, because I sure as hell won't. I get lost in my own ship, people. There's just no hope for me.

I know I've been complaining about Taris a lot lately. I promise to speak about something else. Soon. Because the other planets are pretty fun as far as I can tell. Nar Shaddaa went by so fast with my Smuggler, it was crazy. Maybe I missed a sub-zone or something, because it felt like there was only a few quests. I'm not complaining, though. I remember my experience in the Empire Side of Nar Shaddaa as pretty endless and grey and very sewersy. I didn't get the same feeling this time around. It was just plain fun!

Next is Tatooine, which so far looks pretty much the same no matter which side you're on. Except I don't remember there being as many bugs people on the Empire side. Which is a good thing. Eww bugs.

And I'm so close to Alderaan! This time, hopefully, I will have enough patience to go through all the zone at the normal pace and won't rush to the end to get my Legacy name asap. (New server, new legacy!) It's such a beautiful place, I really look forward to discovering it.

The perfect character for you

Hi, my name is Lyrestra, and I'm an altoholic. But maybe you already knew that. 

I spend a lot of time staring at the character creation screen, making new characters that often end up deleted not long after. For some reason, I looove creating new characters. Trying new races, new hairstyles. Not all those characters end up deleted though. But it often takes me a couple tries before I'm happy enough with a character to actually start leveling it seriously (as in past level 20). 

In WoW, I have deleted a couple level 70ish characters. I have even deleted a level 80 once. Because they weren't exactly right. Yes, I am slow at realizing that, I know. 

I guess you could say I'm fairly OCD about my characters. If something is bothering me, the hair, the face, the general look (or in this case, the voice), I won't want to play the character, and he will most likely be deleted shortly after that. A lot of my characters have a pretty short lifespan. 

In Swtor though, it's not only about the looks or which class to take. It's also about the voice and the companions. Which, for me, makes it very complicated to create the perfect character.

For example, let's take the Imperial Agent. 

I created Zashana, a female Zabrak, and I think she is adorable. I particularly love her hair. Now, I absolutely love the playstyle. I wasn't so sure at first, but now, I'm addicted to it. I can't remember who it was, but someone was saying in their blog that they were playing the imperial agent like it was made of pure crack, and I can only agree. But my point is, I love the way she looks, I love the class, and I love her voice. But - yes, there is a but - the romance option for female Imperial Agents is Vector. The weird ass enhanced guy (whatever that means) who has a thing for aliens and speaks strangely. He really freaks me out. 

Maybe I'm superficial, but it's important for me to actually like the romance option for my characters. And this one, I don't like. Of course, I could just not flirt with him and try and just flirt with random strangers throughout the galaxy, but it feels like I'd be missing out on an important part of my character's story.

So I thought  "Hey! Why not make a male imperial agent?" Great idea. Except... I hate the male voice! With a passion! He annoys me almost as much as Malavai Quinn does (which says a lot, because I really hate Quinn's voice.) And as a male, what would be my romance options? Kaliyo and Ensign Temple. Yuk. I simply cannot imagine Kaliyo involved in a lasting relationship with anyone, and although she's badass and I kinda like her, she has the goth vibe that I don't particularly find appealing. I watched some videos on youtube about Ensign Temple romance, and she just annoyed the crap outta me. No way I'm flirting with this one.

So my solution for this was to roll a female smuggler. Which worked out pretty nicely.

 

Lyrestra has my favourite haircut, favourite face and eyes, a sexy scar, and I like the sound of her voice. Corso is a sweetheart, and I love all the stuff he says in combat. I also love his voice, which is a plus, and aside from the painful experience in Taris, I'm really enjoying my time spent on this character. 

Maybe someday, when I'm done with my favourite characters, I will go back to the imperial agent to see the storyline. But I'm guessing it'll take a while before I come up with a character I actually want to play as an imperial agent. 

And this is only one example. I love my characters, and I care about details. I want my characters to feel right as I play them. The story, the voice and the companions are a big part of the experience, so I think it's worth it to tweak my characters until I find the combination that feels just right. Because at the end of the day, what matters is you enjoy whatever it is you are doing.

But maybe I just think too much.

Comments

Apparently, I'm a noob when it comes to Blogger, and not everyone could comment on my blog. Nice job, Lyr! >.>

I changed the settings, so it should work now. Don't hesitate to contact me by email at lyrestra [at] gmail [dot] com if it still isn't working, or for any other issues. =)

<3 Lyr

I hate fucking endless Bonus Series quests.

Especially Taris ones.

"Ah, finally, I'm done with this shit!"
/turn in quest
"Here, do more useless quests... YOU'RE NEVER GETTING OFF THIS  HELL-HOLE!"
/evil laugh
"Fuck me."

That is all.

Confession

I have a confession to make.

I REALLY hate Taris.

Might not come as a shock to you, Republic people, but this place is a living hell. Balmorra is a pleasant walk in the park compared to this. See, I play mostly on the Empire side. As my higher character is still on Alderaan, Taris was a new place for me. (Empire players get to visit Taris at level 32ish, right after Alderaan. Republic players go there at level 16.) 

A few days ago, I decided to start a cute little smuggler.

Captain Lyrestra - Gunslinger

For some reason, I really love Corso. He's great at tanking for me, and we're pretty much unstoppable so far. I was planning to have some sort of neutral alignment but to please him, I went full on light side instead. Why yes, she wants to have Corso's babies. But I digress.

Going through Ord Mantel was a breeze. Fun quests, pretty straightforward. And pretty too, despite the fighting going on.

Love the grey sky, it's kinda romantic.

Then I went to Coruscant, which was gorgeous. For like 3 minutes.

Why are all the quests indoors?  >_>

Then it became dirty and grey and sewersy. What the fuck? Am I on Nar Shaddaa? It really made me miss Dromund Kaas. At least there's some vegetation there, and you get to see the sky more than three times.

But it wasn't so bad. It was pretty damn decent compared to the nightmare that is Taris. Ruins, and dirt, and lakes of acid, and beasts that can turn you into more beasts. Charming.

Everything looks the same on Taris : ugly.

I really hated the yellow-greenish landscape, the death traps, the backtracking (what? I have to go back there? I was just there! I killed like a million people to get there and I have to go back? No fucking way.) the gazillion Rakghouls to kill all over the fucking place, the OMG WHERE THE FUCK AM I? I have to go up there? How the fuck do I go there? Oh right, by running around a goddamn wall that goes through half the fucking zone! I'm barely exaggerating.

And just when I thought I was finally done  with this hell-hole (thank sweet baby jesus), there it was... Taris : Bonus Series! You get to say here a while longer and curse at your screen! Enjoy! 

I'm not sure yet if I won't just give up and move on to the next zone (as I'm already level 22!) or put my brave face on and finish those damn quests. The mere thought makes me want to choke kittens, but I really wanted to see everything each planet has to offer. Maybe I'll make an exception, just this once.

Where's a Death Star when you need a planet obliterated? Sigh.