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!