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.

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.

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.

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. 

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!

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?

My plans for the immediate future

My highest character is level 32. She hit 32 on Tatooine. Doing green quests. Because Kizu and I want to see as much content as possible. and apparently being in a group gives you bonus xp or something. And we didn't even do a lot of flashpoints or pvp. 

We did skip most of the quests on Alderaan just to do our class quest and get our Legacy asap. But we're going back there to see it all. Because it's fun. (Ok, not all quests make me squee with joy, but most of them are fairly entertaining.)

I'm like everyone else, I love hitting the next level, and the next one after that. But I'm in no rush to hit 50. In a couple levels, there will be no more quests to do. There will be endgame, and farming gear, and doing dailies for credits and more gear. I don't miss that one bit. For a long time, raiding (in WoW) was all that I wanted to do. I farmed and farmed, and killed internet dragons 'til my eyes bled, and got loot to beat bigger internet dragons. Can you say redundant? Sure, it was fun at the time. But that's not me anymore. And while I get that a lot of people still enjoy that a lot, it is not what I want to spend my time on. There's no right or wrong, it's all about what's fun to you.

Me, I love creating new alts. The amazing thing with this game, is that there are tons of options as far as re-playability goes. You can choose the same class/advanced class but go dark side instead of light! You can make a second Bounty Hunter and go powertech instead of mercenary! You can make a male instead of a female and get some different flirting/sexy time options.

There's lots of potential here.

That is why I think that when my Sorcerers hits level 50... I'll just focus on another character and enjoy the ride. I want to see it all. Sure, most of the quests will be almost the same the second time around (and third, and fourth!) but I get to see different class storylines, or choose to save kittens instead of eating them. I can also go see what Unicornland has to offer. Err. I mean the Republic. 

Plus, I'm sure there are hundreds of people out there I haven't banged yet. Can't let that happen.

Agent Nevie

I gave the Imperial Agent another shot, and I'm quite glad I did. Nevie is now level 8, and I'm still wondering which Advanced Class I'll be picking up in two levels, because they both look awesome. I have a slight preference for Sniper, though.

I kinda love the playstyle after all. It's pretty fun to find a good hiding spot, throw grenades and shoot people between the eyes. At first, I didn't get what her deal was. The Siths are just powerful and evil, it's what they're trained for. Bounty Hunters kill or steal or cheat and get paid for it. But what are the Imperial Agents all about?

I decided that an Agent (mine anyway) is about serving the Empire and getting the job done, no matter what. I get to be a female James Bond with a license to kill, and massacre, and inflict pain.

Plus, I get to be dark side, and my companion Kaliyo is badass and enjoys the chaos I leave in my wake. I get to be a cold bitch that cares only for herself, and knows no remorse. I don't know yet if she actually enjoys killing like my Siths do, or if she just doesn't care as long as she gets paid. I don't see her losing sleep over killing innocents. But I can't picture her as truly evil, either.

I look forward to figuring this one out. This is gonna be fun.

Enjoying the moment

I was playing WoW today, and then it hit me. I realized how happy I am that I can play swtor right now.

Swtor is full of opportunities. Swtor is a true new start.

It's great to level a character and not know all the quests by heart. Even when I do a zone a second time on an alt, it's not exactly the same, because of class quests, but also because of the alignment of the character. The quests are pretty much the same, but some stuff changes depending on if you wanna kick the puppy or if you decide to save it. (I actually want to make a dark side Bounty Hunter just so I can redo The Musty Trail and choose to kill lady Dak'ah instead of bringing the guy back to his family. I was really sad that I had to let that bitch live. Or maybe I'd just kill the guy. Because what do I care?)

I love not having to worry about commitment. Kizu and I play when we feel like it. We level slowly. We do mostly all the quests. We explore zones, we take the time to look at the landscapes, and we also make sure to find as many holocrons as possible. (That's actually Kizu's thing, but it's nice to find secret places.)

I've always been in a rush to get to the end of things. For once, I want to take it slow, and savour the moment. I think I'm becoming allergic to commitment.