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!

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.

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!

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 : 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.