• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Star Wars: The Old Republic |OT| EA: "Let's blow this thing and go home!"

Dunlop

Member
Anyone with the support of a healer is godly in the current game.

This next patch might reduce the amount of pocket healers out there.

For the first time in any MMO, I am thinking about switching over my main to a DPS.

I was never to enthuised on the BH healing style, but still cannot get over the reaming we will take on the patch. If they would let us transer out toons to test it out (our guild was rejected) it might open our eyes to WTF they are diong.

But now I could just use the next couple of weeks to try and get Rakata DPS gear
 

Cystm

Member
Correct, you even see small clip of one in the 1.2 video preview.

Yes it does.

That is cool. Albeit rather funny to read though: "Sith Jedi Knight."

Yes and the other cool thing is if you unlock, say, a Cyborg or a Twilek you open up all the customization options that that race has. Like a Sith Warrior Twilek has different colour options that aren't normally available Jedi Twileks.

I agree with you. It bugged me that I could not use the same Cyborg features on my BH that i could on my IA, now that will no longer be an issue.

I wish I had the 12.5 million credits needed to buy them all straight away. Luckily, I decided to wait leveling alts until we knew wtf was going on with Legacy system, and now that it's been revealed, I can work towards unlocking my preferred species and other benefits more efficiently and directly. I really like what they are doing with Legacy. It encourages people to level alts, but also doesn't screw people over that would rather focus on one main character.
 

CzarTim

Member
And then the other 6 players on the team score/cap/plant/ or just straight up dps you down.

Empire GAF had no problem shutting me down earlier today. :p The fact is, a lot of this comes down to how good your team is. I was in a match earlier where the healers were marked and STILL no one even tried to go after them. I've been on the other side of that too. I've had a conversation with a dude trying to kill me because no one was helping him out.

I /do/ feel like healers are OP. I /don't/ feel like the nerfs are addressing the issue in the right way.
 

gatti-man

Member
Empire GAF had no problem shutting me down earlier today. :p The fact is, a lot of this comes down to how good your team is. I was in a match earlier where the healers were marked and STILL no one even tried to go after them. I've been on the other side of that too. I've had a conversation with a dude trying to kill me because no one was helping him out.

I /do/ feel like healers are OP. I /don't/ feel like the nerfs are addressing the issue in the right way.

We were delighted to see you Jaina:)
 

Wallach

Member
So I made a pureblood Sith Warrior since I haven't played any Force users yet, and I thought their starter planet was really cool. Also, as far as the class goes, I think they have my favorite resource mechanic. It's a bit freeing compared to energy/heat, since you are actually trying to build/spend your resource to the limit. Also I get to slap the shit out of my Twi'lek on a 30 second cooldown, which seems really overpowered. I'm sure she is going to be one of my romance options, but it's going to be hard to convince myself to bother with that when I could instead just light her up like a Christmas tree all the time.

All told I'm enjoying it a lot more than I figured. That said, I got to the fleet and the game was like "yeah so choose an AC now" and I kind of spaced that was even a thing. Stared at that for about a minute then closed the game; I have no idea which one of the Warrior's ACs I want to pick. Right now Juggernaut is winning that battle, because their tank tree gets to spec into a stun simply called Backhand, and Force Push seems really entertaining.
 

Anbokr

Bull on a Donut
Here's some food for thought healers: expertise will go up to the 20-25% range in 1.2. Damage stays constant, but healing goes up by a good 10-15%. The damage + and the damage reduction offset each other but the healing is a straight buff. So with all the QQ about healers/tanks now, if Bioware left them as is; they probably would have been a tad too strong. Gotta take it all in context.
 

Wallach

Member
Here's some food for thought healers: expertise will go up to the 20-25% range in 1.2. Damage stays constant, but healing goes up by a good 10-15%. The damage + and the damage reduction offset each other but the healing is a straight buff. So with all the QQ about healers/tanks now, if Bioware left them as is; they probably would have been a tad too strong. Gotta take it all in context.

The damage increase and damage reduction no longer offset each other, because the damage increase now outscales the damage reduction with the new 1.2 Expertise scaling.
 

Cystm

Member
So I decided to test out the UI custimization settings on the PTR.
ZNzj4.jpg
Target of target is in there on the right of my main target, and above that is my focus target. The largely empty space below all that is where I will be placing my raid frames. I set everything to 75% Opacity, and was able to remove elements I did not like, such as the tooltips, and companion portrait. (At max level I almost never do anything that requires a companion, but I will throw it back in there for alts.) As you can see, you can also remove the frame border around your quickbars. You can even modify Warzone information.

The level of customization is really good.

EDIT: In other news, I am now finally full BM on my main.

 

Dunlop

Member
Here's some food for thought healers: expertise will go up to the 20-25% range in 1.2. Damage stays constant, but healing goes up by a good 10-15%. The damage + and the damage reduction offset each other but the healing is a straight buff. So with all the QQ about healers/tanks now, if Bioware left them as is; they probably would have been a tad too strong. Gotta take it all in context.

In PVP, this nerfing affects PVE also
 
Anyone use a Razer Naga? Is it any good?

It's good mouse but can take lot of practice to get use to that numeric keypad on the left side. Depending on how you use your mouse some buttons are a bit tough to reach, but got all my important abilities mapped to what I got memorized.
 

theta11

Member
Here's some food for thought healers: expertise will go up to the 20-25% range in 1.2. Damage stays constant, but healing goes up by a good 10-15%. The damage + and the damage reduction offset each other but the healing is a straight buff. So with all the QQ about healers/tanks now, if Bioware left them as is; they probably would have been a tad too strong. Gotta take it all in context.

Actually the scaling doesn't change anything at all apart from being unable to use PVP gear in PVE. Even though Expertise goes up by quite a bit your primary stat takes a huge hit.
 
Actually the scaling doesn't change anything at all apart from being unable to use PVP gear in PVE. Even though Expertise goes up by quite a bit your primary stat takes a huge hit.

In PVP expertise is still going to be a bigger factor with how big the number bloat is on the expertise stat, even with the diminishing returns they added too it. The PVP gear was never that good for use in PVE but of course it's going to be a bgger gap now.
 

gatti-man

Member
In PVP expertise is still going to be a bigger factor with how big the number bloat is on the expertise stat, even with the diminishing returns they added too it. The PVP gear was never that good for use in PVE but of course it's going to be a bgger gap now.

That really sucks for me. I can't be on when the guild raids because of work. It was nice that I could grind pvp and still have somewhat useful gear for pve.
 

Effect

Member
I really hope the story improves. I'm on Tatooine now and it's just crawling along in a very predictable fashion. It's gotten to the point that I'm just speed reading mission dialogue with npcs just to get back to the fight. Which in itself is your standard mmo combat but the Star Wars flare provided by my Jedi Sage makes it more fun to take part in then it really should be.

Been doing the space combat too but poor in comparions to what was offered in Star Wars Galaxies. Though it might not be fair to judge. Space combat in SWG was an entire expansion (Jump to Lightspeed) after the game launched. There were days or weeks where I didn't even go down to the planets in SWG. I perfectly happy to stay in space and travel between the various systems. When I got my Yacht that took care of my housing too.

I think I might stick with the game until I at least get my Sage to max level and finish the storyline. That might take another month or two at the rate I'm going. Level 26 now and I think I've finished up the side-missions in Anchorhead and ready to finish up the main missions there. I'm not even bothering with the group missions as it's to much work getting a group together and even then I'm not always able to play uninterrupted long enough. It's always the case with MMOs. I can be doing nothing for hours (gaming and not gaming). However the second I want to group in a game someone needs something or someone calls. By passing the group missions and not worrying about crafting/gathering skills for the moment is spending things up. Also helps that I haven't found any solid reason to stop and spell the roses as they say.
 

Draxal

Member
That really sucks for me. I can't be on when the guild raids because of work. It was nice that I could grind pvp and still have somewhat useful gear for pve.

Corellia Dailies currently give Blach Hole commendations on PTR, Black Hole Commendations are used to buy the new version of Hard/Nightmare pve tier(set pieces trade in's also drop).

The rate of gaining tokens compared to actually raiding getting loot is slow, but if you keep up with your dailies you won't fall behind too much and will be able to help out..
 

sam16

Member
That really sucks for me. I can't be on when the guild raids because of work. It was nice that I could grind pvp and still have somewhat useful gear for pve.

If you do the new dailies on Corellia, you can get raid equivalent gear from the commendations vendor. From what I've seen, it seems that the main difference is that the daily gear doesn't have a set bonus, however the Campaign (raid) gear isn't finished yet. Predictably this has lead to a lot RAGE on the official forums
 
I really hope the story improves. I'm on Tatooine now and it's just crawling along in a very predictable fashion. It's gotten to the point that I'm just speed reading mission dialogue with npcs just to get back to the fight. Which in itself is your standard mmo combat but the Star Wars flare provided by my Jedi Sage makes it more fun to take part in then it really should be.

Been doing the space combat too but poor in comparions to what was offered in Star Wars Galaxies. Though it might not be fair to judge. Space combat in SWG was an entire expansion (Jump to Lightspeed) after the game launched. There were days or weeks where I didn't even go down to the planets in SWG. I perfectly happy to stay in space and travel between the various systems. When I got my Yacht that took care of my housing too.

I think I might stick with the game until I at least get my Sage to max level and finish the storyline. That might take another month or two at the rate I'm going. Level 26 now and I think I've finished up the side-missions in Anchorhead and ready to finish up the main missions there. I'm not even bothering with the group missions as it's to much work getting a group together and even then I'm not always able to play uninterrupted long enough. It's always the case with MMOs. I can be doing nothing for hours (gaming and not gaming). However the second I want to group in a game someone needs something or someone calls. By passing the group missions and not worrying about crafting/gathering skills for the moment is spending things up. Also helps that I haven't found any solid reason to stop and spell the roses as they say.

You can skip alot of the extra side quest missions if your leveled enough. Game has over abundance of quests and you are given xp for every little thing you do. So if your tired of a planet, as long as your within level you can just concentrate on your class quests. PVP, Space, bonus, exploration, etc all give xp that adds up, and if you keep your character rested, you can move at a brisk pace. One of my alts I do nothing but pvp and am leveling at a good rate, it makes money, and when I'm high enough I just do the class story quests while pretty much ignoring the side quests.

On my main to 50 I skipped alot of the side quests and even some planets completely ignored all quests except for the class story because I was high enough level. On my next alt playthrough I will do those planets I skipped the quests for, to have some variety.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
So the trial ended. I played through until the game wouldn't let me go any further (end of Coruscant, I guess). I liked it a lot. Got pretty hooked.

No real reason for this to be an MMO, though, other than a few optional, out-of-the-way "heroic" quests that don't have much to do with anything.
That and EA wanting that WoW money.
It's very story-driven, and I played the entire thing without ever once feeling the urge to team with someone else. There's no reason to. When 95% of the NPCs are giving out solo quests and content, and they give you an NPC to run around and fight with you, what's the point? I'd buy this game if Bioware came out with a single-player version that simply disabled all of the multiplayer content and didn't charge a monthly fee, but I'd never sign up for a subscription.
 
So the trial ended. I played through until the game wouldn't let me go any further (end of Coruscant, I guess). I liked it a lot. Got pretty hooked.

No real reason for this to be an MMO, though, other than a few optional, out-of-the-way "heroic" quests that don't have much to do with anything.
That and EA wanting that WoW money.
It's very story-driven, and I played the entire thing without ever once feeling the urge to team with someone else. There's no reason to. When 95% of the NPCs are giving out solo quests and content, and they give you an NPC to run around and fight with you, what's the point? I'd buy this game if Bioware came out with a single-player version that simply disabled all of the multiplayer content and didn't charge a monthly fee, but I'd never sign up for a subscription.

The game is very solo friendly but it's also fun to play with others. Heroic area quests for example give out unique orange rewards and also help give you more things to do by playing with others. PVP is also important for many people and the game lets you pretty much level up and earn money fairly well by doing nothing but PVP. Group content like Flashpoints and raids are also quite fun as well, and certain activities like getting datacrons require or are helped with having players to help out.

You can solo almost any MMO nowadays though but this games story presentation makes it more like a single player game than most, but for the most part it offers what other mmos offer. Majority of MMO content is also designed for solo play, you just team up with others if your not high enough level. But you are right, having companions do make it less needed to team up in some cases, though if you have friends on, playing with them is always fun. I often quest with my GF and it makes for quick leveling. But lot of players have felt like they wanted to treat it as single player offering that they just played to 50 and story completion, and quit.
 

Effect

Member
You can skip alot of the extra side quest missions if your leveled enough. Game has over abundance of quests and you are given xp for every little thing you do. So if your tired of a planet, as long as your within level you can just concentrate on your class quests. PVP, Space, bonus, exploration, etc all give xp that adds up, and if you keep your character rested, you can move at a brisk pace. One of my alts I do nothing but pvp and am leveling at a good rate, it makes money, and when I'm high enough I just do the class story quests while pretty much ignoring the side quests.

On my main to 50 I skipped alot of the side quests and even some planets completely ignored all quests except for the class story because I was high enough level. On my next alt playthrough I will do those planets I skipped the quests for, to have some variety.

Thanks. Was starting to consider doing something like this. Started leaving my character in a cantina the last few days just to help speed things along. In the end I still believe this is pretty much a single player game with some online interaction.
 

sammich

Member
The game is very solo friendly but it's also fun to play with others. Heroic area quests for example give out unique orange rewards and also help give you more things to do by playing with others. PVP is also important for many people and the game lets you pretty much level up and earn money fairly well by doing nothing but PVP. Group content like Flashpoints and raids are also quite fun as well, and certain activities like getting datacrons require or are helped with having players to help out.

You can solo almost any MMO nowadays though but this games story presentation makes it more like a single player game than most, but for the most part it offers what other mmos offer. Majority of MMO content is also designed for solo play, you just team up with others if your not high enough level. But you are right, having companions do make it less needed to team up in some cases, though if you have friends on, playing with them is always fun. I often quest with my GF and it makes for quick leveling. But lot of players have felt like they wanted to treat it as single player offering that they just played to 50 and story completion, and quit.

Its funny how things have changed. People used to rag on EQ2 saying that you had to group to truly enjoy the game, and people cited WoW as a better game for that. Now compare WoW vanilla/BC to where it is now. It is basically no different than SwTor but SWTOR gets a minus for it while WoW gets positives for it because people want to rush to 85.
 
Thanks. Was starting to consider doing something like this. Started leaving my character in a cantina the last few days just to help speed things along. In the end I still believe this is pretty much a single player game with some online interaction.

The amount of online interaction you have is up to you. The game gives you the option of playing it completely by yourself, but same applies to almost every MMO nowadays WoW, RIFT, DCUO, STO, and on. Lot of features and such of the game are going to be locked out or need grouping to do, but if the story is your sole focus, then you don't need to play with others.

Its funny how things have changed. People used to rag on EQ2 saying that you had to group to truly enjoy the game, and people cited WoW as a better game for that. Now compare WoW vanilla/BC to where it is now. It is basically no different than SwTor but SWTOR gets a minus for it while WoW gets positives for it because people want to rush to 85.

It really is no different from other MMOs, but the issue here is that alot of players were upset and wanted this game to be a single player experience. Lot of folks I know basically bought it to play the story and quit, never grouping or doing any pvp or such either.
 

Tess3ract

Banned
I think this game would have been better as a single player adventure with different leveling paths.

However I didn't quit because I thought it would be a SP game, I quit because the MP features all were archaic and boring and there wasn't nearly enough vanity things to keep me going.
 

Draxal

Member
It really is no different from other MMOs, but the issue here is that alot of players were upset and wanted this game to be a single player experience. Lot of folks I know basically bought it to play the story and quit, never grouping or doing any pvp or such either.

I will disagree, it doesn't have the feature set of Wow or Rift right now (end game especially). Oddly enough, for all the Wow people claiming that BC was the best Wow expansion and they really want it back. The current feature set of Star Wars is pretty damn close to BC.
 
I will disagree, it doesn't have the feature set of Wow or Rift right now (end game especially). Oddly enough, for all the Wow people claiming that BC was the best Wow expansion and they really want it back. The current feature set of Star Wars is pretty damn close to BC.

Features lacking yes, but content is the same. Grouping is no different or content offerings, the only difference is that SWTOR is lacking the tools that make grouping play smoother. WoW is nothing unique compared to TOR outside of having more polished interface experience. RIFT at least had unique grouping functions in the form of the world events with auto grouping functions. PVP, Dungeons, raids, all your standard MMO faire. WoW didn't force you to group, still doesn't and if you want to do group content in any of these games, it's purely optional as the whole leveling experience is solo play.

Biggest issue I also think is that TOR doesn't have a global LFG channel, which is really dumb of them.
 
The next innovative MMO is Guild Wars 2. Everything else can have some things different here and there but will not attempt at genre redefinition.

I will say this, playing the TERA beta, opening up quest boxies, scrolling, etc is just not fun anymore.
 

skrilla

Neo Member
If i have 1300 lightside points (at level 14) is it going to cause end game issues if i want to turn my toon into a 'dark' jedi?
 

HBroward

Member
Someone posted on reddit some details about the new WB on Voss:

http://i.imgur.com/J3NSz.jpg

We downed this tonight after a good few hours of working out mechanics.
He dropped 3x Black Hole loot (level 146).
The tokens weren't class specific.
You actually need 16 people as the dps requirement is tight.
And more interesting, you can't farm him as you get the debuff pictured. You also get a buff that lasts 5 hours giving 50 main stats persisting through death.
If Bioware follows up with similar bosses in the new tier, I'm very excited. It was a good challenge and pretty fun!
Edit: This is by no means me bragging about killing a boss on the test server but rather bringing new information to this subreddit. Haters gonna hate though, just don't let the trolling deter you from the new information. Thanks.
Edit2: Here's a recording of the kill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m74YYGHG4Nc

Apparently the tokens that dropped were for Boots, Bracers, and Implants.

Tokens not being class specific is a pretty great change, hope that rolls into the new operation as well. It'll make the list a lot easier to manage I guess.


If i have 1300 lightside points (at level 14) is it going to cause end game issues if i want to turn my toon into a 'dark' jedi?

No, you could switch from full Dark V to Light V and back if you had the time and patience. Just use Diplomacy, it'll be a bit of a grind though.
 

Draxal

Member
Features lacking yes, but content is the same. Grouping is no different or content offerings, the only difference is that SWTOR is lacking the tools that make grouping play smoother. WoW is nothing unique compared to TOR outside of having more polished interface experience. RIFT at least had unique grouping functions in the form of the world events with auto grouping functions. PVP, Dungeons, raids, all your standard MMO faire. WoW didn't force you to group, still doesn't and if you want to do group content in any of these games, it's purely optional as the whole leveling experience is solo play.

Biggest issue I also think is that TOR doesn't have a global LFG channel, which is really dumb of them.

The feature set is a pretty big problem for end game and leveling. While Wow doesn't force you to group it's incredibly easy to do. Grouping is entirely cumbersome compared to other MMO's in 2012.

Rift has the instant action (introduced later in the game) which is pretty huge (and something Wow is copying directly in Mists) because it doesn't rely on the Holy Trinity of tanking/healing/dps.

I just don't think a global lfg will add a dent in the grouping issue one bit. Lack of LFD. Lack of Dual Specs so tanks/healers are readily more avaible is damaging. I know TOR is implementing those, but they're just catching up to the standard and not adding anything new, while other games have added or are adding.
 
Last night I was bored and remodded my full BM set on my infil Shadow just to experiment. Before I was at 97 acc, 32% crit, and 73% crit multi. New stats with power/surge mods from scoundrals champ gear I was at 92 acc, 30% crit, and 78% crit multi and man I was hitting like a truck. I lost 400 hp and 2% crit but the gain in power and surge really helped. My clarvoyant strike was hitting 1200 a hit, up from 1000 and by projects and breach were critting in the high 4000's consistently with my highest at 5700 on a sorc. Accuracy has to be the most useless stat.
 

Draxal

Member
Last night I was bored and remodded my full BM set on my infil Shadow just to experiment. Before I was at 97 acc, 32% crit, and 73% crit multi. New stats with power/surge mods from scoundrals champ gear I was at 92 acc, 30% crit, and 78% crit multi and man I was hitting like a truck. I lost 400 hp and 2% crit but the gain in power and surge really helped. My clarvoyant strike was hitting 1200 a hit, up from 1000 and by projects and breach were critting in the high 4000's consistently with my highest at 5700 on a sorc. Accuracy has to be the most useless stat.

Ayup, accuracy is garbage. I want to know how much you actually spent taking the mods out though, must of been insane.
 

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
So the trial ended. I played through until the game wouldn't let me go any further (end of Coruscant, I guess). I liked it a lot. Got pretty hooked.

No real reason for this to be an MMO, though, other than a few optional, out-of-the-way "heroic" quests that don't have much to do with anything.
That and EA wanting that WoW money.
It's very story-driven, and I played the entire thing without ever once feeling the urge to team with someone else. There's no reason to. When 95% of the NPCs are giving out solo quests and content, and they give you an NPC to run around and fight with you, what's the point? I'd buy this game if Bioware came out with a single-player version that simply disabled all of the multiplayer content and didn't charge a monthly fee, but I'd never sign up for a subscription.

The game can feel like a single player game because you CAN play it that way, but you'll miss out on a lot of content. It's not just the Heroics (which give orange gear which are usually the best available at that level and also moddable so you can keep wearing them until end game as long as you swap out the mods) but also the Flashpoints, Operations, PVP and the social conversation system.

It may seem like a small thing but having a group of 4 people and not knowing exactly how a conversation is going to go is great. We're always chuckling over voice at stuff other people's characters say during a conversation and it's fun when you want to save someone but someone else decides to just go ahead and put a lightsaber through him.
 
The feature set is a pretty big problem for end game and leveling.

The leveling experience doesn't require any grouping or playing with others which is the concern that many people have brought up. The game is quite easy to over level and get to 50 without ever having to group. In most MMO's while you can get to max by yourself, it usually is faster and beneficial to play with others, in TOR it's more of just an option to leveling. And most people talking about the game and it's MP component here are not anywhere near end game.

It has features it needs to add, but what can you do? Game is already out, at least they are adding in features it needs.
 

Draxal

Member
The leveling experience doesn't require any grouping or playing with others which is the concern that many people have brought up. The game is quite easy to over level and get to 50 without ever having to group. In most MMO's while you can get to max by yourself, it usually is faster and beneficial to play with others, in TOR it's more of just an option to leveling. And most people talking about the game and it's MP component here are not anywhere near end game.

It has features it needs to add, but what can you do? Game is already out, at least they are adding in features it needs.

My problem is that the barrier for doing the group content while leveling is too high, where it isn't in other games.
 

Zafir

Member
With a bit of luck it'll be sooner rather than later. At the moment it's become a case of people only logging on for raids in my guild.
 

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
It's on PTR right now, supposed to go live sometime in April, no date set yet.

I'm guessing it'll be on the PTS 2 or 3 weeks so if they release it on a regular Tuesday night patch night it'll either be the 3rd or the 10th. I'm hoping for the former, I don't know if people are reporting big issues with it on test (aside from the usual nerf outcry).
 
Top Bottom