Star Wars: The Old Republic

Invited you to the guild last night. Sorry I wasn't very social -- I was in the middle of a PUG raid and couldn't talk much.

The Smuggler story is pretty good. I made mostly Light Side choices about murdering/sacrificing people or not, but whenever there was a "greedy/more money" option, I'd always take that one. I also liked that most dialogues had a snarky/sarcastic response -- I'd always go for those as well.

One thing that really disappointed me, though, is the numerous times in the story you will be asked to complete a mission where an NPC will tell you something to the tune of, "If you can pull off this job, you'll be the richest criminal in the galaxy." Of course, there is no actual in-game reward when you are successful, so while the NPCs talk big, the payoff isn't there. This happens more than once.

Yeah, I'm liking Dark Side Smuggler quite a bit. Corso is even growing on me a little, though his relationship level keeps going down. I think I'm going to roll a Sith Warrior alt since people say that story is so good. Is there an Empire guild too?

Oh, and would anyone be willing to run that first flashpoint with me sometime soonish?

You can normally find a group for The Esseles very quickly just by asking in fleet chat. Although it's better if you have four players, it can still be easily completed by two players plus two companions. You don't even need a tank or healer or anything. It's also widely considered to be one of the best flashpoints in the game, so you should check it out.

We do have an Empire guild, but it's not very active. From what I've heard, Imperial Agent is the best story, but since you're playing a Smuggler on the Republic side, you probably want to try a class with completely different mechanics.

I never really liked Corso and stopped using him for good as soon as I unlocked another companion. Regarding that, here is where you unlock your party members and their roles (no spoilers):

2. Melee tank: Nar Shaddaa (level ~25)
3. Ranged dps: end of Act 1 (level ~35)
4. Melee dps: Balmorra (level ~40)
5. Healer: Hoth (level ~45)

The ranged dps character in particular makes a powerful companion for a Gunslinger. The tank companions are largely useless, so you'll want to switch to a dps or healer as soon as they become available. The reason for this is that BioWare nerfed their survivability pretty badly. They're great at getting and holding aggro, but they won't live very long. This nerf was necessary because players with a healer build could formerly use a tank companion and solo most of the content in the game (albeit very slowly), even heroic quests that were designed for 2-4 players.

I have a shadow who is not quite out of the level range for that FP. Let me know when and I'll hop on (you probably won't see me in game if it's not raid time, otherwise :p)

If I was going to pimp an Empire storyline, I'd pimp the IA one over the SW without question. I found the SW one to be pretty paint-by-numbers, with it only getting REALLY interesting in act 3. On the other hand, the voice acting (for both genders, plus the main person you talk to) is excellent, which helps keep even the boring shit tolerable.


PS: Corso Riggs is a fucking blight.

PPS: If you prefer less buttons to more, you may not like the SW class. It is the most button-y.

Marauder, maybe, but definitely not the Juggernaut. Jugg/Guard dps and tanking isn't noticeably more complex than vanguard dps/tanking.

Maybe I'll do a Sith Inquisitor then. I see you ranked them highly earlier in the thread.

I really like that story, yes, but bear in mind the Sith Inquisitor gives precisely zero fucks about the overall story plot. It is extremely self-focused, and some people don't like that (I loved it :P).

Jugg/Guardians have way more buttons than the assassin/shadow that they have to/should punch regularly (I've only tanked as those). I've not played a vanguard yet, but my vanguard tank friend bitches endlessly about how many more buttons his guardian has to press, and he's only in the 30's on that character, so he doesn't even have them all yet.

Has your friend considered not being bad?

That's weird. My guardian is 33, my vanguard has been 50 since forever. I certainly have not noticed having omgsomany buttons as the guardian (I should note here that when I was playing the guard, a couple months back, consensus was the best tank spec was some weird hybrid spec that actually had more points in a dps tree than a tank tree. Maybe that changed). So okay, I'll go break it down and see if I just didn't notice something.

Vanguards hit six attacks regularly, with a seventh that wants to be used on cooldown (1m). There are another two attack/mobility buttons that see use pretty much every pull, but you don't hit them "regularly".

My guardian has seven attacks that are used regularly, with another that wants to be used on cooldown (30s). There's another mobility/attack button that gets used every pull but isn't hit regularly.

I don't actually have any points in the tank tree yet, but it appears that shifting my points from the dps tree to the tank tree wouldn't increase the number of abilities at my disposal, so...

/Shrug

Oh no, which Sith do I play? I am going to do Light Side because I have to be a contrarian. I spent an hour on an Inquisitor today, and I'm having trouble getting my head around what the Light Side motivation is supposed to be here. I guess helping the people of the Empire but still being loyal to its evil evil principles? I can still easily switch to SW if that's better. There's very very little chance I will ever do both.

For my manquisitor, his light side choices were made with the following logic: many of them have the potential to fuck the Empire, or help them less, so thumb's up there. Otherwise he saw no need to shit on people for funsies (except for other sith, fuck those guys). And the third principle for Jovian was this: trolling the Empire is fun. The sith inquisitor also seems to be the most aware of what a goofy-ass fucking world s/he is living in, and has a shitton of sarcastic answers, if that appeals to you, with both voice actors doing a great job with them.

As I'm sure you've noticed, Neopythia and I have wildly different opinions of the two sith storylines. I much prefered the SI one to the SW one (again, the SW is totally dullsville before chapter 3 in my opinion, I don't see what is so wicked sweet awesome about it prior to that, even as light side). The main thing the Sith Warrior has going for it, is that it's more ... Star Wars-y, I guess, and has a lot more to do with the Empire's shit as a whole, but I felt like a glorified errand runner, never doing anything for myself, always at the beck and call of other people. My manquisitor was doing everything for his own self and his own advancement, even when working for other people.

Of course, the only storyline I would actually call terrible is the trooper one. Loads and loads and LOADS of filler, with a boring end dude I gave no fucks about beating.

The fact your guardian already has 7 attacks he has to use regularly (he'll get another one at 40) at 33 versus your vanguard that only has 6 at 50 doesn't strike you as odd, eh? There's a certain point where people feel comfortable with their button presses. Mine is ~7, but I prefer 5 or 6. The guardian goes over it, and the sentinel goes even further over. I like the class, but it is just more annoying to make sure you've hit everything you need to hit on the various JK classes/specs than anything else I've played.

I can't remember the last class I played in any game that has as many buttons to keep track of as a JK. A few more and it wouldn't be out of place in EQ2.

I just realized a major downside to playing a light side sith warrior. I haven't force choked anyone.

Ingmar laughed for like 10 minutes at that part, Lum.

I haven't had anyone really deserve a choking yet (Mr. Light Side just entered Act 3), but he is about to be all out of patience for bullshit, so perhaps the chokings will now ramp up and I will feel more fulfilled.

Okay, I was wrong.

Oh. Oh, I choked so, so many people with my Sith Warrior. In so many different ways. Sometimes I choked them and flung them into something. Sometimes I choked them and stabbed them. Sometimes I choked them oldstyle, just for the novelty.

MrPants and I made a Jedi duo to sample the free-to-play experience (25% less experience, to be precise) He's a sassy Jedi Consular named Margerine and I'm a Jedi Knight with a fake glued-on beard named Beardforce, because all his power comes from his fake glued-on beard. We got to level 5 and I found out you have to subscribe to get Sprint, which is one way to separate the free players from the subscribers -- literally, because the free players will not be able to keep up. You can train it at level 15, so only 10 levels to go!

It's not bad so far in the lowbie levels. The conversations and voice acting lift it just enough above bog standard MMO to keep me going. The saber combat lacks oomph, though. It never feels like my character is actually hitting anything, just swinging all around and then stuff dies. Also I have cowboy boots.

Technically, all you have to do is become a "Preferred Player": Purchase at least $5 worth from their digital store.

Yeah, I knew going in that the Jedi storylines were not great but I wanted to try the archetypal Star Wars character first. If I like the game enough I may sub for a bit and play some of the others that have actual interesting stories. I also tend to play good guys first and more evil types after, so the Sith are in reserve for now. The summaries are appreciated, however. At least MrPants picked the consular instead of me.

The tooltip for Sprint says you need a subscription so maybe they just didn't reword it to reflect that it only requires a $5 purchase from the store.

Also I am already tired of everyone telling me, "May the Force be with you." I want to tell them to force off.

What server are you guys playing on? If you're on The Harbinger, look up any member from Tatooine Royal Navy for a /ginvite. For some reason many of our more active members have been on a lowbie alt kick lately, so you should have plenty of similarly-leveled people to join you for group quests, flashpoints, etc.

The whole Boba Fett fandom thing is still a mystery to me, since (as I believe I have previously mentioned) he does nothing but get chumped in the original trilogy.

Isn't there a theory that because of the mask, kids could more easily project themselves into Fett's role?

Plus he gets to hang out with Vader and captures Han Solo.

How much of the actual gameplay revolves around the development of the plot? With my Sith Inquisitor it seemed uneven, maybe a character mission or two mixed in with lots of unrelated zone quests and tasks. This was only through level 15 though.

Yeah my neutral SW lady has maintained neutrality mostly through choking the shit out of people. The few times my LS dude has killed someone, it WASN'T by force choking them seriously what the fuck Bioware.


Also, ignore Lum, the smuggler has a fucking rad story, even though its act 2 is a little slow. It kicks the shit out of the SW story for sure, which I still think is one of the worst ones because zzzzzzzzz so predictable, I don't care how many puppies you can forcechoke on the way (although force choking is obviously fun). Also, the trooper story is even more boring than the consular one, don't believe Lum's lies. At least the consular's Act 3 has some cool shit, the trooper one should end after Act 1 and never, ever be talked of again.

A lot of the ranking for the Republic side really hinges on if you hate Jedi or not, to be sure, but even if you hate the Jedi, the trooper storyline is terrible after Act 1. Utterly boring, full of filler, with only one or two bright spots to carry you through the end, where you fight a dude you do not care even a tiny bit about.

What, you weren't a fan of that rescue mission where you

But that was so well done!

You have the -worst- taste in stories.

I'm one of those people, but the big between-planet Trooper setpiece missions are probably the best in the game. In between collecting space-bear asses on the planets, you get to go and kick ass in various special forces missions, even if they don't all make a lot of sense.

If you like playing an insane person, DS Jedi Consular (especially as a male) has its moments. The combination of the obliviousness of the Jedi Order and the too-cool-for-this-bullshit voice acting gives it an Evil Superpowered Hipster vibe, which is more fun than, say, the "Go bring me Space Bear Bob's head" storyline of the BH.

And that was actually one of the bright spots I was talking about. D:

(I was indeed a dude trooper.)


Also if loving the smuggler story is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Well, speaking as a FemShep, that sequence was incredibly dumb :p

Yeah I imagine for that, it was a total dud. Even as someone was playing the exact sort of character that sequence was aimed at, I was pretty much "whelp!" and took the light side option because come the fuck on. My trooper shed a manly tear later, I'm sure. Offscreen.

<3 <3 <3

Oh, Lum.

I only ever got my Trooper to the mid 30s (I was on Tatooine when I stopped playing) so I don't know if the story gets worse, but there was definitely a point where it was clear the writers just sort of gave up. It was decent for a while, but then it was nothing but "Man, you're the best tiny squad in the galaxy!" over and over while you were given nigh-meaningless missions to complete.