A Trial by Force Lightning (The Story of a Free One Week Friend SWTOR Trial)- Part I

          In the last week I invited my old real life buddy to Star Wars with the Friends Trial.  We have been gaming together going on a decade now and we attempt to play as much co-op content as we can get around to.  The weekend before he started his trial we were mixing it up in Mass Effect 3 multiplayer but with his new computer I thought pushing him back into an MMO would be some fun.  I also invited him to write a guest post about his experience he had with the game.  He took up my call to write a post and due to its length I will be splitting it up over 3 parts this week.  So without further ado here is part 1 of the guest post Trial series by Cob.

Snipes and Sarcasm

Author: Cob

I’ll start with a little background to establish my credibility in this quasi review. I am a big fan of the first two Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) games and BioWare games in general. Kicking Jolee Bindo in the face after joining Bastila on the Dark Side is still one of my fondest gaming memories. I also have a history of disliking the sequels to my favorite games (see Halo 2 or Oblivion). I also played World of Warcraft (WoW) for almost two years during my escapist days in college, so I have opinions on what I like in a massively multiplayer online game (MMO). All that said, I enjoyed my time in the Old Republic, and consider it a solid game.

Cob's first character:  Imperial Agent Sniper

                My first experiences were as an agent for the Galactic Empire with aspiration to train as a sniper. I chose this class because I played a Hunter in WoW and figured I would be comfortable in a ranged damage roll. I chose the Cyborg race since I thought that the “keen cybernetic eye,” from the Scan racial ability, that was advertised would aid me in my sniping, I was later disappointed to find that it only meant I had a lame social skill, but no matter. I was joined in my adventure by my good friend Eli. We have been gaming together since the golden days of the Super Nintendo, so a rhythm was quickly established. Once I got through the initial trails of key binding and figuring out the quest log, I notice something. I was playing a dialog driven role playing game (RPG), and one with some solid co-op besides (I really enjoy the conversation roll system). This games definitely seems like it was designed as an RPG first and an MMO second (not meaning that the MMO side was lacking). The story actually makes fairly good sense and all the dialog had good voice acting (at least everything that was in Galactic Basic, the Rodian was an over actor).

It seemed no time at all before I had expanded the Empire’s influence on Hutta, acquired a companion who shared my love of sassing authority, and was ready to head into the wider galaxy. I left without the feeling that I had only accomplished what had already been done by hundreds if not thousands of people before me. This was good and an uncommon MMO experience for me. The fact that all the meaningful quests were class specific, and occurred in my very own instance, left me without the feeling that I was beating any dead horses. The Datacrons hidden around the planets were a nice feature, as I am a fan of exploration and collection, and stat boosts are nice.

Arriving at fleet I was treated to my first Flashpoint (FP) by the level 17 Sith Inquisitor that Eli had brought out to simplify the experience. The first thing that I noticed was that it could be run with two to four people, giving a good range between two player simplicity and four player craziness (be it good or bad), which is cool. The second thing that I noticed was all of the dialog. Yep, I’m definitely playing a dialog driven RPG. I don’t know if it is normal for most parties to just skip through dialog as fast as possible, but as a guy who likes dialog and story when I can get it, I enjoyed it. Other than one death from my early pulling of a boss (I couldn’t resist tossing a grenade into the five pull), we breezed through the FP without troubles. We then ran through it again with an even higher level Sith Warrior of Eli’s to run me through, but this time we ran it with dark side choices. This led to a refreshingly different experience and is another cool feature (a strong argument for the dialog). From my first Flashpoint a gained the feeling that something interesting had just happened (without the overinflated level of importance that some games try to attach to low level content), through meeting with Satele Shan (I knew sexing up Bastila was a good idea), and a shiny new chest piece.

Now I was ready to show the Old Republic my PvPness. The ability to gain experience and credits meant that I wasn’t wasting my time, and the bolstering of my level meant that I wasn’t being a tremendous letdown to my team. These are outstanding features. Even if I was operating with a very limited skill set (sprint was certainly pined after), I felt that player skill was the main deciding factor in my victories or defeats (mostly defeats, I hadn’t quite mastered my skills and key bindings enough for PvP yet). The game types were varied and fun to play. Huttball is an interesting twist on the CTF (capture the flag) archetype, even if I sucked especially badly at it. My only complaint was not being able to queue into a specific game type, but being able to queue from anywhere is very handy.

A few quest on Dromund Kaas later, that I was now over leveled for (thank you PvP experience!), and I was now level 15 and my time with my sniper had come to an end. My impressions of this character were mainly that 15 levels wasn’t quite enough time to really get the character figured out, while also learning how to play the game in general. I did enjoy playing the character and wanted to play more. The character and story was interesting and I liked the way my skills were panning out. I didn’t quite crack the nut that is using cover effectively, but given more time I think it could have led to some interesting play options.

I Am Not Done Yet

So I am back.  Due to being out of town, busy personal matters and playing Mass Effect I have had little time for swtor.  I am commencing play, well while posting this actually.

Captain Pratt looking sinister and such.

                So to give everyone an update the weekend before I stopped playing I did start my smuggler.  His name is Pratt and not only do I love the name but I like his look.  However I still haven’t played him much.  Side Note:  Congrats to Njessi for dinging 50 on her smuggler.  Last I looked, like a week ago, the group I was looking to level my smuggler with was levels 25-28.  Pratt is level 11.  He is woefully behind and I am sure it is a lost cause to try to catch up to them at this point.  So in summery I am keeping Pratt but staying the course with the Empire.

                My Bounty Hunter (BH) is breathing new life as I respecc’d him to Pyrotech and found that Player vs Player (PvP) is very fun with this spec.  Almost every MMO I have played I am always a healer and mostly do PvE (player v environment).  I don’t know why but I find healing in PvP to be dull.  Not being able to blow someone up is something I sorely miss as a healer.   I also think that when I PvP as a healer I have to rely on my teammates more.  The freedom my BH provides is exhilarating due to even if my team is uber bad I can still hunt down and kill prey on the side.  This makes loses not feel so much of a defeat.  I know I bested people and held my turret control despite the fact my team lost the other turret control because half of them got wiped out while the other half was fighting nowhere near an objective.   I would not feel like I was having much fun though if I was healing my teammates as they attack 3 on 1 and we just trickle our attack at an objective versus using massed assault, but whatever.  On my BH I feel much more control of my life and death, no one around to depend on but myself.  On a plus side, it’s not always a wash and hey winning is great.

                In other news one of my best real life friends will be joining me this weekend for the friend invite deal and my brother will be joining us sometime shortly after that.  I am looking forward to bringing these MMO veterans in to the swtor universe.  All in all it will shape up to be a good weekend.  See you out there. 

Problems Getting to 50

                In most MMO’s I do not cherish the grind of getting to max level.  I want to be max level as soon as possible so I can do group activities such as dungeons, raids, occasional PvP (Player vs Player) and random shenanigans with friends.  However in swtor (Star Wars: The Old Republic) I cannot stop starting over.  I can’t figure it out.  I really like the different storylines, the different character types and the differences between the Advanced Classes (AC).  Not to mention the mysterious legacy experience that I am getting on all my characters.

                Currently my highest level character is a level 38 Bounty Hunter: AC: Mercenary.  At first I really liked him and chapter 1 of his storyline drove me along but after the end of Chapter 1 and the unlocking of my legacy I have been turning to play my alts more and more just for a different experiences.  I am also finding that I like playing my Bounty Hunter (BH) less and less.  He is mostly there now to gather crafting materials and money for my vast army of alts.

                My BH is specc’d for damage dealing or dps (damage per second) and I picked my BH because he could heal and I like rolling healers.  And as from previous MMO experience it seems easier to level my healers as dps to quickly get to max level then respect to healer.  Swtor is different though; the grind is pretty long but very interesting and engaging.  It is also a game that you can level as a healer or a tank and have little problems and lose barely any time as your damage output is less than a dps.  So I tried healing on my BH.  It is okay and just okay.  I think this is due to the fact that I have been leveling an Imperial Agent: AC: Operative.  I love healing on my Operative.  It seems too that the synergy of leveling as a healing operative is better with my ranged tank companion, Kaliyo, than leveling as a healer on my BH with a healing companion, Mako.  My BH is high enough that he has Gault, a ranged dps, and Torian Cadera, a melee dps, and then he is pretty close to getting Blizz who is a ranged tank.  So once I get Blizz leveling as a healing BH might get better that is if I want to get on and even play my BH.

                My Operative is up to level 30 as of today and he is great fun to play.  Questing on him I find to be a little bit of a bore thought, but stealth definitely helps this a lot.  I also find myself missing sneaking back out of zones I have already cleared once on my non stealth characters.

                I want to start a sorcerer, which is a AC of the Sith Inquisitor, to try their healing but I am holding off for now because I am waiting for the legacy content to be released, hopefully soon like in March.  I want to see what the legacy experience will do for character creation. 

                So recently I have been turning to my tank Sith Warrior: AC: Juggernaut and also my other tank Sith Inquisitor: AC: Assassin.  My Juggernaut has been very entertaining as of late.  I love flying across the screen to attack a mob.  Then my Assassin has stealth so you know that’s nice.  Then most of my other alts are anywhere between levels 5-14. 

Introduction: The Kicker

                Since I am setting up a new blog I figured I had better write a short introduction.  And don’t worry I will keep it brief to kick this Star Wars adventure off.

                Though I was not alive to experience the original Star Wars trilogy (Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) I did get to watch the re-mastered versions in theaters growing up and have thus been a fan ever since.  I was able to attend all the midnight releases of the newer trilogy (Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) and recently watched Episode I in 3D. The 3D was actually not too bad and pretty consistent throughout the movie.  This also gave me the opportunity to introduce my wife to Star Wars for the first time, which was great.  I must also report that though she was reluctant to go at first she ended up really liking it.

                I have also played many of the Star Wars games, including Star Wars Galaxies (both the original hardcode Galaxies and the updated let’s let everyone be a Jedi version).  I have other MMO experience such as World of Warcraft (WoW: vanilla, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King).  Though I never made the jump to Cataclysm because I didn’t like the direction the game was going.   I also played Warhammer Online, Aion, Age of Conan and Rift, but Rift was the only game besides WoW that I did a fair amount of endgame raiding. The last MMO game that I have to mention I played was Planetside.  I only mention it separately because Planetside was so different and awesome, though I find it hard to explain its awesomeness to others simply due to the fact that the game was such an experience in and of its self. I can’t wait for Planetside 2, definitely will have to try it out.

                I generally tend toward healing classes, and usually the healing class that is more of a hybrid.  I like to heal in endgame but I like to sometimes be a damage dealer aka dps (damage per second) or tank just for a change of pace. Plus I benefit from learning what other people do on fights and how they should be done.  And hey, if I play a hybrid class I can do it all, more or less, on the same toon (your character) which is a benefit.

                I want to conclude with saying that I really enjoy reading blogs and writing them (if I can find the time).  I love all the background lore in MMO’s and getting to know all the ins and outs of the game, especially the character that I play.  I want to see what others are doing with the class and give my opinion on different setups I try.  I hope that you will enjoy my blog if you find your way here.  See you next post.