Archive | March 24, 2012

PVP & Getting things done

Mar24

I usually try to PVP in the late morning/early afternoon as I find them most doable then. There aren’t as many of the hardcore PVPers on and I’m just…not a PVP person. I have a hard time with PVP for many reasons–not only because it makes me nervous so I tend to mess up a bit when it comes to actually killing people, but earning medals for a healer is pretty hard. They have made it easier–I’d be lying if I didn’t say that. However, that doesn’t mean it’s completely easy either.

To explain, Bill is fighting some guy and has medium-ish health. You heal him up and he’s either full or close to and then you switch over to maybe, Anna who’s health is kind of dwindling. Bill then finishes the guy off and despite you essentially keeping him alive as he fought, you do not get credit. (I won’t even go into kill-stealing.)

While I don’t care much for my kill count, getting medals (Gotten for various achievements during PVP) isn’t that easy, especially for a healer. Quick list thanks to Old Republic.net

Demolisher – 2.5k Damage Single hit
Annihilator – 5K damage from a single attack
Combatant – 75k Damage Dealt
Destroyer – 300k Damage Dealt
Commando – 10 Kills
Soldier – 25 Kills
Quick Draw – 1 Killing Blow
Assassin – 1 Solo Kill
Shield – 5k Defense
Protector – 50k Defense
Guardian – 2k Defense in 1 Life
Paladin – 10k Defense in 1 Life
Defender – 1k Defender Points
Warden – 3k Defender Points
Healer – 75k Healed
Savior – 300k Healed
Medic – 2.5k Single Heal
Trauma Surgeon – 5k Single Heal

Now, it shouldn’t be impossible to see why it’s not super super easy. Thankfully, there are heal medals too. The main thing is healers are always targetted. I often read people essentially cursing out the healers. I have had 5-6 guys on me at once trying to kill me. And if there’s one thing you’ll notice, especially on a PVE server–a lot of the same names. So, eventually, they’ll see you and they know you’re a healer.

The other issue you’ll come across is those beautiful 5K+ heals you were doing? Not existing. You do have to lower your willpower with your PVP stuff and get expertise for your heals to be more effective. I actually can’t always guarantee I’ll hit 5K which sucks, despite usually hitting it with every Deliverance. And that is where the middle part comes in too–if you are currently trying to slowly get some PVP gear, you will notice that a lot (not all–who knows, maybe some of the Champion gear will be better than what you have) of your old damage/healing output will lessen while you get geared. It’s frustrating as you go in and it’s already dropped and then you feel useless.

It’s hard to have confidence to heal if you know people are doing better than you and your heals barely do anything. It’s almost just a waste of force because they’re not going to live from it. And when you’re heal spec, your DPS isn’t exactly award-worthy either. Similarly, as mentioned, people will start to remember your name and mark you on sight and then you will be killed repeatedly before you can do much of anything. Not so easy getting a medal count when dead.

But, through seeing many names constantly, you’ll know who are the most helpful team mates, who to watch out for, who’s probably an alt of someone else… etc. However, it isn’t completely impossible. I have managed to get 8 medals before in a very crazy turret/Civil War match. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy–I do struggle sometimes justto get 4. You need at least 4 to fully max out. Also, each MVP vote gives you an extra 200 valor as well. Part of my main issue is I think strategy over killing and healing. Due to how the gear lessens it right now with the few articles I have, I tend to focus more on what I can do to help our team win over the silly kill count and rankings…unfortunately, the game doesn’t properly calculate objectives so I’m often low on the list and often do not get acknowledged.

You may even run into Republic vs Republic games (which make me feel even more awkward killing people as I may be against someone I was teamed with in the past–nobody else has this problem though 😐 ).

Despite PVP’s frustrations, you do get a good amount of money from them. And valor is pretty easy to get until about the 50’s where it starts to make you need much much more. I’m currently at 54 Valor. There were points before where I could level after 1-2 matches–or at least once or twice by the time I finished PVP dailies. Now? That isn’t guaranteed. Which of course means we need to work harder and is also why medals are so important–they contribute a lot to that valor count.

At the moment, I need about 10,000 valor to hit valor level 55. I don’t even want to think of how much I’ll need for the next 10 levels. And of course, they are going much slower which means we do need to pick up the pace.

But yes, I’m definitely determined (and I don’t know what else would get me through PVP honestly), but I have been asked a lot why I am working so hard to get so many things done before 1.2…and it’s pretty simple. I do not like adding to my “To-do List”, especially when it’s something big that deserves it’s own. I like clearing it out and then preparing for that next list. Not having an even crazier list. It’s very stressful and it sucks because then you’re saving for so much at once and it’s like “what do I do first” and it is just insane. It really is.

Anyway, while I wait for my boyfriend to get up so we can start, it is time for space dailies…and dear god, am I terrible at them. 🙁

A Hardcore girl in a not so hardcore world

Mar24

Now, before I start, I will say I love my guild. Pretty much everyone is really nice and I’ve made some awesome friends and I enjoy playing with them! This is really nothing against them and is just more about me, if anything.

I’m a very determined person. I’ve stayed up all night before working on things and leveling. I do not like quitting before something is done (so, more often than not, if we don’t finish an operation, I get more than a bit upset–but it’s not anyone’s fault. People DO have to sleep. I really only get annoyed if people are just giving up.) and I’m more than a bit stubborn when it comes down to it.

I like getting things done ASAP. And then when they are done, I like preparing in advance for the next thing. I’m not a procrastinator and in fact the more something is put off, the more I stress and the more it bothers me.

Some people do say like “why didn’t you join a hardcore raiding guild then?” and it’s actually a very easy question to answer.

1. I’ve actually never raided before. I’m very picky with MMOs and most that I stuck with (so many I tried and did not care for) did not have this kind of big endgame thing–or if they did, people just did Pick-up groups. Guilds were essentially just a big thing for friends.

2. While I may be a bit overly determined and can do some hardcore leveling and training and flashpoints and etc., my life is very unpredictable. I have made plans months in advance before only to suddenly have to cancel them about a week to a few days before due to something I suddenly have to do or a crazy family incident or just various other things. I can’t control what happens with my family and when it comes to an actual hard-leveling-raiding-whatever guild, that wouldn’t be acceptable.

So, after a long time of consideration and seeing various guilds, we stumbled across Serenity (Chaos is their Imperial side version) while looking for people to do the Athiss flashpoint. I was dancing on top of the machine to use up some time and noticed the guild name “Serenity”. We then started debating on why it was called that–he was saying because of a Science Fiction Show–and I was saying it probably wasn’t. In the end, I ended up asking the person we noticed who also ended up being the GM and the rest was pretty much history.

And honestly? While I may get upset that we haven’t finished operations and things, I really enjoy everyone’s company and it’s so much fun when we do get to go and I wouldn’t trade that. Not to mention, it’s a group of people who understand when life suddenly decides lemons are too normal and decides to throw a grapefruit your way instead. So, I definitely wouldn’t trade it away at all.

So, thank you Allidel for letting us join 🙂 It really means a lot and I hope 1.2 is amazing and everyone stays because I’ll miss you guys so much otherwise (even if I can continue bothering you all in Ventrilo) 😛

(And yay for trying Soa Hard Mode again tonight!)

It seems I was mistaken. How depressing.

First real entry.

Mar24

Well, I’ve been wanting to write for a while and Guild blogs have been down so this is kind of as good a time as any. Even though I can easily keep track in my head, for some reason, I just like to write things down too.

Currently, our days on SWTOR involve doing PVP dailies (as we try to get to 65 Valor) and then sometimes a few other misc. things. Plus a raid if there is one. I don’t care for PVP, nor does my boyfriend, but I do like collecting things and with the Korrealis speeders discontinuing…we do need to get that out of the way. Of course, I still have two others to get. The Baron, which costs 2 million credits, and the Prince, which is an Imperial PVP speeder. I do not see myself getting that, so my hopes are currently lying with one of our guild mates…otherwise, I’ll have to stalk the market and save up even more money. And getting money has never been easy for me.

While it’s true that dailies do exist… they suck and I hate them XP Too repetitive and just not worth it for me. Unless I could like easily get them done in 10 minutes or something. As it is, I’m still having issues with space dailies. I’m just not very good at them.

But yes, for now, my main focus is to make sure I get the Sorveign and Baron speeders before 1.2 at the very least, plus have 200K on hold for Taunta (from the Collector’s Edition Vendor) among a few other things. I’d have liked to get a white lightsaber crystal for Nadia and maybe a purple one for Zenith, but that’s an extra 2,750,000 and I just can’t afford that and I mean they’ll be back eventually (well, white in a few months and purple somehow? Still kind of iffy on the details there).

Other things I’d like to do before 1.2 hits that probably won’t happen:
1. Get as much lore and map clear-ness as possible.
2. Buy some more Advanced Resolve 22 Augments.
3. Maybe Buy some Enhanced Insight 25 stuff. (Critical+Alacrity stuff)
4. Get full Rakata Gear
5. Finish Eternity Vault on Hard Mode (Just Soa to go) and Nightmare mode (Everything but pylons and Solo fight)
6. Finish Karagga on Normal (Fabricator onward), Hard (everything), and Nightmare modes (everything)
7. Do Battle of Ilum, False Emperor, and Kaon on normal.
8. Do Esseles, Directive 7, and Battle of Ilum on Hard mode.
9. Get Legacy to at least 35–preferably 50.
10. Save up to about 10 million or so for various legacy things. (Specific prices will be up on the “When it comes to Collecting” page.)
11. Get the Gold Pet from Karagga’s <--- Pretty much priority along with getting 65 valor and at least about 2,300,000 credits~ (2 million for Baron, 200K for Taunta, 100K so I'm not super poor and can afford repairs) 12. Finish class story (at least the first part) on Test Server for title (already hit level 10). 13. Finish Hoth Bonus Series (About the only main quest series thing I still have v-v; ) 14. Finish up Space Missions and have all the Ship parts. 15. Completely open up all my Storage Bins I will probably set up pages either later today or sometime this weekend regardless. They will mostly be used for checklists, but I suppose the pet page will be helpful to people regardless. Anyway, there isn't too much to say...but my plans for 1.2 at the moment are currently to log off by the Collector's Edition Vendor to immediately buy Taunta then rush over to Voss to try and find the Voss World Boss due to the Mastercraft Magenta schematic...as I want my upgraded pink lightsaber. Also, a little down as this adorable Tauntaun is being given out at PAX East. I will most likely not be going :/ As 3 day tickets are sold out and I can’t justify the price for the hotel, gas, and tickets if I’m just going one day. It’s also Easter weekend which is a big deal in my family. I just hope I can get one somehow.

Now that most of that is out of the way, I will say that the Sorcerer story is interesting and less creepy than the Sage one can be at times, though, I do still prefer my sage. Sorcerer’s grandfather is pretty cool though (I know he’s like a great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather, but I could care less and just saying grandfather is shorter). It’s too bad Lord Zash is going to betray you (too many people say it at this point and I read enough so yeah), but it’s not too surprising I suppose. But she was so nice 🙁 Though, I totally called Syo being the first son in the Sage storyline too (okay, maybe not exactly the first son, but I was suspicious of him being evil).

On the bright side, this totally makes my character a noble and thus, I proclaim them Princesses. Because I can.