Archive | October 2012

The Way Dreadtooth works

So, while talking to Bloodguts about the Amulet with the mask over just the mask itself (as CKN was awesome enough to try it and sadly nothing with it alone), we got into the discussion about the mask and Dreadtooth.

First of all, the mask’s buff looks like the necklace. This is a HUGE flag to me and makes the necklace even more suspicious considering the item is both “unique” and can apparently be “used”. However, nobody has actually seen the necklace yet. The mask, however, does have a 100% drop rate.

Dreadtooth has a buff that starts at 1. When he is defeated, he drops an item called “Dreadful Essence”. Using that item causes the buff to rise by 1 and him being defeated causes it to rise… it also ups when he respawns (although, I am not sure what his respawn rate is). The more he has, the harder he is. You can apparently take him down with 8 people when he has 1-2… 3-4, you need about 16 people. Any higher is much harder. Due to the fact that the ops group caps at 24, I’m not sure if that will always be enough or if you actually will need several groups (which can be an issue in itself). Regardless, eventually when he has enough stacks, he changes “forms” into either Corrupted, Nightmarish, or Frenzied and so on and so forth. I’m not sure how the buff resets, I do know there is some kind of order (although, I am unsure what…it’s normal then Form 1 then Form 2 then FOrm 3) if you chain those Dreadful essences on him.

On the otherhand, it’s possible that you need to save the ones he drops and use them before fighting him to trigger a form which could take a while. I’m sure more information will be out when he is officially out.

However, considering the forms each have a different codex, it makes me wonder if the loot is also different and thus, the Amulet will not drop except on a specific form (if it drops from Dreadtooth at all), hopefully also had a 100% drop rate.

Obviously, this is all just speculating, but it’s interesting to think about. And heck, we dont’ even know how much Dreadful Essence he needs to hit each form either. Regardless, it’s fun to think about.

(also, note to people in my guild reading this blog for some reason: WHY? T~T)

Edit: He only has a 30 minute respawn timer so yay. Codex-wise:
Normal (1 and 2 stacks) -> Corrupted (3 and 4) -> Frenzied (5 and 6) -> Nightmarish (7+)
At least now I know what to look for.

The Cave Mystery Delves Deeper

I woke up this morning to an e-mail from an anonymous tipper about another item that maybe when paired with the previously mentioned mask could cause something to do with the cave.

What item, you ask? The Dreadful Amulet. Just the descriptions about instilling fear and the whole chilling presence… suspicious. And from what our Anonymous Tipper said along with the descriptions, I do think the idea of a boss spawning is more likely. I just hope, whatever the boss may drop (if it is a boss of course), that if there is another pet…100% drop rate please. or very high. please. As with most bosses though, I’m sure there will be some codex attached at the least.

Looking through Torhead’s Database, some other “Dread” and “Dreadful” Results that piqued my interest are (Minus the Dread Guard gear + and some lower level Sith stuff obviously obviously) were a title (though, since I’m sure there will be a fight against the Dread Masters in a operation already, that could possibly be later…), this purple stuff which I believe is how you get Dreadtooth into his other phases so probably not what we’re looking for unless someone wants to try and use it in the cave, and this guy who is apparently categorized as a raid boss. Obviously, again, since I’m sure we’ll fight the Dread Masters in an operation eventually, it could just be an early implemented data thing or something… but for now, it is marked highly suspicious.

To our Anonymous Tipper: Thank you for your lovely tip! I just wish you included your e-mail so I could respond to you personally T~T <3 SO, to all our friends on the test server, if you have the mask and have gotten this amulet (To be honest, I don't even know if it drops from Dreadtooth? We can hope?), please try entering the cave and using the amulet while having the mask on and see if anything happens!

I shall be updating the Cave post with my ideas shortly.

1.4.2 Patch + Lost Island

To be honest, I’m not completely sure what took so long with this patch (I think it’s a lot of preparations for Free to Play), but it’s nice to see so many bug fixes!

However, what really excited me were the Cartel Coin stuff. You can’t see anything yet, but you can now see how many you currently have that you will get when Free to Play happens. Right now, I have 2400 2600 and considering one of the first things they stated for it are “must-have pets”…I just hope I will be ready for them.

In the meantime, I was dragged to a Lost Island HM run…not used to the new white circles before the blue ones for the robot boss, but it went okay. And now being dragged through EV story mode, but I don’t think I’ll be able to finish it, to be honest… It’s going…interestingly I suppose…but not really in a good way 😐

The Credit Factor

As most people should know by now, I am awful at earning credits (or any currency of any game/site really). There’s several reasons as to why, but the #1 reason has come down to the fact that in general, I am “too nice”. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know, but I am a goodie-two shoes if you couldn’t figure that out either for some reason.

So, let’s go over the ways people tend to make money:

Crafting

If you have ever looked over at my Characters page, you will see I have given every single character one of the crew skills (with the exception of Roseria who has just ones to get her through flashpoints quicker and regardless, there’s only 6 different crew skills so). Two of them are actually at 400–Marilea who has 400 in Synthweaving, Slicing, and Underworld Trading and Amidaia who has 400 in Cybertech and Scavenging.

Due to the fact that I do not raid on Amidaia, she doesn’t actually have the ability to make anything anyone would care about. And I find nobody ever really wants anything my Synthweaver can make (besides Augments I suppose). Besides that, I do not think of crafting as something that just runs in the background and thus, do not use it unless:
A. I need something.
B. I know someone needs something and can make it for them.

And then I just give it to them. The idea of running it constantly and selling things doesn’t dawn on me at all. Part of this is probably because it is the first game I have ever crafted in. That isn’t to say I’ve never made things in games (MySims comes to mind), but it was in that format–make something as I need it and that was it. I never made it again.

Not to mention I know with Amidaia, I can send her some stuff through Legacy, but besides wondering if that is even supposed to work that way… I don’t take extras. I will always feel really bad if I take extras because:
1. Someone may need it more
2. I’m just…not a big crafter

I would hate to take something away from someone who really wanted. I don’t care if it’s about the roll. Being “fair” doesn’t always justify breaking someone’s art and crushing their soul.

So, that’s something I just can’t really wrap my head around. And when it comes to figuring out prices for things…well, we’ll cover that more in one of the other sections.

Dailies, Weeklies, Flash Points, Operations, and Space Missions

Also known as…the repeat until you want to smash your head against walls and never have to think about things again.

Now, a lot of people do their Dailies and Weeklies every day. This gets them several hundred thousand credits every day and even more with the weeklies each week. I am, obviously, not one of those people.

But why not? I just…can’t do the repetition. It’s a bit of an odd situation as I am a very organized person, I tend to put myself on a schedule, I often go around in circles (not literally–more like I tend to do the same things every day), so what is my issue with repetition in game?

It’s not so much doing the same thing…it’s the thing not changing and/or it being the same thing over and over that kills me. I have a very good memory so it’s like a permanent phase of deja vu whenever I do something and then I just can’t bother to pay attention. In fact, that is the hardest part with my alts right now because I’ve SEEN the Republic Storyline. I’ve SEEN the Imperial Storyline. And no matter what I do, I can not get enough experience to skip those things completely, so here I am half listening to cutscenes because it’s just killing me. It isn’t new.

However, I will state right now the games that do the randomness for something are not any better for me because the end is still the same. What happens when you finish does not change–just the way to get there and maybe you take a right instead of a left and I hate those things because I get lost enough as it is and do not like not knowing where to go to get out of this horribleness as quickly as possible because once I do it once, I am done and if I have to go back, I will cry.

I have already mentioned several times my issues with the difficulties so I’ll skip that for now.

Another thing is, I have issues with many of these.

-Dailies: Just too repetitive. And Belsavis has scarred me for life.
-Weeklies: Need people. And…I’d rather not do some of the things for weeklies ever again.
-Operations: I enjoy KP a lot, but will admit I am starting to (finally) get burnt out on it. Regardless, I am willing to help people out with it. However, I need a new mouse before I can do the puzzle again πŸ™ and can’t afford one right now. I hate EV though. Just…please don’t ask me to do EV. please please please please don’t. I hate saying no. It makes me feel like such a jerk, but I just…I can’t. I can’t take doing EV at all. It has just been so permanently ruined for me that it would take me quite a long time to get over this. And each time I do it, it just makes it worse. Eventually I’m going to completely zone out doing it and everyone is going to die. As for TfB and EC…well, I have a lot of rotten memories for EC so it is another operation, like EV, which has just been completely ruined for me. Also like EV, I hate the first boss. Regardless, at least you get credits for mobs and I do still need a mount which makes it less horrifying. But I will admit everytime I do end up doing Explosive Conflict, I feel pretty depressed. Finally, TfB I’m just kind of annoyed with. Why couldn’t the Wriggler drop on Story Mode? Why? πŸ™ Overall though, it’s fun, but the pet stress is starting to kill me. I can’t really say why this bothers me more than the M0-GUL Thrall Droid did, but I would guess it’s partially because it only drops on one mode (just imagine how I’ll be with NM EC) and it’s one mode I can’t just…try and grab people and go.

I’m a shy person and no matter what it is, I hate asking people for help. In fact, unless you offer, I will most likely never ask. If I do finally ask, it’s really really REALLY important to me and when someone does say no, I usually get really sad and start blaming myself which is part of why I try not to ask in the first place. Even something as simple as asking someone if they have a schematic makes me really nervous and I just can’t do it.

Flash Points – Besides, you know, killing the chests and other things… I do not care for many of them. They were fun the first time (well, most–some were not, I’ll get to them shortly), but not so much and no, the harder difficulty means absolutely nothing. In fact, I find more fun going through the lower difficulty, not because I don’t like a challenge, but because it gets done with even quicker.

I hate Teral V, Directive 7, Kaon and Lost Island. The first two due to just…incredibly bad experiences (My first HM Teral V took about 5+ hours and my first Directive 7 (not even HM) involved us repeatedly dying to the first boss because one of our DPS kept messing up) while the latter two are due to my fear of zombies. Transformation sequences like the one at the end of Lost Island and earlier in Kaon if you don’t kill the guy really creep me out and the mutant humans were my biggest issue with the Rakghoul event and just make me start gagging. Besides that, both of them constantly make me fear for my life and I panic with healing worries.

I would say my favorite flashpoints are Esseles and False Emperor. The former due to being the first flashpoint I ever did and the latter being my first HM Flashpoint where I received my first Columni piece. They are both nostalgic for me so I am slightly less annoyed doing them.

Regardless, there isn’t a “Only do Esseles and False Emperor” weekly and doing them every day would ruin them for me so maybe it’s better that way.

Finally, that brings us to Space Missions. I can’t aim worth crud. That is pretty much the reason. I can barely do the easy space missions. I had to have my boyfriend finish them for me. I’m terrible at them. Really really terrible. The amount of time it would take me to earn any credits as I fail mercilessly on space mission after space mission is not worth it.

Play the Market – Use that GTN

I am pretty good at Math and I love numbers, but when it comes to trying to figure out pricing of something, that goes out the window. Whether it be in real life or online, I’m not great at bartering. I never know what to ask so I always ask people to offer out of fear I’d accidentally overprice it and scare them off or underprice it and rip myself off. With Markets like the GTN, that is my constant fear and thus, I usually end u just putting nothing or giving it away to someone who needs it if I do have an extra. or just selling it to a vendor to get it out of my inventory ASAP because OCPD away~

Of course, I could just look at the market and price it below someone else’s… but by how much? That is the question that plagues me. And what happens if someone prices lower than me? Then what do I do? And then I just worry and it doesn’t go well at all. And if something doesn’t sell, I can’t help but get sad and take it personal because when it comes down to it, I take everything personal (P.S. I also can’t tell when someone is joking).

Finally, I just…feel bad. Here’s something I am making for free and I’m supposed to go sell it? Not to mention the idea of buying stuff up to put it back for sale at a higher price just makes me feel so guilty. And thus, we head back to the first paragraph of this giant post.

PVP

PVP is the one exception of repetition due to the fact that the matches can be so crazy and it can be a easy win or a giant battle until the end. So in the sense of repetition, I don’t mind PVP.

My issue with PVP is PVP itself. I do not play fighting games against people. I do not battle Pokemon with people. The reason for this is I feel bad, personally, if I have defeated someone (which is rare as I get VERY nervous and usually screw up) because they worked hard.

So when I get killed in PVP, I get upset. Every single time I die or something targets me or attacks me, I get really really upset. And if I know you? I usually will want to cry (if I wasn’t already). Way to break my heart, jerk. <-- kind of a joke. sort of. Not completely, but I know it's a game and you don't mean it...hopefully ._. Thus, my issue with PVP is it essentially breaks me. It breaks my spirit and makes me really upset and I hate it. I also hate to lose and give up so just… PVP and I don’t get along in the fact that I’m not okay with what it’s all about.

I just can’t enjoy playing against another player. Whatsoever. It isn’t fun for me. (slight exception for party games and some board games though)

Tips

The last way to earn credits is to ask for tips. Whether it be as I pull people various places or guide people to pets, most people would ask for some compensation. I’d feel like a jerk as it’s no trouble for myself and it’s not like I was doing anything anyway (and even if I was or wasn’t even planning to get on, I’d probably still do so if you asked and needed help).

…yeah, this is where that first paragraph comes up again.

————————

So there you have it. Why I will probably never find a good way to earn credits. Unless being a walking pet guide starts becoming a paying job.

…kidding, I’d feel bad if that happened too since I just like helping people πŸ™ blah.

Dread Guard Mask may hold clues to the Cave

Recently on the forums, a topic was posted by a user including various bits of feedback.

When talking about the new world boss, Dreadtooth (who I will probably be stalking for a while after getting HK due to the fact that he apparently has several codexes attached to him based off his form), this was mentioned:

I have no definitive feedback, information, or strategies on Dreadtooth. All I can really say is that he drops the Dread Guard’s Corrupted Mask which is Adaptive Armor in nature and is initially given with no stats and a buff which has no tooltip (probably a bug). There is speculation that the mask itself may house a special ability or trigger for other areas. The description reads, “This ancient mask is the most striking component of the ceremonial armor worn by the Dread Guard. The helm’s frightful, etched visage is designed to strike fear into the hearts of enemies.” Here’s a picture.

This could possibly be what the real “Don’t worry about it” could be referencing due to this not being out until the next patch. Also, considering it comes out the same time as NM EC which is supposed to have the rest of the Dread Guard gear, it is fairly interesting.

I’d just like to say this is not definite–there is a chance this could just be a neat item (like Karagga’s own bell hat). But there’s nothing wrong with speculating, right?

For now, I’m more curious about how Dreadtooth will be anyway. I’m hoping he won’t be another boss like Nightmare Pilgrim (though, his forms (Corrupted, Frenzied, and Nightmarish on top of his normal self) make me think of Tatooine’s own world boss being infected during the World Event) and be more like Primeval Destroyer and Gargath, although, I’d expect him to be harder than those… Still, a group of 24 just all charging at a boss can be a bit more fun than very strict mechanic ones (as much as I do like mechanics and puzzles, I like to play with my friends and I hate feeling restricted by how much I can do so).

And in the meantime, I should probably work on getting more companion gifts to prepare for HK:
Favorite: Weapon
Likes: Trophy, Military Gear, Technology

He does have a companion story so I want him maxed ASAP.

Edit: Mask tested and nothing πŸ™ There’s always the chance it could be an all 16 thing…but bleh T~T THE SEARCH CONTINUES.

A Nice Mail

So, I logged in today to a mail that essentially made me squee. I don’t get mail very often (besides a friend sending me various schematics–THANK YOU, SIR.) and thus, it’s always a nice pick-me up when I do (unless it’s mean. Then I cry.)

So, I just want to say a big THANK YOU! T~T I have sent the Unusual Egg over to Miisha and will put the 100K to good use <3 Thank you so so so so much and I'm glad my guide was able to help you! <3

1.5 Data Dump – More pets may be coming? + Story Mode Ops

Or being updated. A LOT of these match current pets so… of course, this could also mean new colors for some but… ANYWAY, quick list:

1. Acklay/Lylek x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
2. Battle Droid x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
3. Orobird x6 – 3 were added in 1.2, although, one is still missing.
4. Blurrg x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
5. Akk Dog x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4 and 3 released in 1.3
6. Horranth x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
7. Dragonbat x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
8. Flutterplume x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
9. Gizka x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
10. Gree Larva x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4 and the Deep Wriggler did come out at the least.
11. Manka Cat x14 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
12. Monkey Lizard x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4 and still one confirmed to be for the Cartel Shop.
13. Mouse Droid x2 – There is a chance this could refer to the TOR-CE from Beta or the normal Mouse Droid that has been available since live.
14. Mouse Droid/Minimech Collector’s Edition x2 – Could be the Minimech CE (since live) or TOR-CE from Beta (which was rumored to be the original CE pet)
15. “Karagga’s Mouse Droid” x2 – Most likely referring to the M0-GUL Thrall Droid which was added in 1.1. I really don’t think (and hope not) that there’d be another which makes me continue these are just updates to make them look better over new pets (or at least overall)
16. Mouse Droid/Sandcrawler x3 – Probably referring to either the Mouse Droid and/or Little Sandcrawler which have both been out since live.
17. Probes x12 – Most likely referring to the probes mentioned in Data Dump 1.4 and the Interrogation Droid that has been out since live.
18. Rakghoul x6 – Added in 1.2. All 3 were released so this could possibly be more colors or, well, like I said…updated graphics.
19. Tauntaun x10 – Added in 1.2. All 5 were released–although, Smelly from Beta has technically not been (however, people say Tauntaun Ram is just Smelly renamed)
20. Vrblthr x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
21. Womprat x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4
22. Wraid/Lobel x6 – Mentioned in Data Dump 1.4. Also Lobels were released in 1.3–2/3 have been able to be gotten with the Lobelode still not released yet.

As usual, I won’t really list anything until I see a more…understandable list on some of the databases, but as much as I love pets…that is a lot. Just…so much. And if the majority aren’t upcoming for the Cartel Shop… I’m not sure how they will be gotten. For reference, here is the 1.4 Data Dump. Due to the fact that there really isn’t anything new (of course, more colors are an option), I do feel this may just be a graphic update over brand new pets.

Going to the latter subject real quick, I was dragged into a random story mode operation for commendations…after dealing with lots of glitches, we managed to get KP. However, rather than Bonethrasher 1-shotting the Band, they came down and actually began to help us fight. It was kind of awesome. I made sure to heal them too (which was harder than it sounds when you’re the only healer to begin with). If only my screenshots worked πŸ™

Also helping people with the +10 datacron now <3

If you’d like the specific data dump lines from this place, here are the pet ones: Continue reading

bleh

Today really hasn’t gone as planned πŸ™ But the HK-51 quest looks REALLY awesome. Can’t wait for that.

However, it sounds like the World Boss will be a pain to get all the codexes of. Will have to stalk it or something I guess.

And from what I heard, Nightmare EC is (unsurprisingly) REALLY hard. Hopefully it works out okay though as due to the lack of character transfers, I don’t think many people will be able to test πŸ™

pfft

So here I am at NYCC and I hear 1.5 is out on the test server…sheesh, that was fast. Guess they really are doing that 6 weeks thing.

I am expecting 1.5 when free to play comes out. Soooo patching when I get home, plus keeping an eye out for NM EC stuff…need to see what the pet is from there.

Anyway, time to figure out what to do… sorry for typos *on cellphone*

:(

Got to go into TfB today surprisingly. I wasn’t supposed to but something came up so I was brought along.

Unfortunately, this will also be my last go. Not just because I will be busy tomorrow (not that I’d have been taken to go on 8-man anyway), but because 3 sages is just not…good to take on HM 16-man TfB. I’ll just glare about the nerf I guess and wish I was a better healer so that wouldn’t matter. But I suppose I won’t ever be good enough and thus, my Deep Wriggler dreams will be put off much much longer πŸ™ (and my stress will grow and I shall probably get more sad)

On a happier note, Prongs is awesome and helped me get this beautiful legacy ship stuff and I wish I could be as happy as I should be (and I know I’ll be ecstatic later), but right now, I don’t think anyone would believe these tears are “happy”.


WHY CAN’T YOU DROP ON STORY MODE, DEEP WRIGGLER? WHY? ;___;

and why can’t sages be considered as awesome as scoundrels and commandos ._.