Archives

Week Highlights

Jun10

Despite being away in Florida for work again, I did find some time to pop online while there and try out the game on my laptop. In general, it tends to work a lot better (definitely loads better and I’ve been getting new kinds of lag spikes on my computer which are incredibly annoying), but I definitely need to get used to the controls and bigger screen. As it is, it seems my interface is a bit glitchy on my computer lately as well which is all kinds of annoying.

Moving on, I got to raid with my guild a bit a few days ago. We did Normal EV to get rid of the daily, a complete HM Karagga (But still no Pet drop! At least I finally have all the HM codexes there) and then yesterday a complete run of Normal Explosive Conflict. We (as in the group I am in) may even do HM soon which I’m more than a little nervous about.

EC makes me very nervous. As it is, I almost screwed up the entire raid on the tanks due to:
1. Not realizing they wanted me on the inside of the lightning tank.
2. Not realizing I could run through the actual tank.

Once I realized though (and re-fixed my camera), we did it perfectly fine. But I’m still worried about positioning and stuff with the first boss when it comes to HM after what happened last time.

Also managed to go to Gargath with a random group which was nice… no pet there either but of course now he keeps dropping the Ice Scrabbler Schematic 😐 spite I tell you.

As for the PTS, I’ve done about 5 runs with Group Finder. Have gotten Hammer Station everytime though (using my lower level character as then it doesn’t matter if I get healing or DPS).

PVP also went okay today. Ups and downs but had a really good (and close match) earlier that ended with us winning while we had 2% left in Novare Coast. Was super suspenseful and action packed and just kind of awesome.

I just wish I could get the pets already. With 1.3 so close, I’m feeling more stressed out by the second. On the bright side, I officially have enough for one of the pets when 1.3 comes (and halfway to the other–will need to re-earn 2K normal Warzone commendations essentially). Now if I could just refer a friend who would actually get the game v-v And actually earn a good amount of credits. Out of stims and can’t afford to buy more. Most of my money is going to repairs (Though, usually I won’t have too much more than the Guild Funds I can use. I just sometimes forget to use the Guild Funds), stims, companion gifts, and random oter things. v-v

For now, back to the Test Server.

Feeling like a failure

Jun3

Last night, I was invited to fill in for a healer during our guild’s Hard Mode run of Explosive Conflict as their healer wasn’t on. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I failed miserably. I can’t explain why because I don’t know. My heals were as good as their other healer, but it seemed like no matter what I did, it was for nothing.

I don’t know if it was me or maybe one of the other people they brought in, but in the end, when their other healer got on, I was replaced–which I would’ve been fine with if I wasn’t whispered saying how they wanted to replace me because they were sick of wiping…ignoring that most of those wipes weren’t my fault whatsoever. (And some of the few that were were due to new HM mechanics during the fight that they didn’t go over).

Regardless, I suppose I’m second-guessing my healing again. And once again, feeling more than a bit useless with some of the 1.2 changes.

I was dragged on some PVP stuff which went okay–though, I felt like an idiot when I realized I forgot to put my PVP stuff back on… not to mention there’s a lot of cheaters lately which is kind of depressing.

Blah, I just wish I was better 🙁

Denova :3

May22

So, there was a raid tonight. We, unfortunately, won’t be able to go on Thursday to finish because we have to go upstate for a friend, but we had a lot of fun!

I think this is the fastest we’ve done the Mine Boss and I even got Minesweeper! Yay! So excited 😀 We’re going to do the Black Hole Heroic now too. But yeah, getting the Minesweeper title on Marilea totally lifted my spirits. Also got to heal all the pulls after the Mine Boss by myself (our other healer had to go) so we could get the chest which was pretty fun too and helped me feel a bit better about healing.

Time, Random Event Rambles, and Characters

Apr18

If there’s one thing that the game manages to have me think a lot about, it’s time. If you play both the Imperial and Republic storylines, you will get to a few instances where the planet you end up visiting takes place before or after the other faction has been there.

For example, you end up seeing Balmorra much earlier in the Imperial Storyline while you see Taris much later. It is reversed in the Republic Storyline. The effects of those earlier story lines end up being part of the later ones and the connection is very neat.

We had just finished Balmorra on the Imperial side so it was interesting to see the differences. Cessik, in particular, made me feel really bad about the Colicoids. I can’t help but wonder what happened to him.

But I remember watching my boyfriend go through the Jedi Knight Storyline during when he gets his last companion, the timing was very vague. It wasn’t stated just how long he was there–it could’ve been weeks, maybe months, and that is another aspect of just how time is.

There’s also instances where you may see companions of other classes featured while doing stuff with your companions on your character, for example in Qyzen’s story, there is actually a scene with him and Mako. I do wonder if you get Mako up, if you can find out why she owed Qyzen by any chance, as it’s not really detailed how she owed him a favor.

Similarly, for Jedi Knight’s, Doc ends up having Kaliyo in his storyline. Does Kaliyo ever vanish in the Imperial Agent Story line? Just all kinds of interesting questions.

Though, one that made me sad is that Vette never interacts with Risha. If you have seen Vette’s storyline, you will understand why this is pretty depressing.

I guess I’d love to get an idea on how the timing goes. I mean, when you’re doing the consular’s storyline and if all classes end up on Ilum at the same time, where are you while the Knight is being brainwashed? It’s just a lot to think about. Especially if you’re playing with each of the classes on your journey. For example, I totally ended up finishing off the Emperor when I was helping my boyfriend in his story. It’s not ever mentioned because technically there is no consular in the story–I was an unseen presence mixed in who totally replaced Kira.

I don’t expect them to make it recognizable–that’d be far too much work, but I think seeing some mixed things would be neat. I know there were occasional mentions of Player-Player romance and remember thinking that it’d be neat if each player had a few choices to pick from in those environments to kind of show what happened rather than just going into a family tree and setting spouse or something.

Speaking of family trees, I ended up remaking my Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter. I had yet to do anything on either of them (besides pick up my mail) and had wanted to remake them for a while. I’ll hopefully remake my Smuggler soon, but that’ll cost 1.5 million and I do not have that… (Similarly, my Trooper which I do not have yet will be 1.5 million as well)…and let’s be honest, if I had 1.5 million, it’d be going to ship stuff.

…I really want the ship stuff 🙁 Why must dailies be the only way to get a nice amount of money T__T

Going back to the topic of family trees, I did end up making my Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent sisters. I’m not really a big RPer, but it’s sometimes fun to think of character’s backstories. (Similarly, my Sorcerer and Sage are cousins, as will my Smuggler and Trooper be). Especially intertwined with the class stories.

And heading back to the original subject of time, that brings up a good idea of the event. Just how long does it last? Was the crash really that Sunday (ignoring that the area showed up earlier than that) or did they just finally get out Sunday? If the latter, why wasn’t it inspected earlier? How long exactly was the Shaman looking for a cure? It sounded like a long time, but it didn’t happen that long ago. Was there another incident? Just how does a day in RL translate to the time going in the game? Or does the time depend on just how much you do in the game? (and yes, I know I’m probably overthinking it)

Regardless, there is a new daily today, following the format. I expect the top to be out tomorrow unless they do end up giving everything (bracers, belt, weapon, etc.), but something tells me they won’t. Also, for those who also did not get their title, you’ll be happy to know it’s “fixed” now. In order to get your title, you must re-defeat the Infected Bantha in Outlaw’s Den. While I am happy it’s fixed, I really wish it could’ve been ANY of the infected bosses and not the hardest one considering that needs the biggest group and for crying out loud, it’s the one in the PVP area 🙁

Finally, to end this off, after talking to someone with the gold minimech today *ENVY*, it hit me the other big reason why I wanted to get it before 1.2. As with any big patch of new content…that’s what everyone wants to see. Thus why so many people on Tatooine (I hadn’t seen multiple instances of it in a very long time) and on the fleet trying to do the new flashpoint and operation. Ignoring who they will probably do the new content with….the old content is, well, old, and if you didn’t finish it before, it’s going to be even harder to find a group now 🙁

The Problem with the Sage/Sorcerer Nerfs

Apr14

I had known about the nerfs for a while, but decided to wait until I had a full chance to test them out in a flash point or operation. The funniest part though? This was done mostly due to PVP complaints which I actually still have no problem gaining force back through. Essentially, if you’re having a bad time, you’ll die so fast, you don’t need to worry about gaining force by through that kind of method. If you’re having a good time, you’ll be able to get your force back quick enough without needing to use anything for it.

So despite being done to lessen the “overpoweredness” of Healers in PVP, I don’t see much of a change. In PVE however, it’s right there. There is nothing more insulting than wiping on a boss because your force gets way too low for you to be able to do anything. To see someone die, unless the idiot was stupid and ran away from you, is really depressing, especially when you can not do anything about it.

We finally got around to doing Kaon Under Siege and Lost Island on Hard Mode today. Having just finished the former and about to start the latter, I’m incredibly paranoid about how it’s going to go. The issue with Noble Sacrifice taking HP (and the “now takes no force” thing is a joke as it barely took any to begin with) is because as a healer, your job is to keep the team alive. If you’re too busy healing yourself to do that, what use are you?

The best way I’ve noticed to get around it is to get an AOE Heal down and then use it as that will usually get most of your health back up, but for fights where you have to move around a lot or worry about being interrupted among other things, that’s not always possible. There’s also the fact that it’s a constant risk of when to use it–you have to essentially predict how it’s going to go and how much damage you may take next. If you wait too long to try and do it, your force may get too low too fast. If you do it too soon though, the enemy may one-shot you the next hit because of that health removal.

However, the other big issue is the fact that there is no way to quicken up Deliverance/Dark Infusion. The heal is anywhere between 2.3-2.5 without being quickened. The problem with this is the main healing class in the game has the slowest heal. Everyone else’s biggest cast on a heal is 2 seconds. And that .3-.5 less actually is a big deal. The amount that Deliverance/Dark Infusion does, while good, is not helpful enough for those extra seconds. That extra time could be the time between someone’s death and someone still being alive.

On a different note, I hope the Set Bonus issue gets fixed soon. I kind of kind ahead of myself and put everything in my Elegant Set before realizing…so umm… yeah… >>

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.