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Battle of Ilum, The Foundry, Population, Valor Worries + more

Jun19

So, quite a bit to talk about :3 Shall go in order~

Battle of Ilum:
Finally got to do Battle of Ilum HM! My boyfriend and I went with two of our guildmates 🙂 And we even did the bonus boss! It went really well and I had fun. We’re hopefully going to do False Emperor tomorrow and then I’ll have my Aratech Ice <3 What was really fun is we got to go through the Secret Tunnel 🙂 It is an old thing left during development/Beta when they wanted to put some Datacrons in Flash Points. It has a bunch of the crates you can break to get further along with the Bonus Boss and a Security Chest! It's in the giant crystal cave area :3 Just look for a tiny cove on the map with a few enemies and then look carefully for a tiny opening that turns into a path and it is so cool. The Foundry: Found some time to pop on Amidaia today and took care of the Foundry for the first time. We finally hit a flashpoint we couldn't do with just two companions, but luckily were able to find someone who was going to do it with us 🙂 I have taken Amidaia back to Quesh so hopefully maybe we can get some leveling in. Population: SO MANY PEOPLE. We had 300-400+ people on the Republic Fleet during Prime time and about 500 on the Imperial Fleet! PVPers were in their glory and everyone seemed to be getting along, though, I did see some rude people. I'm hoping to maybe see people looking for groups for Gargath as I'm pretty shy :/ I have seen lots of KP groups though so if our guild doesn't have time to during the week, at least I should be able to go to one! I just hope to see people asking for Gargath. However, due to experiences, I think I'm really too shy to join someone's Looking for group for Lost Island. It just is...a flash point that makes me really nervous and I know a lot of people really have no respect for mistakes and I'd rather not cry for feeling like a failure. Especially as I hate giving up. Wish I could find someone to do Lost Island normal already though. But yes, was nice seeing so many people--even if we were full at one point and had to wait like 20 minutes to get in 😛 Valor Worries: Guild said that due to other games, there was a chance with Ranked Warzones that Valor would be removed eventually. At the moment, I am valor level 73. I still have 27 levels to go to max out valor for all the titles. That's... a lot, especially at this high and the idea is just stressing me out completely. Moving on to other subjects: Our Guild has a new GM as the old one feels they will be too busy. I do know the new GM better than the old one so it's not too much of a change--most people are also in that boat. I actually got promoted to Officer though which was a nice surprise! Right now, they're trying to figure out recruiting along with what to do with Raid Groups. They are thinking of making our Raid Group the first one (we are #2) at the moment and vice versa--I kind of hope they do that as I really like the group I raid with. Besides that, I re-maxed Slicing 🙂 And am continuing to try and use that to earn some money. Hopefully I'll have a good amount of credits soon. Edit: And speaking of awesome guildmates, I received a special gift when I got up this morning: 10

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.

New Pets and More Nests! + Other 1.3 stuff

Jun6

Mini-pets have been added to the PvP items vendor.
So yes, more mini-pets. I’d be excited, but I haven’t even gotten all the ones in 1.2…and I still need one from 1.1 🙁 So I’m excited and stressing at the same time T__T Time to save up commendations… can I even hold that many? 🙁 (Edit: Thanks to an awesome guild mate of mine, I found out you can have up to 4K Ranked and 2K Normal. And plus, you can trade Normal for Ranked (At 30 for 10) so currently trading Normal for Ranked as Ranked Warzones will probably be a pain. Once I have the 2K, I’ll just need to get the extra 2K normal Warzone ones after I buy the first pet)

The pets are, as follows:
Ganniffarl – ???
Lawgriffarl – Requires Rank 70 Valor. Costs 1,000 Ranked Commendations and 2,000 Warzone Commendations. Gotten from the PVP Items Vendor.
Hagnoffarl – ???
Lobelisk – Requires Rank 70 Valor. Costs 1,000 Ranked Commendations and 2,000 Warzone Commendations. Gotten from the PVP Items Vendor.
Lobelode – ???
Lobelot – ???

And for those who have yet to get an Orokeet/Unusual Egg: “Additional spawn locations for the Orokeet Mini-pet egg have been added to Alderaan. Eggs can now also be found on Balmorra (Imperial) and Taris (Republic).”

So yay for more locations 😀 I know a lot of people really want one and while prices have dropped (25K-50K lately), I know people prefer finding some.

Also, for those who may have considered it a pet, you will be happy to hear: “The Party Instigator and Galactic Party Bomb now function correctly and are available on the appropriate Social vendors.” and “The Rhythm Augmentation Droid now lasts for 5 minutes (up from 30 seconds).”

I’m definitely excited for both as I had only gotten to enjoy my Galactic Party Bomb for a few minutes before what happened. Not to mention hearing music for more than 30 seconds is always nice 😛

Anyway, onto some 1.3 stuff:
1. You can get up to 30% more experience with experience boosters.
2. Companion increasements (What I’d spend on first) can go up 15%
3. Crafting criting can go up 3% (Second.)
4. It costs 25K to add the best Augment Slot…so I’d need like 14… so 350K.
5. Quicker speeder sooner is an extra 250K…considering this is per character, I really don’t care enough to spend that much.

Anyway, all GTN’s are now neutral. However, they are still set so I’d still like to get the Ship one…but it’s not as high a priority so I’d probably get the mailbox first (after the Repair Droid, of course).

…I really need to earn more credits.

Anyway, I just hope ways are found out about the other 4 pets. v-v And I hope there aren’t more than that. I could do without more surprises. Shall have to check out the PTS on my computer when I get home on Friday. While doing PVP on this laptop to gain as many commendations as possible.

I wish the Group finder could find World Boss groups too. As it is, I’ll probably do Karagga and Lost Island I guess…and still hope people for Gargath. But yes, I need to get pets off my list 🙁 To think…going from 4 (and people still don’t know how to get the Wondrous Egg v-v Of course, it’s possible it hasn’t dropped for anything yet too) to 10 sucks T__T At least I’ve already at 70 Valor… (71 I believe)

Finally, new Test Server titles: Strike Team Specialist and Strike Team Commander It will most likely not be sent until 1.3 is out on Live which kind of stinks are you won’t know when you earn it. I will probably use Roseria for Group Finding stuff (maybe get her leveled finally) if only because I’d rather not advance anywhere on Marilea (if she gets copied over) and rather just use Marilea to explore and browse for new pets.

And found out the specifics so, quoting the official website:
Strike Team Specialist – In order to get this title, a player will need to complete four pieces of content (meaning Flashpoints, Hard Mode Flashpoints Tier 1/Tier 2 or Story Mode Operations) using the Group Finder tool in its default search setting on a single day OR eight pieces of content (using the Group Finder’s default setting) within seven days.
Strike Team Commander – In order to get this title, a player will need to complete four pieces of content in a single day AND eight pieces of content within seven days. Again, using the Group Finder tool’s default search setting.

So doing 8 in a day should get both…though, I may do 12 (4 on day and 8 another day) just to make sure. ..or possibly 2 days of 8 for 16 total.

As it is, you only have until the 16th :/ and I do not get home until the 8th v-v; so that’s kind of sucky. Still, close cut-off date. Guess 1.3 really isn’t far off.

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.

Raids with New guild!

Apr29

So, yesterday we did Karagga’s Palace Normal (Sadly, no pet drop! There was also no mount drop but I don’t care as much about that) and today we did Eternity Vault Normal and Hard Mode! 😀 I was my first time finishing EV Hard Mode and we got Soa down in one shot (despite him enraging at 20% and losing our tanks twice)! Robot at the beginning is definitely the hardest.

I even received a new Codex entry since it was my first time killing Soa on HM 😀 And if that wasn’t enough, I got the Rakata Bottoms, Rakata Offhand, AND Rakata Gloves! Woo! I just need the Rakata Hat and Mainhand and then I have everything Rakata…ignoring that it’s not the top tier anymore but that excites me muchly.

Unfortunately, I’m incredibly poor ATM as my boyfriend and I put our money together for a Advanced Magenta Schematic (The +41 version!) and then the little I had left was used for ripping mods out (how much they cost slipped my mind again… As it is, I still have 1 left which is about 38K to remove) and repairs (I still have about 22K left in repairs). So I’m down to 10K which really sucks :/

But yay for new gear and hopefully a pink crystal soon! We also need more Corusca Gems though…

Tatooine Infection: World Boss Insanity

Apr15

So, there is currently a crazy event going on in Tatooine. Raghoul infection. A few world bosses during it. A new daily. And heck, you get the Pale Rakling from here (see my below post for those details). Wouldn’t be surprised in one of them drops the Crimson one.

Unfortunately, one of the world bosses is in a PVP area so there has been an epic battle in there for a while. Unfortunately, the imperials won 🙁 There are more on the server and most of them are heavy PVPers so we lost. It sucked. And is super depressing. (Especially as we were there first) I wish we could’ve just worked together :/

But yes, back to finishing the dailies now…but all the competition is just stressing me out T___T I know people like PVP…but I would’ve joined a PVP server if I wanted to mix it in with my PVE to this degree 🙁

For those who want more details…more or less, at 11AM EST today, a bunch of Jawas and Sand people were replaced by raghouls and infected crew and stuff at the Crash of the Stardream area in the Dune Sea. You then got an area quest which brought you through various things (and can apparently be done daily).

Spaceports started talking about the epidemic as well so lots of people started showing up at Tatooine.

The quest is simple and then optionally, you can kill 3 world bosses–2 which are new:
1. Trapjaw – a New infected version. Summoned the same way.
2. Urtagh – Located in the PVP area.
3. Zama Brak – Summoned from an Escape Pod at the Sarlacc Pit.

Killing all 3 gets you a special title. This event puts a new section in your Codex for “Events” and there’s 9 total.

Worst thing about this is Tatooine is incredibly hard on my computer so all the people and crazy effects is killing it. Game has crashed 3 times now 🙁

Edit: Woo, finished everything. For some reason, didn’t get the title or last part of the codex line (#5) though 🙁 Also still need 34 more DNA thingys for the pet.

Edit 2: Okay, title is glitched 🙁 Got my pale Rakling at least though~ Crimson Rakling is part of quest that also gives you the #5 Codex! Here are the coordinates and what you need to do in order to get the quest:
1. Click Screen by Anchorhead Space port. It’s right near the entrance.
2. Click Escape Pod in Wall (X:1768, Y:-3621)
3. Click a little crate by the Cantina (X: 2348, Y:-3667)
4. Head back over near the Speeder and near where the mission drop box is, click the little terminal thing. (X:1822, Y:-3263)

Then get that quest done! 😀 (Very good guide for finding the parts!)

Progress vs. Gear

Apr5

Now, I’m a very organized person. I like going in order and don’t like skipping ahead (I do not care how hard this quest is–I want every quest in the area done before moving to the next one) and want things done a certain way. That’s just how I am. That doesn’t mean I never cut corners (Space Missions and PVP stuff I obviously put off until the end), but in general, especially with PVE, I liked to do things in order. Planets, quests, flash points…and that includes difficulty levels.

That doesn’t mean it’s been completely followed (For example, I did Kaon Under Siege on Hard Mode before Normal Mode), but that was never my choice to do it. And despite doing False Emperor and Kaon, I still have yet to do Battle of Ilum on either difficulty because I can’t find anyone to go with. And I’d be lying to say it didn’t bug me.

I don’t really care too much about gear. I know it’s important, but when it comes to priority…it’s probably 3rd or 4th on my list. 4th if I count Codex Entries and Lore as a separate thing. But yes, so in order:
1. Completion/Progress
2. Collecting (Codexes included)
3. Gear

I do know better gear will make certain things easier…but only harder versions of raids. The level cap isn’t rising yet. The new quests that are coming in 1.2 are just level 50 dailies. Sure, it still makes things easier, but it shouldn’t be priority at this point.

And that is part of why it bothers me so much that the guild, while thankfully finally doing Karagga (even if they still aren’t listening to me completely), seems to just care about gearing up (and more so than not, the ones who are already geared to some extent. Those in the Green/blue gear? Go have fun.). I do have a good amount of Columni–in fact, all I still need are the offhand and main hand. I do not care too much for the main hand as I like my Pink Crystal, but the offhand would probably be helpful. Regardless, since we have Columni, we should apparently just go for Rakata.

But it bothers me that we’re skipping a normal difficulty mode for that kind of reason. What about learning the fight? What about codexes? What about actual progress? Can you really say you just did everything if you skip normal mode? I don’t think so.

And it could be practice. To get the titles from those, you need to be able to down them on Nightmare mode within 2 hours. While you may be the time to just rush into things on the hardest difficulty, isn’t that kind of rash?

You could learn the fight and then learn the new mechanics. Or you could learn everything new while dying much more. We’ve gotten to the 4th boss on normal. We KNOW what we need to do, but they haven’t tried. Do you really expect me to believe you’re going to want to do it on Hard Mode? Are we even going to get there with such few practices on normal?

Target of Target isn’t needed, despite pleas of saying things. Will it make it easier? Sure. But it is not needed.

And the giant fight against normal (soon to be Story mode) not only takes away from some of the experience and learning, but also from the chances to earn things. Some people DO still need Columni even if Rakata is better. And some people just want the experience or the codexes.

Why should everything constantly be put behind the “priority” of gear? Maybe it’s just me, but I’ll always find that a silly concept–after all, what’s the point of better gear if you’re not trying to complete that story in the first place?

THANK YOU! + Codex Needed list done!

Mar26

So, first, I’d like to say a big Thank you to a lot of people. Just for encouraging me in my crazy journeys and even offering to help out means so much to me. I’m not great at PVP–in fact, I’m probably a bit of a hindrance if anything, but I do try my best. And I think gaining about 50 valor in like 2 weeks says something. So, when I got a bunch of good lucks and encouragement about being close (I’m 56 now–a little more than half way to 57!) and even was told by someone else if I didn’t get it, they had one for me and that’s just so awesome. It really made me feel special. And it’s funny too, as a lot of people thought I was crazy to be doing PVP for a speeder and that there was “no way” I’d get enough in time. They just don’t know how determined I can be! I just hope the thing with Heishi works out too and he manages to get a few extra Prince’s a well, because as hard as I try, I don’t think I’d be able to get my Sorcerer to 65 valor for PVP on the Imperial side (let alone get her to 50 so she’d actually be somewhat useful :P)

And even earlier that day, Cylk let me know that if I do hit 65, he will lend me the rest of the money I need for the Baron if I help his alt do the dailies T~T He knew I’d help regardless, but he wanted me to stress less and alsfk;lsfkasf;lasfl;fa everyone is so nice. <3 So, I'm doing my best! Even if I have people to help, that doesn't mean I still shouldn't try my hardest too 🙂 And yes, the codex needed list is done! Most of what I need is glitched (as far as I know anyway), but hopefully I can at least get everything left on it that isn't. I'd have loved to before 1.2, but I don't see that happening 😛 At the very least, maybe I can get all the non-operation and non-flashpoint stuff (though, I'd love to get the Flash point stuff done too). And of course, space missions 🙁 But yes, I plan to at least do the Hoth Bonus series this week, regardless.

So, while working on the codex list today…

Mar25

…We stumbled upon a way to get the final location we needed in Nar Shadda–the Upper Industrial Sector. Essentially, you have to go through an Imperial area and stand by their taxi guy in their Industrial Sector to get it. There is a level 50 Champion Robot that blocks an elevator to start your way there, but it IS possible to take down. We did with me healing, my boyfriend DPSing, and then having Nadia and Scourge out. It wasn’t easy, but it’s entirely possible.

The other two (one on each end of the area you need to get to), well, the one exiting out the other side can be avoided…the other, however, you will aggro. Best thing to do is get your companions out and then run through to the other side so it loses interest after killing your companions. Then, just run back in past the robot you can get around without aggroing.

We’re sorry if we scared some of the imperial players there! But yes, we were just codex hunting ^^;

But yes, the codex page should be done by today. I can’t guarantee the final page though–if only because I’ll have to do a lot of back and forth on prices and lists and as it is, all speeder prices will be increasing once 1.2 hits 🙁 But yes, I’ll try and get it up ASAP! As for what it will include… various things that can be bought, stuff that can’t be bought, mods, enhancements, augments, speeders, and pretty much various other collectible things and info on items I really want to get.