Star Wars: The Old Republic [SWTOR]

[Ninahaza]

wow i cant believe no one's created this thread yet.

obligatory badass wallpaper post of a Jedi master taking on 2 sith.......because i am not a fan of the dark side. republic all the way

now i've never been an MMO kind of guy, not even a PC gamer really. I've always been a console guy, but back in the day i did give World of Warcraft a chance and ended up enjoying my time on Azeroth immensely[ whiles it lasted].
i dont even usually try MMO's as they come out. i've only ever tried 2 and those were World of Warcraft and now Star wars the old republic. what initially drew me to this MMO and made me give it a try was
1: Me being a fan of star wars in general
2: story driven anything is my cup of tea, its why the RPG genre is my favorite game genre. i am just a sucker for a good story

after hearing all the praises being sung for this games character story line and that it was such a story driven game in general, i naturally had to give it a try. alright now for some cinematics before my actual thoughts on this game

Star Wars The Old Republic - Deceived
Star Wars The Old Republic - The Return
Star Wars: The Old Republic - "Hope"

My thoughts
really i am torn when it comes to this game. at first i was super excited with all the hype going around, and the game delivered to an extent, I couldn't get enough of this game. After about a week into this game however, i started to notice all of its flaws, so many flaws, not to mention anyone whose played world of Warcraft will get that feeling of "this really feels like WoW 2.0" and they wouldnt be too far off. this game in a way really does feel like Wow, both share so many similarities, but the opposite can be said as well.
over all though i am still having fun, if only because i have not hit the level cap of 50 and i'm enjoying the character progression too much [the story for each character is really good. If you don't rush through the content and explore the game, it can be lots of fun] i also find that pacing myself through this whole experience has really helped with that feel of WoW and quick boredom, it has been a month after all and i am not even level 40 yet and that's saying something because you level fast in this game, very fast.

will i continue playing this game? i'm not sure, but i will say this.
the game is still very new, there's lots of room for improvement and i can really see this game becoming a power house down the road after some fixes and more content is added for end game as well as some much needed PVP improvements. so far this game has impressed me and i'm interested to see where bioware takes it

My characters

so far i have 2 main characters on the server "saber of exar kun". i also discovered this week that in my Digital Media arts classes [especially gaming theory class] a lot of the guys are playing this game or giving it a try. we are going around exchanging skype information and i think the plan is to all play on one server, so at this point it looks like i'll end up having characters all over the place servers wise. i will however, most likely just keep going back to my main on saber of exar kun so i can see his story through.

characters: Ninahaza - Jedi knight
-level 30
-Jedi sentinel
profession: synthweaving

characters: Tañk - Trooper
-level 12
-Vanguard [going to be best tank on server if i stick around....cammon his name is TANK and he is built like a TANK/tool]
Profession: biochem [Oh God, with top of the line leveling gear+ leveling with tank talent tree+ biochem as my profession......lets just say Tañk probably wont ever go down outside of Flashpoints]

thats it so far, i am really enjoying the stories and even the many, many MANY cut scenes

anyways smogon, so tell me, are you playing this game as well at the moment? if so, then what your characters/server you play on? what are your thoughts on the game? etc etc
if you are not playing this game, do you plan on trying it out in the future? are we talking about "near future" here?

 

[Ninahaza]

oh yeah before i forget, here is a fun question to give this thread more discussion i guess. this question only works now anyways because the game is still so fresh/new, and i guess you dont really even need to have played the game or beta tested swtor to answer this question.......helps though. you also could of course just skip this question altogether, whatever floats your boat i guess

so whiles researching this game a bit, 1 thing became a source of entertainment for me, it was the debates being started on whether SWTOR was going to be The World of Warcraft killer.

Q: do you think that FINALLY we have seen the MMO thats going to kill off WoW? do you think SWTOR shall be the slayer of WoW.

my answer to the question

World of Warcraft is one of the biggest celebrities of the gaming world today, you don't even need to have played it to know what this monster of a game called World of Warcraft is.
This is how i look at world of warcraft:
WoW is a dying game, in the MMORPG genre wow sits on the throne as king. but like i said, it is a dying game in my eyes, wow may sit on the throne but he is a very old king with gray hair/beard. however, despite WoW being on its last legs, i still don't think there'll ever be a game that will single handedly dethrone World of Warcraft. It is going to take a combination of good to great MMOs coming out in a short period of time to chip away at wow enough to kill it.
WoW is the the last, main raid boss of the MMORPG genre and we all know that no 1 player[swtor] can bring down a boss of that magnitude. its going to take a full party of players[swtor, GW2, etc etc] coming together to Finally take wow down. do you understand what i am saying?

also its not like WoW is going to go down without a fight anyways, there's a new expansion coming out after all

 

[Skytt]

Finally, someone made a SWTOR thread! I've been playing for about 2-3 weeks now (casually playing right now) and i'm really enjoying the story. I started with a Smuggler but I didn't really enjoy it as a Gunslinger, as I was just too cover based.

So I created a Bounty Hunter and have never looked back. I'm currently level 29 and will most likely get 50 in the coming weeks. I also chose Powertech over Merc and don't regret it one bit. I'm currently full spec'd in the Sheild Tech (Tank) tree, which gives both great Tanking, DoT and overall useful ability niches.

Also, I predict SWTOR's current main issues will be brought up here in the near future, so heres a main overview of what I see to be the biggest issues:
- Class inbalances
- PvP inbalances (Empire outweighing Republic by about 60:40-65:35), causing PvP gear inbalances @ 50 and worsening the problem.
- Lack of Warzones/Endgame content
- Ilum, from what i've seen from gameplay video it's basically just a once-sided camp fest for dailys, which is horrible.
- Ability lag/delay
- Massive PvP lag
- Overall Bugs and Glitches

Thats not to say that a lot of these problems are being fixed or being worked on, with Ability lag and some Class inbalances being fixed in 1.1.1. Also, more Warzones are coming in 1.2 with probably a whole bunch of fixes inbetween. And besides, what else are we to expect from a MMO thats only been out for 1 and a half months? A lot of the time SWTOR excells at what it does, the Story element being phenominally good.

List of upcoming updates in the very near future:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBXhSOA9Y-A&feature=related

 

[Ninahaza]

List of upcoming updates in the very near future:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBXhSOA9Y-A&feature=related

the link isn't working for me, but i did go ahead and read up on the most recent patch notes and some future fixes. I'm glad Bioware is listening to the players and trying to fix some of the current issues at least.

 

[Shinryu]

I played in the Beta and loved it, but haven't been able to buy it yet because I don't have any money :(

For me, Sith all the way. Though I will make a JK because they seem to have a really cool story when I tried it, sure it's stereotypical in a way, but to me it captures the...I dunno, "Star Wars-y Jedi-esq save the galaxy feel" the best.

 

[Ouro]

Ive been playing for about three weeks on Iron Citadel. 50/55 Combat Medic Commando. Terrible luck so far with my Champion gear :(


I am pissed that they did not incorporate any of the things that made Warhammer such a great PvP game. Things like open parties, the renown system, being able to purchase your gear with tokens instead of random loot from bags, etc.

While the game has many flaws I'm going to stick around with it for a bit. BioWare is an excellent game studio and with a franchise like Star Wars I am sure great things are coming.

Also, my English is awful. Eat a dick.

edit:

I wanted to roll a Sith Juggernaut but the Empire population is so imbalanced on every server I just had to go with Republic. I am not regretting my choice. No one wants to be called a featherhead!

 

[Ninahaza]

i've heard of the imbalances from so many people playing on the empire side. heck, almost everyone i know that plays this game plays on the empire side. i will most likely make a sith in the future just to play with them.......because apparently all my friends are secretly evil

 

[nihilist]

I've watched all of these. They are so interesting. You can find them all on the main site. Don't know if I'm going to buy the game though. I wish there was an offline version so I can just play the story mode of the characters. KOTOR 1 and 2 were my favorite games of all time.

Imperial Agent Character Progression

Jedi Knight Character Progression

Sith Inquisitor Vs. Trooper

PS: Are there any signs of a non-online/console release?

 

[fairytale]

nihilist, I don't think so unfortunately, and I doubt there ever will be. Honestly, I wish they just made a KotOR 3 instead of going the MMO route, but oh well. :< From what I understand the game is just so massive that a console release wouldn't really have the capability to be much like the real game at all.

anyways, when I first heard of this game, I was excited for it, but I doubt I'll play. not that I don't still think it looks good, just not really down for MMOs anymore. If I ever were to play another, though, it would definitely be TOR. I'd probably play smuggler. :3

 

[Skytt]

I really badly want to play as a Jedi Knight Guardian, but from what i've read on forums it's currently the most UP class in the game, especially if I spec'd as DPS. I just want to be that single wielding Jedi whos trying to make the galaxy a better place and from i've played as a Sage (still on Tython but whatever) it's too Lore based for my liking. Also, the republic classes as a whole are putting me off. The Trooper story really doesn't seem like my cup of tea and the smuggler story really didn't engage me. I might start again as a Scoundrel, but from what i've heard going IA (Operative) is a whole lot better...

So until they buff JK, i'll finish off my Bounty Hunter story and then maybe go IP or restart Smuggler? What do you guys think? I'm currently looking for my endgame classes to be something like this:

Republic:
JK Guardian (DPS Spec'd?)
Smuggler Scoundrel (Healing/DPS? Undecided)

Sith:
BH Powertech (Tank spec'd)
IA Operative (Healing spec'd)

Inquisitor is so overused it's ridiculous and Warrior is just a no-go for me. I'm so confused on what classes to choose and would really appreciate some help...

 

[Ninahaza]

I really badly want to play as a Jedi Knight Guardian, but from what i've read on forums it's currently the most UP class in the game, especially if I spec'd as DPS. I just want to be that single wielding Jedi whos trying to make the galaxy a better place and from i've played as a Sage (still on Tython but whatever) it's too Lore based for my liking. Also, the republic classes as a whole are putting me off. The Trooper story really doesn't seem like my cup of tea and the smuggler story really didn't engage me. I might start again as a Scoundrel, but from what i've heard going IA (Operative) is a whole lot better...

So until they buff JK, i'll finish off my Bounty Hunter story and then maybe go IP or restart Smuggler? What do you guys think? I'm currently looking for my endgame classes to be something like this:

Republic:
JK Guardian (DPS Spec'd?)
Smuggler Scoundrel (Healing/DPS? Undecided)

Sith:
BH Powertech (Tank spec'd)
IA Operative (Healing spec'd)

Inquisitor is so overused it's ridiculous and Warrior is just a no-go for me. I'm so confused on what classes to choose and would really appreciate some help...

reading your post, 1 thing that stood out was how much you want to play a Jedi knight guardian. you know, the reasons you listed should not stop you, think about
1: MMO's always change how characters perform, so a JD guardian may be under powered now but you know its nothing permanent
2: even if you wait until the JD guardian class is perfect, you'll still have to put in the time to level one up to level cap anyways so why not do that now whiles you have the urge to play a JD knight?

 

[Ouro]

There is nothing gimp about Jedi Knights.

Sentinels get 99% damage reduction for like 6 seconds when they are at 30 centering. They also get an ability to give them 30 centering every 2 minutes. They have a leap to close the distance, 4 interrupts (one of which is an AoE), and a shit ton of other tools.


As far as Guardians go, they are incredibly bad ass. My partner in crime is a Guardian who started off playing as Focus spec but has recently switched to Vigilance.

He reduces all damage dealt to us after using Force Leap by 20%. A huge buff considering it is only on a 20 second cooldown. Combine that with a SCC Kolto Bomb and we're constantly reducing damage.

The DPS is great too. He constantly tops the charts in WZs for damage and usually has the most DBs. +We're both in a mixture of Champion and Centurion gear so its not like we are outgearing everyone in PvP.

The first act of the Trooper story is great, especially if you are consistent with all your choices but the second act is very lacking. I was like :evan: when I finished it.

 

[Skytt]

Thanks for you help guys, i'll probably roll a Guardian in the next few days. The problem I have now is choosing my 2nd class for each 'faction'.

My Powertech main is a Tank and i'll probably go DPS with the JK, so i'm mainly looking for a healing class + another class for the opposite faction. I'm thinking about going Operative healing spec'd, but then I wouldn't have a good choice for the Republic, as I don't like Consular/Trooper and I really hate Gunslinger (went 1-15 on it and then had enough)...

Should I just roll 3 classes in total and ditch my Gunslinger, or go healing with Smuggler (restarted) and roll 4 classes in total with the overused SI replacing IA? The 2nd option seems more logical, but i'd miss out on the apparently amazing IA storyline and reroll on a class whose story didn't really ingage me... :/

 

[iDunno]

Wasn't this game on the PS2? I could have sworn I played it on there before.

 

[Shinryu]

Wasn't this game on the PS2? I could have sworn I played it on there before.

You're thinking of Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 likely, which are the "prequels" to the MMO, which is set 300 years after the events of KOTOR 2.

 

[Yeah Galo Sengan]

got this game for christmas, played it for a month

honestly? this game is pretty awful

it feels like it's from 2003, it is full to the brim with needless timesinks (why do i need to fly to coruscant, run slowly through a spacedock, run into the senate and go to my class quest guy if i have a holocommunicator?)

space combat is pretty cool until you get past level 20 and they literally start c+ping missions, there are maybe 4 unique space missions in the entire game

the game engine is unfinished and it shows, the sparkle of every quest being voice acted quickly wears off when its all exactly the same forumula and you end up space bar spamming the hell through everything

and the dev responses (or lack of) + customer service is the worst i have ever seen in any mmo, and i say that as someone who used to work cs for blizzard

add a lack of lfd tool, broken ass pvp, buggy endgame content and no guild bank (!!!!!!) and yeah this game made me give rift a try and i am having a total blast. it has a lot of work ahead of it if bioware want to retain subs

 

[Ninahaza]

yeah this game has a lot of flaws but its still pretty brand new and bioware IS addressing some of the issues. for example; guild bank is being added and so are some PVP fixes [but pvp still has a ways to go before its up to par]. I'm sure you would change a few things in your post if you saw some of the near future fixes announced.

In the end though i mostly do agree with you[no surprise, i did mention most of the issues you brought up in the op] and honestly bioware has until i finish my JD knight sentinel story to convince me to keep playing, or until the story factor wares off for me. basically they dont really have much time but they are fixing the game so hey

 

[Ouro]

From the 1.1.2 patch notes:

The number of commendations in Champion and Battlemaster Bags has been greatly increased, and the direct item trade tokens appear less frequently in Champion Bags. This change allows players to obtain PvP gear at a steady and significantly more predictable rate with an occasional bonus.

Looks like you guys who aren't 50 are going to have a much easier time gearing up for PvP. I'm not surprised as this was the direction Mythic took with Warhammer when there was a significant end-game population.


edit: I guess I misunderstood. They're going to be giving more tokens but less gear drops. The damn Centurion weapons are too expensive though.

 

[Trax]

As far as the current MMO market goes, to me TOR looks like the clear cut leader; WoW has just gotten stupid over the last few years. I'll hold off on buying TOR though, it'd take a lot for me to play a new MMO these days.

 

[Minwu]

As a fan, Star Wars has kind of historically required Ian McDiarmid/Palpatine to have an interesting plot to me. That's my fundamental gripe with the KotOR series.

And please just fucking get out with the romances in RPGs.

 

[Clinton]

Level 49 Sith Marauder on server Master Gnost Dural. Revearith.


In response to everyones comments I would like to say that I agree there is an imbalance and OP classes in PvP. PvP Gunslingers mainly roll my Annihilation spec'd 65+ expertise Marauder because of dual stun and the shield to block my charges. Other than that my class can easily handle every other class in the game with the combined effects of Berserk and Rupture, Deadly Saber and Ravage, all together that gives us 5 stacks of bleed out with 100% chance of a crit to heal us for 2% of our maximum health per crit, meaning I am getting healed 1k+ health per second during combat until the bleed out duration is over (So about 4k in total health recovered) with the addition of Disruption I was able to stop a healer from healing an enemy near death so I could finish him off and then kill the healer, it was very efficient. Another great ability is Obsfucate which lowers my opponents accuracy for 6 seconds. This was handy when I was in combat with a level 47 Jedi Sentinel and he was about 25% and I was near 55% when another level 49 (100%) sentinel started attacking me, so I switched and disrupted the level 49's Master Strike and used Obsfucate, then finished off the level 47 easily enough to activate my berserk and did my bleed out combo to get me from 35% to around 60%, all in all my expertise boost of 1.79%(lol its little but better than nothing) enabled me to take out that other Sentinel and I lived with 20%. So in some cases the Marauder is OP in PvP for massive party heals if spec'ed properly.

The skill Ravage is bugged sometimes where your character goes through the 3 second animation but nothing happens and u cant move/cancel and it leaves you open to attack. After about the 25th time it happened I created a ticket and got online with a customer service agent to describe to him in more detail what was occuring. I believe the customer service response is quite efficent as of Feb. 26th.

It is a great game with flaws but I love my class and I will play until they shut the servers down!

Talk to Revearith on server Master Gnost Dural sometime, I'll help u out if u say ur from Smogon :P

 

[Skytt]

Haven't posted in nearly month, just hit 50 on my Powertech yesterday. Getting gear is going to be a bitch.

@Clinton; I agree that a good Marauder will have the highest DPS in the game, but I don't think they're as OP as Sorcs/Sages. Best shielding, heals and mobility in the game. Good AOEs, CCs + stuns and above-average DPS. No wonder half of the level 50s are Sorcs/Sages, but atleasts they now appear to rerolling as Snipers & Mercs.

 

[Clinton]

I agree, in server Master Gnost Dural you see so many sorcs/sages in PvP but they mostly dont know how to play their class except for one Sage who was really insane to kill.

Also as a Melee DPS, your not very effective against a DPS Commando with a Heals Commando with him, one game of huttball there was 5 commandos on the other team, I got bounced around like a fking pinball!!

 

[Skytt]

Yeah, Mercs/Commandos are definitely on the rise. They're easily the most common class after Sorcs/Sages and in the guild i'm in theres about 5 or 6 level 50 mercs and another 7-8 level 40s+. Compare that to me being the only 50 PT + 1 inactive 47 and another 39-40...

 

[Clinton]

Haha dang, My guild has a mix of level 50 Rakata geared Ops runners and HM players but they are all making alts for PvP :P they keep telling me they wished they pvp'd at level 16 like I did lol. Just hit level 49 with 46 and a half valor, when I hit 50 my valor will be 50^^