Star Wars The Old Republic Roll Call

[crazy canuck]

They have fixed a lot of the things that made me drop this in frustration back in the day:

1) no more worrying about how to equip your companion - their abilities are now based on level only;
2) no more worry about x companion having y abilities - they can now all perform all roles;
3) travel is much better and I love the 6m cooldown on teleporting back to known nodes as well as not having to discover shuttle locations before using them;
4) faster leveling means no more grinding but if you are BB your level is reduced to the current area if you want to complete all quests.


I am trying to figure out what crew skills to get - as a subscriber I get access to all three. Not sure what is worthwhile now.

[Syt]

I always went with slicing and treasure hunting to send people out for lockboxes.

[celedhring]

They just rearranged all crafting in the new patch, so I'm not sure what's worthwhile either. I have Bioanalysys/Biochem/Diplomacy on my main character, and I'm not sure it is that useful after the patch.

That said, I have made a pretty penny out of diplomacy+selling companion gifts. Any mission skill can give you companion gifts though.

[celedhring]

Syt, do you have a referral link? Since you convinced me to get into this, it seems fair that I use it. I'm already a subscriber so I'm not sure whether it will still work, but might as well try.

[Barrister]

So having finished up on the starter planet, I decide to do the first flashpoint.  It's not very hard (people just hit their advanced class and thus don't really have tanking or healing abilities), plus you could usually find a group for it pretty easily.  Plus it was something of a showcase for the game, and was pretty well done.

So, as I go I see there's an option... to solo it?  What the heck I try that.  It gives me a droid companion who hits like a ton of bricks.  So I start the "solo flashpoint"... and it's incredibly easy.  But there are hardly any drops in it.  Even finishing didn't give me any gear.  I think I got 2 levels of experience out of it but otherwise... it was kind of a waste of time.

[crazy canuck]

I soloed the multiplayer option for that flashpoint using a Shadow Tank.  With a healing companion it was pretty easy but it took a long time.  By the end of it I was fully geared up and had gained several more levels.  But not really worth it because shortly after I had replaced most of the gear anyway.  It was nice to see the flashpoint again though.  It is very well done.

Shadow Tanks with a companion set to heal are unstoppable.  I wonder if that is the same for dps classes also.  If so I could get through the content a lot more quickly.

[celedhring]

I play a Guardian Jedi Knight, and with a healing companion out I'm essentially immortal. I have soloed a couple FPs this way. It was fun but a bit slow. The regular solo FPs with the super-droid are boring and not worth the time, imho.

I suspect they will tone down the companions sooner or later.

[Syt]

With tuned gear my Level 55 Sith Juggernaut actually does more damage than my companion for a change. But yeah, companions (esp. on healing) are pretty overpowered and I can just cut through enemies like butter, not worrying much about downtime. Again, at this point combat is a joke, so if you look for a challenge while leveling you won't find it (unless you severely gimp yourself). It's aimed towards pulling people through the stories a.s.a.p.

[Barrister]

Okay, as I'm running through Coruscant for the umpteenth time, I'm now glad I don't have to run every single quest.

Oh, and the biggest positive change in the game - datacrons are now Legacy-wide unlocks!

[Solmyr]

Okay, as I'm running through Coruscant for the umpteenth time, I'm now glad I don't have to run every single quest.

Oh, and the biggest positive change in the game - datacrons are now Legacy-wide unlocks!

Except for the matrix shard ones, at least if you want to collect those on multiple characters.

[crazy canuck]

Damn, I forgot about gathering those stupid datacron things.  Are they at all important or are they just for the people that want to complete everything?

[Barrister]

Damn, I forgot about gathering those stupid datacron things.  Are they at all important or are they just for the people that want to complete everything?

Well the stupid thing about the datacrons is they do matter a little bit.  They give permanent +1s to various stats.  So it can definitely matter if you want to try and max out your character.  And if so it makes sense to try and grab them while you're levelling up, rather than come back to grab them.

Here's a question for someone though - how can you tell which datacrons you've already picked up (since it's on a per-Legacy basis now)?

[celedhring]

There's a Datacron screen within the Legacy UI that tells you which ones you've collected.

I have collected all the non-impossible single player ones, which amount to around +100 main stat and +30 to endurance and presence (I think it's something like +170 main stat and +50 endurance and presence if I collected them all) . They help quite a bit when starting a character (it's a massive bonus at low levels), but I don't think it's a big deal in the long run unless you're obsessed with min-maxing.

[celedhring]

Heh, my account got hacked. It's the first time I get an account hacked, ever.

I'm trying to recover it at the moment. It looks like they have transferred one of my alts to another server, if they have deleted or sold all the gear from my main character, this might piss me off enough to quit the game. Pity.

And that's using their security key system. Way to go, Bioware.

[celedhring]

Fantastic, they want me to call a phone in France (with rates of 1€/minute) in order to talk to customer service. I guess I can skype them.

Well, at least was able to cancel my subscription through paypal, so I'm safe on that side.