Tobold's Blog
Thursday, December 15, 2011
 
SWTOR day 2

Day 2 of the Star Wars: The Old Republic progressed smoothly, with my trooper reaching level 11, leaving the starting planet, and becoming a commando (healer with big guns). Our guild formed too, although that turned up the first noticeable bug in SWTOR: The guild window is somewhat erratic and doesn't always show all guild members. We also had a minor accident with capitalization of words in our guild name, and couldn't get hold of a GM to fix that. I guess they have more important things to do during launch.

Among the new abilities my trooper got while leveling is a mortar volley which is surprisingly powerful. I didn't expect to be able to one-shot groups of 5 enemies in the final area of Ord Mantell. That somehow made up for the trooper getting his companion later than the other classes, which I wasn't too happy about. The smugglers that I shared the starting zone with all had companions for the final quests, while the troopers only get theirs right before leaving the planet, with no real opportunity of playing with them on the starting planet. Also I found the trooper's companion to be the least likable of all the companions I've seen so far, so up to now I'm underwhelmed by the companion feature for my trooper.

Next step in his adventures will be the first "flashpoint" or real group dungeon. I already did group missions with my guild on Ord Mantell, but on that planet the group missions are open world and not instanced like on Korriban. Having already played the Esseles flashpoint in the beta, I knew that it takes some time, so as it was getting late I rather saved this for the next play session. Instead I wandered around the Republic Fleet, learned my advanced class, talked with all the tradeskill trainers (each gives 450 xp), chose Bioanalysis, Biochem, and Diplomacy as tradeskills, and sent out my companion to gather the first components and craft the first medkit. I also looked at the Galactic Market AH, and found a cheap crafted blue item, as well as modifications for my new gun. I searched around endlessly for a modification station, until a guild mate told me that you don't need those any more and can just CTRL-click your weapon to modify it. Well, that explains why my trooper never got a quest explaining the modification stations, as my other classes got in the beta, although the mod station is still in Fort Garnik.

Comments:
Trooper's companion is Tanno Vik?
 
No, at least not the first one. The first one is Aric Jorgan, who looks like a shaved orange cat. And having a trooper companion for a trooper isn't very exciting.
 
You get more companions over time and can switch them anytime. They all sit in your ship and get bored otherwise :)
 
What's better than one big gun? Two! :)
 
Bored? Not with me. I plan to exploit them to the maximum and constantly send them out on tradeskill errands. :)
 
The second one you get is awesome, I won't spoil it but you'll be more than pleased
 
This actually brings up something that I have been afraid of: I fear my class choice when I get the game will be far more influenced by companions available than playstyle or role, as weird as that may sound.

I enjoy just about every playstyle imaginable, to the point where my pick of role usually comes down to social dynamics (IE - Which is most useful to a group to insure getting groups is easy). Meaning all of them are at least vaguely interesting to me. But it seems some classes get far more interesting companions than others.

I suppose the actual story for each class being different matters too, but I haven't found any brief (very, very, very brief) and general (very, very, very general) outlines of all 8 stories, so I am left sort of guessing and checking for those.
 
Woah woah woah, Aric Jorgen is voiced by Timothy Omundson, AKA Psych's Carlton Lassiter?

Damn, now I know I definitely need to play Trooper. I love Psych!
 
You didn't get the lore quest directing you to a modification station?

Strange, I got that quest with my bounty hunter just last night.
 
Diplomacy as a tradeskill?

Now I'm mildly interested. How does that work?
 
I received the mod station mission on agent and BH.

I'm not surprised at all by the desire to choose a class based on companions. To some extent it has felt a little like I'm playing 2 characters. I like this concept a lot, but can see how it could negatively influence how some people feel about their class.
 
@Xeniph -- works like any other gathering skill. You pay your money, your companion goes away for some pre-set period of time, then comes back and you gain Light or Dark Side points as the item gathered. And I think some bio-chem components too.
 
So many tough decisions. I don't know what to pick! Using my WOW experience I feel like im better off just using 3 gathering professions and selling mats or 2 gathering and 1 mission skill.
 
What would be really helpful If I could send my companion on a "AH mission". So can buy/sell things without traveling to the Galactic Market myself.
 
@ Degrin:

One warning for now, apparently they have a 50 item limit on the AH. Shouldn't affect most people, but if you are a major traded or a hoarder who only puts things up on the AH in huge batches, it could be annoying
 
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