Friday 18 January 2013

Hustlin' through the Old Republic: Exclusive Membership Benefits

And once more unto the breach (or whatever that saying is) I hadn’t been on SWTOR for awhile with other things to play inc a some PS3 games inc Way of the Samurai 4 and Motorstorm Apocalypse which was a change. I came back finally determined to work out what the hell these Cartel Coins are about, and it turns out there’s a lot about them I should know. I’ve just barely keeping up with what’s happening in the game updates and patches though apart from the introduction of the Cartel Market, there has been a new warzone and new heroic space missions new grade 7 starship upgrades, plus the “Life Day” celebratory stuff.

And of course free-to-play is now enabled and basically looking at the restrictions there seems very little point in playing for free though I think the main reason for the free to play option is for people to see whether they like the game and then sign up for subscription if they do. As being a subscriber both now and in the past I had been given free cartel coins! That’s right as a subscriber I am given monthly rewards of cartel coins plus bonuses from my subscription in the past so that added up to 1850 coins! And I rightly knew where to use them, that’s right no more paying credits for speeder piloting or inventory space for me. As well as having, gear, upgrade and cosmetic items the Cartel Market lets you purchase in-game unlockables which are mostly abilities that subscribers already have access but some which I previously had to pay credits for in the past I can get with cartel coins.

The Cartel Market as it appears in-game
I’ve now purchased Speeder Piloting III for Jxan, Piloting II for Kxan and an extra inventory slot for all current and new characters I create. These Speeder piloting perks allow you to use different speeders at lower than normal ranks for example you can get speeder piloting 3 at level 35, I’m pretty sure you do have to get all the speeder piloting in order so I’m thinking if Kxan is level 30 now I’ll just use the same speeder until I can get piloting 3 and a much faster one. Another thing I bought was an additional cargo bay for all my characters, Now that they all have more room I won’t need any more inventory space whatsoever and could possibly keep a large amount of extra resources on the one character if nothing it just keeps it clean as your able to separate all your crafting resources to the one tab.

Aratech Lancer bitch, that's right, though compared to the movies even the fastest speeders are still goddamn slow
 Regarding Space combat I’ve actually hit a rut as got up to the Drexel Sweep Republic space mission then stopped because it was getting too hard, might see if I can get some level 7 ship upgrades from the cartel market and try it again though most of it’s going to be for my alts speeder piloting skill. Our guild leader Nefash has brought out a Pilot Training School which is a site dedicated to Space Combat in SWTOR with movie guides on how to complete each mission which would be very helpful when I could be bothered trying them again. I do like them but dayum there’s stuff shooting at me all over the place I barely have time to scratch my bum with the force and it’s just getting too hectic though once I get some decent upgrades and learn how to use the ones with functionality I should be fine, I just don’t know how many Cartel Coins I’ll have to spare.

Drexel Sweep Republic Space Mission, done by Nefash

Well I’ve finished off both Belsavis and Voss and got my Guardian to 50! First level 50 wooo! Anyway I really enjoyed questing in Voss it had such beautiful scenery sort of like a world in permanent autumn I also liked the questline too, the Voss are some pretty interesting people. The Belsavis quests were pretty bland though I liked the idea of a jailbreak especially with ancient jails containing god knows what. I found once I was 50 there was an utter explosion of more quests to do on the fleet station including all the new space missions on your ship, all of a sudden you have all these extra heroic quests for flashpoints and world bosses and operations. And to my annoyance you could only have 25 of them at the one time, this is especially annoying as these are the kind of quests are the types you want to just leave in your log for when you might happen to do them, for example the Nightmare pilgrim as you might forget to have the quest with you. I managed to make enough space by taking out all the other quest chains that I guess were there similar to the bonus series’ for level 50’s to do once their 50. So all in all there doesn’t seem to be any lack of things to do once you’re 50 but I’ll get on to that later.

Voss, the land of Autumn
I’ve got Synthweaving and Underworld trading to 400 as well, though I am waiting till I get some higher level archaeology items before I can make the level 50 gear, speaking of level 50 gear, when I reached level 50 I immediately got 99 Tionese Commendations which I used to purchase a full set of Tionese Epic DPS Gear. I went DPS because I suspect that’s what I’ll still be doing the majority of the time I’m playing, as back when I wanted to be a tank and went defence spec I did shit all damage and I don’t want to be stuck in that rut again like everyone was before WoW introduced dual spec trying to farm and do daily quests all while in tanking or healing spec. And with the large amount of bonus quests and level 50 bonus series’ SWTOR seems to have I won’t have a lack of normal quests to do. I haven’t really done any raids or “operations” as their called in SWTOR, I haven’t really thought about what I’d do as it’d usually be with guild and If I think back to my WoW days my guild would have to be pretty desperate to use me as a tank. Partially why I healed on my Paladin instead of tanking.

My epic Tionese gear with epic Lightsabre (yes I know I'm supposed to have blue)
Anyway my New Epic Gear made pretty much any DPS gear I got on Voss and probably any other story missions to come pretty much obsolete, since I got DPS gear I’ve been trying to upgrade my tank gear as much as possible but Voss just didn’t seem to have the right gear or upgrades as the planet commendations change what kind of gear or modifications you get all the time in the later levels as it’s not just better then the last ones. It’s just the trouble that comes with having an ongoing storyline. In WoW I used to start in one area and would choose a different zone depending on what level I was when I finished that area but unfortunately with the class story missions I don’t have that luxury and there’s those times where you can either go to the planet where the quest is green or yellow but you have to do the story for both anyway which is very linear and I don’t know how I’m going to create a different experience between characters though I guess that just comes with the class storylines. Speaking of which I now understand the Jedi Knight storyline sort of, I’m currently battle and saving (or killing) the Jedi who accompanied me to Fight the Emperor at the end of chapter 2, I’m itchin’ to find out what happens in the end which really keeps me goin, I’ve got to do Corelia yet then possibly Ilum before I’m finish and I’m freakin' already 50, sigh.. hope it works out better with the way I’m pacing the levelling on my Assassin.

Our very stealthy party of Sith Assassins, why we all ran in stealth halfway across the map to get to the quest was anyone's guess.
I’ve got a lot to say about companions (as I usually do) I’ve been using T7-01 as my companion for awhile now I’m on about 6 and a half thousand affection and have had a lot of ‘conversation’ style companion quests with him but still don’t seem to have his character quest which is about one of his many previous owners or cohorts, being 200 years old I spose he would have a few, damn they make things to last in this Galaxy don’t they? I had a bit of decision whether to use T7 or Doc but to be honest I like T7 better though he doesn’t speak but I like the way he jumps around and zaps enemies and makes beeping and chirping noises, and he’s perfect choice for my good-guy playing style which continues to plague my Inquisitor. On Kxan I’ve sort of decided to use Khem Val until I get Ashara Zavros even though A. He’s an evil bastard and I’m not and B. I’ve got Andronikos Revel but I can’t help liking good old Khem, though once I get Ashara everything should be ok at least until I get her to 1000 affection.

T7 and I share a golden moment.
Speaking of evil bastards look at the two most powerful companions I have with their likes and dislikes two characters I have who are both on the Light Side of the force.

Likes: Killing Force users, displays of strength, making foolish people unhappy
Dislikes: Weakness in any form, not killing Force users

Likes: Using power against the weak, power, anger, revenge and spite
Dislikes: Greed, acts of mercy, Jedi and Republic authorities

I made some gear for Lorg Scourge, which being Jedi gear looks rather weird for him since he's a Sith, the combination of that and the odd-looking headgear gives him and interesting look indeed.

Wow what a friendly duo though I think Lord Scourge takes the cake for being the most evil, how am I supposed to be a good guy with these two? Bah I might even look forward to going all Dark though as a Jedi Consular as there are a couple of Companions in there which would work well with a Dark Jedi. But first I must at least try a non-Jedi class for couple of reasons 1. I can’t go straight for playing an Inquisitor to a Consular their too alike even if I’m being a Sage and using Telekinetics rather than being an Assassin and Lightsabering it up, their abilities (and first companion for that matter) are just too similar and 2. I’ve already been two Force-using classes and I might actually like the blaster users. The other decision that comes with that is what non-force class to do but that’s a decision for another time.

SWTOR classes: I like the Imperial Agent in this pic, lookin particularly gangsta'
 I’m currently doing Alderaan on Kxan and am already 32 so hopefully I can finish it off quickly before I gain too much experience. I’ve been forcing myself to wear or show this damn helmet that I have on now for realism’s sake, I look like freakin Darth Iron man or something it’s almost as bad as my Jedi-goggles but I can't have it hidden as it sounds really strange when your voice is crackly like it’s coming through the helmet speaker when you don’t have it on, which is another thing about companions that irks me, sometimes you get helmets for them or yourself where it obviously isn't blocking their mouth but their voice comes out through the "helmet radio" anyway,  ahh it’s all a struggle isn’t it?

Spot the Sith Iron Man
 Cya next time! in the galaxy y’know….

JD


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