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I wasted too many hours on my Sage getting the damned Rakata Energy Cubes on Belsavis... but I really, really want the full datacron set furniture item for my Nar Shaddaa pleasure-palace.

I'm really digging the changes to Tactics Vanguard. The new basic shot (Tactical Burst) and almost unlimited High Impact Bolt are amazing.

My Sage didnt seem to have too many changes (at least, not in Healer build, which I'm currently in), though I have noticed some issues (possibly just engine-related, rather than skill-related) with Force Armor being unavailable for initial casting.

I need to test it further, to see if it is no longer defaulting to self-cast, in which case that will suck but I will manage, or if there's some other problem going on.

 Psienesis wrote:
My Sage didnt seem to have too many changes (at least, not in Healer build, which I'm currently in), though I have noticed some issues (possibly just engine-related, rather than skill-related) with Force Armor being unavailable for initial casting.

I need to test it further, to see if it is no longer defaulting to self-cast, in which case that will suck but I will manage, or if there's some other problem going on.

If they messed with my Assassin, ima cut somebody. That's my main character, right there. That's the one I have the most fun on. If they buggered her, I'm going to get Biblical on somebody's backside.

I'm resubbing this Friday, what are the changes to the assassin? Specifically the tank spec.

Assassin/Shadow seem fine to me leveling. Hatred/Serenity is currently the better DPS spec right now.

Most of the Shadows/Assassins I have heard from are pretty happy with the update.

My Annihilation Marauder is, for the most part, unchanged, however the rotations are still in a bit of flux now that bleeds and bleed management are even more central. It isn't bad, but I just run out of slots for the moves I need. :p

Sith Sorc at 60 is Beast. Watch a friend of a friend's Sorc burn down a 60 Commando in about 3 seconds.

 curran12 wrote:
My Annihilation Marauder is, for the most part, unchanged, however the rotations are still in a bit of flux now that bleeds and bleed management are even more central. It isn't bad, but I just run out of slots for the moves I need. :p

Yeah...I think all of my 55+ characters have 29+ key bindings...way TOO freaking many.

After extensive testing, I believe it may be time to retire my Sage as a Healer.Even with an Alacrity/Power build, keeping myself on my feet is a near-impossible task. The heals still cast fairly slowly, pushback is an immense problem, and there's a very poor return on HP to Force via Sacrifice.

Now, granted, this character is not spectacularly well-geared... but, then again, I did shoot her from level 35 to 55 in about a week using the x12 XP bonus, so she's not really had the opportunity to amass fortunes and comms...

.... but I'm still in a complete 140+ set, and am struggling with the Section X/Black Hole/Czerka dailies. Might need to respec into Telekinesis and become a DPS caster, rather than a healer. Of course, guildies tell me that Rishi will gear me just fine... but I point out to them that I can't do Rishi content if I can't complete the FA content.

It appears as if you only ever get one Helper-Droid for the solo-mode Forged Alliance content. I have it on my GS main, but trying to take my other toons through the content is a freakin' slog, as none of them get the droid. So far, Korriban (solo) only makes most of the mobs non-Champions... Elites and Strongs, certainly, in numbers of 4 to 8... which is simply not something that a lone Healer and 1 companion can handle.

So,,, time to respec and re-test. I havent even touched my GS other than to kick off the start of the questline, but I'm told that all the new Smuggler builds are pretty terrible.

It's an issue but by 60, and with the gear there you'll be viable again. My sage is my main and istruggled til 58 or so. Now I'm back to healing hard modes and NiM ops (at 60). That horrible bit you're in will pass.

 Kojiro wrote:
It's an issue but by 60, and with the gear there you'll be viable again. My sage is my main and istruggled til 58 or so. Now I'm back to healing hard modes and NiM ops (at 60). That horrible bit you're in will pass.

Ugh, grinding to 60 like this, just to then go back to do old content, so that I can turn around to do now-current content seems like quite a drag. Especially because you cannot do any of the content from the post-Cartel xpacks without having done FA.

 Psienesis wrote:
Especially because you cannot do any of the content from the post-Cartel xpacks without having done FA.

Wait, what?

If you haven't finished the Forged Alliances storyline, nothing past Makeb will offer you quests. I can take my characters, for example, who have not yet completed the FA flashpoints to, say, Manaan and walk around all day to look at the shiny... but literally no one on the planet will offer me a mission... or dialogue, for that matter. Same with Rishi, and I haven't bothered trying to even find Yavin 4 on a map yet.

1-50 leveling is horrific and needs an update...I dread going through Voss and Corellia for the fething 5th time...

 trexmeyer wrote:
1-50 leveling is horrific and needs an update...I dread going through Voss and Corellia for the fething 5th time...

For me it is Belsavis and Corellia, but I know that feel.

I wish that they had allowed Subscribers to keep the x12 XP bonus to story missions. I really don't want to run both my Sent *and* my Trooper through Balmorra right now.

Well my Operative is almost done with Belsaviis, but my Trooper and Shadow are dead in the water. I would love to level my trooper, but doing Tatooine and Alderaan and Balmora and such AGAIN makes me want to gag.

WoW had a great way around this problem, better dungeons, better lowbie PvP, more quest zones (and more quests piled on top of each other), less travel time, and even a pay to avoid it option by double boxing and using Recruit a Friend.

I would sub a second account and double box in a second if they ever introduced something like RAF...

Well, you could try leveling in GSF. Not sure how many players there are in it on your server, but it's not a terrible plan on Ebon Hawk. I just turn the chat-channels off so I dont have to listen to the butthurt, fly around and blow people up.

Is that any faster than normal leveling?

Yeah, because it scales, and a match normally doesnt take more than 10-15 mins. Depending on how popular GSF is on your server, you can do 3 matches an hour (there's a 5 minute delay between matches opening up the queue, I think, to permit people to retool ships and queue, etc.)

And it also doesn't matter if you win or lose, you still get rewards. Obviously, rewards are better the better you do, but if you luck out and get queued up with an Ace team, you can roll in XP and cash for basically doing nothing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, figured out the problem with the GSI Combat Support Droid and Solo-mode FPs.

If you have the Tactical version of the FP in your mission log already, you don't get the Droid, and don't get the option for the Solo mode. You have to abandon the mission and then talk to the NPC right outside the FP area (usually the gate on Fleet, or the door on Manaan) who will offer you the different modes for the FP.

Select Solo and the GSI Combat Support Droid becomes available and you just enter the FP alone. The Support Droid is *beastly*. 60K HP, can heal for 24k+ and DPS-Tanks like a mofo. With that thing, the Solo Mode FPs are cakewalks.

So I just finished Balmora on my Jedi last night and had Doc join my party.

Wow. Just wow. It's taken seven characters before I found a male NPC that I actually wanted to pursue the romance options with. I mean, I did it with ... umm... Liutenant Plank of Wood on Sage, and Black Wolverine on Inquisitor, and Malavai von Traitorface on Warrior, but I didn't *want* to. I just did it out of a sense of "it's there I may as well". Heck, I found Mandalorian Vash the Stampede so boring I turned him down and told Mako to bang him, instead.

But Doc already seems like so much fun (all of his dialogue, even before you recruit him has a [Flirt] option). He's snarky, he's funny, he verbally spars with Kira (who I also love to death)... I'm so glad to finally get an NPC that I actually want to go through the Romance dialogue tree with.

...It's just a shame that I built this character to not ever need a healer, because of the extreme love I have for Kira. I love Doc, but I don't see actually using him that much. I have a feeling Doc is just going to stay on my ship and get showered with presents until he puts out.

I romanced the following:

Elara Dorne
Corso Riggs (when I played Scoundrel)
Akaavi Spar (when I played Gunslinger)
Nadia Grail
Mako
Vette

Who I would have even though I he has no romance option:
Khem Val. He is awesome and was my first companion since my Sorc was first to level. Our bond is deep and real.

I have actually avoided all Romance options on my Sage, because that's against the Code. On my GS, however... sheesh... Corso is boring as hell. I mean... offensively bland and boring... and he's the only male human Companion available.

I had more fun romancing the NPCs on Voss and Makeb, and the one guy (Potential Spoilers) from NS who you later have to... have some rather strong words with.

 Ahtman wrote:


Who I would have even though I he has no romance option:
Khem Val. He is awesome and was my first companion since my Sorc was first to level. Our bond is deep and real.

This gets at something I dislike about the games... you can only romance a certain specific NPC in each group. Inquisitor gets Black Wolverine/Ashara, Trooper gets Elara/Aric, Bounty Hunter gets Mako/Mandalorian Vash the Stampede, and Warrior cheats by getting Vette *and* Jaesa/Malavai von Traitorface. I found myslef, whenever I played a female character, liking a different male NPC than the one you were "allowed" to end up with (at least with the male NPCs... the female ones don't seem as dull to me). My Inquisitor found Black Wolverine boring and predictable, but I would've given anything to be able to pair up with Talos Drelik: action archaelogist. Or for my Bounty Hunter to hook up with Gault (who had a personality far more compatable with my BH than the "choice" I was given). I get why the truly alien characters weren't romancable (Bowdarr and Blizz, for example) but everyone else had human-ish faces and body types... why didn't Bioware let us have more relationship freedom? Yeah, it would've added like five more conversations per humanoid NPC, but given how big the game's dialogue already is, I doubt it would've put any noticeable strain on anyone to have implemented.

squidhills wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:


Who I would have even though I he has no romance option:
Khem Val. He is awesome and was my first companion since my Sorc was first to level. Our bond is deep and real.

This gets at something I dislike about the games... you can only romance a certain specific NPC in each group

I agree that there could have been more options but Khem Val isn't interested in such frivolity or silliness, he is all rage and smash, so it makes sense not for it to be an option for him. It is part of his charm.

The fact that Bioware did not follow their (at the time) then-current standard of "bi by default" for Romance options struck me as a bit weird. I've heard varying reasons why that was, either because the ESRB said "no" (which I am not particularly inclined to believe) or because LucasArts said "no" (which I am more inclined to believe) are the two most-common explanations I have heard.

squidhills wrote:
But Doc already seems like so much fun (all of his dialogue, even before you recruit him has a [Flirt] option). He's snarky, he's funny, he verbally spars with Kira (who I also love to death)... I'm so glad to finally get an NPC that I actually want to go through the Romance dialogue tree with.

I have literally the exact opposite reaction to Doc. I hate him. I hate his stupid mustache, I hate his stupid voice. I'm a freakin Jedi Knight, I'm not "honey" or "beautiful". My Twi'Lek is covered in scars, jumps headlong into battle and chops dudes down with impunity. Constantly being told I need to be taken care of was extremely grating.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Psienesis wrote:
The fact that Bioware did not follow their (at the time) then-current standard of "bi by default" for Romance options struck me as a bit weird.

To be fair, "bi by default" wasn't really their standard.

Mass Effect you had straight lady, straight dude, and "totally not female alien who is basically bi but not, because she's an alien". So basically 1 of 3.
Dragon Age Origins you had straight lady (Morrigan), straight dude (Alistar), bi lady (Leliana), and bi dude (Zevran). So 2 of 4.

So while you had bi/gay options, I wouldn't say it was the "standard" for all characters.

I'd think the various characters in DA:I having definitive sexualities (which apparently caused an uproar) sort of showcases that BioWare was about the character.


All of that said, I agree that it was odd for SWTOR to not have any non-hetero options. I admit I was more than a little crushed to find out my (female) Jedi Knight couldn't romance Kira.

You are correct on the options in DAI, but you have like 8 to 12 characters to choose from for romance options, rather than 4.

SWTOR still has no non-hetero Companion characters, though you can now flirt with certain same-gendered NPCs in certain locations (Makeb, Bounty Week NPCs in the cantinas, the Sith Lady or Thereon Shan (sp?) in the Forged Alliances storyline and... one other I'm forgetting at the moment.)