So I finally managed to get my Republic Trooper to Level 50. My total played time to 50 was 6 days, 5 hours. This wasn't a straight hard core play through as this was obviously the first toon that I've leveled, and I also managed to max out all 3 of my crew skills while leveling. I also spent a fair amount of time at the Galactic Trade Network getting rid of some of the excess materials that I generated by doing so.
So I have to believe a much faster played time should be possible, but we'll see. From an endgame standpoint, I've been doing some PvP since without a group finder in game yet, that really works the best with my schedule. So far, I've managed to get up to Valor Rank 14, and am close to having my first piece of Battlemaster gear.
My plan is to finish leveling my Imperial Agent next to see the Empire side of things, then go back to working on my Jedi Knight on the Republic side.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Final Push to 50
So I'm now on the last planet on my Republic Trooper - Corellia. I'm still finding the switch to a Gunnery spec, using Elara as a healer companion is working extremely well. I've also almost finished leveling all of my crew skills. Both Armormech and Underworld Trading are maxed, and Scavenging is at 390/400. I've been a little disappointed with Armormech as a crew skill. I haven't really found any benefit to it while leveling at this point, although I'm guessing some of the higher level gear that I can now craft might be helpful if I start doing more flashpoints and operations at end-game.
However, if you're interested in a crew skill that will be helpful to you while leveling, Armormech probably isn't it.
The levels seem to take a long time to complete in the high 40's, although I don't know how much of that is because I've been spending a fair amount of time finishing up my crew skills as well as working the Galactic Trade Network to sell of a lot of raw materials that I've collected while leveling. From 46 to 47 took about 5 hours and from 47 to 48 took about 6 hours. At this point, I'm at 5 days, 21 hours to 48.
On the Empire side, I recently hit 30 on my Imperial Agent. She's continuing to level with a Sniper / Engineering spec which is working quite well. It's lots of fun blowing stuff up!
Her played time to 30 was 2 days, 7 hours, so she seems to be progressing a little bit faster than the trooper. I'm leveling Armstech with her instead of Armormech, but again, it doesn't seem too helpful, at least so far.
As soon as the Trooper is done, I'm going to push to finish the Imperial Agent and will then probably just alternate between factions.
However, if you're interested in a crew skill that will be helpful to you while leveling, Armormech probably isn't it.
The levels seem to take a long time to complete in the high 40's, although I don't know how much of that is because I've been spending a fair amount of time finishing up my crew skills as well as working the Galactic Trade Network to sell of a lot of raw materials that I've collected while leveling. From 46 to 47 took about 5 hours and from 47 to 48 took about 6 hours. At this point, I'm at 5 days, 21 hours to 48.
On the Empire side, I recently hit 30 on my Imperial Agent. She's continuing to level with a Sniper / Engineering spec which is working quite well. It's lots of fun blowing stuff up!
Her played time to 30 was 2 days, 7 hours, so she seems to be progressing a little bit faster than the trooper. I'm leveling Armstech with her instead of Armormech, but again, it doesn't seem too helpful, at least so far.
As soon as the Trooper is done, I'm going to push to finish the Imperial Agent and will then probably just alternate between factions.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Nerfs to Combat Medic Hurt Leveling
So I've been working on my Trooper for several days now following the release of patch 1.2. While I was looking forward to the patch in terms of the expansion of the Legacy system and the changes to crew skills, I hadn't focused as much as I should have on the impact that the changes were going to have to the leveling capabilities of my Combat Medic Trooper.
There were really just a few basic changes that directly impacted the Trooper while leveling:
After several days of trying to get my groove back with combat medic leveling, I eventually caved this weekend and switched back to a Gunnery spec. So far, I'm having much better results with Gunnery, using either Tanno or Elara as a companion. Demolition round got a pretty significant buff in the patch, although Grav Round received a bit of a nerf, increasing it's cost and cast time. However, as long as I don't spam it constantly, I'm not finding ammo to be that big of a deal for Gunnery at this point.
I will say that I'm disappointed at the changes to Combat Medic. I was really enjoying being able to level as a healer and to have the viability of that approach significantly hampered by a patch is a bit annoying.
I have managed to get my Trooper to level 47 and am working my way through the Hoth bonus series before heading off to my final planet - Corellia.
After finishing the Trooper, I'll be switching next to finishing up my Imperial Agent who is sitting on Alderaan at level 29.
There were really just a few basic changes that directly impacted the Trooper while leveling:
- Field Triage now reduces the cost of Medical Probe by 1 (down from 2).
- Supercharge Cells now restores 1 Energy Cell (down from 2) when used and increases all damage and healing dealt by 5% (down from 10%). The shield applied by Kolto Bomb now reduces damage taken by 5% (down from 10%).
- Trauma Probe now costs 2 Energy Cells to activate.
After several days of trying to get my groove back with combat medic leveling, I eventually caved this weekend and switched back to a Gunnery spec. So far, I'm having much better results with Gunnery, using either Tanno or Elara as a companion. Demolition round got a pretty significant buff in the patch, although Grav Round received a bit of a nerf, increasing it's cost and cast time. However, as long as I don't spam it constantly, I'm not finding ammo to be that big of a deal for Gunnery at this point.
I will say that I'm disappointed at the changes to Combat Medic. I was really enjoying being able to level as a healer and to have the viability of that approach significantly hampered by a patch is a bit annoying.
I have managed to get my Trooper to level 47 and am working my way through the Hoth bonus series before heading off to my final planet - Corellia.
After finishing the Trooper, I'll be switching next to finishing up my Imperial Agent who is sitting on Alderaan at level 29.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Belsavis Thoughts
While I'm all about the push to 50 at this point on my Republic Trooper, questing my way through Belsavis has me wanting to try the same content on my Imperial Agent. It's interesting, because it's not a particularly inspiring quest line for the Republic.
Apparently our friends at the Republic have been keeping all sorts of nasty prisoners stashed away on this planet Belsavis and there's been some pretty inappropriate stuff going on. It's been an interesting story line, both from a character standpoint and also overall and I'm anxious to see it to its conclusion.
My boy Tanno and I continue to rock through everything in our way. He's still making for a top notch tanking companion and we have very little difficulty with just about anything.
After I finish my Imperial Agent, I think I'll be heading back Republic side to try a Jedi Guardian - tanking spec with a healing companion eventually.
Apparently our friends at the Republic have been keeping all sorts of nasty prisoners stashed away on this planet Belsavis and there's been some pretty inappropriate stuff going on. It's been an interesting story line, both from a character standpoint and also overall and I'm anxious to see it to its conclusion.
My boy Tanno and I continue to rock through everything in our way. He's still making for a top notch tanking companion and we have very little difficulty with just about anything.
After I finish my Imperial Agent, I think I'll be heading back Republic side to try a Jedi Guardian - tanking spec with a healing companion eventually.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Turning Leveling On Its Head
With most MMO's in the past, it's always been the default conclusion that it is significantly easier to level as dps. Being a tank just meant that things were dying really slowly, and in the model where questing generally involved "go kill 15 of fairly easy mob A", being able to kill them quickly was key to a quick leveling path. Leveling as a healer generally wasn't even generally a viable option.
One of the things that I've found very interesting with SWTOR so far is that they seemed to have turned this model somewhat on it's head. As someone who really enjoys playing a healer in other MMO's, I've been very pleased that running as a healer is a very viable leveling model, particularly using one of my tanking companions.
I haven't tried doing the same with a tanking class and a healing companion yet, but I'm assuming it works equally well. The main surprise with leveling in SWTOR is that the standard dps model does not seem to be quite as effective as the other two, at least from what I've found so far.
The difference is definitely the presence of large numbers of elite mobs that need to be defeated, very often in groups with non-elite mobs and potentially other strong mobs. These elite mobs can be defeated by a dps / dps team, but it very often involves trying to clear a few of the ancillary mobs out, dying, rezzing and refocusing on the elite mob. With a tank and healing companion, these elite mobs can almost always be taken out without anyone dying and without any issues at all.
It makes for a much more challenging and interesting questing experience in my mind, but for people that are used to that same old "go kill 15 bad guys" scheme, I can imagine it would be very frustrating.
Luckily, there is a tank / healer combination available for every class in the game. Some classes pick up their corresponding tank or healer companion later than others, but for essentially all, it's basically within the first planet or two, and for many of the classes (Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter notably), you pick up your tank / healer within the starting area.
I've now finished Chapter 2 on my Republic Trooper and am now driving for the finish line. I've hit level 41, finished the Operation Talon quest and am off to Belsavis.
On my Imperial Agent, she's hit level 28 and is just about done with the Tatooine bonus series, so she'll be off to Alderaan soon. I'm very interested to see how that one looks from the House Thul vantage point. I wasn't a big fan of the Republic side of Alderaan, so I'm hoping it will be more interesting on the Empire side.
One of the things that I've found very interesting with SWTOR so far is that they seemed to have turned this model somewhat on it's head. As someone who really enjoys playing a healer in other MMO's, I've been very pleased that running as a healer is a very viable leveling model, particularly using one of my tanking companions.
I haven't tried doing the same with a tanking class and a healing companion yet, but I'm assuming it works equally well. The main surprise with leveling in SWTOR is that the standard dps model does not seem to be quite as effective as the other two, at least from what I've found so far.
The difference is definitely the presence of large numbers of elite mobs that need to be defeated, very often in groups with non-elite mobs and potentially other strong mobs. These elite mobs can be defeated by a dps / dps team, but it very often involves trying to clear a few of the ancillary mobs out, dying, rezzing and refocusing on the elite mob. With a tank and healing companion, these elite mobs can almost always be taken out without anyone dying and without any issues at all.
It makes for a much more challenging and interesting questing experience in my mind, but for people that are used to that same old "go kill 15 bad guys" scheme, I can imagine it would be very frustrating.
Luckily, there is a tank / healer combination available for every class in the game. Some classes pick up their corresponding tank or healer companion later than others, but for essentially all, it's basically within the first planet or two, and for many of the classes (Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter notably), you pick up your tank / healer within the starting area.
I've now finished Chapter 2 on my Republic Trooper and am now driving for the finish line. I've hit level 41, finished the Operation Talon quest and am off to Belsavis.
On my Imperial Agent, she's hit level 28 and is just about done with the Tatooine bonus series, so she'll be off to Alderaan soon. I'm very interested to see how that one looks from the House Thul vantage point. I wasn't a big fan of the Republic side of Alderaan, so I'm hoping it will be more interesting on the Empire side.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Hard to Take a Break
So I'm still working my way through things with my combat medic. Not many of my other toons have been getting much attention as I'm anxious to get at least one character all the way through to 50.
The addition of Tanno Vik to my tanking squad has made leveling even easier. Although I've noticed that Bioware has been kind enough to space the mobs out a little more, so it's harder for him to pick them all up.
So far I'm really enjoying the class story of the Trooper, but I'm also anxious to see some of the other stories.
The legacy system has me really questioning my path forward with respect to other alts. My highest level Empire character is sitting at level 25 and is on a different server from my Trooper, so wouldn't be able to take advantage of any of the legacy features. My next highest level toon after that is somewhere around level 11 and is on yet a third server.
What I'm debating is if the rewards of the legacy system are interesting enough to be worth abandoning the time that I've spent leveling the other characters to restart on my Troopers server. My initial reaction is no. I semi-useful ability on a long cooldown and the ability to start new characters with new species probably isn't enough to get me to walk away from a lot of hours of play time, particularly on a level 25. But we'll see.
For now, I continue to crank through things with the combat medic. I'm rolling through Hoth right now, wondering why in the heck all of those people are standing around out in the cold.
My other big complaint with the SWTOR leveling process right now is that so many of the questing sections are instanced and there are so many trash mobs, it's very very hard to take a quick break "out in the world" while leveling. You really have to completely finish / clear the area you were working on before you can take a break, and sometimes that can take quite a bit of time. When you may get interrupted by a phone call, or a question or a child with a boo boo, that doesn't make for the best leveling experience. Especially if you've started clearing mobs for a zone, only to have to deal with something in real life, only to return to the game to find it's logged you out and you're now back outside the instanced areas with all the mobs you just spent 20 minutes clearing respawned.
I'm also questioning the difficulty of the leveling process a bit. It is very challenging to kill trash packs that include elite mobs, or an elite and a strong, or two strongs. I often can't do it with a double dps team, without killing a few things, first, dying, respawning, and then taking out the last few mobs. While I've found leveling as a tank / healer combination to be an effective fix for this, it seems odd that the standard dps leveling model doesn't seem to work all that well.
I might be having a different experience if I was running more flashpoints and was better geared, but at least in my view, the questing experience should work well either way.
The addition of Tanno Vik to my tanking squad has made leveling even easier. Although I've noticed that Bioware has been kind enough to space the mobs out a little more, so it's harder for him to pick them all up.
So far I'm really enjoying the class story of the Trooper, but I'm also anxious to see some of the other stories.
The legacy system has me really questioning my path forward with respect to other alts. My highest level Empire character is sitting at level 25 and is on a different server from my Trooper, so wouldn't be able to take advantage of any of the legacy features. My next highest level toon after that is somewhere around level 11 and is on yet a third server.
What I'm debating is if the rewards of the legacy system are interesting enough to be worth abandoning the time that I've spent leveling the other characters to restart on my Troopers server. My initial reaction is no. I semi-useful ability on a long cooldown and the ability to start new characters with new species probably isn't enough to get me to walk away from a lot of hours of play time, particularly on a level 25. But we'll see.
For now, I continue to crank through things with the combat medic. I'm rolling through Hoth right now, wondering why in the heck all of those people are standing around out in the cold.
My other big complaint with the SWTOR leveling process right now is that so many of the questing sections are instanced and there are so many trash mobs, it's very very hard to take a quick break "out in the world" while leveling. You really have to completely finish / clear the area you were working on before you can take a break, and sometimes that can take quite a bit of time. When you may get interrupted by a phone call, or a question or a child with a boo boo, that doesn't make for the best leveling experience. Especially if you've started clearing mobs for a zone, only to have to deal with something in real life, only to return to the game to find it's logged you out and you're now back outside the instanced areas with all the mobs you just spent 20 minutes clearing respawned.
I'm also questioning the difficulty of the leveling process a bit. It is very challenging to kill trash packs that include elite mobs, or an elite and a strong, or two strongs. I often can't do it with a double dps team, without killing a few things, first, dying, respawning, and then taking out the last few mobs. While I've found leveling as a tank / healer combination to be an effective fix for this, it seems odd that the standard dps leveling model doesn't seem to work all that well.
I might be having a different experience if I was running more flashpoints and was better geared, but at least in my view, the questing experience should work well either way.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Combat Medic Leveling
So after struggling through Alderaan, I decided to make a switch after completing chapter 1. Since I was heading to the Republic Fleet anyway for some much needed R&R, I paid a visit to the Skill Mentor (who is not next to your training by the way - a little further down the hall) and paid for a respec, deciding to try out leveling as a combat medic using M1-4X as tank rather than going dual dps with Aric.
My first surprise was that apparently your first respec is free.
Working my way through Balmora, I've been incredibly surprised with how easy it has been to quest and level. I have no trouble at all keeping Forex healed up. I'm able to keep him topped off and do a fair amount of dps'ing myself to make sure things die more quickly.
He does have some problems holding aggro at times given how he likes to pull, but I'm always able to heal through it and it doesn't take him long to pull any stragglers off of me. It should be able to micro manage Forex's abilities a bit more to avoid this issue, but so far, since it hasn't caused any problems, I haven't bothered with the extra hassle.
The thing that I've been really impressed with is how easily Elite level mobs go down now. Before switching to combat medic, taking on an elite level mob usually meant that Aric was going to be needing a rez, and I was going to have to be shielding myself and using my cooldowns to make sure I didn't die before the boss did.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
As combat medic, I'm able to keep Forex healed, dps a bit myself and end up finishing every fight with both us at full health or close to it.
From every recommendation that I've seen, you're better off using this combination with Cybertech as a skill so you can keep Forex really well geared. I'm currently an Armormech, so I don't have that benefit, but still not having any problems.
Once I finish up Balmora, I'll be picking up a new melee tanking companion, so I'm anxious to give that a try for a bit to see if that works better from an aggro standpoint than Forex. If I find I like Forex better, I might consider switching to Cybertech at that point.
My first surprise was that apparently your first respec is free.
Working my way through Balmora, I've been incredibly surprised with how easy it has been to quest and level. I have no trouble at all keeping Forex healed up. I'm able to keep him topped off and do a fair amount of dps'ing myself to make sure things die more quickly.
He does have some problems holding aggro at times given how he likes to pull, but I'm always able to heal through it and it doesn't take him long to pull any stragglers off of me. It should be able to micro manage Forex's abilities a bit more to avoid this issue, but so far, since it hasn't caused any problems, I haven't bothered with the extra hassle.
The thing that I've been really impressed with is how easily Elite level mobs go down now. Before switching to combat medic, taking on an elite level mob usually meant that Aric was going to be needing a rez, and I was going to have to be shielding myself and using my cooldowns to make sure I didn't die before the boss did.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
As combat medic, I'm able to keep Forex healed, dps a bit myself and end up finishing every fight with both us at full health or close to it.
From every recommendation that I've seen, you're better off using this combination with Cybertech as a skill so you can keep Forex really well geared. I'm currently an Armormech, so I don't have that benefit, but still not having any problems.
Once I finish up Balmora, I'll be picking up a new melee tanking companion, so I'm anxious to give that a try for a bit to see if that works better from an aggro standpoint than Forex. If I find I like Forex better, I might consider switching to Cybertech at that point.
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