So far I’m level 13 and at this point I’m considering focusing on just completing the main primary questline in Nightfall. I struggled to find any quests after level 10 to be able to get my sun spears title so after activating my Eye of the North expansion I decided to make the jump through to gain a couple of levels. Now I’m high enough to continue my progress in nightfall I’ll be porting back and continue the story arc, noting I now have a team consisting of 3 level 20 heros and my level 13 flamingo (yes I said flamingo- don’t judge me). I am unfortunately not confident enough to try grouping with another player quite yet as I seem to spend a lot of time dead and phasing back to the hub. Hopefully my level 20 heroes will make a different as will my continuing growing understanding of the game.

On another note one of the first thing I did once arriving in EotN was visit the Hall of Monuments and deposit M.O.X which took me up to 4 HoM points (woooo go me!), it’s a really nice touch by arenanet and its impressive to see the hall and the thought put in behind it.

Whilst I am enjoying the steep learning curve it will be interesting to see how long I stick to the game once I have acquired enough to get me the full armor set in guild wars 2. The others items are titles, weapons and pets none of which I have much interest in. I guess I’ll just see how it goes.

After finding this video by Alexrediculous on youtube it pretty much sums up why I think it may just be the next big thing……

Nuff said really!

Helping me along the way and making things a little less painful will be my trusty bro in law who thankfully agreed to join me since he himself wasn’t playing anything at the minute. Also a special wee mention to Vic over at games and geekery for the slight steer and information he provided me on twitter. With all this in mind I’ve made a start to Guild Wars Nightfall and will hopefully progress from there.

With regards to SW:TOR I’ll going to let my subscription lapse for a month or so and perhaps pick it back up further down the road after I’ve had my fill of Guild Wars. Looking at my raptr stats I had logged in around 170 hours which in the space of a month is a tad excessive for me to be honest and even placed it second in my most played list, this isn’t entirely accurate as I’ve switched between x-fire/raptr and using nothing frequently but I’ll be keeping an eye on my times for guild wars to see how it grabs me ( I wonder if anything will displace WoW from my top spot at over 700 hours played).

Anyway with the announcement of Arenanet preparing the open beta for Guild Wars 2 I better get a move on and get me some points

On one side of the coin I’m only a lowly level 35 and I kinda do want to play out my story and see how my character progresses. On the flip side I know for a fact I wont be competing in any of the endgame content. I have no intention of raiding and the fact the PvP in SW:TOR doesn’t float my boat means there is very little to keep me there after I hit max level. Further to this I just can’t imagine rolling an alt, whilst the majority of the classes break from the norm of the usual standard MMO classes none of them really hold any interest and the fact I’d be revisiting all the same zones and storylines does have a bit of an impact.

I think it pretty much throws up the question of am I willing to pay for a subscription MMO these days and the answer to that is NO.

With Arenanets up and coming Guild Wars 2 and its buy to play model I think you wont be able to get any better value out of a game. I will no doubt spend money in the cash shop for special costumes or weapon models but for me the choice to spend money is better than being held by the short and curlies be it by Bioware or Blizzard just for the right to log in.

At the end of the day I may well pay for an additional month get to cap then leave and probably concentrate on my travels in the original guild wars series. I’d picked it up a couple of months back however haven’t dedicated any real time towards it. I’ll be looking to play through each campaign of the trilogy then purchase the newest expansion to get the Hall of Monuments reward system and see what I can earn towards Guild Wars 2.

So there you have it SW:TOR you are a really good MMO, probably the best since The Burning Crusade, however I just don’t think I love you enough to sub for the long term.

I know I was due a positive post about SW:TOR but I really need to get this one off my chest.

Zone instancing pisses me off and it could well be the death of SW:TOR….. at least for me.

You see some players, like myself, need to feel a part of a busy and bustling world with other players buzzing around. Unfortunately SW:TOR does not deliver this because of zone instancing. Now I can just about put up with each area/world being separate however when those areas are then separated again by phasing/numerous instancing then it really does start to effect the quality of play. I do understand instancing is there so you can complete quest objectives easier however in my opinion it actually makes play more boring as you feel more isolated from a larger player base than it would appear.

To give an example I’m currently level 33 and have bumped into Imperial players once! I mean 17 levels till I cap and I’ve seen enemy players once?!, Btw this ended in me getting my ass kicked from two higher level players and their companions (Companions used in openworld pvp?! really Bioware? *facepalm*).

I’m definitely re-subbing to SW:TOR and I’ll have a little look at endgame, roll a few alts etc I cant however stop myself from searching for the release date of Guild Wars 2…….

In fact the last time I enjoyed a game this much was probably vanilla WoW and TBC expansion. That doesn’t mean, however, the game is faultless so I’ll list the things which really stand out to me as weaknesses in the game.

PvP

The PvP in SW:TOR is broken.

What I once thought was a fine idea of no level bracket and boosting of stats soon becomes a nightmare when facing level 50 players with full PvP gear.. You hardly do any damage to them and can easily be taken down in 3 or 4 crushing blows. It has me wondering if we really need separate gear with PvP damage mitigation stats, why not simply have one set for all? I do note Bioware are going to introduce level brackets in the future however it does worry me that they didn’t think of this prior to launch.

Republic Casting animations vs Imperial instant casts

This is one which is currently dominating the forums and its mainly regarding the Jedi Consular vs Sith Inquisitor. Basically both Project and Force throw have much longer casting times than their Sith lightning counterparts which has a big impact on both PvP and to an extent loss of dps with regards to PvE. Again it has me annoyed Bioware didn’t consider this when creating the mirror classes. I’m actually fine with the casting time with my Consular so the easy thing to do is make the delay longer for the Sith lightning attacks and all will be well……. How long Bioware take to fix this will be interesting.

Biowares ‘Soon’ isn’t quite as polished as Blizzards

I criticise other MMO’s for the state they launch in so it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t criticise Bioware.

It would seem Bioware have cut a few corners with regards to releasing SW:TOR in an unfinished state. I wouldn’t quite say its ‘half baked’ but its certainly still quite doughy in the middle and it becomes frustrating when you realise a lot of different features and gear have not been fully implemented. Some examples of these are the Legacy title which you get exp for but have no idea what it’s for because its not been added yet and the equally frustrating light side/dark side vendors which seem to be missing a ton of items and only sell part sets. What makes this more frustrating is the orange items which they do sell become obsolete at level 50 as you cannot get mods which are comparable with purple items available from raids (bring on the attack of the clones experience come level 50 when everyone looks identical) add in all social items are light armor and need certain social points to wear (meaning they are again useless at 50) screams that Bioware didn’t think it through.

Grouping

I never thought I would say this but SW:TOR really needs a Flashpoint/heroic quest finder. It may be fine on a heavy populated realm but us on a light realm could really do with the tools to actually be able to complete flashpoints and heroic quests. The alternative of spamming guild chat or General/trade for two hours just wont work in the long run. This doesn’t have to be cross realm or teleport me to the instance ala WoW but a little something would be nice.

Bugs, additions and fixes

Bioware seem to work fast on some exploits but take their time on others. They seem quick to nerf but not to fix which I find frustrating. If they are releasing a quick patch how about sneaking in some easy fixes along with it……. Like a stealth bar for shadows and assassins. Just saying

And that’s all I’m gonna moan about for now.

Don’t worry its really not all bad as I do have a lot of positive things to share which I’ll hopefully be posting this week. This will include brief summarys of my experiences from all the planets I’ve visited in Chapter 1 and I’m also considering creating a Jedi Shadow Infiltration guide.

My one concern with SW:TOR at present is there seems to be far too much bloat with regards to my Jedi Shadow and his numerous abilities and talents.

I am aware a lot of the abilities are situational however with the restricted UI and the fact I only have access to around 27 keybinds (which I can use comfortably) I am dreading to see how many more abilities I pick up on the way to 50 (I’m currently level 27).

The fact that Jedi Shadows do not get a separate abilities bar when entered into stealth certainly does not help and its something I hope Bioware consider, the fact smugglers get the very option when in cover has me a tad bemused that they didn’t consider it for us stealthers.

One thing these bloated talent trees and abilities have done is make me look forward to Guild Wars 2 where combat will be down to movement and choice where only a limited number of abilities can be used at one time (dependant on what weapon you have equipped and your skill in that weapon).

Is less perhaps more in this regard?

Or am I alone in my hate of having too much choice?

Well as someone who had to reroll the same class after getting hit with realm queues of over 4 hours I can honestly say I haven’t found replaying content a chore.

The fact is there are several options for levelling your toon, you can do all the quests in each area or indeed just focus on the story quest and level using pvp, ship combat or via flashpoint grinding. So there really is a bit of choice as to how you may choose to level.

It actually fits directly with how I levelled in WoW although in WoW I probably stuck more rigidly to zones I enjoyed and knew well. The fact is I’ve probably enjoyed it more the second time around as I have become much more comfortable with my Jedi Shadow than my previous play through and have found I make much better use of my abilities.

With regards to my second toon I’m actually taking it very slow and mixing it up a bit on the way. I’m on a low population realm (The Kumumgah PvP EU) so I have found myself a bit behind the levelling curve (currently a lowly level 20) which makes group quests and getting groups together for flashpoints a bit difficult but to be honest I’m absolutely fine with that, I am aware I’ll be lagging behind gear wise but it does mean I wont be burned out of the instances come level 50 which is exactly the problem I encountered playing WoWs endgame.

As for my future in SW:TOR the only real target I have set myself is to get my speeder before the close of the year, so 2012 will mean a lot less running about, that and of course have a ton of fun whilst I play which is all you can ask from a game and its something I’m finding SW:TOR delivers in spades.

Anyway hope everyone is enjoying the festivities and has a cracking new year, being Scottish I’ll probably just drink too much and pass out before the bells

P.s. yeah I did buy star wars trainers cause I’m a big geek like that

Is this because they either haven’t played SW:TOR or is it the fact that they are playing however they THEMSELVES are choosing to play it like a single player game?!

From my experience so far in both beta and early access I can firmly say Bioware have done a pretty sterling job in creating both content for solo players but also with a hell of a lot of options for group play in heroic quests ( starting as early as level 8 ) and flash points. The option is also there for players to group up for normal questing and even join in your friends ‘Story’ or ‘Class’ quests so I really don’t see what people are talking about.

If people say ‘oh its too easy to quest with another player and two companions’ then dismiss your companion and send him to do some crafting ffs!!!

Ultimately, like most MMO’s, SW:TOR is what you make it. If you want to play it as a single player game then do so, but please do not label it a single player game its an MMO and is probably one of the few MMO’s that actively promote grouping and adding friends at low level.

Or perhaps more appropriately queue queue……

Yup it would seem being in the early access wasn’t all its cracked up to be specifically since EA bioware didn’t think to lock already full realms from people just getting access today.

The result? My ‘normal’ queue time of just over an hour has leapt to around 3-4 hours which in terms of my gaming window time doesn’t really give me a lot of time to actually play the game itself.

So after a talk with my real life mates we decided it best to reroll on a low pop realm (which will no doubt fill up also). Usually I’d be a bit pissed off leaving behind a level 24 toon after some pretty heavy gaming sessions but to be honest I’m pretty relaxed about it all. I certainly got a lot further in than beta and it gave me an insight of things I will do different this time around (less PvP so I don’t outlevel content so quick).

What about you folks? Been punished by the queue system?