On SW:TOR - PVP, Crafting and a smidge of Bounty Hunting

My Sith Inquisitor reached level 10 and off i hopped to the new zone eager to try out the crafting systems and PVP in this game.

Before that though, I answered the question of whether the two group quests were infact soloable, the answer being yes, just. It is also possible to skip these entirely, continue with solo quests and still reach level 10 and be on your way to the next destination if you prefer to. It definitely would have been more fun to group of course but with a companion in tow it definitely isn't 'forced' group content.

I initially picked Treasure Hunting for my first 'Crew Skill' which saw my companion bring back a companion benefit (bit suspicious that). I started to skill up Synthweaving with Archeology and realised that i also needed Shadowsilk to progress to the next recipes so I dropped Treasure Hunting for Underworld Trading which will supply it.

Reverse Engineering works similarly to disenchanting or salvaging in other MMOs, returning materials but also giving the chance for blue recipes from REing greens, and Purples from REing blues. I have only created blues so far, with each piece containing an additional stat to the green version. I don't have an excess of blues to RE yet but it seems to be well worth doing so far.

Its an interesting dynamic to have your companion(s) do your crafting for you. The early recipes take about a minute to craft and can be queued up to fuve times. The mission style material retrieving Crew Skills are taking 3 minutes which is time enough to make a cup of tea but not really much of a strategic decision as yet. Remembering to queue something before a Warzone pops being about as strat happy as I've managed so far on that. Once recipes start taking a number of hours then there will be decisions to make if you're also intending to do leveling content at the same time.

Having watched TotalBiscuit's videos of pvp in SW:TOR I have to agree that it really is a lot of fun. It did help that in my first Warzone I topped the damage and kill totals as the lowest level player on my team (smug grin), but even in the second which was more balanced and the third where i was mostly getting owned it was all great fun.

Players do seem to have more health in SW than Rift which at least at this level means no one was getting 1 or 2 shot. I was feeling rather ineffective at times. One of my key skills 'Force Lightning' barely scratching some players but i definitely prefer this to the inevitable whining about OP abilities which would be much more apparent in Rift.

There's plenty of tactics to play with. The key confrontation for me being in trying to maintain distance on a Jedi Warrior by using knockbacks, stuns and slows and yes ,the old MMO PVP run around your opponent in circles is very much alive here.

So a big thumbs up to PVP so far.

I also managed to solo the first Flashpoint all the way to the last 'boss' (yes, if i can solo anything, then i will...) My meatshield companion couldn't take the damage from one of his attacks very well and combined with adds that took a bit of killing on their own I couldn't whittle his health below about 10%. I might have to admit defeat and drag my absent friend into this, or perhaps level past it a little and come back.

I also started on a Bounty Hunter up to about level 5. Initial impressions are that the blaster combat is also good fun and the storyline took a nice early twist. There's also plenty of opportunity for 'saying you did when you didn't' until my nose got extra long and pointy.

I still logged Rift today to knock out the two Kelari Expedition dailies which took all of 10 minutes. I may perhaps be turning into a 'Raidlogger'.

On umm.. yeah SW:TOR

So.. yeah, that bit about not playing SW:TOR....

After 'pre'-ordering it last night i received an email at 8pm tonight granting my pre-release access. Not bad really as I wasn't expecting to be in all that long before the 20th given the belatedness of my pre-ordering.

The download itself was fairly painless. The download speed from the servers was faster than it was actually stating and I have it installed on PC and laptop after a day of afking/Skyriming.

Perhaps rather portentously the email arrived while I was logged into Rift completing the PVP quests for the nth time, laughing that i was receiving credit for closing PVP Rifts by being somewhere in their proximity while not PVP flagged and in general going through the motions, mowing down Stilmoor mobs without too much thought.

Friday nights can be a little quiet, for various reasons, but Rift did feel a little too eerily quiet. And so with the choice of same old, same old in Rift or the new Shiny thing. I chose the Shiny.

Now I have no real expectations for this game. A big reason that I am playing it at all is not to lose contact with a good friend and I promised to level up with him. I otherwise would have happily let it pass me by and waited for Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3. But i have to admit that the opening cinematic was very impressive, getting me in a Star Warsy mood which to be honest, I had totally forgotten, it being several years since i watched any of the films.

So yes, not a Star Wars fangirl. Not a Bioware freak (Mass Effect 2 was fun, but i haven't finished it) Not particularly itching for another Wowalike hotkeyed mmo....

But i gotta say. Its pretty good.

The Good.

The cutscenes had me laughing, cringing, pondering... just basically giving a crap... Very refreshing. I played my Sith Inquisitor as a Captain Sarcasmo type and there was plenty of oportunity for that. Having watched Husky Starcraft play through the same zone, i chose a few different dialogue choices and was pleased with the results. I think ultimately if this game gives me the chance to level one of each class and provides interesting and varied enough story lines for each, then I'd be happy enough with that. I don't have any expectations for endgame or for much longevity beyond that.

The Combat.

Most mobs are connected to several others, so pulling one will usually pull two or three more, resulting in a rather more interesting combat than i was expecting. This is a great idea from Bioware, making the player feel epic and powerful from the start in a very Star warsy (i'm making this a word) kind of way.
My Inquisitor received three initial abilities and a buff and had reached seven when i logged off at level 6. Initially it did seem a little confusing which was which, but things started to come together quite quickly with a hugely enjoyable stun that sends all mobs flying allowing you to get some quick hits in before they recover.

Instanced content.

This works quite well with seamless transition into solo areas containing certain scenes of dialogue or combat. This does solve some of the issues of overcrowding in the starting area and competition for mobs.

Its intuitive and slick.

If you've played other MMOs then you'll pick this up in no time. The map icons are a little different, but the UI isn't as horrible to use as i first imagined. With the general chat in the top left hand corner, its actually easier to ignore which is both a good and a bad thing...

The Bad.

Some of these are very minor like the initial mouse sensitively which is rather high and i haven't found a slider to turn it down (Its not where it most likely should be at least).

It could be the most solo friendly MMO yet. And yes i put this under a bad thing because for those 6 levels other players were nothing but a possible inconvenience to me. In swapping between instanced areas and open world content my reactions were one of relaxing and basically preferring the instanced area, in the same way i enjoy the Chronicles in Rift or soloing old dungeons in Wow.

The was no incentive to interact with anyone else other than seeing a few pleas in General chat of LFG for xxx quest which seemed quite common for two quests in particular. I'll be interested to see if they are in fact soloable when i get to them.

But coming to this game like so many conditioned by Wow and Rift and the normal single player leveling experience i wonder if I will make any kind of connection with anyone whilst leveling or whether the only possibility will be to jump into a random guild and hope for the best.

However, my overall impression is of pleasant surprise. I'm looking forward to the PVP which does look to be good fun. I hope it doesn't have the same issues that fundamentally broke the PVP in Rift. What this means for my Rift time now, I'm not so sure. I'd still like to raid and down all the bosses in Hammerknell but as Star wars and Christmas take twin shots at our raiding numbers, whether it recovers and sees players returning after this inevitable dip only time will tell.

Addendum:

Doesn't work at all on the laptop (dual core 2gigish, no special graphics card) Can't rotate the mouse, zoom or move... I'll put this in the Bad. But also admit, it was a long shot..