f13.net

Team Republitard:
Sky - Wei, Jedi Guardian/dps
Merusk - Radience, Jedi Sage/heal
Slack - Derrida, Gunslinger/whore
Bunk - Baenca, Vanguard/tank

9pm-12am Wednesday


Tentative:

Team Hempire:
AD - Powertech tank
Binary
Sjofn - BH or IA
More Slack? - BH
Bandit

TBA


(original post below)

Can we pull this off?

I would be willing to set aside one character purely for group progression. Any interest?

Wed night Eastern time would work out best for me, maybe Tues nights. My cut-off is midnight on week nights.

I'd be up for it Wed. EST.  The problem is there's so many damn PST players!

I am on CST, but generally play more PST-esque hours during the week to avoid family aggro. I do have a lv 1 BH that I need to get out of the pre-10 levels, etc. I also need to add him to the guild at some point.

So long as I can work out the times, I'm up for this. Belsavis seems really sparsely populated these days. It would be nice to game around people.

I'd devote something on Wednesdays. I'm PST but work an early shift, so Im generally on between 9:00 and 12:00 EST.

So are you talking rolling a character from scratch and devoting them to just advancing through group stuff as much as possible?

As Slack mentions, probably best to finish the starter planet off and start the group journey at BT/Esseles. We could do either faction imo, doesn't necessarily have to be SLAP/BC folks, though it might help a bit to have guild chat.

The idea is we ONLY play these characters during the group sessions, so it would mean giving up a character slot (which this early on hopefully isn't too big a deal for anyone outside Phred or Sjofn). You could freely log in for crew skills, but any other advancement would probably be verboten. Maybe an exception if someone misses a night so they can catch up to the group? Or if two people can't make it, we scrub the night. Dunno, I'm not exactly a 'planner' type! New realm for me.

My Jugg is already 14 and has done a bunch of Kaas stuff, but my Agent is almost done with Hutta. On the republic side my JC just finished Tython and I have unplayed newb Trooper and Smuggler. I've kind of been reserving my SI for non-guild stuff but she's 11, too. Have one slot open for a DS JK at some point (left open because I skipped the intros when reserving names day 1, so I use it to watch the other class intros).

Wed 9-12 work for everyone? If there is more interest, others could set up another set group/night. Hell, I wonder if you can zone into a group instance as a raid?

I have a few open slots.  A Trooper at 10, a Jedi Consular I haven't started playing and a Sith Inquisitor at level 13.

I'm thinking rolling Rep-Side if it's just BC folks would let interested parties all see some new quests.

I'm interested. I don't have any particular preference between Republic/Empire, and Wednesday nights work just fine for me. If we go Empire I'd like to use my Powertech who is sitting at level 11 having just arrived on DK, or my Consular/Shadow who is level 6 but I can get that character up to Esseles in no time. If we do all the group stuff along with solo stuff we'll be outleveling everything drastically, so I assume we're going to do mostly group stuff? We still have to do class stories and such though.

Yep, that works for me. Everyone speak up if they have a preference for which side, I can go either way. If we make a decision before this weekend, everyone should have time to get a character to the end of newbie planet.

 :ye_gods:

I am going to get the blame when this explodes all over the wall aren't I? That said. I am in. Wed 9p EST seems to work for people. I can go either side, highly neglected my imperial roots so I would lean more that way, but republic is good with me as well. If I were voting, it'd be for the imp side though.

I have nothing left for Republic side (my lowest there is ... 24 I think), but I could roll around as a BH or IA (my SW is reserved for Ingmar Time). Or I can just wave at you guys when you all log into Republic for your weekly nerd meeting!  :why_so_serious:

Do we have enough 50s to try raid content?  Or have a group pvp night? That way levels wouldn't matter until they patch in 50s pvp.

That is 2 for Imperial.  :awesome_for_real:

I'm going to go by response, so tentatively:

Team Republitard: Sky, Merusk, Slack, Bunk
9pm-12am Wednesday

Team Hempire: AD, Binary, Sjofn
?

Team Level Cap: Furi

Willing to hear idears for level cap activities. My tanking will be nerfy until I get some decent gear though.

I'm now leaning toward my new JK for Team Republitard. Thinking of going DPS, whatever the dual saber AC is. I've got to deny the tank option on at least one AC that can tank!

If we're going to take Republic, I'll have to figure out what to roll up. The JK story was a bit "meh" up to lv 8 or 9. I'd roll smuggler, but then we'd likely end up with a full smuggler group.

Also, if the days differ, I wouldn't mind playing the BH alt that I rolled with the Hempire group.

My guild has run into the WTF is everyone a smuggler issue as well.

Empire is good with me. I'm planning on tanking with my Powertech if anyone wants to roll a healer AC. Or we could just have Mako do it.

Level cap stuff, I have Miaka (DPS Sentinel) on Republic side and Ilyasviel (Healing Sorc) on Empire side. We could do the Ilum/Belsavis group dailies, Warzones/Ilum, or some Flashpoints (HM or otherwise). I doubt we can scrounge enough for an operation, but that would be fun too. Miaka's gear is shit but Ilyasviel is rocking full PvE epics.

We're edging close to have enough 50s in raw terms Republic side to attempt an Op, but I think our role distribution is not really right yet. We've very thin on actual DPSers I think.

We can run an op with 4 healers and 4 tanks. Or beg for dual spec.

As for nerd meetings, I have things in all sorts of level ranges on both sides. Pretty much all healers of some sort.

I'd planned on running my Smuggler solo, so I think I'll roll something else for this. I'd been planning on doing a FemShep Trooper anyway, so maybe I'll try that.

Hm, might be tight without a heal-spec JC. As the Head Tuna of TOR, I would be willing to roll a SECOND JC (heh) and spec Sage....but know that I would probably be a horrible healer.

That would allow for a couple Troopers (a Vanguard tank spec + a Commando dps, maybe?) and a dps Smuggler for Slack.

I considered the Healer, but I've never run one in any form and wouldn't want to subject you guys to that. Or find out I hated it half way through, and then want to bail :)

For what it's worth, shooting sith in the back with healing bullets is actually hilarious.

There's a Balance DPS spec I'd love to try if they ever patch in dual specs.  I like my tank spec (despite bitching about a couple of specific things) too much to sacrifice it for a DPS spec in a single spec world, though.

My Sage was full heal tree till 50 and I decided to try out the balance tree. It is pretty nice how fast shit gets dead, and the instant CC 3 thing is incredibly helpful now that your pets don't reset their AoE. Pick shit off one by one in record time. This said, I was a pretty good healer in the flashpoints I ran through...hell I was even the appropriate level at the time. So switching back to heals is open, but I am getting a nice rotation down right now with balance tree abilities.

I'd actually consider switching Kayce to DPS, given the current state of JK tanking, if I wasn't already fairly well along the tank gearing path and if I hadn't heard that DPS guardians are in about the same state.  :-P

I may do it anyway just to try it out, I have a ton of spare orange gear I could repurpose into a DPS suit.

For just leveling, any of the healers are actually fine, as long as the person healing wraps their mind around the resource mechanic of said class. Consular is just easiest to "learn" because it's the same as it's always been.

For Team Hempire, I don't mind being the healer, but it would be BH or IA healing!  :why_so_serious:  I'd prefer the BH, I think, but if IA provides more VARIETY I can play that instead. And if it matters for "augh stop talking with my voice" purposes, my BH is a lady and my IA is ALL MAN.  :why_so_serious:


EDIT: And for level 50 stuff, Siala is a healy sage, and will remain a healy sage. Jassan is level 41 and I am ready to start leveling him again, and would be fine respeccing him to deepz if needed, although I think we have a couple of DPS troopers pushing 50 now anyway.

I got no problems rolling up another healer on the empire side. I'd go full sorc healing spec if we are seriously going to doing this. I liked playing WHM, erm, healy sage on Repub side. That said, I have no desire to roll anything IA.

The more I think about it, the more I think I want to play my lady BH. Can't have you dudes stealing Joshua's ladies. :oh_i_see:

EDIT: My SW is possible if Ingmar doesn't mind, I guess!

I never have, either. Running short on time to level up a new guy, I'm no Nebu.

If any near-GMT people want to do this (there seem to be at least half a dozen of us on in BC most days), then make a post and we'll make a plan.

You guys on the fence about class, should seriously think about inquisitor/consular. You'll pick up a tonne of social points doing this, and social points are the only route to nice looking orange light armour.

Sadly my manquisitor is level 30, otherwise I totally would've hitched him to Team Hempire without a second thought for just that reason.

Oh hey, I'd have jumped in yesterday if I wasn't so swamped at work.  I'll run as JC and be Healbitch.  My trooper has the ability too, but since all reports are that they're weak as heal I'll just go with the strong one right now.

Go ahead and play smugglertrooper, Bunk.

ed: Erf we should play one of each type else we run into story instance things.

You only have to flick a switch in preferences to be able to have 2 of the relevant class in a story instance. But it does mean you'd have to repeat the same shit twice for that class. Also loot is easier if you just have one strength/willpower/aim/cunning guy.

Wednesday is the night I run my Pathfinder campaign, so I'll have to pass unfortunately. 

I can join on Wed nights, I just don't know what level to be.  I can be a dps.

Np, just trying to move things along so I can set up a character.

I agree on the one of each archetype, the game seems optimized for that, since loot becomes easy to sort and we get one of each buff. So if Slack goes Smuggles and Bunk goes Trooper, we'll have a full set. Just have to know if Bunk wants to tank or if I should JK tank (I've heard about threat management issues with JK tanks?). I'll run my JK up to the selection point, either way.

Someone from Team Hempire should take charge for the details of that team. Also, lulz full BH team.

I can go either way, I've been playing a full tank Jugg so far, so I might prefer taking more of DPS roll/Off Tanking. Don't really know the mechanics of the Trooper yet (haven't touched BH). I'll roll one up to the end of planet newb and see how its going.

Same, opposite boat. Played Komoto as a Shieldtech tank, not familiar with JK tank tactics (my Jugg is lvl 15).

Got a Consular and Tooper up to 10 now, just let me know which once you guys pick.  Or one of you could go Jedi Shadow (counsular) as it has a squishy-esque tank spec if you want to try something different.

I already have a lvl 11 Shadow that hasn't started Coruscant, but I kinda want to use him as a solo guy (take my time through zones, anyway). My main concerns on JK tanking stem from the Jugg thread here, reports of issues holding threat.

I have rolled a very appropriate 70s porn mustache Smuggler. Name is Derrida. All he cares about is deconstructin' some ladies. And credits.

Dude, you can't mess with Hoyt!

Well Sgt. Baenca is 8th now and almost done Ord, despite a minor setback of dealing with a lev 10 Strong Imperial in that base... Should be ready for Wednesday. Let me know what you guys want, I can go either way on trooper.

You just voted yourself the tank role, Sarge.

 :awesome_for_real:

1st objective for Nerd Night: the Esseles! Depending on how the loot gods (and maybe Nuffle) treat us, we'll do one standard run (no skip) and then a couple quick runs as needed/time permits. Sound good?

Wei, my JK, is level 11. Logged out just before Esseles trip, I can grab the AC and be trained and ready to go.

Just make sure Sky doesn't ninja loot everything.

Derrida is on the fleet and specced for gunslinger. I may take him back to Ord to try and face roll the three heroics, otherwise, ready for Weds night.  I will be taking every flirt and where's my ship convo option until such time as I get his ship. At that point, it is all smug whore all the time.   :drill:


Also, Corso reminds me of many derpy rednecks that I used to know, which makes me happy in a roll tide way.


I currently have crew skills as cybertech, slicing, and scavenging. Scav seems to be giving me the early mats to level cyber. Should i swap to scav and ut? Is someone else going to do scav so's I can/should take ut? Must coordinate for max unit efficiency and whatnot.

I did scav/ Cyber/ Slicing as well.  It's just fantastic money and the best way of staying equipped as you level.. particularly if you get a bunch of oranges early-on.

Scav gives all the mats you need for Cybertech.  UT is only useful for blue/ purple materials and companion gifts; otherwise it's a money sink.  I haven't been able to sell my blue/ purple mats for enough to make-up for the cost of running missions on my SW.  You're better off (money wise) picking up all the world boxes you can and running the bountiful-abundant slicing missions.

Oops, I took Cyber/Scav/UT...

Looks like we should consider a little redistribution.

I would be interested in this.

I have a Sith Warrior who just made it to the fleet, but I can't remember if I went Juggernaut or Marauder.  In addition, I have a BH-Mercenary who is only at level 14 I believe and could spec heals if required.

Let me know if there is still room in the groups.

Bandit, you or someone else interested in Team Hempire should take the reins on that one. To start I only want to commit time to one night/group so I don't over-commit.

Wei took bio/bio/diplomacy. If we want to synergize max unit efficiency and whatnot  :grin: maybe I could go with Artiface (and Arch/TH) for hilts/crystals/enhancements. If we go with unit over individual, Bunk should probably take bio/bio/dip for the self buffs and heals.

Merusk, not taking UT seems like it would make it very expensive to RE to purple, which is really the main reason to take a skill. And if we're doing it for unit efficiency, you'd be making a LOT of mods to kit out three other folks. In fact, kitting out everyone would definitely be a commitment! 6 armor and 6 mods x 4 guys = 48 damned mods + 4 ear pieces, 52 items to RE to at least blue per character (per tier!); then add in the amount of RE needed to make at least a blue per character (different stat allotments) per slot...ye gods. I know just trying to keep Komoto in heavy armor was a struggle, with doing blue for Mako.

Maybe I might just stick with bio/bio/dip after all...we should be seeing more group content thus better FP drops, right? Hmm. Unforeseen by me, this dilemma was.

I've barely used any of the crew skills that I took. My maybe 200 credit investment in skills so far won't necessarily be too painful to undo if crafting is needed elsewhere.

Form an efficiency standpoint, I didn't see the purpose in creating purples while leveling. I did it once or twice and never saw a sufficient increase in survivability or output.

Even blues I would only make every several tiers. Replacing them at every tier was a huge effort just for one person.  That's a lot of RE and wasted mats for a +1/ +2 increase every 2-4 levels.

/shrug.

There's really only a need for Two or three crafting skills if everyone is going oranges.  Those skills being Cyber and Bio.   Artifice and Weaponsmithing pieces can be replaced with commendations at each tier pretty easily since heroics and normal drops are pretty frequent.  We're grouping solo content, there's no need to be MAXPOWAH!

Plus, if you're going to put it to one person to make all mods, someone's going to quit the group PDQ, for the exact reason you just listed.  It's too much work for a once-a-week thing of - once again - doing solo content with a group.

Maybe make two guys responsible for themselves and one other, which is much more reasonable. (It was easy as a powertech to keep up with Mako's blues in addition to my own.)

Group 4 and FPs aren't solo content  :grin:

I'll just stick to bio if there are already three of you taking cyber.

You... you get healed last.

 :heart: :why_so_serious:

Artificing is still handy leveling up, even with the commendations, because there are not any commendation crystals, plus hilts are 7 a pop, and people might prefer spending that elsewhere. Basically, if you think cyber is worth it for leveling up purposes because everyone's going oj, artifice is too (as they do hilts and enhancements). Just putting that out there.

EDIT: Oh, artificing also does shields/relics, and sometimes the upgrades for those don't come very fast while you're leveling.

Ok, having looked through my crew members, the only early crit bonus I get is Diplomacy, so I think I'm going to jump over to Bio/Bio/Dem. Just as long as someone does Cyber to make me shields :)

Cyber doesn't make shields, Artifice does.

I'd forgotten Art did shields, good point.  With 2 jedi and everyone needing enhancements it makes sense to have one person do it.

Being the healbitch so my gear isn't as important, I'll swap from cyber/scav to artifice/ arch.

For the Republican group, you've got two Jedi and two Techs.  I'd go with a Cyber/Scav/Slicing, Artifice/Arch/TH, Bio/Bio/Diplo, Arms/UT/(invest?).

That way all hard-to-fill slots are covered: relics, ears, implants, hilts, barrels, and shields.  The scavenger supplies basic materials for cyber and arms.  The underworld trader supplies advanced materials.  The slicer gets the group extra funds and schematics.  The Cyber and Arms guys would have to share materials, but the Artificer and Biologist would be self-sufficient.

You could go Cyber/Scav/UT and Arms/Slicing/(Invest), with the arms guy supplying money and schematics, and the cyber guy supplying the arms with enough mats to keep them in quality barrels.  Under that scenario, the arms guy should probably be someone who doesn't care much about crafting.

Same philosophy for Team Awesome, but it's shaping up to be more tech-oriented.  Artifice would only be useful for companions or the fourth member if they go Sith.

Team Awesome?

Oh I forgot my sage's name.  Derp.

Radience

Yes, it's misspelled.  It, among others, is a name I've carried since EQ1 and it's easier to nab then the actual spelling.

The good guys.  Y'know, whatever the Sith group names itself?

Who makes armor plating mods? I would think that would be armour-dude? If so, I imagine it will be easier to use commendations for barrels and make your own armouring mods - on the grounds you need more armor than guns. Plus orange guns and light armour (social points) are trivial to come by wheras odd orange armour pieces are harder.

Cybertech makes the plating mods.

You name 'em, you lead 'em!

 :drillf:

I've already got a frequent duo.  While a BC group would be fun interesting, I'm spoken for.

Plus the problem of being the right level.  35, 32, 20, and 4 on the Sith side.

So unless there's an unwritten, "what happens at nerd meeting stays at nerd meeting," or a, "first rule of nerd meeting is that you don't talk about nerd meeting," thing going on, I just have to say that it was pretty damn fun having a full group.

However, as the guy who is fully DPS-specced, it did suck to see the rest of the group burn shit to the ground before I could get into cover and start working through to my good skills. At very least, I got two sweet orngz and did manage to actually do damage to some champion level mobs.

Next time, I hope to have more Keith Stone moments in group dialogue. The "I have a van with no side windows" 'stache and hair is just too creepy to NOT get more screen time.

In other news, I spent some time crafting and whatnot after the rest of you bailed. It looks like I'll have to spend a bit of time crafting to get some mods worth having. Some of the mods we can currently nab with commendations are lv 13 and 15, but are also much nicer than what I can make right now.

Yes, it was lots of fun.  Including my bitchy "omg get to the lifepods" Jedi.

It should get better for you as levels go on and mobs get tougher.  For right now on trash don't bother with cover just spam instants or AOEs.  I won't be tossing R2s Pots and meteor showers at things for many levels.  I'll have to heal for realz at some point.

The higher level flashpoints you should get more awesome time as a dpser.


That's my line!

Yeah, Esseles is easy mode, and even more so since beta.

Love the jedi leap, hate running around after mobs in slo mo after. BH spoils one.

I like that the dialog on Coruscant took into account that we had a group, didn't know they changed it up.

Yea, that was quite a bit easier than I remember the first Imperial FP being. At this level, no ones class has really come in to it's own yet. My ability to hold agro was laughable at best once you dps machines started in.

Eventually we may have to actualy discuss tactics beyond the "blow shit up" approach we used on this one.  :awesome_for_real:

I have to ask, was everyone really hitting space every time on the second run through, or does the game just take that long to jump between dialog in a group, even when you all skip?

Even if you spacebar as fast as possible it still takes a little bit of time.  Especially the last "Waiting for party members," which happens AFTER the NPC and everyone's done talking, and the system is just waiting to release your control back to you, that always takes a few seconds, from what I've observed.  I think they're dumping the high-rez-texture scene and loading the regular lower-rez (but with more NPCs) environment that you're going to be fighting in, and it's hiding this loading time with an artificial wait period.

I hit the space bar every time until the light-side scene won at the end, which we hadn't seen before. 

Could it be that some of the length was because of the quality of someone else's connection or computer? I know I got in a waiting queue quite fast a few times and had zoned or started the convo after everyone else.

I've watched our PCs side by side on some of those things and it definitely appears to be affected by how fast a particular computer is, etc. So whichever one of you is playing on a toaster is probably to blame.

Dammit, Slack!

 :drill:

It's not a toaster, but it does bear a striking resemblance to a Telefunken U47 (http://www.telefunken-elektroakustik.com/products/show_product.php?item=20&cat=mics)

You play SWTOR on a vibrator?  :-o

Slack updated his facebook gallery with a pic of him carrying his pc to a LAN party.

[redacted for TMI]

It's cooled with mountain-brewed goodness!

EDIT -- Not that Keystone is actually good. And mountain-brewed is probably part of some Coors trademark.

So for this week, think it's possible for us to faceroll our way through everyone's class storyline and get all 4 group members into ships before the end of the night? Keith Stone needs to get his Camaro back. I assure you that it is a bitchin' camaro.

ETA -- I haven't done any of the Courscant content, but we could probably get to the next set of planets without being underlevelled by simply doing everyone's class chains and whatever HEROIC quests we decide to do.

Facerolling through at least the class quests sounds like a good idea.  It won't get us there on the later levels but for right now it should do us a good bit of the content.  It sounds like an even better idea after all the "omg so much running" complaints I've seen about Cosuscant.

Evil Miyagi agrees with this line of thought.

I personally find Drommund Kaas more annoying running-wise, but that's just my opinion.

I haven't done CS yet so I can't compare but I didn't find DK all that bad... *other* than the goddamn broken flight points.  :mob:

Corellia, on the other hand, is sucking the will to play out of me.   I can't run around for more than 1/2 hour or so before I get sick of it and play another character.  I don't think my BH is ever going to cap.

I just feel the quest flow is better. "Get class quest to go to hub, do hub's quests, go back to main base, repeat four times" is just less finicky than "get class quest to go to hub, get feeder quest taking you to a spot that will eventually send you to class quest spot, but you'd have no idea that will happen unless you've done it before" type shit.

My BH is getting very stale on Voss.  I have to heal after almost every fight and it's becoming a grind. 

Sonofa....left work a bit late, and am now patching.

As well as the absurd running I also hate voss for the wall to wall silver mobs which pose no offensive threat but take an age to kill.

I hate everything about Voss. The density, the quests, and the ridiculous storyline. The Republic should just firebomb that planet.

I liked both Voss and Corellia. It is the B planets I don't particularly care for (Balmorra, Belsavis.)

Seconded, especially freakin Belsavis. I also didn't really get wtf the deal was with Qesh, but at least it was over quick.

Voss was pretty cool imo... Corellia was ok (I didn't like how you had to fight your way through those tunnels since the robots would dismount you otherwise... was a pain getting around sometimes).

I think Taris is my favorite planet.

Yep... You are a fucking weirdo.  :awesome_for_real:

You're all nuts.  Empire was the best movie and Hoth is the best planet.

This statement has a lot of truth in it.


I'd like to join in on Nerd Night - what level do I need to be by next Wednesday?

Hoth has Ortolans. Therefore it wins.

I must be the only person that dislikes those little fucks.

You are a bad person who is mean.

We have a set group (first post) of Me, Slack, Merusk and Bunk. I just went by order of responses.

There is interest in setting up an Imperial version, but nobody has stepped forward to run it; I'm not going to invest more than one evening a week in the project.

Voss' storyline is fun, you're weird. The running around + mob density isn't great, though. But the story? Mm, fever dream. Much better than stupid fucking Belsavis.

Just wait till your manquisitor arrives, gets killed by the quadruple elite class quest, is told no med probe for you, and has to run for ten minutes avoiding endless silvers to retry, only to be gone long enough that your instance respawned.

Death to all Voss.

Yeah....yeah, that sucked. 

Belsavis is a giant prison. That storyline at least made some sense. Also, Voss may make more sense on Empire, but the storyline on Republic was really really stupid.

Belsavis was one giant chain of "ok, so we did really fucking stupid thing X*, fix it for us or we're all going to die, kthx", culminating in one of the biggest wtf moments I've seen while levelling.

* without getting too spoily, it basically goes through the 101 Things You Should Not Do As An Evil Overlord list. It starts off with "ok so we left the rifles that can breach our HQ's shields in a random shed outside", and ramps up, ends with (Belsavis end spoilers)

Makes more sense to me than caring about whether the Voss join up. It's a POS planet in Hutt space. The mystics can beat each other off in their dreams for all the sense it makes. They serve no strategic importance.

Empire Belsavis is all "the Republic are idiots, they did this stupid thing now go stir it up some more and free our dudes".

Empire Voss is retarded. No major spoilers...

As Empire, my main gripe about Voss was

Yeah, totally of the same mindset, Sky.  The way things played-out I suspect they were going to include that but simply ran out of time.

Voss cracked me up on my Inquisitor. 

Voss/Inq story spoilers: 

Yeah, Belsavis as Republic is fucking retarded. Voss as Republic is fine story-wise (especially if you're a jedi consular  :why_so_serious:). Yes, it is bizarre and weird and wtf, but that's why I like it. Belsavis is just "what the fuck were you fucking morons thinking" over and over and over.

And the mystics do serve strategic importance, their force users are really fucking good at it, which they tell you a couple of times. If nothing else, you're trying to make absolute certain the Sith don't get their nasty hands all over them.

Today is my daughter's birthday. The earliest I'd possibly be able to log on is likely 9pm CST/10pm EST. I finished my class crap on Coruscant over the last week, so let me know where you guys end up if you go ahead without me.

I wasn't able to finish up my class quest.  I'm 14 and the bad guy I have to whomp is a L16 Sith Marauder who eats-up my lizard man in like 3 hits and does more DPS than I can do HPS at this level.

Voss Republic side kinda confuses me.

Also, have you guys done any of the raids?

I'd say go and hit normal mode Eternity Vault because I guarantee it's easier than the hardmode 4-mans.

The normal mode 4 mans are mind-numbingly easy, I think we were going to try a hardmode one tonight. I'm not sure if we have 8 50s yet for a raid.

If you can get enough people in at least 49-50 gear you should be good. EV is a pushover on normal and would be moreso if they fixed all of the various bugs. Soa is arguably the hardest fight there and the last bit is only challenging because they didn't include a ground reticle to let you know where to kite him without looking up. Well, he also has semi-tight DPS requirements for the last phase since you have very short windows where you can actually hurt him.

Eliminator, Gharj (if your tank can remember like 5% of how to position mobs from WoW), Pylons, and Council are free loot.

Edit: Also, loot works in a weirder way than I recall it being described in raids.

Basically, there's 3 lootpiles:

-Commissions/Crystals. Everyone gets these. Basically the badge system.
-Individual loot. Everyone has the potential (yes, you can likely get nothing from a boss fight outside of commissions/crystals) to get a piece of loot that's just theirs. Specific slot tier tokens or a small selection of individual items from the loot pool for that tier of difficulty (normal loot pool for example is whatever you can buy with Tionise Commissions/Crystals, Hard is Columi, Nightmare is Rakata) for each boss. Gharj I think can potentially get you an offhand token or a belt/relic.
-Global loot. Basically you get a pile of the equivalent of WoW's Chaos/Frozen Orbs and crafting recipes that EVERYONE gets to roll on. Considering that there is no /roll function, enjoy the need/greed arguments.

I've ran EV twice and I've gotten 5-6 pieces of loot out of it to no one's detriment. It's really nice, but depending on luck you could literally fill up on epics in 1 run of EV and the Hutt raid. Hope they can crank out content!

We can take a week off if you need to. RL > TOR.

I did maybe one class quest on Wei, so I'm probably way behind.

She's turning 6, so bedtime is around 9pm CST. I am hoping that she'll zonk in the car on the way home from dinner. But yeah, if we want to skip we can. I am also happy to help folks through their class quests as I fear no spoilers.

Gor no power here, so I wont be available tonight.

Right then, skip a week it is.

I am very confused as to why "Gor" would be in my phone's dictionary. Yes, I did read many of them in my youth, but still...

Voss as a male IA

Are we all in for tonight?

Oh yea, its Wednesday. Sure, I can put the hockey game on in the background.

Oh shit, I totally forgot. Logging in now.

I was at the Phantom Menace 3D at the theater :p

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/111434/disgusted.gif)

Let's not do class stuff on nerd night, please.

Mostly my fault, I was farther behind then I realized. Though to be fair, you were an hour late  :awesome_for_real:

We would have skipped mine and done other stuff if you'd been on. The plan had been to just help Radience through her last fight in her class quest, then do group stuff, but since you weren't there - we started on my class stuff.

Based on my read of the non-Coruscant quests (space, etc.) that I currently have, we could all do well to focus on perhaps the Heroic level quests on Coruscant next week. Or, we could just do all of the planet missions. Either way works for me.

If a class mission is too hard to finish solo, maybe we can just schedule times to get those done on a day other than Wednesday.

Yea, I do think this experiment showed that trying to run through a planet and do all your class missions without doing anything else is a little silly. I was just too underleveled at the end to have soloed most of that. And it felt really weird skipping so many quest givers. "Sorry, too busy - catch you on my way back!"

Next week if we want to run Sky through his class stuff, hit a couple side missions on the way, and a couple Heroics should have us where we should be.

It has brought up an odd part of the quest system. If you don't want to spoiler class quests for other classes, we have to regularly have people break off to go solo an instance. The skipping quest givers is bizarre. So I guess integrating class stuff is probably for the best.

I guess maybe more thought should have been paid to the idea of a regular group without story spoilers for other classes, especially for folks like me where the only 'end game' is rolling alts.

Hmm, can we do the instances, but just have people worried about spoilers (you and I) just skip out of the conversations?

The way Ingmar and I usually handled it was we'd do all the quests in an area, then split to do the class stuff seperately. Probably gets messier with four people, and I dunno how good you various people are at soloing that stuff. :grin: Towards the end he started helping me with class stuff (and I helped him, but I am really good at tuning out the voice parts and while I know the final boss fight for JKs and vaguely what happens in Act 3, I don't know any DETAILS, like why it happens, because any "just talking" class shit I wasn't present for).

Now we just duo everything, because without context I barely know what's going on in the smuggler quest anyway, and I'm playing a class he's already done so he doesn't have to care either. :P

It's Wednesday you old, forgetful men.

It's too bad that tier bonuses don't apply to companions because they don't have the same skillsets, because I seem to be awesome at winning the same tokens I already have.

Dorne just got her Columi boots, shield, leggings, and gloves.

WHATWHO

I did manage to finish Wei's Coruscant class stuff. I think. I forget.

I blame the Black Lager and picklebacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickleback), it was Sunday.

So tonight, should we try to do Heroic quests and then some of the more interesting planet quests on Coruscant? If we can each hit 16ish, I think we could make it over to the next set of planets without being underlevelled.

I was wondering the same thing.  We could even jump to NS if we really wanted to.  4 people doing planet quests, we'll still mow through them.

I'm good either way and just need to know what planet to show up on.

ed: Actually we can run the next FP can't we?

Definitely hit some heroics, not too worried about planet quests with the nerd group. Shoulda named my knight Pharrel. What level is the next FP, we can always give it a shot (and hopefully I remember to grab the daily)

I've done nothing since we last fully grouped excepting the class quest to the end of Coruscant. I really need to catch up on crafting, even.

Hammer Station opens up at 13 or so I think, then Athiss at 17? I'm not sure which ones you've done so far.

Eventually I will remember that Tuesday is patch day, therefore I should not wait to the last second to log in to nerd night on Wednesday...

We should holocron hunt more often!  :why_so_serious:

 :grin:

Apparently Slack's ping is so bad, the game fails to recognize that he is trying to move forward and jump at the same time. So he just does this sort of... stutter, hop, aaaaaahh splat! thing.

Is it his ping or the toaster he's playing the game on?  :grin:

That might have been the funniest thing I've seen in a game. I could not stop laughing. I wish I had a way to record a video of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwQbPgouUYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPB84Plv8tc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ5Z1jXms7A

This is obviously the Keith Stoneiest of the bunch.

I'm out this week. Have been in to work at 6am and home at 7pm all week and need to continue tomorrow. I'm beat and goin' to bed.

So are we planning to try for this week, or does everyone think they will be too enwrapped in to ME3?

Still on the fence, might get ME3 on xmas sale. Happy with TOR as my gaming fix, and hopefully Trippy will update the minecraft server soon.

Blowing $225 on Maiden tickets and setting aside money for gas, motel and merch HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

I won't be getting ME3 for at least another week or two. I'm game for Wednesday.

Will probably need a break from ME by that time anyways, so I should be there. Figured the way spoilers are flying around, getting it now was my only chance to enjoy it spoiler free.

Plus my Maiden ticket was only $59.

So......are we all in tonight?

The concept is in committee for re-evaluation. Would the time be better spent just doing FPs with whatever characters need them?

Since I don't want to share class quests and we are skipping over most planet stuff, heroics are easy to find groups for...seems like the main need for grouping is FPs.

While I enjoyed doing it, trying to guarantee I'll always be available is tough. Perhaps a more wideopen, Wednesday night is flashpoint night theme, where everyone looking to do FPs just tries hooking up Wed. nights.

Seems the better idea. I'm out either way as I'm letting my sub lapse.  I'm just not having fun with it, which depresses me because I really enjoy the game over-all... I just feel weak as shit vs. mobs and that's an instant turn-off.

MMO in general has an issue with that. The more you play, the tougher mobs get...seems rather backwards imo.

I'm doing an Ilum solo quest where I just died three times in a row in a solo instance to the same encounter. I mean, I enjoy leveling alts and I know the end game isn't my thing, but that's ridiculous. Stuff like that is WHY I enjoy playing alts through the leveling game. I haven't even finished the Ilum planet quest lines, this isn't  a daily...

Might explain why I'd enjoyed WoW for so long.  Your power vs. mob power in the greater world is always about even, unless you fell way behind in gearing by skipping areas.   

I expected difficulty in raids and dungeons, (and tbh the Flashpoint mobs seem too squishy) but out in the world?  I should feel like the hero I supposedly am there.  If I'm well-geared for a level I should be ripping through them like butter, even as a tank.  That doesn't happen in TOR, but does in WoW and LoTR.

/sadface

And unfortunately well-geared at 50 is a giant grind. I'm still waiting on that fix for RE to even try making the level 49 purple crafted set. Which would be useless if I played 'as intended' and used oranges.

With the changes to pvp, you can gear up in centurian purples quite quickly. 

Our definitions vary. Also, I'm not sure a poorly-geared lvl 50 participating in pvp is something I'd file under 'fun'. Especially when it's something I'm doing just so I can have gear to lessen the slogfest of doing dailies just to fund my alts.

When I just want to twink the alts. It's a lot of work to do before I can play the way I'd prefer to. I've done the same in some other games so I expect some 'work'. But the insane pricing on things in TOR, I've never been so broke for so long in an mmo. Four nights of playing my newly under-powered BH to buy one recipe, and now three months into the game I'm flat broke across all my characters. Let alone all the million credit things I just laugh at because I'll never be able to afford them. By the time I can, there will be 10 million dollar things.

It's almost as if mmo are created for people to sink tons of their time into, which I reserve for non-gaming things. Ah, well. I knew going in that being an mmo would be my biggest problem with the game. Not the multiplayer aspect, I've grouped more in TOR than every previous mmo combined. But the stock activities that pass for standard mmo fare; dailies, geared pvp, etc. It's the turd on top of the glorious chocolate cake that is pre-endgame TOR.

I don't know why devs think this is good design.  The occasional heroic fight?  Fine, we need a challenge.  As you go up in level though, you should be fighting hordes of trash.  Stuff which makes you feel heroic to wade through.

I don't know why one side doesn't just let the other have Ilum and send their stationed troops to dominate the rest of the galaxy.

It's exactly this.  More time = longer subscription = more $$$

MMO's are a primary hobby for me.  I sink more time into them than I do about anything other than travel/hiking.  I imagine most mmo enthusiasts treat the game as a primary hobby as well.

I'm having a hard time understanding your issues Sky simply because SWTOR is the exact opposite for me - I've never been this rich in an MMO. I usually struggle to be able to pay for things, not having that trouble at all in this one.

I don't play nearly as much, nor with a dedicated duo partner.

I'm just venting about stuff, don't mind me. I'll take a few purple crystals and limited edition speeders if you're burdened with too much money, though!  :grin:

Fordel is the one who is truly made of money if you need Space Welfare.  :awesome_for_real:

ME3 tanked my implant sales, I can only afford 3 space yachts now.

I am the space 1%.

I bet you are really the space 20%....

I went to play my Sage on another server (slots full and whatnot), some newb asks in Rep Fleet General about what the best crew skill is for him. A couple people say the usual (synth or artifice or bio or cyber) and some dude chimes in about not listening to anyone and there were a lot of asterisks - *all* crew skills are good for *everyone*. I break off of discussing biochem to say that a JK (the newb asking the original question) wouldn't do very well with armormech.

Dude says "Yeah...except for all the *armor* they wear *facepalm*.
Me: "Synth makes armor for force weavers"
Dude: "Yeah..if you want a specific *light* armor"
and before I can respond
Dude: "And cyber can't make strength mods"
several people correct him at this point
Me: "You've yet to say anything correct"

He then rails on about how I'm trying to force people into picking crew skills for certain classes (me, by name) and how he's going to label anyone with a narrow world view and tyrannical viewpoints "Haruspex Syndrome" and how much better the world is with me on ignore. Because I was lowering the place into Barrens chat. Someone makes a Norris reference at that and dude replies with a volley of Norris jokes. Then starts insulting the few people trying to help the newb with crew skill questions.

Whole thing went on for about 15 minutes, I was laughing the entire time. Somehow our server isn't all that bad. Maybe it's just been timing or whatever, but I've never seen that level of stupid on our server and folks are generally helpful when people ask stuff in general.

Then I went and spammed SLAP for a bit and logged off to play more guitar.

Try the fleet on a pvp server. The amount of  :uhrr: is astounding.

It's because as awful as Shien might seem at times that RP in front of it truly does filter out the biggest fuckwads.