SWTOR

[Sjofn]

My consular was level 8-ish, I think, when he got his? Seemed like everyone had their first one by level 10 though.

[Evildrider]

Just so we can have a few more pages.  Zoeller said no AC respecs in game at all.  Maybe somewhere down the line but most likely not.

[Sjofn]

Bleh, I think that's a mistake.

[Zetor]

So can a commando-spec trooper (with or without points in the healing tree) actually heal and do it as well as a consular/smuggler/etc? Does he shoot healing bullets or just spam the 'healing drone' ability?

[Evildrider]

They've said that all the tanks and healers are on even ground.  It'll probably be more about what you want to play.

[Amaron]

Just so we can have a few more pages.  Zoeller said no AC respecs in game at all.  Maybe somewhere down the line but most likely not.

They should have made the game republic only.   That way they could have had 8 full AC specific class story lines.  Instead they wasted 4 of them on emo empire(400!).

[Sheepherder]

I did just a couple weekends ago. New character is promising though. 

Proudft's journey to the dark side is complete?

[Sky]

The grammar snake is being mercilessly taunted.

[Ingmar]

I did just a couple weekends ago. New character is promising though. 

Proudft's journey to the dark side is complete?

No, he is lazy and never runs games anymore so I have found NEW FRIENDS.

[Fordel]

So can a commando-spec trooper (with or without points in the healing tree) actually heal and do it as well as a consular/smuggler/etc? Does he shoot healing bullets or just spam the 'healing drone' ability?

Anyone who specs their heal tree will be able to heal competently and competitively. If you don't spec your tree, you will have a much harder time of trying to be a healer in groups and what not.

Commando's literally shoot healing bolts at their allies, among other things you've seen in videos with drones and what not. I want to say there is a healing grenade too.

[Sheepherder]

That is just fucking silly.

[Sjofn]

I want to say there is a healing grenade too.

If there isn't I will hold you personally responsible.

[Fordel]

I don't pay attention to what the healers do in groups man, as long as my health bar is going the proper direction they could be doing their cultural dance for all I care.



Now the fucking DPS, Jesus Christ guys, there's TWO of you, one of you assist the other, no, NO don't fucking split up and choose your own gold elite mobs for your own, especially if neither of those mobs is the mob *I* am currently focusing on as the God Damn Tank. 

[Evildrider]

If I have aggro and I die it's the tanks fault.  If I don't have aggro but the tank is dead and then I die, it's the healers fault.   

[Sjofn]

I don't pay attention to what the healers do in groups man, as long as my health bar is going the proper direction they could be doing their cultural dance for all I care.

Man, if that was a heal, I would totally roll nothing but dude twi'leks.

[eldaec]

As a regular healer, I don't give a shit who's fault it is that you died (though I'm going to go with 'probably yours'), because I'm the only guy here who can get another group in less than a minute when you scrubs fall apart.

Despite this, I'm really struggling to find a class I'm interested in speccing for support in swtor. This worries me a bit, since I enjoy support more than anyone else I am aware of on earth. So if I can't be arsed with heal specs I wonder who exactly is going to play them.

[Sjofn]

What about support doesn't interest you for SWTOR? I find healing bullets too hilarious to NOT spec. And having companions to tank for me (and they do it fine!) means I can actually, like. Level as a healer.

I mean grant you, I was healing for about a half hour as a consular, which has no healing bullets at all ( ), so what do I know.


PS: Tanks get groups faster than healers, baby.

[Amaron]

So if I can't be arsed with heal specs I wonder who exactly is going to play them.

I don't think any of the classes even get heal/support stuff till level 10.   So I imagine they change drastically by the time you get to 20~25 or so.   That makes it hard to try them out unfortunately.

[Cyrrex]

PS: Tanks get groups faster than healers, baby.

Which is why I plan to play a tank.  I just want to be popular, for once.

[caladein]

I'm not sure how I feel about any of the heal-capable ACs mechanically.  That probably has to wait for at least a decent amount of time with level cap PvE.

Outside of that though, I'm really interested in BH.  Agent is thematically in my wheelhouse and when your third choice's DPS-role is UNLIMITED POWER, that's a pretty good selection.

[DraconianOne]

Rumour suggests that the 459 terabyte client download will be available from sometime today before weekend testing. Have yet to find any official confirmation.

Or coffee. But that isn't related.  

EDIT:

When will the Beta Testing Weekend start?

We are targeting November 25-28 for our upcoming Beta Testing Weekend. Exact timing on when you will be invited will be specified in your invite email.

[Reg]

Only 459 now? They've really optimized it!

[luckton]

When will the Beta Testing Weekend start?

We are targeting November 25-28 for our upcoming Beta Testing Weekend. Exact timing on when you will be invited will be specified in your invite email.

Shit's about to get real.  For one weekend the last best hope for the subscription-based MMO model will be essentially free-to-play.  Will be interesting to see how well BW handles themselves, and if EA's support has improved at all from the days of E&B and Warhammer Online.

[tmp]

I was healing for about a half hour as a consular, which has no healing bullets at all ( )

Hopefully it's not too late for them to patch in healing fuel tanks for the jedi to toss around...

[Numtini]

Oh come on, they couldn't toss it open for thanksgiving?

[Murgos]

Oh come on, they couldn't toss it open for thanksgiving?

I'm guessing it's so that people can go home, eat turkey and watch football knowing that tomorrow they die work an all-nighter.  Some web sites are giving out close to a hundred thousand keys EACH, that plus all the SWTOR forum peeps is going to be a million to a million five or more testers.  Yeah, shits going to hit the fan.  I expect that this test is also going to be their full server infrastructure as well as the ability to bring new servers up live, troubleshooting failures live and etc... Also dynamic queue allocations, instance creation onto supporting secondary systems, massive loads shifting as people 4000 back in a queue slam into a newly brought online server.  Panic in the call centers as the tech support queues back up thousands deep full of the most idiotic and inane issues.  You get the idea, total chaos.

Heck, the way things fail in very large systems I wouldn't be entirely surprised if a server fails catastrophically and catches fire (generally a 1 million hour MTBF means that if you have a million of them 1 is failing every couple hours, get something as complex as a server cluster dealing with massive power draw and spectacular things happen much more frequently that most people expect).

I just hope it goes smoothly and that their contingency plans work and this massive ramp up doesn't bite them in the ass and give a million+ potential customers the impression that the game isn't ready.

[eldaec]

What makes healing look dull from outside of beta is that it all seems to be regular direct heal.

No wards, hots, combat buffing, debuffs, control, or any other cool shit that adds flavour to support. The heal trees appear to be literally all heal all the time.

And the problem with tanks is that by mmog convention they are expected to lead the group and shit. Healers get to stand at the back and make snide remarks while other people do the dying.

[Numtini]

Really? I read somewhere that there were bubble and hot healers.

I have to say, I love the Bounty Hunter so far and it would be a real good choice for me for healing, but I don't think I can cope with the cognitive dissonance of firing healing guns.

[palmer_eldritch]

Really? I read somewhere that there were bubble and hot healers.

I have to say, I love the Bounty Hunter so far and it would be a real good choice for me for healing, but I don't think I can cope with the cognitive dissonance of firing healing guns.

What is a bubble healer?

And the problem with tanks is that by mmog convention they are expected to lead the group and shit. Healers get to stand at the back and make snide remarks while other people do the dying.

Tanking always seems to me to be the most difficult role in any MMO because you are expected to be the leader. I've played every other role in various games but never summoned up the courage to give tanking a serious shot.

[Ironwood]

Which is actually utter bullshit because you just can't imagine Boromir or Caramon Majere leading fucking anything.

[Murgos]

Tanking always seems to me to be the most difficult role in any MMO because you are expected to be the leader. I've played every other role in various games but never summoned up the courage to give tanking a serious shot.

I love tanking but tanks don't need to be the leader.  It's just that if the tank is pulling then the tank is dictating the pace of the game, the tank also has to be more situationally aware than anyone other than a dedicated CC due to adds so is also usually the shot caller.  However, I have seen groups where the tank is simply directed to what to tank just as you would a DPS and the healer or CC manages the group.

[01101010]

Really? I read somewhere that there were bubble and hot healers.

I have to say, I love the Bounty Hunter so far and it would be a real good choice for me for healing, but I don't think I can cope with the cognitive dissonance of firing healing guns.

What is a bubble healer?

And the problem with tanks is that by mmog convention they are expected to lead the group and shit. Healers get to stand at the back and make snide remarks while other people do the dying.

Tanking always seems to me to be the most difficult role in any MMO because you are expected to be the leader. I've played every other role in various games but never summoned up the courage to give tanking a serious shot.

Leading and tanking seem to go hand and hand, but not always. Had many a dps take the lead while I was tanking... marking shit and talking strats. If they seemed on the ball, I let them go. If they were just talking shit, I cut in told them what I was going to do and how things should happen...if not, then I would bail, given that queues were almost instant on my tank. The problem arises in tanking a new instance you never been in or seen or read about. I tend to read up on stuff but I don't fault others for not doing it that way. Once you run a dungeon once or twice, you get to know what goes where - then it is easy to take the lead and kinda preferable. Until then, guess as to how you think it will go and when you wipe, don't do that anymore.

[DraconianOne]

Tanking always seems to me to be the most difficult role in any MMO because you are expected to be the leader. I've played every other role in various games but never summoned up the courage to give tanking a serious shot.

I did a bit of tanking in WoW after the Dungeon Finder came out with both a Warrior and a Pally. It was exhilirating - not because of the game play but because of the shitstorm of grief I was expecting from the people I pugged with. Didn't get as much as I anticipated apart from a couple of dicks but wow - what a rush. I fully intend to be Vanguard/Juggernaut tanking in SWTOR from the off.

OTOH, the only game I've ever healed in is TF2.

[ajax34i]

What is a bubble healer?

The term originated with CoH, I think, and is a support character that doesn't actually have a healing ability but has forcefields / bubbles that can prevent damage completely.

[Murgos]

What makes healing look dull from outside of beta is that it all seems to be regular direct heal.

No wards, hots, combat buffing, debuffs, control, or any other cool shit that adds flavour to support. The heal trees appear to be literally all heal all the time.

Nonsense.  You are confusing the trees with the class abilities.  The trees have some extra skills you can unlock but most of your skills come from the class trainer and are unlocked as you level based on class and advanced class.

All those thing you said aren't in the game actually are in the game and the different healing AC's have more or less of them depending on the class.