SWTOR

[Numtini]

I love playing healers. Lots of us do.

[Ingmar]

Healers have never been the bottleneck in games I've played for the most part (there were a couple cycles in WoW raiding where our particular group ran low on them, sure). There were always enough of them in DAOC* and CoX, doesn't seem to be a shortage of minstrels in LOTRO, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a cleric in DDO, etc. WoW is a bit of an outlier on that topic in my experience.

*Granted every once in a while you'd get stuck with that one aug healer who thought he was a melee god.

[luckton]

From what I can see of the ACs page on the TOR site, it looks like the dedicated 'roles' of tank and healing for those that got them are confined solely to just one tree of the three they get.  That means you get two trees to play with DPS and utility with.  I don't think it's asking too much to put in a dual-spec feature a la WoW and let us change tactics within the confines of our AC on-the-fly.  I don't mind being a Vanguard for life...just let me be able to kill things too when another (perhaps better?) tank is already present.

[Cadaverine]

I enjoy playing healers, it's just other people that ruin it.  

Dealing with dumb ass warriors wearing holy paladin gear, and bitching that my heals suck?  Idiot dps that don't use assist, and get splattered?  No thanks.  Running with a regular group of competent players, and I enjoy healing just fine.  I get a sense of satisfaction from keeping everyone standing when things go sideways.  The fact that playing a healer means I can usually get groups on demand is just icing on the cake.

[Fordel]

Healers have never been the bottleneck in games I've played for the most part (there were a couple cycles in WoW raiding where our particular group ran low on them, sure). There were always enough of them in DAOC* and CoX, doesn't seem to be a shortage of minstrels in LOTRO, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a cleric in DDO, etc. WoW is a bit of an outlier on that topic in my experience.

*Granted every once in a while you'd get stuck with that one aug healer who thought he was a melee god.

That's because your personal experience is a sheltered one with a small group of people who are willing to rotate the bitch roles among ourselves. You also almost always have a guaranteed Duo in any MMO you play.


Like, if you actually played in a realm that had PEOPLE in it, you would know there were never enough healers to go around.  

[Arrrgh]

The smaller group sizes won't help either.  You'll need a tank/healer for every two DPS instead of WoW's one tank/healer for every three DPS.

[Sky]

After playing a tank in Rift, I went for healer. It was actually kind of fun letting dumbasses die, even if it put a damper on the group progress through an instance. And I wouldn't do it right away, everyone makes mistakes. But if the tank is incapable of pulling properly or the dps is not assisting or gaining more aggro than it can shed, the fun part is watching them die then blame it on me and try to get me kicked from the group. Whether they went or I did, it worked out ok in the end.

Rift had a good combo during the first beta event, a Justicar-based melee dps where you could self-heal the damage you dealt and then overflow that to a target friendly (the tank). That was maybe the most pure fun grouping role imo. They did have a few good ideas for shaking up the healing game to something more interesting than healbitch.

[Numtini]

I see the bottleneck these days being tank. And playing both cleric and tank in rift, I see the same kind of abuse that was once reserved for clerics being dumped primarily on tanks and I suspect that's why. (I certainly won't queue for a tanking role if I'm tired or feeling cranky.)

[Malakili]

There are actually a reasonable number people who deliberately seek out and enjoy the dedicated healer role, giving them something to do is not necessarily bad.

While this is true, the number that enjoy it never seems to meet demand. 

If you're wanting to accomplish a group encounter, what two things are almost always being searched for?  Tank and healer.   I'd argue that many of those that claim to "enjoy playing a healer" do it more to ensure a spot in groups rather than because they genuinely enjoy it.  They enjoy the phat lewtz.  Playing a healer is their mechanism for obtaining them. 

I will confess that I enjoy playing a healer in Rift.  I think it's because Rift did an excellent job of coupling pew pew to my healy healy as a chloromancer.   

I like the reactive rather than proactive style (well, I like both really, but I like the reactive one a bit better).  I like constantly judging the situation and making a call on who to heal and which heal to cast.  By comparison it seems to me that DPS is more about perfecting a rotation (and a few do X when Y scenarios), which is also fun, but a bit less to my liking. 

[Amaron]

If you look at the page Sky posted: http://www.swtor.com/info/systems/advanced-classes

You're advanced class is in effect you're actual class.   Each class has 2 talent trees and 1 "shared" tree that is duplicated in the other advanced class.   The different trees have different roles.   The powertech bounty hunter is essentially a WoW warrior.  It gets a Prot tree an Arms tree and a "shared" Fury tree.

I'm not going to give them any points for this frankly.   It's cut and paste WoW class system with less talent trees.  I might forgive it because Bounty Hunters are cool and Warriors are stupid.

[sam, an eggplant]

What I can't figure out is why you guys are talking release dates when the game still isn't into real closed beta yet. They're still doing those 3 day strictly limited preview betas, as far as I can tell.

[luckton]

What I can't figure out is why you guys are talking release dates when the game still isn't into real closed beta yet. They're still doing those 3 day strictly limited preview betas, as far as I can tell.

I've got this thing called 'Google' that would prove you wrong 

[sam, an eggplant]

I watched a couple leak videos, and they're all comprised of level 1-15 newbie-land gameplay.

[Amaron]

What I can't figure out is why you guys are talking release dates when the game still isn't into real closed beta yet. They're still doing those 3 day strictly limited preview betas, as far as I can tell.

It's about 30% into the closed beta cycle.

[Paelos]

If I may dip into amateur psychoanalysis, the people I'm thinking of do it because they have a need to feel needed.  As opposed to people like me, who play tanks because we need to feel in control.  

Yep, most tanks play tanks because they want to lead, not because they like the actual mechanics of tanking. I am the same.

[sam, an eggplant]

So they aren't just doing the 3 day limited betas? I wonder why none of those videos have leaked.

I'm all bummed out now. I was in the 3 day preview beta almost a year ago, and hoped that would get me in the "real" closed beta. Guess not.

Edit: After reading around a bit, I think you're wrong and they're still doing 3 day limited betas.

[luckton]

http://e3.gamespot.com/live-show/live-show-day-1/#toggle_video

Backtrack the feed to 1:05:00 and watch a live feed of Alderan.

EDIT: Finished watching.  It's a decent 15 minute segment where BW shows off the scalability of instanced areas.  For example, the Alderan area they showed could be soloed, but because you went in with a group, the objectives and difficulty scale upward.  Upon hitting the actual instanced part that would take you away from the open world, you get story feeds and stuff to keep you engaged.

Combat highlights I liked:

- Force jumping
- Smuggler grabbing a rocket launcher to take out a field generator
- Tropper PoV 

[Merusk]

I enjoy playing healers, it's just other people that ruin it.  

This.  Though I've gotten over the 'idiots bitching at me' part and bitch back now, pointing out said deficiencies.   If I get kicked I know my queue is short enough to not care.  Doubly so as a tank.  

In fact I've taken a perverse pleasure in a few pugs of just sighing after a wipe, saying "interrupt next time" and quitting group.  Heh.

[Bunk]

Just looking at the imperial side, three of the four base classes have an Advanced Class that includes a healing skill line. Of course then, the question becomes whether it will be feasible to take skills from more than one line.

[Cosmik]

Live stream with Daniel Erikson at http://live-event.ea.com/e3/chat/star-wars on now.

Bounty Hunter gets a Jawa companion called "Blizz". What do Smugglers get, "Turbo"?

[Lucas]

Jawa companion 

[luckton]

I want a Hutt companion 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Can you get more than one companion or can they change class?

[luckton]

Can you get more than one companion or can they change class?

You get a bunch of companions it seems...was getting mixed messages from the live feed dev.  He made it sound like the companions could be respeced to different roles, but then he also talked about how they're going to be doing another companion pass-through, so things could change.

[Velorath]

Can you get more than one companion or can they change class?

I'm not sure how you could have been following this thread all this time and not know if you can get more than one companion or not.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Can you get more than one companion or can they change class?

I'm not sure how you could have been following this thread all this time and not know if you can get more than one companion or not.

I'm getting conflicting statements.  Things like "The bounty hunters get a jawaa named jizzmop" make it sound like there's only one guy for them.

[Velorath]

Can you get more than one companion or can they change class?

I'm not sure how you could have been following this thread all this time and not know if you can get more than one companion or not.

I'm getting conflicting statements.  Things like "The bounty hunters get a jawaa named jizzmop" make it sound like there's only one guy for them.

Each class has it's own selection of companions you can pick up.  You can select one at a time to accompany you while the rest hang out on your ship where you assign them to craft stuff or run treasure hunting missions.

[Amaron]

Edit: After reading around a bit, I think you're wrong and they're still doing 3 day limited betas.

Read between the lines.

[sam, an eggplant]

If he was in the beta, he would be permitted to outright say so without breaking NDA.

[luckton]

If he was in the beta, he would be permitted to outright say so without breaking NDA.

I'm not in the beta.  The rules of this forum prevent me from disclosing further.  Let's just leave it at "my Google jujitsu is apparently greater than yours.

Edit 1: Raid trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnV9iCzGeSg&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

[Chimpy]

If he was in the beta, he would be permitted to outright say so without breaking NDA.

It depends on the wording of the NDA. If the NDA specifically states "do not disseminate to anyone in any fashion that you are a part of this program" then they would be breaking NDA by saying they were a part of the program.

Just because a lot of companies word their NDAs in a fashion to allow mentioning the presence of the NDA, does not mean that all do.

[Malakili]

If he was in the beta, he would be permitted to outright say so without breaking NDA.

It depends on the wording of the NDA. If the NDA specifically states "do not disseminate to anyone in any fashion that you are a part of this program" then they would be breaking NDA by saying they were a part of the program.

Just because a lot of companies word their NDAs in a fashion to allow mentioning the presence of the NDA, does not mean that all do.

I've never understood that. 

Person 1: Are you in the beta
Person 2(in beta): Uh, I can't say.
Person 3(not in beta: Nope!

GEEEEEEEE I wonder whats going on here.

[Margalis]

Ok, everyone NOT in beta raise your hands!

[Draegan]

I'm not in beta. :(

[luckton]

Gotta love 3rd party peripheral makers.  Apparently while pimping their ToR-themed gear, Razor was quoted as saying the following:

"Today we are looking at the Star Wars: The Old Republic peripherals that we designed with LucasArts and BioWare that are coming out WITH the game later this year… HOPEFULLY"

“These are the official peripherals for Star Wars: The Old Republic and their coming out hopefully November.”