Noob questions

[Nebu]

I've soloed a number of characters to 50 and my biggest issue was having a backlog of quests that were green/gray. 

If you have a gap, you're not exploring zones.  There are quest hubs outside of the story path.  They offer great xp and good rewards.  The end of planet quests are pretty long but offer RIDICULOUS xp when finished.  Also make sure that you do the bonus for each and every quest.  That's where the gravy is.

[Zetor]

The main problem is not level gaps, it's having to redo the same planet quests over and over on each alt (unless you're a subber and do flashpoints / WZs / space combat to fill in the gaps between story missions)

[Ingmar]

I probably only have about 50-60% overlap between 2 characters if I'm really trying to do different stuff, and can pretty much skip any one planet I want to other than the story quest in the 2nd half. It's only right at the start where you're mostly stuck repeating (which is probably why it feels more repetitive than it is.)

I can't stress enough what a big difference doing the bonus series for a given planet can do in terms of changing up your progression path.

[Sjofn]

Yeah there have been a couple of times where I've thought to myself, "I don't want to do the next planet," and just done a bonus series somewhere. Bam, I don't have to do that planet I wanted to avoid except for the class story parts (which I WANT to do).

I do admit, though, if I've started a planet's quests, I am usually reluctant to abandon it mid-way through, even if I hate the planet and I'm now high enough for the next one. Dunno why!

[Nebu]

"I don't want to do the next planet,"

I'm looking at you, Nar Shaddah.

[Ingmar]

Yeah unfortunately Nar Shaddaa comes early enough that you usually can't skip the whole thing. Another planet in the level 15-25 range would probably be the highest leverage thing they could do for varying the leveling process.

[Zetor]

Yea, for my republic characters it was Coruscant (in the Dark Ages before always-on level 1 sprint), Nar Shaddaa, Taris and some of Tatooine that made me want to stab things.

[Sjofn]

See, I like Republic Nar Shaddaa fine. I like it a lot, actually. Empire Nar Shaddaa is way more irritating, though.

The planets I absolutely loathe are Taris (FUCK YOU EMPIRE TARIS ... Republic Taris is easy to skip so my hating on it has eased significantly) and Belsavis (Republic is far more hateful than Empire). I also often skip chunks of Balmorra (although I did Empire Balmorra AND its bonus series this last time through, because I felt like it).

Coruscant has never bothered me, because the flow is so simple. Get sent to section, do section in its entirely, port back to the hub, fly to new chunk. Dromund Kaas is way more annoying.

[Ingmar]

I do think they could do a better job of leading you into the bonus series stuff, sometimes the starter guy is hidden on the fleet somewhere and people don't know about it.

The other thing on my wishlist is a different quest icon for heroics.

[Amaron]

I always use rested xp and daily warzones to extensively skip quests.

[eldaec]

I hate balmorra and alderaan crew checking in.

The fact that everyone hates different planets probably says something good.

[koro]

Empire Taris and Republic Balmorra are both horrible with terrible quest flow. Republic Belsavis is annoying, though I don't mind Empire Belsavis so much. I actually like Alderaan on both sides, and Hoth is good too, if a bit eye strain-y. I can't even begin to give a shit about Quesh, I've never finished Nar Shaddaa on Empire, and Corellia is an utter nightmare to navigate.

[eldaec]

I do think they could do a better job of leading you into the bonus series stuff, sometimes the starter guy is hidden on the fleet somewhere and people don't know about it.

The other thing on my wishlist is a different quest icon for heroics.

IMO they should be making a really big out of which storyline a mission is in (they do it sometimes for bonus stories but give them a rather too prosaic title).

I'm still surprised they aren't selling storylines for cash.

[Nebu]

I've found a way to enjoy the hell out of this game. 

Story quest.  Flash points until you get all of the drops for your class.  PvP.  Space mission dailies for filler.

If you eliminate all of the Kill x quests and obtain 10 of y crap the game is quite enjoyable.  1-49 pvp may keep me rerolling for months to come. 

[Amaron]

I'm still surprised they aren't selling storylines for cash.

They actually are.  The new content (HK+Dreadmasters) requires a pass if you have no subscription.

[Tannhauser]

Ding!  Finally got my BH to 50 after leaving him stuck on 45.  Now I want to start a new Republic hero.  I have it narrowed down to Jedi Knight and Smuggler.  Which one has the best story line?  Are Smugglers that don't go two weapon any good?  My BH was dual weapon so I want to do something else. 

Can my Imp BH mail items to my Republic toon if he is part of the legacy?

[eldaec]

Smuggler hands down for story. I'm only act 1 on jk and smuggler but this is clear already.

Scoundrels are fine but previously got nerfed and are anti-fotm. Gunslingers do shit loads of uncomplicated damage. If you aren't going to play serious business post-50 then all the classes are fine.

Personally I'd pick advanced class on the basis of whether you think stealth and healing is more or less cool than dual wield and cover.

[tazelbain]

Whats the state of PvP?

[eldaec]

1-49 reasonably fun and casual. Level 50 PvP is serious business so I don't do it.

It hasn't changed much since launch. If you had a particular beef with it then they might have fixed something I never cared about, but basically, was a fun diversion, still a fun diversion.

[Nebu]

Whats the state of PvP?

If you're  an assassin/shadow, juggernaut/guardian, or a sentinel/marauder that is reasonably well geared, pvp is awesome at 50.  If you play anything else, not so much fun unless you are ridiculously well geared. . 

[Zetor]

PVP at 50 -may- be worth doing after 1.6 (only as a subber, ofc) if top-end gear will really be as easy to get as some claim. 1-49 pvp is mostly fine.

e: this assumes you like diku-style / gear-based pvp

[Sjofn]

Ding!  Finally got my BH to 50 after leaving him stuck on 45.  Now I want to start a new Republic hero.  I have it narrowed down to Jedi Knight and Smuggler.  Which one has the best story line?  Are Smugglers that don't go two weapon any good?  My BH was dual weapon so I want to do something else.  

Smuggler is better early, story-wise, but JK's act 3 is stronger, so it really just depends if you like jedis or not, I think. The smuggler one is definitely funnier, though, and you get to sleep with WAY MORE PEOPLE as a smuggler. But the smuggler also has Corso Riggs, although if you're playing a dude smuggler, he's only about half as annoying.

As for AC, I prefered the scoundrel (1 pistol), but you shouldn't avoid gunslinger just because of the dual weapon. The BH dual pistols and the smuggler dual pistols play pretty differently. I played my scoundrel as a healer for the versatility, and I found the gunslinger a pain in the ass to solo with (smuggler's healer doesn't show up until Hoth) (JK's doesn't show up until Balmorra, which is the equivalent to Empire's Taris level-wise), but I kinda sux at deepz, so take that however you like!

Can my Imp BH mail items to my Republic toon if he is part of the legacy?

You can mail stuff cross-faction now, yeah. No idea if it requires the legacy to even be unlocked, but it won't be an issue for you and your level 50 dude either way. :P




I also disagree with Nebu on what classes are "awesome" at 50 in PvP. My scoundrel is not ridiculously well geared (pretty sure, anyway, I mean he still has the fresh-50 free PvP weapons and implants, I think, and the generic war zone commendation gear) and he is a goddamn hoot, except for when he gets assist-trained, but that's the nature of being assist trained and I don't get my panties in a twist over it. Pair him with a tank and oh my God, it is hilarious.

[koro]

PVP at 50 -may- be worth doing after 1.6 (only as a subber, ofc) if top-end gear will really be as easy to get as some claim.

Who's claiming that? The gear grind isn't going away, or even changing, unless they've suddenly decided to do away with the terrible Ranked Warzone system that nobody uses. It's just another round of the soft reset PvP gear's been having ever since 1.2 when a new PvE tier hits, where they drop the lowest comm-bought tier of gear and move the tier above it down into its slot to make room for a new set.

[Nebu]

I also disagree with Nebu on what classes are "awesome" at 50 in PvP. My scoundrel is not ridiculously well geared (pretty sure, anyway, I mean he still has the fresh-50 free PvP weapons and implants, I think, and the generic war zone commendation gear) and he is a goddamn hoot, except for when he gets assist-trained, but that's the nature of being assist trained and I don't get my panties in a twist over it. Pair him with a tank and oh my God, it is hilarious.

I play a 50 sniper and 50 operative (healer) that are both pretty decent rank and geared.  I think I want to come play on your server.  I get LOL smash trained for 7k each person whenever I try to heal in a warzone. 

[Zetor]

PVP at 50 -may- be worth doing after 1.6 (only as a subber, ofc) if top-end gear will really be as easy to get as some claim.

Who's claiming that? The gear grind isn't going away, or even changing, unless they've suddenly decided to do away with the terrible Ranked Warzone system that nobody uses. It's just another round of the soft reset PvP gear's been having ever since 1.2 when a new PvE tier hits, where they drop the lowest comm-bought tier of gear and move the tier above it down into its slot to make room for a new set.

Here: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=22632.msg1136016#msg1136016

Recruit Mk-1 gear is not that bad.  What makes it bad is that you aren't going to augment it.  When 1.6 hits you can get War Hero for practically no time spent.   Buy the cheapest pieces first and augment them immediately.   You'll be fighting at par very quickly.

[koro]

The current set of Recruit gear is nice, yeah. What 1.6 is doing is replacing the not-too-hard-to-get Battlemaster set with the current War Hero set (so the War Hero set is going to be acquired with normal Warzone comms), and replace War Hero at the top with Elite War Hero, which still requires a long grind of ranked comms and a trade-in of the War Hero piece occupying the same slot.

It's not lessening the gap, just shifting the goalposts.

[Sjofn]

I also disagree with Nebu on what classes are "awesome" at 50 in PvP. My scoundrel is not ridiculously well geared (pretty sure, anyway, I mean he still has the fresh-50 free PvP weapons and implants, I think, and the generic war zone commendation gear) and he is a goddamn hoot, except for when he gets assist-trained, but that's the nature of being assist trained and I don't get my panties in a twist over it. Pair him with a tank and oh my God, it is hilarious.

I play a 50 sniper and 50 operative (healer) that are both pretty decent rank and geared.  I think I want to come play on your server.  I get LOL smash trained for 7k each person whenever I try to heal in a warzone.  

I stopped paying attention to my rank eons ago, so I have no idea what rank my scoundrel is, and I am too lazy to log in and look. Server is Ebon Hawk (RP server, woo), and it seriously ain't no thang to jump into level 50 PvP there, imo. I went in with my blues, no augments, etc, fully expecting to get run over and hate it and ... it was fine. I hardly exploded in two hits to a marauder at all! And I am pretty easily frustrated in PvP, I think, perhaps Ingmar and Fordel could tell you stories of my temper tantrums over arena in WoW.  

[Zetor]

Caveat: I played a few WZs at level 50 during the come-back-weekend on Ebon Hawk with my recruit-geared sage healerand had a pretty terrible experience - 2-shotting marauders and constant pubstomping by premades. I think it depends a lot on what time of the day you are playing, too.

[Sjofn]

Could be, but I suspect it's partly because scoundrel healers are super mobile, have space vanish, etc. I wouldn't want to heal as a sage in PvP, now that I've healed as a scoundrel. You can't make me.

[Nebu]

Could be, but I suspect it's partly because scoundrel healers are super mobile, have space vanish, etc. I wouldn't want to heal as a sage in PvP, now that I've healed as a scoundrel. You can't make me.

You mean that you play with people that don't dot you every time they see you?  I find it nearly impossible to use stealth on my Op healer in a WZ.

[Sjofn]

Space vanish will still make them have to retarget you, and sometimes that's all the breathing space I need. But no, I don't get DoT'd all the time. There are many, many, many people out there who aren't 100% awesome at all times, I think sometimes you guys forget that. :P

[Amaron]

PVP at 50 -may- be worth doing after 1.6 (only as a subber, ofc) if top-end gear will really be as easy to get as some claim. 1-49 pvp is mostly fine.

1.6 isn't really changing much.  It's already ridiculously easy to get near top-end gear.  Compared to something like WoW the difference between War Hero and Battlemaster isn't significant.  You're talking a couple % statistical difference.  It's a very tiny tiny bone thrown to serious PvPers.

[Zetor]

I'm not sure, I played both WOW as a new 90 and Rift as a green-geared 50 (this was before the expansion though) and I felt much more effective / had a lot more fun than I did in swtor with my full recruit gear. In rift's case there's automatic bolstering to rank 40, and in WOW's case there's inherent resilience/pvp power now. Also in WOW there are only two tiers [honor/conquest] and conquest is the one that takes a long time - this seems pretty similar to swtor's system, to me.

e: also, while it is hard to tell how big of a statistical difference it is, on my sage I was getting 2-3shot constantly. On my tank-spec vanguard I couldn't even put a dent into anyone with a war hero title (yes, tank spec I know, but I was able to at least make healers sweat back in 1.0). YMMV I guess.

[Ingmar]

A new 90 in WoW a couple weeks/months after the release of the expansion that let you hit level 90 is not an apples to apples comparison, though. Th e real test would be a fresh 90 in WoW pvp in, say, 6 months when everyone is geared up, compared to how a fresh 50 does in SWTOR.

[Zetor]

Well yea, but my experience wasn't very different near the end of cata when I leveled a disc priest. If anything, I should probably give warzones a second look to see if my first experience was just a fluke [could've just queued into the same uber premade 4 times in a row for all I know]