Today I finished the second-to-last SWTOR expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire (KotFE) for the second time. Sadly I didn’t write down when I finished it for the first time, but according to this post, it was probably the first week of January 2018. That said, while I liked it the first time, I have to say I’m not that impressed anymore. Spoilers ahead, but it’s been nearly 3 years.

• Losing all your companions suck, plain and simple
• I don’t like that you can’t meaningfully interrupt your play session during a chapter, but at least they’re reasonably short
• It’s too much on rails. Do this, do that. Sure, the original planet quest lines are also mostly linear, but it’s an open world and I can choose to stop after every non-instanced step
• Somehow I didn’t mind doing Makeb 5 times in a row, but repeating this after just 9 months was already a bit meh.

Also apparently I can’t screenshot during cutscenes anymore, missed ome of the more funny parts. But of course there’s YouTube.

• Can I have your stuff? (YouTube)
• Vette and Spewie (YouTube)
• Did you really just say that? (YouTube)
• Dretcher’s mail (local image)

So all in all, it’s not bad but I like it a lot less than the classic story line, or Makeb, or Yavin 4, or (of course, as it’s my favorite) Rishi. Except Chapter 13 (the heist) – this is hands down the best chapter of all, and one of my favorite moments in the whole game (story-wise, the gameplay isn’t too exciting).
Maybe I’m a bit unfair here though, I definitely had more problems on my first playthrough with a fresh 70 than now with a toon in 230 gear. So maybe it feels less “on rails” and is a bit more challenge than “oh, mob group, 2x force quake, done”. But I deliberately didn’t play on Veteran mode because I mostly wanted to get it done on a second char, and seeing if there are any differences between Empire and Republic (I didn’t see any).
I guess there are more things where I’m a little unfair in general:

• The alliance base on Odessen is actually pretty cool
• I like the “give 10 resources to some NPCs and get legacy-bound armor”
• I like collecting companions

But I think it hasn’t aged well in regards to outleveling it. Sure, you could always just level to 70 and ignore everything after Corellia (assuming you want all of your default companions and do your class story, I surely do). But I think you can even better ignore everything after Ziost, that’s a really handy daily zone to unlock, but KotFE/KotET only bring you new companions, but in turn may take some away. That said, content in older expansions in games like WoW is also meaningless and you’d probably skip it if you hadn’t (until BfA) needed to kinda level there to get to max level anyway unless you only ran dungeons, which I think is more the exception than the norm. Anyway, I don’t hate it but I was a little let down.
But I’m also kind of a completionist (mostly for achievements), so there’s a few TODOs, just not sure if I will do the “refuse” ones now or on a less important toon.

• Play 20 matches to recruit M1-4X
• Complete the 2 Blizz achievements I missed on the first time
• Reject Sgt. Rusk
• Reject Broonmark
• Reject Xalek
• Reject Skadge
• Reject Dr. Lokin

In other news, the current Conquest (Revenge of the Revanites) seems to be a really easy one, as I managed to complete it twice on the BH and once on the Sage. Too bad there’s actually 6 more characters, who all still have their “do a conquest” quest.

I recently saw an interesting topic on r/swtor about ranking your companions, especially the starting companions.
So here’s a list of the eight starting companions:
Khem Val, Vette, Mako, Kira Carsen (T7), Aric Jorgan, Qyzen Fess, Corso Riggs, Kaliyo Djannis.
Which one do I dislike most?
That’s kind of easy (and reddit also seemed to agree mostly), it’s Corso. Whiny, annoying, kind of a redneck. I even had to take him as a romance for lack of options :/
But this brings me a more interesting list. Which companions (overall) do I like or dislike?
Favorite companions (starting with most liked)

• Trooper: Aric Jorgan, Tanno Vik (somehow fun), Elara Dorne, M1-4X (funny lines)
• Smuggler: Risha (awesome), Akaavi Spar (kinda awesome), Bowdaar (kinda ok)
• Jedi Knight: Kira (not sure why), Lord Scourge (ok)
• Jedi Consular: Nadia (fun), Qyzen (earnest, but ok), Holiday (and Tharan)
• Bounty Hunter: Mako (awesome), Gault Rennow (good interaction)
• Sith Warrior: Vette, Dark Side Jaesa Willsaam (weird but good)
• Sith Inquisitor: Khem Val, Andronikos Revel, Talos Drellik (quirky)
• Imperial Agent: Kaliyo (chaotic), SCORPIO (evil)

 
Worst companions (starting with least liked)

• Trooper: Yuun (too weird, but he’s actually mediocre, or ok. not bad)
• Smuggler: Corso, Guss (reminds me of Jar Jar)
• Jedi Knight: Rusk (too bland), T7 (too beepy), Doc (too smarmy)
• Jedi Consular: Felix Iresso (too bland), Zenith (sentences too short, not that that bad tho)
• Bounty Hunter: Skadge (annoying)
• Sith Warrior: Broonmark (annoying), Malavai Quinn (too uptight, not really bad)
• Sith Inquisitor: Xalek (not sure why)
• Imperial Agent: Doctor Lokin (boring), Ensign Temple (unremarkable), Vector (long-winded)

Overall best companions? Consular, Smuggler, BH, Inquisitor (not in order)
Worst overall companions? Jedi Knight (only Kira rocks), Trooper (somehow none of them is awesome)

So I made it and kinda forgot the screenshot, bah. My Bounty Hunter is CL 300 and I could finally buy that sweet +25% Command XP buff for 2m credits. Then I continued by doing all the weeklies and then Oricon (yay, first time there I guess. Or maybe second time, but I couldn’t remember anything… I don’t like it, it reminds me of… Felwood? Eastern Plaguelands? Meh.) on my Sage, which resulted in Command 134. But no, I’m not desperately rushing him towards 300 as well – just trying to finish the Conquest a 2nd time this week. My sub will renew on the 15th and I thought about letting it lapse now, not being there for 2 weeks and planning to buy BfA when I’m back, but I’ve not decided yet. I’ll probably want to play on the weekend after the 15th…
So, how does it look now for the 4 mirror classes and the potential 4x +25% CXP boosts?

• Bounty Hunter/Trooper – BH at 300, Commando is at 49
• Consular/Inquisitor – Sage at 134, Assassin is at 4
• Smuggler/Agent – Scoundrel at 74, Operative at 2
• Warrior/Knight – Juggernaut at 63, Sentinel at 5

So in terms of “wasted” levels, there’s only my Commando – but she’s fun to play. Apparently I made some correct choices, even before I thought about this. More likely it was just pure luck – the Sage is launch day char, the BH was created a week after launch I guess and the Scoundrel might be as old, or at least from 2012.
Silly number games, anyway.