Leveling along in SWTOR

Still enjoying my renewed interest in SW:TOR, also the 2nd month of subscription kicked in. I wrote about Legendary last time, I’ve managed to get some more levels since then.

  • Bounty Hunter: Command Level to 97, Item Rating to 231
  • Scoundrel to 70, but that might have been before Legendary
  • Jedi Sentinel to 70
  • Jedi Sage (my main at launch) to 65, just finished Rishi, on to Yavin 4
  • Commando to 61
  • a fresh Jedi Shadow to 33
  • unchanged:
    • Sith Assassin at 50
    • Operative at 50
    • Sniper at 17

So it looks like I want a few more 70s, ticking off some achievements along the way. Command Level 300 is another goal, but as I wrote grinding Dailies at max level.. meh. I’m speeding up the leveling by cycling through toons who have rested XP and that I feel like playing.
I got a little more into Galactic Strongholds (Housing) and in addition to my basic apartments on Dromund Kaas and Coruscant I now own a small palace on Nar Shaddaa which isn’t fully unlocked yet, but I do have the 65% points bonus for Conquests. I also finished 2 of those already, which I hadn’t even tried before.
On a side note, WoW’s Battle for Azeroth expansion is supposed to hit in 3 weeks and I usually subscribed a month before expansions if I wasn’t playing at the time – not sure how to proceed now. On the one hand, one MMO is usually enough at a time for me, and SWTOR is fun. On the other hand.. it has been a while and I’m kinda keen how WoW plays… I might hold up until September or October when the weather gets worse and I have more time to play…

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Legendary, a bit late

As I wrote at the end of last year I was trying to get my 8th Level 50 character in SW:TOR for the Legendary flair, and then I kinda stopped playing. Didn’t really play anything the last 3 months, and only a bit of Diablo 3 before that.
But around 2 weeks ago I started with SW:TOR again, first just to try if it’s fun again, then I resubbed quite soon. Anyway, my Zabrak Trooper is Level 50 now, I am legendary, and Zabrak is unlocked as well, yay. Played the Rattataki Sniper for an hour or two as well, so that’s the next project – or maybe continue playing the Trooper for a while. It’s been long enough that I did Makeb, so maybe I should. Or just continue to grab a few more Command Levels on my 70 Powertech, but as usual the endgame grind isn’t really for me 😐

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Diablo 3 – Season 13

Oh boy am I glad that I skipped a season, at least I think that’s one reason I was excited all week until Season 13 would start and this is the first time ever that I’m not only happy with my progress, I actually am further than I expected. I don’t know exactly when the Season started on the EU realms on Friday, due to RL I could only start playing at 22:30 – so of course Level 70 was out in the first night. I think I got to Level 20ish, then managed to get to 68.5 on Saturday night before having to quit early because I felt sick and was too tired to play. Doozing off mid rift, not fun. But I felt a lot better after 11h of sleep and quickly went for 70 before lunch. Since then we’ve been duoing as usual and after 18h 45 of /played (with some afk) I just finished Slayer (for the 2nd time ever, I think) and I’m pretty happy. OK, it helped that the Invoker’s Set Dungeon is ridiculously easy compared to some of the other ones.

2018-02-25 19_04_33-Diablo III
Female Crusader with Thorns of the Invoker

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2017 in review

The year is nearing its end and so it’s time for a new round of “what happened?”.
What I played a lot:

  • WoW: Legion
  • SW:TOR
  • Guild Wars 2
  • Marvel Heroes
  • Ragnarok Restart
  • InfiniPicross, Picross Touch & Picross Luna

Completed:

  • Mass Effect 3
  • Fallout Shelter (146h, 34/35 achievements)
  • InfiniPicross (it’s infinite, but 27h and 100% achievements have to count)
  • Picross Touch (“completed”, 60h, 13/18 achievements, 550+ games played)

Played a bit:

  • Party Hard
  • Project Highrise
  • Crypt of the Necrodancer
  • Rise to Ruins
  • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
  • WildStar
  • EVE Online
  • TESO (The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited)

Gaming expenses in 2017:

  • SW:TOR: 3x 11 EUR
  • WoW: 4x 13 EUR
  • Diablo 3: 15 EUR for Rise of the Necromancer
  • WildStar: no idea, website says zero
  • Xbox 360: 0 EUR
  • GameBoy Advance: bought some used cartrdiges at a retro fair, 20 EUR iirc
  • Games on Steam: ~36 EUR – Templar Battleforce, InfiniPicross, Party Hard, Submerged, Cities: Skylines, TESO, Rise to Ruins
  • Games on GOG: ~14 EUR – Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Project Highrise, Pinata(Deadlight, meh)
  • Games on Bundlestars/Fanatical: 1 EUR
  • Hardware: 17 EUR for a SteamLink + Game bundle
  • Marvel Heroes: 30 EUR for ingame currency, via Steam
  • Guild Wars 2: 80 EUR for the expansion

This means: 298 EUR in 2017, at ~25 EUR per month. (I actually needed to doublecheck this, it seemed awfully low before I added GW2).

  • Amount of MMO subscription months paid for: 7
  • Bought stuff in the shop: Marvel Heroes
  • Full price games: 1 (GW2: Path of Fire) (and a D3 expansion, which was not full price…)

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This is gonna be legen -wait for it- dary

After my last post I was pretty busy playing and levelling in SW:TOR but Christmas has taken its toll and I think yesterday I logged in for the first time in 2 weeks.
My most important in-game goals are still finishing the KotET expansion (and so the “main” story minus the latest patch I guess) and getting the “Legendary” flair for having levelled one of each base class to 50, including finishing the story line of the original game.
On KotET, I just started Chapter VI (of 9) and hope to finish it in the next week, as I’m not sure I’ll renew. It’s not that I’m opposed to the game in any way, but it lost momentum and I’d rather have an official break for a few weeks now.
Regarding the Legendary thing, I’m only missing a Trooper class at 50.

  • 70 Cyborg Powertech (Bounty Hunter, check)
  • 70 Chiss Sith Juggernaut (Sith Warrior, check)
  • 55 Mirialan Jedi Sage (Jedi Consular, check)
  • 52 Miraluka Jedi Sentinel (Jedi Knight, check)
  • 51 Twi’lek Scoundrel (Smuggler, check)
  • 50 Sith Pureblood Sith Assassin (Sith Inquisitor, check)
  • 50 Human Operative (Imperial Agent, check)
  • 26 Zabrak Commando (Trooper, y u no 50 yet?)
  • 14 Rattataki Sniper (Imperial Agent, take two)

And *of course* I’d be interested in playing a Mercenary, Sith Marauder, Jedi Shadow, Jedi Guardian, Gunslinger, Sith Sorcerer, and Vanguard as well. ARGH.
Also, maybe I should go into detail which classes I liked most. Powertech is still a lot of fun and after starting again in October this is my main, no questions asked. Jedi Sentinel was ok, but not my favorite. Sith Juggernaut was better, more Charge – AoE – Continue than slowpoke hitting things. Stealth is always good when soloing, but I think I liked Operative less than Scoundrel and Assassin. But maybe I also just really love my Twi’lek Smuggler a lot more.

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Welcome to Tulak Hord

So yeah, apparently the big server merge worked (not flawlessly, they had to extend the maintenance from 12h to ~17h and restart something, but they’re up now). The login screen tells me I’m at 9/26 characters although the patch notes say I should have 24 slots – maybe I bought 2 more slots at some point? Unlikely, but whatever. Preferred should give me 12 slots, so still some room.
Had to renamed one of my toons, the Level 14 Sniper. So not sure if I was active enough to have denied someone else their names or those other names were just unique enough to not clash. Whatever – quite happy my ~5 main toons didn’t have to be renamed.
Everything else seems to work, they even managed to keep the keybindings, awesome – although I didn’t play yet. just log a few toons. By not having more than one Legacy and only one Guild per faction the hard merge stuff shouldn’t have applied to me anyway.

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Waiting for the big SWTOR server merge

So the server merge I mentioned is supposed to be happening right now, so I can’t play today. 😐
GW2 is still a bit on the back burner (but I do like that I can log in, do a single pvp match and/or a jumping puzzle and some quests and have earned my 2g daily) but I think that’s ok.
I’ve finished Chapter VI of the SWTOR KotFE expansion on my Bounty Hunter (is that my new main? I don’t know, my only max-level character at least.) and meanwhile finished the original Level 50 story line on Sith Juggernaut and Sith Assassin – so three times on Empire side and two times on Republic side so far, with the following races unlocked: Mirialan, Twi’lek, Chiss (bought Legacy unlock anyway), Cyborg, and Sith Pureblood. Played the Sniper for a bit (still on Dromund Kaas), created a new Trooper and already deleted her after Ord Mantell again (don’t ask). Already recreated and ready for action. FemShep’s voice (Jennifer Hale) is a bit irritating, but still really good.
Speaking of voice actors, as I’m playing all the story lines, and mostly solo – I think I can say I’m playing this just like another Bioware Single Player RPG like Mass Effect, especially on the dead server – but that should be remedied by tomorrow, right? I love the voice actress of the Bounty Hunter (Grey DeLisle) and the Smuggler (Kath Soucie), whereas the Sith Inquisitor (Xanthe Elbrick) and Jedi Consular (Nolan North) are kinda fitting but not so good as the other two. The Sith Warrior (Mark Bazeley) is a little inbetween. Honorable mentions for these companions/characters: Risha, Mako, Jaesa, Vette, and Thana Vesh.
So I guess I should finally progress a little more in KotFE, gain some more Command Levels (why do I always stop at “max-level” and switch to alts so quick?) and there’s still a few stories to explore: Imperial Agent, Trooper, Jedi Knight… I also don’t have any Profession maxed yet, but least a few in the 400+ range. Also saving up for that 10m credits achievement. And the subscription was renewed a few days ago, but I don’t plan on stopping right now, let’s see after week 8-9 🙂

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So much SWTOR

I seem to have fallen into a SWTOR-shaped hole this last month. I should’ve jotted down /played when I started, but I forgot.

  • 70 Cyborg Powertech – 3d 16h
  • 64 Chiss Sith Juggernaut – 2d 1h
  • 55 Mirialan Jedi Consular – 10d 17h (no surprise, raid char at launch)
  • 51 Twi’lek Smuggler – 2d 1h
  • 11 Rattataki Sniper
  • 16 Sith Pureblood Sith Assassin (new)

I’ve finished Yavin 4 (Shadow of Revan) on the Powertech right now, the Juggernaut is still stuck in Voss (not even finished Episode 3) and the Smuggler just finished the personal story and Corellia and is ready for Makeb (but I am not ready for Makeb again after only a week, I guess).
I still want to start solo-levelling that Trooper and duo-levelling the Sniper and Juggernaut.
The Command System at 70 is a bit confusing at first, but so far no major roadblocks. I’m also working on crafting, as usual. Still mostly happy with the Crew Skill system where you send your minions off. Downside: waiting, but I often browse and chat while alt-tabbed, so usually not a problem.

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This blog is now 8 years old

As I wrote somewhere, this wasn’t my first gaming blog, but it’s the one I kept.
This is the first post, made on Oct 18, 2009. It started as a WoW blog because I really only played WoW at that time. This wouldn’t really change for a few years – at least not in the sense that I played a game enough that I would write about it.
This should be post #138.
I’m still mostly playing MMOs, but I’m not raiding and hardly grouping outside of RL friends, so I guess that makes me the prototype casual pretend-single-player MMO player. And I’m having a blast. At least when I’m not on a month long gaming break, which is also fine.
Actually there were quite a few MMOs/notable expansions I only started (or were released) after this blog was created:

  • SW:TOR launched on December 20, 2011 – played at launch
  • Marvel Heroes launched on June 4, 2013 – I started in December 2014
  • TESO launched on April 4, 2014, I started in 2017
  • WildStar launched on June 3, 2014 – played at launch
  • Guild Wars 2 launched on August 28, 2012, but I only started in spring 2015
  • WoW: Cataclysm – December 7, 2010 – played at launch
  • WoW: Mists of Pandaria – September 25, 2012 – played at launch, stopped in April 2014 iirc
  • WoW: Warlords of Draenor – November 13, 2014 – started in December, stopped in January
  • WoW: Legion – August 30, 2016 – resubscribed a month before launch, stayed for a while

But here’s the oldtimers, being released more than 8 years ago:

  • EVE Online launched on May 23, 2003, but I started in 2014 iirc
  • Ragnarok Online launched in the EU on April 15, 2004, but I started in December 2003
  • The Lord of the Rings Online – April 24, 2007
  • WoW launched on February 11, 2005 – but I started in May 2006 iirc
  • WoW: The Burning Crusade – January 16, 2007 – played at launch
  • WoW: Wrath of the Lich King – November 13, 2008 – played at launch

Not even trying something similar for non-MMOs because I don’t even remember when I bought a game at launch day. But I’ve also not just waited for a sale. I tend to not be overexcited and just at some point happen to pick them up if they sound interesting. One exception is Diablo 3, incl expansions.
Let’s see, I’m really bad with predictions (but I don’t do them in my year-end post anyway) so here’s a list with the “moderately interesting” label for the next time:

  • Albion Online
  • Crowfall
  • Destiny 2, the beta really hooked me.. but now.. MMOs, not shooters
  • Wild West Online

And yes, this is a scheduled post because I would’ve surely forgotten to publish it on the correct day 😛

This blog is now 8 years old Read More »