Ding! GRATS MON!
I reached level 50 about 3 days ago, and it was a bit anti-climatic. Your Class storyline and level don't necessarily line up or go hand in hand, so even after I hit 50, I still had to hack away at a few more Class quests before I felt real achievement and closure. While I love the game play of the Jedi Sage, and have recently just discovered DPS Sage (>.< AWESOME), I was extremely disinterested in my companions, the storyline, and the ending. But in an interesting twist, that disinterest, and dissatisfaction makes me want more. Playing a character who I am more personally tied to, via the actions and choices I make, etc, might actually have made me more attached to her. I have only played her for a month and a half, and I feel close to the same attachment as I do with Covington/Aenerys, who I played for 3 years.
Companions: The Epic Love Story (Possible Spoilers)
Speaking of disinterest...
Words cannot describe my biggest disappointment with SWTOR: Female Romance Companions. The fact that companion romances have been slimmed down to one per a class is already frustrating, but making the companion romance option a disagreeable bafoon doesn't help much either. Then there's the disappointment of having a companion who I would more then willingly romance, but I can't. Meanwhile the men get interesting female companions, and some of them not even human. Doesn't seem quite fair. Why can't I romance Zenith? At least with Khem Val, who I love for Sith Inquisitor, I can understand him being a Dashade, and altogether more alien then humanoid. But Zenith is a Twi'lek. I should be allowed to romance him. I also don't quite understand the personality of Felix, and how it is at all attractive to the character I have cultivated through the Consular storyline.
"'SUP JEDI!"
Okay, I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically how I was introduced to him. When he's in combat, he's also really excited, saying things like "Did you see that? I hope you saw that." Then, when I click on him, he'll say, "Look, I know the armors nice, but the staring is creepy." Considering my companion interactions with him include him throwing himself at me within two companion missions, and telling me I'm enchanting and interesting, but then having him quip those lines, just pisses me off. And confused. But mostly annoyed.
Even though I was simply not amused by him, I thought I'd try romancing him after I got him a more attractive customization look. Yep, make a guy pretty and everything that comes out of his mouth is prettier too, or at least not too bad. Unfortunately for me, I made a wrong decision and the budding romance ended very quickly, faster then I could hit ESC. At first, it distressed me that I messed up, and pinpointed a more troubling problem for me that the romance storyline was so linear; the relationship could not be complex in any manner. Considering I was a Jedi, I am forbidden to romance, so I thought it strange that the answers to jump into a romance with Felix were very straight forward. Shouldn't I be allowed some time, or uncertainty. I was hoping I could step back and say no, with the option of maybe changing my mind. You know...drama...romance...complexity. No. I wasn't getting soap opera. I guess I shouldn't expect things to be too complex-not everyone is looking for a long drawn out, dramatic romance like me. But the linearity of it all made it feel impersonal to me.
In the end, I watched movies on youtube about what I had missed in the romance department with Felix, and I was not disappointed; in fact I was quite relieved it worked out this way. My character is very professional and closely adheres to the Jedi code. So seeing my character fall out of her set character to flirt with a homeboy Lieutenant would've been too inconsistent for me. The videos I watched weren't necessarily what I would've said (but I mean, there are only THREE options, couldn't be that much different) nor did the character look like mine. But the voice was the same, as would've been what I would've said. And it was like watching a completely different person then the one I had cultivated.
Changing Classes
It's been a while since I blogged about SWTOR in general. I mentioned before that I switched classes after gaining my legacy title, but didn't really explain why. Most of the switching had to do with combat style. Over the course of some time leveling a Consular, I realized that the decision was a good one. I'm still leveling as a healer, but dpsing feels smooth. Commando felt clunky to me because I was unable to find a way to make things flow, rotation or situational. While I did enjoy the healing and the handling of the power source (Ammo) and it's regen mechanics, I was beginning to find leveling slowing down exponentially. Battles were taking too long, unless I simply AOE'd everything down. I also simply died a lot. But as you go into higher level content, the mobs get harder. You no longer face just a few weak mobs, or one weak and one strong. Now there are groups of two strongs, three or more weaks with strongs. Elites are no longer saved for the final level of bonus quests, but a normal mob group. While the leveling difficulty curve has been ideal and refreshing, I found myself dying exponentially and my companion no longer a decent battle partner.
Consular healing is a lot more suited to leveling for me. The shields help me toss out some damage before I need to heal. In this way, Elite battles no longer take 10 minutes, but a couple. I also received my tank early in the game, and although harder to gear, he is much more reliable. I also have a good 1 min CC, which helps with the extremely crazy crowd control I've started to engage in. Force regen can sometimes be a problem if unforeseen circumstances come around. Extra mob groups pull or the fight is much longer then expected, and I can easily find myself in a bind.
I really enjoy the animations for the casting of all the spells, from simple two-fingers-in-front-of-the-forehead, or picking up chunks of ground or droids and tossing them out. I recently respec'd into Telekinetics, and discovered the joys of pulling up two chunks of ground. The simple extra detail to the animation by having me use both hands is a gift. My super aoe heal definitely brings the term "BE CLEANSED IN FIRE!" with it (Man, I miss macros). Overall, I am very happy with my class change, if only for the playstyle.
Choosing a Legacy Name: Ranting Edition
So I thought choosing a name and a character look was hard. And a class in general. Then I got my Legacy surname. Yeah, f*** this crap. Talk about spending 20 minutes figuring out what I wanted to choose for a name for ALL my characters on the server I'm on. Whoever thought of this needs to go die. I don't want all my toons, including my Sith toons to be related to each other. I am not another Skywalker. No Twincest here. Yes, you can hide it, but I don't like having everyone secretly tied to one another.
Anyways, so I eventually went with Winter as my Legacy name. For one, it's not a horrible last name. Leda Winter. Not bad. Second, it does sound cool with The ---- Legacy. The Winter Legacy. Not bad either. I wasn't really gonna go for a well known name, or some kind of clever name for only one of the characters (ie. Peach Cobbler. Yeah they do exist). I wanted something that was easily used by everyone. I do like the name because its a small hint at A Song of Fire and Ice, for my toon Daenerys. Winter is coming. ho ho ho....Speaking of which, someone named Targaryen whispered me saying, Daenerys, I am your father. I think I /facepalm'd five times. I also saw someone named Khaleesi and really just wanted to be like "IN YOUR FACE!"
Haha...
Speaking of stealing people's names, my boyfriend took Strife as a Legacy name. And no he does not have Cloud as a character name. So I bet whoever Cloud is, is going to get to his Legacy achievement, and want to go kill my boyfriend. Maybe he'll reroll Sith just to slaughter him. hahahahaa....it totally makes me laugh.
Lore and Flashpoints: Possible Spoilers
The very first Flashpoint for both factions, The Black Talon (Sith) and The Esseles (Rep) where what I call story driven Flashpoints. They have a specific storyline that pushes the Flashpoint forward. As far as I can tell, these two are the only ones, where story is a key factor in progression. These are different from other Flashpoints, which still have stories, but aren't progressed through the Flashpoint with cut scenes. Most of them consist of a.) going to Satele and getting back story, then b.) completing said Flashpoint, then returning to Satele who says "woot..." and ends the story with a little update. This is what Flashpoints are. While this doesn't bother me much, I was disappointed because I thoroughly enjoyed the Black Talon and the Esseles. Having an actual storyline, that progresses throughout the Flashpoint was a lot of fun. And racked up Social Points. :)
Well, this all changed when my guild and I did the two Flashpoints: Taral V and Maelstrom Prison. I have to admit, these two Flashpoints, while not story-driven like the first two, were a ton of fun and pushed the entire story forward in a way I wasn't expecting. I was so excited at seeing what had just unfolded that it made me fall in love with the game all over again. I admit that some things lately have been strenuous. The leveling is a lot different then I have had to deal with in a long time. And I admit that sometimes, I wish I was Sith just because, they win PvP 80% of the time, or because I want cool looking gear instead of these dumb head pieces, or I wish my companions weren't so uninteresting or annoying. But these Flashpoints took the cake for me, and I can't wait for the rest of you to enjoy them (if you haven't).
Major SPOILERS (mainly KOTOR goodness; Don't read until you've done Flashpoints: Taral 5 and Maelstrom Prison)
Taral V actually opens up with a quest, called The Jedi Prisoner. Master Oteg is a little Yoda guy who sends you off to go find a prisoner that he has been asked to get by some Jedi ghost. To make a long story short, the jedi prisoner ends up being Revan, who has been trying to manipulate the Emperor for the past years (decades, hunderds...a long time, but he hasn't aged). I found this revelation interesting, most specifically because I had experienced the Revanite storyline on Dromand Kaas on my Sith Inquisitor. His model is pretty cool. He has outlines of his old mask, which make the lore geek in me squeal. You have to convince him that his manipulation EPIC FAILED, since we are basically at war again.
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| Yes, if you read closely, I am FREAKING out! |
If there's anything about this game that you should love, it's the lore. Even though I personally found the Jedi Consular story to be a bit on the boring side, the details they have put in the story are quite amazing, if just in sheer amounts. Every now and then, there's a dialogue, or a site or sound that makes me go, wow, yeah Star Wars rocks. This game definitely brings it.
Ding!...Now what?
As far as post-50 plans, my alts include a Jedi Sentinel Knight, who I am absolutely loving. The details in combat technique are a sheer joy to experience. Master Strike = COOLEST MOVE EVER. That and two lightsabers. My BF and I are playing Sith alts too, with some old real life friends. I am enjoying the Sith Inquisitor storyline with a double-bladed lightsaber (Assassin) and loving being evil.
As for Daenerys Winter, she gets to enjoy dailies (ack), PvP (gag), and Flashpoints. A good amount of my guild is finally hitting 50, so we are slowly entering Flashpoints more. Operations/Raiding is still a question mark, but being able to enjoy each others company is a reward in itself. I am constantly reminded, every night when we play together, how much I missed everyone and how much they were apart of my love for WoW. That love is now in a different game, SWTOR, but it's still, all the more worthwhile.
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