Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Ian]

So, those in the first wave of pre-orders are playing now as the servers went live today.  Was wondering if anyone here will be playing, then maybe we can pick servers etc. together if anyone wants to go that route.  Just thought I would gauge interest!   

[Sir Edward]

I was totally not going to pick up this game, because I need another MMO addiction like I need a hole in the head. But I caved, and pre-ordered this morning. Since it's such a late pre-order, I may not get into the "early activation" until maybe Monday, since it's a phased roll-out.

I'm trying to find out what servers some of my other friends are planning to play on. I know they mentioned these as possibilities:

Corellian Run - PvE
Jung Ma - RP-PvP

I think they wanted to do the RP servers to play with a more mature crowd.

Right now I'm leaning toward playing a Jedi Knight Guardian, but still deciding.

[Sir Edward]

There's a discussion going on, on the SWTOR forum that has me smiling. They're talking about the pros and cons of playing a light-side or dark-side Jedi.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=2115&page=4

I tend to agree with this. If all you do is follow the Code, and take every LS option, you get a stupidly bland, uninteresting, and frankly unrealistic character.

I disagree whole-heartedly. I think it's a common misconception that good, upstanding characters are boring. Straight-laced, good characters can be very rich, compelling, and complex. My favorite example (and also the template for my own character) is Eddard Stark from the Song of Ice and Fire books.

Here we have a man who is so beholden to his own sense of honor that he never wavers from the path of good. No matter what. Not if straying makes his life easier. Not if straying makes the lives of his loved ones easier. Not if straying means saving lives for some greater good. He follows both the letter and the spirit of the law at great personal cost. Imagine the guilt he feels. The frustration. Imagine what his family thinks of him. The resentment they must nurse.

Doing good does not mean you're a grinning boy scout. It means you're doing what is right in every situation at every time regardless of popularity, safety, or outcome.

I think Anders (Justice) said it best in Dragon Age II:

"Who ever said justice was happy? Justice isn't happy. Justice is righteous. Justice is hard."

[Ian]

That's an interesting discussion.  I'm undecided on class, but I don't anticipate being able to play until normal release on Tuesday.  I'm currently MMO'less, as I couldn't maintain the level of time required to stay competitive in WoW, nor do I have the patience for the drama of a raiding guild.  I have been playing a lot of Skyrim lately, but I'm definitely willing to dip in SWTOR.  Keep me posted on where you end up.

[Sir William]

Definitely did not look into getting into this...I kind of got soured on SW games with the KOTOR games.  I do so hate the old d&d style of dice rolling to determine things like hits and such.  Target reticle could be dead on but you're missing your target nonetheless.

Still, I like the Eddard Stark reference...he would be the epitomical Jedi Knight; fans of the books will know he is a hard man, straight and true.  More of an icon than a man...if we lived during the time set forth in the SW universe, I'm pretty certain I'd be a Sith- if only because I tend to lead with the heart than the head and we all know being a Jedi is about mastering your emotions and looking to reason.  Never was real good at that.

[Sir Edward]

BTW, we ended up on Sanctum of the Exalted. It's a RP-PvE server, and doesn't have as much crowding issues right now as some of the others.

[Ian]

Did you stick with Jedi Knight Guardian?  I'm looking at Jedi Consular, not sure which spec yet though, leaning towards Shadow.

[Sir Edward]

I decided to go Consular Shadow. I watched some videos and read up on various specs. I think the guardian would have been a lot of fun, but I decided I wanted more ranged force attacks and general utility. So I'm going Shadow with a Balance spec. Up to level 15 now (played quite a bit on Friday and Saturday).

One of these evenings I wouldn't mind running the Esseles mission again. We'll need a good team for that.

Character name is Torval.

[Sir Edward]

I decided to go Consular Shadow. I watched some videos and read up on various specs. I think the guardian would have been a lot of fun, but I decided I wanted more ranged force attacks and general utility. So I'm going Shadow with a Balance spec. Up to level 15 now (played quite a bit on Friday and Saturday).

One of these evenings I wouldn't mind running the Esseles mission again. We'll need a good team for that.

Character name is Torval.

Oh yeah, forgot to elaborate. The Consulars are pretty cool. I don't know how far ahead you've looked at the skill sets and the like, but the Sage has a healing spec and the Shadow has a Tank spec, and the both have two other DPS specs.

I was thinking of going Balance in either one (the shared talent tree), since it's a DPS/utility tree that builds on the Consular's core abilities.

I wasn't sure that the stealth would be useful since I wasn't sure what your companion character would do, but apparently they get stealthed too, so it's a non-issue. So I'm liking that.

But anyway, choose carefully since it's a permanent choice as to which advanced class to take. All of the classes are supposed to be pretty equivalent in terms of DPS and overall capability, which was good to hear.

So far I know one of my friends is playing a smuggler. Not sure what his brother chose. We're going to try to meet up and do Esseles sometime soon. I ran it once yesterday and it's a pretty decent mission.

[Ian]

I loaded and patched the client all day yesterday, I think the total was somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 GB which puts WoW to shame!  The Jedi Consular seemed a little more complex than the knight, and I was drawn to it.  No re-spec option eh... hmm, wonder if they'll patch that in when the community cries about it.  I've never played a healer before (my background in WoW is an 85 worgen rogue, played a rogue from vanilla, and also had a pally alt), but the Sage has piqued my interest as well.  I really want to start playing!  In D&D I always leaned towards the hybrid fighter/wiz type builds because I loved the idea of being a proficient swordsman that could augment his martial abilities with arcane abilities and knowledge, and that's kind of how I look at the Consular.

[Ian]

Did you get the digital deluxe edition or standard and did you preorder through Origin or somewhere else?

[Sir Edward]

I pre-ordered on Wednesday through Origin, and downloaded the client while I was at work. I didn't get into the early access until Friday afternoon, as a result.

I played a night elf Druid mostly in WoW, starting in vanilla, as a cat-form DPSer. I race-changed him to Worgen as soon as that became available. I like the stealthy "get in, kill things quickly, get out" sort of tactics, and the hybrid caster/fighter classes as well, which is why that worked better for me than going as a straight rogue or mage or something in WoW.

I doubt they'll add respecs for choosing the advanced classes, since that's really the class you're going with, and they just let you get through 10 levels before choosing. But they have WoW-like respecs for the talent trees as you'd expect. No idea how much they cost though.

My impression is that the Knights (both guardians and sentinels) are pretty melee-focused classes, with a little bit of close-range single-target force abilities (and saber-throws as well). But the Consulars are definitely more force heavy. The Sage strikes me as being the true mage class, since it's full of ranged AOE attacks and the like, longer ranged force abilities, plus it has the healer spec, though it still has some melee capability. The Shadow strikes me as more of a hybrid class, with close/medium range force powers, more melee abilities than the Sage, and of course stealth. BTW, you get your first double-bladed saber for free when you pick it.

[Ian]

Preordered on origin, ran an errand and had my early access waiting when I came back.  Created a Jedi Consular on Sanctum of the Exalted, Level 5 right now.  Character's name is Trin'thalas.

[Ian]

Well, I'm waiting in queue right now since today was release day and I guess our server filled up rapidly... anyway, is it weird that I giggled with glee like a little girl when I got my first lightsaber and used my first jedi mind trick?

By the way, I went with a sage, and healed Esseles yesterday, I'm questing through Coruscant right now.  What's your character's name so I can find you?

[Sir Edward]

Awesome, yeah I grinned quite a lot when that first lightsaber went together as well. I'm a Shadow, so we're doing the same storyline. I shouted out "YES!" when I finally got my ship too (level 16, at the end of Coruscant).

Character name is Torval.

I'll try to get some time online tonight. I'm just starting Taris, which is the world you go to next after Coruscant. I really need to hit some questing etc pretty hard. What little cash I had is gone, since I started grinding up my crafting professions to get them caught up, and overshot the mark... And made some bad choices with regards to the trade network and the like, since the economy isn't well established and I'm getting used to the differences from WoW. Still, it's all pennies compared to the money we earn later.