Treek The Awesome (Quinn Is So Fired)

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I just got Treek, and so far I’m pretty happy.  Although, honestly, I was about to slap the shit out of that droid that kept calling her “it”.  No, droidbrain, you’re an “it”.  Treek is a “she”.  Get it right.

Treek, your first assignment is to turn this THING into scrap.
Treek, your first assignment is to turn this THING into scrap.

I very much like Treek.  The main reason I wanted her was as a healer to replace Quinn, and she has delivered on that.  Her healing is strong and she doesn’t seem to overuse attacks when healing needs to be done.  But when she does attack, she throws grenades.

Coolness factor is great.  The animations are cool.  The sounds are cool.  And she doesn’t whine.  The little voice is so freaking cute, but her little trash talk is also a refreshing change of pace from Quinn’s cringing routine.

Don't you wish your healer was awesome like me?
Don’t you wish your healer was awesome like me?

A few other things that are actually relevant to questing:

She does heal a little in her tank stance.  There is a very minor trickle of healing during the battle, which is not going to make or break any encounter.  However, she does heal both of you completely up between battles even when in tank stance.  Considering that one perk of having a healer companion is lack of downtime, this can be a serious WIN for questing.  I leveled my gunslinger with a tank companion, even after I had a healer companion, because it was strategically the best combo.  Downtime was annoying.  If I were to level a sniper right now, Treek would be my companion of choice.

She does not have standard healer companion cc.  All the other healer companions have a carbonizing or zapping channeled CC – which has saved my butt on many occasions when used strategically.  However, I don’t need CC all that often, and I actually end up turning it off sometimes on Mako or Quinn to prevent the idiot companion from spending all the time trying to carbonize weak enemies rather than healing my butt.  I can see using the mostly-retired Quinn at some point if I truly need that carbonizing stream to buy me some time during a particularly difficult encounter.

Well worth the million credits.  I haven’t bought the account-wide unlock yet, but that is the plan, as soon as one of my alts needs a Treek.

Prioritizing New Content For The Casual And Busy Gamer

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

It’s no secret that as a gamer with a job or kids, or both, or having a LIFE for that matter – you have to prioritize.  It’s just not possible to do all the things all at once, unless you want to move into your mom’s basement.  Don’t do that.

The way I see it, there are a shitton of things that are new and might possibly be done.

Treek

The biggest obstacle to getting Treek is money, either in cartel coins or in credits.  Under the “time equals money” theory, grinding the one mil credits is basically a time cost.  Spending cartel coins is either a drain on real-pocketbook or you have saved up a bunch of stipends and are willing to forego other cartel-buyable items.

If you HAVE legacy 40, grind the 1 mil to unlock the first Treek (because spending 2100 cc at one time is bullshit).  Then spend the 700 cc to unlock via collections for everyone else (because grinding and spending 300k per Treek is bullshit).

This companion has great strategic value and I would set this as one of my top priorities for this patch.  For one thing, you can have a tank or healer on your alts just as early as you please.  Remember how I swore about Doc being so damn late in the Jedi Knight story?  Well, Treek solves that.1  Second, and most importantly, you can tell Quinn he’s been reassigned to fresher-cleaning duty.2

Tauntaun Mounts

For this mount, it costs time or money.  The quest is reported to take 2-3 hours.  Even if this estimate is too low, it takes a hell of a lot of time to earn 1-5 or 2 million credits.

For the busy gamer, I suggest waiting for the initial rush to dissipate, and then finding a random off-peak time to mop up the quest. Especially on a PvP server, you don’t want to be competing with other players for resources.

Bounty Hunter Week

Argh, I hate limited time events.  I get why BW does them, but I HATE IT.  This is mostly a time/scheduling problem because you’re in the position of having to squeeze playtime into a timeframe that might be inconvenient for you.  At least it’s coming back on a predictable schedule, so there’s no rabid foaming at the mouth that you need to finish it all NOW.  I wouldn’t cancel raiding for this.

The only item I consider “useful” is the modified blaster carbine which you can get at friend level.  This is useful for smuggling barrels between alts.  Since it is capable of being an offhand, you might also be able to smuggle offhand barrels.  This may or may not be important to you.

As with the tauntauns, I suggest trying this at off-peak times.  Competing for resources or spawns with other players multiplies the time required for any activity.

New Dailies

Sorry, I’m not going to be first in line to grind dailies.  Yes, it’s new content.  And yes, new rewards.  But it will be crowded at first (remember – competing for resources and mobs makes it go slower) and it will be old hat soon enough – what’s the rush?  The dailies aren’t going anywhere, and I’m in no rush to be bored with yet another daily hub.  Put this one on hold until the rush dies down.

These will be both a time and money suck.  You finally get to the desired rep level, only to find that the desired item costs a ton of credits or comms.

The good rewards come at Champion level – all the more reason not to rush since it is going to take forever.  First, a bind on legacy sword for smuggling hilts. Second, a black and deep blue dye module for artificers.  There are few modules with black as the primary color, so this will be a crowd favorite.

Droid armor schematics are pretty cool, if you use HK a lot.  I guess.  Can’t you just use an orange droid part and then slap in armoring etc like everyone else?  If so, seems like a waste to be spending time and energy on droid-specific items.

The overpriced main hand weapons aren’t worth mentioning.  300+ elite comms for a weapon?  Are you shittin me?  For that price, buy the isotopes and get your friendly neighborhood crafter to make you a hilt or barrel.  Also, 1 mil for customizations and a vanity car?  Sorry.  Got better things to spend my cash on.

New Flashpoints

Sure, why not?  That sounds awesome.  The only priority you need to put on this is finding the time to run it every now and then.

Definitely do these at peak time.  First, the queues will generally pop faster.  Second, your guildies are more likely to be online.  If you are a DPS, you can grab a healer or tank guildie to make the queue even faster.  And, regardless of queue times, having guildies in your group always increases your chance of success – which means fewer wipes, which means less time suck.

 TL;DR

It seems pretty overwhelming and expensive, and it is completely impossible to get all the things right away.  But if you strategize and have a little patience (don’t just blindly jump face-first into new content), you can get a lot done pretty efficiently.

  1. And yes, Hodara, I GET that I could outfit the ship droid, but EEW. ↩
  2. I fucking hate Quinn. ↩

Leaping, Jumping, And Ops

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

You guys know how I suck at jumping, right?  Well, I totally do.  To the point that I get YOINKED by your friendly neighborhood sorc more often than I’d like to admit just to keep things rolling along.

Anyway, we’re in Scum & Villainy the other night, and I’m on leap duty on Thrasher.  Now, you think, no problem, just hit your leap button, right?

Nope.  There are some serious “you cannot see the target” issues.  So the “leap” involves repositioning and THEN jumping – you can “see” the mob at the apex of the jump, so the leap has to occur mid-jump.  Sigh.  And after ALL that effort, if the leap actually occurs, there’s still a reasonable chance of faceplanting on the wall and sliding back down to the ground.  Ouch.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t as bad at it as I thought I’d be, but this sort of assignment makes me reconsider taking an arrow to the knee and applying for a cushy healer job.  DPS is easy, my ass.

Limited Time Offers On The Cartel Market

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

My brain is going to seriously explode.  Monday, Eric Musco announced that they’re going to be able to rotate the cartel merchandise and discounts without any server downtime.

They’re going to announce when they add something new but not announce discounts.  This means we will have to *gasp* log in for ourselves every day and LOOK.   Well, not really, because Dulfy has our back and has gone to the trouble of listing all the discounts, and presumably will continue, because she’s thorough like that.  This is a real help to people like me who don’t necessarily log in every night but always check the interwebs.

  • Discounts are updated/changed sometime between 9am and noonish.
  • We have no idea how long they last. The Monday discounts lasted only 24 hours, but it looks like the Tuesday discounts are still the discounts today.

I will be checking Dulfy daily to see if my favorite outfits go on sale.  Which basically means “stalk the outlaw set.”

Speaking of the outlaw set, you cannot add it to collections and make copies!  Any outfit/piece that comes WITH mods in it cannot be added to collections and copied, I guess so that people don’t get unlimited mods… level 30 mods.  That would be a game-breaking advantage there.  If I can’t make copies, that definitely affects how much I’m willing to pay for the damn thing.

One Year Later: Free To Play. Topic Shamelessly Stolen From Shintar

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I was reading Shintar’s post on F2P – one year later, and was about to pontificate in the comments when I realized that I had way too much pontificating to do than could fit into a comment.

Pay to Win? Nah

As a subscriber, I’m pleasantly surprised that there’s nothing in the market that would help me perform better in a raid or whatever.  When the high-level ship parts were added to the market, that was sort of bullshit, but nothing like that has happened since.

Crafters and Fashion

Oy.  Crafting.  Shintar says that crafting has taken a big hit, and that is dead-on – and my biggest dissatisfaction with the new model.  I used to have business because I bothered to track down every recipe and could offer obscure items that nobody else was making.  I used to have business for at least orange bracers and belts, and that has completely dried up due to the cartel market.

The cartel market doesn’t take business away because every piece is cooler.  It takes the business away primarily because of the convenience.

First: adaptive gear.  I find that I, along with most others, browse the GTN for fashion with adaptive armor instead of my armor class.  There may be a perfectly decent belt or boots or whatever that goes perfectly with an outfit, but the first instinct is to look at the adaptive armor.

Second: most pieces are wearable at level 1.  You can just find something you like and be done with it, the whole way up.  No “oh I love that shirt, can’t wait to wear it at level 39.”  Nope, done.

Third: collections.  This doesn’t appeal to me, so I didn’t see what the big deal was.  To my shock, this got my previously-uninterested-in-fashion husband to start buying outfits on the GTN like a fiend.  He now has unlocked 3 outfits in the cartel market and has an army of similarly-dressed alts and companions – with a few dye kits to give them a unique feel.  He apparently likes the convenience of starting an alt, being able to generate an entire level 1 moddable outfit on demand for his toon and all the companions, and not have to do any additional thinking about it ever again.  (Since I tend to mix and match AND dress all my toons uniquely, I have unlocked only one outfit so far.)

Buying Fashion

Without a doubt, the cartel market has the best fashion out there.  I really thought that BW would limit cool fashions to the cartel market, and to an extent, it has.  However, I’m glad to see that the rep grinds, as painful as they are, do lead to really unique fashions (I am excited about bounty hunter week).  So there are alternatives.  And also, while I bitch and moan (extensively) about fashion, it really isn’t a “pay to win” thing.

Legacy Unlocks

Here’s where it gets interesting with math.  The cartel-to-credit ratio of some unlocks is very favorable to using cartel coins, and for others it pays to use credits.  The cartel market and stipend gives me the chance to buy things that I would never normally have the credits for (rocket boots!).  On the other hand, as a subscriber, I can still choose to pay credits for those items with an unfavorable ratio (such as speedering 1).  All in all, this has led me to get more legacy unlocks and enhance my quality of life in the game.

Subscription All-Inclusive?

I feel a little iffy about the decision to make Cathar purchasable with cartel coins.  On the one hand, we should get everything, right?  On the other hand, we get a stipend.  If you view the monthly cartel stipend as a cafeteria plan, it is actually pretty advantageous.  I have no bleeping interest in being a cat.  This means that I can take the coins that would have gone to cat and put them toward something that interests me more.  Instead of all-inclusive, it’s more of a “choose your inclusion.”  Likewise, people who have no interest in pink hair don’t have to buy it.

The Secondary Market (GTN)

If people want to turn cartel coins to cosmetics, that’s their prerogative. I love that I can get just about any item I want for cold hard credits, as I always have been able to in any subscription model.  I buy almost all my cartel fashion on the GTN, except if there’s a super-sale of something I really want.  I also buy unlocks there if the price is less than the “unlock with credits” option (like third or subsequent cargo bay).

Gambling Boxes

I don’t like gambling.  I’d rather pay a premium for the contents of the box than to roll the dice on the actual box.  But a lot of people like these boxes and apparently they’re a big money maker.  When I went to the community cantina event that followed the f2p transition, I was told that on the first day of the cartel market, people had plopped up to $100 on cartel boxes.  Like, not just their stipends but REAL MONEY.

Now, this annoys me because I think these overpriced boxes prey on some people’s addictive personalities.  But it’s not up to bioware to babysit people and tell them to be responsible with their credit cards.

I am pretty peeved that most of the dyes may only be purchased via “dye packs” which are basically gambling boxes for dyes.  Even if you find a box with a “good” dye, it may not be the one that you want.  It’s practically mandatory to trade those on the GTN.

Limitations and Expectations

The F2P experience is a shitty one.  I was actually looking forward to F2P, on the theory that I could simply buy a la carte the elements of the game that I do use (flashpoints and ops) and omit paying for the ones that I don’t (warzones and space).  But that wasn’t really viable because the F2P experience is so limited.  If I were to buy only the pieces I use, it would still add up to the cost of a subscription, and possibly even more.1

Then there was the QQ, which was unsurprising but annoying.  You expect to play this game for free and still have access to everything your little heart desires?  This feeling of entitlement isn’t unexpected. In general, on the internet, we expect to receive all the news for absolutely free and then grumble if reporters want to earn a living by charging a subscription – when previously we would have bought a damn newspaper and thought that was completely fair.

It turned out that F2P is inappropriate for most players and is only good for extremely casual players or people who are trying the game for the first time and don’t know if they want to subscribe.

In Conclusion

There are parts of the F2P transition that I have liked a lot and parts that annoy the shit out of me (like “hey guys, btw, my week-long-ops pass runs out in the very middle of the raid tonight, LOL!”) but overall it hasn’t fundamentally changed the way I play the game.

  1. Someone did an analysis/spreadsheet of this and for the life of me I cannot find it now. ↩

Tales Of Fail

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Shit that has happened to me in only the last few weeks:

As much as rocket boots are cool, they do not slow down your descent if you jump down an elevator shaft.  Bonus points if you’re in a pug and are mocked before rezed.

Sleep dart and corrosive dart have very similar icons.  If you use the latter when you intend to use the former, you get a nasty surprise (you popped out of stealth and a very awake mob biting your face off).

Bad purple shit on the floor looks an awful lot like the sorcerer healing circles.  Except with extra dying.  (So far, the only instance of republic superiority that I’ve found – pretty sage yellow shiny circles are more visible and look less like Stuff To Avoid.)

Being in the wrong lightsaber form is embarrassing.  Being in no lightsaber form is quite perplexing when Things That Are Supposed To Happen don’t happen.

This post was just a clever ploy for me to get you to recount your embarrassing tales of fail. Confess in the comments section.

Updates To Sentinel/Marauder Guide

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Things have been quiet around here – and if you’ve been following me on twitter, you’ll know I’ve been doing some serious rewrites of and additions to the Sentinel/Marauder guide.  That takes a lot of time! And Effort.  And Brains.

New stuff includes:

  • Seriously revamped and technical Combat/Carnage rotation section based on my srs hardmode raiding in that spec.
  • Relic crapola based on me tearing my hair out about relics
  • Rewrites of various sections for clarity

That’s just in the last week or two.  There are other “older” changes that you may not have seen, like links to ALL mirror abilities (that was a pain).  I probably tweak the guide at least once a week.

But I’m pretty happy with the guide for now, and I’ll be returning to writing fluff for the masses Soon (TM).  My screenshot folder is becoming bloated with terribad fashion that I must share.

Don’t Get Your Antennae In A Twist

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Vector Hyllus, bug man.  WHAT THE HELL, BIOWARE!?  Not cool.  Not cool at all.

So far, I’m not terribly impressed with the imp-side romance options.  First there’s Torian Bieber, the clueless.  Then Malavai Quinn the… well I could go on all day about him, but suffice to say, he is NOT BOYFRIEND MATERIAL.  Now, bug boy.

Why do I hate him?  Well, many reasons.

  • He’s creepy looking.
  • He uses the “royal we”.
  • Oh yeah, and he’s a fucking insect.

Really, that last reason is the only reason that matters.

I judge a man by the size of his swarm.
I judge a man by the size of his swarm.

After a few meetings with him and his insectoid compatriots on Alderaan, he gives Zylie a charming gift: membrosia.  I don’t know the bugs make it, but I have a basic idea:

Wormulon_Queen

Yech.  He assures Zylie that the mystery bug-juice wont turn her into a joiner “in those quantities.” Mmmhm, and we should believe someone who has already drunk the kool-aid that we should drink it too?  I THINK NOT.  That shit’s going to be flushed down the fresher as soon as his back is turned.

After all that, surprise surprise, Keeper says “Yo, he’s being assigned to your ship.”  And Zylie says “awww, do I hafta?”  I mean, seriously, how do we know he won’t be pouring that membrosia shit in her ear while she’s sleeping?

Clearly there are no suitable eligible bachelors on the imperial side.

Full Circle

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

My very first toon was a scoundrel healer, before I fell in love with pwning face on my sentinel.  I had leveled the scoundrel up to 37 with my husband before swapping mains.  Then, after hitting 50 on the sentinel, I went back to finish off the scoundrel climb to 50.  In that last push, whilst soloing, I realized that I thoroughly sucked at scoundreling – something that is easily unnoticed when leveling with a partner and pwning things faster than they can shoot at you.

As we’ve established before, I am an idiot.  I’m currently leveling an agent, because everyone’s like BLAH BLAH STORY OMG.  And, in a fit of stupidity, I picked operative, on the rationale that I already have a pure-dps toon…. and I suck at cover.

But wait! It will be different this time!

  • First, I know wtf I’m doing.  That counts for a lot.  Leveling a new character is easier after the first, right?
  • Second, I have presence out the wazoo.
  • Third, I have legacy perks.

So let’s do this thing!  As I leveled, making full use of double xp to skip boring side-quests, I thought… wow this is easier than I remember!  I’m just slicing and dicing, no big deal.

zylieholo

Then I hit Alderaan and shit just got real.  While I am having no trouble healing things at level, killing them seems to be getting more difficult.  Kaliyo is suddenly squishier and is yabbering for help all the time.

However, there’s a fourth thing that I didn’t have the first time: group finder.  I can just heal my way to 50.  I’ve been queuing when I can and things have been going pretty well…

I’m in this group with a merc DPS who is in healing stance.  I know that she realizes she’s in healing stance because she keeps shooting green paintballs at people.  I figure she’s just helping me out between pulls, but no, she stays in that stance.  I decide to speak up and say tactfully “are you aware you’re still in healing stance” and she’s like “oh yeah, I always am.”  In a situation like that, when the other 2 people have already dropped group due to her incompetence, it seems unfair to penalize me with a lockout for also dropping group. Sigh.

Muscling through idiots, one flashpoint at a time…

Reader Submissions To The Fashion Hall of Shame

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Remember, folks, you can always email me pictures of awesome fashion at njessi [at] hawtpantsrepublic [dot] com.

Now to reader submissions!

First, Shintar sent me a screenie of this interesting gentleman who is “apparently someone who’s well known for intentionally making his characters look ugly. What can I say but: he’s clearly succeeded with that one.”

Worse fashion Chiss

Yes, yes he has.

Shintar’s second submission “is actually a case of “not sure if bad fashion”. At first I kind of laughed at “the guy in the skirt”, but as I looked at him a little longer it occurred to me that with the bare chest and being all in white he might have some sort of ancient athlete theme going on?”

Guy in skirt

I’ll let y’all decide whether he belongs in the hall of shame.  I feel like the ancient athlete thing would work better if he didn’t have leggings under his skirt.

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