So, we have been informed that there are no bugs on Soa. Seriously. Just none. Beatable in greens. Mmhm.
This is a completely normal position for a dead person, right?
[Screenshot] There Are No Bugs On Soa. Also, Buy This Bridge.
Relearning To Walk: New Gaming Hardware
Note: I didn’t get paid for any of this or get freebie equipment. QQ. Photos are from the official product websites.
In the last few years, I’ve been gradually “going geek” and getting more and more sophisticated stuff to feed my gaming habit. As I get more and more gaming crap on my desk at home, I have to accept that I don’t really have a “home office” that would be considered respectable.
All of my hardware purchases have been to solve a specific problem that I was having with the game… I’d say “wouldn’t it be nice if…” and sure enough there was an app, I mean item, for that.
Vent Push To Talk, I Am Out Of Fingers
Back in the day, I was primarily healing with mouse clicks and modifiers – and as such, both left and right hands were occupied while healing, and I was just OUT of fingers to talk on vent. I’d have to pause what I was doing, and that’s never any good. “Wouldn’t it be nice,” I thought, “if there were a foot pedal for that?”
At the time, wow had not come up with their foot pedal. There was no mmo-dedicated vent pedal. I did a google search and found the Stealth Switch II,1 based on Stealth Switch 1 that used a foot pedal to close all your windows when the boss comes by. Well that will work just fine. I’ve been using it for over 2 years now. The geeky thing is that I have to play barefoot or I botch my PTT. Overall, though, it was pretty quick and easy to adjust to the change.
I Am Very Right Handed
Hotkeys are supposed to be triggered by the left hand while you use your mouse to do mouse things, especially as a healer to click targets. But I simply sucked at timing ANYTHING with my left hand. This is why on a Nintendo controller, the jump key is on the right hand side. I ended up using modifiers + mouse. I ran out of buttons on my 3-button mouse, so I bought a 5-button mouse. When that got crowded, I got a Naga.
This took forever to learn, I’ll be honest. I started out just using 2 of the side buttons in the same positions as those on my 5-button mouse (in the photo below, that would be 3 and 6) and gradually added hotkeys as I started feeling more comfortable. I used the little “trainer” stickers for weeks. When they fell off, I put on my own stickers, which were cut-out bits of fuzzy Dora the Explorer stickers (shh don’t tell).
I Am Literally Not Using My Left Hand, Except To Move Around
I was using my left hand to wasd, and that’s about it, because you never know when you have to move, gotta keep the fingers in the right place. For those who are going to say “NOOB, don’t keyboard turn” I say – YOU try to move around with the mouse while you’re also selecting heal targets with said mouse. So shut it.
Enter the Nostromo, my newest toy. I can use my left thumb to move2 leaving the rest of my fingers free to do STUFF. In this case, cooldowns.
It wasn’t as steep a learning curve as the naga. It wouldn’t have been a learning curve at all if I had chosen not to use the thumbpad to move. Training myself to thumb-move instead of W to go forward took about a week. I hit dailies pretty hard to practice before the next raid, and I died a lot by effing up my buttons and targeting (or autorunning into a pack of mobs and forgetting how to stop). Since the buttons are configurable (you can map to any key) I went through quite a few configurations (and deaths) before settling upon one that would not cramp my hand.
As for You…
There is no “right” gaming peripheral, and nobody needs them to be competitive. But if you start noticing an inconvenience in your setup and saying “wouldn’t it be nice if” and you have some cash to spend, see if there’s an item to solve your specific problem.
BUT FIRST… do your research! I cannot stress this enough. For example, I have small hobbit hands. The gaming pad that one of my (male) guildmates uses is WAY too big for me to comfortably use. Read reviews, look at videos that describe the features, and see if it’s right for you. Test out the peripheral at a store, if you can (Fry’s sometimes has the geekier things, whereas it’s unlikely you’ll find these at Best Buy).
Three Months In
OK, Kris has a topic. Y’all should pay attention.
Write your own “Now That The Game Is 3 Months Old…” post and leave a comment here if you do.
Fortunately, I can look back on the blog and see what happened in the last 3 months. I’m such a slacker.
1. I surprised myself with class choice
The most important decision I made, game-wise, was changing my main from a healer to a melee dps. At first, I was apprehensive about doing something new, but it all worked out (after a few hiccups).
2. I got a new gaming system
About the end of January, my computer dropped dead in a spectacular fashion. I got a real gaming rig, my first real gaming pc that is made specifically for gaming. It has a transparent case, 3 fans, and red lights. It’s pretty and I feel spoiled having it. It also decreased my load times, which made me more willing to take random trips to Nar Shaddaa for shopping purposes.
3. I got into orange gear, hardcore
I didn’t expect to be able to really custom design my outfits but yes that was possible through the magic of synthweaving (and the poor, tolerant husband making me all sorts of armormech stuff). Right now I may look like a clown, but in a few months that will be just a distant screenshot, like 80’s hair.
4. I raided
I guess that should be “I hit 50 and raided” but really, I was always going to hit 50, eventually. Raiding with the Snarkers has been awesome. We may not be hard core pwning nightmare modes, but we are having a lot of fun.
5. Companions!
I didn’t really expect to be as “into” companions as I was (as we all were). We got sucked into their personalities and formed strong opinions about them. We got the -1 of Shame (often). We BSOCKed them, or tried. It’s great to have a butt for all your jokes who isn’t a real player who might be offended or insulted.
6. We compared notes
The great thing with a story is that it’s interesting, and you want to share it with people, same as you would want to share if something cute/funny/etc happened to you in real life. The best part is comparing outcomes when you answered the same story differently. “Oh really? I chose option 3, and Satele Shan scolded me for half an hour.”
A Second 50 (No, I Will Not Heal Your Raid)
I dinged 50 on my smuggler a few days ago.
Now, I did not expect to have a second 50 so quickly because hell, I’m no powergamer. However since I main-changed when my smuggler was already level 38, it didn’t seem like THAT big a haul to get those last 12 levels.
I was filled with a sense of relief and accomplishment and at the same time… a bit of apprehension. See, I am trying DPS for the first time and just loving playing my Sentinel. But I know what happens when you HAVE a healer and the raid NEEDS a healer. You gotta step in or the raid won’t happen. I don’t want to be put in that position. Much easier to say “sorry guys, don’t have a suitable character/offspec” than to be a huge jerk and say “I DON’T WANNA”.
You know what sucks (and this has happened in WoW) is healing progression raid night on your main, and then ending up healing alt night on your offspec because there aren’t enough healers. Alt night is for doing different stuff! Burnout imminent! But, again, I’d be a big fat jerk if I said “I am NOT offspeccing, just CANCEL alt night.”
Fortunately, guild is awesome and understand that, while we need to do what is best for the raiding team and take turns at healing when we are short a healer, that I am not necessarily the only “go to” person for that role just because I’ve done it competently in the past. They understand that I’ve put in my time healing for years and years and deserve a break. Which is why I love them.
Patch 1.2: Want And Do Not Want
Patch 1.2 is bringing a lot of fixes to annoying bugs and stuff, but also some serious changes and rebalancing. In no particular order, I’m especially excited about some of the changes, and especially hateful of others.
Want:
Fashion
Strip all the mods from purples (like Columi gear). Do you understand how dorky I look in my columi gear? REALLY DORKY.
Augment Slots In Crafted Oranges. Not only CAN I strip my mods out of my columi gear and put it in oranges, but there will actually be a stat bonus for doing so if there’s an augment slot. I will re-craft all the things!
Synthweavers Make Some Augments. O RLY? This just keeps getting better and better.
Moddable Belts and Bracers. Orange legacy gear? Whatever. Orange legacy belts and bracers? GIMME. (I might add that for my highest level legacy gear, the moddable belt is a LEAF BUTT. I wish I were joking.)
Sentinel Stuff
Force Kick doesn’t cost focus. One would think that I would be smart enough to save one lousy focus in case I need to kick. I am not smart enough and missed an interrupt. This change is for idiots like me.
Dispatch can be used on targets at 30% health rather than 20%. Well good. I mean, the Columi set bonus buffs Dispatch and really it’s a craptastic bonus if dispatch can be used 1/5 of the time (and pretty much not at all on trash/adds).
Smuggling (Healer)
You can now have 3 stacks of upper hand. Um, yes. As mentioned before, it’s always good to keep one stack up at all times to get the passive healing bonus, which means you have 2 more stacks to play with instead of just 1.
Duration of Upper hand increased. Yay! Now the stupid thing won’t fall off just as I’m about to use it.
Do Not Want:
Removal of Giggle from Smuggler (upon Upper Hand proc). Ok, guys, seriously, how the fuck am I going to know if it’s procced? The awesome indicators on the UI, har har? Gimme mah giggle back.
That dumb legacy stuff. I won’t rehash, I got a link.
Why Can’t We Have…
– A hood down option. After all, the hood is pushed down by lekku and some hats.1
– A stealth action bar. We get an automatic cover action bar. Why not a stealth bar?
– Companion mission completion popup boxes hidden during combat. The companion missions go into “pending” while we’re in a cut scene, why not also during combat?
– Companions depositing materials in inventory without a popup box, for that matter. When they craft stuff, it just appears in inventory without fanfare.
– Companions coming back from missions putting stuff directly in the cargo hold. They can take stuff OUT of the cargo hold. Why can’t they just stuff our crafting materials in the cargo hold (if we tell them to)?
– Companions go mail stuff for us. They travel to exotic places to get us things and deliver the stuff to us wherever we happen to be. They can vendor our crap. But dropping off a package at the post office is too hard.
– Teleport back to ship. We can teleport to the fleet or to another point on the planet, but not to our own ship. Our companions can teleport back to the ship!
– Crew Quarters on the jedi ship. OK, T7 doesn’t need to sleep. Possibly Scourge either. And Doc can sleep in the captain’s quarters (ahem). But what about Kira and Rusk? Do they sleep out in the hall?
What’s on YOUR wishlist?
- I am really hoping for this in the “customize” feature in 1.2 but I’m not holding my breath. ↩
Being A Good Person Is Not Enough To Be A Good Jedi
As you might have read, my main is now my Jedi Sentinel. I’m playing her as a basically good person… which leads to many dark side choices. Hooray for the Jedi Code.
So far, she’s gotten darkside points for:
- Covering for a friend (who would have bad stuff happen to him if she had not)
- Stating (truthfully) that all the evildoers in a particular quest had been killed (rather than, I suppose, giving a self-important lecture about how revenge is wrong.)
- Failing to be a huge tattletale to the Jedi Council (at least 3 times, by my count)
- Stating she will protect her padawan from the Sith (buh?)
- (Spoiler) Marrying/Kissing/BSOCKing Doc. Now, I get that Jedi aren’t supposed to form attachments but still… Dark side? Really? It ain’t killing an orphan.
I mean… I understand why I’m racking up the dark side points for killing assholes because Jedi are big into redemption and crap. But getting dark side points for doing normal human actions, based on a desire to help (not based on selfishness), that kind of stings. OK, the stuff with Doc, that’s selfish, oops.
I know that Anachan and others have talked about anti-military bias in the available choices. Have you come across Light Side/Dark Side choices that you find difficult, odd, or inconsistent?
Not Now, Scourge
We’re doing some serious business end-of-story shit and Scourge pops up on the holo to tell me something very important.
I don’t think he got the memo that he isn’t a romance option. Also… longjohns? really?
DPS Failing and Troubleshooting
I Super Suck
So, raiding did not go well for me on our first try. When we got to that stupid council, I started my rotation as perfectly as humanly possible. I made us fail the encounter because my mob would not die. When we finally succeeded, I came in dead last.
I was completely demoralized. I’ve been anxious about switching to DPS from healing already – so I researched like a big nerd. I have read everything there is to read (that I could find) and practiced my rotation as much as possible without a target dummy. And still came in last.
But, as we know, there are no combat logs. What went wrong? Anecdotal evidence is all we have.
- According to anecdotal evidence, my husband’s geared-to-the teeth guildmate who is same spec as I am came in dead last too. Hrm.
- My guildies thought they saw the mob I was hitting evade or bug out and not register damage taken. Interesting.
Theory: Watchman Spec and the Council
In the last week since that demoralizing raid, the husband and I have developed a (reasonably sound) theory that triggering Zen in Juyo form, which procs a raidwide trickle of healing, causes the Watchman Sentinel to get the encounter’s “do not damage” debuff. The husband’s guildmate was successful on this encounter only after switching to a “dumb rotation” (build and spend focus with basic abilities available early in the game, such as slash) in Watchman spec. Using this “dumb rotation”, the target was taken down easily within the time window. After identifying Zen as the most likely culprit, a Watchman would probably be successful using a mostly-optimal dot-based rotation but avoiding using Zen. However, omitting Zen obviously lowers DPS and might be problematic on hard/nightmare modes.
I Fix the Suck
(That is, my plan of attack before I discovered that I didn’t suck and that it was most likely a bug or design issue.)
After QQing and moping, I came up with a plan to do better. Remember, changing all the things can be just as bad as changing nothing if you’re doing it blindly.
1) Change spec from Watchman to Combat. Actually, it was a bit of a nervy thing to do because most theorycrafters right now put Watchman as top DPS and dismiss Combat as merely “viable” (you know, as much as they can without logs). But from actually doing the encounters (ignoring Council), I found that while Watchman may have the highest theoretical dps, it could not live up to its single-target tank-n-spank potential because of how the encounters are designed.
- More than once during the night, I found a DoT-based class is not well suited to the motion-heavy encounters because I could not keep dots “rolling” effectively when jumping in and out of range to avoid “the bad”.
- Force leap was not available to get back into range when I needed it. This is a hypertechnical thing… the Watchman spec uses Force Leap every CD to generate focus. Which means that it’s usually on cooldown when I need it after a knockback. And if I don’t use it on CD to generate focus and I “save” it for getting back into range, then I am gimping myself (making myself focus-starved or using inefficient focus-generators).
- Force leap “in place” still repositioned my toon. Again, something I use in my rotation regularly would change the position of my character, leaving me vulnerable to cleaves and/or knockbacks. I’d have to reposition over and over.
- DOTs + reflect shields = OUCH OUCH TICK TICK OUCH. Enough said on that one. Extra strain on the healers is fail.
2) Adjust action queue window. Why not? If it helps me string abilities together, yes please. I had put it to zero when there was a significant ability delay. Now the ability delay seems to be less of a problem and, to be honest, I’m old and don’t have the reflexes of a coked-out ferret.
3) Reevaluate position of keybindings. Duh.
4) Practice. Respeccing to something totally new right before a raid is completely fail. You’ll be slow and pitiful.
5) Continue gearing. Again, duh. I was going to do this anyway but it did give me the kick in the butt to finish the crazy-jumping-adventure that is a green datacron cube thingy.
Result
Guys, I pwned the everlovin’ shit out of my assignment on the Council.
In the rest of the encounters, I felt a lot more in control of my output and with no ramp up time I was able to burst damage while I was near the boss and not get too frustrated when I was cooling my jets waiting for the boss to stop doing Bad Ability That One Must Avoid.
Now that I know that Watchman is probably bugged/gimped on the Council encounter, I feel better that I was probably not doing craptastic DPS last week. If I so desired, I could go back to Watchman and put out very good DPS on all the things. However, I’m finding Combat preferable for the encounters we’ve done so far.
In conclusion, don’t be afraid to go against “conventional wisdom” and try a different spec if your current spec isn’t working for you. And bugs suck.
Legacy Perks Blathering
So… new stuff is coming via the legacy system, including:
- Unlock combat abilities for other characters via legacy system
- the class’s buff
- a signature spell such as force lightning (Thankfully usable during “heroic moment” only so you could only use it with a companion out – whew!)
- Unlock race/class combos via legacy system
- Improved crew skill abilities purchaseable
- Stuff on your ship (mailbox, GTN, vendor)
- Unlock a “small stat boost”
- A bunch of other social/cosmetic stuff
My thoughts on all this junk in no particular order.
I Was Here First
The legacy system creates a tiered community where people who are there first are privileged and have access to significant benefits.
“On launch day blah blah”
“On the first day of early access blah blah”
“I was in beta and blah blah”
“Well in alpha it was blah blah”
And then you are ready to punch those pretentious assholes in the face because being there first doesn’t mean shit right now. Or does it?
First you have the founder title. Then there are legacy perks that have to be earned by being on the server a long time (well, a long time AND doing stuff during that time, but you know what I mean). Isn’t that just reinforcing that people who are there first are better than everyone else?
Barriers to Entry
In SWG, hitting max level in crafting didn’t mean ANYTHING because you were only as good as your mats. And the mats that were available shifted every week. So if you weren’t here 3 months ago to harvest that awesome blahblah iron, your stuff will never be as good as the stuff made by the dude who was here 3 months ago and did harvest the blahblah iron.
See where I’m going with this? How can I, as a normal just-hit-50 Jedi Knight, compete with a Jedi Knight who, due to a an alt, has the smuggler buff too? There would be a long haul to catch up.
And, when there’s an advantage to be gotten… the high-end raiding guilds will want it. Especially the “small stat boost” because a buff is a buff. These perks will become “mandatory” for the hardcore weirdos out there.
Mobility
What if you want to play with a friend on a different server? Nope, no perks. You start from scratch. Not only your character from scratch, but your legacy as well. That’s a major deterrent to mobility. Unless you want to shell out extra money for a transfer. Yay..?
Things That Are Generally Dumb
I get that people want to play all the races, and to a certain extent that works. Why not have a Mirialan bounty hunter? Or a Rattatouille smuggler? Sure, that makes sense.
But it seems a little strange to see a bunch of tentacled sithies wandering around on the Republic Space Station. Yes, you’re a special snowflake. Get their canon-violating red heineys off my damn space station.
Oh right, I won’t be on the space station. I’ll be in my ship with my mail and GTN terminal. I won’t have to interact with you peons. You know, I was in beta…