Welcome to another episode of Think Tank! Today I’m thinking about specs and leveling. Every tank class in Star Wars: The Old Republic has three talent trees where they spend their talent points. One tree dedicated to Tanking (Shield Spec, Defense, or Kinetic), one is dedicated to damage dealing, and the other is the shared [...]

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Today marks exactly 2 months since Early Game Access for Star Wars: The Old Republic opened up. If you began playing on that very day, playing just a couple hours several days a week, it’s been enough time that you could have a character at level 50 by now. So for those of you who are level 50, and I’m guessing many in the AAJ Army have at least one, did you decide to level an alt?

There are some complaints on the forums that people are “bored,” but a quick study shows that these players generally raced to level 50 for the most part, and expected unlimited gameplay options once they got there. It’s just not going to happen in a brand new MMO. Especially when BioWare made it clear they were betting big on the level-up game. With individual stories for each class, and the Legacy system in place to support exactly that, it shouldn’t be a big surprise they want players to play many characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Damion Schubert: We really want to put in systems to encourage replay. The Legacy System, which we hope to get in, will hopefully be in that venue. I am not ready to talk about what exactly it is and how we do that, but we are really betting heavily on the level up game. We are really betting heavily on the story aspects of the game, and we really want people to enjoy that journey, and to feel like that journey is interesting and exciting. We actually want to incentivize people to try the different classes so that they experience those other stories, and they play the game again. So that really put a lot of pressure on us to make sure that leveling up your second character and your third character is not grinding, and that it still feels like a fresh and interesting experience. We’re less interested in doing a Dark Age of Camelot ”hey bypass all the content” in order to get to max level to do the endgame content because of what we think is important about our game and is our unique selling point: we want you to try that content. Maybe there is a way in the future, but that isn’t even a sparkle in our eye at this point. 

Now, I’m a fan of sticking to one character whenever possible… and due to my play time, that’s all I can usually do anyway. But I have dabbled in some other characters especially during Game Testing. Oddly, I find leveling an alt in TOR to be somehow more repetitive than leveling an alt in previous games. I can’t put by finger on it… the class quests are all different, but they make up only a small part of the content. If you pick the class that shares your main’s starter world, then nearly everything else you do is a duplicate of what you’ve already done, right from the start.

So I’m just curious how many of you guys are out there rolling alts, and what prompted you to do it. Are you simply bored at level 50 waiting for everyone else to get there, or are you genuinely interested in seeing the story for multiple classes? What is your experience of rolling an alt so far… different enough?

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This week’s discussion is being transferred to you over the HoloNet while I continue traversing the Galaxy. I’ve been leveling like a crazy person, and I’ve been having the time of my life. While some people may have been playing since launch, I unfortunately have had to wait while my computer was being repaired. Now [...]

More and more people have reached the current peak of Star Wars: The Old Republic – level 50. I recently wrote about those people who felt the need to get to level 50 within days of starting the game. Today we have another perspective on the matter. Isabelle Parsley of MMORPG.com writes a nice article [...]

The first major update has dropped on Star Wars: The Old Republic. With it comes bug fixes and game adjustments. But of course what everyone looks forward to is the new content. This patch, unsurprisingly, brings a new Flashpoint, a massively expanded Operation, and updates to Ilum – all of which are made for level [...]

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

First, let me put this out there: I’m woefully behind in leveling. The game has been out since December 20th, and I even got in on the first day of Early Access – December 13th. That means I’ve had nearly a month to get my act together. I know, I know. How could someone who does nothing but eat, sleep and breath Star Wars: The Old Republic and run a fan site not already have 6 level 50′s? I’d like to say it’s simply because I’m taking my time to “smell the roses,” but in reality, my available time to game just ain’t what it used to be!

None the less, I am leveling. I am currently level 26 on my Jedi Sentinel, about halfway through Nar Shadaa from what I can tell. I’ve spent the entire time leveling with my friend Katherinne (which, by the way, its the way to go if you want Social Points.) I only play when she plays, and vice versa. The only exception is the occasional crafting session, or a bit of PvP or Space Combat. But this has been minor – for the most part, we were grouped up and have done every quest together. Every world arc, bonus quest and even each other’s class stories so we could see what was going on. We don’t skip anything, nor do I feel we should have to.

One thing we’ve noticed though is that we’re always significantly ahead of the leveling curve. And this is even before we made the discovery of the devious planetary Bonus Series! I haven’t seen a “yellow” or “orange” mission or Flashpoint in quite some time.  To top it off, even though I don’t know the exact math behind it, experience points are supposed to be diluted when grouped as well. We should have “less” experience than someone who has soloed to our level, so it would seem we shouldn’t be in this position at all.

On the other hand, there have been others in the community that have claimed exactly the opposite – that they’re too low for the content they’re facing, despite doing, apparently, the same activities. Based on my personal experience, this is extremely odd, but clearly it’s happening to players somehow.

What about you guys? Do you seem to be ahead, even or below the level of content you’re always facing? What experiences have you had in grouping, or the experience granted from other activities? Perhaps we should be allowed to turn experience gain off from things like PvP or Space Combat side-activities? Let us know!

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Each week or thereabouts here at Ask A Jedi, we’ll meditate on the finer points of the healer’s role in Star Wars: The Old Republic. No matter where your allegiance lies, you’re sure to find guidance here in the Halls Of Healing!

I was lucky enough to be able to get into the game on the first day of Early Access and experience the wonderful process that is leveling in Star Wars: The Old Republic. If there is something to say about doing Missions (known as Questing for you ancient cavemen) it is that they can be hard. Yes, you can pretty much forget going up and soloing bosses designed to be taken down with a group, and sometimes you can fail multiple times just doing your normal Class Missions. These type of Missions makes me remember the days back in World of Warcraft with the rare Class quests. They were totally do-able, but sometimes required multiple attempts before you actually learned how to beat it.

Now, where does healing come into all of this? Leveling as a healer has historically been tedious. You usually do much less damage than your tank or damage-dealing counterparts and things just take much longer to accomplish. This holds true for TOR as well – you will have less damage output than the other roles and since some NPCs are actually designed around you nuking them down quickly, making things much more difficult as a healer.

However, there are aspects to leveling that will actually make things easier as a healer. One of them is that NPCs tend to do a lot of damage, especially when you get to the higher levels. The tanks and damage dealers will take more damage and will have to pause longer between fights to regenerate their health and resources – you won’t need to do this as much as a healer.

Even Bowdaar needs a heal once in a while.

The other major part is the Companion system. Companions make this game very different in the leveling process from any other MMO I’ve played. Due to the way you can choose and customize your Companion to complement your role and skills, you can mitigate the impact of having reduced damage output. Where damage dealers and tanks might choose a healing Companion you can choose an all out damage dealing Companion or a tanking Companion.

Now, down to what this article really is about: how can you make your leveling in TOR easier and more enjoyable as a healer? Read on for some pro-tips!

Play Together, Stay Together

One of the most entertaining, rewarding and spontaneous ways to play TOR (and any game, really) is to team up with a buddy. Especially as a healer, this is really powerful as you can beat almost anything with your Companions out, including some of the Missions designed for groups of 4.

Teaming up with your friends early not only helps you learn your class better as you get to play the role of the healer more often but it also helps you get closer with your gaming buddies and potentially even meet or make new ones. Not to mention those luscious social points!

Skip Tedious Bonus Missions

This is probably one of the most important things I learned while playing. Bonus Missions should really be treated as such, especially as a healer. If you don’t get them while doing the normal Mission you shouldn’t bother with these – you save much more time and level faster by just skipping them and continuing the storyline. You can always come back and do these later if you wish.

Do All Flashpoints And Group Missions

Learn to love Group Missions and Flashpoints. As a healer these are perfect for getting that much needed experience you might have lost from not killing all those extra mobs on a Bonus Mission or series.

Most of the time people are going to be actively looking for a healer. Keep an eye on general chat for players looking for a healer for the Group Missions you have in your log, or even start a group for it yourself!

I Choose You!

Choosing your Companion probably makes the biggest impact on your gameplay. As a healer it’s often good to have either a tanking or a damage dealing Companion for most Classes, if not all. The first Companion you receive should fit this criteria already. You will, however, receive more choices as your progress and you might want to pick one later on that fits your own playstyle better.

Keeping your Companions gear up to date, correctly itemized, and utilizing good quality items is probably the best way to boost your Companion’s performance and, seeing as it will be a major part of your damage output, really shines when you’re fighting tougher mobs and you have to resort to healing to keep the companion alive. Very often you get a perfectly itemized level-appropriate item for your Companion from a Mission. While Momus had good reasons for selecting the Commendations as your reward, I would actually advise against this much of the time, the gear for your Companion is of high importance as a healer!

Improving your Companion’s gear is not the only way to increase output, though. There is an attribute called Presence, which, while not very common on gear in the lower levels, can be acquired from consumable items such as Field Tech Command Stim crafted by your friendly neighborhood Biochemist. Presence will directly improve the damage, healing and health of your Companion.

Reedyn is the chief nerf-herder over at Force Heal, the healing community for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Artwork is done by strawbeki.

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No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

In spite of the name, massively mutli-player online games can not only be enjoyed with friends, but also by yourself. When the design is done right, you’re not forced to choose either method.

With Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare is pushing both of those ideas to the next level with the introduction of Companions as well as Heroic quests.

Companions are great sidekicks that come along with you on your journey. They’ve become a BioWare staple in their single-player games. The hero (or heroine) begins a quest and along the way picks a rag-tag group of people to help achieve success. Awesome story, right?

The Companions in TOR do a good job of complimenting your own character and abilities. Some can tank, others heal, and a few will bring that extra damage if you need it. They give you the ability to continually move through most content, without having to stop and ask for help – unless you choose to.

Heroic quests are multi-player (group) quests you find throughout the game. They don’t have an impact on the story, and you clearly don’t have to do them. But they are definitely designed for group-based areas where help from other real players is required to complete the tasks, or even just to survive. It’s another way to give more of a “massive” feel to TOR.

For me, I’ve always been a solo gamer, at least in terms of leveling. Give me a companion to help with tasks,  guild chat to talk to my guildmates and I’m set. Then, there will be times I would rather quest with friends and I’ll have those options here too. And of course, I know I’ll be jumping into PvP, and in time Operations and Flashpoints, where group play is essential to success.

The great thing about TOR, and MMOs in general, is you have all of these options. You can choose to play how you want to play.

So, how do you intend to play TOR? Are you more interested in playing solo, or with a group of friends? Or would you prefer a mix of solo and group play?

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No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

In nearly everything people do, it comes down to who did it first. Who won the race? Who made the first movie? Who was the first to walk on the moon? Questions like these always spark debate and draw the attention of the average, everyday person. You almost never hear the person who finished second. All the glory is reserved for number one.

When Star Wars: The Old Republic launches, we are all going to be level 1, and all starting from scratch. People are going to have the chance to shoot for the first level 50 of their server, class and perhaps even the world.

So, that raises the question: Will you be the tortoise or the hare?

I’m sure many people will plan a vacation around launch time, or at the very least call in sick to get their hands on the game, and hit the ground running. To them, it almost becomes a competition with others – either literal or figurative – to be that first player walking around with Level 50 by their name. To do this, they’ll most likely be hitting the space bar to get through the dialogue faster, ignoring a majority of the voice acting.

On the other hand, there will be others who want to enjoy The Old Republic’s universe and be immersed in it. They are not trying to be the road runner and max their character. They want to take it easy and explore the nooks and crannies of each planet. The idea is to find all the secrets a planet may hold, see how high you can get on a distant peak, find all the datacrons, and enjoy the game as a whole. They may even play multiple characters, trying to get them all to Level 50 at the same relative time. To them, speed matters not.

At the end of the day, it comes down to how do you want to play SW:TOR. No matter if you have energy drinks prepared and order a couple pizzas for an all-nighter, or are actually planning a full night of sleep the day the game releases, you’ll be able to play however you like.

So, how are you planning to play your first character? More like the tortoise, or hare?

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No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

The standard cycle of playing an MMO for most players typically involves various activities including, but not limited to: leveling your character to the maximum level, participating in end-game raids, PvP and, possibly, rolling new characters or alts. Rolling alternate characters requires a longer time commitment to keep each character viable and up-to-date, but it does increase the longevity of the game and allows the players to experience something new.

BioWare is adding a brand new incentive for players to roll a new class in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not only will they experience a change of play-style that comes with a new class, but they will go through a completely different story line, meet and interact with brand new sets of companions, fly and upgrade a brand new spaceship and many other unique aspects of starting over. In addition to that, it seems we may get a shiny Legacy System, as reveled in one interview with Damion Schubert, BioWare’s Lead System Designer:

We really want to put in systems to encourage replay. The Legacy System, which we hope to get in, will hopefully be in that venue. I am not ready to talk about what exactly it is and how we do that, but we are really betting heavily on the level up game.

Of course, there are also those players who prefer to invest completely and totally into one main character.  Perhaps others will simply not have enough time to level another character, but hopefully they will eventually be able to experience the story of other classes and not miss out on quite a few hundred hours of BioWare-quality writing.

So with all of that in mind, will you stick with one character? Will you immediately level multiple classes? Or will you take the more popular approach of reaching a maximum level on one character and start many alts from there? Will TOR change your approach to any of this? Let us know below!

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