Hey everyone,

For anyone considering picking up the pre-order and re-subscribing for a dainty jaunt through all of the class storylines you may have missed, please be forewarned: I am currently L38 on Quesh as an SI, and I am hitting the wall. Hard. Very hard.

Without gear, things have been getting tougher and tougher for awhile now, but at this point they're pretty much impossible. It was workable when mobs and bosses were 2+ levels below me, but they're only a single level down now, and although I could be buying greens from the GTN a little more frequently, I still don't feel like this experience is within my expectations.

I imagine a lot of you are considering making this leap back into SWTOR for the same reason I did: To just see the stories. If that's what you're looking for, I think you'll regret the decision. I definitely do.

Thanks!

This feature was not well thought of to be honest. was mainly meant for people who had high level toons to bank the new ones. Not returning players who might not have the credits or new ones.

Told some of my friends not to preorder. As they will have a hard time as new players and not be able to enjoy the leveling experience.

Serious question. What's stopping you from earning gear?

You're on Quesh you say? Why not go back and do the heroics on Balmorra or Alderaan? You will pick up comms and gear, and get a bit of experience.

If that's not your fancy, why not PvP for a bit. You can build your planetary comms that way and at 40 can buy a full set of gear that will last you most of the way to 50.

OR, say you're really lazy, you could go back to Coruscant/Taris/Nar Shaddaa and blow out their heroics for comms. Would take less than an hour and get you back.

This is a problem with a simple solution. Why haven't you used it?

You still need to break from the story at some point and grind, regardless. Either you have alts that you can run dailes/FPs for cash or heroics for comms or you can go back a few planets and run heroics and sidequests yourself. Unless you're just sitting on a couple million creds.

It's still manageable though. For one thing check your group finder. From level 15 onwards you can get 15 comms a day just from that (10 from regular FPs that come up, 5 from tactical ie. Kuat). And that's just the daily GF reward. Another thing is heroics that yield 3 comms as reward. Someone should make a list of them (or likely someone has and you just need to google it) and just run those. Even if it's gray you still get the mission reward and you can storm through it solo.

Anyway you slice it the grind has still been cut down significantly. I love speeding through a planet in under an hour.

Serious question. What's stopping you from earning gear?

 

You're on Quesh you say? Why not go back and do the heroics on Balmorra or Alderaan? You will pick up comms and gear, and get a bit of experience.

 

If that's not your fancy, why not PvP for a bit. You can build your planetary comms that way and at 40 can buy a full set of gear that will last you most of the way to 50.

 

OR, say you're really lazy, you could go back to Coruscant/Taris/Nar Shaddaa and blow out their heroics for comms. Would take less than an hour and get you back.

 

This is a problem with a simple solution. Why haven't you used it?

This is a fair question that I think a lot of you guys are providing helpful suggestions about.

The answer, and the reason that the ideas you guys are having aren't really relevant to me, is simple: I don't actually want to play SWTOR. I literally just want to see the stories and crash through the whole game with absolutely no meaningful amount of difficulty whatsoever.

I recognize that Bioware doesn't explicitly say that this is what the experience will be like, but I feel like it's sort of implied? Certainly I feel like a lot of people who are exactly like me will think so, and fall for it.

My post was really only intended to warn people who have exactly my mindset.

The insidious thing is also that it's super easy at first and then slowly gets harder. In other words, it's exactly like an MMO. You just get tricked into playing the exact thing you were trying to avoid. I gotta admit, BW is brilliant for that one.

But thanks! If you guys enjoy playing, more power to you. I used to - I just don't now. But I would love to see all the stories.

Sadly, this is not a way to do it.

I just hit lvl 36 and I see what you're talking about. I don't think this was a great reward for early pre-buy, and just a statue, now if it was 12x ALL xp I could at least get into some warzones and get more xp from kills.

Agreed. If it was 12 XP across the board, I think I could roll with that. Would do a few FPs and warzones for fun.

This feature was not well thought of to be honest. was mainly meant for people who had high level toons to bank the new ones. Not returning players who might not have the credits or new ones.

 

Told some of my friends not to preorder. As they will have a hard time as new players and not be able to enjoy the leveling experience.

Theres no doubt new players will struggle from lack of funds, there simply isn't the time to make them fast enough as you level.

But, the OP didnt mention credits only that his expectations to have to update your gear differ from everyone else?

One solution I thought of was to drastically lower the prices of the green mods from the vendors on each planet and make them bop.

This is a fair question that I think a lot of you guys are providing helpful suggestions about.

 

The answer, and the reason that the ideas you guys are having aren't really relevant to me, is simple: I don't actually want to play SWTOR. I literally just want to see the stories and crash through the whole game with absolutely no meaningful amount of difficulty whatsoever.

 

I recognize that Bioware doesn't explicitly say that this is what the experience will be like, but I feel like it's sort of implied? Certainly I feel like a lot of people who are exactly like me will think so, and fall for it.

 

My post was really only intended to warn people who have exactly my mindset.

 

The insidious thing is also that it's super easy at first and then slowly gets harder. In other words, it's exactly like an MMO. You just get tricked into playing the exact thing you were trying to avoid. I gotta admit, BW is brilliant for that one.

 

But thanks! If you guys enjoy playing, more power to you. I used to - I just don't now. But I would love to see all the stories.

 

Sadly, this is not a way to do it.

Not at all.

Bioware is only offering a considerable XP boost, whenever you're completing class story quests. Repair bills, gearing up your character, travelling, etc etc, is all on you.

As it should be.

Feel fortunate that you -- apparently -- don't have to pay to class trainers to learn new abilities with this buff.

This is a fair question that I think a lot of you guys are providing helpful suggestions about.

 

The answer, and the reason that the ideas you guys are having aren't really relevant to me, is simple: I don't actually want to play SWTOR. I literally just want to see the stories and crash through the whole game with absolutely no meaningful amount of difficulty whatsoever.

 

I recognize that Bioware doesn't explicitly say that this is what the experience will be like, but I feel like it's sort of implied? Certainly I feel like a lot of people who are exactly like me will think so, and fall for it.

 

My post was really only intended to warn people who have exactly my mindset.

 

 

This reward is about ALT leveling, I don't need to see the planets and missions, been there done that. If i was new and came to the game then great, id do missions and class. BW gave this xp boost we didn't ask for it, but now that its here it is not all that. A boost for just class is lame, good for new not old, I would have rather it be a warzone boost

It's not a "feature." It's a temporary bonus. Likewise, you can indeed craft or simply buy gear from either the GTN or the numerous vendors on planets to keep somewhat up to date. Yes, that "Medium Armour Vendor" actually has a use beyond repairing and vendoring.

This is the answer.

The answer, and the reason that the ideas you guys are having aren't really relevant to me, is simple: I don't actually want to play SWTOR. I literally just want to see the stories and crash through the whole game with absolutely no meaningful amount of difficulty whatsoever.

You're playing the wrong type of game then...

Not at all.

 

Bioware is only offering a considerable XP boost, whenever you're completing class story quests. Repair bills, gearing up your character, travelling, etc etc, is all on you.

 

As it should be.

 

Feel fortunate that you -- apparently -- don't have to pay to class trainers to learn new abilities with this buff.

But I don't feel fortunate! Because this isn't what I thought it would be like! If I have to play the game more or less straight up from 38 - 55, that isn't what I thought I would be paying money for! And I think Bioware knows that and they're doing it anyways! And that's kind of boo-urns of them! And people should know!

That's all I'm saying.

This is the answer.

FWIW, I've been buying greens off the GTN. It's not enough. You aren't rocking much of green anything by the time you're 38 for real, ai?

I hit this problem a few times, a few ways to get past this...

Do the side missions on at least two of the planets...that is usually enough to keep you up to snuff. The other thing of note is that a level 55 will not hinder your class XP even if you are grouped...so a 55 can quickly carry you through to Makeb at 47.

But I don't feel fortunate! Because this isn't what I thought it would be like! If I have to play the game more or less straight up from 38 - 55, that isn't what I thought I would be paying money for! And I think Bioware knows that and they're doing it anyways! And that's kind of boo-urns of them! And people should know!

 

That's all I'm saying.

Expectations and reality are not one and the same.

Again, you should be grateful as it is that you don't have have to pay for your new abilities, whenever you level up. That's a huge credit sink right there.

I've been buying whatever the cheapest gear I can find on the GTN every 4-5 levels.

I never spend over 10k for any given piece and usually pay less than 5k.

Between quest rewards and vendor trash, it's been more than sufficient to keep up with the gear curve.

Oh, and I also put all the armor I loot up for sale on the GTN.

People buy it faster than I can loot it.

FWIW, I've been buying greens off the GTN. It's not enough. You aren't rocking much of green anything by the time you're 38 for real, ai?

It's more than enough. I'm working on my third right now and he's right about where you are. Haven't received a single credit from other characters. He's still doing fine and the last time I updated my gear was ~26. I would chalk it up to being the class, but given I've gone past this point on three separate characters with the boost... I can't comprehend how it isn't going smoothly.

I mean, honestly, if that gear isn't enough, how did you ever level past this point on the first place? Meticiulously crafting a new set of purples every two levels?

You don't want to play SWTOR but you have a sub and pre-ordered? Tough sell.

I get where you're coming from, I'm not an MMO guy either. But the grind has been reduced to almost single-player levels and I think that's clear as day. Wanting the story without doing anything at all isn't really playing a game. That's watching a video. And Youtube's free.

I'm not seeing the issue really. Use cheap orange moddable gear (either the legacy stuff you get when you start or stuff from the GTN for 500-5k creds). Save planetary comms, upgrade mods every 5-10 levels. If people are running a heroic on the planet, offer to join because you get free gear that's pretty decent, even if you're overlevel, for not much work.

For the quest rewards it was very, very rare that I picked anything that wasn't a comm, the rare cases being when the reward choice was between a single comm or a armor mod that was within 3 levels of my current level and I could put to use, or an item for my companion that I already knew from checking the GTN beforehand was relatively difficult to get.

I'd then pick up the occasional green or blue upgrade for your companion of choice to keep them relevant. Hopefully from general trash clear drops, GTN is needed. If they happen to use the same gear as you, they can use your cast-offs *cough* trooper**cough*.

Don't forget you can always go back and do the dull side quests on outleveled planets for comms(but not xp) and it'll be pretty darn quick because you massively outgear the zones.

This weekend on the Shadowlands, I've been selling lots and lots of the extra gear that my alts have accumulated. I've probably sold more stuff on the GTN this weekend than all the other previous months combined.

Very,very reasonably priced blue gear and mods to help those folks who QQ about 12XP not being perfect.

I call it my #Gear4Tears Sale!

But I don't feel fortunate! Because this isn't what I thought it would be like! If I have to play the game more or less straight up from 38 - 55, that isn't what I thought I would be paying money for! And I think Bioware knows that and they're doing it anyways! And that's kind of boo-urns of them! And people should know!

 

That's all I'm saying.

The thing is, the bonus really helps people who already have at least 2 Act 3s done. I have about +600 presence on my level 35 toons from Legacy bonuses and so my gear deficient is made up for by my companions.

This buff really seems to favour people - like myself - who have 5 or more 55s.

To be honest, I think some people had expectations outside of what was being offered...

This indeed works well for those who have lvl 55 alts who can fund fast leveling, or who have alts who have hit the requirements for presence boost (full boost there makes a world of difference, double that if you have Treek)

I've been using CM armor and planet comms from my 55s to stay leveled... I could use greens, but I have the comms so why not?

If I didn't? I'd probably just use the greens/blues that you can buy from various vendors in the game that have been ignored for a very long time.