Hi all,

 

Subject line says it all. After 4 or more years away, I just returned to the game. My max toon is a 50 Jedi Shadow (back from when that was level cap). Back when I played I was in a guild and we did FP's, operations, etc. so he is geared as a tank. Mix of orange and purple pieces that were, I think, reasonably good (back at the time). Given the way there is "stat inflation" in most MMO's, I have no idea if it is considered good, even for a level 50, now.

 

And in any case, my guild is long since gone and, quite honestly, I'm mostly interested--in the short term--in soloing. I've specced into the Infiltration discipline, but again, most of my gear is more tanking gear.

 

I've got about 800k credits. From a quick glance of prices on the auction house, or the prices for most strongholds, that doesn't seem like very much. For crew skills I have synthweaving, archaeology, and underworld trading, all three at or just under 400. (I am thinking 400 must have been cap on those back when I was playing). Have some alts with other crew skills, but don't think any of those are higher than about 200. I have two alts around lvl 25, and then a handful more barely off the starter worlds.

 

Social rank 3 and Valor rank 19, almost 20, if either of those are useful. (I don't particularly enjoy pvp, though I did a fair amount with my guild as many of them loved it.) I have 612 fleet commendation, again, if that is at all useful.

 

I don't see any "storyline" quest in my quest log, so I am thinking I finished up the storyline from the original SWTOR before I stopped playing.

 

Where to begin? Obviously I need to re-learn how to play and get back the muscle memory of the various skills. But besides that... is there a new storyline I can pick up somewhere? (I am subbing, so I think that means I get access to the expansions.) Do I need to try to gear up some before doing that? Are there major new "things" added to the game I am missing out on entirely?

 

Any tips or pointers are most appreciated.

One option would be to make a new character and play from level 1 so you get a feel for how the game has changed in the time you've been away. After you're feeling comfortable with the game again you can return to your level 50 and go from there. Your other option is to go to the mission terminal on your ship and see what's available to you. I'm guessing you may not have played through the Ilum story yet, but if you have, Rise of the Hutt Cartel would be the expansion to start following Ilum. You should be fine with a level 50 and your current gear for anything story-related/solo play.

 

Crew Skills currently have a max level of 600, so you can work on increasing them too if you want. Crafting was changed in a number of ways with an additional step being added, requiring an attachment or a component or whatever to be crafted in order to craft any of the new schematics (some of the older ones were updated to require it as well, but not all of them). You can increase your crafting level simply by crafting these attachments/components.

Forgot to add, it's fairly easy to obtain credits now simply by playing the game. Running heroics (and dailies and weeklies) will net you a decent amount of credits if you feel the need to grind for some. As a subscriber, heroics have the added advantage of giving you some level-appropriate gear up until you reach level 61 (two pieces for each completed heroic, but it's RNG so you'll wind up with duplicates from time to time). At level 61 heroics begin awarding locked alliance supply crates, which are legacy bound and something you'll want to hold on to until you get a character to the end of Chapter 9 of KotFE, at which point you'll be able to turn them in. If you care about story, do not skip ahead to KotFE or you'll be locked out of the story elements (and certain rewards) associated with Forged Alliances/Prelude to Revan, Shadow of Revan, and Ziost.

As above, the best option is probably to start a new character at level 1 just to get yourself re-familiarized with the game and newer changes. Levelling is very quick these days. You can get a new character up to level 50 relatively quickly. Which is to say that getting a new character to 50 is a lot quicker and easier than it was back when you last played.

Hi all,

 

Subject line says it all. After 4 or more years away, I just returned to the game. My max toon is a 50 Jedi Shadow (back from when that was level cap). Back when I played I was in a guild and we did FP's, operations, etc. so he is geared as a tank. Mix of orange and purple pieces that were, I think, reasonably good (back at the time). Given the way there is "stat inflation" in most MMO's, I have no idea if it is considered good, even for a level 50, now.

 

 

Max gear rating at the moment is 258, if that gives you some idea of where your current gear puts you on the scale. However, that's not super-relevant outside of PVP and group/endgame content. As others have mentioned, doing heroics will get you blue gear appropriate to your level & discipline, though you do have to pick the gear box that matches your discipline (if you're tank spec, I believe it's called "Bulwark", and the other one will be DPS).

 

The other advantage to running heroics, aside from cash, is that the majority of them will be on planets below your level, and while you will get level-synced to that planet's level cap, the fights should still be easy enough that you'll have time to play around with your spec's abilities and rotations and get a handle on them again, instead of having to do that in a tougher fight. You can always read class guides and look up optimal rotations that experts recommend, but personally I've always seemed to get a quicker grasp of procs and most useful perks from playing around with it myself.

 

Related to that, don't forget to stop by your class trainer and pick up any current abilities they've got for you. Even if you haven't leveled up there are probably some that have been added or replaced over the last few years.

 

I don't see any "storyline" quest in my quest log, so I am thinking I finished up the storyline from the original SWTOR before I stopped playing.

 

Where to begin? Obviously I need to re-learn how to play and get back the muscle memory of the various skills. But besides that... is there a new storyline I can pick up somewhere? (I am subbing, so I think that means I get access to the expansions.) Do I need to try to gear up some before doing that? Are there major new "things" added to the game I am missing out on entirely?

 

Yes, as a sub you get all the expansions!

 

If you don't have an "Ilum" quest chain in your mission log, then your next storyline is the Makeb one from Rise of the Hutt Cartel, which is connected to the Dread Masters chain on Oricon. If you're worried about actually resolving those storylines, though, be warned that they involve a number of Ops that you'll need to group up for. You don't need to do those Ops to get access to the daily areas and reputation vendors, though. And certain daily areas that used to be tied to those stories (Black Hole, CZ-198, and Section X) are now independent and can be accessed right away.

 

The next storylines after that are, in order, Forged Alliances, Shadow of Revan and Ziost, which are all linked together and are related to Knights of the Fallen Empire/Knights of the Eternal Throne. All of those can be played single-player without missing any story content - even the flashpoints have single-player modes.

 

The Iokath story is kind of like Oricon in that the bulk of it can be played solo but the very end is a regular Op requiring a raid group. You do not need to play the Op to get the daily area or move on to Ossus, though.

 

Ossus takes place after all of the above and, as the mission console will double-warn you, will auto-complete all previous storylines (except Ilum, interestingly enough) once you start it. Ossus is also where you will want to go to get top-shelf gear, as it's the only place where you can earn 252 and 258 items. Again, though, that's only really worth grinding out if you're interested in Ops and similar content. Most stuff in the game can be played with middle-of-the-road loadouts and a reasonably devoted companion.

 

Companions have changed a lot since you last played and getting one to a high influence level will make your life a lot easier. They no longer depend on gear stats to be effective - instead, you raise their influence level through companion gifts. The higher that influence rank, the better they are at healing/tanking/DPS, which is now just a role you can pick for them on the fly instead of having to take Mako with you to heal or Blizz to tank, etc., like in the original version of the game. Getting one to rank 50 takes a lot of money and patience, but I'd say anything over about rank 20 will get you through most situations. They also make crafting a lot quicker and more viable (main reason I invested in getting 9 companions to 50 was so I could have the maximum 8 churning out craftables and one out & about with me).

 

In addition to the forums and in-game chat, some great resources for getting you back into the swing of things would be Dulfy, Swtorista and Vulkk. Check out any of those links and you'll have a lot of great guides and videos at your disposal.

 

Welcome back!

Thanks for all the tips, everyone. Much appreciated.

 

Following advice, I did create another Jedi Shadow (and the corresponding Sith) and played both up until about level 15-20 just to build up my knowledge of the skills again.Then went back to my old character, trained the missing skills, figured out the Discipline system and utility skills, and went out there. Did some of those Heroics on lower planets, got those blue gear boxes, and felt like I was starting to get the hang of things again. So recently jumped into the Hutt cartel questline and am currently lvl 55 and having fun with that.

 

Only thing I've had trouble with (and maybe this should be a separate thread) is that now I am soloing as a DPS spec, I am wanting my companion to mostly heal. But I find their healing abilities are very different. Even when I set them explicitly to heal mode, I am finding some do a MUCH better job. Quezyn (sp?) and Zenith I'm very happy with. Nadia... worthless. Again, even when I have her set on heal mode, she spends 90% of her time swinging her dang lightsaber around and almost no time healing me. Trying to figure out why that is. She would be my first choice for companion if she would actually heal, but I'm finding my survivability with either the big lizard or Zenth is much greater than with her. (With the other companions somewhere in between.) Any ideas on that?

 

Anyways, thanks to all of your advice, I am very much enjoying being back in the game and feeling reasonably successful.

Companion performance is no longer tied to gear. It’s based on the new version of what used to be called Affection when you played. Back then, affection went up to 10000 and affected crew skills. Now affection is influence and it goes up to rank 50. 10000 affection translated to influence rank 10 when the system was changed with game update 4.0 KOTFE. I suspect your Qyzen and Zenith are doing better because they have a higher influence rank than your Nadia. You will have to give her companion gifts to boost her influence level. You can check influence ranks in the Companions and Contacts window.

 

On a side note, assuming equal influence ranks, companions do roughly perform about the same. There are some exceptions to that rule and you can find out all those little details in this thread by KevMeUp:

https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=677289

 

For the vast majority of solo content, especially the basic story content, any companion will be fine.

 

If you get the legacy perks “Legacy of altruism” 1-3 for extra influence from companion gifts, and you choose a gift that the companion “Loves”, it takes 457 Premium green rank 1 companion gifts to get from influence rank 1 to influence rank 20. It’s time consuming but the cheapest way to boost them to a great power level. Rank 20 will overkill for a lot of solo content and is probably entry level for the most challenging solo content. Duffy has a chart of loved companion gifts here:

http://dulfy.net/2015/10/21/swtor-fallen-empire-companion-influences-guide/

Only thing I've had trouble with (and maybe this should be a separate thread) is that now I am soloing as a DPS spec, I am wanting my companion to mostly heal. .....

In my experience, there is little, if any, real difference in the overall healing ability of any companion. There are some differences in style, though, so you may want to experiment with which companion works best for you. (I can't be sure - because I don't really care - but some seem to use more HoTs while some use more insta-heals.)

 

When you were using the companions, were they of the same influence level, and were you using them in the same quest/function? For example, I have noticed some occasions where my companion doesn't seem to be healing very well, but changing to a different companion**, while doing the same quest/planet/etc doesn't seem to change things. It seems to be more of a companion AI in a given situation thing.

 

About the only real difference I can see is that some companions are "ranged" and some are "melee" and you may want to develop companions of both types. The "ranged" companions can sometimes get too far out of range and they need to be put on "passive" (temporarily) to come to you. The "melee" companions can sometimes get too close to AOEs from the foes and need to be put on passive (temporarily) and dragged out of melee range. And both types can sometimes stand in "bad circles" unless moved. So, sometimes, some micro-managing is helpful.

 

** All companions were level 50 influence.

One option would be to make a new character and play from level 1.

 

I do this every time I come back from a long break.

 

I view it as a tutorial of sort where I can learn my rotations for PVP at a slower pace.

 

I usually am in a different frame of mind after a long break and usually feel like creating a new character that is inspiring and quite a bit different from my past older toons.

Hello, I returned to the game last week after 7 years. I am a founder, played from December 2011 till March 2012 so I had two level 50s and one level 32 character.

I decided to start again as there have been so many changes in the game it felt right. So far I am about to go to Voss with my commando and I am level 65. The new leveling system does not suit me as I outlevel everything and I am offered flashpoints and missions I should be doing much later in the storyline.

Also companions are so buffed now, that you simply can not die. This makes all those mobs you have to kill ten times over even more annoying than I remember.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Embrosil

The new leveling system does not suit me as I outlevel everything and I am offered flashpoints and missions I should be doing much later in the storyline.

Also companions are so buffed now, that you simply can not die. This makes all those mobs you have to kill ten times over even more annoying than I remember.

Out-levelling is not as much of a problem as it may seem. "Bolster" will take your stats down to the "normal" level for the content. But, it does tend to be on the high side - that is, say, in a 18-20 level area, bolster will put your level equivalent to about level 24, which is still "over-level" but not so much so.

 

You can check/uncheck Flashpoints in the Group Finder list to limit them to only the "story" appropriate ones as you go along.

 

If you want to make things a little harder, set your companion to "tank". That way, they won't heal you and they won't do as much damage. (Or just don't use a companion at all - it's odd that many of the people who complain about the comps being too powerful, will still use one anyway.)

 

Most of these changes were done in order to make the levelling process to get to "endgame" - since they've added new content - faster. It is a bit "unfair" to new players, and I think they should have a way to turn off the extra XP gain. But I suspect that there are way more older players wanting to level alts, than there are new players wanting the vanilla experience, unfortunately.

Well I have never used the group finder. But I see these flashpoints on planets and on the fleet. Also there are NPC offering missions you are not supposed to do. Like that one general on Republic fleet who greeted me "Hello major, I heard you have just been to Belsavis.." Umm, what? I am captain and I have just hit Alderaan...

But it is not just this. They also made literaly every eqiupment obsolete. And crafting? Why to bother crafting an item or upgrade when it will be obsolete in 30 minutes?

While I may understand why thay made these changes, they should also allow players to level the "normal" way. Like the white accute module I have been using, because it seems the fact they throw XP on you left and right is not enough, we need to have an event with 200% XP... All in all these changes do not suit me. Especially when all old problems are still there. Huge, and I mean huge, yet totaly empty and lifeless planets with randomly placed mobs that respawn in miliseconds, yet also die in miliseconds so it would be best to just remove them. Same stupid "bonus objectives" to kill x number of something over and over. General Garza still sits in the far most room of the building making you spend one minute just to run to her. Fast travel still has 6 minutes cooldown unless you buy an upgrade. Funny thing is they clearly know how badly desgned this is and the came with their ingenious solution. Yeah, flying boots. Like seriuosly Bioware? Iron man flying boots in Star Wars? And you even have to pay a hefty fee for that skill. Really friendly to new players.

I spent yesterday evening on Voss and it was such a frustrating experience that I have decided to finish the trooper basic story and not to continue to the "additional content". I may have enough time to go through the Imperial agent story before my subscrition runs out and I do not see any reason to continue. I was really expecting more after 8 years.

Edited August 13, 2019 by Embrosil

I spent yesterday evening on Voss and it was such a frustrating experience that I have decided to finish the trooper basic story and not to continue to the "additional content". I may have enough time to go through the Imperial agent story before my subscription runs out and I do not see any reason to continue. I was really expecting more after 8 years.

I'd suggest you try some of the "additional content" before you quit**. The later stuff like Revan, KOFE/ET, Iokath, etc is different than the basic "story" (but, I'm not going to try to explain how it's different).

 

** Even after your subscription runs out, you can still play as a "preferred" (free).