The Valor Curse

I haven't touched on PvP much. Now that I'm actually becoming semi-decent at it, maybe things will change soon...

Valor is of course the special progression 'currency' you receive from completing Warzones, with a maximum of 100 tiers.

If you don't do PvP nearly enough to understand how it 'works', you start off by absolutely powering through the levels, to the extent that a few warzones would complete you one tier, up until you hit the tier which matched your current level in which case your Valor could not advance.

Once you get to 50, not only are you able to escape from being duly Valor-locked, but this is where the grind really begins to pick up. Indeed, it's often claimed - whether jokingly or otherwise, I do not know for sure - that it's quicker for a DPS player to complete I Am Death Incarnate (the 50,000 kills Achievement) than it is to get up to Valor 100.

Indeed, the Valor grind is now the only aspect of grinding which has remained at the same 'standard' throughout the entire game, given that PvP content could never be outlevelled and ground quickly as Social Points could have been in 'easier' Operations and Flashpoints.

You all know this already, so I'll get to the blasted point. Calm down, sir, I know you didn't come to feel patronised by this loser.

Valor and me have had a bit of a tumultuous relationship, in that I have since come to believe myself as being "cursed": every time I get a character to a decent Valor level, another one manages to replace them, preventing the other characters from progressing further.

This has happened no less than five separate occasions with the characters who are in my current roster.

Firstly, the Commando Ziodus got up to Valor Rank 61 before he was replaced by the Gunslinger, who by then was going by the name Calphaya, who actually 'ended' her first run at Valor 58. She in turn was replaced by the Sniper Pippera, who managed to attain the so far unassailable rank of Valor 76 before the Gunslinger stole it back again and managed to get to Valor 65.

Now, the Sage Vhiallia has entered the mix. She was an instant-60 character created due to my dislike of my other Sage from The Harbinger - even though it is of course cheaper to spend 1,500 CC to transfer a character instead of 2,000 to create a new one - sometime in May, and since becoming the PvP Main she has managed to overtake Calph's Valor by (presently) only a couple of hundred points just in this last week.

Hopefully, Vhiallia will actually manage to break this curse once and for all. I'm presently very much enjoying Sage due to its mobility and moderate survivability, so I can't see any reason why I'd go back to Gunslinger or Sniper who lack both of these things. It would be so nice to finally get up to Valor 100, but I still have one hell of a long journey to go.

On the plus-side, I can definitely say that it will be quicker to get I Am Death Incarnate at this rate, as I'm closing in on 40,000!