Wednesday Warzones #8: Skilled Impressions

It's time for another Wednesday Warzones!

... totally not nearly behind schedule as a result of 5.0.

Nope.

This time around, Calph makes her video début on the blog! It's about time, but even so she doesn't appear until the third Warzone.

This video also marks the appearance of the only Warzone location not yet featured in the series: Quesh Huttball! Not that this is a particularly good thing, of course. If anything, "Queshball" is my least favourite of the maps.

Anywho.

Participants:

Civil War and Queshball - 26th Setpember 2016:

Vhiallia - Balance Sage

Jengos - Shield Specialist Vanguard

Mep'Fan - Sharpshooter/Dirty Fighting Gunslinger

Shíntar - Combat Medic Commando

VoidStar - 30th September 2016:

Calph - Dirty Fighting Gunslinger

Rarrix - Serenity Shadow

Teloo - Combat Sentinel

Shilu - Sawbones Scoundrel

5.0 Pre-Feelings: The Good, the Bad, and the Eeehhhhhs

Today's the day. 5.0, Level 70, Eternal Throne, and the controversial Command System all come out later today for Early Access players.

As I mentioned yesterday, today's plan is to look at the upcoming Expansion and list the things I am excited about, dreading, or somewhere in-between.

Let's get started!

Wading into IntPiPoMo #4: Everything Else

I realised shortly after posting my last IntPiPoMo instalment that I didn't have nearly as much time left to post images as I first believed. I was planning for today's post to be a post looking at changes coming for Eternal Throne and those which I like, dislike, and am currently ambivalent towards, but actually that probably works better as tomorrow's post as it will be posted on the same day as the expansion itself actually launches.

So, without further ado, here's the last instalment of my first International Picture Posting Month. Today's topic? Anything that could have had its own topic this time around yet didn't, mainly due to the fact that I was completely winging it and hadn't preplanned any aspect of it at all.

Wading into IntPiPoMo #3: Six Obscure Codex Entries and How to Find Them

This is something which I was actually planning to turn into a video series of sort, but I think realistically it's probably better to make it a one-time text post, mainly because my voice doesn't suit the whole "here's how to do a thing!" format.

Plus, at least with a text post it's easier to go back and pick up from where you left off without getting 'lost'.

Codex Entries are recurring themes of several of BioWare's games. They're often used as a means to provide information for people to study and provide background without needing to dive into 'serious' vocal exposition.

Then there are those which are there 'just because'. They add largely nothing to the relevant story and are just there for a bit of world-building and nothing else. SWtOR specialises in these when it comes to finding them in the open world, and most of these can just be come across as a corpse, a holocron, interesting bits of technology, or weaponry.

Very few of them are actually so obscure that you need to know how to look for them, but there are six in particular which stand out to me as the most obscure Codex Entries of all time. I decided to dedicate an IntPiPoMo post to this because, heck, there are a lot of screenshots, so why not? It can be fun to turn one idea to suit another sometimes.

Let's get started!

Wading into IntPiPoMo #2: Favourite Pets and Companions

Time for another #IntPiPoMo 2016 post. Taking the spotlight today are some of my favourite Companions and pets which can currently be accrued in the game.

You can basically tell which my favourites are if they get given a creative spot in my Tatooine Stronghold. For Companions, I typically try and include those who have a room dedicated to their Class 'origin' within that room as matter of principle (whilst also adhering to the current overall game story so that anyone who has yet to return or been kicked out by the current Main is left out), but there are those who are just sort-of 'there' with no creativity involved whatsoever.

Then there are those who, regardless of where they are in my favourites list, become the subject of my rare moments of inspiration with nice little vignettes dedicated to their person.

Pets, being different to Companions, have no proper 'origin' and are more often than not given their own dedicated areas as a compromise. There are some exceptions, as you'll see, but let's get cracking.

Arcann and Senya's Fate: Aligning Stream Info with Trailer Screenshots

It shouldn't have escaped many people's attention that there's a new teaser trailer out for Eternal Throne, showcasing various scenes from in-game.

Being the scrutiniser that I am, I took to scrutinising the scenes in closer detail and originally came to the assumption that BW had screwed up by accidentally spoiling important moments. They've still inadvertently revealed physical details in this trailer, but since then the BW Story Stream has all but revealed that perhaps they weren't accidental spoilers, but more a deliberate tease of stuff to come.

Bear in mind though that for some people this will still be spoiler territory, so if you want to avoid potentially spoiling stuff for yourself, by all means ignore this post and move on.

Wednesday Warzones #7: Take a Seat

It's time for another instalment of Wednesday Warzones!

Here's something surreal for you; this will be the last Warzones video until 5.0. I've got so much Warzone footage stored up that it will be a while until any footage from 5.0 becomes the norm for these videos, but maybe this is a good thing since it gives me time to figure out the best ways for my PvP character to cope with the new gearing system.

Heck, maybe Calph will actually be the featuring character for a while...

This video stars quite a noteworthy Guild on The Red Eclipse: Take a Seat! Or rather, their Republic equivalent. Having been on the receiving end of some of their ploys (as can be sorta seen in the Hypergates match), it was refreshing to actually be with them for a couple of matches instead of hitting our faces against the brick wall that they normally present us with.

Participants:

Huttball (25th of September):

Vhiallia - Balance Sage

Suss'daowoss - Telekinetics Sage

Golu - Seer Sage and Serious Huttball Player

Malach Uriel - Gunnery Commando

Odessen and Hypergates (26 of September):

Vhiallia - Balance Sage

Tror - Balance Sage

Shilu - Sawbones Scoundrel

Corriari - Shield Specialist Vanguard

Wading into #IntPiPoMo #1: Old but Gold

If you're a regular around the bloggosphere, you've probably come across the International Picture Posting Month. If you haven't come across the term before, it means that each November bloggers are 'challenged' to post 50 pictures on the blog across the entire month in a response to a Writing Month where one has to write 50,000 words, because a picture is worth 1,000 words of course.

I didn't wade into this last year, mainly because I was on a stubborn "hiatus" of sorts for some reason. Because I'm taking blogging more seriously than ever currently, I have decided that it's time that, heck, maybe I should participate in some of these events more frequently.

So, to kick off my picture-posting craze (I've always wanted to feature more screenshots given that I write far too much anyway), I decided that it's best to start retroactively. All of my SWtOR screenshots prior to November 2015 have been scrutinised, with the aim of posting the best and funniest of my old screenshots in this thread.

Let's get started!

Thoughts on the Confirmed 5.0 Class Changes

You may have noticed that there was no post on Monday as there usually is. The reason for this is that, with 5.0 just on the horizon, there really isn't that much one can talk about due to the weight of the approaching stuff.

That is, without BioWare's official words on the matter.

Because they released official information on Class Changes on Monday, it's time to finally turn my attention to the changes which have been in the datamined offing for a couple of months now.

Better late than never, right?

More Repeating of the Repetitive Grind

On yesterday's Stream, BioWare delved more into one of the slightly more interesting points of Eternal Throne: Chapter Difficulties.

Basically, each Chapter now has two difficulty modes: Story and Veteran (although a third, Master, will come out at a later date of course). Veteran Mode is designed to be done with mid-tier endgame gear and an Influence 20 Companion (apparently having been tested with a DPS character and a Healer Companion), and scales to your Level, suggesting that it can also be done on the first playthrough of a Chapter to provide more of a challenge.

Each Chapter will also be repeatable, allowing you to experience the same story content over and over again if you so desire.

The ability to replay story content, as well as a more difficult version thereof, is something which several voices have called out for in the past, with one particular request for us to do our entire Class Story at relevant 'endgame' level for therapeutic and challenging reasons.

To see it happen with KotFE and KotET is interesting, but at the same time quite disheartening. A lot of people refer to playing KotFE time and time again on different alts as an absolute chore, and now we have the ability to do so on characters who have already experienced the story.

Choices we've already made stick the course, so making different choices this time around only serves to allow you to see what could have gone differently for that character (but only in the moment; you can't 'fake' a playthrough which results in a romanced Koth if in your actual playthrough he was driven away from your side).

On the plus side, for completionists (such as myself) who missed out on either map completion or Codex entries (like that one in the Asylum alleyway, grrr), this provides the perfect opportunity to go back and pick them up just because.

I do have to say, I am slightly disappointed that the HK Chapter won't be available in either Veteran or Master mode. It's probably the most 'fair' Chapter given that everyone has the same skill set and there can't be any real class bias, but at the same time playing as HK isn't exactly something which many people are willing to learn a proper rotation for, so it perhaps would be harder to align this Chapter with its fellows based on this fact alone.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Veteran (and later, Master) mode brings to the table. I have a nasty feeling that it's purely going to be increased damage with no new mechanics, but then again it could be that increased health results in more mechanics coming forward that people were just able to blitz past before now.

We'll have to wait and see.

I am curious to know how Healer players in particular will cope with this. Companions can be fairly squishy and a low-Influence DPS Companion doesn't have nearly anywhere near enough DPS output to kill things quickly, so while Veteran Mode may still be fairly simple, Master Mode (assuming that this difficulty will be at Level 70 and requiring gear, that is, which would explain why it's being delayed) could well be absolutely brutal for them.

Wednesday Warzones #6: Objective Overkill

It's time for another instalment of Wednesday Warzones!

Nothing really amusing stands out from the footage for the title for this week, so instead I decided to simply refer to the fact that all three featured games ended with either a very high score compared to a very low score, or a very quick objective advance by our team compared to our opponents.

Rather amusingly, I noticed whilst editing this that one of the Imperials we were fighting against in the VoidStar has since joined our Republic guild.

Funny how these things work out sometimes.

Participants:

Vhiallia - Balance Sage
Tror - Balance Sage
Corriari - Shield Specialist Vanguard/Suss'daowoss - Telekinetics Sage
Shíntar - Combat Medic Commando/Golu - Seer Sage