The New Warrior's Path

5.2's delay has certainly caused something of a discussion point amongst the SWtOR Community. Some are regarding it as an embarrassment or a failure, others don't mind in the slightest, and there are those who are happy with the delay since it means that, ultimately, they get a "better" patch update than they would have done otherwise.

I put myself roughly in the "don't mind" category. I'm somewhat miffed that I'll be missing the launch-day of the Patch due to being on holiday (indeed, this blog post is currently being written under the grey skies of a caravan park) until the Wednesday, but at the end of the day I'm only missing one day of 5.2. Ultimately, I can't be at all annoyed about missing the Tuesday since on this day next week I'll be visiting the Star Wars Identities exhibition in the O2 Arena before attending a concert by the phenomenal Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall.

Culture!

So, with 5.2 being delayed, I decided to turn my attention elsewhere this week, since I was particularly keen to avoid doing things on Calph for as much as possible, given that I had brought her CXP total to 4,989/4,990 for her current Command Rank. This avoidance did fall through yesterday (aggravating for my OCD) but again, can't complain because Master Mode Draxus bit the dust to make our raid group feel good about ourselves.

Instead, I focused what attention I could this week before holidays interrupted procedures to continuing the adventures of the only DvL character I have left in active use; my newest Sith Juggernaut, Ferok'ia.

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Whilst most of my Dark vs. Light characters were created in the shadow of a more prominent or favoured predecessor and thus never had much chance to survive, Ferok'ia's predecessor, Cynare, was himself practically clinging onto existence; he had very poorly optimised 'peripheral' gear which I just lost interest in managing since he hit 60, and I wasn't even particularly fond of him in the first place. It just made sense to take this opportunity to create a new Juggernaut and make a fresh start.

Since I like to recycle character names and looks with variations, Ferok'ia was designed similarly to my first high-level Sith, a Marauder named Ferokii, with everything but the hairstyle and jewellery being changed in some way (some more minor than others; the face 'style' is largely similar to the original, for example).

Original Ferokii. This is one of only a few screenshots which exist of her.

Ferok'ia.

Her armour has taken a fair amount of consideration and has gone through various iterations.

I originally attempted to work with the Darth Malgus armour set, but the hood looks absolutely awful on female body-type-1 characters and there are only so many decent hood-hiding headpieces which also allow you to see your character's face (plus the Malgus chestpiece's neck-brace can be seen to 'float' when the hood is removed).

This then evolved into mixing the Malgus boots, belt, and gauntlets with the Sith Champion chestpiece and greaves, which I still believe is the best Juggernaut look from the original game.

However, as you can see, this is no longer the look she uses.

I've been toying with the idea of buying the Unrelenting Terror's armour set for her for quite some time, and finally this week I decided to go ahead with it. It may have cost me nineteen million Credits for the whole set (which is actually fairly cheap for a set inspired by Darth Vader), but it's certainly been Credits well spent I'd say.

I particularly love the fact that the Chestpiece is one of the few heavily-armoured breastplates to not mold itself around a female character's breasts in any silly skintight-esque fashion (there is no discernible 'divot' between them, for example), so it wins extra bonus points from me in that regard.

That said, I'm not too fond of the little bits on the shoulder pads or the red highlights with the original set, but I have easy access to Secondary Black Dyes which turns the set completely black and I can look past the shoulder bits. Especially when the rest of the Chestpiece has that magnificent Carbon-Fibre sheen.

Because the gloves and helmet are the worst parts of the set as far as I'm concerned, I'm still perfectly happy for her to go bare-headed and continue using the Malgus gauntlets, which work perfectly in conjunction with the chest due to the lights and are now the only piece of armour to survive all phases of gear-experimentation.

I am fairly sure that most people have a screenshot from this moment on Alderaan.
And yes, I know Vette's left foot looks hilariously broken in this screenshot.

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Even though Ferok'ia is already at Level 70, I'm taking her slowly and surely through her Class story, since it has been a while since I last played it and it's one of the most replayable stories in the game in my opinion.

I'm currently just shy of completing the first Chapter, and it's nice to be reminded of so many moments and characters which have great 'oomph'. The conclusion to the Warrior's Balmorra story still holds up really well, and Nomen Karr easily remains among the best Chapter antagonists in terms of 'worthiness' for the player character. I'm also planning on romancing Malavai Quinn in this runthrough, just to see what impact this has when Ferok'ia finally gets around to reuniting with him in the War for Iokath story.

This has also made me realise that it's been a very long time since I've seriously taken an Imperial character through the levelling content, since I'm only just now discovering changes made to certain planets in 4.0.

Imperial Alderaan has seen some of the most changes which I've encountered thus far, with two mission-givers changing location, three missions changing location, and quests and quest-givers having completely disappeared. 

The chap who gives the mission in House Thul for eradicating the Killik nests has relocated from the speeder pad to just nearby the speeder vendor. This is the most minor change and is the most "standard" change to affect a mission since 4.0

Sir Deris Panteer has moved from the path to the final Imperial Outpost to just outside the Panteer hideout, while the Panteer crown can now be located in the grounds of the castle rather than in the Glarus valley river (rather disappointingly, it can now only be located in a single interactable crate rather than be hidden in one of several which had a chance to summon ambushing droids). 

The mission where you rendezvous with Rist spies (The Assassin's Secret) has changed location from a cave near House Rist to the building where the Heroic Mission Insufficient Staff used to take place, whilst its direct follow-up Ulgo's Revenge has changed location from the cave next to where Republic quest-giver Maelrich Alde is located to a cave near to where the original location where The Assassin's Secret was located.

Those of you who are relatively new to the game and very familiar with the Heroic Missions on Alderaan will be looking at the above statement regarding "Insufficient Staff" with some confusion, since such a mission is not accessible via the Priority Transports. This is simply because it was completely removed with 4.0. It hasn't even been demoted from Heroic status to standard mission status. Since the mission has disappeared, so too have the quest-givers in the third Imperial Outpost, and it was this absence that first made me realise that the changes to questing on Alderaan were not as superficial as on most other planets.

Speaking of missions removed from the game, the multi-stage Bonus Mission in House Alde which was linked to the mission Hive Mined (which only required you to run close to House Alde without ever going into it, thus it was very easily missed) seems to have been removed from the game as well. Certainly, Hive Mined now has its own Bonus Mission, and with no world mission actually requiring you to run into House Alde it looks like this is farewell to this mission as well. 

Boooooo, BioWare. Boooooooo.

There are probably several changes to other planets which make these look insignificant, but these are the biggest which I have discovered in my travels so far. 

I acknowledge that certain people will find it strange when I say that I absolutely abhor the levelling process whilst also being a huge fan of the levelling content. I'd happily spend several hours indulging in the various missions on each world but balk at spending a large amount of time actually levelling a character even when spending the time doing the missions I love. I still don't know why this is.

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I'm really pleased with how Ferok'ia is progressing along. I'd happily consider her among my most favourite characters of late (although I still need to replace her predecessor in the blog's Character Sheet), and it's absolutely fantastic to be experiencing the Warrior storyline once again. 

Whilst a minor gripe in comparison to my enjoyment of using her, I'm not best-pleased with the changes to Imperial Alderaan. Whilst most of the changes to quests across the game are superficial, the changes which have affected Alderaan's quests are the most substantial from what I've seen. It's a shame to see quests removed or completely relocated from their previous defining locations. 

Still, these changes are only substantial to one planet thus far (not including the removal of Daily missions on Belsavis and Ilum), and I hope that there aren't any more unpleasant changes coming up later. There probably will be, of course; as I say, this is the first time I've taken an Imperial character 'seriously' through the levelling content since before 4.0.

That said, I don't think any change I'll encounter will evoke such a feeling of disappointment as the change to the Czerka Dig Site for The Thing Czerka Found on Tatooine. Such a gloriously large map being contracted to just an elevator exit point next to the phase-gate is one hell of a silly decision, especially when there are still obvious remnants of the now-absent Bonus Mission still kicking around - Cybernecrotic Director Antayen can still be found in his original location, and I always remember to pay him a visit when I do this quest-chain just as a memento of the things that used to be.

I didn't intend this post to turn into a somewhat depressing comparison of pre-4.0 game state to post-4.0 game state, honest!