Character Differentiation

The one thing which has stuck with me across the years as I play SWtOR is that appearance is the one of the most important things when it comes to playing a character. I may like how a character looks in the creator, but if something is off when the character is 'born' and in the open world then I'm going to change that ASAP. 

Not even long-term characters of mine are safe from this. Several of the characters who still exist to this day have gone through various changes, sometimes even including species, for differing reasons. Sometimes it's just because a new hairstyle has come out that I want to try. Other times it's because I realised that my characters need to be more diverse than they were at a previous point.

For example, there was one time when I had six Human characters and only two aliens - a Twi'lek and a Sith Pureblood. Of those specific eight characters, only three are in-use to this day and two of these have become a Mirialan and a Chiss. 

I've recently taken this into overdrive, a recurring trend with some things these days it seems, to the extent that it is not just outfits which differentiates my characters: None of them use the same primary-Companion, mount, or even colour crystal(s) as another. Variety in species is still something of a sore point, but I'll go into that in more detail further on in the post.

This is a post which I tried to write last year before giving up the ghost without having really started. It's time to remedy this and bore you lucky, lucky people to death once again.

And hey, it is Picture-Posting Month. I might not hit my fifty images but I might as well get some mileage out of it.

~~~

I think a main reason why I focus as heavily as I do on visually differentiating my characters is because my playstyle is pretty much identical across the board.

All of my characters use DPS specs which are AoE-orientated; Balance, Dirty Fighting, Plasmatech, and Vigilance. With the exception of two Operations fights for my Gunslinger these specs are in a state of permanence and no other spec ever sees a look-in.

Furthermore, with the exception of two characters, I tend to use Tanks as my primary Companions. This is due to two main reasons. Firstly, it means that the Companion still pulls their weight in-combat without things dying too quickly. Secondly, it also means I can control various situations easily while keeping our survivability in a manageable state. I've turned off their pull as an automatic ability and remapped it to a specific and easy-to-use keybind, enabling me to use it as an effective crowd-control mechanism.

That's not to say I can't find a use for DPS or Healer Companions, but their combat usage is far more specific.

DPS Companions are really only useful to me if there's a divergent path or a couple of Champions close-by to one another in a Heroic. In this instance I'll summon a DPS, go attack one and send the Companion after the other. I did originally try using a Tank to do this but I realised quickly this wasn't as good an idea as I first thought; the mob(s) I was attacking would nearly always be attracted by the AoE taunt ability and move to engage. That's not too bad on a Ranged character, depending on the circumstances, but it's not useful at all on a Melee character. Most other times, I find that a DPS Companion will just kill things so quickly that it takes all the fun out of combat.

I only use Healer Companions on one occasion when doing stuff solo. The large Devastator Monoliths on Ziost are presently the only enemies that are neither unique individuals nor planetside base-guards which I cannot kill by myself with either a Tank or a DPS Companion. They've always melted anything which is ill-prepared that gets on their bad side. Besides this, the only time I myself use a Healer is if under-manning a Master Mode Flashpoint and we already have players fulfilling the Tank and DPS roles.

Essentially, I like feeling that both myself and my Companion get to do enough in combat situations without things feeling excessive for either party. With this mindset, I find Healer Companions do rather too little and DPS Companions do too much. 

~~~

Republic

Cal Pheiya

Cal has a couple of Companions who I'm happy to consider as primary. Bowdaar is by far my favourite of the two hence why he's pictured, but I also think the Gamorrean Bodyguard works quite nicely as a member of Cal's crew. True to form I have given this Gamorrean his own name of Mugrush, often shortened to "Muggy". 

Hey, I can't exactly go around referring to him solely as "Gamorrean Bodyguard"!

Whenever she uses a DPS there are a lot of characters in the pool to take from: Akaavi, Gault, Koth (who's also Cal's boyfriend and hopefully-eventual fiancé), Mako, Nico, Risha, and Vette. Whenever the need for a Healer arises I tend to switch Mako back to Healer, since I don't think either of the actual trained medics in Cal's roster suit a Smuggler. I would use Guss as either a DPS or the Healer were it not for the fact that in the lore he can't really use the Force yet in-combat he's as proficient as they come, and I abide by the lore when and where possible in all instances. 

I still think they should have given him Tech abilities but still with that new Lightsaber proficiency. It's not as if Force Power on a Lightsaber actually does anything stats-wise for a Companion anymore. It would have really sold home how unique he was as a 'Jedi' character.

There aren't too many mounts out there which I really feel suit a "Smuggler vibe". The Kakkran Daggerstar swoop is historically a fast vehicle so for a rough-and-tumble character it does sorta work, but even I acknowledge that I'm stretching things a lot. I have gone through several creature and vehicle mounts with her, and I imagine I'll probably end up trying several more in the future without ever really landing on one that will work indefinitely.

Cal's blasters use one of my three absolute favourite non-Cartel crystals; Magenta. These crystals have been in usage since the 2.0 era when Cal first became the Main of the group, although not without seeing a change from Power to Critical during the 4.0 era. 

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Jehnira

As you can see in the header image, Jehn is one of two human characters (three if you count Phirella as a human-cyborg). This does rather sell my whole spiel about differentiation as being rather weak, but I maintain that repetition would have occurred somewhere along the line anyway - I absolutely dislike Togruta, Rattataki, and Zabrak and I find Miraluka hard to really empathise with as characters. Should we eventually get some more species options I'll gladly resume my long-since abandoned quest to introduce another different species to the line-up.

To make up for this repetition in some small way, Jehn keeps her helmet on at all times. 

Jehnira is one of the two characters to have a DPS Companion in the primary slot; in this case, it's Aric Jorgan. She's still yet to start Fallen Empire so she has yet to gain access to any additional Companions beyond the original Trooper set, but I sincerely doubt doing this would shake things up any. There just aren't any characters who I could use as Tanks that I think really suit a Trooper, at least not without once more repeating myself (as the Sniper's choice of Companion will testify to).

The only exception to that is Felix Iresso and that's (sadly) no longer a possibility.

If M1-4X was an actually functional Tank I'd gladly use him in that role as the primary option, but otherwise the only actual-Tank Companion in the Trooper's roster is Tanno Vik. No thank you! 

BioWare have actually introduced two non-bipedal Droid Companions which have a functional leap this year and with them have managed to un-break the Probe Droid as a Tank, so I'm hopeful that they'll eventually figure out a way to get Droids like 4X and T7 working properly. Until then, 4X is being kept as a 'reserve' Trooper DPS Companion alongside Yuun.

I get too caught up on things sometimes, don't I?

There are more than a few speeders which I feel suit a Trooper aesthetic, and Jehn's been using the Victor's Trailblazer pretty much since day one of her creation last September. It's sleek, relatively well-armoured, and armed, what more could a soldier of the Republic want?

Similar to Cal, Jehn's gun uses another of my absolute favourite non-Cartel crystals. This time around it's Cyan, continuing a trend set by my former Main, Commando Ziodus, where all Trooper characters and Companions would get a crystal of that colour. Now that all characters can get Trooper Companions, this pattern of course has to extend to outside of the Trooper themselves. 

~

Miorahna

Following on from some comments made in Jehn's section, Miorahna is currently the character who I feel will eventually become a different species should they introduce one which is more to my liking than the present unused ones are. I'm saying this mainly eyeing species like Nautolan and Kel Dor, either of which I'd love to have a Jedi character be if at all possible.

Miora has quite a few Companions I would gladly use in the primary role. Choza Raabat is presently the only true Jedi Companion who comfortably fills the Tanking position but I also feel that Arcann and Senya suit a Jedi quite nicely, especially as Arcann is also Miora's love interest. As much as I like Scourge as a character I didn't really enjoy actually using him as a Companion before he was disappeared, and I don't imagine this will change when he eventually comes back.

For DPS, there aren't too many options. I quite like Master Ranos spicing some things up since a Jedi Knight never recruits a Sentinel in their class story, but beyond her it's mainly just T7, Rusk, and eventually Kira who I consider a part of her 'DPS Companion rotation'. Once Doc comes back he's being reinstated as the Healer, but until then Elara Dorne is temporarily filling that role since I feel she works quite well with the Knight.

I've always liked Varactyls ever since Boga leapt on-screen in Revenge of the Sith. SWtOR's Varactyl model is a lot smaller and skinnier than the actual creature, but I still really like being able to ride around on one. The armoured variants in particular are very nice, as the armour makes some sense, and they even have more pronounced and shinier scales on their body than their more standard variations.

It makes me quite sad they never did an armoured variant of the Irradiated Varactyl.

Miorahna also shows off one of the crystals I use in some form on every single character. The Cloud Blue crystal is currently my favourite blue crystal in the game, and as such it has become the 'standard blue' crystal on any character that uses a blue crystal in their weapon. In the absence of a specific reasoning for a character (mainly a Jedi or a Sith) using a certain crystal, I tend to use a "blue for Tanks, green for Healers, red for DPS" philosophy so there are plenty of these crystals to go around! 

~

Vhiallia

Vhiallia is currently the only one of these characters to use a main Companion whose damage 'type' does not align with her own. I like having synergy with my Companions, even in a small way, and I like to think that I'm making them the most effective they can be by having them benefit from as many of my own increased-damage debuffs as possible, and a Tech Companion can't really benefit too much from a Force player character, or vice-versa. 

Since the only Jedi Companion who can be a Tank is presently already in-use as one of Miorahna's mostly-used Companions, I can't really justify using him on both Jedi at the same time. Because of this, Qyzen Fess enjoyed a considerable time in the spotlight for the first time since... 2014, I believe. Felix Iresso replaced him as Vhi's primary Companion once he was returned to the Consulars, and it's great to have him by her side. I can't help but feel slightly annoyed that there isn't yet a spare 'true Jedi' Tank Companion to allow both of my Jedi to use one each as their primary Companion, however. 

We'll see what 6.0 will bring. #GnostDuralCompanion

This drying up of available manpower also spreads itself to her available DPS and Healer pools, but at least she'll be getting Nadia in 5.10 to offset the DPS situation a little. I wouldn't choose to use either Zenith or Tharan when they eventually come back, and I'm in half a mind to prevent either from coming back altogether. We'll see how I feel about them when they're reintroduced. 

The Watchman's Meditation Hoverchair is really the only mount I could ever want for a Consular. It has an innate "Jedi vibe", having been based off Yoda's own hoverchair in Attack of the Clones, and it even has Willpower Datacrons floating around it! Compared to the other two which have Cunning Datacrons and a part of the Eternity Vault pylon puzzle floating around them, nothing really comes close in my mind for Jedi 'themed' mounts.

Mint Green is the second of the universal crystals I mentioned in Miorahna's section. I've never really liked the non-Cartel green crystal and there are only so few green crystals on the Market I like, but this one has been a firm favourite of mine ever since my first max-Level Sage Eirahnos started using one during 2.0. 

~~~

Empire

Ferok'ia

Ferok'ia used to be in the exact same situation as Vhiallia with her primary Companion having a different damage type than her own, since Xalek was already in-use, but then Darth Hexid was made an available Companion. Until that point she had been using Pierce, and he's still my backup Tank, as he's still the only Tank Companion from Class stories (that isn't Xalek) that really suits the Warrior in my opinion. I've never liked Broonmark and I'm pleased to say that he's no longer an issue.

Vette, Quinn, and eventually Jaesa make up her DPS pool with Quinn acting as the occasional Healer. Since hers is presently the most limited 'ideal' Companion roster of my post-KotFE Imperial characters I'll probably focus most on giving any 6.0 Imperial Companions to her. I'll wait and see how I feel about the most immediate of such potential Companions, Anri and Malora, before I give that any further serious thought, however. It's possible I might not like either enough to want to use on any of my Imperial characters.

I've always liked the Imperial-themed Command Hoverchairs, and since I had Ferok'ia choose to kill Lord Grathan, he who loves ergonomic chairs, I think it's quite fitting that she should inherit his appreciation of such furniture. 

Imperial Crimson is the final crystal which I share around all of my characters for various reasons. Prior to its release I would have been quite happy to use the standard red as I'm not at all enamoured by the majority of the red Cartel crystals, but I think the Crimson is the best replacement for the standard red we've yet seen.

~

Phirella

Phirella is in a nigh-identical situation as Jehnira. She's yet to start Fallen Empire - in fact she's still to start Belsavis in the Hunter storyline - and she primarily uses a DPS Companion. Torian is by her side mainly because he's Phi's love-interest, but he does at least have a proper replacement every once in a while. I'm not yet counting Blizz as the primary Companion given that he hasn't really had a chance to get involved 'properly' in the story and I need to remind myself what sort of stuff he approves of, but he'll definitely be coming out to play on Belsavis. 

I can't not involve Blizz somewhere along the line.

Since Phirella is still on her Class story, her available Companion pool is of course still rather restricted. I imagine by the time she does get up to Fallen Empire she'll bring characters like "Deadeye" Leyta and Kaliyo into the rotations somewhere.

There are quite a few vehicles which fit a Hunter aesthetic, but in the majority of cases I just don't like the base-model of them. For example, the BH-7X Custom Hunter has good some good Hunter kit tacked on, and if it weren't for it being based on an Orlean model I would probably go for it. As it is, as Phi only has a few mounts available, there's presently only one vehicle she has that really suits her and it's the Vectron BWL Wraith from the Slot Machines. 

Not much to say about her choice of crystal. Her Copper crystal is fairly neutral and is nothing special, but I've had something of an inexplicable fondness for it ever since it was released a few years ago. 

~

Pippera

Pippera, as the initial 4.0 main, has had the most Companions in the primary role. She's seen Nico (before I realised how more useful 4.0 Companion Tanks were than DPS), Senya, Lokin, Xalek, Pierce, Ak'ghal, and eventually HK-55 fall into this slot before HK stuck permanently. The sole reason why HK-55 stayed is because BioWare made it so that all bar one of HK-51's customisations work for HK-55.

Since Pip had previously had HK-51 as her main Companion I was most disappointed when 4.0 pretty much neutered his effectiveness. Since he also had the Imperial Assault customisation equipped I really enjoyed feeling like both Pip and her Companion were really looking a part of the Empire that they both represented. Now that HK-55 can use it, I am very much enjoying having this feeling once again. It almost makes me forget that I'm not running around with HK-51 instead. 

Pip's DPS pool consists of Cartel Companion Annihilator T4-1D using the Mark-I Imperial customisation, Lokin, Temple, Quinn, and Vector, with Lokin acting as the Healer if and when needed. Basically, I now prioritise anyone in Pip's Companion roster who is or has been a part of some Imperial diplomatic or military service and/or which is a Droid that can be made to look Imperial. 

The Praxon Xeno became her chosen mount sort-of accidentally, as I was going through a whole series of vehicles when I rediscovered it and realised that both its base colours and the lights matched those of Pip's former Sniper Rifle - which, incidentally, is HK-51's Scoped Assassinator - which has since been re-equipped. Nothing wrong with some colour coordination of the peripheral items.

HK-55 is also indirectly responsible for my decision about Pip's chosen crystal. The Imperial E-1 weapons, of which he uses the rifle, have frames which change colours depending on the crystal that's put in them and sadly none of them turn the weapons pure-black (I absolutely despise weapons with garish colours). Some do render the majority of the coloured parts very dark and one such crystal is, surprisingly, the Fuchsia crystal. So since her Imperial-themed droid uses that crystal, logic dictated that Pip should also do the same. 

I'm nothing if not consistent.

~

Vahnora

Vahnie is the only one of these characters to return to using a character who was their primary Companion once he was re-recruited during Fallen Empire and keep using him without finding a replacement. Vhiallia would likely have been in a similar situation but as an Instant-60 she never got to use an actual Consular Companion properly. Every other post-KotFE character has replaced their former primary Companion with somebody different. 

Xalek is to this day still my favourite Sith Companion, although it really helps that we get to see his beginnings and, most importantly, act as a guiding hand from that point forth (or at least, theoretically). We just don't get that same level of connection with characters like Lana, Veeroa Denz, and now Hexid. Of all the Inquisitor Companions, only Talos Drellik comes close to my levels of appreciation for Xalek. Considering how much I love Talos, that's saying something.

Vahn's DPS pool consists of Ashara, Andronikos, Talos, and Veeroa, with Talos acting as the Healer when required. While I am looking forward to Khem's return I don't think I'll be using him in any capacity besides becoming one of Vahn's crafters. Just like Ak'ghal Usar, actually. Good to know that I treat Dashades exactly the same with no favouritism on the character who's most involved with them.

I've characterised Vahn as being someone who, while not being fully-consumed by the selfish aspects of it, is still deeply fascinated by the Dark Side and Sith history. I imagine this is partially due to my love for Talos Drellik, but anyway. This has resulted in me getting her various items which are Dark Side related, such as spending 144,000,000 Credits in getting her Tulak Hord's lightsaber and the Dark Side Hssiss. I needed to offload some of my 400 million, after all. 

Finally, Vahnie uses the final of my three favourite non-Cartel crystals. Purple has always matched well with the Inquisitor's lightning, and it also completes the quartet of movie-Lightsaber colours. Win-win.

~~~

I've been taking a well-earned break from the hustle-and-bustle of progression raiding since late September and it's nice to have had the excuse and opportunity to fall back and focus on something small and simple again. Taking something like "space barbie" seriously is certainly less stressful than frequent attempts at the Sisters in Veteran Gods or stuff like that.

Full differentiation may never be possible as far as I'm concerned. I've already highlighted that the odd few Companions seep into multiple rotation pools, and of course there's the whole species issue. I'd love to eventually get more options for playable species, but I acknowledge there aren't many which can realistically qualify for this. It's also entirely possible that if a species that I would like gets added that I might not be able to actually find a look that works even with this favourable predisposition.

I might end up being mistaken. The future is still to come.