After 3 busy SWTOR days of exclusively playing my level 50 Operative, I have a much better picture of what the endgame feels like, what I need to do, what I still need to check out and how early level 50 feels like. I ran 5 HM FP (hard mode flashpoints) at this point, completed the Belsavis bonus series (level 50 daily quest hub), did most of the Ilum series and maxed out my trading skills. Told you I was busy :)
The daily quest zones feel very much like the leveling zones, which I think is a very good thing. Great plot and interesting quests, with the only difference being that you get daily commendations instead of XP which can be used to buy some endgame quality gear and mods.
As for the HM, what I was mostly thinking is how well they captured (AKA copied) WOW's feel of endgame gearing experience. The most similar gaming experience I can compare this to is playing following 80 in WotLK, or 85 in Cataclysm. The new challenging group instances, the great feeling or getting that new epic piece of gear. The satisfaction of completing a hard challenge with a competent group for the first time. Basically a really fun and familiar gaming experience. However there are some notable differences.
In TOR, FP have a very interesting dialog and plot, so for the first time running a new FP, it's very interesting to listen to the conversations and enjoy how the story develops, not just playing the content. However by the second time you run it, you only care about the the new dialog option and choices you haven't seen before and soon after it becomes exactly like WOW, pure MMO experience where what matters are the fights themselves and the gear drops. People start to skip conversations completely, because it's simply not interesting to listen to that NPC say the same thing for the third time. It doesn't make the FP bad in any way, the WOW formula is fun and anyone who likes MMOs will have a blast with it, it just looses some of the unique SWTOR selling experience.
A word about crafting. I think the crafting (AKA Crew Skills) system in TOR is really great. The way it works is that you send your off duty companions, meaning all of them if you are in group content or everyone except the one you play with if you are solo questing, to run crew skill missions. This takes the whole crafting grinding feel out of the game, which personally always felt like a chore to me in WOW. What you are left with is just the decision making of the missions you want to take and the items you want to craft. Great work making crafting fun, instead of boring and grindy experience Bioware.
Another nice thing they did is that various tiers or gear give you the same 2 and 4 pieces bonus (yes, very much like the WOW system) this is really nice to avoid having to skip tier upgrades because of bonus sets. There are also more complex commendations\tokens system, nothing too exciting, just something that needs a bit more planning because you need both the tokens from bosses and daily\weekly HM quests (Did anyone say WOW?) and crystals you get from bosses and unique mobs (minibosses) in FP.
Two things I felt when I just hit 50 and soon realized my mistake are:
1. HM aren't that hard, they are completely doable with a skilled group of fresh 50s and become much easier when you start getting some endgame gear. So don't be afraid to jump right into HM as you hit 50, at least if you are experienced with your role and have reasonably descent questing\grouping gear.
2. Money which seems like a big problem when I just hit 50 became a minor issue. Of course you can spend endless money at the GTN (TOR's auction house) and complete FP wipefest will make your repair bills pretty costly, but generally speaking, the quest rewards from both solo and FP quests give you more than enough money to sustain your HM runs and the expanses you have for medpacks, stims, etc.
I still haven't touched operations yet or any endgame PVP content, I'll keep you posted once I give it a shot and let you know what I think.
As far as the endgame HM, it's easy to recommend to players who like MMO endgame, if you like the group challange and the gearing experience, if you enjoyed WOW's pre raid endgame, you are going to like it in SWTOR. It's a very similar gaming feel.
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