Operation review Eternity Vault what to expect

My guild had the first try at Operations Saturday night, we went to Eternity Vault. 1 of the 2 current operations and considered by some to be the easier one. I'll describe my experience running there as well as my observations on what to expect from your first OP.

We cleared the entire place in close to 3.5 hours. The pace was pretty relaxing, with occasional 5 minute breaks and discussions of strategy and plans. I would consider our entire group experienced and very capable, but that's just an opinion, I'm sure there are top guilds who would consider us a bunch of casuals while others, very casual players, who would consider us really hardcore. So I'll go into a bit more details about us, to give others better idea what to expect based on your own group experience and abilities.

7/8 of us ran about 10 HM before and had about 1/2 Epic (purple from HM, dailies and Tionese vendor) and half leveling gear, we could generally clear an HM with 0 or 1 unlucky wipe. About 2 nights before, 4 of us ran The False Emperor for the first time and wiped twice, once on HK and another on the last boss, who I won't name to avoid spoilers. The 8th person was less experienced, with only 2-3 HM runs and mostly leveling gear. Still he was a capable DPS who could do his job well. I guess this can give a general idea on how capable my group was, so readers can compare their own experience and know better what to expect.

Fresh level 50 gearing guide

Congratulations, you are 50, it's a major milestone in your SWTOR career, but the game is far from over for this character. There are ton of content that is meant for max level characters and as many people say "The game starts at max level". To be able to experience much of this endgame content, you will need better gear than you have at this point. Hard mode Flashpoints are very challenging without proper gear and Operations simply can't be done without it. So how do you get that much needed equipment upgrades?

There are 2 main ways to start gearing up your characters, FP and dailies. You can also get some nice PVE upgrades through PVP, an epic (purple) level 50 PVP item is almost certainly better than green, blue or even custom quality level 50 item. There is also the PVE trinket you can get from PVP which I mentioned at my last post.

Epic PVE trinket available with PVP rewards

Just a tip today which I've seen often missed in gearing guides. When you are gearing your level 50 character, aside from the obvious HM and dailies, you can also get a nice purple trinket using PVP commendations. You will need 800 PVP Warzone Commendations. You can easily get these buy running a daily PVP warzone few times even before you hit 50. These are also nice way to get some quick XP, especially if you enjoy the Warzones.

Once you have 800 of these, you can trade 600 for Mercenary commendations at the vendor next to the PVP quest terminal. 200 Warzone Commendations plus 200 Mercenary commendations is the cost of a Champion Bag, which contains Centurion commendations, as well as a small chance for a Champion token (PVP token similar to PVE gear tokens which is still better for PVE than most gear you get when you just hit 50). These Centurion commendations can be trades for PVP gear, however the PVP trinket is also very much a PVE trinket. So there you have it, a quick easy way to get an epic trinket which doesn't require any HM or dailies.

Subscription numbers soon with Asia Pacific

Bioware announced yesterday the coming release of SWTOR in Asia Pacific. You can read their new release here: The Old Republic Asia Pacific Launch. What people don't mention often when discussing the subscription numbers is that so far there are servers only in the US and Europe. There are people from outside of the current server regions who already play the game, but obviously the majority of potential subscribers in different regions will join when they have regional servers to play on.

Now, how much of the total subscription number actually come from different regions? according to Wikipedia  "As of January 22, 2008, World of Warcraft has more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia."  However this is far from being the full picture and there is no way to really compare SWTOR and WOW numbers and assume it'll be similar in any way. Wow has a different subscription plan for Asia, also the exact region and locations of the servers are different.

So what can we say about the potential subscription numbers of SWTOR?

SWTOR frustrating bugs.

Last night I was running HM Boarding Party and hit what is apparently a pretty common bug on the second boss (Sakan Do'nair), the Jedi with the 2 healers. To make a long story short, basically what it does is making the healers immune to damage completely, making this fight impossible to complete, as you must burn down the healers or they keep healing the boss. This was pretty frustrating. After 5-6 tries, when we realized this is consistent and trying couple of things that didn't work, we gave up. This was really frustrating. Now I've found out later that there are possible, hard to execute, workarounds, but it doesn't change the fact that this bug makes this boss much harder than intended.

Another frustrating bug I've seen is the infamous HK-47 bug, to make a long story short, what basically happens is that when you destroy the 4 panels of his chamber (which you should destroy) too quickly, he enrage too soon, causing an almost sure wipe. Thankfully for us, we learned of the workaround, just don't hit the panels too quickly, after "only" 3 needless wipes.

Early PVE endgame experience

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.

More endgame thoughts and progress plans

More of my endgame experience as a new 50 planning to see what the game has to offer and progress through the content.

After about 3 hours of being level 50, it hit me just how much there is to do at this level. It's a bit overwhelming, but I'm sure that with time I will have a better idea what I'm interested in, what I need to do to advance my character and what I consider a good use of my play time.

One of the first things I tried was a hardmode Black Talon run. Someone was looking for a healer, I whispered him that I just hit 50, so I'm not sure if I'm ready, but I would give it my best shot if he'll take me. Turns out the tank was also a leveling geared fresh 50. 30 minutes later I learned my first lesson, a completely ungeared group of 50s can't make it in HM FlashPoints. I know some of the guides claim it's possible, but considering the first boss was hitting our tank for 50% of his health every 1.5-2 seconds, I wouldn't recommend trying it until you have some better gear. I guess that's what the normal level 50 FP are for, there are 4 of these.

Endgame plans I'm level 50 now what?

Last night I've hit 50 with my Operative. A major milestone. Time to explore the endgame and see what SWTOR has to offer.

I found a nice article about the number 50 at Moon Over Endor, another SWTOR blog: 50! this article has the same date as this one and starts with: "As of yesterday evening I got my (first) character to level 50!". Pretty funny to find this right when I'm about to write about hitting 50 last night.

Time for me to explore the endgame and see how well Bioware made it. Endgame is mostly what MMORPG are about, so a good endgame is a must if SWTOR is going to keep being fun and keep people playing it for months and years to come.

My to do list at this point is pretty long:

Altoholism playing different characters

I recently started my 4th character, I went for a Jedi Knight just to check out a completely different aspect of the game. With a different class mechanic, new story area and the fact I play him as a nice friendly "I'm here to save the world" type of hero, it feels like a whole different game. I'm enjoying every minute of it and I really recommend trying more than just one character.

The difference between the Republic and Empire factions, between playing a Light or Dark side character, between the different classes, the different class stories, is just too big to skip. I know many MMO players tend to pick a main, get to the end game and stick with just this one. I think by doing this they are missing a lot of the fun SWTOR has to offer.

Few more benefits that you get while playing different characters:

Sage and Sorcerer Healing Skills and Abilities

This post continue the Sage and Sorcerer healing guide from the previous post. I'll concentrate on healing abilites and skills and only mention others when they directly apply to the healer responsibilities or play style.


Abilities:
General abilities:
Overload: knock back, very useful when you get agro to give your party a chance to take care of the mobs while keeping you alive and healing
Whirlwind: general cc, make sure you use it often, there's no excuse not to help your party with cc when needed
Electrocute: 4 seconds stuns, I find it often better to use this as a stun\interrupt when doing so prevent more damage than casting another heal
Recklessness: 2 charges of 60% crit bonus, each crit use up a charge. Great for emergencies when extra healing is needed quickly
Force Speed: 2 seconds sprint, use it to get quickly to your healing target when they get out of range or to escape when you need to.
Jolt: the Sorcerer interrupt, use it often, remember, preventing damage is often more useful than healing it
Consumption: uses health to give you force. This is very expansive and should be used rarely without Force Surge proc. It costs a lot of health and lower your force regen rate for 10 seconds. Use it only if you need a bit of extra force for the last heal or 2 before combat ends or you get into a less intensive healing phase.
Cloud Mind: lowers your threat, don't forget to use it when you get agro to help your tank and dps grab the mobs away from you