So, instead of putting this all up on the thread nominally about the beta, I figured I'd just start a new thread.

Japheth wrote:Yeah, my experience with the Operative has definitely had an influence, it will probably be one of my main alternate characters now. I'm still oscillating a bit as to what my primary will be, though. Probably a Sith Warrior into Juggernaut (tank spec'd probably). I also really want to check out the Sith Sorcerer and Assassin though... Particularly the Madness tree for sorcerer and tanking tree for Assassin. Not sure which I'll end up with primary - it may depend on what other people end up playing (or rather, what the guild needs).

Drac wrote:Assuming there's some sort of Guild credits account, I'm hoping to concentrate on generating credits for the guild and for myself just as much as I concentrate on combat/questing. I'll probably spec out to help that however I can. I really need to read up on that, though.

-Drac

Zippy wrote:Deff going to have my marauder be my main class and tank. Helping the guild best I can will be something I'll take pride in. I will be no lifing this game a lot. haha

Marauders don't have a tank spec. Juggernaut, Powertech, and Assassin all have tanking specs. Incidentally, healing specs are available to Operative, Mercenary, and Sorcerer.

The flashpoints and ops are set up in 4, 8, and 16 man configurations. I figure the nominal setup for 4mans is 1 tank, 1 healer, and 2 dps (though nearly everyone can probably contribute to damage to some degree). 8man probably requires 2 tanks, 2 heals, and 4 dps. 16 is a little less predictable - if it follows the WoW model, it'd probably be 3 tanks, 3-4 heals, and the rest as damage.

Personally, I'm partial to smaller raid sizes. I did 10man raiding in WoW and that's just about right for my tastes (25 is way too many, and don't get me started on the older larger ones). I wouldn't mind giving 16 a shot though. I just think 8 is easier to organize and manage. Not that we need to worry about that for a while - operations are pretty much all high-end. It may be relevant earlier for pre-made warzone queuing, but not for normal grouping.

We'll definitely need people to fill tank and healing roles, but we won't need -everyone- to. It is more important to play what you find to be fun, ultimately, as we can certainly find people that will want to fill in on those roles.

There is a high incentive to group up, even while leveling. There's a not inconsiderable xp bonus for group questing, plus the considerable ease of teaming up with even one more person (and their companion).

I imagine most everyone will have several characters. I know I will. There are at least three classes that, from what little I've played of them, I want to play quite a bit. I'll probably concentrate on leveling one at a time, though.

That's sort of my thought. I'll play at least one of each base class all the way up just for the story, regardless of how I intend to use it at 50.


On a completely different topic: anyone given much thought to crew skills? I checked out Artiface/Archeology/Treasure Hunting during my first beta weekend and Armstech/Scavenging/Investigation during this most recent weekend.

I'm curious to know a bit more about cybertech and biochem. The other crafting skills seem to have fairly clear lines as far as what they do. Here's a quick rundown (as far as I can tell):

Armormech - armor (including mods and such) with cunning and aim geared toward Imperial Agents and Bounty Hunters

Armstech - various sorts of guns and mods for guns, also vibroswords, techswords, vibroknives, etc (As an Operative, I found use for both vibroblades and blaster rifles crafted with this skill - this skill also allows crafting of blaster barrels, which functionally change items into better items - items that derive all their stats from mods are basically just shells you put stats into with mods - items made with this skill are good enough that if you keep leveling it consistently, it is a source of steady upgrades, though sometimes I found drops that were better until I leveled the skill a bit more)

Artiface - lightsabers, power generators, shield generators, force foci, color crystals (usable by anyone), hilts (same as blaster barrels above)

Biochem - stims, medpacks, implants (of which all characters have space to equip two), possibly other stuff? Need more info. Some items are apparently reusable, but probably not tradable. Depending on how the market falls out and how much people use them, possibly a money-maker.

Cybertech - earpieces, grenades, at least one speederbike, some droid parts (everyone gets a healer droid companion with their ship, several classes get one more at some point), possibly other stuff. Mods are used in almost every item slot, so this is possibly a second money-maker.

Synthweaving - Like Armormech above, this makes armor and enhancements with strength and willpower targeted at force-using classes

Pretty much all of the skills have an associated mission skill and gathering skill. I found leveling my gathering skill to be extremely easy. I had Scavenging and found crap to pick up everywhere - including the bodies of Strong and Elite droids.

Companions also get various bonuses to crew skills, either doing them faster, or a better chance at critical success. All of the crafting skills allow you to reverse engineer items it can make back into some amount of the resources that went into them. I found that doing this often granted access to recipes for better items. I actually managed to get a purple recipe this way - first I made some of an item of green quality, then I reverse engineered ('re' from now on) it until I learned to make a blue version, then I made several of the blue version and (after equipping the first one I made) reverse engineered the others and learned to make a purple - which I never crafted because I lacked the materials.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I'll do for crew skills other than keep them relatively relevant to the character I'm playing (like no Armormech on a Sith) and spreading them out so that I have all my bases covered in the long-run. Might go with cybertech or biochem for earlier characters since they seem to have stuff that all my other characters could use later on.

I did find that mission skills could be a bit of a drain on the credits, though - at least early on. I think that's why I didn't actually get speeder training until 26. I had to make up what I'd spent on leveling my Investigation to somewhere in the 60s. I found that leveling Armstech was basically free though. I didn't need any vendor-purchased items until I was up over 100 rating in it, and even then I needed items that were 10 credits a pop (which is basically nothing). Leveling Scavenging (a gathering skill) was completely free, and super-easy. I got it to something like 160 without going out of my way to gather nodes.

I think I'll probably level the crafting and gathering professions as I level the character and leave off on leveling the mission skill much until after 25 in order to ensure I've got the money to buy piloting. It looks like people that ordered collectors edition and digital deluxe edition will get access to a unique speeder - I'm wondering if we'll get it for free. That'd save about 8k credits at level 25, which would be nice.

I'm just hoping we all get the game access tomorrow, or wendsday at the latest so we can coordinate a little better

If the other guild wish's to stay allied with us, I vote we try to server hop.

Vast Empire Marines would be nice

Looks like one of the FES's other main allies (a 37 member guild) also got placed on Vulkar Highway along with them. I think they're deliberating as to whether or not they'll move, still.