I completed Mako’s story arc today. Instead of just being lovers, you do get to formalize it with a marriage, but without any fanfare. I was a little disappointed with how the story ended. It seemed too sudden, and the conclusion revealed very little. Other than Project 32 being a clone project, and that Coral was the original, I don’t know anything else about it. What was Project 32′s purpose? How did Mako get detached from the other members of the project? There’s quite a few unanswered questions here.
I’ve progressed quite a bit since my last SWTOR post, and am sitting on level 49 now. My friends were astonished that I’m not 50 yet. See, I’ve quite a reputation for filling progress bars. In Lineage 2, I was the first to hit level 75 for my class, the initial level cap at launch. But in SWTOR, I don’t feel the pressure to reach level cap. There’s good stories being told, and worlds to explore.
Speaking of worlds, the zones in the later planets are massive. While the planets have a lot of detail in them and are generally beautiful, especially Voss with its tranquil monastery like environment, it can sometimes feel rather empty. Belsavis, with its many highways and long hallways is one such example. The planet is massive, but sparsely populated, and I believe I spent more time traveling between quest areas than doing any actual combat.
Completing the class quest on Belsavis granted me the last of my companions, Skadge, whose upper body and face resembles that of a Hutt. Skadge practically invited himself on to my ship with the reason that I was his only ticket off the planet, and didn’t have the courtesy to leave afterwards. Now he just sulks in a corner of my ship. I wish BioWare had given us the option on whether to bring a character onboard or not, but I could see the problem with that too. You get a total of six companions, with up to five being able to be deployed for crew skills at once, leaving one other as your sidekick. The numbers are just right, and even if there was an option to not bring a companion onboard, I might not have done so since I’d be effectively gimping myself on available manpower for my crew skills.
While still having no luck getting a Colicoid War Games or D7 group, I’ve managed to run Red Reaper a number of times. Unlike flashpoints from the previous tiers, which mostly featured tank and spank bosses, the last two bosses in Red Reaper have certain mechanics to them. Taking down the droid, SV-3 Eradicator, involved clicking on power crystals to change their color to the inverse of the shot it is charging to fire, significantly reducing its damage. If it charges up a blue laser bolt, you’ll need to switch the crystals to red, and vice-versa. Darth Ikoral involved the person who is on the receiving end of his channeled lightning to stand behind the adds he summon, positioning so that the add is in the path of the lightning and ultimately gets killed by it. There’s also some “fireball” grabbing the tank has to do to mitigate Darth Ikoral’s damage.
In the few Red Reaper runs I did, I noticed that people who do not have prior experience playing MMORPGs before had trouble with Darth Ikoral and are unable to grasp concepts such as stacking or positioning. I don’t blame them. Some of the concepts that us MMO veterans are used to, such as stacking, aren’t very intuitive. In fact, I don’t recall having to do that at all in any game outside of an MMORPG.
I’ll probably hit level 50 sometime later this week. I’m about 90% away from it, and while I could theoretically do it tomorrow, my class ends late at 6:30pm, and I have a 8:30am class the subsequent day. Better to get some rest instead.















