Well, with all the fuss about ME 3 my Tumblr is flooded with, I was tempted to try it again. I gathered some advice from the fandom, and created my Commander Shepherd. Well, after I reinstalled the game that is.

The first obstacle for me, is ALWAYS looks. If I can’t stand looking at my character, that breaks the whole deal. Hell, I have rerolled characters in WoW many levels in, because something about them didn’t look right. BEFORE recustomization existed. I’ve done it a hundred times in SWTOR.

Well, I’m past the first hurdle. Meet Commander Vetta Shepherd. Earthborn adept, Sole survivor of the Akuze mission.

So far so good. Though the graphics in the game are less than what I’m used to…I like her.

She kind of came with her own characterization. Look at her. She looks straightlaced and by the book. She seems to have a tinge of sadness to her.  She’s the type that comes off cold, but has a big heart for her squad, and always puts their safety first. She’ll tell Ashley not to blame herself for the loss of her squad, while still blaming herself for the loss of hers on Akuze.

So, that’s hurdle one cleared. Now if I can just get the hang of the UI. At least at the moment I can shoot things and throw them around with her Adept skills.

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What has finally made my decisions, has been a combination of voice acting, and story, mixed lightly with the characters various abilities and how the mesh with my playstyle. I have played several classes through the first areas of their story to see who clicked and who didn’t.  As of today, I have decided which will continue.

1. Rivaini- Smuggler. She’s my highest level, and my first created. She’s definitely a keeper.

2. Zecora- Trooper (commando) I really like her look, and her personality and utter badassery.

3. Caislyn – Sith Inquisitor (assassin). She’s new, rolled today, but I just adore her voice acting, her abilities, and her personality.

4. Kasha’lyn- Imperial Agent (undecided Advanced Class) She’s voiced by the same actor as Female Hawke in Dragon Age II, and her whole special agent idea is really well done. Right down to dropping her accent on command.  She is my favorite in looks I think.

5. Zivah’ni, Jedi Consular, Sage. She is a maybe. I love her look, her personality is coming, but I’m not convinced yet.

With school starting again on the 9th, this is the most I can handle.  And I am playing every minute I can up until that time!

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It started innocently enough. I hit lvl 22 on my smuggler Rivaini and said “wooo 22!” in guild chat. One of my guildies has since begun calling me Zecora, and I decided I just had to do this…say hello to Zecora the Trooper. With that hairstyle, she HAD to be a badass. Too bad I couldn’t find a closer cutie mark tattoo.

Also, I will now always announce my levels in rhyme.

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Between Steve Miller, and Ratshag’s patented Friday Night Drunken Singins, this came to my head last night.

Corso: Some people call me a space cowboy…

Riv: Some call me the gangster of loooove…

C2-N2: Some people call me Maurice…this is just silly master noone’s ever called me Maurice!

Minimech CE: Beep…beeeeeeep

Risha: ‘cause I speak, of the pompitous of loooove

Bowdarr: Howwwwwwwl

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I posted this earlier during beta, but Now that this game has been out of beta, and I’ve been playing since I think the 15th, I have had time to find even more to love about it.  Starting with the fact that it has something for everyone.

Enjoy solo play, leveling, and a solid captivating CLASS specific storyline? It’s got that, and you have companions to help you along the way. That doesn’t mean it plays like a Single Player RPG as I’ve heard recently. Your companions do a lot more than fight with you. They handle your gathering, mission, and crafting skills while you are off adventuring. No more standing in front of the bank repeatedly crafting stuff to gain skill points between quests. It can all be done WHILE you quest. Also, you are limited to only ONE companion with you. You can’t run the whole game and Flashpoints with just you and a companion. You will still need to group with other players for many of these.

Questing is interesting as hell. There is a lot of story development in the quest dialogs, both personal and world. But you don’t just do it and turn it in. Every time you start a quest, and start killing whatever monsters are in your way getting to that objective, bonus quests pop up alongside them. These are turned in automatically as the objective is met, and either finished or they give the next objective. These are usually your “Kill x amount of Y” quests we’re familiar with from WoW. Questgivers seldom give these, they give you the more story oriented quests. There are also “Heroic” quests which, frequently do need a group to complete. There are a few in early levels you can pull off with your companion, but generally a group is preferred.

There are also, if I counted correctly at least four “Flashpoints” between levels 1 and 20. These are similar to WoW Dungeons with the added bonus of having story and dialog within them. I had my first experience with group dialog on a quest last night and found it very cool. You basically choose what YOUR character’s response would be, the rest of your party does the same, and behind the scenes there is a /roll, the winning member’s dialog plays on your screen. I love this, we get to see our friends’ characters personalities, hear their voices! Any light side/darkside points awarded for your choice are still rewarded whether you win the roll or  not. I personally haven’t done a Flashpoint YET. I’m still chasing my class storyline, it’s very much sucked me in, but I’ve heard nothing but good things abut running the Flashpoints, and hope to get to do one this evening if real life permits.  There is also, at max level at least one raid, and more to be added over time. So you can still have all your min/maxing, theorycrafting, hard core raiding good times if that’s your thing.

Also, on the subject of grouping, you earn “social Points” every time you participate in a group quest/activity/etc. These can be accumulated and give you access to certain items from the Social Vendor.  I haven’t fully looked at what those are but I plan to.  They also have a built in looking for group feature, that visually flags you which I find pretty cool, seeing at a glance who’s looking.

There really IS something for every playstyle. The community aspect of guilds, flashpoints, heroic quests, raid, is all there with some added spice in the context of social points.

If you’re a lone wolf type that enjoys exploring, questing, and tinkering around, there’s plenty for you too.

And surrounding and flowing through all of that is an in depth class storyline, inside an amazing world story, and visually stunning experience that keeps you going, and always wondering “What’s next??”

Edit! I forgot space combat! That’s right, when you need a break from the questing, or the city, hop in your starship, and go blow those Empire (Or Republic) bastards out of the sky!  As our friend Llanion says…

Love me some arcade-style, still-earning-XP-and-commendations, break from RPGing.

Reasons To Love Star Wars: The Old Republic brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

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Look at that corpse right there. Do you know who that is? Arch Druid Staghelm, most arrogant, nasty, rude, ignorant, level 10 baby druid abusing jerk on Azeroth. And he is DEAD! That’s right, DEAD. I’ve waited six long years to kill that bastard after the way he treated my druid at level 10 on her bear form quest, and the way he talked about Tyrande. You’ll see Kae from Shades of Kae standing there, and that Pally down there tickling Staghelm’s feet, or stealing his shoes would be our fearless raid leader Twice. It may not have been the druid that killed him, but it was one of the team.

My priest. Jesswyn. I don’t know how it happened, but I have completely fallen in love with the priest class. I know, I’ve played a priest, on and off, and even deleted her once, for the last four years. But I never fully enjoyed her, until I went full shadow. Then they screwed that spec up with crit and I deleted her. But Blizz restored her a year after. I recently just leveled her to 85. She hasn’t been used since she was horde side with The Purge. The last thing she raided was Naxx. Before that? Kara.

Now, I don’t know what happened. But it just clicks. I find boss strategies easier to pick up with her, I don’t get flustered as much with spell rotation when I have to move or stop casting. Maybe it’s because I’m not also trying to concentrate on HoT uptime and healthbars in an unfamiliar healing role like I ended up doing with Jessmyn the Druid after the resto changes? I don’t know. All I know is…the class I resented for so long, the toon that I had such bad memories of a former guild explosion with, is my main.  The guy that taught me how to heal as a priest, and how to start off as shadow, and listened to me gripe for all those years would be laughing his ass of at me right now. If he still played. Kinda miss that guy

Since patch day, I’ve spent many hours in PvP to get her transmog set, and many more to get justice points and get her geared up a bit.  I’ve run the new heroics, and got to be with my guildies in learning the new raid encounters.  And we absolutely steamrolled Firelands. I forgot how much fun that is, even though by end time last night I was almost face to keyboard from a stupid cold.

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She is “wearing” the complete Merciless Gladiator’s outer clothing from Burning Crusade arena days. I know there’s a tier set with lighter colors, but she’s a shadow/discipline priest and I thought the darker tones matched that better.

And this mount is so perfect!

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I Am Doomed brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

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When Belghast asked me a couple weeks ago if I was going to try Star Wars: The Old Republic, I said no. I couldn’t get into Mass Effect at all, and I’m not a Sci-Fi fan in the least. I’m more a fantasy game fan. Dragons, Elves, Dwarves, that’s where my heart lies. I also said I didn’t want another MMO. Because I was sure WoW was enough.

Then I got into this past weekend beta. My first try was a Jedi Consular. She was enough to show me I might be wrong. Then, for some reason, I logged out and created a Smuggler. That’s when they had me. That’s when the Black Magic that is Bioware grabbed me, held on with a death grip that would make Darth Vader quiver, and sucked me right in. Me! Someone who hasn’t watched a Star Wars movie since the 80’s. Someone that barely remembers more than Darth Vader bad, Republic good, Vader is Luke’s Father and Hans Solo was awesome.

Now, I’m not going to detail the techie aspects. But I’m going to tell you what I loved.

Dialog!

Bioware’s typical dialog choices are here. My character is fully voiced, delivers her lines beautifully. As a smuggler, she is witty, sarcastic, downright snarky sometimes, and sensitive when needed.  Each dialog option let’s you form your character’s personality. It also effects your companions opinion about you.  want to be a smartass with a heart of gold, great! Want to be a greedy bastard just in it for the profits, no problem! Want to tell this guy you wouldn’t help him if pigs flew, you can do that too. It’s not just take the quest, turn it in. There are actual choices here.  They also can change your Light Side/Dark Side meter. And this is where Bioware once again shines. If you are unhappy with a dialog choice you made, and the conversation hasn’t ended yet? Simply hit escape and start it over!

Who’s The Good Guy?

I played Republic for the beta. Being used to Alliance good, Horde bad from WoW this was where Bioware hit me again. Sometimes, the “Light Choice” is the more “bad” choice.  That’s right, there are questionable morals in The Republic. And by taking the “Light” choice, you are actually making the not so moral decision. And I love that. They made sure The Republic isn’t straight up “good”. They in fact have a lot of Gray area here. Much like Dragon Age, where the Grey Wardens are the hero, but not always by making the “good” choices.

Companions!

And romance. I only got to meet one companion in the beta. But I fell for him right away. I fell for other people’s companions too, they are really well done. So far, at least. And of course, romance exists! Which I’ve come to expect from Bioware. I know, I know, most people don’t think it’s necessary. But I think it’s important in an RPG. It adds to the RP factor. It lends realism as well, because let’s face it, who is going to have a group of 5 people living and working together without something growing from it?

Codex Me!

The Bioware codex! I love the codexes in Dragon Age. Because there is a lot of lore, a lot of people, and things you need to remember. But it’s also not feasable to think it’s possible to remember all of it. With ToR, you have the Codex, people, places, things, professions, etc get put here as you discover them, and you can look back later if you need information.  It provides information on your companions as well, which is really helpful, telling you a bit of their backstory, and what gifts they like.

I’m In Love

From start to finish I thoroughly loved playing the beta. My class quest chain sucked me into the story. And made me feel like a real part of the world, not just a visitor. Bioware, as usual, makes you feel like the Best Badass Hero on the Planet from the very start. As it should be. The graphics were amazing, the sound effects were like being in the movies. And the Character Creation blew my mind.  The UI was pretty intuitive if you’ve played WoW and Dragon Age you know just where to look for most things.

I have 2 weeks left of school. Then another 2 weeks before the game launches. So, I guess I’ll just have to kick back, relax, and wait. Because there’s no way I’m not buying.

I don’t think TOR will be the WoW Killer people believe. It’s really great, but Star Wars and Sci Fi are a completely different animal than the Azeroth universe they’ve created. But, if Bioware is successful with this, and there is no earthly reason they won’t be, it starts a precedent. If based on the success, they opt for a fantasy based MMORPG, then, I think Blizzard will have serious competition. I know it would probably pull me away.

I Didn’t Want To Love You brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

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150 pets! It’s taken a long time to get those last ones, but here it is. And I’d never have gotten it without the generosity of guildies both past and present. Such gifts as the Deviant Hatchling (Team effor thanks to Twice and Bear), Ammenvale Lashling and Dun Morogh Cub Mystery gift, and I believe Ruu), Black Tabby (Nyssa from my old Khaz’Goroth guilds), Twice, and Algie for the repeated farming of that damned blood elf instance on that Island I can’t remember to get the Phoenix Hatchling, and…unbelievably, the Hyacinth Macaw (Thank you Twice!), and all of @parallelguild for your patience in putting up with the crazy pet lady.

It takes a village to raise a Celestial Dragon….

And if by chance I forgot anyone, because my memory kinda sucks, Thank you too!

It Finally Happened! brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

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