Cartel XP Boosts: Do they work?

[Marsoratii]

Today I started a new alt and have been using the 25% XP boosts that last three hours. I have had these active the entire time.

 

On my other characters, it's always been that if I do all the missions, bonus objectives and skip most all the heroic missions, that keeps me at the same level as the current area I'm in without having to do WZ's or FP's as filler.

 

I finished the 1st planet at lvl 11 and the 2nd planet at lvl 16. It struck me as odd that the last mob I fought before getting into my ship was a lvl 16 champion. It looks like it's exactly the same as characters I've played with no boost.

 

Of course, it would be silly to think I should be a flat 25% higher and be at lvl 20 because of the way levels and XP scale and increase, but still shouldn't be the same as not using them at all. If it is working, maybe I got an extra level out of it, but even then it works out to be around a 1% overall xp increase.

 

If that is the way 25% scales with leveling thresholds, it doesn't seem close to worthwhile to use. Has anyone had different experiences using these?

[atilian]

Are you free-to-play? If so you have a passive XP gain decrease. Only subscripted players receive 100% xp.

 

I don't know how much XP free-to-play and prefered status players get but it is not 100% so using a 25% buff actually only brings you up to about the same XP gain as a subbed player without the buff.

[Marsoratii]

No, I'm a sub.

[sanctosium]

I like playing and I'm an altoholic, so the XP boosters seemed like a great idea. I dropped a lot of coins on them and I also bought a lot of the lessers from the GTN.

 

My experience is similar to yours. The lessers are so specific they're useless. On master D I get one war zone or flash point per use if I'm lucky. The XP boost during these seems hardly noticable. I popped a major and settled in for the night. During the major their uselessness was pretty apparent. You spend so much time going from a to b that its wasted. Killing randoms you hardly notice the boost. Then you spend a lot of time in cut scenes, orbital station to ship to planet blah blah.

 

Someone else said it best. A major problem with swtor is that the story experience is heavily watered down and it's extremely transparent when you're watching the clock on your boosters!

[Marsoratii]

I know what you mean with wasting time running around. But here I had the boosts there the whole time, so how much time was not maximized does not make on impact on where I should be level wise at a particular point in the game.

 

I'm thinking this might be 1 of 2 things:

 

1) The boosts are made for FTP players and don't work for maximized XP subbed players (after all, the cartel market does allow subbed players to buy all the things that they already get for free).

 

2) The boosts don't apply to the experience gained from turning in missions, only kills in the field, exploration, ect. If that were the case, most XP is gained is from turning in missions anyway.

[Zergnaut]

I am a subscriber in to be honest it does not feel like it works it all on me either.

[WhillB]

25% isn't really worth anything (just likethe 10% increase in speed for mounts). If you play the game (as intended) you will aways be right on par for each planet/level.

 

I'll never understand why people want to "power level" in these games. End game always sucks. PVP is just stupid cause it's the same stuff in every game (grind=better gear) (grind more = better gear) <--- fun for people with OCD I guess...

[Zekim]

A simple test would be to kill some random critter, record the xp, then drop the booster and do the same. The 25% is either there or it isnt. If it isnt, then we have a serious issue at hand. I did an xp boost as one of my first purchases, Im a sub, and to be honest, I didnt really pay any attention to whether or not it helped. Kind of regretting that now. Id like to have some concrete evidence as to whether or not to invest again in the future.

[Zekim]

25% isn't really worth anything (just likethe 10% increase in speed for mounts). If you play the game (as intended) you will aways be right on par for each planet/level.

 

I'll never understand why people want to "power level" in these games. End game always sucks. PVP is just stupid cause it's the same stuff in every game (grind=better gear) (grind more = better gear) <--- fun for people with OCD I guess...

 

For me it was just about maximizing my time in game. Im a casual player and have been taking literally months to work a jedi sentinel up. I started him when I first bought the game, lost interest in the story line a bit and went on to try a different class. I came back to this toon not wanting to give up fully, and at this point, am just wanting to finish the grind (for lack of a better term).

[Kinjazor]

There was a post on these forums where someone claimed that xp boosts didn't stack with rested xp gains.

 

They had listed quite a lot of examples to back this up. Of course they could have been talking rubbish but it may be worth doing a search for that post.

[ZaccaR]

subber here, i ran with two diferent chars level 7 to the fleet crewskill trainers .One boosted one unboosted

 

exp per trainer with boost 270 and without 225 .

 

that is the only numbers i can say for sure, while leveling the diference feels pretty small and i finished the boosted at just hitting 12 and the unboosted hit the 12 entering kaas city so thats one mission and a few exploration exp behind.

[Glorthox]

I've noticed something similar, the boost gives some extra exp, but not much. I have poored some credits into the legacy exp boost as well and the bonus to extra exp is very small. Don't know if this is intended or yet another countless bug that won't get fixed ever!

[AsheraII]

It's pretty simple really: use the boost at lvl 5, and you'll ding lvl 6 faster. However, you'll be doing the exact same missions, but are now of higher level, so these missions and the mobs you kill along the way actually generate LESS experience than they would if you had been lvl 5. You get a 25% bonus to that again, but overall, the difference is pretty marginal. Especially when you're mostly outleveling the missions you do anyway, the bonus experience turns out even more marginal. That green mission you do as a lvl 6? Well, it might've been a yellow mission as a level 5. So you're only losing experience at this stage, the mission will just be a bit easier because of your higher level and newly learned abilities, so you'll probably clear it faster.

 

Now, you can use the exp boost instead to skip missions. You're generating experience faster then someone your level who doesn't use these experience boosts. So basically, you are just compensating those skipped missions. Usually, the missions for a given level are all in the same area, so you're nearby anyway, and skipping them hardly earns you any time. So overall, a 25% boost to your experience at best results in an increase in leveling speed of about 1% if you just use it to compensate for skipped missions.

 

In the long run, the experience gain per planet is marginal. It's just the time it takes to do a planet that reduces a little bit.

[Jacen_Starsolo]

I got a boost inside one of the few packs I got. And it didn't seem different either. It's like the rest and/or legacy xp was overriding it and the timer was still moving. Total waste. Edited December 29, 2012 by Jacen_Starsolo

[VedrixSorio]

subber here, i ran with two diferent chars level 7 to the fleet crewskill trainers .One boosted one unboosted

 

exp per trainer with boost 270 and without 225 .

 

that is the only numbers i can say for sure, while leveling the diference feels pretty small and i finished the boosted at just hitting 12 and the unboosted hit the 12 entering kaas city so thats one mission and a few exploration exp behind.

 

This isn't even a difference of 25%. Your example is only 20%.

 

Supposedly people have tested xp boosts with rested and they don't alter your xp when you have rested. From a previous thread I put up asking if XP boosts actually worked.

[Rafaman]

Hmm... I think I will do a little experiment with my Alt and see what the xp gained really is.

 

I don't have the hard data but I can tell you what I've seen anecdotaly. The xp boosts both minor and major have been a huge bonus and have allowed me to cruise through the leveling process. It has been a bit scary actually. lol! In short, I am one level low on Voss, level 44, and I have skipped all bonus series, all side quests (distinctly different from planet quests), all heroics, and all flahspoints. I even skipped finishing the planet quests on Nar and Quesh. Now, it helps that I know where I'm going, this is my 6th toon, but I have not skipped any conversations or spacebarred anything. In fact, I have taken the time to run some conversations several times until I chose the right dialogue option for me.

 

The only thing that I'm really diligent about is making sure I spend as little time one the fleet or elsewhere besides the quest areas while I'm boosted. I don't take the time to train etc. while I'm boosted. And... well, I have rocket boosts maxed out as well. So, running through non-mount areas is a thing of the past. Oh yea, and I'm always rested.

 

I'm going to track XP boosted vs. non-boosted and let you know what I find. BTW, I did this with a previous toon, prior to the xp boosts, and I was almost 4 levels low on average doing the bare minimum.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Rafaman

[AsheraII]

This isn't even a difference of 25%. Your example is only 20%.

 

Supposedly people have tested xp boosts with rested and they don't alter your xp when you have rested. From a previous thread I put up asking if XP boosts actually worked.

I just tested it on a rested character, killing the same mob twice, first without an exp boost, then with exp boost:

Character level: 18

 

lvl 15 gold, difficulty green, rested, no cartel boost

988 exp

184 Legacy

 

lvl 15 gold, difficulty green, rested, with cartel boost

1186 exp

184 Legacy

 

So it seems to work with rested, though I haven't tested the rested bonus itself (I'd probably level up twice before that alt cleared the rested bonus). But the cartel boost indeed seems to be more like 20% than 25%.

[Katsuragisama]

I just tested it on a rested character, killing the same mob twice, first without an exp boost, then with exp boost:

Character level: 18

 

lvl 15 gold, difficulty green, rested, no cartel boost

988 exp

184 Legacy

 

lvl 15 gold, difficulty green, rested, with cartel boost

1186 exp

184 Legacy

 

So it seems to work with rested, though I haven't tested the rested bonus itself (I'd probably level up twice before that alt cleared the rested bonus). But the cartel boost indeed seems to be more like 20% than 25%.

 

Yeah, as 988 + 25% more should yield 1235. So... Does this mean EAWare is bad at math?

[AsheraII]

Yeah, as 988 + 25% more should yield 1235. So... Does this mean EAWare is bad at math?

Could be anything. II might try again later, see if I can find any yellow mob of my own level left on the planet and see if that makes a difference, since the test mob was 3 levels below my own.

[TapVallian]

Yeah, as 988 + 25% more should yield 1235. So... Does this mean EAWare is bad at math?

 

There was a thread awhile back that outlined this. What happens is that they lowered xp for F2P and then "boosted" it back up for subs. So if you are F2P you will see the full 25% boost, but if you are a sub you are already getting 4.something % increase that the game sees as a "boost" so it only adds the difference which is slightly over 20% when using a xp boost.

 

The boost does stack with rested xp though. You will get your 20ish % boost above rested xp.

Edited December 29, 2012 by TapVallian
spelling

[Asbiorn]

Normally when I finish a planet doing all quests (minus the Heroics that I cannot solo), I am either right at the required level for the next planet or half a level away. If I use a 3 hour exp boost while doing all quests (minus the Heroics that I cannot solo) , then I am about 1-2 levels above the required level for the next planet.

[DarthBama]

Yeah, as 988 + 25% more should yield 1235. So... Does this mean EAWare is bad at math?

 

Maybe it is +25% on the non-rested XP number, then has rested added on top?

[Ninute]

Seems to work fine for me.

 

I'm a sub, and had a character at lvl 45 Just starting Voss. Got my self the 3hr 25% exp boosts, I was able to finish both Voss and Corellia at the intended levels.

 

I was able to skip side quests completely towards the last "questing hub" of both Voss and Corellia. On my other character without the boost I coudln't afford to skip any side quests (if I'm skipping heroics, fp and warzones).

[Sinapus]

The social exp increase definitely works. Took my scoundrel through the Esseles and the stats at the end said 100 social points, but it was really 200.

 

 

...as for the regular exp boosts, I tend to use them only when I run out of rested exp. Don't get them too much, only as mission rewards and I got a few from the cartel packs I've purchased here and there.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Sinapus

[VarrusTheEthical]

Leveling my latest alt with a non-stop supply of major experience boost, I found that I could more or less just do the class and main planetary quest lines to keep my character leveled, along with the odd flashpoint.