End game paths and suggestions (post-1st -KOTFE run)

[BlitzJG]

First off, I appreciate any responses and answers to my questions, sorry it is sort of all over the place, but thanks for taking the time to read.

 

So I just finished my first run of KOTFE with a LS JK. I enjoyed it, and while it answered some questions, there are a lot more questions now which I hope and will attempt to patiently await to be addressed in KOTET (whats the ETA for this?)

 

Now my JK is my only lvl 65 character. I am curious about exploring KOTFE from a Dark side force user perspective as well as a non-force user. My gut was telling me just use my favorite, since I am assuming aside from companions, the actual class of the character doesn't influence story besides being force/non-force. Is that a reasonable assumption?

 

Another question is what to focus on outside of stories. The end-game content is pretty much dead, especially in terms of pvp. I am kind of an achievement whore, unfortunately this game has so many and a lot are monotonous that I don't really want to embrace them unless their is a dual-benefit (such as gaining influence with the 4 unit leaders in the alliance through heroic rewards).

 

Maxing these influences out takes a bit of grinding, and unfortunately only sticks to one character (should be acct wide IMO) so I also need to decide who I want to max these out, since it is unlikely I will commit to getting those packages for more than 1 toon. Therefore is it a good idea to pick one toon to do this on, that I may consider my main? I would lead toward my JK as it stands since I have already put a lot of effort into him, but it sucks because he is a pub and the pub sides of all servers are abysmal.

 

Regarding JK story, I am really wanting to reunite with Kira, and am desperately hoping this will occur in KOTET, is there any word on that?

 

I still have 2 regular class stories to complete, which I will continue to work on.

 

And finally, how do you acquire end-game gear? Is that all through farming crystals? If so, what are the best most efficient ways to do that, and if not, what is it acquired through?

 

Thank you so much for your help and time reading this.

[De-mu-noki]

First off, I appreciate any responses and answers to my questions, sorry it is sort of all over the place, but thanks for taking the time to read.

 

So I just finished my first run of KOTFE with a LS JK. I enjoyed it, and while it answered some questions, there are a lot more questions now which I hope and will attempt to patiently await to be addressed in KOTET (whats the ETA for this?)

 

Now my JK is my only lvl 65 character. I am curious about exploring KOTFE from a Dark side force user perspective as well as a non-force user. My gut was telling me just use my favorite, since I am assuming aside from companions, the actual class of the character doesn't influence story besides being force/non-force. Is that a reasonable assumption?

 

Another question is what to focus on outside of stories. The end-game content is pretty much dead, especially in terms of pvp. I am kind of an achievement whore, unfortunately this game has so many and a lot are monotonous that I don't really want to embrace them unless their is a dual-benefit (such as gaining influence with the 4 unit leaders in the alliance through heroic rewards).

 

Maxing these influences out takes a bit of grinding, and unfortunately only sticks to one character (should be acct wide IMO) so I also need to decide who I want to max these out, since it is unlikely I will commit to getting those packages for more than 1 toon. Therefore is it a good idea to pick one toon to do this on, that I may consider my main? I would lead toward my JK as it stands since I have already put a lot of effort into him, but it sucks because he is a pub and the pub sides of all servers are abysmal.

 

Regarding JK story, I am really wanting to reunite with Kira, and am desperately hoping this will occur in KOTET, is there any word on that?

 

I still have 2 regular class stories to complete, which I will continue to work on.

 

And finally, how do you acquire end-game gear? Is that all through farming crystals? If so, what are the best most efficient ways to do that, and if not, what is it acquired through?

 

Thank you so much for your help and time reading this.

EDIT ETA for KotET is yet to be announced, however we know it will be announced sometime in October

1st: your class does NOT influence the story (apart from a line or two when reunited with old comps) and neither does your Force sensitivity (you just use different animations in the cutscenes, and fighting arcann with a pistol isthe kind of underwhelming) The whole story is built around the one-fit-all motto

2nd That depends on what you like: if you enjoy FP's, you might consider beginning operations (here I'd start with Eternity Vault and Karaggas Palace, these two are by far the easiest) This is also where you get endgame gear. Personally, I recently started on a new server by first farming crystals through heroics (where you also get your alliance crates)

Other than that? Collect the all motto datacrons/codexes etc.

3rd I would definitely grind these out first on a main, however which one you chose is up to you, you will not feel the rewards outside of Star Fortresses. However, you do not have to do the heroics only on that main, as the crates are rewarded to everey character above level 61 and you can mail them between your own chars/ place them in legacy storage

Cheers!

[Tsillah]

Well I think your situation sort of illustrates the main problems with the game at the moment.

 

Now, I've played the game for many years and enjoyed it, but the story line is the same. Some dark side choices might have a slightly different effect in the story but it doesn't change any of the main plot lines. So you can play it on another character but I'm not sure if you'll find it very different.

 

And yeah, what to do outside of that...that's kinda the problem I am dealing with myself. All the other content is from 2 years ago pretty much or older. That means two things actually. It meas there isn't anything new going on outside the story but also that all the other content of the game dates from well before the new direction the game took with 4.0 and so it doesn't fit that will with wherever this new direction is taking the game.

 

I hope KotET will bring more new direction also for non story content, because the game is sorely lacking there at the moment, but I'm not so sure yet if KotET will deliver that as much as KotFE didn't deliver that either. So I still hope I'm wrong about that, but supposedly we will get the big news about KotET on October 7th. I guess we'll find out then if SWTOR will have more to offer than a single story line.

[BlitzJG]

2nd That depends on what you like: if you enjoy FP's, you might consider beginning operations (here I'd start with Eternity Vault and Karaggas Palace, these two are by far the easiest) This is also where you get endgame gear. Personally, I recently started on a new server by first farming crystals through heroics (where you also get your alliance crates)

Other than that? Collect the all motto datacrons/codexes etc.

 

Just to clarify, when you say endgame gear, I am referring to the best rating wise, which I thought is 220/224, is that right?

 

EV and KP yield those ratings of gear? Problem with that though is finding an OP is probably really difficult at this point.

 

It is unfortunate that the alliance crates are only obtainable after 60. Since theyre not I see no point in doing them in lower level characters.

 

I thought maxing alliance specialist influence can yield more companions? What level do you need to have all the alerts available?

 

I guess the primary reason for doing KOTFE over again would be to learn more and see what happens when you embrace Valkorion since I did LS first. Even though as stated it has no actual bearing on story progression.

[Tsillah]

Just to clarify, when you say endgame gear, I am referring to the best rating wise, which I thought is 220/224, is that right?

 

EV and KP yield those ratings of gear? Problem with that though is finding an OP is probably really difficult at this point.

 

EV and KP Hard Mode drop 220 gear and 224 if they are the focus ops of the week. Between the two though you will not be able to get all items for a full set. The helm, implants and off hand are missing from those operations.

 

It is unfortunate that the alliance crates are only obtainable after 60. Since theyre not I see no point in doing them in lower level characters.

 

I do heroics on lower levels for xp and leveling gear. You get gear boxes with blue gear in them and green data crystals that I could exchange later for companion gifts and such.

 

I thought maxing alliance specialist influence can yield more companions? What level do you need to have all the alerts available?

 

Not even sure if it's linked to alliance levels. I know I had to get to level 10 for something in Star Forge but I never actually leveled it to 20 on any of my toons and I could get all companion recruitment quests so far.

 

I guess the primary reason for doing KOTFE over again would be to learn more and see what happens when you embrace Valkorion since I did LS first. Even though as stated it has no actual bearing on story progression.

 

That would be essentially correct.

[BlitzJG]

I do heroics on lower levels for xp and leveling gear. You get gear boxes with blue gear in them and green data crystals that I could exchange later for companion gifts and such.

 

I feel like the leveling is easy enough to not bother with any extra quests, let alone heroics for experience. And the game is easy enough to get by with the gear given throughout the story. But I can see how some would bother with them.

[IanArgent]

The new leveling paradigm makes running content for XP irrelevant; meaning you can run it for fun (or pass, as I generally tend to do, at least on planetary side quests that have no relevance to why my character is on-planet. Rescuing Vorn Tigers from trees may or may not be my problem.)

[BlitzJG]

The new leveling paradigm makes running content for XP irrelevant; meaning you can run it for fun (or pass, as I generally tend to do, at least on planetary side quests that have no relevance to why my character is on-planet. Rescuing Vorn Tigers from trees may or may not be my problem.)

 

Lol I hear that, do you bother with the planetary main (non-class story) missions?

[IanArgent]

Lol I hear that, do you bother with the planetary main (non-class story) missions?

 

Depends on character, mission, how I'm feeling at the time.

[Tsillah]

I feel like the leveling is easy enough to not bother with any extra quests, let alone heroics for experience. And the game is easy enough to get by with the gear given throughout the story. But I can see how some would bother with them.

 

I am just tired of the side quests which are the same for all classes. So I do the class stories and heroics. That way I can bypass the rest.

[Mirandel]

Now my JK is my only lvl 65 character. I am curious about exploring KOTFE from a Dark side force user perspective as well as a non-force user. My gut was telling me just use my favorite, since I am assuming aside from companions, the actual class of the character doesn't influence story besides being force/non-force. Is that a reasonable assumption?

 

It is a very reasonable very correct assumption. KOTFE is written with JK in mind as a main protagonist only, for any other class (SW to lesser degree, but still) it makes very little sense (for non-force classes it's a pure absurd) and you can find hundred-pages topics on any SWTOR related forums complaining about it.

 

At least for KOTFE Dark Side is also pointless: no matter how much you agree with and bow to Valcorian he treats you as an annoying rebel against his will.

 

Some people are mastered "hadcanon power" to a degree where DS Smuggler makes total sense for them, but unless you are one of those Masters - save your sanity and don't do this to yourself. Or, I don't know, skip dialogs?

 

You chose the best class for the game, stick with it!

Edited September 18, 2016 by Mirandel

[IanArgent]

With the (partial) exception of Ch.XII, nothing's all that storyline coded towards JK. (Make the Ch.XII macguffin a relic, or, better yet, a weapon tuning, or something that doesn't take over main hand slot, and a lot of the problems there go away as well). And you can be plenty Dark Side without kowtowing to Valkorian, as the trooper I'm in the middle of running through KotFE, or the Shadow I just rant through proved. It's no more "Force User" oriented than the Jedi Prisoner arc is (where, I will remind you, a Force Ghost manifests to (potentially) non-Force-users), or the whole SoR arc is, particularly including Ziost.

 

The Force exists, and it acts on every living thing, per long-established lore. There's a few too m any Force Ghosts hanging around TOR than I'd prefer, but that's been true for a while now. There's chapters targeted at almost every class - why is a Knight (or a consular)pulling a train job in Ch.XII? Recruiting the Mandalorians is a BH thing, you'd think, and recruiting Havoc is a Trooper thing. The whole point of KotFE is you have to become more than what you were, go beyond your class and faction.

 

Look, it's not the greatest story. And I would have chosen different ways to do the same thing. I would have used the Revanites left over from Yavin V as the antagonists, and weakened the imps and pubs through 5 years of grinding warfare culminating in (faileD) simultaneous capitol strikes, while the PC was either in a secret prison or hding from the law for their role in the events of Yavin and Ziost. But saying "it's the JK's story, and nothing else" ignores quite a lot of what is going on in the story.

[peter_plankskull]

The Force exists, and it acts on every living thing, per long-established lore. There's a few too m any Force Ghosts hanging around TOR than I'd prefer, but that's been true for a while now. There's chapters targeted at almost every class - why is a Knight (or a consular)pulling a train job in Ch.XII? Recruiting the Mandalorians is a BH thing, you'd think, and recruiting Havoc is a Trooper thing. The whole point of KotFE is you have to become more than what you were, go beyond your class and faction.

 

The disparity for a jedi knight recruiting havoc squad is far more believable than a non forcer user... using the force. We have lore like the entire Clone Wars seeing soldiers and jedi fight side by side together, and theirs usually better writing to make it more acceptable and believable for a force user to go through certain actions as seen in KOTFE. It sounds weird with a jedi robbing a train, but you're robbing the personal treasury of Zakuul, not only does this weaken them but it gives you strength, a obvious tactical precision strike. It doesn't require a entire different perception of your ENTIRE track record to now all of a sudden be changed. I got to where I am without the force, through cunning and wit, why would I need the force now? Chapter 12 requires you to rethink your entire life and the way you fight, it's not a mere one off like the further chapters. It seems easier to pair yourself with a unlikely ally than it is to change your entire perception of life itself.

[IanArgent]

The disparity for a jedi knight recruiting havoc squad is far more believable than a non forcer user... using the force. We have lore like the entire Clone Wars seeing soldiers and jedi fight side by side together, and theirs usually better writing to make it more acceptable and believable for a force user to go through certain actions as seen in KOTFE. It sounds weird with a jedi robbing a train, but you're robbing the personal treasury of Zakuul, not only does this weaken them but it gives you strength, a obvious tactical precision strike. It doesn't require a entire different perception of your ENTIRE track record to now all of a sudden be changed. I got to where I am without the force, through cunning and wit, why would I need the force now? Chapter 12 requires you to rethink your entire life and the way you fight, it's not a mere one off like the further chapters. It seems easier to pair yourself with a unlikely ally than it is to change your entire perception of life itself.

 

/shrug. Like I said, Id have preferred the macguffin needed to "defeat Arcann, a Galactic-top-ten Force User" have been a relic (which are, lore-wise, all Force-imbued) than a main-hand, myself; and a little less of the heavy-handedness around "the Light side and Dark side of the Force are obsolete, you must find a New Way," myself. I'm not going to claim Ch.XII is perfect, or that there isn't a little bit of goofiness in it for a non-Force user. But they set up the Big Bad as a major Force user, it's not inconcievable that you have to get help from the Force to deal with him. I will note that even in their class stories the Smuggler and the BH are both noted to be immune to Force Persuade, and that the head Scion (and Valk, and Arcann) specifically note that the PC is something special in re: the Force. There's something going on there, perhaps you're getting by with luck and skill because you're "unnaturally" lucky; the Force is strong with you even if you're not trained in its use. (Something that's been explored a couple of times in the Legends EU, I am given to understand).

 

The way I see it, Ch.XII is a little weird to the JK in particular, because as far as they know (as far as anyone knows but the SW); they beat the Emperor (the #1 Force User in the Galaxy) on DK, (only he got better), and they went saber-to-saber with Arcann twice and gave as good as they got. (This is complicated by choices made in re accepting Valkorian's power in Asylum, but the LS JK survived a "killing blow" without Valk's help, much less this wizbang "new" saber they forged. (The outcome of not accepting Valk's power in that fight is way goofy overall, almost as weak in writing as the "choice" at the end of Ch.X).