Empire Powerquesting to 50 Guide v1.0.0 now available

Started the previously-alluded to leveling guide.  Just laid the groundwork for formatting and completed through Dromund Kaas so far.  Version 1 of the guide is being done mostly from memory.  Later versions may have more detail, but will require writing them as I level--which I may do as I'm finishing up the last of my characters.

It's on the pages section along the right side.

Gearing Abraxane

So the night after I hit 50 on Abraxane I ran a Directive 7 and all SI loot dropped.  The next day (Monday) I did all of my Ilum weekly and bought a Centurion main hand, ran a few more Hard Modes and did a Normal Mode EV--by the end of the day I only had 3 non-purple slots not counting the matrix cube artifact.  Now, Tuesday night--two days after hitting 50, did all of my Ilum weekly again and ran Normal Mode EV with the guild; I now have no non-purple slots left.

It's certainly a little easier to gear new 50s now.

Adventures in Spacebar

The box for this new keyboard says that its keys can withstand over one million key presses.

So this spacebar should last at least 7 BT runs.

#5

Abraxane is now 50.

On a sad note, finally had to retire the keyboard I've been using for almost a decade now.  I've had it since I got my first very own PC way back when I was still in high school.  Spilled some iced tea on it earlier today and, although it's basically still in alright condition (the X and C keys and the spacebar were only a little sticky), it was a good excuse to finally run out and buy a cheap office keyboard to let the old boy retire.

A moment of silence for the passing of an era.

Coming Soon: Empire Powerquesting to 50 Guide

As mentioned previously I'd like to shift away from offering class guides for now and so I figure I'd like to start compiling leveling tips and tricks and make that more of a focus for now--being that my horde of 50s is my personal claim to fame.  After I finish my Sorcerer (just hit 48 now, if I really push for it I could hit 50 today but I'm not banking on it), between starting to gear it out and laying the groundwork for my next project I'd like to begin actually putting a page together with a rought step-by-step on how to approach the leveling journey.

Legacy Level 44

Just hit Legacy Level 44.  Sorc's 2/3 through 46; I anticipate reaching 50 by Monday now.

Main-tanked through all of HM 8-man KP and up to Soa in EV on Lanoxin last night with some mostly-PUG (group of guys who I'd apparently run with on Zofran before).  Picked up a few pieces of Rakata, filled in some more Columi spots as well, and veritably certified that she's ready for Hard Mode Operations.

Mumble conversation was briefly on rated Warzones this morning and Darkhorse made an offhand remark about how he wished we had an active, geared Powertech Battlemaster for those.  Guess what my next project is gonna be.

The Sky is Falling

Also, can't believe I forgot to mention this last night, had one of the most random, hilarious moments to happen to me in game last night.  I was chugging along on Abraxane last night on Belsavis, heading to that second small quest hub in the middle of the first area.  As I was following the road on my speeder and in the middle of nowhere in particular, Firewasp (a fellow Sniper colleague in MoX) suddenly fell out of the sky and landed right in front of me.  Just, like, in the middle of nowhere, he had no particular reason to be there, and just came falling out of seemingly nowhere.  It was funny, trust me.

Okay, maybe it sounds not-as-funny written down.  You had to be there.

Sithwarrior.com Forums

Also, been procrastinating on putting up a post relating to the following and I didn't want to tack it onto the last post as a footnote: I've sort of rediscovered the sithwarrior.com forums (see Links to the right) as a clearinghouse for SWTOR theorycrafting.  It's a very reliable site and a lot of really good work is being done there.  It's why I've been putting off writing any more guide posts, since I can't decide if I still want to write my own guides now that there's theorycrafting compendia or to just forward interest to specific compendia and offer some experiential commentary.

But anyways, there's not quite info yet for every spec of every class, but if you want to know something about yours do NOT go to the official forums (which is pretty much MMO 101 anyways).  Go to http://sithwarrior.com/forums/index.php instead.

Legacy Level 43

Just donged Legacy Level 43 about an hour ago.  This one went by a little quicker as per the previously mentioned two days' worth of raiding.

Abraxane's a stone's throw from 42.  My fourth 50 was on the 14th, which means I'm averaging a new 50 every 15.5 days, which fits with my projection of taking Abraxane to 50 by next Tuesday-ish.  I intend to take some time to intentionally advance this character once I hit 50 (as opposed to Seroquel and Lanoxin who basically haven't been touched except to do some PUG raids or Normal Mode runs with my guild).  I kinda-sorta would like to jump "mains" from Sniper to Sorcerer, or at least I'd like to get her up to about the same presentation level as Voltaren, but we'll see.  Frankly I just love the idea of nearly having the 3 ranged DPS in good condition so I can swap to whichever turns out to sim the highest, being the tier-whore that I am.  I'm kinda looking forward to hitting 50 on Abraxane so I have an excuse to do Ilum PvP again--despite my general indifference to it I have, it has a sort of roguish charm being that I'm on a PvP server and there's always action going on there.  It's about time I pick one of my characters to actually give a crap about raising to Battlemaster level and I think my Sorcerer will be it.  Or my Merc.  Whatever.

Woo, Raiding

I just spent ~15 of the last 48 hours doing Operations--which I guess maybe doesn't sound like a lot on paper, but that's more than most guilds do in a week.

MoX raided Monday night, since we took Valentine's Day off last week, and waded through all of 16-man Normal and Hard Mode Karagga's Palace (on Lanoxin for the former, Zofran for the latter).  Then, after we were done, I caught a group looking for DPS for Hard mode 8-man Karagga's Palace, so I went along on Voltaren.  Group was a handful of dudes from a guild called Epk along with a few PUGs including myself.  Made it through KP then spent some time wiping to their lockout of Hard Mode Eternity Vault which was cleared up to Soa.

Tonight (Tuesday) was a normal raid night for MoX; went through all of 16-man Normal and Hard Mode Eternity Vault without much trouble (this time on Seroquel for the former, Zofran again for the latter--had 3 pairs of IA Rakata gloves drop from Annihilator and I was the only one of the four of us who needed 'em who didn't get 'em, but karmic justice pulled through and hooked me up with some Rakata boots and chest, woo).  By the time we were done the Epk guys were looking for more DPS for an 8-man HM EV run and, while I was trying to decide if I wanted to do it again, Clausy sent me a tell asking if I wanted to come along.  He told me they were going to stop at Soa, which greased the wheels enough for me to agree to come along on Voltaren.  Everything went pretty smooth except for a long string of bugged-out attempts on the Ancient Pylons.  We did go on to put in a few attempts on Soa, but I cut it short and called it a night since I didn't want to cap off the last two days of raiding by wiping on Soa for another hour.

The Epk guys are a pretty cool bunch; always good to have an entertaining group to roll with to pass the time raiding.  They use Teamspeak too, which feels like an archaic alternative to Ventrilo and Mumble at this point--I forgot I even had it installed.

Random screenshot I took mid-Soa attempt (Monday) so I wouldn't forget the name of the guild:

Sorcerer's up to 38.  Hoping to have it at 50 or close by next Tuesday.  Also, learned from Darkhorse today that rested xp--even on level 50 characters--affects Legacy xp gains.  And this is demonstrably true, though it does sound like that's some kind of bug.  Feels kinda silly to just figure this out at Legacy Level 42, but eh.

How about some random powerleveling tips...

My Sorcerer is now 29, the Powertech I'm leveling with Callsign is now 25, I'm now up to Legacy Level 41, and I've been playing all day and need a break.  So it's time to write something (brief, dinner's almost ready).

How about some random powerleveling tips?  Here's a few off the top of my head:
-Unless you can get a premade, never bother with Warzone Matches Won daily quests--but DO get and finish the Warzone Matches Played quests, as they're quick and easy.
-You can (and should!) buy your way to 4000 affection with most new companions (depending on how they take gifts--Ashara for Sith Inquisitors, for example, won't like anything you give her if your character is female and isn't worth the money you'd have to spend unless you have tons of it).  This may be difficult to do on a first character on a new server, since it costs ~20k minimum to do per companion.  Companion scenes on your ship are potentially worth lots of free experience at the cost of the ~20 minutes you'll have to spend feeding gifts (watch TV, listen to music, and/or multitask as much as possible while you do this if you want to save time)--I recall specifically gaining literally an entire level at one point on my Marauder talking to companions on my ship.
-Bonus series, for the most part, can be skipped.  I'd encourage assessing how easily of a time you're having leveling once you finish Voss and do one or both parts of that bonus series if you're behind in levels.  If you're having trouble here and there, aim to start Corellia at level 47.  If, however, you're doing something like leveling as a tank spec and are basically unkillable with no downtime, don't waste the time and keep steamrolling through planets.  I leveled my Assassin Darkness spec, finished Corellia at 48, did the Ilum planet quests and got about halfway through the Belsavis bonus series before I dinged 50.  In general, aim to do that: finish 50 on or near the end of Ilum or the Belsavis bonus series since those are things you'll need to do at 50 anyways.
-Bonus series aside, do every quest and bonus that you can on the way through a planet.
-Flashpoints are optional, but probably will slow you down.

And that brings me to dinner.  Mayhaps I'll continue this another time.

Pharmacist LFG Employment

I just realized I leveled through Balmora three times today. Started working on my sorcerer who was just starting Balmora, then Callsign wanted to duo level with my operative, who was also starting Balmora, then after we finished I decided I wanted to duo level my powertech instead so I just powerquested my way through half of Dromund Kaas and all of Balmora. Fuck I need a job.

#4

Dinged Legacy Level 40 just minutes before arriving at my fourth 50.

Sorcerer's up next.  I think Callsign wants to duo-level with my Operative now too, so we'll see who gets there first.

Sniper Discussion: PvE Marksmanship DPS part 1 - Abilities

Having a bit of a sleepless night, so I figure now is a good time to do a little writing and in light of my new guild I feel like getting a start on Sniper discussion.  Also, Audacity's Assassin tanking blog just updated literally hours ago, so if that's a subject that interests you he offers some up-to-date insight on Assassin tanking (see the "Other SWTOR Blogs" section at the far bottom right for a link).  My own tankassin is now halfway through 48.

And while we're talking about other blogs, before we even think about getting into Sniper talk, go and read Fentanyl's Sniper blog now.  I'll even give you a direct link: http://swtorsniper.blogspot.com/

Zofran, my Sniper, was the second character I began to level after my Mercenary, though it was ultimately my third 50.  I played Sniper a bit (and Gunslinger a lot) in beta, so it's spiritually my first class.

Just like in my initial Mercenary discussion, I'd like to call attention right away to the mechanics related to Energy regeneration.  I don't have regen rates and ranges recorded anywhere and I'm not up for loading up SWTOR just to check (I'll pin that down by the time I get to mechanics discussion), but be aware that your Energy regens faster the more of it you have.  How relatively fast it's regenerating is indicated by the number of little arrow pips by your Energy bar (more = faster).

This post/series of posts (which has a cooldown that allows me to post again without triggering a cooldown, yuk yuk) focuses on Marksmanship DPS, being that it's the only one I have experience with.  I'm told the other Sniper main in MoX is a champion of Lethality DPS, which I intend to look more into myself in the future, so expect to see more written of that in the future.

So without further ado, let's talk abilities.  Note that any speculation as to the relative power of Series of Shots as a DPS ability is pretty much just armchair theorycrafting here.

Single Target Abilities
Snipe (Activation: 1.5 secs; Energy: 20; Range: 30 m; Shoots a target for weapon damage. Can only be used from cover.) - Marksmanship's go-to filler.  Gains high priority if you're using Sniper Volley and it procs, otherwise it (and Ambush) simply enables Followthrough.

Ambush (Activation: 2.5 secs; Energy: 15; Cooldown: 15s; Range: 30 m; Fires a high-powered shot that deals weapon damage. Must be in cover to use.) - A heavy hitting single target ability.  It's best to only use it on a Reactive Shot proc due to the hefty cast time, but it can be used as an pull opener (although I personally prefer a Laze Target>Snap Shot Snipe combo to guarantee a Reactive Shot proc).

Series of Shots (Instant; Energy: 20; Cooldown: 15s; Range: 30 m; Unleashes a series of shots that deals weapon damage over the duration. Must be in cover to use.) - This is an essential ability for a few key reasons.  For one, it's your only ability that'll take advantage of Alacrity.  It also provides some dead space during the duration for Energy regen to pick up some.  That aside it only really shines when you get a lucky streak of crits; it gets the same brutal 30% extra bonus crit damage from 5/5 Imperial Assassin that Followthrough and Takedown also get.

Followthrough (Instant; Energy: 10; Cooldown: 9s; Range: 30 m; Fires a well-controlled follow-up shot at the target that deals weapon damage. Only usable within the 4.5 seconds immediately following a Snipe or Ambush.) - This is the real boon of the Marksmanship tree.  It's kind of a mini-Takedown and hits nearly as hard (they both get a smooth 30% crit damage bonus from Imperial Assassin).

Takedown (Instant; Energy: 15; Cooldown: 12s; Range: 30 m; Attempts to take the target down with a single powerful shot that deals weapon damage. Only usable on targets at or below 30% max health.) - This is our execute and as expected it hits like a truck.  Keep this bad boy on cooldown when you can.

Overload Shot (Instant; Energy: 17; Range: 10 m; Blasts a target for weapon damage.) - Can be used on the move in a pinch, but is generally a pretty crappy ability to use.  If you're thinking of using it, make sure Shatter Shot's on your target first instead.

Corrosive Dart (Instant; Energy: 20; Range: 30 m; Fires a dart at the target that deals internal damage over 15 seconds.) - Like Overload Shot, this can be used on the move as well, but Corrosive Dart has no real synergy with the Marksmanship tree.

AOE Abilities
Orbital Strike (Activation: 3 secs; Energy: 30; Cooldown: 60s; Range: 30 m; Calls in support from orbiting warships, dealing elemental damage over 9 seconds to all enemies within 8 meters of the targeted area. Standard and weak enemies are additionally knocked down by the blasts.) - An absolutely fabulous AOE ability.  Amazing for trash, situational for bosses.  An optional talent in the Marksmanship tree drops the cast time by a second, which can be nice.  Certainly shines as an area denial ability in PvP.

Suppressive Fire (Instant; Energy: 35; Range: 30 m; Sprays a wave of bolts over the target area, dealing weapon damage over the duration to up to 3 targets within 5 meters.) - Hits like a marshmallow, but it's the lazy-man's option to AOE trash with it's 4.5 second channel time.

Debuffs
Shatter Shot (Instant; Energy: 10; Cooldown: 4.5s; Range: 30 m; Fires a high-impact shot that deals weapon damage and reduces the target's armor by 20% for 45 seconds.) - DO NOT FORGET YOU HAVE THIS AND KEEP THIS UP AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.  Always keep this in mind and get in the habit of looking for the debuff.  It can be a pain to keep track of if there's multiple Snipers, but do it.  Doesn't need cover and it's instant, so if you're on the move and need filler start with this.

Offensive Cooldowns
Adrenaline Probe (Instant; Cooldown: 120s; Summons a droid that helps you recover 50 energy over 3 seconds.) - This is your failsafe for when Energy regen goes awry.  Try not to rely on it though, it's got kind of a hefty cooldown.

Distraction (Instant; Cooldown: 12s; Range: 10 m; Interrupts the target's current action and prevents that ability from being used for 4 seconds.)

Laze Target (Instant; Cooldown: 60s; Increases the critical hit chance of your next Snipe by 100%.) - Very good for setting up a Reactive Shot proc if you need one; try to remember to keep this on cooldown throughout a fight.

Target Acquired (Instant; Cooldown: 120s; Increases alacrity by 20% for 10 seconds.) - If only Alacrity actually did stuff.  But seriously, this turns Series of Shots into an even-heavier-than-it-already-is hitter.  Works well when coupled with Rapid Fire.  One of the PvE set bonuses gives 10 free Energy when this is activated as well, which relieves a little bit of the Energy consumption pressure for all the abilities you'll soon be spamming.

Rapid Fire (Rapid Fire; Instant; Cooldown: 90s; Immediately finishes the cooldown on Series of Shots and triggers the next Series of Shots without a cooldown.) - Allows for some whacky hijinks with Series of Shots, but it's unclear to me how much of a real boon to DPS it really is if you don't have enough crit to let Series of Shots really steal the show over other abilities that deal more consistent non-crit DPS.  If your Energy is in good condition, you can get a real nasty bang for your buck by coupling this with Target Acquired.

Defensive Cooldowns
Ballistic Shield (Instant; Cooldown: 180s; Deploys a ballistic shield that spans 10 meters around you, reducing the damage taken by all allies that remain inside by 20%. Lasts 15 seconds. Can only be used from cover, and exiting cover ends the effect.) - The Sniper's answer to the Marauder's Bloodthirst.  This is an amazing and profoundly underestimated ability in my opinion.  If your guild is unwilling to work this into their strats, try to find as many creative uses for this as you can yourself--your healers will thank you.

Countermeasures (Instant; Cooldown: 45s; Activates countermeasures, instantly lowering threat by a moderate amount.) - Get used to using this such that you can hit it on reaction the split second you notice a boss turn to look at you.

Shield Probe (Instant; Cooldown: 45s; Summons a probe droid that projects a shield around the Agent, absorbing a moderate amount of incoming damage for 15 seconds. Does not break stealth.) - Very nice personal defensive ability with a short cooldown.  Don't be afraid to use it when you expect to take any damage.

Evasion (Instant; Cooldown: 60s; Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 100% for 3 seconds. Does not break Stealth.) - I dunno, this doesn't seem very reliable to me, but I guess it doesn't hurt to pop it in a pinch.

Entrench (Instant; Cooldown: 60s; Entrenches you into cover, becoming immune to all controlling effects. Only usable in cover. Ends prematurely if cover is exited. Lasts 20 seconds.) - I haven't found a good use for this in a boss encounter yet, but I want to believe there's one somewhere.

As with my Merc discussion, expect specs to be the topic next time.

Bioware Customer Support

Found the screenshot I alluded to last post.  (Click to see the full size image.)

Your subscription at work.

New Guild

Got the heads up last week from Kozmo, an officer of Challenge Accepted, that since 16-man attendance was a little wonky they'd be focusing on 8-mans for progression--which, as a relatively new recruit, would basically leave me permabenched--so we both agreed I oughtta look for a new guild so my 50s roster wouldn't remain idle.  No passive-aggressive angst there either, just tellin' it like it is; the CA guys were a pretty rad bunch to hang out with and I'm glad I got to run through at least some hard mode 16-mans with 'em.

Although it was just brought to my attention by the GM of my new guild, Darkhorse of Memories of Xendor, that 16-mans do NOT drop proportionally more loot than 8-mans, ie you get the same amounts of Rakata tokens--and thus less recipes and mount drops--from 16-mans.

So yeah, I've been picked up by Memories of Xendor for some ranged DPS.  Looks like I'll mostly be continuing the Sniper-ing I did for CA (quick aside: haha, just noticed Memories of Xendor = MoX, which explains all of the Magic: The Gathering mox references in the Mumble server).  As soon as I wrap up my Assassin (3/4 through 46, ~1/3 through Corellia) I'll be putting a rush on my Sorcerer to have a full complement of ranged DPS to choose from.

(Second aside: I was getting that Strength datacron as I was passing through Labor Valley on my Assassin when I came across a level 13 Republic Trooper wandering about.  I followed him a bit, then ganked him.  He then came back a few seconds later, this time move hacking through the area.  Intra-aside-aside: Last time I was leveling through Corellia I noticed there were several level 11-13 characters on Corellia.  I suspected they were probably gold-sellers so I put in a ticket to let Bioware know that the gold-sellers seem to have moved on to Corellia since they nuked all the easy craft nodes on Ilum.  Got a response to the ticket a few days later thanking me for reporting gold-sellers...on Ilum.  Sigh.  I'd do a triple-aside here about the customer support's canned responses but I don't know where I put the relevant screenshot...)

Thanks again to the bros at Challenge Accepted for having me along for a while and to the dudes at Memories of Xendor for the invite.  Links to both guilds' websites can be found over to the right.

Legacy Level 39

This isn't too petty to make a new post over, is it?

It does seem like 38>39 went a lot slower, possibly on account of the changes to legacy xp last patch.

Mercenary Discussion: PvE Arsenal DPS part 1 - Abilities

So let's jump into some proper discussion.  As mentioned previously Voltaren, my Mercenary, was my first 50 and is probably the class I have the most experience with overall.  It also serves as a good springboard for the blog because Arsenal DPS is very simple--it's really no surprise we're made fun of for Tracer Missile.

Before we get into discussion I want to make sure everyone has a basic understanding of Heat, Ammo, and Energy mechanics briefly, chiefly that their regeneration rate is affected by how much of it you currently have.  That is to say that the less Ammo or Energy you have or, in this case, the more Heat you have the slower it regenerates.  According to the in-game tooltips, the regeneration rate for Heat is as follows:

0-40 Heat = -5 Heat/second
40-60 Heat = -3 Heat/second
60-80 Heat = -3 Heat/second
80-100 Heat = -2 Heat/second

These ranges correspond to the little regen indicator arrow next to your heat bar (with 0-40 being 4 arrows, 80-100 being one little arrow), so you can use that as visual feedback for judging Heat expenditure.  And that's not a typo, regen at two and three arrows is both listed as -3 Heat/second, though I wonder if these aren't rounded numbers (or perhaps the in game UI is just terrible at displaying actual values) because you can observe strange fluctuations in regen rate on your Heat bar.  But anyways, the point remains that proper management of Heat regeneration is critical for sustained damage output.

Now let's begin with a review of the Bounty Hunter abilities relevant to Arsenal DPS:

Single Target Abilities
Tracer Missile (Activation: 1.5 secs; Heat: 25; Range: 30 m; Launches a missile at the target that deals kinetic damage and applies a heat signature, reducing the armor rating by 4% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. Heat signatures leave the target vulnerable to Rail Shot.) - Arsenal's bread and butter.  This is why every other class hates us.  Honestly you could probably do nothing but spam Tracer Missile and not lose a ton of DPS.  Here's why it's so amazing:
1. Solid damage output.
2. Heat cost reduced to 16 from Muzzle Fluting.
3. Procs Heat venting from Terminal Velocity.
4. Stacking armor debuff.
5. Stacking % DAMAGE REDUCTION BUFF HOLY FUCK IS THIS SHIT OP ENOUGH FOR YOU YET from Power Barrier.
6. Endless supply of missiles straight outta yo back right pocket.
7. Plus all the applicable tech damage and crit boosts from talents (and the higher base accuracy inherent to tech attacks) etc.

Heatseeker Missiles (Instant; Heat: 16; Cooldown: 15s; Range: 30 m; Fires several missiles that deal kinetic damage. This damage is increased by 5% per heat signature on the target.) - Very similar to Tracer Missile, trades a lot of the advantages thereof for some niche advantages (it's instant, gains some damage boosts through talents, etc.) that make it worth keeping on cooldown provided max Heat Signature stacks.  Also, it looks pretty cool.

Unload (Instant; Heat: 16; Cooldown: 15s; Range: 30 m; Unloads your blaster into the target, dealing weapon damage every second. Weak and standard enemies caught in the blaster fire are stunned for the duration. Fires both blasters if dual wielding.) - Shines the most during a Barrage proc.

Rail Shot (Instant; Heat: 16; Cooldown: 15s; Range: 30 m; Fires a very powerful shot at the target that deals weapon damage. Only usable against incapacitated targets and targets suffering from periodic damage.) - Requires a little pumping up (via Tracer Lock) to get to usable but when it is Rail Shot becomes a useful tool that allows you to put out some damage at minimal Heat gain.  By default it costs 16 Heat but can be talented down to 8 Heat, then it becomes free with the addition of the PvE gear 4-set bonus.

Power Shot (Activation: 1.5 secs; Heat: 25; Range: 30 m; Charges up both blasters and fires off two powerful shots that deal weapon damage. Requires two blasters.) - Power Shot gets an honorable mention for reasons I'll come back to in the future.  As things are now, it is completely replaced by Tracer Missile the second you hit level 20, but expect it to make a comeback when Tracer Missile is inevitably nerfed.  It's notable that the damage values listed via the tooltip are generally more than Tracer Missile (though due to a number of factors this isn't generally the case in practice).

AOE Abilities
Death from Above (Instant; Heat: 25; Cooldown: 60s; Range: 30 m; Rains death from above, firing a volley of missiles at the target area, dealing kinetic damage over the duration. Standard and weak targets are knocked down by the blasts.) - An amazing AOE ability; low cost, massive damage.  It even looks awesome.

Fusion Missile (Activation: 1.5 secs; Heat: 33; Cooldown: 30s; Range: 30 m; Fires a fusion missile that detonates on contact, dealing kinetic damage to up to 3 targets within 5 meters and searing all targets with radiation burns that deal additional elemental damage over 6 seconds. Standard and weak targets enter a state of panic from the flames.) - If DfA is on cooldown, this is your next go-to AOE.

Sweeping Blasters (Instant; Heat: 33; Range: 30 m; Fires waves of blaster bolts at up to 5 targets within 5 meters of the target area, dealing weapon damage over the duration. Standard and weak targets are sometimes knocked back by the sweeping bolts. Requires two blasters.)

Passive Abilities
High Velocity Gas Cylinder (Activation: 1.5 secs; Loads your blaster with a high velocity gas cylinder. While active, armor penetration is increased by 35%. Only one cylinder can be active at a time.) - This is the cylinder/stance/whatever meant for Arsenal DPS, and is required for the Heat cost reduction on Rail Shot and the Heat venting from Tracer Missile/Heatseeker Missiles/Unload gained through talents.

Offensive Cooldowns
Vent Heat (Instant; Cooldown: 120s; Rapidly vents 50 heat over 3 seconds.) - A handy backup for when Heat gets out of hand.

Thermal Sensor Override (Instant; Cooldown: 120s; Your next ability generates no heat. Effect lasts 15 seconds.) - Very important for managing Heat regeneration--use this to keep yourself in 4-arrow regen as long as possible.  I recommend coupling it with Unload (on a Barrage proc) if possible to take advantage of the dead space and possible crit-activated Heat venting to further mitigate Heat production, but don't be afraid to drop it on a Tracer Missile in a pinch.  Once you hit your TSO button, don't make the mistake of wasting it on a Rail Shot.

Power Surge (Instant; Cooldown: 120s; Your next ability with an activation time will activate instantly. Effect lasts 15 seconds.) - This cooldown isn't extremely relevant to Arsenal DPS (and in fact, improper use can mess with Heat management) but it's still important to remember that you have this at your disposal should the situation demand an instant Tracer Missile.  I suspect this is meant to be more of a healing cooldown.

Defensive Cooldowns
Chaff Flare (Instant; Cooldown: 45s; Reduces threat towards all current enemies.) - Get used to using this such that you can hit it on reaction the split second you notice a boss turn to look at you.

Determination (Instant; Cooldown: 120s; Removes all incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.) - It's easy to forget that you have this ability in PvE, but there are some situations where using this is both possible and helpful for maximizing DPS uptime.  Say, for instance, you got just a little too close to the Annihilation Droid and get stunned by its ground slam, this here's your get-out-of-HAY-YOU-STOOD-IN-THE-FIRE free card.

Energy Shield (Instant; Cooldown: 120s; Reduces all damage taken by 25% for 12 seconds.) - This and Kolto Overload are absolutely invaluable defensive cooldowns and are essential in many situations for relieving the pressure on your healers to keep your raid alive.

Kolto Overload (Instant; Cooldown: 180s; Restores 15% of maximum health over 10 seconds.)

Next time: Skill point discussion.  For a preview of next time, I refer you to my current pet build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300McZMIkrRrdokfzZc.1

Dat Zash

Last post I'm gonna make for today.  Came across this while leveling my Sorcerer a little bit.

And the remix.

Alt-ernate Universes

As of writing I currently have three characters at level 50: a Mercenary, a Marauder, and a Sniper.  I also have an Assassin that literally just dinged 42 before I decided to start this blog.  By design, I play Empire exclusively on Helm of Graush (that is, I have a character of each class made on the server--my Republic characters are tentatively set up on The Maw).  I've always enjoyed leveling alts, but in SWTOR I'm taking it seriously to the next level.  My goal, ultimately, is to have every advanced class at 50.  There's a number of reasons I aim to do this.  First, I do enjoy leveling to a certain extent.  I also love having the variety in character selection--being able to log in and run with any class I want and having a working knowledge of how each class works.  Third, it makes a fine thing to do early on while Bioware sorts out the finer points of running an MMO.  I'm also unemployed and in between trying to chase down a few new state pharmacy licenses and finding a job (I'm a PharmD--a pharmacist) I've got way too much free time.  Finally, while the token time-sink right now would be PvPing (I'm even on a PvP server), it just doesn't really interest me as a primary pursuit, which leaves either sitting around the fleet trying to find groups, feeding Ron Paul trolls all day, or leveling alts.  The latter seems a natural choice.

Plus my Legacy Level is the one last sweet achievement I'm hanging onto.  It's 38.  Here's proof.

I had races, names, tradeskills, and alignments planned out for all of my characters before release, 'cause that's how I roll.  I originally started my Mercenary, Voltaren, at Last Resort's request.  At the time, the class roster had plenty of Sorcerer and Sniper ranged DPS, so I went with Merc.  I started leveling a Sniper (Zofran) next, since that's what I'd wanted to play in beta and it was another ranged DPS to have in my repertoire.  Made it to about mid-30s (mid-Taris) before I switched to leveling my Marauder (Seroquel).  I originally hadn't planned on leveling a Marauder at all, since I had no affinity for the class (though I do like dem dual wielders), but for reasons I can't recall I started duo-leveling it with Callsign's Sorcerer.  Duo-leveling goes way faster than leveling solo; Callsign quit leveling his Sorc after we finished Taris, and I figured if I was that far I might as well finish it.  So I did.  Even duo-leveling just that far it shaved ~16 hours off the total /played time to 50.  After that, went and finished up my Sniper.  Currently I working on wrapping up my Assassin.

I intend to do a little more detailed discussion of the classes I've played the most so far in future posts that I can set aside specifically for those classes.

The story so far...

In the spirit of my old, long-abandoned FFXI blog (http://kurohyou-ffxi.livejournal.com/) and of embracing a multimedia approach to gaming, I thought I'd set up a blog for my burgeoning SWTOR career.  So here we are.

My SWTOR story actually starts over a year ago.  The day before DC Universe Online was released I happened to catch TotalBiscuit's first impression video and was intrigued enough to pick it up.  As is keen to my quick-paced leveling zealotry I was amongst the first to max level (which wasn't a great feat, took like a day and a half) and managed to find a guild on the forums recruiting for serious endgame.  I soon discovered that these guys were also fast levelers and I fell into the core officership of Heroic Evolution.  Fast forward a few months the guild disbanded because the "endgame" content was too easy and we were literally recruiting people every night to fill raid spots because people were quitting the game because the content was too easy.  By the time it fell apart it was basically being co-led by myself and a guy called Jaeve, whom I became good friends with.  We came up with the idea of setting up a guild for SWTOR as the DCUO one was falling apart, and this was my first notion of interest in SWTOR.  A few months later he convinced me to start again in WoW and join a guild of friends he had played a long time with called Espionage.

Fast forward again to the start of the beta weekends for SWTOR.  I'd since quit WoW, but the guys at Espionage had casually set up a guild for SWTOR as well.  I played through the first couple weekends with them before I realized they weren't planning on playing SWTOR seriously; the beta had really sold me on the game and being as I had no MMO commitment I'd set myself to seriously undertaking the game.

I found myself having to quickly try to find an endgame-focused guild with only a few weeks to release.  I ran a search through Bioware's guild site for PvE-focused guilds and took candidates that had ~50ish members.  Thus I joined Last Resort.

Last Resort was very promising at first.  The guild meeting held the week before release had 40 members crammed into the guild's Mumble server.  There were so many people, most of us were actually worried about getting into the guild's serious-focused 16-man (which is now tragically ironic after the fact).  About 2.5 weeks after the start of early access I was the 7th member of Last Resort to hit 50 on my mercenary (which I'd been asked to play since we were slated to have the least thereof)--at ~4 days, 16 hours /played.  About a week later we had enough to wade into 8-man raids.  We ran our first raid on a normal scheduled raid night, however we ended up doing another, more successful raid the next day on an unscheduled night--which was the first half of the guild-ending drama that would ensue.  Later that same night the officers declared that they were taking over leadership from BigDaddy, the guild's leader who had been a bit behind in leveling due to real life factors affecting his game time.

Unfortunately the officers made this little coup without checking to see if most of us raiders were okay with it.  See, the vast majority of us who were now 50 super-quickly and were serious raiders were not new to MMO endgame, and most of us recognized that this was not a positive turn of events.  I myself had personally experienced an officer coup way way back during and shortly after the LotRO beta when I'd tried to put together an endgame guild.  Callsign, Minch, and myself quickly figured out a conspiracy was afoot, and we had enough like-minded raiders to split off under BigDaddy's continued leadership to form Remedy.  As Last Resort fell apart, a few of the officers left to join Gallowglass.  The Last Resort remainders reformed originally as Carebears and then reformed once more into what is now Fate of the Unwanted.

As Remedy we had a very cohesive and talented group--for a few weeks.  BigDaddy was the guild's administrator while Callsign was handed the reigns as raid leader.  We progressed well (as far as 4/5 Nightmare mode EV), but things started to go awry when BigDaddy mysteriously left the guild.  We discovered a few days later that he had sold his account.

Now Callsign was a reasonably effectively raid leader, but not a very capable guild administrator.  I offered to take over GM but he insisted on taking it on himself and things quickly slid downhill without any organization, recruitment, or any guideline structure for rules etc., and Callsign's inability or unwillingness combined with him starting up classes set the stage for the guild to crumble.  (I still <3 ya Callsign though.)

So on to the guild hunt I went.  I ended up joining Challenge Accepted, who asked me to go sniper.  I've been with them for a few weeks now.  Unfortunately I joined in that nebulous period where they were trying to transition into 16-mans, but with paltry recruitment and iffy attendance they decided to default to 8-mans and I'm finding myself chronically benched.

So this history ends kind of abruptly.  It's not as detailed as I had imagined it would be, but that's the gist of it so far.  I hope it wasn't boring enough to scare off too many readers.  Going to put together another, hopefully more meaningful post shortly detailing my character exploits thus far and my first impressions on SWTOR itself.