ECTmmo.com- MMO Blog: The Adventures of Kaozz...: Unexpected Surprises

This week I wanted to talk about the STWOR companion changes, my fresh 65 in Rift with the newest area, Plane Touched Wilds, as well as some thoughts on WoW's 11th anniversary.

First off SWTOR. Last week SWTOR had a huge nerf implemented on companions and I was not happy to hear about this news. I was pretty enraged honestly. I wanted to break my lightsaber over my companion's head, it was that bad. The change hasn't been reverted but it has been rectified, buffing the companions with this week's patch! Read the official forums for more info here. That was GOOD news!

I think the right choice was made here. I know it was honestly, the forums were flooded with angry players and I was also just about to put my lightsaber away for good. I didn't want to just throw up my hands without testing things out myself though. Last week I decided to try the companion changes with many of my different leveled characters. My 65 smuggler/gunslinger (total dps spec, no heals) was the first to test. I used a rank 1 companion as a healer, dps or tank was not an option. I was able to solo a few things decently but it was close many times. I had to play it smart and use a lot of AOE to burn everything down. I then used my rank 28 comp as a healer, things were a tad better but still rough in certain areas. I did manage to solo Star Fortress, though my companion quit healing me a few times and started healing himself and he still died, then I died. He was extremely squishy no dps, because he couldn't stop healing. It was not as fun honestly, it wasn't hard with her, I did things like I used to, just tedious. I wasn't impressed.

Now I also wanted to try the tank, Their self heals were nerfed. I healed with my Sith sorc and used a tank at rank 10. Wasn't bad, She is level 56 in good gear, so I could hold my own a bit better. The biggest issue was with my 41 Jedi consular, who I mainly play lately as I just love her. My comps are not the highest rank. My rank 12 healer could not keep up on many things, almost dying, throwing tiny heals and just being useless all around. They didn't seem to do as well with a lower level character and there was not much of a ways to boost them for a new player especially or someone with limited funds. I could just level it up with funds off my main, that just seemed so redundant though. I really thought this was a very impact for new players. You can't even gear them anymore.

Today they are much stronger. I am able to play my little Jedi smoothly again. The H2 end game content (which has been stated by devs that these shouldn't need another person, just a companion OR another player) will be fine again. All is well again in a galaxy far, far away. I am very happy for the changes, very thankful the team looked into this. There was a huge backlash on the forums about this change. Good job, BW/EA. I didn't have much faith, honestly, it's nice to be surprised though :)

WoW's 11th anniversary is here. Last year we had a retro Molten Core raid with gear, a chance at a pet -and- 100% guaranteed mount for completing it. There was also a cool corgi pet, which was on FIRE! As well as the Tarren Mill vs South Shore BG. This year there is the usual achievement for logging in, 5 charges of the Thnderfury weapon 'toy' and 50 charges of Edwen Vancleef. Zzzzzz.... Pretty boring. I let my sub run out, the expansion is too far away. I can't stomach anymore Tannan Jungle, the flying achievement caused me to burn out on that quickly. So.. yeah.. unsubbed from boredom. Nothing seems permanent and everything seems fleeting. Everything changes too much, nothing lasting. Oh, did you hear? Valor is back... Just what I want to do, grind for valor again- Because there isn't anything better to do. Just... No.

I hit 65 in Rift with my rogue, the current cap, yesterday. I was very excited. I really wanted to check out the new content from the Plane Touched Wilds content which was recently released. I was quick to find that the quest line isn't really for fresh 65's. You should get some help, or just skip it and run to the new zone. I did the first quest after figuring out that you need to interrupt the casting of pets the NPC does, but then the second part was even more brutal with adds. I just ended up running there to the new zone. Which was gorgeous. But it was empty. I didn't fine one person there. I was a bit surprised. The content is a bit harder than I thought it would be, given I was in freshly bought gear off the AH. I was still a bit weak. Which dampened my spirits, I was just so excited about this zone, and I can solo there but it seems I need to go somewhere else to gear first. There is still lots to do but I dislike it when new content is more aimed at geared players. Maybe that's why it was completely empty with players still in the previous zones, which I did see a lot of.

Speaking of leveling. The climb from 60-65 was slow and drug on and on for me, maybe it was just the last two that were the worst. I took a long break, the questing wasn't bad, but at 63 I just did different types of IAs (instant and intrepid adventures) to 65. With all the xp boosting I could pack in it was better IMO than grinding the levels out with quests. It wasn't bad, I guess I prefer this route and do a lot of leveling through the IAs, it is a nice alternative. It could be faster, the zones are ... I don't know, weird? You're underwater, surrounded by fish people. Some of the areas are beautiful, but mostly odd. I miss the classic zones and even Storm Legion zones. That's why I was so excited to get through the Nightmare Tide and head to Plane Touched Wilds.

EQ2 has seven free days, I got an email today and read about it on EQ2Wire. I was tempted, but there is an xpac and it just isn't a good time to get into all of that. Maybe next year.

Sometimes things don't go as expected. I thought I'd be so pumped about Rift and here SWTOR goes and fixes my 'broked' companions. Awwww. Unexpected surprises. <3 companions="" my="" p="">
Anyhow, have a Happy Thanksgiving!