I would like to first off state that I have been a
subscriber since day one (I did leave the game for around 2 months when
Tera Online came out but I still stayed
subbed to the game). I have enjoyed leveling in this MMO more than any other
one I have ever played. I have cleared every raid on every difficulty (other
than the recently released NiM Dread Fortress) and also both Hateful and
Dreadful Entity. For the most part, the community is friendly and willing to
work with whatever noobness is present on fleet. The pvp (when not broken by
ridiculous class perks such as the exploding sage bubble back then) is fun and
worth the grind (for some). So what has ruined it for me? PVE endgame content, shitty
elite guilds, and the lack of competent players.
Free-to-play has both revitalized and ruined the game. Low
population servers were surely saved by free-to-play but so many perks of
earning gear has been diminished by just buying a better looking skin or mount
through the in-game market (the Cartel Market). Also we got a huge flux of god
awful players that did not know what a snare, cc, dot, or a raid was. This
might sound rude and superficial but the more of these players you get in an
MMO will diminish the quality of pug runs and the pool you go to when you need
to fill an open spot on a endgame content raid team.
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| This is what I imagine most pugs looking like... |
Secondly, raiding in SWTOR has become quite dull. They reuse
cosmetic shells for endgame gear, have a very slow develop time for new
raids/new difficulty levels, and do not really post a challenge (the last face
hammering thing that we all enjoyed was NiM EC and the "bugged"
council fight in NiM TfB. The new NiM DF is welcome but I can already foresee
it being easily cleared). I took the plunge into legitimate endgame grinding
right before HM EC came out so I have been in the good crowd for some time.
Once you get a new difficulty level of a raid on farm, it gets quite boring
very fast since the game does not offer other things to do other than pvp.
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| I don't remember if this picture was during NiM TfB when the counsel fight was bugged but this was exciting hard content | |
This brings me to my next point, there is nothing to do once
you get locked out for your endgame content for the week. Yes PvP is there but
most people get bored of it very quickly or just try to avoid it entirely.
Unlike in games like WoW, the devs really do not try to add events or challenges
for large groups to try to accomplish. Early on in the game, they introduced an
event that allowed people to get infected with the ratgoul virus and infect
other people. After that they introduced the Gree Event on Ilum that actually
brought people back there. These were amazing events that actually gave us shit
to do. Other than those specific events however, there really isn't anything to
do outside your lockouts other than to PvP (only for some) or level an alt.
There are no mini-games to bide your time (implementing swoop bike races or
Pazaak would be so fucking easy Bioware).
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| Bugging fights is only fun the first time |
Lastly, the game itself is just boring now. You still see
people idling by on fleet waiting for a pug run to start or a ranked warzone to
pop. People undercut the in-game market, crafting is dull, and there is no
drive/desire to go explore planets other than for achievements (which is
pointless to me). I have also had my fair share of shitty guilds and have
determined that I'm just tired of the dramaness.
Please understand this though; out of every MMO that is
currently out (not including Wildstar since it is still in beta) I have had
more fun playing in this one than any other one (in a leveling and endgame
content way). The leveling isn't as grindy, the classes are very fun to play
(Scrapper and Dirty fighting Scoundrel, Sharpshooter Gunslinger, Combat Sentinel,
and TK Sage were a blast to play). This game got the healing trees perfect in
PVE offering 3 distinctive play styles and purposes for each (Sages for AOE
raid healing, Scoundrels for Tank healing, and Commandos as a very effective mutt
of the two). Tanking is questionable since I didn't dive too much into that but
I have been told that holding agro is quite hard and requires more skill and practice
than other MMO's.
For now, I'll just go catch up
on the endless amounts of steam games in my library until Wildstar and Star Citizen
come out.
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| The last heart you will see in SWTOR |
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