I must hand it to the good folks down in Austin they did not scrimp on the news from the latest Cantina Livestream. That amount of stuff we can expect in the next game update previously might have been spread out across an entire season’s worth of a road map, so color me impressed and punch my ticket for the hype-train. Choo choo.
To start, I’m going to keep this spoiler-free, avoiding even the mild revelations from the livestream. Please check Galactic Antics, MMObits and Vulkk for far more comprehensive coverage than I could ever hope to provide.
For me, there is a lot to be excited about in Jedi Under Siege. The world, the planet’s design, the new and returning characters, it all looks cool. Instead of going into detail on each point, I think I’ll just discuss the two things that jumped out at me the most.
Story
I have written before about how I consider the choice of whether your character supports their original faction or switches allegiances my favorite part of the Iokath story, and I’m pleased that we will be allowed to reinforce that decision. When it comes to story updates, I tend to focus on my two favorite characters, one from each faction: my Consular and my Bounty Hunter. However because both characters opted to side with the Republic my journeys through Iokath were pretty much the same each time. But on the new planet, despite their similar previous choices, it looks like those characters will experience the story differently, and I’m genuinely psyched to dive in.
As we’ve seen previously, completing the story will unlock the new zone as a daily area. I seem to be one of the few people who like the Iokath dailies for their variety and scope (stomping around in a walker will never not be fun to me). I hope the quests and environments are interesting enough to make return visits worthwhile beyond the incentive to farm up the new gear. That the new zone will be populated with datacrons, a pair of world bosses and lots of new decorations is certainly promising. I do hope the world bosses are bit more pug friendly than the Dark vs. Light bosses and don’t have ridiculous respawn timers. If at least one is instanced like Toborro’s Courtyard and my guild can run it on our own schedule, I’ll jump for joy.
Nightmare Mode Lives
I have no plans to raid Gods from the Machine on its most challenging difficulty, and if scaling up all operations to max level remains the plan for future SWTOR expansions, it’s very possible that I will never even set foot inside it at that difficulty. And, yet, the news surrounding the return of Master Mode operations has me pleased.
During Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan expansions, I was part of a Hard Mode raiding team. We played casually, didn’t shatter any records, but were a solid group of fun people. During Hutt Cartel we and made steady progress on a light progression schedule. That changed during Shadow of Revan. The “hard-mare” version of Ravagers and Temple of Sacrifice, created to be a compromise between Hard and Nightmare modes with the removal of Nightmare mode proved incredibly frustrating, and we ultimately stalled out after only beating the first two encounters of both operations.
I’ve never been more angry and disappointed with SWTOR than the night we gave up trying to beat the buggy mess that was Underlurker. Attrition set in and soon after Knights of the Fallen Empire launched without new Operations, the hard mode team was no more. I don’t blame any who quit. We found our groove in Hutt Cartel’s middle lane, and it remains a drag that the removal of a raiding mode that we barely ever touched eventually led to my team’s downfall.
The release of Master Mode Gods from the Machine also will included a rebalanced Veteran Mode that I assume will be along the lines of the old Hard Modes from Rise of the Hutt Cartel. If that is the case, then pinch my cheeks and call me Rosy because you can sign me up right now. I’ve recently started raiding Veteran modes again and as much as I do love Terror From Beyond, the thought of learning new hard mode bosses has me thrilled.
That’s just two of the things I’m looking forward to in the December update. Here’s hoping the year ends on a high note! However, I fear avoiding spoilers until then will be a challenge. Fingers crossed!
Thanks for translating the flair! That was my first thought on seeing it: I wonder what that means? If only someone would provide a translation… 😉 Could you also make out what the three little letters floating next to your name are?
I’ve been rather grumpy about the original announcement to revive Gods MM, but if it does indeed come with a nerf to the two existing difficulties, I can get on board with that to some degree. Your story about the horrors of ToS and Ravagers strongly resonates with me, because while my guild didn’t fall apart in their wake, those two operations did also cause us no end of grief. I was always annoyed that Bioware stopped releasing operations after that, as if people just weren’t interested in this type of content instead of those last two having been released in a nightmarish state.
The three letters on the nameplates are ATX. It wasn’t immediately obvious to me what that means, but I suspect it’s short for Austin, Texas. I suspect the flair was originally designed for the New York Cantina and “NYC” would’ve fit there more naturally. I increased the ui scale for the flair around the portraits for the screenshot, but I’m not sure nameplate sizes can be increased, so those letters remain tricky to read.
Reading your post and the comments about the SOR raids makes me glad to know that we weren’t alone in our struggles back then. It seems like Bioware is all over the place with difficulties since SOR. Some of new Master Mode flashpoints and uprisings are so much more difficult than others, that I just don’t know what they’re thinking sometimes. I like Storymode Gods from the Machine and doing it in guild has been fun, but I’ve never finished it in a pug. I’m not sure that’s intended. The PTS patch notes indicate nerfs are coming for SM and Vet Gods, and I’m good on both counts. The changes to Storymode should mean that my guild can finish it in two hours which is the most I think a SM raid should take.