Star Wars: The Old Republic, continued thoughts.

Sith Assassin, From Deadmanwalking182 at Deviant Art.

I have accumulated enough time in game now to hit level 10 and get out of the start area, and have moved to 'The Fleet' area. I must say, my experiences so far have proven to me that this game is pretty damn good. I played WOW from UK release day, until about 6 months ago. This game blows it out the water in pretty much every way so far. Only downside being the hardware requirements, my laptop will NOT run this game, and the increased level of complexity (steeper learning curve, but in no terms difficult for someone experienced with MMO's)

When I arrived at the flee, I was led to my next task... choosing which Sith path to take... This proved to be much tougher than I expected...

Sith Assassin: Dual-Bladed sabre, and the talent trees span down to Tanking, DPS (Rogue style) and another form of melee DPS

Sith Sorceror: Healing, or two forms of ranged dps...

I kinda wanted to be a healer, but I dont want to do that yet.. I ended up picking the Roguesque class... Apparently you can respec - but I think it is just a talent point reset.

A whole new array of abilities was unlocked upon seleting this, so I have two hotkey bars to use my powers - I am not sure if the initial ones are needed, but I still have them on the hotkey bar to move... Complicated - but Ill work it out next time I play. As a bonus, I got a goodie bag which contained my Dual bladed light sabre (no item level, I think these are like 'heirloom items' in that you keep the one as you level and can modify it as you go with the use of components and crystals to modify the buff effects.)

After this I also picked up my trade skills (3 gathering skills... it looks like gathering is done by companions on missions though... confusing much!)

Thats about as much as I have done so far... I heartily recommend anyone that likes MMORPG's to take a look at this. It is more demanding (computer and brain!) than World of Warcraft, but it is also more mature, and humorous in its own way. Server queues seem less of a problem now, although queues still exist.

Happy hunting!

-Velk