SWTOR leveling, fluid? or not?

[FreddieK]

I'd say if you do a mix of everything as intended then you should get a fluid lvling experience. you can also focus on clearing certain planets and doing all extra missions when u feel u might be getting a bit ahead, gives nice rewards and often cool stories, along with affection from companions and dark/light etc.

[Deleted]

Its worth noting that there is lots of lvl 40 gear as pvp rewards. lvl39 seems a good time to farm a bit of pvp

[Valdorian]

I was stuck in the same situation on hoth. You have to run flashpoints, do group quests, space missions, and pvp. Yeah, it sucks but after that it will be all good

[warpath2k]

I have not read the replies.

But I was in the exact same position. I was level 39 heading to a level 41 world even after doing as much PVP and space missions as I could bare. Yes the 1st level is hard. But as soon as you hit 40 it becomes easier and easier.

My biggest bane right now is the god awful ability lag or the fact it just won't go off at all dispite triggering a GCD. Drives me mad.


Edit- Is made a lot easier if you have spent your first 1000 PVP points on the level 40 gear.

[Tychus]

I found similar problems. I couldn't pvp due to getting 5fps, and never did space missions because IMO the rails stuff was just dumb and uninteresting. I didn't do group quests because asking around for a minimum 30mins just to find one person isn't my idea of fun. Didn't do flashpoints because you have to be at the fleet to even start asking for 30mins to find a group, which means you aren't questing.

[grandpab]

I had the opposite problem. I had to leave almost every zone too early because quests were turning green, but it's because I was doing a decent amount of pvp too. There were several times I ignored all the side quests just so I could finish my class quest and get to the next planet.

[PuliGT]

Just a reminder, not every planet has a bonus series and of the ones that do, not every bonus series starts right after you complete that planet. AFAIK the start to all the "Return to planet w/e" type bonus series are all given in the fleet, but don't hold me to that. The bonus series that start right away seemed to all be on the way back to your ship from the planet (so you might miss these if you use a fleet pass after you finish a planet).

[Deleted]

Just a reminder, not every planet has a bonus series and of the ones that do, not every bonus series starts right after you complete that planet. AFAIK the start to all the "Return to planet w/e" type bonus series are all given in the fleet, but don't hold me to that. The bonus series that start right away seemed to all be on the way back to your ship from the planet (so you might miss these if you use a fleet pass after you finish a planet).

Aye, Balmorra and Nar Shaddaa are the chief of these, which is kind of annoying because at that point you've been through the climax of the story and you're thinking that you will finally get off that planet and move on, only to be stopped and asked to go back. It doesn't even really make sense, for example if you look at the Balmorra storyline; the resistance had a big base, fortified up to wazoo, their best soldiers, etc. You cracked it, you broke it, you killed or captured their leaders. You even come out of it with the NPCs saying that the resistance is broken, we've won. Yay!

Yet when you get to the spaceport they come to you saying the resistance is still alive and kicking...

The bonus series don't really get better later because it is easy to miss those bonus series and that is why people fall behind in levels. Taris, Alderaan, and Hoth are planets that comes to mind with bonus series that are only available after you have already moved onto another planet. Even then it is kind of depressing to go back to a planet you already cleared. Feels like you are taking steps backwards. The bonus series, also aren't really "bonus series" because the way they balanced the planets, as in taking you from level x to y, is by including the bonus series in that total.

So yeah... not really as fluid as I would have liked. When on a planet ofc, the flow is pretty fluid, taking you from hub to hub and the storylines are pretty linear. Even if some quests are a bit annoying. E.g. some send you location X and the next quest, after returning the first one, sends you right back to that same location.

[Omedon]

Can't agree that questing is fluid as it should be. Perhaps if I killed everything that crossed my path while questing, but my two "mains" are stealthers, and, well, no.

"Doing a bit of everything", in my opinion, isn't an acceptable solution. The rail shooter, and ESPECIALLY PvP are acquired tastes, and acquiring these tastes should not be a requirement to advance one's story questline on par. That's like saying to a WoW player "and when you get to your mid 30's, you need to mine/herb for a couple levels". No.

Furthermore, heroic quests and group undertakings, once again, should not be needed to bridge "fluidity", as the game belongs to the individual, not to the community, who are not responsible for bridging your story gaps. This game was researched and designed to be a solo friendly story MMO:

-Shooters aren't story. If you rebut that, fair enough. Shooters aren't why one buys a traditional MMO.
-PVP isn't story or solo friendly (if you don't like PVP)
-Heroics and flashpoints are not solo friendly (on par, as options to bridge "quest level gaps").

Leveling is not fluid. I'm on Taris, (34) and two levels behind my lowest level available solo-intended quests. I've done every yellow solo-intended quest I've ever had, usually while they are yellow. I've done bonus series when the next planet is not yet yellow. That should work, it doesn't. Now I'm here. Bad design.

My kingdom for a LOTRO-style skirmish option! The companion setup just begs for it!

[Grable]

You must've skipped a ton of quests (sidequests). I did them all (not including all heroics+2/+4) and I was always 3 levels above content.

[Glorious Leader]

I cleaned out Balmorra on my SI. After that I was overlvld for Nar Shadda.
I've cleaned out Taris on my JK. After that I was over lvld for Nar Shadda.

Questing is fluid. I have yet to run out of quests to do. I find it amusing that others have given the amount of raw questing available in the game. It's funny because everybody says the game is on rails and then its not fluid enough. Interesting.

[Deleted]

On my Knight I hit level 50 on Belsavis, leaving Voss, Corellia and Ilum completely undone. Also, I didn't even do the Belsavis bonus series, since I can't get the quest to start it even though I know where it's supposed to begin (help? ). Throughout the leveling process I overleveled the content from the get go. Yes, I did do some flashpoints. That's what they're there for, right? I also did do enough warzones to get a full level 40 PvP gear on both my character and my companion, so that got me a good bunch of extra experience. I did do some of the space missions, but not all.

Sometimes the quests went grey, but that's what's supposed to happen, to slow down your experience progress enough for the content to catch up a bit.

Even without the warzones and space missions, going purely on PvE (flashpoints included), I would have overleveled the content all the way to 50. Yes, I did try and do the heroics, and yes I did fully explore all the maps and did all the quests I could find, but that's how the content is designed, right?

So, personally I would say the leveling experience was extremely fluid. I could solo most heroics (as a tank, with a healer companion, no problem) since I always had 3-5 levels on them, and kept myself and my companion in level-appropriate prototype/custom/artifact gear. Now as I'm on my commando, at 27, I only just started Nar Shaddaa, so again, plenty of levels above the content, and I'm loving it.

After all, as far as I can tell, green quests give you exactly as much experience as red/orange/yellow ones do, just like in WoW. Grey quests obviously give you 5 experience points, and with NPC kills it's a different matter altogether, but it's a good idea to have all your quests green. Easy leveling with full benefits.

Fluid, indeed.

Can't agree that questing is fluid as it should be. Perhaps if I killed everything that crossed my path while questing, but my two "mains" are stealthers, and, well, no.

"Doing a bit of everything", in my opinion, isn't an acceptable solution. The rail shooter, and ESPECIALLY PvP are acquired tastes, and acquiring these tastes should not be a requirement to advance one's story questline on par. That's like saying to a WoW player "and when you get to your mid 30's, you need to mine/herb for a couple levels". No.

Furthermore, heroic quests and group undertakings, once again, should not be needed to bridge "fluidity", as the game belongs to the individual, not to the community, who are not responsible for bridging your story gaps. This game was researched and designed to be a solo friendly story MMO:

-Shooters aren't story. If you rebut that, fair enough. Shooters aren't why one buys a traditional MMO.
-PVP isn't story or solo friendly (if you don't like PVP)
-Heroics and flashpoints are not solo friendly (on par, as options to bridge "quest level gaps").

Leveling is not fluid. I'm on Taris, (34) and two levels behind my lowest level available solo-intended quests. I've done every yellow solo-intended quest I've ever had, usually while they are yellow. I've done bonus series when the next planet is not yet yellow. That should work, it doesn't. Now I'm here. Bad design.

My kingdom for a LOTRO-style skirmish option! The companion setup just begs for it!

Well, the game wasn't designed for you to pick up a quest, stealth past every NPC you can, only do the quest objective, and turn it in. A vast majority, I would say 90% or more, of the quests have bonus objectives, which usually means killing 10-50 NPC's. They were meant to be done, why else would they be there? If you're skipping most if not all of those, then you're playing the game in a way that it wasn't supposed to be played, and if that means you end up behind the curb then that's no fault of the game.

[obdigore]

Can't agree that questing is fluid as it should be. Perhaps if I killed everything that crossed my path while questing, but my two "mains" are stealthers, and, well, no.

"Doing a bit of everything", in my opinion, isn't an acceptable solution. The rail shooter, and ESPECIALLY PvP are acquired tastes, and acquiring these tastes should not be a requirement to advance one's story questline on par. That's like saying to a WoW player "and when you get to your mid 30's, you need to mine/herb for a couple levels". No.

Furthermore, heroic quests and group undertakings, once again, should not be needed to bridge "fluidity", as the game belongs to the individual, not to the community, who are not responsible for bridging your story gaps. This game was researched and designed to be a solo friendly story MMO:

-Shooters aren't story. If you rebut that, fair enough. Shooters aren't why one buys a traditional MMO.
-PVP isn't story or solo friendly (if you don't like PVP)
-Heroics and flashpoints are not solo friendly (on par, as options to bridge "quest level gaps").

Leveling is not fluid. I'm on Taris, (34) and two levels behind my lowest level available solo-intended quests. I've done every yellow solo-intended quest I've ever had, usually while they are yellow. I've done bonus series when the next planet is not yet yellow. That should work, it doesn't. Now I'm here. Bad design.

My kingdom for a LOTRO-style skirmish option! The companion setup just begs for it!

You are skipping tons of quests, somehow. Did you manage to miss a whole planet? I didn't skip much on my first toon and hit 50 well before I was done with Corellia. I am skipping stuff on my second toon and I'm still 2-3 levels above where I should be. For instance my BH just hit Tatooine and she is 28.

[Crookers]

I'll compare it to teh 1-60 experience in Cata.

1. It's more linear, you don't have any choices you have to do the planets, can't skip any or your class quest will stall and you will miss out on companions etc.
2. It's slightly slower, there is a little more time investment required, but not much, a 2hr questing session has seen me gain 1 level per night this week from 42-47.
3. Like cata you will overlevel zones (planets) quite quickly if you do all the quests, have never done a bonus series and have skipped a lot of FPs because can't always find a group, same story with heroic quests but never have a problem with exp.
4. Sometimes, quest hubs are less well thought out than they could be and there is a degree of mindlessly running from A to B back to A then to C now back to A and finally end at B where A will be the place you land and B and C can be pretty spread out.

It is by no means a grind or anything like that though, it is very similar to cataclysm 1-60 levelling, apart from the fact it is possible to die from time to time.

On a fluid scale of 1-10 with 10 being water and 1 being ice, i'll give this a 9.

[Deleted]

I cleaned out Balmorra on my SI. After that I was overlvld for Nar Shadda.
I've cleaned out Taris on my JK. After that I was over lvld for Nar Shadda.

Questing is fluid. I have yet to run out of quests to do. I find it amusing that others have given the amount of raw questing available in the game. It's funny because everybody says the game is on rails and then its not fluid enough. Interesting.

They are opinions and their subjective experience. Nothing wrong with that and with one character at 50 and another 43, I too find that there is a discrepancy somewhere in the questing process. Like you, I easily overleveled Nar Shaddaa, same on Tatooine and so on. Somewhere between Taris, Alderaan, amd Hoth however I went from being 2-3 levels ahead to being at equal level to the content I was completing. Not sure exactly why but at some point, during leveling, there is a jump in content. Either too few quests or the content literally hops up a notch.

To the fluidity of questing, I think most planets are pretty fluid, hence people say it is on rails. My gripe is with the bonus series. Not only do they not really feel like a "bonus" series at all because without them you will definitely fall behind but also feels aggrevating when, after completing a long chain of quests, completing a story in a nice and satisfactory manner, and then you are called back to "finish the job."

In some cases the content is actually difficult to find because the quest giver that starts the bonus series is located in the most likely place. The alderaan bonus series is a good example because the quest giver is "hiding" in the fleet and the whole thing takes place ~10 levels after you've completed the first go to the planet. I think this is something they could definitely have done better than they did.

[Stevegasm]

On my first character (Jedi Shadow), I have always overleveled content by about 2 to 4. I know I pretty much skipped a planet almost entirely aside from class quests, and I'm still up on my current quests. The game has more quests then you need, and if you catch a heroic group, it sets you even further ahead, as they are daily.

[Purenight]

Usually there are bonus missions but I can't find the Hoth one, so I'm back tracking to Alderaan for that bonus series.

if you are republic.....the hoth bonus somthing like Blood and Ice...starts on Voss from the mission box when you first land

[Lagwin]

the reason you cant do the hoth bonus series is because it's level 45, i dont know how you can be having problems leveling though...i leveled to 50 through the game and done all the solo quests and didnt bother with any of the HC+2 or 4 and didn't do any FP's until level 40 and only done 4 of them and no pvp and i still had the last part of bellsavis to do voss ilum and corellia are un touched atm

[Deleted]

the reason you cant do the hoth bonus series is because it's level 45

I think the minimum required level to take the series is 44, and the quests and NPC's themselves are 47.