SWTOR & WoW

[Treeba]

Personally I am stuck. I do like some of the things in WoW like pets and holiday events as well as some archaeology but not a huge fan of the story. Whereas I like the story and immersiveness of the SWTOR story content but nothing else but I don't have the time to play both.

I play both for the exact reasons you mention here and don't think it takes a ton of time. They have different content cycles and SWTOR especially doesn't require lots of dedication to stay current. I pay for WoW sub in gold and use the money I was spending on WoW to keep my sub in SWTOR active. I do everything I care to do in SWTOR and then mostly play WoW. I still stop into SWTOR once or twice a week to check the GTN and do some of the quick heroics. When 4.1 comes out I'll cut back on WoW for a week or two and do everything new in SWTOR. It works well for me and I almost always have something I actually enjoy doing in one of the two games.

[Mirishka]

Thanks to those of you who replied to my question. I had actually forgotten about this topic.

[BetoDS]

its a pretty good game. Played it from time to time. Even played through the latest content. Outside the story there isn't a whole lot to keep you in engaged like WoW has. When you are done with leveling in WoW and waiting on your next raid or whatever, you have pets, garrison, PvP, fishing, holiday events, rep grinding, achievements, etc.

Personally I am stuck. I do like some of the things in WoW like pets and holiday events as well as some archaeology but not a huge fan of the story. Whereas I like the story and immersiveness of the SWTOR story content but nothing else but I don't have the time to play both.

Im not going to say that one game is better than the other but... really? SWTOR offers the same or more stuff to do than WoW (outside raiding). What SWTOR is lacking is raid content, they don't even deliver half the raid content WoW delivers.

To be a little more specific:

1) You DO have reputations to lvl
2) You DO have achievments
3) You DO have pets (unless you are talking about pokemon battle, then no, swtor doesnt have pokemon battle)
4) You DO have PvP
5) You DO have holiday events (and SWTOR also haves recurrent events)
6) You DO have your "base" (You have 5 different houses that you can buy)

And some other things that i dont find in WoW:

7) Space Battles (PvP)
8) On-rail space battles (PvE)
9) Planet Conquest (Guild Stuff)
10) You can actually level an alt and have a different experience (The 8 different stories + light/dark choices)
11) Datacron hunt (now account-wide)

Im probably forgetting a lot of stuffs.. point is, both games have a lot to offer. WoW is a lot stronger when it comes to raid and SWTOR is a lot stronger on story telling/SP game

What i usually do is... play for 3-4 months to one game, burn content, switch to the other one. Both game deliver a good experience until you are "burnt" of the current content (or game itself)

[moff]

SWTOR was always been very close to WOW, it really is a clone in many ways.
however, I always liked SWTORs gameplay better. the melees are more direct, I never got used to playing melees in wow, but I like them in SWTOR.
generally, I think the classes just feel much better. you really feel like a bounter hunter shooting those rockets, you feel like a jedi charging from 30 feet away, you feel like the empreror blasting that lightning.
however, the actual mechanics, the procs, the rotations, how abilities work together, that is much better and refined in wow, no question.

wow also has better and more endgame content, that one is obvious. although I have played more SWTOR than WOW in the last four years, I'd say WOW is the better MMO.

[Treeba]

SWTOR was always been very close to WOW, it really is a clone in many ways.
however, I always liked SWTORs gameplay better. the melees are more direct, I never got used to playing melees in wow, but I like them in SWTOR.
generally, I think the classes just feel much better. you really feel like a bounter hunter shooting those rockets, you feel like a jedi charging from 30 feet away, you feel like the empreror blasting that lightning.
however, the actual mechanics, the procs, the rotations, how abilities work together, that is much better and refined in wow, no question.

wow also has better and more endgame content, that one is obvious. although I have played more SWTOR than WOW in the last four years, I'd say WOW is the better MMO.

It's funny to me because those combat animations are pretty much what sold me the game. I always loved Star Wars, but I was highly skeptical of another MMO. Many of my WoW guildies had decided to try it, but I resisted. BW did an huge beta test the weekend of Thanksgiving and I happened to get a key from MMO-Champion. As soon as I used Force Leap for the first time I was just like, "Whelp... guess I'm buying this."

They are updating all the melee combat animations in WoW for Legion and I'm pretty excited to see how that turns out.

[Valeron]

Combat animations in SWTOR are top notch. Very distinctive for each class but not over the top like a lot of the Korean mmos are.

[notanmmmonewbie]

1) You DO have reputations to lvl
5) You DO have holiday events (and SWTOR also haves recurrent events)

And some other things that i dont find in WoW:

7) Space Battles (PvP)
8) On-rail space battles (PvE)
10) You can actually level an alt and have a different experience (The 8 different stories + light/dark choices)

For reputations though whats the main point of doing them in SWTOR? what do you gain from leveling up KDY rep for example? i'm actually curious but from everyone i hear the rewards are crap. I've never actually bothered to look for any rep vendors so i dont know. For the holiday events how good are they compared to WoW's? WoW has been out longer so they've had a few more years over SWTOR to refine their holiday events. But has SWTOR been out long enough to polish up their holiday events? and *have* they been polishing them up?

For the other stuff like space battles...WoW doesnt have a dedicated arena where you fly around in ships or whatever. But they do have vehicle mechanics...and they can be ran fairly regularly if they decide to put them in dungeons or raids. Its something that takes you out of your avatar and temporarily replaces it with another avatar and gives you a completely different set of abilities to use. SWTOR replaces your sabers and blaster rifles with torpedoes, missiles and ship blasters. Instead of humanoid bodies you have starships too. But in WoW you get your weapon and spell abilities replaced with such things as dragon breath abilities, oil slick, catapult, whatever else you guys all know what they are. They arent the same mechanics but its a similar concept in that they take you out of your human form and replace it with something else...a ship, a dragon, a motorcycle, a tank, a toaster, or even another humanoid to relive their experiences (ie Vashjr Naga chain, Badlands Deathwing chain).

Ohh and as far as the alt-ing and getting a different experience? yah SWTOR has 8 different class stories. But they have the same planetary storyline and the same exact leveling path (same planets). WoW on the other hand allows you to level up in your own starting area or any of your other allies starting areas. They have multiple zones for some leveling brackets. Just for alliance they have four 1-10 zones...five if you count Worgen although their areas are only for themselves. They have four 10-20 zones (counting Westfall and Redridge as one since it goes 10-15 then 15-20). Four 20-25 zones, three 25-30, four 30-35 and so on. Even with TBC, WOTLK, Cata they dont go 100% linear with the zones. The zones will be linear in the expac areas but they will fork off into two branches. TBC has NS and SMV branching/parallel to each other. WOTLK has Fjord and Borean and then again another set of parallel zones with Icecrown and Storm Peaks. Cata has Hyjal and Vashjr, MoP has Valley and K-rang and WoD can go f-itself. But anyways WoWs story was pretty light but you could always go to a different zone if you were leveling a new alt. You can be killing 10 boars in Elwynn or 10 tainted nightstalkers in Teldrassil or 10 bears in Dun Murough. There were few unique quests in parallel zones, but with Cata they changed that around a bit. But the nice thing was the change of scenery or landscape. But with SWTOR its the same planet after planet after planet. Planetary story is the same for all toons of course. But you could just skip that and do the class storylines. But i dont really like that even if its 8 different stories. The dialogue is different, but the location is the same and if skipping the planetary stories then the tasks can seem pretty sparse. You go to a hub and since you are skipping a bunch of planetary story all you might end up doing for your class story is scanning 3 widgets having a convo and then moving on to the next hub.

- - - Updated - - -

Ohh and as far as SWTOR animation go? i just thought it was different...not really better than what WoW had. Another reason i wasnt very impressed with it was my first toon ever was a Sith Marauder. And a lot of their abilities had the exact same animation sequence as a DW Champion from LOTRO. I dont just mean they look kinda the same, i mean they are exactly the same. They both probably bought the same animation script from the same company. Then there was the issue with Mercs and Gunslingers running with their pistols out, having something targeted and then their legs glitching out and moving up and down at the exact same time. I think that bug is still in game too. Early on in the game too certain animations when viewed from a distance was VERY choppy like the thrantas in Alderaan or even the Sith guards that pace back and forth. With those though i think they've made some improvements. But the biggest one for me was when i found a body of water on SWTOR that went over my characters head. Like did you guys ever notice how every lake, puddle or even the beach on Ord Mantell only had knee-waist high water? i found out when i found water i think it was on Alderaan or Balmorra and i was expecting to run through it but i got submerged and the water went about a foot or two above my head. But my character just kept on running underwater.

[Dhrizzle]

SWTOR was always been very close to WOW, it really is a clone in many ways.
however, I always liked SWTORs gameplay better. the melees are more direct, I never got used to playing melees in wow, but I like them in SWTOR.
generally, I think the classes just feel much better. you really feel like a bounter hunter shooting those rockets, you feel like a jedi charging from 30 feet away, you feel like the empreror blasting that lightning.
however, the actual mechanics, the procs, the rotations, how abilities work together, that is much better and refined in wow, no question.

wow also has better and more endgame content, that one is obvious. although I have played more SWTOR than WOW in the last four years, I'd say WOW is the better MMO.

I find TOR suffers a lot from ability bloat. There's just so many buttons and procs and cooldowns that I've given up trying to remember their exact priority and pretty much just play whack-a-mole as they light up. I don't know how much of a difference it makes for group content but it isn't a major deal for solo play. There's an impressive number of combat animations in TOR and just mashing buttons makes your character look really dynamic.

[Treeba]

I find TOR suffers a lot from ability bloat. There's just so many buttons and procs and cooldowns that I've given up trying to remember their exact priority and pretty much just play whack-a-mole as they light up. I don't know how much of a difference it makes for group content but it isn't a major deal for solo play. There's an impressive number of combat animations in TOR and just mashing buttons makes your character look really dynamic.

I guess I don't really understand this feedback. What class/spec do you play and what abilities do you have that you feel would qualify as "bloat?" As for the procs and cooldowns... most of that could be solved by spending 3 minutes reading the abilities and passives in your chosen talent tree.

I find that a lot of players in MMOs today are too lazy too figure out how their class works and tend to just label things as bloat when they start getting past 10 keybinds. I also find a lot of these players tend to focus almost exclusively on one type of content. It seems like some people just don't use an ability in the way they play and assume the ability has no use. Instead of trying to understand how the ability works or how it can be used they would rather just see it cut.

I'm not saying there aren't any abilities that could be pruned, but I also don't think it's real issue worthy of developer time right now. They have way more pressing issues.

[karumayu]

For reputations though whats the main point of doing them in SWTOR?...

I think you have misunderstood the poster you replied to as a comparison to WoW (which is better), but I think the poster merely attempted to list the activities you can do in SWTOR outside of raiding.

What is the point of doing any reputation grind in any game? In SWTOR it awards you with 2 or 3 legacy titles, a set of orange gear set, one or two mounts and a couple of pets and some possibly additional stuff. If you are interested in gathering them, go ahead and engage in that grind.

Space Battle and Space fighter (pvp) are mini games, where the latter have an entire gearing and collecting dedicated to it. Again, these are something that a player can do outside of engaging in endgame, like PvP. There was never really a comparison to wow as to which one is better. You are well aware of players in wow who dedicate their entire playtime to collecting and doing pet battles, this is a similar thing in SWTOR.

WoW has 11 classes, if you are to get all of them to max level, there is going to be a lot of repetition no matter the amount of zone diversity it has. The same applies to SWTOR, the difference lies in the player - npc Interaction that can take place. You can actually roleplay your class and engage in responding to the NPC in widely different manner on each play through. This is what makes SWTOR more alt friendly in terms of story compared to other games. I do not quite understand what you mean by the same on each planet and can only assume that you mean the environmental diversity of the zones. You have your desset, ice, swamp, jungle, city etc planets, where each planet does feel unique. There are criticisms one can put forth against SWTOR, as the narrow corridor problem, where most zones does not feel like a open world or the lack of day/night cycle, but diversity is not one, in my opinion.

As for the shallow waters, none of the player characters of SWTOR have learned to swim.

[notanmmmonewbie]

I think you have misunderstood the poster you replied to as a comparison to WoW (which is better), but I think the poster merely attempted to list the activities you can do in SWTOR outside of raiding.

Yah I was asking a question since i dont exactly know what the point of rep grinding in SWTOR is for my own information. I know what you get from WoW rep grinding which is gear and all the other stuff. But when i get maxed out with KDY rep faction what do i get? and are the rewards for SWTOR rep grinding worth it compared to WoW rep grinding. So far everything i've read from other players tells me swtor rep rewards arent that good.

- - - Updated - - -

As for the shallow waters, none of the player characters of SWTOR have learned to swim.

Thats the "RP" answer...

I prefer to go with the "real" answer which is the game engine is so shitty or the devs didnt bother trying to model underwater effects such as swimming. I mean...whats the reason that our toons get caught on railings or uneven rocks? that their shoe laces got tangled? their jetpack got stuck in the hover position? whats the reason mercs and gunslingers have the graphical glitch that shows both of their legs moving up and down at the exact same time? invisible horses? sorry but i dont try to use roleplay reasons to explain why the game engine isnt able to do certain things or to explain dev design decisions.

And as far as all the other stuff you mentioned like how you dont understand what i meant by the same on each planet? i was talking about PLANETARY STORYLINE and landscape. You go to Coruscant>Taris>Nar Shadaa and it will be the exact same planetary quests no matter how many advanced classes you decide to run through there. You *could* decide to skip those but the scenery is still the same. You will still follow the same linear path from planet to planet, and when on each planet you will also go roughly the same path from hub to hub. In WoW you could roll a human and level in Northshire>Elwynn>Westfall>Redridge. OR you can roll another human and go to Dun Morough>Loch Modan. OR you can roll a human and go to Teldrassil>Westfall>back half of Loch Modan. Thats just at low levels too, i mentioned a bunch of parallel leveling paths you can take at higher levels too. The story changes slightly when you go from zone to zone (as much as the WoW story can allow anyways) but also the scenery and landscape changes. Thats one thing that i dislike about SWTOR and Wildstar (after level 20) is that these new games are coming out but they have linear leveling paths. WoW and Guild Wars 2 though allowed you to take multiple branching leveling paths.

[Katchii]

Yah I was asking a question since i dont exactly know what the point of rep grinding in SWTOR is for my own information. I know what you get from WoW rep grinding which is gear and all the other stuff. But when i get maxed out with KDY rep faction what do i get? and are the rewards for SWTOR rep grinding worth it compared to WoW rep grinding. So far everything i've read from other players tells me swtor rep rewards arent that good.

The main rewards are things like companion pets, moddable gear sets and some housing decorations. I don't know if there even are any character power related things. So... yeah, if you don't really care about any of that stuff it's kinda worthless.

Also, I first read your name as No Tan MMO Newbie...like a no lifer who never left the house because he just discovered MMOs and therefore has no tan. LOL.

[notanmmmonewbie]

The main rewards are things like companion pets, moddable gear sets and some housing decorations. I don't know if there even are any character power related things. So... yeah, if you don't really care about any of that stuff it's kinda worthless.

Also, I first read your name as No Tan MMO Newbie...like a no lifer who never left the house because he just discovered MMOs and therefore has no tan. LOL.

Yah thats what i figured with the rewards. I would only be interested in gear rewards but its easy to stay geared up through mod comms since thats all i need for the content i do.

And i seriously LOL'd at the no tan mmo newbie comment :P

[karumayu]

Thats the "RP" answer...

I prefer to go with the "real" answer which is the game engine is so shitty or the devs didnt bother trying to model underwater effects such as swimming. I mean...whats the reason that our toons get caught on railings or uneven rocks? that their shoe laces got tangled? their jetpack got stuck in the hover position? whats the reason mercs and gunslingers have the graphical glitch that shows both of their legs moving up and down at the exact same time? invisible horses? sorry but i dont try to use roleplay reasons to explain why the game engine isnt able to do certain things or to explain dev design decisions.

And as far as all the other stuff you mentioned like how you dont understand what i meant by the same on each planet? i was talking about PLANETARY STORYLINE and landscape. You go to Coruscant>Taris>Nar Shadaa and it will be the exact same planetary quests no matter how many advanced classes you decide to run through there. You *could* decide to skip those but the scenery is still the same. You will still follow the same linear path from planet to planet, and when on each planet you will also go roughly the same path from hub to hub. In WoW you could roll a human and level in Northshire>Elwynn>Westfall>Redridge. OR you can roll another human and go to Dun Morough>Loch Modan. OR you can roll a human and go to Teldrassil>Westfall>back half of Loch Modan. Thats just at low levels too, i mentioned a bunch of parallel leveling paths you can take at higher levels too. The story changes slightly when you go from zone to zone (as much as the WoW story can allow anyways) but also the scenery and landscape changes. Thats one thing that i dislike about SWTOR and Wildstar (after level 20) is that these new games are coming out but they have linear leveling paths. WoW and Guild Wars 2 though allowed you to take multiple branching leveling paths.

That was just my failed attempt at adding some humor to my post, which I can see I failed at miserably. The reason is probably the dev did not want to deal with another dimension or the engine cannot handle the z axis pretty well. Stuck characters or the movement are just bugs, similar to when my paladin is stuck in casting animation and runs around with it in WoW. They do happen in games and its not specific to SWTOR or its engine.

Now I see what you meant by the planets and I can see your point. But again, the repetition of the game is handled differently in those games. If you are out to get all the classes to max level, then you are bound to run into repetition regardless of the leveling path you will take. Each zone in wow consists of a single story line, and there are no possibility to role play for a different outcome and the interaction between npc is still read quest text and accept quest. In SWTOR you go through the exact same order as any other alt oif yours, but the difference being the conversation you have with NPC, the outcome of quests and flavor dialogues aimed to reinforce your roleplaying options and the class quests giving you entirely new story line to follow. Both games handle this differently, and I'm not saying that what you believe is a huge problem in leveling is not valid. I would also appreciate if we are able to do the planets in different order, or if there were multiple planets to choose for each level brackets, but it is a hard one to do so, when the class story requires the players to go through each planet in the order it dictates. (Although with the new level synch, it is possible to "choose" which planets you go to in the first chapters, but you will be going through them both.)

[Dhrizzle]

I guess I don't really understand this feedback. What class/spec do you play and what abilities do you have that you feel would qualify as "bloat?" As for the procs and cooldowns... most of that could be solved by spending 3 minutes reading the abilities and passives in your chosen talent tree.

I find that a lot of players in MMOs today are too lazy too figure out how their class works and tend to just label things as bloat when they start getting past 10 keybinds. I also find a lot of these players tend to focus almost exclusively on one type of content. It seems like some people just don't use an ability in the way they play and assume the ability has no use. Instead of trying to understand how the ability works or how it can be used they would rather just see it cut.

I'm not saying there aren't any abilities that could be pruned, but I also don't think it's real issue worthy of developer time right now. They have way more pressing issues.

Sith Darkness Assassin.

On my mice buttons I have Interrupt, Death Grip, Stun, Charge, 2 offensive cooldowns, 2 defensive cooldowns.

Then for combat I have 3 buttons on cooldown, 2 buttons on cooldowns but I only use them when something procs, a button I only use when it procs or if I'm behind the target, a filler and another filler for when I run out of energy.

AoE is just one of the buttons above and an AoE filler.

There's a short-cooldown defensive ability.

That's 18 buttons that I use regularly in combat, 8 of them are for damage and I'll be damned if I can be bothered remembering their exact priority.

For tanking I would also like to access Taunt, Mass Taunt and Big-Threat AoE (if I ever got around to actually tanking.)

"Roguey" things like Stealth, Vanish, a short speed-burst and Sap.

Presumably PvP-centric abilities like Snare, Short Term CC, CC-be-gone, Better Stealth and Mark This Place Then Teleport Back Later.

[Deleted]

Not going to lie, gameplay-wise WoW knocks SWTOR out of the park.
(...)
On the other hand, the storytelling in SWTOR blows WoW out of the park.

I have to agree with that. WoW's mechanics work a lot smoother, but SWTOR's immersion and storylines are superior. Simply seeing and hearing your character speak and make different choices that affect the outcome is a huge improvement over just watching the back of your toon all the time.

Also currently SW's endgame is a lot less boring than WoW's handful of "relevant" dungeons with completely worthless loot and rewards and the single raid that people are forced to grind for months and months without any real variation. The only problems arise when the tougher hard mode flashpoints clash with the average player's IQ and playing skills.

Operations are shorter and simpler, but I welcome content that can, for a change, be cleared in 1-2 hours instead of spending 3 hours a night on 4 days a week just to clear one raid.

There are glitches in the game, of course. But it has vastly improved since its start, whereas WoW keeps shooting itself in the leg.

[Whoops]

As an avid WoW fan - take that as you will - I must saying, coming back to SWTOR after only playing the release month back in 2011-12 has been quite a blast.

Not going to lie, gameplay-wise WoW knocks SWTOR out of the park. There is just 'something' to the feel of my WoW char(s) that feels a LOT smoother and responsive than my SWTOR chars. Additionally, a lot of the game 'systems' and 'mechanics' feel to me be a lot more 'polished' in WoW than in SWTOR. Then again, I guess that's not that surprising for a 11yr old game v/s a 5yr old one. Still irks tho.

On the other hand, the storytelling in SWTOR blows WoW out of the park. The VO, cutscenes, solo FP (dungeons/scenarios) and even solo OPs boss fights (end of the Shadow of Revan, Yavin-4, storyline), companions, recurring cast, etc. all come together to tell a story that's almost as good as single-player RPGs.

I wonder how awesome it would be to have WoW level gameplay (systems+mechanics) with SWTOR level storytelling? I wonder if SWTOR will catch-up to WoW-level gameplay or always lag behind? I see Blizz continuously upping their storytelling antics (every expac / patch), and Afrasiabi did hint that there's supposed to be a ton more VO work in #Legion, but will Blizz ever focus as much on storytelling as the SWTOR crew do? Here's to hoping!

#PvEThread

I absolutely agree with you regarding all of this.
WoW blows everything out of the water mechanics-wise, but I'd love to see SWTOR-style storytelling, with companions (romance?!) and meaningful choices etc.

As it stands though, we're going to have to just deal with the sluggish combat in SWTOR to enjoy the great story, and in WoW we'll enjoy superior handling at the cost of worse storytelling.

I came back to SWTOR right after watching the new movie, and I've been having an absolute blast, now I'm excitedly awaiting the new chapter!

[Treeba]

Sith Darkness Assassin.

On my mice buttons I have Interrupt, Death Grip, Stun, Charge, 2 offensive cooldowns, 2 defensive cooldowns.

Then for combat I have 3 buttons on cooldown, 2 buttons on cooldowns but I only use them when something procs, a button I only use when it procs or if I'm behind the target, a filler and another filler for when I run out of energy.

AoE is just one of the buttons above and an AoE filler.

There's a short-cooldown defensive ability.

That's 18 buttons that I use regularly in combat, 8 of them are for damage and I'll be damned if I can be bothered remembering their exact priority.

For tanking I would also like to access Taunt, Mass Taunt and Big-Threat AoE (if I ever got around to actually tanking.)

"Roguey" things like Stealth, Vanish, a short speed-burst and Sap.

Presumably PvP-centric abilities like Snare, Short Term CC, CC-be-gone, Better Stealth and Mark This Place Then Teleport Back Later.

I play a shadow and not assassin so I apologize in advance if I screw up some names.

You don't really say what you felt was bloat, but I think the safe place to start would simply be the rotational abilities. You obviously aren't that concerned with high performance (not a bad thing), so I'll spare you a big long lecture on it. The big thing you really care about as darkness is keeping dark ward up and using shock and wither on cooldown. Those will stack a buff (don't bother tracking) that will "proc" your depredating volts ability which gives you a defensive buff. EVERYTHING else is just filler that is designed to proc a reset on Shock. If you can remember to push these four buttons roughly on cooldown you're already doing better than most of the tanks I get from group finder.

I will say that I never understood why they added the maul proc to darkness. Thrash worked just fine as a filler and I never saw a reason why I needed a maul proc as well.

[Avyvxii]

To be honest there are alot of similarities between the two games but SWTOR is sorta better than WoW the questing is as much more enjoyable in SWTOR than WoW only good thing WoW has is the raiding and some great lore but SWTOR does alot of things better than it.

[Rocosso]

I play WoW to have massive events and raids, to have my best and servants working in my lil' castle (forgot the word, lol) and to enjoy the lore.
I Play SWTOR to enjoy the lore and the questing process.
I can't imagine myself having fun while leveling new character in WoW. Yes, there are plenty of events in new-added locations, but there is no choice either to act good, bad or inbetween. SWTOR is much better as a half-singleplayer game.