Go Force Lightning, you're burning up the quarter mile! Force Lightning! Goooooo Force Lightning!

Ladies, Gentlemen, Hutts of all ages. Welcome to the Q&A, where I took your questions and answered them to the best of my ability with very little chance of spoilers. With The Old Republic getting its Beta Test on with a high amount of beta keys for all, I thought I would respond to some questions that some of you might have about the new Star Wars MMO, and encourage you to question me more about the game. Maybe I’ll make ANOTHER one! But without further ado, on with the questions!

Is it the best game ever? Note: If you answer anything but yes I will call you a WoW fanboy and ignore anything you say.

It isn’t the best game ever, as I reserve that title for Hello Kitty Adventures Online. The Old Republic is pretty damn close though.

Are we going to torture and destroy all of the Spoony Ones forces (including himself) or are we just gonna beat them into submission?

Even though all know that a warrior of the Empire can take at least two Republics barehanded and blindfolded with a thermal detonator strapped to their chest, the rate of enlistment in the Spoony Expendables is staggering. We must recruit more to the cause, or we will have a zerg army on our hands, and being on a server where the enemy Horde outnumbered the Alliance 2:1, that is something no one should experience.

The Imperial/Republic Fleet will be your HUB city for flashpoints and much more.

What would be your primary reasons to play this game over any other MMO?

The primary reason would be the story. As much of an obvious answer that this is, the individual stories as a whole for the Sith Warrior, the Imperial Agent, and the Sith Inquisitor were very diverse from each other and focus on core beliefs or roles of that class. For example, if you want to be a Sith who feeds upon his or her own rage through the force and crush all those beneath your lightsaber, you would want to try out the Warrior, while those who want to unlock the deepest darkest secrets of the force to rule over all should try out the Inquisitor.

However, there are some binding ties to some of the stories between classes. Take Sith for example: While secretive slaying of rivals is one of the more popular methods of role advancement from within the ranks of the Sith, so is betrayal. There are multiple instances of betrayal done by temporary characters during planet specific missions as well as the possibility of an influential character in your story becoming Judas during your rise to the top.

Another reason would be how much content is actually in already. I will not lie to you; to get a character to maximum level will probably take you the better part of about two to three weeks of solid playtime. While having alts of the same faction will only change the personal storyline and companion quests, alts of a different faction will drastically change the types of quests you will receive, even on neutral occupied planets like Nar Shaddaa and Voxx.

Never send a Padawan to do a Master's job.

Without spoilers of the story, does the focus on a heroic style of play apply to the Sith plots as strongly as the Republic?

No. Like I stated beforehand, the Sith storyline stays true to its goals in the aspects of rising to power and to crush the enemies of the Empire. If there’s any consolation, you can play like an honourable Sith, but you would have to pay close attention to the dialogue options, and at most times these choices revolve around Light Side options.

For someone who has largely had no real interest in playing MMO games so far, is this a game they should or shouldn’t think about (either as a Star Wars fan or not)? For Star Wars fans, is this something that they should/would/could enjoy? Would it be something that makes you want to fall in love with the series once/even more?

While there are thousands of free to play and Korean MMO’s are structured like The Old Republic in terms of progression and gameplay, I would honestly question if you have played Knights of the Old Republic  or KOTOR II. There are a lot of playbacks in The Old Republic to events that happened in these games, so my suggestion is that you get on Steam and go get KOTOR for less than lunch at Subway. If you enjoyed it at all, then The Old Republic will be an interesting game to experience, as you will see what has happened since the rise of Revan the Conqueror, and how unstable the peace is with the Republic and the Empire up until the breaking point that your character will be a part of.

As this is the case, The Old Republic happens a lot earlier in the timeline. While the Star Wars feature films had an amalgamation of diverse characters that drove the movies forward, The Old Republic has that but the character progression is separate per base class. If you really wanted to experience them all to get a great experience from the game, be ready to devote a lot of your time.

I'm betting Angry Joe will use this ability 24/7.

Do you find any of the companions interesting? How many companions does each class have and do they share any? Do they have any impact on the overall story?

Each player character will have a total of six companions, five being unique battle companions and one to be the droid that maintains your starship and can be used for crew skills. I can only attest to my experiences with the Sith Warrior as I have completed that character’s story in saying that the company you keep plays a role in your progression and sometimes you may never see it coming.

As for my favorite so far, I have to give major props to everyone’s favorite Dashade, Khem Val. He eats force users for breakfast (Seriously. With waffles and a dab of Aunt Jemimah.) and he is very involved in the Sith Inquisitor’s storyline for the entire stretch of the story.

Do the base and advanced class compete well for potency for PvE and PvP play?

To be honest, the last time I played with friends to test differences between DPS, there were some MAJOR discrepancies between the amounts of damage output per class. As there aren’t any testing dummies or any sort of Recount mod to track dps/healing output, a friend (Sith Marauder) and I (Sith Sorceror) decided to check how quickly and efficient we could destroy a certain elite target by ourselves with no companion. Fighting elites on your own is incredibly hard, and it took me a lot of lightning, healing, and a medkit to prevail over my foe. However, my marauder friend took down the elite in barely little time, and had to use a medkit because a wandering mob group came in at the home stretch, which I pulled off of him.

While I know that is only one example of two advanced classes, it seems to be the consensus of the beta testers that I talked to in both general chat and in groups for flashpoints that there is still a lot of balancing issues needing to be resolved before the game goes live with the MMO role trinity (DPS, Tank, Healer). Even though each class has its own resource bar and method to play, there are some definite problems that need to be ironed out.

Seriously Malgus, when does anyone NOT have what we want?

In your short time with the game, how significant were the decisions you made in your story and how much of an impact you felt they will make down the line?

[***SITH WARRIOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW***]

There are some significant choices one can make in one’s lifetime, and that is true also for your character in ToR. While some cases will impact the story severely among people you will never see, there are some choices you make that can influence the company you keep. For example, during the first act of the Sith Warrior campaign which has you as the hunting hound to a powerful Darth, you are tasked to execute a target that would severely cripple the Jedi that hound the Dark Lord’s plans. However, when the player is about to administer the killing blow, you also have the option to persuade the target to join your cause, eternally angering your master.

And that will do it for the ToR Q&A #1. If you would like any more questions answered for another session, leave it in the comments below, or you can ask me on Twitter!

SWTOR: Darth Joe vs. SpoonyWan - Who will you Join?

By AngryJoe

Angry Joe Plays SWTOR - Beta Gameplay & Impressions

By AngryJoe

Angry Joe shares his SWTOR Beta Gameplay impressions as he creates his Sith Lord, engages in combat as a warrior and partakes in joyful prisoner torture!