False Emperor

I ran my first, successful, hardmode flashpoint last night in SWTOR. It was a lot of fun. We tried the mission about a week ago and failed due to a bug making it impossible to beat. Since then, a couple people in the guild have made a few successful runs, and this was my first.

I have a few thoughts on the experience, both positive and negative:

It’s a DPS Race

I’m not a fan of the Enrage mechanic.  In the flashpoint you face HK-47 and if you don’t kill him within a certain amount of time, he starts one shotting people. I can see the point of it on one hand, without you could just go in with 4 healers, take an hour to wittle him down and never take much damage. But on the other, I didn’t like that we all needed to respec, not once, but twice, in order to be able to beat it.

Unlimited Power

Each boss had a unique quirk that made them interesting to face.  Dealing with Jindo’s ship (which was what bugged on us the first time), avoiding being thrown off the edge by the giant Trandoshan, HK’s stealth assassination, and Darth Malgus’ unlimited power attack, plus needing to throw him down a bottomless pit to kill him.  It didn’t feel repetitive.

Interesting Story….

…or it would have been if I knew what was going on. I’ve not done many flashpoints or done much of Ilum. So I really don’t know what the main storyline in the game is. During my class quest, I’ve heard that the Republic is trying to avoid war with the Empire, to being at war with the Empire, to winning the war against the Empire. I’m not really sure what’s up. This mission seemed like a nice ending, trying to stop some kind of super weapon and then facing the Emperor and throwing him into a chasm. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any of the set up. Not sure if its all told through flashpoints or what I need to do to get the complete picture.

Loot!

Loot was a mixed bag. On one hand, I got a piece of smuggler Columni gear. On the other hand, most everyone else didn’t get much. I’m not thrilled with the look of the gear, but they are working on fixing it so the mods can all be removed, hopefully taking the set bonus with it. But that was a few hours we all devoted to this mission, and not everyone benefited. Sure, that’s reason to run missions several times, but I hate doing that. A few times is fun, but repeatedly is boring. I’d rather play another class.

Overall a fun night.