Rise of the Hutt Cartel: Day 1 Impressions

- Makeb is beautiful. In the Republic intro to the planet the Supreme Chancellor refers to it as a paradise, and she's not wrong. I'll be happy to deal with this place as my "official endgame zone" for the next year (or for however long until they raise the level cap again I guess). All too often in MMOs, endgame zones are dreary and depressing (usually because that's where the "bad guys" have had the most influence) and it sucks. I'll be happy to do my fighting on lush meadows and under wide open skies, thanks!

- It's a bit scary just how fast people are levelling. It's not that I expected it to take long, but still... seeing the first of my guildies hit the new level cap yesterday afternoon was a bit weird. By the time I logged off last night, three more had followed him. Looking at my Twitter feed, things were even worse, with one person even talking about how he had three 55s already. My own main is still 54 at the time of writing this, as I had to work during the day and didn't make it on until the late afternoon. I bravely soldiered on until past midnight (or rather, Pet Tank soldiered on while I deliriously stumbled after him to soak up the XP while occasionally hammershotting things) but eventually I had to succumb to tiredness.

- PvP is a bit borked, though not as badly as it could be I guess. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but I actually enjoyed not being perma-slowed all the time due to the addition of Hold the Line for Commandos. My new electro net of supposed overpoweredness doesn't actually seem to do much though. The biggest issue however is the fact that the new bolster system is currently working too well - an issue that was well documented on the PTS for a long time but typically made it to live anyway - meaning that characters are at their strongest if they wear no armour at all. You haven't known humiliation until you've been ganked by a bunch of Imps in their undies... we'll see whether today's mini patch does anything to fix that.