12/06/2017

More Pugging with Shintar

It's been over a month since I wrote about my idea to start a video series to detail my new Commando's levelling progress through random flashpoints, and I wanted to give a bit of an update on the series for everyone who doesn't keep a close eye on my YouTube channel.

I was pleasantly surprised that my pet tank didn't mind giving me the quiet time required to do the recording on a regular basis, so that I've been able to release a new episode every week so far - there just won't be one next week as I'll be on holiday.

I finally learned that the best place to sync video and voice recording is the moment when I say hello in chat at the start of each run, as the sound of me hitting the enter key and the line of text appearing in chat make for about as reliable a match-up point as I'm going to get.


Pugette is up to level 32 and the series is up to episode 6! Here are links to and summaries of all the videos I recorded last month:

Episode 2: Buggy Adds in Hammer Station - I was a bit worried about what sort of experience I would have being thrown into the big pool of "proper" tactical flashpoints at level 17, but as it happened I got Hammer Station, which is both level appropriate and quite a softball. (Incidentally, that's the exact same thing that happened to my Mercenary back in 2015.) Unsurprisingly, it ended up being a pretty smooth run. Also, I actually ran into the person who tanked that run on Twitter the next day. Small world.

Episode 3: Weekday Wipes in Maelstrom Prison - This was my first run with a group that had not just one but multiple wipes, but I didn't feel too bad about it as both Colonel Daksh and Grand Moff Kilran are pretty tough. Either way we picked ourselves back up again every time and eventually powered through. Also, I learned that they finally added kolto stations for the bonus boss in Maelstrom Prison. Holy crap!

Episode 4: Ranting about Trash Skipping in Battle of Ilum - When I levelled my Merc through random flashpoints, one of my posts about it was called "Battle of Ilum Makes Me Mad" because I hate people's obsession with skipping both trash and bosses in that one, and unsurprisingly that was the case in Pugette's first run of the place as well. I actually fell a bit behind at the start and struggled to catch up with the rest of my group weaving through as many packs as possible, which immediately reminded me of why I hate that practice so much. We even ended up skipping bosses I had never skipped before. And the final encounter was interesting, though for a different reason.

Episode 5: Hammer Station Again - RNG reared its ugly head by already giving me a re-run in episode five even though I'd only seen three of the 19 flashpoints available through the group finder so far. At least I can note that being ten levels higher already made a huge difference to how challenging I found it to heal this instance. Also, at this point it has become a bit of a running gag that the group finder always tries to put me into groups with stupid group compositions at first (such as two tanks and two healers), which I repeatedly decline.

Episode 6: Slightly Rude in Depths of Manaan - I noted at the start of this one that it could end up being a toughie, but I happened to get a competent group that tackled every fight with aplomb. However, I also ended up with my first truly impatient group mate - in previous runs I had been asked to "skip please" too, but here someone immediately exploded into "FFS" while I was watching the first cut scene, with me unthinkingly adding profanity to the video by reading her comment out loud. Oops.

6 comments :

  1. Episode 6: ich war überrascht wie reibungslos dein FP über die Bühne ging. Ich selbst kann meine erfolgreichen Läufe mit einer Randomgruppe an einer Hand abzählen. Das hat zwei Gründe. Zuerst gab es bei Ortuno ständig Wipes und die Gruppen lösten sich schnell auf, und ab dann ging ich dazu über, nicht einmal in den FP reinzuladen, wenn kein Heiler dabei war.
    Ein gebranntes Kind scheut Feuer. :/
    Der erste erfolgreiche Random-Lauf war dann auch auf TRE, wohin ich erst vor zwei Monaten transferierte.
    Das Gute am Galactic Command ist, dass ich durch PvP/GSF und FPs an sehr gutes Gear komme. Damit steigt das nötige Selbstvertrauen. Ich liste mittlerweile gezielt für Manaan für den Koltofässer-Erfolg, und habe innerhalb von wenigen Wochen meine Ängste abbauen können. Ich liste nun regelmäßig Master-Mode und habe schon erfolgreich nicht nur Manaan, sondern auch Blutjagd geheilt. Soweit zu meinem kleinen Progress, während andere Nightmare-Raids gehen :)

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    1. Respekt! MM Blutjagd ist kein Zuckerschlecken... VM allerdings auch nicht!

      Das Problem mit Ortuno kann ich schon nachvollziehen, vor allem wenn man keinen Heiler hat. Wer auch immer Aggro hat, muss dann qausi ununterbrochen im Kreis laufen und die Kolto-Stationen klicken, um am Leben zu bleiben - muss man auch erst mal wissen.

      Ich frag mich, ob die Spieler auf TRE im Durchschnitt kompetenter sind als auf anderen Servern? Man will sich ja nicht selber loben, aber ich hab das jetzt schon mehrmals von anderen gehört, die auf mehreren Servern spielen, dass die Leute auf anderen Servern (im Durchschnitt) um einiges schlechter spielen.

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    2. Ob TRE im Durchschnitt besser ist?! Das kann ich so nicht bestätigen. Ich habe auf allen großen Servern (Ost-, Westküste, EU-Englisch, EU-Deutsch, EU-Französisch) im Zuge des LvD-Event mind. eine Klasse bis Level 50 gespielt. Zumeist durch Random-FPs, weil es viel XP gab. Dabei stach kein Server besonders heraus.

      Etwas länger spiele ich nun schon auf TRE und T3-M4, und auch da würde ich von keinen signifikanten Unterschied sprechen. Auf T3-M4 sind mir in letzter Zeit viele neue Spieler aufgefallen, mit wenigen bis keinen Erfolgen. Aber sonst...

      Im Bereich PvP könnte man allerdings feststellen, dass die Konkurrenz auf TRE größer ist.

      Sehr positiv überrascht war ich vom Hauptserver der Franzosen. Unglaublich freundliche Menschen spielen dort. In einigen FPs habe ich nur gedacht "wenn jemand so eine Aktion auf T3 bringt, ist ein Votekick innerhalb von Sekunden durch". :)
      Die Franzosen sind da vollkommen gelassen.

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  2. What sucks about Blogger is that I can't share YouTube channels on my sidebar in the same way I share podcasts and blogs. (Yet.)

    Otherwise, Pugging with Shintar would be there!

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    1. What sucks is that there used to be a sidebar widget where you could show a YouTube channel's newest updates; I used to have it on here in fact! But then some code update on YouTube or Blogger's end broke it and they never bothered to replace it.

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  3. Ah, so that's why I missed out on my weekly fix! I wondered at first if my internet or YouTube was being difficult, but eventually realized no update was coming and wondered why. And, this morning I realized I was behind on your blog and now all my confusion is gone! As I have made quite clear in the videos' comments, I am a huge fan (sorry if I am a little too fanboy, but... Huge fan). Keep up the awesome work! Excitedly waiting on the next one.

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