Thanks to Galactic Season 3, I've been spending a lot of time on CZ-198 over the past couple of weeks. For characters without much story progress, it's the only place in Wild Space to go! Regardless of that, I'm pretty sure that CZ-198 is the most popular daily area in the game, and has been pretty much ever since patch 3.2 removed the requirement to run two flashpoints as part of the weekly. (Who else even still remembers that?!)
It's just such a small area (which is a funny thing to praise when many players - including me - are always clamouring for more planetary real estate) that it takes no time at all to clear. A guildie frequently likes to boast that it takes him less than ten minutes. I'm not that fast, but it's still pretty quick, and I definitely appreciate it as an easy source of daily commendations when I'm running low.
That said, I generally prefer variety over efficiency, meaning I'll happily run different, less efficient daily areas for a change of pace as well. Having found myself running CZ-198 in specific sixteen times over two weeks for the sake of seasons objectives is definitely a bit much. However, it's also one of the few daily areas that doesn't require any story completion before unlocking, and my alts on the other servers don't have a lot of choice in that regard yet.
Either way, all this time in Czerka Corp's contested facility has given me plenty of opportunity to refine my daily route. For example I like to get all my kolto and toxin containers done in the processing department nowadays, even though there are only two spawn points for each there. (I remember commenting on the oddness of Czerka keeping biotoxin containers in their office space many years ago.)
I try to pick up the set in the office first, and the set next to the droid containers respawns so fast that it's worth running back and forth between the two to pick them up over and over again. In-between I also take care of my five droid containers, and if some mob groups respawn during the process that's fine as I need them for the kill quest anyway. By the time I leave I'm ideally sitting on around 25 kills already, so that I then just have to make a beeline for the champion droid, killing a few more mobs on the way, and finally finishing in the waste disposal area.
In the past I used to try and get out of the processing department as quickly as possible, collecting all my kolto and toxin containers in the supply area, but I've found that I much prefer not having to go up the ramp to where the kolto containers are at all, as the mobs up there are so spread out that they are annoying to AoE. Also, because of CZ-198's popularity, the kill quest can actually be the most annoying part during busy times (even with shared tagging) because stuff is always dead, and I've found that hanging back and killing more of the groups around the droid containers as they respawn is a more reliable way of getting my kill count up at a decent pace.
What do you think of CZ-198? Do you have a special routine when it comes to tackling this daily area?
On Star Forge, I just use the PvP instance. There's seldom more than one other person in it on either side that kill quests are never an issue. Whatever is the new area (Ruhnuk, currently) will have a fair amount of PvPers in the PvP instance, but the older daily areas and planets seldom have more than one or two people per side. But that's Star Forge. Obviously other servers are likely different.
ReplyDeleteI have come to use the basic route you have, but sometimes I'll poke into the side rooms checking for biotoxin, kolto tanks, or even mobs to kill if I want a bit of variety. I try not to be too 'efficient' as that can lead me to burnout on an area way too fast. Keeping things a bit fresh, well as fresh as you can given the limited areas and how many times we've run these helps.
I do remember (now) having to do the two flashpoints to finish the weekly. When I first did CZ-198 after not running it for (probably) years I vaguely felt like I was missing some quests, but shrugged and moved on. Now I'm sure it was a hint of memory about those flashpoints being in the weekly.
I will also say, I wish more daily areas had collectibles, such as the speeder in CZ-198. That adds a bit to a revisit if you are still trying for the item.
I often use the PvP instance as well, but not always. I did think of mentioning it in the post actually, but it didn't quite fit in. 🙂
ReplyDeleteFair enough. :) I think I pretty much default to the PvP instance, unless I'm focused on something -- such as datacron-hunting -- where I don't want to be interrupted by PvP. But that's a whole different subject.
DeleteI run essentially the same routine as you. I hadn't done it in a long while due to burnout, but most recently I was pleasantly surprised by the respawn rate of the containers. It seemed like every time I turned around the other had respawned. I remember being "lost" in the basement area the first time. I could not figure out how to get through it. I must have spent 30 minutes poking around before I finally gave up and googled and realized there was a pipe overhead.
ReplyDeleteI genuinely cannot remember the last time I did CZ-198. I don't even know if I've done it in 7.0 at all beyond visiting it to do those two flashpoints for the mini-story...
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is, I don't particularly mind it by itself. It's a fairly so-so daily area, neither good nor bad, but I do suspect its popularity is one of the reasons I don't like visiting it as much anymore. Certainly, whenever the Iokath / 2x CZ seasons objective popped up I'd choose to head to Iokath even if doing CZ twice is objectively quicker.
I also think that its speed is a bit of a problem. I don't mind Ziost being fast, because that requires little-to-no combat, but if I'm going to be fighting a fair number of mobs I'd rather it be in a daily zone that takes a decent amount of time to do so that combat feels more evenly-distributed, if that makes sense.