(Author's Note: Sorry for
the one day delay, I got sucked into SWTOR and couldn't get out.)
Leveling – The Bane of
Healers everywhere. It is the time of the gaming cycle, whether it be
launching the game for the first time or an expansions launch night,
where we have to run back to our class trainers and respec into a
Tank or DPS specialization so that we can get back to max level.
Personally, I hate DPSing in general and will always be a healer main
spec in all games that I've played. So being forced to choose between
going DPS spec so I can experience the new questing content or having
to grind the same PvE/PvP instances one hundred times just so that I
can stay in my healing spec.
When people talk about
Star Wars: The Old Republic's unique leveling experience the thing
people most talk about is the voice over questing, the class specific
story lines and the Roleplay quality to tailor your character to how
you wanted to play. But when I think about SWTOR's unique leveling
content the first thing that comes to mind is the companion system.
SWTOR was the first game that I played that had a companion system
where you had a secondary AI that could do a range of tasks from the
traditional triad system.
The companion system was
one that added an extra layer to the leveling experience that is
overshadowed but to me one of the most important features in the game
especially since the game did not launch (and still doesn't support)
a dual spec feature. Having to respec from Healing to DPS every time
I wanted to do a dungeon or wanted to do Dailies at max level content
would have definitely been an issue that could not be over looked.
Having the companions however made it possible to level up in a
healing spec from level 10 until level 55.
Healing is truly the only
spec that has a difficult time leveling in the spec through questing
content that it is nearly impossible to do solo which is what
questing content primarily is. It is also one of the roles that is
the most difficult to learn to do in a brand new game and having to
read all your abilities at once and figure out how to use them
properly in an environment where people are quick to blame the healer
on wipes is extremely discouraging. The companion system allows
someone to level as a healer, which gives them the same luxury of
gaining their skills at a slow pace and even gaining experience in
high pressure situations such as accidentally pulling too many mobs
and needing to keep something that may not be quite that geared
alive.
When I play through
Healing characters in SWTOR I tended to pick whoever my romanced
companion was (because I'm a big ol' softy) which was generally a DPS
of some kind and I would heal them while they killed people.
Neverwinter is the most recent game in memory that also had a
companion system that was a lot simpler than SWTOR's system but kept
the same principle. You could pick one that performed a role for you
which allowed you to heal your way through leveling (and tank, since
Neverwinter's threat system was broken and Cleric's had to kite while
healing because we generated more threat than tanks did in end game
content but we won't mention this).
Allowing players to level
in the specialization that they truly want to play end game content
with will not only make players want to level and keep them
interested in the game longer but will also increase success in
PvE/PvP end game content as the backbones of the group will have
hours of experience that they wouldn't have had in other games
playing their specialization.
I'm truly hoping that
more games begin to adopt the companion system into their games as
they develop to make their questing experiences much more dynamic and
set themselves apart from the World of Warcraft model of questing
that has been a bane on the community for nearly a decade. As a main
spec healer in nearly every game that I play any reason to not play
as a DPS through half of the content is always something that keeps
me subbed longer and generally a lot happier to go and do my dailies
or level up a new character.
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