The expansion drought continues for The Old Republic. It’s been over two years since 5.0 came out. 2018 gave us a few Updates with some story, some PvP and even some Operations content.
I haven’t really made much of a secret of the fact I haven’t played SWTOR that much throughout 2018. I dabbled in the game here and there around Game Updates and did a fair bit of PTS testing for Game U 5.9.2. But beyond that, I haven’t really done much throughout 2018.
The game overall continues to be marred by a horrible gearing system (especially for PvP) that plagues any improvements made to the game. We can only hope that 6.0, at the very least, reverts gearing to how it was in 4.0, especially for PvP. Separate gearing systems for PvP and PvE are absolutely essential to ensure proper balance and fairness for everyone.
The main highlights for the year for me were the Rishi Stronghold and the Ossus story and planet. The conquest and guild changes were also a fantastic quality of life addition.
Game Update 5.10 should have easily been SWTOR’s best update in a long while. Unfortunately, it was ruined by an awful gear grind which proved unpopular for all types of players even the NIM players who will actually get use from it. The only way to game the system is to have a lot of alts and grind the dailies over and over again on each one.
The new Vandin Huttball Map, while not too bad, is plagued by ongoing lag dsync issues experienced in all types of PvP. While most apparent in Huttball Maps, it occurs when someone uses a movement ability going up or down terrain. For example, when someone uses a movement ability (eg. Holotraverse) on a ramp, they disappear and it takes roughly 5 seconds for them to reappear usually quite a distance from where they were.
It was great to finally see the story take a turn in the right direction. We’re a step closer to going back to the Empire verses Republic conflict that they’ve long promised us. I can not wait to see where the story takes us from here. Bringing in vanilla characters and themes from the trailers really helped set the scene for a nostalgia trip the fans deserved.
You can read more about my thoughts on the Game Update 5.10 story in my review article A Beloved Character Returns to Save the Franchise – How The Old Republic got its Story back on Track.
Regardless of the games’ current shortcomings, I am looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us in 2019! Will we finally get the long-awaited 6.0 expansion? Hopefully, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
