SWTOR Keepers

I did it, over the weekend. Hutran Thanatos got to level 700 with his crafting and gathering skills, and I deleted Galation. Farewell, oh digital friend that you were. 

RIP Galation 2019 (?) — 2024

I also played a fair bit with Taul Kajak, my Mirialan Jedi Sentinel. He just arrived on Belsavis now, and he's level 76. If the planetary and character story arcs on that planet don't get him all the way to max level, I presume that the bonus series will finally do the trick. I've decided once and for all that I do want to get another character to max out slicing and replace Phillippion, and I'll have gotten rid of all four of the characters I had with the worst names, that I'm not really very interested in doing anything with anymore. But I don't want Taul Kajak to be the guy who does that. He's just not going to be a keeper in the same sense. I'll probably actually keep him, I mean, but I won't do much with him except glacially slow tinkering around with the post story story. I've already got a Jedi Knight for one thing, although he's not a Sentinel, he's a Guardian. But either way, I don't want any of my new keepers to be another Jedi Knight or Sentinel. I have a Jedi Knight, and I have a Marauder Sith Lord, who's more or less equivalent to a Sentinel.

I'm actually thinking that the most different character I have who's reasonably far along and who would make a good slicer, is Anstal Tane, my sith species Scoundrel playing the smuggler origin story (I actually created him during Onslaught, so all Scoundrels were smugglers at that time.) So my crafting/gathering keepers would be 

1) Jedi Knight Guardian - Synthweaving (Maark)

2) Sith Warrior Marauder - Artifice (Mat Thew)

3) Smuggler Gunslinger - Armstech (Luukke)

4) Bounty Hunter Powertech - Armormech (Graggory)

5) Imperial Agent Sniper - Cybertech (Johhn)

6) Imperial Agent Operative - Biochem (Hutran Thanatos)

7) Trooper Commando - Slicing (Phillippon) change to Smuggler Scoundrel - Slicing (Anstal Tane)

It's maybe not the most diversity I could have; two of them have the same origin story (agent) for instance, and it will become two more with the same origin story (smuggler). But I don't need to delete some of my other newer characters just because they're not crafters, and in fact I don't intend to. The ones I want to delete are the really old ones with stupid names and haphazard progression.

I will have three origin stories of Trooper, but none of them will be an original trooper class; I'll have one gunslinger, one sniper and now one scoundrel.

I have several mercenaries, but no commandos once Phillippion is gone. I know that they're supposed to be mirrored, but I don't really think of them as similar in feel, and I greatly prefer the mercenary to the commando with his big cannon. They're not all bounty hunters, although two of them are. I don't know for sure if I'll keep Embric Stane either; I was queued up to delete him earlier, and decided to play through with him anyway. I could always change my mind and delete him, or delete him after he's finished, either one. I also have one vanguard, but he's actually playing the bounty hunter story. I'll keep him just because I've created an original trilogy Boba Fett lookalike outfit for him that I want to keep indefinitely. 

And of course I'm super light on jedi consulars and sith inquisitors, because those are my least favorite classes.

I don't have any plans to delete anyone else, except for Phillippion once I get Anstal Tane up to max slicing (which I won't do until he's max level) and maybe Embric Stane too, since he's superfluous in every sense except that he's the only "big" character that I have. There isn't any particular rush to do so, though—I have enough newer characters still on my docket that I really shouldn't be entertaining creating more, Karr Tanus notwithstanding. Speaking of which, I picked up Gael Heckett for whatever reason this weekend too and played all the way through Ord Mantell with him, did the heroics one more time, and took him off to the Republic Fleet. Then I had him do the Ord Mantell bounty since it's still bounty week until tomorrow. Maybe twice, even—Saturday and Sunday, I think. He's level 25 and he hasn't even done the Esseles yet, so he's somewhat grossly over-leveled, but that's OK; I like characters to be higher rather than lower level. Sure, they're level synched, so there's not a ton of effect in terms of their ability to play any planet, but I like to have more options rather than less on the combat quickbars, because otherwise they're kind of boring to play.

If I were to play my old paradigm of trying to keep everyone more or less within a 1-2 planet band, except for a few outliers and the older characters, I'd probably need to do the same to both Saxon Hettar and Beorn Hengest (and now Karr Tanus too); finish up their starting planet and get them to the Fleet, before turning to any of my other newish characters that mostly have all finished the second planet and are on their way to either Taris or Balmorra, depending on faction. That's where Haul Romund (smuggler), Vant Galaide (bounty hunter), Wulf Hengest (bounty hunter), Embric Stane (bounty hunter), Phovos Maledict (sith warrior) and Revecca Arden (sith inquisitor), Codon Veile (trooper), Mirabeau Tane (trooper) and Vash Galaide (agent) are all at. But I still haven't decided that that's what I'm doing, and it does maybe seem a little boring to have everyone in the exact same place. I've been focusing more on my outliers that are ahead anyway.

I think part of the problem is that I enjoy the beginnings of the stories more than the ends sometimes and the later middle sections. I'm thinking that I'm going to finish the story with Taul Kajak, since he's sorta in the endgame, about to start Belsavis. I shouldn't need to do the planetary stories on any of the three last planets if I don't want to, because I'm already pretty grossly over-leveled with him too (level 76 on a planet that was designed for about level 40) but I think that I often skip the Belsavis, Voss and Corellia planetary stories, so I should probably do them soon with someone just so I don't forget them. Maybe they don't all have to do the same planets; Taul can do one, and the next two characters that come along on Republic side can do the other two respectively. Or maybe I just do them all with Taul and quit with my other characters once I hit max level, dropping all but the class stories for a few playthroughs. Because the planetary stories are only faction specific, not class specific, they get tedious after a while, because you repeat them much more often.

After I finish Taul, which hopefully won't be much more than a week or so of playing, then I'll turn to Anstal Tane and finish him; he's the furthest along otherwise, and he's the one that I've targeted to take over Slicing. Elemer Kell is the next farthest along, having finished Taris on the Republic side, but he's a jedi sentinel, and so is Taul, so he'll take a backseat while I do a couple of Imperial characters after this; probably Vant Galaide, and then either Revecca or Phovos. 

And I hesitate to think too far ahead after that and will likely change my mind by the time we get here, but Haul Romund and either Mirabeau or Codon would probably be after that, followed by Vash Galaide or Wulf Hengest and the other of either Revecca or Phovos.

Whew. Lots of playing still to do. UPDATE: One good reason to switch back and forth between two or three characters is that you get tired of doing the same thing with one all of the time. My Jedi can't sneak without swapping his combat profile, and I get tired of drawing aggro on people that I have to fight hand to hand. I get tired of drawing aggro in general, but when I can sit back and take potshots with the 1 key and be done in a few seconds with a minor combat, it's not quite as bad as when I have to jump into hand to hand and be a little more engaged. Playing is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful. 

Hoth was a big planet, especially because I did all of the planetary story and the bonus series, and then after the idiotic "let's kidnap the emperor!" plot went spectacularly sideways, I headed off to Belsavis, which is also big, with Taul Kajak. For some reason the last three planets, which are actually fine, feel tedious to me because I've been doing the story so long by this time that I'm ready to be in the endgame. But... it takes quite some time to do it, and the opponents are geared for high enough level that they're not quite as easy to mow through quickly. It's a real shame, because Voss is beautiful, and Belsavis is a fascinating ecological idea. Corellia is ... eh, whatever, WW2 Dresden. We got it. 

Anyway, I did some other stuff between Hoth and Belsavis, like playing Ord Mantell with Gael Heckett, mentioned above, and a few other things with a few other characters. But I think that after I finish a Jedi on Belsavis, I need to go back to one of my tech Imperial characters that's due to start Balmorra and cleanse the pallet by shooting stuff. I think Vant Galaide has been calling me for some time, honestly.