The Fanatical Swordsman

After completing my Sage, that left two advanced classes before I had all 8 stories completed. After completing the Nightmare mode raid I talked about in my last article, I logged on to my Operative (a Chiss named Deg’eldari’oned) to start leveling him, since he was the next on my list.

He started about level 22 and has since been rocketed up to level 50. Let me tell you why I moved so fast on these characters I had been avoiding for so long.

It all started when I realized when I was playing my Sage that I really didn’t like either of the Consular/Inquisitor playstyles, nor did I like the playstyle of the Operative/Scoundrel, at least at low levels. All of the other classes managed to capture my attention, but these just struggled for me.

The Sage/Sorcerer was just frustrating to me because of the long cast times. Now, I have a Commando and a Gunslinger that I love, so you might ask me why I like those “casting” classes and I don’t like the Sage/Sorcerer. Having thought about this for a while, I figured out the reason was because I could take a break from the long cast times by speccing into a number of different talents. This was the trigger for me. I purchased the Field Respec legacy perk, so I could try different specs on my Sage, then I tinkered around with different things, finally landing on Balance for a good long while to have instant-cast Disturbances.

Simultaneously, I got out of the Prologue where I had been suffering for the 5th or 6th time through Coruscant, barely distracted by a class story that basically had you going to different parts of Coruscant and picking up boxes (simplified, but true). After the Prologue, it was a much more enjoyable story, with intrigue, diplomacy, learning, rescues, and crossing cultural boundaries (the Esh-ka now know me as Ember Fist, how cool is that?!?).

Overall, though, the clincher on why I enjoyed the Sage so much was my ability to respec at any time for absolutely no cost (because I am a subscriber). This made me willing to tinker, as well as queue up for Flashpoints as both a healer and DPS.

So what does this have to do with my Agent? As an Operative, I was in the same exact position of being a heals/DPS class. I am also not a fan of stealth and the slowness that comes with it. To do anything quickly, you have to skip mobs because the fights take a long time generally. When you skip mobs, you end up underleveled, so you have to make that up with Bonus Series quests, Flashpoints, and PvP.

With infinite respecs, I could actually try things to see if I would like them with no problems. I leveled for quite a while as stealth, with most of my early time spent in Flashpoints as a healer or in PvP as the stealth still. As I got higher up, stealth got more interesting, and I started to actually enjoy it. I tinkered with Lethality, the shared tree with the Sniper, and I determined that it is a lot more clunky than its Sniper counterpart. Since I use Dirty Fighting on my Gunslinger (mirror of a Lethality Sniper), I couldn’t take the changes and so stayed away from it.

I found a crippling and MVP-vote-earning combination of respeccing in Warzones to give a defensive or offensive edge to my team. As a Concealment Operative, I could capture a node by myself in Alderaan Civil War or Novare Coast. If needed, I could go to a large battle and heal instead, given a little anticipatory downtime to respec. In Voidstar, I could heal on Defense and DPS on Offense. I was a powerhouse, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Add all of this to the single most interesting story and the most diverse companions in the entire game, and you have a recipe for brilliance. I cannot tell you how many times I exclaimed “This is AWESOME!” when in the middle of the Agent story. As a Burn Notice fan, you could easily see the parallels with Michael Westen and Fiona in the Agent and Kaliyo. Once I made that connection, I didn’t even mind that you have to wait the longest of any class to get your second companion (all the way to Alderaan).

Overall, I am pleased with sticking to the characters and trying to get through the story. I think a little mindset-change and the addition of the free Field Respec made it possible for me to enjoy my time on these two characters.

Have you ever been stuck on a character and finally broken through that barrier? Let me know how you did it in the comments!