Jedi Archive
Thread: Musings of a non-pwn-l33t-uber Jedi Initiate
Disclaimer: This is not a rant, whine, complaint or sob story. This is an informative post on my realization of the Jedi profession. If you feel the need to flame me, please do so with a PM not in this thread. I am posting this thread because I think hologrinders who are NOT power gamers should know what the Jedi tree is all about. Oh, and this is rather long.
I unlocked my FSCS slot February 8th, 2004. I created an alternate character on October 15th, 2003 so that I could do the holo-grind w/out destroying my main character (which ended up happening anyway due to lack of appt points 
).
Unlike many, I am not a powergamer and I got very lucky by only doing 13 professions in order to unlock my slot. I have a wife, a kid, 2 dogs and a 55hour/week job (software engineer mind you). I play on a hockey league 1 night a week, I mountain bike regularly when there isn’t snow (Rocky Mountain state thank you 
) workout 3 days a week at my company’s gym and I try to be a good husband & father. Since October 15th, 2003 I have curtailed almost all of my previous activities so that I could unlock my Jedi.
Well I have done so and I found out that if I want to be able to play my Jedi as an SWG Jedi needs to be played, I pretty much have to quit my job, divorce my wife, sell my kid on the black-market (no job, have to pay for the monthly fee’s somehow), forget working out (no more free gym time), quit my hockey league and never look out a window at the Rocky Mountains I used to enjoy.
When SOE said that Jedi would be extremely difficult they were not kidding. To be a Jedi in SWG, you have to live as a SWG Jedi. You cannot have any other skills as a Jedi in SWG, and to have a SWG Jedi you cannot have any other interests in your real life. You must live, breath, eat and smell like a SWG Jedi.
It is now February 23rd, 2004 and I just hit Jedi Initiate 4111. I now have 221 Jedi xp and am looking at my current skill boxes on my level meters, 200,000 Jedi xp for the 2nd box in each of the last 3 branches. Not too bad. At an average of 320 Jedi xp per kill that’s only 625 kills.
Wait, that’s 625 kills per next box… oh ok so I got around 1,875 kills to go in order to get 4222. To get the 3rd box in the last 3 branches I have to get 400,000 Jedi xp each. So to get 4333, I have to kill 3,750 things. And to continue the math and become a Padawan 4444, I have to get 800,000 Jedi xp each in the last 3 branches… that’s 7,500 kills.
So in order for me to get Padawan from my current level, I need to kill a total of 13,125 beasts, birds and NPC’s.
To put things into perspective, I started playing at 9am Sunday morning at Jedi Initiate 4101 (had 1500 Jedi xp). After getting my 2hour and 56 minute buffs and heading to my planet of choice (arriving at 9:10am), I then proceeded to kill as many "things" as I could to see if I could hit 4111 before my buffs ran out (and my life begins as a father/husband on family day). At 11:35am I did it. I got all 50k Jedi xp needed for that last level 1 box in the initiate tree. So for 50k xp I killed roughly 157 "things" in 2 hours and 25 minutes. Now I know that I’m probably not doing it as efficient as some other "Jedi" but hey I’m still rather new at this and I was rather pleased with myself. Until I figured out what it would take for the next box 
Lets say I continue at my current rate of killing, using my figures from above, I would then achieve approximately 20,690 Jedi xp an hour. The following is a breakdown for each level:
4222 = 600,000 Jedi xp. Would take 29 hours
4333 = 1,200,000 Jedi xp Would take 58 hours
4444 = 2,400,000 Jedi xp Would take 116 hours
Wow. With my responsibilities and only being able to play AT MOST 2 hours every weeknight and 10 total hours on the weekends (10+10 = 20 hours/week) I will achieve Jedi Padawan in 10.15 weeks (~2 ½ months).
I thought about this and said "Hey, it’s an MMO… it’s supposed to take awhile to build up your character, I can live with this." Then I looked at what it would take to become Novice Jedi (Jedi Apprentice). 3,200,000 Jedi xp.
At my rate that would be another 154.56 hours. Another 7 ½ weeks (almost 2 months) for NOVICE.
Passing up my lengthy explanations from above, here is a list of what it will take for me to get to Jedi Knight and then Jedi Master:
Jedi Knight = 9,000,000 Jedi xp Would take me 435 hours (21.75 weeks)
Jedi Guardian = 3,200,000 Jedi xp Would take me 155 hours (7 ½ weeks)
Jedi Master = 9,000,000 Jedi xp Would take me 435 hours (21.75 weeks)
So, because I have a Real Life with certain responsibilities that I am not willing to give up for a game, my path to Jedi Master (w/out any interruptions of my SWG sessions and not dying ) will take me approximately 68.65 weeks to get Jedi Master.
That is 1 year 4 months and 4 ½ days from this moment for me to achieve Jedi Master if I play 20 hours a week (part time job mind you ).
I have no idea how some people are already Guardian 4444. That is just astonishing to me and I would be very interested in knowing how you did it.
To put things into perspective, I was a 3/4/4/4 BH the day I made my holo-grinding character in October. That was before the very nice xp increase in the invest missions. I personally thought it was hell doing the invest tree at that time. Boy was I wrong J.
Anyway, this was just a bit of info I wanted to share to those of you wanting to grind your way to Jedi. I hope you make it, and I hope you understand what is entailed to being a SWG Jedi. And I hope this is enlightening to some as to why SOE got rid of permadeath.
PAR
apocalance wrote:
Did they exploit the system or did they do it the way SOE wanted them to -- which would mean your way, and the only way I really know how to do it, is the slow way.
.Great article and good representation of math to break down the forecast. I am in the same boat as you regarding full time job, outside activity (scuba instructor part time), having a real life, and family etc., but enjoy the Star Wars theme and my first MMPORPG here, as well as a new Jedi at 4112 (unlocked in January).
Just a couple of comments:
1. Many of the Jedi that have made it into the Guardian level, got there via Jedi xp from crafting sabers back when it gave xp to do so. Some of these actually grinded their way there the hard way with mega hours per week and nearly facing total SWG burnout. Don't feel too depressed about the time it will take you and I due to our "real lives" taking up the time and leaving us 15 to 20 hours a week in here. It will be a fun and sweet progression to the top over the next year.
2. MMPORG's, I have come to learn, typically last for several years. Therefore, taking more than a year to reach Jedi Master is worth while and in line with the total gaming experience, especially once we get some Jedi content to keep the boredom of animal slaying from numbing us completely.
3. Your Jedi XP / hour rate will climb once you get some more force skills and the cap gets bumped up a bit due to your progression in the trees. At 4112, I'm already getting closer to 35k or 40k per hour (depending on density of lairs). I understand some in the Apprentice tree are getting twice that much per hour.
4. Have fun, role play, use your main to go get some content experience for a nice break. Don't feel the need to "grind" Jedi just to reach the Master goal. It's the journey that counts, not the destination.
Cheers!
Early on, you got Jedi XP for crafting, and there are ways to craft all day and all night. I think all that needs to be said is that the Devs quickly removed Jedi crafting XP from the game.
Nice post by the way.
I feel your pain...and you forgot one thing.
In order to make this incredibly hard journey possible, you need a fairly regular supply of crystals and/or pearls. Prices are through the roof, making holocrons at their peak look like a bargain sale. So, factor in using your training sabre for a lot of that grind, unless you have a rich uncle.
Training sabres, BTW, while very cool since they are a lightsabre, are about as effective as a damp sponge.
biwan: MohrYour figures are wrong... At padawan im getting 75k jedi xp/hr and it will only go up from there once i get into knight
As you use force, you gain xp from it and if its a non saber move you get pure jedi xp (not saber xp which is capped) along with the combat (jedi) xp from killing creatures
Padawan is the hardest level to acheive