Killing the Konn

So the IB finally triggered on BKonn and, suffice it to say, we still have Major Influence. Honestly, I'm not sure how! If I'm not mistaken, only myself and Winter ran the IB, and neither of us did any grinding. Instead, we hit it up for much needed Event Crystals. Come to think of it, Ryer was in on the fun, too.

The idea was simple: Run our Main and all Alts simply 1 time. As it turned out, every one of my Alts got Captain. For my Main and 3 Alts I raked, in total, 4 5* Event Crystals just for participating, then 24 4* Event Crystals for earning Captain. So, that's 6 5* Event Crystals in total without breaking a sweat. I highly recommend you give this a try next time around.

Speaking of which, we might very well have another SB, this time on Mataou, in the near future. These days, you never know. But my fingers are crossed. And if you still haven't found us on Galaxy of Heroes, what are you waiting for? My contact info is in the sidebar. The guild name is Heroes Errant. Good hunting, all.  

Bloody BKonn & Other News

Well done to everyone who participated in this most recent SB on BKonn!

Believe it or not, global participation seemed on a par with the previous SB, which means, in a nutshell, that if you didn't rank Captain, then you prolly didn't have a pulse! In all seriousness, though, we earned Major Influence with nearly 9mm VPs on the board. Let's hope an IB hasn't triggered already while I type this. Enjoy the buffs!

In other news, I finally finished the Defiant Bodyguard set, which is pictured here. If we could earn 6* Event Crystals as easily as we do 5*, I might actually max out the set! Oddly, it took a lot of dupes to find that one last gear shard. I had a whopping x22 duplicate chest pieces before the 10th and final glove shard finally dropped!

All this is as much to say that there are still plenty of opportunities for everyone to thrive and have fun in these final days of Uprising. For the past week it has been nothing but droids and fire, so here's to leaving BKonn behind soon and moving on to Mataou, where the gear gives great melee bonuses. Good hunting.

No Ado About BKonn

Before the last Hoth SB, a number of players speculated that it would prove our last. When we lost a recent IB on Hoth and, in turn, saw the SB meter reset, I thought the naysayers were probably right. I mean, this is Kabam we're talking about. Abandon all hope, ye who play Uprising! But, in all seriousness -- and in all fairness -- we now face an imminent SB on Burnin Konn, 1pm Monday EST.

If you've paid any attention to GC or the forums, then you'll have noted the uneasy quiet. Many, many players have moved on. Or else, they simply sign on with what I assume is a healthy degree of morbid curiosity. The rest of the stragglers hacked the game long ago and outfitted their Main Hero with 9* gear, as if just telling Kabam to go fuck themselves simply wasn't enough. Anyway, all this is as much to say that, if you want to earn Event Crystals the old fashioned way, then this upcoming SB presents a great opportunity to absolutely rake.

My next post will likely provide an overview of the BKonn SB and, in the near future, I also plan to post some thoughts on both Uprising writ large and how Kabam terribly mishandled the shutdown. Stay tuned. And good hunting.

October Quick Hits

With September behind us, I thought a brief overview might be in order. The shutdown date, November 17, may seem soon, but it's well over a month away. And, as things currently stand, quite a bit has happened recently.

1. Major Influence on Bespin and Anoat. Minor Influence on Hoth and Burnin Konn. The most recent IB on Hoth caused us to lose Major Influence, but I'm not losing any sleep over it. These influences come and go. The buffs are great, though, I have to admit. The next IB will happen on Bespin.

2. Rank 21! Great grind, everyone. A special pat on the back to Mau and Ioz, both of whom just cracked 70,000 CXP. Make sure to keep an eye out for the 3PO contact who offers daily Cartel Ops. I named the droid Frak Kabam.

3. Speaking of monster efforts, Mau just earned himself a lightsaber. Congrats, Mau! That M-Sec Boss is no joke.

4. And on that note, congrats to Winter, who recently earned not 1, not 2, but 3 pieces of Uprising Smuggler raid gear. Way to crush that Heroic map, Win!

5. We recently added a new player, Ryer Grogan, who's not only a great player, but also an inspiring leader. The former CM for Alien Legion, you can check out the AL blog here. Definitely friend Ryer and say hi!

6. As we know, Faction Reputation awards went out on the first of the month. My guess is that with the dramatic decrease in players, these monthly ranks should prove much easier to earn. We've barely started the month and I'm already Warrior across the board, save for the Kouhun Faction, for which I'm currently ranked Hero.

7. Also, the restructured rewards for IBs are worth noting. Now, merely participating will earn you 1 5* Event Crystal. The payouts are roughly the same, though, with an increase to 6 4* Event Crystals for Captain. The next time the timing works out, I'll make sure to run all my Alt Heroes to earn 4 5* Event Crystals in total.

8. Lastly, a few words on Alt Heroes. It may seem as though running Alts is just pointless at this point in the game. However, Alts are great sources of chromium, since they share that resource with your Main. I check all my Alts every day to see if they have a Chromium Daily Op offered by Soussho. And, as my previous thoughts about IBs demonstrate, Alts are good to earn a little extra during MMO battles. The more Event Crystals the better!

That's all for now. Good hunting, everyone.

Galaxy of Heroes Update

So I finally broke down and started a GoH guild called Heroes Errant. Open enrollment, all levels. Much to my happy surprise, not only can you trade mats with other guild members, but you can also chat with them, too. Pretty cool. And, in case you're wondering, my ally code is listed in the sidebar under Contacts. I plan to start this guild off slowly, then progress increasingly when SWU finally shuts down. I'm just starting to figure out GoH, so join up and maybe we can do that together!

Hoth SB

Okay. This was a funky Sector Battle. When it began, it looked like nobody was participating. And I don't mean just us. I mean globally. Despite the fact, of course, that the Event Crystal payout was doubled, I suppose we can attribute this lag to the fact that SBs on a Wednesday are unheard of, so it subsequently took awhile for the players to log on and catch up. And catch up they did.

More specifically, we caught up with practically 10mm VPs and, consequently, another planet under Major Influence in our pocket. Great grind, everyone! Congratulations are most certainly in order. Let's keep an eye out, as per usual, for the next IB on Hoth. Planet influence can disappear in a flash due to IBs, but the good news is that Major Influence isn't particularly difficult to nail down. I'm fairly sure only me and Kilgore earned our Major on Bespin, for instance.

As for this Hoth SB, in all probability it was the last we'll ever see. Unless, of course, Kabam really decides to play God and trigger another for shits-n-giggles. While this fact is daunting, I'm definitely satisfied with today's outcome, both for our cartel and personally. On the latter note, I earned Commander, ran 3 Imp Ops, finished and maxed the 6* Stormtrooper set, and finished the Legendary Snowtrooper set. It was a pretty good battle!

Good hunting, everyone.  

Putting the Imp in Improvements

As we know, Kabam promised to implement a series of improvements to the game on Monday. As they finally went live, let's discuss them.

Here's a repost of Kabam's list.

Supply Cranes: I've no idea. And, really, do any of us need 3* gear now? Seems a pointless gesture. Anyone who really needs 3* gear for PR purposes quit awhile ago.

Sector Battles: Great! Hey Kabam, why don't you trigger a SB sometime soon? Do we need to say pretty please with sugar on top? As for IBs, we've Major Influence on two planets now. Woot.

Raids: Kudos on the 30 Raid passes. And normal nodes do, indeed, have a significantly increased chance to trigger bonus nodes. The next point is sticky, since it only applies to Master Difficulty, so Vanity gear and Armor shards are still only for the really big fish. And Bonus Nodes do drop Event Crystals every once and awhile. A pity it's a pittance.

Force Content: I've been told that DG now drops like it's drunk. Finally! Also, I can attest to the fact that 4* Noble Gear drops often from the 100 crates.

Missions: Who cares? Oh, and by the way, I was wrong about Lando. The missions themselves have doubled drops, NOT the contraband crates. Guess it's back to the Anoat dog house, Lando.

Daily Login Rewards: You've gotta be fucking kidding me, right? These rewards are spectacular...for my level 88 alt. Yawn me to death, why don't ya.

In all, Kabam definitely made improvements, but they should have happened months ago. These changes really tell us that each and every player still has to grind, grind, grind 'till Kabam takes our Anoat away. Which is bullshit. At this point, they owe the players who still play -- without hacking the game, that is -- a lot more than this.

If I wasn't utterly disappointed in Uprising before, I most certainly am now. Not to worry, though. I'll continue to cut up some Imps before a million voices finally cry out in terror.