Knights of the Eternal Throne landed with a thud. How did Star Wars: The Old Republic pick itself up afterward?

• Gearing was still clunky, but better than it had been. Gaining levels and gear boxes was made faster, and unassembled components were added as a way to get the one or two specific pieces that weren’t in those gear boxes. It took a decent amount of effort to get my main to command level 300 and maxed out gear, but get there I did. The worst part was gearing alts – which had not truly been a problem before, but between being able to reach max level without doing the latest content and the random gear system being about the only way to get new gear, suddenly became a big concern and one that was truly bad.
• The Return to Iokath features a decision that’s at once monumental and inconsequential. For whatever reason, the Alliance Commander is forced to choose between working with the Republic team led by Jace Malcom or the Imperial team led by Empress Acina. It feels like throwing in with one of the two other big galactic powers should be a big deal, but aside from the leader of the faction you didn’t choose dying, there’s little lasting consequence. Oh, and it featured the return of Elara Dorne or Malavai Quinn, which makes the Republic/Empire choice even more one-sided than Vette/Torian.
• The Iokath dailies are a buggy mess. I’ll do the weekly once on a new character running Iokath so I can have done them on that character. But after that, never again.
• I thought, after Oricon and Yavin, that the devs had learned about having a single-player story lead into operations. Nope, that happens on Iokath. And it involves the stupid Scions coming back and not getting killed, which is a disappointment.
• Iokath kicks off the Fractured Alliances story arc, where a traitor works against the Alliance to help the Heralds of Zildrog destroy it. The arc is okay, with positives I’ll get to at the end of it, but the writers overplayed their hand soon after revealing Theron was the traitor. Watch his cutscene after the mess on Umbara, and it’s pretty obvious he’s the one sending the transmission that identifies the Heralds as the group working against you.
• My main takeaway from the Umbara flashpoint is that my graphics card now hates me. Seriously, the train sequence that makes up the first third of the flashpoint is barely playable on any graphics setting above minimum. Also, these next three flashpoints are tough on Veteran Mode and even harder on Master Mode. Umbara got to be one that as soon as it popped I knew someone was going to quit the group.
• The Umbara stronghold was a cute idea but not worth the hassle of doing the flashpoint enough to get all the tokens needed. Especially because the stronghold limit initially wasn’t raised so no Umbara stronghold for you if you had the rest and didn’t want to lose one.
• A Traitor Among the Chiss sucks. I have no kind words for this flashpoint. “For House Inrokini!” spam in the beginning, ridiculous boss fights, a huge puzzle section in the middle when the developers refuse to rework the actually fun Colicoid War Games for group finder, ugh. Let the Chiss have Theron.
• Nathema is better. In the wake of the Emperor’s final death, Nathema has started to heal somewhat. Lana remains pissed about Theron going rogue through the whole thing, but guess what, he was on our side. The final boss trio of a pissed-off Zakuulan, a rogue GEMINI droid, and Zildrog itself is a pretty fun fight as long as you’re not in a group that can’t grasp “if you get the tether, stand together.” A cameo appearance is based on who your Alliance Commander was before being the Outlander. It ends the story pretty well.
• The fallout of the Fractured Alliances arc is a big middle finger to the story since Fallen Empire, and it’s so gratifying. The Eternal Fleet and Gravestone are destroyed, Zakuul has to go because its planet needs it (Note: Zakuul died on the way back to its home planet), and with the external threat gone, the Empire and Republic are back at each others’ throats.
• Finally, it broke my heart that most of the rest of the unreturned companions only came back for their original classes. Particularly Mako, whom I was looking forward to having on all my characters; at least she’s available to smugglers (as a trade for hunters getting access to Akaavi).

Next: Back to the eternal war.