More Self-Discovery and TOR

Have now been on several dungeon runs and one raid, both with strangers and guildies. Got the Ventrillo client up and running, so I can talk with other guild members. And I have learned a few more things.

1. I am hindered a little in these runs by my slowness at the keyboard. I use as many of the shortcuts as possible, but I don't know my battle rotations well enough to be able to watch the screen and react in a short enough period of time. Perhaps macros are the answer?

2. When I run my Paladin as a DPS, I can never seem to get close enough to the target quickly enough to do damage. This is a character currently tuned for melee, which is fine for the solo encounter and pretty good for bosses, where the encounter is long enough for me to get into position. But when we are taking on groups of mobs, I can't seem to target quickly enough to be effective. One solution I see to this is to use my AoE spells in these group encounters, and save the direct melee for singles.

3. It all happens so fast! We finish a group of mobs and move on to the next, at a run. When do people have tine to loot? It's all I can do to keep up with the "need vs greed" loot windows, without even considering looting individuals. Others seem to be able to handle this in a speedy fashion.

Do you see the common thread here? I am too slow. Perhaps that's why I like solo'ing. It gives me a chance to think, act, loot, then plan the next encounter. Again, macros may solve some of the problem. Configuring my action bars differently for type of encounter (solo vs dungeon/raid) might help. And, of course, just getting more practice (aw shucks!)

On another topic ... my godson works for BioWare (a division of EA), which released Star Wars: The Old Republic right before Christmas. I haven't played it yet, but it continues to get good reviews. Entertainment Weekly just said "it more than lives up to the hype as a sci-fi alternative to World of Warcraft". Have you played it yet? The current issue's "MustList" where this comment appeared, isn't online yet, so no link ... sorry!