Advanced Class Breakdown: Jedi Knight

To give gamers a better understanding of how classes in SWTOR work, we will be breaking down the information for each individual class, into their advanced classes. Over time we'll separate the class pages even further into individual pages about specific specializations (Jedi Knight: Guardian; Jedi Knight: Sentinel; etc).

As you probably already know, there are eight main classes in SWTOR. For each of these eight there will be 2 advanced classes. At around level ten you will get the option to choose your destiny. Each character will have three trees of skills that they can build up. Two of these trees are unique to each advanced class. One of the trees is shared by the other advanced class of that class. Confused? An example would be that the class of Jedi Knight has two advanced classes: Jedi Knight: Guardian and Jedi Knight: Sentinel. Both of these advanced classes have the same tree of Focus. They each then have another two that are unique.

What this means for the gamer is that if you choose Jedi Guardian, you don't necessarily need to be a tank. If you spec into the Vigilance tree you'll be able to wield a lot of damage.

To make it clear, advanced classes are not just individual skill trees, like marksmen or beastmaster for hunters in WoW, they are classes of their own with their own unique options.



At this stage, no information about being able to change your advanced class after you've chosen it has been released, so it's possible that it's a life-of-the game character decision, much like the initial class decision. Bioware have, however, hinted that players may be able to change their talent tree specs (for example, from Vigilance to Defense). This would allow players to level in Vigilence and then swap to Defense for raiding or flash points at higher levels.

The shared tree in the advanced classes gives players the ability to customize their character even further to suit their play style.

First up lets look at Jedi Knight and its advanced classes trees and options. The new information is in this post but a complete class guide on the Jedi Knight class can be found on our Jedi Knight Class Page.

Keep in mind that any information available now could change by the time the game is released. This information has been collected from SWTOR.com and other official information.

Jedi Knight

Through training, the Knight turns combat into an art.

Advanced Class: Guardian 

A wall between the good people of the Republic and their enemies, the Guardian stands firm in the face of overwhelming odds and dares opponents to attack.

Class Role:  Tank, Damage
Weapon:      Lightsaber
Armor:          Heavy



Tree: Vigilance (DPS)
Provides greater skill in single-blade offense and the ability to take enemies down quickly.

Force Scarring
Passive: Sundering Strike lowers the target's internal and external resists bu 10% on its first application

Shien Form
Instant
Cooldown: 1.5 secs Enter an offensive Lightsaber form, increasing all damage dealt by 6%. All attacks which cost focus will refund 1 focus when used. In addition, taking damage generates 1 focus, but this effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

Tree: Defense (Tank)
Allows the Guardian to more effectively withstand enemy attacks and protect allies.

Endure:
 Instant, Cooldown: 3 mins
Temporarily increases your maximum health by 30% for 15 seconds. When the effect ends, the health is lost.

Force Leap
Passive: Force Leap now stuns targets for 2 seconds.

Tree: Focus (shared)
Specializes in advanced Force techniques and the Shii-Cho lightsaber form.

Force Exhaustion 
Instant, Cooldown: 21 secs, Range: 15m
Progressively slows the target from 60% to 10% movement speed over 5 seconds and deals 180 kinetic damage each second. At the end of the duration the target is crushed, and takes an additional 553 kinetic damage.

Zephyr

Passive

Reduces the cooldown of all Force abilities while in Shii-Cho Form by 3 seconds.

Advanced Class: Sentinel

Control and focus are the hallmarks of the Sentinel. Through years of training the Sentinel learns the art of using two Lightsabers simultaneously to create an intricate web of damage that is almost impossible to evade.

Class Role:   Damage

Weapon:      2 Lightsabers
Armor:          Medium

Tree: Watchman (Sustained Damage and Survival )
The Sentinel masters the Juyo Lightsaber form, making him more dangerous as a fight goes on.

Overload Lightsaber 

Instant Cooldown: 12 secs

Charges your Lightsabers with deadly energy for 15 seconds, causing your next 3 successful melee attacks to make the target burn for 491 elemental damage over 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

Merciless Zeal

Passive

Critical hits with burn effects heal you for 2% of your maximum health.

Tree: Combat (Burst Damage)
Allows the Sentinel to master the Ataru Lightsaber form to rapidly dispatch enemies.

Blade Rush
Instant, Range: 4m 
Strikes the target with both weapons for 647-729 weapon damage and automatically triggers an Ataru Form strike. For 6 seconds after using Blade Rush, your Ataru Form has an extra 30% chance to be triggered. Requires two Lightsabers.

Opportune Attack

Passive

Your Ataru Form hits have a 100% chance to make your next focus spender deal 10% more damage.

Tree: Focus (shared) 
Specializes in advanced Force techniques and the Shii-Cho lightsaber form.

Force Exhaustion 
Instant, Cooldown: 21 secs, Range: 15m
Progressively slows the target from 60% to 10% movement speed over 5 seconds and deals 180 kinetic damage each second. At the end of the duration the target is crushed, and takes an additional 553 kinetic damage.

Zephyr

Passive

Reduces the cooldown of all Force abilities while in Shii-Cho Form by 3 seconds.

 

Drinking With Jedi, Talking About Combat Styles

After watching the combat video last week it got me thinking about sword fighting styles ingame. I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with the real Jedi from Episodes 2 and 3.

Left to right Adam Gill (friend), Kyle Rowling (Joclad Danva, General Grievous Actor not Voice and Count Dooku body and stunt double ), the sexy Sandi Finlay (Sly Moore), Matt Sloan (PLO KOON), Michael Byrne (Darth Sidious stunt double) and me John Gatt ( Jedi Wannabe).

Will we get a full set of styles to chose from like one hand and two hand dual sabers and duel blades? Will our specials reflect our weapon of choice?

Over a lot of beers Kyle made me appreciate the importance of stage fighting. The techniques are not just about blocking and swinging. You need fineness in the moves and I was reminded of it as I watched Episode 3 last week.

Kyle helped choreograph the final fight between Ben and Anakin and helped to come up with an amazing ending to the fight, but George wanted to keep the final blow simple. In one way, when I see that final blow where Anakin loses an arm and 2 legs I'm like WTF? Show me how he did that, and in another way I appreciative that it's quick and doesn't take away from the drama of Anakin's defection.

In all my gaming years I have seen a lot of sweet moves in games and some of the Jedi styles in SWG were some of the best (pre NGE as for some crazy reason a lot got removed). What I've seen so far from SWTOR is looking good and I hope BioWare have put as much time into special moves as they have in to things like voices.

An interview with Kyle here and an interview with Matt here.

Same Sex Romances in SWTOR

No idea how I missed this last week ... it's a whopper! First let's look at this post on STWOR.com forums by StephenReid:
Official statement follows: Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.

So let's recap, there will be same sex romance allowed in STWOR, but not when it's first released, it will come out in an expansion. This raises a whole lot of questions, like what role will romance (same sex or opposite sex) play in the game? SWTOR is being released rated T for teens, but will this change with an upcoming expansion?

People got so mad about the decision to not include same gender romances until post-launch that BioWare had to delete/lock the first 300 posts. Now it's not just bi-sexual and gay people that are pissed off, it's anti-gay people and some parents and the religious conservatives who are getting mad that the content will ever be allowed in the game.

But on the flip side, what if there was no inter-species romance? Would people get as upset? I know a lot of guys in real life that have gone nuts when they see girls dressed up as Twi'Lek's for example. So are we all that desperate that we must have Twi'Lek romance in the release and not patched at a later date?!  

BioWare have gone to great lengths to include romance in RPG games in the past and I even stumbled into a gay love scene in Dragon Age II  that kinda threw me because it was so unexpected!

In case you haven't played Dragon Age II and are not familiar with what I am talking about, let me explain. In Dragon Age II, to unlock certain abilities with your companions, you need to establish relations with them. You do this in the form of conversations. You have choices in what you say to them when you talk about choices and personal issues. Choices you make during quests effect the way your companions feel about your character. The more the companion likes your character and its choices, the more abilities are unlocked, making your companions more effective during gameplay.

During my gameplay in Dragon Age II I was attempting to build up my male warrior's relationship with Anders, who is a male companion character. Anders was my main healer and I thought he was a pretty cool dude. But in my attempts to build up a rapport between the two, Anders took it the wrong way and before I knew it there was a lengthy kissing scene between the two (male) characters. In Dragon Age II the same end result can happen between opposite sex characters as well. In another scenario, my character was talking to a male elf in a brothel while I was following a quest line and before I knew it, they were in bed together ... not what I had intended. My two female companions were very upset!

Surely there should me more control over whether your character pursues a hetero or a gay relationship? In Dragon Age II, which is a BioWare game, the plot line leading to a romance encounter was a bit unpredictable. What would Chewie do if Han took his big hugs the wrong way?

Would he rip his head off ? If Han went for the grab?

Is this same sex romance option not in SWTOR on release due to time constraints or is LucasArts blocking it? Are BioWare just holding off until the game is out and has 5 million players before telling George sorry ... we are putting it in, you can't stop us now! 

But my final question is, will this be an epic Star Wars adventure or a cliche romance novel?

and will my smuggler have that same sex appeal as Han solo?

Ready set hutt ... hutt ... hutt!

The idea of science fiction football has been around for years and I must say i am very excited about this arena style football game in Star Wars The Old Republic and it's not just Sith vs Republic, it's Sith vs Sith or Republic vs Republic. The Hutts really don't care who kills who. Imagine going to a football match where they gave all the jocks lightsabers and said get the football to the end of the field, any way possible!

"A new event has captured the hearts and minds of the citizens on the Smuggler’s Moon of Nar Shaddaa. Known as “Huttball,” two teams clash for the amusement of the masses and to win favor with the famed Giradda the Hutt in this new video that highlights just one of the Player-vs-Player (PvP) Warzones in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!"


Check out the Video Now!

Eternity Vault Live Operation Video

This is the swtor part of the gamescom 2011 press conference from EA showing the 8 Player operation Eternity Vault. If you have ever played end game content in any MMO this will give you a good idea what your in for in SWTOR. Eternity Vault is a level 50 operation (Raid for the WoW players) and my got it looks good! Its nice to see the first boss is not a walk in the park as you will see in the video. Thanks to TOROZ for the heads up!

Sith suck balls and want to do your mom ... did we really want to hear it anyway?!

You know I understand why BioWare made the decision to separate global chat channels between factions. If you haven't heard, Georg Zoeller has clarified on the official forums that global chat will be separate between Sith and Republic but normal local chat will be able to be viewed by everybody and understood. By understood, in case you haven't played WoW before, Horde and Alliance and see each other saying stuff, but the text is scrambled. In a lot of other MMOs opposite factions do not get global or server wide communications. If they weren't separated we might see something like this:

From Georg Zoeller: “Guys, Let's back up for a minute and clarify what's going on here. Nothing has changed since San Diego Comic Con. As discussed at SDCC, the decision was made to separate the general chat channels by faction. However, this decision ONLY affects the planet-wide chat channels such as "General Chat." If you're standing next to another player (local chat), you can talk to them regardless of what faction you're part of. The only thing we removed, as already mentioned at Comic-Con, was the ability to communicate with the opposing faction across the entirety of a planet to avoid the issues (like griefing, abuse, and other factors which led to a very unpleasant experience) which we saw way too often in testing. We discussed the option of hiding the global chat and defaulting it off, but ultimately the ratio of negative incidents was too high to justify that. The reasoning here is simple: We really didn’t want to create a game option that essentially says "[x] Give me an 80% chance of having an infuriating and annoying chat experience," and putting the onus on the user ("you can just /ignore them") is not our idea of a quality game experience.Removing planet-wide cross-faction chat radically reduces the amount of reach a misbehaving player has before account action can be taken. We’ll likely add the ability to filter local cross faction chat as well. Hopefully that clears it up a bit.”

SWTOR Space Combat Sneak Peek

Some new info on space combat, has been revealed from the gamer magazine pcgamer.com. After the magazine was scanned and translated, here are some of the new details.

Ships will be customizable with upgrades earned through space combat.
Upgrades probably won’t be entirely new weapons but incremental power increases.
James Ohlen said, that player’s ship will be cosmetically different, but will all use blasters and missiles.
Character abilities and stats will not affect space combat.
Missions are supposed to only take a couple of minutes.
BioWare will implement PvP and co-op in the future.
Quest objectives are given on the fly via character voice-overs.
Terrain collision is very real. Flying into an asteroid will be devastating.
Side quests for each mission will rotate as well to make the missions more repeatable.
Later missions will be more complex and difficult.
All Player ships have roughly the same size and power.
The design’s of the four unknown player ships will draw inspiration from existing ships.

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