The Many Looks of Nadia Grell

Complete Guide to Nadia Grell Customizations

Nadia, being the final companion that Jedi Consulars get, hasn't seemed to have gotten the attention that other female companions have. When I first talked about her, just after beta, I described her as an annoying school girl. As it turns out, her personality isn't exactly the same in the game as it was in the beta version. Bioware reduced the amount of complaining she does and she seems to be a lot more effective as a DPS companion. With the 30% armor buff Nadia gets in Game Update 1.2 tonight, it will make her an exceptional companion. Not only does she put out substantial DPS and AOE damage but she also uses the same gear as you. This makes it really easy to equip high end operations and PvP gear for her. Giving Nadia all my hand-me-downs gives her a huge advantage over my other DPS companions. She is a loyal companion and will also provide you with a streamlined story arc. I was able to complete Nadia's story line faster than any other companion's. If you are playing a nice light side Jedi, she will love almost all of your decisions. Most conversations awarded 100 affection from Nadia.

Nadia has 8 unique looks available ingame at this time; one default and seven customizations. The first time I saw Nadia in beta she actually had customization 3 as the default look. Bioware later changed it to the one she has now. Regardless of what hairstyle or skin color you choose for her, she'll always come default with a painted face, giving her a very Queen Amidala look.

The downside of the customizations for Nadia are the price of them. They each cost 35 000 credits. The first six are all available from the one unique vendor, Sergeant Koam. He is located in the Republic base on Ilum.

The security key vendor Captain Kneely on the Ilum space station is where you'll find the seventh customization. The cost is also 35 000 credits.

I personally chose customization 3 and considering most available outfits do actually cover her body (unlike the bikini) face painted marking and hair color are the extent of her variances. Even with a uniquely painted face, when you close up and personal with her you will notice that each customization includes a different facial shape.

Don't forget to check out similar posts:

Our full list of companions and gifts
The Many Looks of Elara Dorne
The Many Looks of Kira Carsen
The Many Looks of Vette
The Many Looks of Mako
The Many Looks of Risha
The Many Looks of Nadia Grell

For information on customization options for other companions check out the other 'Many Looks of ... ' posts on SWTORFace.

Update on Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.2

I kinda feel like this droid right now :( 

Hey everybody,


It is with great reluctance that I have to announce Ranked Warzones are not going live with Game Update 1.2: Legacy. We had a fantastic run of testing on the Public Test Server and I can’t begin to thank the community enough for their tireless advocacy for this feature and the time people took to file bugs and voice their concerns.


After careful consideration, it is clear that to make Ranked Warzones the feature we all want it to be is going to take a bit more time. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause and ask for your patience as we work to make sure the Ranked Warzone Preseason launch is polished and fun. With Legacy, the new Warzone, Operation, and Flashpoint, as well as many other amazing features of Game Update 1.2 ready to go, we're very excited for tomorrow's additions.


In the future we'll be rolling the Ranked Warzone Preseason out in phases, listening carefully to player feedback and making adjustments as we go. The first phase will be full team, eight-player queuing only and from there we'll look at next steps as Preseason progresses. In the meantime we have provided an alternate purchase route for War Hero gear so you can start building your set while figuring out your teams.


Daniel Erickson
Lead Game Designer

End game gear with pricing in Game Update 1.2

Georg Zoeller goves us a full run down on the changes made to endgame gear coming in Game Update 1.2. To be honest, even playing on the test server, I found myself a little bit confused as I didn't have all my gear sitting side by side with the new stuff, so it was hard to tell what the changes were. I started to take screenshots to try and work out and how the differences but as you'll discover from Georg's post below, like I did, some of the items have completely changed or no longer exist, like Champion PvP gear. The one thing I do know is that if you like the look of your Champion Gear you have just a coupe of days to get your hands on it if you want modifiable versions because although it is being changed ingame to a blue item, if you currently have it, it will turn into an orange item and will not be downgraded to a blue entry-level PvP item.

This screenshot gives you the current test server pricing on PvP gear.

And the post from Georg:

Hi,


There have been quite a few threads where you have voiced confusion regarding the end game itemization in 1.2 and I want to take the opportunity to clarify what you are going to see in the game when Game Update 1.2 goes live on Thursday.


One of the issues we are dealing with on the PTS Forums is that we are not only introducing changes from the current state of the game (1.1.5x), but also several changes a week. Without wiping our Forums weekly, it is inevitable that these updates cause significant confusion about what it is in the game, what is intended to be in the game, etc.


So, without further ado....


PvE


Tionese / Columi / Rakata Gear


These sets are not changing. Their stats have not changed from their pre 1.2 state and they are acquired in the same way as they were before 1.2, except for the following changes:


- The drop rate for Tionese commendations has been increased from all the existing sources.


- Columi can now be acquired, in addition to the existing sources, from the new Lost Island Flashpoint (Hard Mode) and their distribution rate has been slightly increased, mostly through weekly quests.


- Rakata can now be acquired, in addition to existing sources, from the final Boss of the new Lost Island Flashpoint (Hard Mode) and the story mode of Operation: Explosive Conflict on Denova.


A temporary change on PTS that modified some existing rakata gear has not been taken into the final version 1.2 based on testing feedback.


"Campaign" and "Black Hole" Gear


Campaign gear is the new tier of PvE set items we are rolling out with the Explosive Conflict Operation. It shares the set bonus with Rakata, allowing seamless equipment upgrades and is acquired through tokens acquired in Hard Mode of Operation: Explosive Conflict and the new World Boss on Belsavis.


All Campaign gear can also be reverse engineered for a chance to learn the associated schematic. For armor, this means a chance to learn the custom (orange) appearance of item, for implants, earpieces, mods, etc. This means learning to craft the item itself. All of these may be crafted critical for an additional augment slot or, in case of a mods, additional resulting items.


Campaign gear uses a different stat distribution from previous sets with greater variety of available stats and better base stats.


Unlike Rakata, Columi and Tionese gear, Campaign gear carries it's set bonus on the armoring of every piece. This means that players may transfer all mods and armoring out of campaign gear into any custom (orange) appearance available without losing the benefit of the set bonus. Please note that moving an armoring with a set bonus into a pre 1.2. item shell with a set bonus (e.g. a Rakata Shell) will be resolved with the armoring taking precedence (Sorry, no stacking here ) 


As mentioned previously, all armoring found in endgame gear now 'binds to slot' upon extraction - Armoring removed from a pair of gloves will only fit into another set of gloves. However, there is the possibility to acquire 'universal' armorings that fit into any slot through direct drops (e.g. not contained in an item). Those however will never carry a set bonus.


Black Hole Gear is similar to Campaign gear, but lacks the set bonus. It does however offer additional stat distribution options not available on Campaign gear. It also cannot be reverse engineered into appearances (although mods / earpieces, etc. can be learned).


Black Hole gear, unlike Campaign items, is acquired from trading in Black Hole Commendations found through weekly quests in the new Corellia area as well as the weekly quest for the Rise of the Rakghoul flashpoints (Kaon/Lost Island). It also drops on bosses in Operation: Explosive Conflict on all difficulties.


Two new color crystal variations may be found as part of the random drops in the new Operation: Black Core Purple and Black Core Orange. These colors are introduced separately from the weapons, which now come by default with more traditional colors available. It is worth noting that we are not extending the stat progression on crystals, meaning the existing +41 crystals found in 1.1.5 continue to be the top end of the crystal progression.


PvP


Centurion and Champion


Centurion and Champion gear, as of 1.2, has not changed, but will no longer be available for purchase. Existing gear on characters of course stays in the game.


Recruit Gear


Recruit gear is the new, blue entry level PvP gear available from the new PvP Recruit vendor on the fleet. It is acquired directly through credits without any Valor requirement and serves as a bootstrap to enable players coming straight out of the leveling game to participate in endgame PvP in the 50+ bracket. Power wise, it sits between Centurion and Champion, but lacks the set bonus and cannot be modified.


Battlemaster Gear


Battlemaster Gear, as of 1.2, no longer requires a 60 Valor rating and is acquired straight through Warzone commendations at the Battlemaster PvP vendor on the fleet.


As of 1.2, Battlemaster gear features an increased budget of expertise and an update stat distribution on a small subset of items on some classes. 


These changes to the stat distribution are a result of issues fixed with the original Battlemaster set of mods. As mentioned before, we will automatically update your Battlemaster items to the new version when you log into the game the first time after 1.2 has been deployed, provided that the items still contain their original mods. Reinserting these mods into the existing gear will suffice for this purpose.


War Hero Gear


War Hero gear is the new tier of PvP items introduced with patch 1.2. It is acquired through trade in of 'ranked warzone commendations' and the corresponding Battlemaster Shell (empty appearance, mods may be extracted before trade-in). Some items do not require a Battlemaster trade-in but instead can be acquired by warzone commendations. War Hero gear does not require a valor rating.


I found this community created image to be a nice visual summary of the situation (although prices may still change as we put finishing touches onto the patch).


Just as with Campaign gear, War Hero items carry their set bonus on the armoring and all mods, including the armoring which may be extracted and moved into any custom (orange) shell in the game. 


An additional upgrade option exists for players who wish to benefit from an additional augment slot but retain their Battlemaster or War Hero appearance: It is possible for crafters to obtain the schematics to create orange (and potentially augmented) version of the armor through 'schematic boxes' on the PvP vendor and sell the resulting items to players via the GTN. 


It is worth noting that these crafted appearances will require the player to have Valor Rank 60 (Battlemaster) or 70 (War Hero) to equip.


As a side note, we will allow trading of Warzone commendations into ranked Warzone commendations at a ratio of 3:1.


All in all, PvP gear in 1.2 features a much stronger focus on Expertise in itemization and the diminishing returns cap for this stat has been modified to account for that change. 


Color crystal wise, we've added Expertise crystals of various colors for direct purchase via warzone / ranked commendations, as well as crafted PvP expertise crystals of several colors.


Any more questions? I'll be monitoring this thread for a while and try to clarify what I can.

Get ready for game update 1.2 with user interface options

Big changes coming this Thursday are with the user interface options. I found myself in awe at what you can do with them in the editor. for example, I play on a 27" screen and I've always found  the HUD to be too big. using an option in the new update I was able to shrink it all down to 0.8 and I moved all the buttons closer together, as you can see in this screenshot below.

I know I'll change it more as I start to PvP and do Ops but I saved this interface I created ready to go for Game Update 1.2. Here's the snitch from Bioware, with a video guide:

Game Update 1.2: Legacy for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ introduces several new systems to the game, including the option for you to customize your User Interface. You'll be able to alter the placement and size of each UI element to suit your own personal preference.

Game Update 1.2 locked in for April 12, 2012

Bioware just announced the impending release of Game Update 1.2. This is one of the largest free patches ever released for an MMO, and Bioware are extremely excited to finally have a date for it. Check out this blog for all the info about maintenance tomorrow night.

David Bass from Bioware wanted to point out that the maintenance period is intentionally earlier tomorrow night. "This deploy is a very large patch, and Bioware wanted to shift it earlier to ensure SWTOR can be back up in plenty of time for the majority of our players to be able to play on Thursday night without issue."

Hello everyone!


We will be bringing down servers for eight hours on April 12th, 2012 from 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST) in order to deploy Game Update 1.2 - Legacy. All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours, but could be extended.



Please note the timing on this maintenance period, which is beginning earlier than usual.


Game Update 1.2 – Legacy introduces new content and features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ players. Earn new rewards and build your family tree with the expanded Legacy System, explore Lost Island, a new Flashpoint, challenge the new Operation: Explosive Conflict, and face off against your foes (or your allies) in Novare Coast, a new Warzone. You can also experience new daily missions on Corellia, customize your User Interface, create a new Guild Bank for your guild, and more! Learn more about Game Update 1.2 here!


After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.2. This patch will be up to approximately 1Gb in size, depending on when you last updated the game.


Scheduled Maintenance


Date: Thursday, April 12th, 2012 (See PDT timing below)


Time: 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST)


All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours.


Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Guild goes from 0-50 in under 30 days

The opening of the new Asia-Pacific servers forced a lot of players to re-roll. I ended up in a raiding guild (set up for operations) in the first week that the new servers were opened. To my surprise, the guild got a complete raid team together and it only took 29 days for them to clear all the standard operation content. Now is that too fast or is it just right? 

New raid content in games like WoW took far longer. The attempt would be spread out across several nights which got quite frustrating at times. You'd want to complete the raid but you'd also want to do something other than WoW some nights ... at least with the length of the SWTOR raids that balance is easier. I am finding that the current amount of raiding is allowing me to spend time doing other things ingame including leveling alts and PvP. With alts being a crucial part of the legacy system, maybe Bioware doesn't want players raiding 3-4 nights per week.

Everyone on the guild had already played a character to level 50 previously, so that probably sped things up since we knew where to go and what to do. On the other hand, I had never tanked most of the content so although I'd played for over five months, a lot of the boss kills were new to me and others in the operations. Undeniably, the content was cleared due to exceptional leadership. 

The swift progress through these operations has also revealed that new level 50s are very capable of doing operations. We took a lot of the guild members into the operations just days after they reached level 50. A lot of the content can be completed without the need for high end epic gear. A lot of players believe you need to spend weeks gearing up before you start doing operations but that's just not true. The operation story-mode content is for new level 50 players. It's just as efficient to gear up as you do operations as it is to gear up using heroic flashpoints or PvP. So if you think you're not ready for doing operations yet, take my advice and give it a go. If you can take somebody who knows the strategies it will help a lot. Having a vocal leader who knows the content is a necessity for success. A big kudos to Tombstone, Fusion's raid/operation leader.

In Star Wars The Old Republic, operations consist of eight players and can be completed in story mode, hard mode and nightmare mode, once a week.

Crimson Nova girls from Pandamonium

When people go to this length to promote their guild it truly inspires me. I know definitely, if I ever tried to sing a parody, or anything else for that matter I'd loose count of the amount of dislikes the video would get. The Crimson Nova girls from the Pandamonium guild have done a fantastic job on this parody. The video is definitely worth checking out and also check out their guild if you happen to be on their server which is Darth Bandon.






I am a little bit concerned about the still frame they've chosen though for the cover of this video. Looking closely at the character on the far left makes we question the character's gender!

SWTOR Legacy Companion Unlocks in patch 1.2

Bioware is giving us a real reason to get in the good books with our companions. As of patch 1.2 increasing your companions' affection to 10 000 unlocks a unique enhancement for that specific class of companion. There are a total of five different companion classes and they are healer, melee damage, ranged damage, melee tank and ranged tank. Also, every single companion you cap affection with grants you 10 bonus Presence with all your characters under your Legacy name. So theoretically you can eventually have a default 400 bonus Presence on all your characters, if you play all eight classes and max out affection with all the (40) companions.


Somehow I think people are going to be spending a lot more time chasing companion gifts!


After doing some testing I discovered that the bonus I unlocked by maxing out Kira's affection on my Jedi Knight was applied to every other character I created, on both Republic and Sith sides. For Kira it was a bonus to surge and although it applies to all characters, the bonus surge can only be unlocked once. The Presence, on the other hand, can be unlocked on every companion and every class.

In the notes about what is unlocked is says "You may only receive this bonus for one healer/melee tank (etc) companion". It took me a bit of research to figure out that what this means is that if you unlock a healer companion on your Jedi Knight, you get the bonus for all the characters you create. It is not stacked or re-applied when you unlock another healer companion though on a separate character.

Here you can see the bonus surge applied to a naked level one Trooper. It is clearly not present in patch 1.1. Interestingly, base DPS with no weapon equipped seems to be higher in 1.1.

So, let's look at the bonuses that you get with each class of companion.

Achieving maximum affection with a healer grants you a bonus to the total healing you receive, increases your heroic moment by 12 seconds and reduces the cooldown by 1 minute. (Also grants 10 bonus Presence to all characters)

Surge rating goes up. Heroic moment goes up by 12 seconds and cooldown goes down by 1 minute.

Critical Hit Chance gets a boost for ranged damage companions as well as the usual increase of heroic moment by 12 seconds and reduction of cooldown by 1 minute.

With the melee tank companions you get a bonus to your accuracy (plus the usual).

With ranged tank it's the usual plus a Max Health bonus.

Here's a summary:

Campion class	Bonus*	Heroic Moment*	Cooldown*	Presence
Healer	Healing Received	Increased by 12 seconds	Reduced by 1 minute	+10 bonus
Melee Damage	Surge rating
Ranged Damage	Critical Hit Chance
Melee Tank	Accuracy
Ranged Tank	Max Health

* Is only unlocked once

All this means that getting on your companions' good sides is even more important than ever. To review the gift preferences of companions, check out our information pages.

Hot off the Press for 1.2: Become Your Ship Droid

"Note posted on April Fool's"

Have you ever fantasied about getting down and dirty with Scorpio, the hot Imperial Agent droid companion?! Or are you looking for cool old Star Wars games like Super Star Wars? Bioware have answered all your pleas with this hot update.

The ability to be able to jump into first person mode in your droid character and play Super Star Wars is a big enough draw card for the monthly subscription for me. After unlocking this feature, I can't see myself doing anything else ingame ...

... apart from maybe sexing it up with Scorpio that is! What's not to like about this evil woman? Read on the see the other fabulous features coming in game update 1.2.

Four New Achievement Missions in Patch 1.2

Found next to your trusty vendor sales rep on your fleet station is a set of new achievement missions. Unlike other achievements in the game, these babies have unique rewards. For your efforts you'll be able to show off to the galaxy your shinny new speeder, knowing that only people who have completed these missions will have access to these new mounts.

Aratech Ice speeder: This ice cold slick mount is awarded for completing all of the following Flashpoints in hard mode: Esseles, Taral V, Maelstrom Prison, Directive 7, The Battle of Ilum, The False Emperor, Kaon Under Siege and Lost Island.

The vehicle listed here is the Aratech Nightscythe but the reward is listed as Praxon Firaxa. Not sure if that's a bug, but either way, the reqrd is given for defeating these Operation bosses in Hard mode: Droid XRR-3, Gharj, Soa, Bonethrasher, G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator, Karagga, Zorn and Toth, Colonel Vorgath, and Kephess.

As I am going through these screenshots I collected to share I am noticing that a lot of them list a vehicle name and then a different reward. In this case it's a Aratech Fire vehicle and the reward is Praxon Trackmaster, which also sounds like a vehicle name to me. Mayb ethe Praxon Trackmaster is commonly known as an Aratech Fire, or vice versa? I am just hoping it's bright red with flames! This reward id given for defeating these Operation bosses in Story mode: Droid XRR-3, Gharj, Soa, Bonethrasher, G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator, Karagga, Zorn and Toth, Colonel Vorgath, and Kephess.

This one lists the same vehicle name and reward name: Aratech Coral. Snowblind, Gargath, Primal destroyer and Nightmare Pilgrim world bosses all have to be defeated for this one.

I can see these achievements driving more people to operations and world bosses. General chat is going to be abuzz with people trying to get groups together for these. With the right group leader most of the story operations and world bosses are easy to achieve at level 50. My level 50 character on the new Australian server has only been level 50 for a week and I've completed all of the operations listed above in Story mode. Our guild will start Hard modes in the coming weeks. It will be interesting to see if these achievement missions are backwards compatible with kills that your character has already done when the patch goes live (or will you have to do the operations again in order to get these achievements?).