Making the most of Double XP

The first weekend of Double XP was definitely a success for most players. I personally got 2 of my level 40-odd characters through to level 50, giving me a total of 6 completed level 50s.

One of the characters I leveled from 43 to 50 in about 7 or 8 hours. I did this by:
1) using the Double XP
2) combined with the 25% bonus buff and
3) I played through the class story line and the planet story main mission line only.
I found that by doing this, by the time I reached Corellia, I was level 50. By the time I finished the planet I was on at level 43, Belsavis, I was way ahead of the level requirements for all missions, making it very easy gameplay.

By sticking to just the class story line and planet story main missions, it was almost like being involved in a movie. Gone were the distracting side missions that I've already done four times by now on other characters. I generally find that leveling characters, especially alts, can be a little bit confusing when it comes to stories, especially if you have a gap of weeks between major chapters. Throw in one or two other alts stories and it can be quite confusing.

With my second character, my Comanndo, I used a different tactic. I was invited to join a group in my guild that was power-grinding on Ilum. A full raid of 30 players were all leveling at lightening speeds. So I took my level 43 Commando out there and within 2 hours he was level 50.

Bioware will be fixing this play style on Ilum before this weekend's Double XP by removing the boost in stats for sub-level 50 players. To be honest, I don't think that leveling in this way is as big an advantage as people thought. Yes, you get to 50, but you have no credits, no companions and you haven't unlocked any of the story line bonuses to do with your legacy. So even though it only took 2 hours to get from 43 to 50, I still had to spend the following day finishing off my character's story line. If anything, all this did was to make it a little bit easier to play through the class missions - not that they are hard, especially if they're green (playing above the level requirements). Having spoken to other guild members who also leveled in this way, they also agree that it wasn't the best tactic after all, as they now have had to spend this week farming credits to pay for training and gear.

This coming weekend I have a level 14 Inquisitor to level. In preparation I have maxed out warzone experience and class mission experience bonuses in my legacy for this character. I also have boosters in the character's inventory. I intend on playing through her class story line and PvP only, skipping all other side missions. This will give me more than enough experience and credits to have an enjoyable leveling experience, whilst still achieving my goal of getting to level 50 by the weekend's end.

In my quest to provide detailed companion information, by the end of this Double XP weekend I will have all eight classes with completed class story lines - and also all companion story lines completed to maximum affection.

Gree event Back March 12th with a new cool mount!

I don't know if I like it being back so soon, I still have a stockpile of rep tokens in my bag will the event be ass cool if we see it every 2 weeks? I think if its an event make it that keep it away for 1/2 months or keep it live all the time and just make it new content!

 From EricHere are the details! Game update 1.7.2 is going live with tomorrow morning's maintenance! That's right, you will be playing the Gree Event once again within 24 hours. Also since I know this will come up, the Gree Event will be running from March 12th - March 26th.

There are some other things I wanted to keep all of you apprised of as well. Aside from the Golden Scalene Armor being embargoed from the Cartel Market, so are a few other items. They are:
Dire Taskmaster's Robe
Dire Overlord's Vestments
Dire Warmaster's Body Armor
Dire Eliminator's Chestguard
Guard Captain's Chestplate
CZ-27k Stealth Ops Suit
CZ-18x Avalanche Chestplate
Honored Master's Vestments
Honored Champion's Robe
Honored Sabarist's Harness
Honored Adept's Shroud
MA-52 Med-tech Chestplate
Emergency Responder's Overcoat
MA-53 Overwatch Chestplate
Jawagram "I Love You"
Jawagram "It's A Surprise"

One last thing I wanted to tease... Make sure you check out the Gree Event vendor. You will see what I think is the coolest looking mount in our game to date. Like, seriously it is amazing.

Ilum PvP is Back! Are you ready to Help the Gree?

Patch 1.7 will be the rebirth of Ilum PvP so no more standing round on the Station hanging for that next Warzone Pop!

Adventure with other Level 50 players or journey alone to assist the Gree in their continual pursuit of information. Those who are brave enough to help the Gree will be rewarded for their service.

Events are available to Free-to-Play Players and Subscribers at no additional cost.

NEW RECURRING EVENT: RELICS OF THE GREE

• Explore Ilum's contested area in the Western Ice Shelf to uncover the mysterious purpose of the Gray Secant, an enormous ancient Gree starship.
• Get ready to face a powerful opponent that awaits you at the center of this ancient vessel.
• Earn exclusive Gree technology, including highly-advanced weapon and armor!
• Look for opportunities to join this recurring event throughout the rest of the year. More details to come!

NEW SYSTEM: GALACTIC REPUTATION

• Check out an all new exciting way to progress your character.
• Advance through six ranks of increasing prestige: “Outsider”, "Newcomer", "Friend", "Hero", "Champion", and "Legend".
• Earn Reputation Points by completing missions for allies such as the Gree and the Voss, or for military divisions within the Republic and the Empire.
• Galactic Reputation is tied to your character’s Legacy, so enjoy earned Reputation Points and ranks across all characters in your Legacy!

A Hundred Seagulls Swoop down to Kill a Jedi

With patch 1.1.2 live on the servers, after two whole days of testing on the beta server (cough, cough) everything is running smooth as silk (cough). Players are delighted to find that they are no longer getting credit for some of the kills they are making in Ilum! Not only that, warzones are randomly not giving credit for wins. As you can imagine, when you add issues like players being able to stealth cap objectives in warzones, and the drop rate of tokens in PvP bags seemingly diminished, players are really excited to get out there and PvP (cough,  cough).

I didn't bother handing in my weekly last week so I went out to Ilum to get my daily completed this morning and the above screenshot is what I experienced. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a pelican anywhere to save my ass (Finding Nemo fans will understand my comment).

I was able to get a couple of kills out by our base by tricking some unsuspecting Imperials into the range of the new turrets. Aside from that though, even after assembling a full operation group we were still outnumbered. Ilum at this stage involves the dominating faction holding center, farming the random spawns of armaments and destroying any groups that try to complete their dailies, and patch 1.1.2 has done nothing to fix it. If anything it's made it worse because the lag has increased. Even with a high end PC I was experiencing frame rates of as low as 4-5 fps during combat. Any time anything happened to do with the Ilum quest, the server would almost croak it. 

Despite all this I was able to complete my weekly Ilum mission as I had it 3/4 of the way completed from last week. I was also able to complete my weekly warzone missions along with my dailies. This took the better part of 4.5-5 hours. All that effort rewarded me with a total of 9 PvP bags. Every single bag gave me 15 Centurion Commendations, 7 Champion Commendations and a random amount of credits. Out of the 9 bags I received no tokens at all. The commendations, after completing both weeklies and two dailies, allow me to get no armor upgrades at all.

I might have just been unlucky this week and devs are swearing black and blue that the drop rate is still 25%. I guess time will tell but it seems like a lot of people in the SWTOR forums, myself included, are seeing zero drops of tokens.

The lag in itself, in my opinion, is enough reason to close the PvP section of Ilum down. The server is obviously not handling it and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. As far as PvP awards go, every day this PvP zone remains open, the dominating faction gains an unfair advantage in gear against the opposite faction. This affects all PvP, not only in Ilum. Once the damage is done it will be hard to fix.

Let us know how you went with PvP bags this week. have you found a decreased drop rate of tokens? Leave your comments below. We will be taking this feedback to the devs directly.

That's Not a Leprechaun Waiting for a Pot of Gold!

This is a common sight on the planet Ilum. You've just battled your way through enemy forces in hopes of obtaining some sort of epic reward. But when you reach the end of the dark tunnel you find a level 11 character using a 3rd party program to "AFK" loot the security chest that spawns about every 5 minutes.

Inside these chests, players can usually find reward items which scale in level or value to the planet's difficulty. Armor pieces, weapons, stims, or sometimes just a good amount of credits can be found inside these chests.

Many players have voiced their displeasure with what is happening here. On Keller's Void, an East Coast US server, there are even stories circulating about a character who made it all the way to level 50 just by entering warzone PvP matches and going AFK in the corner until the match was completed, gaining all the experience the players who participated in the battle would recieve. Obviously this person pictured here rode the back of another player, perhaps even of their own creation, simply to "camp" the security chest, robbing anyone who actually fights their way to it of any riches it may have inside.

What can BioWare do to prevent this from happening? It is quite obvious that a 3rd party program is being employed here as the chest is opened and looted the very second it spawns into the world. Didn't BioWare state that they would not tolerate the use of 3rd party programs in this manner shortly before the game's release? These items are ending up on the Galactic Marketplace, making these "credit farmers" a fortune.

Here are suggestions from some of the players I have spoken to :

- Spawn a "boss" NPC along with the security chest every 5 minutes which would very easily dispatch any character not of the appropriate level in the vicinity. This boss could also hold the "key" to the box itself making it impossible to open unless the key is obtained from the NPC.

- Put a level requirement on the security chest, making it impossible to open unless the character is 5 levels above or below the items actually inside the chest itself.

- Put a level requirement on the entire planet, making it impossible to set foot into the areas where these chests spawn until a good portion of the character's class quest is completed.

Please feel free to comment and give your suggestions as well. Nothing is more frustrating than finding someone who is obviously away from keyboard taking away your opportunity to gain items which may help you accomplish your goals in Star Wars the Old Republic.

Was Ilum and SWTOR's Endgame PvP Content Rushed?

Since launch, the planet Ilum has caused much concern for BioWare and the players of Star Wars the Old Republic. From overall performance issues, loopholes in the daily PvP quests, to "bots" farming high end loot chests while away from keyboard, Ilum has raised alot of issues with the player base.

With yesterday's 1.1 patch, players are no longer able to "trade off" with the other faction in order to complete their PvP daily quests. They now HAVE to PvP to complete the PvP daily.

As a result, players from the Sith Empire have now found another loophole. It became apparent that they were farming Valor (PvP Rank) by simply completing quests while inside the actual Republic Base. Some players made it all the way to rank 60 in just one day by taking advantage of a mechanic that was not intended to exist. Sith players going inside of the Republic Base were to be killed almost instantly, but this was not the case, and the damage has been done. In turn, there was nothing similar for the Republic players to take advantage of.

Many Republic players are claiming that the gap has already been breached, and many of the Imperial players have literally cheated their way to the top by taking advantage of this exploit. They are now able to use alot of the top end gear, leaving the Republic players months behind.
Players have threatened to cancel their accounts, and some are demanding a roll-back to make the stage even once again.

Today, in response, BioWare is implementing an emergency patch which will eliminate Imperial players from being able to go inside of the Republic Base without immediate death. Whether they take action or not on those players who took advantage of this exploit remains to be seen. It is uncertain at this time if they will roll back Valor ranks on these players as well.

Has the damage been done? Will the players involved see their Valor ranks rolled back? Is it fair to leave it as is?

With any MMO it will always be a work in progress. Some are calling yesterday's 1.1 patch the worst patch in MMO history. While myself being a former Star Wars Galaxies player, I can definitely beg to differ. However, there are many players who are dedicated to PvP and are quite upset over what took place yesterday. Hopefully BioWare will take some sort of action to even out the scales and make the players happy.

With this being said, do you feel SWTOR's end game PvP content or even the planet Ilum as a whole were rushed to live? Would more beta time have revealed some of these problems before the player base got involved? Should the PvP on Ilum have been instanced like the warzones?

More to come as we see what BioWare has in store with the emergency patch going in right now at the time of this post.

Patch 1.1 Killed PvP

This was the view for most Republic players in Ilum today after 1.1 went live. These changes to the open world zone let players camp spawn zones and show the unbalance in faction population in its full glory.

The changes in 1.1 to Ilum are:
Ilum
The daily and weekly mission objectives in Ilum now require defeating enemy players and/or collecting armaments from the center objective.
Players now gain increased Valor from player kills in Ilum.
Players now gain increased bonus Valor for kills based on the number of objectives controlled by their faction.
Increased bonus Valor is now granted for player kills when defending an objective your faction owns.
A notification is now displayed when a player gains Valor.
Three new respawn points have been added for each faction.
Companions are now restricted from the PvP objective area on Ilum.
Notifications are now displayed when enemy players are close to an objective.

Adding the multiple spawn points proved absolutely pointless if the game announces where the players are. Even if you manage to get into the zone as a Republic payer and find an equal fight of one or two Imperials, before you have a chance to actually kill them you have several players ganking you. In most PvP scenarios it relies on players to communicate when they need assistance. The announcements are the first thing that need to be taken out of this zone. Due tot he massive faction imbalance, some sort of population cap for PvP zones may need to be implemented, in fact, maybe the whole battle zone needs to be scrapped and re-thought out. They might want to take some inspiration from the way that Blizzard designed Tol Barad which has scheduled PvP events and limited amounts of players that could be involved, ensuring a balanced and fun time for all. Bioware have already taken actions and disabled shuttle points in Ilum, pending a fix.

Kotaku have a video on what it is like to PvP in Ilum as a republic player. Thanks to Klintz for the link.

Eworks Evolved from Ilum! Proof Found! (and PvP fixes in patch 1.1)

I've been having a lot of fun in PvP over the last couple of weeks, but yesterday was a doozy! I ended up in about twelve warzones in a row, with either no other, or only one other, level 50. Entire groups were made up of low level characters who didn't even have their faster run speed yet. This made for a very frustrating Sunday afternoon as I attempted to finish my daily. Although I was able to get eight or nine medals for most warzones, what I needed was some wins.

Everybody knows that level 50 characters have a distinct advantage over lower level characters and when you're fully decked out in PvP gear this advantage increases dramatically. I have no problems handling two and sometimes even three low level characters in a warzone. The problem is that the system isn't balancing matches by player level, players are chosen randomly. At this stage, on my server, we seem to have more level 50 Sith doing PvP than we do Republic.

The other issue is Ilum. Over the last week I've been able to do my daily missions and even complete my weeklyrelatively easily. I've engaged in PVP a couple of times, and even had my rear end handed to me by trying to capture a point in the battlefield, but last night I discovered the true issue with the Ilum missions. As I approached one of the control points I noticed two Republic players attempting to capture the point and a third player under attack from a Sith. The player was about the die, so I knew I had to do something. Without thinking twice, I jumped in and attacked. I was able to kill the fully PvP-geared Sith Warrior, although he did try and make a run for it to his companions on the other side of the battlefield; but I wasn't going to let him go. To my shock and amazement, after I had killed him, I got a series of abusive whispers from the Rebels who were capturing the spawn point, telling me off for killing the Imperial who had been flipping the spot for them.

For one, he was doing nothing to flip an objective. Two, he was attacking a Republic player. Three, the Imperials that were flipping the point had already done so and were gone. Four, it's a battlefield PvP zone so I was only doing what is surely expected.


The Republic players referred to me as a moron for engaging in PvP in a PvP zone! This guild of players will surely devolve into Ewoks within the next three thousand years. I've never seen so many Care Bears in a PvP zone!

Obviously I don't expect players to do stupid things in PvP zones like trying to attack five Sith when you're by yourself. Nobody likes a trip to the cloner, but open world PvP zones are designed for PvP. If you think that you have the right to go in there and not be attacked, you're kidding yourself. If you think you deserve the right to farm daily missions in a PvP zone and not be attacked, you are truly trying to exploit the system. I have been able to complete all my dailies and weeklies and also engage in PvP. Yes, I have run from large groups of Imperials, but I have no problems taking on two Sith by myself, because I like a challenge!

Should these players and guilds be allowed in these PvP zones? Am I wrong by saying that red = dead?

Thankfully, BioWare are taking moves in patch 1.1 to stop this Care Bear farming. They will also be introducing level 50-only warzones. Guilds like Kyro might need to find new ways to get their gear.


PvP changes in patch 1.1:

Battlemaster Gear Tokens have been converted into Battlemaster Commendations, which can be used to purchase any Battlemaster gear. This allows players to purchase any piece of gear instead of requiring them to purchase the piece indicated by the token.


Battlemaster Bags now contain Battlemaster Commendations instead of Battlemaster Gear Tokens. They still also contain Champion Commendations.

General
The shuttle room in Dorn Base Command Center on Hoth is no longer considered contested territory.
Ka on Voss is now a PvP Sanctuary.

Warzones
Level 50 players now participate in their own Warzone bracket and will not be matched with lower-level players.

Ilum
The daily and weekly mission objectives in Ilum now require defeating enemy players and/or collecting armaments from the center objective.
Players now gain increased Valor from player kills in Ilum.
Players now gain increased bonus Valor for kills based on the number of objectives controlled by their faction.
Increased bonus Valor is now granted for player kills when defending an objective your faction owns.
A notification is now displayed when a player gains Valor.
Three new respawn points have been added for each faction.
Companions are now restricted from the PvP objective area on Ilum.
Notifications are now displayed when enemy players are close to an objective.