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.

Gree reputation requirement guide

Gree gear is highly sort after, so I thought I'd put all of the information I've found into one post so that you can figure out how many missions you need to do to get the gear you want.

Two of the armor sets, the black with red highlights and black with blue highlights, only require friend reputation, a total of 7500 to unlock Friend.

Here are all of the different ranks and the required amount of reputation to unlock each one:
Outsider = 2500
Newcomer = 5000
Friend = 7500
Hero = 10000
Champion = 15000
Legend = 30000

So to work out how much reputation you need to get to Champion, add Outsider, Newcomer, Friend and Hero together.

The weekly reputation cap is 12000 but you can squeeze in a little bit more. So if you use 44 green tokens (11880) and one purple (1440) you end up with 13320. You can min./max/ these amounts by taking off two green, throwing in a blue and then a purple to get the most out of it. Needless to say, if you have at least one purple token you can get at least 13000 reputation in a week just by using the purple token just before you hit the cap of 12000.

Green (g): 270 rep
Blue (b): 630 rep
Purple (p): 1440 rep

The amount of reputation available per day per character by only doing PvE quests, before Newcomer rank, is 1440. The amount of reputation available  per day per character  by only doing PvE quests, after Newcomer rank, is 2070. 

To unlock extra missions you will need to purchase the token off the main Gree vendor who has the weapons for 1000 credits. This token must be purchased for every character.

Thanks to a post i found in the forums, here's a breakdown of daily PvE mission rewards:
Day 1: 270 (one-time rep for introduction quest) + 1440 rep from PvE dailies = 1710 total rep.
Day 2: +1440 = 3150 total rep
Day 3: +1440 = 4590 total rep
Day 4: +1440 = 6030 total rep
Day 5: +1440 = 7470 total rep
Day 6: +1440 + 1440 from one-time newcomer quest + 630 from new daily = 10980 total rep
Day 7: +2070 rep = 13050 total rep (1050 over cap)

It has been confirmed by Bioware that the Gree vendors will remain after the event. Since you have to manually activate the tokens this means, you can't have too many tokens and it is very possible to reach Champion in the two weeks that we have in the event.

Another thing that some players haven't realized is that every time you kill the Boss in the center of PvP area, next to where you drop off the orbs, he drops a green token. I have personally picked up 10+ tokens off him over the last week. This in itself is one of the main reasons that my guild has spent so much time PvPing in the zone. Killing this droid every couple of minutes was a lot easier and more fun than doing all the missions on four different characters. World Bosses in the zone drop mutiple tokens too. Only players in the first few groups of an operation group actually get to loot the token. It is quite easy to kill these world Bosses with 8 or 16 players. With all the extra tokens acquired by world Bosses, area elites and the operation to kill Xendanalyst II drops mutiple tokens on both story and hard modes.

Hope this helps you get the gear you want. a big thanks to the reddit community for help on this.

Those Healers Need Protecting!

I spend most of my time in SWTOR PvPing these days and my main character is a Jedi Knight Guardian.  He's got a balanced tank heavy spec that is able to do some DPS as well but he's more than capable of holding a base or protecting a healer. The problem is, at least on my server, that we're seeing less and less healers wanting to heal. They are complaining that none of the tanks want to do their job. So where have all the tanks gone?

The majority of the Guardians in the guild that I am in are switching to what they call a LOL sweep spec. This spec allows them to do large amounts of damage to groups of people at once by completely specing into all the AOE sweep abilities. Unfortunately this prevents them from being able to be proficient guards and the healers die faster than they can heal. Due to the nature of the Guardian play style, in the past, the Gaurdians were the last true tanks that healers could rely on to protect them. Now that the LOL sweep spec has become popular though, healers are dying as soon as they engage in combat in PvP. Healers are now swapping to DPS spec so that they can last longer in PvP. As a result we are seeing greatly unbalanced teams - sometimes for the good - and sometimes for the bad. I was more than happy to get seven straight wins last night and it was obvious that our opposition was made up of an attempted LOL sweep team with no healers.

In a PvP team you would ideally have a balance of two tanks, two healers, four DPS. In SWTOR, as in other games, certain classes were designed originally to be better in certain roles, Guardian being a heavy armor spec and limited to melee range was far more effective taunting and guarding than attempting to do DPS. Unlike Powertech Bounty Hunters that could do a reasonable amount of ranged DPS and have a good amount of survivability the melee restriction of Guardians gave them a DPS disadvantage due to range restrictions. So Guardians were concentrating on getting their medals by guarding and intercepting and taunting. This has all changed with the LOL sweep spec. Now they are effective AOE damage BUT unfortunately they are ineffective at guarding, leaving healers wide open.

Should there be more awards for protecting and guarding and healing players? It is obvious that DPS classes have a distinct advantage for achieving high medal counts in PvP. Is it this advantage that is forcing tanks and healers away from their role? Do Bioware need to rethink the allocation of medals for both healers and tanks to make matches more balanced? Obviously, the balance needs to be precise, since matches made up of four tanks and four healers can take forever.

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!

Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate is on Public Test Server!

 SWTOR Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate is on Public Test Server!

Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate is now on the Public Test Server (PTS) allowing players to experience brand new in-game content, including a new PvP Warzone and Heroic Space Missions.

Travel to a remote Warzone to discover a brand new PvP battle mechanic. 

The Republic and Imperial forces are locked in an intense conflict to control two energy pylons. Fight to take control of these powerful pylons and kill enemy forces to discharge energy into your faction’s gate. The first team to open their portal unleashes deadly reinforcements to wipe out enemy players. But beware, those who attempt to control these objective points may find them to be a bit volatile!

Take on the best pilots in the galaxy.

Navigate your ship to victory in new LeveI 50+ Heroic Mode Space Missions! With six new repeatable Heroic Mode Missions per faction, these updated Space Missions will challenge even the most skilled pilots. Players will earn Black Hole Commendations to spend on ship upgrades, high level gear, and more!

For those of you that already have a character, we encourage you to explore Ancient Hypergate and Heroic Space Missions. For your convenience, all Warzone matches on PTS will automatically be set to Ancient Hypergate. Please give us your feedback by posting on the Public Test Server forum. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to offer the ability to copy characters for this test. Be sure to visit the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Test Center to learn more.

Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate - PTS Patch Notes



UPDATED 11/20/2012

The patch notes published for the Public Test Server are not final and are subject to change. Currently, only English notes are available, but French and German versions will be published when they are available.

Highlights

• Ancient Hypergate, a new Warzone, is available for play! Travel to an ancient ruin built around a Gree Hypergate and battle to control the precious lost technology for your faction.
• New incredibly challenging Weekly [HEROIC] Space Combat missions are available!
• All new Grade 7 Artifact Quality Starship Upgrades are now available!

Group Finder

• Added a new Level 50 "Introduction to Group Finder" mission to the Daily Mission Terminal on the Republic and Imperial Fleets. This will be granted when players complete the Advanced Gear mission for their Class.
• Group Finder categories have been updated with tooltips that provide a recommended gear rating and an outline of the rewards available from the content.
• Increased Black Hole Commendations awarded by Story Mode Operations in Group Finder from 5 to 10.

Items

• Tionese gear available from the Tionese vendor no longer costs Tionese Crystals, and their commendation costs have been reduced for most items.
• Ancient Artifact Storage Boxes can now be purchased for 25 Tionese Crystals from all Tionese vendors.

Missions and NPCs

• Added a new Level 50 "Advanced Gear" mission for each Class to the Daily Mission Terminal on the Imperial and Republic Fleets.

UI

• The tooltips for several currencies will now explain how they can be acquired and what they can be used to purchase. These currencies include: Tionese Commendations, Columi Commendations, Black Hole Commendations, Daily Commendations, and Tionese Crystals.
• The Flashpoint Commendations category on the Currency Window has been renamed to Endgame Commendations. Daily Commendations will now appear under the Endgame Commendations category.

New PvP content "before year's end"

From Allison Berryman

Hi everyone! I asked Damion Schubert for any news or information we can share. There are many questions about the topic, but he did have a bit to say about new Warzone content:

Fear not! New Warzone content is in heavy testing and should be in the next major patch after 1.5. We hesitate to give exact timing, but definitely before the year's end.

So in the next 2 months we will see new PvP content but what will it be? New gear? 1 new warzone or more?

Is it taking too long for PvP content?

Gone are the raiders of yesteryear

Our PvP guild has decided to do some basic story mode raiding. As a fully rakata-geared tank, I offered to take the newer players through the three operations currently available ingame. But where are all the raiders gone? I did the operations Eternity Vault, Karagga's Palace and Explosive Conflict with an active guild, but once it was cleared the majority of the players moved on to other games. I have spoken to some of them in the last two months and they say that after SWTOR they went to Terror, and cleared all the content there and now they're almost done with Guild Wars 2. So what does that mean for operations development? Is it possible for the devs to keep up with demand?

Is it beneficial for developers to concentrate on operation development above and beyond single player and PvP content? It seems to be so hard to keep the elite guilds entertained. I've seen this exact same thing happen in WoW, where the elite guilds clear content faster than anybody else, but also get really bored, really fast.

Bioware need to focus on what they do best which is awesome story content for single players and small groups. Hell, the Star Wars Universe has always been about small bands of heroes doing the unbelievable, not small armies. How heroic is it really for 16 Jedi to beat up on one big dude?

Although I don't believe that operations content should not be in the game - it is a viable source of entertainment - I just don't think it should be the main focus of any up and coming content for SWTOR. Single player content is seen by far more players and end game operations, especially the hardcore stuff, has too short a lifespan for any serious long term player of the game.

What type of player are you? Do you crave the big operations or do the story lines keep you hooked?

Patch 1.4 Changes: MK-2 PvP gear

Patch 1.4 will be making it easy for new players to jump right into PvP with the new Recruit MK-2. 

Just before the servers went down I managed to get a couple of screenshots of the MK-2 gear and in these screenshots I have compared it to both Battlemaster gear and the old Champion gear (which is no longer ingame). 

As you will see, new recruit gear falls just short of the Battlemaster stats. Each piece is around 24-27 expertise lower than the current Battlemaster gear. All the other stats are a level or so under the Battlemaster gear as well, but the expertise is what you need for PvP. 

This gear also looks exactly the same as current Battlemaster gear, so you won't be targeted by players who are looking for easy kills on fresh new players. 

The price on the gear hasn't changed and it will all be available in Patch 1.4, which has just hit the test servers today. A full set of Recruit MK-2, including the unchanged Champion relics, will grant 944 Expertise. This is a 5% increase over the original Recruit gear (896 Expertise). 

How Resolve will change after Patch 1.4

The above graph (which I found on Reddit, with no credits as to who made it) shows the changes to Resolve that will occur with Patch 1.4. These changes hope to improve the PvP experience for players. The different shapes represent different types of stuns. The graph line itself shows the path to a full resolve bar. When you have a full resolve bar you're immune to stuns. This is why that tank is able to resist all your stuns as he is running towards the Hutt ball goal line. Right now, whether the stuns are truly effective or not makes no difference to what it does to your Resolve level. If three people all attempt to stun you at the same time, or apply stuns on top of stuns to no real use, it will fill a player's Resolve bar instantly. Post Patch 1.4, the Resolve bar will take into consideration the amount of time you actually spend stunned, rather than the amount of stuns that are applied on you.

Looking at the post 1.4 graph you see 4 closely applied stuns will half fill your bar, but four spaced out stuns, that actually do keep you stunned for a period of time, will completely fill your bar. When your bar is full, you cannot be crowd-controlled. It all equals good times in PvP.

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.

SWTOR Developer Q&A Highlights

In the community news this week the developers published a Q&A which took place in the forums. Although a lot of the news had already been covered via the dev tracker, there were a couple of little highlights that you may find interesting. 

First of all, Daniel Erickson talked about game update 1.2 and the legacy system, and then there were some gems from Gabe about future changes to the PvP system, which include a new warzone that is capable of same-faction matches. Gabe also talked about cross-server warzones coming soon. By the sounds of it, we're going to get a hell of a lot of changes to this game in patch 1.2. 

Here are some highlights from the chat. For the full Q&A, follow the link below.

Daniel Erickson: Game Update 1.2 will bring you the first big step in the Legacy System but it’s important to understand that the Legacy System will continue to grow, bringing new options to new characters (alts) and some fun options for elder game players as well. Legacy is definitely not just for new characters! The species that will be unlocked in Game Update 1.2 are species currently in the game that will become available to classes and factions where you haven’t seen them before. New species are in consideration for the future but we don’t have any details to share right now. Look for more specific details in the near future as we head toward Game Update 1.2.

Daniel Erickson: We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how popular PvP is in The Old Republic and we’ve been doubling down on our efforts to bring exciting new content and systems to the PvP community. Right now there’s a new Warzone planned for Game Update 1.2 which we’re already testing internally and really enjoying. We can say it’s enabled for same faction vs. same faction play, so if you’ve been playing a lot of Huttball, expect some variety soon! Also coming in 1.2 is the pre-season of our Warzone ranking system, bringing better matchmaking which means better PvP. In the future expect a ton more PvP news as we expand and polish what has proven to be one of the most popular aspects of The Old Republic. We’ve got big plans.

Gabe Amatangelo: Not until we introduce cross server queuing. If we were to allow players to choose their Warzone before they could queue across servers, then it would negatively affect how often every player would see a Warzone – and for every player that loves a certain Warzone there is another player that hates it. The population would end up divided by their Warzone choice, negatively affecting the time it would take for a specific Warzone to become available for anyone. With cross server queuing we will still have a preference to match players of the same server, but those players who choose specific preferences such as these will likely end up in a match with players in the larger Wargroup.

Read on

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.

SWTOR Patching PvP with Duct Tape

Patch Notes for patch 1.1.2 were released yesterday and the patch has made its way onto the beta server for testing. There seams to be lots of confusion about the changes BioWare is making to PvP and specifically, PvP bags. Daily and weekly PvP missions award a PvP bag which has a random loot item in it and specific tokens. The random PvP item provided level 56 epic PvP gear and the tokens allowed you to save up and purchase level 51 gear. The randomness of this system caused all sorts of upset in the community as some players, due to luck, were able to gear up much faster than others. I found myself not PvPing at all on my level 50, as I've already got all my level 56 gear and the last three rewards I received were all duplicates of what I already have. So what they've done, in an attempt to fix this, are:

This is from patch notes 1.1.2:
The number of commendations in Champion and Battlemaster Bags has been greatly increased, and the direct item trade tokens appear less frequently in Champion Bags. This change allows players to obtain PvP gear at a steady and significantly more predictable rate with an occasional bonus.
Then Gabe clarified after an uproar int he forums with this post:
It's obvious from comments here that the patch note is not specific enough, so we'll get it updated before the patch goes to the live servers. Here are some specifics:

Champion Bags now always contain 15 Centurion Commendations AND 7 Champion Commendations. Battlemaster Bags now always contain 15 Champion Commendations. So Centurion gearing up progression for new level 50s is increased significantly and Champion gearing up progression will be steady.

We do still intend on adding more intro level 50 PvP items as well as change how Battlemaster Commendations operate toward the same 'steady' goal. It's just the scope of that change was more than could be done in a weekly patch as it included vendor changes, conversions to existing commendations on players already, etc.

That being said, the current interim 'gearing up' system will change significantly when we introduce Ranked Warzones (aiming for Game Update 1.2). Stay tuned for more details on that.

- Gabe

Georg further relieved some tension, explaining in even more detail:
Let me just point this out, since there's confusion about it.

The 1.1.2. bag changes have reduced the RNG element on drops DRAMATICALLY. Exactly what you guys asked for.

Instead of hoping to get specific item tokens, you now get (more) commendations that you can turn into an item of your choice. That is a lot more deterministic and reliable than opening bags and hoping for a token.

-- Georg

Now I must admit that I can see that these changes might make it worthwhile for me to go back and PvP again, as I can save up for the higher level tier gear even though I'll still be wasting a lot of Centurion Commendations. The new system gives me at least some reward. This doesn't alleviate the problems that still exist in open world PvP. At the moment the Tatooine PvP battlefield is a ghost town with no objectives and Illum is a gank or be ganked zone depending on what faction you are. The dominating faction controls the center and doesn't do anything else in the zone. There is no incentive to capture all the other bases when the oppossing faction is hardly making an appearance. 

I still believe that Illum needs to be re-thought and Bioware need to take a close look at other open world PvP zones in other popular MMOs for some ideas on balance and making the zone fun.

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.

SWTOR: It's All About the Look

A real important part of any MMO is how you can customize your character. SWTOR does a great job of providing a variety of different outfits, to allow your character to have a very unique look. The only issue at this stage is the PvP gear. Unfortunately the PvP gear is the best stuff you can get for most players, but it forces you to have a certain look. You can only take two of the three mods out and equip them in other orange items. For me though, I actually really do like the look of the Jedi Knight PvP armor. 

There's a long thread in the forums with massive complaints about the look of this armor. Now, although I have to agree that the helmet is absolutely dreadful, the rest of the armor, in my eyes, looks really good. Unfortunately the image linked in the thread is of very low quality and you really can't tell what it looks like. The images below are high quality of the Jedi Knight PvP armor in the silver and brown combo and the gold variety.

One thing I'm personally very vain about is the look of my lightsaber. I've been running through lower level flash points in search of the look I want and I've found two lightsaber hilts (shown in the image above) that I believe suit my character's style perfectly. At level 50 there are a variety of different flash points you can solo. I've found this to be a really great way to find unique orange items for yourself and your companions too. Although the mods in the orange items you pick up might be too low, they are easily upgraded with mods from the Galactic Kiosk or even through tokens and vendors on places like Corellia.

More images of the controversial Jedi Knight PvP armor.

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.

PVP Medal Rundown. What the Hell are Medals For?

There is more to PVP than just experience. You also get valor, commendations and credits. There are ways to maximize how much you get in any PVP match, regardless of your spec. There are lots of achievements you can get that will boost your valor. Your valor will allow you to unlock higher end purchases on PVP items. Your PVP commendations will allow you to purchase said PVP items from vendors and your XP, or experience, will obviously increase your character's level ... and if you don't know what credits are then go watch Star Wars IV and listen to Han, he explains it properly!

Players participating and achieving goals within a PVP warzone are rewarded with medals. Every medal you get will increase your valor by 50 and also give you +5 warzone commendations. Knowing what gives you medals is extremely important to maximizing what you get out of a warzone. At this stage, this is what we've worked out, with thanks to the guys in the forums who have filled in lots of gaps. As you can see from the image below, when you know what you have to achieve, it's easy to get a lot out of PVP, really fast.

I'm having a blast with my Jedi Gaurdian, Jean, in warzones and I'd like to apologize to all of the players that I killed multiple times ... nah, not really!

Medals Accumulated Earn 50 Valor and 5 Warzone commendations each.

Medal Ranking:

• The Gold ranking is awarded for earning 6 or more medals during a match
• The Silver ranking is awarded for 3-5 medals
• The Bronze ranking is awarded for 1-2 medals

Announcements (thanks Ayestes):

• Unbeatable announcement is unlocked if you earn 4 medals without dying.
• Invincible announcement is unlocked if you earn 7 medals without dying.
• Immortal announcement is unlocked if you earn 9 medals without dying.

Medals:

1. Medic – 2.5k healing from a single heal
2. Demolisher – 2.5k damage from a single attack
3. Trauma Surgeon – 5k healing from a single heal
4. Anihilator - 5K damage from a single attack
5. Quick Draw – Getting a killing blow on one player
6. Combatant – Dealing 75k damage
7. Destroyer - Dealing 300K damage
8. Healer - Healing 75K
9. Savior - Healing 300K
10. Defender – Earning 1k Defender Points
11. Warden - Earning 3k Defender Points
12. Assassin – Killing a player in a one-on-one fight
13. Shield – 5k Protection
14. Protector - 50K Protection (thanks meatballz/adlarn)
15. Guardian – 2k Protection since last death
16. Paladin – 10k Protection since last death
17. Commando – Killing 10 enemy players
18. Soldier – Killing 25 enemy players

Valor Titles: Every 10 ranks in valor will give you a new title -

Note: Valor Rank 60 is required to open Battlemaster Bags

1. Skirmisher – Valor Rank 10
2. Duelist – Valor Rank 20
3. Gladiator – Valor Rank 30
4. Centurion – Valor Rank 40
5. Champion – Valor Rank 50
6. Battlemaster – Valor Rank 60
7. War Hero – Valor Rank 70
8. Conqueror – Valor Rank 80
9. Warlord – Valor Rank 90
10. Elite Warlord – Valor Rank 100