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 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.

Scheduled Maintenance for Game Update 1.6: December 11th, 2012

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for six hours on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 from 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET/7PM AEDT) until 8AM CST (6AM PST/9AM EST/2PM GMT/3PM CET/1AM AEDT). All game servers will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than six hours, but could be extended.

Game Update 1.6 introduces a new Warzone, Ancient Hypergate, where you can team up with other players to fight for control of powerful energy pylons to unleash the power of the ancient Gree hypergate against your enemies. Six new Heroic Space Missions are also available for each faction. These missions will be a challenge even for the greatest pilots in the galaxy!

Please Note: PvP Warzones and Space Missions are available to Subscribers at no additional cost. Players without a subscription have limited free access per week and may purchase additional access in the Cartel Market.

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate.

Scheduled Maintenance
Date: Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

Time: 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET/7PM AEDT) until 8AM CST (6AM PST/9AM EST/2PM GMT/3PM CET/1AM AEDT)

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

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

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?

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.

New SWTOR Content Coming

Alongside the announcement of SWTOR going Free to Play in the fall, five new bits of content are coming up. Dates have not been announced yet.

New operation: Terror from Beyond

A raid raid takes us to planet Asation to fight a variety of new bosses and to stop the rise of the "Dread Masters". This operation is one of the things that you will need to be subscribed for to experience. I've been having a lot of fun helping new players complete operations over the past few weeks. Sitting back and experiencing the story backbone of the operation is far more gratifying than blasting through content in an attempt to be first on the server, for me at least.

New warzone: Ancient Hypergate

That new planet, Asation, features here again. With the promise of "new game mechanics" the addition of another warzone is greatly appreciated for anyone who loves PvP. The benefits that Free to Play willbring to PvP are exciting. More players means more time fighting and less time in queues.

New space combat missions

This is a Godsend for anybody who likes space. I find space combat missions to be a great way to make credits ingame. Unfortunately, until now, there have only been a couple of viable missions at level 50. All the lower level missions don't make anywhere near enough credits to bother spending your time on. With 10 new level 50 missions this will no longer be an issue. If you're a Cybertech crafter, start stockpiling ship parts now!

HK-51 Assassin Droid Companion

HK-51 has been hiding in game files since before the game was launched. Players will finally be given the opportunity to participate in an epic story line with this awesome droid as a reward.

Cartel Market and Coins

Although at this time we don't know who is running this Cartel ... is it the Hutts, Bounty Hunters, or do the Jawas have their act together ... but cartel coins will be rewarded to subscribers, for subscribed players, the amount being based on how long you've played for. That's right, if you been a subscriber since launch, you will be paid for every month you subscribed for. Prepare to deck out your toons with some sweet gear.

SWTOR Free to Play This Fall!

With this surprising announcement this morning from EA, the biggest questions are, how will it effect the current subscribers, and why is SWTOR going free to play?

Obviously many people will come to the conclusion that the game must have failed. As an active subscriber, with multiple toons, I can tell you that the population is healthy. Although it's not booming, it's greater than a lot of other MMOs out there. So why go free to play?

The free to play system is what we in sales and marketing refer to as a "puppy dog close". This type of close, as in the end pitch of a sale, is designed for products that a sales rep is confident that the consumer will love once they experience it. And once they have invested time into the game, they'll be more than happy to pull out their credit card and finalize their commitment. Now the free to play system that BioWare are launching for SWTOR gives you full access to the character story line, but only gives you limited access to flashpoints, races, auction houses and other crucial game elements. It also gives you no access to end game operation (raid) content. After you have invested hours with your beloved character, if you want to participate in end game content you will have to subscribe.


After experiencing more than 50% of the class story lines, I can tell you that this is a very strong sales pitch. There is no risk up front for any Star Wars fan to pick up this game. Free to play is going to increase server population and it has the potential to increase profit margins for BioWare. Higher populations means more PvP action and even more people in queues for flashpoints. This provides a greater experience for subscribers. Obviously subscribers will have certain advantages due to access to end game content that the freebies won't, giving them lots of easy kills in PvP - and who doesn't like feeling like a legend?

Rather than trying to cram everything into this one post I will explore the changes that Free to Play will bring to SWTOR over the coming weeks. Here is the official Press Release from EA:

EA Expands Award-Winning MMO Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ with Free-to-Play Option This Fall

New Free-to-Play Option Will Open Up the Critically-Acclaimed MMO from BioWare and LucasArts to Millions of Additional Star Wars™ Fans and Gamers Worldwide

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

BioWare™, a Label of Electronic Arts (EA), announced today that it will be expanding the story-driven, massively multiplayer online game Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ by adding a new Free-to-Play option this fall. This option will give players access to each of the eight iconic Star Wars character class storylines, all the way up to level 50, with certain restrictions*. Unlimited game access, including new higher-level game content and new features, will be made available through individual purchases or through a subscription option.

“Players want flexibility and choice. The subscription-only model presented a major barrier for a lot of people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic™ universe,” said Matthew Bromberg, GM of BioWare Austin.

Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic added, “Since launch, we’ve been listening to feedback from our fans and adding new content and refining The Old Republic at a breakneck pace. We believe we are in a position to help improve the service even more, not only by continuing to add new content, but also by expanding the game to many more Star Wars fans, increasing the populations on worlds and the vibrancy of the community.”

Starting this fall, there will be two different ways to play Star Wars: The Old Republic:

Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable in-game items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.

Free-To-Play – 

The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.

As the first step towards adding the new Free-to-Play option this fall, Star Wars: The Old Republic will go on sale in August for $14.99 USD, including one-month of free subscription.

Current and former players will also find additional benefits as part of this program. BioWare will be increasing the frequency of game content updates, with the first of many new releases coming in August. In addition, current subscribers will receive Cartel Coin grants and qualify for access to special in-game items. Even former players who re-activate now will qualify for special benefits. To learn more about these rewards, please visit www.StarWarstheOldRepublic.com/FREE.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the most critically acclaimed MMOs of all time, having won MSNBC’s “Game of the Year” award in 2011, “Editor’s Choice” awards from IGN, PC Gamer and “Best MMO of 2011” awards from Game Informer, GameSpy, AOL Massively, Ten Ton Hammer and more. The game is set thousands of years before the classic Star Wars movies, with the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire locked in the middle of an epic, galactic war. Players choose one of eight iconic Star Wars character classes, including the Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, Trooper, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent, becoming the hero or villain of their own personal Star Wars saga.

Legacy Perks. Get ready to get ripped off in patch 1.3

Bioware have just released a promo video for patch 1.3. The video tells us nothing really new but does provide some extra details about the new features. The video has received many dislikes and as I go over the details, you mind understand why. The changes are:

Legacy perks
Group Finder
Character transfer
Scaling social gear

First, have a quick watch of the video (bottom of this post). As you will see the Legacy perks are specific to each individual character, and they don't come cheap.

Looking at the warzone perks, the first one costs 20k and gives you a 2% XP perk to leveling in warzones. Another 30k will add an extra 2%, to the total of 4%. Each level seems to go up by 10k and add an extra 2%. So you'll be able to achieve a maximum of 10% bonus XP after spending approximately 200k. If you want to level another alt in PvP you'll have to spend another 200k. Please keep in mind that this is a guestimate as they only show us the costing of the first two.


Now is it just me or does that seem a little steep for such a pathetic return? 10% is not going to make much difference. I have three characters past act 2 and several others well on their way and I, like a lot of other players, am finding it really hard to have to re-do the standard missions found on most worlds. As it is at this stage, just to complete your class quests you have to level PvP for hours or re-do missions you've done 3 or 4 times already. I've been alternating characters to get the most out of rested XP, but it's still at the painful stage of going through this stuff for the 4th and 5th time for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the class missions and I am thoroughly enjoying every second of the story lines but I'm finding the leveling to be way more time consuming than it was originally in Beta.

Group Finder seriously should have been in the game from the start so although I'm pleased to see it being added, it's an "about time" feature, not a "wow" feature.

Character transfers are definitely going to help the lower populated servers and I hope that Bioware do the right thing and give everybody who has been gimped for months on dead servers the opportunity to move for free.

As for scaling social gear, since my main character is a Jedi Consular I can tell you now, this is broken before it's released. Currently all social gear is light armor but yet my Jedi Conuslar is still stuck in his fuggly rakata gear. As none of the promised armor bonuses transfer to other gear Bioware made a big deal about the customization abilities in patch 1.2. Apart from war hero and black hole gear, no other items in the game mods transfer. So if you're thinking of decking out yourself as a Sandperson, be prepared to loose your bonuses if you're not in the absolute state of the art gear.

I may seem a little bit annoyed about this last point, but it's one of the many options that Beta testers disputed. The change to lock-down epics was made about a month prior to the game being released. I had to do multiple videos to demonstrate the changes on mods as they were released in Beta. The community tried to advise Bioware but they did not listen and five months later we're still paying the price by having Jedis look like punces with wings on our sleeves in order to have our earned set bonuses. Unless the change is made to retro-fit older mods, this will plague the ability for players to customize themselves properly for some time.

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

Game Update 1.2 "Legacy" Video in HD

Star Wars Game Update 1.2 "Legacy" Video in HD

This Video looks at:

WarZone: Novare Coast
Operation: Explosive conflict
Flashpoint: The Lost Island
Expanded Legacy System
Legacy Family Tree
Legacy Abilities
Legacy Unlocks
Legacy Species Unlocks
Advances Options
UI Customization
Improved Character Textures
Appearance Customization
Mission Tracker Useables
Warzone Rankings
New Corellia Daily Missions
New Mini Pets
Guild Banks
New Gear

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.

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.

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