SWTOR Legacy Companion Unlocks in patch 1.2

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's a summary:

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

* Is only unlocked once

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

Hot off the Press for 1.2: Become Your Ship Droid

"Note posted on April Fool's"

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

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

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

Four New Achievement Missions in Patch 1.2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taunta: Close up with the new Collector's Edition pet in patch 1.2

One of the most exciting things about patch 1.2 is the introduction of Taunta. Tauna is an awesome new pet for those of you who forked out the extra credits for the Collector's Edition, unlike that little droid that looks like a vacume cleaner and goes beep ... and not much else. Now you must admit that just the look of Taunta is very well done, right down to the little horns on his head and his cute little tauntaun sounds.  

You can purchase Taunta if you have access tot he Collector's Edition vendor. He will set you back 200 000 credits, but me being a sucker for pets, I didn't think twice about dropping that type of cash for a new buddy.

The second you pull Taunta out he will focus on you with admiring eyes and follow you everywhere.

Unlike your other companions, Taunta won't abandon you as soon as you pull out your mount. Taunta can keep up with you, even when you're riding a 110 speed mount.

Taunta is also a chick magnet! Kira seemed to be fascinated with him; or is that jealousy?

You'll find yourself starring at Taunta, watching his cute little yawns. He also seems to constantly scratch at the ground, kind of like a chicken.

Taunta will be available in patch 1.2.

Developer Dispatch: The Legacy System

Is that a jet pack mount unlock I see for Bounty Hunter? I so want that on my Jedi!

The Legacy System is coming in Game Update 1.2, and with it, a new dimension to The Old Republic™ experience. Like the Skywalkers, you'll build your own family tree in the Star Wars™ galaxy, linking your characters on the same server together. Your achievements will open up new species options, new abilities for all the characters in your Legacy, and that's only the beginning...

Trooper Companion Information Updated

Troopers, it's your turn: our Companion List information for Trooper Companions has now been updated to our latest style of presentation. Character information, Gameplay information and Gift Preferences are all included.

Sith Inquisitor Companion Details in Full

If you want to romance Andronikos Revel, or maybe Ashara Zavros is more your style, you'll need to know what gifts can give you extra mileage. We've updated our Companion List information for the Sith Inquisitor class, with the gift preferences information and a whole lot more.

Go forth, you Force-attuned, Empire aligned players and get to know your companions! 

Jedi Consular Companion List Update

If you are playing a Jedi Consular then bookmark our page of information about their companions so that you can quickly alt-tab to check out the facts as you play. The list has been updated so that not only does it look pretty, it's got more information and no blank areas.

Check it out now.

Combat Log Update and Details Game Update 1.2

At the Guild Summit in early March, Bioware announced that SWTOR was finally getting combat logs. There have been all sorts of heated debates across the forums about whether this will be good or bad for the game. I am not a huge fan of combat logs because they are often miss-used. Combat logs are a brilliant tool for optimizing a player's personal DPS or healing abilities. Having access to this information will allow you to choose the right sequence of attack for any given situation. Unfortunately, I've seen players sit out of raids and kicked from dungeons for having chosen to play a class that is at the time sub-par at a given task, a judgement made from information gleaned from combat logs. Most of the time, players making decisions based on combat logs, actually have no idea what they're looking at. As an MMO player who raided religiously for over three years, I often found that some of our most valuable raid members where players who were not at the top of the DPS meters. DPS meters have a problem of not showing group-wide buff advantages and they don't show a players' ability to attack the right target or be in the right place at the right time, or interupt a crucial critical hit from a boss. Often you will find players playing the DPS meters and not worrying about how they can truly benefit the group and the given situation.

At this stage, the information that Bioware has provided indicates that combat logs will be client-side only. This means that you can only you will see how well you are doing. I hope this stays true. being able to better yourself is one thing. Being able to judge others on their performance is another. I am just hoping no classes get judged once the combat logs become available.

Georg Zoeller provided us with a breakdown of what the combat log is. As you can see, with this combat log we will be able to calculate DPS (damage per second), healing per second and threat generated. A threat meter is something that may help a lot of players in raid scenarios. Bioware have released this information to the media community to allow them to start work on mods for SWTOR.

Iotasquared created a simple combat log parser that parses the combat logs and prints out damage/heals/threat stats here.

Read on to see a full example of what an exported combat log looks like, supplied by Bioware. Warning: this looks like scrambled text to the uninitiated.




[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Lucky Shots {1781496599806223}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Fortification {1781496599806227}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Might {1781496599805952}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Valor {1781496599806219}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:15] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Sprint {810670782152704}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Sprint {810670782152704}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:15] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Shien Form {1280806492307456}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Shien Form {1280806492307456}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:28] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Lucky Shots {1781496599806223}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Fortification {1781496599806227}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Might {1781496599805952}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Valor {1781496599806219}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:56] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Sprint {810670782152704}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Sprint {810670782152704}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:56] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Shien Form {1280806492307456}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Shien Form {1280806492307456}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:20:05] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] () 

Big update to our Bounty Hunter Companion List

Now that we've had the opportunity to spend more time ingame we'd thought we'd go back and optimize our companion pages which we started way back in Beta (which was only a little over 3 months ago!). We've included new information about when your companions are obtained and what quests actually award your companions. Information about gift preferences has also been updated and presented in a new easy to follow chart. We've gathered all this information for all companions and will be updating our pages over the following weeks. Today's update is of the Bounty Hunter companion list and it of course also includes the customizations for Mako.

I'd like to thank everybody for providing their feedback which has lead to these updates. Feel free to add tips in the comments section.

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