Thursday, February 21, 2013

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.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Many Looks of Blizz


Blizz customizations

I am now working my way through the story line of my seventh character on SWTOR, a Bounty Hunter. Although I played a Bounter Hunter character on a different server last year, to around level 30, I decided I'd start again and play it this time as tank. To say that Bounty Hunter's have a colorful array of companions is an understatement. Not only do they have the cutest female companion in the game, Mako (check out all her looks here), they also get what I consider to be the coolest companion in the game, Blizz.
Blizz is a Jawa and his personality is brilliant. He's very accepting and helpful and just an all around likable guy. He's not the best companion for a tank but I find myself taking him out and putting DPS gear on him anyway, simply because his comments, his look, and the way he sounds, are such a blast. What's not to like about a Jawa who can not only fix things but tank elites with ease?

Like Bowdaar, the wookie companion that Smugglers get, you can't change the appearance of Blizz's clothing through armor. The clothing look can only be changed through customizations. So changing Blizz's customizations is just like changing his clothes. Blizz is one of the few companions where having a variety of customizations makes sense if you use him a lot (for other companions, the customizations are more of a way to change their look for the long term whereas with Blizz's customizations it's just a wardrobe maneuver).



Above and beyond the default look, Blizz has four customizations. The default look (top center) has him in a bandoleer with a fury lining on the edge of his hood, matching shoulder pads and patches on his hood and cloak. Customization 1 (top left) changes him to a plain Jawa with no bandoleer or extra frills at all. Customization 2 (top right) simply adds a bandoleer to the plain Jawa look. Customization 3 (bottom left) adds dual bandoleers, crossed over his chest, and a shoulder pad on the plain Jawa cloak. Customization 4 is not in the game at the moment. Customization 5 (bottom right) is the most exciting. He has a custom cloak with all sorts of gadgets, a vest, shoulder pads and a backpack full of gizmos. It's the customization I've chosen to stick with.

The first three customizations are available from R-N05 on Belsavis. You will find this vendor as soon as you get off the shuttle to Belsavis. He sells customizations 1, 2 and 3 for 20 000 each.


Customization 5 is available from the security key vendor on Illum orbital station. To access this vendor you will need a security key attached to your account. Customization 5 is also 20 000 credits.



submit to reddit

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Relics of the Gree Event Sneak Peek Video Pink sabers and all...

I don't know call me old school but do we need odd color sabers? White, pink, red/black? people in SWTOR don't want to use the classic blues and greens for Jedi and just red for Sith. How cool was the original SWTOR  video with all the Sith red sabers?  Are we losing somthing in game when we have Jedi using Red sabers and Sith using Pink? Would we take Vader the same way if he pulled out a pink saber? I say let people keep the odd colour sabers but give a force bonus to the classic colors. What do you all think?
  

Between February 12 and February 26, visit the in-game News Terminal, located on Carrick Station or Vaiken Spacedock, to begin your adventure in an all new in-game event, Relics of the Gree!

 Uncover the real mission of the Gray Secant, an enormous ancient Gree starship that has mysteriously appeared over Ilum's Western Ice Shelf. The Gree have promised advanced technology, including highly-advanced weapons and armor, to anyone who is brave enough to aid them by taking on an action-packed mission. submit to reddit

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Game Update 1.7: Return of the Gree Live 12th Feb 2013


Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for five and a half hours on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 from 3:30AM CST (1:30AM PST/4:30AM EST/9:30AM GMT/10:30AM CET/8:30PM AEDT) until 9AM CST (7AM PST/10AM EST/3PM GMT/3PM CET/2AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than five and a half hours, but could be extended.

Game Update 1.7: Return of the Gree unveils a new in-game event, Relics of the Gree. Travel to Ilum to investigate the appearance of an ancient Gree starships, called “the Gray Secant.” The Reputation System is also introduced in this game update, which allows you to earn Reputation points by completing missions for organizations such as the Gree or the Voss, or for military divisions within the Republic and the Empire for great rewards.

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.7: Return of the Gree.

Events are available to Free-to-Play Players and Subscribers at no additional cost. Visit the Free-to-Play Features Chart for more information.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Time: 3:30AM CST (1:30AM PST/4:30AM EST/9:30AM GMT/10:30AM CET/8:30PM AEDT) until 9AM CST (7AM PST/10AM EST/3PM GMT/3PM CET/2AM AEDT)

All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than five and a half hours.

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


submit to reddit

Friday, January 25, 2013

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.

submit to reddit

Thursday, January 24, 2013

First Look at the New Planet Makeb Video and Pre Order Loot!

Today BioWare and LucasArts are excited to announce that all players who pre-order Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ - Rise of the Hutt Cartel will receive an exclusive title and two new in-game items* once the Digital Expansion launches:




The Dr. Oggurobb Hutt Holostatue: Train under the illustrious Hutt scientist Dr. Oggurobb with this portable training device that he created in his own image.

"Scourge of the Hutts" Title: Republic and Imperial forces that adorn this title will be revered across the galaxy.
The Makrin Seedling Mini-Pet: Get your very own Makrin Seedling to follow you around and creep out your enemies! Possessing bark-like skin and grass-like nerve-rich tissues that blend in perfectly with Makeb’s environment, the Makrin Seedling has a distinguishing and eerie look!

And


Get your first look at the brand new planet Makeb featured in Rise of the Hutt Cartel and pre-order the Digital Expansion now to receive exclusive in-game rewards!

submit to reddit

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Gree: Will you sing for your Galactic Reputation?

With Patch 1.7 bringing Galactic Reputation into SWTOR, how will it change our play styles? 


If you have played any MMO you will know that reputation grinds can be both rewarding and monotonous  SWTOR has survived over a year of popular existence without it but now it's coming to the game. Could this be the missing elements for end game players? Have you found the daily quest rewards to be lackluster? How will this reputation grind change how we perceive end game?

From the screenshots of the preview of this new feature, it looks like we'll be provided with four unique reputations:
The Gree Enclave
Imperial First Mobile Fleet
Imperial Guard on Belsavis
The Voss


Now these may branch out to be six across your legacy because the Imperial and Republic are separate. It has not been made clear yet whether you will have separate reputation for your character's faction, even though reputation will be shared across your legacy.

Reputation has six unique levels which will (obviously) unlock new rewards as you level up. This will provide a unique way for subscribers to acquire cool new gear to brag about. But will Bioware make us sing for our rewards? How many months will it take to become a Legend and how awesome will the rewards actually be for our efforts?

I actually enjoyed reputation leveling in other games like WoW. It provided an extra level of achievement that you were rewarded with, apart from credits.BUT - the rewards can make or break the reputation grind. I can see reputation bonuses being a hot seller on the Cartel Market for people who prefer to hand over cash to speed up the grind.

What type of things do you want to see from your reputation and how long do you think it should take?

submit to reddit

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!








submit to reddit

Friday, January 11, 2013

Additional Character Slot for 600 Cartel Coins


Are you and Altoholic? If so today is a good day for you! all so  Republic players can now get Imperial officers uniforms and Sith can look like smugglers if they are crazy that is.. we all know Sith outfits look way cooler than Republic street gear. check it all out on the market now!


Cartel Market Update: January 10th, 2013
Hi everyone! This week, the Cartel Market is being updated with all of the new items that you’ll find below.

Newcomer Bundle (on sale for 405 Cartel Coins)
The Newcomer Bundle offers a wide range of items to help new players expedite their adventures. This bundle offers a free speeder and other items at a discounted cost.

Skip Tracer's Cartel Pack (360 Cartel Coins)
A unique assortment of items from across the galaxy. Each Pack contains rare bonus items found nowhere else!

Interstellar Privateer Armor Set (1,440 Cartel Coins)


The Interstellar Privateer Armor Set is a collection of adaptive gear with no modifications. This armor set is available to any class.

Clandestine Officer Armor Set (1,440 Cartel Coins)


The Clandestine Officer Armor Set is a collection of adaptive gear with no modifications. This armor set is available to any class.

Additional Character Slot (600 Cartel Coins)


This will unlock an additional Character Slot on all servers.

Discounts
Additionally, this week’s discounts include:

30% Discount on Gamorrean Axe: 245cc
33% Discount on Fleet Pass (Single Use): 60cc
35% Discount on Life Day Bundle (Limited Time Offer): 2,400cc
50% Discount on Newcomer Bundle
Expiring Discounts & Items
Finally, don’t miss out on the following items and discounts that will be expiring or removed with our next Cartel Market update!

30% Discount on Gamorrean Axe
33% Discount on Fleet Pass (Single Use)
35% Discount on Life Day Bundle
Czerka LD-1 Celebrator
Life Day Robes
Life Day Holo-Tree
Life Day Orb
Life Day Tinsel Bomb
Life Day Bundle
Imperial Fireworks x10
Republic Fireworks x10
Fountain Fireworks x10
Finale Fireworks x10
Fireworks Bundle x12


submit to reddit

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Star Wars: The Old Republic – State of the Game #2

A nice way to tell us a lot without giving away anything thanks Jeff! Wait What?????



Hello again everyone!

It has been an amazing couple of months since my last State of the Game blog. It feels like a good time to jump in again and give you a brief rundown on how we are doing, what is coming up next, and to tackle some issues head on. Let’s start with some comments about now and the future:

As you can probably imagine, the launch of the Free-to-Play option with our new Cartel Market has been an amazing event for our game. The game is incredibly healthy with an ever increasing number of players who are actively playing (the servers are rocking!). Having said that, we know we haven’t gotten everything perfect, and we are still working hard to make The Old Republic everything you guys desire. More than anything we wanted to get folks back in and playing the game, and bring back the excitement and camaraderie - we feel like we've made great strides over the last 6 months towards these goals. All signs point to a very bright future for our game!

Speaking of the future – we have two excellent updates coming your way in the upcoming months. In our Game Update 1.7 you should look forward to some interesting changes to a special PvP area that you have all been asking about (sorry for being cryptic, but this is technically not announced yet), as well as a visit from some old friends, The Gree Enclave (though maybe not in a way you would expect). And later in the spring, our Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel! The team has been working for a long time on this, and is very excited to get it out to you. We have greatly expanded on the original concept with several new systems, 5 new levels, a big new planet, new storylines, new skills and abilities and more beyond that. Keep your eyes open for more information over the next several months.

Now for everyone’s favorite section – Hot Topics. I will try to be as frank and open as possible.

Topic #1: Elder Game Content – What is our intent for keeping level 50’s occupied? Answer: Introducing new content and activities for the elder game is a top priority in the coming year. We’ve got new Operations, new Flashpoints, new difficulty modes, new PvP areas, and of course, the entire Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel (which is targeted at our high level players). We have a plan mapped out for the upcoming year that will keep the elder game fresh and interesting for players of all types. Overall, we’re aiming to introduce a more diverse array of activities – more stuff to do with your Companion, more challenges to tackle with groups, and more reasons for guilds to recruit. We’ll also be improving our itemization, introducing new incentives to revisit existing areas, and a lot of other exciting things that will be revealed as we move through the upcoming year.

Topic #2: World PvP – What happened to making Ilum better? What is going on with Open World PvP? Answer: We have not forgotten Ilum! I think you will see (fairly soon) the answer to this question in the game itself - something big is coming to the Western Ice Shelf, but it’s quite a departure from what was there before. As for pure Open World PvP…well, that’s a more difficult proposition. We are dedicated to providing excellent PvP experiences to our players, but we intend to focus our energy on PvP Seasons and new Warzones. We will be experimenting with a different approach to Open World PvP, something that encourages organic PvP in contested areas in a new and interesting way, but do not look for massive new Open World PvP this year (outside of what I mentioned above). It is still on our design wall, but is taking a back seat to other forms of PvP.


Topic #3: Character Copy to Public Test Server (PTS) – What is taking so long? Answer: As of the writing of this letter, we are in focused, internal testing on character copies for PTS. You should expect to see this come within the first part of this year. It will provide free character copies to PTS at any time (with possible restrictions dependent upon our testing needs at any given time). This will also lay the foundation for our new live character transfer system that will be coming later this year.

Topic #4: Same Gender Romance: Any news on this front would be great… Answer: First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game. I realize that we promised SGR to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. As we have said in the past, allowing same gender romance is something we are very supportive of.

Secondly, I want to reveal today that we are adding SGR with some NPCs on Makeb and do intend on pursuing more SGR options in the future. More details to come!

Whew! I think we got through this State of the Game pretty well. The team and I will continue to scan the forums, read the boards, and listen to feedback. We’re dedicated to giving you the game that YOU want to play and are making changes and improvements at a rapid pace to keep up with your desires. Please keep posting and keep talking about The Old Republic. Together we will continue to care for and expand this fantastic game.

Until next time,

-Jeff Hickman

-Executive Producer, Star Wars: The Old Republic


So Sorry you didn't want to let the Aussies know what is going on with the Dead servers over that side of the world :( but thanks for all the things you didn't tell us! :)
submit to reddit