Advanced Classes: more meat on the bones

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Friday update this week is a big one as it covers the Advanced Classes for each starting class. The update includes new information on skills and abilities for each class and a better look at what roles they will be filling within the party. The new Advanced Classes page on the Holonet is very cool and the emblem for each class generates the starting planet below it on the page, making for a very nice addition to the already impressive Holonet.

After getting to the Advanced Classes page you’ll see all eight starting classes starting with the Sith Warrior. After clicking the SW’s icon it brings up a menu where you can chose between the details  and differences of abilities of the Juggernaut or Marauder. Clicking one of the two (I picked Juggernaut) it brings up another page where it shows a sample of each of the three paths on the Juggernauts skill tree, Vengeance, Immortal, and Rage.

Vengeance is the single saber offensively focused damage dealing path for the Juggernaut class. It previews two skills from each of the paths. The Vengeance preview skills are Shatter and Unstoppable – both are passive skills meaning they are always “on” and do not need to be activated. Shatter channels the Force into your lightsaber and crushes your target under its weight, dealing 569 internal damage to a target afflicted by Sundering Assault, with a further 1476 internal damage over 12 seconds. Unstoppable activates upon using a successful Force Charge, it reduces all damage taken by 20% and grants immunity to physics and movement impairment effects for four seconds.

Immortal is the second path on the skill tree, it’s the high survivability Tank tree. It’s preview skills are Invincible and Revenge, again both Passive “always on” abilities although Invincible has a cool down timer, and from the description sounds like an activated ability. Invincible reduces the damage the Warrior suffers from all sources by 60% for nine seconds. Revenge can be activated while in Soresu Form, parrying, deflecting, shielding, or resisting an attack gives a 50% chance to grant Revenge, reducing the rage cost of your next Force Scream or Smash by 1. It lasts ten seconds and stacks up to three times.

The final path is Rage, which is shared between the two advanced classes  for the Sith Warrior, Juggernaut and Marauder. It covers the more “Universal” abilities – its preview skills are Obliterate and Shockwave. Obliterate allows the Warrior to jump to a target, impaling it for 307-363 weapon damage and strikes with both weapons if dual wielding. Shockwave can be granted from each tick of Force Choke and Force Crush, increasing  the damage your next Smash deals by 25%, which stacks up to four times.

This is just a rundown of one of the 16 advanced classes. This update gave us a lot of information, and should be a definite read for everyone following the game, atleast to check out your favorite classes (Trooper!) or see what some of the differences and similarities are. The full article can be found on SWTOR website, be sure to check it out!