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Diplomatic Investigations: Sith Assassin Tanking – Men in Tights?

March 29, 2012 by

Welcome to our weekly column dedicated to everything Consular and Inquisitor. If you have a suggestion for a topic you’d like covered in this column, drop Tim a line!

I don’t know about you, but for me the concept of a tank in an MMO is traditionally a character with heavy armor, and outfitted to the max.

So it came as a surprise when I found out the Sith Assassin or Jedi Shadow can be quite viable tanks in light (yes light) armor.  Yes I had read about it, but when it came time to playing it, that was different altogether.

The Sith Assassin gets around the lack of armour by having stances (well they are called Charges) like Dark Charge which increases the strength of the armor.

Below is a summary of my experiences moving from a ranged class (Sith Sorcerer) to a melee based one (Sith Assassin).

Of course one of the big differences is melee vs ranged – the Sith Assassin is a melee class so you are a heck of a lot closer to the action.   This is of course directly opposite to what the sith sorcerer and jedi sage classes are, which I covered previously.

Added to the mix is stealth which I had some experience with when playing my Imperial Agent operative.  I found it hard to not want to fight through all mobs instead of sneaking around them, almost like I was choosing the easy way out by not defeating anything that moves, which I tended to do with my sorcerer.

At the time of writing this article my assassin is only at level 19 so I cannot comment on some of the more advanced abilities, but one of the challenges I am facing is healing – or rather the lack of it with a Sith Assassin.  This is where the Jedi Sage and Sith Sorcerer rocked.  Even if you did not choose the healing talent tree, you were able to heal yourself or your companion.  This is not the case with the melee class.  So you better be sure you can survive a fight with the mobs you are taking on.  You can use medpacs of course but I sort of feel naked in a fight knowing there is no healing to back me up.

To get around that to a degree I am using Whirlwind to trap a particular enemy before taking on the rest, and also tried to be careful to make sure I use the appropriate interrupts (Jolt, etc) to minimize the damage caused by enemy special attacks. Doing this has made a big difference in where I end up at the end of the fight (dead or alive!).

The other thing that takes a bit of getting used to is the amount of Force you have.  The Sith Assassin and Jedi Sage have 100 Force (certain talents in skill trees can increase this a little), and this goes down (but also replenishes) quickly. This is a BIG difference to the Sith Sorcerer. If you are not particularly careful you will run out and have no attacks available since pretty well everything requires at least some force to use.

Fortunately, there is one attack you should always have on hand and that is the very basic Saber attack. It requires no force and should be what you are using to inflict some damage while waiting for your force to regenerate.   So make sure you have that mapped as chances are it will get a workout in most encounters.  Some damage is better than none after all.

In a later article once I have my assassin to level 30 or so, I will go though the rotations.  For now it does not make sense to do it, since it is changing regularly as new abilities become available to me.

Overall, I have to say I am enjoying the Sith assassin – it’s not like you lose all your ranged attacks.  For example you still have Force Lighting which is a staple for the Sith Sorcerer if you are in situations where it’s appropriate to attack from non melee range. That, and unlike Imperial agents they have lightsabers, double bladed ones at that!

In terms of companions I am still using Khem Val at this stage. The plan in battle is for Khem to hold aggro on the strongest enemy while I am mopping up the lesser powered ones and then I come in to assist Khem.  Plus as outlined above to use Whirlwind where necessary.  This has proven to be quite effective to date.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back next week with another article!  Until then keep on gaming.   And if you are on the public test server, and are on the Sith side look for my two characters Mee (Sith Assassin) and Sil (Sith Sorcerer).

Filed Under: Class Columns, Consular, Inquisitor, News Tagged With:

The Casual SWTORian: 1.2 roundup

March 28, 2012 by

It’s time to welcome both a new weekly a column and a new writer to the TOROZ team. Ken Clark is going to be writing The Casual SWTORian each week, dedicated to those who don’t have the time to immerse themselves in game developments but instead want a very simple roundup of things happening and stuff on the horizon. Welcome Ken!

Do you play SWTOR? Do you not care to sift through the raw info each week to find that one nugget of information that is relevant to you as a casual player? if yes then this is the place for you. With the release of the excessively long 1.2 patch notes you are probably thinking “aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh, I’ll just be surprised on the day”. You don’t need to be – with this list you can check out most of the changes relevant to you:

1.2 Changes at a Glimpse

  • As a result of game balance efforts, many classes have had their skill tree layouts modified. Affected characters will have their skill points refunded on login.
  • “Rest” abilities, such as Meditation and Recharge and Reload, are no longer interrupted by taking damage if the player is not currently in combat.
  • Tauntaun vanity pets can now be acquired on the planet Hoth, though the exact means of acquisition are a mystery.
  • An issue that caused some items to be unlinkable in chat has been addressed.
  • The chances for one player to win the majority of rolls in Multiplayer Conversations have been diminished.
  • Large ships more readily display surface damage as the attached hardpoints are destroyed.
  • Players can now unlock a wide variety of rewards by leveling characters and reaching new Legacy levels, including buffs for your characters, unlocking additional Species choices for every class, and upgrades for your personal Starship.
  • The preference for “Show Sith Corruption” is now labeled “Show Dark Side Corruption.”
  • Players are now able to disable the Smart Camera in the preferences menu.
  • The Galactic Trade Network interface now supports text-based searches without category restrictions.
  • The Map no longer becomes translucent when riding a taxi
  • Added musical triggers to some missions and encounters.

And there you have it: the 1.2 patch notes summed up from the casual perspective. If you feel I missed anything feel free to comment below, point out typos or you can start a religious debate – your choice.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

Legion of Silver Suns: Operations showcase

March 28, 2012 by

If you’re wanting a high-quality glimpse of some of SWTOR’s key Operations, then it’s hard to go past the recently formed YouTube channel for Republic Oceanic Guild Legion of Silver Suns (LoSS). Based on The Harbinger server at present, they’ve got some great vids, as you can see below:

LoSS Vs Karagga HM

LoSS Vs Foreman Crusher HM

LoSS Vs Jarg and Sorno HM

LoSS Vs Bonethrasher HM

LoSS Vs Soa HM

LoSS Vs Infernal Council HM

LoSS Vs Pylon Boss HM

LoSS Vs Gharj HM Eternity vault

LoSS Vs Eternity vault Annihilation Droid XRR-3 HM

Thanks to James over at SWTOR Gamers of Oceania Facebook Group for the heads-up

Filed Under: Community, How-To, News Tagged With:

SWTOR news iPhone / iPad app gets an update

March 27, 2012 by

Just a quick heads-up that our TOROZ Reader App has had a significant update as far as the number of SWTOR news feeds it contains.

It’s essentially an RSS reader with two sections. The first is our own RSS feed . The second is titled ‘Other SWTOR News’, and it features a range of SWTOR-related feeds from around the world. It will run on either an iPhone / iPod Touch or iPad.

There’s a free version: TOROZ Reader and an AU$1.19 TOROZ Pro version which has a more polished look but otherwise is pretty similar. We’d obviously love if you bought the Pro version as it helps keep the site running, but if not grab the basic reader and get more than your fill of SWTOR news!

Android lovers: we’d very much like to have a version for you but unfortunately we don’t have the funds to develop one.

Filed Under: News, TOG News Tagged With: ,

Heavy Damage: Tanking Mandalorian Raiders

March 27, 2012 by

Heavy Damage is our weekly Tanking column – if you have suggestions of what you’d like covered, drop our resident Tank, Alec Bailey a line.

Mandalorian Raiders is this week’s Flashpoint. It’s a level 25 Flashpoint for both the Republic and Empire. The Flashpoint takes place on the Allusis and it begins with you and your party breaching the ship’s hull in an attack pod. Once you are on the Allusis you’ll need to fight your way to the command deck.

There are several bosses and mini bosses located throughout this Flashpoint. I will go over each one and detailing what strategy you should be using as a Tank.

Braxx the Bloodhound

Braxx the Bloodhound is accompanied by two adds that are resistant to knock-back and crowd control abilities. Braxx will occasionally use an ability that is made visible by a large red reticule – if either of the hounds are inside this reticule their attack speed and damage are increased. It’s best to keep Braxx’s attention away from the party. When I ran this I tried to keep his back turned as the damage dealers burnt down the adds. The hounds have a random aggro, so they will bounce from player to player. It might be easier to just spread out as this will keep the hounds from getting his buff as often, and then just burn down Braxx then work on his hounds.

Boarding Party

The second boss fight consists of a Sith Warrior, a Sith Inquisitor, a Bounty Hunter, and an Imperial Agent. All four are immune to any form of crowd control. It’s best to take out the melee characters first then work your way to the  ranged. As each of the boarding party fall the other members will become stronger. One strategy I’ve seen used is to get all four members down to about 10% health then burn them all down in rapid succession. I would NOT recommend this strategy for a pick up group. Either way you tackle this encounter it will be one of the most difficult fights you’ve been in yet. As a Tank you’ll need to make sure you have your guard up on someone and just try to keep the melee focused on you.

Marvis Varad

Marvis Varad is the final boss – this encounter begins with you only having to deal with Marvis and as his health is depleted he will leap to turrets positioned around the room. Disengage Marvis and destroy the turrets each time this happens. Varad will also throw grenades at random party members – this is easily avoidable as it is indicated by a large reticule on the ground. The turrets are susceptible to crowd control abilities so keep that in mind.

There are also 100 Lightside or Darkside points available on this mission.

As always stay frosty and may the force be with you!

 

 

Filed Under: Class Columns, News, Tanking Tagged With: ,

Dr Who Series 7 teaser

March 26, 2012 by

Yes it’s off-topic, but I doubt anyone would argue that Dr Who isn’t a story driven experience. The BBC have just released a teaser for the next series, and here it is:

What did you think?

[With thanks to Ken for the heads-up!)

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Fleet Pass: SWTOR weekly roundup

March 26, 2012 by

Fleet Pass is a weekly review of the SWTOR community, a small and non-comprehensive collection of the funny, the insightful, the controversial and any other interesting picks found anywhere but generally in the SWTOR Forums.  Have a suggestion?  Send it in to us with a source link if available, and the name you’d like to be credited with.

Warning:  Article may or may not contain spoilers relating to SWTOR, or any of its variants.

Threads

GrimaIdi – PTS Forum

Juggernaut 1.2 Changes

…

With Full battlemaster gear, I only have 15600 HP. Furthermore, I have Saber Ward as my only real damage mitigation ability endemic to my class. A DPS geared and specd Juggernaut does not have high survivability, to be honest a DPS Mercenary has more HP. The AC merely offsets the HP differential. So for this conversation we should take the premise that a DPS Rage Juggernaut is indeed a DPS class and more importantly the most viable DPS Juggernaut spec in the game, and as it stands the Vengeance Tree past tier 2 is not viable for anyone truly seeking to be competitive in endgame PVP as a DPS class. The patch notes themselves confirm that.

…
I would wholeheartedly give up any buffs to my shockwave and crit timer to keep the reduced timers on Force Scream & Smash to maintain my viability in PVP.

 

Dmasterr – PvP

operatives and 1.2 (lolpatch)

The only thing they are good for is to jump on someone that is about half health with no stun breaker and is already engaged in fighting someone else and they get nerfed lmao.

Thing is, when those ppl die, all they can think of is “damn those pesky operatives” /spit.

Not only that i am the only operative(scoundrel) that i ever see in wz (not healer), i do get about a dozen /spit on me each game, just because of what i said above.

That being said, i will probably continue to be the only operative in the game(lol), ( im surprised they didnt just remove the class entirely) , but please …

DO NOT TAKE AWAY MY GIGGLE 10101.

p.s. the game revolves around warrior/guardian (both AC), and other classes better learn their place as support classes mmmk?

 

VertisReaper – PvP

1.2 Balance changes – Right direction

The 1.2 balance changes are definitely a step in the right direction, hitting all major items that were out of line. As much as people cry about it, 1.2 is much more balanced than it currently is on live.

Pyro burst was out of line – Addressed
Tracer rotation – Addressed
Rage Jugg burst too high – Addressed
Hybrid Sorcs – Addressed
Operative 2x opener cheese – Addressed
Merc Healing – Addressed

All in all these are positive changes, I really don’t understand why everyone is complaining about the fixing of things that were clearly broken and toxic to gameplay.

 

Busterbone – PvP

Why the proposed 1.2 Pyrotech changes are poorly thought out

This post aims to clear up a lot of the misinformation surrounding the proposed 1.2 changes to the Bounty Hunter Pyrotech specialization (and Trooper Assault Specialist). I believe the proposed changes are poorly designed, and in the following paragraphs I will do my best to explain why I have come to this conclusion. I’ve posted this in the PvP forums because the Pyrotech changes are largely due to PvP concerns.

…

(Very long, very informative, well thought out, and the discussion is good as well, Trooper/BH Players should read)

 

JTGS – PTS Forum

1.2 Sorc Nerfs

…
Well there goes hybrid chain lightning spec and awesome force regen for healers. Do you guys feel that either of those were needed? The 31 in lightning is kind of garbage because of how slow it is. And as for healing, should we now waste talents in reducing how much consumption takes from our health?

After testing it on the PTS, the changes arent that bad for healing. Consumption did need a fix and i feel what they did is fine. You have to be more aware when you go to use it, but no other class can regen at anymore moment like that without using a CD.

The force bending change will bring balance and will take getting use to. But it isnt class breaking and we will still do fine in raids. IMHO

 

Quotes

xGBox – General Discussion

Hi, I have difficulty adapting and resent any kind of change that may or may not affect me. As a result of the release of the 1.2 patch notes, I am unsubscribing as we speak. However, I will continue to post on the official SWTOR forums despite not playing it and will inform other users that I’ve unsubscribed in every post.

 

Other

(This is a preview of the legacy system in 1.2, especially useful for those without a Chp. 1 Complete Character)

Iwipe  – PTS Forum

http://mmo-mechanics.com/news.php?article=1-2-legacy-system-preview

Hey everyone, this is Dulfy from dulfy.net, I am very excited to give you the first preview of the legacy system in 1.2! I want to give a huge thank you to Petrus & Dread from <The Sundered Guard> on Warrior’s of the Shadow  server. They tirelessly powerleveled a bunch of characters on the PTS to gather the screenshots and information on the legacy system. Here you can see the “handsome” Petrus with his Taunta pet! (p.s. they are looking for a powertech tank for 1.2 content!)

 

Ravendax – Fan Art

Filed Under: Community, News Tagged With:

Flash Point 29: The Bobby Brady Hiccup Edition

March 25, 2012 by

The points of discussion still come in thick and fast and it’s difficult to get past the upcoming 1.2 update but we manage it. The reason for the title of this podcast will become apparent – my apologies for the interference of my hiccups during parts of the podcast.

Points of discussion:
– 1.2 Update highlights (user interface, space combat, combat log)
– People leaving SWTOR complaining about end-game content
– Lore Update: Twi’lek
– Final shout-out for our TOROZ Reader Survey (please fill it in if you have time!)
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, Google Plus page and Twitter account

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:23 — 18.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: News, Podcast Tagged With:

Calling all healers: write for TOROZ

March 25, 2012 by

Around six weeks ago we put out a call for writers to join the TOROZ team. Since then we’ve welcomed Tim (covering Inquisitors and Consulars), Kate (Agent/Smuggler), Tim (Weekly SWTOR roundup) and Rick (Guilds) on board.

It’s a growing family but it still feels like there’s someone missing and it might be you. We’re looking for a healer who’s willing to have a crack at a weekly column tackling everything heals.  Preferably someone who plays both Empire and Republic characters, although if you’re Empire only you’re still in with a big chance.

So if you’d like to express interest, here’s what you do:

1. Use our contact form and provide the following info:

– ideally submit a sample of your writing or at least a pitch on what you’d like to write and why

– tell us a little bit about yourself – similar in vein to the bios on our About page.

– what day and time of the week is best for you to submit a column

2. Wait patiently for us to get back to you – it should only take a day or two.

3. See points 1 and 2.

Don’t hesitate – do it now. You know it makes sense 😉

Filed Under: News, TOG News Tagged With:

Latest Community Q&A: Punishing Corso Riggs

March 24, 2012 by

BioWare have posted the latest answers to community questions. There’s not a lot of gobsmackingly new info there but there is a good range of topics covered. Have a read for yourself below. I’m just about willing to roll a Smuggler to be able to Punish Corso Riggs as a Sith Pureblood (I got to know and hate Corso in beta).

Anyway, onto the Q&A:

Mksaccount: Are there any plans on adjusting rage timers in hard mode Flashpoints?

Gabe Amatangelo (Lead Endgame & PvP Designer): The team continues to tune Flashpoint bosses based on metrics and feedback. Bosses that are a ‘spike’ in the progression curve (e.g. when a second boss might be more difficult than the last) are being addressed in one way or another, be it increasing their enrage timer, decreasing their health, extending the cooldown of control abilities, etc.

Bendog: Are there any plans to make the lower level planet commendations ‘Bind to Account’? It would be nice to hand them off to another character.

Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): We’ve talked about it, sure. It’s something we considered as we added in the Legacy System. However, right now we know that other aspects of the Legacy System will act to speed up the leveling experience for alternate characters. We want to see the state of the game in terms of leveling speed and itemization power after the core Legacy System goes live with Game Update 1.2 before we potentially make that change.

BurdoThePious: Is there a reason why the Commando / Mercenary Advanced Classes do not have an interrupt ability (eg. Mind Snap, Distraction, Force Kick)?

Georg Zoeller (Lead Combat Designer): Yes. The lack of an interrupt ability on these Advanced Classes is a purposefully designed weakness in their ability arsenal. At the current time, adding an interrupt to the Commando/Mercenary would increase their combat utility, especially in PvP, beyond what we are comfortable with.

That said, this issue is one we’ve re-evaluated with every major patch and will likely continue to revisit in the future. It is not inconceivable that an interrupt may be added to these Advanced Classes in a future update, especially if more PvE content is introduced that relies on a certain number of interrupts being available in a group.

Niktika: Can you please explain some of the reasoning behind the healing nerfs? It almost seems like every healer is up in arms regardless of their class.

Georg: Sometimes it’s hard to hear this, but the change to healers you’re referring to was, quite simply, a result of them being too good. When one healer is close to target performance and the others aren’t, it’s natural to think that the logical course is to buff the underperformer and leave the over-performers alone. I want to dispel that notion and explain why it isn’t always possible.

All specs for all roles have a target performance. This is what drives the balance of the game: soloing, Heroics, PvP, Flashpoints, Operations… everything. When those targets aren’t hit, we can’t just ‘bring everyone up’ to the highest performer without negatively impacting the balance of the game and creating unsustainable inflation in our combat system. Frankly, it’s also a lot more work to change all end game content in the game to compensate for an over-performing role than to bring the role back in line. The hard but simple truth is that Sorcerers and Sages had better Force management than we intended (e.g. a well-played Sage was almost incapable of running out of Force) and Mercenaries and Commandos were significantly over target in their healing performance.

After considerable testing, we’re more confident than ever that all healing roles are both closer to target performance and closer to one another than ever before, leading to a much tighter balance on end game content. The community will be able to confirm this using the new combat logging feature in Game Update 1.2.

I know trying to ‘sell’ a downwards adjustment (AKA nerf) to anyone affected is like selling the need for a tax increase to people. When you are on the receiving end of it, you’re not going to be happy about it. It may appear massive to you, even if the overall impact is limited. You likely won’t care that it’s ‘for the greater good of the game’ and, if you decide to disagree with our action, there’s little we can do to sway you.

Based on the feedback brought to us so far from testers playing on PTS along with metrics and combat logs gathered from our guild testers, we are going to make additional adjustments before Game Update 1.2 is promoted to the live servers. For example, we reopened the internal debate about having an in-combat resurrect ability for Mercenaries/Commandos based on PTS feedback regarding the new Operations, in light of the higher utility value this ability brings to the table in 1.2. We’re listening to your feedback, too, and rebalancing some of the changes made to healing based on data gathered from PTS. Look out for a future update to PTS for more details.

 

Pzljug: When are you guys going to finish the Timeline on the Holonet?

Stephen Reid (Senior Community Manager): When the Timeline series was begun we weren’t entirely sure how many timelines would be needed to detail relevant backstory for The Old Republic and left ‘blank spaces’ on the Timeline that, we thought, would all be filled in with Timeline entries. Ultimately, we feel we’ve detailed all the relevant backstory required, so no more Timeline entries going back into earlier history are planned. However, we know how much players enjoyed the lore details, style and presentation of Timelines, so we’re planning to continue that with a different series (currently unscheduled!) which will detail other aspects of the lore of The Old Republic.

Suzume_Bachi: If I unlock the Pureblood Sith species for all my future characters via the Legacy System, will I be able to create a Republic Pureblood Sith Smuggler, and will that Smuggler have Punish to I can smack around Corso Riggs?

William Wallace (Senior Designer): Players creating characters with the new species/class combinations allowed by Legacy will get that species’ unique ability. So yes, your new Sith Pureblood Smuggler will have the Punish ability, and can use it on Corso Riggs as much as you like. Poor Corso….

DevTheSith: Can Bounty Hunters get a [Name] The Mandalorian title (or if it’s already in game, where is it)?

Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Currently, there is no such title available for Bounty Hunters. It may be added as part of a future content update, but we’ve got no current plans to add it to the existing game.

Alericus: I am wondering how the ‘vote to kick’ system for PvP matches will work. I have a concern it will be abused by pre-made teams who want to control the team. Can you clarify how this system will work?

Gabe: Any player can vote to kick an AFK player through the Ops frame context menu. This will not initiate a vote prompt, but rather must be actively sought out by multiple players. Once a player has received several votes they will receive a prompt indicating that they’ll be kicked from the Warzone in a few seconds if they do not engage in combat or defend an objective. A player who is kicked from the Warzone in this manner will be returned to their original location before they queued, and will not be able to queue up again for several minutes. We’ll continue to fine tune the detection logic, but gradually, with an eye towards protecting the innocent bystander player.

Mataoh: A lot of guilds have a second alt guild for the opposite faction – is there any plan to allow some sort of cross-faction chat so both guilds can communicate with each other in game?

Damion: This was something that came up a lot during the Guild Summit and is an idea we’re taking seriously. However, no design is locked down in stone and I don’t have any sort of ETA as of yet for when something like this might happen.

joetacticSW: Can we have a ‘Loop music’ feature or some other way to make our experience less quiet?

Damion: Interesting idea. Let me give it some thought!

Filed Under: Community, News Tagged With: ,

The Order: Keeping your Guild Motivated in Preparation for 1.2

March 24, 2012 by


Welcome again to The Order, where we talk about raiding and guilds on the oceanic horizon. If you’ve got a topic you’d like covered, drop Rick a line and we’ll work on it for a future column.

Tonight I sit here writing my post for TOROZ with a lot of game rants on my mind. 1.2 is incoming with some amazing changes to come into place, but in reality we already knew all these goodies were coming. It wasn’t about what was coming, it was about WHEN it was going to get here.  Rather than write the cliche – this is whats going to affect guilds and progression with changes etc etc blah blah – instead  I sit here with a Corona in my hand (Corona with Tabasco Sauce – you should try it!) recognizing the bigger picture that is on all our minds. How the hell to stay motivated but at the same time prepare your guild for radical changes in guild focus and progression so that it survives the holy holy saviour patch of our beloved game without fading away! And believe me, there will be guilds out there that will do just that – simply fade away in the progression stampede. That is of course, if 1.2 actually drops in time to save it entirely.

 Part 1 – Motivation

I was on a Facebook group of oceanic players today and an interesting “debate” sparked from a certain player expressing his concerns for the future of SWTOR.. mainly fuelled by the fact that his guild had cleared all content and had nothing else to look forward to. Sadly, this is a common scene for many people. When people get bored, that’s  when fights start. But through the trolling and fighting, a common theme did become apparent – people are dropping off the game because of the lack of objectives and focus and things to do.

If you are a GM like me, you will most likely be in the same boat and thinking that it aint all that bad. Im not bored. Why? Because we are hard at work preparing, researching and helping others to prepare. But unfortunately, not everyone is a GM. People need focus and objectives to be motivated. So here are some ideas that I believe will assist you not only to bond your guild closer together before the cataclysm (no WoW pun intended) but at the same time, bring your guild benefits all the while giving people motivation to keep playing.

1.       You want it harder? Make it harder.

Do HM’s with 2 people. Do 8 man Hard Mode Ops with 6 people. 16 with 12. You get the gist. Make it harder for yourselves for no better reason but bragging rights. Why? Because although you are fully geared and you know the fights like the back of your hand, it gives people a sense of fulfillment. All the while, the gear that drops will fund your new guild bank. Also, change your spec and loot gear for dual spec, if you haven’t already.  Why, you ask? Well when dual spec of some form comes in, youll be ahead already with multi sets of gear.

2.       Crew Skills strategically dispersed.

Your “professions”  are getting changed, dramatically, so it makes sense to put together a group of people in the guild to cover every type of crew skill, mission and gathering type and make sure it’s all at 400. One of the core intentions of the changes to crew skills is to inject the in-game economy with more variety than just biochem products – and to also make MONEY to pay for all the other shiny things!!  You might have 6 million credits but with new credit sinks coming into the game, you will need to save all of it. Get a group together, and while you do your elite 6 man Operations, collect the schematics and start creating them all. Save the gear, and inject the GTN with it when 1.2 drops. You’ll thank me later, and so will your guild bank when it’s getting leeched dry from repairs when Explosive Conflict HM drills you (yes we hope so!).

 3.       Kill all the world bosses as a whole Guild – All levels.

I know they are easy,  but theyre fun. Nothing screams “These guys are amazing and I want to join this guild” more than running through every planet killing World Bosses as a 20-30 man unit and having fun along the way. Don’t forget to close recruitment and make it by application only before you do it, because everyone who sees you will want to be in your guild and you will never need to advertise for members again. While you are there, get all the datacrons and matrix cubes too. Then if you do all the, raid an enemy faction citadel. Operations are so serious at times when you group. Take the time to parade around as a unit and have some fun. Why else do you think even Armies march, Police have parades etc, it’s all about feeling good and bonding and being seen. Psychologically it will help your boredom, motivation and of course, the presence and morale of the guild.

4.       Last but not least, PVP as a unit.

Ranked warzones will come in with 1.2 and the 8 man unit for PVP will become a common theme. Learn to put together strategic units to PVP with and move as a group. Not only will you become more in tune with each other but being oceanic and all, you  probably feel the stagnant lack of PVP Warzones popping during our evenings on US servers. By grouping up, you make Warzones pop more frequently so  its good for everyone to get ahead! So get in your groups of 4, make sure you click join queue as a group at the same time as each other so that the chances that  your groups end up in the same Warzone is enhanced,  and makes the most of the extra valor and commendations. By doing it in groups together, even scheduling it in your calendars, you won’t only be preparing your guild for the new inevitable PVP Warzone beast when 1.2 drops, but you’ll be killing time and giving your Ranked Groups better opportunities to succeed too.

So these are the 4 main things I know I will be doing to maintain motivation and focus in “The Order”.  If you have any more ideas, feel free to share. But rather than do something negative like share your already apparent and mutually shared disdain for the lack of things to do… spreading this negativity to your oceanic brothers and sisters, why not take the time to assist yourself, your guild and the game in general by making the most of the situation. 1.2 will be here very soon. Personally I don’t think it can wait till end of April, do you?

This is what I told my guildies last week: “I will be very very surprised if 1.2 drops this coming Tuesday. However, I will not be surprised at all if it drops the following week.”

What are your thoughts? – Part 2: Key Points in Preparing for 1.2 will be soon to follow – that is of course if 1.2 doesn’t drop before then, but if it doesn’t, and you do even some of the things above, you probably won’t care if it doesn’t  anyway 😉

Filed Under: Guilds, News Tagged With: , ,

Cunning Ambitions: Looking ahead to 1.2 (Part 1)

March 23, 2012 by

Cunning Ambitions is dedicated to everything Smuggler and Imperial Agent. If you’d like to see our resident guru Kate cover anything in particular, drop her a line!

I had planned to write about the thing that tends to make or (more often) break opinion about Smugglers and Agents: the cover mechanic.  However, it was starting to grow into something much bigger than what I could handle in a week.  Rest assured, I will talk about Cover soon, but it’s going to need a lot more time and research than I can give it in a week. Luckily, the good people at Bioware have dropped patch 1.2 onto the public test server, and as you may have already noticed, it is MASSIVE.

Here at TOROZ, we’ve got a full listing of the entire 1.2 patch notes, broken down by category.  You can find the major highlights as well as links to each category over here.

At first glance it can be overwhelming, so I’m going to try to sift out the parts relevant to us Smugglers and Agents, to make it a bit more manageable and easier to understand.  It’s also good to remember that the patch notes posted for 1.2 are not final, and that the patch itself is still several weeks away from hitting live servers.  There is every likelihood that some changes listed will not make it into the final draft, especially if issues crop up during the testing phase.

In order to better understand how this update will impact upon Smugglers and Agents, I’ve set up a few characters on the test server, and started to play around with some of the new features. Due to the sheer volume of updates for these two classes, I’m going to start off by looking at some of the more general changes that 1.2 offers.  In the next few weeks, I’ll start to go into a bit more depth about ability changes and the extensive skill tree reshuffles and rebalancing.

First things first: character creation.  Due to the upgrade to the Legacy system, 5 extra races can be unlocked for both Smugglers and Imperial Agents.  In order to unlock these extra races, you must have a level 50 character of that race on the same server (and hence part of the same Legacy).

Smugglers can additionally be created as: Chiss, Miraluka, Rattataki, Sith, and Zabrak.

Imperial Agents can additionally be created as: Miraluka, Mirialan, Sith, Twi'lek and Zabrak.

We all want to make Sith of everything, I know.  However, I am kind of fascinated by the idea of a Chiss Smuggler, and the Zabrak should be able to be awesome at everything.  Also, a gun-toting Miraluka? You can’t tell me that isn’t utterly badass!  Roleplay-wise, I’m sure some great stories can come out of these new options.

In addition, this update might serve to explain the rumours of Legacy-enabled use of Force abilities for non-force classes – I would expect naturally force-sensitive races like the Miraluka and Sith to be able to use them, even if their lives have taken them down the path of the blaster rather than the blade.

Crew Skills

Armourmechs will now be able to learn schematics to make Aim/Cunning/Shield and Absorb augments.

The Cunning and Shield ones will be particularly useful for us as Smugglers and Agents.

Armstechs will be able to learn schematics for Endurance, Surge, Critical, Accuracy, and Power Augments.

Here, Endurance and Critical augments will be of most use.

Synthweavers will now learn schematics allowing the creation of Strength, Willpower, Defence, Alacrity, and Presence Augments.

And here, the Defense, Alacrity and Presence are probably best, though I don’t really recommend Synthweaving if you want to make things for yourself.  Armormech and Armstech are much more useful to us.

In addition to the new schematics, the above three crew skills will also allow reverse engineering of the Augments to give Prototype and Artefact quality schematics (presumably these are Augment schematics, though it is not stated in the patch notes).  As a result of Augments moving to the crafting skills, they have been removed from Slicing as mission rewards. Instead, Slicing missions can now reward tech parts that are needed by the new Augment schematics.

Companions & NPCs

Other than cosmetic changes to some of the Companion codex entries, and fixing a few companion quests that weren’t working properly, the only really important change for us is that Kaliyo’s storm ability has gone from a range of 5-20m, up to 5-30m. (Which isn’t huge, but it is a boost and not a nerf, so hurrah!)

One change that I’m particularly excited about, which I actually haven’t seen listed in the 1.2 patch notes at all, concerns the Smuggler companion Corso Riggs.  If you’ve played Smuggler (or watched Zero Punctuation’s SWTOR review) you’ll know that Corso has an ability called Harpoon Shot, that pulls enemies right up close.  It has to be the most counter-productive skill ever invented for a ranged class.  Luckily, it was possible to switch it off, and since there was a patch that allowed abilities to remain switched off through logging, I haven’t given it another thought until now…

Illegal Jet Pack!  Gone is the useless Harpoon Shot – now Corso flings himself at the enemy, and keeps them far away from you.  Brilliant. Of course, it’d be better on a melee character, but if Corso is happy using a Blaster Rifle at close range to keep the enemies off me, then I’m a happy Smuggler indeed.  Illegal Jet Pack is now pretty much the same skill as Kaliyo’s Storm, and is probably also why Storm gets a range increase in 1.2, as well.

Also note the much more streamlined look to the Abilities window – no more cluttering of tabs across the bottom.  Unfortunately, you can also see here how silly Corso looks.  It seems Companions won’t be getting the rather cool “unify to chest colour theme” option that our own characters have.  Hopefully this is something that will follow soon after 1.2, if it isn’t actually part of it at release.

Strong and Elite humanoid enemies no longer throw grenades at or use Headshot on targets in cover.

This should prevent some horrible wipes from a few enemies that other classes can beat much easier at the same level.  I’m actually finding that I can fight much more level appropriate enemies on the test server than I could with the same-level character on live.  Though, it could also be that I know what I’m doing now, more so than I did when I first started playing SWTOR.

That’s all for this week, so thanks for reading!  Next week, I’ll start to tackle the new abilities and skill tree for Gunslingers and Snipers, and the week after it’ll be Scoundrels and Operatives.  In the meantime, I’ll be levelling on the test server like mad to try and see as much of it as I can.  As always, leave a comment if you have any questions or comments, or if there’s something in particular that you want me to discuss.

Filed Under: Class Columns, Imperial Agent, News, Smuggler Tagged With: , , ,
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