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SWTOR 1.6 Hits PTS: Full Patch Notes

November 21, 2012 by

UPDATE: FINAL 1.6 PATCH NOTES CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LINK

Hot on the heels of 1.5 going live, BioWare have put Patch 1.6 on the Public Test Server. It’s a much smaller update as you’d expect although there’s a new Warzone and Heroic space missions. Read on for the full notes as they stand at present:

Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate – PTS Patch Notes

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.

Over to you: anything in particular you’re excited for in 1.6?

Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, SWTOR

Call for Writers: MMOs, Comics, Opinion

November 20, 2012 by

Looking for writersJust a quick post to let you know we’re always keen to expand our writing team. In particular we’re wanting to expand our MMO coverage as well as move into the comics area, a 30+ year passion of mine.

So, here’s who we’re looking for:

1a. Gaming writers: Someone who plays an MMO regularly – you don’t need to be hard-core by any means, but a good familiarity with the game is a must. Which game doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s got an active community. Whether it’s WoW, Rift, TSW, GW2, World of Tanks or anything in between, we’re interested.

1b. Comics writers: Someone who reads comics regularly. Doesn’t matter if it’s superheroes, graphic novels, independent, web comics – you just need to love writing about comics, including reviewing comics you’re excited about.

2. Someone who writes well – don’t be hard on yourself here. Your work will be edited for the odd typo or grammatical error, which is fine. All we ask is that you can string sentences together in an engaging way and not require extensive re-writing / correction by your friendly editor. Nearly every writer we have on our team was convinced that they may not have been up to the task – I’m yet to have one person who hasn’t turned out to be a good writer.

3. Someone who writes regularly – we’d be looking for people that can contribute a minimum of a 400-600 word article each week. Fortnightly gigs will be seriously considered as well, as will guest reviews or opinion pieces if you can’t commit regularly.

4. Someone who has a volunteer sense of spirit: unfortunately TOG is financially a loss-making outfit, albeit a successful one with lots of traffic. If revenue increases, you WILL be sharing in that equally with the other writers on the team. In the meantime, expect the odd bit of swag or attendance at a game-related event representing The Oceanic Gamer, if the opportunity arises. And yes, you do have a byline to tout to much richer publications than our humble selves. Finally, you’re welcome to have a link back to your own blog or related web undertaking in each of your articles.

As far as topics go, we’re looking for people interested in writing on:

1. Games:

– Guild Wars 2: any topic area you like

– WoW: any topic area, would love some class columns but opinion / strategy and the like is always welcome. Will be working with our current WoW guru Luke to cover this game.

– SWTOR: still very keen on class columns, opinion, strategy, guild news

– The Secret World: lore, tips, opinion, news – anything really

– Project Titan / other Blizzard projects: news, opinion etc

– any other MMO: let us know what you’d like to do!

2. Comics: we’re really open on this. In an ideal world we’d love some regular comic reviews or opinion pieces on the industry. We’d also like to give some love to the local creators in addition to covering the big players.

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. You do not need to be based in Australia or New Zealand.

– 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.

Please, have a think about getting involved – and again, don’t be too harsh on your writing ability. Leave that to us!

 

[Pic via Cheezburger of course!]

Filed Under: General News, TOG News

Through The Mist: Is The Shine Wearing Off?

November 19, 2012 by

Through the Mist is a regular column from Luke Le Page covering everything World of Warcraft. If you’d like something covered in a future column, drop us a line!

As I’m sure many of you do, I regularly check the larger WoW sites such as MMO-Champion and Arena Junkies  as well as the official WoW forums and I have to say I have been extremely surprised by what I have found there and more importantly by the responses of Blizzard reps on the official forums.

Players of all types have been expressing increasing concerns over the daily quest system. The most common area of contention is that players feel they are being forced into doing every possible daily every day in order to keep up with progression and this extends to repetition on alts. In response, Blizzard seem to be taking the stance that players are not forced into doing dailies – rather, we can do dailies, challenge modes, scenarios, heroics and LFR etc.

I can see both sides of the argument and for the most part I enjoy doing dailies but to say that we are not forced into them is ridiculous. Yes we can run these other modes to gear up and to obtain both Justice and Valor points but what do we spend these points on? Well the answer is reputation restricted items from factions. It’s a Catch 22 situation – players can gear up from these other methods but is the randomness of a random loot system reliable enough to keep players, particularly more casual players, at a level where they can participate in and enjoy content?  So far, my experience says no. In the past I have been involved in progression raiding and server firsts and the like but I am little more than a casual player in this expansion and I am still not at an ilvl where I can participate in current (albeit LFR) content.

Players have in turn suggested a return to the tabard system that was employed in Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm and on this point I agree with Blizzard’s stance of not reintroducing them. Tabards, whilst extremely convenient, made reputation a trivial part of the game. It should mean something and work should be involved in unlocking these Justice and Valor point items as well as many of the mounts that are available. My alternative suggestion is to implement a tabard system that works much the same way as the original guild reputation system: allow players to use tabards but cap the amount of reputation that can be obtained per faction on a daily basis. The cap would include both dailies and tabards – this not only gives players a choice (something the vast majority of complainants are screaming for) whilst maintaining the integrity of the daily system. It also has the added advantage of getting people into dungeons again.

Blizzard seem to be listening to an extent, insofar that they are planning changes to how alternate characters will accrue reputation and this is a positive sign going forward.

Do you agree?

Filed Under: General News, Opinion, WoW Tagged With:

TSW 1.4 Patch Notes

November 19, 2012 by

TSW 1.4 Patch NotesIt’s well and truly time for some Big Trouble in the Big Apple, and to go along with it are the full patch notes. Aside from all the new content, there’s a bunch of nice bug fixes as well, so browse through to see what love your character is getting.

Hell, everyone now gets to dance Gangnam style (/dance_gangnam_style) in The Secret World alongside the Macarena (/dance_macarena) – what else would you want!

The full patch notes for you:

Massive PvP Enhancements

Issue #4 includes massive PvP enhancements with the goal to make the conflict between the Secret Societies even more rewarding, more persistent and fairer. The update includes improvements and changes to rewards in Fusang, White Marks of Venice, Cross-Dimension Fusang, PvP Gear Progression, Matchmaking, a new PvP Mission and more! You can read all about these PvP enhancements here.

Take the Stage at the Albion Theatre

With Issue #4, you are able to enter the Albion Theatre in London and put on whatever kind of show your heart desires! Our goal is to empower players. Open mic night? Sketch comedy shows? Extensive Shakespearean productions? Cabaret? Music video? It’s really an open toolbox – you and your friends can use the Albion to do whatever you want. Check out this article on The Secret World website for more information.

Issue #4 also sets the stage for the big Raid in New York, which is undergoing final testing and will be brought Live as soon as possible.

Other brand new features available now:

  • New Auxiliary weapon : Chainsaws! Pick up the mission from Dr. Aldini in New York to begin!
  • Starter Decks – Nine decks have been added for players who finish the inner ring of combat abilities.
  • Character size slider has been added to character creation and the plastic surgeon!
  • Reticule targeting mode is now available. Toggle this mode on and off via the T key.
  • Slaughterhouse Nightmare mode is now officially open!
  • Pick up these brand new Missions:
    • All Roads Lead to Rome – from Mama Abena in London
    • To Sir with Love – from Hayden Montag in The Savage Coast
    • The Red Thread – from Callisto in Carpathian Fangs
  • New Lair Missions are available. These require you to have finished another mission first. These prerequesite missions will award an item which will help you in the new Lair missions.
    • The Last Strand (Kingsmouth Town)
      • Required mission: Coralations (Item: Red sargassum barrel)
    • The Cover-up (Savage Coast)
      • Required mission: Nobel Calling (Item: Dynamite)
    • The Whole Truth (Blue Mountain)
      • Required mission: Picking Up the Pieces (Item: Ward stone)
    • Up In Smoke (Scorched Desert)
      • Required mission: Blood Garments (Item: Sufferer’s raiment)
    • The Black Pharaoh’s Guard (City of the Sun God)
      • Required mission: The Trinket Trail (Item: Plenarius artifact)
    • Restoration (Besieged Farmlands)
      • Required mission: Blessed Are the Makers (Item: Enchanted statue)
    • Kreep Rush (Shadowy Forest)
      • Required mission: Seedy Underbelly (Item: Seeds of Cleansing)
    • The Shipping News (Carpathian Fangs)
      • Required mission: The Mortal Coil (Item: Tesla turret)

GENERAL

  • When equipping a weapon which has a weapon skin applied, the weapon skin will now show correctly. Previously it would only show up correctly if you zoned in with the weapon already equipped.
  • The Master Planner achievement will now reward a costume.
  • The I Am Legend achievement will now reward an item.
  • London: Dancers in the Horned God will now leave the floor to give groups of players more space.
  • Text should no longer show up in the chat window for long-winded civilians.
  • Fixed a clipping issue with the female Preacher outfit.
  • Male eyebrows no longer clip through the glasses on the Grifter outfit.
  • Movement speed while dead will now scale with your current rank of Sprinting.
  • Seoul: the Fight Club in Seoul is now open to Illuminati and Templar participation.
  • Fixed stat modifications that did not revert when items were unequipped.
  • Raid chat is available (except in Fusang Projects).
  • Fixed shadows at the Old Asylum Approach anima well in Blue Mountain.
  • Fixed the intensity of the moon in Shadowy Forest.
  • Adjusted chair height and brightness in the Horned God pub.
  • Try these new dance emotes:
    • /dance_gangnam_style
    • /dance_samba
    • /dance_macarena
    • /dance_sprinkler
  • All the repeatable solo nightmare missions should now reward a Signet Reward Bag.
  • The missions Cellar Door and Fungal Fireworks will no longer award a Signet Reward Bag, but will give out reward in line with their difficulty.
  • New Achievements for the Albion Theatre event are available!
  • NPCs with a spawn animation will now always play the full animation (previously the first part of it could get cut off).
  • Cats were moved back to their normal locations in Roget’s place and the Franklin Mansion.
  • The mission tracker will now close when you walk away from an open mission GUI.
  • Fixed the doors in the Slaughterhouse so they will not always appear open when viewed from a distance.
  • Lairs – The Last Strand – Draug no longer keep spawning after the assault is over.
  • Added sound effects to the turrets in The Shadowy Forest.
  • It is no longer possible to sit in the air by using the chair from distance.
  • A raid leader can now invite a group with a leader that has already left the raid.
  • The Achievement Love and Rockets will be awarded to players who have already finished the mission Venetian Missile Crisis when „Issue #4“ goes live.
  • Raid chat is available!
  • Fixed an issue that caused stacks of flowers bought at the florist to decrease by 2 each time one was consumed.
  • Fixed an issue where certain clothing would cause your female character’s arms to become invisible.
  • Seoul : Dae-su’s body is no longer invisible.

COMBAT

  • Increased the damage dealt by all Rocket Launcher abilities.
  • Increased the damage dealt by the See Red ability.
  • Healing friendly NPCs with the Adrenalise passive equipped will no longer cause them to attack you.
  • Assault Rifle – Improved Bursts passive will now properly increase the healing done by the Anima Burst ability.
  • Blade ability Sixth Sense will now build a counter for each received glancing hit instead of having a delay between counters to keep in line with other defensive effects.
  • Added a tooltip description to the Two Cuts Blade skill.
  • The Blood Spike DoT effect now has the correct icon.
  • Added tooltip description to the Elemental Skill “Fury”.
  • Hammer ability Grip Whip will now display the correct damage value in the tooltip. This is only a tooltip change. The ability itself has not been changed.
  • Hammers – Reduced the overall damage dealt by Epicentre.
  • Breakdown no longer requires Impaired state to apply the Exposed debuff.
  • Breakdown will only apply 1 stack of Exposed per hit.
  • Increased the damage dealt by Escalation.
  • Escalation will no longer apply the Exposed debuff.
  • Intensity has been changed to no longer grant Minor Ward when hitting Weakened targets with Escalation. It will now improve Escalation to apply the Exposed debuff.
  • Increased the damage dealt by Blood Magic abilities Blood Spike, Infection, Left Hand of Darkness, Bloodshot, and Guts and Gory.
  • Increased the healing and barrier provided by Blood Magic abilities Angelic Aegis, Exquisite Corpse, and Hematic Rites.
  • Increased the damage dealt by Elemental abilities Combust, Electrical Storm, Flame Strike, Blaze, Conditional Force, Fire Manifestation, Magnetic Wipe, and Lightning Manifestation.
  • Left Hand of Darkness damage has been rechecked for accuracy in Issue #4.
  • Fixed an issue with the description of Intensity.

PVP

Economy

  • All white marks of venice in the game have been wiped
  • Prices at all PvP vendors have been rebalanced to no longer cost any white marks
  • Prices at all PvP Vendors is now somewhat lower
  • Rewards for PvP minigames and Fusang has been changed so that you on average get the same amount of rewards for time spent doing them
  • All PvP vendors now allow you to convert 100 white marks into 1 black mark
  • PvP-gear can now be upgraded to 10.4
  • The pricing of PvP-gear has been tweaked, so the time it takes to get a full set of PvP 10.4 gear is in line (but not equal to) the amount of time it takes to get a full set of 10.4 Nightwatch gear.

Stonehenge and El Dorado

  • PvP matchmaking system tweaked
  • PvPPerformance stats on all players wiped for this change
  • If you are lower than QL10 you now get Equal Footing in minigames

Fusang

  • Fusang has been merged into 3 battlegroups for higher player population:
    • Group A: Cerberus, Arcadia, Leviathan
    • Group B: Drac, Kobold
    • Group C: Daemon, Grim, Huldra
  • Fusang Reward scheme changed into a tick-based system
  • Fusang PvP-missions no longer reward you with black marks.
  • PvP vendors with upgrades for your faction’s turrets and custodians are available near your faction home base anima well
  • A new PvP mission, The Underdogs is available for factions that are outmatched in Fusang.

DUNGEONS

  • Lairs
    • Vulkan’s persistent area effects will disappear after the encounter ends.
    • Nobel Calling – Blueprint rewards changed for a different lair boss.
  • Hell Eternal
    • Piston Predators should no longer stack in the encounter with the Flagellatrix Superior.
    • The “Enflamed” environmental debuff in Hell Eternal now stacks up to 10. At 10 stacks, it kills the affected player. Don’t stand in the fire!
    • Eblis will no longer cast Solar Collapse twice in a row if interrupted.
    • Eblis’s life drain, Consummation, can no longer be interrupted.
    • All players should now be able to see damage dealt by Eblis’s spell Consummation.
    • Eblis should now be more consistent about stunning his target during Consummation.
    • Eblis’s spell Cast Out can no longer be interrupted.
    • Eblis’s vortexes should now appear more quickly on phase transition.
    • Particles have been adjusted in the fight with Eblis to more accurately reflect damage areas.
    • Corrected several locations where players could become stuck. Fixed several world design issues.
  • Slaughterhouse – Fixed an issue with an invisible NPC in the NKL-107 fight.
  • Added the Slaughterhouse Nightmare mode to the LFG list.

MISSIONS

Story Mission Templars

  • Virgula Divina: If you enter the playroom keypad code before receiving all clues, your mission will now update appropriately.

New York

  • Questions and Answers – Leah’s arms no longer clip through the desk during the cinematic for tier 5.
  • Just a Flesh Wound
    • Fixed an issue with the Flesh Blob’s casting particles.
    • Your character will now wield a visible chainsaw in your hands when cutting through the wall.
    • Fixed the particles when collecting from corpses.
    • Added sound effects when hacking with a hammer.
    • Corrected placeholder names for abilities used during this mission.
    • Added goalmarkers for the major goals of the mission.
    • Mission now updates for all party members when one person uses the tube.
    • The loose limb will no longer despawn permanently if you die while fighting it.

Kingsmouth

  • The Pick-Up – Cassandra should no longer respawn twice or more.

The Savage Coast

  • Crime and Punishment – Feedback is provided when the player fails 3 times at entering the code.
  • The Black House – Strange candle will give the lore when used, but will only trigger the fire once every 5 minutes.
  • The Black House – Tier 3 urn screen effect will no longer play on other players’ game clients.
  • Hell and Bach – Wicker will now spawn in the middle of the circle in Tier 2.
  • Theme Part Tycoon – Angry Clown should spawn as normal.

The Blue Mountain

  • Ami Legend – Ami now has subtitles when she speaks during the mission.
  • Ami Legend – Assaulting ak’ab will spawn when player leaves and re-enter the assault area.

The Scorched Desert

  • The Living Oil – The letter will no longer remain stuck to your character’s foot after finishing the mission.
  • Fixed an issue that would sometimes make the crystals unresponsive during the mission The Big Terrible Picture.

City of the Sun God

  • The Prompt for the Pinnacle will no longer say that it is a solo instance (since it can be joined in groups).

The Besieged Farmlands

  • Mortal Sins – Cucuvea now holds an object in her hand during the cinematic.
  • Examining the drawing in Tier 1 of ‘The Kindly Ones’ will no longer provide group credit.
  • You can get the Statue from Mortal Coil and multiple players can use the statue if the mission is failed.

The Shadowy Forest

  • Mortal Sins – Fixed an issue with the tier 10 puzzle that prevented some instances of it from thinking they were solved properly.
  • Singing Stones – Corrected an issue where players could not interact with rocks during different tiers of the mission.

The Carpathian Fangs

  • They Mostly Come at Night – Mr. Ruffles will now be worn properly on your character’s body.
  • The Shipping News – The mission will no longer break after one person uses the console.

ITEMS

  • Energy Drink – Leech consumables will now give a leech effect equal to the power listed in the item tooltip.
  • Fixed an issue that created bald spots on hairstyles when wearing the female Pirate Hat.
  • All Male Templar uniforms have been dyed to a nice deep red, to match the female outfits.
  • Pure Anima – Max Health, Attack Rating, and Heal Rating will now stack with Anima – Block Rating, Crit Rating, Crit Damage Rating, Defense Rating, Evade Rating, Hit Rating, Penetration Rating, Physical Protection Rating, and Magical Protection Rating. You will now be able to have one Pure and one normal Anima buff active at the same time.
  • Sov-Tech auxiliary weapon moulds now transform auxiliary weapons into the correct Soviet look and not Orochi.
  • Signet of Corruption should now display the proper rarity color when attached to an item.
  • Signet of Thirst will no longer cause friendly targets to gain hate towards the user.
  • Internal cooldown on Signet of Thirst was updated to match the displayed value on the item tooltip.
  • Signet of Serenity should no longer cause friendly targets to gain hate towards the user.
  • Signet of Temperance should no longer cause friendly targets to gain hate towards the user.
  • Signet of Fury will now gain stacks for each successful hit rather than each successful attack.
  • Rocket Launchers will now display that they require 10 skill to equip when equip requirements are not met.
  • The male Snakeskin outfit now looks more like snakeskin.
  • Signet of Obedience will no longer stack higher than intended. This is a visual change only and does not affect the damage bonus.
  • Blue and Purple versions of Signet of Obedience will now properly provide the damage bonus.
  • The rifle Crushed Will is now worn like other rifles on the back.
  • Black Mark of the Morrigan proc effect will no longer trigger passives.
  • Black Mark of the Morrigan proc effect will only gain 1 stack per second.
  • Signet of Equilibrium and Signet of Benediction will no longer cause friendly NPCs to attack you after you heal them.

GUI

  • Increased the maximum purchasable inventory size to 250.
  • Increased the maximum purchasable bank size to 300.
  • Changed Enemy Evade Chance in the character sheet to Enemy Evade Penalty.
  • Changed Enemy Crit Chance in the character sheet to Enemy Crit Penalty.
  • Auxiliary Blueprints and the Moulds they create are now Green quality items instead of White to facilitate Need/Greed rolling.
  • Made improvements to the Raid menu.
  • Added an icon for Raid missions.
  • Fixed a problem when players were seeing a highlighted gear mouse cursor but received a “Too far away” message.
  • Resource bars for Fist and Hammers no longer stay at 0/5.
  • Stats should now update correctly on your Character sheet.
  • Fixed an issue where clicking on the Ability Wheel would sometimes bring up the Auxiliary cells instead of the Main Wheel cells.
Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, The Secret World Tagged With:

Flash Point 46: Frozen Jawas On A Stick

November 18, 2012 by

We’re really pleased to welcome back Kristy, who’ll be joining the regular co-host team. Lots to talk about this episode as well!

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
– 1.5 / F2P in-depth
– Cathar as first species on Cartel Market
– impact on subscriber numbers

GW2
– Seeking feedback on continuing GW2 discussion on podcast otherwise will cease covering it
– Lost Shores update
– Refer a friend

TSW
– Episode #4 overview and initial impressions (link for preview video)
– Discussion on Albion Theatre

WoW
– Monking around
– Project Titan

Other
– Marvel Heroes Developer Update (where I repeatedly say the story writer is Mark Millar when in fact it’s Brian Michael Bendis – sorry!)

– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Kristy’s Blog.

Please review or rate the podcast on iTunes if you can – it makes a huge difference!

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:26 — 28.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: General News, Podcast Tagged With:

Guild Wars 2 Patch Notes: 15th November 2012 Update

November 17, 2012 by

GW2 Patch Notes

Sorry for the delay in posting these GW2 patch notes from the latest update. For any regular players you’ll know this update has contained the latest big content update, the Lost Shores event. Aside from the extra Level 80 dungeon,Fractal of the Mists, there’s a heap of other stuff including a range of bug fixed.

The patch notes in full for you:

Dungeons

General

  • New dungeon rewards have been added to all dungeons.
  • Each dungeon has a new set of unique items with new stat combinations, ranging in rarity from masterwork to exotic. These items have a chance to drop off of certain bosses in the explorable mode of each dungeon.
  • Story and explorable bosses and encounters have a chance to drop Bags of Wondrous Goods, which contain coins and karma. Bags of Wondrous Goods obtained in explorable mode also contain dungeon tokens.
  • If the owner of a dungeon instance intentionally leaves his party to kick out players and invite new players, it will now also kick that owner out of the dungeon to prevent people from kicking PUG members and inviting guild members for the final boss of a dungeon.

Fractals of the Mists
There are new stories being told in the taverns of Lion’s Arch, usually in hushed tones by broken and bloodied adventurers. They weep into their ales and shake as they speak…not about dragons or the undead, but of something new, a mysterious portal that has emerged in the city, beckoning the bravest to venture through it.
Introducing a dungeon experience like no other—Fractals of the Mists! A series of unique “fractal” minidungeons, increasing in difficulty, offers players unlimited levels of challenge! With great risk comes great rewards, including new weapon sets, a back slot item, new Ascended loot, and much more!

  • New level 80 dungeon with dynamic leveling so you can bring your friends!
  • Endless and scaling. The deeper you go, the harder it gets!
  • The portal to the Fractals of the Mists will activate with the Lost Shores content Friday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Head west of Fort Marriner to the entrance and try your luck. Perhaps you’ll survive and reap the rewards, or perhaps you’ll be lost forever to the Fractals’ bloody secrets.

Items
There are two new major features added to items in this update. For more detailed information on these features and how they tie into the new Lost Shores content, check out this blog post!

  • Added new crafting materials as part of the Lost Shores update.
  • Crafted Halloween potions are no longer account bound.
  • The mighty Zommoros has slightly increased the drop rate on Legendary precursor weapons from the Mystic Forge from both Rares and Exotics.
  • The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.
  • The amount of loot that drops for downscaled players has been increased. You should now be able to receive level-equivalent loot until you are fighting at a downscaled level that is less than 2/3 of your actual level. You should also receive loot a greater percentage of the time as well as receiving a greater percentage of experience, gold, and karma. For level 80 characters, this means level 55+ areas will be able to drop level 80 gear and give about 75% or so of the other rewards. Previously, these areas would give level 77 gear at best and closer to 60% or so of your rewards.

New Rarity Type: Ascended

  • Ascended rarity falls between Exotics and Legendaries on the rarity spectrum.
  • Ascended items have higher stats than Exotics and come with slots for the new upgrade type, Infusions.
  • Ascended rings and back slot items have been added to the game.

New Upgrade Type: Infusion

  • Infusions are a new type of upgrade component that can only be slotted into a matching Infusion slot.
  • Added 12 new Infusions of the offensive, defensive, and omni types to the game.
  • Create Infusions through the Mystic Forge using new crafting materials.

PvP

  • Paid tournament rewards have been improved. We’ve spread out the rewards for paid tournaments, so that more finishing positions receive rewards. We’ve also made it so that qualifying points are rewarded to the following finishing positions:
    • 1st place—Tourney Chests, 500 glory, 500 rank points, 120 gems, 5 qualifying points
    • 2nd place—Tourney Chests, 400 glory, 400 rank points, 80 gems, 3 qualifying points
    • 3rd place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
    • 4th place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
    • 5th place—Tourney Chests
    • 6th place—Tourney Chests
    • 7th place—Tourney Chests
    • 8th place—Tourney Chests
    • Paid tournaments also provide each finishing place a small chance to win gems in the following amounts. The chance of winning one of these is approximately 1 in 4. No player can win twice.
      • 10 gems
      • 35 gems
      • 80 gems
      • 120 gems
      • 1000 gems
  • Free and paid tournaments will now use individual respawn timers. Public games played via the PvP Browser will still use time-based wave spawning.
  • A new map set in a kodan dojo is available. “Temple of the Silent Storm” is a beta version of the map, but we’re letting players play it now to give us feedback.
  • We will also be putting up some PvP Browser hot-join maps so that some are 5-on-5 and some are the current 8-on-8.
  • The map rotation for PvP Browser hot-join maps will be:
    • Temple of the Silent Storm
    • Forest of Niflhel
    • Legacy of the Foefire
    • Battle of Kyhlo
    • Raid on the Capricorn
  • Daily and monthly achievement rewards are now available in PvP.
    • Daily rewards: 1 tournament ticket and 1 glory boost
    • Monthly achievement rewards: 10 tournament tickets, 5 glory boosts, and 5 salvage kits
  • The /rank command will now show your PvP ranking. This only works in the PvP lobby and cannot be used inside an active PvP game.
  • Added tracking for Qualifying Point Leaderboards. The current leaderboards are being shown here: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/pvp/Leaderboards-for-Qualifying-Points/.
  • PvP Mystic Forge: You can now convert PvP Mystic Forge components into other components. This requires purchasing an Arcane Converter from any glory vendor. The conversion recipes are as follows:
    • 25 Arcane Orbs + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Crystal + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Crystals
    • 25 Arcane Crystals + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Sliver + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Slivers
    • 25 Arcane Slivers + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Orb + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Orbs
  • Raid on the Capricorn: Reduced the number of sharks from 10 to 6. They should no longer cover the Ruins capture point.
  • PvP downed health is now 75% of what it was. This change was made so that in fights where players are slightly outnumbered, they can win those fights by killing off downed enemies through damage rather than needing to use a finishing move. This should not have too much impact on 1v1 fights or big team fights, but it should help players win 1v2 and 2v3 fights if they gain the initial advantage.
  • The hit area for the trebuchet in the Battle of Kyhlo has been updated to prevent players from dropping massive AoE attacks (e.g. Meteor Shower) and having every single attack hit the trebuchet, destroying it without any counter. All normal attacks should still work against it.

General

  • The Fire Elemental encounter in Metrica Province has received a balance pass.
  • The Shatterer encounter in Blazeridge Steppes has been updated.
  • A UI confirmation window will now pop up on large vendor purchases.
  • Players will now be warned if they do not have enough inventory space to acquire an elemental fragment during the Dierdre’s Steps jumping puzzle.
  • Harvesting tools are now account bound.
  • Updated Rune of Water to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of the Monk to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of Earth to provide 15% protection duration instead of 20%, and 3 seconds of protection instead of 4 seconds in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of the Citadel to properly grant power instead of healing.
  • Rune of Svanir’s block of ice effect will no longer allow players to capture points while they’re invulnerable. Removing the stun from this effect will remove the invulnerability as well.
  • Rune of Air’s lightningdamage has been reduced by 25%.
  • “Unblockable” skill facts have now been added to various skills.
  • Rune of the Pack’s on-hit effect now works properly.
  • Many skills, items, and traits were applying healing to an infinite amount of targets and have now been limited to 5 targets.
  • You can no longer view opponents’ account names through reporting in WvW.
  • Fixed a bug that caused many piercing, boomerang, and bouncing projectiles (those that hit more than 1 target) to continually increase in damage the more targets they hit.
  • Fixed a bug preventing melee attacks from hitting static objects in the world if the character was not moving. As an example, this should help players using melee in Ascalonian Catacombs to hit graveling burrows, amongst other offending objects.

Commerce

  • The Consortium Chest has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 250 gems each or 10 for 1800 gems. No key is required to open these chests; simply double-click them in your inventory.
    • When you open the Consortium Chest, you will receive some number of crafting materials and one random item.
    • Some items in the chest include: shoulder skins, breathing masks, weapon skins, hats, and minis.
    • All items in the chest are new and have never been available before.
    • Weapon skins are rare, and the minis are very rare.
    • All items can be sold on the Trading Post.
    • The Consortium Chest will only be available for a limited time.
  • All the items found in the Consortium Chest can also be obtained as rare drops from any creature from the new Lost Shores event.
  • The Consortium Dye Kit has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 125 gems each or 5 for 500 gems.
    • The Consortium Dye Kit gives one random blue dye and one random yellow dye.
    • The Consortium Dye Kit will only be available for a limited time.
  • Dye Packs now come in bundles of 5 for 800 gems.

Events

  • Fixed a bug preventing Captain Penzan from retrieving his treasure in Bloodtide Coast.
  • Fixed a potential blocking bug for the event “Protect Orl’s research krewe” in Metrica Province.
  • Fixed an exploit with the “Assist the skritt with their fortifications” renown region in Mount Maelstrom.
  • Fixed a bug that would cause Fleshgrazer to turn permanently invulnerable.
  • Fixed a blocking bug that could occur during “Escort Brugh to Morgan’s Spiral” in Caledon Forest.
  • Fixed a blocking bug in the event “Help the Priory return the energy core to the Henge of Denravi” in Brisban Wildlands.
  • The Priory Explorer Plinx event chain in Cursed Shore will now occur less frequently.
  • The event “Defend Rimtooth, the pack marmox, from dredge” in Diessa Plateau has been updated to avoid situations that could block progress.
  • Fixed a bug that would occasionally prevent the event “Return the stolen cattle to Stonefall Estate” in Diessa Plateau from starting.
  • Updated the “Royal Forum Waypoint” in the Straits of Devastation so players will no longer get stuck in nearby props.
  • Fixed two bugs that could prevent progress with the event “Cull the undead horde gathering outside of First Haven” in Gendarran Fields.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Protect krewe leader Dobbs as the krewe clears the excavation site” in Timberline Falls.
  • Fixed a bug that would allow the player to remain transformed after the event “Disguise yourself and gather special roots for Drysdan’s medicine” in Mount Maelstrom.
  • Fixed potential blocking bugs with the event “Help the Soundless villager return home” in Caledon Forest.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the spectral weapons from respawning in the Malchor’s Leap event “Defeat spectral weapons and bring them to Byanca.”
  • Fixed an issue that caused Ghostnight to become stuck on his path in the Diessa Plateau event “Defend Faint Ghostnight as he searches for a new devourer egg.”
  • Fixed an issue that was preventing Nia from continuing on her path in the Fields of Ruin event “Help Nia rescue Cymbel’s hounds.”
  • Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to become stuck while reviving allies in the Straits of Devastation event “Escort the northern invasion Pact squad to the Pact rally point at Triumph Plaza.”
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent the Straits of Devastation event “Help the Pact reach the Altar of Betrayal before their morale is depleted” from starting.

Story

  • The story step “The Hatchery” has been fixed to allow players to progress.
  • The story step “Source of Orr” has been fixed to prevent a possible blocking issue.
  • The story step “Estate of Decay” has been fixed to avoid a problem where allowing Hekja to die resulted in preventing progress.
  • The story step “Conscript the Dead Ships” fixed a possible blocking issue if you used movement skills to board the ships or talked to Jeyne while she was building the gangplanks.
  • The story step “The Stone Sheath” has been fixed for engineers that were previously unable to complete the quest.
  • The story step “Dredge Assault” now progresses correctly when destroying either door into the dredge cave.
  • The story step “Critical Blowback” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
  • The story step “The Ghost Rite” has been fixed to avoid a problem where players were able to defeat the final boss too early.
  • The story step “A Light in the Darkness” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress, and the difficulty has been reduced.
  • The story step “Ships of the Line” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
  • The story step “Trading Trickery” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.

Profession Skills
Elementalist

  • Ride the Lightning: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably.
  • Magnetic Grasp: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably and end correctly when you reach your target.
  • Evasive Arcana: This trait no longer creates unintended blast finishers.
  • Ether Renewal: This skill’s cast time has been reduced from 4.75 to 3.5 seconds. There is no change to the total amount of healing.
  • Healing Rain: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
  • Armor of Earth: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
  • Churning Earth: This skill’s description no longer references “hold and release.”
  • Signets of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: These skills should now have a cast animation while wielding a Fiery Greatsword.
  • Ring of Fire: This skill on Conjure Flame now lists itself as a Fire combo field.
  • Dragon’s Tooth: The blast finisher for this skill now triggers at the spell location rather than the character’s location.
  • Magnetic Wave: This skill’s missile-reflect portion now has an accompanying icon.
  • Phoenix: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 5 seconds of vigor that this skill applies.
  • Blasting Staff and Geomancer’s Alacrity: These traits now work together for the Eruption skill.
  • Mist Form: This skill now works with the Water Magic trait Cantrip Mastery.
  • Soothing Wave: This skill now properly applies regeneration to the elementalist when using Conjure Frost rather than only when the bow is picked up.
  • Healing Ripple: This skill’s scaling with healing power has been reduced by 50% in PvP only, as it had scaling that’s normally reserved for main healing skills. The maximum number of targets has also been reduced from infinite to 5.
  • Obsidian Focus: This Earth Magic trait now grants toughness when channeling the Stone Shards skill.
  • Ice Spike: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct amount of vulnerability when traited.
  • Conjure Frost Bow’s Deep Freeze: This skill now applies 1 second of chill per pulse, preventing extreme stacking of chill on a target.
  • Conjure Frost Bow’s Ice Storm: This skill now applies 5 seconds of bleeding per hit instead of confusion.
  • Tidal Wave: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.
  • Tornado: Leaving this elite skill now removes the stability it grants in order to make it consistent with other elite transformation abilities.
  • Vapor Form: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to contest a capture point.
  • Flame Axe: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
  • Frost Bow: This weapon now grants the wielder increased condition duration and increased healing power.
  • Fiery Greatsword: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
  • Magnetic Shield: This weapon now grants the wielder vitality and toughness.
  • Lightning Hammer: This weapon now grants the wielder increased precision and critical damage.

Engineer

  • Elixir
    • Elixir X: This skill now only requires one cast to transform the user.
    • Toss Elixir R: This skill’s recharge is increased from 85 seconds to 120 seconds.
    • Elixir S: This skill is now improved by the Alchemy trait Fast-Acting Elixirs.
  • Tool Kit
    • Box of Nails: This skill now shows its proper area of effect.
    • Gear Shield: This skill now blocks for an extra second.
    • Magnet: This skill’s range has been doubled.
  • Grenades
    • The projectile speed of all grenades has been increased by 10-15%.
    • Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
    • Shrapnel Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 15% in PvP only.
    • Freeze Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
    • Grenade Barrage: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only. It also now works correctly with the Explosives trait Grenadier while underwater.
  • Turrets
    • Smoke Screen: This skill’s graphic has been updated to show the area of the screen. It now pulses every 2 seconds for 6 seconds instead of every second for 5 seconds. This makes it more effective against enemies using attacks at normal speeds but prevents it from being abused to shut down quick-attacking enemies completely.
    • Automatic Fire: Increased the duration of this skill’s Overcharge by 100% on Harpoon Turret and 25% on Rifle Turret.
    • Electrified Net: Increased the velocity of the Electrified Net by 100%.
    • Thump: Increased the damage of the Overcharged attack by 25%.
  • Bomb Kit, Med Kit, Tool Kit, and Elixir Gun: These skills can now be equipped in the air.
  • All kits can be stowed in the air now.
  • Toss Elixir C: This skill’s cooldown will be set from 60 seconds to 30 seconds when underwater.
  • Elixir Gun’s Fumigate: This skill will now be cancelled when using other skills on the weapon to improve responsiveness.
  • Rocket Turret: This turret can now be detonated underwater.
  • Power Wrench: This trait now applies to Gear Shield and Magnet.
  • Incendiary Powder: This trait now states that it can only trigger once every 3 seconds.
  • Elixir U and Elixir C: These skills have had outdated skill facts removed.
  • Potent Elixirs: This skill no longer grants improper boon durations.
  • Elixir B: This skill grants fury, retaliation, and swiftness for 10 seconds base, with might being applied for 30 seconds base.
  • Smoke Bomb: This skill’s radius has been reduced to 180 from 240 when traited. Smoke Bomb is now active for 4 seconds, pulsing every 2. This change also affects the Autodefense Bomb Dispenser trait.
  • Homing Torpedo: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Retreating Grapple: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Timed Charge: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Net Wall: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Harpoon Turret: This turret will now spawn at the engineer when the Deployable Turrets trait is equipped.

Guardian

  • Protector’s Strike: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to be cancelled and retain the blocking benefits.
  • Shield of Judgment: This skill’s protection duration has been set to 3 seconds from 5 seconds in PvP only.
  • Courageous Return: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Power of the Virtuous: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Orb of Light: This skill’s velocity has been increased by 50%.
  • Empower: This skill’s might duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
  • Selfless Daring: This trait had an efficiency with healing power that was reserved for healing skills only and has now been reduced to its intended level. Heal scaling has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
  • Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to be instant when traited and will now always be based around the guardian.

Mesmer

  • Moa Morph: Targets transformed by this skill have 5 new and less-frustrating skills, and this skill can also be used underwater to turn enemies into tuna. This skill now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud.
  • Portal: This skill’s recharge has been increased to 90 seconds.
  • Illusionary Duelist, Phantasmal Swordsman, Phantasmal Mage, Phantasmal Defender, Phantasmal Disenchanter, Phantasmal Rogue, Phantasmal Warlock, Illusionary Mariner, Illusionary Whaler, Phantasmal Berserker, and Phantasmal Warden: These skills must now be cast in line-of-sight of the target. These skills now behave as normal attacks that the mesmer must connect in order to summon the phantasm, and they will fail if the mesmer is blind or the ability is cast on an invulnerable target.
  • Phantasmal Mage: This skill’s confusion has been increased to 3 stacks for 3 seconds from 1 stack for 9 seconds. The recharge on Phantasmal Mage’s skill has been increased to 6 seconds from 5 seconds.
  • The Prestige: This skill’s damage has been increased by 100%.
  • Phantasmal Haste: This trait now works.

Necromancer

  • The Soul Reaping trait line now properly increases maximum Life Force.
  • Ghastly Claws: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% and updated to indicate the correct life force gained.
  • Reaper’s Touch: This skill applies 4 stacks of vulnerability per hit instead of 3.
  • Mark of Blood: This skill now uses the standard staff scythe cast effects.
  • Spectral Wall: This skill now applies its recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
  • Dark Path: This skill now applies it recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
  • Spinal Shivers: This skill’s casting effects and audio are now consistent with or without the Spiteful Talisman trait.
  • Soul Marks and Mark of Revival: These traits now work together to grant 3% life force to players when triggered.
  • Death Nova: This skill now properly activates when using Taste of Death and Putrid Explosion. The internal cooldown has been removed. This skill’s field duration is now 4 seconds, and the rate it pulses has been increased to every 2 seconds. Its poison duration is 5 seconds per pulse.
  • Weakening Shroud: This trait now functions underwater.
  • Mark of Evasion: This trait is no longer a blast finisher when the mark is created.
  • Plague Blast: This skill’s casting time has been reduced.
  • Death Shroud: Moa Morph now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud and using their entire bar while in the transform.
  • Deadly Catch: This skill now pulls enemies to the necromancer in a reliable fashion.
  • Summon Blood Fiend: The Blood Fiend’s survivability has been increased, and its attack now heals the necromancer for 200% of its previous heal.
  • Spectral Walk: This skill now sets its underwater slot appropriately on recharge.
  • Corrosive Poison Cloud: This skill’s duration tooltip has been corrected.
  • Frozen Abyss: This skill now lists the vulnerability it applies.
  • Spectral Grasp: This skill’s projectile velocity has been increased by 33%.
  • Lich Form: Leaving this skill now removes stability from the player to make the removal consistent with all other transform elites.
  • Feast: This skill no longer causes damage to the necromancer.
  • Sinking Tomb: This skill now has a correct range of 1200, cannot hit targets above the water, and has to hit the target to cause the sink effect.
  • Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, and Vampiric: These traits have been updated so that they don’t heal enemies when in lower-level areas.
  • Signet of Spite: This skill’s description now indicates all conditions applied.

Ranger

  • Improved the effect chance on ranger spirits to 35% base and 50% when traited.
  • Beastmastery minor traits now use the correct icon.
  • Splinter Shot: This skill’s damage is increased by 150%, and its bleeding duration is increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • Counterattack: The blocking portion of this skill can now be used while moving. Ranged attacks will not trigger the second half of the skill.
  • Protecting Screech: This skill now states the correct duration of 4 seconds.
  • Call of the Wild: The Wilderness Survival trait Off-Hand Training now applies to this skill.
  • Throw Torch: The speed of the projectile has been increased.
  • Maul: This skill’s damage has been increased by 40%.
  • Sun Spirit: The tooltip for this skill now displays the proper burning time of 3 seconds.
  • Whirling Defense: This skill was updated so that it interacts better with combo fields.
  • Splinter Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Coral Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Feeding Frenzy: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Mercy Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Thief

  • Piercing Shot: Fixed an error in this skill’s damage tooltip.
  • Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%.
  • Blinding Powder: This skill’s recharge has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
  • Smoke Screen: This skill’s height has been increased to help it absorb projectiles.
  • Shadowstep: This skill is temporarily disabled underwater to keep players from circumventing walls when using it.
  • Tactical Strike: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% in all formats. This skill’s daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP.
  • Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s power.
  • Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
  • Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
  • Body Shot: This skill now allows players to activate other skills sooner after the ability ends.
  • Sneak Attack: This skill will now only apply the Revealed buff on the first attack that hits an opponent.
  • Stab: Damage for this skill has been normalized so that it doesn’t deal less damage from behind the target.
  • Bountiful Theft: This trait no longer applies aegis at odd times.
  • Scorpion Wire: This skill’s range has been increased to 1200.
  • Shadow Trap: This skill no longer shadowsteps the thief when the trap is triggered. This skill now has two additional abilities: The first ability becomes available when Shadow Trap is cast and will destroy the current trap. The second ability, Shadow Pursuit, becomes available when an enemy triggers the trap. The thief may choose to activate this ability and shadowstep to the enemy that triggered the trap. If this ability is not activated after 10 seconds, the ability will fade and Shadow Trap will be available.
  • Piercing Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Ink Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Warrior

  • Dual Shot: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10%.
  • Bull’s Charge: This skill’s range fact now properly reflects the actual range of the skill.
  • Reviver’s Might: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Stick and Move: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Forceful Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Brutal Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Split Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Knot Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Repeating Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Triple Chop: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.

Racial Abilities
Human

  • Avatar of Melandru: This skill now properly removes stability when players leave the transformation.

Sylvari

  • Grasping Vines: This skill now immobilizes enemies when the vines connect with the enemy.
Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2 Tagged With:

Final SWTOR 1.5 Patch Notes

November 16, 2012 by

SWTOR 1.5 Patch Notes

1.5 is Alive! Sorry, that was lame, but here are the full SWTOR 1.5 Patch Notes:

Game Update 1.5: HK-51 Activated

11/15/2012

Highlights

    • Free-to-Play is here! Players can now experience Star Wars: The Old Republic up to level 50 (with certain restrictions) without paying a subscription fee.
    • The Cartel Market is now accessible. Players can use Cartel Coins to purchase boosts, unlocks, cosmetic items, and more!

Travel to Section X on Belsavis and learn why the nefarious Dread Guard has seized control of this ravaged area of the planet! Section X can be accessed on Belsavis and via the daily mission shuttles.

  • HK-51 can now be acquired as a Companion Character! A shipment of the infamous Assassin Droids can be found in the wreck of an Imperial transport ship, The Fatality, in Section X. Reactivating HK-51 requires finding and assembling parts from across the galaxy.
  • Nightmare Mode is now available for Operation: Explosive Conflict! Bosses in Nightmare Mode present a new level of challenge, new mechanics, and high-quality rewards (such as a new vehicle and Dread Guard set pieces)!
  • Dreadtooth, a new world boss, can be found roaming Section X. Each time Dreadtooth is defeated, he returns with a temporary, stacking power buff which increases his difficulty and the quality of his loot rewards.

General

  • The names of guilds that are inactive (any guild that has had no members log in for 8 weeks) will now be released for use by new guilds. If a guild member logs back in once a name is released, that guild member can reclaim the guild’s name if it has not been taken. If the name has been taken, the guild will be granted a free rename.
  • If no member of a guild logs in for 8 weeks, the next guild member to log in will be promoted to Guild Leader.

Classes and Combat

  • Subscribers are no longer charged credits for skill point re-specializations.

    Jedi Knight

    Sentinel
    Watchman
        • Merciless Zeal’s healing has been reduced to .5% per point (down from 1% per point).

    Sith Warrior

    Maurader
    Annihilation
        • Hungering’s healing has been reduced to .5% per point (down from 1% per point).

Group Finder

  • Travelling to a new area while in a Group Finder queue no longer occasionally causes the UI to behave as if the player is not in the queue.

Missions and NPCs

  • Some missions on Origin Worlds now offer Experience Boost rewards.

Items

  • The cost to remove mods from items has been reduced for subscribers.
  • The Collector’s Edition vehicle and all vehicles available in the Cartel Market can now be used with the lowest-level rank. Their speed now scales based on the rank unlocked by characters.
  • Subscribers can now access speeders at level 15.
  • Campaign armorings are now available for purchase on the Black Hole vendor for Black Hole Commendations.
  • Dread Guard relics are now available on the Daily vendor for 300 Daily Commendations.
  • A new set of droid armor is now available from the Daily vendor.
  • More robes have been adjusted so that their backsides are not inappropriately large when worn.
  • New speeder vendors are now available on Taris (Republic) and Balmorra (Imperial).

Legacy

  • Players can now unlock their Legacy at level 10.
  • The Legacy panel now accommodates much larger Legacies.
  • Each rank of the Legacy Experience perk now grants +6% experience (as opposed to a gradual increase of +2/4/6/8/10). The total possible bonus from Legacy perks is still 30% in each category.

PvP

  • The caps for Warzone and Ranked Warzone Commendations have been increased. All players can now accumulate up to 4500 Ranked Warzone Commendations and 2750 Warzone Commendations.
  • Elite War Hero armorings, barrels, and hilts have had their stats improved slightly.

UI

  • Several emotes are now voiced!
  • Subscribers now have access to 2 additional quickslot bars.
  • Different quickslot bars can no longer be jumped to in the primary quickslot bar if they are already visible in another location on-screen.
  • The deposit for items placed on the GTN is now a percentage of the item’s value (instead of being based on the player’s set price).
  • Vehicles, mini-pets, weapons, the results of crafting schematics, and color crystals can now be previewed in the item preview window.
  • An additional Cargo Hold can now be purchased.
  • The title selection window is now scrollable. Players can now choose their Legacy name display from this window.
  • A progress bar has been added to the currency pane to indicate player proximity to currency caps.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

  • Several typos and instances of incorrect text have been corrected in all languages.
  • The Imperial Medcenter in the vicinity of the wreck of the Ambria’s Fury has been moved Northeast.
  • An issue that caused dark outlines to appear around characters’ eyes has been corrected.
Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, SWTOR Tagged With:

SWTOR Free To Play: Our Verdict

November 15, 2012 by

To coincide with the launch of SWTOR’s Free To Play (F2P) option, I thought it would be worth getting some thoughts from each of our writers who play the game. For a game that’s only been available for less than a year, the switch to F2P is one of the bigger milestones and one not necessarily driven by success. That said, it could be a game-changer (sorry I had to do that), so let’s get the gamut of opinions from the team here:

Simon Potter

If ever there was an issue that sets the internet wolves baying at the moon it’s this one. And who can blame them? If it’s done well, F2P can save a game, or at least slow its decline to a respectable flatline. Done badly and it scares off the few paying subs you managed to hang on to.

So will this be the saving grace for SWTOR? I hope so, but we’ll have to wait a month or two to find out. If past travellers down this road are anything to go by, there will be a large influx of returning players, both the curious and hopeful. More significantly will be the mass of new players looking to get their Star Wars on. That should be exciting for all of us, especially those who have hung on hoping for the best.

All of these new players will, for the first month or so inject energy and a pretty good chunk of real world currency through micro transactions. Things will be looking pretty rosy for BioWare and I hope that continues because if the F2P implementation is done well, many people will stick around, enjoy the game and spread the good word. However, if it’s done poorly then ensuing flood of negative opinions may drown any long term future the game has, at least as we currently know it.

We all know that the game came out before it was ready and arguably was never really conceived as a true MMO. It’s the complaints generated by those issues that filled the sack of doorknobs which Bioware/EA have subsequently been thrashed with. Those of us who have been watching things closely are also painfully aware of the number of problems that have not been fixed and I’m not just talking about the game.

Even if they get F2P out the gate without a hitch they still have to keep the cash shop fed with a flow of desirable vanity items. More importantly they need to keep their six week update schedule. In my opinion the true test is whether the next update (1.6) has Makeb, the Cathars and other items previously promised or if they instead eke them out across several separate updates. If it’s the first option, we should be able to look forward to some great new treats coming down the line. If it’s the latter, it indicates they have very little up their sleeves which begs the question, who is going to come up with the new content, and when?

While BioWare have been content to gloss over or ignore concerns for the long term viability of SWTOR we’ve reached the point where they need to start delivering the goods in a substantial and consistent manner, especially with so many more people watching.

Personally I’m looking forward to F2P. I hope we get “Jedi’s” party at the Ewok village and not “Empire’s Tea with Vader”
.

Kristy Green:

When I heard the announcement that SWTOR was going to go free to play and how the story part of the game will be available to everyone, I was more excited than when the game was first released. Well, I was at first. Then they released more information about how the free to play will work and I went from yes to maybe to no, although floating around ‘maybe casually’ right now.

I admit that I am not a fan of free-to-play models with a subscription. I feel that it should be one or the other. There is always a chance of tension building between those that pay and those that don’t. Also, you have the added difficulty of finding the balance between rewarding the subscribers without punishing the free-to-players.

When I look at SWTOR’s new free-to-play plans, one thing sticks out to me – it seems to be all about getting you back to paying a full subscription. They seem to offer no reward for subscribing but instead lay all the punishment (or restriction) on the rest of the player base.

I admit I can’t see this working; the whole point of going free-to-play is getting people back playing your game and getting them to spend money because they want to, not because they have to.  People shouldn’t feel like their game play is affected because they aren’t paying a subscription.

Matthew ‘Scope’ Pearce:

After testing out the Cartel Coin Shop on the PTS it left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.

To be frank I think the switch to free to play might push me further away from the game than I already am due to the “Lucky Dip” and “gambling” aspect of the Cartel Coin Shop. I hated that about Star Wars Galaxies when they added the digital card game almost 90% or more of the new content and items being added to the game was all luck based drops from real cash purchases of card packs much like what EA/Bioware are doing to the Cartel Coin Shop in SWTOR with the Crime Lord Packs.

Now that SWTOR is going the same way as Star Wars Galaxies I feel cheated that If I want an Imperial throne vehicle I will have to buy packs over and over until it drops instead of just buying it out right like it should be. I’m also worried that even if I was to remain a subscriber that most of the new content being added to the game would only be added to the Cartel Coin Shop and require an “additional payments” alongside my monthly sub which would really piss me off.

With that in mind it is interesting to see that we can sell the items from the Cartel Coin Shop on the GTN which just makes credits earned in game less valuable now that we can just buy cartel items with real life cash and sell them on the GTN for credits.

I am Hopeful that the transition to F2P will improve the active player base numbers on the Oceanic servers as lately I have just lost interest in the game due to the empty lifeless and barren worlds on these servers but only time will tell if Oceanic servers will continue or fade away.

All in all I will return to SWTOR when more story content has been added to the game as this is the reason I got SWTOR in the first place and the only reason I will continue to play SWTOR.

Luke Le Page:

The closer we get to SWTOR’s F2P launch the more excited I am becoming. Looking back, I can’t really give you an accurate reason for why I stopped playing in the first place (I’m leaning towards the fact that my friends also left).

As some readers may be aware I also played DC Universe and experienced its transition to the F2P model and it is this experience that has me excited for SWTOR. I still have high hopes for this game and it will rely heavily on how they treat the F2P system. There are still a number of questions that need to be answered, the biggest one being how powerful will future cartel market items become?

If BioWare and by extension EA can maintain a balance between players who invest in the market and those who do not, I see nothing but a bright future for the game.

 David Holloway:

One of the downsides of being the editor is I usually have the last word and in this case I haven’t got much to say that hasn’t been covered by my colleagues above. Overall I’m probably on the pessimistic side in that I see SWTOR being crowded out in a now very busy MMO space, with too many people unforgiving for mistakes of the past year and a parent organisation (EA) that is not likely to put in the funds to make this game what it should be. It’s an issue I passionately hope I’m wrong on – but I just can’t see F2P causing the upward momentum the game needs.

I’m a subscriber and will continue to be, although each month that passes makes me wonder why I don’t go F2P – that’s the challenge BioWare face – making me and others like me wanting to pay a subscription. Here’s hoping they manage to do that.

And now the most important opinion: yours. Post your thoughts in comments!

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR

SWTOR Maintenance 15th November 2012

November 15, 2012 by

UPDATE (8.45am AEDT): Appears that servers may be down again for a little while for some people according to a SWTOR.com tweet – not ETA on when they’ll be back up. In the meantime, check out the full 1.5 Patch Notes.

It’s the bigg’un: a 12-hour maintenance downtime for the transition to Free to Play. Local time conversions for you:

AEDT: 5pm-5am
AWST: 2pm-2am
NZDT: 7pm-7am

The blurb from BioWare:

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for twelve hours on Thursday, November 15th, 2012 from 12AM CST (10PM PST/1AM EST/6AM GMT/7AM CET/5PM AEDT) until 12PM CST (10AM PST/1PM EST/6PM GMT/7PM CST/5AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than twelve hours, but could be extended.

Explore Section X, a brand new area on the prison world of Belsavis, where you will not only embark on a galaxy-wide mission to recruit the legendary HK-51 Assassin Droid as your companion, but also confront agents of the Dread Masters in their attempt to activate a powerful ancient Rakata weapon.

In Game Update 1.5, 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. Subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the gameplay experience.
Free-to-Play – The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with some restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.5.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Thursday, November 15th, 2012

Time: 12AM CST (10PM PST/1AM EST/6AM GMT/7AM CET/5PM AEDT) until 12PM CST (10AM PST/1PM EST/6PM GMT/7PM CST/5AM AEDT)

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

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

Filed Under: General News, Servers, SWTOR Tagged With:

The Secret World Issue #4 Preview Video

November 14, 2012 by

Hot off the presses, a six-plus minute video for the upcoming Issue #4 content update: Big Trouble in the Big Apple. It covers off graphically all the previously announced new content, including the PvP changes we talked about earlier this week.

Jump in and have a look for yourself:

There’s not a lot in there to dislike, and I applaud the innovation / sandbox nature of the Albion Theatre although the cynic in me wonders how successfully it’ll be used.

Over to you: is Issue #4 appealing to you and if so, which parts in particular?

Filed Under: General News, The Secret World

Marvel Heroes Developer Diary: Story

November 14, 2012 by

You may or may not know that we follow the development of the Marvel Heroes MMO pretty closely as yours truly is a rabid Marvel fan (albeit a pre-2000’s Marvel fan as a general rule), as is my podcast co-host and contributing writer Simon. So it was great to see another Marvel Heroes update released giving some detail on the story behind the game.

There’s quite a few snippets in there that you can discover for yourself but I for one like the fact Doctor Doom is the key villain. The vid / diary was put together by IGN:

After watching this, it’s hard not be be excited about this game. That said, all developer diaries are designed to do just that and the proof is always in the final product. If I was going to make a criticism it’d be that some of the dialogue sounds a little bit cheesy – yes it’s based on the comics but even so there’s some rough spots there.

Overall though, I’m very very optimistic for Marvel Heroes: what about you?

Filed Under: General News, Marvel Heroes, Other Games Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: SWTOR F2P Thoughts

November 13, 2012 by

SWTOR F2P Thoughts

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

My relationship with Star Wars: The Old Republic has been more like a rollercoaster than well, a relationship. When I first heard about this new MMO my immediate thought was how awesome it was going to be to play out my childhood fantasy of being a Jedi. Obviously this isn’t the first Star Wars game but it was the first one that I was interested in playing. When I heard BioWare were behind it, well I had a bit of a geek squealing session.

I was frustrated when I heard it wasn’t being released in Australia at launch but through some clever workarounds I was able to get the game. So when launch did come around, I was able to play and to live my dreams as a Jedi Consular and even got to play as a Twi’lek. How much more cooler can you get?

Sadly, then my friends stopped playing and the awesomeness of being a lightsaber wielding blue woman wasn’t enough to keep me playing. The game had some great things and like many, I loved the story (even if I got lost a few times because I kept pressing the spacebar during cut scenes) but there just wasn’t enough to keep me paying a subscription for. I let my account lapse with the promise that if it went free to play, I would return if only to find out how the story ended.

When I heard the announcement that SWTOR was going to go free to play and how the story part of the game will be available to everyone, I was more excited than when the game was first released. Well, I was at first. Then they released more information about how the free to play will work and I went from yes to maybe to no, although floating around ‘maybe casually’ right now.

I admit that I am not a fan of free-to-play models with a subscription. I feel that it should be one or the other. There is always a chance of tension building between those that pay and those that don’t. Also, you have the added difficulty of finding the balance between rewarding the subscribers without punishing the free-to-players.

When I look at SWTOR’s new free-to-play plans, one thing sticks out to me – it seems to be all about getting you back to paying a full subscription. They seem to offer no reward for subscribing but instead lay all the punishment (or restriction) on the rest of the player base.

I admit I can’t see this working; the whole point of going free-to-play is getting people back playing your game and getting them to spend money because they want to, not because they have to.  People shouldn’t feel like their game play is affected because they aren’t paying a subscription.

I feel that F2P will only succeed if the unlocks are really cheap, so you can essentially unlock the whole game for the same amount as a typical box price and if they allow people to go from subscription to non-subscription back to subscription without feeling like they are being penalised.

For now though, my gaming plate is already pretty filled with four other MMOs and numerous other games I play with my friends. I would have made time for SWTOR but right now, I am not sure I will. This weekend will really tell if I start playing again.

So good luck to BioWare and May The Force Be With You.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, SWTOR Tagged With: ,
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