Fleet Pass: SWTOR weekly roundup

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

Mirialol – PvP

★★★[ARENA] – benefits of adding ARENA to SWTOR★★★

Arena is far more competitive and skill-oriented than rated warzones.

Arenas will help keep PvPers subscribed to this game

Arena will help balance this game’s PvP

Arenas are breeding ground for skilled players

SWTOR arena will be EASIER to balance than WoW

Adding arenas will be FINANCIALLY productive for bioware

Arena SHOULD NOT reward players with better gear or advantages of any kind

Arena dailies / weeklies

Arena SHOULD reward players with titles and cosmetic changes.

Publicly available data

1v1 arenas

PhoenixDream – Story & Lore

Females never given flirt options?

My female guildies and I have discovered that playing a female Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, and Trooper toons have basically ZERO flirt options throught the entire game play.

(The only exception is when we meet our courting companion and we flirt about three times and then it is over for the durration of the game.)

Originally we suspected it was simply because of the class we were playing until we learned that our male guildies–who play characters of the same class–have several flirt options all throughout the game. It is not specific to class, it is specific to female characters alone.

We feel this is quite sexist and are very dissapointed that the males of the same class toon have more flirt options.

We ask that you re-think future writings on how the genders are played, and please do not make the females so entirely boring and frigid. Let us have a little more personality.

Thank you.

MuNieK – PvP

To many abilities – piano playing must be reduced…

We want to play some pvp, not be musicians to piano play the keyboard… Consolidate the skills and let us focus on awaraness whats happenign around, teamwork and timing insetad of constant full time piano playing we are forced to do if we want to use all the abilities in pvp… Its just bad design Bioware… PvP should be about reflex and quick thinking, not player vs keybinds tetris or situation where you force people to be clickers due to not enough comfortable hotkeys…

For example jaggernaut immortal:

– taunt enemy attacking our ally
– shield ally being attacked
– intercede ally for more protection
– aoe taunt for reduced dmg to ally
– aoe slow to make pvp with enemy acceptable (slow on ability that is not in main-rotation is also huge mistake – in pvp slow is crucial and should be on all classes’ main abilities)

and thats just to start using actuall combat abilities… wihch also are scattered around to many skills not neccesarily…

Whats the point?

Quotes

Back & Forth – 1st & 7th posts, thread in General Discussion

No more color restrictions on crystals ?! Really ?

Gauvi

I am playing a Star Wars game and one thing that was iconic to the franchise is definitely the color of crystals tied to the alignment of its user.

 

AJediKnight

Color has-never-been-nor-will-it-ever-be restricted to morality. Lucas himself has confirmed that there is no direct link. The only lore basis for the restrictions was that, in the time of TPM, AotC etc., Sith couldn’t get their hands on natural crystal supplies, and had to use synthetic crystals. Synth crystals (Luke used a synth crystal in RotJ, too, btw) are created by channeling the force through a forge. In the case of darksiders, this creates a crimson-red crystal… but not all synth crystals are red — nor are all the sabers of Sith red. Certainly, the fact that the Sith in the TOR timeline favor purple just as much as red is proof of this.

Frankly, the limits in TOR make absolutely no sense as implemented in the game. They neither preserve the ‘look’ of the films, nor do they have any basis in the lore. You would argue that color is tied to morality as if picking up a green or a blue saber as a darksider would cause it to explode in my hand. Even in the films, time and again we are shown that darksiders can use ‘light’ colors (Anakin/Vader with blue throughout Ep. III, Vader ignited Luke’s green saber in Ep. VI). Similarly, lightsiders can use red… as in the case of Anakin picking up Dooku’s saber to finish him off with.


Getting back on topic, the simple fact of the matter is, there is no canonical basis or otherwise for the current crystal restrictions. They were, quite literally, something Bioware conjured out of thin air. And, what’s worse, they don’t even preserve the look of the films, instead forcing many Jedi to abandon green/blue, and many Sith to forsake red. If you wanted to see more Sith using red, and more Jedi using green/blue as in the films, you should actually support dropping the restrictions.

As it stands now, I believe you simply don’t understand either the lore or the system we’ve got in game.

Other

Heavy Damage: Tanking Changes in Update 1.2

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.

The 1.2 patch is now on the test servers, so I will be taking a break from my Flashpoint tanking guides to discuss and theorise what these changes could and will do to Tanks in SWTOR.

Changes for the Jedi Knight

General

  • Awe no longer costs Focus to activate.
  • Dispatch can now be used on targets at or below 30% of maximum health (up from 20%).
  • Force Kick no longer costs Focus to activate.
  • Master Strike can no longer be interrupted.

Guardian Tree changes relating to Tanks

Defense

  • Blade Barrier is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree.
  • Blade Storm no longer consumes stacks of Courage while the Momentum buff is active.
  • Command no longer reduces the cooldown of Challenging Call and is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree.
  • Dust Storm is now a 3-point skill that provides the same overall effect.
  • Guardian Slash now generates 50% additional threat.
  • Momentum is now a 2-point skill that provides the same overall effect.
  • Pacification is now a 1-point skill with a slightly reduced overall effect.
  • Shield Specialization is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree.
  • Stasis Mastery is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree.

Vigilance

  • Commanding Awe is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree. It increases the Guardian’s damage reduction while Focused Defense is active.
  • Single Saber Mastery is no longer restricted to certain stances.
  • Stagger is now located in Tier 1 of the Vigilance skill tree.
  • Sundering Throw is now located in Tier 6 of the Vigilance skill tree.
  • Zen Strike now generates 2 points of Focus when it is triggered.

If you’re a regular reader of Heavy Damage, you may remember this article where I talked about the build I use and builds I thought were worth taking a look at.  If you’re following my 18/23 build still (or any other Guardian build) this new patch has some changes that I hope will bring the Guardian back to par with the other two Tanks. Because let’s face it, they are somewhat lacking. Before the Guardians flame me for this observation I just want to say I play all three tanks, all three of my tanks are level 30-32 and it’s not that the Guardian can’t handle itself, it’s just a lot more work for the same outcome.

Now for the changes. Guardian Slash adding 50% more hate makes it a little more viable than the Overhead Slash trade off in the 18/23 build. I would say if you were following that build to take a step back and think of a respec. I will be republishing builds once the patch is in full effect and I have a chance to test all the changes. Blade Barricade is a skill I feel that the Guardian Tank cannot do without, so it being moved up a tier changes the 18/23 build even more to where I know I’ll have to respec.  Command no longer reducing the cooldown on Challenging Call seems like a nerf to a class that doesn’t need any of those, but we’ll see how things turn out.

Shadow

Not a lot of changes here. A few tweaks and cosmetic things:

  • Mass Mind Control: Updated this tooltip to correctly state that the ability does not break Stealth. The ability’s functionality has not changed.
  • Kinetic Combat
    • Kinetic Ward’s appearance now refreshes properly when reapplied.
  • Balance (Shadow)
    • Force Synergy’s activation effects are now more visible.
    • The Force in Balance no longer heals the caster if no targets are hit.

General Trooper changes:

  • Full Auto’s attack animation now begins more quickly to improve reactiveness and faction balance.
  • Mortar Volley’s animation has been updated. In addition, it now has a 5-meter radius to bring its range in line with other Trooper Area of Effect abilities and it now begins its damage sooner after activation.
  • Vanguard
  • Due to changes to the Vanguard skill trees, all Vanguards have had their skill points refunded.
  • Fire Pulse’s visual effect more accurately represents its functionality.
  • Riot Strike no longer costs Energy Cells.
  • Animation timing issues with Energy Blast have been addressed.
  • The hit timing delay on Explosive Surge has been improved.
  • Shield Specialist
    • Ceramic Plating: the Absorb amount gained from this skill has been slightly reduced.
    • Counter Attack is now a 3-point skill.
    • Energy Blast is no longer limited by the global cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by approximately 15%.
    • Power Screen is a new 2-point skill that causes Ion Pulse and Energy Blast to build a stacking buff that increases shield absorption.
    • Smoke Grenade is no longer limited by the global cooldown.

The changes to Vanguards don’t seem to be a nerf, which I feared was coming. Vanguard is in my opinion the most well-rounded and effective tank. I am hoping that the other classes get buffed to its level, not the other way around with nerfs for a class that plays like it should.

The most interesting change to me is the Power Screen ability. Ion Pulse and Energy Blast are two skills I feel like I border on over-using (Explosive Surge too) just because of the damage debuff it places on enemies. Now it has a shield buff it’s maybe the only skills you need. As with the Guardian, I will be republishing builds once I’ve had time to test out the changes. The comsetic and timing changes to the abilities will be welcome sights –  I’m glad they fixed the delay issue with Mortar Volley.

As always stay frosty, and my the force be with you!

 

SWTOR Combat Log detail revealed

Now that SWTOR update 1.2 has hit the public test servers, we’re able to give some more in-depth information on the long awaited Combat Log. It’s format isn’t the prettiest yet, but it sure packs in a lot of information. Let’s look at the first section of a battle from a Sith Sorceror’s perspective, where he/she (Khantni) is getting ready to start:

[03/01/2012 14:19:04] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:19:18] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:30] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [Sprint {810670782152704}] [Event {836045448945472}: AbilityActivate {836045448945479}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:30] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [Sprint {810670782152704}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Sprint {810670782152704}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:24:30] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [Innervate {1104395005591552}] [Event {836045448945472}: AbilityActivate {836045448945479}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:24:30] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [] [Spend {836045448945473}: Force {836045448938502}] (36)

[03/01/2012 14:24:30] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [Force Surge {808677917327360}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Surge {808677917327360}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:24:30] [@Khantni] [@Khantni] [Innervate {1104395005591552}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Heal {836045448945500}] (1393*)

The display of that data can be a little overwhelming at first, so this key provided by BioWare’s Georg Zoeller helps quite a bit:

(Click here for the full-size image)

See how it makes a little more sense now? Let’s look at a sample log, this time from a Jedi Guardian’s perspective:

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [] [Restore {836045448945476}: focus point {836045448938496}] (1)

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Leap {812105301229568}] [Event {836045448945472}: AbilityActivate {836045448945479}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Momentum {2530075039760384}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Momentum {2530075039760642}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Unremitting {1280849441980416}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Unremitting {1280849441980416}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [ {2695018963795968}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Vindicator {2695018963796231}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [Force Leap {812105301229568}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Immobilized {812105301229840}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [Force Clap {2848585519464448}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Stunned (Physical) {2848585519464704}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:50] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [] [Restore {836045448945476}: focus point {836045448938496}] (3)

[03/01/2012 14:23:51] [@Idrurrez] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [Force Leap {812105301229568}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (698 energy {836045448940874}) <698>

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Master Strike {812139660967936}] [Event {836045448945472}: AbilityActivate {836045448945479}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Master Strike {812139660967936}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Unshakable {812139660968471}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [@Idrurrez] [Ranged Attack {813449625993216}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (261 energy {836045448940874}) <261>

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [@Idrurrez] [Ranged Attack {813449625993216}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (273 energy {836045448940874}) <273>

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [@Idrurrez] [Ranged Attack {813449625993216}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (276 energy {836045448940874}) <276>

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [@Idrurrez] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [Master Strike {812139660967936}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (874 energy {836045448940874}) <874>

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [@Idrurrez] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [Force Clap {2848585519464448}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Stunned (Physical) {2848585519464704}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:52] [@Idrurrez] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [Master Strike {812139660967936}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (904 energy {836045448940874}) <904>

[03/01/2012 14:23:53] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [@Idrurrez] [Melee Attack {813445331025920}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (488 kinetic {836045448940873}) <488>

[03/01/2012 14:23:53] [@Idrurrez] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [Force Leap {812105301229568}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Immobilized {812105301229840}] ()

[03/01/2012 14:23:54] [Elite Tastybobble {846623953387520}] [@Idrurrez] [Melee Attack {813445331025920}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Damage {836045448945501}] (241 kinetic {836045448940873}) <241>

So there you go, once you spend some time reading through these logs, they get easier to decipher. There’s no doubt they’ll be invaluable for those guilds tackling challenging content and wanting to identify weaknesses in combat.

Beyond that though, is it something you’d use? Let us know in comments!

SWTOR Game Update 1.2 Patch Notes: Highlights

Well here it is. Update 1.2 is now on the PTS and the patch notes have been posted. We’ll be breaking them down into key areas as they are so comprehensive. Those key areas are:

1. Classes and Combat

2. Companion Characters

3. Crew Skills

4. Flashpoints and Operations

5. Items and Economy

6. Missions and NPCs

7. PvP

8. Space Combat and Legacy

9. User Interface and Bug Fixes

First, let’s start with the highlights:

Highlights (New Features)

  • 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. Build your own Legacy with the new Family Tree!
  • Lost Island, a new Flashpoint, is available for play! Having uncovered the sources of the Rakghoul plague outbreak in the Tion Hegemony, players must travel to Ord Mantell and confront Dr. Lorrick, the mad scientist who engineered this horrific biological weapon.
  • Explosive Conflict, a new Operation, is available for play! The Trandoshan mercenary warlord Kephess has seized the planet Denova, a world rich in resources valuable to the war effort. Players must assault his war camp, situated atop a mountain in densely-wooded terrain, fighting Imperial defectors and heavy war machines along the way. 8- and 16-player Story and Hard Modes are currently available for this Operation.
  • Novare Coast, a new objective-oriented Warzone on the planet Denova, has been added to the game. This Warzone, like Huttball, supports same-faction matches if there are not enough members of the opposing faction to be found.
  • New repeatable high-level daily missions are available in a new area on Corellia, the Black Hole!
  • Guilds now have access to a shared Guild Bank, accessible on the Fleets, with expandable storage.
  • A new tier of gear has been added for both PvP and PvE.
  • Ranked Warzones are here! Players can now queue up and participate in PvP matchups to rank themselves against the competition.
  • Players can now customize their User Interface by moving and resizing UI elements!
  • A new level 50 World Boss with a challenge for a well-coordinated 16-player Operation Group has been sighted in the Nightmare Lands region on Voss.
  • Players can now leave comment on entires in the Friends List in the Social Window.

General

  • The Imperial Transportation Authority and the Galactic Republic Safety Council have authorized the use of vehicles in Orbital Space Stations and Spaceports.
  • In-game rewards will be available to players who participate on the Public Test Server. Players will receive a title if they attain level 10 on PTS, and another if they complete Chapter 1.
  • A new preference, “Character Texture Atlasing,” is now available. Enabling this option increases the texture quality used when rendering character models.
  • A new “Customize” option now appears on the character sheet. One of the features this button enables is the ability to color coordinate any individual piece of armor with the equipped chestpiece.
  • A new preference, “Awareness Radius,” allows players to adjust the number of characters displayed on-screen. Reducing this setting can improve performance in crowded areas on low-end machines.
  • On planets with an Orbital Station, players can now travel directly from the planet shuttle on the surface to their ship.
  • The Sprint ability is now available at level 1.General Bug Fixes
    • Cinematics throughout the game have been polished. A large number of cinematics have been improved to address incorrect camera angles, smooth out animation issues, and to correct Companion Characters that appear in the wrong gear or at the wrong time.
    • Cinematics and mission phases have been updated for consistency. For instance, several occurrences of NPCs appearing alive in a phase after a cinematic in which the player chose to kill them have been corrected.
    • Corrected many instances of misplaced geometry, visible seams, and incorrect collision with world objects throughout the game.
    • Many locations where player characters could become stuck on world geometry or fall through the world have been corrected.
    • Some visual effects and animations have been adjusted and fixed in instances where they played incorrectly.

Over to you: anything in there that’s surprised you? Something missing you wish wasn’t? Let us know!

Also: fill in out Reader Survey and go into the draw for a TOROZ T-Shirt 

SWTOR Update 1.2 about to hit the PTS

BioWare have thrown out an announcement on the imminent arrival of Game Update 1.2 on the Public Test Server:

Please be advised that the Public Test Server will be unavailable at 6:30PM CST (4:30PM PST/ 8:30PM CST/ 11:30PM GMT/ 12:30AM CET/11:30AM AEST) while we deploy Game Update 1.2. Once the server is up and running, we will post PTS Patch Notes.

With time zone conversions that means the server is down now and we’ll have the full 1.2 patch notes and more once the PTS is back up. So stay tuned 😉

Oceanic server forums added to TOROZ

Our forums aren’t the most active at times but there’s a dedicated bunch who do frequent them. A number of them commented in our (still open) Reader Survey that they’d like to see local server forums – and that’s what we’ve done.

There’s a forum for each of the three local servers and we’ll obviously add new forums once other servers come on line.

They’re looking pretty bare at the moment and the only thing that’ll fix that is you – so jump on in if you have the time!

Suggestion Box: Game Update 1.2 Drop Date?


It’s hump day +2 so it must be time for an instalment of Suggestion Box. This week it’s all about the much-anticipated 1.2 update for SWTOR. It’s going to contain a bog-load of new stuff, not least of which is the legacy system.

That’s all set in concrete, but one thing we don’t know is when 1.2 will drop, so let’s start guessing.
When do you think 1.2 will hit?

Diplomatic Investigations: Melee or Ranged – What’s Your Poison?

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!

Both the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular offer you the choice of a melee character or a ranged one. The melee classes are close up action where you are fighting alongside your companion or other players in a group, whereas the ranged characters fight from a distance.

The Sith Assassin is the Melee character, and the Sith Sorcerer is the ranged class.  For the Republic side the Jedi Shadow is the Melee class and the Jedi Sage the ranged one. The classes on opposing sides are very similar in their abilities (albeit it with different names) so after a period of familiarisation either should feel comfortable to you.

So how do you make the decision on which way to go?

Firstly from a faction viewpoint, you will likely have an opinion on which side you will want to start playing – I rushed to create a Sith Inquisitor for the “dark side” experience (although of course you can make “dark side decisions” as a republic player) and then moved to the Sith Sorcerer because I like the ranged attacks more than melee.

Another decision which can play a factor in melee vs ranged is server location. Aussie SWTOR players in general have until recently suffered a disadvantage compared to their overseas opponents, mostly due to our physical location. Most SWTOR servers reside in other countries and as the game has to send and receive information to and from the servers you can see that in theory the further away you are from the action the more you could suffer a disadvantage.   Even though the time is measured in milliseconds these differences count.

SWTOR does a good job generally of trying to even things up to a degree, but with PVP in particular things can get very hectic.  Play SWTOR for any period of time and you will hear about lag. This becomes an issue because every single key-press or mouse-click has to be transmitted.  And of course information on your surrounding areas (opposing players movements, NPCs, and anything else that moves or does something) has to be updated. The reality is if other players reside in the same country as the server, then it takes much less time for their key-press or mouse click to be sent and received as well as the other game state updates. We are still talking milliseconds here, but in a PVP situation milliseconds can count. Depending on the lag you might find the opposing player has time to issue several commands to your single one – And from their point of view, you seem to be very “slow” and  easy to defeat as a result and he/she seems almost invulnerable because every time you go to attack he/she beats you to the punch.

The reason the melee vs ranged decision is a problem on overseas servers is how the classes operate.  The up- close melee classes can suffer more with lag in my experience than ranged classes.  One example is a “from behind” attack (Jedi Shadow and Sith Assassin).  If you have lag issues it’s going to be harder as a rule to position yourself quickly as it’s more about co-ordinating movements and attacks at the right time versus just issuing attacks as a ranged class.

So yes we Aussies and New Zealanders have a good excuse of why we are not good at PVP.  Well maybe not!  While there is not doubt lag plays a part a good player can work within these limits. In any event, the good news is that all of this has changed with the recent introduction of local servers in Australia.

So when it’s available, make sure you move your characters to the Australian servers to eliminate this lag problem, because most of the players on these servers will be Aussies meaning that lag should generally be a non-event.  And if we find some overseas players on the servers then it’s our chance to use their lag to our advantage.  I’ve already had some interesting discussions with some overseas players complaining about the lag on Aussie servers  🙂

Out of interest you can hover your mouse in game over the latency button to get a general idea of your speed.  Also known as your ping.  As you can see in the two pictures, I have shown you my ping on an American server and an Aussie server . As you can see with the exact same Internet connection the American server has about four or fives times high latency than the Aussie server.  This can make a big difference.

 

Nasty, evil overseas lag

Ahh, that's more like it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In case you are wondering, I am with Bigpond Cable on their Ultimate package and loving the 33 ms latency. I moved there because it is the fastest possible Internet access in my area.  Add local servers to the mix and I am in heaven!

With lag being taken out of the equation, other factors in deciding which advanced class apart from the melee or ranged questions are, whether you wish to focus on healing, whether you like the benefits of invisibility, if you want to be a tank in game, to name three common ones.

Make sure you choose carefully though because once you choose between melee and ranged, it can never be changed for that character.  That said, the thing to remember is that you only need to level up a character to around level 10 and leaving your first planet, to get access to the advanced classes. So there is nothing stopping you from leveling up a few characters and trying both sides before deciding where to put your focus in the long term.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back next week!

 

Exposing the SWTOR haters for what they are

Over at GameSpy, Leif Johnson has a great piece discussing the amount of venom sprayed at SWTOR, particularly on the official SWTOR forums.

Have a read for yourself. I found there was very very little to disagree with, and it’s an issue that’s fascinated me for a long time. Every single time I log into SWTOR I’m still excited to be doing so and really enjoy the whole experience – and I can only see things getting better.

How about you – is Leif on the money or being too forgiving of BioWare?

[Thanks to Jay over at the SWTOR Gamers of Oceania Facebook group for the heads-up!]

Free weekend play for new SWTOR players

Overnight BioWare announced the availability of a ‘Weekend Pass‘.

For anyone who hasn’t had a SWTOR account previously can sign up for one from the 15th March (see our time conversions below) and play the starting areas of the game, do some PvP and check out some of the early level Flashpoints.

So – if you know someone that’s been ambivalent about forking out for the game, here’s a chance for the to do it for nothing.

Oceanic time conversions for the Weekend Pass:

AEDT: 4pm Thursday 15th March through to 6pm on Monday 19th March
AWST: 1pm Thursday 15th March through to 3pm on Monday 19th March
NZDT: 6pm Thursday 15th March through to 8pm on Monday 19th March

Over to you: will you be trying to get someone near and dear to have a go at SWTOR?

Heavy Damage: Tanking Athiss

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.

Time for Part Three of my Flashpoint saga – this time covering The Athiss.

The Athiss is recommended for level 21 players and is open to both the Republic and Empire. The Flashpoint begins on the planet’s surface at a small shuttle. As you move you’ll encounter several droids and a console for a lift that will take you to the next stage of the map, but the console requires a Slicing skill of 80 to use. If the console cannot be accessed by your party, you will have to jump down the shaft (the party will suffer moderate damage). If a Scavenger is present in the party, you’ll be able to activate a droid to help with combat.

The first boss in this Flashpoint is Professor Ley’arsha, the second is The Beast of Vodal Kressh, and the final boss is The Prophet of Vodal. Along with those bosses, this Flashpoint contains several Temple Guardians and Temple Disciples, These are champion level mobs spread throughout the temple after the second boss on the way to the third. Alone, these mobs aren’t hard to handle, but if a stray or wandering one is aggroed (especially if it’s a combo of Disciple and Guardian) they turn into a different beast, and are quite hard to handle.

Bosses

Professor Ley’arsha

The Professor is a pretty easy boss – she has three abilities she uses. A frontal cone attack, easily countered by facing her away from the group (this should be standard practice for every Tank when in action). Her second ability is an AoE, indicated by a large purple reticule easily avoidable by just moving out of the way. Her third ability is adds, which usually charge for the healer so let the DPS burn them down while you maintain aggro on the Professor.

The Beast of Vodal Kressh 

The Beast is a very traditional spank and tank. The Beast has two abilities. The first is a frontal knock back ability – this can be countered by standing close to the temple entrance against the wall. Have the DPS and Healer stand to the back and do their thing. The knockback is dangerous because it can knock you off the ledge on the left side of the boss and possibly out of healing range. The Beast’s second ability is adds that periodically spawn and should be burned down by the DPS. The Beast itself doesn’t do a lot of damage but has a ton of health and is more difficult than the Professor.

The Prophet of Vodal

The Prophet will be the most difficult boss you have fought yet. He has a large health pool( 60k) and he also has several abilities and fight mechanics that make him even more dangerous. Every time the party takes 20 percent of the Prophet’s health he will vanish and mark a random player with Soul Rend debuff. After the prophet has vanished  four flames will appear and attack whoever has the debuff. The flames cannot be killed but they will disappear after several seconds, so whoever has the debuff just kite the flames till they dissapear. They are VERY dangerous and even though they target a random player in the three or four times I’ve ran this I haven’t been targeted yet. Although I have no evidence for this theory I believe it has something to do with your Armor rating.

The Prophet’s second ability triggers every 15 seconds and is a DoT (Damage over Time) ability called Crushing Affliction that is cast on a random player in the party. Crushing affliction does severe damage every five seconds and when it ends it detonates for AoE damage. Crushing Affliction should be healed through if you don’t have someone who can dispel in your party – the easiest way to see who has the DoT is a green debuff icon on the party frames. The Prophet is such a hard boss because of all the non-Tankable damage. This fight requires a healer who can think on their feet and know what they are doing.

As always, stay frosty and may the Force be with you.

What to do while the servers are down: 13th March 2012

Eight hours is a long-time. It’s a work-day’s length of time without the game we obsess about here daily. We can’t totally take the pain away for you, but we CAN give you plenty of SWTOR-related reading and listening to do. Hell, you can even win a t-shirt!

So here’s some happy happy fun to engage in while the servers are down.

1. Listen to Episode 28 of our podcast, which gets deep into detail on new stuff coming up in the game in 1.2 and beyond.

2. Fill out our reader’s survey and go into the draw for a TOROZ t-shirt. There’s only 2 or 3 people in the world walking around wearing them, so imagine how unique you’ll be!

3. Welcome our newest writer Kate by reading her Cunning Ambitions column, which is dedicated to everything Agent and Smuggler.

4. Rick has a great piece on preparing your guild for Operations

5. Tim has an excellent post on attack rotations for Level 1-25 Jedi Consulars/Sages

6. Have one of the best SWTOR-related laughs you’ll have in a long time.

Then go get something to eat or get some sleep!