“You’re a what now?” Explaining things to your mother is never easy. Especially when it comes to video games. “A raid leader. I’m like the boss.” “What are you killing people’s homes and towns?” “No. What? Why would you ask that?” “You said raid leader. So you’re leading a raid.” I wanted to bury my face into my hands. Welcome back to another article of intergalactic intel. We’re continuing our in depth look at raiding with part two of raid leading. Last time we talked about tips on raid leading as well as qualifications of a good raid leader. Today we’re gonna talk about what responsibilities a raid leader has. As we all know operation encounters can be very confusing and chaotic. It’s the raid leader’s job to make heads and tails of what’s going on in the fight. . A raid leader is like a conductor in an orchestra….
Intergalactic Intel
Intergalactic Intel: How to be a raid leader part 1
“I could do a better job than you ever did!” I couldn’t believe I was arguing with an ex-raider on facebook. I was even more disturbed that I was being attacked by someone I considered a friend. “Trust me, you couldn’t. It was complex.” “There’s nothing complex about it!” I decided to step away from the situation at this point. I have known for quite some time, raid leading is not for everyone. Welcome back to another exciting issue of Intergalactic Intel! I’m currently explaining the finer points of raiding in detail. Last week we looked at how to analyze a fight, from strategy to team make up. This week we’re looking at one of the hardest duties in a raid being the raid leader. I’m going to split this particular one into two parts, what you need to be a raid leader and tips that I was never told…
Intergalactic Intel: Making change
“Do you ever visit the official forums?” I laughed at my guild mate’s naiveté . “Why on earth would I visit the official forums?” “Well there are a lot of good ideas on it.” “And a bunch of whining babies…” “Well, how else do you get Bioware to pay attention to you?” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! Our topic this week is something that isn’t just limited to The Old Republic, but games in general. Being a veteran gamer I’ve seen games change, different communities evolve and adapt. I’ve also seen companies literally go to war with their customers sowing seeds of distrust and discontent. So this week we’re going to go over ways gamers can work with developers to create a better product. Step 1: Think before you post Before you start with a forum post raging about how they nerfed your class, or a fight…
Intergalactic Intel: Analyzing Boss battles
“Ugh this is impossible!” I heard over the vent channel. “What’s impossible?” I was curious, what “This damn OPS boss!” I chuckled. “What’s going wrong?” “Everything!” Welcome back to another intergalactic Intel! Sorry for the lack of articles, I’ve had a busy past few weeks! If any of you remember, one of my original posts was about raiding. How to become one, and how to do well. Recently I’ve been looking at a bunch of posts on Diablo 3 boards, The Old republic and World of Warcaft boards about bosses. These posts have inspired my next set of articles, the Art of Raiding. I’ll go over, how to build a raid group, leading, tanking, dpsing and healing raids. Today’s is probably the most important one of all. Analyzing fights. Every fight is unique. Only because one fight has a similar mechanic doesn’t make it any easier. Each new encounter is…
Intergalactic Intel: Patch 1.2 Review
I sat down at the table attempting to finish writing an e-mail to my professor. My phone lit up. “Dude did you see it?” Before I could reply another text from another friend appeared on my phone. “Dual spec!!!!!” A smile began emerging on my face. Another text confirmed my suspicions. “My trooper is gonna have baller ass purple armor!” Patch 1.2 is here. Welcome back to another Intergalactic Intel! A little while ago patch 1.2 hit. With so many big changes coming we can only be excited, but let’s take a closer look at each of the new features that have arrived. Legacy system: Since the beta we’ve had very little idea about what the legacy system actually does. At the guild summit we learned that characters across both factions are apart of a single legacy, which in turn gives various benefits for people leveling classes and races…
Cross genre knowledge
“Why do you play MOBAs?” I was taken back by the question. “They’re fun I guess…” I didn’t know how to reply to my friend. “What’s so fun about a bunch of kids nerd raging at you?” I can honestly say that part of MOBAs was not fun.” “You learn a lot…About game design, about player reaction, and a lot of the skills are interchangeable.” As many of you know I’m a big fan of the MOBA genre of games. MOBAs, or Massive Online Battle Arenas, are games such as Defense of the Ancients 2, DotA 2, League of Legends, LoL, and Heroes of Newerth, HoN. Each time has five players, with teach player controlling their own hero. The basic goal of all three games is to destroy the enemy team’s “throne” to win. It’s more complex, but that’s the basic idea behind MOBA games. While MOBAs and MMOs are very different they both…
Intergalactic Intel: Community Events
Intergalactic Intel: Community Events “Do you remember back in raganrok online when we used to hold events?” I had to stop and think. We did throw a lot of them, most of them ending in disaster. “Yeah I do why do you ask?” Welcome back to another Intergalactic Intel! Today we’re talking about community created events. For those of you have joined the MMO genre in the last six years, community created events are a rare thing. In older MMOs communities held events all the time. These events ranged from pvp tournaments, to hide and seek, and scavenger hunts. They allowed players to experience the game in ways they may have not thought of. Back in my day of MMOs developers were not the only one’s responsible for the player’s experience in the game. Community events were part of the experience and helped strengthen server communities. So why bring up…
Intergalactic Intel: Operations
“Drop group,” Niggles whispered me. At this point in our relationship I learned that if Niggles requested something, it was usually for my benefit. An invite message promped from Niggles a few seconds later. “I’m not ready for this.” I whispered back. “Don’t worry Zexu. This is an easy operation.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! My apologies for being so late on this article, but you get two today! I’m reporting from the wonderful San Francisco, as I attend GDC. Without further ado let’s get down to this week’s topic. Operations. Operations are what we call raids here in SWTOR. You can complete them with eight or sixteen people. In addition to this you have normal mode, hard mode and nightmare modes to attempt to complete. Each level providing a new challenge of difficulty and a new amount of loot. The team I ran with this week…
Intergalactic Intel: An interview with Vodka
Graywulf has joined the party. “What the hell Niggles?!” “What?” My friend questioned in chat. “Yeah what?” Graywulf had no idea he had just intrrupted my interview. “I’m interviewing Niggles, I still have three more questions…” I added an emoticon to display my annoyance. “Why is he someone famous?” Niggles was silent. “Yeah. He’s ex-vodka.” Today I have a very special guest, a member a long time member of the renowned wow guild, Vodka. For those of you who don’t know Vodka is one of the top US guilds and previously one of the top world guilds for end game PvE content. So without further ado: Me: Let’s start with the basics. Who are you? Niggles: Niggles 😮 Oh, a real answer? Okay. I’m an ex-vodka member Veiled to be exact. Me: So why did you pick sage? Niggles: I wanted to have a class that could heal and put…
Intergalactic Intel: Ilum
I stared at a lagging computer screen. I was averaging maybe 3 frames per second. I had been in operation groups before, but never this big or laggy. “So what are you doing?” My brother said as I stared at the screen hoping to make a difference in the ongoing battle. “Me personally?” I stared into the abyss of red names and lightning. “Every so often I run up, force pull someone into our group and then force speed away.” “But aren’t you a tank?” “Tanks still die when 30 people jump them.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! This week we’re talking about that nasty old Ilum! For those of you who don’t know, Ilum is the “final planet” currently in SWTOR for all classes. While we’re not going to focus on the dailies or the story quest, we’re going to focus on the real elephant in…
Intergalactic Intel: Shadow/Assassin Tanking Guide
“So you’re a dps?” For someone who had no interest in playing Swtor, my friend had a ton of questions. “No, a tank,” I replied. “My friend looked at me. You’re a tank with invisibility?” “Yeah… Druids do the same thing in WoW, and remember Rogue tanks in BC?” “SWTOR is so weird…” Welcome back to another Intergalactic Intel! This week we’re going technical. We’re gonna sit down and look at what my opinion of the best Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin tanking spec, what stats you should be aiming for and how to tank properly. This guide is for patch 1.1. This guide is subject to change. The spec: Assassin Shadow Kinetic Combat: Tier 1: Technique Mastery 3/3- This is THE BEST early talent for shadow/assassin tanking. It increases your internal and elemental resistance by 9% meaning you’ll be taking less damage from those specific abilities. We’re all about not taking…
Intergalactic Intel: Guild vs Guild
“They should bring it back.”“Bring what back?” My brother asked me.“What do all of the great PvP MMO’s have?”“Level brackets?” I caught the sarcasm in his voice. And shot a nasty look at him.“Besides that,” he stopped and stared at me until he knew what I was talking about.“GvG.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! This week we’re going to be looking at one of the oldest forms of end game content in MMO history. Guild vs Guild. We’ll look at my favorite version of GvG, as well as look at a few things SWTOR could do. Why Guild vs Guild? People enjoy competition. There are the never ending battles of whose better at both PvE and PvP. Sometimes it can be settled through a duel, or looking at progress, but for others it’s not always so simple. As anyone can tell you end game content is almost…
Intergalactic Intel: Wow Vs Swtor
Intergalactic Intel: WoW vs Swtor “Did you see that image on reddit?” I starred in disbelief at my friend. Over half of reddit are just images. “Why don’t you be more specific? Describe the image. Tell me what sub-reddit it’s on.” “It was posted on /r/wow. It compared the sith Juggernaut and Warrior class. They’re the same thing!” I looked at my friend with a raised eye brow. I knew where this conversation was headed. Welcome back to Intergalactic Intel! I feel like it’s time to address the elephant in the room. World of Warcaft’s influence on Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is going to be a long blog post, over two weeks.The idea of this blog is to not have a clear cut, “X is better than Y”. It’s to show the differences between the two games. So let’s get to it. Abilities: People claim that almost all…
Intergalactic Intel: PvP in patch 1.0
“How do you keep queuing up with all those level 50s?” My guild master was fearful of my sanity. “Well I have a lot of friends.” Which was true. Half of my list of friends with 42+. “Don’t you think it’s unfair?” Another guildie asked me. “Without a doubt. But I at least want to be valor rank 30 before I hit max level.” “You’re crazy.” “YUP.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! I apologize for the late post, a lot of work has been happening with the Great Hunt and our other articles. But no more excuses let’s begin our topic this week…PvP in patch 1.0. While reading please take this with a grain of salt. It’s very different than pvp in other games. Every class has a stun, an interrupt, an escape mechanic. So everyone has access to the same tools, it just depends on how…
Intergalactic Intel: Resolutions
Intergalactic Intel: Resolutions “Can you believe that guy?” Any louder and I was going to mute my friend. “Be nice he’s new to MMO’s.” “How can I be nice when it’s so easy?! Don’t hit the CC’d mob!” “It takes practice; I mean we weren’t perfect back in Burning Crusade. Look how long it took for you to get the concept of line of sighting ranged mobs…” At that point I’m pretty sure I got a death glare through the internet. Welcome back to Intergalactic Intel! I hope everyone has enjoyed their new year as we bring 2012 into the works. With tons of new content coming from Bioware, and as servers make their communities, we here at Swtorstratgies will be keeping up with the latest information to provide to you. So everyone makes New Year’s resolutions. Lose weight, quit smoking, and start learning that awkward hobby that only five…
Intergalactic Intel: Choosing a guild
“WHY DIDN’T YOU HEAL THE TANK!” I shook in fear. “WELL?” Caps locks usually didn’t frighten me, but since this was a new game it did. I had no reputation. I was just a nobody. “Well, the druid was a higher level…and you weren’t going to stay up much lon-” “-NO. YOU HEAL THE GOD DAMNED TANK. SCREW THE REST OF THE GROUP!” That’s when the druid stepped in. “NO. We would have been just fine.”“So what you yell at the healer because he decided to do his best to prevent a wipe? Only two people died.” “What are you his friend?” I had never met the druid before now. “Screw this I’m out of here. Go learn and heal you crappy priest.” The player who had been yelling at me quickly left group. I swallowed hard. “Don’t worry. You did fine.” I looked in confusion. Though my character could…
Intergalactic Intel: Crafting
“Okay so the quest is over here an-…Nigel?” “Yes?” “Where is Qyzen? We need him for this quest.” “Oh he’s off doing diplomacy.” “…” “I don’t care what you say. This crafting system is awesome.” Welcome back to another Intergalactic Intel! I hope everyone is enjoying early access as we begin to prepare for release! We’re working on getting Galactic transmission up, apparently there were some youtube no-nos we crossed we’ll have the audio at least up by the end of the day. Today we’re talking about crafting. Now as a long time MMO-Player, I loathe crafting. Various things piss me off, mostly the collecting of items that are needed for crafting, but as a hard core raider not going for the bonuses that crafting gave you would be gimping myself to the point of uselessness. (Not really but min-maxing is important!) With The Old Republic, crafting has taken a…
Intergalactic Intel: Building A Community
Intergalactic Intel: Creating a community “So the class previews are done?” My brother asked me as I began typing out the next week’s article.“Yeah. We’ve gotta get ready for release.” His eyebrow raised.“Really? Like what?”“Podcast, reviewing the spread sheets on sithwarrior.com, recruiting the empire team for world bosses…” Even I was surprised about the amount of work we had to do. Welcome back to Intergalactic Intel! I apologize for another late blog post, but I do come bearing something else! The first ever Galactic Transmission! I hope those of you who are in early access are enjoying. This week we’re talking about how to create an awesome community. Thus far we’ve covered a ton. But this week I’d like to look at a project. A project that requires everyone’s help. I’m talking about building a community. One of the reasons World of Warcraft has lasted so long is it’s…
Intergalactic Intel: Bounty Hunter and Jedi Knight
“This is the last one before your posts go back to normal right?” “Yep!” I was excited to finish this last article, new ideas, the podcast, so much to do. “Did you figure out a name for the podcast?” I nodded. “Not a pun like Kai wanted, but still good. Galactic Transmission.” As stated there is a lot to do. Just a few reminders before we begin as always, this is a simple review and the classes can change greatly towards the end of their levels. Tomorrow a video of myself and a few friends killing the SD-01 boss with commentary, and strategy will be up. Finally I would like to welcome my good friend and my brother Curoar to the podcast team. Next week I’ll have our first live show of Galactic Transmission, on Friday. Without further ado, the Bounty Hunter and Jedi Knight. Bounty Hunter: Story: I highly…
Intergalactic Intel: Smuggler and Sith Inquisitor
I tapped my foot impatiently. “Hurry up!” “I’m coming!” My friend, Varric, exited his apartment with his massive tower in hand. “Why are you so eager to start?” “There was a 2 hour wait to get on yesterday. I don’t want waste any time. Besides everyone else is already set up.” He opened his mouth puzzlement. “How many people are over there?”“Mmm about 6 of us…” This was gonna probably be the best beta weekend yet. Welcome to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! I apologize for the late article post, with the Thanksgiving weekend, and beta weekend I have been quiet busy. Even now as I type this my friends are telling me to stop and throw the ball in hutt ball. A few reminders, the NDA has been lifted so I’ll be trying to blab as much as I can about the Sith Inquisitor and Smuggler classes today. In…
Intergalactic Intel: The trooper
“So how was the weekend beta?” My friend Vash was always had questions about The Old Republic though he had no intention of playing. “Crowded. A lot of trash talking. An average day in any other game really.” “So what class did you play for your blog?” “The class you wanted to play after seeing the “Hope” trailer. Trooper.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel. This week we’re talking about the trooper. A powerful ranged class for the Galactic Republic. Two reminders before we begin I’m looking for a co-host for my new Old Republic podcast, and these reviews are only levels 1-16 so classes may change drastically to level 50. Story: Maggot! Should have been the first words I received when I loaded in. Your the newest member of an infantry squad known as Havoc. The most elite squad in the entire Galactic Republic. You could swear…
Intergalctic Intel: Sith Warrior
Intergalactic Intel: Sith Warrior My brother had an unusual sense of pride that should have been mine.“They loved it.” “They hated it.” We were both right.“What because some people don’t understand that the defintion of stealth doesn’t mean going invisible? Would they prefer you used the word…surreptitiousness?”“You just looked that up on thesaurus.com!” “Don’t let it get to you. You have 6 more classes to do.”“5.” I corrected him. “Sith Warrior comes out this week.” Welcome back to Intergalactic Intel. As always remember to take this with a truck load of salt, as this is still beta and much can change from now till release. Also remember these reviews are from levels 1-16, so the classes aren’t fully fleshed out as a whole yet. Without further ado, The Sith Warrior. Story: As the Sith Warrior you start on the Sith Home planet of Korriban. Home to the Sith Academy, a…
Intergalactic Intel: Imperial Agent
Image by Tony Vassallo “Your article on the consular is on Reddit.” I turned to my brother with awe. I had posted the blog before; only to have it downvoted into oblivion. “What are they saying?” My curiosity had been grabbed. “They want the Imperial Agent.” “Didn’t I specifically say that was next week’s article?” Welcome back to this week’s Intergalactic Intel on the Imperial Agent. Before we begin I’d like to make a few disclaimers I didn’t put in last week’s article. As anjunaxbeats from reddit stated, “Take every review you read with a truck load of salt.” I’m only allowed to discuss the classes from 1-16, the classes will play very differently at max level and change from build to build. With that being said let’s get into it the Imperial Agent. Story: Intergalactic Intel: Imperial Agent Thus you use trickery, lies and a few well placed blaster rounds…
Intergalctic Intel: Jedi Consular
“Republic or Empire?” I stared at my friend with a look that only a rage face could express. “What shirt am I wearing?” “Oh…Republic…” We stood in silence for a while. “What class?” “Consular. Jedi Sage to be exact.” Last week as many of you know the press NDA was lifted for levels 1-16 for The Old Republic testers. So this week we’ll be going over the Jedi Consular, and it’s advanced class the Jedi Sage. We’ll try and cover all of the classes before release, but there is a lot to do so let’s dive right in shall we? Story: The Jedi Consular’s story is rumored to be the best one in the game. The story starts you off by doing various padawon duties, until your master falls ill and you find yourself thrown into the status of Jedi and stumble upon something much greater than you had anticipated….