“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…
Escapist Magazine Zero Punctuation Reviews SWTOR
This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Star Wars: The Old Republic. Escapist Magazine did not have nice things to say about SWTOR. It’s a 5-minute, fast-paced rant about how much SWTOR sucks (in short) but self-admittedly is nothing more than a “preview” as he doesn’t spend enough time actually playing the game to give it a real review. Ben “YAHTZEE” Croshaw is notorious for not liking MMOs. In fact, his criticism was somewhat mild considering his distaste for the genre. It’s amusing, I’ll give him that, but I really don’t think he gave SWTOR enough of a chance. Since he doesn’t like MMOs, it feels like he just went into the game wanting to hate it and where do you get with an attitude like that, really? You get just what you ask for. Yahtzee chose a Smuggler as his class but doesn’t seem too impressed with it. My Smuggler is…
SWTOR Developer Blog: Busting Bugs and Fixing Exploits
The developers of SWTOR announce they are in the business of busting bugs and fixing exploits to make the game more fun and fair for everyone. This is a big job in an MMO as large as The Old Republic but apparently, there’s a large team available to deal with these issues and to create new content for SWTOR. Rich Vogel, the Executive Producer of SWTOR talks about how servicing the “live game” comes first and that everything else such as creating new content comes later. He also explains how fixing some of these issues can be very tricky and how they go about determining which issues need to be fixed first. Here is some of what he has to say. “If an exploit is discovered that threatens players’ experience in the game or the in-game economy, we will usually try to create an Emergency Patch to fix that exploit….
Mass Effect 3 Voice Actors
Martin Sheen, Freddie Prinze, Jr, Seth Green and more join the ranks of Mass Effect 3 voice actors. Tricia Helfer plays EDI and there’s Jessica Chobot with a cameo as a news reporter. Check out the video below to learn more and see clips. It’s easy to see why so many people are geared up and excited for ME3. They’ve also said that it was scripted so that you don’t have to have played ME1 and ME2 to jump right into the 3rd game and know what’s going on. Pretty smart on their part, for sure. This is a great time to remember why we’re playing SWTOR and why we love it- because of the story and the voice casting. Even if you’re already a Star Wars fan, it takes a little something extra to really make a game stand out. BioWare goes that extra mile with the voice acting…
SWTOR is Growing- Now More Subscribers than Ever!
I wrote yesterday about how some observers think SWTOR is sinking and that its subscribers are dying off. There are gloom and doom prophecies and even a haters Facebook group but no one really knew for sure how well the game was performing. However, the numbers are now out and it looks like SWTOR isnot doing so bad. In fact, they have more subscribers than ever before andboast 1.7 million active subscribers. DualShockers shared some insight on the story today. Electronic Arts had its Q3 2012 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call and CEO JohnRiccitello explained that SWTOR is actually doing quite well after all. He explains: “Star Wars: The OldRepublic is developing a committed community of players withmore than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing.” And the game also sold more than 2 million copies. This isbetter-than-expected results from the popular MMORPG, something that EA reallyneeded as skeptics feared their stock value would…
Are SWTOR Sexual Encounters Shallow?
An article on VideoGamer.com explores the notion that BioWare is becoming a bit crass in their approach to sexual encounters in their games. Many actually agree and the article explores some scenes that eventually lead to sex (if you choose the appropriate options) in the game. It’s not the sex itself that is bothering some players but rather the way in which it is embedded in the story line. Do your own Google search for more “interesting” pics. The writer explains: These are just some examples of the stranger notches on BioWare’s bedpost since the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Despite the studio’s effort to create “real human relationships”, TOR is a juggling act between two different approaches to mature content, and only one of which follows in line with BioWare’s typical style. It then explains further: The Old Republic maintains the same companion relationships that exist in…
May the schwartz be with you: 2012 Volkswagen Game Day Commercial
It’s been 12 days since Volkswagen unleashed “The Bark Side” and started building up anticipation for the sequel to last year’s beloved “The Force” commercial. With four days to spare until Super Bowl XLVI, the car company has released an extended version of “The Dog Strikes Back.” It’s one of three 30-second VW ads that will air on game day and features not only an adorably chubby pooch but also a final-act twist worthy of “I am your father!” Watch below.
MMOMFG.com Reviews SWTOR after Level Cap
What happens when you reach the level cap in an MMO? This is what many refer to as the “endgame experience”. For many gamers, they never reach this level cap, especially if you’re not a big MMORPG fan. Some gamers pick up an MMO and grow bored of it before they reach this cap. Still others, accustomed to the WoW-style of play, will power level to the cap and then try to experience all the end game aspects before growing bored and moving on to a new game. One self-professed non-MMO fan has made it to the level cap in SWTOR and this just might be saying something about BioWare and their ability to create a game that all types of gamers can get into. A review over at MMOMFG.com explains: As I’ve mentioned time and again, MMOs are not my favorite genre. While I was a big, big fan…
Bounty Hunter Mercenary Build – High Damage Build For Leveling
As we promised yesterday, we are going to continue posting the builds swtorsavior.com has put together for us. This time we are going to show you a The Bounty Hunter Mercenary build. As I also mentioned yesterday, you need to buy there guide ( it’s worth it) to get the full advantage of there guides. It is available here. The Bounty Hunter Mercenary class is more of a defensive class but they have made this build so you get max damage for those of you that are trying to level up fast.
Technorati Blogger Says Star Wars is Sinking Fast
Are you happy with SWTOR and the post-launch outcome thus far? While many gamers are completely satisfied, there are others who feel let down by the game and EA has been facing some problems lately in terms of broker concerns. But is it really as bad as it sounds? A Technorati blogger thinks SWTOR is sinking fast and has this to say about the sinking ship: And there is quite a bit of solid evidence that people are abandoning ship. But what about those who say there is no problem? Many are calling it the TORtanic, and this is the fated maiden voyage. But let us explore how and why this game is failing so hard and fast. Hmm.. I’m not sure I completely agree with his evaluations but he might have a few good points. First, he explains that the initial launch sales boomed the game to an unreachable height…
Imperial & Civilian Pilot Sets added to S-1A0
Are you looking for more armor sets? Imperial & Civilian Pilot Sets were added to S-1A0 after the patch. Some players are still complaining about the customization of the armor sets in the game. Personally, I think the Imperial sets look pretty good compared to some of the other sets. What do you think? There is also some discussion on the official forums about where and how you get Imperial and Civilian Pilot Sets in the game. So now that you’ve seen the sets, what do you think about them? Thoughts? You can also check out the Sith Social Armor Set here and more Level 50 Gear Here.
Emmanuel Lusinchi Says Shame an Anger Aided Development of SWTOR
Speaking at the Vancouver Game Design Expo, the Associate Lead Designer of SWTOR Emmanuel Lusinchi had some interesting things to say about the development of the game. He described his experiences summarized from six years of development on Electronic Arts’ high-profile MMO, what many consider to be the most expensive MMO to date. Venture Beat shares the story: Lusinchi started his insightful and entertaining lecture off with the advice “You are not working enough on your development tools”. He emphasized the return on investment for tool optimization because of the development time-savings, especially in the MMO genre, where content creation continues long after the game launch The more I hear from this guy, the more I’m starting to like him. He went on to cover lessons two and three of communicating with the fan base: “Everything you say can – and will be – used against you” Yup, sounds like…
1.1.1 Patch Notes — 1/31/2012
As we all know BioWare took down the servers for some weekly maintenance today. As always they took the time to upload a new patch fixing bugs etc. Normally I don’t mind the maintenance as I work while the servers are down, but this weeks I’m on vacation so I was quite sad that I couldn’t level my Trooper. Then I thought I would catch up with some good old World of Warcraft – only to find out that the servers was down there to: Anyways. Below are this weeks patch notes. Enjoy! Classes and Combat General Fixed a bug that could cause the Global Cooldown to appear as if it has been cancelled when it is actually still in effect, resulting in a feeling of unresponsiveness to input. Corrected an issue that could cause an ability icon to appear usable but be unresponsive to clicks or keypresses for several seconds. Players revived by other players, including…
The Sith Inquisition: Sorcerer Healing Build
The guys over at swtorsavior.com has created a video showing some excellent builds. Over the next few days, we will be showcasing some of the best builds they have come up with, but if you want the full advantage of there guides, you have to buy the swtorsavio guide, which is available here. Here is a build that you can use if you are playing as a healer with the Sith Inquisitor Sorcerer. Please read the notes about this build: Dark Heal – First healing skill that you pick up and later on should only be used if you need to stop someone from dying fast. Dark Infusion – use Infusion to replace Dark Heal as soon as you can as you are leveling up, again the only time you need to go back to Dark Heal is to stop someone from falling and emergencies. You can also use Static Barrier as well as Dark Heal to help tanks. Once you…
TOR TV: WHY ISN’T THERE AN EASYMODE FOR DATACRONS?
We all know how damn frustrating it can be to get them datacrons. Especially the datacrons located on Taris ( if you don’t have a guide for it of course ) . Like the guides for datacrons we have right here. Anyways here is a hilarious short video, showing all the struggles two heroes have to go through, to get the +2 cunning datacron. warning foul language ahead. Interested in SWTOR Movies? We have new movies most weekdays here on swtorstrategies! Have suggestions for movie we ought to feature? Get in contact with us here
SWTOR White Saber Crystal Uncovered
At first, SWTOR coveted the magenta crystal but now there is a new favorite item in a galaxy far, far away. One high level character has been seen sporting around with a sparkling white lightsaber. The owner of this whitesaber, Catch Deathwalker, posted about it on the official forums: I would like to let everyone know that the live servers still do have the white crystals. It’s a server first for us on Prophecy of the Five… might be a game first after live? Edit: So you can see the stats. There was an instant buzz about the crystal as everyone wanted to know where Catch got it (of course) but later in the day, staff dropped in with some startling (or not-so-startling) news about Catch and his flashy lightsaber. This was released by BioWare staff: We’ve done some investigating and discovered that CatchDeathwalker did not obtain the white crystal…
Ilum Datacron Locations
Ilum was the ice planet home to many of the Adegan crystals used in the construction of Jedi lightsabers. The caverns containing the crystals were long ago turned into a Jedi temple. Unlike the crystals of other planets, the crystals of Ilum could only produce green and blue lightsaber crystals. Ilum was first discovered in 22,800 BBY when a Jedi, navigating hyperspace in the Force, felt a strong pull deep from the Unknown Regions. Following the sensation, the scout had found a world rich in Force-strong crystals. The mystique of the discovery added it to the ceremony of lightsaber construction. Read more about Ilum here and check out the Datacron guide below: Don’t forget to check out constantly growing list of guides for Star Wars: The old republic 83) Aim + 4 Datacron Coordinates: X 920, Y 1072 This Datacron is located in far southeastern Ilum, to reach it you will need to…
The Guild Sphere: Imperium
In today’s Guild feature, Zyraal from the Guild Imperium took the time to answer our questions. Imperium are curently looking for active members on Zaalbar US-West PvE, so If you’re a mature, fun-loving, well-spoken/typed(don’t have to be a grammer nazi, just not putting “ne1 want 2 go on sum runz?”) adult with a sense of humor, you might belong in this guild. If you like running ops with a “Come on guys we can do this” attitude instead of putting people down, you might belong here. If you’d rather help than criticize, and have patience if someone doesn’t understand immediately, you might belong here. If you have a slow or non-existant temper, you might belong here. Check out the interview below: Where did your guilds name come from? It actually came from the motto of a previous guild I ran, “ex tripidum imperium” or “From Joy, Power”. We all play games to have fun…if you…
TOR TV: “Looking for Group” *Cold Repulbic Mixtape* by Richie Branson
Richie Branson made this Hillarious rap song about “looking for a group” in SWTOR. The song is all about the pains of looking for a group when you’re not a healer. Track samples the sith inquisitor theme music composed by Mark Griskey and co. Richie plays on the Ven Zallow RP-PVP as a sith assassin named “Branson” and “Kazen””. Shoot him a message if you’re playing! Check out more music at www.richiebranson.com Interested in SWTOR Movies? We have new movies most weekdays here on swtorstrategies! Have suggestions for movie we ought to feature? Get in contact with us here
What Do Storm Troopers Do When Not at Work?
The life of a Storm Trooper must be tough. Have you ever wondered what they do when they get a day off? What about spending time with the family, celebrating the holidays or even doing the laundry? Yes, Storm Troopers are people , too and one photographer has captured so many beautiful life moments of Storm Troopers just well… doing what they do. Sometimes they hang out with their children. Sometimes they play in the snow. They even fight in protest against SOPA and PIPA. Kristina Alexanderson, Storm Trooper photographer catches them in their weakest moments, their strongest moments and everything in between. She shows us what it is really like to live the life of a Storm Trooper. Some of what you see may shock you, some may inspire you but all will impress you. See more at Kalexanderson’s photostream on Flickr.
Is SWTOR Bringing Back Retro Sexism Issues for Women Gamers?
Is SWTOR bringing back retro sexism issues for women gamers? One self-professed female gamer thinks so but can she back up her accusations? L.A. Harte, of Yahoo! Contributor Network takes issue with how SWTOR portrays females in the game. When I first saw the title, I thought she was going to accuse BioWare of objectifying women or some such… it wouldn’t be the first time such accusations have been made on a video game. But what she was actually complaining about took me by surprise a bit. She says: “Female characters in most MMORPGs including World of Warcraft, (and even the spin off cellphone app game Order and Chaos), provide us with a beautiful but strong woman — Star Wars The Old Republic falls very short.” Um… so WoW has beautiful female characters and SWTOR doesn’t? I’m betting L.A. Harte plays a Night Elf. So anyway, just how does she…
Kaon Under Siege – Video Guide from Pokket
It’s been awhile since you needed a 6-minute video to explain encounters in an MMORPG but the new flashpoint in SWTOR can be difficult, particularly the first time you do it. With the right technique involved, your group can get through the content efficiently and enjoyably. If you’re not sure just what that correct technique would be, you’re in luck because MMORPG has us all covered with a great video tutorial. Pokket gives us all the run down on the Hardmode Kaon Under Siege Flashpoint and how to survive the nightmarish place in Game Face from MMORPG.com. This is an especially good guide for healers who before this, probably did not have to work too hard at healing but this flashpoint and bosses can challenge the healers more than previous encounters you have probably had. Pokket explains each fight with voiceover as you watch the video of the boss fights…
SWTOR Servers Down on a Friday Night- Plus Scheduled Maintenance Jan 31st
Players were shocked by unexpected downtime last night right in the middle of Friday night/ Saturday morning gameplay for SWTOR. The forums went down, too, meaning frustrated players couldn’t even go rage about why they were kicked off their favorite game. Some took to Twitter to complain about it while we awaited the return of the servers and an explanation as to what had happened. A forum post explained it earlier in the day but few people caught it. Most of us were informed of the server shut down by the in-game notifications as we were playing. That post on the Official forums goes onto explain the upcoming scheduled maintenance: Scheduled Maintenance Date: Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 Time: 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) until 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET) All game servers and swtor.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more…
Rakata Weapons to be fixed in future patch – Not 1.1.1
As the original poster explained, there has been an issue with Rakata weapons for some time now. Players can raid hard mode EV for weeks and get Rakata weapons that are rank 126 when they would already have much better weapons at that point. The Rakata weapons should be level 140. They look cool with their black-red lightsaber crystals btu it doesn’t change the fact that they are basically useless at that level. So plenty of players complained and at first, it didn’t seem like BioWare was listening. Then they came in to say it would be fixed in 1.1.1. But alas… it is still not fixed. So what’s the deal? Well, the weapons will be fixed in an upcoming patch instead. Sorry to those who have them or were working towards them who are not benefitting from it right now. If you already have them, they will be upgraded…