Darren Zenko was a self-professed MMO newbie. Until a couple of weeks ago, he was a near-total MMORPG virgin but something changed this- he got his hands on SWTOR. BioWare’s ability to interweave story and single-player elements into a multi-player format has drawn more than their fair share of newbies into the game, most of who were satisfied after giving it a chance. In a special to The Star on Toronto.com, Zenko shares his opinions on SWTOR and how he believes the game drew in a newbie like himself and why you might want to give it a try, too (if you have not already). Most of you reading our site here at SWTOR Strategies are already playing the game. However, we love to bring you these reviews for a variety of reasons. For one, they are interesting and helpful to those who may not be playing the game yet…
Companions Miss You When You Don’t Play for Awhile
What happens when you don’t log into SWTOR for awhile? Probably not much- the world goes on and your account sits dormant, right? Well, actually, when you don’t play for awhile, your companion misses you and you just might get an email like this one inviting you back. Is this a smart move on BioWare’s part or a waste of time? I have to say that it sounds like a pretty good idea. Not everyone who gets the notices will come back to the game to play but the honest truth is that there are some people out there who just get so busy, they forget to log in the game. You might get so wrapped up with busy life that you forget how long it has been since you logged in. A small message like this could be just the thing you need to refresh your memory and make…
Crafting Changes Live on Test Server
Developer commentary on crafting changes that just went live on the test server, as well as hints at what to expect from patch 1.2 can now be found on the forums. Georg Zoeller popped in to explain a few things about crafting, upcoming changes to the crafting systems and more. I wanted to drop some notes on the changes made to the BioChem profession in the patch (1.1.2) that just went onto the Public Test Server, how they fit in the big picture and how we are proceeding forward with crafting professions in endgame in general. Zoeller adds: It is our intention to gradually, over multiple patches, reduce the impact of situational consumables on endgame combat resolution and shift the factors which determine the outcome of combat more towards personal skill. As part of this effort, specifically for PvP, we are also working on changes that will reduce the gear…
TOR TV: Imperial Agent Song!
Richie Branson (The guy with the “looking for a group” in SWTO we featured last Monday) is up with a new tune. This time he is representing for the Imperial Agents in SWTOR. It’s not high art, but it indeed entertaining. Mr. Branson will have an EP coming February 10th. So keep an eye our for The Cold Republic EP Vol. 1 and check out his website for more info 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
Gaming Age Gives SWTOR a B+
Not everyone is raving about BioWare’s MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic. Gaming Age gives the game a B+ in a solid review that is honest and realistic. This review greets us with the basics. They talk about the accusation that SWTOR is just WoW with a Star Wars skin (and how this accusation is somewhat on target) but then they go on to share the ways that SWTOR is different from WoW or any other MMORPG. Gaming Age says: And overall, I feel like SWTOR is a pretty great MMO. It’s certainly one of the more polished MMO’s at launch I’ve seen in a while. My system is pretty low-end nowadays, but still capable of running this game well enough. They also talk about companions, one aspect that sets the game apart from others in the genre: The companions get added to your overall crew over time, and their…
Social Gear by Social Rank and Location
One of the most popular parts of an MMO is the gear you can get for your character. It just goes with the genre and nearly every MMORPG has gear and gear sets that your character can earn, buy or loot in some manner in the game. SWTOR is no exception and there are several types of gear in the game and different ways to get it. One of these is social gear- which you get by earning social points and rank as you level up in the game. But getting social rank is not as easy as you might think- especially if you tend to play solo a lot. The more grouping you do, the more opportunities you will have to build your social ranking. Here is a great chart of the social gear by social rank and location. It also includes the pricing of the different pieces. This…
Visual Chart on How to Get PvP Gear
Are you looking for information on how to get PvP gear? In SWTOR, you can get PvP gear by gaining commendations. You can start this at level 10 when you are first able to enter the warzones. You can get warzone commendations and mercenary commendations. By level 50, there are more ways for you to get PvP gear that you need and want. After level 50 you can get the champion gear back, do daily and weekly quests such as warzones and Ilum, get the Battlemaster Gear Bag and more. This chart gives you a great visual on what you can get and where. Whether you want to PvP as a main or just do some on the side when you have free time, these charts give you an easy way of looking at what you need to do. Get geared up today and be ready to rock the warzones….
Sith Sorcerer Lightning PVE Build In SWTOR
Today we continue with a new build from swtorsavior.com. This time we will take another look at the Sith Inquisitor, but this time we are featuring a very solid build for the Sith Sorcerer! If you are looking for a very high damage solid lightning build then give this one a go! As always I I will recommend you to get the guide to get the full advantage of all swtorsavior.com amazing features. It is available right here.
The Lights of North America as Seen on Tatooine
These are the types of things that make an ordinary game extraordinary. When we find little prizes like this in SWTOR, it just reminds of us how much time and effort actually goes into making a game of this caliber. Sometimes those little extra touches make all the difference in the experience for the gamer and that’s how we feel about this. Here’s a fun little Easter egg in the game. You can clearly see the United States, Mexico and South America here. The planets rotate so you won’t see the same section each time but as you are coming in for a landing on Tatooine, you can see these lights and familiar silhouettes. About Tatooine: Tatooine (pronounced /tætu’in/) was a desert world and the first in a binary star star system that had three moons and was in the Arkanis sector of the Outer Rim Territories. It was inhabited…
TOR TV: Prime Defense “Greeting”
Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings (as well as other members of the animal kingdom) intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. While greeting customs are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship, they exist in all known human cultures. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically, and often involve a combination of the two. This topic excludes military and ceremonial salutes but includes rituals other than gestures. Greetings are often, but not always, used just prior to a conversation. Some epochs and cultures have had very elaborate greeting rituals, e.g., greeting of a king. Secret societies have clandestine greeting rituals that allow members to recognize common membership. Prime…
Time Magazine’s Techland Reviews SWTOR
It seems these days that everyone is getting their own little piece of SWTOR. People are talking about it everywhere and nearly every publication in the gaming, technology and Internet genres is covering SWTOR in stories and reviews. So it’s no surprise then that Time Magazine would review the game for their Techland section. But how they rated it is anybody’s guess before you read the review for yourself. It turns out they say that fresh stories propel SWTOR and create a fresh, fun game that anyone can get into but especially Star Wars fans. Time explains: Most of all, it makes you feel like you’re part of a huge narrative that’s at once personal to your character’s journey, but also part of a wider, unfolding epic between the Republic and the Empire. Quests and story arcs appear to end, but don’t. Your character may finish a mission, only to…
SWTOR Patch 1.2 Content Leak Info
Are you looking forward to patch 1.2 coming soon to SWTOR? Are you wondering what future patches might hold for the game, when certain fixes will be enabled and what kind of level 50 content and dailies might be added? Good news for you because there is some content leak info available to help us learn more about the upcoming patch. We will see a new flashpoint called Lost Island, some fun new dailies and more. Torhead has some very interesting information about the next upcoming patch for SWTOR: We already know from interviews with BioWare Employees that we are getting a new flashpoint in 1.2, but what we have uncovered are missions relating to the flashpoint… along with new dailies on Corellia and an all-new Operation called Explosive Conflict! Dailies NPCs Commander Mericci General Konya Private Taia Sergeant Karloss Councillor Torvix Ensign Navrata Agent Carhart Corsec Officer Holonet Reporter…
EA Stock Surges after SWTOR Subscriber Numbers are Revealed
More good news for those holding stock in EA and more rebuttal for the nay-sayers that SWTOR is tanking and that it is causing EA stick to drop- EA stock reportedly surges after the recent Q3 2012 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call in which it was revealed that SWTOR now has over 1.7 million active users and growing. DualShockers brought us the story that quite honestly, was not a surprise to ushere at all. YesterdayEA stock closed at $18.44. Today, on the closure of the market a few minutesago, the shares of the publisher from Redwood were priced $19.565 showing avery solid 6.1% climb. By comparison the whole NASDAQ index gained only a 0.4%. Mostof the growth actually happened yesterday during the after hours tradingsession, that started as EA’s conference call was closing. Both in the afterhours trading session and this morning in the pre-market trading session EAstock was one of…
Trolling BioWare to Ruin SWTOR
Are Internet trolls out to get SWTOR? It would appear so based on some of the bad publicity the game has gotten as well as other trollish activity such as bug reports for glitches that don’t exist and players claiming they were banned for odd reasons only to have BioWare staff come in and confirm they were not banned at all. It’s all a bit odd but it seems like there are some trolls out there just looking to make BioWare/SWTOR look bad. Maybe they are disgruntled SWG players? /shrug Remember I brought you that story about the Technorati blogger who was hating on SWTOR? Well, there’s a new story that’s a bit of a counter to this one but they have more of their facts straight. Team Asunder Magazine brings us The Internet vs. Bioware: How Trolls Set Out To Destroy The Old Republic. “The undeserved negative publicity that…
TOR TV: Tony Hawk’s Pro SWTOR
This litle gem of a SWTOR / Tony Hawk’s pro skating mashup was made by youtube user hardataq. The song alone brought back so much nostalgia, and I’m sure Tony Hawk would be proud, If he weren’t busy making bank off a career he had in the nineties. I pretend my speeder is like a skateboard too, ramping off stuff and grinding rails usually when I’m on the Republic Fleet waiting for my mates to get ready to head off (they’re so slow). There’s a cool little edge on the wall next to the GTN kiosks that I treat like a quarter pipe! Check it out below:
Clear Favoritism of Republic in TOR
We’ve heard the accusations of favoritism in SWTOR. In fact, I remember the same thing from the early days of WoW (and actually it never ended in WoW). I’m hearing all this talk now of BioWare clearly favoring the Republic in TOR and before I just didn’t believe it. That is until… I came across this image and it’s so glaringly obvious now. BioWare, yes, you are definitely showing favoritism to Republic. What other explanation could there be for this? That’s right- what you are seeing is correct. The Republic get more cleavage, more leg skin and less pointy elbows. This is serious business, ya know. It’s apparent from these dancer’s outfits that the developers prefer Republic to Imperial and want to spice up the eye candy more for one side over the other, right? Of course I mean this only for a chuckle but do you think there really…
SWTOR Sith Inquisitor Assassin PVP Build
Today we are going to continue posting the builds swtorsavior.com has put together for us. As always I I will recommend you to get the guide to get the full advantage of all swtorsavior.com amazing features. It is available right here. If you are playing as Sith Inquisitor and on the Assassin advanced class then you need to give this build a go. Awesome PVP build with very high damage. Also remember to check out NIGEL DAVIS newest Intergalactic Intel were he goes through Shadow/Assassin Tanking
The Guild Sphere: Imperial Security Bureau (ISB)
Today we feature the republic guild ” Imperial Security Bureau ” ISB is a small guild (around 23 members including alts) looking to increase in size to get ready for heroics and operations. They are a close group of dedicated players that like to have fun and help each other out. Many of the members have experience from WoW and have played MMOs for quite some time. Right now they are looking for some cool people who want to run the end game material and have a good time. All classes/levels accepted! They are always helping each other out whether it’s sending gear, running someone through a flashpoint or leveling alts together. Where did your guilds name come from? The guild name stands for Imperial Security Bureau. It’s those Imperials you see in the movie wearing the uniforms. Our guild consists of many people who are very into the Star…
IGN Gives SWTOR a Second Look
You may remember reading a review on IGN a few weeks ago written by Nick Kolan on Star Wars: The Old Republic (we brought you the recap). Kolan had a lot of good things to say about the MMO but some of the commenters called him an idiot (commenters are prone to such things, ya know) so some of the other members of the staff decided to review it, too. They wanted to give readers a second opinion of the game. It’s a pretty fun read if you want to check it out for yourself. Here are a few of their comments. Anthony Gallegos – IGN PC Editor had this to say. “Maybe it was because I knew I’d be addicted, but I really was opposed to Star Wars: The Old Republic early on. So many of the early demos I saw of it made it seem like “just another…
Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit
Good news in from BioWare this week. They have announced the first ever SWTOR Guild Summit, hosted right here in Austin (where I just happen to be) in March of this year. Guild leaders from around the world will gather with developers from BioWare Austin to talk about the game and its future. It’s by invitation only but yours truly is hoping to be there (*cough* cough* BioWare) and if not, I will at least bring you all the updates as I find out about them. The update was announced on the official News feed for SWTOR: Guild leaders (or a designated officer in the event of a guild leader being unable to attend) will participate in Q&A sessions with developers, roundtable feedback discussions, and will get a preview of some upcoming game features. The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the…
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…
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…