It seems that BioWare is constantly trying to update and improve the PvP system, the open-world PvP zone Ilum getting the rancor’s share of the changes. This is obviously a good thing that BioWare is constantly trying to improve the system, but some people are understandably frustrated that the zone was released in the state that it was: not ready for primetime.

In a post over on SWTOR Face, author John Gatt thinks that BioWare is “patching PvP with duct tape”. He goes on to describe that the overall PvP experience needs to be improved and he doesn’t know if the changes that BioWare is planning to implement in the upcoming 1.1.2 patch are going to alleviate the problems that he has with PvP.

Specifically, the way commendations and tokens are rewarded is changing in the upcoming patch. As I understand it, BioWare is greatly reducing the drop chance for tokens that can be traded 1-for-1 for a piece of PvP gear from daily and weekly PvP reward bags. In exchange, they are increasing the amount of commendations (aka PvP currency) that you are rewarded for completing PvP daily and weekly quests. BioWare says, per Georg Zoeller, that this was done at the request of players and it should reduce the randomness of acquiring PvP gear. In other words, lucky players will not be able to level up any faster than unlucky ones.

Check out the SWTOR Face article for a good overview of what this patch is going to do for PvP rewards in the near future.

Over on the TOR database site Knotor (the TOR database sites really do have the best names, don’t they?), they posted a really great overview of the Legacy system. From a description about the upcoming plans for the Legacy system, to the exact Legacy experience that you need to increase your Legacy level, this article has it all! Check it out now for all your Legacy system questions, including information about the upcoming changes in the 1.1.2 patch.

Last up, OldRepublic.net has posted a really cool graphic for all of us to enjoy. This time it describes the leveling path for both Republic and Empire as well as all of the flash points and when you can access them. Lots of useful information can be found here so be sure to check it out over on OldRepublic.net.

Thanks must be given to the TOR sub-Reddit for pointing me to these last two articles!

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

While browsing the official forums, you never know what you’re going to find. Sometimes it’s a one-off weird question, and sometimes it’s a recurring theme that shows up ten times a day. One of these recurring themes, it seems, is players not being able to find groups to do Flashpoints or Heroic content with.

Some people blame the lack of an automated “tool” to build a group for them. Some people blame low faction populations. And some even blame single player gamers for being a large part of TOR’s audience and being completely averse to grouping at all.

Personally, I haven’t had this problem. I’ve been able to do all Heroics at the time they were given to me with just a few quick shouts to the zone chat. Plus, I’m in a good guild and I believe that the best way to play social games like this is to make friends. Odd concept I guess. I haven’t searched for a group in over 5 years in World of Warcraft!

Anyway, just wanted to check in with the AAJ Army on this topic – do you find yourself struggling to get groups for things? Let us know, and tell us about what faction and server you’re on as well!

First up, the Weekly Q&A will be an official thread in the General Discussion forum where players can ask questions until Tuesdays at 2:00pm CST at which point the thread is closed, and they pick 10 questions from the thread and answer them in the blog entry on Friday. The thread is open now, so head over there and get askin’!

Next we have the weekly Dev Tracker Summary. Personally, I like Yellow Posts, which is OUR weekly dev tracker summary… but if you feel you MUST go to the source, BioWare is happy to oblige! Each week they will post a roundup of the important developer posts. Our weekly dev tracker roundup is one of the most popular features on the site, so I’m sure it will be there too. 

BioWare just published their first in a series of video guides geared toward helping new players get up to speed on playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. The new videos reside in the already-helpful but little known New Player Guide.

The first one is called “Begin Your Journey” and features none other than Eric Musco, BioWare’s Social Media Coordinator (and formerly of TOROcast) helping players along the path of selecting their server, explaining the server types and creating your character.

Enjoy the soothing sounds of Musco’s voice as you relax and watch the video!

Some players do it for glory. Some do it for infamy. Some like to accumulate the most points, or explore the far reaches of the worlds they inhabit. This, however, is not a column for those people. This is a column for those people who, quietly or not, enjoy making money so that their digital avatar can sleep on large piles of cash.

PvP has never been a great focus of mine – though currently I am playing it a lot more than I participated in previous MMO titles. I have found it fun without the awful side effects that so often plague it – though it’s far from a perfect system (see Bags, Champion).

However, many players have made it their main focus. Some of them are 50 and at the expertise cap, and some of them are still at low levels. And today, we are going to specifically zero in on the 10-49 bracket.

Recently level 50s were given their own PvP bracket, with all the other levels in their own. This segregation has, of course, come as a relief to the many lower-level players and alts who enjoyed pvp but found it frustrating to fight level 50s who were doing fantastic amounts of damage.

Now, however, they have their own non-expertise and non-50 bracket, where the higher levels have an advantage in abilities, but everyone is pretty close with the bolster mechanic. And there is a market to sell to these folks, provided you can make armor, mods, or weapons at the right points.

The first big one is level 49. Level 49 is where many of the PvP players will focus an entire level, both to farm valor and have enough commendations to purchase gear. However, that creates a market of people that could have a major advantage. As a Synthweaver I have lots of level 49 patterns that can easily translate into much higher pvp damage. Many of those remain viable into the end-game and are about as good as the tier 1 gear, which, of course, has created a nice market for me.

Mod-able gear is another possibility (sadly, I haven’t tried it). Selling a few cosmetic pieces could potentially net some money as well. In general the materials are quite simple to gather for them, such as the Jedi Initiates Vestments. There’s also a noticeable change around the 30s for leveling, and I would highly suggest selling anything in the 30-38 range if you can; 42-49 is also a nice range, but I would focus more on mods until the 49 gear.

Now, there are a few other levels (10 and 14 being rather big as well) that you could focus on as well. Some people will level alts to do the same. There are two level ranges to stay away from: level 20 and level 40. The gear that can be had from the pvp vendors at those levels is quite good, and competing against commendations is a losing battle. However, as a Cybertech you should look into selling mods that are 2 – 6 levels higher than that gear, especially the artifact-quality (if you have the time and resources to commit to getting it).

The twinks are coming; some are already there. Keep this in mind while leveling professions – anything with high endurance is a great bet to reverse engineer to get a better version.

Beggar’s Tip: I see a lot of people bemoaning Synthweaving and Armormech as being non-moneymakers. Yes, I can say our potential was behind a bit at level 50 initially; Cybertech, with all its toys and ship parts, made a few individuals incredibly wealthy. At least on Jung Ma Republic side, the spaceship business has gotten a little cut-throat and made it slightly less efficient as a money-maker (although my friend reports that his armorings and mods are selling quite well). However, if you didn’t guess right at the start of the game, don’t fret – you can still make money.

Now, competing against slotted gear doesn’t work so well – if you get lucky and get something with an augment slot, by all means run up the price and sell. But there are two slots where slotted items are rare to the point of being non-existent: waists and wrists. As a synthweaver, I have focus almost exclusively on wrist patterns for RE and do my best to maintain a stock. It’s especially helpful that a lot of those patterns are level 49, but they sell extremely well because, until someone gets into the end-game, there isn’t a better option.

Esseles/Black Talon hardmode drops the Columi token, as does Karagga’s Palace, but judging from the guilds on my server, not a ton of people are running them; similarly, the PVP bags don’t drop tokens in any pattern and are unpredictable. So yes, make wrists and waists and reap the profits (at least, until people come in here and read this column).

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Today’s Blue Milk & Cereal is once again crowd-sourced from the awesome AAJ Army! This time, from Charlie Malbaurn! If you have a great idea for a BM&C topic, let us know!

The level cap is an interesting thing in MMOs, especially new ones. The sooner you get there, the less there typically is to do. Usually all of the content is designed around either cooperative or competitive group play, and without other players, it makes it a little harder to do!  Star Wars: The Old Republic has been out well over a month now, and many players are beginning to reach the level cap of 50. I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere close to “most” yet, but a good chunk of folks are getting there.

So, I’m curious to hear about what you, dear readers, are doing to whittle away your time in that galaxy far, far away. Some of you have been level 50 for quite a while, and some of you just arrived. So it will be interesting to hear the perspectives from both camps! So don’t just vote, discuss below!

Stand aside Master Gnost-Dural! The Ask A Jedi crew is here to answer all of your burning questions about Star Wars: The Old Republic! Powered by R2-Db’s question and answer feature, we will answer the highest rated questions each and every week. So sit back, relax, and let us drop some knowledge on you, Ask A Jedi-style!

Just a pair of questions for you this week. First, Winterborne asks: “Can other people help out with class quests?“. The answer to that question is comprised of two parts. To begin, yes, as with any quest in the game, you can group up with someone to make your class quests a little bit easier. However, since your class quests are your personal story, the player that you group up with will not be able to participate in the dialog options for any of your class quests (but they can listen to the dialog).

Your choices for your class quests are your own and no one can force you to watch a cutscene or make a choice that you do not want to make. By contrast, you can be forced to watch a cutscene that you did not want to see during a normal group quest Flashpoint, depending on what dialog options your group mates selected.

The second part of this is that if the player you are grouping with is the same class as you, they will need to go into the game settings and enable an option to allow them to enter class quest areas of a player that is the same class as they. The main reason for this is that your character may be farther along in the story than the player that you are grouping with. In order to prevent story spoiling, the game will actually disallow a player from entering the class quest area of another player with whom they share the same class, unless they specifically say that they want to be able to enter those areas. Be careful of spoilers if you plan on going into a class quest instance of a friend who is playing the same class as you!

Lastly, gnarf posted this question on R2-DB: “Where can I buy 110% speeders?” If you just recently hit level 50 and bought the highest level speeder training, you may be on the lookout for vendors where you can buy better looking 110% speeders. Credit must go to DevliN who found this terrific article on OldRepublic.net that lists most (if not all) of the 110% speeder models available in TOR. This compendium describes where all of the speeders are located and how much they cost or what is required to obtain them (some drop off of Operation bosses). You will definitely want to check out this article if you are in the market for a new 110% speeder.

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Today’s BM&C was seeded by an idea from Zach Lee on Twitter… thanks Zach!

Gaming conventions are always a big deal every year, and Star Wars: The Old Republic along with EA, BioWare and LucasArts attend many of them. Some are for players such as PAX or gamescom, and some are geared for the industry such as E3. These are generally huge stages upon which publishers can catch the eyes of the public, and shine the lights on their wares.

A few years back in 2005, Blizzard sort of redefined the idea of a gaming convention by holding their own – Blizzcon. Since then, they’ve held it every year except 2006 and attendance has grown exponentially. In 2005, just over 8,000 people (including myself) were there. Last year? Over 29,000. And they’ve worked to make it accessible not only on the Internet but also on pay-per-view over DirecTV.

So that got me to thinking… BioWare has plenty of franchises and some equally passionate and numerous fans. Would something like a “BioCom” be possible? A gathering of all of the BioWare games and gamers, focused on letting fans see and play the future? It’s possible that with this week’s announcement of the Guild Summit in Austin, the seeds have already been planted… come on David, 200 people is no different than 20,000! :)

Anyway, would you attend a BioCon if there was one? Would you travel to get your hands on Mass Effect 3 early? How about an early peek at the TOR expansion race? Let us know!

Keeping with their workman-like pattern of patch-test-deploy, BioWare has unleashed the next build of Star Wars: The Old Republic to the Public Test Server. Behold, the patch notes for upcoming patch 1.1.2!

A quick glance through gives us highlights such as more ability delay improvements, GCD UI, and some surprising Biochem changes!

Classes and Combat

General

• Improved response time for ability activation requests in low-framerate situations.
• Implemented further improvements to ability responsiveness and client-side anticipation of ability executions.
• The activation bar now appears at the correct time (when the activation of an ability begins) and disappears when activation is complete.
• If Sprint was active when a player died, it now remains active when the player is revived.
• Abilities on cooldown are now more easily distinguished from abilities that can be used.

Jedi Knight

Sentinel

• Pacify: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.

Watchman

• Plasma Blades: Now increases damage dealt by burn effects by 5% per point.
• Searing Saber: Now correctly modifies the critical damage dealt by burn effects.
• Changes to Searing Saber and Plasma Blades result in an overall increase in Damage Per Second.

Sith Warrior

Marauder

• Obfuscate: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.

Annihilation

• Hemorrhage: Now increases damage dealt by bleed effects by 5% per point.
• Bleedout: Now correctly modifies critical damage dealt by bleed effects.
• Changes to Hemorrhage and Bleedout result in an overall increase in Damage Per Second.

Jedi Consular

General

• Unity: Now properly provides damage reduction when used.

Shadow

• All Techniques now cost 100 Force.
• Force Technique’s Force Breach now also deals damage when applied. Overall damage dealt by this ability has not changed.

Kinetic Combat

• Technique Mastery: No longer increases the duration of Force Technique’s Breach effect. It now increases the damage dealt by Force Technique.
• Particle Acceleration: This skill now also triggers from Spinning Strike. It now triggers from damage dealt (rather than ability use) such that each hit of Spinning Strike, Double Strike, and Whirling blow have an individual chance to yield the Particle Acceleration buff. The chance to trigger has been reduced to 30% per hit, and it now properly increases the critical damage dealt by Project when a Force Potency charge is consumed.
• Harnessed Shadows: Stacks of Harnessed Shadows now last 30 seconds. Using Slow Time now yields a stack of Harnessed Shadows.

Infiltration

• Circling Shadows: Now requires the purchase of the Shadow Technique skill. Shadow Technique must be active in order to trigger the Circling Shadows buff. This skill now also triggers from Spinning Strike.

Balance (Shared Tree)

• Force Focus: Now additionally lowers the cooldown of Force Breach while Force Technique is active.
• Force Strike: Now triggers from activating melee attacks that hit a target affected by Force Technique’s Breach effect. This effect now triggers more easily but cannot trigger as frequently.
• Force in Balance: Heals the caster for 1% of maximum health for each target struck. This healing effect can no longer crit and no longer consumes Force Potency charges.
• Psychic Absorption: Now doubles the amount of healing generated by Force in Balance and Focused Insight.

Sith Inquisitor

Assassin

• All Saber Charges now cost 100 Force.
• Lightning Charge’s Discharge now also deals damage when applied. Overall damage dealt by this ability has not changed.

Darkness

• Charge Mastery: No longer increases the duration of Lightning Charge’s Discharge effect. It now increases the damage dealt by Lightning Charge.
• Energize: This skill now also triggers from Assassinate. It now triggers from damage dealt (rather than ability use) such that each hit of Assassinate, Thrash, and Lacerate have an individual chance to yield the Energize buff. The chance to trigger has been reduced to 30% per hit.
• Harnessed Darkness: Stacks of Harnessed Darkness now last 30 seconds. Using Wither now yields a stack of Harnessed Darkness.

Deception

• Induction: Now requires the Surging Charge skill to be purchased and requires that Surging Charge is active in order to trigger the Induction buff. This skill now also triggers from Assassinate.

Madness (Shared Tree)

• Crackling Charge: Now additionally lowers the cooldown of Discharge while Lightning Charge is active.
• Raze: Now triggers from activating melee attacks that hit a target affected by Lightning Charge’s Discharge effect. This effect now triggers more easily but cannot trigger as frequently.
• Death Field: Heals the caster for 1% of maximum health for each target struck. This healing effect can no longer crit and no longer consumes Recklessness charges.
• Devour: Now doubles the amount of healing generated by Death Field and Parasitism.

Smuggler

Gunslinger

Sharpshooter

• Diversion: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.

Imperial Agent

Sniper

Marksmanship

• Diversion: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.

Bounty Hunter

Powertech

Advanced Prototype

• Hydraulic Overrides: Visual and sound effects are now easier to recognize.

Trooper

General

• Troopers can now access their ship after leaving and returning to Corellia within 30 minutes.

Vanguard

Tactics

• Hold the Line: Visual and sound effects are now easier to recognize.

Companion Characters

General

• Companion Characters no longer occasionally appear unclothed when summoned.

Companions

Doc

• Crazy Talk (mission): Male characters can now complete the conversation related to this mission.

Crew Skills

Crafting Skills

• Crafting skills no longer inform the player that no missions are defined for the Crew Skill.

Biochem

• Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals no longer require Biochem to use.
• Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals are no longer bound, allowing them to be traded or sold to other players.
• Rakata reusable stims and adrenals have been reduced in power, providing buffs equal to Energized stims and adrenals.
• The Exotech Med Unit schematic obtained from the Eternity Vault Operation now functions properly and can be learned.

Gathering Skills

• Slightly lowered the amount of resources gathered from harvested droids and creatures.

Flashpoints and Operations

General

• Players are now able to obtain destined loot from chests when Master Looter is enabled and they are not the Master Looter.

Flashpoints

The False Emperor

• Jindo Krey’s ship no longer occasionally enters a state that prevents it from taking damage.

Kaon Under Siege

• Infected Mercenaries can no longer permanently stun players.

Operations

Eternity Vault

• Soa no longer resets if he uses Mind Trap on the main tank.

Karagga’s Palace

• The chest that is awarded for defeating Karagga on Nightmare Mode no longer appears partially inside a wall and now properly spawns.
• Foreman Crusher’s Perforating Rend now correctly applies itself to targets caught within the conical attack.
• Jarg & Sorno: The Carbonizer Probe no longer disappears if all of the players who attacked it died before the Carbonizer Probe was destroyed.
• Karagga no longer appears above portions of the walls during the fight.

Items

General

• Rakata weapons are now correctly rating 140 and are fitted with mark 25 modifications. These items were previously less powerful than intended.
• The number of commendations in Champion and Battlemaster Bags has been greatly increased, and the direct item trade tokens appear less frequently in Champion Bags. This change allows players to obtain PvP gear at a steady and significantly more predictable rate with an occasional bonus.

Vendors

• It is no longer possible to purchase items while holding down the Shift, Alt, or Ctrl keys.

Legacy

General

• The Legacy Experience required to advance to Legacy Levels beyond 20 has been increased.

Missions and NPCs

General

• Commendation rewards for Hard Mode Flashpoint daily and weekly missions and Operation weekly missions have been increased.

Missions

Imperial

• General Faraire: Khourlet’s Elite Guards no longer hide behind a door, preventing progression in this mission.
• Last Stand: Players are now able to complete this mission as long as the Voss Scholars are inside the prison cell.
• The Big Show: Using Force Cloak, dying, or leaving the phase while on the step “Defeat the Screaming Blade Cultists” can no longer cause the necessary NPCs to disappear and prevent mission progress.

Republic

• Leave Nothing Behind: The Frozen Biomass Container now remains lootable if the loot window is closed.
• Most Wanted: A mission item can no longer be rolled on if it is looted while the player is in a group.
• Need to Impress: Players can now speak to Ambassador Jannik if they have already completed the mission Gormak Country.
• The Lightspring: The toughness of Vaverone Zare and Nariel Pridence has been decreased. This mission can no longer be failed.
• The Shadow Fist: Mission progress for players who are on this mission has been reset to the first step. Players can no longer become locked out of the stealth generator room.

Bug Fixes

• Bonus Series missions on Tatooine can now be abandoned.

PvP

World PvP

Ilum

• Particle Cannons can no longer be permanently disabled.
• Players now receive notification when they kill a target that is not worth Valor due to being killed too recently.

Space Combat

General

• The speed of enemy Ion Cannons has been reduced to improve balance in high-level Space Combat Missions.

UI

General

• The reverse engineering button no longer occasionally disappears after a crafting skill is initially learned.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Loading screens no longer appear in low resolution if the player selects the low-resolution texture option in preferences.
• Facial animations no longer fail to play correctly in some instances.
• During brief teleports, the splash screen does not appear incorrectly over loading screens.
• Players will no longer experience limited audio, black portraits, or the inability to initiation conversations when they reconnect after being disconnected.

Quick Note: 5/5 Karagga’s Palace downed! Special shout out to the creator and moderators of www.dreshdaecnatina.com.

I think that one of the most common complaints about MMO’s is that at a certain point they just feel like you are playing a job. One of my roommates, Walters, said this a lot towards the end of his raid leading career in World of Warcraft. I don’t blame him at all, this feeling is common among guild leaders, officers, and raid leaders. We like to refer to it as ‘burnout’, but I think that it is more than that. I think that the fact that our games can take on this flavor is a great statement both about Star Wars: The Old Republic and about the effects they can have on us and our society.

What about MMO’s feels like a job? Management, responsibility, having to tell people they can’t do whatever they want because their gear isn’t up to par, etc. The list goes on. Getting sixteen people online at the same time at the same place with a shared purpose isn’t easy, and it takes quite a bit of skill to do well. All the /tells, officer chat, forum moderation, and drama means less time spent running Koan Under Siege for that Columi headpiece (I’m not bitter) or PvPing to get that Battlemaster title isn’t necessarily fun. In fact, I would probably not get much resistance if I said that’s not nearly as fun as Huttball.

But it’s important. Having this as an element of a game means that the game is much more than a game. When you play Star Wars: The Old Republic, you aren’t just wasting time away playing a lengthy RPG, you are playing with other people. Improving your character means you are better able to help others and achieve more; you are better able to have fun for both yourself and for those around you. Fifty hours spent in this game doesn’t mean you’ve just completed a story, a pleasure within itself, but it also means that you’ve built something that affects others too.

But, this costs us some, mostly for those heroes among us who spend their time in Dalaran, in Bree, in Coronet, and on the Fleet typing as fast as they can to schedule and organize instead of playing the game, just for the increased pleasure of others.

Even more important is that this kind of game can make a legitimate difference in society. Players of MMORPG’s are offered more opportunities for leadership and management. It’s very hard to teach these things, it takes experience to get a leadership position. But in order to get experience, you need a leadership position. Guilds can change this dynamic and break this dichotomy  by offering leadership opportunities to anyone, and most importantly, young people.

I am among those, one of those who had the greatest pleasure to be a guild officer at a young age. Every day I draw on this experience and I will continue to do so ’til the day I die. Until then, I will owe so many people for this experience, and I still know there is so much left to learn.

Feels like a job? No, feels like purpose.

TwinHits is an officer for the guild Unity on the server Dreshdae Cantina. Leave comments or tweet @TwinHits with your thoughts, ideas, and stories about guilds, communities, and leadership in Star Wars: The Old Republic.