Sep 9, 2011

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Fully Operational: The Republic’s Damage Dealers

“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!” — There is no better example of damage in the Star Wars galaxy than the scene attached to that quote. Each week in Fully Operational, join Kray as he takes a look at the damage dealing role in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And yes, we’ll blow up a planet if we get the chance. 

Hoo doggy, it”s been a while hasn’t it! The past few weeks have been a blur with conventions and beta and updates, but we’re finally back on track to bringing Fully Operational to you every Friday, barring any orbital space station attacks on my house.

Last time in the column we went over the  basics of Advanced Classes and jumped into the damage dealers for the Empire, so let’s not dilly dally any longer and show the Republic some love. As always, listening music is provided.

Jedi Knight

Style: Force User – Melee

Jedi Knights are probably the most iconic of all the Advanced Classes in The Old Republic, home to such names as Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi. These Jedi tap into the force to enhance their physical abilities, whether that be stamina or strength, and charge into battle, lightsaber in hand. Though the class does have a few flashy “spell-like” force moves, most of what you’ll see here is varying saber strikes and acrobatics.

Guardian

Weapons: Single Lightsaber
DPS Style: Melee – High Survivability
Offspec: Tanking

The Guardian takes his or her strength from the serenity of the Force, focusing their power into a single lightsaber. Donning heavy armor, this class has very high survivability due to the possibility of a pure tanking spec. As a Jedi Guardian, you’ll assume one of a few different lighstaber forms, similar to ‘stances’ from Warriors in World of Warcraft. There’s not a ton of information available on Jedi Knights, but what we do know is that Guardians will focus on sustained damage with a combination of debuffs and resource-refunding talents. The Vigilance tree will improve your damaging abilities and even give you a new lightsaber form, while the Defense tree focuses on — duh — your defense, allowing you to tank. The shared Focus tree adds some more force-based abilities and form buffs.

Sentinel

Weapons: Dual Lightsabers
DPS Style: Melee – Burst or Sustained
Offspec: More DPS!

If the Guardian is a stone wall of Force, the Sentinel is an avalanche. Instead of focusing on survivability, Jedi Sentinels let loose a little and let the Force flow through them in the form of a lightsaber in each hand. Attacking with both weapons at once means a lot of damage potential, and the Sentinel has a few options available. If you’re looking for a more sustained, build up approach, the Watchman tree focuses on the Juyo lightsaber form which, according to Star Wars lore, essentially means each strike will be more powerful than the last. The Combat tree believes in burst and flurries of strikes, allowing the Ataru form which triggers additional strikes and create large spikes of damage at a time. Focus, as with the Guardian, gives general upgrades and a couple force goodies.

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Sep 1, 2011

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Georg Zoeller Q&A From TORWars

Good news everyone! The fine gentlemen over at TORWars have managed to score an exclusive Q&A with BioWare’s Georg Zoeller, Principal Lead Systems Designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic. During the interview, Zoeller hits on a few hot-button topics that are sure to make future TOR players happy.

In regards to what BioWare will do to keep players interested and motivated over the long term, Zoeller had this to say:

Of course, any game that wants to hold player interest over a period measured in years needs to have continuous content and systems additions, and we’re already working hard making sure that we can meet and exceed our player’s expectations in that regard.

Mr. Zoeller also expands on what we know about the “group stealth” ability of the cover classes on both sides of the fence:

Scoundrels and Operatives get, at higher level, the ability to temporarily overload their personal stealth field generator to cover an area of X meters around them, effectively cloaking every member of their 4-player group, but not an entire Operation party.

He goes on to say that Snipers and Gunslingers also had the ability, but for balance purposes they changed it to more of an AoE defensive screen ability… which might prove interesting in objective-based PvP!

Head on over to TORWars for the full read!

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Aug 21, 2011

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gamescom 2011: Smuggler Gameplay + Gabe Amatangelo Interview w/ TotalBiscuit

Following up his excellent interview with Stephen Reid, in which we got to see about 25 minutes of Sith Warrior origin world gameplay on Korriban, TotalBuscuit has returned with about 16 minutes of Smuggler origin world content!

This time, he’s Stephen Reid-less, but if you’re familiar with TotalBuscuit, you know he’s a skilled and entertaining narrator and he doesn’t disappoint here. The video is cam shot, but available at 1080p, and some of the best I’ve seen. Although this time, he was not permitted to play the in-game audio.

A must-watch I would say, but as with his Sith Warrior video, this definitely contains some spoilers if you’d rather save your Smuggler experience for when you finally get your hands on the game!

As a bonus, TotalBuscuit also conducted a short interview with Gabe Amatangelo to talk a bit about end-game. Of interest they discussed the Eternity Vault Operation shown as “entry-level” with simple mechanics, and Gabe notes that it gets much harder with different mechanics from there. Also: Open World PvP.

 

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Aug 8, 2011

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Yellow Posts: Group Stealth, The NDA, International Update And More

Hello again fellow forum followers! The week began with Stephen Reid giving us a little more information on why SW:TOR is going to have a limited launch and debunking the international region locking rumor that has been going around. Here is an excerpt from the thread titled “For those outside North America and Europe“:

I realize many of you are hoping for a definitive ‘answer’ to the question of “Why are we limiting the initial launch for The Old Republic”. I’m afraid you already have your answer in the very first post of this thread. It was a decision made to ensure the highest quality of game service.

There have been other key questions, and we’ve tried to answer them for you. There are no plans to ‘region lock’ or ‘IP block’ players from the game. You may experience some latency issues if you’re not playing in a launch region. In addition, we’ll accept credit card payments for subscriptions. These seem to be the key questions for those who choose to potentially import the game, and hopefully we’ve answered those.

Next up, there is a new conductor…err…community manager in town! Specifically the new European Community Manager, Chris Collins. In his inagural post, Mr. Collins explains what his job actually entails (here is an excerpt):

As the European Community Manager, it’s my job to work closely with TonyMoreno and the rest of the EU community team, to ensure every last bit of feedback from the European community is understood and given to the right people here at BioWare. Being based at the BioWare Ireland office in Galway, I’ll be working directly with Stephen and the rest of the community team, but with the advantage of being closer to the centre of the action…

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Aug 3, 2011

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Facebook Image Of The Week #22

This week’s Facebook Image of the Week has a Republic Smuggler showing a Bounty Hunter exactly who the quickest draw in the galaxy is.

Fighting back an invading boarding party, the Smuggler draws his weapon before the Mandalorian can attack.

Make sure you head on over to Facebook and “Like” Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ so you get these great images posted directly onto your wall!

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