Planning my Sith Inquisitor Sorcerer’s Talent Build

21 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in BETA, talent builds, theorycrafting

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talent calculator imageI’ve been playing around with the Talent Calculator on Darth Hater, to get some ideas around how I will eventually be building out my talent tree for my Sorcerer. I’m a little torn regarding PvE or PvP build, given I expect to be doing a good amount of PvE, but will be playing on a PvP server. Also, having not been in BETA, I’m going based on my past gaming experience and talent choices versus having seen first hand how much utility there is in some of the noted abilities.

That said, here is what I’m considering:

I should note that I wouldn’t normally take an ability that limits pushback when casting as part of a PvE build, but Subversion snuck in that Force regeneration component, so I had to tag it.

At this point, I am leaning towards the PvE build; we’ll see if I stick with it. After next weekend’s BETA test, I’ll have a better handle on if the lightning tree’s initial abilities work well for leveling, or if I need to go with the PvP talents instead.

As you are poking through the talent calculators, it’s likely you will start wondering what some of the listed abilities *are* exactly. Luckily, crewskills.net has a nice overview post that include a list of the primary stats for each class. For Inquisitors, that would be Willpower, which affects our Force damage. And of the secondary stats, most seem pretty self explanatory, but I had to look up Alacrity, which turns out to be spell haste, which means it’s my new favorite secondary stat.

What builds are you considering? And what sites are you finding to have the best theorycrafting around talent builds?

On the Hunt for SWTOR Companion Pets

20 Sunday Nov 2011

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storm trooper

I’m a huge fan of in-game companion pets. My two primary World of Warcraft characters had over 150 vanity pets each. So although I’m not the hardest of the hardcore pet collectors, I’m pretty respectable. Thus, I’m already starting to think about SWTOR vanity pets.

So far, the only highly publicized pet has been the mouse droid [POST PUBLISH UPDATE: mouse droid is now more available via the Security Vendors, and the special CE pet became the Minimech CE] that comes with the Collector’s Edition (which, alas, is not the version I preordered, due to the price.) But with some poking around, I found a few more. Here’s the list thus far:

Actually seen in Live or Announced by Bioware

  • Crimson Rakling
    Attainable after gathering 12 Stardream Fragments on Tatooine. Dulfy has a comprehensive guide for how to get the quest that leads you to this scavenger hunt. NOTE: now that the Rakghoul Plague has been contained, this pet is no longer available.
  • Hutt Observer Probe Droid
    Purchased from the CE/Digital special edition vendor for 25,000c.
  • Interrogation Droid
    Purchased for 25,000c from the dark side vendor in your capital city or on the fleet, provided you have the required dark side level III.
  • Legacy Tauntaun Ram.
    To receive your in-game Legacy Tauntaun Ram (folks received them in game starting April 25), your account must have met the following criteria by April 12, 2012 , 12:00PM CDT, 5:00PM GMT or April 21, 2012, 12:00PM CDT, 5:00PM GMT:

    • You must have purchased the game and redeemed an official Game Product Registration Code at the Code Redemption Center.
    • You must have signed up for a recurring subscription using a valid payment method OR redeemed a Game Time Code.
    • Your account must not be banned.
  • Little Sandcrawler
    Purchased for 25,000c from the light side vendor in your capital city or on the fleet, provided you have the required light side level III.
  • Midnight Rakling
    Drops off Hard Mode Lost Island’s final boss.
  • Minimech CE
    This pet is available exclusively as part of the Collector’s Edition.
  • M0-GUL Thrall Droid
    Drops off Karagga, the final boss in the Karagga’s Palace Operation. Thanks to the commenter who left  a note on this!
  • Mouse Droid
    Purchased from security vendors for 25,000c. To access that vendor, you must purchase a security authenticator.
  • Orobirds (was Red Wattled Orobird).
    First, you need an egg:
    1) Unusual Eggs (which hatch into Orokeets) seem to be on a 4 or 8-hour spawn timer (seeing differing accounts) and can be found on Alderaan at: 1) X: 1930, Y: -1451 2) X: 168, Y: 1836 3) X: 181, Y: 135 in Alsakan Lowlands under the broken bridge (NOTE: saw some forum comments that this one had been removed).
    2) You may also obtain an egg (Mysterious Egg) from the final boss in the patch’s new Flashpoint, Lost Isles, if completed on Hard Mode. The Mysterious Eggs hatch into the Orosquab.
    3) The Wonderous Egg, which hatches into the Orochick, may be obtained from Warlord Kephess in Explosive Conflict when completed on Hard Mode.After obtaining an egg, per crystal-dreams (and confirmed by @Moramoth, who gave us the screenie of the nest you see above, which was at the first coordinates), you can hatch the egg by following these steps:
    1.  On Tatooine go to the Jundland area and look for water towers. You are searching for ones that have a blue “Water Access Panel” in the base. Note that if you are lucky you may find one immediately, but you can take up to 30min to get one if others in the area are on the hunt.
    2. After you have the buff from the panel, head to the Czerka Archaeological Site and look for a grouping of solar panels facing inward on itself.
    3.  Stand inside the solar panel area until your egg hatches.
    4. Once egg hatches you will receive an Orokeet. Run out and enjoy your new pet!
  • Pale Rakling
    Purchased from Jeelvic in the Dune Sea (X:-896, Y:-925) for 60 DNA Samples. The DNA smaples are available as of 4/15/2012 as part of the Tatooine dailies as part of the Rakghoul plague outbreak. To start the dailies, ghead to the Stardream Daily Area at the North of the Dune Sea area. Head to Outpost Thorazan (Republic) NOTE: now that the Rakghoul Plague has been contained, this pet is no longer available.
  • Taun Fawn. This little guy is obtainable through special item codes that Bioware has given out at the PAX East conference, and via a few fansites thus far. Here’s a screenshot of him hanging out with my Sorcerer:
  • Taunlet
    The Hoth mystery has been solved! See this posting on the forums for either hints on solving for yourself, or the full details.
  • Taunling
    Obtained from the Exotic Animal Crate that drops from killing Gargath on Hoth. Torhead comments say he is 4-mannable by 50s.
  • Taunta
    Purchased for 200,000c from the VIP CE vendor on the fleet.
  • The Czerka Eye
    Requires Social Level VII. Purchased Empire side on Hoth from social items vendor Grady for 25,000 credits.

Seen in BETA, on PTS or in Databases but not confirmed in Live

  • Astromech Droid
    Another pet seen in the BETA but not implemented in live. Fondly remembered for being able to be attacked in PvP, yet being indestructible.
  • L2-P2’s Call Signal
    Purchased from the Stims vendors Fossum and Kanzo on Coruscant for 25,000c. UPDATE: have not confirmed this gy has been purchasable in live.
  • Lawgriffarl
    Purchased from the PvP items vendor (near the PvP dailies/weeklies terminal on the fleet) with 1000 Ranked and 2000 Unranked Warzone Commendations. Note: also requires valor rank 70. Not in the item DBs yet but on vendor on PTS 1.3.
  •  Lobelisk
    Purchased from the PvP items vendor (near the PvP dailies/weeklies terminal on the fleet) with 1000 Ranked and 2000 Unranked Warzone Commendations. Note: also requires valor rank 70. Not in the item DBs yet but on vendor on PTS 1.3.
  • Lil’ Probey’s Codec
    Requires Social Level I or higher. Purchased from Drumond Kaas stims vendor Fotastel for 25,000c. UPDATE: this vendor is MIA in live.
  • Smelly the Tauntaun, summonable via Fresh Cryomoss — item dropped off random mobs on Voss during the BETA.
  • Torchy a.k.a. T0R-CE Mk 7
    The name would suggest this guy was available as part of the Collector’s Edition, but as commenters note that did not pan out.
  • Tynock

What other vanity pets have you spotted as you’ve been poking around on the database sites or in the BETA? Let me know so I can add them to the list!

Happy Collecting!

NOTE: Post Updated 6/7 for Patch 1.3 on the PTS

SWTOR NDA Lifted: Avalanche of BETA Information Incoming!

19 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in BETA, official announcements

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Earlier this week, when the big BETA stress test weekend was confirmed as being November 25-28, A number of folks cross the twittersphere started hypothesizing that would also entail the NDA being lifted. But I don’t think any of us expected it to happen so soon. But it did — Friday, the SWTOR NDA was lifted, and thus started an avalanche of Star Wars: the Old Republic news across the blogosphere.

I’m still poking around amongst all the fansites that were part of the #SWTOUR earlier this month, and checking out the newly populated DB and WIKI sites, so for now, here are the highlights from the official information released over the past 48 hours:

  • Spoiler forum launched.
    This news caused me to bust out in a big grin because avoiding unwanted spoilers has been a hard task over the past few years. Between general chat spammers oversharing, twitter folks casually spilling the beans, or the developers tossing up a fountain that puts a cinematic you wanted to save all up in your screen, it’s been a real struggle to keep from getting TMI about content I have yet to finish. Although this won’t take care of it in other venues, I love that they are creating this subdivision for their official forums.
  • Legacy System announced.
    Not only will you be able to choose a last name for your character, that name will be used across all your characters on a server, uniting them under a familial name. Per the official forums “any and all characters on that server will now contribute to that player’s Legacy Experience Points. Much like normal experience points, when you reach certain Legacy thresholds, you will increase your Legacy Level.” These legacy points will at a later date translate to rewards or achievements of some sort, thus giving you the ability to have bragging rights for goals accomplished all of your characters, versus having an altaholics achievements tax.

BETA invites for everyone!

12 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in BETA, video

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You have been selected to test Star Wars: the Old Republic

SWTOR BETA invite

Like a million and a half others who signed up to test Star Wars: the Old Republic, I did a little happy dance when I received the BETA invite email. Turns out, they’re inviting all comers to help out in a nice big pre-launch stress test BETA weekend in the next few weeks.  Of course, I was really hoping to have gotten an invitation for this weekend, but c’est la vie.

I’m looking forward to getting a sneaky peek at the game this way, before the early access kicks in.

In other news, I couldn’t resist picking up the Star Wars The Old Republic Hardcover Atlas: Prima Official Game Guide via Amazon, to be released w/release day delivery on 12/20. I had the World of Warcraft game atlas when I started playing WoW back in the day, and found it to be an invaluable reference. Yes, I am sure that given the many blogs and Wikis and fansites out there, soon enough all of its information will be spread across the Internet for free, but there is something awesome about having a game world atlas to reference.

Until next time, I leave you with the Inquisitor vs. Trooper video. Not to spoil it for you, but the Inquisitor wins, of course. And I’m not just saying that because I like to shoot purple lightning out of my hands…

November Fansite Tour Highlights

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in previews, video

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While most of us Star Wars: the Old Republic fans were sitting at home watching the Imperial Agent (not Smuggler as pre coffee me wrote) progression video you see at the top of the page, a number of lucky fansite publishers were packing for a trip to Austin for Bioware’s second SWTOUR fansite tour.

Thanks to Darth Hater’s SWTOUR link roundup, I was able to live vicariously through these other bloggers, and gleaned a few interesting tidbits on PvP (which seems to have been the current content sharing focus):

  • Guild versus Guild operations are limited to 24 players. But it seems that # may not be set in stone.
  • In unbalanced open world PvP zones, such as 100v20, the smaller group will receive some sort of buff to assist them.
  • Warzones are always 8v8, and pull from your own server, and you can not go in with a full premade team.
  • Operations (raids) are expected to take about 3 hours.

The TORWARS team has a couple of videos from the fansite event, including this CE unboxing. It’s a good thing I can’t upgrade to a CE without losing my spot in the early access line… Enjoy!

We’re Entering the Final SWTOR Stretch — the Wait is Nearly Over!

04 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in guilds, official announcements

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As I keep telling folks, Star Wars: the Old Republic launches next month. Next month. Can you believe it? I mentioned that to someone who was on the fence about if they were planning to play at launch or wait until there was a free trial they could dip into risk-free, and I got that giddy “it’s almost Christmas” feeling again.

The movement of Guilds into Phase 3 only amplifies that we are in the home stretch of the game. At this point, guilds that have four members who have pre-ordered the game and redeemed their Pre-Order Code at the Code Redemption Center. I am pretty sure our guild met that requirement a few dozen times over… 🙂

Have you decided on your guild yet? Are you ready for launch?

Clever SWTOR Guild Names

23 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in guilds

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Every so often, as you are traveling about in a game world, you come upon a guild name that makes you giggle, or even laugh out loud. Inevitably, if I am able to quickly stop and do so, I tweet out the cool guild name and then go about my business. But since tweets are ephemeral, I thought why not start a running list of all the cool/funny/awesome Star Wars: the Old Republic Guild Names I come across?

This will be that running list. Please feel free to share the guild names you spot in the comments, and keep this list growing!

Republic

  • Bantha Poodoo
  • Blue Shirt Mafia
  • Corellian Coalition
  • Curb Your Imperialism
  • Ewok Dance Studio
  • Ewok Massage Parlor
  • Jawas Ate My Baby
  • Jawa Insurance Co
  • Jedi Meme Tricks
  • Love in Alderaan Places
  • Merely a Setback
  • Mos Eisley Cantina Crew
  • No Sleep Till Kessel
  • Pigs in Space
  • Sith Happens
  • Starfleet Dental*
  • The Antarian Rangers
  • The Snark Side
  • There is no Try
  • We Ain’t Found Sith
  • Wookie Love Machines
  • Wookiee Tango Foxtrot

Empire

  • Accurate Sand People
  • Aliens Ate My Lightsaber
  • Boba Fetish
  • Dead Rebel Society
  • Death Star Vent Designers
  • Dukes of Durasteel
  • Ewokalypse Now
  • Hoth Beach Club
  • Imperial Margarine
  • Incurable Sithilis
  • Intergalactic Planetary
  • IT IS KNOWN
  • It’s a Trap
  • It’s Getting Hoth in Here
  • Jawa Trading Co
  • Juicy KOTOR
  • Lazy Peon Tavern
  • Let the Wookie Win
  • My Wookie Steak is Chewy
  • No Country for Old Ben
  • OldSpice for Wookies
  • Pew pew lazerguns
  • Pirates of the Korriban
  • Pretty Pink Pwnies
  • Sector Forty Seven
  • Sith and Twisted
  • Sith Out of Luck
  • Son of a Bith
  • Super Silly Sith Squad
  • The One Percent
  • The Spice Must Flow
  • Utini
  • Wookie Cookies
  • Wookie Crisps

As an aside, it’s interesting to see how many guild names are Game of Thrones references…

* A guild moving on to SWTOR from STO. I suspect we’ll see a number of World of Warcraft Guilds that pack up their guilds, moniker and all, for playing Star Wars the Old Republic.

Tantalizing SWTOR Tidbits from New York Comic Con (NYCC)

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in Comic Con, previews, video

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We’re starting to get spoiled as far as Star Wars: the Old Republic news goes these days. We kicked off the weekend with the above “Signs of War” video and a new Operations overview added to the Game Systems page on the community site, and then all the NYCC SWTOR coverage started to kick in!

Live coverage of the Main Panel and the Q&A panel was shared via:

Here are some of the prime info nuggets I saw thanks to the many intrepid live bloggers/tweeters…

Modification System
As the game currently stands, you can modify a high % of items. Lets you keep old stuff longer, especially iconic anesthetic armor. Keep your favorite look. High level mods difficult to get. More details later, mods and how they work are still being worked on to make it less complex.

Morality and How Romance Can Affect Dark/Light Side Affinity
Q: Is romance a problem with the Jedi Knight?
A: Erickson: Choices have to be hard. If you’re dark side, your commitment will be tested. A huge amount of Jedi fall to dark side because of romance. Three levers influence morality – social pressure, companions, your morals.

Sith Pureblood Inquisitor confirmed as a race/class combo.

Contract, Please!
Voice actors locked into long term contracts, will not change. Why is this a big deal? If you were a vanilla WoW horde player, and had to eventually live through the WotLK transformation of Lady Sylvanas from strong leader to bubbly cheerleader due to a change in voice actor, you will understand.

15 Flashpoints Available at Launch
Devs state there will always be a Flashpoint available to you as you move through the leveling experience. And promise more details at launch. Conflicting reports as to max level versions of flashpoints available to you at max level (level 50.)

Can Shuttle to Other Origin Worlds
If you and your buddies choose different races, it is possible to take a shuttle to another origin world after a short time of playing (30 mins) to help them quest. Thus no need to agree on starting race combos in order to play together.

Have You Started Planning Your #SWTOR Alts Yet?

11 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in alts, poll

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So far, I’ve definitely identified a couple of classes I want to play through after my Inquisitor hits max level. And I am definitely one of those alt people who likes to have a self-contained crafting army of her own, so I inevitably continue to level up alts until I feel I have all my necessary crafting bases covered.

As of right now, I am thinking I’ll want to level a Jedi Consular and a Bounty Hunter (because I want my own Jawa companion). The rest remain to be seen, since I haven’t actively delved into all the classes yet.

Right now, while we’re playing the waiting game, it’s fun to sit and imagine our bright and shiny alt future…what are you thinking you’ll be doing alt-wise?