Tag Archives: Star Wars: The Old Republic

A Sith Inquisitor is Born

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by in leveling, screenshots

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Anexxia, Sith Inquisitor, Relaxing Upon the Imperial FleetI woke up this morning to find the most pleasant of emails in my inbox: my invitation to the Star Wars: the Old Republic early game access. I’d preordered the first week the game was available but had not realized I needed to add my code to my account details on the website until almost two weeks later. So I was crossing my fingers I would get in today.

I jumped online and created Anexxia, my Sith Inquisitor, and marveled at how many guildies we already had online (36 or so at once during our peak today.) My SO hopped on his Sith Inquisitor and we spent the better part of the day questing our way through the origin world, including grouping with my new guildies, and getting to learn our way around the finer points of Sith (in)civility. And I loved almost every minute of it.

So let me get my gripes out of the way:

Gripe #1: As per my BETA experience, Bootcamp and SWTOR do not like my Apple bluetooth keyboard. I had to change it out for another keyboard before I could do even my first quest. This bums me out quite a bit since I love my regular old Mac keyboard. But I am grateful my SO anticipated this happening and ordered a spare keyboard I could use.

Gripe #2: for the first time in my gaming life, I had to ratchet down all my graphics settings in order to play. I was horrified that my iMac, which could even allow me to raid with gorgeous graphics settings, was choking on SWTOR’s graphics. I ended up ratcheting down the resolution and turning of shadow to give me the level of FPS I am used to.

Those technical annoyances aside, my trek to level 11 today was a fun one. My surly companion Khem Val has already started to grow on me. He’s moved beyond threatening me with dismemberment to threatening to eat others in my vicinity. I appreciate that in a companion.

First and foremost, today has been all about the lightning. The beautiful, sparkly, shimmering purpley lightning to be exact. As soon as I hit level 10 and spec’d into the sorcerer advanced class, I tossed those pesky light saber attacks aside and filled my action bar with more delicious force lightning attacks. Considering how much of my WoW game life I spent as a shadow priest or on my elemental shaman, it’s no surprise I have such a strong kinship to the purple lightning. But enough about the purple lightning.

I found the inquisitor class story to be incredibly compelling, and overall being an excellent path to easy dark side points. With the exception of one tricky quest whereby your taking someone’s money, then sabotaging their quest for someone else actually earns you light side points of all horrid things. And in case you are unclear as to how this Inquisitor feels about light side points, ask my guildies about the hypothetical diseased orphans. That’s all.

My first flashpoint, Black Talon, was made up of 3 guildies and myself. And all of us were intent upon trying to out evil each other in our replies to the quest text. It was delicious. We tore through the instance quickly, and were amused when our guildie Irish somehow ended up with a bag full of loot only he could have used at the end of the run. The RNG, my old nemesis!

The lack of luck with the dropped loot encouraged me to work a bit on my professions. Unlike my BETA experience, I didn’t find any archaeology nodes to mine while out questing today, and none in the instance either. Though I must note I found about 4 chests in the flashpoint. So I had to spend much of my questing earnings on sending my companion on archaeology quests in between my synthweaving crafting sessions. I ended the day’s playing with synthweaving at 56, which isn’t too shabby. And I was able to make myself a couple of greens. No blues mind you b/c those Underworld Trading cloth reward quests kept failing on me. *shakes her tiny sith fist in the air*

Tomorrow, I shall work towards obtaining my ship, and continuing through my class storyline, and exploring the new world that lies before me. It’s hard to believe that after all this anticipation, the game is finally here, and I’m actually playing it, with a character I get to keep!

And last but not least, last night Amazon gave a shipping update for all of us who preordered through them: the game will be shipping in time for us to have it in hand by the 19th at the latest, so we will not be waiting around on release day for our product codes, itching to play. Love how this is all coming together.

I can’t wait to start hearing from all the other folks I know who have not yet gotten in to the EGA to hear how their first days go– I hope everyone has as smooth of a start as I’ve had. Once I get farther in to the story, and come up for air, stay tuned for some guides and other content to help make the most of the first few levels of getting situated in game.

cheers!

Reflections on a SWTOR BETA Weekend, Pt. 2: Professions

12 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in BETA, companions, crew skills, screenshots

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spaceshipI had 2 big goals for my BETA time, in addition to just getting a feel for caster game play and gaining familiarity with companions as party members: 1) to see how far I could get with leveling my professions, and 2) to earn my spaceship. Happily, despite having to work for half the BETA weekend, I was able to make great progress against these goals.

As soon as you complete the first portion of your class quest, and get sent off to the Fleet, at level 10 or so, you are able to start training your professions. Special note: if you go ahead and talk to all the trainers as soon as you arrive at the fleet (only accepting those skills you actually want to train, mind you), you can earn a nice chunk of experience. There is a great visual that shows the best skills to pair with each other to maximize your leveling ability. You may only train a total of 3 crew skills per character, which may be any combination of gathering skills, a maximum of 1 crafting skill, and mission skills. I went with Synthweaving, Archaeology, and Underworld Trading.

Crafting Skill: Synthweaving

In other games, I’ve often taken up tailoring, so it was no surprise that I chose to go with Synthweaving for my cloth wearing caster. I like having the ability to craft gear upgrades for myself, and have typically found the rare or better crafted gear to sell pretty well, especially in the early days of a game/expansion.

I ended my BETA time with a skill of 160 or so in Synthweaving (I had an annoying keyboard not recognized problem as I was wrapping up my BETA time and neglected to write down my final #.) I was able to easily finance this leveling, at level 16, through selling a few world drop items, and making 6 blue quality belts and gloves, which I put on the auction house for 1200-1500 credits. Despite buying a few rare quality cloths from the auction house in order to do this crafting, I ended up with 8500 credits at the end of my professions leveling spree.

My primary tip is to reverse engineer every green quality item you make that you do not need for yourself or your companion. I found that I usually got 1-2 power crystals back for every item reverse engineered at the lower levels, which came in handy. I always made the most inexpensive item that was available to craft, but that had not yet been greyed out (once a pattern is in grey text in your skill window, it will no longer give you a skill point for crafting it.)

I also suggest making a blue quality item that will give you skill points whenever you have the special materials on hand that are required. You can obtain those special materials from some of your more expensive Archaeology and Underworld Trading missions, however, you will soon run into Fibrous Nylite Solution, which is an item you can purchase from any Crew Skill Trade Vendor, as is Thermoionic Gel Suspension.

Gathering Skill: Archaeology

One of the nice things about Archaeology, is once you get out into the world after level 10, you should be seeing crystal nodes as you go about your everyday questing. Although I did spend a good chunk of time sending my companions out on Archaeology missions to get up to 100 or so in skill, I also raked in a ton of power crystals as I walked around completing quests.

You are able to send your companion out to complete archaeology missions whenever you’d like. I personally kept my companion at my side for questing, so I could more effectively handle large packs and heroic quests by myself. But whenever I was zooming back to a capital city, I sent him off on an errand. Who knew bossing around my minions would be so much fun? Ahem. I mean, it was a very rewarding bonding experience to allow my companion to do my bidding. Oh nevermind– I think you are already seeing why I am going Sith.

There are two key factors that will help you decide which missions to send your companion out on — the cost and the potential end result. The cost to send my companion out on the mission started at 95 credits, and topped out at 295 credits. You receive new missions to send your companion on as you increase your character’s level, starting with 4 missions available to you at level 10. I found that I eventually had an archaeology skill level above the level of items available to me for completing the missions, but that was only due to some serious focus on profession leveling.

The third factor to influence what mission you send your companion on is what the potential reward will be. A few examples of how entry level quest yields are described:

  • Moderate Yield: Grade 1 Color Crystals
  • Moderate Yield: Grade 1 Power Crystals
  • Bountiful Yield: Grade 1 Artifact Fragments

Moderate yield missions can result in a return of 1 or 2 items upon completion. Bountiful yield quests were often 3-4 items in total. But it is important to note that on occasion, my companion would come back empty handed, especially when sent out on a bountiful yield (and more expensive I might add) quest.

Mission Skill: Underworld Trading

Underworld Trading was the more vexing of all the crew skills for me. Mission times started out being relatively short (3 minutes) and increased to 6 minutes over my small leveling journey. Now before you say “Aw, Anexxia, you are just too impatient!” let me remind you that these quests can fail. And somehow, it seemed it was always the 275 credit 6 minute quest that would fail.

In the BETA stress test weekend, quests would note that they could result in either Underworld Metals  or Grade 1 Luxury Fabrics. Under that design, I found I most often ended up with metals, and had to buy my cloth from the auction house. I believe the last minute professions fine tuning has broken the rewards down to separate them out, which will be helpful for maximizing your mission time and credits to enable you to obtain the raw materials you want for crafting your preferred items.

Due to the longer amount of time and greater credit cost per mission (starting at 95 but quickly headed into the 200s), this was the skill I got the least far (only mid 40s.) I have a feeling I’ll end up falling a little behind on this one as I level, but the upside is I think there will be a good auction house market for the cloth and metals if I don’t need to put them to use in my synthweaving.

Final Impressions on Professions

Overall, I found the professions to be easy enough to level, and without breaking the bank. I didn’t make my 10k credit goal (I wanted to buy a sandcrawler vanity pet from the lightside vendor), but I made a serious dent in my synthweaving leveling and made myself and my companion a few nice pieces. I think a lot of folks will be tempted to skip over the professions leveling in a mad rush to get to max level, but I would caution against that. You will not want to be sitting around in a capital city just sending your crew on missions, as a huge money sink, making items you can’t use at max level. In the long run, it’s a lot more efficient — and personally rewarding– to add the crew skills missions into your daily pace. And if you happen to be working from home and on a conference call, which prohibits you from actually being out and about completing quests with your character, crew skills leveling is a great multitasking activity. but don’t tell your boss I said so…

See you in the game soon!

dancing fools

SWTOR Early Access Now Starts 12/13, However, YOUR Early Access May Not…

08 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in official announcements

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SWTOR Early Access emailTwitter lit up like a Christmas tree yesterday as folks started receiving the above email prompting them to download the Star Wars: the Old Republic client to be ready for early access. Unfortunately a lot of folks were confused about the email’s content, interpreting the announcement that early access now starts on December 13 as meaning they were now confirmed for December 13 early access.

But close reading of this email, and follow-up comments online from SWTOR staff notes that you will be receiving an email invitation on the day that early access is available to you. The email we all received yesterday is just to prompt you to be ready “to play when your Early Game Access invitation arrives.”

Before you start shaking your pitchforks in Bioware’s general direction, stop and give this some consideration: much like with the BETA stress test, they are looking to have smooth onboarding experiences for all the pre-ordered players. By adjusting the flow of early access invitations on a daily basis, they can moderate the flow of new players into the game, and hopefully minimize queues and server downtime. Yes, we’re all salivating and ready for this game to come out already, but can you imagine how upset everyone would be if we all got early game access on the 13th and had day long login queues, servers with unplayable lag, and crashed the forums?

For more details around Early Game Access, check out www.swtor.com/early-access

As folks were digesting Early Game Access starting two days earlier than expected, we were also hit with a number of updates around the transition from Early Game Access to launch:

  • No grace period. Once the early access closes 10 p.m. ET on 12/19, you may not play the game again until you have your game code in hand and enter it into your profile on swtor.com.
  • Earlier European release. EU folks can pick up SWTOR in their local retailers starting on 12/15. Quite a change from them initially getting SWTOR a few days post North American launch!
  • Origin orders also earlier than expected. Digital orders for #SWTOR from http://Origin.com will be emailed Game Codes starting December 16, 2011.

Personally, I ordered the regular old SWTOR pre-order, with game day delivery from Amazon. I hope that unlike my Wrath of the Lich King pre-order, the SWTOR box will arrive before 8 p.m. on launch day. *crosses fingers* If I’d known that Origin orders would be able to validate their accounts early, I would have definitely gone that route. I’ll definitely keep that in mind for future game expansions, should I again decide to not pony up the cash for the CE.

TL&DR: In less than a week, you and/or your friends are going to start playing Star Wars the Old Republic!

Reflections on a SWTOR BETA Weekend, Pt. 1: Leveling

02 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by in BETA, crew skills, screenshots, space combat, spaceship

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SWTOR BETA weekend screenshot

Like many of the gamer folks I know through twitter and the blogosphere, I participated in Bioware’s Star Wars: the Old Republic BETA weekend stress test over the long Thanksgiving weekend. The TL&DR Version? I absolutely loved it and only had a few, minor hiccups.

Choosing a Class to Test

I wanted to get a feel for what it would be like playing my Sith Inquisitor to be, but didn’t want to spoil the story for myself on a character I’d have to give up. Thus, I chose a Jedi Consular (Sage talents once she could specialize), who you can see in the above screenshot. Although I did my first level or two by myself, I was soon joined by my SO on a Jedi Knight, so we could check out the effects of grouping on leveling.

I’d decided pre-BETA that I wanted to focus my time on just 1 character, versus trying out a number of them, since you don’t get a true feel for the class characteristics until you hit level 10. I hoped to be able to make a significant dent in a profession or two, and to get to experience space travel. I was able to accomplish those goals pretty easily, despite working for 2 of the 4 days of testing.

Leveling Together as an Advantage

My SO and I have leveled together in World of Warcraft a number of times over the years, and more recently, leveling from the starting areas onward in Aion, Rift, and LoTRO. Inevitably, leveling together would end up feeling a little frustrating, with our having to kill twice as many mobs for quests in order to get the required number of quest items, one or the other of us running off to complete a class specific quest or a non-shareable quest we thought the other of us had also grabbed, etc.

It was thus a pleasant surprise to see that leveling together in SWTOR was actually an ADVANTAGE. Having an omnipresent second party member meant we were able to easily tackle the heroic quests/bosses we came upon in our questing travels. Once we both had our companions and got to Coruscant, we decided to 2-man the Esseles flashpoint. In retrospect, this was probably the smartest thing to have done at level 10, as it allowed me to really spend some time thinking about how to maximize use of my companion, and my crowd control skills. Other than my falling through the floor at one point, and dying on our first attempt on the first boss due to a lack of a healer (I later filled in on that role) it went pretty smoothly.

Other leveling pluses included being able to Holocron in for NPC conversations when one of us found a quest giver, versus having to wait for a slow runner to catch up, and getting to peek in on another class’ class storyline events as a guest.

How Can 3 Hours Have Gone Past?

I think my biggest surprise as we went through the leveling was how engrossing the story was. Hours would pass as I went through my class storyline and other starting quests, without feeling like it was taking a long time to progress.

This was due in large part to the participatory dialogues with the quest givers, but also with the way the questing itself was organized. For instance, when I would be out in the world on a specific quest, I would inevitably kill a mob or three on my way there. Often, these collateral kills would result in a “bonus objective” of killing X number of said creatures. If I was feeling particularly like smacking them around, I would complete that side quest before returning to my objective. But if I was especially intent on what I came out there to do, I just continued upon my original path, and once I completed the quest I came out there to do, the side quest would come off my quest list. Not having to manually go in and clean up quests in areas I was done exploring was a nice touch.

Once we hit level 10, my SO and I split up on our testing objectives (he went on to level up a total of 3 characters past level 10, to test out PvP on all of them.) I continued on in the hopes of getting a good feel for crafting leveling and with the goal of getting my spaceship, which you can see from the below screenshot, I accomplished.

Bug Report

As a Mac user who has to use Bootcamp in order to play SWTOR, I was crossing my fingers that there wouldn’t be too many glitches to report. And overall, until the end of testing, there were relatively few issues I encountered, and most of them minor. Those included:

  • All my screenshots were black. I put in a ticket on this but did not get a suggested fix. Once I thought to ask twitter, however, I was able to resolve that issue by unchecking the Exclusive Full Screen mode in the graphics options.
  • Unfortunately, unchecking Exclusive Full Screen mode in the graphics options meant I could no longer minimize the game. It also coincided with the game deciding to no longer recognize my Mac bluetooth keyboard. Having my keyboard flit in and out of usefulness is actually what put a stop to my BETA testing on Monday. After a lond day at work the last thing I wanted to do at home was fight with the computer over recognizing my keyboard.
  • When crafting, the list of required materials for a recipe would sometimes…blank itself out.
  • Mail in the mailbox seemed to often take 15-30 seconds and a number of clicks to open.

I had one crash to desktop, one server restart but no queues for login over the 4-day period. Not bad for a BETA test.

It's my ship and I'll fly if I want to...

It's my ship and I'll fly if I want to...

Next up: an overview of my crafting experience, space combat, and my search for vanity pets.

SWTOR Professions: What to Choose for My First Character?

24 Thursday Nov 2011

Posted by in crew skills

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Crafting is always one of my key motivators when leveling a character. I get excited about finding or training new recipes, and improving my character as a result of my crafting profession. And over my years of playing World of Warcraft, with my and my SO’s army of alts, I’ve gotten really used to having all my crafting needs covered in-house. But, since you can only pick a total of 3 skills (across Gathering, Crafting and Mission Skills) for your crew to take on, it will be quite a while before that’s the case for me in the Old Republic. Which means deciding what profession to pick up first takes on some significant weight.

The Crafting choices:

  • Armormech, working with hard metals and electronic shielding to construct all types of personal armor (for non Force users)
  • Armstech, constructing blasters, blaster rifles and upgrades.
  • Artifice, constructing Jedi and Sith artifacts, including crystals to change your lightsaber’s color, and item enhancements.
  • Biochem, engineering of performance-enhancing chemical serums and biological implants.
  • Cybertech, constructing gadgets and components for Droids and high-tech armors, including earpieces and armor upgrades.
  • Synthweaving, creating lighter outfits and armors that are imbued with supernatural qualities, for Force users.

The Gathering choices:

  • Archaeology, the ability to seek out imbued items like Lightsaber crystals and ancient artifacts
  • Bioanalysis, the practice of collecting genetic material from creatures and plants
  • Scavenging, the art of recovering useful materials and parts from old or damaged technology
  • Slicing, a skill in accessing secured computer systems and lockboxes to acquire valuable data and rare schematics

The Mission Skills choices:

  • Diplomacy, conducting and managing negotiations
  • Investigation, examining evidence and following clues to discover valuable secrets
  • Treasure Hunting, recovering valuable items by investigating a series of clues
  • Underworld Trading, trading in illegal goods and services

You are limited to a total of 3 Crew Skills, with only 1 allowed to be a crafting skill. For this reason, I am thinking I’ll go with Aracheology, Synthweaving and Diplomacy Underworld Trading on my Inquisitor. I always like being able to make myself (and my friends) good quality gear at max level. Both of my max level shadow priests in World of Warcraft are tailors, so I am used to the cloth grind and the money sink. Thankfully, through reverse engineering of my completed goods, anything I don’t end up wearing can be ripped apart to recover at least some of the materials it took to make it.

My SO is thinking of going with Artifice for his first crafting skill, which makes me happy. I hope to see a purple lightsaber crystal in my near future…

I’ll be participating in the BETA testing this weekend, and hope to actually have a stable enough server to get a character up to the 8-10 range so I’ll make it to a town with profession trainers to get my first hands-on look at the professions.

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

Posted by in pets

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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…