Home of the SWTOR Tip of the Day
Bioware confirmed that a new PvP warzone, Ancient Hypergates will be playable at GameCom 2012. There is also a press conference scheduled on August 14 that will detail some new information on SWTOR.
As always, BloggingTOR does not plan on carrying the press conference live, but may comment as appropriate.
Want to make an easy 320,000 credits? Sure you do. With the new 1.3 patch, you can obtain a quest that rewards you with 320,000 credits and takes seconds to complete. What’s the catch? You don’t have to care about recruit PvP armor.
Here’s how the quest works. Head toward the PvP quest terminal on the fleet and accept the New Technology quest. Once you have the quest, go to the PvP Bounty Board (right next to the PvP quest terminal) and complete the quest. Select the Recruit Credit Redemption Token as your reward. This token is worth 320,000 credits. You can then sell this token to any vendor for face value.
The intent of this quest is to give you a free set of recruit (basic) level 50 PvP armor with some expertise on it. If you don’t plan on using it, or already have better PvP gear, take the credits and run.
Ah, PVP. A sport that truly separates the Sith from the Smugglers. But how does one acquire those elusive MVP votes, guaranteeing you fame, fortune and glory (at least for 30 seconds after the match is over)? While nothing is guaranteed, especially since these are actual people voting, here are a few things you can do to increase the likelihood that a few votes will be passed your way.
Communicate. If your OPS leader, hasn’t given a gameplan, suggest one. Tell two people to go left and the rest mid in the Novare Coast. Tell stealth to go right in the Voidstar. Remind people to setup for passes in Huttball. If you have a moment, commend someone in chat for a nice save at a turret or for scoring a goal in Huttball. The key here is to establish a presence of leadership. Don’t hound people or chastise them for not following your directions. People tend to flock toward leadership. Even if your plan turns out to be a bad one and your team loses, you may be rewarded with a few MVP points for giving it the old college try.
Heal. If you are a healer, use your Wonder-Twin powers (YouTube link for anyone under 25) to heal others. I know that I personally have a soft spot for healers in PvP. There have been so many times that I know that I would have died if not for some timely and powerful healz. So, when I’m voting for MVP and it is a close choice, I look for who has more heal points as the tiebreaker.
Sacrifice. Sometimes, other will reward noble sacrifice. Run head first into a group of three that is about to plant a bomb in the Voidstar. You may disrupt them just long enough for the rest of your team to get to the door and take them out. Stun someone just before you are about to die. Fire off one last heal before you are split in two by a lightsaber (make sure you yell “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! right before that happens. Chicks dig it.) Someone may remember your selfless play and vote you the MVP.
Don’t Beg. If you promote yourself in chat when the match ends by either telling me how awesome you are or how it is absolutely NOT your fault that the team lost and that I should give you a vote for MVP every singe time I have you on my team from now until I cancel my subscription, I am most certainly going to do the opposite. I will also not send you a Christmas card and sign your children’s children’s children up for the Nickelback Fan Club.
Most people give MVP points to the person with the highest medals at the end of a match. However, veteran PvPers carefully choose their award. Following a few of these tips may help you win a few extra votes.
I’m having too much fun playing PvP as a Sith assassin. (In fact, PvP is the only reason why I renewed my subscription for another month.) After playing my fair share of warzones (and waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much Huttball), I’d like to share what I’ve learned with all ten of my regular readers. Perhaps they will spread the word to others looking to jump into PvP and get all stealthy assassiny:
Here is a listing of all the medals you can earn in a PVP warzone:
I’m sure that during a PvP warzone, you’ve seen the Unbeatable! announcements. How does one get one of those announcements? They have to get a certain number of medals without dying. Here is the breakdown:
In my experience, once you get the Unbeatable announcement, it becomes an automatic invitation for the gank squad to come hunt you down. It is a welcome challenge, however and hopefully I will be able to get invincible and immortal one day.
Wondering what to spend your warzone commendations on between levels 20 and 40? A quick survey of the PVP items vendor on the fleet doesn’t give much outside of a few stims and lock boxes.
I found that you should spend your commendations on gear, if not for you, then for your companions. Don’t be afraid to take a chance on a couple of lock boxes too, but you will get the most bang for your buck by buying gear, until you qualify for the next PVP set.
Since update 1.2, the Bioware devs have stated that expertise is the single most important stat in PvP gear:
“Having zero or little expertise on your gear (e.g. pure PvE gear) is the primary reason for people to experience a sped-up time to death in Game Update 1.2. While it was quite viable pre-1.2 to bring your Rakata or Columi gear without any added expertise into PvP, the increased focus on expertise in the PvP track of gear has made it much harder to compete with that equipment compared to even the entry level Recruit set.
Consequently, the single most effective step you can take to decrease time to death (i.e. increase time to kill of your opponent) is to gear for increased expertise. Coming from PvE, obtaining at least some pieces of Recruit gear is definitely recommended.
We’re aware that this fact is not adequately communicated in the game and that the cost of recruit gear is perceived as too prohibitive by some of you. We’re in the process of working on a solution for these issues at the moment.”
So, if you are even remotely interested in PvP, you would do well to start obtaining gear with some expertise.
Update 1.2 is almost here! When your system finishes installing the update tomorrow and you log in, make sure that you check out the Top 5 Things to Do After Update 1.2 is live on the servers:
Check Out the New Daily Commendation Rewards
Update 1.2 adds some new items to the Mission Support vendors on Ilum and Belsavis. Just as with the current items, these require daily commendations to purchase. Among the items now available are new crystal schematics (artifice), and new relics. Notes from the test server indicate that the artifice schematics cost 20 daily commendations and the relics cost 200 commendations.
Start Earning Black Hole Commendations
Black Hole commendations can be earned through a series of daily, weekly and operations missions. To get to the Black Hole, head to Correllia, and head for the shuttle parked just outside of the entrance/exit to the Battlefields Shipyard area. Once you enter the door of the shuttle, it will give you a choice of going to either the Correllia Spaceport or the Black Hole.
Once you start to acquire Black Hole commendations, they can be used in exchange for crystal schematics, campaign relics, rakata earpieces and rakata implants.
Try Out the New PvP Warzone
Update 1.2 introduces the Novare Coast Warzone. Will this new warzone get equal playing time, or will it still be Huttball 40% of the time? We won’t know until the PvP matches begin, but I am hoping Huttball gets a little less playing time.
Plan Your Legacy
If you have created other characters, open up the new Legacy tab and set up their relationship. Is your level 32 Bounty Hunter your Jedi Knight’s brother? Nemesis? The speeder mechanic of your ex-roommate’s 2nd cousin? Setup their relationship appropriately as Bioware has stated that more features of the legacy system will be coming in future updates.
Roll a New Character
Don’t want to do another daily grind for commendations? Don’t have a good group to try out the new Flashpoint? Try rolling a new character. This new character will be sure to include any new legacy rewards that you have unlocked from your level 50 character. Try going through the game again with these enhancements. It may be a good idea to start a fresh toon on the opposite faction, to see how the “other half” lives.
If you are playing the SWTOR 7 Day Free Trial, here are the things that you should make sure that you do in order to get the most out of your time in game. If you participate in these activities, you will get a good feel for the game, how things work, and what you will be spending most of your time doing if you decide to purchase the game and subscribe.
Pick Your Favorite Class
Love lightsabers and the force? Pick a Jedi. Love to blow stuff up with a blaster? Pick a trooper or bounty hunter. Want to sneak and talk your way out of trouble? Play a smuggler or imperial agent. So much of SWTOR keeping your interest revolves around your class story, so it is very important that you pick a story that is going to keep you engaged and wanting to see how the whole thing ends.
I’ve dabbled in most of the stories and the Jedi Knight and Sith warrior are the stories that I’ve enjoyed the most. A lot of people say that the Imperial Agent story is quite good as well….it has a very “James Bond” feel to it.
Play Around With Crafting
You should definitely try your hand at crafting, but don’t spend too much time with it. You will be playing a short time, and trust me….you will want to be out killin’ stuff rather than makin’ stuff. But, SWTOR does have a few unique crafting elements. You should make a few items, to familiarize yourself with the system to see if you like it.
Come For the Story: Stay for the PVP
Once you hit level 10, you can PvP with your character. This is something that YOU MUST TRY. Yes, the current system has its flaws, but PvP in SWOTR is a ton of fun. I’ve never been a big PvP player in any of the MMOs that I’ve played, but I am having a blast in SWTOR PvP (even though Huttball is beginning to wear on me a bit).
Play With a Friend
Try to spend your trial time with a friend. It always helps to quest with someone in order to pass the time. Plus, you will level a lot faster. You only have 168 hours to play, so you might as well experience as much content as you can. Playing in a group is the only way to blaze through the quests and level up as fast as humanly possible.
Participate in an Flashpoint
You should certainly participate in some group content during your trial. Flashpoints and operations are the “raids” in SWTOR which are designed for a group and reward you with better than average loot. If you decide to subscribe to SWTOR and play a character to level 50, the current end game consists of completing these high level instanced dungeons. You should certainly try one out to see if you like Bioware’s spin on difficult group quests.
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