Imperial Tier 3 Preview!

During E3, Bioware showed some new gear set and probably, this is the 3rd tier for the Imperial classes.

Tier 3

1.2 Republic PvE & PvP Gear Preview!

1.2 bring new set of PvP and PvE gear. Here, I give you the looks of the sets as well as the prices for each piece. PvP gear sets have the same set bonuses as the previous tier. No bonus are yet implanted to PTR for the new PvE gear tier.

PvE Gear 

PvE gear can be obtained by either Black Hole Commendations or Unassembled Campaign Tokens, one for each piece. Now, in the PTR BOTH sets have the same rating. Black Hole Commendations can be earned from the new dailies in Corellia. Below are the prices for each piece

BELT	35 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
BOOTS	50 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
BRACERS	30 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
GLOVES	50 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
HEADGEAR	60 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
LEGGINGS	55 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
EARPIECE	35 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
IMPLANT	35 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
CHESTGEAR	60 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
OFF HAND	50 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS

PvP Gear

There are two tiers of PvP gear, the War Hero and the new Rated Gear. They have the SAME stats and rating but rated gear requires a good rating in ranked matches so it's harder to be acquired. Below are the prices for the standard War Hero PvP gear:

BELT	1250 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
BOOTS	1800 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
BRACERS	1100 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
GLOVES	1800 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
HEADGEAR	2150 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
LEGGINGS	2000 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
EARPIECE	1250 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
IMPLANT	1250 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
CHEST	2150 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
OFF HAND	2275 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
MAIN HAND	3475 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
RELIC	1100 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS

Ranked gear is more of a prestige reward and requires a specific rating and the standard piece of gear before the ranked one is bought. Here are the prices for Ranked gear:

BELT	1200 RATING AND 250 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
BOOTS	1600 RATING AND 360 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
BRACERS	1200 RATING AND 250 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
GLOVES	1400 RATING AND 360 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
HEADGEAR	RATING AND 430 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS
LEGGINGS	1800 RATING AND 400 RANKED WARZONE COMMENDATIONS

That's all for now, when I have the time, I would do the same for the Empire side.

PvP Changes in 1.2

With the introduction of 1.2 a lot of changes will come in PvP

CHANGES IN DAILIES AND REWARDS

Right now, daily missions require players to win 3 matches. From 1.2 daily missions will require players to win a certain number of medals. That will make a lot of people happy, as people that don't play WZ in groups, tend to get steamrollered from premades. One day, a friend of mine that was PvPing solo had 9 consecutive loses... It took him more than 5 hours to get 3 victories. I know he's excited about this change.

Now, remember that winning and losing both reward medals. Hopefully this will address the situation where people that had a bad group would just leave the WZ. They said that they will be some restrictions for people abandoning the WZ before it finish but they din't give any details. I speculate that they'll do something like a penalty for leavers that would prevent them to queue for another WZ that would last for some minutes. 

Luckily for us, there are 18 new medals, many of which are objective based, like scoring a goal in Hutball or defusing a bomb in Voidstar. Healers right now are in disadvantage against other classes about wining medals, the new ones will boost them too. Like if an ally you are healing gets a killing enemy point, the healer will get one too. Now, to prevent medal's farming by dragging out matches, there's a cap of medals that can be earned in every match. To encourage faster games and more activity from players, finishing a match fast gives more medals. For example, finishing Huttball under 5 minutes will give you one more metal, finishing it under 4 will give two more metals. Now, there's a lot of AFKers in PvP, especially in Civil War and finally we have some good news: In order for players to earn medals, a minimal level of activity is required and  Vote to kick inactive players is in 1.2 where the open spots would be filled by players in the queue. There are measures in place to prevent abuse, like kicking someone because his level 10.

RANKED WARZONES AND RANKED GEAR

Ranked warzones will be introduced in 1.2. There will be a ranking system for bath group and solo play. For 1.2 Ranked Warzones will be SERVER SPECIFIC ONLY, cross-server matches will come later. Coming in the future will have cross-server queueing. When the new feature will be implemented will have a pre-season period. Each ranked game will reward a specific currency that would buy the new PvP gear. There going to be more than one tier of gear  but all tiers will have the same stats. Gear that require a higher rating are going to have different colours, only for prestige reasons.

NEW PvP GEAR AND VALOR CHANGES

Valor system will not be centralized from now on. It will still be in game and will also provide titles but will not be fundamental for acquiring the PvP gear. A new intro PvP set for new 50 players will be introduce to fill the gap in gear. More emphasis on expertise will be given on PvP to make it less powerful in PvE as they want to address  issues where people with Battle Master gear were raiding Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace. 

NEW WARZONES AND SAME FACTION MATCHES, NEWS ABOUT ILUM AND WORLD PvP

The new warzone will be Novare Coast. It can also be played with two teams of the same faction. It would be object orient and would has 3 points of focus. Two out of three must be captured from a team to 'do damage' to the object. Existing Warzones will be made same faction. That would either happen in 1.2 or 1.3. For now the matches will be from same servers. Sometime in the future cross-server matches will be introduced.  They want to introduce Tournament brackets to allow for mini-tournaments between PvP teams. Another new feature that would make a lot of people happy, YOU CAN NOW QUEUE WITH A FULL 8 PERSON GROUP AND YOUR GROUP WILL NOT BE DISBANDED AFTER A MATCH. They also enlightened us about some world PvP changes. They will pull back Ilum for a while to redesign it as they are not very pleased with it's current state and there were some technical difficulties. PvP in Outlaw's Den will be supported from now on. For world PvP in general, they said that they'll add a reward drop for world kills.

PvE Tier 2 Preview!

This is the previer of PvE Tier 2 Preview from Guild Summit's video

Republic

Empire

Republic Gear Sets Preview!

For the past two days I've spent my time playing a fresh Scoundrel. When I got to the Republic Fleet, I though to spent some time and take some pic of the republic gear sets. Hope you like it!

PVP JEDI KNIGHT GEAR

 PVP SMUGGLER GEAR

 PVP TROOPER GEAR

PVP JEDI CONSULAR GEAR

FINALLY, THE PVE RAKATA SETS

Guide: Operative Concealment PvE!

PROLOGUE


Hey people!


A very good friend of mine is a hardcore WoW's rogue player that raids and pvpes in top guilds. I respect his knowledge about the mechanics of his class and also for his fast decisions and reactions that are needed to play in high level.


During summer we had long talks about SWTOR and we had both decided to reroll to this new game. The Blizzard gave to him a Rogue's only legendary and his mind changed. I unsubscribed from WoW and started playing SWTOR. He was thinking playing the game later and I gave him my account to try it out. He was thinking playing an Assassin but I persuaded him to try Operative. And he did. And he loved it. Now, I have an Operative on my account and I have to say that I love her! They have an amazing playstyle that is really really strong even after last patch's nerf. I've seen a lot of Operatives PvPing but almost none at PvE. At least none dps as the few ops I've found where healers.


That's why I decided to make this guide for Operative's Concealment PvE. So, let's start.




1. SPEC


This is the spec that I use 3/31/7. It's NOT based on the most dps output possible and it's more of a starter for operation. It based on mobility (melee classes need to be fast in fights with a lot of adds, shit on the ground etc) and survivability (you can't dps if you are dead.

This is the spec with the most dps output: 3/31/7




2. ENERGY


Energy is very similar to WoW's Rogue but it's not linear. That means that it regenerates depending to the energy's level. That means:

ENERGY LEVEL	REGEN PER SEC
0-20	2
21-40	2.5
41-60	3
61-100	5

Now, there an ability call Stim Boost that recovers 3 energy every 3 sec for 45sec. It has a 35 sec CD and must be up ALL THE TIME.

With Stim Boost up the regeneration changes to this:

ENERGY LEVEL	REGEN PER SEC
0-20	3
21-40	3.5
41-60	4
61-100	6

Another way to get energy fast is Adrenaline Probe that recovers 50 energy in 3 secs with a 2 minute cooldown.

3. ABILITIES

Rifle Shot Basic attack costs no energy use it on your rotation to keep your energy from dropping.

Hidden Strike Highest damaging ability, grants Tactical Advantage and can only be used from stealth. Use it as an opener.

Shiv Use it to gain Tactical Advantage.

Laceration Requires the Tactical Advantage buff.  Has 50% chance to proc a second free attack that would also refresh Tactical Advantage if the target is poisoned.

Backstab Hits like a truck, must be always used after Acid Blade. Must be behind the target to use it.

Acid Blade Buff the next Hidden Strike or Backstab and applies a ridiculesly strong DoT over 6 seconds and increase armour penetration by 30% for 15 seconds. Backstab must followed. Needless to say, this is the funeral of every boss.

Fragmentation Grenade AoE attack. Hits up to 5 opponents.

Overload Shot. Short ranged attack, should be only used when you have plenty of energy and the rest of you abilities are on CD.


Corrosive Dart a good DoT that must be ALWAYS be up. If it's up, Laceration will refresh Tactical Advantage.

Orbital Strike AoE damage to be used on CD. One of the strongest AoE attacks in game


Adrenaline Probe Not a damage ability but still must be used on CD. Use it when you want to burst


Cloaking Screen. Not a damage ability, puts you back to Stealth. Use it on CD with a Acid Blade buffed Hidden Strike following it.

4. TACTICAL ADVANTAGE

Tactical Advantage is the core ability in Operative playstyle. Defeating an opponent or activating Shiv or Hidden Strike puts you in a position of Tactical Advantage, increasing all damage dealt by 2% and enabling the use of executions for 10 seconds. Up to 2 charges of Tactical Advantage can exist at once.

Abilities that generate TA:

Shiv

Hidden Strike

Plus defeating an opponent give you TA. 

Abilities that consume TA:

Cull

Laceration

Stim Boost

Carbine Burst

Kolto Infusion

Remember, Tactical Advantage increased damage by 2%, so you should always have at least one stack up at all times if it's possible. Before using an TA consuming Ability, use Shiv to get 2 stacks before losing 1 and keep 1 stack up.

5. ROTATION


So, the rotation goes like this. Start with stealth and then use Hidden Strike. That gives you 1 TA. Use Stim Boost, that will consume the 1 TA. Acid Blade time then. It would be a preparation buff that does nothing until you use Backstab. 30% of the target's armor is ignored and a poison DoT is applied that lasts for 6 secs.  After that use Shiv to get 1 TA, Laceration will actually have a chance to consume and refresh your TA and keep it up. Use Corrosive Dart to have your DoT up as long as you can. As soon as your energy falls under 60 use Adrenaline Probe and try to have it on CD. Only reasons for not use it asap is that either your energy is high at the moment or you decide it to keep it to use it later with your Adrenals, Relics and the rest of your CDs. After that use Rifle Shot if your energy drops under 80. Also, use Cloaking Screen after the initial burst and the use of Adrenaline Probe and follow it with a Acid Blade buffed Hidden Strike. Use it on CD.


When you are in the the fight there's a priority list.

1. Stim Boost  must be always up

2.  Shiv to get TA


3. Adrenaline Probe to regen energy

3.  Rifle Shot to keep your energy up.

4. Cloaking Screen to get back to Stealth

5.  Acid Blade follow by

6. Hidden Strike if you are in Stealth or if you are not

7.  Backstab. 5, 6 and 7 must be always be used on CD. Those are you strongest hits

8.  Corrosive Dart to keep your DoT up

9.  Laceration. costs 15 energy. Use it when you have 2 TA and Stim Boost is up

10. Overload Shot. Cost 17 energy and only use it when you have high energy and you are out of melee range from the target or on burning phase.

6. STATS

Your Primary stat is Cunning. Your gear must always have Cunning.  For every 140 Cunning you get 1% crit and also, 1 Cunning gives 0.2 tech damage. As for the secondary stats, accuracy until you reach 100% and then I would suggest Critical and Surge for starters but DON'T stack more than 40% ratio. It seems that after a point critical and surge need much more rating to increase the percentage. After that, go for Power. It's a basic, normal,  very linear damage increase. Alacrity is useless, avoid it like Hell.

7. PvE TIER BONUS

• 2 pieces: Increases the critical chance of Backstab or Backblast by 15%.
• 4 pieces: Increases maximum energy by 5.

EPILOGUE

Anyway that's my guide for Operative Concealment PvE, just quite basic but I hope you find it useful. I will try to update the guide as much as possible, please comment to contribute.

See you around

Gear Progression for each Imperial Class!

Here's the gear progression of each Imperial Class starting with the level 20 PvP gear then the level 40 PvP and at the level cap, level 50 PvP and PvE gear. Enjoy:

BOUNTY HUNTER

Left is Mercenary, Right is Powertech

IMPERIAL AGENT

Left is Operative, Right is Sniper

SITH INQUISITOR

Left is Sorcerer, Right is Assassin 

SITH WARRIOR

Left is Juggernaut, Right is Marauder

BONUS: SOCIAL ARMOR!

AND THE FINAL SPECIAL SUPER BONUS!