SWTOR

[Lantyssa]

Make sure to hum Loituma while spinning it about and advancing upon your master.  To complete the image.

[eldaec]

Help me with the spec choices. People keep saying they have all the usual range of mmog abilities, but this what I'm seeing, let me know where there is more to these specs than I've listed....

Juggernaught/Guardian
   Rage/Focus : wtf?
   Immortal/Defense : General Tanking
   Vengence/Vigilance : Single target melee dps

Maurauder/Sentinel
Don't care - dual light sabres look ridiculous.

Sage/Sorceror
  Lightning/Telekinetics : Direct damage
  Corruption/Seer : Direct Heal
  Madness/Balance : Short Range DoTs

Assassin/Shadow
  Madness/Balance : Short Range DoTs
  Kinetic/Darkness  : Avoidance tank
  Decption/Inflitration : Stealth/Melee dps

Operative/Scoundrel
  Lethality/Dirty Fighting : DoTs
  Medic/Sawbones : Heals
  Concealment/Scrapper : Stealth/Melee dps

Sniper/Gunslinger
  Lethality/Dirty Fighting : DoTs
  Engineering/Saboteur : med range aoe dps?
  Marksmen/Sharpshooter : long range direct damage

Powertech/Vanguard
   Prototype/Assault : Shortish range direct damage
   Shield/Shield  : Tank of some sort
   Firebug/tactics : more aoe maybe?

Mercenary/Commando
   Bodyguard/Medic : Healing bullets
   Arsenal/Gunnery : Long range direct damage
   Firebug/tactics : more aoe maybe?

[Lucas]

11/23 patch notes (hopefully there won't be a multi-gigabyte patch tomorrow, but check the launcher often, just in case :P), grabbed from DarthHater.com:

http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19722-patch-notes-11-23-2011

[Montague]

Kinda bummed to see the damage reduction for high-level mobs. I know folks were complaining that non-tank classes 30+ were getting assraped in solo missions but I was looking forward to the challenge.

[Merusk]

It's not Friday yet, dammit.

[Fordel]

Go solo Heroic 2's if you want a challenge then Montague, they're totally doable with you + companion.

[Zetor]

Mercenary/Commando
   Bodyguard/Medic : Healing bullets
   Arsenal/Gunnery : Long range direct damage
   Firebug/tactics : more aoe maybe?

There are a few videos explaining how these classes work... they're fairly simplistic and informative if you don't mind occasional mumbling:
"healing bullets" spec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-RPPNujdxg
"spam that missile" spec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b7LesO6DLo
"burn stuff" spec (really hard to understand what he's saying sometimes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLpXrmecvzc

[Evildrider]

With hundreds of hours come thousands of characters--literally. So many of them, in fact, that this November, The Old Republic will enter the Guinness Book of World Records for having the biggest voice-over cast in entertainment history, with more than 1,000 actors speaking in three different languages. The game has between 250,000 and 280,000 lines of dialogue--the word-count equivalent of five Infinite Jests.

Taken from this article:  BioWare Bets Big With The Old Republic.

[Sand]

Any min/maxer's get a read on which of the three healing specs is going to be the best in the long term for raiding needs? Any hard numbers to get comparisons on?

[Lun]

I have a question for anyone who has been or is currently in the closed beta test:

My beta starts tomorrow at 17:00 CET. Do you think I will be able to play though all the character classes up to level 10-ish by the end of the beta?

I'm curious, so I can stack up on food and lock myself in for the weekend  

[caladein]

Any min/maxer's get a read on which of the three healing specs is going to be the best in the long term for raiding needs? Any hard numbers to get comparisons on?

The scuttlebutt right now is that Sorcerer/Sage is better, but that could all get washed away in a balance pass.

Down the line the balance between energy/heat-based and force-based healers just comes down to encounter design.  If Operative/Scoundrel throughput is balanced around max energy return and encounter design is based around a lot of huge spikes, they might never be in a good place (or, you might not want to have them make up the majority of your healer corps).  Mercenary/Commando seems similar although running out of heat capacity bites you immediately instead of in the near future.

[Tannhauser]

My beta starts tomorrow at 11am!  I have severed all ties to friends and family and will burrow, hermit-like, into the game for the weekend.

[Der Helm]

My beta starts tomorrow at 11am!  I have severed all ties to friends and family and will burrow, hermit-like, into the game for the weekend.

Looks like I am going to play Dungeon Defenders for the next 17 hours to pass the time. 

[01101010]

I have a question for anyone who has been or is currently in the closed beta test:

My beta starts tomorrow at 17:00 CET. Do you think I will be able to play though all the character classes up to level 10-ish by the end of the beta?

I'm curious, so I can stack up on food and lock myself in for the weekend  

From my past weekend experience... yeah, you can. But it will be close if you do both sides.

[Pezzle]

Wait, the brought it down for maintenance on Thanksgiving??

[kildorn]

Wait, the brought it down for maintenance on Thanksgiving??

Why not?

[Numtini]

Wait, the brought it down for maintenance on Thanksgiving??

That's EA's dedication to their workers' well being and happiness.

[Viin]

Just logged in and a small patch was up, if you wanna grab it before tomorrow morning.

[kildorn]

I'm more thinking they have some non US people in their ops crew. If you're going to run international, you SHOULD.

[Merusk]

Hey, money before tradition.  Toys-R-Us, Target, Wal*mart and Macy's are all forcing their employees to go in tonight, why shouldn't EA get in on the fun?

[Fordel]

Well the EU servers are up!


One change I didn't notice at first, but they updated all the Cyborg options, so they reflect the class they are on. I predict a METRIC FUCK TON of Imperial Agent 'Cyborgs' now.

[Der Helm]

One change I didn't notice at first, but they updated all the Cyborg options, so they reflect the class they are on.

What does this mean, could you elaborate ?

[Fordel]

The implants, they fit the theme of the class.

So the implants a Trooper gets are different from Smugglers, a Sith warrior is different from a Imperial Agent.


Imperial Agents get very minimalistic and sleek implants now, including Deus Ex style sunglasses.

[Merusk]

I can't wait 12 hours to find out! yarrrg.

[MuffinMan]

Are we attempting to organize at all for this weekend?

[Viin]

I think we'd be lucky to be able to get on the same server.. but we can try!

[Lucas]

Imperial Agents get very minimalistic and sleek implants now, including Deus Ex style sunglasses.

Me want!!! 

I just downloaded (7.53am CET) a small patch:

- Updated the User Interface art for the Legacy System

- Players will no longer see Error 1003 when attempting to join the queue for a full server

[Wolf]

Any min/maxer's get a read on which of the three healing specs is going to be the best in the long term for raiding needs? Any hard numbers to get comparisons on?

The scuttlebutt right now is that Sorcerer/Sage is better, but that could all get washed away in a balance pass.

Down the line the balance between energy/heat-based and force-based healers just comes down to encounter design.  If Operative/Scoundrel throughput is balanced around max energy return and encounter design is based around a lot of huge spikes, they might never be in a good place (or, you might not want to have them make up the majority of your healer corps).  Mercenary/Commando seems similar although running out of heat capacity bites you immediately instead of in the near future.

From just barely looking at the specs, I think the sorcerer is most versatile. Purely speculative and from that one movie they released, I fully expect encounter design/difficulty to be very strongly toned down. So I expect the choice will be more along the lines of "is your healer versatile enough to fill more roles", rather than "can your healer push out throughput".

As an aside, if you're from Europe and you want to play on day one - pre-order today. Supply got completely screwed yesterday afternoon. Weather it's EA's incompetence or malice (pushing origin sales) it's retarded either way.

[Tannhauser]

Five hours until access!  Hmm, what class should I try as my first foray into The Old Republic?  My first toon in WoW was an orc shaman, maybe stay iconic and play a Jedi Knight even though I'm playing one at release.

Whats good crafting for Knights?  Also, any tips for a newbie or does the game do a good job at starting you?

[Sobelius]

Also, any tips for a newbie or does the game do a good job at starting you?

Play with your eyes open, use your keyboard + mouse, and breathe with your mouth closed. Avoid poopsocking if possible. Otherwise, if you've played almost any other MMO in the last 6 years, you will do fine.

Consider reading the FAQ in the tester forum, or this FAQ: http://liberi-fatali.net/the-old-republic/star-wars-the-old-republic-guide-and-faq/.

[Lucas]

Like a lot of other people, I'll try a couple classes I'm the least interested with, in my case Trooper and Sith Warrior. But, of course, I won't resist and also take a peek at the two I intend to play at the beginning of retail, Agent and Consular.

[luckton]

Well the EU servers are up!


One change I didn't notice at first, but they updated all the Cyborg options, so they reflect the class they are on. I predict a METRIC FUCK TON of Imperial Agent 'Cyborgs' now.

You make this sound like a bad thing. 

[luckton]

And now, a PSA from the people at Reddit regarding this weekend.

[Lucas]

Roughly 1h and 30m to the neverending queues 

[Merusk]

PVP Server, I choose you!