**OFFICIAL** Star Wars: The Old Republic Thread

[ArchAngel777]

Sounds about right, the other DPS tree is higher but offers far less mobility.



Balance is Madness, so surge isn't that important in that build, it's a lot more important if you go whatever the lightning tree is.



That is actually wrong. Alacrity reduces the time between ticks and also reduces your GCD. ~10% is where alacrity DR starts to kick in(forget what numerical value that is). Alacrity is actually pretty big for Sorcs/Sages.



Biggest advantage is how much dps you can sustain while moving.



Heh, me and one of my buddies are rolling pube toons now and I got a kick out of how shockingly bad the Sage gear was in terms of looks(he is rolling a Sage so wasn't quite as amused).

Ben, are you 100% certain that Alacrity reduces GCD on instant cast spells? On my commando, that has 342 alacrity currently and 9% boost from talents (1.2s GCD in theory) doesn't work out that way. The only abilities that have a lower GCD are the castable ones at 1.5s. So, for instance, my charged bolts has a 1.5s cast, and it ends up casting at 1.2s, in that case the GCD is reduced. But, in the case of my Bacta Infusion, Hammer Shot, Kolto Bomb, etc... (all instant) The GCD remains at 1.5s. I got out my stop watch to test this for myself about 1-2 months ago and did it over the course of several seconds.

Regardless, I LOVE alacrity (on my combat medic) because two my castable heals are so fast now. 1.2s and 1.6s respectively. 3 seconds to burst heal a potential 7-14K (2-4K AMP, 3-6K MP, 2-4K Bacta)

Edit ** I just searched good thorough for Madness (Sage is the red headed step child mirror class, so not a lot of information on it theory craft wise) and Alacrity. Thread after thread doesn't state that it is useless, but they all do state that it only affects Force Lightning as that is the only castable (channelled, techincally) spell we use. I probably just read 10 different threads that said the same thing. The fourth post is link below is where my position stands. There is a point where the extra crit multiplier isn't going to outweigh Alacrity gains on force lightning (TK Throw)

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=452584

 

[darkewaffle]

I wanted to try stacking alacrity really high and simply making a Lightning Strike sorc for DPS at some point, never did get around to it though.

 

[nageov3t]

logged onto my server during the free week during prime time and there was exactly one other person in the Fleet zone.

oomph.

 

[darkewaffle]

Sounds like you need to transfer, I think they've pretty much narrowed down character creation to like 8-10 servers and the others I don't think you can even join unless you've already got 'old' characters there. I'm not playing atm but I've got all my characters transferred to "The Bastion" and it's got a few hundred people on the fleet at all times it seems.

 

[Darkrage]

logged onto my server during the free week during prime time and there was exactly one other person in the Fleet zone.

oomph.

You do realize that most people transferred to 12 destination servers right?.....

 

[nageov3t]

You do realize that most people transferred to 12 destination servers right?.....

I do now

I wasn't really intending to play, I was just screwing around for a bit.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Ben, are you 100% certain that Alacrity reduces GCD on instant cast spells?

You know, I was testing it using something with a 1.5 second cast time, Sorc DPS is so bad right now I rarely am in a DPS build- I'm not 100% sure, actually I'm doubting it after reading your post and the link you provided.

 

[darkewaffle]

IIRC GCD is only reduced with alacrity when casting spells whose cast time drops below 1.5s (the normal GCD)

 

[ArchAngel777]

IIRC GCD is only reduced with alacrity when casting spells whose cast time drops below 1.5s (the normal GCD)

That lines up with the testing I did on my commando a few months back.

My sage is now 2 mini bars from 50. So, I should be able to Q up for a PVP match and get the daily and hit 50. Then, I get to blow about 3 million on him to bring him to Columi level that night. Plan is:

Buy BM Relics X 2 (1100 Coms)
Buy Columi Implant x 2, Ear Piece (500K)
Buy all 5 remaining peices of legacy gear (600K)
Rip out mods and armoring of 5 Columi Pieces and put them into Legacy Gear (345K)
Augment All Slots (420K)
Augments (1.4 Million)

Done. Now, I could just show up and run flash points and do raids in 'rags'... But I REALLY hate when people don't carry their own weight, so why should I expect any different from me?

But, I might actually just do that... 3 million isn't that much money, but I suppose within a week I could easily gear up to that level. So maybe I will wait... Tuff call.

 

[ArchAngel777]

So I set my son up with a trial account (he is 6) and we leveled up two sentinels together. We are already 15. He plays better than half the people in my guild already. He doesn't sit in floor candy, knows to move out of it, hits teh rights keys, etc... Pretty sad that a 6 year can play better than a lot of people out there.

6 years old is a bit young, but since i only let him play when i am on and grouped with me, I think it will be fine. We can skip the questional quests, since I have already done pretty much all of them.

We did the Esseles just us two at L10.

 

[Wordplay]

Sub numbers should be released today. I'm guessing the numbers will be around ~700k-800k.

 

[SunnyD]

Boom, headshot. SWTOR officially going F2P this fall.

 

[darkewaffle]

Was pretty much inevitable, at least given the amount of money they put into the game. I'm curious to see how it's implemented. I wouldn't mind getting to try out new content and planets as time goes on without necessarily needing a persistent cost.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Was pretty much inevitable, at least given the amount of money they put into the game. I'm curious to see how it's implemented. I wouldn't mind getting to try out new content and planets as time goes on without necessarily needing a persistent cost.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/31/star-wars-the-old-republic-going-free-to-play

According to that article you can play the single player story up to level 50 for free. That was the only thing I liked about the game(the story), so I might actually re-download it to run through another character or two. And - to be fair- I liked the graphics too, or more accurately, the way the world looks. Alderaan is nice.

 

[manko]

Well, I was telling people in beta chat last year that it felt like it would go F2P in 6-12 months. I caught a lot of flak, but I guess EA should've listened to me back then. It's not 2004 anymore and although they obviously spent a lot of money making the game, after the first month of play it's questionable whether it's really worth an ongoing monthly sub.

 

[KeithTalent]

Well, I was telling people in beta chat last year that it felt like it would go F2P in 6-12 months. I caught a lot of flak, but I guess EA should've listened to me back then. It's not 2004 anymore and although they obviously spent a lot of money making the game, after the first month of play it's questionable whether it's really worth an ongoing monthly sub.

Yeahand lost out on the millions of dollars in subscription fees they raked in the first few months. Good business. :hmm:

This is not a surprise though. My subscription ends in a couple of weeks and I was not going to renew it, not because I dislike the game, I just don't have time to play it. I may give it another shot once it becomes F2P, particularly if I can do the SP story for free; that was by far my favourite part of the game.

KT

 

[turn_pike]

Content-wise, what are you missing for being a F2P player ?

I find solo-ing the single player to be quite enjoyable. No need to LFG and deal with all the drama. The story is pretty interesting (played the Sith Inquisitor during a free weekend event), probably on par with most RPGs. Looks like I'm heading back there this Fall.

 

[manko]

Yeahand lost out on the millions of dollars in subscription fees they raked in the first few months. Good business. :hmm:

Actually, an alternative would have been to listen to feedback, push back the release and work on delivering a product with more depth and endgame worthy of supporting long term subscriptions.

Of course, it was probably too late by then. They really dug themselves into a hole with their big budget and just had to get it out the door to try and make some sort of a return.

I guess this move can be seen as a positive for all those who really wanted a single player RPG in the first place. You'll be able to play through the single player story experience with little or no cash outlay and be able to check in on the game once in a while without a hit on your credit card every month.

 

[KeithTalent]

Actually, an alternative would have been to listen to feedback, push back the release and work on delivering a product with more depth and endgame worthy of supporting long term subscriptions.

I honestly don't think such a thing exists anymore. WoW has inertia, so it will maintain a certain level of subs, but a new game is going to have a very difficult time. Look at D3; the frenzy died down relatively quickly and I have to think if it was sub-based, the number of subscriptions would have dropped significantly already. It seems F2P is the future (and the present) for better or worse.

KT

 

[manko]

I honestly don't think such a thing exists anymore.

Probably true, the market just isn't the same anymore. The funny thing is that everyone who holds up pure subscription games without any micro-transactions as the gold standard ignores the fact that there have been grey market RMT transactions all along in all those games. Not always pay to win, but usually pay to avoid having to play (to level up or earn gold or gear). The difference now is that the actual developers get a bigger share of that pie.

The problem with freemium games is when they start purposely designing game mechanics that are so unbearable that you're almost forced into cash shop purchases. I haven't found a F2P model that strikes the right balance yet.

 

[Ns1]

Boom, headshot. SWTOR officially going F2P this fall.

well I wasted $100 bucks this christmas.

 

[zinfamous]

rofl, I mentioned this last night to my guildies ahead of LI and such:

"Guys, I've got about 4 more weeks of playing this until I let my sub die and move on...but I will be back as soon as it hits F2P...which means I'll only be gone for a month and will be back by the end of October at the latest!"

 

[zinfamous]

Actually, an alternative would have been to listen to feedback, push back the release and work on delivering a product with more depth and endgame worthy of supporting long term subscriptions.

Of course, it was probably too late by then. They really dug themselves into a hole with their big budget and just had to get it out the door to try and make some sort of a return.

I guess this move can be seen as a positive for all those who really wanted a single player RPG in the first place. You'll be able to play through the single player story experience with little or no cash outlay and be able to check in on the game once in a while without a hit on your credit card every month.

The problem is that for those that actually want the KoTor story, you have to play the flashpoints. GL with that on single player. :\

 

[zinfamous]

I honestly don't think such a thing exists anymore. WoW has inertia, so it will maintain a certain level of subs, but a new game is going to have a very difficult time. Look at D3; the frenzy died down relatively quickly and I have to think if it was sub-based, the number of subscriptions would have dropped significantly already. It seems F2P is the future (and the present) for better or worse.

KT

:cough:GW1:cough:GW2:cough:


...F2P vs sub aren't the only models out there.

Hell, the GW1 model is the only one that has survived since inception (of the game), and is still running relatively strong.

 

[SunnyD]

No access to ops for f2p. Basically, it's going to be a f2p single player game.