Darth Hater

UPDATE: We recently added images showcasing the Republic faction's Operations gear. You will find these images on their respective class pages.

Three tiers of Level 50 PVE gear appeared in the 11/26 patch: Tionese, Columi, and Rakata. Darth Hater spent some time poking around in-game and analyzing client data to attempt to determine how one could acquire some of the highest item level gear sets. All items included two- and four-piece set bonuses that curiously displayed only when the item is equipped; these set bonuses were mainly buffs to existing abilities and not unique to a particular tier.

So far, set names remain consistent to combat role through item progression, and carry a unified look throughout so you don’t look mismatched or out of place. Armor set names were the same for both factions, and we do provide some low-res preview images of both the Imperial and Republic versions of the sets on each class pairing page. It is confirmed that the Republic versions of the armor sets look different, and keep in mind Imperial Agents use knives while Smugglers use shotguns.

We would like share what we found, and encourage comments if you believe anything is inaccurate or have any additions, as we’re happy to credit you for any legitimate finds.

This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update comes to us in two parts. First, the previously announced SWTOR-themed Razer peripherals are now available for pre-order. All of the products (mouse, keyboard, headset, and mousepad) will be released simultaneously with the game on December 20th. BioWare also published a Choose Your Side video featuring the Jedi Consular and Imperial Agent classes. The video provides players with an overview of each class's playstyle and the gist of each storyline. Read after the jump for the video embed and DevTracker posts.

This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update gives us the Jedi Consular progression video. The video features a female Mirialan, and showcases skills and armor from both of the Consular's advanced classes. In this video, a Jedi Shadow clad in armored robes showcases an in-combat stealth ability, as well as what appears to be a damage absorption skill. The Jedi Sage features high-powered telekinetic attacks and a resurrection ability, while favoring more elaborate robes.  

New York Comic Con may be over but there is plenty left incoming on the Darth Hater content train. As we are in the process of getting the rest of the video up, we put together our own highlights video from the event showcasing a few fans as well as gameplay from various classes at the event. We also pulled together a ton of video, the first of which being an eleven minute video staring Imperial Agent gameplay on the Origin Planet of Hutta.

For the highlights video and Imperial Agent gameplay footage, hit the jump.

We recorded a full 20 minute play-through of the Huttball Warzone at Eurogamer Expo with a Jedi Sage character piloted by our very own Dover. The embed of the full high definition video is available after the jump, and Snodge chimes in throughout to offer some funny British commentary of Dover's actions in game.

A dissection of the video is already available in the media gallery below. As with all dissections, we will not reference prior dissection content mentioned in past dissections unless otherwise important. Feel free to offer your own items that you might notice to the comments section of this post and we will credit significant finds.

This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is San Diego Comic-Con 2011 Highlights and Jedi Consular Records.

Included as part of the Jedi Consular update is Qyzen Fess' Biography page, Mirialan Inhabitants page, information on Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette, and an all new class video. BioWare also recaps San Diego Comic-Con with an event highlights video that features members of the Darth Hater staff.

Our Working Dissection and Aurebesh translations are in the media gallery below. As with all of our dissections, items noted in prior dissections will not be mentioned here again unless otherwise important. Feel free to add your thoughts and items you noticed in the videos. If we decide to use your find, we will credit you in the dissection. Make sure to check back throughout the day for more.

Official DevTracker posts and video embeds follow the jump.

By positioning Star Wars: The Old Republic at a unique place in the timeline, BioWare has given themselves a great deal of freedom to create interesting classes without being tightly constrained by pre-existing lore. Sometimes the developers use this freedom to create wholly unique classes like the Imperial Agent, while other times they take a more straightforward approach like the Bounty Hunter. However, how they handle the most iconic Star Wars archetypes could be considered the most important challenge in class design. With this in mind, we now take a closer look at the first of the four Force using classes: the Jedi Consular.

This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is the Battle for Alderaan Highlights Video. The video includes footage of a group of players taking on King Ulgo. Before this, a live stage demo from Gamespot featured the quest at E3 2011 along with many others. Up until now, the context of the event was muddy at best. However, we now have a greater understanding of Alderaan's story and more specifically, the self-proclaimed King Ulgo.

A working dissection of both of the videos is in the media gallery below. Make sure to check back for more. As with all of our dissections, items noted in prior dissections will not be mentioned here again unless otherwise important. Feel free to add your thoughts and items you noticed in the video. If we decide to use your find, we will credit you in the dissection.

The official DevTracker post and video embed follow the jump. Alternately, you can view the high-definition version of the video via our Youtube account.

Update: BioWare just moments ago released a new video from E3, this time highlighting commentary from the fans lucky enough to get a chance to play. Embed of the video is available after the jump.

This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is E3 Details, new Advanced Classes Page, and on The Lost Suns with an interview Alexander Freed. As BioWare Austin's Community Manager Stephen Reid hinted at this morning, there are three updates today about SWTOR. This is all in preparation for the Electronic Entertainment Expo that starts June 6 and expectations are massive on the news coming out of the event. Stated in the E3 details post is a tidbit about what fans can expect from E3:

• More to share regarding the stories from the CG trailers


• Belsavis raid content


• Alderaan political intrigue


• Tatooine -- sandpeople and something unknown

As part of this week's Friday Update, MMORPG.com interviewed Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller about the Advanced Classes we will see in Star Wars: The Old Republic. He covers abilities from almost every class including the Jedi Knight's Force Leap, the different stances of the Sith Warrior, the Bounty Hunter's helpful Kolto Missile, and the Smuggler's explosive Shrapnel Bomb.

The Old Republic: The Lost Suns previewed earlier this week on StarWars.com, and today an interview with Senior Writer and Managing Editor Alexander Freed. He covers a brief overview of the comic that follows Theron Shan, a Republic spy set out to discover what the Sith Empire's plans are for the planets newly acquired in the Treaty of Coruscant. The comic canonically at the start of the game, about 10 years after Threat of Peace and 40 years after Blood of the Empire.

Included a bit after the rest of the updates went up was a new Advanced Classes page. The page is a newly redesigned page to fit the place of the older updates. It contains new information about the trees and abilities of the Advanced Classes.

Official Dev Tracker posts follow the jump. Images from today's Friday Update are contained in the Media Gallery below. If higher resolution versions of the images become available, we will update them. Aurebesh Working translation follows the jump as well as in the Media Gallery.

Update: It appears the list PC Gamer UK saw in the latest build is inaccurate.

Daniel Erickson
Hey Folks,

The species/class combo list you're referencing is not accurate. If it does appear in the magazine, that's unfortunate.

My guess is that an enthusiastic member of the press wrote down everything he saw in the character creation screen which, as we've stated often, is nowhere near final. Occasionally we'll have species in odd classes or in all classes because of a bug or testing.

Hope that helps!

Daniel

As with any game in development, everything in any current or past build is subject to change. It is important to note that no species/class combination is final until BioWare announces it. Thanks to Gerbo and Meglivorn for pointing out Daniel Erickson's comment in the Dev Tracker.

This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is the Advanced Classes Update Developer Blog by Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller. The update includes a deep dive from Georg Zoeller on the Advanced Classes in general, talent trees, abilities, and a few interesting tidbits from the testing program. Developer Blogs normally are not huge updates but this one is definitely not a normal Developer Blog.

Two choice quotes from the update:

Georg Zoeller
Jedi Shadow (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)
Sith Assassin (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)

Plenty more is covered in the Advanced Classes Update. Be sure to check it out and let us know your feedback on it in the comment section of this post. The Official DevTracker post follows after the jump.

The last time we spoke to James Ohlen, Star Wars: The Old Republic Creative Director, it was back at last summer's Gamescom in Germany. He granted us an opportunity to catch up with him at PAX East, and we discussed a bunch of topics ranging from Game Testing and Space Combat to Advanced Classes... and blowing up Alderaan.

Hit the jump for more.

As promised by Stephen Reid, BioWare released a new video today showcasing the Taral V Flashpoint. The 16 minute video features Director of Production Dallas Dickinson as he walks us through the flashpoint from the point of view of the Trooper, Jedi Consular, Jedi Knight, and Smuggler.

Working Dissection of the walkthrough is in the Media Gallery below. As with all dissections, we will not comment on stuff seen in prior videos. Make sure to keep checking out throughout the weekend for more content for the Dissection as we will add new content as we go. Check after the jump for the official developer post regarding it.

Last Updated: 6:45 PM EST

Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, took some time at PAX East to speak with us about what players can experience playing through Taral V and other Flashpoints. He also graciously shed some light on a few debated topics like healing classes.

Hit the jump for the full interview, and enjoy the read as we prepare for our second day of full PAX East coverage.

Live from PAX East 2011, BioWare announces this week's Friday Update - New In-game Trailer. The Trailer recaps the high level story -- Peace in the Republic, Empire Returned, War, all set to clips of in-game footage. We're bringing this content live so watch this post for the Friday Update news.

UPDATE 11a PT: We had a chance to chat with Stephen Reid and we will have the full interview up relatively soon, but we wanted to let you know about something you will see tomorrow:

Stephen Reid
We're having a Saturday update; we got something going up tomorrow. I'm not going to spoil it but it is related to Taral V. I think people are going to like it; you're not going to have to work too hard to figure it out but it is something people have been asking for consistently for quite a long time.

No, it isn't a release date. But yeah, we're having an update tomorrow.

Working Dissection of the trailer is in the Media Gallery below. As with all dissections, we will not comment on stuff seen in prior videos. Make sure to keep checking out throughout the weekend for more content for the Dissection as we will add new content as we go. Official DevTracker post follows after the jump.

BioWare does not disappoint in their post count for this week's DevTracker Highlights. Lead Writer Daniel Erickson talks vague narrative timelines and how the Sith don't see themselves as evil, but everyone else does. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller dives into Flashpoints, weapon flourishes, the use of instancing on planets, misconceptions about base class and advanced class abilities, and the MMO design with concerns to testing and feedback. Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert explores how real world economics translates to in-game economies. All this and more continued after the jump.

We gathered a great deal of information about the Jedi Classes at last month's Jedi Immersion Day for Star Wars: The Old Republic. In addition to playing both the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular, we were allotted interview time with a couple of the developers. We shared the first of these interviews last month and now we can finally show you the rest. Without further ado, here is our interview with BioWare's Daniel Erickson on the Jedi Classes.

For fans following Star Wars: The Old Republic, curiosity about the Jedi Consular extends back to learning about them at last year's press event. Thankfully, we were finally able to get our hands on this class at last month's Jedi Immersion Day in San Francisco. After several hours of play time and ten solid levels, we have a much clearer image of what it means to play the Republic's most mystical class.

Carefully examining and dissecting content for Star Wars: The Old Republic is the keystone of our work at Darth Hater. This meticulous approach is seen throughout our articles, but it becomes even more pronounced when we are actually playing the game. At both E3 and PAX this year we examined many of the nuts and bolts of SWTOR, but there is always more to find. The following is our list of new general notes from our multiple hours of gameplay at last month's Jedi Immersion Day.

• Page 1: Group Flashpoint, Republic Class Notes, General Tython/Coruscant Impressions


• Page 2: User Interface, Codex System, Quest system


• Page 3: World Quests, Emotes, Itemization, Companions, Audio, AI

Update: A correction was made regarding our notes about Multiplayer Dialog Party Chat after notification from Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller.

A correction to their notes regarding party chat.

Party chat is in fact available during multiplayer dialog (or any dialog), so you can coordinate with your group on what choices to pick. This is an MMO after all, so even during cutscenes and dialogs you will retain the ability to communicate in chat.

We apologize for the error in that segment.

On November 10th we were lucky enough to visit the LucasArts campus for a special Jedi Immersion Day. After being excluded from the entire 2010 convention season, it was time for the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular to show what they had to offer. During this event we received a great deal of information on the Crew Skill system and the Alderaan Warzone, but the real fun came from over six hours of hands on time with the two classes. Be sure to check out all of our extensive coverage of this event!

DH Jedi Immersion Day Content

• General Information Learned


• Jedi Knight Impressions


• Jedi Consular Impressions


• Daniel Erickson Interview


• Gabe Amatangelo Interview


• Jedi Immersion Day Live Q&A Audio

There is a list of external sources for Jedi Immersion Day related content after the jump. Along with that list you also find two videos and a collection of new images for your consumption.