As most long time Operatives know, the 1.1.1 patch was quite the mixed bag. Our bread and butter ability, Hidden Strike, was significantly nerfed reducing damage output by 20%. It also reduced however the amount of the enemy’s Resolve Bar that was filled by Jarring Strike, and Acid Blade got a buff. Now that the 1.2 test server patch notes are out, let’s take a look at how it will affect the PvP Concealment Operative.
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Guide: Imperial Agent Operative - Medic
The Imperial Agent relies on cunning and stealth to serve the Empire in a wide variety of roles. The Operative advanced class focuses on technology and concealment tools and abilities in order to provide healing and unleash damage from close range. Imperial Intelligence is known for quickly and quietly doing their job without being seen, and the Operative is an important piece of this covert organization. The abilities and suggested specs for Operatives in these roles are examined after the jump.
Upon reaching level ten, Imperial Agents will be directed to choose their permanent advanced class. The Sniper advanced class is limited to a damage dealing role and is most effective at long range. Alternatively, the Operative can heal or deal damage and is most effective at short to medium range with several effective melee attacks. This guide takes a look at the Medic specialization of the Operative advanced class.
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Lore Update: Imperial Agent

Most of the classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic are strongly represented in both the movies and the Expanded Universe. However, the Imperial Agent is a mysterious anomaly; they work in the background and rarely make their presence directly known. While BioWare did not invent the concept of Imperial Intelligence agents, they are the first to explore this role as part of a dedicated storyline. Last week we examined that Bounty Hunter, now join us in taking a closer look at the spies and snipers of the Sith Empire. -
Friday Update: E3 Details, Advanced Classes, and The Lost Suns

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. -
Friday Update: Advanced Classes Update

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. -
Friday Update: New Agent Intel

This week's update brings us up to speed on the Imperial Agent, including a fairly lengthy gameplay video. Also revealed is the Agent's personal ship, the X-70B Phantom-Class Prototype. We first caught a glimpse of the sleek and stylish vessel during our dissection of the first space combat video back in August. Included in the reveal is a nice collection of interior screenshots and concept art, as well as a walkthrough video.
We also learn about the Agent's two Advanced Classes, the Sniper and the Operative. The Operative appears to be a stealth-centric close range support class, and the Sniper appears to be a long range heavy hitter. Finally we learn a little about the Imperial Agent's back story, including Kaliyo Djannis, the mysterious and intimidating Rattataki companion, and a little about how the isolated and secretive Chiss were brought under the Empire's influence.
The aurebesh translations from the various pages can be found after the jump, as well as a working dissection of the ship and gameplay videos, and the original forum post from Alyson Bridge. -
Dissection: Designing the Advanced Classes System
Last Friday, Star Wars: The Old Republic's Principal Lead Systems Designer Georg Zoeller provided some insight regarding how BioWare and LucasArts designed the combat aspects of the Advanced Class system. We decided it was time to take a look back at the roles we speculated about prior to the Developer Blog and update our charts with the information gathered. -
Friday Update: Starships, Fan Friday, and Advanced Classes
This week's Friday update is now online: Whether you're looking to dominate the galaxy in the name of the Empire or rescue it from darkness as part of the Republic, you wont get very far without a starship. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, your starship will be your base of operations, and it might even be your best friend. Ship models are specially designed to match the needs and tastes of each of the class types, so even though all the starships are outfitted for traveling the galaxy, each has its own character.
Study the style and specifications of the various Starships by accessing the HoloNet now!
You will notice these Starships have been dissected from the Space Combat Video that came out earlier this week. As well as Starships there are new polls available for your perusal. The poll questions are:- Which feature are you most looking forward to in STAR WARS
: The Old Republic ? - Have you played Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR)?
As always, we look forward to seeing the results of the new polls.
There is also a Fan Friday featuring artwork from community members Wraloa and Kiuas, a fan-created video from Tukor, a showcase of a community RP thread, and more new avatars.
But most importantly, the Developer Corner outlined everything announced during our Gamescom presention about Advanced Classs (where we failed the "let's see how many data points we can write down in 20 seconds and if we can read our own handwriting" test -- self-depreciating humor there folks, but you can now see why we had some stuff missing), and new concept art that seems to show HK-47, or at the least a model of his same type.
Aurebesh translations after the jump. - Which feature are you most looking forward to in STAR WARS
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Darth Hater at Gamescom
Although we haven't quite recovered yet from our time at Star Wars Celebration V, Darth Hater is turning its attention to Cologne, Germany for our coverage of Gamescom. The Darth Hater team will bring you interviews, hands-on impressions, and all the breaking Star Wars: The Old Republic news coming out of the convention throughout the week.
Vee have ways of making them talk... stay tuned.
DH Gamescom Content:
UPDATE 8/18: Advanced Class Names Revealed in Press Presentations
UPDATE 8/19: Advanced Class Names Revealed on offiicial site here.
Please note our original post included some inaccuracies specifically with the Trooper descriptions, missing information for the Bounty Hunter, as well as some missing description points. We apologize for any confusion: the slides were shown to us for about 20s each and our priority was to get the accurate names for each Advanced Class.- Imperial Agent - Operative & Sniper
- Sith Inquisitor - Sorcerer & Assassin
- Bounty Hunter - Powertech & Mercenary
- Jedi Consular - Shadow & Wizard
- Trooper - Commando & Vanguard
More information about the Jedi Knight advanced classes:- Sentinel: Dual Light Sabers; Saber Fighting Specialist; Melee
- Guardian: Single Light Saber/ Heavy Armor; Leadership/ Party Buffs; Tank
Blaine Christine gave the presentation, and these were some of the descriptions for each class. As he introduced these slides, he gave the example of how you would turn into Darth Maul: you pick your species as Zabrak, and as you level up, you are presented with the option to become a Sith Assassin. "The Assassin is going to be able to use a double bladed lightsaber just like Darth Maul. He is going to do a lot of damage, so that is his main function." He continued with a description of the Sith Sorcerer: "He is going to be a lot more like the Emperor; more ranged based. He will still use his lightsaber, but he is going to use Force Lightning and focus on that to fry his enemies from afar."
Then as a comparison, the Jedi Knight was touched on. The Sentinel uses dual lightsabers, was compared to Anakin Skywalker, and has a focus on dealing lots of damage with fast moves and action. The Guardian was described as a "traditional MMO tank" by wearing heavier armor, and the ability to soak up lots of damage.
Please note all the Advanced Class names were communicated in English along with the entire presentation, and we will update this post with more details as we receive them. We are committed to bringing you the most accurate official information coming out of Gamescom.
Shortly after the announcement of all the classes, we received another version of the multiplayer group demo that we originally saw at E3 -- but this time, all the Republic characters were playing Advanced Classes. The Jedi Sentinel was the dps off-tank, while the Trooper Commando was ranged tanking the large mob. The Smuggler had the Gunslinger specialization, and used portable cover while dual wielding blasters. The Jedi Consular chose the Wizard advanced class, and provided both healing and light crowd control.
More Updates and Media after the jump
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