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Star Wars: The Old Republic will address balance and ranked PvP for update 3.1
Star Wars: The Old Republic is launching update 3.1 in about a month, and the developers are using this patch to address some standing issues. The patch also kicks off the game's fourth ranked play season, which is scheduled to last about three months. This season will be used as the basis for some new ranked play adjustments, such as implementing a "floor" rating for picking up the lowest-tier season rewards in Season 5. The season's titles will also be class-specific based on forum feedback. Designers are also looking into balancing classes, starting with the Darkness Assassin and the Kinetic Combat Shadow, addressing issues with survivability and damage in the class. If you've been feeling squishier or less resilient or noticed oddities with abilities, you can take part in the thread yourself. Early versions of these changes have already been rolled out to the test servers for the coming update. [Thanks to Mikey Moo for the tip!]
SWTOR ranked PvP rewards revealed
The end of Season 1 PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming with Game Update 2.7. Why should you care? Well, because that means you don't have a lot of time left to rank up and partake of the various tier rewards. BioWare has outlined them in a new post on its official website, and we're pretty sure you're going to want the ranked weapon set as well as the Rancor mount! [Thanks Dengar!]
Dev blog outlines SWTOR's inaugural PvP season
PvPers in Star Wars: The Old Republic who are looking forward to the first Ranked PvP season will be able to start blasting their way up the ranking ladder when Game Update 2.4.3 launches. To give players an idea of what to expect, Senior System Designer Rob Hinkle has drawn a roadmap of this inaugural season in a recent dev blog. When Season One begins, all pre-season rankings will be reset to default for a clean slate. Throughout the season, ratings will be available via web-based leaderboards. Although there is no definite date set for the end of this first season right now, BioWare is looking at a six-month run. Then near the end of the season, exclusive rewards for various tiers of ratings will be announced. And once the season ends, there will be a break before Season Two gets rolling.
Guild Wars 2 discusses upcoming arena changes
Guild Wars 2 isn't always about stories or elections or even dynamic content. Sometimes it's just about players getting into an arena and smashing each other to pieces. Players fond of the game's Rated Arenas can look forward to some upcoming improvements and additions, starting with a split into solo and team formats rather than the current catch-all header. While the game mechanics will be identified as both, Solo Arenas are composed solely of people queueing up alone, thereby ensuring that both sides of a match are thrown into a random group rather than a premade team facing several assorted members. The arenas will also implement a 72-hour debuff for players who abandon their matches, with five stacks preventing players from queueing up again. The full discussion of these changes goes on to promise more map randomization, spectator mode, and new permanent finishers for fans of rated PvP. It's good news for everyone, unless you made a long habit of joining rated games and then leaving for no reason.
Ranked PvP to be cut from SWTOR's Legacy patch
Despite extensive testing on the private test server, BioWare has decided to not include ranked PvP warzones in the latest patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although Update 1.2: Legacy will still go live tomorrow with a brand-new warzone, Novare Coast, the new reward and leveling system for level 50 players will sadly be missing. In an announcement on the official site, Lead Game Designer Daniel Erickson stated, "After careful consideration, it is clear that to make Ranked Warzones the feature we all want it to be is going to take a bit more time. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause and ask for your patience as we work to make sure the Ranked Warzone Preseason launch is polished and fun." Erickson did not reveal when we will see see ranked warzones on the live servers, but he did say that the team will roll out the feature in phases, starting with full-team (eight-player) queuing. He also noted that players can still earn the highly anticipated War Hero armor in Update 1.2 through other means. [Thanks to Marc for the tip!]
