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Hyperspace Beacon: Five quick and dirty tips for SWTOR update 2.3
This morning, the third major installment to Star Wars: The Old Republic since Rise of the Hutt Cartel hit the servers. BioWare calls Update 2.3 Titans of Industry; I call it Czerka, Czerka, Czerka. I've been on and off test center for the last few weeks, checking out not only the latest zone planet CZ-198 but also the Bounty Contract Week, and I figured that since you guys will likely be jumping right into this new content, I will give you a few tips of my own to help you better succeed in this new venture. Disclaimer: These quick and dirty tips are not endorsed by Czerka Corporation, the Galactic Republic, the Sith Empire, or their affiliates. The Hutt Cartel might endorse these tips, but seriously, when have you known Hutts not to be quick and dirty -- well, at least, dirty?
Hyperspace Beacon: Celebrating new SWTOR content
It's pretty crazy to think that BioWare's first foray into the Star Wars Universe, Knights of the Old Republic, turns 10 years old this week. For me, it doesn't seem that long ago that the game came out. Although I have trouble going back to play the game now (it's not aged well), I still appreciate what that game did to change a genre. At the time, the biggest story-driven RPGs tended to be JRPGs like the Final Fantasy series. Although Bethseda did a bang-up job with Morrowind, Knights of the Old Republic captured its audience by weaving in an amazing story with classic table-top style RPG elements. Happy birthday, KOTOR! To celebrate the tenth anniversary of KOTOR's release, BioWare gave every subscriber 500 Cartel Coins to spend any way he or she would like. And for a limited time, subscribers can buy the title Revan's Heir from the Cartel Market for 10 Cartel Coins, about 10 cents in US currency. But really this is small protatoes* compared to the new content coming out in Update 2.3, which includes Bounty Contract week, two new flashpoints, and a new daily area. With the recent update to the public test server, I was able to take my level 55 Assassin on a trip through the planet of CZ-198 (the daily area) to get a sense for what it's like to visit this Czerka-controlled world. Let me tell you that story. *protato -- a protein-enhanced synthetic vegetable, orange with no eye spots on the surface. Not to be confused with potatoes, which are vegetables shaped like Kessel that make Duros sick.
Take a tour through the new daily hub of Star Wars: The Old Republic
The Czerka Corporation in Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't evil, just amoral and motivated by ill-considered greed. And sometimes, yes, that does mean that a facility goes completely rogue and outside help needs to be called in to try and salvage the situation. That's what happened on CZ-198, and if you're wondering what sort of daily tasks will be necessary to retake the facility, you can take a gander at the full rundown of the daily quests for the zone right now. The zone has four daily quests as well as a weekly component that includes both of the new flashpoints run on any difficulty. If the promise of earning credits isn't enough to get you into the daily routine, you've also got the requisite selection of rewards, including two new sets of adaptive armor and a new customization for HK-51. Even when its facilities get overrun and require large-scale intervention by paramilitary strike teams, Czerka Corporation makes your life better.
Star Wars: The Old Republic outlines the Bounty Contract Week
Bounty hunting is a thing in Star Wars: The Old Republic, to the point that there's an entire class focused around bounties and the hunting thereof. But even if you're usually a meditative Jedi, you can still pick up a few extra credits in the upcoming Bounty Contract Week coming to the game in August. A new development blog details what players can expect from this event, offering players of nearly all levels a chance to earn reputation for taking down violent criminals. Each day, players can select a single contract to hunt, with the Bounty Brokers Association providing a selection of different planets with available contracts. Veteran hunters can also hunt for a single Kingpin target, a high-threat individual who requires more accomplished hunters. Success means credits and reputation with the BBA. Players from level 15 and up can take part in these missions, which scale to the level of the participant, ensuring that anyone who wants to get in on the hunt can start taking down criminals for credits.
What's the best way to get Lesser Charms of Fortune?
What's the best way to get Lesser Charms of Fortune every week? Although Blizzard recently reduced the amount of Lesser Charms of Fortune players need each week (by lowering the requirement for the weekly quest Mogu Coins of Fate from 90 charms to 50 charms) we've still got to get them somewhere. So what's the best way? Prior to patch 5.3, it seemed like everyone was swearing by pet battles. Players were claiming they'd earned hundreds to thousands of Lesser Charms just killing critters in Stormwind. A hotfix eventually nerfed the drop chance for Lesser Charms in lower level pet battles, but higher level pet battles are still rewarding charms to anyone who wants to put in the time. Is it still worth it? Patch 5.3 has also added a couple of changes to Lesser Charm collection to really mix up the equation. Level 90 creatures that are outdoors in the world now have a chance to drop Lesser Charms of Fortune, while rare spawns in Pandaria and bosses in Battlefield: Barrens are guaranteed to always drop the charms. The result of this? Hordes of players in Northern Barrens farming Lesser Charms off the new Kor'kron mobs there.
Breakfast Topic: How many dailies could you manage in one day?
Today is "Friday Dailies" for my guild, all ... day ... long. We're pushing for Daily Anticipation, the guild achievement for 150,000 dailies done. Sure, your guild may already have this achievement -- but it's not so easy to snag for a guild without a deep member roster. We're close: 140,608 as of last night. And there's no way we do 10,000 dailies in one day, so a single, mind-numbing night of grinding is out of the question. Still, wondering when we might notch the achievement gets one ticking off one's fingers and wondering ... Assuming you haven't stopped dailying around, how many dailies do you do every day? How many do you think you could complete in a normal-length (for you) play session if you really put the pedal to the metal? Which dailies would you line up first? If you were trying to do as many dailies as possible, is there somewhere you'd head outside of Pandaria to crank them out? [Thanks for the topic go to Gimmlette, who I suspect is merely trying to remind me to log in tonight and, er, do my dailies!]
Hyperspace Beacon: Why I don't do SWTOR's new GSI dailies
Nobody likes doing dailies. Dailies are a grind. Dailies are just something game designers use to keep players occupied until new content comes out. I've heard all those phrases before, and if dailies fall into one of those general categories, I don't do them. It is possible, however, that if doing dailies will help me acquire a significant reward (such as credits to buy that lightsaber hilt I've been eyeing), then I might overlook the grind to do the dailies anyway. But the key factor has to be time. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, time is your biggest investment. Despite what some players will tell you, there's a multitude of things to do at endgame. Unfortunately, a single player cannot do all of them all the time. You have to choose, and time to completion (or better yet, time to fun) weighs heavily in the decision-making process. Let me help make one of those decisions for you: Don't do the GSI dailies.
Track your Isle of Thunder to-do list with this handy addon
Patch 5.2, much like the Mists of Pandaria expansion overall, is practically dripping with content. There is content simply oozing out of Lor'themar Theron's over-sized pointy ears. Keeping track of it all is not the most fun thing in the world, and who wants to bother with that, anyway? If you're feeling a tad overwhelmed by it all, you're not alone, and post-its are not the only answer to your problem. Over at the WoW subreddit, redditor mfontani did us disorganized messes a favor by plugging a guildmate's addon creations. User Saregon has several addons designed to help keep our pixellated lives just that little bit more tidy. Isle of Thunder Weekly Check will open a window to let you know which weekly events your character has completed, so you don't get confused across level 90s. In a similar vein, Daily Tamer Check tracks pet battle daily quest completions, so you don't have to. If you've been looking for a handy way to keep tabs on all this stuff, this may be the solution you've been seeking.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR consolidates comms
Star Wars: The Old Republic's Rise of the Hutt Cartel hit the public test server last week, prompting a lot of players to rush to see the latest changes to this Star Wars MMORPG. Unfortunately, the majority of content slated to come out with this expansion has not been released publicly -- namely, the new planet of Makeb. Fortunately, we did get a sneak peek into the new gear progression as well as the Scum and Villainy operation. Gear progression is a common subject for this column and with good reason. Although there is skill involved when playing SWTOR, gear is the great equalizer. As in many themepark MMOs, a player's gear greatly determines whether or not he can defeat specific instances or bosses. Because of this, how a player earns gear and which gear happens to be the best at any given moment becomes top priority when new content comes out. With an additional five levels being added with Rise of the Hutt Cartel, gear becomes especially important. Let's examine how everything breaks down.
Alternative leveling in the Isle of Quel'Danas
I'm bored of Northrend. It is beautiful and has lovely music and is full of lore and I'm bored. It's the new Outland for me and my alts. Other ways to level abound, of course, but they all have their drawbacks and are various levels of "Been there; done that." as well. So I took Tizzi, the bored goblin mage, to a place where my aged druid spent many grindful days: the Isle of Quel'Danas. We complain about dailies now, but Quel'Danas (also known as the Sunwell Isle) was the land of too many dailies for our quest log. Grind, grind, grind we ancient Burning Crusade players did, so we could be of the Shattered Sun and get some lovely loot besides. When Quel'Danas was the in-thing, everyone was max-level, so there was no XP -- just the cash, gear, and camping. Oh, so very much camping. The Isle of Quel'Danas is vacant of players now, but is otherwise unchanged. It resides in a bubble in time, much like Outland, and the NPCs are still there to give quests or be slaughtered.
Insider's Guide to Mists of Pandaria: WoW Insider readers crowdsource their best tips and advice
Did you know you could do this? We crowdsourced readers' favorite advice for Mists of Pandaria and patch 5.1, to show you all the little inside tidbits you just might have been missing. Included is an entire section of tips for streamlining your dailies -- don't miss 'em! Let's rev up first with a few of our most recent tips and tricks posts: While there are limits to how far you can progress, you can start your farm as soon as you get to Pandaria -- no need to wait for level 90. Get exalted with Lorewalkers in an hour or less; collect all the lore objects for each "story" in a single, enjoyable session, or simply make sure you don't miss any nearby items while you're leveling. Murder this innocent creature, win fabulous prizes. Riding the Darkmoon carousel gives you a buff to XP and rep gains. I can turn into what? A baby panda? Tip: How to see if your Grand Commendation is active. Tip: Where to get new pets in old dungeons. Blingtron now helps you become a natty dresser. If you're a treant, here's how to become hot stuff. Down your dailies and discover hidden delights with our collection of reader discoveries and advice, collected after the break.
WoW Archivist: Patch 2.1, The Black Temple
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Blizzard ruined my intro. I was going to talk about how appropriate it was that patch 5.1 included a scenario for warlocks that took them to the Black Temple. Then they pushed it to 5.2. So fine. I'll just fall back to something generic. In terms of sheer content and changes, patch 2.1 was truly massive -- one of WoW's biggest patches of all time. It arrived in May 2007, five months into The Burning Crusade. Let's dive in! Illidan shouts at us in person We were ready, if not perhaps entirely prepared. After an ad campaign and a trailer that prominently featured Illidan, many players expressed disappointment that WoW's first expansion didn't launch with the Black Temple raid. In retrospect, those concerns seem silly today. If anything, the Black Temple released too early in the expansion, forcing Blizzard to add the ultradifficult Sunwell Plateau raid to fill the gap between expansions. The Black Temple was an enormous raid, and one of the game's most beloved. No matter where you went, everything was big and scary. In some areas, even clearing the trash felt epic. Nine bosses populated a vast indoor/outdoor instance. Many of them are still remembered fondly. Supremus and Reliquary of Souls were highly memorable encounters, the latter partly due its unforgiving awareness checks. Teron Gorefiend and Illidan were major lore figures able to be vanquished in WoW for the first time. BT wasn't the only raid that 2.1 introduced, however.
Tanks, healers, and a daily problem
As someone who plays a guardian/restoration druid, I've had mixed feelings about Blizzard's move to the "dailies model." Of course, you don't need to be playing a tank or healer to feel that way -- it would appear that everyone on the planet has mixed feelings about the seemingly-endless march of Mists of Pandaria dailies -- but there's an special agony to them if you don't have a battle-ready DPS spec. Beefy mob health pools make killing anything as a healer last the approximate length of the Roman Empire, and because quest mobs rarely hit hard enough to make Vengeance a threat, tanks don't fare much better. I will grant that grinding Golden Lotus to revered did give me the opportunity to finish Gone With the Wind after all these years. (Spoiler alert: The North wins the Civil War.) Now, dual-specs exist for just this reason -- i.e., so you don't have to quest on specs that are really designed for group play -- and I could avoid this problem if I really wanted, but here's the thing: I really like being a tank/healer. Whatever it takes to be a truly competitive DPS, I just don't have it, and I will tank or heal 5-mans and raids, happy as a clam, and hopefully contributing to a lower dungeon queue. By contrast, dailies leave me trying to collect every quest mob in sight to get enough Vengeance to AOE them down efficiently, but it feels really inconsiderate to do this while other players are trying to get the same mobs. And other players are always after them, because everyone's on the same rep grinds. Every day is like being trapped in the starting zone of a new expansion, and I honestly don't know if I have it in me to do this all over again on my alts (who are -- surprise, surprise -- tanks and healers).
Patch 5.1 PTR: Grand Commendations Boost Alt Reputation
WoW Insider posted in early October, detailing Blizzard's announcement of the upcoming changes to reputation gain. Blizzard had recognized that the heavy demands placed on players to grind out seemingly endless daily quests to gain reputation with a faction were altogether too onerous, particularly for those with a substantial stable of alts. Therefore, a system was announced whereby, once one character had attained revered reputation with a faction, every other character on that account would receive doubled reputation gains. Now, wowhead's dataminers have uncovered the method used by Blizzard to implement their new system: Grand Commendations. These bind on pickup items, such as the Grand Commendation of the Golden Lotus "Unlock 100% bonus reputation gain with the Golden Lotus for all characters on this account". They are available for all the existing Pandaria factions, as well as the new factions appearing in 5.1: Operation: Shieldwall and the Dominance Offensive. There is no pricing data yet, but it seems likely that these will be purchaseable from the faction quartermasters. If you're struggling to locate the faction quartermasters, Matt Rossi wrote a guide detailing their locations. It will be interesting to see if any such steps are taken retroactively, or whether it is considered unnecessary. Are there any pre-Mists factions for which such a system would be applicable, or even useful? Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Dailies in the Dread Wastes help you Stay Klaxxi
I am a warlock who later gets to look like a Sha, so I might be a tad biased about all the shadowy energy going on in the Dread Wastes, but it's a fun place to do dailies. I love the dailies here since your questing in the zone helps you later do your dailies with the Klaxxi. Then after you've done a ton of dailies for reputation, you can unlock one NPC at Honored and two more NPCs at Revered to finish off a couple of achievements. Bonus points if you're a fan of metal music -- all the Klaxxi NPC buffs you get are taken from song titles. Find each mantid paragon In pursuit of Stay Klaxxi, you will complete Amber is the Color of My Energy, which is to simply awaken each mantid paragon. Some paragons are locked behind reputation and some are locked behind questlines in the zone. Dread Haste Makes Dread Waste will also come easily as awakening the paragons is the major plot of the zone. You'll start by being sent to Bowmistress Li on top of the big wall, Serpent's Spine. Then:
Addon Spotlight: Reputation Addons
With Mists of Pandaria, reputation has gone from being something you need a tabard for, to something that's really quite a big deal. Currently, with patch 5.0.5, the only way to spend your valor points is to grind out reputations with the various Mists of Pandaria factions. Disregarding my personal stance on this, it seemed logical, after two consecutive weeks of Pet Battle addons, to move into a category of addon that actually helps you do something useful for your characters! Not that pet battles aren't useful, of course, they're just not directly contributing to your character in the same way as reputation grinding. And they're hopelessly addictive, unlike doing daily quests and other reputation grinds. So, let's get started. I actually think the default interface for reputation monitoring is quite good from Blizzard, as it's a feature that's existed for a really long while, I suppose they've had the time to get it working well. But there are always ways you can improve on it!
WoW Insider's Guide to the Anglers
The entire continent of Pandaria seems to ravaged by war, doubt, and uncertainty, but you wouldn't know it by visiting the Angler's Wharf. There you'll find a crew of light-hearted folks that are too busy sitting on a dock by Krasarang Bay with a fishing line tied to their toe. The humble fishers there have a variety of dailies and rewards that make it a breeze to level fishing -- and worthwhile to boot. If you're like me and actually enjoy the quiet solitude of casting a line in some far-off corner of WoW then this faction is just icing on the cake. A soggy introduction Before you hit level 90 and begin the interminable grind that is the Pandaria daily shuffle, your first introduction to the Anglers will be in Soggy's Gamble, in the southeastern corner of the Dread Wastes. All of the quests in that hub reward reputation with the Anglers, and in total should be enough to put you in striking distance of Friendly before you ever do a single daily. Make sure you complete these for an early boost to the rep. Now, let's dig into what the Anglers have to offer, exactly.
The Daily Grind: Do you log in for chance-based daily activities?
Daily quests are a fixture in MMOs. Whether a game is subscription-based or free-to-play, it has a vested interest in cajoling you to keep coming back (and spending money). F2P games in particular have latched on to a very specific type of non-combat daily "quest." In Free Realms, for example, players can spin a wheel once per day to receive a chance at random prizes and rewards. In Glitch, you can shuffle your upgrade cards for a new batch every game day. And the RIFT mobile app provides "Lootables," virtual lottery scratch-off tickets that you can play a few times per day for a chance for, well, loot in the real game. These types of "dailies" can sometimes put players who play in a few long bursts at a disadvantage to those who play in many short bursts. I know I'm annoyed when I constantly feel as if I need to log in and perform routine maintenance on a game so that my "real" playtime is enhanced. And that's without mentioning that some games will happily sell the equivalent of wheel spins to those players who didn't like the results of their freebie. Today, Massively's wondering what you think of non-combat daily quests transparently designed to keep you thinking about the game even when you're not playing it. Do you log in to spin wheels, shuffle cards, and scratch off virtual lottery tickets? Or do you ignore those daily activities? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Hyperspace Beacon: Easy money in SWTOR
Players have complained about Star Wars: The Old Republic's Legacy system's being a huge money sink. Why would I want to blow 275,000 credits to gain 30% extra XP? I'm not sure that the return is worth the investment unless you want to level multiple alts or level strictly through PvP, but I can understand BioWare's thinking regarding this sink. True, at the guild summit, we were told that the vast majority of level 50s have less than 500,000 credits in the bank, but I think you will agree that the money sink is needed when you see just how quickly money can be earned in SWTOR. I've been asked multiple times by other players, "What is the fastest way to make money?" Well, just as in any other MMO, there isn't any way to make money superfast from zero. But doing daily quests can certainly help you out with most money struggles. What if I told you that you can make nearly 200,000 credits in less than two hours? That 30% PvP XP increase doesn't seem so far away now, does it? Because any amount of credits can be instantly sent to any of your alts on the same server (including ones of the opposite faction), you can make this fast money on your level 50 and ship it quickly to the alt you wish to power level.
WoW Archivist: 5 years of daily quests
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Just like Officers' Quarters, another WoW staple has recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Daily quests were added to the game a little over five years ago, on May 22, 2007, in patch 2.1. One of Blizzard's big selling points for Mists seems to be its huge amount of daily quest content. Dailies are undoubtedly going to be a big deal at level 90. Blizzard has even lifted the daily quest cap that has stood at 25 for several years, so players will be free to do whatever dailies they like across the entire history of the game. Dailies seem like such an obvious and critical element of WoW, but they weren't part of the vanilla game. In this week's Archivist, we'll explore how daily quests began, how they have changed over the years, and how Blizzard is trying to recreate the glory days of daily quests in Mists. WTH is this blue exclamation point? Has a single piece of designed punctuation ever been as famous as WoW's chubby yellow exclamation point? It even has its own merchandise. Believe it or not, the exclamation point was one of Blizzard's biggest innovations when they created the game. No longer did you have to chat with every single NPC in town to figure out which one of them needed a favor -- a staple of RPG games for decades. Now you could tell at a glance which NPCs were willing to pay for a bit of random mercenary work. I remember how odd that first blue exclamation point looked. They had been yellow, after all, for two and a half years. Changing its color seemed like sacrilege. After accepting the quest, it had the word "(Daily)" next to it in my log -- it felt like both a promise and a warning. Daily quests were an exciting new element, but they were not without their critics.
