SWTOR 1.2.1 Patch Notes 4/24/12

Classes and Combat

    Jedi Knight
        Sentinel
            * Zen (with Ataru Form) now correctly reduces the global cooldown of Cyclone Slash.

    Smuggler
        General
            * Charged Burst's damage has been increased by approximately 5%.
        Gunslinger
            * Damage for Aimed Shot, Speed Shot, and Quickdraw has been increased by approximately 5%.
        Sharpshooter
            * Trickshot's damage has been increased by approximately 5%.

    Imperial Agent
        General
            * Snipe's damage has been increased by approximately 5%.
        Sniper
            * Damage for Ambush, Series of Shots, and Takedown has been increased by approximately 5%.
        Marksmanship
            * Followthrough's damage has been increased by approximately 5%.

    Trooper
        Commando
            Gunnery: Havoc Rounds now applies the correct healing increase to Kolto Bomb. It previously applied a smaller increase than intended.


Companion Characters

    General
        * Companion quickslots now update correctly when a new companion is summoned, correcting an issue that could cause the previous companion's abilities to continue displaying on the new companion's hotbar.
        * Earpieces and implants now properly apply their stat bonuses when equipped on companions. - REDACTED


Flashpoints and Operations

    Flashpoints
        Lost Island
            * Resolved an issue that could cause Doctor Lorrick's lab door to become stuck while closed when the fight was not active.
            * Players now appear on Project Sav'Rak's platform after the encounter. This addresses an issue that could prevent players from completing the Flashpoint if all group members exited the area before using the bridge controls.

    Operations
        Explosive Conflict
            * The range of Stormcaller's Electric Discharge and Firebrand's Missile Barrage has been increased to 35 meters.
            * A total of 4 mines must now be successfully defused in order to complete the minefield encounter.
            * Chests in Hard Mode no longer drop Black Hole gear.


Items

    General
        * The cost for PvP consumables has been reduced to 10 commendations.
        * Corrected an issue that prevented item rolling prompts from appearing for Custom (orange) items.
        * The cost for Rated War Hero PvP gear has been reduced. This does not impact the time required to obtain base War Hero gear.


Legacy
    * The Rocket Boost ability can now be used inside and isn't restricted by areas that do not permit vehicles. It cannot be used in combat or in Warzones.


PvP

    Warzones
        Alderaan Civil War: Players can no longer be knocked off of speeders while traveling to the battlefield.
        Voidstar: Players no longer earn defender credit for defending a previously destroyed objective.


Space Combat
    * Corrected an issue that could cause Space Combat audio to fade out or pan inappropriately from the left to right speaker.
    * Drexel Sweep: Corrected an issue that caused the first several enemies ships to disappear upon loading into this mission.
    * Makem Te Assault: An issue that could cause the Smuggler player ship to clip through enemies at the beginning of this mission has been corrected.


UI

    General
        * Helmets now work correctly when unifying colors on the character sheet.
        * An issue that caused stackable items to display incorrect stack numbers when replaced on the hotbar with another stackable item has been corrected.
        * The dialog for setting keybindings is now canceled properly if the player presses the "X" button to close it.
        * Corrected an issue that prevented the mail window from opening after refreshing the UI with the mail window open.
        * The World Map will now properly update as missions complete and/or progress.
        * Corrected an issue that sometimes prevented "new mail" notifications from functioning.

    Character Creation
        * During character creation, Legacy Cyborg appearance options are now labeled.
        * The display of selected options in character creation has been improved.

    Groups and Targeting
        * Group frames now appear correctly when the option "Use Operation Frames as Group Frames" is toggled off.

    Guilds
        * Corrected an issue that could cause insufficient Guild Bank funds for repairs or respecs to appear even if sufficient credits were available.
        * Players will no longer become "stuck" and unable to receive a guild invite if they were sent an invite just before entering a cinematic or while the loading screen is present.

    Social
        * Corrected an issue that prevented players from adding offline players to their friends list.
        * Players now correctly see a red phase gate (and are appropriately blocked from entering) if they are not permitted to join a group member's class phase.
        * Chat tabs now preserve the selected font size if they are detached from the main chat window.
        * The list in /who now automatically updates when the window is opened with the /who command.


Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
    * An issue that prevented players from logging out of the game if the ESC button was used to close the logout window has been addressed.
    * Corrected a sound issue that caused a loud, unintended sound on the Republic and Imperial Fleets (and potentially other areas with many characters present).
    * Corrected some issues with French and German in-game text/dialogue.
    * Corrected an issue that could cause characters in cinematics to appear grey in color.
    * Objects that can be interacted with will no longer stop glowing if players get too far away from them and then return.

SWTOR Community Q & A 4/20/2012

04.20.2012

Two weeks ago, we asked for your questions and unfortunately, we had to delay posting the answers to the Q&A until today. Please note in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some questions for clarity.
We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CDT on April 24th, 2012 (12pm PDT/3pm EDT/8pm BST/9pm CEST/5am AEST). We welcome your questions in that thread and hope you enjoy the answers below.
If you want to discuss any of the answers given, please use this Forum thread!

BlackMink: Could you please explain SWTOR's threat mechanics? What exactly do the de-taunt abilities do, and how exactly is threat generated? Is threat directly related point for point to the damage you do, or does each individual ability generate a pre-set amount of threat?
Cameron Winston (Combat Designer): Threat is calculated based on damage done, plus or minus certain modifiers, with one damage translating directly into one point of threat. These modifiers are always called out in the abilities which adjust them. For example, Soresu Form increases your threat generation globally, while Crushing Blow or Hilt Strike specifically generates extra bonus threat when activated.
De-taunt abilities reduce your threat level by a flat percentage of its current value. Healing generates less threat than damage and is split evenly among all enemies you are currently fighting.

Keldain: Love the stuff for 1.2! I think you guys are doing a great job on addressing the issues of the community. Just one thing I would really like an update on: is there any movement on getting an option to toggle hoods on and off?
Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): This is totally in the plan, but we are unsure at this time when it will get to you. 

Pierre-olivier: Will it be possible to create a guild uniform or get a distinctive sign. I mean other than the name displayed above the character?
Damion: At some point, this will be possible.  No ETA yet, but we have a design fleshed out.

Irouven: What is the idea behind the selection at the equipment vendor for planetary commendations? Sometimes you get boots, sometimes chest-armor, never a potential "full" outfit.
Damion: We don't want you to get all of the pieces of an armor set from any one source of gear.  We want you to do multiple activities in the game to build out a full set of gear.  This is a conscious decision on our part to encourage and reward playing multiple facets of the game.  So you should do other things -- heroics, check the GTN, etc -- the full set of gear is out there.

TheCritter: If I delete a character with Legacy unlocks do I lose those unlocks? For example, if I have a human female Sniper at level 50 with Act 3 completed will I lose the race unlock, Heroic Ability, and class emote for my other characters if I delete her?  
Damion: You will keep all unlocks that you have managed to unlock so far. 

Zawny: Any chance there will be an effort to develop account storage somewhat similar in nature to guild banks so that characters on an account can access items rather than mailing them under what the current plan appears to be?
Damion: We have a plan for this.  However, since there is currently a workaround for this (mailing items to your alt), this is a lower priority than some of the other improvements we have earmarked for the legacy system. 

DarthBloodloss: Why doesn't ranked War Hero armor (or the new tier of PvE armor) have augment slots?
Georg Zoeller (Principal Lead Combat Designer): It is possible to obtain ranked War Hero appearance with augment slots from crafters on the GTN. The schematics for the those items can be found on the PvP vendor and a critical success while crafting them will result, as with other armor, in an additional augment slot.
It is also worth noting that we will be adding a way to add an augment slots to existing modifiable armor in a future game update.

Aikiyc: Can we get a clarification on how interceptions in Huttball work? Currently, it seems to be mostly random, with a somewhat increased chance of intercepting if all the allied receivers are stunned. Does the number of allies VS enemies factor in? Closest to the center of or edge of the passing zone?
Gabe Amatangelo (PvP & Endgame Designer): The player closest to the center of the landing spot circle who is not stunned or mezzed will receive the ball, regardless of what team they are on.

Grandmthethird: It seems to me like some companions have a hard time when it comes to gear. I’m sure there is more but I’m thinking specifically of Torian and Skadge. It seems impossible to get aim melee weapons. Is this an oversight? Or am I simply missing something?
David White (Systems Designer): Aim melee weapons are used by a very small subset of companions.  For this reason we tend to distribute those items through either vendors or class specific quest rewards.  Our goal is to make these items reasonably available without constantly putting essentially “worthless” items in front of players who do not care about them.  We also make the items customizable (orange) when possible to make it easier to keep them up-to-date by swapping out the Mods and Enhancements.  Ultimately it’s a delicate balance to make sure they can be reasonably found and maintained by the players who care about them without them becoming a nuisance to players who might not even understand why they exist.

Thanks for all of your questions, and thanks to the team for answering them. If you’d like to put forward a question for next week’s Q&A, please visit this Forum thread!

Originally posted here.

Daily Quests and PVE Gear in SWTOR Patch 1.2

Hey everyone, with the release of 1.2, there is going to be a big rush to do dailies for credits and also leveling alts to gain benefits of the legacy system. I have created this guide here to help you with all the dailies (new and old) in 1.2 and also the ways to get geared up in patch 1.2 once you have reached 50.

Lets start with a nice big inforgraphic showing you the entire gear progresssion in 1.2!

Recruit Armor
Recruit armor is a set of PvP armor you can directly purchase at the PvP vendor for around ~300k for the full set. This is a good starter set, even for fresh 50s doing PvE content. The side bonus is that you can also jump into PvP with this set.

Piece	Credits
Chest	31700
Legs	31700
Head	31700
Gloves	26200
Boots	26200
Belts	20500
Bracers	20500
Ear	17000
Implant	17000×2
Offhand	19300
Mainhand	38600
Relic	11300×2
Total	320000

You might be wondering how it stacks with custom modded orange armor obtained from doing dailies. Below I will give you a comparison of 5 pieces, using the Recruit Force Master set (sorc/sage DPS) and custom modded gear using armoring/mods/enhancements from dailies. I am going to use the Slave Girl outfit as the custom armor base since it has 5 pieces and everyone is familiar with it!
For the Custom piece, I used the slave girl set as the base and then used Advanced Resolve Armoring 22 (purchased from Daily Vendor),

Advanced Aptitude Mod 22

(Belsavis heroic daily reward), 2x Advanced Quick Savant Enhancement 22

(Ilum heroic daily reward), and 3x Advanced Battle Enhancement 22

(Ilum heroic daily reward). I realized that you could get the Q23 armoring from the daily vendor but the goal here is to use only mission rewards and save Daily Commendations for the ear, implants, and relics.
Here is the character builder with Recruit 5-piece
http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/a93c8d7f-98da-403c-a6a7-af7edc98e446
Here is the character build with custom modded 5 –piece
http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/8c8206db-a7a2-47cd-8a9d-fb6f35133a75
How do they stack up?

	Recruit	Custom
Endurance	545	585
Willpower	575	665
Power	120	189
Crit	72	81
Surge	84	117
Alacrity	126	78

Anyways, as you can see, the stats are not too terribly different between the two sets. Custom modded armor using stuff from dailies do offer you more options – you can sort of choose the stats you want.
If I were a fresh 50, I would grab the Recruit set first and then over the time as I do dailies, update them with custom modded armor.
Dailies:
Before we jump into dailies, let me offer you a nice chart with all the dailies tabulated for 1.2!


There are now three planets to do dailies in: Belsavis, Ilum, and with 1.2, the Black Hole area in Corellia. Keep in mind that Black Hole is a separate zone within Corellia and you will need to take a shuttle to get there (the shuttle is right next to the spaceport).
Why do dailies you ask? Campaign relics (better than the relics from Nightmare KP), and Rakata ear/implants for fresh 50s. The new Recruit gear has made the Q23 armoring/barrels/hilts you can purchase and the Q22 enhancements/mods from heroic dailies a bit less of an upgrade but they are still there if you want to completely customize your armor for PvE.
You can also get some legacy armor kits for your alts in your legacy. Artificers can also purchase some schematics to make the color crystals for weapons. Here is a list of the new stuff included in the Daily Vendor in 1.2.
Note: The relics are actually BoP (Bind on Pickup) and not BoE as the tooltips here indicates

Name	Cost
Campaign Relic of Boundless Ages	200
Campaign Relic of Dark Radiance	200
Campaign Relic of Elemental Transcendance	200
Campaign Relic of Ephemeral Mending	200
Campaign Relic of Imperiling Serenity	200
Campaign Relic of Shield Amplification	200
Campaign Relic of the Cerulean Nova	200
Campaign Relic of the Kinetic Tempest	200
Campaign Relic of the Primeval Fatesealer	200
Campaign Relic of the Shrouded Crusader	200
Schematic: Advanced Blue Eviscerating Crystal	20
Schematic: Advanced Blue Hawkeye Crystal	20
Schematic: Advanced Blue Indestructible Crystal	20
Schematic: Advanced Red Eviscerating Crystal	20
Schematic: Advanced Red Hawkeye Crystal	20
Schematic: Advanced Red Indestructible Crystal	20
Birthright Headgear Construction Kit	250
Birthright Leggings Construction Kit	200
Inheritance Boots Construction Kit	100
Inheritance Jacket Construction Kit	200

For Belsavis and Ilum dailies, you need to finish your class quest first and then you can receive the Ilum and Belsavis bonus series which you can complete to unlock all of the dailies.  It is not known if you need to complete your class quest to receive the Black hole starter quest but you should be finishing your class quest anyways. Btw, for those wondering, you don’t need to finish the Corellia planet quests to receive the Black Hole quests.
Black Hole – Corellia

• The starter quest that leads you to the Black Hole area can be picked up on the Fleet. For the Imperial fleet this is Sergeant Karloss on the imperial fleet inner ring.
• 5 solo dailies, rewards 6 Daily Commendations in total (one [AREA]quest has multiple stages and rewards 2 daily commendations). You get ~ 7k credits in per quest, except for the multi-staged one, which rewards you ~ 11k credits. That is about 40 k credits at least per day from all the solo dailies.
• One heroic H4+ daily, can be 2-manned if you are geared. Reward you with 3 Daily Commendations and either a blue prototype box or an orange piece.
• One weekly, requiring to complete all the solo and group dailies once. Reward you with 6 Black Hole Commendations and 16k credits.
• All of the solo dailies are fairly easy to do but can get annoying if there are quite a few people doing them as the area isn’t exactly packed with quest mobs.
• All of the dailies are picked up at the quest terminal, you can pick up the heroic after you done all the solo dailies for the day.
• Total Rewards/day: 9 Daily Commendations and 56, 043 credits

Here is a list of the quest names for both the Empire and Republic side. I will also do a short write up on both the Empire and Republic dailies below. Skip if you already know how to do them

Type	Empire	Republic	Reward
Solo Daily	Hypermatter Directive	Counter Eco-Terroism	1 Daily Commendation, 7175 credits
Solo Daily	Glow	Forced Labor	1 Daily Commendation, 7175 credits
Solo Daily	Control the Battlefield	Stolen Victory	1 Daily Commendation, 7175 credits
Solo Daily	No Trace Left	Eyes and Ears	1 Daily Commendation, 7175 credits
Multistaged [AREA] solo daily	Asset Liquidiation	Criminal Crackdown	2 Daily Commendation, 11196 credits
Heroic  4+	The End of Torvix	Chasing Shadow	3 Daily Commendation, 16147 credits

Empire-Hypermatter Directive

• Steal 5 emergency hypermatter supplies.
• No mobs are initially present but there are probes constantly being deployed that scans within a certain radius. If you are “scanned”, a strong mob will spawn and attack you.
• Has sort of a stealth/Splinter Cell feel to it.

Empire-Glow

• You will need to kill mobs and grab the Anti-Rad injector they drop, these injections will protect you from 10 ticks of the toxic water.Do not fight in the water, fight in the land whatever possible.
• First console where you need to reroute the Hypermatter pipeline is immediate in front of you as you enter the “instance”, guarded by a group of mobs where you will receive your first Anti-Rad injector.
• Reroute the remaining 3 Hypermatter pipeline located throughout the room (see the pictures below).

Empire-Control the Battlefield

• Kill and easy, kill 12 mobs (same mobs required by Asset Liquidation) and turn in!

Empire-No Trace Left

• Also very easy, identity 3 spies located in the same room as the quest terminal using the quest item they gave you. Each time you use the item, it will tell you how close you are to the spy (i.e. 15m, 10m, 5m).

Empire-[AREA] Asset Liquidation

• Automatically received when you get off the shuttle and enter the Black Hole area.
• Multiple stages: stage 1- kill 20 mobs, stage 2- destroy 6 munition caches, stage 3 – destroy the Com Tower and recover T-5R7 memory core.

Empire-[HEROIC 4+] – The end of Torvix

• You will need to complete all the solo dailies (except the multi-staged [area] one) first to pick this one up.
• Fairly challenging heroic 4+ but can be handled by two people with 2 companions if geared.
• Having CC (Crowd Control) abilities will make this one easier.
• Multiple steps, it is not a quick and easy one like the Belsavis/Ilum ones.
• Puzzle at the end: goal is reroute toxic liquid from the left side of the wall to the right using 3 buttons on the consoles, each button handles a different pipe so play around with it until everything connects!

Republic – Counter Eco-Terrorism

• Do not go into the toxic water! Kill the mobs around the water to obtain an Anti-Rad Injector that will give you 10 stacks of protection against the toxic water.
• You will need to disable the holes in the tanks that are leaking toxic water (marked in the picture below). Each injector will allow you to disable 2 of these holes before you will need to run out.

Republic – Forced Labor

• Rescue 5 Drall eningeers stuck in a holding cell. Pretty simple mission but the area is not “instanced” do it is best if you group up and all get credit at the same time.

Republic – Stolen Victory

• Recover 15 stolen prototype weapon, which are in chests scattered around the quest area and also dropped by mobs guarding the chests.
• Fairly easy quest, but can be annoying to get it done if there are a lot of other players around; luckily, the respawn timer on chests/mobs is not too bad.

Republic – Eyes and Ears

• “Stealth” mission similar to Empire’s Hypermatter Directive.
• You will need to plant 5 listening devices, but there are probes being deployed constantly around the room. If these detect you, a strong mob will spawn and attack you.

Republic – [AREA] Criminal Crackdown

• Automatically received when you get off the shuttle and enter the Black Hole area.
• Multiple stages: stage 1- kill 15 mobs, stage 2- destroy 4 weapon containers (if you have CC abilies, you can CC the strong mob, kill the weak one ,destroy the container and leave before the strong mob wakes up), stage 3 – Destroy the Sensor Hub and kill Quick-Hands Quarl (He has an ability called Artillery that you should interrupt if you can).

Republic – [HEROIC 4+] – Chasing the Shadow

• You will need to complete all the solo dailies (except the multi-staged [area] one) first to pick this one up.
• Fairly challenging heroic 4+ but can be handled by two people with 2 companions if geared.
• Having CC (Crowd Control) abilities will make this one easier.
• Fairly short (much shorter than the Empire equivalent) and ends in an epic boss fight.
• Koric, the last boss has a two main abilities: First one is the grenades which he throws on a random player and pulls a nearby group member to that person. It has a small DoT (400 damage per tick) and slow effect.

• The second ability is a giant yellow circle on the ground which lasts for a few seconds before an airstrike  lands. It doesn’t really hurt but it is best to get out of it.

Ilum Dailies

Type	Empire	Republic	Reward
Solo – Base	A Tightened Grip	Jamming the Transmission	1 Daily Commendation,10762 credits
Solo – Base	Defend the Shipment	Pilot Down	1 Daily Commendation, 10762 credits
Solo – Base	Operation Shatterstorm*	A Fair fight	1 Daily Commendation, 10762credits
Solo – Waystation	Rightful Owner	Icy Destruction	1 Daily Commendation, 10762 credits
Solo – Waystation	Sabtotage	Crystal Clear Sabotage	1 Daily Commendation, 10762 credits
Heroic 2+	Poisonous Strategy*	Darkness on Ilum*	3 Daily Commendation, 13995 credits (Empire), 16147 credits (Republic), Q22 enhancements

*Operation Shatterstorm have a multi-staged bonus quest that can be only completed once per character that grant you 13,995 credits and 2 Daily Commendations.
*Poisonous Strategy/Darkness on Ilum also have a multi-staged bonus quest that can be only completed once per character that grant you 2332 credits and 2 Daily Commendations.
You can get a total of 8 Daily Commendations and 67805 credits per day for all the Empire dailies. Republic dailies will grant you 69957 credits in total.
Belsavis Dailies
Empire

Type	Location	Name	Reward
Solo	Imperial Domination Outpost	Invisible Threat	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Imperial Domination Outpost	Unintended Consequences	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Heroic 2+	Imperial Domination Outpost	Lights Out	3 Daily Commendation, 13995 credits, Orange weapon for your companions
Heroic 2+	Imperial Domination Outpost	Old enemies	3 Daily Commendation, 13995 credits,Q22 armoring or blue prototype box
Solo	Deep Launchpoint Transporter	Reluctant Volunteers	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Deep Launchpoint Transporter	Ancient Transmission	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Deep Launchpoint Transporter	Found in Translation	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Signal Monitoring Center	Droid Malfunction	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Signal Monitoring Center	The Carriers of Xenovirus Prime	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Heroic 2+	Signal Monitoring Center	Freeing the Fallen	3 Daily Commendation, 13995 credits, Q22 mods or blue prototype box
Solo	Tunnel North of Signal Monitoring Center	Deadly Mutations	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits

That is a total of 17 Daily Commendations and 99,395 credits for the Empire Belsavis dailies.
Republic

Type	Location	Name	Reward
Solo	Republic Wildness Outpost	Strengthening the Chain	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Republic Wildness Outpost	Restraining the Darkness	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Republic Wildness Outpost	Emergent Medicine	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Heroic 2+	Meltwater Outpost	A Lesson is Learned	3 Daily Commendation, 9330 credits, Q22 mods
Heroic 2+	Meltwater Outpost	Open Communications	3 Daily Commendation, 9330 credits, orange weapon for your companions
Solo	Frozen Transport Center	Riot	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Heroic 2+	Frozen Transport Center	Stasis Generator	3 Daily Commendation, 9330 credits, Q23 armoring or blue prototype box
Solo	Oasis Republic Outpost	Prison Repairs	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Oasis Republic Outpost	Containing the Beast	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Oasis Republic Outpost	Unheard Frequencies	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits
Solo	Oasis Republic Outpost	Sleeping Rakata	1 Daily Commendation,7175 credits

That is a total of 17 Daily Commendations and 85,390 credits for the Empire Belsavis dailies.
Space dailies
Just you thought you were done with your dailies, there is also a daily for the highest level space mission that rewards 2 Daily Commendations and 6540 credits. This daily is called Operation Ascendant Pride on the Empire side and Operation New Eclipse for the Republic side.
Hardmode Flashpoints
Starting in 1.2, there are no more daily lockouts for Hardmode flashpoints! This means that you can farm these flashpoints whenever you like!
All the hardmode flashpoints pre-1.2 will drop only Columi grade gear on the last boss. You can check out this guide to I wrote to see what they drop.
However, the new Hardmode flashpoint introduced in 1.2, Lost Island, will drop Columi grade loot on every boss and the last boss also drops Rakata loot (Rakata chest). Be warned though, it is fairly diffcult compared to previous Hardmode Flashpoints and you definitely need to have previous gearing from pre-1.2 Hardmode flashpoints or Warzones for a successful run.
Don’t forget to pick up the following weekly and daily from the mission terminal located on the Supplies section of the fleet.
[DAILY] Galactic Conflicts – complete any of the Hardmode Flashpoints
[WEELY] Rakghoul Conflicts – Complete Hardmode Kaon Under Siege and Lost Island
You can also pick up the Vehicle Achievement – [Aratech Ice] from the achievement terminal located in the GTN section of the fleet (next to the guild bank).
Warzones
If you like to PvP, Battlemaster gear is also an alternative to running hardmode flashpoints for Columi gear. With 1.2, Battlemaster gear has no more valor requirement to wear. It can now be directly purchased via Warzone Commendations earned by doing warzones.
While Battlemaster maybe be lacking a bit when it comes to primary stats (i.e. willpower, endurance), it does have a bit more of secondary stats (i.e. crit, surge etc).
Operations – Rakata Gear
Hardmode/Nightmare Eternity Vault and Karagga’s Palace all drop Rakata gear, to see which bosses drop what. Please consult this guide here I wrote here.
The new operation, Explosive Conflict, also drops Rakata gear on storymode (also known as normal mode). It drops some Rakata stuff previously only available to Daily commendation vendors like Rakata implants. Here is a quest list of the loot dropped off storymode EC.
Explosive Conflict – Storymode

• Toth and Zorn: Rakata Bracer, Rakata Implant, Rakata Chest
• Stormcaller and Firebrand: Rakata Belt, Rakata Offhand, Rakata Boot
• Colonel Vorgath: Rakata Legs, Rakata Gloves, Rakata Implant
• Warload Kephess: Rakata Helmet, Rakata Mainhand, Black Hole MK-3 Legs

Remember to pick up [WEEKLY] Deadly Operations which give you 20 Columi commendations for defeating either Gharj or Jarg & Sorno in Hard/Nightmare EV & KP.
Also pick up [WEEKLY] Galactic Crisis Points for defeating Colonel Vorgath in storymode Explosive Conflict.
For Vehicles, you can pick up Vehicle Achievement – [Aratech Fire] from the achievement terminal located in the GTN section of the fleet (next to the guild bank), which rewards you with the vehicle for kill bosses in the three operations on storymode.
Operations – Black Hole Gear
Black Hole is a new tier of gear (rating 146) introduced with patch 1.2. There are 3 variants: Black Hole MK-1, MK-2, and MK-3. MK-1 gear can be purchased directly from the vendor with Black Hole Commendations (weapons are not available for purchase unfortunately). MK-2 and MK-3 are dropped from Hardmode Explosive Conflict (MK-3 legs also dropped off the last boss of storymode Explosive Conflict)
Black Hole gear has no set bonus unfortunately and cannot be reverse engineered (mods/earpieces/implants can be RE’ed)
The exchange rate is as follows

Slot	Black Hole Commendations
Offhand	50
Head	60
Chest	60
Gloves	50
Legs	55
Feet	50
Bracer	30
Belt	35
Ear	35
Implant	35
Implant	35
Total	495

Where to obtain Black Hole Commendations?

• Corellia Black Hole weekly – 6 Black Hole commendations/ week
• Weekly quest Rakghoul Conflicts (complete Hardmode Lost Island and Kaon Under Siege)
• Nightmare Pilgrim – World Boss on Voss
• Storymode Explosive Conflict – 2 Black Hole Commendations per boss, 4 per chest (3 chests found so far)
• Hardmode Explosive Conflict – 4 Black Hole Commendations per boss, 4 per chest.
• Nightmare Karagga’s Palace

Operations – Campaign Gear
Campaign gear is obtained from Hardmode Explosive Conflict and Nightmare Pilgrim – World Boss on Voss.
The loot table for Campaign gear, once completed, can be found here in that loot list I linked earlier. Keep in mind that tokens for Campaign gear are not class specific (i.e. bosses will drop a helm token that any class can trade in for armor).
Unlike Black Hole gear, Campaign gear does have a set bonus. It can also be Reverse Engineered for a schematics, which allow it crafters the chance to add an augment slot if they crit while crafting. 
The point of Black Hole gear is to offer a stats alternative to the campaign gear. If you are curious about what the stats difference between Black Hole and Campaign gear, check out this guide I wrote a couple days ago.
For Vehicles, you can pick up Vehicle Achievement – [Aratech Nightscythe] from the achievement terminal located in the GTN section of the fleet (next to the guild bank), which rewards you with the vehicle for kill bosses in the three operations on Hardmode (nightmare KP/EV should also work).
Augmented Gear
The BiS (Best in Slot) gear is going to come from orange gear with augment slots. You will need a crafter to make you an orange armor shell that has an augment slot. Then you can move your armoring, mods, enhancements into that orange shell and also add an augment for additional stats.
Unfortunately, the set bonus won’t transfer with armoring for any of the pre-1.2 gear, only Campaign gear (for PVE gear)  has set bonus that transfer with armoring. This means that you won’t be able to wear fully augmented gear until you start clearing Hardmode Explosive Conflict.

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SWTOR patch 1.2 goes live tomorrow!

It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for the Legacy system improvements contained in patch 1.2 for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but The wait is almost up. TOR will finally get the tangled, dysfunctional family trees that a Star Wars game deserves when the update goes live tomorrow.
The patch will let us weave TOR alts into grand space soap operas. Your Sith warrior can secretly be your Jedi Knight’s brother, who can be a secret family friend of your Imperial Agent, who once had a cup of tea with your Republic smuggler, and so on. As fascinating as it’ll be to slot everyone into a tangled family tree, the new legacy rewards are the real draw here. We’ll finally be able to use all that legacy experience amassed since launch day on new race options, convenience items, new powers and more.

The update 1.2 page has an overview of the new stuff patch 1.2 will add to TOR tomorrow, and features a picture of the saddest manacled, electric bipedal crocodile monster I’ve ever seen. It’s no surprise that he’s a bit miserable. He seems to be a monster in the new Operation, Explosive Conflict, and has the look of a creature readying himself to be repeatedly beaten up by excited raid parties for the rest of his existence.

Update 1.2 will not be kind to manacled bipedal crocodile monsters.

The patch will also add a bunch of features players have been asking for for a while, including guild banks and UI customisation. There will be major additions to the crafting system and we’ll be able to tear top level mods out of new endgame gear and slot them into any piece of customisable apparel we fancy.
There will be a new Flashpoint as well, following on from the events of Kaon Under Siege. It’s set on a lost island on Ord Mantell, and will give players the opportunity to hunt down the scum responsible for unleashing the Rakghoul virus on the galaxy and punch them with a lightsaber. Predictably, the culprits are hiding behind “endless hordes of twisted creatures,” as evildoers are wont to do. That only means more XP and loot for us. Bring it on.

Unrated PvP Gear Pricing in SWTOR Patch 1.2

Click to enlarge.

Special 1.2 Q&A from April 6th

This week’s Q&A continues on from last week  where we answered a number of questions about Game Update 1.2. We had so many questions we broke the Q&A into two parts! Next week we’ll return to answering more general questions you might have. We’ll open a Forum thread for you to contribute as normal.
As a reminder, two weeks ago we suggested a shift in focus in your questions. As development plans are always subject to change, questions about future features will often get vague answers which can be repetitive and sometimes annoying. With that in mind, the development team is more interested in questions about current in-game features or systems, or questions about why development decisions were made. You’re still welcome to ask questions about future features and we’ll continue to answer them where appropriate – just expect the occasional ‘soon.’
We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CDT on April 10th (7pm GMT/8pm CET). We welcome your questions in that thread and hope you enjoy the answers below. As always some questions have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Thangunis: Soon I will hit level 50 and was wondering what to do with my commendations. If I understand correctly the new Recruit gear set is more PVP oriented and has less PvE stats? Is the old gear worth buying or should I wait for the new Recruit? I would like to buy Battlemaster directly with commendations but I can only have 1000 commendations, right?
David Hunt (Sr. Systems Designer): PvP gear going forward has more Expertise than the initial PvP gear, which includes the Recruit set. The Recruit set is also purchased for credits. You have a few options for handling your existing commendations, but what you should do depends on what types of commendations you have.
Centurion, Champion, and Battlemaster Commendations: These currencies are getting deprecated in Game Update 1.2. There are a few miscellaneous things you can purchase in Game Update 1.2 that are currently on the vendors on PTS. Most players will be best served by spending any of these commendations that they have now before 1.2 goes live.
Warzone Commendations: The cap on Warzone Commendations is increasing in Game Update 1.2, and they buy many more valuable items. Characters that do not have Battlemaster gear will probably benefit the most by spending Warzone Commendations to stay below the cap, but should try to keep 1,000 commendations for 1.2 to spend them on Battlemaster gear.
Unassembled PvP Tokens: These currencies are deprecated and have no value in Game Update 1.2.

Giolon: I read in patch notes that sniper rifles will no longer drop for Republic players - what about Risha and Zenith? These companions use sniper rifles. How are we supposed to gear them up if sniper rifles no longer drop for Republic players?
David Hunt: There are still several ways to get sniper rifles for Republic players – this change primarily removed them from boss drops. Sniper rifles can still be crafted, purchased from vendors, and modded. And with Game Update 1.2, weapons that drop more frequently on one side can always be mailed across from the other side with legacy characters.

CamoCladn: If I reverse engineer orange items, will I be able to obtain the schematics for them in Game Update 1.2? It would be great if I can get schematics to attempt to get augment slots as this would grant the ability to look just like I want.
Patrick Malott (Systems Designer): While in reverse engineering mode, items that can provide research variations will display a ‘Chance to Research a Schematic: x%’ tooltip. Otherwise, the tooltip will read “No Research Available.” Reverse Engineering to get Armormech Schematics pertains to the new endgame tier of Operation items and PvP Battlemaster/War Hero items.

Ironcleaver: I was under the assumption that the three crafting classes would gain the new augment schematics through their trainers... but seeing what's listed under Slicing, does this mean the schematics are only gained as critical rewards through Slicing?
Patrick Malott: Correct. Augment schematics are not learned via the crafting trainers. They are acquired as Sliced Tech Part mission critical rewards through Slicing.

Shaynae: According to the patch notes: The chance of researching schematics via reverse engineering has been significantly increased. However I'm not seeing this on the stuff I'm trying, in fact I am getting purples from blues much less often than on the live servers. Yes, I do understand that some of it is luck. I found the Tier one stuff came pretty easier, but now the Tier three stuff I'm having either a really long run of bad luck or there is something wrong.
Patrick Malott: As stated earlier, while reverse engineering, items that can provide research variation will display a ‘Chance to Research a Schematic: x%’ tooltip. This chance will currently either be 20% or 10%. Pre-Game Update 1.2, Artifact items (Purples) had as low as a 4% chance for research. In addition, the “You already know that schematic” bug we fixed for this patch was preventing some research variations from being learned. Research chances overall should be significantly higher in 1.2.

Babouine: Will you guys add new stuff to the VIP area on the Fleets?
Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): We will definitely be adding new items to the VIP areas on the fleets in the future, but we can’t give you an exact estimate on when just yet.

Xsmspiffs: Could we get an option to allow others to see the Guild Ledger, and show the Guildmaster on it? 
Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): The Guildmaster not showing will be corrected in Game Update 1.2. We will eventually allow the Guildmaster to set who can see the guild ledger via permissions - this will not make 1.2, but is definitely coming in a future update.

Alexbeav: I love the new Smart Camera toggle option! However, I have one observation to make: when you move (with smart cam off), the camera does not rotate, but when you use an ability, the camera resets back behind the player. The same thing happens when traveling by taxi. Is this an oversight or is it intended?
Damion: That's a bug - good catch! I'll get a bug into the system, and hopefully we'll get a fix either in Game Update 1.2 or a patch shortly afterwards.

Mysquine: Whilst trying to do "/who x" (x being level) or "/who x-x" it does not return anything, if you type "/who x [planet]" then it will return the appropriate results. Is this intended?
Damion: That's not intended. I will investigate.

Leonalis: When will we get the titles promised for playing on PTS? Will it be for all my characters?
Stephen Reid (Senior Community Manager): Short answer: after Game Update 1.2 goes live and yes! There are two in-game titles that will be granted to anyone who created a new character on the Public Test Server. Both titles will be placed after your character’s name. The first title is given for attaining Level 10 with any new character on PTS, and it is ‘First Line of Defense’. The second title is given for finishing Chapter 1 with any new character on PTS, and it is ‘The Cutting Edge’.
We’ll be granting these titles soon after Game Update 1.2 goes live, and you’ll receive the titles across your account for all characters, both existing and new. You’ll get the titles via in-game mail, similar to the Founder’s Medal, so keep an eye on your mailbox. In addition, these titles will still be available to be gained from playing on PTS in the future.

Daezihang: Are Mortar Volley and Death from Above actually functioning the same now? How much faster does MV start its damage?
Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer): Yes, this was the motivation for the change. Mortar Volley and Death From Above now fire projectiles at the same time and those projectiles travel at the same speed, dealing the same damage. As for how much faster MV starts its damage - the answer is "much faster."

Rystet: I have done extensive testing on the Training Dummies and I have spent over 2 hours beating on the Operation Training Target. I have not had any attack Dodged or Parried. Is this a bug?
Austin: Training dummies currently do not parry/dodge as intended. We are working on a fix for this.

PerfectDuke: Are you really removing the giggle/laugh for scoundrels when Upper Hand procs in Game Update 1.2? As a healer, having the audio cue is great for focusing on... well, healing. Especially if the proc comes off of my hot, slow-release medpac.
Austin: The change was intended to prevent sound fatigue when lots of these procs were going off in a small area (especially in operations). We are looking into ways of making this proc more visible going forward.

Zilvra: I have a level 32 Scoundrel Scrapper. I am already having problems killing my on level bosses due to the 1.1 nerfs. What will the 1.2 nerfs do to me in PVE? It seems really unfair to the purely PVE players when the nerfs hit?
Austin: Many of the class story bosses are intentionally very difficult. This is something that all classes face and is not unique to Smugglers. The fact of the matter is that Scrapper DPS is closer to target in 1.2. Understandably, if you were already struggling with an encounter, you may view this as an undesired change. For clarity, we don't agree that this is "unfair" for "pure PVE" players as the changes are not meant to (despite popular perception) specifically target PVP over PVE.

Thanks for all of your questions, and thanks to the team for answering them. If you’d like to put forward a question for next week’s Q&A, please visit this Forum thread!

Originally posted here.

SWTOR Patch 1.2 to Drop Next Week

We've been telling you about Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.2 Legends patch for a while now. Thankfully we've finally got a release date to share as well. Actually, let's call it a release window, and let's call it next week, thanks to statements made by BioWare's James Ohlen at PAX East earlier today.

"We have our update 1.2 coming in the next week, and then after that, it's going to continue to roll out month after month. It's exciting," he told Boston-area convention-goers.

Ohlen's optimism springs from what's to come in SWTOR over the next few months. "The scope of our game updates in 2012 is going to be unimaginable. You're going to see so many changes and additions to the Star Wars Universe; it's going to be impressive," he said.

Originally posted here.

Game Update 1.2: Ranked Warzones, New Medals & Craftable PVP gear

I  finally had the opportunity to try some ranked warzones on the PTS. Didn't had the chance to see everything I've wanted (since 50s queues take 6 hours), but there are a few nice things which I would like to share.

Let's start by saying players will need at least 10 ranked warzones matches in order to receive rating.





 There's not so much activity in ranked warzones on the PTS, so sadly I can't say anything about how fast the rating is going up or down.

Players can queue for Ranked Warzones solo or as a group under the same queue button. From the same button you can check your Ranked Warzones wins/losses, Rating, Players killed, Medals and your Valor Rank.

The Ranked Warzone Commendations are rewarded by playing Ranked Warzones and, like on the live server, medals help you get them. And just to get an idea on how fast you can gear up, I've made 259 Ranked Warzone Commendations in 3 games (wins).

However, some changes have been made to medals and their rewards. 8 medals are needed now in order to get to 2000 Valor and 40 Commendations (250 Valor and 5 Commendations per medal), different compared to the live server where you need only 4 medals, each one awarding you with 500 Valor and 10 Commendations. Don't get upset, there is also a good part : new medals have been added to the game which will encourage players to finish the games faster and get rewarded.

Here there are:



 Please note that there are probably more new medals (at least for Offense and Defense), I just didn't had the opportunity to see them yet.

PvP Dailies and Weeklies

As you might already know, Ilum dailies and weeklies are gone, but not the Warzone ones. Players can still complete the 3 wins Daily and 9 wins Weekly, but the rewards have changed.
I'm not sure about the Weekly, but completing the daily will award 25 Ranked Warzone Commendations and 100 Warzone Commendations. I would assume the Weekly will give 3 or 4 times more. (again, the lack of players made this impossible to test)

Valor Rank is not completely useless as people say. Synthweaving (and equivalent for Armormech) can do modable Battlemaster, War Hero and Rated War Hero gear. The looks are same as the non-crafted ones and the items have no mods on them. You still have to buy War Hero gear for example, if you want the mods. You can buy the bag with schematics from the Battlemaster/War Hero vendor for 50k credits.

For modable Battlemaster crafted gear players will need level 50 rank 50.

For modable War Hero crafted gear players will need level 50 and rank 70.

For modable Rated War Hero crafted gear players will need level 50 and the item appropriate Warzone Rating.

That's it for now, we'll continue the quest to play more Wz's on the PTS and if we get lucky (and maybe if Bioware copies more chars until 1.2 hits), we'll come with more news on the PVP front. Also don't forget, if you want to see how the new PVP armors looks, costs and what happens to the old commendations, check this and this. 

http://www.oldrepublic.net/456-game-update-1-2-ranked-warzones-new-medals-craftable-pvp-gear.html