First thing's first, the official patch notes for 1.2 can be found either here or here. I toyed with the idea of editing out anything not worth commenting on or leaving out changes to the Republic classes but I think that in the interest of making this a one-stop discussion of the upcoming changes it would be best to include everything. I am gonna move the order of a few things around though (notably, putting Empire classes first so I can fit in my commentary for those but also include the Republic versions afterwards). Also, I won't have something to say for every little note and tweak, so bear with me here. Finally, as much as I'd like to do it as one big wad, this is clearly way too big to cram into one post, so I'm gonna break it up into chunks for separate posts.
To distinguish the patch notes from my commentary, all the original patch notes are in italics and my own comments will be in bold.
Highlights
-Players can now unlock a wide variety of rewards by leveling characters and reaching new Legacy levels, including buffs for your characters, unlocking additional Species choices for every class, and upgrades for your personal Starship. Build your own Legacy with the new Family Tree!
-Players can now unlock a wide variety of rewards by leveling characters and reaching new Legacy levels, including buffs for your characters, unlocking additional Species choices for every class, and upgrades for your personal Starship. Build your own Legacy with the new Family Tree!
--If you haven't already played a character to chapter 2 on the PTS to check it out for yourself, you can read this article for a good preview of the new legacy features. The vast majority of them are asthetic, or at least don't have much bearing from a character advancement standpoint. It's also noteworthy that the highest required Legacy Level for any of the new features is 25. Kind of a kick in the nuts to a Legacy fiend such as myself but eh.
-Lost Island, a new Flashpoint, is available for play! Having uncovered the sources of the Rakghoul plague outbreak in the Tion Hegemony, players must travel to Ord Mantell and confront Dr. Lorrick, the mad scientist who engineered this horrific biological weapon.
-Explosive Conflict, a new Operation, is available for play! The Trandoshan mercenary warlord Kephess has seized the planet Denova, a world rich in resources valuable to the war effort. Players must assault his war camp, situated atop a mountain in densely-wooded terrain, fighting Imperial defectors and heavy war machines along the way. 8- and 16-player Story and Hard Modes are currently available for this Operation.
--My guild's been in line to get copied to the PTS for weeks now, so I wish I could say more about this. Nightmare mode won't be available upon release of 1.2; it's to be released at a later date. I've heard rumors that even Story Mode is difficult and requires Rakata level geared players, but that sounds awfully contradictory to the stated design philosophy in having a "Story" mode.
-Novare Coast, a new objective-oriented Warzone on the planet Denova, has been added to the game. This Warzone, like Huttball, supports same-faction matches if there are not enough members of the opposing faction to be found.
--Played this a handful of times on the PTS while Darkhorse and I were working on getting through chapter 1. It's very Alderaan Civil War-esque in that it simply breaks down to who can hold two points better. Unlike that WZ however, progress can only be made towards winning if you control two points--each objective is a gun turret that each fires after a set time, one shot is required to knock out a base's shield and the second is required to damage the actual base (the shield's regenerate such that the base will not be damaged by only one cannon firing at it). The players' bases are at the southwest and southeast corners of the map, with objective points at the northeast and northwest corners and one in between the two bases to the south.
-New repeatable high-level daily missions are available in a new area on Corellia, the Black Hole!
--Reportedly, there are 5 new solo dailies and 1 new Heroic daily which both give the existing Daily Commendations. Additionally, there is a weekly that reportedly gives 6 Black Hole Commendations. There are new relics that are meant to be bought using Daily Commendations now. Supposedly, these relics may also be craftable, but require recipes and blue and purple materials the source of which has not yet been discovered.
-Guilds now have access to a shared Guild Bank, accessible on the Fleets, with expandable storage.
-A new tier of gear has been added for both PvP and PvE.
--Black Hole and Campaign gear comprise the new PvE tier; the new PvP tier is War Hero gear. Last I saw on the PTS the set bonuses and stats on several pieces were still missing.
-Ranked Warzones are here! Players can now queue up and participate in PvP matchups to rank themselves against the competition.
-Players can now customize their User Interface by moving and resizing UI elements!
--Played around with this some on the PTS. Be aware that a lot of the interface options from the current options menu are now found as options for individual elements in the UI customization screen.
-A new level 50 World Boss with a challenge for a well-coordinated 16-player Operation Group has been sighted in the Gormak Lands region on Voss.
--Reportedly this boss is raid-gear-relevant, ie it will be worth doing regularly. Supposedly, to fight the boss it's required that you obtain an item through either crafting or Daily Commendations that prevents a damage aura of some sort (it's not clear if only the operations group needs it or each person needs one) that allows it to be fought safely. I'll be curious to see how this turns out if multiple groups from either faction have to fight over spawns or items required therefor.
-Players can now leave comments on entries in their Friends List in the Social Window.
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