Trekkin' Through the Weekend

I'm going to put the patch note review on hold for now; I got through all the class changes which was the bulk of what I wanted to comment on.  The rest is a lot of bug fixes and notes about the new stuff that I don't really have much to say for.  If 1.2 doesn't come out next week maybe I'll pick it up again.

The following is from a post I made on the MoX Facebook group after Darkhorse asked me to look into today's changes on the PTS (they added craftable versions of the PvP gear):

"So on the PvP vendors on the PTS you can buy both a Battlemaster and War Hero pattern set for 50k each (for either), gives you all the recipes for that set (just the 5 pieces, none of the accessories). The Battlemaster crafted gear requires rank 60 to wear and the War Hero gear requires 70. However, they only take a handful of white, green, and blue grade 6 materials so they're stupidly easy to make. Gonna be pretty easy to grind 'em till you've got crit crafted versions.

 Bad news though, they're all bind on pickup."

In other news I'm giving Star Trek Online a try.  It's a lot of fun.

That's Too Bad

Looks like the Warhammer 40k MMO is DOA.  Oh well.

Comprehensive Review and Commantary on Patch 1.2 - Part 7: Bounty Hunter/Trooper

I've addressed some of the changes to Powertech tanking previously.

To distinguish the patch notes from my commentary, all the original patch notes are in italics and my own comments will be in bold.

Bounty Hunter
-General
--Ability Heat costs are now displayed in skill tree and trainer windows. 


--Death From Above now has a 5-meter radius to bring its range in line with other Bounty Hunter Area of Effect abilities, and it now begins dealing damage sooner after activation. 
---Basically they neutered its range.  Its damage is still alright but it's much weaker as an AOE ability now in terms of its range.



--Hydraulic Overrides now has improved audio and visual effects. 


--Incendiary Missile audio has been improved.


--Jet Charge now places a "root" visual effect on the affected target. *UPDATED 3/29*


-Mercenary
--Cure now generates 8 Heat (down from 16).


--Jet Boost now triggers snare visual effects on affected targets.


--Power Shot has been rebalanced. It now generates 16 Heat, has a 2-second activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage.
---This is the most perplexing change to me out of anything in 1.2.  In order to encourage a more varied ability usage they nerfed Tracer Missile (see further down), but they also gave Power Shot a corresponding nerf so it still does less damage than Tracer Missile.  What they should have done is left Power Shot's damage alone so that Power Shot would be your main filler and Tracer Missile would only be used to keep up heat signature stacks.  Basically, now the only difference in your ability priority is that you will use Unload on cooldown regardless of Barrage proc--but Barrage now procs much more often (see below) so it's not even really going to be a change.  You still have to wait until Tracer Lock stacks up to pop your Rail Shot so that ability's priority isn't changing either.  And the really stupid thing about this change in particular is that all it does is make leveling from 10 to 20 a living hell since you won't get Muzzle Fluting to get rid of the retarded cast time change until 15 and then another 3 levels to where the pushback reduction kicks in and makes it less painful to cast Power Shot.



--Tracer Missile and Fusion Missile's animations have been exchanged by popular demand from the community.
---Really?  Seriously?  Fuck you guys, the original Tracer Missile animation was awesome.



--Onboard AED is a new level 50 ability that allows the Mercenary to revive an incapacitated ally. It is usable in combat. *UPDATED 3/29*


--Power Surge can now be trained at level 46. *UPDATED 3/29*


--Arsenal
---Barrage: the chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly. 


---Heatseeker Missiles' damage output has been increased by approximately 10%.


---Jet Escape now reduces the cooldown of Jet Boost by 2.5 seconds per point. 


---Muzzle Fluting no longer reduces Heat costs. It now reduces the activation time of Power Shot and Tracer Missile by .5 seconds. 


---Power Barrier now provides 1% damage reduction per stack.
----A nerf to passive damage reduction, but honestly they should just get rid of this talent period.



---Tracer Missile has been rebalanced in order to encourage more active gameplay rotations. It now generates 16 Heat, has a 2-second activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage. 
----See above for why I think this "rebalanced in order to encouraged more active gameplay rotations" is complete drivel.



--Bodyguard
---Critical Efficiency now reduces the cost of Rapid Scan by 8 (down from 16).


---Cure Mind no longer reduces the cost of Cure. It now causes Cure to heal the target for a small amount.


---Hired Muscle now increases critical chance by 1% per point.


---Kolto Missile now affects up to 4 targets (up from 3), improving reliability in group and Operation situations.


---Kolto Residue now increases all healing received by 3% (down from 5%).


---Kolto Shell now builds 16 Heat when activated.
----This sounds really stupid to me also, since you have no control over when it procs.



---Supercharged Gas now vents 8 Heat (down from 16) when used and increases all damage and healing dealt by 5% (down from 10%). The shield applied by Kolto Missile now reduces damage taken by 5% (down from 10%). 


---Critical Efficiency's buff description now properly refers to Rapid Scan. *UPDATED 3/29*


--Pyrotech (Mercenary)
---Prototype Particle Accelerator now requires Combustible Gas Cylinder to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds. 


-Powertech
--Due to changes to the Powertech skill trees, Powertechs have had their skill points refunded. 


--Quell no longer generates Heat.
---Talked about this briefly in the Warrior changes, but this is something that never should have cost resources to begin with.



--Shield Tech
---Ablative Upgrades: the absorption amount gained from this skill has been slightly reduced.
Empowered Tech is now a 3-point skill.
----It's not clear if this is a buff or nerf.  Presumably the point change is to make room for the addition of Heat Screen (see below).


---Heat Blast is no longer limited by the global cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by approximately 15%.
----This sounds really awesome.  A free heat dump with a little damage off the global cooldown?  I'll take it.



---Heat Screen is a new 2-point skill that causes Flame Burst and Heat Blast to build a stacking buff that increases shield absorption. 
----Now that I think about it, this may force more strict heat management by forcing a Flame Burst occasionally to keep stacks up.



---Oil Slick is no longer limited by the global cooldown.


--Advanced Prototype
---Charged Gauntlets now triggers from damage dealt such that the bleed caused by Retractable Blade can trigger the buff. It now has a visual effect. 


---Kolto Vents has been replaced by Hamstring, which causes Retractable Blade to slow the target by 30% for 6 seconds.


---Prototype Flame Thrower now is granted a stack when Immolate is used. In addition, stacks make Flame Thrower immune to interrupt and at 5 stacks Flame Thrower will now slow the movement speed of targets by 70%. *UPDATED 3/23*


--Pyrotech (Powertech)
---Prototype Particle Accelerator now requires Combustible Gas Cylinder to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds. 
----This basically kills off the 21/2/18 "Parakeet" build.  I think this is indicative of a very bad design philosophy.



Trooper
-General
--Full Auto's attack animation now begins more quickly to improve reactiveness and faction balance.
---I may be wrong, but I never noticed that there was significant problems with this in the short time I've played a Trooper.



--Mortar Volley's animation has been updated. In addition, it now has a 5-meter radius to bring its range in line with other Trooper Area of Effect abilities and it now begins its damage sooner after activation.
---It now fires 5 rounds and without a startup delay.



--Storm now places a "root" visual effect on the affected target. *UPDATED 3/29*


--Commando
---Concussion Charge now triggers snare visual effects on affected targets. 


---Charged Bolts has been rebalanced. It now costs 2 Energy Cells, has a 2-second activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage.


---Cure now costs 1 Energy Cell (down from 2).


---Emergency Medical Probe is a new level 50 ability that allows the Commando to revive an incapacitated ally. It is usable in combat. *UPDATED 3/29*


---Tech Override is now trainable at level 46. *UPDATED 3/29*


--Gunnery
---Charged Barrier now provides 1% damage reduction per stack. 


---Curtain of Fire: the chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly.


---Demolition Round's damage output has been increased by approximately 10%.


---Grav Round has been rebalanced. It now costs 2 Energy Cells, has a 2-second activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage.


---Muzzle Fluting no longer reduces Energy Cell costs. It now reduces the activation time of Charged Bolts and Grav Round by .5 seconds.


---Tenacious Defense now reduces the cooldown of Concussion Charge by 2.5 seconds per point.


--Combat Medic
---Field Training now increases critical chance by 1% per point. 


---Field Triage now reduces the cost of Medical Probe by 1 (down from 2).


---Kolto Bomb now affects up to 4 targets (up from 3), improving reliability in group and Operation situations.


---Kolto Residue now increases all healing received by 3% (down from 5%).


---Psych Aid no longer reduces the cost of Field Aid. It now causes Field Aid to heal the target for a small amount.


---Supercharge Cells now restores 1 Energy Cell (down from 2) when used and increases all damage and healing dealt by 5% (down from 10%). The shield applied by Kolto Bomb now reduces damage taken by 5% (down from 10%).


---Trauma Probe now costs 2 Energy Cells to activate.


--Assault Specialist (Commando)
---Ionic Accelerator now requires Plasma Cell to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds. 


-Vanguard
--Due to changes to the Vanguard skill trees, all Vanguards have had their skill points refunded.


--Fire Pulse's visual effect more accurately represents its functionality.


--Riot Strike no longer costs Energy Cells.


--Animation timing issues with Energy Blast have been addressed.


--The hit timing delay on Explosive Surge has been improved.


--Shield Specialist
---Ceramic Plating: the absorption amount gained from this skill has been slightly reduced.


---Counter Attack is now a 3-point skill.


---Energy Blast is no longer limited by the global cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by approximately 15%.


---Power Screen is a new 2-point skill that causes Ion Pulse and Energy Blast to build a stacking buff that increases shield absorption.


---Smoke Grenade is no longer limited by the global cooldown.


--Tactics
---Combat Tactics now triggers from damage dealt such that the bleed caused by Gut can trigger the buff. It now has a visual effect. 


---Kolto Recharge has been replaced by Hamstring, which causes Gut to slow the target by 30% for 6 seconds. 


---Pulse Generator now is granted a stack when Fire Pulse is used. In addition, stacks make Pulse Cannon immune to interrupt and at 5 stacks Pulse Cannon will now slow the movement speed of targets by 70%. *UPDATED 3/23*


--Assault Specialist (Vanguard)
---Ionic Accelerator now requires Plasma Cell to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds.

Comprehensive Review and Commantary on Patch 1.2 - Part 6: Imperial Agent/Smuggler

Operative is the other class I haven't played to 50, so it too will be a little sparse on commentary.

To distinguish the patch notes from my commentary, all the original patch notes are in italics and my own comments will be in bold.

Imperial Agent

-General

--Players can now "Crouch" (but not roll into cover) while immobilized. 

---This is a desperately needed fix, and will make IAs and Smugglers harder to kill in PvP.



--Agents can no longer be pushed out of cover via the "cover integrity" mechanic, which has been removed from the game.



-Operative

--Due to changes to Operative skill trees, Operatives have had their skill points refunded.



--Backstab now has a 12-second cooldown and deals approximately 5% more damage.



--Hidden Strike now has a 7.5-second cooldown.



--Sleep Dart now gives an appropriate error message if used on Droids.



--Tactical Advantage no longer triggers a "grunt" sound effect when it occurs.



--Concealment

---Culling has been redesigned and is now a 2-point skill. It no longer increases damage dealt to poisoned targets, but increases the Energy gained by Stim Boost and the damage dealt by Laceration and Collateral Strike.



---Inclement Conditioning is now a 2-point skill.



---Flanking is a new 1-point skill located in Tier 3 of the skill tree. It reduces the Energy cost of Backstab by 5. 



---Laceration now costs 10 Energy (down from 15) and deals approximately 10% less damage. 
Meticulously Kept Blades no longer increases Energy gained by Stim Boost. This effect is now part of Culling.



---Waylay now increases the damage dealt by Backstab. It is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree and requires Flanking.



--Medicine
---Medical Consult now also increases the duration of Tactical Advantage by 2 seconds per point. 



---Medical Therapy now additionally reduces the Energy cost of Recuperative Nanotech by 2 per point. 



---Patient Studies now additionally increases the speed at which Diagnostic Scan channels by 15% per point. 



---Recuperative Nanotech has been rebalanced. It now has a 15-second cooldown, heals over 6 seconds, and heals for approximately 10% more than before.

----This sounds like a pretty big buff to Operative healing.



---Surgical Precision now additionally increases the maximum stack limit of Tactical Advantage by 1.



--Lethality (Operative)

---Corrosive Microbes now functions correctly. 



---Lethality now increases critical chance by 1% per point.



---Razor Edge now increases Shiv damage by 4% per point.



---Weakening Blast no longer has an Energy cost.



---Lingering Toxins is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces damage taken from periodic effects and gives Corrosive Dart and Corrosive Grenade a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed). *UPDATED 3/29*



---Vanish has been replaced by Escape Plan, which now additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape. *UPDATED 3/29*



-Sniper

--Due to changes to the Sniper skill trees, Snipers have had their skill points refunded.



--Shatter Shot now additionally inflicts trauma, reducing all healing the target receives by 20% for 9 seconds. 

---This will be a very nice, very handy addition to PvP both as a Sniper and in terms of cutting down how powerful healers are.



--Marksmanship

---Imperial Assassin is now a 3-point skill that provides the same overall effect.



---Siege Bunker is a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6 of the skill tree that reduces damage taken from area attacks by 60% while Entrench is active. This change allows the Marksman to remain in cover more often in situations that force other classes to rapidly change locations.

----It sounds like this is meant to allow Snipers to use Entrench as a get-out-of-mechanic-free defensive cooldown, and while I understand the impetus (actually, I'm betting this is in response to a lot of people bitching on the forums) watering down boss mechanics that requires mobility waters down the game in general and is not a good direction to go.  I would have rather see more stuff like Calculated Pursuit (or how it is now anyways)--ie talents or abilities that allow cover-only abilities to be used out of cover in order to keep using these abilities for a short duration while repositioning.



---Snap Shot's tooltip now correctly mentions that its effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds. Functionality has not changed.



---Sniper Volley has been redesigned. It now triggers from dealing damage with rifles and increases Alacrity and energy regeneration for 10 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

----Holy crap, a reason to take Sniper Volley!



--Engineering

---Calculated Pursuit has been redesigned. It is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree and makes Overload Shot cost no energy for 6 seconds after leaving cover. 



---EMP Discharge's range has been increased to 60 meters.



---Plasma Probe has been improved. It has new visual effects and now deals more of its damage in the first few seconds and snares affected targets. If the initial hit strikes a target affected by your Interrogation Probe, that target is stunned for 2 seconds.



---Stroke of Genius is now located in Tier 2 of the skill tree.



---Interrogation Probe's cooldown now resets if a target is defeated while under its effects. *UPDATED 3/29*



--Lethality (Sniper)

---Corrosive Microbes now functions correctly.



---Cull now costs 25 Energy (down from 30). The weapon damage component of this ability has been reduced by approximately 15%, but poison damage remains unchanged. 

----Last time I talked to Ginnai about this he didn't think that it was a strong enough nerf to Lethality to be worried about it.



---Hold Your Ground's cooldown reduction for Cover Pulse has been reduced to 2.5 seconds per point. 



---Lethality now increases critical change by 1% per point. 



---Razor Edge now increases Shiv's damage by 4% per point. 



---Razor Rounds now increases the critical chance of Cull and Series of Shots by 4% per point. 



---Targeted Demolition now correctly requires Corrosive Grenade. 



---Weakening Blast no longer has an Energy cost. 

----Sounds like Cull will still consume Weakening Blast charges, so again it looks like there's not much of an appreciable nerf to Lethality.



---Lingering Toxins is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces damage taken from periodic effects and gives Corrosive Dart and Corrosive Grenade a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed). *UPDATED 3/29*



---Vanish has been replaced by Hold Your Ground, which now additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape. *UPDATED 3/29*



Smuggler

-General

--Dirty Kick can now be used while moving. 



--Players can now "Crouch" (but not roll into cover) while immobilized.



--Smugglers can no longer be pushed out of cover via the "cover integrity" mechanic, which has been removed from the game.



-Gunslinger

--Due to changes to the Gunslinger skill trees, Gunslingers have had their skill points refunded. 



--Flourish Shot now additionally inflicts trauma, reducing all healing the target receives by 20% for 9 seconds. 



--Saboteur

---Hot Pursuit has been redesigned. It is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree and makes Quick Shot cost no Energy for 6 seconds after leaving cover.



---Incendiary Grenade has been improved. It now deals more of its damage in the first few seconds and snares affected targets. If the initial hit strikes a target affected by your Shock Charge, that target is stunned for 2 seconds.



---Pandemonium is now located in Tier 2 of the skill tree.



---Sabotage's range has been increased to 60 meters.



---Shock Charge now resets its cooldown if the target is defeated while under its effects. *UPDATED 3/29*



--Sharpshooter

---Burst Volley has been redesigned. It now triggers from dealing damage with blasters and increases Alacrity and Energy regeneration for 10 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds. 



---Deadeye is now a 3-point skill that provides the same overall effect. 



---Holed Up is a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6 of the skill tree that reduces damage taken from area attacks by 60% while Hunker Down is active. This change allows the Sharpshooter to remain in cover more often in situations that force other classes to rapidly change locations.



---Snap Shot's tooltip now correctly mentions that its effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds. Functionality has not changed.



--Dirty Fighting (Gunslinger)

---Bombastic now correctly requires Shrap Bomb. 



---Hemorrhaging Blast no longer has an Energy cost.



---Hold Your Ground's cooldown reduction for Pulse Detonator has been reduced to 2.5 seconds per point.



---Holdout Defense now increases Blaster Whip damage by 4% per point.



---No Holds Barred now increases critical chance by 1% per point.



---Reopen Wounds now increases the critical chance of Wounding Shots and Speed Shot by 4% per point.



---Wounding Shots now costs 25 Energy (down from 30). The weapon damage component of this ability has been reduced by approximately 15%, but bleeding damage remains unchanged.



---Nice Try is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces damage taken from periodic effects and gives Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed). *UPDATED 3/29*



---Quick Getaway has been replaced by Hold Your Ground, which additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape. *UPDATED 3/29*



-Scoundrel

--Due to changes to the Scoundrel skill trees, Scoundrels have had their skill points refunded.



--Back Blast now has a 12-second cooldown and deals approximately 5% more damage.



--Diagnostic Scan's tooltip now displays the full amount healed over its duration.



--Shoot First now has a 7.5-second cooldown.



--Tranquilizer now gives an appropriate error message if used on Droids.



--Upper Hand no longer triggers a "grunt" sound effect when it occurs.



--Sawbones

---Emergent Emergencies now additionally increases the maximum stack limit of Upper Hand by 1.



---Healing Hand now also increases the duration of Upper Hand by 2 seconds per point.



---Homegrown Pharmacology now additionally reduces the Energy cost of Kolto Cloud by 2 per point.



---Kolto Cloud has been rebalanced. It now has a 15-second cooldown, heals over 6 seconds, and heals for approximately 10% more than before.



---Patient Studies now additionally increases the speed at which Diagnostic Scan channels by 15% per point.



--Scrapper

---Brawler's Grit is now a 2-point skill. 



---Flanking is a new 1-point skill located in Tier 3 of the skill tree. It reduces the Energy cost of Back Blast by 5. 



---K.O. no longer experiences a delay in its knockdown effect.



---Sawed Off now increases the damage dealt by Back Blast. It is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree and requires Flanking.



---Sucker Punch now costs 10 Energy (down from 15) and deals approximately 10% less damage.



---Turn the Tables has been redesigned and is now a 2-point skill. It no longer increases damage dealt to bleeding targets, but increases the Energy gained by Pugnacity and the damage dealt by Sucker Punch and Flying Fists.



---Underdog no longer increases Energy gained by Pugnacity. This effect is now part of Turn the Tables.



--Dirty Fighting (Scoundrel)

---Hemorrhaging Blast no longer has an Energy cost.



---Holdout Defense now increases Blaster Whip damage by 4% per point.



---No Holds Barred now increases critical chance by 1% per point.



---Nice Try is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces the damage taken from periodic effects and gives Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed). *UPDATED 3/29*



---Quick Getaway has been replaced by Smuggled Defense, which additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape. *UPDATED 3/29*

Comprehensive Review and Commantary on Patch 1.2 - Part 5: Sith Inquisitor/Jedi Consular

I have more experience with Inquisitor classes than Warrior ones.  I haven't healed at all as a Sorcerer though, so I won't really have much to say about the healing changes.  I hear the gist of it is that they're getting nerfed.  For the most part there aren't many changes to Assassin.

To distinguish the patch notes from my commentary, all the original patch notes are in italics and my own comments will be in bold.

Sith Inquisitor
-General
--Deflection's effects are now more noticeable.



--Electrocute's visual effects now occur more quickly after activation.



--Energize's effect now triggers a sound effect when it occurs.
---This is specific to Assassins, further specific to the Darkness spec, so it's odd that this is sitting in the general notes.  Anyways, this is certainly welcome since currently it's kind of tricky to detect the Energize proc if you're not watching your buffs like a hawk.


--Force Lightning now correctly plays its sound effects when the initial application of damage kills the target.



--Force Slow visual effects now begin and end at the correct times.



--The Sacrifice ability has been removed from the Sith Inquisitor class. A similar ability can now be unlocked through the Legacy System.



--Shock sound effects have been polished.



-Sorcerer

--Due to changes in Sorcerer skill trees, Sorcerers have had their skill points refunded.



--Corrected an issue with Static Barrier that prevented its visual effects from refreshing when its effects were reapplied.



--Extrication now modifies threat by the correct amount.



--Corruption

---Force Bending no longer unintentionally allows its buff to be applied to more than one healing ability. Its effects have been slightly redesigned. It now increases the critical chance of Dark Heal by 60% and reduces the Force cost of Dark Infusion by 30%.



---Conspiring Force now refreshes properly when Affliction is refreshed.



---Fadeout now requires Efficacious Currents instead of Dark Resilience.



---Force Surge no longer removes the health cost from Consumption.

----From what I understand this a really nasty nerf.



---Revivification's tooltip now correctly states that the ability affects a maximum of 8 targets. The ability's functionality hasn't changed.



---A display issue that caused the first and second tick of Revivification to appear on top of each other has been corrected.



---Dark Resilience now reduces the health spent by Consumption by 2% per point (up from 1% per point). *UPDATED 3/29*



--Lightning

---Electric Induction now correctly affects Affliction.



--Madness (Sorcerer)

---Disintegration now increases the critical chance of Force Lightning and Lightning Strike by 3% per point.



---Calcify now increases the damage dealt by Shock, Force Lightning, and Affliction by 2% per point.



---Wrath now affects Lightning Strike and Crushing Darkness only. Crushing Darkness's periodic damage now benefits from the 20% damage bonus when it is used to consume the "Wrath" buff.

----This ruins the viability of Chain Lightning in the 0/13/28 build.  However, the jury's still out on whether/how much of a nerf this is; the buff to Crushing Darkness may make up for the damage loss from not having Chain Lightning against single targets, and not having to cast Chain Lightning will be less stress on managing Force.  And anyways, even if it did completely wreck the spec the next best spec is literally only dozens of DPS worse.  Currently, 1/12/28 sims marginally higher than any other permutation of the hybrid spec.  This literally means the only difference between what "should" be your spec now and what "should" be your spec on 1.2 is taking the 1 point out of Chain Lightning and dropping it into Seeping Darkness instead.



---Force in Balance no longer heals the caster if no targets are hit.



---Note that the promised fix to Lightning Barrage is neither in the patch notes or live on the PTS, ie we can still double-cast a double-speed Force Lightning on the proc.



-Assassin

--Mass Mind Control: Updated this tooltip to correctly state that the ability does not break stealth. The ability's functionality has not changed.



--Madness (Assassin)

---Raze's activation effects are now more visible. 



---Force in Balance no longer heals the caster if no targets are hit.


Jedi Consular

-General

--Deflection's visual effects are now more noticeable.



--The Unity ability has been removed from the Jedi Consular class. A similar ability can now be unlocked through the Legacy System. 



--Force Slow's visual effects now begin and end at the correct times.



-Sage

--Due to changes to the Sage skill trees, Sages have had their skill points refunded.



--Corrected an issue with Force Armor that prevented its appearance from refreshing when its effects were reapplied.



--Rescue now modifies threat by the correct amount.



--Seer

---Confound now refreshes properly when Weaken Mind is refreshed.



---Conveyance no longer unintentionally allows its buff to be applied to more than one healing ability. Its effects have been slightly redesigned. It now increases the critical chance of Benevolence by 60% and reduces the Force cost of Deliverance by 30%.



---Egress now requires Preservation instead of Valiance.



---Resplendence no longer removes the health cost from Noble Sacrifice.



---Salvation's tooltip now correctly mentions that this ability affects a maximum of 8 targets. The ability's functionality has not changed.



---A display issue that caused the first and second tick of Salvation to appear on top of each other has been corrected.



---Valiance now reduces the health spent by Noble Sacrifice by 2% per point (up from 1% per point). *UPDATED 3/29*



--Telekinetics

---Inner Strength now correctly affects Weaken Mind.



--Balance (Sage)

---Critical Kinesis now increases the critical chance of Telekinetic Throw and Disturbance by 3% per point.



---Empowered Throw now increases the damage dealt by Project, Telekinetic Throw, and Weaken Mind by 2% per point.



---Presence of Mind now affects Disturbance and Mind Crush only. Mind Crush's periodic damage now benefits from the 20% damage bonus when it is used to consume the "Presence of Mind" buff.



---Force in Balance no longer heals the caster if no targets are hit.



-Shadow

--Mass Mind Control: Updated this tooltip to correctly state that the ability does not break stealth. The ability's functionality has not changed.



--Kinetic Combat

---Kinetic Ward's appearance now refreshes properly when reapplied.



--Balance (Shadow)

---Force Synergy's activation effects are now more visible.



---Force in Balance no longer heals the caster if no targets are hit.

Comprehensive Review and Commantary on Patch 1.2 - Part 4: Sith Warrior/Jedi Knight

When it comes to SW/JK I'll be least able to comment on Juggernaut/Guardian changes, as that's one of the two classes I've not yet played to 50.  My notes on Marauder changes are a little sparse too, since it's one of my characters I play the least.

Also, I've given up trying to wrangle with the formatting errors that keep cropping up once I post these.  The spacing is gonna look wierd in spots.  Sorry.

To distinguish the patch notes from my commentary, all the original patch notes are in italics and my own comments will be in bold.

Sith Warrior
-General
--Disruption no longer costs Rage to activate.

---GOOD.  Though this problem wasn't exclusive to SW/JK (Powertech's/Vanguard's interrupt also had a resource cost) however SW/JK was more hurt by it (at least Powertechs/Vanguards are actively generating their resource the whole time).

--Intimidating Roar no longer costs Rage to activate.

--Ravage can no longer be interrupted.

---Not sure how I feel about this change.  On one hand it's not an oustanding PvP ability and will still be easy to deal with or disrupt (can still stun or knockback to cancel it presumably) but on the other hand all the change is really going to do is punish people who are paying enough attention to interrupt.

--Vicious Throw can now be used on targets at or below 30% of maximum health (up from 20%).

---Positive change, brings the ability in line with similar Sniper and Assassin execute abilities.


-Marauder
--Due to changes to the Marauder skill trees, Marauders have had their skill points refunded.

--Deadly Throw's "Trauma" effect can no longer be cleansed.

--Force Camouflage now additionally reduces all damage taken by 50% while active.

---This matches up with a corresponding nerf to the Annihilation tree.  This is assumed to be meant to make it harder for Marauders/Sentinels to be able to use this as a get-out-of-death free card.  Let's face it, having a free stealth+bubble on a 1 minute cooldown was a little OP.


--Obfuscate no longer has a Rage cost and is no longer limited by the global cooldown.

--Predation now affects all Operation Group members.

--Berserk (while in Ataru Form) now additionally reduces the Rage cost and global cooldown of Sweeping Slash.

--Carnage
---Ataru Form damage effects (procs) now deal weapon-based damage instead of Force-based damage. The overall damage of these effects has been increased by approximately 10%.
----This change is presumably to fix the fact that the damage procs from Ataru Form were sharing cooldowns with the relics from Karagga's Palace that occasionally deal extra damage.


---Ataru Form now correctly triggers when fighting very large targets.

---Erupting Fury has been replaced by Stagger, which increases Force Charge's immobilize effect.

---Unbound now additionally increases the movement speed bonus granted by Predation by 15% per point.

--Annihilation
---Ferocity has been replaced by Enraged Charge, which increases the Rage generated by Force Charge.

---Phantom no longer grants damage reduction while Force Camouflage is active. It now increases the duration of Force Camouflage by 1 second per point and increases the movement speed bonus of Force Camouflage by 10% per point.
----This used to give 100% damage reduction during Force Camouflage.  It no longer does, but Force Camouflage now always passively has a 50% damage reduction.


---Seeping Wound now applies a 50% movement speed reduction (up from 30%).

---Short Fuse is now located in Tier 1 of the skill tree.

--Rage (Marauder)
---Decimate is now located in Tier 1 of the Rage skill tree. It increases the damage dealt by Smash and Sweeping Slash and reduces the cooldown of Smash.
----This should be a nice buff to the Marauder Smash spec.  It sounds like this skill should replace Quick Recovery (in the Annihilation tree), but there's nothing about that talent being removed.

---Dominate is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect. The effect now lasts 20 seconds (up from 15).

---Force Alacrity has been replaced by Overpower, which allows Vicious Slash critical hits to have a chance to refund 2 points of Rage while the Marauder is in Shii-Cho Form.

---Force Crush's cooldown has been reduced to 18 seconds. Its overall effect is unchanged.
----Down from 21 seconds.


---Gravity now specifically affects Crippling Slash and Force Crush.

---Obliterate now immobilizes the target for 1 second.
----This makes Obliterate like a mini-Force Charge.

---Ravager now increases the damage of Ravage instead of affecting Force Choke.
----This may be a bit harmful to Smash spec.


---Relentless Fury has been replaced by Berserker. It requires 2 points in Shockwave and causes Berserk (while in Shii-Cho Form) to immediately grant 2 stacks of Shockwave per point.

---Shockwave's buff effects now last 20 seconds (up from 15).
----I'd assume this is to help make up for the change to Ravager.


---Unbreakable Rage has been removed from the game.
----This used to make Ravage uninterruptable, which it now is passively anyways.


-Juggernaut
--Due to changes to the Juggernaut skill trees, Juggernauts have had their skill points refunded.

--Added Crash, a new passive ability granted at level 10 that causes Force Charge to stun the target for 2 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.


--Added Enraged Defense, a new ability that allows the Juggernaut to spend Rage to lower threat. While active, one point of Rage is spent each time damage is taken to heal the Juggernaut for a small amount. This ability is usable while stunned and is not limited by the global cooldown.


--Vengeance
---Deafening Defense is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree. It now increases the Juggernaut's damage reduction while Enraged Defense is active.


---Rampage now generates 2 points of Rage when it is triggered.


---Single Saber Mastery is no longer restricted to certain stances.


---Stagger is now located in Tier 1 of the Vengeance skill tree.


---Sundering Throw is now located in Tier 6 of the Vengeance skill tree.


--Immortal
---Battle Cry is now a 2-point skill that provides the same overall effect.


---Crushing Blow now generates 50% additional threat.


---Force Grip is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree.


---Force Scream no longer consumes stacks of Revenge while the "Battle Cry" buff is active.


---Heavy Handed is now a 1-point skill with a slightly reduced overall effect.


---Quake is now a 3-point skill that provides the same overall effect.


---Shield Specialization is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree.


---Sonic Barrier is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree.


---Thrown Gauntlet no longer reduces the cooldown of Threatening Scream and is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree.


--Rage (Juggernaut)
---Decimate is now located in Tier 1 of the Rage skill tree. It increases the damage dealt by Smash and Sweeping Slash and reduces the cooldown of Smash.


---Dominate is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect. The effect now lasts 20 seconds (up from 15).


---Force Alacrity has been replaced by Overpower, which allows Vicious Slash critical hits to have a chance to refund 2 points of Rage while the Juggernaut is in Shii-Cho Form.


---Force Crush's cooldown has been reduced to 18 seconds. Its overall effect is unchanged.


---Gravity now specifically affects Chilling Scream and Force Crush.


---Obliterate now immobilizes the target for 1 second.


---Ravager now increases the damage of Ravage instead of affecting Force Choke.


---Relentless Fury has been replaced by Empowering Rage. It requires 2 points in Shockwave and causes Enrage to immediately grant 2 stacks of Shockwave per point.


---Shockwave's buff effects now last 20 seconds (up from 15).


---Through Passion, a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6, has been added. It reduces the initial activation cost of Enraged Defense by 1 Rage per point.


---Unbreakable Rage has been removed from the game.


Jedi Knight
-General
--Awe no longer costs Focus to activate.


--Dispatch can now be used on targets at or below 30% of maximum health (up from 20%).


--Force Kick no longer costs Focus to activate.


--Master Strike can no longer be interrupted.


--Sentinel
---Due to changes in the Sentinel skill trees, Sentinels have had their skill points refunded.


---Crippling Throw's "Trauma" effect can no longer be cleansed.


---Force Camouflage now additionally reduces all damage taken by 50% while active.


---Pacify no longer has a Focus cost and is no longer limited by the global cooldown.


---Transcendence now affects all Operation Group members.


---Zen (while in Ataru Form) now additionally reduces the Focus cost and global cooldown of Cyclone Slash.


--Watchman
---Focused Pursuit has been replaced by Focused Leap, which increases the Focus generated by Force Leap.


---Force Fade no longer grants damage reduction while Force Camouflage is active. It now increases the duration of Force Camouflage by 1 second per point and increases the movement speed bonus of Force Camouflage by 10% per point.


---Inflammation now applies a 50% movement speed reduction (up from 30%).


---Valor is now located in Tier 1 of the skill tree.


--Combat
---Ataru Form damage effects (procs) now deal weapon-based damage instead of Force-based damage. The overall damage of these effects has been increased by approximately 10%.


---Ataru Form now correctly triggers when fighting very large targets.


---Fleetfooted now additionally increases the movement speed bonus granted by Transcendence by 15% per point.


---Temperance has been replaced by Stagger, which increases Force Leap's immobilize effect.


--Focus (Sentinel)
---Felling Blow is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect. The effect now lasts 20 seconds (up from 15).


---Force Exhaustion's cooldown has been reduced to 18 seconds. Its overall effect is unchanged.


---Gravity now specifically affects Leg Slash and Force Exhaustion. 


---Inner Focus has been redesigned. It now requires 2 points in Singularity and causes Zen (while in Shii-Cho Form) to immediately grant 2 stacks of Singularity per point. 


---Master Focus now increases the damage of Master Strike instead of affecting Force Stasis. 


---Singularity's buff effects now last 20 seconds (up from 15).


---Swelling Winds is now located in Tier 1 of the Focus skill tree. It increases the damage dealt by Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash and reduces the cooldown of Force Sweep.


---Unwavering Focus has been removed from the game. 


---Zealous Leap now immobilizes the target for 1 second.


---Zephyr has been replaced by Zephyrean Slash, which allows Slash critical hits to have a chance to refund 2 points of Focus while the Sentinel is in Shii-Cho Form.


--Guardian
---Due to changes to the Guardian skill trees, Guardians have had their skill points refunded.


---Added Forceclap, a new passive ability granted at level 10 that causes Force Leap to stun the target for 2 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.


---Added Focused Defense, a new ability that allows the Guardian to spend Focus to lower threat. While active, one point of Focus is spent each time damage is taken to heal the Guardian for a small amount. This ability is usable while stunned and is not limited by the global cooldown.


--Vigilance
---Commanding Awe is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree. It increases the Guardian's damage reduction while Focused Defense is active.


---Single Saber Mastery is no longer restricted to certain stances.


---Stagger is now located in Tier 1 of the Vigilance skill tree.


---Sundering Throw is now located in Tier 6 of the Vigilance skill tree.


---Zen Strike now generates 2 points of Focus when it is triggered.


--Defense
---Blade Barrier is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree.


---Blade Storm no longer consumes stacks of Courage while the "Momentum" buff is active.


---Command no longer reduces the cooldown of Challenging Call and is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree.


---Dust Storm is now a 3-point skill that provides the same overall effect.


---Guardian Slash now generates 50% additional threat.


---Momentum is now a 2-point skill that provides the same overall effect.


---Pacification is now a 1-point skill with a slightly reduced overall effect.


---Shield Specialization is now located in Tier 5 of the skill tree.


---Stasis Mastery is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree.


--Focus (Guardian)
---Felling Blow is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect. The effect now lasts 20 seconds (up from 15).


---Force Exhaustion's cooldown has been reduced to 18 seconds. Its overall effect is unchanged.


---Gravity now specifically affects Freezing Force and Force Exhaustion.


---Inner Focus has been redesigned. It now requires 2 points in Singularity and causes Combat Focus to immediately grant 2 stacks of Singularity per point.


---Master Focus now increases the damage of Master Strike instead of affecting Force Stasis.


---Singularity's buff effects now last 20 seconds (up from 15).


---Swelling Winds is now located in Tier 1 of the Focus skill tree. It increases the damage dealt by Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash and reduces the cooldown of Force Sweep.


---Through Peace, a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6, has been added. It reduces the initial activation cost of Focused Defense by 1 Focus per point.


---Unwavering Focus has been removed from the game.


---Zealous Leap now immobilizes the target for 1 second.


---Zephyr has been replaced by Zephyrean Slash, which allows Slash critical hits to have a chance to refund 2 points of Focus while the Guardian is in Shii-Cho Form.

Comprehensive Review and Commantary on Patch 1.2 - Part 3: General Class and Combat Changes

To distinguish the patch notes from my commentary, all the original patch notes are in italics and my own comments will be in bold.

Classes and Combat
-Game Update 1.2. contains a significant number of changes and improvements to the overall class balance and combat gameplay in PvP and PvE based on player and guild feedback, focus testing, and more than two months of combat interaction data from our servers. Our overall goal is, as always, to create a level playing field for our players while ensuring that classes retain their unique playstyles and identities.
These changes are not limited to class abilities and skill trees, but also involve modifications to the underlying combat math (for example diminishing returns, additional augment availability, etc.), which has an impact on combat that is hard to capture in a list of patch notes.
Since our changes involve a number of skill changes for many classes, we are refunding all skill points to the affected Advanced Classes so players can adjust the distribution of their characters' skills as they see fit with the new changes in mind. As a reminder, players can reset any character's skill points in the Combat area on their faction's fleet for free once per week (additional respecs cost credits).
Based on community feedback, we have also added a number of improvements to combat gameplay, such as more reactive animations for certain abilities, better visual and audible cues for important effects, and quality of life changes such as more useful combat revival abilities.
For enthusiasts interested in the detailed mechanics of combat and optimizing their own character, we have added a combat logging feature, which writes a machine-parsable file to disk that can provide detailed insights into what really happens during a combat engagement.
--While the changes to the game formulae may be daunting for theorycrafters, things are actually getting a lot easier; the detailed combat logs now available are very detailed--I've been told by Ginnai, who has been working on damage meters based on logs from the PTS, that the logs contain all the damage formulae and every calculation made to determine damage/healing/etc.  So any changes or empty spaces in how the combat mechanics of the game are understood are going to be quickly sorted out by the theorycrafting community.
--For the record, the only classes that don't have their skill points reset are Assassin/Shadow and Mercenary/Commando.

-General
--As a result of game balance efforts, many classes have had their skill tree layouts modified. Affected characters will have their skill points refunded on login.

--Visual effects for persistent ground-targeted player attacks now reflect the target area of effect more accurately.
---Based on my experiences on the PTS, this still needs a lot of work.

--"Rest" abilities, such as Meditation and Recharge and Reload, are no longer interrupted by taking damage if the player is not currently in combat.
---Darkhorse and I observed (and bug reported) that the racial abilities that act as alternate rest abilities (like Shadowboxing and Review Mission for Ratataki and Chiss respectively) did not get changed for this to be true--ie they are still interrupted by damage out of combat.

--The movement visualization when observing players with lower performance has been improved.

--Combat Training Dummies have been added to the game. Level 50 and 50+ Training Dummies can be found on the Gav Daragon and Ziost Shadow. Level 20, 30, and 40 targets can be found on Coruscant and Dromund Kaas. Level 10 targets can be found on Origin Worlds. Players can unlock Training Dummies for their personal starship through the Legacy System.
---There's no healing training dummy as requested at the guild summit.  Disappointing.

--In-combat revival abilities (Resuscitation Probe, Hearttrigger Patch, Revival, and Reanimation) now revive the target with 25% health (up from 5%) to make them generally more useful for their intended purpose.
---There's no apparent fix for when the abilities seem to bug out and are unable to be used in situations where it normally should be usable.

--Several ability tooltips have been updated to include the correct values and information (these tooltip changes do not reflect changes to the ability; tooltips that previously displayed incorrect or incomplete information have been corrected).

--Several areas throughout the game that have had line of sight-related problems ("cannot see target") have been corrected.

--An issue that could prevent dual wield visual effects from playing correctly has been fixed.

--Players are now briefly stunned if they are dismounted forcibly from damage (instead of playing a fall animation).

--Fixed an issue that would occasionally cause players to become stuck and unable to move after the expiration of a stun debuff.

--Corrected an issue that could cause players to appear to continue to be dead after being revived.

--The diminishing return formula for several stats (including expertise) has been adjusted.

--Special abilities for several classes have been updated to emit light based on their actual weapon color crystal rather.
---Rather...?

--Minimum and maximum damage ranges now display correctly on the character sheet for all classes.

--Using a stun-breaking ability no longer keeps a player that was knocked down from standing up. *UPDATED 3/23*

--Medpacs can now only be used once per fight. When a medpac is used during combat, another cannot be used until after combat has ended. *UPDATED 3/23*
---Further dampens the usefulness of medpacs in both PvE and PvP.

-Combat Log
--Players may now choose to view victory and defeat messages in the chat window. This feature can be enabled in the new "Combat Logging" section of the preferences menu. This must be enabled for combat messages to appear in the chat window.

--The "Combat Logging" section in the preferences menu also allows players to stream all combat interactions originating from or directed at their character to a machine-parsable file. When this option is enabled, time stamped log files are written periodically to the Star Wars – The Old Republic\Combat Logs directory in the My Documents folder. Warning: This is an advanced feature. Constant combat logging may use a significant amount of disk space, and players may need to periodically delete old logs.
---They're not kidding.  The logs take up a ton of space and are insanely detailed.  As mentioned previously, MoX already has people working on putting together damage meters; since the logs only record your actions it'll ultimately require everyone be involved in compiling the data for them however.  Additionally, Ginnai and others are investigating ways to collect the data in the background in realtime.

Comprehensive Review and Commantary on Patch 1.2 - Part 2: General Changes

To distinguish the patch notes from my commentary, all the original patch notes are in italics and my own comments will be in bold.


General
-The Imperial Transportation Authority and the Galactic Republic Safety Council have authorized the use of vehicles in Orbital Space Stations and Spaceports.
--This is awesome, a real time-saver.  This and the change to Sprint (see below) are some really juicy changes to mobility.

-In-game rewards will be available to players who participate on the Public Test Server. Players will receive a title if they attain level 10 on PTS, and another if they complete Chapter 1.
--Darkhorse and I finished up chapter 1 on the PTS last week, so once these titles are available I'll be able to tell you what they are.

-A new preference, "Character Texture Atlasing," is now available. Enabling this option increases the texture quality used when rendering character models.

-A new "Customize" option now appears on the character sheet. One of the features this button enables is the ability to color coordinate any individual piece of armor with the equipped chestpiece.
--There's a lil chestplate icon on the character panel now.  In addition to the big "UNIFY TO CHEST" button there's also options for helmet and dark side corruption display.  Once you've hit the unify button a little checkbox shows up next to individual pieces so you can toggle color unification for those on or off.


-A new preference, "Awareness Radius," allows players to adjust the number of characters displayed on-screen. Reducing this setting can improve performance in crowded areas on low-end machines.

-On planets with an Orbital Station, players can now travel directly from the planet shuttle on the surface to their ship.

-The Sprint ability is now available at level 1.

-General Bug Fixes
--Cinematics throughout the game have been polished. A large number of cinematics have been improved to address incorrect camera angles, smooth out animation issues, and to correct Companion Characters that appear in the wrong gear or at the wrong time.

--Cinematics and mission phases have been updated for consistency. For instance, several occurrences of NPCs appearing alive in a phase after a cinematic in which the player chose to kill them have been corrected.

--Corrected many instances of misplaced geometry, visible seams, and incorrect collision with world objects throughout the game.

--Many locations where player characters could become stuck on world geometry or fall through the world have been corrected.

--Some visual effects and animations have been adjusted and fixed in instances where they played incorrectly.

--Dark side appearance, if enabled, now appears correctly at character selection. *UPDATED 3/23*

Comprehensive Review and Commantary on Patch 1.2 - Part 1: Highlights

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.

Everything's Granado

Well, the revisit to GE lasted all of a day before I remember why I quickly lost interest last time.  It's a very old school MMO.  It's got some nice ideas, but the vehicle that delivers them is woefully unrefined.

Which means its time for a comprehensive review of patch 1.2, which is what I'll be working on the rest of this afternoon.  Expect to see it posted later tonight.

Biding Time 'til 1.2

Trying to put off finishing Lantus and Desyrel until 1.2 so I can put at least some of the Legacy system advantages for alts to use in leveling, so that means I'm basically out of stuff to do until it lands.  Playing bits of Tera gave me this really weird urge to play Grenado Espada again, so I'm gonna download the US version tonight, should help kill time.  Otherwise I'm also playing a Commando on another server (Pyridium, on Zakkeg Beast) to see some of the Republic storylines.

One of these days I might do a comprehensive commentary on the 1.2 patch notes since that's something I'd like to do after taking on a chunk of it yesterday--and it would no doubt kill most of a day.

I've got a vague hope that 1.2 hits tomorrow but I'm well aware that's quite unlikely.

Tanking Discussion: Comparing Assassin and Powertech Tanking in PvE

It's been a while since I've written something designed to be a little thought-provoking and I've been meaning to comment on how Assassin and Powertech tanking compare so I think it's a good subject to pick to get back to writing those kinds of posts.

There's three tank classes in SWTOR.  Juggernaut (Guardian) is the one of the three I've not played to 50, so I'm not going to say much on how it plays per se.  It is considered to be the weakest of the three options--not to say it's a terrible tank but if you were to rank the aspects of tanking in SWTOR it would come in last place compared to the other two classes except maybe in terms of the defensive cooldowns available to the class.  The other two tanking classes, Assassin (Shadow) and Powertech (Vanguard), I do have a reasonable amount of experience with though.

Say you're just getting into SWTOR and you've decided you really want to tank.  So which class should you pick?  I would tell you that I strongly recommend playing a Powertech or Vanguard.  Why not Juggernaut?  Well, primarily because of the reasons outlined above.  Why not Assassin?  Assassin is also an excellent choice for tanking--in fact I'd assert that if you consider tanking in terms of the attributes that make a tanking class good (threat generation, survivability, damage, cooldowns), Assassin is either on par with or not far behind Powertechs.  What makes Assassins second to Powertechs in my opinion is that they are a lot more work to play.

Let's briefly go over the abilities you'll need to use on a regular basis for both classes:
Assassin
-Saber Strike - Obligatory no-cost filler move; use when you need to save Force for another ability.
-Thrash - Basic everything-else-is-on-cooldown filler; procs Energize.
-Wither - Nice AOE damage and threat and comes with a damage debuff whose duration is more forgiving than the debuff on Discharge, but alas it also feeds Withering Darkness thus necessitating that it too generally be used on cooldown.
-Discharge - Provides an accuracy debuff, but its duration is just barely longer than the cooldown on Discharge, necessitating that it be used on cooldown to max the debuff's uptime.
-Shock - Heavily boosted by Energize and Chain Shock and it feeds Harnessed Darkness, but it eats up a ton of force so it's best reserved for Energize procs.
-Force Lightning - Made essential by Harnessed Darkness, and thanks thereto it becomes an excellent survivability tool.
-Dark Ward - Contributes heavily to survivability, but it needs to be actively monitored for when its cooldown is up, the buff's duration, and the number of charges.
-Recklessness - You'll want to keep this on cooldown, especially since it's amazing when combined with talents that boost force damage abilities especially Energize and Chain Shock.


Powertech
-Rapid Shots - Obligatory no-cost filler move; it's barely less damage than Flame Burst so it's recommended that you use it unless you have less than 10 Heat.
-Flame Burst - Basic everything-else-is-on-cooldown filler; comes with a damage debuff if talented, but as outlined above it's barely more damage than Rapid Shots so it's best saved either for if the debuff needs refreshing or you're nearing 0 Heat.
-Rocket Punch - This ability is talented into amazing damage and guaranteed Ion Gas Cylinder procs (and thus even more amazing damage) wrapped in a neat little package--it even randomly finishes its cooldown on shield procs thanks to Flame Shield; keep this shit cooldown.
-Rail Shot - Another nice heavy-hitter; thanks to Ion Overload and the Ion Gas Cylinder procs from Rocket Punch the conditions required for its use will never be a problem.
-Explosive Dart - Yet another nifty (AOE) heavy-hitter.
-Heat Blast - Not great damage per se, but it's free and actually vents heat so it makes a nice heat control cooldown.
-Explosive Fuel - Powertech's level 50 ability, a great offensive cooldown that's freely available to tanks too.

That's 8 abilities Assassin has to juggle, all with their own interconnected procs on top of having to keep track of Dark Ward charges compared to Powertech's 7 fire-and-forget abilities and 100% passive defense.

Powertechs have an additional advantage in generating clutch AOE threat over both Juggernaut and Assassin--their AOE taunt is on-target, ie you pick a target and the AOE radius of the taunt is on that target (Assassin and Juggernaut AOE taunts are centered on self).  Extremely handy.  Both Assassin and Powertech have Death Grip style pulls, and, while neither represents a clear advantage (actually, Assassin may have it here), I personally like Jet Charge over Force Speed.  Powertech's one clear relative weakness compared to the other tanks lies in its defensive cooldowns--a Powertech only has two cooldowns (granted one of them is amazing) that are on a minimum two minute cooldown (three defensive cooldowns, admittedly, if you include Oil Slick, however it requires and consumes a global cooldown).  Strangely, despite the fact that Powertech has no abilities that have a "generates significant threat" tag on their tooltip, Powertechs have no trouble holding threat (owing presumably to their relatively nice damage output).

Given the proximity to the onset of 1.2, this discussion wouldn't be complete without considering the upcoming changes though, so let's give those a brief overview.

Well, actually, there's pretty much nothing to speak of for Assassin.  Just an update to the tooltip and some not-relevant-to-tanking changes to the Madness tree.

Powertech
-Shield Tech
--Ablative Upgrades: the absorption amount gained from this skill has been slightly reduced.
---Nerf, depending on how much "slightly" is.
--Empowered Tech is now a 3-point skill.
---It's not readily clear if this is a buff or nerf; it is currently a 5-point talent that gives an extra passive 10% shield chance.  If it gives the same shield chance at 3 points this is a handy little buff, but it's more likely, given Heat Screen's description (see further down), that this won't be the case.
--Heat Blast is no longer limited by the global cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by approximately 15%.
---This is a pretty rockin' buff to Heat Blast and further cements Heat Blast's role as a heat management cooldown.  I suspect that this change was made to encourage taking it in PvP.
--Heat Screen is a new 2-point skill that causes Flame Burst and Heat Blast to build a stacking buff that increases shield absorption.
---Presumably this will be a new tier 6 talent to make up for the change to Empowered Tech.  It's likewise not clear whether this talent will be meant as a buff, nerf, or to simply make up for the change to Empowered Tech.
--Oil Slick is no longer limited by the global cooldown.
---This will properly turn Oil Slick into a defensive cooldown.
-Advanced Prototype
--Charged Gauntlets now triggers from damage dealt such that the bleed caused by Retractable Blade can trigger the buff. It now has a visual effect.
--Kolto Vents has been replaced by Hamstring, which causes Retractable Blade to slow the target by 30% for 6 seconds.
--Prototype Flame Thrower now is granted a stack when Immolate is used. In addition, stacks make Flame Thrower immune to interrupt and at 5 stacks Flame Thrower will now slow the movement speed of targets by 70%.
---None of these changes are really relevant to tanking.
-Pyrotech (Powertech)
--Prototype Particle Accelerator now requires Combustible Gas Cylinder to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds.
---This is only relevant to tanking in that it's a pretty damning nerf to the Parakeet PvP build.

All considered, these are just changes--probably minor--to passive absorption.  Additionally, taking Heat Blast and Oil Slick off the global cooldown are both positive changes.  The bottom line is that 1.2 isn't going to do much to change my earlier recommendation.  It's worth noting that 1.2 will bring some needed buffs to Juggernaut tanking though, but I'm not particularly qualified to comment on them at this time.

It's important to iterate that all three tanks are perfectly viable but to people such as myself who have a choice of tanks to use or for people who are just getting started and want to get into tanking, in my opinion Powertech/Vanguard is the clear winner.

Streaming

My blog's picking up a lil bit of traffic, so I'd like to try streaming a little more.  Let me know in the comments if this is something you visitors are interested in seeing more of.

There's not gonna be a ton of excitement though; my ISP is pretty terrible and being that I don't have much income at the moment there's not a lot I can do about it, so it's gonna pretty low quality and stuff that doesn't require much bandwidth--mostly random questing, maybe some PvP.

Anyways, streaming some Tera beta right now; check it out at http://www.twitch.tv/scpantera

Terable

Darkhorse and I finished off our 1.2 PTS Chapter 1 marathon, got kind of an introductory live look at the Legacy system.  It'll be neat to see on live, but frankly the only really neat stuff on the whole Legacy panel was the entire tab that was basically "look at all the cool stuff you'll have to wait 'till 1.3 to get!"

I'd been playing Bioshock 2 in bits late at night since I'd seen a thread about it around a week ago and got a strong urge to play through it again.  I'm a really big fan of the whole story of Rapture; I've also been wasting a lot of time reading the Bioshock wiki.  Anyways, finished it this morning just in time for Tera to finish downloading for the beta weekend.

Played that with Callsign most of the day so far, but to be honest I'm not particularly impressed.  Lots of eye candy, but not a lot of soul.

Meanwhile it seems parts of my thread on the HoG forum have vanished (namely most/all of page 4); can only speculate why--moderation cracking down on the trolls?  Wouldn't explain why some of my later posts disappeared though, unless they go the extra mile and also prune replies thereto.  Some kind of server rollback or something mayhaps?

Will Level Alts for Food

Hoo lordy, there's lot of folks on the forums who are needlessly hostile over the fact that I'm currently unemployed.  I suppose I invited it with the "ask me anything" tagline.  But on the other hand, it's hard to be trolled by the same people who waste time arguing about backpedaling on the official forums.

Black Hole Blues Revisited

Turns out my previous post about Black Hole comms is incorrect.  They only come from a weekly in the new daily area; the new dailies drop the existing daily commendations.  My bad.

Legacy Level 50

Well, finally got there.

As I've been planning, went and submitted the following ticket in game:

"Remember back at the Guild Summit a few weeks ago, during the panel discussion someone asked a question regarding the legacy level cap? That was Darkhorse, the GM of my guild, Memories of Xendor. He referred to a player who was already in the late 40s. That's me.

I just hit legacy level 50, I presume I'm among the first thereto. I'd like to celebrate by making a humble request to the developers if you wouldn't mind passing this along: could we get just a few more character slots per server, perhaps as a legacy reward or something? Some friends are rolling new Republic characters (on this server to retain their legacy level) and I'd like to be able to join them, but I have 8 Empire characters on this server--one of each advanced class--all of whom I've invested in heavily to reach this legacy level."

Might go post something on the forums about it too.

UPDATE: Heh, someone in this thread I posted on the server forums asked what my total /played is.  These are the current totals:

Voltaren - 11 Days, 16 Hours, 15 Minutes
Seroquel - 6 Days, 15 Hours, 42 Minutes
Zofran - 9 Days 16 Hours, 32 Minutes
Lanoxin - 5 Days, 5 Hours, 47 Minutes
Abraxane - 7 Days, 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
Lasix - 5 Days, 10 Hours, 50 Minutes
Lantus - 1 Day, 21 Hours, 57 Minutes
Desyrel - 1 Day, 7 Hours, 4 Minutes
Total - 48 Days, 23 Hours, 38 Minutes

Black Hole Blues

Raiding morale is a little low in the guild today; forays into the PTS have discovered that the next "tier" of gear consists of two stages, Black Hole and Campaign.

The former, Black Hole gear, comes from commendations rewarded from completing the new Corellia dailies and also from Nightmare Karagga's Palace (and presumably from somewhere in the new raid).  This gear is a full step up from Rakata gear, which is causing a bit of a stir in the guild because this essential means that daily gear will soon be outclassing the current top-tier stuff.  I agree that it's disappointing; I was hoping they wouldn't go the WoW route of completely invalidating the last patch's gear every new content update, but it seems that's their plan.

The Campaign gear presumably comes from Nightmare Mode of the new raid.

Also, Battlemaster gear in 1.2 will have no Valor Rank requirements, so I feel all that grinding I did on Lasix may have gone to waste.  Just stockpiling WZ comms now.  Might get BM gear for all my characters eventually.

In other news, our resident programming wizard, Ginnai, has already made some excellent progress on putting together some damage meters.  Here's an example of what it looks like so far: http://www.viper37.com/img/SWTOR_dmg_2.jpg

Testing My Patience

Did a lil fooling around on the PTS last night with Darkhorse, trying to get the holy grail promised in the patch notes for people who make it through Chapter 1.

There's a lot of really strange bugs that are present on the PTS now, chiefly issues with the sound--got to a point where everything was quiet except for random bits of ambient noise, every seventh or so footstep, and the grunts characters make during combat (which was pretty funny during PvP).  Huttball was bugged so that if Frogdogs scored 6 points the game wouldn't end, which required either letting the timer run out or scoring 7 points and then letting the Rotworms score 6.

The new Warzone was kinda neat too.

I was playing a Mercenary, and the change to the activation time on Power Shot was seriously aggravating.  For the 5 levels I didn't have Muzzle Fluting (and for the additional 3 levels it will take to max out the talent that reduces pushback) I was going nuts until I realized it's actually significantly more DPS to just spam Rapid Shots instead.

Played around with the UI a bunch too, trying to get back to what I last used in my WoW days.

Commentary on 1.2 Changes to Hybrid Powertech and Sorcerer Specs

(The following is a post I made on the MoX Facebook page that I felt was worthy of highlighting in a blog post.)

And to follow up on that, I strongly agree that nerfing hybrid specs like this without a solid given reason is a very, very poor design decision. Deconstructing styles of play simply because they weren't intended discourages creative and competitive gameplay, needlessly homogenizes the experience, and, in my opinion, reinforces arguments that the people who run the game are doing so in spite of their playerbase and not in service thereto. I sincerely hope there is eventually given a reason as to why Parakeet had to go, since it's definitely far from OP. Likewise, nerfing hybrid Madness, which was the best spec for PvE by an infinitesimally small margin, sends the message that they aren't interested in tolerating any other ways to play their game other than the way they want it played. Extremely disappointing changes in the name of class balance to say the least.

1.2 Patch Notes

1.2 patch notes are now available: http://www.swtor.com/test-center/patchnotes

Minmaxing Abraxane

This post is just for some personal notes for minmaxing Abraxane.
Based on the current available version of Simulation for Sorcerer available at http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Simulationcraft-for-Sage-Sorcerer

Default scale factors for full Rakata:
Will - 1.1156
Crit - 0.6777
Alacrity - 0.3061
Power - 1
Force Power - .9962
Surge - .7936

Scale factors for current gear stats on Abraxane:
Will - 1.1164
Crit - 0.6755
Alacrity - 0.3055
Power - 1
Force Power - .9984
Surge - .7954

Very tiny differences.  Not surprising; I'm close to full Rakata.

By these scale factors, BIS item enhancements are:
Mod - Advanced Aptitude Mod 25; available on
-Rakata Force-Mystic's Gloves/Rakata Stalker's Handwraps (Annihilation Droid XRR-3; SI token)
-Rakata Force-Mystic's Headgear/Rakata Stalker's Headgear (Bonethrasher; SI token)
Enhancement - Advanced Adept Enhancement 25; available on
-Nothing apparently
-Just saw it drop from Jarg & Sorno

Haven't checked Battlemaster gear for Mods or Enhancements but I'm not willing to commit to getting Battlemaster on this character just for the item enhancements.