SWTOR Roadmap Reviewed

So my man of the hour, Keith Kannig, released the lastest roadmap for Star Wars: The Old Republic on Monday.  I'm one that will mull over things and see what other people are saying before I start throwing out opinions.  Hence the few days delay in my own review.

The future is quite beefy for the next couple of months.  The meat and potatoes of it all is the United Forces updates, starting with some major updates with the release of game update 5.5 on October 10, 2017.  The official release date for United Forces is November 8, 2017 where we will see some very juicy changes.

The first change is the most important and informs all the other exciting changes coming up.  Yes, we are seeing server merges this year!  On November 8, 2017, SWTOR will be consolidating what servers they have currently to the following:

There is a huge article regarding the mergers and how it should impact or not impact your characters, legacy, guilds and GTN.  For the sake of time, I'll refer you there.

With the new servers established, they have finally decided to implement a system people have been enjoying for a while in World of Warcraft - cross-server queuing.  This is not just for PvP or Flashpoints, this affects everything!  Uprisings, Ops, GSF are all included.  And if you haven't figured it out yet, this means shorter queue times because you have a bigger pool of people to pull from.  Unfortunately this will not affect the quality of the player one would queue up with, and they weren't exactly clear if the group organizing algorithm sets up a balanced group (tank, heals, dps), or its same ol', whatever-we-can-get group.  Regardless, the mere fact that queue times will be shorter is always a reason to celebrate.

Now on to the highlights!  And when I say meaty, I meant it!

-- Starting on November 8, 2017, they will be bringing back the double CXP/EXP bonus through November 14, 2017.
-- Be a subscriber from November 8 through November 27 and you will earn a new mini-pet, Mini Mogul (Karraga the Unyielding), to be delivered to your mailbox on November 28.
-- At the same time, you also have the ability to earn a new companion, Darth Hexid, by completing Group Finder PvE or PvP instances.  He, too, will be sent to you by mail on November 28.
-- United Forces PvE and PvP group finder achievements.
-- New Legacy perks - for every character you have at 300 galactic command level, you give your Legacy a 25% bonus cxp boost, up too 100%.  Apparently, you have to buy the first 25%, but then the other levels are free.  Even better -- these perks are retroactive!!

Now a word about Galactic Command Crates.  We are getting an additional crate slot which is meant to give an improved higher tier item drop rate.  This also includes a chance at Unassembled Components.  They are also planning on changing the way Disintegrate works.  Instead of command experience, it awards Unassembled Components.  This might be disappointing except for the fact they are making UC Legacy bound, making tiering up alts a lot easier.  People had been asking about a new gear tier.  There will not be one, though the roadmap did say they planned on making an upgraded augment available.

One of the more interesting parts is the new flashpoint "A Traitor Among the Chiss".  Ensign Temple will be returning, and we find out how what happened in "Crisis on Umbara" is directly linked to what the Traitor may be up to and why.  This flashpoint's release is scheduled to coincide with the United Forces release date of November 28.

And last but not least (in my opinion), the highlight of the roadmap.  They mentioned they will be allowing Legacy banks to hold credits.  Thank you!!  Toon hopping to find wayward credits gets really old, really fast.

So with all that said, what is your favorite part of the roadmap?  What are you looking forward to most?

Remember to join me tonight at 9pm MST for the continuation of my Veteran Mode Eternal Empire chapters, starting with my favorite chapter - Chapter XIV: Mandalore's Revenge.  You can find me at www.twitch.tv/scrappywheelz.

See you then!



~~~   Scrappywheelz   ~~~

Get all the CXP!

So in case you haven't heard, the powers that be at Star Wars: The Old Republic decided to unintentionally extend the bonus command experience gained in Black Hole, Oricon, Czerka, Yavin 4, Ziost, and Section X  dailies.  Apparently due to a glitch with this last patch, the bonus experience continued past maintenance this last Tuesday.  Sooooo, have fun and hurry and taken advantage of it while you can!  They've stated that they will not be doing anything to fix this until patch 5.5 comes out sometime at the end of September or beginning of October.

I admit I came to appreciate CXP a little late to the game and so I'm trying make up for lost time.  One tip I've found extremely useful, especially if you play on a high population server, is the PvP zone instance.  Certain nodes and updates can be positively painful to obtain with rude people ganking them while you're fighting the mobs around them or waiting for overly long respawn times.  Not to mention just the simple fact that you've got 20 other people in the same zone doing the same things and well, you get the picture.  Transferring to the PvP instance has in most, if not all of the incidences that we've done, have been fairly empty of other players, regardless of faction.  Of all the times we've run in the PvP instance, we've had only two events where we actually had to PvP.  First was two stealthies decided to jump us in Section X.  Problem for them was that we were better geared and probably had more PvP experience than them.  They managed to kill 2 of the 3 of us, but made the mistake of sticking around long enough for us to pop back up and get some health back.  Suffice to say, there were two dead stealthies after that.  The other was a target of opportunity that one of my guildies could not resist taking.  I actually felt sort of bad for the guy since he was only trying to get his dailies done and probably didn't expect to be messed with.  So while its mostly peaceful on the PvP instance, just be prepared.

I should also mention that the Umbara exploit is still in place until the next maintenance.  As stated in the above link, Eric Musco has warned that they are fully aware of this exploit and plans on penalizing anyone who took advantage of it!

Lastly, I want to sending out prayers of safety to my viewers and friends in the Southeast right now as they prepare for Irma to make landfall.  Just as with Harvey, Irma is expected to be particularly devastating as one of the largest documented hurricanes on record.  I encourage everyone to take a minute or two to consider making donations to agencies who are surely on call at this minute to help people get back on their feet again.  Heaven knows they are going to need it.

Here are some reputable charities with proven track records:

Global Giving
Red Cross
Salvation Army
LDS Church Humanitarian Aid Fund (100% of funds donated are used for relief services, not administration)
Florida Humane Society
Florida SPCA

Again, I can't stress enough - please know who you are giving your money to before you hand over your credit card or cash.  Unscrupulous people are out in force right now trying to take advantage of the misfortune of others by swindling you of your money.

Join me tomorrow while stream World of Warcraft tomorrow afternoon!  www.twitch.tv/scrappywheelz

~~~~   Scrappywheelz    ~~~