The List : The Best of SWTOR Update 1.2

Update 1.2: Legacy has turned out to be a massive update for Star Wars: The Old Republic and frankly there are too many awesome things in the update to list them all. Instead, we’re picking five of our favorite additions and changes from ‘Legacy’ to highlight as part of The List this week.

Level 1 Sprint

It was amusing hearing people complain of the lengthy travel times in Star Wars: The Old Republic when the game launched. Heck, even I complained about it. Then, I began to think all the way back to games like Star Wars Galaxies where I regularly ran across the world for missions and other adventures before mounts and vehicles became commonplace. And there I was, complaining about the travel times in TOR. #ModernMMOProblems, anyone? Legitimate or not, the fact of the matter is we’ve been trained to want instant gratification due in part to the way MMOs of the last couple of years have been designed and so this fairly tiny addition to Star Wars: The Old Republic makes it into my top five.

Crafting Changes

I’ve always hated crafting, so I have no idea why I’ve taken an interest in it in many MMOs over the past couple of years, but SW:TOR is no different. Unfortunately, crafting in the game hasn’t really been up to snuff and BioWare has implemented a slew of changes in Update 1.2: Legacy that aim to rectify many of the issues. In all honesty, crafting still isn’t where it needs to be, but I don’t feel like a total buffoon for taking skills like Synthweaving or Armormech as the craftable augments are worth a pretty penny and are also quite useful. Heck, even Slicing is useful now! Imagine that.

Novare Coast

I love capture-and-hold objective PvP, but Alderaan can often feel like a foregone conclusion if you get off to a bad start. Enter Novare Coast, an altogether better version of Alderaan Warzone. The tug-of-war capture mechanic combined with the fact it requires two points captured in order to hit the enemy’s base means clutch comebacks are definitely possible. I recently played a game where my team was down to 16% after failing miserably to coordinate and hold points , only to turn things around on our sloppy and greedy opponents who abandoned their posts in an attempt secure a third point.

Legacy System

Players in SW:TOR can earn additional experience towards Legacy levels that serve as a pre-requisite to a whole suite of new features both functional and fluff in 1.2. While some of the goodies aren’t mind blowing, the overall system, the ‘coming soon’ additions, and the potential ways the Legacy system could expand are all really promising. So far, I’ve leveled from 1-10 using nothing but unarmed attacks I unlocked through Valor (PvP) ranks in the Legacy system while playing an awesome looking Miraluka Inquisitor, also unlocked through the Legacy system. There’s a good deal of stuff here and a whole bunch more to be excited about coming in 1.3 and beyond.

Rakghoul Pandemic

I wrote about this last week, but I’m really enjoying the Rakghoul Pandemic event. I enjoy it more for its implications for the game than anything else. The content and the way it has been presented through news bulletins, interesting codex entries, are all great, but it’s all the consequential stuff that makes the event exciting.

For example, no one ever went to Outlaw’s Den, and now players are regularly fighting over the world boss introduced there as part of the event. We took down the bantha world boss just the other day, but not before we almost full wiped to a strike team of Republic players who ambushed us at the beginning of the fight. Our valiant Sith Assassin tank held the boss’ aggro while we respawned and made a mad dash back for the Den. Once we returned, we beat back the Republic forces so we could continue to work on the boss. The Republic hadn’t had enough yet and came back to try once more, but we took them out again (while juggling the boss and his adds, mind you) and then finished the fight. It’s the potential for this sort of thing that really has me excited about the possibility of regular world events and I’m really hoping BioWare continues along these lines.

Source: mmorpg.com