OotiniCast Episode 136
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We find out what’s coming up between now and Game Update 2.9 in Bruce MacLean’s roadmap. In our discussion, we do some lightweight theorycrafting, comparing primary stat vs power augments, and whether there’s a point at which crit becomes more valuable than power.
1. Introduction
Teo appeared on episode 77 of The Oceanic Gamer’s Flash Point podcast, A Hot Cup of Teo. He also refers to Mae’s (@MaeBeeBuzz) article “SWTOR Blog: The Queue Sync Problem”.
2. Tip of the week
Congratulations to this week’s winner, Nightmare of the Pot5 server! Thanks to Darth Malvictus for entering.
Please send your tips to ootinicast@gmail.com by next Wednesday for a chance to win a M8-R3 code, courtesy of BioWare, and an OotiniCast-provided Cartel Market pack from the latest shipment.
3. Holofeed
- A reminder that you will need to be subscribed as of Sunday 11 May to receive the Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace with five additional rooms unlocked for free (total value is 4 million credits), in addition to the Subteroth mini-pet and the character title “The Intrepid”. If you delay subscribing until 15 July, you’ll get the Sky Palace with three rooms unlocked.
- Game Update 2.8 has been deployed on the PTS and is now available for testing. Note that your previous character(s) on the PTS will have been wiped, so you’ll have to copy characters across from the live servers via the official website.
- Bruce MacLean’s roadmap update tells us more about what will be included over the next four months, encompassing Game Updates 2.8 and 2.9.
- 10 June (2.8) to 19 Aug (2.9): Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event and its Casino
- 10 June (2.8) to 1 Jul (2.8.1): Double Fleet Req & credits from GSF matches
- 1 Jul (2.8.1) to 22 Jul (2.8.2): Double WZ comms & credits from WZs
- 10 June (2.8): Bolstered 50-55 access to Group Finder 16-man Story Mode Operations on a schedule
- 10 June (2.8): Nightmare Mode Dread Palace & Nightmare Power buff removed from Nightmare Mode Dread Fortress
- 10 June (2.8): New GSF Gunship and Bomber variants
- 10 June (2.8) to 19 Aug (2.9): Double XP weekend, Gree Event, BCW, Rakghoul Resurgence (maybe)
- 19 Aug (2.9): Next chapter in Forged Alliances story arc (presumably Manaan Flashpoint(s))
- It seems that the Grand Acquisitions Race, the Chevin world event, was one-time only and will not be returning.
- Rob Hinkle (Senior Designer) started several threads in the PTS forum requesting focused feedback from players on changes being made to Madness/Balance Sorcs/Sages, Madness/Balance Assassins/Shadows, Annihilation/Watchman Marauders/Sentinels and Concealment/Scrapper Operatives/Scoundrels. The threads have now been closed until the next PTS build is deployed.
- In response to an observation that the class changes seem to be doling out buffs a little too liberally, Rob Hinkle said that they’ve recognised this, and will be dialing things back.
- One change for Marauders and Sentinels is that the popular hybrid build referred to as “dotsmash” will be rendered ineffective in Game Update 2.8.
- After signing a petition thread titled “Repair the double relic glitch”, Rob Hinkle confirmed that they are intending to finally iron out the remaining issues with relic procs.
- BioWare are recruiting for a new position on their Community Team, to join Eric Musco, Courtney Woods and Tait Watson.
- Electronic Arts held its Q4 2014 earnings conference call on Tuesday 6 May. Besides noting that SWTOR was an “existing live service” in the slide presentation, it otherwise received no mention.
- The next Community Cantina will be on Friday 16 May in Vancouver, Canada.
4. Community
Chill’s interview with Njessi (@HawtRepublic), author of the Hawtpants of the Old Republic blog, is now available.
The Galactic Gamers Coalition podcast can now be subscribed to in iTunes.
Kranitoko is back with another video where he opens the latest Hypercrate, this time containing Hotshot’s Starfighter Packs. It includes another awesome introduction!
Our Ootini Knights guildmate Darmist is hoping to organise a non-progression raid group on the Republic side of The Harbinger. See this thread in our forums for more information.
5. Force Feedback
We discuss tweets, emails and comments from Aaree (@AramondNoir), @Charles_Boyd, Road (@ThatRoadGuy), Will (@GhostMirror), @GregCarter78, @Dekarch, Hugo (@PadmeAm), @ForceChuckle, Terg (@TheTurg), Heather (@Heather_PLS), @fnord3125, @tyious, @JediKrackr, @mark_swtor, @swtor_buckeye, @TheMalgadar, @Adam_Schumpert, Laurie M (@Lawilc01), Bad Feeling Podcast (@badfeelingpdcst), @BillLentz and Chaz Lobo (@Strongshocker).
Chaz Lobo’s got a new job (he wishes!):
Our guildmate and friend Adam Schumpert presented this work-in-progress to celebrate Star Wars Day:
Gary provided this panoramic view on Tython:
“There is no passion, there is serenity.”
6. Sarlacc Digest
Two topics were covered during the discussion: primary stat vs power augments, and revisiting (and perhaps rehabilitating) the value of crit.
We received an email from Oofalong, the author of the Theorycrafting series on Dulfy’s site, giving us a detailed explanation of how to make an informed decision about whether to stick with primary stat augments, or switch to Overkill (power) augments. He provided this spreadsheet to support his reasoning.
Our guildmate Terg (@TheTurg) subsequently determined that once a certain level of primary damage was achieved, and assuming at least 70% Surge, crit actually became more valuable than power. He provided the following graphs in support of his assertion:
210 Crit vs Power
311 Crit vs Power
410 Crit vs Power
Addition damage from Crit or Power at 60% Surge
Addition damage from Crit or Power at 70% Surge
Addition damage from Crit or Power at 80% Surge
7. Outro
Thanks to Redna (@R3DN4, twitch.tv/r3dn4) for joining us this week.
Information about our guilds on The Harbinger, Ootini Knights (Republic) and Ootini Rage (Empire), can be found here.
You can email questions and comments about the show to ootinicast@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter via @OotiniCast. Check out our website, ootinicast.com, which has links to our presence on Google+ and Facebook. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, and listen to us on Stitcher.
Greetings Ootinicast. Loved the discussion of this week’s podcast. I just wanted to confirm after listening to your podcast on Forge Alliance speculation that Manaan is indeed part of this storyline as well as highly likely the next part of the storyline as it was “unintentionally” confirmed on the live servers.
On the Republic side specifically there is a bug that allows players with sub 55 characters to engage in conversation with the Forge Alliance droid next to the elevator on the main area of the fleet, but instead of giving the conversation for Part 1, it actually gives you the first conversation for Part 2. The droid tells you that it can’t say to much as eyes and ears are everywhere. He then tells you that Tharon Shan has gone to Manaan is in need of your help and that you must travel there.
There was a post on reddit shortly after 2.7’s release with pictures of the conversation. As far as I am aware the bug is still there. I tried it myself on my low level sentinal and it indeed does work. I don’t know how Bioware let something like this slip by, but I just wanted to state that Manaan has been unofficially officially confirmed to be apart of the next chapter of the storyline at least.
May the force be with you all.
Enjoyed the podcast as always. Sigh, that wasn’t much of a roadmap from Bruce. My main takeaway from the roadmap is that SWTOR won’t have much in the way of content that I’m excited about until probably October or November when I expect the level cap increase and related content to be released. I guess for now I’ll stay subscribed, but this is all very discouraging. I’m afraid that SWTOR is going to bleed subscriptions over the spring and summer. I’m convinced that BW is working on this game with a skeleton crew, probably something like 30 people total including Musco’s group. No wonder the content is only trickling out.