SWTOR - PvE - Explosive Conflict Colonel Vorgath

Above video is from Hard Mode

Colonel Vorgath is the third boss of the new (as of patch 1.2) Operation, Explosive Conflict.  This is the puzzle boss in Explosive Conflict, and is really cool in practice.  Sweeping the mine field is fun for everyone involved, and the boss at the end is challenging without being impossible after the long process of getting to him.  I have a video further down showing the tower view for those trying to solve the puzzle.

Group Composition:

• 2 Tanks
• 2 Healers
• 4 DPS

Alternatively you can do this with a single tank, but unless you're switching people between bosses you'll need 2 tanks to get here.

Attacks (Droid):

• Cleave
• Melee

Attacks (Vorgath):

• AOE Knockback
• Demo Round
• Marked Explosion
• Ranged

Mechanics:

• Sweep the mine field
• Disarm bombs to advance through the mine field
• Turrets will attack players the whole time they are in the mine field
• Vorgath will spawn 4 turrets that must be handled
• Vorgath will switch targets randomly

Story Mode Strategy:


One tank is responsible for sweeping the minefield and one tank will move with the group to handle the Demolition Droid that spawns and drops the bomb defusal kit.  To begin this fight just approach the shield, it will disappear.

In the tower:

Above video from Story Mode

Click on the squares to uncover the bombs.  We stayed with the middle two squares so we could pick the path of least resistance without having to uncover the whole field.  Once the raid can not progress further (two red squares) click the button to the right and you will be teleported down (as a hologram) to the mine field.  There will be a droid hovering over your head, it scans in a cone directly in front of you - the idea is to run around "sweeping" the mine field to uncover the demolition droid.

Once the droid is uncovered head back to the tower and sweep further ahead of the raid while they kill the droid.  Once the droid dies mark a square to be disarmed (turns yellow).

At regular intervals a "strong" add will spawn in the tower that must be killed by the tank.   In addition there is a cooldown after marking a square yellow - presumably to keep the person from disarming two mines with one kit.

In the field:
Adds will spawn constantly, there are three of them - normals only, they don't do much damage and can be killed easily.

Move ahead on to green squares and progress toward the other side of the mine field.  DO NOT step on red squares, or squares that have not yet been marked.

Once the tank in the tower appears as a hologram get ready to kill the demolition droid that spawns.  The tank should pick up the droid ASAP at this point.  The droid does mostly normal melee attacks, but has a "cleave" that does respectable damage and should be interrupted as much as possible.

Once the droid is dead there will be a notice for the raid on who received the kit, that person will also have a wrench over their head (not sure if this is visible to others or not).  The person with the kit needs to wait for a square to turn yellow, then run over and right click (interact) with the mine to disarm it.

NOTE: Only the person with the kit can move on to the yellow square, anyone else will blow up.

Once the group has made it to the far side of the field there is a control panel on the right side that will disable the turrets and disable the rest of the minefield.

From here the Colonel is just ahead with two adds.  The tank should jump in to get aggro and let the rest of the group kill the adds quickly before focusing on the Colonel.

The Colonel has an AOE knockback that he likes to use regularly.  He will also mark a random player with a red circle, that person needs to move away from the rest of the group until the bomb on them explodes.  The circle is huge and hard to miss.

He will also swap to a random target at regular intervals, the tank needs to taunt back, but even doing that the other player will take some damage and needs to be shielded/healed through it.

At some point during the fight the Colonel will spawn four turrets (two on each side) these can be CC'd until the end, or quickly burned down.  The enrage timer is tight and even CCing them we hit it, so it might be best to leave them until after - more testing will solidify this strategy.

Hard Mode Strategy:

To begin we all ride the elevator up to the tower and kill the first elite that spawns, then one ranged DPS waits in the tower and uncovers more squares while our second tank sweeps the minefield for the first time.  This lets us get a jump start on the best possible path.

The assassin droids that spawn here can become a problem if you let them get to their target.  Normally they will just walk forward using ranged attacks, but if they reach their current target they will explode doing a good amount of damage.  These guys need to be killed quickly, and if they get too close someone who isn't their target needs to get in their face and knock them back.

The Demolition droid has an added mechanic, in addition to his cleaving he will cast "Overload" which is an AOE knockback with a good range.  If he gets one of these off your whole group will likely be cast in to various mines surrounding them and all die.  This has happened to us a lot. There is a pattern, he will cast Overload -> Cleave -> Overload.  So make sure you're ready to interrupt when the overload comes around.  We designate the tank and melee DPS to take turns interrupting.

TIP: I have noticed that I am capable of interrupting every Overload, as a JG My kick has a short cooldown and is always ready.  So I've started interrupting every time.  This also helps if I get jumpy and click on a cleave my kick won't be ready so it isn't wasted.


If the droid enrages you will also need to interrupt the cleave, I got hit for 24k damage once from it.  It's good if you can interrupt it all the time to make this easy on the healers, but if not the tank can eat a few of them without too much issue.

For Vorgath everyone should get close to the far tunnel doorway.  Frequently the turrets that are shooting us through the Minefield don't disappear and stacking back there will get you out of range.  you will also be out of range of the turrets that spawn while killing Vorgath.

For this part the tank in the tower takes over "tanking" duties to give the other tank a break.  So usually that means I'm DPSing and Cyn is tanking.  Vorgath still switches targets so you have to be on the ball for that.  We don't kill the turrets in this phase, the enrage is too tight and any loss of DPS usually means Vorgath kills everyone.

TIP: For this phase when the turrets pop up I make sure they aggro on me, which usually means saber throw one, taunt the other.  We're normally out of range of the back two so I don't worry about them as much.  Then I just watch and make sure they're firing at me, when they aren't I swap targets and taunt again.

Nightmare Mode Strategy:

Coming Eventually

Tank Tips:

Interrupt cleave on the droid as much as possible.  Make sure to taunt the droid when it appears to get it over to you ASAP so the rest of the raid can focus on burning it down quickly.  On Hard Mode interrupt Overload every time and you'll have to let someone else worry about cleave.

Watch for the target swap and taunt the Colonel right after it happens.  Also watch out for the knockback and save your gap closer to get back in range quickly.  If you stand too far away he'll drop a demo round on you while you're trying to walk back.

If you're OTing for this fight, watch the main tank - there can be some spiky damage, if necessary taunt off him, or help with taunting when Vorgath switches targets quickly.  Pick up the turrets when they spawn to keep them off the rest of your group and the main tank.

Fun thing to try if your raid has a good sense of humor, take your time killing the first add and take your time uncovering the squares, the video below will show you the results.  It's something to do at least once ;)

TL;DR Recap:

• One person stays in the tower to sweep the field
• Green squares are safe, red squares are death
• Sweep the mine field to uncover Demolition Droids and get disarm kits
• Mark squares yellow to disarm them
• Vorgath switches targets frequently, taunt him back quickly

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SWTOR - PvE - Explosive Conflict Firebrand and Stormcaller

Above video is from HardMode

Firebrand and Stormcaller are the second boss of the new (as of patch 1.2) Operation, Explosive Conflict.  Imagine my joy after the first fight that requires 2 tanks to find that the second fight also requires 2 tanks.  I actually quite enjoyed this fight, the mechanics are interesting, but once you learn them the fight sails by with no trouble.

Group Composition:

• 2 Tanks
• 2 Healers
• 4 DPS

Attacks (Firebrand):

• Frontal cone AOE
• Fire Debuff
• Ranged
• Missile Launch

Attacks (Stormcaller):

• AOE pulse
• Damage debuff
• Ranged
• Lightning Pillar

Mechanics:

• Bosses can not be respositioned
• Adds will spawn to the right and left with a shield over them, players need to get under the shield and kill the adds
• Don't stand in red circles
• Yellow beam needs to be cleansed to fall off
• Firebrand's debuff calls for a tank swap
• Double Destruction needs to be positioned not to hit the tank

Story Mode Strategy:


To begin split the Ops into two groups, each containing 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 dps.  These groups are assigned left and right sides.  Firebrand is on the left, Stormcaller on the right.

Both tanks need to be faced away from the raid, they both have frontal cleave effects with a good range.

Both groups DPS the target on their assigned side.  At the start of the fight Firebrand will shoot rockets at the raid causing initial AOE damage, be ready.

Periodically through the fight Stormcaller will cast "Double Destruction" (4 seconds) which puts a debuff on the current target.  The debuff causes all damage from Stormcaller to be doubled.  Initially we had planned a tank swap for this phase.  With more discussion with other raiders we discovered that the debuff has 2 parts.  It will hit 2 people closest to Stormcaller, if there are not two people in range it will hit the same person twice.  IF it hits the same person twice they will be launched in to the air and take severe damage.

To combat this, position the DPS (or one DPS and one Heals) on Stormcaller but to the side (not in front of him).  When he begins casting the two move in front of Stormcaller and the tank steps back.  Once the debuff is on them, the tank moves forward again (and they move around the side) to continue where he left off.  In this way there is no need for a tank swap.

NOTE: You must be in front of Stormcaller to receive the debuff, it is not the two closest people period, the effect is in a cone between his front cannons.

Firebrand will also debuff his tank causing extra damage - this might require a tank swap at higher difficulties, but in Story mode can be healed through if the tank makes use of his cooldowns.

Stormcaller will drop lightning pillars on random people in the raid, make sure to move away from the lightning radius.  Firebrand will also periodically continue to put red circles on the ground and drop rockets, don't stand in the red circles.

TIP: Firebrand doesn't put red circles on himself or Stormcaller, so melee should be safe as long as they're fighting on top of the bosses.


Firebrand has a third rocket mechanic, he will place a yellow beam and reticle on a person, this needs to be cleansed and that person can them safely move out of the area.  Firebrand will target this area with rockets shortly after the beam appears.

Three times through the fight there will be a prompt "Activating Defensive Systems" - at this point adds will spawn beneath shield generators to the left and right of the field.  DO NOT attack the shield generators (no AOE either).  Each group should take cover beneath their respective shield and kill the adds while missiles are dropping from the sky.

NOTE: The tank on Stormcaller will NOT be able to take cover, Stormcaller will be dropping lightning pylons the whole time the missile volley is happening and the tank will need to position them away from the rest of the group.


When one of the bosses dies the other will enrage, so they need to be killed closely together.

Hard Mode Strategy:

For positioning we moved both groups up onto the tanks on the far sides of eachother.  On Firebrand's side there is one DPS that stays on the ground and they take the majority of the Yellow circles and lightning spires.  The person on the ground has a self cleanse to take care of the yellow beams so our healer doesn't have to watch them too closely.

In the Normal strategy I talk about the yellow beam that needs to be cleansed, I think on Normal it falls off without being cleansed, but on Hard Mode it must be cleansed to fall off.

For Stormcaller's Double Destruction we had the tank move to reposition Stormcaller rather than having our DPS move.  We found the enrage timer very tight so we needed to put out as much DPS as possible, and just having them move around so often messed with that.  So it's the tank's job to run around behind them, let them get the debuff, then run back to the front so the cleave doesn't hit them.

NOTE: If your DPS is low you'll get 2 double destructions before triggering defensive systems.  On the second one the tank should drop down to the ground and run around to the front while on the ground because you are in danger of having a lightning spire drop on you.

Firebrand's debuff does require a tank swap at this difficulty.  It might be able to be healed through with superior gear and/or concentration (or potentially having a DPS taunt before Firebrand casts, then let the tank taunt back) - but we found it easiest to just swap tanks.  This will require your tanks to be familiar with both boss mechanics so it might behoove you to practice this on Story as well.

Nightmare Mode Strategy:

Coming Eventually

Tank Tips:

Make sure you are tanking Firebrand on the far side of the Stormcaller to avoid the AOE.

Reposition Stormcaller during Double Destruction so he hits your DPS - just move around and stand behind them, he'll do the rest.  Make sure you move back to the front quickly so his cleave doesn't hit the whole group.

Fight up on the tank's body, they don't put red circles on themselves.

Do your best to pick up the adds when they spawn (Firebrand's Side).  Don't use any AOE attacks while under the shield.

Position the lightning spires in a group to one side of Stormcaller during missile salvo.  If that isn't possible, loop around behind the shield on your side - try to keep the lightning spires from between the shield and the tank so the rest of our group can get back without too much trouble.

TL;DR Recap:

• Split into 2 groups, each group takes a side (left/right)
• Face Firebrand into the wall (or away from the raid)
• Don't stand in red circles
• Tank gets out of the way when Stormcaller is casting debuff
• Kill adds and stand under shield when it spawns

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SWTOR - PvE - Explosive Conflict Zorn and Toth

Above video is from Hard Mode

Zorn and Toth are the first boss of the new (as of patch 1.2) Operation, Explosive Conflict.  I really enjoyed learning this fight, being a tank that has had to OT more than he gets to MT finally getting a fight that requires 2 tanks was fantastic.

Group Composition:

• 2 Tanks
• 2 Healers
• 4 DPS

Attacks (Zorn):

• Rock Throw
• Scream
• DOT
• Melee

Attacks (Toth):

• AOE Stomp
• Melee
• Jump

Mechanics:

• When Toth Jumps aggro will drop (as of March 30 patch notes the aggro drop does not happen)
• Toth puts a fearful debuff on the tank next to where he jumps
• When the two bosses are together their damage increases
• Zorn's scream is a frontal cone AOE
• Red circles on the ground warn of erupting rocks
• Zorn will DOT people with a weakness debuff

Story Mode Strategy:


To begin split the Ops into two groups, each containing 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 dps.  These groups are assigned left and right sides of the canyon.  If you have a gunslinger position him with the right group and make use of the shield ability during the rock throw - the team on the right will be the only ones dealing with the rock throw.

The tanks need to position the two bosses at least 30m apart to prevent their AOE attacks from hitting both groups.  This can most easily be done by tanking them deeper into the canyon from where they start.  They pat back and forth quite a distance, so wait for them to be approximately positioned before starting.

The tank on Zorn needs to face him away from the rest of the raid, facing him into the canyon wall works the best.

Both groups DPS the target on their assigned side.

At 85% (and every 20% thereafter) Toth will leap to Zorn, this places a "fearful" debuff on the targets within 30m of where he leaps (whichever boss hits the % mark first triggers the change).  Tanks need to swap targets at this point, this is most easily done by the tanks staying close to their positions and taunting the other boss.  This swap needs to be done quickly because Zorn will begin his rock throwing phase soon after the leap.

After switch the rest of the groups need to swap targets as well and DPS the appropriate boss (now on their side).

During the rock throwing phase Zorn will hit everyone within 30m of him.  If no one is close enough he will chase players to get in range, so the tank at least needs to stay close.  It was hard to tell if the damage was increased if less targets were being damaged, but that is the assumption.

After the rock throwing phase the bosses will jump together again and tanks need to swap once more.  After this swap Zorn will perform his channeled scream which MUST be turned away from the raid.  Normally at this point red circles also appear on the ground and the tank needs to dance around them while facing Zorn in the appropriate direction.

Through the whole fight random targets will be given a DOT that can (and should) be cleansed.

When one of the bosses dies the other will enrage dramatically increasing the damage output - kill them as close together as possible.

When they are both dead a champion that has been watching will jump down.  His damage is moderate but his health is low and should be easily managed.

Hard Mode Strategy:

We've worked through a bunch of different strategies and some things have worked better than others.

First, DPS don't switch targets, they stay on the same target the whole fight.  We accomplish this by properly positioning everyone so they don't get the Fearful debuff, and stacking our one melee DPS on Toth for the whole fight.  From what we can tell there is an AOE and a cone effect from the Fearful debuff, standing directly behind Toth seems to keep you properly out of the way.  If you don't get it the first time keep working on your positioning.

We ended up tanking the bosses with their backs facing the raid, or facing the wall - sometimes it's hard to get them in to the proper position, but we stopped trying to do the max distance trick with the tank angled back toward the raid, it just caused more problems then it was worth.  

Our tanks do swap targets, we have moved a bit further into the canyon so the bosses are further apart and further up from the entrance which gives our DPS and healers more room to move around.

There is an added mechanic, now when Toth enrages a person will be targeted with a yellow circle - that person must run to Toth with the circle touching him and wait for it to turn purple.  Once it turns purple get out of the way, when the shot hits the circle it will drop Toth out of his enrage.  Make sure you aren't pushing through this phase too quickly, because if Toth jumps before his enrage falls off you're probably going to wipe.

Also when Zorn is using his channeled scream, when he activates it, it will stun the tank.  Make sure to use your CC breaker ASAP so you can move around freely and avoid the red circles.

Also on Hard Mode Zorn will DOT people with a debuff called "Weakness" (? I think).  This does stacking damage, each tick it does more damage until it's cleansed.  These need to be taken care of ASAP on the tank and quickly on everyone else so the healers don't get stressed.  I'd recommend assigning someone other than the healers to manage the majority of the group and let the healers focus on the tanks.

Nightmare Mode Strategy:

Coming Eventually

Tank Tips:

If you're tanking Zorn make sure he is always facing away from the rest of the group.

Tank swap needs to happen fast, make sure you are ready for it and plan appropriately.  If you're positioned well you shouldn't have to move much to taunt and get them to reposition.

Be careful when you're dodging the red circles that you keep Zorn facing the right way, I found that facing him to the wall, then away from the raid, then back at the wall worked quite well.

Save your cooldowns for the rock throwing phase and Toth's berserk, these are likely the highest damaging portions of the fight.

If you're tanking Zorn during the rock throwing phase you may be targeted with the yellow circle, Zorn is stationary so it's OK for you to run over to Toth to drop it.

TL;DR Recap:

• Split into 2 groups, each group takes a side (left/right)
• Face Zorn into the wall (or away from the raid)
• Don't stand in red circles
• Swap targets after Toth leaps to Zorn
• After the leap watch for Zorn's rock throw, use cooldowns as necessary
• Person with yellow circle needs to stack on Toth until it changes, then get out of the way
• Cleanse DOT throughout the fight

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Malvolio's Story - Day 4

Checked my mail before heading out and you'll never guess what was in it?  A letter from Farn telling me that Virk was KIA. Whoever cleaned up the bodies apparently moved fast to reassign his subordinates.  Not sure what to make of the situation, I'm certainly not writing back to tell him it was me that killed Virk - nice of him to keep me in the loop I guess, at least I know they aren't looking at me for it or I'd already be in for questioning.

I was all prepared and ready to go, but it wouldn't be a regular day in the army if on the way to my extremely important Ops I didn't get stopped by random strangers begging for help. Captain Xuss wanted me to secure landing area for reinforcments and Milo wants me to break a pirate out of the Sep's jail.  Since both missions are pretty much on my way to find the bomb (the important thing) I agreed to check it out if I had time.  I was stopped by Bendick before I could leave, he wanted to give me more background intel on the pirate that I'm supposed to free.  Most of it was Blah Blah Blah, the pirate is a bad guy - he wants me to kill him instead of setting him free.  I guess I'll make the decision when I get there.  Eventually I made my way to the transport droid (who is being co-operative today) and headed for the stronghold.

When I landed I had a brief chat with Sergeant Vandal who told me what he actually needed.  Disable a few defense generators and we're all set to go.  Shouldn't be an issue, having some backup might be handy so I'll make this one a priority.

I decided to scout down the beach before heading into the stronghold itself.  Not far I found one of those glowing cubes in some rocks, when I bent down to open this one up it shocked me with something and gave me a massive headache - in fact I'm still not quite recovered.  I feel different somehow - it's wierd.  Maybe I should start leaving these things alone.

On my way back to the fortress I decided to give my new gun a workout - it performed well.  Still have to deal with the blinking and flashing, but the pulse canon works well (Video 0:16).

I ran in to Agent Burne on my way in to the fortress, apparently Command got some bad intel and sent their squads to the wrong metting point, there are a bunch of Sep leaders in the fortress.  They have extra security (yay ...) with them and need to be killed.  While I didn't sign up to be an assassin I've never objected to killing people in the name of justice - so I agreed to take care of it.

What makes bad guys build secret bases in Volcanos?  Is it using the heat as a power source for their devious world dominating inventions?  Hard to say - this base though?  It must have taken years to build - I'd be impressed if I wasn't here to kill everyone.

I found the first defense generator console and the computer terminal with the leader's names and locations without much trouble.  That new overload on my rifle really cuts through the groups of Seps.  Happily they like to stand close together in a nice formation just waiting for me to run up and gun them down.  I racked up 50 kills before I stopped counting, half of them were droids, but they still count.

I managed to locate the computer terminal where I needed to install the data spike, but then I got completely owned by the Imps guarding it (Video 1:04).  I'm not sure what happened, my skills just don't seem to measure up, its like I'm wearing paper instead of armor.  I dont' know how many of my 9 lives I used up, but it was more than a few, and likely all of them.  In the end all I could do was suicide charge him and with my last breath stick a bomb on him that finished him off just as I went down.

I ran back to install the spike, and got a call from Jorgan (Video 4:00), with all the new intel finding the rest of the squad is top priority - the bomb is now a secondary concern.  Funny how a mission can change like that, all this work to find the bomb and now it doesn't even matter.

Here, wipe yourself off - you're dead

I was a bit shaken after my run in with the Imps, I thought I was ready to take them on - but maybe I was fooling myself?  I seemed to cut through all these Seps with little trouble, were Imps that much different?  Hard to say, but I stuck to the path of least resistance and tried to get through this as quickly as possible.  I found the second Defense computer and finished off the leaders having their secret meeting.  The brig was nearby so I stopped in to see about this Pirate that people were so up in arms over.  After meeting him and not even getting a "thanks" for rescuing him I decided to put him out of his misery.  I'm sure someone will thank me some day (Video 4:58).

Then continued on and took out the third computer before securing the landing pad for reinforcements to actually arrive.  It would have been nice if they'd landed during the fight instead of after I'd killed everyone, but I guess you can't have everything (Video 5:43).

I tried to lead them inside to take out the rest of the seps, but they just stood on the landing pad like statues -
apparently their orders stopped at that point and they didn't know what else to do.  The army sure can pick them can't it?

I continued through the base and eventually found the rest of my squad - alive, not dead like I had assumed.  Though the meeting didn't go how I thought at all.  Apparently Havok squad turned traitor and are running off with the bomb - I tried to warn them that I'd already deactivated it and get them to come back with me, but they weren't going for it.  Instead the Commander spouted some drivel about the Republic not being able to win and leaving them to die.  I tried to stop them, but he called in some imperial friends and took off in a shuttle (Video 9:14).  By the the time I took out the Imps they were long gone.  On the plus side the Imps didn't cause me any undue trouble, I guess I was just having an off moment or something - I'm completely awesome just as I previously thought. (End Video 1)


I called a shuttle to come pick me up and headed back to the Fort.  I went back to report in and was greeted by General Vander.  He was in the process of busting Jorgan down to Seargent - glad I could show up in time for that (Video 2 0:14).  He also congratulated me and gave me command of the new (and improved!) Havok squad.  My first subordinate is Jorgan!  Ah cosmic justice, how I love thee.  Didn't I call it that first day, before the end of my time here he'd be working for me?  There you have it - I'm psychic.

Also had a bit of trouble not telling the General that someone had painted a weird implant thing on his head that looked kind of goofy.  Not sure what the policy is for telling your superior officer that he looks silly, I must have missed that day at the academy.

Is that a Gun or are you ... I WANT THAT GUN!

I am a little peeved that his gun is so much larger than mine - I mean, I don't have insecurity issues in that department, but seriously?  It's a mobile cannon, not a blaster rifle ... I want one.  Jorgan and I had a brief chat, where I promoted him to my boot polishing brigade (Video 2 2:48).  There is a shuttle waiting with my name on it - but first, a bit of un-finished business.

First stop was Forris for some new upgrades, unfortunately he didn't have much.  He did stick me with some kind of injection and claimed that it would let me shake off dizzy spells or being stunned in combat - not something I'm anxious to try, but it'll probably come in handy.  He also gave me an auto loader for my grenade launcher component on my rifle, basically giving me the ability to become a one man wrecking machine.  I suppose quality makes up for quantity.

I just had one more stop to make, Savrip island.  Time to collect some bounty and find some supplies for overindulged villagers. I grabbed a speeder to Oradam then headed for the island - on my way I was stopped by Travi Pott, who instead of doing her job wants to pay someone else to do it for me.  No wonder the republic military is in such dire straits.  Doesn't matter to me philisophically, I'm willing to do just about anything if the price is right.  All she wanted was for me to disable some beacons on Savrip, I'm on my way there anyway, so no problem here.

Someone needs lessons - this is what happens when you let a droid fly

Getting to the island wasn't a problem, but all the baddies hanging out there was interesting.  I got lots of chances to try out my new mortar volley on the locals (Video 2 4:05), it works even better than I had hoped.  I also located the crashed ship with the suppliest, it wasn't hard to spot - sticking half out the side of the rocks like it was.  I located the droid and retrieved the shipment - apparently Gizmel is sending "Spice" (a drug) to the villagers marked as "relief" ... I'm sure it might be a relief for some, but I'm not sure about the legality - I'll think on that and make a decision when I get back to Oradam.

Rounding up the Savrip Chieftans didn't pose any trouble, with Jorgan's help (much as I hate to admit it) they went down without much trouble.  I also managed to disable the transmitters in record time.  Interestingly there was another person that was disabling the trabnsmitters just ahead of me.  He'd disable them, and in seconds they'd phase out and back in, working properly again.  I watched the same thing happen when I did it, but as much as I tried again I couldn't disable them a second time - I guess Travi will have to live with that much.

I met up with a Smuggler on the island who explained they were after the biggest Savrip anyone had ever seen.  I agreed to check it out with them and help if I could.  With the three of us (including Jorgan) we ripped through it pretty quickly.  I was actually a bit dissappointed that it wasn't more of a challenge (Video 2 4:50) - it did give me the opportunity to hone some of my deathdealing skills though.  It also helped me spot another one of those glowing boxes up on the hill, after we were finished I hopped up there to see what was inside.  All I got was another headache.

Now it was just a matter of wrapping up my errands and getting ready for the shuttle trip to the republic fleet (Video 2 5:33).  I'm looking forward to getting to Coruscant, it'll be nice to be out of a warzone, even if it's just for a little while.

Malvolio reaches level 10 !!

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SWTOR - SD-0 Solo Kill

World view of SD-0 Location

Local view of SD-0 Location

Boss Level: 18

Attacks:

• Melee
• Ionized Stream
• Proximity Laser
• Armor debuff

Strategy:


The Proximity Laser normally targets 2 people and does more damage the closer together they are standing.  The idea is that they should immediately run away from each other (and the rest of the raid).  This ability will make the difference between winning and losing as a solo player.

You must send your companion in to attack first so that the initial Proximity laser doesn't kill you both immediately.  From that point on you have to stay as far away from your companion as possible.  This fight would be a snap if they stayed in one place and didn't teleport closer and closer to you.

At one point in the video you'll see my companion teleport right on top of me and me take a whole ton of damage before I can get away from them again - this is what you need to avoid.

I just tried to keep SD-0 between me and my companion, I was taking a bit of damage each time since I couldn't stay far enough away the whole time, but in the end I managed to do enough damage before that killed me.  Anyone with some self/companion healing will find this fight extremely easy.

Also if you watch the movie right to the end you'll see something really cool.

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SWTOR - PvE Gear Changes Patch 1.2

New equipment in Patch 1.2!  Lots of equipment adjusting for high level gear and some new stuff for everyone to look forward to.  In the vein I decided to actually run some comparisons of the old equipment and new equipment to see if I should get excited or not.  The patch notes mentioned that they had re-balanced the equipment, since the high level gear was so badly done to start with I was anxious to see what those changes really meant.

Well, after about 10 hours of typing in numbers and calculations I've got it all together.
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SWTOR - PvP Gear Changes Patch 1.2

New equipment in Patch 1.2!  Lots of equipment adjusting for high level gear and some new stuff for everyone to look forward to.  In the vein I decided to actually run some comparisons of the old equipment and new equipment to see if I should get excited or not.  The patch notes mentioned that they had re-balanced the equipment, since the high level gear was so badly done to start with I was anxious to see what those changes really meant.

Well, after about 10 hours of typing in numbers and calculations I've got it all together.
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Malvolio's Story - Day 3

Got up today and checked the mail - there was a note from some guy named Harson Nild talking about my work for the SIS.  Apparently they finally made the arrest of that woman that was spying and their agent said "I performed with dutiful competence and professionalism" ... I think he confused me with someone else.

I had some time to kill before my scheduled flight, so I checked in with Forris to see if he had any new tricks for me.  He had an upgraded plasma cell that just came in from off world and let me give it a test drive.  He also modded my rifle with a switch to fire a High Impact Bolt, he says it's very powerful and should up my damage output considerably.  I'm sceptical, but willing to give it a shot.
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Previous Build - Shadow - March 16 2012

I've replaced this build as of March 16, 2012.  This was my starter level 50 Tanking build, initially I had levelled as Infiltration and specc'd over to Kinetic once I hit 50.  I learned a few things from the talent built, I've also started to PvP more on this character and that has led me to different talents.


Tanking Build: 33/0/8
Torhead link

This is a very solid build.  It has decent utility, survivability and damage potential.  This was more of a PvE focused build and as I started to PvP more I debated the usefulness of a few skills, which I switched out in my next build iteration.

Kinetic Combat:


Applied Force (2/2) - More damage, can't go wrong here
Double Bladed Saber Defense (2/2) - Required for Tanking
Technique Mastery (3/3) - Increased Elemental defense, Required for PvP

Mental Fortitude (3/3) - Larger health pool, not necessary, but helpful.
Elusiveness (0/2) - This is an important skill, but I still underutilize Resilience
Rapid Recovery (2/2) - More passive heals and damage, I feel this is a core skill for tanking.
Expertise (3/3) - I thought this meant all technique skills, but it appears to only affect the stance damage effect - way less useful than anticipated.

Mind over Matter (0/1) - I see this as more of a PvP centric ability
Particle Acceleration (1/1) - Project crits, yay
Kinetic Ward (1/1) - Core skill
Shadowsight (2/2) - I'm still debating how useful this skill is, 2% defense is significant, but the stealth detection isn't high on my priority list

Impact Control (2/2) - Core Skill for tanking
One with the Force (3/3) - Core skill for anyone

Bombardment (1/1) - Core skill for tanking
Stasis (1/1) - Many people say they play a Kinetic spec just top have kick outside of stealth
Force Pull (1/1) - Core skill
Nerve Wracking (0/3) - This would be more useful in PvP, but not useful enough to take the points from elsewhere.  As a tank skill in PvE it's useless, most things that you want to use it on are immune to kick/stun.

Harnessed Shadows (2/2) - Core skill
Force Break (3/3) - Core skill

Slow Time (1/1) - Awesome AOE threat move, critical for Tanks to have this.

Balance:


Force Synercy (3/3) - Not a better option to get higher in the tree
Jedi Resistance (2/2) - Flat damage reduction, Core Skill

Pinning Resolve (0/2)
Upheaval (3/3) - 50% more damage 45% of the time, great for extra burst.
Focused Insight (0/2)
Psychokinesis (0/2) - I feel like this would be useful, but the talent cost is high for a marginal return

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SWTOR - Jedi Guardian Tanking Tips

A while ago I was coming up with a Tanking guide, and at the time I wanted to give some help for actual real world tanking problems - but just couldn't come up with ways to accurately describe them.  So I jotted down a few ideas of what I deal with on a regular basis as a tank and figured I'd get back to them later.

Now it's later.  I decided to put together a Video compilation that actually demonstrated what I was talking about, then try to describe what I'm doing in the videos and why anyone cares about what I'm doing.

Here's your outline:

• Tanking Elites and Strongs - 00:17
• Holding AOE Melee Threat - 2:21
• Kiting - 3:21
• Battlefield Positioning - 4:13
• Re-positioning General (text only)
• Voluntary Re-positioning - 6:16
• Involuntary Re-positioning - 6:44
• Concept Compilation - 7:44
• Locking down Casters - 10:16

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SWTOR - Dance Party

I've been seeing a lot more of these pop up lately - people with these dance screens and other people just wandering by to join in on the fun.  Someone even pulled one of these screens out in a majorly losing Civil War the other day so we had something fun to do while we sat on our single turret and waited for the game to end.

At the time I took this we had just finished our NM EV run and were heading over to KP (we usually do a 10 minute break between).  When I arrived there were a few people dancing around one guy with a screen - so I joined in, and shortly afterward another guy arrived and we filled the place up with dancers waiting to do their raid for the night.

Why did I take a video and find it important enough to post?  Because it was fun.  Pure, plain and simple - it was fun.  You'll even see me dancing in my skivvys ala LMFAO - wiggle wiggle yeah!  That still cracks me up.

Last night I had a really hard time - I'd had a long day, got home late, wanted to sit down and get my PvP dailys done (still trying to get my BM equipment) and then go to bed early.  I ended up losing around 25 warzones and going to bed with only 2 wins at around midnight (much later than I had wanted).  That was around 6 hours of playing - it was just brutal.  Days like that make me unhappy both with myself and with the game.

Could I have played better?  Probably a bit, especially toward the end when we were just getting rolled over and over and I couldn't drag up the energy to try to win like I had earlier.  Imps were really good last night, I was up against the same pre-made most of the night (Hey Exit Area!) and they were just more skilled and better co-ordinated than my PuGs.

Anyway, the moral of the story - today I looked back through some things and found this and thought - hey, the game is supposed to be fun.  Maybe it's times like that when I need to remember that it's just a game and not treat it like work.

So to all of you out there with these dance screens, maybe you should spend some time in the PvP area on the fleet to cheer up all the losers that get stomped on over the course of the night.  I know I would have appreciated it.

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Hoth Datacrons - Cunning

Starting from the flight point (outpost Zerek) you can basically follow the road all the way southeast to the factory.  You should have been brought here during the quest line at some point or another.  Inside the factory make your way further to the west and take the elevator to the top level.  If you don't have stealth you'll have to fight your way through.

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SWTOR - World PvP - Ilum

I was a bit dissappointed with Bioware when they announced that in patch 1.1.5 you would get credit for your Ilum daily from doing Warzones.  As soon as I saw that I knew that Ilum would basically die out in the coming patch, there was very little reason to go there before, now - no one is ever there.  I was actually surprised to run in to three Imps the other day when I was looking around, I put out a call to see if anyone was interested in killing them - no answer.

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SWTOR - PvE - World Boss - Ulgo Siegebreaker

Map Location:

Local View of Ulgo's Location

World View of Ulgo's Location

Ulgo himself

Boss Level:
35

Attacks:
AOE Missile Storm
AOE Knockback
Plasma Pulse
Fusion Missile
Ranged Attack

Strategy:
This guy is really annoying for melee characters, the AOE knockback is a 360 degree arc, so anyone around him will get knocked back.  He does this regularly (like every few seconds).  I used my leaps as often as possible to close the distance back up, but ranged characters will have a much easier time.

I only saw the AOE Missile storm once when I was running around testing mechanics, I'm not sure what his selection process is like, or when he uses it.  I would guess he uses it when there are grouped characters attacking from range?  It has a huge area of effect, so I don't know if moving out of the way is feasable or not.  It didn't hit me that hard, but again I'm overlevelled, so for lower level characters it might hurt - a lot.

His Plasma pulse is a channeled attack that does regular damage, it didn't ever do much damage to me, and it is interruptable if necessary.

The Fusion Missile is what I focused on because once he enrages it can hit for around 5k damage per shot, which ate my health really fast.  You know you're being targeted because a red targeting reticle appears on your character.  Not 100% sure if this hits nearby characters or not since I was interrupting it before it could hurt me.

Drops:
[Prototype] Force Champion Armguards
Supreme Skill D-Device
Supreme Combat D-Package
[Prototype] Synaptic Deflector D-Shield Generator

Killshot!

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SWTOR - PvE - World Boss - Trapjaw

Map Location:

Local View of Trapjaw Location

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Guides - Shield/Defense and Armor Mitigation

The goal of this guide is to delve into what the real usefulness of shield/defense is (specifically as it relates to PvP Combat) and to get an overall idea of what kind of mitigation we can count on v/s what types of specs/classes.  For those of you that don't care about how the experiment was set up, just skip down till you see "THE REAL NUMBERS"

I started working on this project because I noticed a trend when fighting other players.  Since I run with a tank spec I'm heavy on mitigation (shield and armor) - when fighting certain classes it felt like they could never do enough damage to kill me, but when fighting other classes I died before I knew that I was being attacked.  This has lessened over time as I've gotten used to the spread, but at the start it was very confusing.
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Malvolio's Story - Day 2

Video of my adventures during Day 2 on Ord Mantel

Got a "well done" from the commander this morning, in addition Jorgan finally decoded that intel and we have a lead on the bomb.  There is a small island that the Seps control with a supply depot, apparently thats where the bomb is.  Wraith is already there scouting and has located the bomb.  Jorgan seems to hink that the Imps might be involved with all the Sep nonsense.  He might be right, these Seps are better armed than most militia I've seen up to this point.

I also made sure to mention Virk to the Commander - Jorgan piped up that he's a pathetic officer (why didnt they bust him down the private already then?).  The Commander said he'd look in to it, which is good enough for me at this point - I have more fun things to do, like kill Seps and locate hidden Imperial support.
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SWTOR - Patch 1.1.5

Patch day once more, with a few highly anticipated changes.  I'm still not sure how I feel about BW changing how the game works pretty much every other patch - sometimes if feels like I've just gotten used to something and then it changes again and I have to start all over.

Cool additions this week:

• The roll function has been added with the option to roll a number range, or a dice type and value (cool stuff).
• New Pre-order crystals
• New high level purple, white and cyan crystals
• Many high end speeders have been reduced in price
• BM and Champion coms can be purchased from the PvP vendor

Notable Changes this week:

You now get Ilum daily credit by completing warzones, this appears to act like a "games played" sort of feature, where each completed game awards 3 points for your Ilum daily.
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Malvolio's Story - Day 1

Transferred to Ord Mantel.  Not a vacation destination I would recommend for anyone - the scenery is nice enough but all the blaster fire getting tossed around doesn't make for a relaxing vacation.

On the ride in the walker this Gearbox guy kept calling me "kid" - I wasn't sure if he wanted me to call him "dad" or "Grandpa" or something in return, made me feel kind of awkward.  They he got up on me asking if I was nervous or something, like I'd never seen action or was some kind of fresh recruit.  I understand he's been Havok squad for a while, but I bet he wasn't my age when he got tapped for it.  I set him straight, told him that I lived for this kind of thing.

Not sure if he was breaking protocol or not, but he gave me some intel - we're here because the Seps have stolen some kind of bomb, from the sounds of it this bomb could be the deciding factor in the civil war here.  Apparently it's carrying enough ordinance to wipe a whole city.  Before I could learn any more though the walker was nailed by an AP Missile and disabled.  No one else was stepping up so I made the decision to go put some hurt on the Seps and show them who they were messing with.  Gearbox copped out saying he wasn't much of a fighter, but would hang out to fix the walker.  Good enough I guess, I didn't ask for backup anyway.
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Daddysmurf reaches level 50!

One of the reasons I haven't been updating the blog much is that I was pressing to level my alt to 50 and was sacrificing a lot of my game time doing other stuff to make sure that happened ASAP.

 A while ago we started recruiting for a second Ops group so that when/if things changed and BW decided to give different rewards for 16man content we would be ready for them.  For now, we're running two 8 man groups for various reasons - the downside is that it's difficult to recruit for both groups and we usually end up being one or two men short each week due to real life interference.

To help our second group who has been short a (good) tank for the better part of a month I was rushing up to fill the spot temporarily.

Now, getting to 50 was just the first part - after that I had to quickly gear out since our groups are running Hard Mode (minimum) and my blues/oranges weren't going to cut it.

It took me approximately 2 days to fill up on purples from PvP.  90% Centurion gear with 2 Champion Pieces.  I also ended up keeping 1 orange piece that I geared out from the daily quests with purple mods.

I was actually disappointed with my server mates.  I had forgotten to save up my 1000/1000 commendations to buy bags, so I only had enough to buy 3 champion bags when I dinged 50.  That got me my first centurion gear piece and then I started entering Warzones.  There were a few people that were quite rude to me (Oh, there's the rank 23 guy) like I was a waste of space.  Now, admittedly I was under geared, but I knew what I was doing.  They'd never seen me before so weren't making a judgement on my play style, just my rank and my gear.  No idea how they think people are supposed to gear up without joining warzones, but maybe it makes sense to them.

Aside from a few idiots, I had a good experience - I really learned my new class by trying to survive in PvP against better geared opponents and ended up having a lot of fun.  The one thing I really missed was my leaps in the Huttball maps, I kept finding myself hitting "1" (my leap key) to jump up to people when I had the ball, but it just wasn't happening.

Since that point I've had a few weeks of raiding and have a few pieces of Rakata - I'm still short on champion pieces and after 2 weeks of dailys and weeklys I still haven't gotten an Unassembled Champion piece in my bags.  I'm glad they upped the commendation rates, but I know that I geared faster on the old system - maybe I was just one of the lucky ones.

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