Players start or join a guild for many different reasons. Friends creating a guild together, an Elder Game player joining a progression guild or players banding together for PvP reasons. I’ve even seen one-player guilds just for the vault space. Whatever the reason, guilds can be the one thing that keeps a player coming back.

If there’s one universal truth it’s this.

With no night, there is no day.
We wouldn’t know good times, if there were no bad.
White’s meaningless, if you have never seen black.

This week, let’s talk about how that truth applies to an MMO guild.

Scott Hartsman, one time head-man of RIFT, the man with apparently the best dressed photo of all devs on the planet, sat down to have a discussion with Forbes.com. Since RIFT’s launch, RIFT has gone from a full subscription game with no trial to having a Rift-Lite version where you can play the first 20 levels for free. Now that Scott has left Trion and rumors swirl around the internet that Rift is heading towards a full F2P model, we get a glimpse of the future og gaming subscriptions according to Mr. Hartsman.

Continue reading to see what he had to say about the subject.

But just how big are these explosions after the 1.2 nerf? And how can you avoid them?

1.2 only nerfed the actual burst damage a little. The big nerf is in the cool downs. If you want to make people explode with your Guardian (Juggernaut), or want to learn how to beat us, click to continue reading after the break.

Even after a 10% reduction to Force Sweep‘s (Smash) damage the 5k medal is still easy to come by, and I frequently break 6k on under-geared goofballs. Sadly, however, the cool down of our glorious explosions has been increased by a whopping 33%, from 9 sec to 12 sec. This goes for both Force Sweep and Blade Storm (Force Scream). With smaller explosions and longer cool downs, its tough to tell where the Focus tree stands.

My best advice for countering us Guardians is to learn when we are going to Sweep and get away so it misses. This is easier said that done against a good Guardian but sometimes server lag will help you. Everyone should keep in mind that Sentinels (Marauders) can now hit just as big as Guardians with Sweep/Smash but I’ll leave their analysis to someone else.

If you missed my previous article BioWare Blunders? End Game Gear System Design with 1.2 you need to check it out.  George Zoeller touched back upon this subject saying that they would redress the issues with crit crafted armor sometime after 1.2 release.

Originally posted by Georg Zoeller (Source)

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In the mid-term (e.g. past Game Update 1.2), we are planning on adding means to the game that allow you to add augment slots to equipment you already have.

So while critical crafted appearances are the only source of augment slots in Game Update 1.2., this is a temporary arrangement that will change in the future when we implement means to retrofit existing gear (including social) with augment slots (without devaluing crafters in the process).

This is great news as the prospect of having to RE difficult to attain gear such as War Hero armor will prove nightmarish at best.  Also, keeping crafters involved is the best course of action for a thriving in game economy.

Twitters: @SkeletonJack_
Twitch TV: /skeleton_jack

The following loot list is for normal mode The Colicoid War Game, which is a flashpoint for levels 39-43. All bosses are listed in the order of occurrence. Trash drops are at the end.

Loot lists are currently a work in progress. If you notice anything that needs a correction or addition, please feel free to leave a comment.

Note: The more time I spend compiling these loot lists, the more convinced I am that some of the drops originally recorded during beta have been taken out of the loot tables. For now, these items are listed as “Unverified.” For this list, I have placed them with the drops I am unsure of as to their exact location within the flashpoint. As you can tell, the combined list is huge. Any information regarding any of these drops would be appreciated!

Hello everyone!
With this update, the first of many for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, we have addressed several high-priority bugs. We’ve implemented fixes for those players affected by performance issues on Taris and have corrected the problem preventing some pending mission rewards from being accepted. Additionally, the issue that could cause some gathering nodes to appear unharvestable has been addressed, and you’ll notice several bug fixes relating to Flashpoint and Operation content.

We’re committed providing the best possible MMO experience, and will continue releasing fixes and updates on a regular basis.

Thank you for playing Star Wars: The Old Republic!

1.0.1 Patch Notes 12/27/2011

Christmas is upon us. The winter holidays are in full swing. Most of us have been celebrating a little uh, early, thanks to Star Wars: The Old Republic (it goes great with some booze, especially when you fall off the edge of Coruscant in the process). In celebration of the season and our unwrapped MMO gifts to ourselves, here’s a little Christmas jingle.

It’s dedicated to our pals over at BioWare! Don’t worry, you’ll know the tune when you see the words. Oh, and yeah, only the last verse is listed. You know the song– fill in the rest of it if you feel so inspired!

The Twelve Days of SWTOR

On the twelfth day of SWTOR, the dudes at BioWare gave to me…
12 twirling sabers
11 blasters blastin’
10 grenades a-flyin’
9 aliens in tight pants
8 must-play classes
7 fat male Troopers
6 calls for nerfs
5 hours in queue (just today!)
4 hungry banthas
3 wet Wookies
2 Tatooine suns
And one satisfied Star Wars nerd holiday!

Happy holidays and merry Christmas from everyone here at FORCE Junkies! Be merry, stay safe, and may the Force (and steady aim) be with you.

The Star Wars universe is vast and serves as a home to a myriad of different species. They can be hard to keep track of sometimes and Bioware has elected to include 9 species as playable. Some of these will already be familiar to you depending on how much Star Wars material you’ve made your way through over the years. If you’re just starting out though, some of them may seem a bit more mysterious or daunting. This week we’ll take an introductory look at three species available to players; the brutal Rattataki, the arrogant Sith Pureblood and the carnivorous Zabrak.

The lifted media embargo continues, as we get more impressions from around the internet. This time we can find the impressions of another media tester from The Escapist. This article reads like a full blown preview of the game, covering all aspects of the game from story to game mechanics.

Thankfully, the combat is true to the overall style of Star Wars. Jedis leap into combat, swinging their lightsabers left and right as flesh-eating aliens fall around them, or how Smugglers crouch behind cover, using thermal grenades and blasters to take out robot sentries and bounty hunters. I have to say though, having started with a Jedi class, the smuggler and trooper are just not as dynamic. Sure, the cover system and ranged combat work as designed, but I didn’t feel that the combat for the ranged classes was as active or strategic as the combat for the Jedis. Once you find a spot of cover, you just start cycling through your attacks until it’s time to move on to the next bit of cover. Sure, as a Jedi you’re equally focused on hotbars and cooldowns, but at least you get to move around a bit and watch some exciting animations.

Out of all the goodies in this article, we do find out that the main pull for the author is that his Smuggler got to kick guys in the nuts!

Redrancor published their Q&A with Lead Combat Designer George Zoeller and we get a few more bits of information regarding guild numbers and tanking!

Red Rancor: What is the maximum number of members allowed in one guild?

Georg Zoeller: Currently the cap is set at 500 members.

RR: In past MMOs, Avoidance tanking has not been preferred by groups and especially healers, since if the tank is hit 2-3 times in a row, he may die due to his Light armor. Mitigation tanking has been preferred for the consistent decrease in health for healers to track. Is there a system in TOR that allows the Jedi Shadow and the Sith Assassin tanks to survive those 2-3 lucky hits and thus be just as viable as other Heavy armor tanks?

GZ: I assume this question stems from the assumption that Jedi Shadow and Sith Assassin would be avoidance tanks on their defensive oriented skill tree.

In fact, Jedi Shadows and Sith Assassins have abilities that increase armor and defense while Shadow and Assassin rely a bit more on avoidance in their tanking ability mix than other Advanced Classes.

But, and this is where I think we’re addressing the problem you are hinting at in your questions, the actual contribution of avoidance to Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin survivability is only about 5% higher than for other Advanced Classes. They also have some active defenses that can increase their survivability and mitigate incoming burst damage if needed.

Read the full interview here.