Howdy hi TORWarriors and welcome to TORWars Podcast #162: Looking Forward To Game Update 2.4. This week we brought our old friend Steve Gillis on board to discuss the latest happenings in-game and what we are looking forward to in the coming months for Star Wars: The Old Republic. As usual, this episode is chock full of shenanigans, so listen in and then leave us your comments below.

“Man! I so can’t wait to get my hands on some arena matches!”

The show notes for your reading pleasure:

News:

1. 
   
2. TORWars Intelligence Report: Jetpacks!
   
3. Game Update 2.4 on the PTS
   
4. Dev participation in Game Update 2.4 Arena’s on the PTS – Very well-received but questions remain:
   

Will this be the PvP save BioWare is hoping for? Feelings from the fanbase on the the subject seem to lean towards yes, but group composition will be a very important. Is this something that will exclude some players? How is this being addressed?

According to DharmaPolice via Reddit:

I’ve only tried solo queueing [sic] so far and while they’ve been fun I would say the following:

• 
  
• â— The desertion bug is really annoying. Weird that it made it past internal testing since it’s so prevalent. About half the games I’ve been in so far have been affected one way or another – including one 3 vs 0 match (we won that unsurprisingly) and one 1 vs 4 (I lost).
  
• â— Group composition is obviously hyper important. It’s good that they match up healers + dps (and presumably this is part of the reason for not allowing respec once you’ve queued) but having a tank seems to be a big advantage when the team whose healer dies first usually loses.
  
• â— It’ll be interesting to see how the system handles hybrids – you don’t actually tell the game what role you play so I assume it’s working it out from your skill tree.
  
• â— It’s going to cause a bunch more class balancing arguments (most of which are pretty boring). I’ve only had a few games but DPS Sages seem to be fairly weak for example, while (as usual) Focus Knights / Rage Warriors are still very strong.
  
• â— I really do hope the matchmaking system works. I can’t imagine some of these games will be fun for noobs since (as you say) – one wrong move and you can be dead. At least in normal PVP (as brutal as that can be) you can die multiple times, respawn and be back in the action.
  

The maps look OK though. and the pace of the games is such that a bad game is over quickly enough to forget about. Still not sure it totally replaces full length objective based matches though – seems to scratch a slightly different sort of itch.

According to wookieeslunchbox via Reddit:

So I’ve been testing out the arenas and my 1st impressions are that there is absolutely no room for error. Skill caps will be increased and the most seasoned on pvpers will have a fresh challenge. I’ve been healing on my operative and its tough going and other healers are definitely are having to up their game.

Rage/Focus is also very OP which we already knew, but its more apparent in arenas.

Scrapper Scoundrels/Concealment Operatives are a pain in the ass with their opener and needed nerfed again.lol. Only joking, they’ve had enough nerfs and Arenas will be their time to shine.

Jugg/Guardian tanks are Number 1, no arguments there.

Mercs have been a handful with the instant cast tracer missile, followed by heatseeker then rail shot. That is huge burst for an arena.!!

These are just a few things that i have noticed and was hoping more could add to this discussion.

Thanks.

Discussion Topic:

We discuss with special guest, Steve, the happenings going on in-game and things that we are looking forward to in regards to the new Cartel Market packs.

1. 
   
2. Contractor and Freelancer Bounty packs
   
3. Bounty Supply Reputation Vendor items
   

Shoutouts:

1. 
   
2. Enjin.com
   
3. TORWars Guild
   
4. PayPal Donations – Gregory
   
5. Corellian Run Radio
   
6. Gamersaurs
   
7. Walk For Autism Speaks