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Advanced Classes are specialized careers that your characters can choose in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. As your character becomes more seasoned through adventure, you will be given the opportunity to undertake one of two Advanced Classes. This decision is equally as important as when you originally created your character. This is because your choice will not only make your character more distinct and powerful, but it will also help further define the role you wish to play in The Old Republic.
In addition to your Class-specific Skills and Abilities, your chosen Advanced Class will grant you access to role-defining Abilities that represent additional areas of expertise and some may even grant new weapon and armor types. Additionally, each Advanced Class will also have three sets of Skills available to further customize your character.
The chart above is not representative of any of the current Advanced Class Skill Sets, nor does it show exactly how many Skills you may potentially access. It is included to provide an example of how a character, in this case a Sith Warrior, may look as he progresses through one Advanced Class (note that the other Advanced Class Skill Sets are disabled and cannot be trained).
As mentioned above, each Advanced Class opens up three Skill Sets with a variety of Skills in each. Unlike selecting an Advanced Class, these Skill Sets are less restrictive and your character can obtain Skills from any set or from all of them!
The main goal of the Advanced Class System is to allow you to customize your characters according to your play style. For example, some Sith Warrior players will want to charge into the fight and take the full heat of the enemies’ aggression. Others will want to execute their maneuvers more strategically, focused on channeling all their rage to destroy their enemies as quickly as possible. The Advanced Class System gives you these kinds of choices and more.
While the first two Skill Sets include Skills entirely unique to the chosen Advanced Classes, the third Skill Set consists of a shared set of Skills which expand upon the core Skills of the Class itself.
One thing to note is that you use the same pool of points when training your Advanced Classes Skills, so spend your points wisely!
For those of you who might be wondering what Hoth's significance is so many thousands of years before the epic Battle of Hoth, the planet's claim to fame didn't begin with the centerpiece Empire Strikes Back battle, as it was also a battlefield in The Great War between the young Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. The Republic suffered a great loss on Hoth, leaving the planet's icy desolate wasteland strewn with the husks of fallen machines of war, and with neither side capable of sparing the resources to recover their technology this left Hoth open as a ripe target for intrepid pirates and looters, who established a salvage operation on the planet.
The signing of the Treaty of Coruscant saw both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire's return to Hoth, however, where both factions are now eager to recover their technology, which has resulted in a number of engagements, despite the peace terms set by the aforementioned treaty.
...In The Old Republic, Hoth has no allegiance, no government, is contested by players from both factions, has frozen desolate wasteland terrain and is littered with wreckage from a major battle of what's called the Great War.
According to Star Wars lore, Hoth was of no real interest to the Republic until it became the site of a devastating military defeat. At the height of the Great War, Republic and Imperial fleets clashed in the Hoth system in a decisive battle which saw the destruction of some of the most advanced and powerful starships in the galaxy.
In the aftermath of the battle, Hoth became a massive starship graveyard, littered with the wreckage of hundreds of warships from both sides, including several prototype ships the Republic had deployed in the hope of turning the tide of the war. As the war raged on, though, neither the Republic nor the Empire had the time and resources to mount a recovery operation.
Upon learning of the wealth of technology abandoned on Hoth, an ambitious pirate confederation started their own salvage operation. They brought an army of droids and mercenaries and began looting all useful remnants from the wreckage in an effort to piece together their own battle cruisers and create a pirate armada...
Whether you dream of beating the odds with just your luck and a blaster, or imagine restoring order to the galaxy with Force powers and a Lightsaber, you’ll have your chance in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.
We’ve talked a lot about how The Old Republic is innovating on storytelling in MMOs, and now we want to share with you how combat in The Old Republic will deliver a new level of excitement for fans. Check out our latest Video Documentary that focuses on Combat to get an inside look at how we’re bringing dynamic Star Wars™ action to life in Star Wars: The Old Republic!
Experience Revelation in Mid-March
Vibora Bay was never destined to be like other cities. Some will say it’s the music that sets her apart, some will say it’s the food, or the culture, or the religion steeped in voodoo tradition. The more discerning will say it’s the magic so thick it fills the air. But they’d only be partly right.
Far below the sultry southern city lies an ancient magic, cast down from the heavens when Lucifer first rebelled. Therakiel, the angel exiled from both heaven and hell for his refusal to take a side, hides himself in the depths below the city. It is his magic that permeates all of Vibora Bay and has called magic users to the city for centuries. For he knows that the final battle is coming; his foresight has shown him that one man, Robert Caliburn, will be the turning point of the battle. He who controls Caliburn controls the war. He who controls the war will triumph over both heaven and hell.
Revelation is a free expansion pack available to all Champions Online players in mid-March. Venture into Vibora Bay, the mysterious city on the bayou, and discover all new threats lurking around every corner! Here's what you can expect from Revelation:
Brand new level 37-40 content: Experience the endgame in all new ways, as friends become enemies and the picturesque Vibora Bay falls sway to the half-angel, half-demon Therakiel.
- Six new meta-powers: Earn brand new, Tier 4 powers.
- Therakiel's Temple: Group up with your friends to conquer the most challenging Champions Online Lair yet!
- Five new enemy groups: Meet and defeat five new enemies - Sovereign Sons, Trey Kings, New Shadows, Dogz and Nephilim!
- Over 30 new perks: Dozens of new ways to achieve in Champions Online.
- New Costume Parts: Entirely new costume sets available.
- We'll be updating this page with more information over the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
For a limited time, you can elect to subscribe to a three-month recurring subscription to Champions Online for just $29.99 USD. That's a $15 savings over the standard monthly rate!
High Tinker Mekkatorque, betrayed by Mekgineer Thermaplugg and forced to flee the irradiated city of Gnomeregan with the few of his fellow gnomes who managed to survive, is preparing to reclaim his once glorious city. Meanwhile, in distant Durotar, Vol'jin of the Darkspear trolls is determined to exact revenge upon the witch doctor Zalazane for dividing the Darkspears and seizing the land bestowed to them by Thrall: the Echo Isles. Read more about the ongoing struggles of the gnomes and the trolls... and their plans to seek redemption.
Gnomes: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/gnomeregan.xml
Trolls: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/echoisles.xml
Once home to a sprawling planet-wide city, Taris was razed long ago by the Sith Lord Darth Malak while seeking to eliminate the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan. Now, a post-apocalyptic Taris is being realized in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. After 300 years, Republic and Jedi leaders are moving forward with the efforts at colonization.
Watch insights from James Ohlen, Drew Karpyshyn, Scott Carpenter, and Mark How about the new environments – and adventures – awaiting players in our latest Developer Dispatch: Returning to Taris!
Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime just said that World of Warcraft’s subs base is static at 11.5 million users, at the same level it’s been since late 2008. Yep: that means it’s not going up.
Emphasizing the question mark up there, people. Several rumors hint that Blizzard's incredibly popular online game World of Warcraft might be in trouble. Unsubstantiated reports from an unknown blog claim WoW's subscriber base is down to 5 million (from almost 12 million), with Blizzard keeping this a closely guarded secret. Mind you, this is strongly designated as a rumor, without an official confirmation to back it up at this time.Source
Some new issues have been encountered that are affecting all realms and we are currently investigating them. Another update will be provided at approximately 3:00pm PST.
Watch 10 champions from Blood Legion of US-Illidan be the first in the world to dethrone the Lich King.
www.bloodlegion.com
We'd like to give our heartfelt thanks to a new Ventrilo alternative called Mumble, whose near-zero latency helped us achieve this kill.
Soundtrack:
1. Lacrimosa - Immediate Music
2. A Song for a Son - Smashing Pumpkins
3. Loud Pipes - Ratatat
4. Map of the Problematique - Muse
5. All Hell Breaks Loose - Immediate Music
Oh, and Tirion gave us an extra congratulations for not having to exploit Engineering to defeat Arthas. Thanks buddy!
There's a surprisingly large sect of characters in World of Warcraft who live their entire lives without ever stepping foot outside of their race's capitol city. To some, the MMO's in-game auction house presents a more compelling gameplay option than the usual dungeon raiding and level grinding -- it allows players to become wildly wealthy with shrewd business practices. According to an announcement made by Blizzard earlier today, these players will be able to manage their auctions on-the-go using the Armory app on iPhone and iPod Touch.
Little is known about how much control the app will give players over their in-game assets, however, references to the service being "premium-based" have led to conjecture that the functionality will cost a few coins. Real-life coins, that is. You spend the real-life coins for the thing that lets you make the fake-life coins. This is going to get confusing.
Since the launch of the World of Warcraft Armory, we've been regularly releasing updates and new features designed to help players stay connected to the game even when they're not logged in. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players access the Auction House directly through the Armory website or Armory App for iPhone or iPod touch.
While there are still plenty of details to be worked out, we're designing the service to offer auction functionality similar to what's available in-game. Players have been requesting -- and we've been hoping to implement -- a feature like this for a long time, and we're excited that the Armory and the game have evolved to a point that makes it possible.
This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don't have an exact release date yet. It's important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we'll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won't release it until it meets the quality standards that we've set for our other features and services. You may be seeing bits and pieces of the Auction House service pop up in the test builds we use for the public test realms as we go through the process of internal testing. We'll have more info to share with you here and at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as we get closer to release.
This is it. The moment you've all been waiting for. Casey Schreiner will make good on his wager with our creative director Joe Lynch, and eat his shoe. Go ahead, press play. It's right there for the world to see.
Oh, and there's also some news about Bethesda's upcoming MMO and Star Trek Online's pricing. If you're into that kind of thing. Enjoy.
"The story of the expansion is the story of an empire crumbling into chaos," says Bylos. "Chosain Province is a region full of war and humanity at its worst, but on the eastern edge of the playfield, the once proud imperial highway still leads east to the heart of the empire. The road is choked with vines and weeds and none dare travel that way anymore. Why? Because it leads into the heart of the darkness."
While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It’s not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today. We can’t wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details.
On the remote jungle world of Dromund Kaas, the Sith have spent a thousand years building their mighty war machine to prepare for an assault on the Galaxy.
Colonized in ancient times by the Sith Empire, the hyperspace coordinates of the Dromund Kaas were lost to time, allowing the isolated planet to fade into distant memory. Following a crushing defeat in the Great Hyperspace War, the handful of surviving Sith desperately sought to escape annihilation at the hands of their Jedi foes. The desperate Sith, leaving their collective destiny to chance, chose to forgo all known hyperspace routes and attempt a series of dangerously random hyperspace jumps and blind scouting missions. For 20 years the Sith armada drifted aimlessly in the forgotten regions of space before finally rediscovering the Dromund system.
The Sith’s first century back on Dromund Kaas was dedicated to reestablishing the glory of Imperial society. In the depths of the jungle, the magnificent capital city of Kaas City was established and a citadel built – a standing testament to the power of the Emperor. Ceaselessly, the Empire worked to raise both army and fleet in preparation for their inevitable return to the greater galaxy. Power hungry, the Emperor spent great energy discovering and perfecting esoteric rites of darkness – rituals that wrecked the atmosphere of Dromund Kaas, transforming the ionosphere into a swirling electric storm.
Now, more than one thousand years later, the Empire has returned to the galaxy – bringing full-scale war with it. The Sith have forced a great number of systems into submission in the war, however Dromund Kaas remains home to both the Emperor and his Dark Council. Even though the planet is bristling with the energy of the dark side, it is the Imperial military that has the largest visible presence on Dromund Kaas. It is here that the Empire’s power brokering games are played and alliances are forged and broken. For up-and-coming Moffs and Imperial intelligence operatives, success – and survival – hangs on the ability to master these games of intrigue.
It is from here, on Dromund Kaas, that the dark hand of the Empire reaches ever outward.
Dromund Kaas was the third planet in the Dromund system, a colony then the capital of the Old Sith Empire and later the lasting base of the Prophets of the Dark Side, whose Dark Force Temple contained such power in the the dark side of the Force that most weapons, excluding lightsabers, malfunctioned on the planet's surface. The site of a major battle during the New Sith Wars under Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness, for millennia the planet's location was known only to a few, very select Sith Lords, falling almost completely out of the public eye.
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