This is the current patch on the PTS, and it adds something pretty interesting - A Crystal Vendor - until update 1.2

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=3077822#edit3077822

So what do you guys think about this change? They plan to make Artifice (and other crafting professions) good endgame choices, and I suppose these crystals will be things like Purple crystals for the republic and Light blue for the empire.

(I need to stop being lazy and start using the PTS some)

I kinda wish that the Ilum turrets were an option, I kinda like how they fire into the sky, gives the place some realism.

Chaos and Harmony: good that they are fixing it I did have additional Children coming into the fight the first time (even though I previously beat them), needless to say I didn't last very long.

I doubt that the crystals will be better than the Magenta or Columi/Rakata crystals but it should be useful for alts. Also since they are adding a normal crystal vendor it won't be such a a pain to obtain them.

I also wonder if there will be faster mounts since they are temporarily lowering the price.

Quote :

Dark/Light requirements present on some color crystals have been removed.

Awesome.

~D

Maybe I can get a +41 DPS crystal now =3
Damn you columi/rakata for not dropping

I will be making a video later today of the patch once I get to level 10 on the PTS, I'll post it here once it's uploaded (I may start doing this every patch and talking to Fluttershy about putting it up on the Star Ponies youtube)


EDIT: Here is the video Linkie

Twilight Sparkle wrote:

I will be making a video later today of the patch once I get to level 10 on the PTS, I'll post it here once it's uploaded (I may start doing this every patch and talking to Fluttershy about putting it up on the Star Ponies youtube)


EDIT: Here is the video Linkie

Hooray vid. I think they shouldn't have added magenta crystal schematics though.

I'm actually not sure why they added them, now we have no reason to farm World bosses

The patch notes have been updated

http://torwars.com/2012/02/28/swtor-patch-notes-1-1-5-updated/

I like your way of commenting so I'm stealing your style Dreselus

PvP

General
Players can now build credit towards the Battle for Ilum daily and weekly missions by playing Warzones.

This can be good or bad. Seeing as how they're adding a "very low" option to "Shader Quality" it could finally make my laptop be able to handle Ilum. If so I'll be a sad pony because aside from crashing I liked the Ilum idea.

Warzones

General
Healers in Warzones now receive kill credit when a healed player kills an enemy.
Yay now I can get some more medals on my sorc

Players affected by a Damage Over Time ability are no longer interrupted when interacting with objectives.
Seeing as how I respecced to and love balance this completely destroys my shadow. Now I am forced to use "Force in balance" and "Force Wave" to defend which have a rather high cooldown. Or use my melee attacks but that's not ideal for it.

Battlemaster and Champion Commendations are now available on the PvP Vendor for Warzone and Mercenary Commendations. Champion Gear Bags are still available.
Battlemaster = Good. Champions depend on the amount for it. Seeing as how I don't have a full set I might prefer getting both champion and centurion comms from the bag.

Valor gained from Warzones has been increased.
Medals are now worth 500 Valor and 10 Commendations. Players only earn Valor and Commendations for the first 4 medals earned each match.
This is stupid. I've never played for it and never gotten less than 4medals.

Increased the Warzone AFK timeout from 60 seconds to 90 seconds.
This is the best news ever for me. I once send in a ticket complaining about how I got kicked out of a Huttball match because by the time it loaded 57 seconds had passed. Now at least I'll always be able to leave the area

Alderaan Civil War
The speeder bikes that transport players back to the battle now have a three-second activation time to increase the likelihood that an organized attacking team can successfully take the side turrets.
If it's only the side speeders it's a good idea. Otherwise it's rather stupid and defending middle will become rather hard

Darth Dreselus wrote:

Battlemaster and Champion Commendations are now available on the PvP Vendor for Warzone and Mercenary Commendations. Champion Gear Bags are still available.
Useful but since I know MMO players there will be outcry from some people who have gotten their BM prior to this, accusing anyone else from not 'earning' theirs.

How exactly is blind chance the same as "earning"? Before, it didn't matter how hard you worked for your dailies, the game could always say "screw you" and not give you any commendations. Those who have a lot by now are just lucky. If anything, it's more "earned" now that it was before.

I'm a bit concerned about the speeder bikes on Alderaan. It sounds like they all have a 3 second activation time, and not just the east and west ones that needed it. This may make it very hard to hold the center, since those speeders already take a long time to ride.

Darth Dreselus wrote:

PvP

General
Players can now build credit towards the Battle for Ilum daily and weekly missions by playing Warzones.

R.I.P. Ilum (I actually liked that place, it's really good the 1% of time it works)

This change won't kill Ilum, and it is also a needed change. Many servers have high population differences, therefore the lower side (usually the republic) can't complete this weekly and daily. People will still come to pvp on Ilum because once you get BM - Ilum and Warzones will be about all you will do.

Twilight Sparkle wrote:

This change won't kill Ilum, and it is also a needed change. Many servers have high population differences, therefore the lower side (usually the republic) can't complete this weekly and daily. People will still come to pvp on Ilum because once you get BM - Ilum and Warzones will be about all you will do.

What exactly will be the motivation to go to Ilum after the patch? There currently only two reasons to go to Ilum: dailies and valor. After the patch, you will be able to get both of these more easily, reliably, and fairly from warzones. Also, warzone commendations can now be traded directly for BM commendations, providing further motivation to do warzones over Ilum. So the choices are: do something that is fun and gives me more loot, or do something that is frustratingly broken and gives me less loot. Why would anyone choose the latter?

You don't really need a reason to do Ilum pvp. Once you get the highest gear you can get through PVP then you will most likely go to Ilum and PVP inbetween queves. Some people find Ilum fun, others don't. It's a giant PVP zone and some like more objective based pvp better.

I don't believe Ilum will lose much of its current traffic except for the people ONLY looking to gear up.

No one's commented on the really big fix here:

The Pylons in EV won't bug out any more!
It was really annoying having to go through that fight 4-5 times just because it kept glitching.

Pinkie Pie wrote:

Darth Dreselus wrote:

Battlemaster and Champion Commendations are now available on the PvP Vendor for Warzone and Mercenary Commendations. Champion Gear Bags are still available.
Useful but since I know MMO players there will be outcry from some people who have gotten their BM prior to this, accusing anyone else from not 'earning' theirs.

How exactly is blind chance the same as "earning"? Before, it didn't matter how hard you worked for your dailies, the game could always say "screw you" and not give you any commendations. Those who have a lot by now are just lucky. If anything, it's more "earned" now that it was before.

I'm a bit concerned about the speeder bikes on Alderaan. It sounds like they all have a 3 second activation time, and not just the east and west ones that needed it. This may make it very hard to hold the center, since those speeders already take a long time to ride.

You know I don't disagree with that, don't you? I was there with you doing kt's quite often, I'm just saying what people on Swtor forums will be like (and in fact they already are, and this definitely is not the only change they are bitching about, and claiming to quit over [as if they ever actually quit]). As I said I find this change very useful.

I chose not to comment on the bike thing since i don't understand what it means as it suggest both a detriment (activation time) and a benefit in the sentence (better organisation).

Twilight Sparkle wrote:

You don't really need a reason to do Ilum pvp. Once you get the highest gear you can get through PVP then you will most likely go to Ilum and PVP inbetween queves. Some people find Ilum fun, others don't. It's a giant PVP zone and some like more objective based pvp better.

I don't believe Ilum will lose much of its current traffic except for the people ONLY looking to gear up.

I'll prolly keep coming to Ilum just for fun or organised events.
On that note it might be useful to contact some imp guilds on our server in order to set up guild wars (tm) at set times.

And yes, pylons, YAY