Expansion preorder starts today

[Blackferne]

http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swto ... sion-today

This morning, visitors to the Star Wars: The Old Republic Official Website found a new addition to the swtor.com/buy page, most notably, a pre-order section for the new expansion -- Rise of the Hutt Cartel. The page reveals details regarding price, content, and how to pre-order. For those that do not care to visit it themselves, here is what you need to know.

Coming in Spring 2013
Subscribers can buy the expansion for 50% off the regular price off $19.99 making it $9.99.
Preordering entitles you to Five days of Early Access if pre-ordered by January 7, 2013 11:59PM CT / 5:59AM GMT
Increased level cap by five levels to a total of 55 which include new story based missions
Includes story on the Hutt Cartel and the new planet Makeb
Included on the page is a new FAQ about the new expansion. In it, there was a pretty lengthy description of what players can expect.

[Furiel]

HA!! I was right!! 5 levels in the expansion.

That probably means 1 more content patch before the expansion which will be TFB NM mode and some leadup to Makeb story stuff.

[TimmySchneeks]

For those of you who have gone through level cap raises in other games, what does this typically mean for current end-game gear? Still worth maxing what's available or will there likely be lv 55 stuff that should be saved up for (meaning, don't spend millions on lv 27 stuff, 28-30 are coming, etc.)?

[Blackferne]

In WoW expansions meant money inflation (1 million in purchasing power today might be like 2 million tomorrow)and gear inflation. The first WoW expansion going in I had some purple gear some blue gear, and almost all of it was replaced by the time I got through the first zone with greens mostly. The next expansion my purples lasted a bit longer, and the third expansion they lasted about 1 zone.

No idea on how aggressive they will be on gear inflation/money inflation though.

To answer your question though, it really depends on if you are trying to push the edge of content (hardmode TFB now, or NM TFB later). I'd probably stock up on cash and crafting mats. Expansions are a time when people tend to level up crafting skills and dumping level 2-4 biochem mats for example after the expansion hist will probably yield decent money as people will pay over gathering themselves.

[Furiel]

Means there will be a whole new tier of gear. It's hard to say exactly how effective the new gear will be ahead of time because it depends on how much inflation BW builds in.

In past games there have been some expansions in other games where the gear upgrades existed but were marginal, similar to the upgrades from Campaign to Dread Guard currently. So while they are still upgrades they are only like 5% better. However I've also been through expansions where you could be fully raid geared and the first piece of green armor you get from the first quest puts the raid gear you're in to shame as well.

I expect it'll be closer to the former, but just a larger jump along with an adjustment to the current caps as well to allow for the new improved gear as well. I expect that either Campain or DG level gear would be sufficient for whatever new content they put out, but I reserve the right to be wrong. And by that I mean will be enough for the SM, obviously HM will be tuned for whatever new gear they put out.

[Furiel]

Also, not that I think anyone is, BUT, if you are considering a main change for raiding purposes, etc, expansions are a good time to do so because EVERYONE has to regear so your lack of gear does not hurt everyone else as much. Not that it's that big of an issue for us because our raiding policy is so alt-friendly, but if it changes for any reason over the next couple months just thought people should be aware.

[Blackferne]

Guys guys guys.

8 trooper raid team. IT'LL BE AWESOME!

[Cuspar]

Google search: Mon Calamari playable SWTOR expansion

Nothin'.

I'm still out.

[Furiel]

Also, expect that there will be a new comm type that will be teh top end to replace the black hole comms, so hording BHCs may not be ideal. I doubt they will change the daily comms tho so having a pile of those would not be a bad thing.

[Fynn]

Also, expect that there will be a new comm type that will be teh top end to replace the black hole comms, so hording BHCs may not be ideal. I doubt they will change the daily comms tho so having a pile of those would not be a bad thing.

I wouldn't be shocked to see a vendor offer a 3/1 on BH comms/Makeb comms similar to what they did with WZ/Ranked WZ comms. Stocking up may be a worthwhile gamble.

[Furiel]

Also, expect that there will be a new comm type that will be teh top end to replace the black hole comms, so hording BHCs may not be ideal. I doubt they will change the daily comms tho so having a pile of those would not be a bad thing.

I wouldn't be shocked to see a vendor offer a 3/1 on BH comms/Makeb comms similar to what they did with WZ/Ranked WZ comms. Stocking up may be a worthwhile gamble.

I would be. Usually a level cap increase means a complete gear reset. Using WoW as an example because they are the the most similar in this area, Blizzard always convert all of your top tier comms to the next one down if you had any spare comms so that noone had any comms to start with so it was a gear grind for everyone and noone had a head start over the other.

In this case I expect them to introduce a new comm type, so there is no reason to reset the BHComms for people and I don't expect a conversion because they don't want people to start out with like 100 BHcomms and be able to buy some of the new gear immediately. PVP is a different animal and what applies there rarely will apply to PvE.

[Furiel]

Also, one other thought RE: getting level 27 gear and stuff before the expansion... They are saying spring of 2013, which means it's AT LEAST 3 months, probably closer to 5 before it hits, that's ALOT of time to grind comms, cash, etc, so right now I wouldn't start hording or worrying about gear getting replaced for a few months yet. There will be plenty of time for that the month-6 weeks prior to launch.

[Blackferne]

I disagree. HOARD ALL THE THINGS!

But seriously it is at least 3 months off. that is 12 weeks of raiding, so 24-36 raids between now and then. If you are about to get a 27 it is probably worth it for the ease of those next few months.

[Fynn]

All valid points Furiel.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures, graphs, or visual comparisons and as such I don't believe you.

I'll await your response.

[Takanudo]

Increased level cap by five levels to a total of 55 which include new story based missions

Only five new levels.

-Takanudo (should breeze by that nine or ten months)

[Furiel]

I was poking around today and found this nugget today on the forums which may (or may not) influence people toward gearing their chars...

Hi everyone! While we can't address every concern raised in this thread right now, we can reassure you that the gear you've obtained in our current endgame will continue to be relevant after the expansion is released, and it will provide a great bootstrap into the higher-level content offered by Rise of the Hutt Cartel. You won't be replacing your Dread Guard gear with gear you pick up as you level, and thanks to improvements in the way item power is calculated, we won't be handing out any entry-level gear at the new level cap. You'll hear more about RotHC as we approach its launch, and we'll continue to answer questions and provide more details!

So the way I read this is that it means that their plan/goal is to have probably either campaign or more likely dread guard gear dropping in story mode for the new Op(s) then whatever the new tier of gear is dropping in HM. Obviously we'll see if it actually works out that way, but that appears to be the intention at least.