2.0 Live on PTS

[Staris]

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/%5Bnews- ... D/20130220

2.0
New gear available only to level 55 characters.
A new Operation: Scum and Villainy.
New abilities and skill trees for all 16 Advanced Classes.
New level 55 Hard Mode Flashpoints: Hammer Station, Athiss, Mandalorian Raiders, and Cademimu.
New Nightmare Mode Operation: Terror from Beyond.
Legacy Achievements – Complete challenges to earn unique titles and vanity rewards across your Legacy.

Does have the character transfer so personally crossing fingers that I will be able to transfer my other characters to JC when this goes live.

Also cool to note the PTS does include a level trainer to 55 though I'll also be interested in knowing the leveling speed since there are the cartel boosters.

[Fynn]

Nice! It will be interesting to see what gear is necessary for further progression. We may need to alter our schedule? Very exciting stuff!

[Marrkin]

Sounds like Fynn had something to do with developing this new Op name.....Scum and Villainy? Sounds right up his alley!
*edit* I should have said his "alter-ego" alley.....

Sent using smoke signals from my campfire.

[TimmySchneeks]

http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/

some interesting stuff in there, definitely looks like some higher-level stuff to at least somewhat discourage hybrid spec (for smuggler, anyway)

[Staris]

So over lunch I used a skill tree calculator for 2.0 for Starel and here what I came up with.

http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-cal ... 000&ver=20

[Fynn]

Fynn's looks something like this

[Bulwark]

With DG armor dropping from HM, this would be a good time to empty the guild bank of some of those high end mats that will soon become useless.

Sounds like a good idea?

[Marrkin]

So my refusal to try the new stuff on PTS may be curbed. Considering the changes made to Vanguards I may attempt to try it out and get the feel for the new tanking skills.

Sounds like some good stuff actually. Without review of the forums there the changes sound great.

Vanguard: A new Passive ability, Into the Fray, has been added. Into the Fray increases the duration of Reactive Shield by 3 seconds. In addition, suffering direct damage from area of effect attacks restores 2 Energy Cells and heals players for 0.25% of total health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds. - Yup, at my current gear level we're talkin about a "free-ish" 6.4k+ proc heal. Can't complain as it appears on paper....

Shield Specialist
•Smoke Grenade has been redesigned and renamed to Riot Gas. This ability now targets the ground and persists for 15 seconds. Enemies within the area of effect are slowed by 70% and suffer 30% reduced melee and ranged accuracy.

•Energy Blast has been redesigned and is now only usable with 3 stacks of Power Screen. Using Energy Blast consumes Power Screen to deal elemental damage, recharge 8 Energy Cells, and increase Shield Absorption by 25% for 6 seconds.
Yeah, both of these are good from what I see. The change to the grendade/gas is minimal. Accuracy debuff is increased by 10% which is always nice. The Energy Blast changes however... this is the only one I see any potential of being a pain. Looks impressive on paper, and I am willing to bet that if it is worked correctly can be a great asset. I do hope however that it means they did not tinker with the cooldown. @15 seconds like it currently is (iirc) this could be a potent skill.

[Marrkin]

Oh yeah,

and uh..... EV raid night rotations anyone?

Eternity Vault
•All Story Mode bosses now drop Black Hole gear. All Hard and Nightmare Mode bosses now drop Hazmat gear.

[Skiggity]

Vanguard: A new Passive ability, Into the Fray, has been added. Into the Fray increases the duration of Reactive Shield by 3 seconds. In addition, suffering direct damage from area of effect attacks restores 2 Energy Cells and heals players for 0.25% of total health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds. - Yup, at my current gear level we're talkin about a "free-ish" 6.4k+ proc heal. Can't complain as it appears on paper....

That's a quarter of a percent, not a quarter of your full health

Still, better than nothing!

The Sentinel tree is kinda weird, gotta figure it out. Skig's tree might actually benefit from more hybridization with the new structure, and I think he'll get some nice DPS gains with minimal change. Also, alacrity perks should actually matter in 2.0.

[Marrkin]

I knew I had the decimal in the wrong place....Friday math...... 10x 1 = go home.

Sent using smoke signals from my campfire.

[Skiggity]

Looks like Crit got adjusted in the latest PTS patch.

General

Increased amount of critical chance given per point of primary attribute (Aim, Cunning, Strength, Willpower).
Increased amount of critical chance given per point of Critical rating.
Reduced effectiveness of Absorb and Shield rating; as compensation, the base damage of Champion NPCs has also been reduced.