Category: MMO

SWTOR: Legacy System Now Live

SWTOR Legacy System

The new Legacy System is a pretty unique addition to SWTOR that a lot of players have really been looking forward to and with the 1.2 patch live, that means we get to see what all the fuss is about.

The Legacy System allows players to create a family tree of characters. Once your character has completed their Chapter 1 storyline, they will be able to choose a Legacy “Last Name.” This Legacy last name must be unique and is shared across all characters on that server.  Once you have unlocked your Legacy, any and all characters on that server will now contribute to that player’s Legacy Experience Points. Much like normal xp, when you reach certain Legacy thresholds, you will increase your Legacy Level. These levels unlock various rewards.

By completing all the Chapter 2 quests you will unlock your classes buff on all other alts. You will also unlock class specific emotes. Completing Chapter 3 with your character will unlock that classes special ability to all classes to be used during Heroic moment. These unlocks have no legacy requirement. Here is a list of class buffs and special abilities you will be able to unlock:

  • Imperial agent – Coordination Buff – Legacy Orbital Strike ability
  • Bounty Hunter – Hunter Boon Buff- Legacy Flamethrower ability
  • Sith Inquisitor – Mark of Power Buff – Legacy Lightning Storm ability
  • Sith Warrior – Unnataural Strength Buff – Legacy Force Choke ability
  • Jedi Consular – Force Valor Buff – Legacy Project ability
  • Jedi Knight – Force Might Buff – Legacy Force Sweep ability
  • Smuggler – Lucky Shots Buff – Legacy Dirty Kick ability
  • Trooper – Fortification Buff – Legacy Sticky Grenade ability

Some of the bonuses can get insanely expensive: A Ship Mailbox requires Legacy Level 10 and costs 500,000 credits.. Rocket Boost which provides an intense speed burst for a short time requires Legacy Level 8 and 2,000,000 credits! SWTOR needed a good money sink though and I feel like this gives enough incentive to players to invest their time and credits into it. For a fairly good list of Legacy rewards and bonuses check out this post on SWTOR Daily Quests.

 

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Improved WoW Scroll of Resurrection

Scroll of Resurrection

So WoW is giving a buff to their “Scroll of Resurrection” which has until now offered players a way to bring their friends back into the game. It offered free play time for returning players and that was about it. It’s getting a few new incentives for people to lure their friends back to the crack-like game with a new spectral mount (Gryphon/Wyvern). Players who are on the receiving end and returning back to wow get:

  • A single character boosted all the way to level 80.
  • A free upgrade to Cataclysm, regardless of the expansions you already own.
  • An optional free character move/faction change.
  • 7 free days of game time.

Yeah that’s right – you can own the base vanilla game and automatically get Cataclysm and a level 80 as well as a free character move/race change. Sounds like they’re really yearning to have some of their players come back. Offering expansions to these players isn’t really costing them money either – as they probably wouldn’t have paid for the expansions in the first place seeing as they’ve quit the game already.

In order to be eligible, a player must have previously subscribed to World of Warcraft for at least 30 days, and your account must have become inactive on or before March 4th, 2012.

A forum member posed the question: You revamped the whole 1-60 levelling process and made it faster and easier to level and now you’re offering a quick way to skip all of that?? I wish I was given a free 80 for having 6 or 7 level 85’s already but nooooo. Sounds tempting – will you be giving it a shot?

 

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Blizzard Lays off 600 Employees

Blizz Layoffs

The lost subscriptions are one sign, but the laying off of almost 600 employees is another. Hoot has brought to our attention in the forums that  Business Wire reports Blizzard is laying off approximately 600 employees. The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development – which means about 60 are being laid off from the game development departments.

They do say that it’s not going to affect any of their upcoming releases such as Mists of Pandaria or Diablo III. In addition, Blizzard is still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions. Further details are available at http://jobs.blizzard.com. It looks like it was more shrugging off excess overhead that they gained during their WoW growth than a “we’re not making any money so we’re laying off all these people!” Layoffs are always a sign of interior house cleaning though and it does point to the fact that Blizzard probably isn’t making as much money as they were during WoW’s height.

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