Game Update 7.3.1 coming soon!

[Jdast]

Regarding the use of Galactic Season Tokens (GSTs) to unlock story missions associated with 3V-IL...

Before I unload on Team SWTOR on Wednesday (which I most certainly will do), I am going to hold off on pulverizing the devs with my prescient powers of prose and (p)reserve prognosticating and pre-judging for the following reason:

I read very carefully the post on "Galactic Season 5: Confidence in Power."

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20230901-0

While it does say that it will cost three GSTs to unlock the new story missions...

It does not say whether the unlock is per character versus per legacy.

I would be stunned if Team SWTOR would make it per character. Such a move would, indeed, be mind-boggling.

In any case, we'll know in 3-4 days. I doubt since it is a holiday weekend in the U.S. that we will hear anything before Tuesday when the full patch notes are released.

Personally, I'm fine with the cost of three GST's per legacy to unlock the quests. I'm sitting on max 15 GSTs with zero to spend them on, which is altogether a different concern.

Dasty

Edited September 2, 2023 by Jdast

[MishaCantu]

11 minutes ago, Jdast said:

Regarding the use of Galactic Season Tokens (GSTs) to unlock story missions associated with 3V-IL...

Before I unload on Team SWTOR on Wednesday (which I most certainly will do), I am going to hold off on pulverizing the devs with my prescient powers of prose and (p)reserve prognosticating and pre-judging for the following reason:

I read very carefully the post on "Galactic Season 5: Confidence in Power."

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20230901-0

While it does say that it will cost three Galactic Season Tokens (GST) to unlock the new story missions...

It does not say whether the unlock is per character versus per legacy.

I would be stunned if Team SWTOR would make it per character. Such a move would, indeed, be mind-boggling.

In any case, we'll know in 3-4 days. I doubt since it is a holiday weekend in the U.S. that we will hear anything before Tuesday when the full patch notes are released.

Personally, I'm fine with the cost of three GST's per legacy to unlock the quests. I'm sitting on max 15 GSTs with zero to spend them on, which is altogether a different concern.

Dasty

You make a valid point. Some clarification from the get-go would have prevented all this, but I too will give them a pass until next Wednesday. As usual, it's wait and see.

[Samcuu]

I have a question for everyone. I never play the story for any of these companions unless I have to do so to advance through the seasons. I read once what they have to say and never revisit. I was under the assumption that most of the story was already tied to seasons, so you would only be able to play the story on the one main toon you were doing seasons on. Is this incorrect? Were you able to replay the missions with alts even when seasons isn't active? I recall when unlocking a companion with cartel coins u recieve two consumables. One to start the mission and one to just unlock the companion. I usually unlock the comp (for reputation purposes only) and toss the mission one in the trash. 

[Jdast]

28 minutes ago, Samcuu said:

I have a question for everyone. I never play the story for any of these companions unless I have to do so to advance through the seasons. I read once what they have to say and never revisit. I was under the assumption that most of the story was already tied to seasons, so you would only be able to play the story on the one main toon you were doing seasons on. Is this incorrect? Were you able to replay the missions with alts even when seasons isn't active? I recall when unlocking a companion with cartel coins u recieve two consumables. One to start the mission and one to just unlock the companion. I usually unlock the comp (for reputation purposes only) and toss the mission one in the trash. 

For seasons 1-4, all of the story took place as soon as you unlocked the seasonal companion and they were all incredibly short -- 10 -15 minutes max. The very first two companions, Altur and Fen Zeil, were basically just intro conversations. 

The variation in the first four seasons dealt with how you could advance the Presence level by acquiring different gifts at different progression tiers. For the last two seasons, you even had the ability to advance them to 50 with one gift. Not surprisingly, the auto-level to 50 gift occured fairly late in the track.

My understanding is that for GS5, once you hit level 40 on the progression track, you will have successfully unlocked all the missions. Since 3V-IL is not a formal companion you adventure with (although perhaps we adventure with the droid in the Seasonal story track, I have no idea); therefore, there will be no gifts to give him to advance his Presence leve.

Edit: Per your question regarding 'playing the companion story' after the season was over, you could definitely still recruit them and play the dialogues -- there just wasn't any more story to tell, it was just some basic background info about the companion. You can also still get reputation notifications for the faction they represented with the caveat being you were adventuring with them in the open (note: the drop rate is painstaking low).

Dasty

Edited September 2, 2023 by Jdast
Clarity

[VegaMist]

37 minutes ago, Jdast said:

While it does say that it will cost three Galactic Season Tokens (GST) to unlock the new story missions...

It does not say whether the unlock is per character versus per legacy.

That is a good point. Still not great considering how we earn GST currency, but not as bad as if it's per character. Would be nice if they clarified it in the notes since currently it reads as per character is more likely the case. Guess we'll see, though probably not right away since one has to complete the said missions on at least one character in order for them to become available on a vendor.

"If a player has completed the mission on any character, they will be able to re-acquire the mission items on other characters from the Galactic Seasons vendor, Jaliet Nall."

[TrixxieTriss]

5 hours ago, Jdast said:

Regarding the use of Galactic Season Tokens (GSTs) to unlock story missions associated with 3V-IL...

Before I unload on Team SWTOR on Wednesday (which I most certainly will do), I am going to hold off on pulverizing the devs with my prescient powers of prose and (p)reserve prognosticating and pre-judging for the following reason:

I read very carefully the post on "Galactic Season 5: Confidence in Power."

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20230901-0

While it does say that it will cost three GSTs to unlock the new story missions...

It does not say whether the unlock is per character versus per legacy.

I would be stunned if Team SWTOR would make it per character. Such a move would, indeed, be mind-boggling.

In any case, we'll know in 3-4 days. I doubt since it is a holiday weekend in the U.S. that we will hear anything before Tuesday when the full patch notes are released.

Personally, I'm fine with the cost of three GST's per legacy to unlock the quests. I'm sitting on max 15 GSTs with zero to spend them on, which is altogether a different concern.

Dasty

While you make a valid point. The devs could have easily corrected any misconceptions when it was brought up before the weekend.
Plus Musco & co have been making twitter posts the last few days about 7.3.1. So it’s not like they couldn’t clear this up with a simple post here or on twitter.
Which leads me to believe my first assumption, that it will cost GST’s for each Alt to play the story and that is the correct read. 
I’ve also asked them to clear up any misunderstandings by addressing this issue or at least explain to us like we’re children why they think it’s a good idea. 
And like you said, until they do, we don’t know. But as Han Solo was fond of saying “I have a bad feeling about this”

edit:

Also, it’s not like @JackieKo didn’t just make a post an hour ago in another thread about the Jet Packs.
So they are reading the forums atm & should have seen these concerns.
Staying silent just confirms our worst fears that it will be per character. And staying silent is what they always do when it’s bad news for players due to poor design choices because they are scared of player backlash. 

By the way, I’m more than happy to be proven wrong 🤷🏻‍♀️ The balls in their court. 

Edited September 2, 2023 by TrixxieTriss

[Shayddow]

Quote

I’m back to quickly touch on changes coming in 7.3.1 regarding Kai Zykken and his Spoils of War set bonus armors. We’ve gone through a few iterations of distributing these armors and various bugs have popped up preventing the system from working as intended. Well no longer! In 7.3.1 players will discover Kai Zykken has disappeared from the Fleet pending investigation by both the Republic and Empire!

Problem. Kai Zykken doesn't only sell SOW set bonus armors. He also sells crafting Schematics for Tacticals, specifically Grit Teeth & others that are not available anywhere else including the Tactical vendor.

Please tell me you won't get rid of him before arranging for these to be sold elsewhere!!!!!!!!

 

[Hudlar]

3 hours ago, Shayddow said:

Problem. Kai Zykken doesn't only sell SOW set bonus armors. He also sells crafting Schematics for Tacticals, specifically Grit Teeth & others that are not available anywhere else including the Tactical vendor.

Please tell me you won't get rid of him before arranging for these to be sold elsewhere!!!!!!!!

 

Unless I'm missing something, your question is answered in the next paragraph of the post you quoted:

"Please note the set bonuses obtained by Armormech and Synthweaving schematics will not be purchasable in crates, but the schematics will always be available on the new vendor for the current price of 2,000 Tech Fragments and 1,000,000 credits. The tactical schematics for Armstech, Artifice, Biochem, and Cybertech will also remain available from the vendor for the current price of 2,000 Tech Fragments and 1,000,000 credits."

https://forums.swtor.com/topic/930714-game-update-731-coming-soon/?do=findComment&comment=9774120

[Ardrossan]

On 8/17/2023 at 9:11 PM, LD_Little_Dragon said:

 

What do you expect them to say?  It's the same developers, just a different publisher, so no reason to expect any great changes.

I don't recall the dev's saying much about EA either.

I mean, every time I come back here I see people asking when broadsword is going to announce themselves and so far the answer seems to be NEVER. Clearly it's a valid question.

But I also see that those of you vets who have stuck around have done whatever mental gymnastics needed so that this bizarre situation is fine and omg why are you making a big deal out of it Ardrossan it's their game they don't have to tell us literally anything 

[Ardrossan]

21 hours ago, Jdast said:

Regarding the use of Galactic Season Tokens (GSTs) to unlock story missions associated with 3V-IL...

Before I unload on Team SWTOR on Wednesday (which I most certainly will do), I am going to hold off on pulverizing the devs with my prescient powers of prose and (p)reserve prognosticating and pre-judging for the following reason:

I read very carefully the post on "Galactic Season 5: Confidence in Power."

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20230901-0

While it does say that it will cost three GSTs to unlock the new story missions...

It does not say whether the unlock is per character versus per legacy.

I would be stunned if Team SWTOR would make it per character. Such a move would, indeed, be mind-boggling.

In any case, we'll know in 3-4 days. I doubt since it is a holiday weekend in the U.S. that we will hear anything before Tuesday when the full patch notes are released.

Personally, I'm fine with the cost of three GST's per legacy to unlock the quests. I'm sitting on max 15 GSTs with zero to spend them on, which is altogether a different concern.

Dasty

omg that sounds dreadful. I didn't catch that in the patchnotes. My focus was on the reward track for prefs and F2P absent any CCs. They learned from their early mistake giving something actually valuable to non-paying players, and have confined the rewards to the usual reskinned crap. 

[TheVoyant]

Galactic Seasons are not enjoyable, rewards are lackluster or of little value. Subscriber Track same deal obvious.

Dead silent about PvP.

No updates on class balance issues. 

Glad you're adding Thrawn stuff, nice to have something to praise you guys about. Actually releasing cosmetics on time with SW events has been something we've been wanting to see awhile now consistently so... Improvement there.

UI changes are always concerning given the history for breaking things in the process. 

I just want you guys to do what other good devs do and release a nice healthy looking update every once n awhile. I have never seen one from this game in the few years I've been playing.

Good example is look at Larian's response to the negativity over the ending content. They admitted fans wanted more & are addressing it. They're already on their second Patch of fixing problems. 

You guys did that sort of honest work, we'd be ecstatic.

[Lord_Malganus]

On 9/3/2023 at 4:14 PM, TheVoyant said:

Galactic Seasons are not enjoyable, rewards are lackluster or of little value. Subscriber Track same deal obvious.

Dead silent about PvP.

No updates on class balance issues. 

UI changes are always concerning given the history for breaking things in the process. 

I just want you guys to do what other good devs do and release a nice healthy looking update every once n awhile. I have never seen one from this game in the few years I've been playing.

 

Chances are since Bioware created 7.3.1, it will just be more of the same. Of course they have a chance this week to prove that wrong.

[casirabit]

Too late for me.  Good luck.

[Screaming_Ziva]

From the patch notes:

Quote

 

Sorcerer / Sage

• Teaching of Rajivari mod now deals the correct type of damage.

• Plague Master mod now deals the correct type of damage. 

Lightning / Telekinetics

• Force Mobility is now baseline for Lightning / Telekinetics. 

• Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem replaces Force Mobility as a level 51 utility choice. 

  • Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem - Lowers the cooldown of Electrocute / Force Stun by 10 seconds. In addition, targets stunned by your Electrocute /Force Stun deal 25% less damage for 10 seconds when Electrocute / Force Stun wears off.

Madness / Balance

• Force Mobility is now baseline for Madness / Balance. 

• Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem replaces Force Mobility as a level 51 utility choice. 

• Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem - Lowers the cooldown of Electrocute / Force Stun by 10 seconds. In addition, targets stunned by your Electrocute / Force Stun deal 25% less damage for 10 seconds when Electrocute / Force Stun wears off.

• Force Speed is now granted at level 25. 

• Shifted Critical Movement / Enhanced Force Speed to level 27 Row. 

• Shifted Cloud Mind to level 43 Row. 

 

Are these changes going to break our current loadouts?

Edited September 5, 2023 by Screaming_Ziva

[Nee-Elder]

2 minutes ago, Screaming_Ziva said:

From the patch notes:

Here's the actual  LINK, for people who might've missed the post: https://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/952023/game-update-7.3.1

[Beyrahl]

Quote

• Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem replaces Force Mobility as a level 51 utility choice. 

  • Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem - Lowers the cooldown of Electrocute / Force Stun by 10 seconds. In addition, targets stunned by your Electrocute /Force Stun deal 25% less damage for 10 seconds when Electrocute / Force Stun wears off.

A quick explanation of why this is bad and how it used to work and likely will work if re-added into the game. -25% Reduced damage works separately from other damage reduction in the game, it'll take 25% off of your damage before anything like Damage reduction & taunts, amplifying the power of this talent & ability. Making it one of the best abilities in the game when used well shutting down a specific player even further with ease. For example, using this with high alacrity on Lightning/Telekinetics which is easy to achieve, and throwing in polarity you hit around a 30-something-second CD. Hard stuns scale with alacrity and the reduction is flat, so the alacrity reduction counts from 50s CD. Now when this is stacked which is already incredibly oppressive when this class is stacked it'll be yet another reason why players will complain sorcerers are OP. 


Please do not add this to an already well-performing PvP class. This was one of the best things removed going into 7.0, not only does the ability scale with alacrity, but using it during polarity further reduces its cool-down and makes its uptime way more impactful. If anything, sorcerer DPS doesn't need another way to face tank damage.

What should be added back instead of this should be Extrication & Rescue giving DR on the used target. Currently, it only pulls them and has way less importance than it once did. It's also damage reduction instead of reducing someone's damage flat out for an entire 10 seconds. This is way more healthy for the rest of the classes in the game that lost their utility in comparison to this already well-performing class in PvP.

Making on-the-move things baseline is a great step forward to modernizing gameplay for ranged but it would be nice to see things done...... more evenly? If that's even a thing. It's a shame to see ranged being treated nicely while melee sees next to nothing changed. Fury/Concentration is still overly nerfed, Annihilation/Watchman is still over-reliant on spiteful saber tactical & slash being over 50% (it reprocs cauterize with tactical so I am counting cauterize damage as part of it) of its overall damage. Arsenal/Gunnery gets most of its sustain purely from one ability also with primed ignition and Blazing bolts. Both of these specs have heavy reliance on one ability and not-so-great damage spreads while also being both white damage abilities making them suffer more in PvP than they should have to. Talent tree realignments for most melee would be great but also at the same time, consistency between all the specs should be far more needed as some are in such a better place than others. 

And can we finally fix the damage type for things like overload & neural surge? Going through immunity roll & shroud. They clearly have to be the wrong damage type to be going through both of these. Generally, a quick blanket change to all CC effects that have incorrect damage types would go a long way.

4man group size limit for PvP? Please? Enough data should of been gathered to see this is more harmful to the community than good. 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Beyrahl

[klizilii]

Where's the fix to plague master damage so that demolish gets the extra 3 seconds provided by lighting burns passive?  Demolish was already doing less damage if you use shock on it than if you don't... before this "fix"

[SentinalMasterWW]

I'm with Cease on the Sorc changes. 

Quote

Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem replaces Force Mobility as a level 51 utility choice. 

• Torturous Tactics / Staggering Stratagem - Lowers the cooldown of Electrocute / Force Stun by 10 seconds. In addition, targets stunned by your Electrocute /Force Stun deal 25% less damage for 10 seconds when Electrocute / Force Stun wears off.

This is going to be WAYYY to broken in PVP. 

Sorc is already the most hated class in PVP because of its overperformance. 

I'd rather have this instead

8 hours ago, Beyrahl said:

What should be added back instead of this should be Extrication & Rescue giving DR on the used target. Currently, it only pulls them and has way less importance than it once did. It's also damage reduction instead of reducing someone's damage flat out for an entire 10 seconds. This is way more healthy for the rest of the classes in the game that lost their utility in comparison to this already well-performing class in PvP.

It doesn't break Sorc and make them even more Powerful, and gives them better utility. Utility is better than outright making classes more broken than they are. 

Sorc is already broken as is. 

@JackieKo This buff to Sorcs is having the PVP community concerned, They already are the top performers in PVP. Please look at Changing this Buff to something like Beyrahl suggested. 

[NicoleMay]

Kai Zykken the character better be back someday soon.

I'll admit I love the transition dialogue from the new droid merchant, but I'll miss Kai's dialogue lines. Bring him back soon!

[SentinalMasterWW]

I'm just going to leave Feedback here for the Class Changes, 

I got two WZ's with the new Commando changes for both Gunnery and Assault Specialist. Being able to cast while moving is really helpful, it means I'm not a static turret face tanking everything. Assault Specialist is really strong to considering, they only have to stand and cast for Serrated bolt now. 

The buff to Gunnery was a bit better with the 10% extra DMG on rail shot/High Impact bolt, Though I wish they would look at Reworking Gunnery/Arsenal entirely. 

The Change to Sorcs with Electrocute/Force stun is something that needs to be reworked or stunned, As I stated and Beyrahl stated it makes sorcs even more Face tanks, a 25% DMG decrease on your opponet plus Sorcs Passive that offers 15% DMG Reduction is incredibly strong plus Sorcs cooldown on force speed. 

If they want to keep it in the game, Just remove the 25% DMG Decrease after being stunned. 

EDIT: I forgot the new passive for Commandos/mercs that replaced thrill of the hunt/ forced march, Its kind of trash, the alacrity bonus is laughable and the cooldown would be nice, but 5 secs every time you pop supercharged cell is pathetic compared to Adrenal rush, like even in PVE, I'll take adrenal rush. 

If it like reduced the cooldown on Net, and every time you were attacked reduced the cooldown on A. Rush, than maybe it might be worth it but for now its kind of trash for both PVE and PVP

Edited September 6, 2023 by SentinalMasterWW
New Passive edit

[Highlandscot]

Quote

They will not be in collections, however if you've completed the mission on any character you will be able to re-acquire the mission items on other characters from the Galactic Seasons vendor Jaliet Nall.

 

So we've got to spend Galactic Seasons tokens to get more than 1 alt through the storyline?

[Samcuu]

15 hours ago, SentinalMasterWW said:

This buff to Sorcs is having the PVP community concerned, They already are the top performers in PVP. Please look at Changing this Buff to something like Beyrahl suggested. 

The only really broken sorc class is Madness. Try playing ling with elemental convection where u don't even get phase walk and the heals on Ling are extremely weak compared to madness. I don't hate the change only for madness because that's the spec that's legit broken. Anyways good luck once a pvp change makes its way in it exists for years before being fixed. See the viral elements tactical being broken since October 2019 when 6.0 dropped. Just got fixed a few months back 😂😂

[Lord_Malganus]

Fact. The post announcing 7.3.1 was in and servers were back up by JKO, included a link to already know "issues".

Edited September 6, 2023 by Lord_Malganus

[LordReevar]

On 8/17/2023 at 10:34 AM, BryantWood said:

Hey Players!

I’m back to quickly touch on changes coming in 7.3.1 regarding Kai Zykken and his Spoils of War set bonus armors. We’ve gone through a few iterations of distributing these armors and various bugs have popped up preventing the system from working as intended. Well no longer! In 7.3.1 players will discover Kai Zykken has disappeared from the Fleet pending investigation by both the Republic and Empire! 

Instead, set bonus armors will be directly purchasable in armor crates from a new vendor in the same location on the Fleet. Each crate will contain all pieces of the set bonus armor, and will cost 10,000 Tech Fragments and 1,000,000 credits. 

Please note the set bonuses obtained by Armormech and Synthweaving schematics will not be purchasable in crates, but the schematics will always be available on the new vendor for the current price of 2,000 Tech Fragments and 1,000,000 credits. The tactical schematics for Armstech, Artifice, Biochem, and Cybertech will also remain available from the vendor for the current price of 2,000 Tech Fragments and 1,000,000 credits.

Gotta run! I have to chase down a rumor on Rishi about the Corellian Run Scoundrels.

Allowing new players to buy armor sets is good.

But most of us long time players have all but 1 or 2 pieces of the sets that we haven't already completed. 
Not providing the ability to buy the individual pieces--for less than 10k Tech Frags--that we need is insulting & dismissive to those of us who have been here through the years.  

Stop taking half measures and actually implement a complete solution for a change.

[Thepyrethatburns]

So, until the patch that Jackie was talking about, only my first character will really be able to go through the GS story.

That's a bit of a pity but we'll see if the patch Jackie is talking about will fix that.  If not, while a disappointment, it's a minor one.