After a two month delay the biggest Star Wars MMORPG has finally released its tenth-anniversary patch. The long-awaited 7.0 update to Star Wars: The Old Republic, “Legacy of the Sith”, brings a new storyline, higher level cap, new high-level content and a complete revamp of the character class system, something that many players have been calling for since the game’s release a decade ago.
Legacy of the Sith has finally managed to implement the new class system that allows the players to select their class separate from the origin story. Now you can play a sniper bounty hunter or a Sith who uses light side powers (if you fulfil the necessary prerequisites).
Has the implementation been succesful? The answer seems to be: yes.
Balance of the Classes
The good news is that the classes (nowadays called “combat styles”) have not changed dramatically and each of them still possesses the abilities that made it iconic and that players are used to. Or let’s say mostly – perhaps 5% of the abilities have been taken away, but nothing was changed in a very dramatic manner.
What the makers certainly succeeded in was making the system somewhat easier to grasp for newcomers. It is also easier for orientation – or would be if the new interface had a little more contrast to it. The devs clearly attempted to make the new interface “hip and cool”, but the black-and-white is not the most user-friendly colour scheme. Also the skill trees with only thin white border around the selected abilities do not make the job easy. Makes one wonder what were the designers thinking, only a little job (glowing halo around the active abilities, for instance, or graying out the unscelected ones) would have solved this easily.
Regardless the expansion has been overall a good move. Also the upgraded new Galactic Seasons event program has both promising rewards and somewhat more interactive system.
With all this in play SWTOR is currently in a good spot to welcome new players.
Thurrb mounts, one of the rather cool rewards in the current Galactic Seasons event.
