In this video, I narrate my first Huttball match, courtesy of the SWTOR booth at NY Comic Con. David, who works on the Community Management team, is providing the (humorous) color commentary on the progress of the match.
I discuss the mechanics and capabilities of the Sorcerer Advanced Class, as well as demonstrating timing of CCs (stuns, knockbacks).
Keep in mind NY Comic Con was the first time I had the opportunity to play SWTOR, so I’m a noob – there are probably key abilities and mechanics that I did not pick up.
Huttball is a lot of fun; what makes it different from other “capture the flag” battlegrounds is the ability to pass the ball between team mates. It’s a well-designed warzone and will likely be a popular one when the game launches.
For more discussion about this interview, please see the SWTOR forum thread:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=558886
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Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Did I just see you toss the ball to the enemy player? lol… looks like your having fun. Did you get the chance to check out GW2 Taug?
GW2 wasn’t at NYCC.
Sorry I haven’t been online. I miss PVP’ing with you guys. It’s been 24 hours since we got back from NY, we’re still kind of exhausted from the trip, and we just got back from a Twitch.tv party tonight.
In 10 hours we’re driving down to LA for the GAMEBREAKER BlizzCon party.
I won’t be back home probably til Saturday. I’m having PVP withdrawal so I hope to see y’all on Saturday!
P.S. once I get my Twitch.tv partner account rolling and tested, I’m going to stream some of our premade action. Should be fun :)
What do you think so far from just playing this past weekend? Will it be enough to draw you away from Rift? I like the amount of control each class has available to them as well as the self heals. No more looking over your team’s composition and assuming a loss without a pure healer in the group!
ps – I’m worried that if you upload the Alderaan map from NYCC people will have to look at me leaning into the monitor Mr. Magoo style trying to read through all the abilities while sitting next to you. Luckily I did good on that map with little experience as well.
I’m definitely trying SWTOR. My wife and I preordered a few days ago.
Will I keep playing RIFT? That depends on RIFT.
As I mentioned on Twitter, Trion said at NYCC that they don’t have a World PVP zone in the works. That’s a big issue for me and other people I play with / against.
I hope the 3 war zones and mysterious Ilum will be enough to keep hardcore PvPers invested in SWTOR.
Since I stopped raiding this past January, I’ve been way more invested in PvP. Initially I tried BGs on my Hunter and DK in WoW before moving on to beta weekends in Rift. I’m still subbed to Rift and get the itch to play WoW again sometimes, but I know both of those game leave the glass half empty.
Help me BioWare, you’re my only hope.
Hey Taugrim,
Thanks for the video. I was thinking of playing this class. I’ve pretty much quit Rift after 1.5 and have been occupying my time with reading until Skyrim comes out and then SWTOR. It’s a shame the direction Rift went in. I really appreciate your analysis and look forward to more of your videos!
I went back to playing WoW (a little) but I played so long it’s really hard to stay focused on it for more then a few days. At least Skyrim comes out next month. It will be a nice distraction before SWTOR.
Very nice. Thanks for sharing.
Looks great!
But did anyone notice the irony when Taugrim was talking about smooth animations and graphics at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dMTYQPnQ-Fs#t=397s the guy next to him was riding an invisible speederbike :P:P:P:P
If you could say 5 positive and 5 negative things about what you experienced in swtor so far, what would they be?
It can be anything. Graphics, UI, gameplay, etc etc…
Positives (in no particular order):
1. excellent animations / sound
2. classes seem to have a wide variety of abilities to manage, in terms of effects (e.g. DPS, heal, CC, etc) and cooldowns
3. design for Huttball is innovative. Huttball = Capture the Flag + Passing
4. cinematics in-game are pretty awesome, very immersive
5. in PVP it takes time to kill people
Negatives (from what I understand or have heard):
1. lack of customization in the UI – e.g. can’t really move the UI elements around flexibly
2. some of the abilities have animations that take time, e.g. the Sorceror AOE knockback animation is a front-flip and the KB doesn’t trigger til the Sorc lands from the flip
3. Alderaan warzone control points all on X axis: left middle right. In general maps with control points work better when they are equidistant from neighbors. E.g. Battle of Gilneas in WoW has 3 control points in a triangle
4. spec system is much closer to WoW’s than RIFT’s. RIFT’s spec customization is best in the market, each of the 4 classes had 9 talent trees to pick from for any 3-tree spec
5. no dual spec, which may be problematic for someone like me who plans to level via PVP + PVE
Disappointing to hear Trion is not working on a World PVP zone. I thought they were though. Hopefully, they are.
Not sure if I am going to play SWTOR. Strikes me as a very solid Single Player RPG from what I can tell.
I am waiting to see how PvP is in SWTOR before I make my decision.
But on a side note, Trion, PLEASE make a world PVP zone! It would do amazing things for Rift.
Hey Taugrim, I pre-ordered SWTOR last weekend also! Let us know where you go, which side you’re playing! I’ll come on out and join y’all! You’re blog turned me onto the benefits of pvping in Rift. I am hooked now thanks to your blog! It works great for a player who works 60+ hours a week and can’t commit to a “raid” schedule lifestyle when you’re sleeping. Pvp? I can jump into a wf any time of the day and have a blast. Thanks for the updates! I’ll probably be streaming my leveling/pvp in SWTOR also! Merrylucious from Justin.tv!
Agree, RIFT PVP is good for a player who has intermittent / limited playtime.
I haven’t talked to my guildees about our plan for SWTOR but I am expecting to do both PVP + PVE, and to provide Guides / videos for both.
Haven’t talked to my guildees about faction. I’m leaning towards Republic (Jedi FTW), and if the trend I’ve seen in other games holds true, there will be more people on the “bad guy” faction.
As far as folks joining us, in a nutshell here are our expectations for guild members:
1. own your leveling and gear. Asking for help is fine but don’t expect to be carried. At endgame for PVP, get at least the base-level enchants
2. no cheating / exploiting
3. don’t be a jerk
4. be willing to receive / give feedback, esp when in PVP premades. We’re not pricks on Vent, but we do want to function well as a guild so playing together effectively is important
I’ll post more info about our guild right around launch. I’m not sure how much we will publicly communicate prior to choosing a server, since we change our mind depending on server pops and login queues.
Come back to Rift Taugrim your missed!
I’ll be online a lot this weekend to PVP in RIFT :)
Basically spent 10 of the last 11 days traveling to NY and LA.
It’s freaking great to be home.
Hey Taug,
Glad to see you were able to get some hands-on time. Definitely can not wait to come up with some Huttball strategies.
-Raust
Hey Taugrim,
So, is SWTOR going to have open world PVP? Coming from Rift, I am dearly hoping that Rift releases a open world PVP area. That would be huge for Rift. Ember Isle is coming out and it looks amazing. Curious as to the PVP though. Not sure which direction SWTOR is going to go with PVP, but I am anxious to hear about balance.
Have you heard much on how they plan to balance PVP in SWTOR? Are they going to have ‘prestige’ ranks or something similar?
Leaning towards picking up SWTOR, but trying to find out more.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Jason
Hi Jason,
BioWare has announced that there will be a World PVP zone called ILLUM, but they haven’t released any specifics yet.
I asked Cory Butler about Illum in my interview with him at 5:03:
I don’t know how BioWare is planning on balancing PVP. I’ve heard there is PVP gear.
At NY Comic Con I did ask Hal Hanlin of Trion Worlds whether a World PVP zone was going to be released, and he said that they did not have one in the works, and that one concern with adding a World PVP zone would be the impact to Warfront queues.
Thanks Taugrim. Bummer to hear about no current World PvP zone in the works for Rift.
Very curious to see how PvP is in SWTOR in balance and gear.
Thanks again Taugrim.
Cheers,
Jason