Around the SWTOR-sphere: February 2024

February is the shortest month of the year (even with the extra day we get this year) and it was a fairly quiet month in SWTOR as well, though we did get some news about what's coming next in the 7.4.1. dev stream. This post however isn't meant to be about official news, but rather about random community content I came across throughout the month and that I wanted to share.

• First off, Swtorista did a thing again (shocking how she keeps doing that, isn't it) and released her updated "Ultimate Guide of Guides" for 2024. This is a massive list of resources covering pretty much every possible aspect of the game that she and her right-hand Admiral Zahk (is that his proper title?) have been maintaining for several years now. I'm flattered by the number of useful posts they found on this blog, considering that being useful is not my primary goal. I can only recommend checking this guide out, even if you don't have a particular question right now... the links are sorted by topic, so maybe just have a quick look at an area you're interested in, and who knows, maybe you'll find a link to a page or even another content creator that you didn't even know existed. I had no idea that Swtorista had name generators for every single species you can play as for example. (Also, fun fact, before this year I never realised that she actually kept a copy of this guide on her website, as I only ever came across the version maintained in a sticky thread on the official forums.)
• Ted from the SOTOR Podcast lived up to his promise of not going quiet for quite so long again and released not one but two new episodes this month. I'd like to particularly recommend the one about server transfers to Shae Vizla, especially if you're planning to make use of the free transfers coming in March. I've never actually done a server transfer in SWTOR myself (not counting character copies to the PTS), and there are actually quite a lot of things to keep in mind in terms of what will come with you and what won't. Outfits not getting copied over and needing to be recreated on the new server is a big one for example!
• On the subject of the Shae Vizla server and transfers, I came across a video by small YouTuber Thomas Midena called "How not to launch Australian servers (a Star Wars: The Old Republic story)". As the title suggests, he hasn't been too happy with how things have gone so far, but I thought it was interesting to hear from another player in the APAC region and I really liked his measured approach and the way he articulated his thoughts.
• In happier video news, another small YouTuber I came across this month was HomeMade SWTOR. Specifically I watched his video "The Mandalorian: StarWars story Episode 15 || The Shameful Hunt ||", which is basically... the bounty hunter story on Corellia? I'm not usually one for SWTOR story playthrough videos because let's be honest, I can and prefer to do the playing myself, but I thought it was interesting how HomeMade tried to edit things together in a unique way, with bits of different music added and by interspersing snippets of footage of movement and combat between the in-game cut scenes to make things flow better.
• Aaand, one more video about something completely different - an operations boss kill! A video called "SWTOR Master Mode Styrak With No Knocks 7.4" by Draxzim caught my attention due to its title. I wrote a whole long-ass post about my own "history" with Dread Master Styrak a few years ago, but to summarise in a nutshell what intrigued me about this video title: on master mode, this fight has a mechanic that usually requires several people in the group to have a knockback, so I immediately wondered how this group achieved a kill without ticking that box. My first reaction was to theorise that 344 gear had allowed dps numbers to get so high that it simply wasn't needed anymore (since the main purpose of the knockback is to buy you time to kill an add). Spoiler: not exactly. Instead, what this group did was bring a party that consisted of nothing but Powertechs (except for the healers obviously), and they all specced into the Sonic Rebounder utility, which causes their AoE taunt/aggro drop to put a ring around everyone in range that reflects the next attack done to them back at the attacker. Then, when it came to the phase where you'd usually use the knockbacks, they didn't interrupt the big add's AoE damage channel but instead rotated through all their rebounders to reflect its own damage back at it for a massive damage boost. This is, frankly, incredibly cheesy and bizarre, but it clearly took no less effort than organising knockbacks would've done, so I totally respect it. I'm always fascinated by people coming up with alternate solutions to gameplay challenges.
• Finally, my favourite post from the SWTOR subreddit in February was one that only got a moderate number of upvotes but which I personally thought was amazing, called "What is your favorite / least favorite noise made by your toon when being attacked?" Why did I love it? Because it's an extremely random question that I never would've thought of asking myself, and the way people described their characters' groans and shouts in writing in the responses was very funny to me. "HEEUUURRRGGHHH!" (That's someone describing a male Sith warrior, and I bet if you've ever played or spent time around one, you'll know exactly what it refers to.)