Immediately after Thursday's dev stream, the 8.0 PTS went up, and I've actually been hyped to play on it. I didn't used to be someone who cared about public testing, but I've done more and more of it over the last two expansions and have become a bit of a convert to be honest. SWTOR is just not that big of an MMO anymore, and every little contribution to make it better helps. The success of XR-53 in particular has really helped to motivate me, because that fight felt so much better tuned than any other operations boss Broadsword released in almost a decade. I couldn't help but feel like the more extensive PTS testing really helped - not anything I personally did, mind you, but just having a broader selection of players trying out the fight and providing data and feedback.
In this first iteration of the PTS, there isn't much to test yet - primarily it's just the first boss of the upcoming new operation. Accordingly, the way it's set up, you're expected to just create a level one character, take the "Odessen Transport Service" just outside your starter phase* to be transported to Odessen, and then use a terminal there to get auto-levelled to 85, at which point you can grab some gear from nearby vendors, and the entrance to the operation is right there as well. (In fact, it's so close to the edge of the platform that if you run at it without being in an ops group, you have just a brief second of seeing the "you need to be in an ops group to enter" notification before falling to your death, which I thought was a hilarious troll.)
I haven't tried the new boss yet, but I'm planning to check it out this week - with a full guild group no less. This is the first time I've managed to get buy-in for going on the PTS from my whole ops team, which is another reason I'm excited.
However, until then, being an unnaturally boosted level 85 character is... a bit restrictive. You have no legacy, no ship and no companions. You don't have access to any of your unlocks from the regular servers, including species and hairdos. Not to mention that you look like a bit of a dork running around in the same not great-looking default armour set as everyone else.
Cartel Coin purchases are disabled on the PTS (for good reason), but unfortunately that includes several pop-ups that merely include a CC buyout option, such as the one to increase your inventory space or unlock additional outfit slots. Not much one can do about that, unfortunately, but at least some of the other restrictions can be worked around.
If, like me, you're someone who has earned loads of loyalty rewards and the like over the years, you might be able to grab a companion and/or a better outfit from your mailbox. I don't recommend trying to empty your mail entirely, due to the aforementioned bag space limitations, but if you can pick out just a couple of useful items, it's quite handy.
Otherwise you can travel to the fleet and see the adaptive armour vendor in the supplies section for an alternative outfit. The selection there isn't amazing, but at least you'll be able to cheaply grab a coherent look that matches your origin story. The only way to get a companion outside your mailbox is to actually play through the class story on your starter planet. I'm not usually someone who ever space-bars through conversations, but I speed-ran my Sage through Tython for once and it was actually pretty quick.
Completing the starter planet will also unlock your legacy, and if you then make it through Coruscant on top of that, you can get your ship too. A quicker, alternative way to unlocking your legacy and ship, as well as the option for a second combat style - but no companions - is to start Knights of the Fallen Empire from the chapters menu. You don't actually have to play through it, just accept all the various prompts that ask if you're sure that you want to skip ahead and boom, there's your legacy and ship.
Why go through all this hassle for a test character? They'll probably be wiped/reset at some point anyway, right? Well, why not? Breaking out of the default constraints of the test environment is a different kind of gameplay challenge, and I bet I'll feel better testing the boss later this week when I actually get to wear an outfit I like! It also allows for additional exploration which incidentally might reveal more about features that aren't officially ready for testing yet.
For example ventures/difficulty modes are not yet ready for testing, but after completing my Tython story (on the standard difficulty, because nothing else is available), I found a surprise "challenge reward" box in my inventory which contained a "Regenerating Freeze Bombs" unlock that I was unable to use yet but which is probably an unintended preview of the kind of stuff that will be coming with the ventures. I also saw someone mention on the forums that they saw a Z axis in their stronghold options? Be still, my heart!
Oh yeah, all strongholds are free to open and expand on the PTS as well, unless they require special tokens. So go nuts and grab that free teleport as well while you're out there.
Now let's see what we can get up to next week when our PTS guild's ability to do Conquest unlocks...
* If you're a newborn Jedi on Tython and can't find the teleport, it's right next to the first taxi droid on the raised platform where you first land. For some reason the probe droid really blends into the background there and is easy to overlook - I ran right past it at first, and talked to at least three other people that evening who had the same problem. When I made a trooper for comparison, it was much more obvious to find the droid there, as it was waiting right outside the crashed walker.
