An update on Republic Trooper and a massive thank you to all of our readers!

Written By: Andy Muchmore

This past week, July 2nd to be exact, Republic Trooper turned 1 – happy birthday RT! Although it is our birthday week, I felt it was appropriate to update all of you with the status of RT as a whole. Obviously over the past several months things have slowed to a crawl and I would like to personally address the situation.

Three years ago a very good friend of mine, Dave, approached me with the idea of RepublicTrooper.com. At the time I was neck deep in other projects and I was unavailable to help out, even though I was eagerly following the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Over the years I would get phone calls, emails, texts, and the like asking if and when I would be available to “make it happen.” Around May of last year I was finally in a place where I could offer my services to Dave and help build Republic Trooper from the ground up. After several months of planning and development RT saw its first public reader and we were off to the races!

Since that time RT has seen tremendous growth and acceptance within the overall Star Wars: The Old Republic community – and I have to say, all of us cannot thank you enough for being readers, listeners, fans, and for not only playing the Trooper class in game, but being believers in BioWare and SWTOR to begin with. When RT went live we were woefully late to the game, in terms of established fan sites, but we did this for the love of the game, the love of the class, and to be honest – the love of the company that made it all happen. As long time gamers we had faith that a company like BioWare would, without a doubt, blow our minds with their new MMO.

Tags: Andy Muchmore, Ask A Jedi, beta, Bioware, Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, community, David Bass, David Souza, EA, Early Game Access, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, LucasArts, Mike Kern, MMOs, Patch 1.1, Project Titan, R2-DB, Republic Trooper, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Stephen Reid, SWTOR, Titan Everything, TOR, TOR Syndicate, TORWars, Trooper

The Rules of Engagement is the column that provides Republic Troopers with highly detailed intel on everything a Trooper needs to know to adapt and overcome on and off the battlefield.

Our resident Commando goes in-depth in discussing changes to the Advanced Class in Patch 1.2: Legacy

Earlier, I had given a review of the Trooper changes in Patch 1.2 concerning Combat Medics. This week I’d like to take a look at the Gunnery tree and analyze the changes we find there.

As before, let’s look at each change separately.

Charged Barrier now provides 1% damage reduction per stack

Pre-1.2: Provided 2% damage reduction per stack (5 stacks)
Change: 50% reduction in damage reduction (5% now vs 10% at 5 stacks)

Tags: Advanced Class, Ammo, Bioware, Charged Barrel, Charged Barrier, Charged Bolts, Combat Medic, Commando, Concussion Charge, Curtain of Fire, Demolition Round, DPS, EA, Electronic Arts, Energy Cell, Full Auto, Grav Round, Gunnery, High Impact Bolt, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Muzzle Fluting, Patch 1.2, Plasma Cell, PvE, PvP, Republic Trooper, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, tank, Tenacious Defense, TOR, Trooper, Warzones

The Rules of Engagement is the column that provides Republic Troopers with highly detailed intel on everything a Trooper needs to know to adapt and overcome on and off the battlefield.

Our resident Combat Medic goes in-depth in discussing changes to the Advanced Class in Patch 1.2: Legacy

In Patch 1.2, Medics face a change in their deployed abilities. Now that we’ve gotten our hands on the live patch, here is what we’ve found.

Let’s look at each change separately.

Tags: Advanced Class, Advanced Medical Probe, Aim, Alderaan, Ammo, Bioware, Combat Medic, Combat Support Cell, crit, EA, Electronic Arts, Field Aid, Field Training, Field Triage, Flashpoints, Gunnery, healing, Hutt Ball, Kolto Residue, Kolto-Bomb, LucasArts, Medical Probe, Novare Coast, Operations, Patch 1.2, Psych Aid, PvE, PvP, Republic Trooper, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Supercharge Cells, SWTOR, tank, TOR, Trauma Probe, Trooper, Voidstar, Warzones

The Rules of Engagement is the column that provides Republic Troopers with highly detailed intel on everything a Trooper needs to know to adapt and overcome on and off the battlefield.

For those new to the Trooper class, trying out a new advanced class, or just looking for more information on certain abilities, Republic Trooper is pleased to highlight a number of essential Trooper abilities, skills and the tactics for using them.

Today we focus on the Vanguard’s Gut ability, which can be obtained at level 20 in the Tactics tree.

Tags: Advanced Class, Ammo, Bioware, Blaster Augs, Combat Tactics, DoT, DPS, EA, Electronic Arts, Frontline Offense, Gut, LucasArts, Mike Kern, PvE, PvP, Republic Trooper, Serrated Blades, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Tactics, Taris, TOR, Trooper, Vanguard

The Rules of Engagement is the column that provides Republic Troopers with highly detailed intel on everything a Trooper needs to know to adapt and overcome on and off the battlefield.

Recently, there have been posts all over the official TOR forums about the inability to make money without using your crew skills to craft items for the Galactic Trade Network. It’s been said that if you don’t have Biochem, then making money is a pain. The GTN can be unpredictable. You list several items for what you would think is a good price but unless you dominate the market for that item, you are likely to be undercut. This can lead to credit loss in the long run.

Well, we’ve tracked how much money can potentially be made at doing space missions and a combination of Ilum and Belsavis Daily Missions. In contrast to the fluctuating GTN market, doing these missions each day is guaranteed money in your pocket.

Tags: Amanda Nelson, Belsavis, Bioware, Credits, Dailies, Daily Missions, EA, Electronic Arts, Galactic Trade Network, GTN, Ilum, LucasArts, space combat, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR