BioWare brings important clarifications and new changes confirmations for Combat Styles restrictions, Guild Conquest and Outfits in SWTOR 7.0!
Note: The article was updated with additional information provided by design director Chris Schmidt, posted on the game’s forums a day after this article was initially published.
Combat Styles restrictions updates and clarifications
A while ago BioWare published a blog post under the title “Separating Story From Gameplay”. In it there was a statement that the devs plan to allow players to switch their primary combat style on existing characters.
Recently community manager JackieKo delivered an update and clarification to that statement.
Due to technical problems encountered during development, it turned out that allowing existing characters to select their first (also called “primary”) Combat Style when Legacy of the Sith launches, will be impossible.
This resulted in a semi-silent update to the above-mentioned article and a forum post from Jackie with some extra clarification to the case:
“We originally planned to allow players to switch their primary combat style with existing characters upon loading up 7.0, unfortunately we discovered some technical hurdles that will prevent us from supporting that. So upon login, existing characters will maintain their existing Advanced Class, which will be converted into their first Combat Style. And eligible players will still be free to choose their second Combat Style.”
For “eligible players” here the default translation would be “subscribers” (also called “premium players” by EA). I don’t remember BioWare announcing that there will be a token on the Cartel Market after 7.0 that will allow non-subscribers to add a second Combat Style, but it sounds very possible.
If you are a subscriber and drop your subscription status at some point after 7.0 launches, you will have only one Combat Style active and it will be the one you last used on the character before you logged off prior to the subscription expiring.
“your “second” Combat Style will become unusable including its Loadouts.” – Chris Schmidt clarified, and continued: “Note the quotations around the word second. If your subscription lapses, your useable Combat Style will be the one you last logged out on when the cancellation hits your account. This means that if you log out on your primary Combat Style, you will continue to be able to play with that one and its Loadouts. If you log out on your secondary Combat Style, you will continue to be able to play with that one and its Loadouts. Essentially, whichever Combat Style is active when your sub lapses is the one you will continue to use when you log back in.”
I have a dedicated Guide to Loadouts in SWTOR 7.0. There you will find everything you should know about this new system, released with Legacy of the Sith.
There is one important exception when it comes to the primary Combat Style on an existing character. If you are eligible for it, you will be able to select the mirror Combat Style to your current one right away with the release of 7.0.
What does it mean to be eligible? To be able to play a a Jedi Knight Guardian with the skill set of a Sith Juggernaut, for example, you will need to earn the appropriate Dark Side Alignment tier.
“To clear up some confusion we’re reading, Force users will be able to change their first Combat Style to its mirror if they meet the Light or Dark-side alignment requirements to do so. That has not changed.” – wrote Jackie on the forums.
Currently the requirement to be able to switch and play a mirror Force-centric Combat Style is to have reached respectively the Dark or Light Tier V alignment and have earned the appropriate Legacy Achievement.
As always, there’s an exclusion to the rule. For the launch of 7.0 BioWare wants to give as much freedom to players as they could.
“[…] if you are a Jedi Knight or Jedi Consular, and have at least 1 Dark Side point away from 0, you will be given this choice [to play your mirror Force Combat Style). Likewise, if you are a Sith Warrior or Sith Inquisitor, and have at least 1 Light Side point away from 0, you will be given this choice. This will be regardless of any Legacy unlocks or otherwise. Once that character is in the game, and the swap choice has been made or refused, the rules as described above will still apply.” – Chris wrote in his post.
Feeling confused? I bet even some of the BioWare devs and staff are confused with all of their weird restrictions and rules about swapping and accessing Combat Styles. But it’s all kind of realistic from a role-playing point of view.
Here is in short what you can and can’t do (keep in mind BioWare may change these rules as they please at a later point):
- To a brand new player, or a player who has not unlocked their Dark V/Light V achievements in their Legacy (Legacy of Sacrifice and Legacy of Unity), they are not presented with the option to choose an opposite-aligned Combat Style at character create nor when they unlock their second Combat Style, with one exception:If a player without these unlocks has been playing their character with opposite aligned morality, such as a Jedi Origin Story as a Dark Side character, or a Sith Origin Story as a Light Side character, they will receive the option to swap their current Combat Style to the opposite alignment equivalent upon completing their Act 3 story. In addition, when they are prompted to select their second Combat Style, they will have all Force Combat Styles available to them.
- Force Origin Story players who have already unlocked Light V/Dark V achievements will not see any restrictions, and all Combat Styles are available to them at both character create and when choosing their second Combat Style
We have covered how Combat Styles will work as explained by Chris Schmidt, design director for SWTOR. You can learn more from that article. We will also have a comprehensive guide on that topic shortly after the expansion launches and we have everything available in-game.
UPDATE: You can now read a thorough guide on Combat Styles and how to choose your second one.
What will happen to your Outfits when 7.0 launches
You may be aware that when you transfer server (and possibly in some other cases) your custom-created outfit designs may be lost on that character.
A player expressed their expectations on the forums that something like that might happen with the launch of 7.0 and Jackie was quick to bring clarity to the matter with another post:
“Confirming that no existing Outfitter designers will be lost with 7.0, so you will not need to remake them.”
I think there might be a typo in “Outfitter designers”. She most likely meant to say “outfit designs” or “Outfitter designs”. Anyway.
Unless you encounter a bug, your custom designs of unique outfits should remain available on your existing characters when the expansion launches.
7.0 changes to Gear Rewards while leveling up
The currently available gear that drops while you level up your character will stop dropping when 7.0 launches. This is because of the introduction to Combat Styles.
BioWare is making an attempt to reward players properly based on the new choices they will be making with their new characters post 7.0’s launch.
A new gear set will be created to best match the player’s choices of origin story and combat style.
“With the creation of Combat Styles, changes needed to be made to the gear rewarded during your Class Story to ensure players would always receive a useable item that matched the proper appearance. To solve this we’ve created a new set of leveling gear that uses an appearance based on your Origin Story. So if you are a Smuggler playing with a Sniper Combat Style, you will receive gear that fits Smuggler visuals. Gear appearances are unique per Origin Story and per Planet you visit. This new gear will be Bind on Pickup.” , Jackie explained.
The appearance of the old leveling gear will be used for new gear pieces that will be added with the expansion:
“[…]most, if not all of their appearances are going to be re-used for the new gear coming in 7.0. If there happens to be some that are not available, we would like to bring those back in the future.”, confirmed Jackie, and added “As a note, a future goal we would like to achieve is to add cosmetic versions of all Origin Story visuals to planetary vendors as Bind to Legacy items so players can have more freedom to customize themselves or their companions.”
There will surely be items that will not be available for one reason or another when the expansion launches. BioWare is already actively tracking these items and plans to add them as cosmetic options on existing planetary or reputation vendors. Or anywhere. As long as they are available again for players to earn or buy them.
“The team has been working to identify appearances that are no longer available to return as cosmetics. We appreciate players identifying any they know.”, Jackie wrote.
Guild Conquest vs Personal Conquest Points in 7.0
A while ago BioWare already announced that you will need to earn 100k Personal Conquest Points after 7.0 to be eligible for your weekly Personal Conquest reward bundle.
This will be valid for the very first Tuesday when the expansion launches. As soon as 7.0 goes live (unless they delay the release) you will need at least 100k Conquest Points to get your weekly reward. This means that you will have to work extra hard in the week leading up to the release of the expansion.
“[…]you will need to obtain 100k during the week leading up to 7.0 to be eligible for Guild rewards. As the points will be set to 100k when the expansion launches, that value is defined as current, so guilds will need 100k leading up to that Tuesday.”, Jackie wrote.
To be clear, this change is only for your Personal Weekly Goal. The Guild Conquest targets will not be changed.
“For additional clarification, Guild Conquest is not changing.”, said Jackie, and added that “It will not take Guilds more points to hit a small/medium/high yield planet. Those thresholds will remain the same.”
The Legacy of the Sith expansion is set to release on December 14th 2021. You’ve got still plenty of time to prepare for SWTOR 7.0 properly.
UPDATE: Bioware has delayed the release of SWTOR 7.0 Legacy of the Sith to February 15 2022.
