SWTOR 5.10a Patch Notes, New Loading Screen Revealed, New Ops Boss Added to PTS

BioWare brings SWTOR Patch 5.10a today to fix some of the most frustrating bugs from the Ossus update. Meanwhile the new Ossus Boss was released to PTS

The annoying bug where you were unable to continue the Ossus storyline in some cases should now be fixed. The two world bosses on Ossus, part of the Flesh and Steel mission, should now properly award you for defeating them.

The “random” weekly mission that grants you a Masterwork Data Crystal will now be accessible every day of the week, meaning that you don’t have to go pick it up only on Tuesday before it disappears. This mission is different each week and can have a PvP or PvE objective for you to complete if you want your reward.

The issue with Dark Side Jaesa’s Alliance Alert appearing for players, who have the Light Side Jaesa version, is apparently fixed as well.

Here are the patch notes that the community manager Eric Musco shared in a forum post:

• It is no longer possible for characters to be left with no Main Story Mission after completing “Inflection Point”.
• “Flesh and Steel” will now track kill progress for the entire Operations group on R8-X8 and Kil’Cik as intended.
• Characters who reunite with Dark Side Jaesa will no longer have her Influence set to 1. Dark Side Jaesa will once again accept your Companion Gifts.
• Characters who acquired Dark Side Jaesa prior to 5.10a have had her Influence rating restored to their pre-5.10 values.
• Characters who reunite with Light Side Jaesa on Ossus will no longer receive the Dark Side Jaesa Alliance Alert.
• The lightsabers equipped to Darth Malgus and Tau Idair along with the Blaster Rifle equipped to Major Anri are now Bind on Pickup as intended (were Bind on Equip).
• The [Weekly] Masterwork Data Crystal is now available on all days of the week, not just Tuesday.
• The Guild Perk “Professional Training” now grants a 5% critical rate for Crew Skills as intended.
• Players will no longer see odd and in some cases blocking behavior, such as doors improperly locking, in Flashpoint and Operation encounters.

This is the full list, according to Musco’s post. He also adds:

Just to reiterate, we know there are some other remaining issues following 5.10. We will continue to address those issues in future updates. Stay tuned for more info on those as we get into 2019.

This is the final update to the game for 2018. The devs are perfectly aware that this short list doesn’t cover all problems the players have noticed and experinced since last week’s patch. More will be coming in early 2019.

There’s still no news when the next “major” update will be and the game director Keith Kanneg has been very quiet on the SWTOR Roadmap front as well. We do know, however, that 5.10.1 is coming next and it will bring not only the new Ossus One-Boss Raid, but also a redesigned Loading Screen, that includes my personal favorite villain in SWTOR – Darth Malgus, who has finally returned for Jedi Under Siege.

A new short teaser trailer was also released today – “Return of Darth Malgus”. You can watch it below.

If you happen to have done everything in just one week and are already bored, BioWare has a new lair boss for you to check out on the Public Test Server – the Hive of the Mountain Queen.. Keep in mind that to play there, you first need to install pretty much the whole game again as PTS is a separate feature. Also you need to be an active subscriber to be able to log in there.

The new boss should provide the main and off-hands from the new Tier 5 Masterwork Gear. The two items were missing from the Ossus Reputation Gear vendors. 

We will see the Hive Queen released to the live servers with Update 5.10.1 most likely. For now, you can go check it out on PTS. Operations Designed at BioWare Austin Matt Pucevich promises that most of the content is in a final-enough stage. The Mutated Geonosian Queen is at the end of the cave. Before that you will have several other small and giant geonosians to defeat – usual trash.

The boss encounter itself (Mutated Geonosian Queen) is mechanics complete and balanced. Final aesthetic tweaking of FX is still ongoing, but art and animations should be most of the way there, so it’s pretty much all fair game for feedback. 

The Hive of the Mountain Queen environment is likewise largely finished (and I, for one, think it looks pretty amazing), so that’s all fair game too.

Non-boss encounters are still a work in progress. This includes the placement of encounters, the size and types of enemies present, the abilities those enemies are using. Take what you see there with a grain of salt. Feel free to give feedback on what’s there, but don’t be surprised if you find some jankiness there. 

I don’t know if it’s just me, but the giant bugs remind of the the big creatures from the Dread Palace trash mobs in the corridors leading up to the fourth and fifth bosses. Maybe it’s just me :)

Currently on PTS you can access the lair via the ghostly stairs on the Odessen platform, where all the cool free stuff is also awaiting for you to pick it up – vendors will offer you free gear, augments, stims and more there for you to be able to properly test the encounter.

You have two options – create a new character and boost it to level 70 or copy an existing one of yours from a live server over to PTS.

SWTOR PTS: How to Create and Boost a Character

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Quick guide to help you create a new character, boost it to 70 and gear it up for testing on the SWTOR PTS.

Instructions

1. Create a new Character.
2. On your origin world, near where your character starts, you should find a "Level Booster" terminal, and an "Odessen Teleporter" terminal.
3. Click on the "Level Booster" terminal to set your character to level 70, and receive 500,000 credits (you can continue clicking the Level Booster terminal repeatedly to receive an additional 500,000 credits per click).
4. When you have as many credits as you'd like, click the "Odessen Teleporter" terminal to be moved to the Odessen landing area.
5. Gear your character with the various PTS vendors located at the Odessen Landing. The following vendors are available in this first refresh:

• Tier 4 Artifact Gear (248)
• Tier 4 Artifact Components (248 Mods / Enhancements / Crystals / Barrels / Hilts)
• Tier 5 Artifact Gear (258)
• Tier 5 Artifact Components (258 Mods / Enhancements / Crystals / Barrels / Hilts)
• Augments (228/236/240) and Kits (Mk10)

This is it. Walk into the phase gate at the end of the Lightbridge to Nowhere at the Odessen Landing to enter the New Operation Testing Instance

Notes

Keep in mind, to be able to access the Public Test Server, you need to first install it (basically installing the game a second time on your drive. You also need an active subscription to the game. The PTS is not available to F2P or Preferred players currently.