BioWare Opens up SWTOR 6.0 Onslaught PTS

BioWare finally launched the Public Test Server for Star Wars: The Old Republic’s upcoming digital expansion Onslaught, also known as Game Update 6.0. This is the first real hands-on testing phase and it only allows you to check out the Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor classes. The promised participation rewards will be included in Phase 2. We’ve still got a lot to cover, so let’s begin!

BioWare has started the real hands-on testing phase with the launch of their Public Test Server. If you want to know how to get on it, I have a useful guide that will help you. The server allows only active subscribers to participate in the testing phase.

Once you have PTS installed and ready, you can create a new Warrior or Inquisitor character, bring it out of the starter conversation and use the newly placed terminal “travel to Odessen” just outside of the instance. This will also bring you to level 75 and put a ton of credits in your pockets. On the landing platform of Odessen you will find several new vendors, offering equipment, set bonus gear and tactical items.

WHAT’S ON PTS RIGHT NOW, IN PHASE 1

Currently there isn’t much for you to test. Bounty Hunters, Imperial Agents and the Republic mirror versions are not currently present with their new Spoils of War features and changes. Also it’s important to note that for this specific phase character copy is disabled. This is intentional. BioWare wants you to help check out the two classes available with the new gear and items from the vendors, not play your own existing classes.

“Balance is nowhere near final and so we are not driving you to play anything specific. Feel free to play solo content, hit up training dummies, or try to coordinate group content with your friends and guildies. In future phases when we start testing loot drops and balance, we will setup scheduled play times for group content.”

Even for these two main classes and their advanced classes there are a lot of things that are not finished or simply visible as placeholders:

New tooltips have been implemented, but they are still a work in progress.
All of the Onslaught gear is using existing armor appearances, that is likely to change.
Amplifiers are not implemented. If you see them appear anywhere expect that it is fully placeholder and not implemented.
Tactical item slots appearance in the character sheet is temporary.
Crafting inventory and crew skills are not yet ready for testing.
The spoils of war style of loot drops are not yet implemented, that will be a major focus of a future PTS phase.
Nautolans are not implemented but you will see a section for them in character creation.
None of the new areas or storyline should be accessible during PTS.

A few weeks ago BioWare began talking about the planned changes and published several forum posts detailing the Warrior and Inquisitor’s new gear sets, items and other Spoils of War changes. I have them listed for your convenience below, if you need to go over them again (or for the first time):

The four classes have each a new ability, which is included in this PTS build:

Volt Rush (Sorcerers) – Deals energy damage to your target and energizes you for up to 5 seconds. The Energize effect can stack twice, with each stack increasing Volt Rush damage by 30%. The ability has 3 charges and a recharge timer of 10 seconds.
Severing Slash (Assassins) – Strikes targets in a cone, dealing weapon damage and slowing their movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. 12 second cooldown.
Furious Focus (Marauder & Juggernaut) – Furious Focus has 4 ability charges and recharges every 30 seconds. Activating Furious Focus consumes all charges causing your next attacks to do 25% additional damage. Ex: If you consume 3 charges, your next 3 attacks do 25% increased damage.

WHAT BIOWARE NEEDS OF YOU AS A TESTER

It’s important to remember that nothing on PTS is final and some content may be incomplete or downright broken. It’s normal for such an environment. Nothing is yet properly balanced. Actually, this is what PTS is here for – for players to help the devs shape things up and bring it to its proper limits.

Currently BioWare is asking for the following feedback:

How do the Set Bonuses look and feel while playing?
How do the Tactical Items look and feel while playing?
How easy or hard is it to understand what certain Set Bonuses, Tactical Items, or Amplifiers do?
Which Set Bonuses, Tactical Items, or Amplifiers seem underpowered or overpowered, and why?

KNOWN ISSUES

There are a few known issues already listed by the devs, so reporting those would not be very useful to them. Here’s the list:

Cooldown reduction is not showing correctly in the UI. It is still working.
Tactical items can currently gain Augment slots, this is not intended.
Expect to see some typos or incorrect ability references.
A number of tactical items may function differently than is noted in their tooltip, please report any of these issues in the PTS bug report forum.
The following tactical items currently do not function, this will be addressed in a future PTS patch:
- Higher Focus
- Undying Cloak
- Hidden Power
- Awakened Flame
Aggro radius is larger than intended

WHAT PARTICIPATION REWARDS WILL BE AVAILABLE

The participation rewards that have been teased are coming, but not yet. They will be part of Phase 2 of Onslaught PTS. Right now you are simply encouraged to log in and take a look, parse on the dummy or run through any group or solo content you wish.

“Back by popular demand, we are happy to announce the return of PTS rewards! However, not every round of PTS will track progress towards these rewards, so keep your eyes peeled for more PTS blogs in the future. This first round of PTS will not have a reward associated with it. Once we start the second round however, there will be a new PTS-only Achievement that will require you to complete five in-game group activities. When we get into the third round, we will then have a similar PTS-only Achievement of completing 10 in-game group activities.”

All rewards will be granted with or shortly after the launch of Onslaught. Completing the achievements will earn you the following:

One of the two Achievements – The Strike Team Specialist and Strike Team Commander character Titles.
Both Achievements – A new and very unique mount that will be revealed in a future PTS article.

WHAT IS COMING NEXT TO THE SWTOR ONSLAUGHT PTS

For the first round only the Warrior and Inquisitor are available. The rest of the classes will become available later on. There will be frequent updates and multiple rounds of PTS with possible character wipes in between.

Focus test sessions will ask of you to participate in certain activities to help the devs test new features or class balance. Some PTS rounds will allow character copying, others wont. The first one does not, as I explained above.

The test server may not be online 24/7 and it may not behave in a stable way always. You should expect crashes, glitches and unfinished, non-textured or weird looking things.

BioWare plans to inform us all at the beginning of a new phase with a blog post and a forum announcement. I will keep you up to date with everything that is happening on PTS and when new things become available. Check back often or sign up to get a notification when a new posts are published on VULKK.com.

Onslaught is expected to launch some time in September as the first announcement revealed. However, looking at where things are now, how much is available on PTS and the fact that it is nearly August now, I have some doubts that we will see Onslaught in seven to ten weeks, as the original statement claimed. In fact, some of you may remember how 6.0 was confirmed way back in January of 2018.

THE JULY 23 LIVE STREAM RECAP

As the devs said in the very beginning of this dev stream, it is a mirror stream to what was announced, revealed and explained during the San Diego Comic Con event. You can watch the full stream here. I have an article detailing all new information and the reveals from that event.