BioWare released a new SWTOR 6.1.1 PTS Update including a number of changes related to the ever-evolving and never-good-enough Conquest system as well as some tweaks and new features to the Master Mode of Nature of Progress Operation (aka the Dxun ops). Below you can see the full overview of what has been done and how to test it if you wish to!
The Weekend is here! But before most of their staff left the studio, BioWare’s SWTOR devs made sure to inform us of a new patch that has been deployed freshly onto the currently running Public Test Server.
PTS has been up all week and it offers you an early look at what is coming with update 6.1.1 – yet another Conquest update and the release of the Master Mode of the new Dxun Operation – Nature of Progress.
SWTOR 6.1.1 PTS Update and Notes from March 13, 2020
Community coordinator Daniel Steed posted the patch notes for the two changes that this PTS update introduces. Check them out below:
Dxun Operation NiM Changes
- Trample no longer deals damage if the bull is stunned.
- Festering Wound can no longer be reflected.
- Charging Bulls and their “Stampede!” effect now interact differently with crowd control:
- A stack of Fury now applies each time a bull is stunned or knocked down. Upon reaching 3 stacks become immune to stun and knockdown and increase damage dealt by 20% for 25s.
- Red – Venomous Stalkers:
- Toxic Cloud now applies its damage as a 10s DOT that ticks every 2s and stacks up to 5 times. Ticks on apply.
- Red – Hydrochloric Pool:
- Now applies its damage as a damage over time effect with a 6s duration which ticks every 3s. Does not tick on first application.
- Hydrochloric Pool tooltip now reads: Reduces outgoing damage, healing done, and defense against all types of damage by 95%. While this effect is active any protection against Red Venom is negated.
- Surging Flame now has the correct ability icon.
- Balance updates for Trandoshans:
- Reduced total damage being done to tanks.
- Inspirational Scream is no longer applying the start of the channel rather than the end and thus actually matters if interrupted.
- Titax should no longer consider launching a target >4m to be interrupting Titax Strike.
- Defeating the Trandoshans now unlocks the next encounter more reliably.
- Improved the lighting in the Containment Protocol encounter.
- There is now a console that can be used to skip Red and the Mutant Trandoshan encounters on PTS.
- The Holding Pens lockouts are now enabled. (There is still one thing missing from the final Control Room encounter, which will hopefully be present in the next refresh.)
- The Warden Droids at the end of the encounter have less total health.
- Balance update for The Huntmaster:
- The Venomous Flier’s Inhibitory Venom now lasts a few seconds longer on the Huntmaster.
Conquest Changes
- Conquests now have a minimum level of 10.
- This is to prevent overloading new players to the game with too many systems.
- Increased Conquest Points earned from Objectives.
- Currently not increased for Guild Perk Conquest Objectives.
- Increased Gear rewarded to the 10 – 49 bracket and 50 – 70 brackets to 3 equipment boxes.
- Increased credits rewarded from Conquests to 100k for all brackets.
- This will come as four 25k certificates.
- Added in new Weekly Objectives that when completed will unlock an infinitely repeatable objective of the same type.
- The infinitely repeatable objective will reward a smaller amount of Conquest points.
- These objectives vary based on the active Conquest.
- Rewards will not be locked at the start of the Conquest. Rewards will be calculated at the time a player reaches their Personal Conquest Goal.
Daniel states in his forum post that the developers are not yet happy with the Conquest as it is right now on PTS:
“We feel Conquest is still not at the point where we want players to experience it as it’s meant to be and are working to make more changes. I should have a mock Conquest week finalized and ready to be posted here next week. As more changes are made, I’ll be sure to keep this thread updated.”
This makes me wonder why would they push these changes out when they do not want to encourage players to test them in the state the system is in right now? They could have only introduced all of the Conquest changes into one PTS update next week and leave this Friday patch to be only for the Nature of Progress.
Well, the changes are in with this Friday’s SWTOR 6.1.1 PTS Update and I hope you have fun testing them!
What else is on PTS right now
BioWare is testing several other new things set to appear in SWTOR Game Update 6.1.1.
Last week, when PTS opened, only the first, second and fifth bosses of Dxun Operation were available for testing. The new Master Mode version is still under construction and if you are an end-game raider, you have a great opportunity to help the devs tweak this new challenge to utilize its potential as the next hardest thing in SWTOR that you need to overcome.
Armor Sets with unique new Set Bonuses are available at the moment. They are practically free and you can get them from the Odessen vendors for testing. This is a great opportunity for all parsing-fans to check out potential new builds and determine if and what advantages this or that swap would offer them.
The new sets are available for all classes, except for the Vanguard and Powertech. Theirs were released earlier – in update 6.0.1.
The new Set Bonuses are direct drop from the Master Mode of Dxun’s Operation. They have a small chance to drop randomly from the Spoils of War vendor and Kay Zikken’s boxes.
The new Operation mode is still in development, but BioWare plans to have each boss have an increased chance to drop a specific item from the new sets with the Bracers and Belts being randomized.
How to access SWTOR PTS
PTS is only accessible to players with an active SWTOR Subscription. In other words if you want to play the upcoming content and test the new features, you need to be a “premium player”.
PTS is a separate installation of the whole game. You can opt in to have it downloaded and installed with a small check in the settings of your game client.
I have a complete step-by-step guide on how to access SWTOR PTS. It will show you all steps of how to download and install it and even how to copy your characters from the live servers onto PTS.
- Log into your account with your username and password at www.swtor.com.
- Click on your account name in the top right-hand corner of the site.
- Click “My Account.”
- In the left column, scroll down and click the link entitled “PTS Character Copy.”
- Select the server and then the character that you wish to copy from.
- Click the “Copy Character” button.
- The site will display the current status of your character copy at the top of the page. Additionally, you can click the “View your character transfer history” link to see if the copy has completed.
- Please note that if PTS is offline, you won’t see the PTS Character Copy link.
Find out everything you need to know about SWTOR 6.1.1 from my collective preview article.
