My First 1.2 Moments

I swear, 1.2 feels like I'm a kid on Christmas, with more to do that I really have time to cover.

Crafting changes
Like every hoarder out there, I re'd everything I'd stockpiled and started going on all my 340 mission discoveries. Turns out that the 340 slicing missions definitely give the purple mats to craft the new augments, so I'm glad I still have a stockpile of those.

So far, I've crit on one of the 340s - this gave me two augment patterns. My one crit on an abundant materials gathering mission has also given an augment pattern.  (You just know I'll be tracking this, right...)

UI Customization

Dulfy (who else?) has a fantastic guide to the UI customization settings. I hopped over to SithWarrior, browsed through their gallery of UI edits until I found a few I liked - or that I felt I could edit into a place where I'd use them.

I then copied the file XML files over to the GUI Profiles folder:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor\settings\GUIProfiles

Where username is the name of my profile in Windows. NOTE:  the 'AppData' folder is hidden by default - you can either change that (see Dulfy's guide), or just change the 'USERNAME' part of the directory above, and paste that into the Folders window.

The Wonders of Toys!

Next up: I opened the legacy window (see the shield on the Menu bar), browsed over to the 'other' options, and went on a spending spree.

The Astromech droid sells some pretty awesome sensors to upgrade the ship droid's crafting (100k each)

• +5 scav efficiency / + 5 cybertech crit
• +5 arch efficiency / +5 synthweaving crit
• +10 inv efficiency / +2 armstech crit
• +10 biochem efficiency / +2 diplomacy crit
• +10 artifice efficiency / +2 treasure crit
• +10 armor efficiency / +2 underworld crit

The +5 crit options are pretty excellent - since they're percent bonuses - they grant a droid with 0 affection a crit rate equal to a companion with 10k affection and no bonus. (So the +2 crit options aren't worth it until the droid gets some more affection, if you've got a companion with 10k).

The rocket boots are completely worth it!  They last ages, work inside instances (well, BT at least), and are a really fun boost to movement. Downside: they dismiss the companion until the effect ends, which feels odd.

About that droid affection...
Before 1.2, I'd just as soon launch the droid into space as look at it.  But muzzled and with a bonus, we're chill now. On my female Inquisitor and Trooper, these were the results of giving gifts to the ship droid:

	Courting	Cultural	Imperial	Luxury	Military	Republic	Technology	Trophy	Underworld	Weapon
2V-R8	-	Love	Like	Like	-	-	Favorite	-	-	-
C2-N2	-	Love	-	Like	-	Like	Favorite	-	-	-

I went ahead and max'd one of my droids

I took a quick trip to the legacy vendors.
The Imperial legacy vendor is just outside the Craft and Trade Market on Dromund Kaas. (I hear the Republic one is on Coruscant in the Senate Commercial District.)  I grabbed the moddable belt and bracers for a heavy-armor alt.

Respec time!
Fortunately, I like shooting lightning bolts into faces, so I'm an sorc, and Kor has an amazing update of DPS specs for sorcs (and sages, our pebble-shooting brethren) in 1.2. I opted to go with the 1/12/28 spec... even though I'm certain the double-dip mechanic will be nerfed to the ground in the next week.

Custom Gear Time!

Sure, the set bonus stays with the shell on pre-1.2 gear sets. But - at most - I only need a 4-set bonus, so I crit-crafted a chest for myself on my synthweaver, and then used 'unify to chest' to get a lovely dark-lord look. I'll do some testing later on to see if its worthwhile to ditch the lackluster 4-set bonus in favor of some stats.

Combat log time!
Speaking of testing... there are a host of combat log parsing tools developed by the community. I ended up going with the Memories of Xendor parser (since it works as a desktop parser). SCLR looks solid, but had file permissions issues with my computer. I'll definitely be replicating Zoopercat's analysis of their accuracy later this week.

That was my afternoon in 1.2.
Completely awesome, a ton of fun, and some great inspiration to get back into the game for more than just a handful of endgame options.  Totally excited for my next round of play.