Community Spotlight: Taugrim's MMO Blog

He knows his stuff, and he's happy to share it with you.

Welcome to another installment of a recurring feature on Thrown Gauntlet, the Community Spotlight. Each week I'll be looking at a site that supports the Star Wars: The Old Republic community, be it a blog, podcast, information database, or otherwise. My hope is to point people to other websites they may also enjoy and to bring the SW:TOR blogging community closer together. 

I debated holding off on spotlighting Taugrim's MMO Blog because, quite honestly, most SWTOR players (and MMO players, even) have at the very least heard of him. In the end, I figured that if there was a chance that I could introduce someone to his material, the post would be worth it.

Even (or perhaps especially) if you're new to PvP, you should check out his site. The information is valuable to both newcomers and veterans alike.

Taugrim exemplifies what is, for me, the spirit of community in PvP. I truly hope that this trend becomes the norm for the PvP community generally. He is trying to help those around him by informing them. He explains mechanics and answers questions from readers or those watching his stream. He promotes and encourages discussion about changes. He stays away from elitism and responds patiently to inquiries. In his own words:

That is what my Guides are all about: helping gamers raise their gameplay and learning from and with them in the process 

Basically, he's doing an immense service to the PvP community of whatever game he is involved in at the time.

His style is a far cry from many who PvP. We've all seen those other PvP videos - filled with 3 second snippets of massive crits set to overly-loud music. You know, the ones that don't teach you anything. Taugrim turns this formula on its head, normally streaming himself queuing for warzones alone, explaining what's happening as he plays, and answering questions between warzones. I always try to catch his stream when it's up, because I actually learn something about the class and spec he's playing.

In addition to his stream and explanatory videos, Taugrim maintains a series of guides for different PvP topics. These guides are always informative and well-researched, and you should check them out. He also often posts about design choices and recent PvP changes, which normally make for an excellent discussion.

On top of all of this, Taugrim still finds the time to co-host two different shows on Gamebreaker.tv.

So check him out! He has tons of great stuff, and I guarantee you'll learn something.


Have a website you think I should look at, or that you think should be in the spotlight? Let me know at throwngauntlet@gmail.com, or contact me on my Twitter account, @ThrownGauntlet. I'm always looking for new blogs, resources and fansites to review!

Georg Zoeller on Time To Kill (TTK) in PvP

You may have missed my previous post based on Taugrim's evaluation of the Patch 1.2 PvP changes. In it, I expressed (like Taugrim) that the recent changes to time to kill (or, TTK) in PvP were not positive. Since the patch, TTK has dropped quite substantially, which I feared might represent a shift away from Bioware's previous design philosophy of longer, tactical battles instead of the extremely bursty PvP in other MMOs.

It seems that my fears may have been misplaced. A post by Georg Zoeller on the official forums on Friday has clarified that they are aware that TTK is lower than intended and that they are monitoring the situation, though no changes besides the Tracer Missile/Grav Round bug fix were confirmed. 

He also explains that some of the TTK is caused by expertise disparity, since expertise has intentionally been buffed to be the single most important PvP stat. While I agree that expertise should be incredibly important for PvP to dissuade people from using PvE gear, I am afraid of the stat inflation this could cause. Ultimately though, Bioware has shown that they are not afraid to rebalance ratings in order to make the game work better, so I remain cautiously optimistic.

It also comforts me greatly that they have acknowledged that there is an issue, though their explanation is fairly vague beyond the expertise mention. Georg notes that "stacking debuffs are creating a real TTK issue", but there's no real example of what debuffs are stacking, whether or not this is a bug, and how exactly one could fix this if it isn't a bug.

At least we didn't get a confirmation that design goals had shifted and they were aiming for lower TTK - that really would have broken my resolve (see what I did there?). In all seriousness, this is reassuring news.

I've included the post below for your convenience; you can click to enlarge.

My Reaction to Taugrim's View of Patch 1.2 PvP Changes

If you don't already check out Taugrim's stuff, I highly recommend you do. He has an made an extremely insightful post that I think is pretty much spot on regarding class balance in PvP in 1.2.

While I think the rest of Patch 1.2 is overwhelmingly positive, the class balance changes worry me. As pointed out by Taugrim, the "Time to Kill" (or TTK) has dropped substantially since the patch. The combination of healer nerfs, Sentinel/Marauder buffs (an extremely popular class now) and changes to Resilience and how it affects healing are, in my opinion, the likely culprits. Here's my comment over on Taugrim's blog:

I agree pretty much across the board. Time to kill is significantly shorter and it has a seriously negative impact on classes that aim to protect or heal others. I am still shocked that Sentinels/Marauders were buffed, and I wonder idly if the buffs to them are not partially responsible for the dramatic reduction in TTK. 

I can’t see how Bioware will let this stand, though, as it runs counter to what they had stated as their PvP goals before release. Unless, of course, those goals have changed.

I honestly do hope that Bioware re-evaluates these changes, but only time will tell. It would definitely be nice to know if they've decided to go in a different direction with PvP, though I seriously hope this isn't the case.

How are you finding PvP and, specfically, TTK in Patch 1.2?