Eternity Vault - 8 man - 4/5 Hard Mode

This past weekend our intrepid guildies tackled the Eternity Vault and nailed all but the last boss, Soa.  And not even a full guild run.  This puts us on par with the other top guilds on the server who are also 4/5 Hard Mode, but much, much larger guilds.  

• Annihilation Droid XRR-3 - 1 wipe, but nailed it on 2nd attempt
• Gharj - 1st attempt
• Ancient Pylons - 1st attempt - no screenie, would be just a boring box pic
• Infernal Council - 1st attempt - no screenie, would just a boring box pic
• Soa - Still in progress

Here's the screenies (which can also be found in our Gallery)

We can't wait until we get all our team slots filled and run with a 100% guild group.  Nightmare modes are coming soon!

We have immediate openings in EX VOTOS for the following:

• Sage Healer

• Commando DPS

• Gunslinger DPS

If interested, check out our recruitment message for more information and how to apply.

Now that some of our members have hit 50, we're starting to tackle some endgame content including Hard mode Flash Points, Operations, and of course, PVP.  We've got our first clear of Eternity Vault down on 8 man Normal for now - 16 mans and Hard modes ramping up as soon as we get enough members at level 50.  Then it's on our way to Nightmare.  In the meantime, we tackle anything we can get our hands on.

Be sure to check out this and a couple other pics in our Gallery which is also LIVE now and on the menu above as well.

EX VOTOS the website is now over 1 year old.  The idea for the SWTOR guild started back in pre-Lich King days of Wrath of the Lich King.  The idea for a SWTOR theorycrafting website started back in November 2010 before we even knew what the SWTOR MMORPG really entailed aside from some meager convention footage.  The website itself went online for the first time December 24, 2010 as a holiday present to myself and my future guildies.  What a long, crazy trip it has been over the last year.

YEAR IN REVIEW

Early Days

The early days of the SWTOR community  were lead initially by Darth Hater's team and they were soon joined by the then unknown TORWars who seemed to explode in popularity after being featured by the SWTOR official site in the earlier part of 2011.  When we first joined the TOR Syndicate back in February, we were either member #39 or #40 of their coalition of SWTOR fansites.

Now, Darth Hater is part of the Curse network, TORWars is huge, and TOR Syndicate has a ridiculous number of fansites now, to the point they have trouble tracking and updating them all.  You can view them all here for a current list of their member sites.  We also saw an explosion of SWTOR podcasts.  Many grew in popularity.  A few died due to difficulties along the way and some changed hosts.  A few talented and fortunate fansite members joined the Bioware dev team.  It was and still is truly amazing how vast and extensive the community for the game was long before it even launched.

News and Theorycrafting

Since there wasn't really much to theorycraft on in the earlier days up to March 2011, I decided that since I was already following the game to toss up some news articles and post my take on SWTOR news and what they revealed each week.  I really had a blast doing it, but it was very time intensive and with the game nearing launch, I decided after 6 months or so of doing up the news and writing to give the news a rest and leave it to the real news fansites and let me focus on just running the website, forums, and our guild.  Doing all at once was a bit challenging.

Website Makeovers

As I was spending 6 days a week on the website as the website's coder, designer, writer, forum administrator, and guild leader, I saw areas I wanted to improve on or change as we grew.  We changed our look and format 5 times over the last year.  We started as a basic HTML website with forums then transitioned to a PHP website that pulled news articles off of forum posts.  Next, we transitioned to Joomla since it made posting new articles and news so much easier.  Our fourth coming was more of a revision and fine tuning to a simpler website.  The website was always a dual design - main site and forums site that were designed to appear as all part of the same site.  Initially this was doubly complicated as I had a feature that switched the theme from a Republic look (blue) to an Empire look (red).  This effectively made giving the website a makeover the equivalent of doing up 4 websites.  I can also add that I have realized the design and fine tuning of PHPBB3 themes are my least favorite of things to work on.  WIth our last theme change, I went for a kind of retro SWTOR look.  Hopefully, I won't get the urge to redo it again soon, but you never know.

Release Date and Oceanic Struggles

Site aside, we saw the game get pushed back from Spring 2011/Q1-Q2 2011 to 2nd Half 2011 to Holiday 2011 to finally a release date set on December 20th, 2011.  For Oceanics, we have had the craziest rollercoaster ride.  Oceanic guilds often have members from many countries in the Oceanic region (around Australia) which often include North American members from the US and Canada also.  We saw the complete lack of support for Oceanic guilds from the get go.  We had to pick US West or US East as a geographic server location.  There were no Oceanic servers as in World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs.  Why not?  Oceanics speak English, too.  When they announced the game was able to be pre-ordered, Oceanics got hit again.  They could not purchase the game through Australian or Oceanic retailers and had to go out of country to purchase the game.  They had to find more devious ways to purchase the game.  Even now with the game out, some members recieved the game on different dates due the various paths each had to pursue to get a copy of the game.  After launch, we finally hear that Oceanics will get their own servers and their own launch.  Having local (not in North America) servers is a key complaint you hear often from Oceanic MMORPG players.  Some players have had such horrific experiences due to lag and latency that they refuse to play any MMORPG that doesn't have local servers.  Understandable when you consider they are often connecting across the Pacific  (or farther) thousands of miles and back to send and receive data from the servers.  So it took most of a year to get this answer that all Oceanics pretty much desired with a passion.  Adding this onto the woes already of having guild members getting into game on staggered dates post-launch, now you add in there's a 'second' launch for Oceanics.  Oceanic guilds firmly established on US West servers (since EU and US East servers would have higher latency) will have to make the decision to either stay put with the characters they have (most likely already 50) or start all over on the 'new' Oceanic servers.  Again, we can only hope that Bioware does the right thing for Oceanics once they do the official Oceanic launch for SWTOR and offer free server transfers for guilds and characters to make reparations with the avid Oceanic SWTOR community whose hearts have been crushed several times over the past year.

LOOKING FORWARD

THE GUILD

We are still growing and already have guild members at 50 and eager to get full on raiding and PVP going.  We currently have members in Canada, US, New Zealand, and Australia with the bulk of our membership being Australian so far.  We're starting to fill up slots for our first 2 teams which both focus on endgame PVP and Nightmare mode Operations.  If you're interested in seeing what we're about, check out 'JOIN US' on the menu above.  We might be looking for you!  It is also very possible that we expand to 5 teams of 24 members ultimately.

THEORYCRAFTING COMMUNITY

Our forums have over 75 members at this time and still growing.  We need more serious contributors to really take off.  We only have a few right now, but with another 10 members or so avidly working on topics, the site could take on a whole new level.  We are looking for your help to get there.  You can help by joining our forums.  No, you don't have to be Oceanic to join our forums.  Just some master of the English language.  If you're serious about contributing or helping out, we can certainly use that, too.  What we can really use is help with getting guides rolling for each build and it's opposite faction mirror build.  In the interest of keeping things simpler, we're shooting for 20 guides - 1 for each combined guide.  Here's the guides we're looking for help in getting rolling if you want to help out with a favorite class:

• *Balance - Madness
• *Dirty Fighting - Lethality
• *Assault Specialist - Pyrotech
• *Focus - Rage
• Shield Specialist - Shield Tech
• Tactics - Advanced Prototype
• Gunnery - Arsenal
• Defense - Immortal
• Vigilance - Vengeance
• Combat - Carnage
• Watchman - Annihilation
• Scrapper - Concealment
• Sawbones - Medicine
• Saboteur - Engineering
• Sharpshooter - Marksmanship
• Seer - Corruption
• Telekinetics - Lightning
• Infiltration - Deception
• Kinetic Combat - Darkness
• Combat Medic - Bodyguard

* are the shared trees and their mirrors which would include 2 advanced classes of each faction

We need regular posters who don't mind giving feedback as well as more serious and dedicated contributors for theorycrafting.  We also will need more forum moderators.  Don't like something?  Think something could be redone in a better way?  Should something be updated or changed?  These kinds of things help the site to grow and only require a helpful post even if you think it's something we wouldn't want to hear.  We want to hear from you.  You don't need to hold back, - just don't be a tool for the sake of being a tool.  We can only promise the same in return for your posts and feedback.

We also have a voicechat server on Raidcall.  Raidcall is just a program similar to Ventrilo or Teamspeak.  We are server # 315061 if you want a spot to hang out and chat about theorycrafting.  We are looking at switching to a Teamspeak server at some point.

Join us!  Help us grow!

TO THE FANS

Over the last year, we've had all kinds of feedback, support, and visits from folks all around the globe.  Over 69 countries have visited our site since our debut.  I like to thank anyone who given us feedback, support, email, joined our forums, or spread the word.  I am also thankful for those who read and kept posting about my post 'The 13th Warrior' which reviewed my Comic Con 2011 experiences in SWTOR PVP and the Esseles Flash Point.  I had no idea it would be that well received.

So to you all, I say thanks for the support!

THE WEBSITE AND PODCAST

Where will the website go in the future?  Who knows?  One thing is certain, it is ready to grow with the guild and our theorycrafting community.  Our members are still looking to get a podcast up and running.  A little something more in the hardcore raiding and PVP area than the other podcasts seem to be doing.  Maybe some other members of the hardcore community wouldn't mind helping out.  Let us know.  I think it would be a great project to get going.

...AND TO YOU

To you all reading my trist down memory lane, I wish a great year of killing each other in PVP, pulling aggro, tackling Nightmare challenges in Operations, and epic gaming moments.  Don't stand in the fire!  Thanks for the read!  Spread the word!

EX VOTOS the website is now over 1 year old. linbsp;A little something more in the hardcore raiding and PVP area than the other podcasts seem to be doing.

Website Update

Now that the beta is over, early access is on, and the game's launch is right around the corner, we went ahead and took down the older and outdated news and articles on our site.    We also removed the corresponding items from the menu and up top as well.  Less clutter, more taste.

The Unofficial Oceanic Servers

If you're Oceanic and trying to figure out what server to play on for PVP, come to The Swiftsure server (US West).  This server was chosen by the Oceanic PVP guild community in an effort to get all the Oceanic guilds involved on the same server.  

The same effort was being made for PVE and they chose Harbinger (US West) as the unofficial PVE server for Oceanics.  You can read more on those here for PVP and PVE from TOROZ.com.au who put up some articles on the matter.

Theorycrafters, We Want You!

We are in the process of getting guides up for the various builds in SWTOR.  We're seeing what they can do and what we can expect now that things are more or less finalized for launch.  We invite you to join our forums and help out.  There's a whole world of SWTOR information, formulas, data, and so on ready to explore.  We need more motivated folks to help get the rest of the guides online.  We'll also need feedback and help picking things apart as well.  If you're interested in theorycrafting for SWTOR, figuring out mechanics and formulas, min/maxing classes, or doing up class guides, sign up on our forums.

EX VOTOS Guild Is Recruiting!

In addition to looking for theorycrafters, we are also looking for more exceptional guild members.  The EX VOTOS guild is an Oceanic, Republic-faction guild that focuses on endgame PVP and Raiding.  We're looking to fill spots on 2 raiding/PVP teams.  Be sure to check out our recruitment page for more information on that.  We might be looking for you!

SWTOR Early Access Has Started!

For those living under a rock, Early Access for SWTOR has started as of yesterday and continues up to the December 20th launch date.  So camp your email box for the email from Bioware if you pre-ordered.  It should be coming at some point if it hasn't already.  

December 20th - SWTOR Launch Date

The game comes out in stores December 20th.  Good luck finding a copy.  May the Force be with you.  We'll see you in game!

It looks like the Oceanic guilds from the Oceanic Daisy Chain started by Insurgence will all be moving to:

the Swiftsure server

This was decided after seeing where the majority of guilds were so far and server population.  So pack your bags, it's going to be a bumpy ride.  Help spread the word for Oceanic guilds.  We'll see you there - with lightsabers!