Character customization in SWTOR is also made possible through a concept called advanced classes. It is a specialization of your primary class into one of two paths.

Today at GamesCom 2010 the working titles of all 16 advanced classes were revealed. They are:

• Scoundrel (Stealth/Medicine; Burst ranged damage or healing)
• Gunslinger (Dual pistols, Quick draw, Ranged DPS)

• Sorcerer (Single saber; ranged damage class; Healing; Think of someone that just loves using lightning; Think Palpatine; They even heal with lighning (joke, but they do heal))
• Assassin (Double bladed light sabers, a lot of melee damage, When you think about the Assassin think about Darth Maul and Zabrak and tattoos. That’s the general vibe they are going for)

• Sentinel (dual saber (not double), melee DPS; Think young Anakin)
• Guardian (tank, party buffs, Think Obi Wan leading the attack with the troops

• Commando (ranged tank)
• Vanguard

• Operative (blaster rifle, burst ranged damage, stealth)
• Sniper (dps)

• Powertech
• Mercenary

• Shadow (double-bladed lightsaber)
• Wizard (healing; single lightsaber)

During our talk with James Ohlen, he said that they wanted to have 4 healing capable classes so that out of 16 available advanced classes, 25% can heal and when you translate that to a group of 4 there will always be one class capable of doing some heals. (If they spec for healing option of course)

Update: The full list and details of all the advanced classes has been released by Bioware and can be found in our news article here.

GamesCom 2010 hands on Swtor booth being built

Although we are in the middle of packing for GamesCom and the excitement is almost palpable we wanted to bring you this week’s community news, at least the short version.

Star Wars Celebration V convention has ended and TOR was present with two panels. Darth Hater had the best coverage of the events and has exclusive interviews with writers Drew Karpyshyn (talked about the Jedi Knight) and Hall Hood (talked about the Smuggler) and concept artist Clint Young (talks about the artsy stuff).

Jedi Knight update was very exciting, especially with the cool trailer video that was released as well. Our friends at Jedi Archive Online did a very good dissection of the video, which you can find here.

Tor Syndicate, which we will be joining shortly, has their PodCast no.2 up and they yet again manage to provide loads of good information for anyone considering to make a SWTOR fansite or guild site. As if that wasn’t enough, they have an interview with ex SWTOR community manager Erick Adams. You can listen to “The Revenge of Darth Meow Meow” if you visit this page.

The sweetest thing as last. There is another SWTOR fan webcomic being created. Outer Rim stories just posted their first panel up and it is exactly the same idea I had for our comic when I heard about the details on space combat (including the Emo Darth Vader “Nooooooo”). Go, check them out here.