SWTOR has a bunch of character customizations coming to the Cartel Market in 7.6. They suggest some significant possibilities and have helped uncover a mistake made all the way back in 6.1.
Table of contents
- Fearless Buccaneer Weapon Series
- Hairstyles
- Dyes
- Mysterious Rogue Armor Set
Fearless Buccaneer Weapon Series
The Fearless Buccaneer weapon series adds both a vibrosword and a vibrotwinsword to the usual stable of 6 weapon types. In my opinion, the set is downright gorgeous and blows the (Replica) Swashbuckler series from the PvP Seasons vendor out of the water.
While it’s absolutely possible that this is just a one-off because the whole series is pirate-themed and pirates wouldn’t have access to lightsabers, I think there might be greater implications.
All the way back during the 7.0 Announcement Livestream, one of the devs acknowledged that decoupling origin stories from combat styles would make it much easier to add a new combat style. After all, they wouldn’t need to come up with so much story content or offer a faction mirror.
To be clear, they never officially confirmed that a new combat style was in the works and still have not done so.
HOWEVER, if I were a betting man, I’d say the most likely additional combat style is a Tech melee class that can wield vibroswords as it’s by far and the largest gap in the existing spread of combat style. It’s an exceedingly common enemy NPCs class and is featured heavily in current popular Star Wars media like The Mandalorian.
Right now, if you want to wield the Darksaber or Ceremonial Beskar Spear as someone like Din Djarin or Morgan Elsbeth, you are Forced to play either a Juggernaut | Guardian or Assassin | Shadow, which are Force melee classes.
While you can make them look accurate outside of combat by equipping an “Inspired byTM” set, very few animations line up well in actual combat, and the game is less fun if you restrict yourself to only the lore-appropriate abilities.
So where does the Fearless Buccaneer series fit into this?
I’m glad you asked! Everybody knows that the true endgame content in SWTOR is Space Barbie, but SWTOR doesn’t have very many vibroswords compared to lightsabers. Just in Collections alone, there are 2-3x more lightsabers and dualsabers than vibro(twin)swords, and practically none exist as Reputation or Seasons rewards.
If they’re planning on releasing a new Tech melee combat style, need to pump those Wookiee numbers up, and that doesn’t happen overnight.
They would only ever release a new combat style alongside an expansion, and it would be wise to begin quietly adding more and more vibroweapons over time so that players have a proper array of options to consider when such a combat style may or may not arrive.
Of course, this is pure speculation on my part. Either way, Broadsword isgoing to have a mutiny on their hands if they don’t try to sell the entire Fearless Buccaneer weapon series together as a “Pieces of Eight” Bundle.
Hairstyles
There are a few new hairstyles coming with 7.6. Namely, Half Long/Short, Braidhawk, and the Long hairstyle as seen on the Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival vendor. They did not specify species restrictions for these hairstyles.
Braidhawk
The Braidhawk is inspired by somebody’s hairstyle in Skeleton Crew! It might be a space horse.
Half Long/Short Cut
The Half Long/Short Cut is inspired by somebody’s hairstyle in Skeleton Crew!
Brad pointed out that there’s a deliberate slight shift in the hair color at the front of the long side.
The Vel
This long-requested hairstyle removes the front curl from the existing “Victory Loop” style and will be available for free to all players. They call it the Long hairstyle, but the Spring Event Vendor is meant to look like Vel Sartha (Momma Mothma’s cousin from Andor), so I’m declaring this the Vel cut.
Dyes
They are introducing several new dyes for 7.6 including a pair of Chrome White and Metallic Gray dyes, and the other being Havoc Squad colors. Dyes are also 50% off for the foreseeable future.
Chrome White and Metallic Gray
The Chrome White and Metallic Gray dyes are shown below on the Tythian Disciple armor set.
Havoc Squad Dye and Ornate Life Day Robes
You can already match the paint colors of Havoc Squad with the White and Deep Red Dye Module on the Security Key Vendor, but these new ones will be shiny. Pictured below are the new Ornate Life Day Robes both in their undyed form and colored with the Havoc Squad dye.
These robes are effectively a reforged version of the original Life Day Robes and will be the new reward for the Life Day this year. We don’t yet know whether the Havoc Squad Dye will be on the Cartel Market or if it has an inverted version.
Indefinite Dye Sale
The devs also noted that they plan to make significant changes to the Dye system and want to hear what you want to be improved. In the meantime, all dyes on the CM are 50% off.
They didn’t give an end date and for the Dye sale, which indicates to me that they’re doing this so people don’t feel upset about spending so much on consumables that will probably be going away within the next year.
We don’t have any confirmed details on what the revamped system will look like, though I suspect they’re further along in the process than they let on.
Mysterious Rogue Armor Set
The Mysterious Rogue’s armor set is classic pirate garb inspired by Jude Law’s character in the upcoming Skeleton Crew series. There’s no helmet with this set. Instead, there’s two versions of the chestpiece, one with the jacket on and one with the jacket off.
The billowing poet shirt is quite the departure from SWTOR’s original minimal polygon skin-tight attire. It’ll be fun to pair it with Ahsoka’s Expatriate Armor Set. That being said, I’m not sure if the set is finished yet as the collar is strangely flat, though they might just be leaning into their inspiration from Skeleton Crew Trailer 2.
I really hope they add the front belt holster for the flintlock blaster pistol. It’s positioned so perfectly for the Scoundrel’s Scattergun attacks, namely, the Ruffian’s Point Blank Shot and formerly (?) the Scrapper’s Backblast attack.
Furthermore, literally all they’d need to do is rip off the existing fake holstered blasters ruining the pants for—Every. Single. NiM Dxun set.—and tape just one of them from the pile onto the belt!
These were the fancy prestige armor sets you could (mostly) only get from beating bosses in NiM Dxun back in 6.0, though they are now obtainable from S3T-BNS. Each advanced class (now called combat styles) got a set with different-colored shields.
As you’ve probably realized, those thigh-strapped blasters are positioned at holster height, and let me tell you, the clipping is worse than you could possibly imagine. To make things even more excruciating, the shin shields project from the pants, not the knee-high boots!
That’s right folks! These sets have been in the game with class restrictions and looked like this since the end of June 2020!
Of course, the tragedy doesn’t end there, as the VFX were clearly assigned to the wrong armor set!
Back in 6.0, the gear grind was similar to how it is now where you do the grind on one toon to unlock the best iRating and then can easily transfer it to alts. The set bonus grind is equivalent to the Legendary Implant grind, and unlocking mods for Hyde and Zeek is the same as grinding to 306 back in the day.
This horizontal approach was the focus from the start in 6.0 rather than a late addition in 7.0, so the visual integration was better and probably actually helped make it easier for casual players to understand what gear was an upgrade.
You’d start with Sha’tek gear, which takes the appearance of the Duxn NiM sets minus the shield VFX, and then halfway through, switch over to the Onderonian armor, which would get progressively more ornate as you get higher and higher iRatings.
The set on the right is max iRating gear, here it is below in greater detail from all sides. Pay close attention to those little green gems on the helmet, pauldron, gauntlets, and boots.
The weapon is part of the Royal series, available at the Onderon Reputation Vendor with a Radiant Green Crystal and Overcharged Tuning.
With a little help from Photoshop, we were able to combine the Onderonian gear with the green shields on the Restorative Drive armor set, which is the armor set associated with Mercenary | Commando and Dxun NiM.
Broadsword, if you’re interested in correcting these atrocities, here are the sets involved:
- The Unyielding Protector (Sorcerer | Sage)
- Ballast Point (Assassin | Shadow)
- Superiority Set (Operative | Scoundrel)
- Ballistic Concentration (Sniper | Gunslinger)
- Fulminating Defense (Juggernaut | Guardian)
- Comet Champion (Marauder | Sentinel)
- Emergency Power (Powertech | Vanguard)
- Restorative Drive (Mercenary | Commando)
- Space Guardian (Generic Sha’tek Shell)
- The Unyielding Protector (Sorcerer | Sage)
- Ballast Point (Assassin | Shadow)
- Superiority Set (Operative | Scoundrel)
- Ballistic Concentration (Sniper | Gunslinger)
- Fulminating Defense (Juggernaut | Guardian)
- Comet Champion (Marauder | Sentinel)
- Emergency Power (Powertech | Vanguard)
- Restorative Drive (Mercenary | Commando)
- Space Guardian (Generic Sha’tek Shell)
