Previously awhile back we were talking about Revan and the Jedi Exile, about their fates and now players get their chance to experience the truth for themselves. The Battle of Taral V takes place where Republic soldiers get thier chance to rescue a Jedi Prisoner who had been imprisoned for 300 years.

The mission is risky, a group of Republic infiltrators must move in and get the coordinates of the Maelstrom Prison by apprehending a Greed computer device from Taral V. In doing so the team would have to fight their way through the Imperial and elite Sith troops guarding the fortress of Taral V before going to the Maelstrom Prison.

The mission begins where the Jedi Exile reveals herself to you and Admiral Odeo where you start discussing about the Jedi Prisoner, unfortunately you are unable to get the Jedi's name at that point and soon would realise the reason why. In an attempt of desperation, the strike team arrives on Taral V in this two part Flashpoint battle. After acquiring the computer device for the Republic fleet to navigate their way into the Maelstrom, the battle won't stop there until you save the Jedi Prisoner. The second part of the two part battle series is the Maelstrom Prison itself where Republic heroes get to fight their way to rescue the Jedi Prisoner.

Lets talk about Taral V. Taral V at this stage is a level 32 - 36 Flashipoint that players would get their hands onto a full on dungeon run that feels like a raid, consider that the Flashpoints of Taral V and Maelstrom Prison is your first hands on experience of getting close to raid awareness, players on the Republic side would have the opportunity to challenge themselves into handling a couple hour Flashpoint.

^ Imperial Shuttle leaving the Republic Cruiser Telos with the Republic members onboard

FLASHPOINT: TARAL V - The battle for the Jedi Prisoner begins here

Upon arrival, the Republic strike team would land on Taral V whereas the Empire believed that you are just another shuttle craft performing another shipment of supplies to the planet. The team would then fight their way through the native hositle creatures and Imperial soldiers along the way where the group is expeced to fight a couple boss fights along the way.

Prior to the difficulty from the BETA until now, players would still believe that Taral V had a lot more to offer in terms of gear drops and experience point raiting.

However we have noticed that Taral V ended up being a three hour instance at most when you have four people all around the same level between level 31 - 37. The group recommendation is that you must have at least 1 Tank, 2 DPS and a Healer, they don't have to be geared but you all must be skilled and become aware of when to interrupt mobs to either slow them down or stun them quickly.

We usuallly found it hard whenever trying to keep the enemy adds stunned or interrupted from summoning or casting deadly spells on the group itself. From experience we have experimented which combination of classes who should should be in the Flashpoint, however it comes down to how skilled and how well you work with other players.

The best combination we had been finding is having either a Jedi Guardian or Trooper Vanguard class tanking the instance. Jedi Guardians for most fights will definiately act like a Paladin class similarity to World of Warcraft it tems of the extensive trash pulls or boss fights that would require you to throw evey abiltiy you got to defend yourself but giving the healers enough chance to heal you as you pop up your interupts and absorption techniques. The Republic troopers Vanguard class still would pull it off as they had been helding onto their threat generation higher than the Jedi Guardian except they don't have much healing techniques like the Jedi Guardian would have.

The boss fights for the tanks in general heavily involve you and your teammates to either move around a lot, battle on to keep your threat up and defending others from being overwhelmed. In some fights you should be made aware that you should not have the boss or the elite adds facing towards the group.

On some elites or bosses they perform either cleave or AOE attack that hurts others around you within a radius. However in some of the fights that you will face, have either two or more elites that would be defending the boss and you would need to kill them rather quickly. The elites are tough to defeat, so its best to focus your fire on one target at a time until you kill that before moving onto the next. The Healers would have a hard time in these two operations considering how heal intensive they are in these fights are, although with that being said, your Tanks would need to be averagely geared but at least know when to pop their cooldowns when necessary.   thethe Tanks

Anyhow, the bottom line with these fights teaches players on how to become more raid awareness, or so we are led to believe and hope that is the case.

Not all the tash mobs are easy to handle, but try to stun, interrupt or use whatever Force abilities that you have in the group to kill them rather quickly. Most of the trash mobs are pretty easy in Taral V, except maybe the Sith Warriors, Acrolytes, Apprentices or Sith Lords that you would have to fight off here and there. AOE attacks works effectively on some fights but mostly good for pulling trash mobs, however we did find that single target abilities work more effectively when trying to kill a certain target rather quickly.

The gear drops in this place are fantastic for level 31 - 37 range, and its a good way for you to become quite ready for the continuation Flashpoint, Maelstrom Prison as well. 

Players can enter into Taral V at level 30 to meet the minimum requirement however your experience within this Flashpoint would be quite rough on you.

The last part of the flashpoint involves you to confront well skilled boss fight that can take up to maybe fifteen minutes for a standard group. The best hint tip we can give you is to destroy the four canons first, then engage the boss. When the adds come out, break off from the boss and have your tank taunt team real quick. Quickly AOE or single target each add before attacking the boss again and rinse and repeat it until the boss is defeated.

Enjoy the last moments of Taral V where you fight off a small group of adds on the top platorm before confronting a civilian that would give you a decision making dialogue that you could choose from, once you have the Greed computer you have completed Taral V and you would need to get out of the fortress bombarded by the Sith fleet alive.

Next we have the more challenging flashpoint of this, the Maelstrom Prison. In which I could discribe it further...

FLASHPOINT: Maelstrom Prison - The Jedi Prisoner

At long last you have narrowly escaped Taral V from Grand Moff Kilran's wrath who bombarded the fortress to ashes. However with the Greed computer now in the Republic's posession, you would need to battle your way to the Maelstrom Prison. The Republic fleet commandeered by Admiral Oteg has arrived and is in the middle of luring the Sith Empire fleet away from the station as you and your teammates land on the orbital station where you begin fighting your way through the Maelstrom Prison.

The Maelstrom Prison has a lot of mobs that have a good mixture of melee and range combat situations. The bonus thing about this place is that the experience points and loot drops are well worth it in this Flashpoint. However the mobs are quite tough and there are a few lvl 38 elites in there that you would find challenging, guild members have found it easier to fight off the add that produces more damage on you than the others.

For example, if a Sith Apprentice produces cleaves and other Force spells that are less damage than what an Elite Commando would do by stunning and massive grenade barrages would do. The group would take out the Elite Commando first.

Another good thing about these fights is that the trash mobs would be either stunned for a short time but that will give you a chance to win this if you work hard together. Troopers and Smugglers should be throwing out their best damage attacks on these trash pulls while your Tank and Healer should be close to each other while pressing the attack.

The group must be topped off as best as you can while you press on the assault, even when you are level 50, try not to be think that just because this is a level 37 - 40 Flashpoint that you could faceroll through it without seeing your health bar drop down.

In this example, I have asked two level 50s from the Spaceballz guild to assist me in the Maelstrom to show demonstrate how this is done.

What we can tell you to get you all excited, players will get the chance to kill Grand Moff Kilran on the final boss fight and you get to rescue the Jedi Prisoner. 

WHO IS THE JEDI PRISONER

"Revan..." "It will do..." ~ quoted from SWTOR ingame dialogue

The final confirmation that Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic fans had been waiting for a very long time, it took approximately eight whole years before we get to hear the truth about this but the Jedi Knight, Dark Lord of the Sith and Prodigal Knight has been revealed in the new Star Wars MMO.

Revan gets to be rescued in the 300 year time gapline that the Star Wars The Old Republic began. Therefore the truth about the Jedi Exile and Revan are revealed to a certain extent.

The Jedi Exile, Meetra Surik who was the Jedi Entity who led you towards the Jedi Prisoner in the end has succeeded in freeing her closest friend for the final part that Revan was meant to do, and that was... to finish what they had started together.

And that was.... to destroy the Sith Empire and defeat the Sith Emperor.

Revan reveals to you much about what happened and what he had learned throughout those 300 years and claimed responsibility for tempering the Sith Emperor's hatred by persuading him that peace with the Republic and Jedi Order was the only way. However since you freed Revan, and the hero that you know has one secret left up his own sleeve about a superweapon known as the Foundry (believed to be one of the many other Star Forges that were created by the Rakatan Empire) that could be used against the Sith Empire and end the war...