Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
VonLudwig
Apr 22, 2008




:siren:New or returning player? Click this link to get a free server transfer and a bundle of goodies to help get you started.:siren:

Game update 3.0, Shadow of Revan is coming this December, raising the level cap to 60, completely redesigning class progression and customization, introducing new operations and flashpoints, and adding new carrots to hit with sticks. Pre-order the expansion now to get a 12x bonus on story mission XP, which includes the planetary storylines of those planets that occur after the class storylines end (Illum and Makeb, mostly) and be ready to poopsock to 60 come December. Note that anything you read about class builds or balance is likely to change with the expansion.

Also recently introduced was the Strongholds expansion, which finally added player and guild housing, in the form of Nar Shadaa floating pleasure dens, well humidified cabins on Dromand Kaas, dirt farms on Tattooine, and I guess there's something on that Republic homeworld, too.

:frogsiren:Guild Info:frogsiren:

“I am incapable of interacting with normal people, where are the goons?”

Most goons left the game in the grand exodus a few months after launch. At the moment, That's No Goon on Jedi Covenant Imp side is the only really active, goon run guild. Goon Squad on Rep side exists, but it isn't as active, and doesn't have a regular raiding group. Can you be the one who changes that? Do you dare live the dream? Only you can say for sure.

The current guild leader is Nipponophile, who starts all his character names with “Oed”, because of his alcohol problems. He's easily the most cheerful guildleader we've had, and has stuck with the game through thick and thin thanks to his boundless, infectious, optimism. We hardly even mind the mandatory, weekly anime screenings.

To get invited, do a whois search in game for “That's No Goon”, and filter by guild name. Contact whoever shows up and ask them to invite you, if they can't, they'll let someone who can know. Alternately, post in the thread and someone will read it and invite you eventually. Maybe. If we don't, it's probably because we hate you, and not because we forgot.

Here are some helpful images:


Goons on other servers are lonely refugees, outcasts from society. Maybe you can be outcasts together, I don't know.

There is also an irc channel where goons hang out, #torgoons on synirc.

If you would rather watch other people play the game than play it yourself, there are a couple LPs for you. Empire Republic

Protips
You have an interrupt. Use it. If you see an enemy using an ability with a cast or channel time longer than a second, you want to interrupt that. Bind you interrupt button to something easy to hit. Mouse 3, or q if you don't have a fancy mouse. You'll be using it a lot.

Get Rocket Boost. It's an indoor speeder on a short cooldown if you get all the upgrades. You can find it in your legacy menu, and it costs some credits, or you can get an unlock off the cartel market, or from the GTN that doesn't have the legacy level requirements. There are a lot of other useful unlocks you can get this way, don't be afraid to drop some credits on them.

The way equipment works in this game is that most good pieces you will find (and just about everything from the cartel market) is customizable. This means that the item itself has no stats, and you can simply upgrade the components as you go, essentially making it level with you. You'll find more than enough planetary comms as you level to keep you and a companion or two in level appropriate gear.

Make sure you're using the right relics. If you're dps or healing, a serendipitous assault is one of your best relics, the other is one that boosts your main stat. Tanks get tanking relics. PvP relics are cheap and close to best in slot, barring the ones that drop from hard or nightmare mode raids, and you should get them. I don't because I'm bad, but you should.

Get augments. Augmenting your gear is important at max level. Do it. If in doubt, go with mainstat ones for your class, but feel free to ask in guild.

Annakie made a great post about how to make fat stacks of space money in the game. If you are space poor, consider reading it.

Turn off general chat. It is a cesspool.


Resources
“Please make my decisions for me.”

The best site for information and guides is, without doubt, Dulfy.
There is a good parser with raid support at Torparse. You can also upload logs to compare epeens.
Want to play pretty princess space dressup? Tor-Fashion has you covered with screenshots of most of the gear in the game.
Here is a guide to get all the datacrons
Have more? Tell me and maybe I'll put them here.

Game Overview
“So, this game is about space wizards or something?”

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a science fantasy MMORPG set a few hundred years after the events of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, more than 3000 years before the events in the movies. Appearing from outside of known space, the Sith Empire launched an invasion that captured several worlds, including the Sith homeworld of Korriban, and sacked the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and which ended in a cease-fire that has lasted decades. At the beginning of the game, the two forces are in a stalemate, engaging in covert hostilities, proxy-wars and jockeying for power. As you progress through the story, the galaxy once again breaks out into open war.

Expansion spoilers:
The expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, explains the ongoing war. The Emperor has fallen silent. Not a living being, he cannot die, but he is no longer in control of the Empire. Infighting, the betrayal of Malgus and the rebellion of the Dread Masters left the Empire too fractured to stand against the Republic, and they are in retreat. The Hutts have seized this opportunity and rushed to fill the power vacuum, taking the planet of Makeb.

The Empire manages to capture Makeb and it's supply of precious Isotopes, and powerful Sith are once more beginning to stabilize the government. The balance of power has been more or less restored by the time the Dread Masters are defeated, but a new threat, is, naturally, arising. Revan is stirring, driven mad by the centuries he spent connected to the immortal Emperor, he and his order have infiltrated their way to the very top of the Republic and Empire both, and now stand poised to crush anyone who would stand in the way of their vision of galactic peace and tranquillity. Note: This vision involves a lot of genocide.



What has changed
“I heard this game sucks”

The game has its issues, it's true. When it launched, the devs drastically underestimated how quickly players would go through the content, the endgame was lacking, and it took a good long while before they added more. The game launched without a number of quality of life features, and even some core features were either absent or half-implemented. SWTOR is still very much a WoW-like, hotkey MMO with an emphasis on raiding to progress, but there have been a number of large improvements since launch.

On the other hand, the game's levelling experience is second to none. Bioware spent a ton of money on voice acting, and while it may not have been the best decision for the company, it really does make for the most interesting and engaging MMO stories out there.

Housing: You can now buy yourself a nice little house to decorate and call your own. The cheapest digs are on the faction homeworlds of Dromond Kaas and Coruscant, and are relatively inexpensive to fully unlock (Still a couple million credits total), the Nar Shadaa sky palace is a bit pricier, and the dirt farm on dirt world is some kind of scam. You're not limited to just one, though. Collect them all, then fill them all with a million trophies in order to get a bonus to your conquest points.

We have a guild ship, too. The Space Bar, which you can use to quick travel to the week's conquest target, or just hang out with the Twilik dancers. We don't judge.

Conquest: A new thing to grind. Help expand the guild ship by winning conquest points, if you fill your weekly quota and the guild places in the top 10 of a planet, you get an encryption, which we can use to grow the ship, along with other fabulous rewards.

Star Fighter: It's a not-on-rails pvp space shooter. Buy and level up different types of ships, and use them to explode the other team. Opinions on how good this is vary a lot, so give it a try and then decide you hate it for yourself. Just be warned that you'll probably wind up facing an 8-man premade with all ships maxed out, and you'll lose badly.


Catmen: Desperate to keep pace with FFXIV, Bioware has released the Cathar as a playable species, unlockable with Cartel Coins. Feel the Fur.

Free to play: The game is free now. Download it, play it. There are a number of restrictions on free accounts, with fewer restrictions on Premium accounts, which is anyone who has spent any money at all on the game. Subscribers have no real restrictions, and get a grant of 500 cartel coins each month, and anyone with a security key gets 100 coins per month.

It's also worth noting that the game goes out of its way to make the restrictions seem worse than they are. You'll hear horror stories about locked hotbars and limited quest rewards, but if all you want is to play the stories and don't care about raiding, you get more than enough. On the other hand, the best method is probably to subscribe for a month or two, get a character to max, then let your sub lapse if you don't want to raid. This will get you the first expansion for free, a number of bonuses, and a character to grind credits with at max level. Almost every restriction can be lifted by buying the unlocks off the auction house with game money, and they're mostly pretty cheap.

Expansion: The Rise of the Hutt Cartel has arrived, rising the level cap to 55 and granting access to new hardmode flashpoints and level 55 operations, as well as new tiers of loot and crafted items, new dailies and weeklies and the new planet of Makeb, along with the fairly entertaining macrobinocular and seeker droid questlines. Since then, more new planets with daily quests, flashpoints, more operations, and stunning vistas have been added. In a couple months, Shadow of Revan is coming out, and raising the level cap again, re-doing the entire progression system, and who knows what else.

Legacy: Perhaps the second biggest thing, and touted as a defining feature of the game, this wasn't even in when the game launched. Your legacy connects all characters on a server, allowing new characters to share some of the benefits of the higher level ones. You can mail items and money to other characters on your legacy, completing chapters in your class story and maxing affection with companions grants boosts to your other characters, reputations and achievements are legacy wide, and there are a number of convenience features such as upgrades to your ship and rocket powered boots that once purchased will apply to all characters on your legacy.

The Cartel Market: With free to play came the Cartel Market, allowing you to convert real world money into Cartel Coins, used to buy cosmetic goods, speeders, pets, XP boosts and a number of other unlocks and convenience features. The only thing you can't buy is your dignity. Or power.


Achievements: The game now has a fairly robust selection of basic achievements, tracking everything from how many times you killed a boss, how many jawas you killed while using your party jawa, how many players you killed while using your party jawa, how many players killed you while using your party jawa, and also other non-jawa related things like exploration and collecting speeders.

Collections: Once you have bound a cartel market item to yourself, you can make as many bound copies of it as you want. For a fee in Cartel Coins based on the item's rarity, you can unlock this for any character on your account (not legacy, account.) This makes it that much easier to dress you and your companions up like a dance troupe and take over the holo-net.

Group Finder: Yes, there is a group finder for flashpoints and story mode operations in the game now. It works, matching you up with 3-7 other people who are probably terrible and will wipe repeatedly on even the easiest content.

New Flashpoints: Since launch, there have been quite a few new flashpoints added, along with hardmodes of existing ones. What's more, the story modes of the most recent ones are “tactical”, which is code for “no tactics are needed at all”, because they are role-neutral. You can go in with 4 dps and do just fine. Hardmodes are balanced for having proper role composition.

New Operations: Since launch, several new operations have been added to the game, with three difficulty modes (Story, hard, and nightmare, all in either 8 or 16 man group size) The current highest tier content is Dread Fortress and Dread Palace, a pair of operations on the idyllic planet of Oricon, where you come face to face with the Dread Masters. You might remember saving them on Belsavis.

New Warzones: New 4v4 ranked arenas have been added to the game, along with competitive ladders for the truly elite MMO PvPers. Earn great, exclusive rewards by being really good at grinding gear and pushing buttons. Or, annoy people who care about that by being really bad at it. It's up to you!

New Ranked Arenas: Added in 2.4, ranked warzones have been replaced with ranked, 4vs4 arenas. You can queue for these solo or in a group of 4, and it will set you in a random arena against another team of the same type (solo queued or team queued). Compete for ranked comms and also glory or something.


New Companion: HK-51 and Treek the Ewok are now available to all players, purchasable with either cartel coins or ingame credits, though for HK you need to complete a little questline first. They have dialogue, and Treek has both tanking and healing stances, and is pretty much the best companion. Treek is all you need. 1 million credits if you're legacy 40, or buy her from cartel market. With 600 cartel coins, you can add her contract to your collections system and get her on every character.

Events: A couple recurring events such as the Gree Enclave and Rakghoul outbreak briefly transform the planets of Tatooine and Illum from desolate sand/iceballs into places you might actually want to visit. The Bounty Hunter Contract week event also begins on August 14, and will be sending people across the galaxy in search of what people smart enough to roll Bounty Hunters at launch already have.

Free to Play
“You said this game was free?”

Yes, SWTOR went free to play in November of 2012. You can download the client and play through the entire story for any class without paying a cent. There are, of course, some limitations. Many of these can be lifted through regular gameplay by purchasing unlocks from other players or off the GTN, and if you spend any money on the game at all you will be switched to preferred status. Playing as free to play or preferred is not overly onerous if it's your first time through the game on either faction, and later play throughs on alts can be made easier by doing dailies on your main in order to fund XP boosts and legacy unlocks. Access to operations and unlimited flashpoints, warzones and space missions can also be purchased on a weekly basis, but if you plan on doing all of these things every week, you are probably better off subbing. The game does also offer a number of different subscription options, including a 2 month, non-recurring plan, which is helpful for the absent minded goon.

The Cartel Market
“So, what should I spend this space-money on?”

Rocket Boost. By far the best use of your money is rocket boost, which is an indoor speeder that makes getting around in the game a lot easier. The Going Places bundle includes this, along with a number of other travel based unlocks, and along with the levelling bundle is a decent buy for a new player who wants to speed up their first character. Once you get one character to max, you can fund alts with dailies pretty easily.

The various cartel packs are only good if you enjoy gambling, you will probably not get what you want out of them, and most of their contents can be bought off the GTN, as can the packs themselves. You'll make more selling unopened packs for 150-250k credits each than you'll get selling their contents unless you get very lucky.

There are also a few exclusive speeders and pets if you're a collector, but again, they can often be found on the GTN.



Endgame
“I hit max level, now what?”

Level an alt. Alternately, there are things to do at max level. You can run hardmode flashpoints and operations, you can pvp, you can do heroic space missions and, of course, you can do dailies and weeklies. All of these activities will award some mix of commendations which can be used to purchase gear, and there is enough variety in the daily and weekly quests at this point that you can do a different planet's quests each day and not really have to repeat the same one over and over. Unless you want to. You can also set your sights on the achievement system, going back to hunt datacrons, kill thousands of enemies with different companions, dance for hours in every cantina in the galaxy and spot spy droids with your macrobinoculars.

Gearing up requires a mix of loot drops, crafting and commendations. Because of the way that augment kits work, you are probably going to want to pick a nice social gear set you like the look of, and stick with it, just ripping out the mods from whatever new gear you get and putting them in that. If you're just hitting 55 now, and don't already have a bunch of old raid gear or thousands of classic comms, you'll want to start off running hard mode flashpoints and doing dailies and weeklies on the various planets. Weeklies give more bang for your buck, so rotate around doing those if you can to get comms. You also get 10 basic or elite comms for doing a groupfinder flashpoint each day, in addition to the comms for killing bosses and loot drops.

Run through the Oricon questline, it will give you a set of high level armor that will set you right for hardmode flashpoints. Get some Oberon pvp relics, or Arkanian if you don't pvp, a mainhand with basic comms, an offhand with elite or ultimate comms, and crafted implants and an earpiece. Upgrade as you get comms and drops, with offhand, belt and bracer being your priority with ultimate comms, followed by implants and earpieces, and fill in the rest with elite comm gear until you can get set piece stuff from operations. Eventually, you'll just be buying pieces for a single mod or enhancement to optimize your stat distribution, and if you have any questions about how you should be gearing, just ask in guild chat. Someone will lie to you, and we'll all have a good laugh as you load up your tank with alacrity.

Finally, augments are important. With the current crop of Mark 9 augments, an advanced one will get you 32 of the main stat on it, plus 18 endurance. This comes to 448 extra stat points, and over 2000 hp from augments alone. The kits are expensive right now, as everyone is rushing to redo all their slots, and the advanced augs are even more so, but you can fill everything up with the blue ones and slowly upgrade to purples as you go. For dps, if you get a skill that gives an extra 9% to your main stat, go with that for augs. Otherwise, main stat, power and possibly accuracy if you're having trouble getting it to 100% are valid choices. For tanks, a mix of defence and absorb, depending on what you already have. Healers are best with main stat or power, again depending on if you have a talent that boosts main stat or not.

As a note, due to certain scaling strangeness in the switch to 2.0 and level 55, crit and alacrity scale very poorly at the moment. Accuracy and surge are not in a great place, either, but they're better. The most crit rating you should have is ~350, and only if your class benefits from crit a lot. Otherwise, for dps and healing, go with power.



Classes
“So, what class uses the most lightsabres?”

SWTOR has 4 base classes, each of which divides into two advanced classes at level 10. Of course, picking an advanced class is completely optional, and those of you who remain Jedi Knights or Sith Inquisitors to max level will meet with endless praise for your good taste and dedication. Classes mirror each other cross faction; a Guardian is mechanically the same as a Juggernaut, just with different animations and names on the skills. Further, Bioware has gone to great lengths to make all classes and specs viable. There have been a few hiccups, and some still perform better than others at certain roles, but on the whole any class in any spec should be able to fill its role if played well and geared properly, so just play what you enjoy and don't worry about people telling you you're suboptimal or other such nonsense.



Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior

Melee based class that uses Strength as its primary attribute. They start off in medium armour, and are a very mobile class, getting force leap from an early level. Best played without an advanced class, if you have the GUTS.

The Jedi Knight storyline is a classic Star Wars space opera, starring you as Space Jesus.
The Sith Warrior storyline deals with the nature of power, strength and honour.

Guardian/Juggernaut

Guardians gain the ability to wear heavy armour and use a power or shield focus in their offhand along with the option to specialize as a tank. Prior to 2.0, Guardians and Juggernauts were not very effective at either their tanking or dps roles, lacking the ability to do much damage or hold threat, but since the latest patches, they are perfectly capable of holding their own.

Marauder/Sentinel

Rather than a force focus, Marauders pick up a second glowstick to wave at their enemies, along with three different dps specs to choose from. Each one plays a little differently, focusing on bleeds, burst or aoe damage, and people will debate endlessly about which one is the best. You'll need at least three arms to play this class correctly.



Sith Inquisitor/Jedi Consular

They start as a hybrid melee/mid-range class with Willpower as their primary attribute, they focus more on force powers than swordplay, wear light armour and can shift to either a full caster class or a stealth class at level 10.

The Inquisitor storyline is a power fantasy, as you uncover forbidden knowledge and zap everyone in the galaxy.
The Consular storyline features noble self sacrifice and space-diplomacy, which mostly consists of killing people.

Sorcerer/Sage

Space wizards, using the force to blast their foes with lightning/pebbles, or to heal their allies with purple/yellow puddles on the ground. They wear dresses and carry a glowing wand. Sorcs make for an almost indispensable healer in operations, given that they have the only aoe heal capable of hitting an entire op group. Their dps specs can be a little lacklustre, but are still perfectly viable. Sorc dps gets a bad reputation mostly because sorcs are the most popular class.

Shadow/Assassin

Space ninjas, using the force to hide themselves from view, they use a double bladed glowstick that usually winds up clipping through their torso. Able to tank in light armour, they rely more on shield/absorb and cycling buffs and cooldowns, self-healing, and backstabbing things while standing in front of them.



Smuggler/Imperial Agent

The sneaky classes use Cunning as their primary attribute, are able to take cover behind things to increase their defence, are stylish dressers on both sides of the war and, accordingly, get the most space-action of any class. They are the best class when it comes to rolling with the punches.

The smuggler storyline is a retelling of the classic film, “Dude, Where's My Car.”
The agent storyline is a James Bond movie in space, one of the Timothy Dalton ones.

Scoundrel/Operative

A mostly melee/short range based advanced class with the ability to use stealth and heal people by covering them in green goo. They are very mobile, particularly with the new scamper/exfiltrate ability at level 51, their middle tree grants a bonus to movement speed, and the ability to pop in and out of stealth with annoying frequency. Despite not being a tank, they are very difficult to kill. Most of their heals are hot based, while their burst healing is not as great, they are still a valuable complement to a sorc healer in an operation, and while their dps at endgame used to be poor due to issues with positioning, their new mobility boosts help make them viable again.

Sniper/Gunslinger

The opposite end of the spectrum, snipers are a long range turret. At 35 meters, they have the longest range in the game, along with a number of tools to keep enemies away and can even detect stealthed opponents trying to sneak up on them if they've been in cover a while. Most of their abilities do rely on the cover system, and all three of their spec lines are dps, but just like the marauder they excel at killing things.



Bounty Hunter/Trooper

The best class. Starting in heavy armour and having the most aoe options from an early level, bounty hunters are capable of taking any amount of punishment and dealing it back out again tenfold, and without having to rely on nonsense like the force or dirty tricks.

The bounty hunter story revolves around hunting bounties on different planets. They get the best companions.
The trooper story is a Tom Clancey novel with a wacky robot sidekick.

Mercenary/Commando

The best advanced class. Mercenaries get to shoot thousands of missiles at their enemies from long range, and can heal people by shooting them with green bullets and missiles filled with goo. Commandos get to use the biggest guns in the game. And with your heavy armour, you can even sort of tank a lot of fights. Honestly, I don't know why anyone plays anything else. You are, however, not very mobile, since most of your abilities are casted/channeled.

Vanguard/Powertech

Vanguards trade a commando's range for mobility and instant attacks. In their tank spec, they are the only class that gets both a leap and a pull, while the other specs provide speed boosts, faster interrupts and more ways to break CC, or even attack while being CC'd than anyone else. Smack people with the butt of your rifle, then kick them in the shins with your bootknife.

Roles
"How do I push buttons?"

SWTOR follows the holy trinity of MMOs, with healers, tanks and dps all required in a 1:1:2 ratio for most encounters. There are three tank specs, three healer specs and everything else is a dps spec, though with different specialities.

From Medullah on healing:
Mercenary/Commando - Good at single target healing with decent AOE heals, super easy to manage heat. Things get rough when aggro gets out of control. Wears heavy armor so takes less of a beating when you have a tank that can't handle things. Capable of doing some serious "OH poo poo" heals with the instant cast heal, and the ability to turn their biggest heal INTO an instant cast and/or heat free one every few minutes. Can DPS a bit too from range, with some big hitters. With recent changes, their AOE jet boost heals friendly targets in range for a moderate amount, and their 4 person instant Kolto Missle/bomb now leaves behind a residue that heals anyone in it's vicinity for a small amount. Has one combat usable 60 second CC.

Operative/Scoundrel - Probably the best healer in PVP, and best single-target PVE healer. Requires a bit more forethought and prep than the Merc to heal as they rely heavily on heals over time. Requires a bit more observational skills to make sure 2 stacks of probe are up all the time. Free heal is great, so you rarely run out of energy, but you have to stand still while using it, unlike the Merc/Commando who runs around shooting green bullets. Another advantage of the free heal is that it can actually restore energy when it crits. AOE heal is a bit confusing at first, because it's a Heal Over Time, and figuring out where to target it takes a minute sometimes. Also has some good close range DPS with shotgun blast/backstab. Some heals require upper hand/tactical advantage which is gained several ways, including coming out of stealth. Has an instant small heal that will re-grant UH/TA if used against someone at 30% health or less. Has a 60 second out of combat “sap” CC, as well as a 60 second combat usable droid-only CC. Has an AOE grenade that can stun several targets for a long length of time. Also can use stealth to sneak around, and drop agro in the case of an upcoming party wipe.

Sorcerer/Sage - Definitely best raid healer, thanks to AOE heal hitting all 8 members instead of 4. Has a “bubble” which will absorb a large amount of damage that can be put on a target once every 60 seconds. Does not have a “free” heal, acts like a traditional RPG healer with all heals costing mana…er, “Force”. Has some heals which trigger procs to improve others, but are mostly independent of each other. Has the least amount of armor due to wearing light armor, though at 51 they get an “invincible” bubble which protects them for up to 10 seconds from all harm. With recent patches, their cone-shaped AOE heals allies in range of it for a small amount. Has a 60 second combat usable CC.

On tanking:

Guardians/Juggernauts have the best mitigation and good single target threat, but lack much in the way of aoe control and the ability to work around special boss mechanics and debuffs. They have excellent cooldowns, two gap closers and are fairly straightforward to play, but they're the most prone to losing agro with their lowish threat generation.

Powertechs/Vanguards are sort of in the middle. They have probably the best aoe threat, and good single target damage, but the worst cooldowns, and mitigation in general. They're also quite easy to play, and soloing with them is a breeze due to their higher damage output. They also come with a leap and a grapple, like shadows, and have some good aoe debuffs.

Shadows/Assassins by default have the lowest damage mitigation, but they come with an excellent selection of self buffs that makes them very effective tanks in the hands of a competent player. They're probably the hardest tank class to play well, since so much depends on maintaining buffs and debuffs and juggling cooldowns, but they also have the best capability to deal with unexpected situations. They have a grapple, but no leap, and a speed boost instead.

For dps:

Marauders/Sentinels and Gunslingers/Snipers are at the top of the pack by a fair margin, due to the fact that they can't do anything but dps. This is not to say that you should always roll one of these if you want a dps slot in a raid group, since the utility of having an off healer for a quick battle rez, or to help keep the tank up, or someone else with a taunt in case the tank goes down is quite helpful. But you probably won't be topping the charts unless you're one of those two classes.


Operatives and Assassins, on the other hand, are in a bit of a bad place as far as damage goes. Not that they're not viable, whatever certain people might say, but they're over-reliant on burst damage and have issues with positioning on a lot of fights, so their sustained damage on longer boss battles can be a bit disappointing. The pvp specs (Lethality/Dirty Tricks and madness/balance) get around this issue somewhat, being less positional and more ranged, but are also fairly aoe or dot based, respectively.

Another thing to watch for is that Bounty Hunter/Commando Pyrotech specs for both sets of advanced classes is broken. Don't use it. If you want to dps as one of these classes, go with the middle tree, Arsenal/Gunnery or Tactics/Advanced Prototype.

For everything else, it should be fairly viable, just keep in mind that the rightmost tree is always designed around pvp, with a focus on aoe and burst rather than sustained single target damage. Boss fights for dps classes are as much about resource management as anything else, you have to know when to blow your cooldowns, when to save them for burn phases, and how to be disciplined about your resource pool so you can keep a constant stream of numbers going.



Crew Skills
“What do I do with all these non-healer companions on my ship?”

Put them to work. Crafting in SWTOR isn't something you do yourself, it's something you have your companions do for you. Crew skills are divided into three categories: crafting, gathering and mission skills. The first two are fairly self-explanatory, and mission skills are skills that provide a number of small missions you send your companion on, and hopefully they come back with something nice, this is where you'll get the rare materials you need to make blue or purple recipes. Each crafting skill has an associated gathering and mission skill listed in its codex entry, so you're not reliant on other players for components.

What skill should you take? The most useful one is biochem at endgame, since you can craft re-usable medpacks, stims and adrenals that otherwise can be pretty pricey. Cybertech is the most useful for gearing up alts, with artifice also being of some use there, and it can now make dyes for playing pretty princess dressup with. Armstech, Armormech and Synthweaving can make augments of various types, which are useful for endgame gearing, and can also be helpful for gearing alts. If you just want to make money, your best bet is taking Scavenging, Bio-analysis and Slicing, then just gather everything and sell it on the GTN. Low level mats sell for a fair bit, particularly in those weird in-between levels from 25-40.

VonLudwig fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Oct 17, 2014

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

RFC2324
Jun 7, 2012

http 418

Good OP, but you failed to address being a cartoonishly evil darksider. :clint:

Red Crown
Oct 20, 2008

Pretend my finger's a knife.
So, how much money do I have to spend on the game to get this "preferred" status? Are we talking spending $1.99 on some dinky cosmetic upgrade, or...?

WarLocke
Jun 6, 2004

You are being watched. :allears:

tallian posted:

Good OP, but you failed to address being a cartoonishly evil darksider. :clint:

What, like this?

Red Crown posted:

So, how much money do I have to spend on the game to get this "preferred" status? Are we talking spending $1.99 on some dinky cosmetic upgrade, or...?

If you've ever spent any money on the game at all (subscribed for one month way back when, bought any amount of cartel coins, etc) you'll never fall all the way to 'basic' F2P status, you're considered 'Preferred'.

Baron FU
Apr 3, 2009
Do all the Republic gear still look like garbage compared to the Empire counterparts? And do The Republic still get poo poo on in every single quest, instance and battleground both lore wise and ingame wise?

I quit back when they changed the Ilum dailies from the somewhat cooperative ones where Empire let us do ours so they could do theirs to the other ones. Which resulted in 300 Empire standing inside the Republic base/spawn point and killing all 10 of us for 2 hours.

nonentity
Dec 19, 2005

If I were small & bird shaped, I could fly.
woo new thread... :toot:

How much is it to use the barbershop kiosk thing? I haven't logged in yet, but I assume it varies based on what you change?

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Baron FU posted:

Do all the Republic gear still look like garbage compared to the Empire counterparts?

Doesn't matter much anymore, there's tons of cool Cartel looks.

Thumbtacks
Apr 3, 2013
Character transfers coming in 2.2. :toot:

Gasoline
Jul 31, 2008
Appearance changes are neat, I guess. I always make sure my characters are perfect at creation, so I have no need for it :unsmith:
If only you could redesign companions with it.

Seems quite expensive anyway.

Svladcjelli
Apr 3, 2007

There's nothing that you offer but a dream of last years hero
Fun Shoe

Gasoline posted:

Appearance changes are neat, I guess. I always make sure my characters are perfect at creation, so I have no need for it :unsmith:
If only you could redesign companions with it.

Seems quite expensive anyway.

You'll miss out on the purple/pink/magenta long flowing manes of hair that they added though.

Tezzeract
Dec 25, 2007

Think I took a wrong turn...
Yay new thread. Nice job with the OP. X-Post

Red Crown posted:

So, I just replayed KOTOR 2 and I'm itching for more...which means I'm finally seriously considering turning to SWTOR. If I'm really only interested in playing through the story and don't really care for the "MMO experience" of raiding and gearing up, is it worth playing? Also, is it worth subscribing? I've played up to level six already, and I can tell that the game requires F2Pers to grind to keep up with the story in terms of difficulty.

The 1-50(or 55 with the miniexpansion) is completely grind-free and you will never have to grind to get questing content. Some of the sidequests can get boring, but you've probably survived worse gameplay. The good parts of the game (group missions, class-specific story quests) are overwhelmingly amazing. Even Space Combat is fun for a good 4-5 hours.

Definitely try out grouping with others though.

Tezzeract fucked around with this message at 17:15 on May 14, 2013

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS
Nice OP - you might want to add a section about roles - Healer/Tank/DPS, since we get the question "I want to heal, which class should I pick?" a lot in the thread. I can write up a healer breakdown if you want, and a tank one...but limited experience as DPS.

VonLudwig
Apr 22, 2008

Medullah posted:

Nice OP - you might want to add a section about roles - Healer/Tank/DPS, since we get the question "I want to heal, which class should I pick?" a lot in the thread. I can write up a healer breakdown if you want, and a tank one...but limited experience as DPS.

Sure, I'd appreciate it. PM me whatever you can, I can add something about DPS.

Laradus
Feb 16, 2011
Love the new OP - very well done! Now off to check out what the barber options are for curiousity.

One quibble - the IA story is much better than the Dalton Bonds, simply because I can't stand those Bond films :spergin:

Gripen5
Nov 3, 2003

'Startocaster' is more fun to say than I expected.
Is there any place to get leveling and endgame builds? I have no idea where to put my ability points.

I just hate the idea of ending up with a dumb build that is holding me back because I don't understand the mechanics of the game yet.

Crindee
Nov 16, 2005

LOOK LIKE EMERIL

nonentity posted:

woo new thread... :toot:

How much is it to use the barbershop kiosk thing? I haven't logged in yet, but I assume it varies based on what you change?

Yep, each slider costs a different amount of CCs to mess with - body and head are 160, skin is 120, all the rest are 40-80, although if you want to change your species it'll run you 1200.

I'm glad body wasn't too expensive - I assumed that watching my fatass Jedi pounce on people like they're made of ham would never stop being funny, and it didn't, but I hated the way most of the armor textures looked stretched across my blubber.

EDIT: I'm Preferred right now though, no idea what it is for subs.

Crindee fucked around with this message at 18:21 on May 14, 2013

Waldorf Sixpence
Sep 6, 2004

Often harder on Player 2
So since last night I've been unable to play. The launcher updated this morning and lets me log in just fine. When the game launches, it gets to the very first loading screen, and never leaves it. I never get as far as character or server selection. Anyone know how to fix this? I've tried repairing the install and power cycling my router.

E: VVV Yep. Wow, great patch guys.

Waldorf Sixpence fucked around with this message at 18:37 on May 14, 2013

Muraena
Feb 18, 2013

Justice. Honor. Anime~
It seems you have to wait. It can take as long as 10 min, but the game loads eventually.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

VonLudwig posted:

Sure, I'd appreciate it. PM me whatever you can, I can add something about DPS.

Here's a slightly updated version of the last rundown I posted for healers, see if anyone has anything to add -

Mercenary/Commando - Good at single target healing with decent AOE heals, super easy to manage heat. Things get rough when aggro gets out of control. Wears heavy armor so takes less of a beating when you have a tank that can't handle things. Capable of doing some serious "OH poo poo" heals with the instant cast heal, and the ability to turn their biggest heal INTO an instant cast and/or heat free one every few minutes. Can DPS a bit too from range, with some big hitters. With recent changes, their AOE jet boost heals friendly targets in range for a moderate amount, and their 4 person instant Kolto Missle/bomb now leaves behind a residue that heals anyone in it's vicinity for a small amount. Has one combat usable 60 second CC.

Operative/Scoundrel - Probably the best healer in PVP, and best single-target PVE healer. Requires a bit more forethought and prep than the Merc to heal as they rely heavily on heals over time. Requires a bit more observational skills to make sure 2 stacks of probe are up all the time. Free heal is great, so you rarely run out of energy, but you have to stand still while using it, unlike the Merc/Commando who runs around shooting green bullets. Another advantage of the free heal is that it can actually restore energy when it crits. AOE heal is a bit confusing at first, because it's a Heal Over Time, and figuring out where to target it takes a minute sometimes. Also has some good close range DPS with shotgun blast/backstab. Some heals require upper hand/tactical advantage which is gained several ways, including coming out of stealth. Has an instant small heal that will re-grant UH/TA if used against someone at 30% health or less. Has a 60 second out of combat “sap” CC, as well as a 60 second combat usable droid-only CC. Has an AOE grenade that can stun several targets for a long length of time. Also can use stealth to sneak around, and drop agro in the case of an upcoming party wipe.

Sorcerer/Sage - Definitely best raid healer, thanks to AOE heal hitting all 8 members instead of 4. Has a “bubble” which will absorb a large amount of damage that can be put on a target once every 60 seconds. Does not have a “free” heal, acts like a traditional RPG healer with all heals costing mana…er, “Force”. Has some heals which trigger procs to improve others, but are mostly independent of each other. Has the least amount of armor due to wearing light armor, though at 51 they get an “invincible” bubble which protects them for up to 10 seconds from all harm. With recent patches, their cone-shaped AOE heals allies in range of it for a small amount. Has a 60 second combat usable CC.

WarLocke
Jun 6, 2004

You are being watched. :allears:
Was kind of disappointed to see that the Collections tab is almost exclusively for cash shop items.

Speeders from vendors in-game? Not collectible.
Speeders from cartel market? Collectible.

Companion customizations from in-game vendors? Not collectible.
Companion customizations from cartel packs? Collectible.

Not that being able to unlock all of Vette's look account-wide is very useful, since I don't think I'll be making a second Sith Warrior, but it really seems like it's a cash grab aimed at the completionist crowd. "You need to buy out the entire market to 100% your collections window, have fun!"

e: Possibly more nefarious - I'm reading posts on the official forum (yeah, I know) that market items bought from the GTN aren't eligible to be collected - you have to have bought it off of the cartel market yourself to add it to collections. :psyduck:

e2: VVV Technically, you pay twice. Once to buy it on one character, then a second time to unlock it for others.

WarLocke fucked around with this message at 19:21 on May 14, 2013

Waldorf Sixpence
Sep 6, 2004

Often harder on Player 2
I'm not sure what you're getting at, as the collection system is solely intended to allow people to get their cash shop items multiple times while paying only once. That's its entire raison d'ętre.

Nephthys
Mar 27, 2010

Waldorf Sixpence posted:

So since last night I've been unable to play. The launcher updated this morning and lets me log in just fine. When the game launches, it gets to the very first loading screen, and never leaves it. I never get as far as character or server selection. Anyone know how to fix this? I've tried repairing the install and power cycling my router.

E: VVV Yep. Wow, great patch guys.

My ones shat itself when I tried to switch servers. I can play on the one it starts in just fine, but if I try to go over so I can play my Imp characters NOPE!

Edit: Haha, ok now I've got the same thing you have.

Nephthys fucked around with this message at 19:32 on May 14, 2013

Warmachine
Jan 30, 2012



Gripen5 posted:

Is there any place to get leveling and endgame builds? I have no idea where to put my ability points.

I just hate the idea of ending up with a dumb build that is holding me back because I don't understand the mechanics of the game yet.

Don't worry about pooching things too hard in the climb. Golden rule is stick to your tree. If you mess up, you can respec for a handful of credits on the fleet.

Also, nice OP.

WarLocke posted:

Was kind of disappointed to see that the Collections tab is almost exclusively for cash shop items.

They're missing out on all the 'phased out' armor. I'd pay money for the Sniper Rakata outfit on my Marauder.

Nipponophile
Apr 8, 2009

WarLocke posted:

e: Possibly more nefarious - I'm reading posts on the official forum (yeah, I know) that market items bought from the GTN aren't eligible to be collected - you have to have bought it off of the cartel market yourself to add it to collections. :psyduck:

The people on the official forums are the some of the most entitled, whiny manchildren I've ever seen online, so expect overreaction and misinformation. There was a guy who couldn't understand why things that he had bought several months ago on a character that he then deleted well before Collections was ever announced were not added to his collections tab.

I haven't had the chance to log in and play with it yet, but as far as I can tell collections is a new system of features that does not take away anything that was previously in the game, is a step in the right direction towards account-wide accessibility, and is unique (as far as I know) among MMOs. Naturally, people are threatening class action lawsuits because it isn't perfect enough. Ugh.

somedamnthing
Mar 29, 2003

sup
CoH, STO, and now SWTOR...free to play+cat people = autumn years of an MMO. I'm afraid the fur ghetto will sweep through and (cat)gut the place.

Promethium
Dec 31, 2009
Dinosaur Gum
I only had time to check briefly this morning but as far as I can tell all of the items I had previously bought off the GTN were added to collections as soon as I logged in to the appropriate character. The Hutt holostatue didn't add right away but moving it between cargo and inventory seemed to fix the issue.

My main annoyance right now is that the new customization unlocks are restricted to species so you can only get new hairstyles and eye colors for humans and not say, cyborgs, even though they have the same default hair options.

Mind over Matter
Jun 1, 2007
Four to a dollar.



Maybe I'm misunderstanding the point of collections. But the only piece I even cared about was the Outlaw's boots, which I have several copies of off the GTN. But one, I don't seem to be able to actually add it to my collections. Two, when I look at the set in the market, it says "Additional copies of this item are only available off the cartel market." :(

kmzh
Feb 21, 2011

Do Outlaw boots come with mods already in them? According to the patch notes you won't be able to dupe those kinds of items.

Mind over Matter
Jun 1, 2007
Four to a dollar.



kmzh posted:

Do Outlaw boots come with mods already in them? According to the patch notes you won't be able to dupe those kinds of items.

Oh, well. That explains it, I read the patch notes but I missed that. drat. I understand why they would do that, but man that takes the wind out of my sails, I wish I could collection a mod-less version.

I guess that means I have to write an angry, incoherent post full of typos on the official forums. Dammit. :effort:

Team THEOLOGY
Nov 27, 2008

Mind over Matter posted:

Oh, well. That explains it, I read the patch notes but I missed that. drat. I understand why they would do that, but man that takes the wind out of my sails, I wish I could collection a mod-less version.

I guess that means I have to write an angry, incoherent post full of typos on the official forums. Dammit. :effort:

Don't forget to threaten with a class action law suit.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

Patch Notes posted:

•Whispers sent to an offline character will no longer be forwarded to an online character on the same account.

Awww that was actually a nice feature. :(

RFC2324
Jun 7, 2012

http 418

Medullah posted:

Awww that was actually a nice feature. :(

Seriously, that was the best thing.

Eltoasto
Aug 26, 2002

We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.



Companion previews seem to work now :toot:

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

WarLocke posted:

Was kind of disappointed to see that the Collections tab is almost exclusively for cash shop items.

Speeders from vendors in-game? Not collectible.
Speeders from cartel market? Collectible.

Companion customizations from in-game vendors? Not collectible.
Companion customizations from cartel packs? Collectible.

Not that being able to unlock all of Vette's look account-wide is very useful, since I don't think I'll be making a second Sith Warrior, but it really seems like it's a cash grab aimed at the completionist crowd. "You need to buy out the entire market to 100% your collections window, have fun!"

e: Possibly more nefarious - I'm reading posts on the official forum (yeah, I know) that market items bought from the GTN aren't eligible to be collected - you have to have bought it off of the cartel market yourself to add it to collections. :psyduck:

e2: VVV Technically, you pay twice. Once to buy it on one character, then a second time to unlock it for others.

It was always announced as a cartel shop thing.

Medullah posted:

Awww that was actually a nice feature. :(

Forums hated it because they didn't like their e-wife finding out about their e-mistress. they were someone's e-mistress.

Aphrodite fucked around with this message at 20:49 on May 14, 2013

Technogeek
Sep 9, 2002

by FactsAreUseless

WarLocke posted:

e: Possibly more nefarious - I'm reading posts on the official forum (yeah, I know) that market items bought from the GTN aren't eligible to be collected - you have to have bought it off of the cartel market yourself to add it to collections. :psyduck:

The forum is, as always, a pack of morons. I have an armor set unlocked that I bought off the GTN.

Al Baron
Nov 12, 2007
They were all out of Marquess.
Also, you have to make sure one character has equipped the entire set. It doesn't recognized outfit sets across characters.

The Covert set is somewhat annoying with this since it's actually spread across three sets.

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire
On the That's No Goon site on the left hand side the class demand box, now does for example, "Low" mean "we're low on this class" or "we have plenty, the demand is low"?

Vildiil
Dec 16, 2003
Stuff
I guess I'm kinda happy with this Collection thing if only because all my characters now have access to my Sorcs Shadow Hand Command Throne.

*edit oh hey even characters on other servers have access to it neat.

Vildiil fucked around with this message at 21:10 on May 14, 2013

VonLudwig
Apr 22, 2008
Just ignore that box.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Beef Hardcheese
Jan 21, 2003

HOW ABOUT I LASH YOUR SHIT


Apologies if this is considered off-topic, but I figure this is the best place to ask... Does anyone have that picture of Darth Malgus(?) with a bunch of rambling, grammatically-unstable text calling him "DARTH VUDOR" and calling out the aesthetic similarities between TOR and the movies? I've tried Googling in various ways, but the main result tends to be a post from our very own PYF Official Request Images thread.

Beef Hardcheese fucked around with this message at 02:57 on May 16, 2013

  • Locked thread