Kickstart tips and tricks

[Deleted]

The social and end game (pve) aspects of a MMO is pretty much all that matters to me.

So, I’m going to buy SWTOR and join my guildies from WoW (we’re probably going to play both games until either one of them – or another one – becomes “the game to play”).

I would like some newbe-tips to Swtor, I’ve googled around for a while but didn’t find exactly what I’m looking for:

Apparently we’re going to join the Empire.

• Is it likely to be a tank/healer/dps shortage in the end game?
• As of today, is any class/role underperforming?
• Fastest way to level up - solo, in group, doing flashpoints etc.?
• Basic new things or "missing things" that an old WoW player need to know?

Thanks!

[Deleted]

Look for a thread in this forum named "Things I wish I knew..." - that's got pretty much every tip imagineable.

[Deleted]

DPS will be the most played role, just like in any other MMO. Healers are perhaps a little more popular because they're not so badly gimped in solo play because of the Companion System. These are just rough assumptions/experience after doing some grouping in 50 FP's and Hard Modes with a tank buddy, always got the 2 required DPS within a minute or two.

[Deleted]

Jigain: Thanks, can't believe I missed that one http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-I-wish-I-knew...

Corporal: Aye, sound's like I'm going to roll a class that can heal to begin with

[Zaitsev]

Healing spec is fun while leveling. I got a sage to around 20 before I decided I wanted to tank. Send companion in, kill adds and heal companion up when he gets low.

[Deleted]

Regarding the other questions:

• Is it likely to be a tank/healer/dps shortage in the end game?
  On my server, there seems to be a lack of dps rather...funny, but true. We'll see how it is when more people hit the level cap, but it seems that non-dps roles attract the majority of people in this game.
  
• As of today, is any class/role underperforming?
  Without meters noone can tell, really. Sorcs are very popular, while BH and IA operative (+ mirrors ofc) are deemed strong in PvP - in PvE everyone seems to be viable atm. But again, no numbers. SW/JK cry the loudest for buffs, though.
  
• Fastest way to level up - solo, in group, doing flashpoints etc.?
  Grouped questing with one or two mates, hands down. You'll share some of the mob-xp, but you'll get a nice xp-boost for quest completion for every group member. Also, the mobs go down faster, obviously, and it is possible to help each other at the class quests (which can be quite hard, when underlevelled).
  Additionally, you should concentrate on the classquests and do only the occasional sidequest (and heroquests, if grouped), when your level drops too low, relative to the questlevel.
  Flight and PvP dailies are time-efficient xp as well.
  
• Basic new things or "missing things" that an old WoW player need to know?
  Missing things imho include responsiveness of the character control, an useful ui and macros. Fortunately, this should get fixed sooner or later, though.
  Coming from WoW, some might also miss convenience mechanisms like df or porting, etc. But the game is fresh enough, so that travelling doesn't bother me, yet.
  
  "New" things include the companions, swtor's take on crafting, the lack of autoattacks, the scifi-setting, the modding of armour, swtor's take on healing, the space minigame, all the things to come, etc.
  But most features are known from other mmos/games and it's just swtor's personal take on them, really. Nothing is truly innovated, just tweaked (for better or worse, most of the times better imo) or combined in a different way. I think, that this is a good thing.
  Also, I am excited for the patches of the next few months - we live in interesting times, so to speak.