Combat in TOR was similar to what we have come to expect from MMORPGs, there was no auto-attack, but quick slot 1 was bound to right click. BioWare didn't want us moving those around or opening up the abilities menu (I had to open mine though because at one point my "slash" attack vanished when we lagged a little and I must have drug it off my hot bar... And yes, I was using my mouse to click, because I didn't know what abilities did what yet and I was using the tool tips until I figured it out). Combat was more intense than in WoW due to the way the Jedi Knight: Jedi Guardian was set up.
It was not an action game, but without an auto attack I did find myself more frantically clicking, and later more frantically pressing hot keys. This made me feel more like I had to pay closer attention to the game itself. This, I cannot stress enough, was what set this apart from WoW.
On the surface it looks similar to WoW combat, in the game however it feels much different, and that is a big distinction.
I never felt myself fall into a cycle. In many encounters the combat actions I chose were radically different. Even if the enemies were the exact same my choice of attacks would change.
That I felt was significant, this was because I couldn't figure out a "best" cycle and all of them seemed to work well enough. I cannot stress how important that is. one of the flaws in MMORPG combat is the fact that the cycle is important, you do attack X, Y, then Z over and over again in games like WoW and even DAoC. This is not the case in TOR. This makes the game play feel more varied than other games and that makes the combat more interesting.