Beginner Tips

[Coro]

Hello everyone,

I've never written a guide or anything before, but I thought I would share some tips and information on SW:ToR that I suggest for newbies based off what I learned from my beta test last weekend. Again, I'm no expert, I have not looked everything up and have information to cite, this is purely based off my playing experience of about 30+ hours. Without further ado:


Once you get control of your character, first thing you should do is go into your options and start looking at them, and changing what needs to be changedHere are my suggestions:

• -Turn on a lot of the features, such as AoE looting, auto looting, name plates, etc.
• -Turn off profanity filter.
• -Bind keys. Bioware almost made a point to not copy any of WoW bindings, so unless you don’t mind relearning 30 different hotkeys, switch them to what your use to (ie, changing talents to “n”, companion to “p”, etc).
• -Fix chat colors. Just like the keys, Bioware made a point to go against the color convention of other mmos. Whispers are blue, and party chat is purple, for example. Fix that.

Start questing. Listen to the epic story that is going on, engage in the conversation.

• - You can highlight LS/DS choices as you quest, but you don't have to. As you go through making your decisions, you highlight choices (by mouse, can't keyboard highlight) and there may be a black triangle or a white star, that means your decision is going to cause dark or light side points, keep that in mind, they start right away. Again, highlight the choices with your mouse to see what points they will add, but you can also use your keyboard to make the decision (and not see the choices) - 1 is top choice, 2 is middle choice, 3 is bottom choice.
• - Press the SPACEBAR to skip a scene. If you are power leveling and don’t care about story you can. Don’t press ESC, as you’ll have to repeat the story dialog.
• - Anything that you want (such as companions, battleships, etc) comes from doing your main storyline quest. So, instead of asking how or when, just do your quest line, everything will come to you through it.
• - Use your map for quest. Unlike wow, going back and reading where things are is going to be pretty useless, as they hardly ever tell you directions (ie WoW would say “south of goldshire, SWTOR might just say at the unfinished statue). Watch your map closely, if you are having a hard time figuring out where to go because of mountains etc, look for a dotted line path.
• - There does not seems to be a quest limit. Pick up every quest you can get your hands on. It seems pretty linear on what planets to be questing on, and not as many options of different places to go, basically you follow your class quest and pick up the side quests on the way.
• - Flashpoints (Dungeons/Instances) give you your own individual LS/DS choice. When your grouping in a Flashpoint, it's a lot of RP just like the rest of the game, and you continue to make your own individual choices. After every group member picks their choice a roll is performed (and displayed on the screen) and whoever wins the roll then their RP is presented to the rest of the group, but again your individual decision grants your individual points. Also note, rolls can "crit" so you might see rolls above 100.

PVP Works A bit different then what your use to.

• - The level brackets do not act like they do in WoW, rift, etc. The Warzone will try and fill with people of the same level/bracket, however if it can not find other players around your level then it will pull other players and buff you and the other players to be equal to the highest player in the Warzone, buffing both your hitpoints and damage.
• - There is one PVP queue and it rotates through the three maps, so you can’t pick your BG either. First one is always the AB type map, where you have to control 3 points, the second one is always Hutt Ball which is basically soccer or Blitz from FF10. The third one is like Strands of the Ancient or BF3 Rush games, where you have to go through three doors and touch the main objective. One team attacks one defends, then the defending team has to attack faster.
• - You can que for PVP at level 10. There is an icon at the bottom right of your map, you click on it to que. After you finish a match there is a checkmark before you leave that says to reque (turned on by default). If you are in a group it will not que you up again as a group, just an individual, so if you and your group leader are on a different rotation (ie group leader is ready for map 3 next and you are ready for map 1 next) then you’ll go into different maps. If you’re in a group it will follow the group leaders rotation.

Tips and tricks

• -Stay at your home planet until level 10. If you just do quests, you'll be ready to leave the planet at level 8ish, but try and grind a little bit until level 10. Learn your character's limits so far (in fact do this quite often as you level up, know your toon inside and out). When you get to the second planet, it is much easier to go there and be ready to learn your AC, than to fly through it then have to go back to your hub at 10 and figure out where it is.
• -There is a tab to get your new AC abilities Notice that you have tabs in almost all of your sheets, such as character sheet has a tab for your companion where you can change out gear. When you reach level 10 and pick your Advance Class (AC). These tabs get over looked by a LOT of people at first.
• -Phasing is real big in SWTOR, at least at your begining zone, so figure out how it works pretty quickly. By opening up your map at the bottom of your screen you’ll see your planet name and a number, that is your “Phase ID”, and if your group members are in a different ID then they can’t see you. You can change it but only once per 30 minutes.
• -Use the zoom feature on your map. When you get to the first big city it can get pretty overwhelming figuring out where everything is, and unlike WoW you can’t ask a guard for directions. There is a little zoom button (typical magnifying glass) and once that’s selected you can scroll through the map to figure out where trainers and vendors are.
• -Get your trade skills early and use them while you explore. Your companions do all of your professions for you, whether that’s crafting or gathering. They can be gone anywhere from 1m-20m, depending on what you are having them do. Use time when you won’t be using them (such as when you are PVPing or doing an instance or just going in and out of afk) to work up professions. It’s all about micro managing!
• -Help build your community (both server and whatever forum you may be browsing). I can not express this enough, start early on encouraging your community to be a tight group by answering questions, avoid trolling, and by befriending members on your server. A lot of people can tell you how much of a greater community Everquest original was over WoW, or how great Rift was compared to how it is now. It only takes one person to ruin a community, whereas it takes a whole community to fix its self, and you can really help push your community into doing just that.
• -There a lot of bugs. Use the /bug or post on the forums The game, whether you’re in Beta or live, is still early. The game will only get better if people put in effort to make it better instead of just complain about it.
• -Enjoy the game! This is a fun MMO, whether you are new to the genre or experienced, the game offers a lot of new and exciting elements. Don't rush the game, enjoy the storyline. Especially at the begining, people that rush through the game (no matter what MMO) tend to burn out and get bored because the rest of the community is enjoying it, and it leaves the person who rushed alone.

[AlamarAtMMOC]

Just wanted to add that you have to hover over options with your mouse to see he light/dark icon.

Being a keyboard'r, I didn't know this right away.

Another mouse hover tip: hover over zone divider icons to see where quests are.

-Alamar

[Coro]

Thanks, updated to reflect that.

[Shardik]

this is a handy guide, the look at options one is something I have a compulsive tendency to do every game I start. the devs were pushing that the phasing was only at very high capacity, are you in normal beta or were you in the last beta weekend? I figure last weekend was quite crowded to get prelim data on the phases before the super large stress test next weekend.

edit: re-read the first sentence, duh.

[Nihilim]

Decent tips, I'll give you that. Especially turning auto/area loot on since not many people realize to do that. It took me a while, actually.

Anyhow, in no way do I mean this in a bad way, just wanted to tell you that que = Spanish/French/Portuguese for what/which/who/that, queue = wait in line/to form a line. I apologize that I pointed this out, it is just a massive pet peeve of mine.

[Coro]

Not a problem Nihilim, it usually is for me too. I was rushing through it and didn't catch that I shortened it. I appreciate constructive feedback so that I can edit it and maybe get more people input to update it and help me as well as other figure things out.

[ssambakd]

Nice, probably a list of things for me to do when i start live client

[Deleted]

is there anyway to turn off the light / dark choice conversation icons, or to choose without seeing them (like pressings 1,2,3 etc)?

I dont really want to be influenced by these icons.

[Shamburger]

is there anyway to turn off the light / dark choice conversation icons, or to choose without seeing them (like pressings 1,2,3 etc)?

I dont really want to be influenced by these icons.

Yes, using the keyboard (1,2,3) will select the options without telling you whether it is worth LS/DS points.

[Woobe]

Really nice post this. good to see the community offering mature and polite suggestions for new players.

especially as a lot of players new to this might be new to mmo's purely for their love of bioware or star wars.

My only addition to this is be polite. Its a staple of customer service training world wide, but treat people the way you would like to be treated. It is a social
game so not only playing the game, but playing with others is important and the nicer you are the more likely you are to make friends, and enjoy the game.

[KvanCetre]

As of two betas ago, I would have recommended PVP at low level for some insane gear. As of last weekend, all PVP gear was level 50.

Does anyone know how current build is treating PVP rewards?

[Deleted]

Very nice guide there buddy, just a quick question that you may be able to add/enlighten us on.

1. Is there a limit on how many quests you can undertake at once?
2. While in a group making conversation choices what happens with the situation when for example: Player 1 chooses Darkside Option (i.e kill all people on engineering deck in the first flashpoint) and Player 2 chooses Lightside Option (save everybody)? I understand it goes to a random roll and who wins the roll there option gets selected, but in regards to LS/DS points, does the player that selected the DS option then gain LS points if they save everybody? Or visa versa?

[Shamburger]

Very nice guide there buddy, just a quick question that you may be able to add/enlighten us on.

1. Is there a limit on how many quests you can undertake at once?
2. While in a group making conversation choices what happens with the situation when for example: Player 1 chooses Darkside Option (i.e kill all people on engineering deck in the first flashpoint) and Player 2 chooses Lightside Option (save everybody)? I understand it goes to a random roll and who wins the roll there option gets selected, but in regards to LS/DS points, does the player that selected the DS option then gain LS points if they save everybody? Or visa versa?

1. I never came to a point where I couldn't accept any more quests. But I never had more than 7 or 8 at a time, and I did every quest in teh zone before moving on.
2. You get your points based on whatever option you choose, regardless of who wins the roll. If you wanted to show mercy (you sissy!) but the guy who wanted to kill them won the roll, the person dies. you get your LS point and he gets his DS.

[KvanCetre]

Very nice guide there buddy, just a quick question that you may be able to add/enlighten us on.

1. Is there a limit on how many quests you can undertake at once?
2. While in a group making conversation choices what happens with the situation when for example: Player 1 chooses Darkside Option (i.e kill all people on engineering deck in the first flashpoint) and Player 2 chooses Lightside Option (save everybody)? I understand it goes to a random roll and who wins the roll there option gets selected, but in regards to LS/DS points, does the player that selected the DS option then gain LS points if they save everybody? Or visa versa?

1. I took every single quest I could get my hands on and never hit a limit. Granted, I was usually completing everything before moving on.
2. Players receive what they chose regardless of who wins the roll. Example: I was playing a dark side Consular. My entire team chose to save the crew, I chose to flush them. I won the roll, they still earned lightside points.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys, cleared it up nicely for me, I was hoping for this rather than "DAYM YOU LOST THE ROLL NOW YOUR EVIL"

[vizzle]

A question for anyone - is there tab targeting? I will cry if not.

[Shamburger]

There certainly is tab targeting, and an option to set TAB to always target closest enemy.

[Deleted]

A question for anyone - is there tab targeting? I will cry if not.

Oh i seriously could not play without tab targeting lol

[Coro]

All the questions were answered by others, so I won't waste time and give repetitive answers, as it was all correct and accurate, I will however update it to the guide.

Thank you all for the feedback!

[leetsushi]

You're saying there isn't any PvP level brackets, then how are the battleground levels handled?