SWTOR: Essential Tips and Tricks

Bear wrote:
maxox wrote:

If you have a security key attached to you account the Security Vendor sells a 1hr cooldown stackable Fleet Pass for 1k.

Oh that's HUGE. I thought it was on the same cd as the regular Fleet Pass.

It's a consumable item though, 1000 credits per use. Although, past level 35 or so, that's pretty much chump change.

Not sure if this is common knowledge yet, but you CAN bind Middle-Click to your hotbar. You can also bind Shift + Middle-Click. This is very useful for abilities that you plan on opening up with or, if you're a class that can stealth, toggling it. I personally use it on my Sith Warrior to Force Charge. Keep in mind though that Smugglers and Agents use Middle Click by default to take cover. But as far as I know, Shift + Left-Click isn't bound to anything.

Digital-N-Plus wrote:

Not sure if this is common knowledge yet, but you CAN bind Middle-Click to your hotbar. You can also bind Shift + Middle-Click. This is very useful for abilities that you plan on opening up with or, if you're a class that can stealth, toggling it. I personally use it on my Sith Warrior to Force Charge. Keep in mind though that Smugglers and Agents use Middle Click by default to take cover. But as far as I know, Shift + Left-Click isn't bound to anything.

This I never knew; i will definitely try to rebind it to Stealth though (as cover is stupid ).

Every attack generates threat from all foes, not just on your current target or from healing. When in groups, be minded to who has threat, and always, always let the tank grab it first. That initial wake up call is enough to lay into the strong/elite with a powerfull hit (Spec depending) and not have it go "Hello!" with a wham of its own as it turns from the tank. Interrupt abilities are not bound on the global cooldown counter, this means you can be using an attack, and when a channel hits, or induction, still fire this off. Knockback and knockdowns do count as an interrupt in a pinch if your main one is on cooldown. I see so many folks forgetting that little gem.

Sages/Inquisitors: Your Force Armor is one of the strongest damage blocking attacks you can place on another in a group. By the end of the game, it can easily offer three to four thousand points in damage you don't have to heal, or your healer does. The two healing options you have can mean pinch healing later when the main healer is taxed, don't be afraid to toss in one if it means preventing a death.

Gunslinger/Sniper: Hard cover is always better than portable. The defensive boost it offers shoots over every ranged class's ability to hit you as you hunker behind the defense. The percentage blocks upwards of eighty to ninety percent of incoming fire, this includes specials and channels that normally do not miss.

Tigerbill wrote:
Digital-N-Plus wrote:

Not sure if this is common knowledge yet, but you CAN bind Middle-Click to your hotbar. You can also bind Shift + Middle-Click. This is very useful for abilities that you plan on opening up with or, if you're a class that can stealth, toggling it. I personally use it on my Sith Warrior to Force Charge. Keep in mind though that Smugglers and Agents use Middle Click by default to take cover. But as far as I know, Shift + Left-Click isn't bound to anything.

This I never knew; i will definitely try to rebind it to Stealth though (as cover is stupid ).

Oh no you didn't...

Gunslinger/Sniper: Hard cover is always better than portable. The defensive boost it offers shoots over every ranged class's ability to hit you as you hunker behind the defense. The percentage blocks upwards of eighty to ninety percent of incoming fire, this includes specials and channels that normally do not miss.

Really? I suppose I might have misread the class description, but to me it sounded like one of the benefits of the sniper class over the operative was that they get all the same bonuses when covering in place that they get behind an environment object.

Good to know if that isn't the case, though.

EDIT: Looks like being behind objects has an effect similar to breaking line of sight, indicated by the green shield icon. You can get this bonus whether you just the crazy jump to cover or the more reserved crouch (which deploys the portable cover field giving you a flat 20% ranged dodge bonus regardless of positioning), you just have to manually position yourself if you want to use the more reserved crouch rather than the accidental pull inducing jump.

Here's an essential tip if you wanted to cancel your sub:

http://i.imgur.com/iJvSZ.png

Pretty shameful

Tyagaraja wrote:

Here's an essential tip if you wanted to cancel your sub:

http://i.imgur.com/iJvSZ.png

Pretty shameful

That's because it is not true there is no "cancel sub" button. People have been trolling on the forums big time.

I had something of the opposite problem, which several other accounts apparently had, so I figured I should share.

BioWare apparently did a pretty bad job of actually retaining payment subscription info. They had my payment info itself on file, but my subscription did not recur like it was supposed to. It instead defaulted to "no subscription" sometime before the payment was meant to be taken. Anyone who has their payment renew should probably double check to make sure it is still set to do so.

karmajay wrote:

That's because it is not true there is no "cancel sub" button. People have been trolling on the forums big time.

Seems to be true as far as I can tell. Went to my account page and saw the same issue as described here:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...

Note that the moderator tells them to call BioWare in order to cancel. Whereas the following page does in fact exist:

https://account.swtor.com/user/subsc...

Vargen wrote:

Repeating what I said on my guild forums:

On PvE and Flashpoints: So enemies have several categories... normal, strong, elite, champion, etc. In general it seems that the "weaker" enemies still do significant damage; they're just much easier to kill. You've also got a number of abilities that have extra effects when used on normal enemies, like stuns, bonus damage, etc. This changes the PvE dynamic a bit from what we're used to in WoW. If there's a normal enemy on the edge of a group, I can jump at him with my Marauder and easily lock him down and kill him with a couple of my 30 second cooldowns. That removes his incoming damage, gives the tank time to build aggro on the tougher mobs, and if done properly shouldn't require any significant attention from the healer.

Okay to do this.

Vargen wrote:

The strategy for dealing with "Strong" enemies is a bit more up in the air. In general I can take those out 1 on 1 without too much worry, but he will deal significant damage to me before he dies. That might annoy the healer, especially if they don't realize what you're up to. We'll have to experiment and work out the best way to handle them. Personally I like the idea of DPS splitting up to take out the weaker enemies, then focusing the stronger ones down.

Not okay to do this.

DPS is free'd up to do more off-tanking in this game than WOW, but tackling strong enemies without an expressed request from your tank or healer is not ideal.

Tyagaraja wrote:
karmajay wrote:

That's because it is not true there is no "cancel sub" button. People have been trolling on the forums big time.

Seems to be true as far as I can tell. Went to my account page and saw the same issue as described here:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...

Note that the moderator tells them to call BioWare in order to cancel. Whereas the following page does in fact exist:

https://account.swtor.com/user/subsc...

Well, I just went to my page and it IS there. So either it is an isolated web issue or whatever that some people are seeing, it is no way intentional nor "shameful" on their part.

karmajay wrote:

Well, I just went to my page and it IS there. So either it is an isolated web issue or whatever that some people are seeing, it is no way intentional nor "shameful" on their part.

It was simply fixed since you checked it - http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/19/swtor-unsubscribe-goes-missing-for-some/

kingschiebi wrote:
karmajay wrote:

Well, I just went to my page and it IS there. So either it is an isolated web issue or whatever that some people are seeing, it is no way intentional nor "shameful" on their part.

It was simply fixed since you checked it - http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/19/swtor-unsubscribe-goes-missing-for-some/

Cool. Problem solved

Serengeti wrote:

Reverse engineering consumables like medpacks, stims, etc is a simple linear path. RE the green, get the blue. RE the blue, get the purple.

Reverse engineering equippable items is a bit more complicated as there are 3 paths to get to the particular purple item you want. RE the green and you can get one of 3 blues. Each of those blues can then be RE'd into one of 5 purples for a total of 15 possible purple items. This graph applies to all equippable items:

Useful Chart

For example, if your end goal is +accuracy and +critical, you're looking at a "fervor" prefix on the purple item (bottom right in that pic). To get there you'll need to RE a "critical" prefixed blue item. REing a "redoubt" or "overkill" blue will never result in a "fervor" purple.

Also, the +defense/alacrity item in the left column is impossible to get in-game right now, which is why the prefix is unknown. It's believed that this is a bug.

Thanks for that -- great info!

Ugh, the above seems a bit complicated. I'm still on the fence about SWTOR crafting...my gut tells me to just do the gathering skills and sell stuff on the AH. Then buy whatever I need..

Not really complicated: reverse engineer a green item for a chance to learn a blue version with one of the three basic stats on it. Reverse engineer a blue version with a basic stat on it to get a chance to learn a purple version with that basic stat plus one of five additional secondary stats.

Despite how it may appear I have to say that crafting in SWTOR is far, far easier and less time consuming than any other MMO crafting system I can think of. So if you have any interest at all in crafting and just like making things for your character to use, it's worth giving a shot.

SWG and/or Fallen Earth crafting FTW!

I'm only level 22, but I will say this: SWTOR has the smoothest, least annoying, most useful crafting system I've seen in a long time, and I can actually make useful stuff at all levels. The only issue right now is the 20-25 production hole when everyone is saving for their speeder, and that's pretty minor. The idea of permanent equipment that can preserve your "look" while being upgraded is great.

That said, the above chart is very useful ... because the game does very little to explain the crafting system or to help players understand what to do. It took me a while to figure out which things were useful for me, and there's confusing things like armorings selling for 4x the price of mods despite taking the same level and rarity of materials to make.

Kehama wrote:

Despite how it may appear I have to say that crafting in SWTOR is far, far easier and less time consuming than any other MMO crafting system I can think of. So if you have any interest at all in crafting and just like making things for your character to use, it's worth giving a shot.

I agree, I love the fact that I can queue up a ton of stuff on my inactive companions, then go straight back to questing instead of standing around watching progress bars for 20 minutes.

Aetius wrote:

I'm only level 22, but I will say this: SWTOR has the smoothest, least annoying, most useful crafting system I've seen in a long time, and I can actually make useful stuff at all levels. The only issue right now is the 20-25 production hole when everyone is saving for their speeder, and that's pretty minor. The idea of permanent equipment that can preserve your "look" while being upgraded is great.

That said, the above chart is very useful ... because the game does very little to explain the crafting system or to help players understand what to do. It took me a while to figure out which things were useful for me, and there's confusing things like armorings selling for 4x the price of mods despite taking the same level and rarity of materials to make.

I agree completely. I'm enjoying crafting in this game far more than any other MMO. Allowing companions to get mats for you is only surpassed by the awesomeness of allowing them to craft stuff why you do other things. Plus, the ability to reverse engineer things to learn new recipes and recover mats is simply fantastic.

Since I've only gotten cybertech to 400, how does reverse engineering on armor and weapons work? Do you eventually r/e into orange pieces or are those only found through missions? I'd hate to be sitting there with my armortech grinding purple pieces trying to unlock oranges when that's not even possible.

*edit*
Also, didn't we have a thread about "things to do once you hit 50"? For the life of me I can't seem to find it now. Think ranalin might've put it together.

I put together somethin on stuff to do after 50 shortly after getting 50 and doin some research:

Search for my big post on this page: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Basically daily/weekly pvp quests and pve quests.

Hard Mode Flashpoints

Normal Mode operations

All those come once yer 50.

Normal level 50 flashpoints are great too once you've just hit 50, lot of folks seem to be hitting 50 and not diving right into those....they're good stuff.

There's Directive 7, i think the most challenging, then Battle for Ilum, then The False emperor and now Rise of the Rahkgouls (sp?). All good flashpoints to do in normal difficulty before moving up to hard mode flashpoints.

Getting lucky on pvp champion bag drops and getting a couple or few pieces of good champion pvp gear can help a lot for moving into hard mode flashpoints.

I'm not 100% sure how reverse engineering works for other than artificer but as artificier i get some orange recipes straight from the vendor for light sabers...and green blue purple is the limit of those items. purple is the highest so i would doubt it would become an orange when reversed...but then i don't actually know that for sure for other than artificer.

Kehama wrote:

Since I've only gotten cybertech to 400, how does reverse engineering on armor and weapons work?

See the chart I posted. That applies to all crafted equippable items, armor and weapons included.

Kehama wrote:

I'd hate to be sitting there with my armortech grinding purple pieces trying to unlock oranges when that's not even possible.

Purple is the max for reverse engineering. You cannot discover an orange schematic through reverse engineering.

Some orange items currently in the game can be reverse engineered, but you'll never learn a new schematic from doing so and you'll only get a few materials back. The general consensus is that reverse engineerable oranges are a bug. So don't RE orange items.

Reverse engineering consumables like medpacks, stims, etc is a simple linear path. RE the green, get the blue. RE the blue, get the purple.

Reverse engineering equippable items is a bit more complicated as there are 3 paths to get to the particular purple item you want. RE the green and you can get one of 3 blues. Each of those blues can then be RE'd into one of 5 purples for a total of 15 possible purple items. This graph applies to all equippable items:

IMAGE(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q133/serengeti000/re_chart.jpg)

For example, if your end goal is +accuracy and +critical, you're looking at a "fervor" prefix on the purple item (bottom right in that pic). To get there you'll need to RE a "critical" prefixed blue item. REing a "redoubt" or "overkill" blue will never result in a "fervor" purple.

Also, the +defense/alacrity item in the left column is impossible to get in-game right now, which is why the prefix is unknown. It's believed that this is a bug.

Edit: Huge reverse engineering post on the official forums with a lot of in-depth explanations for those who are interested.

Aetius wrote:

It took me a while to figure out which things were useful for me, and there's confusing things like armorings selling for 4x the price of mods despite taking the same level and rarity of materials to make.

Modification commendation vendors sell blue rarity Armoring for 7 commendations. The same level mod only costs 2 commendations. These items are Bind on Equip, meaning you can buy a mod with 2 commendations and turn around and sell it on the GTN/mail it to an alt/guildmate.

That's the core reason why armorings tend to have higher prices on the GTN.

The other part that has an impact is that you want the highest level armoring you can get for your orange armor, since the armoring is the part that determines the armor value for that orange armor (hilts/barrels determine the damage value for weapons). The mod simply adds some stats, and you can get by with mods that aren't the highest level you can use. So as item modifications go, armoring/hilt/barrels will probably be valued higher by most players, and therefore people will tend to charge more for them.

Hypatian wrote:

Not really complicated: reverse engineer a green item for a very small chance to learn a blue version with one of the three basic stats on it. Reverse engineer a blue version with a basic stat on it to get a very damn small chance to learn a purple version with that basic stat plus one of five additional secondary stats.

FTFY

Sometimes the RNG is a royal pain, and sometimes its worse. I have RE'd tons of items trying for blue schematics, and even more trying for purple schematics. Doing Biochem on my main, I wanted to get those blues and purples every few levels, so I ended up wasting tons of money sending companions on missions to get more mats. The mats you can harvest in the field tend to be a grade lower than what you need.

There are some odd gaps in the mats, for example, while one of the two bioanalysis samples for a given grade might get used a lot, the other won't, so I end up always short of one but have extra stacks of the other, yet the missions to get them are random as to which of the samples it brings back. Same with the compounds. The blue crafting materials are pretty easy to get, sending a companion out to do a Diplomacy medical supplies mission always gets at least some of the blue crafting mats, and there is only one kind per grade. The purples, bleh, for biochem it was not bad, but for any other crafting its been a pain in the ass, and that's with 400 slicing to get some of the purple missions. This is why I don't bother making purples to sell on the GTN, people literally won't pay the materials cost. At least people are willing to pay reasonable prices for green items with augment slots, or for blues. Blues with augment slots would be a gold mine, except they tend to be so rare that I mostly use them myself.

So, if you want to try crafting, go for it. Read the codex, get the right set of skills, and only skill up using green recipes, and its not bad as far as the time/effort/money spent on it. Its trying for blue and purple recipes that will turn it into a crazy sink.

Eh. I dunno about bio (which doesn't count for this, anyway, since it's one of the linear ones), but for cybertech and armormech, I think the chance may be 20% or higher to get a blue schematic from a green RE. It's certainly not "very small".

Armormech on my L35 trooper. Cybertech on my L30 sniper. Artificing on my L15 JC. All in the 250 to 350+ range, only hit 400 in Biochem. Only tried armstech in beta, too briefly to count for this.

Based on waaaaay too many failed RE attempts, I'll stand by my statement. RNG can and will be a royal pain, but this has been too painful, its certainly not as high as 20%. I literally could not depend on getting a blue schematic before outleveling it, i.e., I could use a L13 armor plate, I'd start working on blue schematic for L15 armor plates, and by the time I was using L17 armor plates, I likely did not have the blue schematic I wanted. Admittedly, I'd be working on getting all 4 of the basic plates (cunning, strength, willpower and aim), and I'd probably have at least one of the four, but only in one grade did I get all 4 plates, and normally I wouldn't get both cunning and aim (sniper used the cunning, the companion used aim). And I never got all 4 blue plates and all 4 blue mods in the same grade. Same results, basically, for hilts, enhancements, crystals, heavy and medium armor, and earpieces. Really erratic distribution on the RE successes.

With the Biochem implants I had a few grades where I didn't get any blues, and a few grades where I got multiple blues and a purple or two. Been trying and failing to get a L45 purple implant for the last 5 levels, and this is with constantly sending out companions to gather mats and making the implants every time I have the mats. One of my companions has a crit bonus on bioanalysis, and another has a crit bonus on biochem. Fortunately, I was getting 6 to 9k a shot on the GTN when selling blue implants, or implants with augs, which helped finance the extensive crafting testing I was doing. That and lots of experience in working the auction house, you can always find niches and people selling too low and buying too high.

End result of all that testing is my recommendation to stick with green schematics while leveling up crafting, don't worry about trying for blue or purple schematics while leveling your character. Not saying don't do it, REing for mats is good, but don't worry about chasing those blue/purple schematics, just be happy with the few you accidentally get. Between questing rewards and commendations, you will get enough blue items to be set for gear while leveling. At 50, dunno, I hit 45 as my highest.

***

On the subject of augment slots and orange armor, I've personally never seen it. I've crafted maybe 100 orange armor pieces (heavy and medium, mostly pants for sale on the GTN) and never gotten an augment on orange armor, and never seen one for sale on the GTN. So, despite some SWTOR forum claims to the contrary, I personally don't think it happens. But, man, would I charge through the roof if I did get one.