Ultimate SWTOR 7.0 Beginners Guide for new players (2024)

Ultimate SWTOR Beginners Guide to aid you from character creation, through your first steps all the way to reaching level cap and EndGame!

The guide is up-to-date for Patch 7.5

This Guide is for Beginner players and, perhaps, some returning veterans who want to catch up with what has changed and how. This article is not a strict “You must Follow Me” order due to the vast number of opportunities you have available before you, but you should use it as a frame to build on and move forward.

Integrated into this guide you will find a number of videos as well. You do not need to watch all of them. Consider them as bonus addition to expand and upgrade your knowledge of what you are reading about.

Let’s start!

Character Creation

Everything starts with choosing the right SWTOR server to start your new character on. There are currently six available servers and they differ mostly by physical location and language.

Luckily for you, the choices you make during the initial character creation process are for the most part editable later on in the game. You can do that via the Design Center.

Initial Character Creation Settings

As any self-respecting MMORPG, Star Wars The Old Republic also offers extensive modifications and customizations to your own character.

Starting from Level 1 or Higher

Based on your account status, you will have a different number of character slots per server available. When you begin the character creation, the first thing you will see are the following options:

• Start a NEW Character – begin your adventure from the very beginning of the game, at level 1 with all stories unlocked (F2P limitations still apply!) and available for you to explore.
• Commander’s Token – a Cartel Market (SWTOR’s InGame store) that allows you to create a new character lvl 70 on a new slot. This token does not grant access to content that you have not yet unlocked. It just gives you the character.
  • Start Onslaught right away with a level 70 character. If you start Onslaught, know that some basic default decisions from previous storylines will be made for you.
• Get immediately to lvl 70 via the Master’s Datacron token – allows any existing character between lvl 1 and 69 to be immediately boosted to lvl 70. The token is available for purchase via the InGame Cartel Store for Cartel Coins or the Galactic Trade Network for Credits.

The next step is the actual character creation. The first decision here is whether you want to play for the Sith Empire or The Republic.

Each faction offers 8 unique classes with 3 disciplines each.Some classes have only one role (DPS), while others can be DPS and Heals or DPS and Tanks.

What you choose, depends heavily on your preferred style of play most of all. The classes and roles on both sides are identical in terms of performance, but have different class stories, missions, animations, gear and so on.

Now we arrive at the best part – customizing your appearance and choosing a name for your Star Wars Hero-To-Be.

What Class to Choose

There are 4 basic classes for the Republic and 4 for the Empire. Each one has a personal unique story for you to experience that is 100% free. All Basic classes have 2 advanced classes each. With the release of Game Update 7.0 BioWare renamed the “advanced classes” to “Combat Styles”.

You must choose your Combat Style when you start the game. This choice is permanent. Each Combat Style has 3 different combat proficiency options, the so called Disciplines.

Some classes can do damage and heal, others can do damage and tank, while some classes can only be damage dealers. Disciplines can be switched at any time during gameplay (except while in Combat).

Another innovation from 7.0 is that players are able to choose a second Combat Style now and literally play two characters in one.

I invite you to take a look at mySWTOR Beginner Guide to all Classes and Disciplines. It is an article aimed at the very new toSWTORand MMO players and will help you better understand the setting of the game, what Disciplines are in general, which style is best for you.

I’ve expanded this section into a stand-alone guide: How to create a new character in SWTOR. If you need more details and want to learn which tokens you should use when to boost your characters, I have a lot of helpful tips for you there.

What is the Appearance Designer

The Appearance designer allows you to modify the appearance of your character in a number of ways, including Species, Body Type, Head, Scars, Skin Color and many more.

It is important to know, though, all of these will cost you real life money to perform. While initial character creation is 100% free, if you want to modify the physical appearance of your character at the Appearance Designer, you will have to pay with Cartel Coins.

The Appearance Designer is available at the Cartel Bazaar on the Fleet. You can also purchase and install one in your own Galactic Stronghold.

You can learn more about how the Appearance Designer works in SWTOR by reading my dedicated guide on that topic.

What is the Outfit Designer

From the moment you create your character, you will want it to look cool. This is just inevitable. Looking cool comes not just from your choice of species, hair and complexion, but mostly from the Outfits!

In the Character Sheet you have an opportunity to dress up your character in a number of different outfits and switch them with the click of a button.

On the top of the panel you will see a few tabs – the first one is your actual gear with the stats you want for your character. Next is the Outfitter tab – here you can choose how your character will look like without their appearance to have any effect on their performance in combat. There are a lot of outfit slots you can predefined, but you will have to unlock each additional one if you want multiple choices.

I’ve expanded this topic into a separate guide detailing the Gear vs Outfit differences in SWTOR and explaining how each one of them works in conjunction with the other to allow you to have the perfect-looking and at the same time strongest possible character.

User Interface, Menus and Keybinds

Like any classic MMO game, SWTOR also relies on toolbars, HP bars and various types of windows and menus to provide your character with everything he or she might need to progress and function. Please, keep in mind that this is not an in-depth overview.

It would take a whole another article to describe every little detail about the UI and Keybinds. Instead, I will rely that you have at least the very basic of experience with MMO or MOBA games. This should be enough.

User Interface (UI)

In this section I’ll focus mostly on the UI. The UI are all the menus, toolbars and windows you see and/or open manually on your screen. Te most important parts are the HP Bars with your and your target’s Avatar and the Toolbars with your active abilities. Below you can see a couple of screenshots of the Default UI the game launches with.

Here is what each of the numbers represent:

1. Your Character’s Avatar.
2. Your Target’s Avatar.
3. Your Buffs (same appear on the right side for your target).
4. Your Debuffs (same appear on the right side for your target).
5. HP and Resource Bars – showing how much life you have left (red one) and what resources you have.
6. The + button opens the UI Edit menu, from here you can switch to another design or create your own.
7. XP Bar, showing your progress towards the next level (also shows your Legacy XP and Renown XP at lvl cap)

Now, let me explain very briefly some of the terms I used above. Some classes rely on specific resource (power/mana/etc) that has to be built before they can use some of their special abilities. This is what the bar under the red HP bar is for. Mine is currently empty on this image above. Some classes build resources, while others deplete and have to recharge.

An important part of the HUD is the minimap as well as the big overlay map. On the minimap you can see your current position quick and easy together with all kinds of useful information, such as nearby vendors locations, mail boxes, trainers and so on.

You have access to absolutely all menus via the main menu bar, located by default at the top middle of the screen (screenshot to the right of this text).

The UI can be customized and all of its parts can be moved, re-scaled and edited separately. If you are interested to try something more advanced and EndGame friendly later on, check out my own Custom UI Setups.

I have expanded this section into a stand-alone article. The massive SWTOR User Interface Guide is designed to help new players and returning veterans flatten the learning curve and get into the loop as fast as possible.

Keybinding vs Mouse Clicking

This small segment here is mostly personal opinion and what I suggest, is not 100%% what you might think or want to do while you enjoy your game. Please, take this under consideration, while you read.

Keybinding is a key aspect to mastering the game, even though clicking with the mouse is also perfectly fine if you don’t press yourself to become a hardcore player. Some roles allow for clicking with your mouse, but it is generally more time consuming and provokes proper UI elements placement.

For example, when you heal using only your mouse to activate abilities, you would want all of your main toolbars to be as close to the Group Frame as possible.I suggest using of groups of abilities or clusters. This allows you to have visually easy access and knowledge of what is located where.

If you decide to go for Keybinding, then the more keys on your keyboard (and mouse) you program, the better. Start off lightly with only the main abilities only and keep mapping new abilities and features as you gain experience with the game and progress towards EndGame.

This segment was included here, because I personally believe it is detrimental for your success to learn keybinding as early as possible, provided, of course, you are starting off with a clear mind and don’t come to the game with already established habits from another MMO.

I have a great In-Depth video overview and Tutorial for Keybinding in SWTOR:

SWTOR Currencies

There are 2 universal currencies InGame that you will be using all the time, Credits and Cartel Coins. The rest of the Currencies are for the EndGame in SWTOR. You may want to check back on this section of the guide later on when you are close to reaching level cap. You can track all of your currencies from the Currency Tab in your Inventory.

Basic Currencies

There are several in-game currencies that you need to know about from the very beginning. Here are their names along with a short description of which one does what:

Credits

The most basic currency in Star Wars The Old Republic. Earned by looting defeated enemies, as mission rewards and from selling items on the Galactic Trade Network.

Cartel Coins

The Cartel Coins are the currency you can purchase with real life money or earn in very scommamall amounts through gameplay (mainly by completing achievements InGame). Cartel Coins are used to purchase items from the InGame Cartel Store or to unlock various Legacy Perks for your characters and Legacy.

EndGame Currencies

The following currencies will be used to gear up your character with EndGame gear and in some cases to outfit them with more expensive and rare clothes, armor and/or weapons. Check out the Vendors section at the end of this guide for more info on that topic.

Tech Fragments

This is the new currency introduced in Update 6.0 Onslaught that you will be using to purchase primarily gear peaces, but a few other things as well. It is an EndGame currency and can be earned by simply playing the game – as reward from missions, tasks, conquest and more.

On the Republic and Empire Fleet (the main hub for each faction) you will find vendors that will be willing to trade you some Spoils of War goodies in exchange for Tech Fragments (and often Credits too).

Misc Currencies

The list below is not a complete list of all available currencies. Just a highlight of the most popular and sustainable ones.

Iokath Power Shards

Earned and used in the Iokath Daily Area to purchase various items. If you want to learn more, take a look at my in-depth guide to Iokath Daily Missions Guide.

Fleet Commendations

Can be used to purchase reward items from the Fleet Commendations vendor, or upgrades for your personal starship from the Starship Upgrades vendor. Both vendors can be found near the Galactic Trade Market on the Fleet.

Event Currencies

These are special tokens you may earn during a world event, such as the Nightlife‘s Casino Chip tokens.

We have an in-depth guide to all currencies in SWTOR. Take a look to learn more about each one of them, how to obtain them and recommendations on how to spend them wisely!

Leveling up in SWTOR

There are a number of ways for you to level up your character. It is easiest and quickest during a special XP-Boost Event, such as 2XP Event or the Double Rewards Events.

To learn when these might be available, check the Events Monthly Schedule. For regular gameplay activities outside of these events, here are the 3 most popular and productive ways to enjoy the game and level up your character from 1 to level cap.

Before you begin your adventure, take a look at the completeStar Wars The Old Republic Timeline of Events Guide. It will help you learn where and when is the game situated and what are the reasons for many of the InGame stories and events to happen.

If you decide to put aside the leveling process and prefer to focus on becoming the best dogfight pilot in the universe, then thisSWTOR Galactic Starfighter Guide for Beginnersis just what you need!

LevelingStrategies

Today leveling in SWTOR is incredibly easy and fast. If you don’t think so, you probably started your adventure recently and don’t remember “the struggles” players had to endure, such as Sprint at lvl 14, Speeder at lvl 25, No XP Stims, No Legacy Perks, No free Gear, No Level Sync and more and more.

There are a few fast enough ways for you to progress through the levels. I’ll describe below some of them and tell you which are suggested or not and also why.

Subscriber vs Non-Subscriber while Leveling

If you consider yourself a very casual player and don’t care how long it will take you to get to level cap, by all means play the game in its Free to Play (F2P) mode or purchase something small to get your status upgraded to Preferred. F2P has a ton of limitations in the leveling part as well as the EndGame aspect of SWTOR.

Game Update 6.0 allowed Free-to-play players to gain access to SWTOR’s first two expansions for free. Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan are 100% free for everyone now. This raised the level cap for F2P to 60.

However, while leveling the restrictions aren’t that severe. If you wish to keep playing past level 60, though, you will need to subscribe for 1 month. This will grant you access to all the story content from lvl 51 to the current latest patch.

Check out the extended Guide on How to Level Up in SWTOR to learn more about the different paths that the game offers you.

Leveling via Class Story Missions

Is the best way to go for. It’s not the fastest, but will show you amazing stories told through your own eyes and decisions with tons of cinematic cutscenes. The Character Story is mostly a solo experience.

The game allows you to group up, but for the most part it’s about you doing your missions and your buddy doing theirs. The locations are often different and all mobs you face are easy to take down, bringing a 2nd player doesn’t really speed things up. The stories are also meant to be experienced solo.

Watch all those long cinematics, enjoy your interaction with the rest of the world around and develop your own adventure the way you want it to be (with the obvious choice limitations… this is an MMO after all :P)

(By Class Story Missions I focus here on a Subscriber player going only after the personal and unique to their class “purple” missions. For non-subscribers planetary story arks would be a must too, because the players don’t receive extra XP boosts and perks)

Leveling through Heroics

Is probably the best and most boring way to progress towards level cap. If you have a group of friends, it sure is effective and quick, but may seriously impact the entertainment value of the game. Using the Heroics Terminal on the Fleet will speed up the farming process immensely.

Heroics are 2 or 4-man group quests, but most of them can be soloed. These missions can be picked up on the various planets they occur or via the Activities Window. Based on what level your character is, different missions will be visible in both the Group and Solo Tabs.

Leveling through Flashpoints and/or Warzones

Is very entertaining and interesting, especially if you have a group. It’s fast enough, though slower than farming Heroics. For this method to work nicely, though, you would need up to 3 friends with suitable classes to be able to jump from Flashpoint to the next one.

For Warzones the balance of the group is less important, because the teams are 8v8 or 4v4 and never perfectly balanced anyway, so lacking a tank or a healer is far less important there compared to a Flashpoint.

During the PvP matches, each player will be bolstered, so no need to think about what gear you have.

My personal recommendation is to NOT jump into Warzones as soon as they become available. At the very early levels in the lowest bracket, players are lacking abilities.

I don’t mean that this important skill or that fantastic passive is missing, no. I mean literally lacking abilities to use.

It’s true that you will be stuck with the same abilities in PvE as well, but in PvP the lack of abilities is much more noticeable, especially if you have PvP experience from another game before SWTOR.

Some of the Flashpoints have solo mode. These are the Flashpoints directly related to the story of the game. You can run them with just your companion.

Flashpoints can be soloed or completed with up to 4 players or less + companions. They are available on the Fleet from various NPCs as well as on each planet they are related to. Warzones are 8v8 or 4v4 group PvP instanced events.The easiest way to get to a Flashpoint or Warzone is via the Activities Window.

Leveling with Mixed Activities

By far the best and quickest way to level up. If you have a group, run Flashpoints, if you are playing solo, go for the Story Missioins, if you have a buddy or two, join for a few Warzones. The best productivity and results here is achieved by completing all of your Daily Quests (found on the Fleet) for PvP and Flashpoints and if you still have time left to play the same day, go for your personal story.

Story Progression Order

Here is an infographic with all Story Progression and events in their appropriate order from the start of the game. It’s a bit outdated, but is so nicely presented and easy to use without zooming in and out like crazy that I decided to keep it for the 6.0 update of this article as well.

Thi was created by L.Melki for Game Update 3.0. This is also currently the point where the game stops being Free-to-play. If you want to continue leveling and progressing further, you will need to pay at least one monthly subscription, which will unlock all new story content and bind it to your account.

Note that one month subscription unlocks only the content released up to the point where you subscription expires. After that you will keep your free access to the already released story content to level up any new characters you want to, but you will not have access to newer story content locked behind a subscription.

Another note – not all story content is locked behind a subscription, but the major releases such as expansions are.

After the events onYavin 4 and Ziost, you havelinear story chaptersnumbered from 1 to 16 – Knights of the Fallen Empire (update 4.0) and Game Update 5.0 continued with nine more chapters – Knights of the Eternal Throne.

Your choices do have consequences, but these 25 chapters are strictly a solo experience and can be repeated as many times as you want. However, only the choices from your first playthrough on each character will count for the future.

After KOTET the story continued with The War for Iokath, which is also known as the “Theron story arc” among the community. It takes you later through three planets via new Story Flashpoints – Umbara, Copero and Nathema.

Update 5.10 Jedi Under Siege begins a new chapter and a new story for your character. The events take you to the ancient Jedi world of Ossus, where you meet a number of old and new friends and foes.

Below is an infographic that shows the full story progression up until the Onslaught prelude. It’s created by user Alortania.

Gear for Leveling

What are Gear Mods and How to Use Them

During this guide I am mentioning several times the use of Orange Shells and Mods. Here is a brief description of what these things actually do for you and how to get them:

Orange Shells

Orange Shells gear pieces can be rewards from missions, purchased at vendors or from GTN, as well as bought for real-life money from the Cartel Market. These represent gear pieces with 3 or 4 empty slots, where you can put mods to enhance your character stats.

Mods for your Gear

Can be looted as a random drop from kills, rewards from missions, crafted, purchased from vendors or at GTN for credits and more. There are 4 different types of mods, each one giving you different stats bonuses for your character – Armoring, Mod, Enhancement and Augment.

While leveling, stop by the Supplies Section on the Fleet and check out the vendors there. They sell mods cheap and are your best resource for proper gear while you are enjoying the story of the game. You can change the mods in your gear at an Item Modification Station. You can use one for free on the Fleet, in the Supplies Section or you can purchase one ofr your own Stronghold.

Crafting and Augmenting

Don’t ever bother crafting gear while leveling or augmenting any of your armor pieces. It’s expensive for a new player and absolutely pointless. Every 4 or 8 levels stop by the Fleet Mods Vendors and update the mods in your Shells. That’s right.

Get orange empty shells for all of your armor slots (preferably Legacy Bound) and only change the mods from time to time. The stats you are aiming for (only while leveling!) are Crit, Power and Mastery. Don’t bother with Accuracy and never ever go the Endurance way.

In fact, you will usually be far above the quest’s or planet’s original level, which means Level Sync will be applied to you. If this happens, you don’t need to even change mods in your armor and weapons. Learn more about Level Sync and how it works from my Guide onHow Level Sync Worksvideo. In the 2nd half of this guide you can learn more about Augmenting your Gear for EndGame

We have an additional guide to Fitted Gear in SWTOR, which was released with Game Update 7.4.1. That guide also goes more in-depth with recommendations on how to gear while leveling.

Character Stats and their meaning

There are a lot of different stats your character can improve upon. I believe it is wrong to focus on all of them early on. It is important to learn the base ones first and how they affect your character’s performance.

Mastery
Mastery is an attribute that increases the aptitude in combat and was introduced with Knights of the Fallen Empire. All former primary attributes, Aim, Cunning, Strength, and Willpower, are now Mastery.

Power
The Power attribute increases the strength of all your attacks whether they be force attacks, non-force attacks, or even Melee Attacks. It is a powerful stat but does not appear often.

Crit
Increases your likelihood to get critical hits with every type of ability.

Accuracy
Higher Accuracy Rating increases your chance to hit with attacks. Once you reach the hit cap, accuracy starts reducing enemy armor or resistance.

Alacrity
Alacrity rating is a haste effect. It reduces the length of channeled abilities and reduces the cooldowns of abilities that have activation times longer than 1.5 seconds. It does not affect abilities that utilize the default 1.5 second Global Cool-Down, such as instant abilities.

Armor
Armor Rating (AR) or Armor is a character statistic that reduces Energy Damage and Kinetic Damage from a damage attack that hits a target. This should not be confused with the armor Rating value assigned to an individual item. The Armor Rating is determined by adding up the Armor values, not the Rating value, from all the equipped items on the character.

Absorption
Increases the strength of your shield, allowing it to absorb more damage.

Defense Rating
Increases the strength of your shield, allowing it to absorb more damage.

Shield
Increases the chance for your shield to become active during an attack.

Each item has Rating and quality tier. They are both clearly stated on the very top of the item’s pop-up info window. The higher these are, the best stats this item will provide you with.

Companions

During the original class storylines, a few characters will be able to come aboard and travel with you through the Galaxy. Each of these Companions will have their own individual storylines that you can choose to explore through conversations.

As you explore their background you’ll learn more about where they came from, meet their own friends and family, and even battle together against their own personal enemies. There are also a few special Companions to unlock through various Missions and rewards InGame.

They will be featured in the Companions Tab and you will be able to level up the influence you have on them (a special stat).

This paragraph contains a minor story spoiler! After a certain point in the story most of your current companions will become lost. Following the events of Knights of the Fallen Empire you will have to find, gather and re-discover most of your companions along with new ones. To find out how to recruit them back, check the SWTOR Companions Status List I keep updated frequently.

Upgrading and Outfitting Companions

After you gather your Companions and begin adventuring around the galaxy, you might find that some Companions could use a new look or need new equipment to match their unique personality and style.

While they are effective and capable fighters in battle no matter the gear, there are a variety of options to change everything from armor and weapons to their physical appearance.

Many Companions will give you the option of choosing their armor and weapons, assuming they have the required skills to do so. To change their equipment, open of the Character Sheet in-game can click on the companion tab. You can then drag and drop any equipment from your inventory into the appropriate equipment slot.

Companion Vendors are scattered throughout the galaxy and will have tokens that will change the physical appearance of certain Companions. These changes could be different paint jobs for droids or even changing the race and hairstyle of humanoid Companions.

You can upgrade your companion’s skills and performance by giving them gifts or sending them on crew skill missions. Gifts can be obtained as random loot, mission rewards or purchased from a special vendor on the Fleet – in the Galactic Trade Market section.

Below is a list of what your companions would LOVE and FAVORITE to have as a gift from you.

Original source for this chart can be found here.

Best Choice of a Companion FOR YOU

My personal recommendations are to use a Healing companion if you play a DPS character and DPS companion if you play as a Healer or Tank. There is no gearing up companions any more (a note for the returning veterans :P). They all level up together with you. It may help speed your gameplay if you opt the disable your companion’s CC channel ability (it’s always the last one in their bar).

Remember, this said here, just like everything on the whole page, is a suggestion. If you prefer to have a DPS companion to your DPS character, that’s perfectly fine. For good or evil the leveling process is so easy, that almost anything and everything is fine.

Crew Skills and Crafting Professions

Until you get a small army of alts on your side or good friends to provide you with resources, you can forget about being even remotely close to self sufficient in Crafting and Crew Skills Management. With that said, there are a couple of ways for you to make a good profit from picking the right Crew Skill for the right leveling and EndGame priority.

Below you will find all of the Crew Skills ordered by type and with a brief lore-friendly description.

Gathering Skills Overview

Archaeology
The ability to seek out imbued items like Lightsaber crystals and ancient artifacts and is best combined with Artifice or Synthweaving.

Bioanalysis
The practice of collecting genetic material from creatures and plants and is best combined with Biochem.

Scavenging
The art of recovering useful materials and parts from old or damaged technology, and the items get from Scavenging are very useful for Armormech , Cybertech and Armstech.

Slicing
A skill in accessing secured computer systems and lockboxes to acquire valuable data and rare schematics. And is by far the best money making skill and can be used with Cybertech.

Crafting Skills Overview

Armormech
The ability to work with hard metals and electronic shielding to construct all types of personal armor

Armstech
The skill of constructing blasters, blaster rifles and upgrades

Artifice
The delicate work of constructing Jedi and Sith artifacts

Biochem
The engineering of performance-enhancing chemical serums and biological implants

Cybertech
The technical expertise to construct gadgets and components for Droids and high-tech armors

Synthweaving
The art of creating lighter outfits and armors that are imbued with Force qualities

Mission Skills Overview

Diplomacy
The art of conducting and managing negotiation

Investigation
The skill of examining evidence and following clues to discover valuable secrets

Treasure Hunting
The ability to track down and recover valuable items by investigating a series of clues

Underworld Trading
Expertise in the trading of illegal goods and services

The Best Crew Skills

My personal favorite combination is the Biochem + Bioanalysis + Diplomacy. This combo will grant you decent amount of Stims, Adrenals and even Implants (not that crafting gear is useful these days, but still…).

Another possible approach is to pick up 3 gathering skills. If you want to prepare for the future with crafting materials, go for Bioanalysis, Archeology and Scavenging. I only recommend this if you choose to level via Main Class Story Missoins. Doing Flashpoints and/or PvP exclusively will isolate you from the planets, where these resources can be found.

Deconstructing Items

Deconstructing an item serves 2 purposes:

• To learn a higher tier of a schematic – learning the higher tier schematic for an item is not guaranteed. It depends on the influence of your companion, that is tasked with the job.
• To get materials you need for something else – Some times you will craft more items than you need to use, other times you might need to craft specific items that you want to RE in order to get a special crafting material that cannot be found anywhere else in the game.

In the top left corner of your Inventory there is a little icon/button that looks like a dismantled lightsaber hilt. Clicking it with the left mouse button will open up a new smaller window where you can place all items that you want to Deconstruct.

When you are done, a number of crafting materials and Tech Fragments will be placed in your inventory.If the item you want to Deconstruct can yield a better schematic, it will be written in the pop-up description window.

If the item can be researched, it may yield a higher tier of the schematic (better item of the same type, with higher stats). If not, you will still get the crafting materials, but nothing else.

To learn more on this topic, consult the SWTOR Crew Skills and Crafting Guide.

Gearing up for EndGame

Congratulations, my friend! You are done with all the low level content and are “ready to take your first steps into a larger world”. The EndGame is just around the corner. First, there are a few things you have to consider in terms of final preparations.

Preparations

It is important to note that this beginners friendly guide leaves a lot of details untold and unexplained. If I attempt to throw all of the available information at once, you will likely feel completely lost.

Subscriber vs Non-Subscriber in EndGame

On this topic I will be very short and exact. If you want to play the EndGame, you need to be a Subscriber. There is just no way around it. Most of the content is blocked for Preferred and F2P players and the parts that aren’t completely locked, are very severely limited.

Legacy Bound Gear

First, make sure you are using a Legacy Bound “orange” gear shells where you would put all of your mods and augments. If you don’t like the look of whatever Legacy Set is available to you at the moment, you can always correct your appearance with the use of SWTOR’s Appearance Designer Tool.

Onslaught and Update 6.0 made all the gear items and mods Legacy bound. This means that you can now transfer both the right side and the left side of your character’s equipment freele by mail.

Augmenting your gear

Augmenting your gear at level cap will grant you the best possible profit at the lowest cost. Augments are also divided by tiers and levels, that is why I suggested you to keep away from augmenting your gear before reaching level cap.

The eternal questions “What Augments I need?” and“Which Augments are best for my class?” cannot be answered with a constant. There are far too many variables included, most important of which is your current gear and stats balance.

I have a number of Class Guides with ideal stats for each tier of gear. You can use these guidelines to prepare yourself for the EndGame. While striving to reach the recommended values, consider crafting or purchasing more augments of each type. This will allow you to switch them around after you acquire a new piece of gear.

If your stats are balanced and you acquire a new accuracy-heavy earpiece that will throw your Accuracy stat above 110%, swap out 1-2 Accuracy Augments with Crit/Alacrity ones and balance out your stats again to be as close as the suggested idea values according to your class and role.

I have expanded on the topic of Augments in SWTOR and their importance on a separate in-depth guide.

Obtaining EndGame Gear

This is the longest and by far the most fun (or it could be annoying, based on your own set of mind and goals) part for any EndGame raider. How to start? Simple! I mean it’s not simple to learn where, what, how. I mean that you should start simple. Don’t jump right into the deep waters.

At level 80 is when you start the true EndGame in SWTOR 7.0. There is a variety of tiers of gear pieces to progress through to reach the top Item Rating (IR) gear.

Item Rating is an internal game system that determines how powerful a gear piece or a gear mod is compared to the rest of the currently available gear pieces and sets in the game. It attaches a numeric value to each piece, based on its rarity and stats provided by it.

For an in-depth detailing of how SWTOR EndGame Gearing works, what gear to go for, how to get it and why, consult with the guide linked here.

Let’s take a look at the possible ways for you to gear up:

Gearing from PvE

If you have chosen the leveling method involving Flashpoints, you have done some or all of them already in their story mode (Bioware calls it Veteran Mode now). This will allow you to have a smoother and easier transition to Hard Mode (Master Mode after 5.0). Unless you have previous experience with SWTOR or at least another MMO, I suggest you start with the easier content first – Veteran Mode Flashpoints and Story Mode Uprisings as well as Story Mode Operations.

Dailies Heroics, Uprisings, Flashpoints

This is actually valid for both PvP and PvE. Running Warzones, Heroics, Flashpoints and Uprisings rewards you with a rather random loot, which is still tied to your class and spec. If you go through the content in its higher difficulty modes, you will earn better loot drops at a faster pace, but higher difficulty often equals to higher challenge and requires more player experience and better gear.
I have quite a few guides on Daily Areas, Uprisings and Flashpoints.

Operations

By far the best method for gearing up. Operations are pretty easy in Story Mode. The only real challenge could be if you play as a tank, because someone would have to explain to you the basic boss mechanics before each encounter.

However, this won’t take long and in most cases, you will be able to pick things up on the move (Have I said mechanics in SM are easy and simple? Too many times already? Ok, this will be the last!), even without someone advising you.

For maximum effect, be sure to always have the Weekly Quest for the Operation you are about to run (pick it up on the Fleet), and try to look for groups to do the daily operation on the Group Finder for an extra reward. However, make a note that the Group Finder for Operations is mostly empty and nobody queues there on their own. Teams are usually formed via General (or private) chats on the Fleets and once all slots are filled, the whole group enters together.

Check out my list of all SWTOR operations ordered by Difficulty.

Galactic Conquest – The Conquest gear is probably the easiest to obtain and most versatile for casual players to aim for.

Gearing from PvP

If you decide to only participate in Warzones and Arenas, that’s perfectly fine. Remind yourself to visit the PvP Quest Terminal on the Fleet and pick up the Daily and Weekly quests every time they reset (weekly quests reset on Tuesday). Players participating in Warzones receive a bolster. This is a buff to balance (but not absolutely equally) geared players and newcomers.

Check out the SWTOR PvP EndGame Guide to learn everything about the game modes available and how to prepare for the competitive gameplay environment in the game!

Gearing Priority

I’ve said in the beginning already that for the most part – it’s hard or impossible to predict which gear piece you will obtain next.

For the most part the gearing is going to be random. You will have to prioritize the IR (Item Rating) of each gear item or mod you obtain above the stats and bonuses it provides.

When the vertical progression ends, the horizontal one begins. With Update 6.0 BioWare added a large variety of gear pieces, armor sets and set bonuses. The inclusion of Tactical Items and Legendary Items makes balancing and optimizing your gear harder and slower.

The vertical progression is fairly short, but the horizontal one will take a lot of both your gameplay time and your money.

The most important items for a DPS and Healing roles are always the main hand and off-hand. If you can, do your best to obtain them first. They are also usually the most expensive.

The rest gear pieces provide equal stats improvement… except the Wrists and Belt. They have 1 mod slot less, which means they provide less total number of stats. So, that would make them last in the priority list.

The tanks’ best gear slot is a bit more contested, but I would go for a Relic first, because they can be a life-saver. Tanks don’t care about dishing out more DPS and any of the regular items on their bodies will provide equally important upgrades.

There’s one more thing to consider and I’ve mentioned it before, but will do so again – balancing your stats while gearing up is NOT important. Do not give priority to the stats pools and stats balance during your vertical progression. The game decides what gear to drop for you from completed content or loot boxes based on your current IR. That’s why until you have finished your vertical progression you should not pay too much attention to what mods and items you use in your gear slots. Obviously, I would recommend you to keep true to your spec at least. Don’t place tank gear on a DPS character.

The gear pieces in your inventory will usually have an arrow indicating that this item is more powerful than the one you currently have slotted in your character’s gear sheet. Note that these may some times (often, actually) be wrong. I am certain BioWare will eventually work it out and teach the system to better recognize and compare the items and mods, but it’s always best to not blindly trust in that green arrow.

Last, but not least – let me remind you that as with (almost) any other MMO on the market, SWTOR rewards you better for doing harder content. When you complete a Master Mode Flashpoint, you will get better rewards from it compared to what you will get for doing it in Veteran or Story Mode.

Vendors

There are several vendors on the Fleet, in the Supplies Section (on the outer circle), which you can use as a means of secondary gearing up method. Why secondary, because they sell items at quite high prices – for both Fragments and Credits.

In addition to the regular Spoils of War Vendor and Armor Sets Vendors, a special “weekends only” merchant will appear on the Fleet and offer you discounted prices for randomly selected items – Kai Zykken is his name and he is also located in the Supplies section.