Companions List

Over the last month of playing SWTOR I’ve relied a lot on various sites for information regarding companions. However, there’s always something that I’m missing from each of those sites that I’m looking for that causes me to look elsewhere, and I still haven’t found a single source that gives me everything that I want in a single package. So for that reason I’m going to do something I don’t normally do, which is to jump in with the crowd and do my own post on companions so that I don’t have to wait on someone else to present this information in a format that I’d like to see, I can just gather all of my own information and have it there at my fingertips.

This post is going to look at all of the companions that each class gets, which crew skills they give you a bonus to, where you get those companions planet-wise, and the average level at which you’ll get them. I’ll be listing the average level because it’s possible for you to use the help of high level friends to power through your entire class quest by level 15, thus gaining all of your companions. While you might find it appealing to have all of those companions from an early level, how many companions you can actively use at one time is restricted by your character level.

In regards to companion romances, many companions will not start the actual romance until you get to Chapter 2, and in some cases they won’t even start flirting with you until Chapter 2. Some companions also require significant Affection scores (7,500+) before those options become available. As a general rule of thumb, if your romanceable companion is a Force user, having a Light/Dark score that conflicts with theirs reportedly requires higher Affection to start a romance.

Jedi Consular

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
Qyzen Fess	Tank	+5 Biochem +15 Archaeology	Tython (8)
Tharan Cedrax	Healer	+10 Cybertech +10 Slicing	Nar Shaddaa (28)
Zenith	Ranged DPS	+15 Treasure Hunting +1 Underworld Trading Crit	Balmorra (34)
Lt. Felix Iresso	Tank	+2 Armstech Crit +2 Scavenging Crit	Hoth (40)
Nadia Grell	Melee DPS	+10 Synthweaving +2 Diplomacy Crit	Belsavis (44)

Male Character Romance Options: Nadia Grell
Female Character Romance Options: Tharan Cedrax (fling), Felix Iresso

Consulars are one of those classes that gets shorted on companions early on and then gets somewhat of a rush of them towards the end. You don’t get your second companion (not counting the annoying ship droid) until you’re done with Nar Shaddaa so you’ll be stuck with Qyzen “The Annoying Lizardface” Fess for a while. As I am actively leveling three Consulars right now, I might be a bit biased concerning Qyzen’s annoyance level.

Jedi Knight

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
T7-01	Tank	+10 Bioanalysis +2 Slicing Crit	Tython (8)
Kira Carsen	Melee DPS	+5 Synthweaving Crit +1 Investigation Crit	Coruscant (15)
Doc	Healer	+5 Underworld Trading +5 Biochem Crit	Balmorra (34)
Sgt. Fideltin Rusk	Ranged DPS	+10 Armstech +10 Scavenging	Hoth (40)
Lord Scourge	Tank	+10 Artifice +10 Archaeology	Hoth (41)

Male Character Romance Options: Kira Carsen
Female Character Romance Options: Doc

Jedi Knights get off to a pretty nice start with two, fairly early companions. Since you can’t deploy more than 3 companions at a time (including the ship droid) until level 41 you won’t have companions sitting there collecting dust either.

Smuggler

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
Corso Riggs	Tank	+5 Underworld Trading +5 Armstech Crit	Ord Mantel (7)
Bowdaar	Tank	+10 Cybertech +10 Scavenging	Nar Shaddaa (23)
Risha	Ranged DPS	+15 Diplomacy +1 Slicing Crit	Alderaan (31)
Akaavi Spar	Ranged DPS	+10 Armormech +2 Bioanalysis Crit	Balmorra (34)
Guss Tuno	Healer	+10 Underworld Trading +2 Treasure Hunting Crit	Hoth (40)

Male Character Romance Options: Risha, Akaavi Spar
Female Character Romance Options: Corso Riggs

Smugglers are like the Consular in their companion acquisitions, having only 1 story-based companion until the end of Nar Shaddaa as you prepare to move on to the Tatooine, the world of infinite brown pixels. Fortunately, you pick up two more companions pretty quick once you’re done playing around in the sandbox and move on to the peaks of Alderaan.

Trooper

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
Aric Jorgan	Ranged DPS	+10 Armstech +2 Diplomacy Crit	Ord Mantel (9)
Elara Dorne	Healer	+10 Biochem +10 Bioanalysis	Taris (18)
M1-4X	Tank	+5 Cybertech +5 Scavenging Crit	Nar Shaddaa (24)
Tanno Vik	Tank	+5 Armormech +1 Underworld Trading Crit	Balmorra (34)
Yuun	Melee DPS	+10 Slicing +10 Investigation	Hoth (40)

Male Character Romance Options: Elara Dorne
Female Character Romance Options: Aric Jorgan

Trooper’s are unique in their companion acquisition as they grab a companion on three of the first four planets which is faster than any other class. You’ll have four companions (including the ship droid) for nearly 17 levels before you’re able to actively deploy them all at once, and by that time you will have already collected the rest of your companions as well.

Bounty Hunter

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
Mako	Healer	+5 Cybertech +15 Slicing	Hutta (8)
Gault Rennow	Ranged DPS	+10 Underworld Trading +2 Biochem Crit	Tatooine (27)
Torian Cadera	Melee DPS	+10 Investigation +2 Bioanalysis	Taris (34)
Blizz	Tank	+15 Armormech +1 Armstech Crit	Hoth (40)
Skadge	Tank	+10 Scavenging +2 Treasure Hunting Crit	Belsavis (44)

Male Character Romance Options: Mako
Female Character Romance Options: Torian Cadera (assumed)

Bounty Hunters are another class that gets off to a slow start, not getting the second one until the end of Tatooine, but from there every 5 or so levels you’ll get the rest of them. On the plus side, your first companion has the largest Slicing bonus of all the classes and you can easily be at 400 Slicing and well over 100,000 credits by the time you get access to Gault Rennow. Just saying.

Imperial Agent

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
Kaliyo	Tank	+10 Armstech +2 Underworld Trading Crit	Hutta (8)
Vector Hyllus	Melee DPS	+5 Bioanalysis +5 Diplomacy Crit	Alderaan (31)
Dr. Eckard Lokin	Healer/DPS	+15 Biochem +10 Investigation	Taris (34)
Ensign Raina Temple	Ranged DPS	+10 Scavenging +2 Armormech Crit	Hoth (40)
SCORPIO	Tank/Melee DPS	+10 Cybertech +2 Slicing Crit	Belsavis (44)

Male Character Romance Options: Kaliyo and/or Ensign Raina Temple
Female Character Romance Options: Vector Hyllus

Imperial Agents have the largest gab between first and second companions of all the classes. Thankfully, the other four all come in fairly quick succession once you get him.

***MINI-SPOILER*** Highlight=>||If you’re playing a male character and want to romance both of your ladies, you’ll have to make a choice once start romancing Raina.||<=

Sith Inquisitor

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
Khem Val	Tank	+15 Artifice +5 Investigation	Korriban (9)
Andronikos Revel	Ranged DPS	+2 Underworld Trading Crit +2 Slicing Crit	Tatooine (27)
Ashara Zavros	Mele DPS	+10 Synthweaving +10 Diplomacy	Taris (34)
Talos Drellik	Healer	+5 Treasure Hunting +5 Archaeology Crit	Hoth (40)
Xalek	Ranged DPS/Tank	+10 Bioanalysis +2 Scavenging Crit	Voss (47)

Male Character Romance Options: Ashara Zavros (7,500+ Affection required)
Female Character Romance Options: Andronikos Revel

Inquisitors are unique in the companion area because they get their final companion later than any other class. Xalek doesn’t show up until you’ve almost reached level cap so you have only a single planet worth of quests with which to earn his affection without getting into an affection grind. Your other companions do take a while to shot up with the second not coming until the end of Tatooine, but the two that follow aren’t too far behind. You’ll have to put up with Khemmy’s threats to eat you for a while before you can replace him, but at least he actually looks kind of cool…ish.

Sith Warrior

Companion Name	Combat Role	Crew Skills	Location (≈Lv)
Vette	Ranged DPS	+5 Underworld Trading +5 Treasure Hunting Crit	Korriban (8)
Malavai Quinn	Ranged DPS/Healer	+10 Armstech +10 Diplomacy	Balmora (19)
Jaesa Willsaam	Melee DPS	+5 Archaeology +5 Synthweaving Crit	Alderaan (31)
Lt. Pierce	Tank	+10 Cybertech +2 Investigation Crit	Taris (34)
Broonmark	Tank	+10 Scavenging +2 Bioanalysis Crit	Hoth (39)

Male Character Romance Options: Jaesa Willsaam, Vette (unconfirmed)
Female Character Romance Options: Malavai Quinn

Sith Warriors have a fairly decent spread for their companions. You do end up with a bit of a gap after your second one, but after the gap you get two of them almost back to back.

Vette’s romance hasn’t been confirmed by any of the sites that I’ve looked at for romancing information. Apparently there are voice-over recordings of her saying things that indicate that she can be romanced, but there’s been no confirmation in game that I can find either way. ***MINI-SPOILER*** Highlight=>||When you get Jaesa you have the option of turning her to the Light or Dark side, and she can only be romanced if you send her to the Dark side.||<=

 

Sage/Sorcerer Leveling: 1-20 DPS

Playing a Sage/Sorcerer
For the most part, playing a Sage/Sorc is much like playing a spell caster in any other MMO. In the world of SWTOR, they’re the only real spell casters in the game. While you can get a caster feel from some of the ranged classes (Trooper, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Imp. Agent) most of what they do doesn’t really feel like casting, at least not to me, unless you’re playing their healing spec.

Concerning Sage/Sorc DPS, there are two primary trees available to you and they each have their own feel. The Telekinetics/Lightning tree is the turret casting tree, where you’ll spend the majority of your time remaining stationary while you simply turn left or right as needed while you spam-cast your spells. You do have some spells that you can use on the move, but you’ll have a loss of overall DPS if you use them without needing to move. The Balance/Madness tree relies on damage over time (DoT) effects and channeled spells for the majority of it’s damage and is much more mobile as most of the spells you’ll use in those trees are instant cast either by design or thanks to talent-based procs.

When you reach level 10 and take your advanced class of Sage/Sorcerer there’s going to be a complete change in how you handle combat. Out of all of the classes and advanced classes, the Sage/Sorc AC has the largest shift in playstyle because you’ve just spent 10 levels killing things primarily with melee attacks with some occasional spells thrown in (maybe) and now you’re never going to use another melee attack again. Some players do play low level Consulars/Inquisitors trying to focus on spell casting, but since both of your damaging spells have cooldowns you’re really better of just beating things up in melee.

In addition to the switch from melee to casting you’re also going to notice that your spells now actually have a decent range on them. Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) jumps up to 30 meters by default as does Project(Shock), and your new spam-cast spell, Disturbance(Lightning Strike), is a 30 meter cast as well. You also get to quintuple your Force pool from 100 to 500, and your primary crowd control spell Force Lift(Whirlwind) goes from an 8 second duration up to 60 seconds. All of these changes combine to make one heck of a shift in playstyle, so you’ll want to find a few things to kill to get a feel for your new life as a real caster.

Important Spells & Abilities
I’ll break this section into two level groupings. I’m going to leave out numeric values since I have no trustworthy source to get the numbers relative to level 20. Hopefully the database sites out there can grow and develop soon so that we have a reliable source at least equal to what Wowhead is for WoW. Numbers in parenthesis after spell names reflect the level at which those spells become available, and spells with (1) are all spells that you start with.

The first group is level 1-9 which is your pre-Advanced Class levels where you’re a combination of both of your AC’s minus all of the cool effects that define the AC’s. The second group is levels 10-20, covering primarily the Sage/Sorc AC though there are some pure Consular/Inquisitor spells that open in that bracket as well.

CLASS BUFFS & REFILL
Force Valor/Mark of Power (1): Increases the target’s Strength, Aim, Willpower and Cunning by 5% and internal and elemental damage reduction by 10% for 60 minutes. If the target is a party member, all other party members are also affected.
Meditation/Seethe (1): Allows you to pause and meditate to restore your health and Force. Damage causes the effect to end prematurely. Cannot be used during combat.

Force Valor is your class buff, and one that you should always have active. Every class has a version of this, though not all classes buff the same stats (the Trooper buffs Endurance for example).

Meditation is the replacement for food and drink in SWTOR. It’s basically the means by which you refill your health and Force bars after combat.

LEVELS 1-9
Saber Strike/Saber Strike (1): Deals weapon damage spread across a flurry of 3 attacks.
Double Strike/Thrash (1): Strikes the target twice. Each hit deals weapon damage.
Project/Shock (1): Throws debris at the target, dealing kinetic damage. Standard and weak targets are additionally stunned for 3 seconds.
Telekinetic Throw/Force Lightning (2): Hurls a volley of debris at the target, dealing kinetic damage and slowing movement speed by 50%. Standard and weak targets are immobilized for the duration.
Force Wave/Overload (3): Deals kinetic damage and knocks back all enemies within 8 meters. Standard and weak enemies are additionally knocked down for 3 seconds.
Force Lift/Whirlwind (4): Lifts the target helplessly into the air, preventing all action for up to 8 seconds. Non-player, non-standard and non-weak targets heal rapidly while lifted out of harm’s way. Damage will break the effect prematurely.
Force Stun/Electrocute (6): Deals kinetic damage and stuns the target for 4 seconds.
Force Potency/Recklessness (8): Grants 2 charges of Force Potency, which increases the Force critical chance of your direct attacks and heals by 60% and increases the range of Telekinetic Throw to 30 meters. Each time a direct Force ability critically hits or you activate Telekinetic Throw, you lose 1 charge. Lasts 20 seconds.
Force of Will/Unbreakable Will (9): Demonstrates your force of will, immediately freeing you of all incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.

Saber Strike, Double Strike and Project are your starting offensive spells and what you’ll be using primarily to kill things up to level 10. Saber Strike restores Force while Double Strike and Project both spend it. The two melee strikes are all you need to reach level 10, though you’ll never touch them again once you get your advanced class (AC). Project will remain on your bars, as it will be useful for the Telekinetics/Lightning tree and surprisingly good for Balance/Madness.

Telekinetic Throw is one of your bread and butter spells regardless of which of the DPS trees you decide to focus on. For Telekinetics/Lightning this spell is best used when other talents proc to speed up the channel time, while for Balance/Madness this becomes your primary filler spell used to proc instant casts. Force Wave is a combination of area of effect (AoE) damage and crowd control as it knocks most targets back and weaker targets are knocked prone all together. This spell works great as an interrupt because of its knockback as well, and at low levels the damage it deals is good enough that it’s useful as a finisher spell for groups too.

Force Lift is a somewhat weak crowd control (CC) spell when you first get it with only an 8 second duration, but when you choose your advanced class it bumps up to 60 seconds and becomes significantly more useful. The Balance/Madness tree has multiple talents that improve its effect as well, including making it instant cast, modifying it to become a stun when broken early, and having it affect up to 3 targets instead of only 1. Force Stun is another of our CC spells, applying an instant 4 second stun. In some ways this is the more useful CC, especially for Telek./Lightning because it’s instant, and it deals damage in addition to the stun, not to mention Force Lift breaks on damage where Force Stun does not. When comparing this to Force Lift don’t weigh them too much one against another, consider them each their own tool with their own uses. Force Lift is best used before combat begins for example, where Force Stun is more useful mid-combat.

Force Potency is a short term buff that from 1-10 is most useful in my opinion for extending the short range of Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning), with its increased crit chance just a nice side effect since most of 1-10 is done via melee attacks. Once you take your advanced class the range on Telek. Throw is increased to 30 meters by default so it becomes strictly a crit buff (and a good one at that).

Force of Will is your final spell for the 1-9 bracket and it’s your CC breaker. You do face more CC from non-player characters/monsters in SWTOR than in most other MMO’s, but the primary use for this is still very much PvP related. As someone who enjoys player vs. player (PvP) combat I love that they give us our CC breaker so early.

LEVELS 10-20
Benevolence/Dark Heal (10): Heals a friendly target. (fast cast, small heal)
Disturbance/Lightning Strike (10): Fires a blast of telekinetic energy at the target, dealing kinetic damage.
Deliverance/Dark Infusion (12): Heals a friendly target. (long cast, big heal)
Force Armor/Static Barrier (14): Surrounds the target in a Force shield that absorbs a high amount of damage and lasts 30 seconds. Protected targets become Force-Imbalanced and cannot benefit from Force Armor again for 20 seconds.
Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness (14): Crushes the target’s mind with the Force, instantly dealing kinetic damage and additional kinetic damage over 6 seconds.
Channel the Force/Channel the Force (15): Summons the Force to aid you and your companion, immediately finishing the cooldown on Force Stun and restoring 2% of maximum health every 3 seconds. Requires an active companion. Lasts 1 minute.
Weaken Mind/Affliction (16): Weakens the target’s mind, dealing internal damage over 15 seconds.
Force Speed/Force Speed (16): Increases your movement speed by 150% for 2 seconds. Does not break stealth.
Mind Snap/Jolt (18): Interrupts the target’s current action and prevents that ability from being used for 4 seconds.
Noble Sacrifice/Consumption (20): Sacrifices 15% of your maximum health to restore 8% of your maximum Force. Each time this ability is used, your Force regeneration rate is reduced by 25% for the next 10 seconds. Stacks up to 4 times.

Benevolence is our first heal, and it’s kinda lacking. It has a short cast time which is great, but it costs 50 Force and heals for a relatively small amount. Deliverance is our second heal and while it takes twice as long to cast (3 seconds) and costs 5 more Force the heal is significantly stronger. If you’re in dire need of a heal then Benevolence can get you out of trouble, but Deliverance is significantly stronger if you can handle waiting just a second and a half longer.

Disturbance is your main spam-cast spell once you have your advanced class. It has a fairly short cast time, no cooldown, and deals respectable damage. If you go for the Telek./Lightning tree then this is your primary spell, where Balance/Madness will switch to using it mostly on talent procs once they get to level 20-21. Mind Crush is a damage over time (DoT) spell that has a cast time and a cool down. In this level range you’ll mostly use this to pull mobs with big heal pools or on bosses, but it becomes more important later on.

Force Armor is a bubble which absorbs all damage while it’s active. The amount that it can absorb is based on your level. It’s a great addition to your spell book and one that I frequently use right before a pull or in mid-combat for myself or party members as needed. Force Speed is another great all around Consular/Inquisitor spell, this time as a speed increase. In player vs. environment/everything (PvE) this spell isn’t terribly useful in terms of combat, while in player vs. player (PvP) it’s amazing. I use this spell all the time. If it’s on cooldown and I have any intention of running from one point to another, I’m doing it.

Channel the Force is an odd spell to me. It resets the cooldown on Force Stun and puts a heal over time effect on you and (I think) your companion, which is great, but it’s only usable when you have a companion out. It’s good for those times where you’re soloing something and having a rough time or when you’re in a small group because you have to have a companion out in order to cast it. For me, because it’s only usable when I have a companion and I almost never use my companions for combat, I forget this thing exists 99% of the time. For me it just seems like it’s an incredibly useful spell that can’t be used in groups which makes me want to be used to not having it so that I don’t come to rely on it when/if I ever raid or when I’m doing PvP.

Weaken Mind is another DoT spell, but this one has no cooldown and no cast time making it very easy to spam all of the targets in combat, and both DPS specs will want to use this on any targets that are likely to live for more than just a few seconds.

Mind Snap is our interrupt, used to stop pretty much any/every ability that has a cast time or a channel. At low levels I usually interrupt damage spells from my opponents, but once you get to around Alderaan (mid to upper 20s) and higher you start to run into mobs that use healing so I save it for them. From 1-20 using it isn’t all that important, but interrupting spells is a great habit to get into early on.

And last but certainly not least we have Nobel Sacrifice which converts 15% of your life into 8% of your Force. At low levels I wouldn’t advise you to use this very often. If you need the Force, then you need the Force, but if you’re hurting that bad for resources then you probably don’t have the health to spare either.

Leveling a Sage/Sorcerer
Now that you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about all of your spells and such, let’s take a look at how you actually play with Sage/Sorcerer.

Consular 1-10 Weak Mob Rotation: Double Strike, Saber Strike or Double Strike x2-3
Inquisitor 1-10 Weak Mob Rotation: Thrash, Saber Strike or Thrash x2-3
Alternate 1-10 Rotation: Double Strike or Saber Strike on all targets, Force Wave

When you’re first starting out you can kill almost everything with Double Strike + Saber Strike assuming DS doesn’t kill them outright. For tougher mobs, Double Strike x2-3 will finish most of them off. If you find that you still need to do a little bit more damage, I suggest Force Wave as your finisher to deal some AoE damage.

You can use your spells if you want to, it’s alright to start off combat with Telekinetic Throw if you’d like. On the one hand, Telek. Throw does really good damage and often times you’ll kill your first target using this by itself. However, you’ll actually kill things faster if you just rush in and open a can of melee.

The Alternate rotation is another method of playing at low levels, which is using a single melee attack on each target in the group followed by a Force Wave. Doing this will kill just about every weak mob in the starting planet, and the ones that don’t die should fall to a single attack after Force Wave.

Telek./Lightning 10-20 Weak Mobs: Telek. Throw, Disturbance x2, Telek. Throw
Balance/Madness 10-20 Weak Mobs: Force Lightning, Lightning Strike x2, Force Lightning

When you first start trying our your advanced class rotating through Telekinetic Throw, Disturbance x2, and then repeat will destroy everything in your path. If you need a little extra safeguard for the fight feel free to start off with Force Armor and/or Force Lift before you start with the damage spells. If you’re going to start combat with a CC effect like Force Lift you usually want to target the strongest enemy with it so that you can kill off the weaklings first and then go back for the tough guy. If you do, go ahead and take the time to heal yourself up if needed after you’ve killed the weak ones before you break your CC on the big guy. You have the full 60 second duration to heal or regenerate your Force points, so you might as well take advantage of that.

If mobs get low on health and you don’t want to waste a cast time on them, finish them off with either Project or Force Wave, or you can use your melee abilities if you haven’t taken them off of your bars yet.

Telek./Lightning 10-20 Elites: Mind Crush, Weaken Mind (all targets), Telek. Throw, Distrub. x2
Balance/Madness 10-20 Elites: Crushing Darkness, Affliction (all targets), Force Lightning, Lightning Strike

When you’re facing elites you want to make sure you put your DoT spells to use, and using them to pull is a safe and easy way to do that. If you’re facing several strong opponents then you might want to pull with Force Lift instead, or use Force Lift after Mind Crush. Just make sure you don’t use Mind Crush on the target you plan to CC or else the DoT effect will break your CC early.

After you have established your DoT’s and used any CC that you need, you can fall back into the rotation you use on the weak mobs that I listed above. As your DoT’s expire from running their full duration reapplying them may or may not be necessary depending on how much health they have left. If you see that they’re going to die in the next 3-5 seconds you don’t need to bother reapplying, but if they still have more than 25% of their health or so, go ahead and recast Weaken Mind if nothing else.

Any time you need to move, for whatever reason, that’s when you want to utilize Project(Shock). As Balance/Madness you have a good chance to double-Project(Shock) for extra damage which makes it a good option even when you don’t necessarily need to move, especially if there are weak mobs who will be stunned by the effect as well.

Talent Spec: 20 Balance/Madness Tree

Sage: Balance	Sorcerer: Madness
Torhead: Balance	Torhead: Madness

Balance/Madness is a fairly new tree for me, having switched in just the last week or so from Telekinetics/Lightning. I really fell in love with this tree after level 25, but I’ve had a blast with it on a new Sage as well.

What I like most about this tree is that it puts a stronger focus on instant casts and channeled spells which allows you to be more mobile (something I like for PvP) and making it easier to bounce around on targets when you see that one of them is just one hit away from dying so you can toss an instant spell at them and then switch back to your initial target instead of having to finish your current cast time, switch to them for another cast time, and then switch back.

The instant cast nature of the spec along with the procs that you’ll eventually get from channeling Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) make this spec feel much more aggressive an in control of the battle compared to the Telekinetics/Lightning tree. It also allows you to solo more content by making it easier and more viable for you to abuse the Line of Sight (LoS) technique to kill Strong+ or higher level mobs.

In the descriptions below, the spell names in the open refer to the Sage ability and the names in (parenthesis) refer to the Sorcerer-equivalent ability.

Empowered Throw/Calcify 3/3:
Increases the damage dealt by Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) by 12%.

Will of the Jedi/Will of the Sith 2/2:
Increases total Willpower by 6%.

Upheaval/Chain Shock 3/3:
When you activate Project(Shock), you have a 45% chance to activate a second Project(Shock), dealing 50% of normal damage.

Critical Kinesis/Disintegration 2/2:
Increases the critical chance of Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning) and Disturbance(Lightning Strike) by 10%.

Force in Balance/Death Field 1/1:
Deals internal damage to up to 3 targets within 8 meters of the targeted area and heals you for 22 per affected target.

Empowered Throw and Will of the Jedi are both great talents for the first tier, and I generally alternate putting points into them while I level so that I get some benefit from both at the same time. Telekinetic Throw is your main spam spell with this spec, or rather it will be when you reach level 21 (see Force in Balance below).

Upheaval is one of my favorite talents as a Sage, purely from a “check out how freaking amazing I am” perspective as I launch two large chunks of terrain at your face. It also helps to make this spell actually worth casting as its damage is otherwise much less than any of your other spells. For folks who don’t like this talent, Pinning Resolve is a solid replacement as it makes your Force Lift(Whirlwind) hit up to 3 targets at once instead of 1.

Critical Kinesis is the second talent I like to take on tier 2 of this tree for the extra crit. I personally go for Upheaval first strictly because I like to make Project more viable in low level PvP, but Critical Kinesis is a great talent for both PvE and PvP, so take them in whichever order you prefer.

Force in Balance is my priority talent for level 20 because it’s a fantastic AoE spell. It deals great damage, is instant cast, and it targets an area rather than an enemy so it can be used to fish people out of stealth or to hit people who are out of your line of sight. However, this third tier is also where you get Telekinetic Balance/Madness which removes the cooldown from Telekinetic Throw(Force Lightning), allowing it to become your spam spell. Being able to spam TT/FL isn’t crucial just yet because we’re missing other key talents due to our level, but that will change very soon. Between these two talents, the one you do not take at level 20 should be taken at level 21 as they’re both fantastic talents.

Talent Spec: 20 Telekinetic/Lightning Tree

Sage: Telekinetics	Sorcerer: Lightning
Torhead: Telekinetics	Torhead: Lightning

This is the spec that I started out with on my Sage/Sorcs, and it served me very well. This is the tree that I was using when I first started soloing Heroic 4 quests without even using with my companions.

This tree gives you a feel of the more traditional caster, standing in the back spamming cast time spells for stacking buffs and unleashing channeled spells for better damage. This tree is great for being able to maintain a high rate of spell casting without having to sacrifice performance.

In the descriptions below, the names refer to the Sage ability and the names in (parenthesis) refer to the Sorcerer-equivalent ability.

Clamoring Force/Convection 3/3:
Increases the damage dealt by Disturbance(Lightning Strike), Mind Crush(Crushing Darkness), Telekinetic Wave(Chain Lightning), and Turbulence(Thundering Blast) by 6%.

Inner Strength/Electric Induction 3/3:
Reduces the Force cost of Force attacks and healing abilities by 9%.

Concentration/Subversion 2/2:
Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Disturbance(Lightning Strike), Telekinetic Wave(Chain Lightning) and Turbulence(Thundering Blast) by 70%. In addition, Disturbance(Lightning Strike) has a 100% chance to increase your Force regeneration rate by 10% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

Disturb Mind/Exsanguinate 2/2:
Increases the duration of Weaken Mind(Affliction) by 6 seconds.

Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning 1/1:
Sends a wave of telekinetic energy/lightning that deals kinetic damage to up to 5 targets within 8 meters of the primary target.

Clamoring Force is a simple damage increase which just so happens to buff virtually every spell you’re going to use frequently. Inner Strength reduces your Force costs which allows you to cast more spells for longer periods of time. I like to put points into Inner Strength over Mental Longevity (+50/100 Force) because over time that 9% reduction of cost adds up to be way more than a simple boost to my total Force. I also suggest you only put 2 points into Mental Longevity to start off with and then put the third point in at level 19 since you shouldn’t have too many problems with Force management at this level. Eventually, you’ll have points in both Inner Strength and Mental Longevity you just don’t need both at this level.

Concentration is a talent that I would normally ignore because the nature of casters is to stay out of situations where you would suffer pushback in the first place, but they also added a Force regeneration feature to it which makes this much more appealing. Keeping three stacks of Concentration up at all times really helps your longevity in a big fight. Disturb Mind increases the duration of your instant-cast DoT spell by 6 seconds which in turn means it deals more damage. Disturb Mind isn’t too critical for Telekinetics/Lightning for this level range but it will be pretty soon. If you want to spend these points elsewhere, Mind’s Eye(Lightning Spire) is a good choice for one point, and the other I would put in Mental Longevity(Reserves).

Telekinetic Wave is a cast time AoE that is centered on an enemy target, making it somewhat more limited in its use because of targeting, but still a great addition to your caster toolbelt since your only AoE option without it is your dinky pushback. As you continue to gain levels you’ll unlock other talents that just keep making this spell cooler.

Gearing Up
When you’re looking for new gear to increase your performance you want to make sure you’re always looking at your primary stat first. Sage/Sorcs rely primarily on Willpower for performance, so big boosts in Willpower are always a good thing.

Your secondary stat depends on your spec and what level you are. In the 1-20 level range the only secondary attributes you’re likely to find in large supply is Power (increases damage/healing) and Critical Rating (Crit), and lucky for us those are both appealing stats. Power is a guaranteed performance increase where Crit is good when you score a critical hit and worthless when you don’t making it a bit more hit and miss but potentially stronger when it does happen. I personally lean a bit more towards Crit than Power for the Sage because we have talents that proc additional effects based on getting critical hits with some of our spells.

Other secondary stats that are good include Accuracy (chance to hit) and Alacrity (haste, or the speed at which you cast your spells) though both of those are pretty hard to find in this level range. You won’t find enough gear with these stats on them in this level range for them to really matter, so if you happen to come across one you might as well use it, but don’t worry about hunting them down or trying to reach certain amounts in this level range. If you find it you find it, if you don’t you don’t.

The simplest way to keep yourself on top of the gearing game is to use gear that accepts mods and then craft or purchase mods as you level to keep it up to date. Modification items (mods) can be purchased on worlds beyond the starting worlds for either credits or commendations, or they can be crafted by the Artifice and Cybertech crew skills (as such you can often find them cheap on the Global Trade Network (GTN) as well).

And just to be clear, you will always and forever wear Light Armor and nothing more.

Crew Skills & You
Since I see the question of Crew Skills (professions) come up a lot whether it’s in game, on the blog, or on twitter, I decided I would go ahead and include a quick section for that with this post as well. The most important thing with professions in any game is that you take what’s appealing to you. It doesn’t matter whether it’s appealing because it’s the best thing out there or because you think it has a cool name, so long as it appeals to you in one way or another.

That being said, let’s take a look at the crew skills that have something to offer a Sage/Sorc.

Artifice: One of your best options as it allows you to craft three mods that you can use for your gear (Crystal, Hilt, Enhancement) and it allows you to craft your own off-hand items. Off hands are pretty easy to find as drops and the occasional quest reward, but being able to craft them gives you more control over which stats you get and allows for more frequent upgrades.

Biochem: A fantastic profession for every class, allows you to craft healing medpacs, long term buff stims, and short duration buff adrenals. Also allows you to craft Implants for level 21+ which is an often hard to fill slot while leveling (even more so because you have two implant slots to fill).

Cybertech: Another solid option, allows the crafting of Armoring and Mod modifications as well as Earpieces which can also be hard to find while leveling. Also allows you to craft explosives that deal targetable area of effect damage and include additional damaging debuffs or crowd control effects on the targets within the area.

Synthweaving: An appealing, but somewhat disappointing, crew skill that allows you to craft armor pieces for Force-users. While you can get some patterns for modable gear, the majority of your recipes will pale in comparison to modable gear of an equal level unless you’re willing to spend the credits/materials to craft blue quality or higher pieces which even then could be replaced by modable gear with better stats within a few levels. Synth offers nothing other than armor pieces, making it one of the least versatile and least useful crew skills available.

Diplomacy: Diplomacy is a pure mission skill, and offers very little to your class directly. The reason why I mention it is because all Diplomacy missions have a Light/Dark component to them which allows you to build your Light/Dark points faster than anything else. If you want to maximize your Light/Dark standing and do it quickly, then Diplomacy is the key.

Slicing: Slicing is a gathering/mission skill and is similar to Diplomacy in that it offers nothing specifically Sage/Sorc-related. What Slicing does offer is a cheap and easy way to have all the credits you’ll ever need. Just be sure that you don’t judge it by the first or second tier’s mission results and that you never waste your time/credits running missions above tier 5.

 

SWTips: General Leveling

I’m getting ready to start posting some of the SWTOR leveling guides for each class, similar to what I’ve been doing with WoW for the last three years. But before I dive into those I wanted to go with a simple leveling guide that can be used as a general source for everyone. So today I give you tips for leveling in general. Things to keep in mind or consider for leveling your characters. I’m sure that by now everyone who has the game is already on the road to level 50 if they haven’t already reached it, so some of this may only be applicable to your alts.

Crew Skills
I know I’ve talked a lot about crew skills here lately, both on the blog and on twitter, but I think it’s worth discussing in a post like this as well.

The impact of Crew Skills while leveling depends a lot on which skills you chose, and how much resources (including credits) you have available going into it. The following list includes my suggestions for leveling all of your characters:

1. Level all of your toons with Slicing.
2. Do not level with Armormech or Synthweaving
3. Think twice before choosing Armstech
4. Consider Dual Gathering
5. Consider Crafting and related Gathering

I suggest leveling all of your toons with Slicing because it really does make a huge difference in how many credits you’ll have available throughout the leveling process. When you reach level 50, by all means drop Slicing for something else. But if you don’t want to have to worry about how in the world you’ll have the credits you need for all those training costs, mounts, and so on then Slicing is the answer you’re looking for. And when you get slicing, level it up to tier 5 and do only tier 5 for the rest of your slicing career. Tier 6 slicing sucks, and tier 5 is incredibly profitable. When leveling with slicing, I have yet to have a character who didn’t have over 80,000 credits by level 25.

Armormech and Synthweaving are ones to avoid while leveling for a couple of reasons. First, because in order to make gear that’s really, truly worth using while you level you have to be willing to dump your credits into a Mission skill (or the Global Trade Network) to get the mats required for the blue+ patterns, which means you’ll be broke for most of your leveling career. Second, because neither of these professions offers anything other than crafted armor, making them the two least versatile (and most boring) professions in the game.

Armstech is similar to the two armor professions in how it works and why I would suggest that you avoid it. The one thing that keeps it viable is that you can craft Barrel mods for your tech classes. Unfortunately, barrels are used only by tech classes which means that half of the player-base finds this profession almost completely worthless (save gearing their companions).

Dual Gathering is a good option for you to consider because it allows you to collect resources that you can either use on your other characters or sell on the GTN for credits. As an altoholic, I send all of my mats to alts until they’ve become useless all around, and then I dump them on the GTN. This method does keep your bags rather full, so be aware of that, but I find that purchasing a single bag extension (5,000 credits) is plenty of extra room to accommodate dual gathering. Once you reach level 50 you can decide whether you like the idea of having a dual gatherer or if you’d like to consider dropping one (or both) of the gathering skills to pick up crafting or mission skills instead.

Crafting and a related Gathering is a good way to level, so long as you keep tips 2 & 3 in mind. The other crafting professions all have something to offer you while leveling. Whether it’s mods, gear for those hard-to-fill item slots, consumables, or explosives they all have something that you’ll find useful as you level. While crafting blue+ patterns is appealing for the extra stats and such, they aren’t important while you level. Sure, you might be able to make a chest piece that lets you take commendations for quest rewards instead of green items for one planet, but the time and resources you have to sink in to make it in the first place doesn’t really balance out (especially the higher you get in levels). The green patterns should be perfectly sufficient for leveling.

Gearing Up
The default method of gearing up while leveling in SWTOR, as with most MMO’s, is via questing. Which includes both quest rewards and items that drop while doing said quests. This gear is rarely fantastic, but typically “good enough” to get you through the quests that are designed for your level. That doesn’t mean you should settle for quest rewards and drops, it just means that in general you should be able to get by with nothing more than that. If you’re looking for something more than that, read on.

Commendation Gear
Every world in SWTOR has commendations associated with it. These commendations can be used to purchase a number of different things, but we’re going to look at two of them in particular here. The first option is gear upgrades. In my experience, every planet has gear that you can purchase with commendations. The level of that gear is usually in line with the level range of the planet itself, usually from about the middle of its level range on up towards the top. The starting planets for example offer level 8 armor for the classes that start there.

Not all of the planets’ commendation vendors offer the same things. Here you might find boots and gloves and there you’ll find weapons, and so on. The gear that they offer also comes in two particularly appealing varieties: blues and modable. Blue gear is higher quality than the greens you’ll typically find, and you can often find blue gear that is significantly better than any greens of your level. Modable gear is “special”, and I’ll cover it in just a minute.

You can get gear from the commendation vendors for anywhere from around 5-7 commendations up to 10-20 depending on which item slot it is and which planet you get it from. The fastest way to farm these commendations is to do the heroic quests which can each be done once per day, or to find areas with high mob populations and obliterating them (though mob farming is significantly less reliable).

PvP Gear
PvP has its own form of commendations. When you call it PvP gear, a lot of people immediately turn their heads away because they think of it in relative WoW terms in which PvP gear is frowned upon for PvE activities. In SWTOR, that’s not the case. Well, it is the case for level 50 PvP gear, but not for everything below that. The PvP stat, Expertise, only appears on level 50 gear, so all of the pieces below that point are simply potential gear upgrades that anybody can use.

You can get modable weapons from the PvP vendor starting at level 14. Most of my characters use these weapons from level 14 until sometime into their 20′s when I find another modable weapon that just happens to have a cooler look to it. You get blue and/or modable armor from the PvP vendor starting at level 20, though only 2-3 of those pieces are modable.

PvP items usually cost anywhere from 120-350 commendations. But unlike PvE where you usually get about 20-30 commendations during the time you’re there, I average around 120 PvP commendations per match which is 15-20 minutes. The prices look higher than the PvE equivalent, but there’s really not that much difference given how much faster you earn them.

Modable Gear
This is quickly becoming the preferred method of gearing up your characters for most players. Modable gear is like white quality gear which has no stats of its own save for a tiny bit of armor, or some weapon damage if that. However, it has mod slots that allow you to make it much more powerful. As you level up your character you simply replace the low level mods with higher level ones and the gear essentially levels up with you. They’re like heirlooms in WoW, except that you don’t get any experience bonus for wearing them.

So the first benefit of modable gear is that it can level with you by simply replacing mods as you level. The second benefit is that you get to pick the way you look…sort of. You can’t change the look of modable gear, so don’t misunderstand me there, but because you can make that one piece of gear better as you level it means you can find an item that you like the look of and not be forced to replace it. In that way modable gear is like WoW’s new Transmogrification feature, though to much lesser degree.

You can purchase many mods from planetary commendation vendors, and each one costs 2-7 commendations in most cases. Mods are also craftable by the various crew skills so you can craft your own, have friends/guildmates craft them for you, or buy them on the GTN. If you would like to know which crew skills craft which mods, you can look at my SWTips: Crew Skills post for more information.

This is the route that I personally suggest that you take for leveling your characters. If you don’t want to bother with crafting mods, then you can easily spend your commendations on them and you’ll even receive a few as quest rewards here and there. I do prefer crafting my own, but that’s because I’m an altoholic and I have a professions obsession which forces me to always have access to all the things.

Class Quests vs. World Quests
Should you focus on your class quest or just do every quest you come across? Should you leave a planet once your class quests there are done, or keep going?

These are big questions for a lot of players right now. Unfortunately there’s not an exact answer that can be given because it’s really up to you.

Personally, I like to keep my class quest as the focus, but I try not to skip too many of the world quests because I know from experience that it’s easy to find yourself in areas where your gear just isn’t strong enough to keep you alive if you’re always skipping world quests. If I find that all of the mobs I’m fighting on my world quests are grey/green to me, then I start skipping quests. If I find that things are too strong for me, I back off of my class quest and focus on world quests instead.

Even though modable gear exists and it’s a great way to gear yourself up while you level, it’s not always easy to find a full set of modable gear at an early level. By not doing world quests you might be missing out on upgrades for those other slots. Leveling in gear that you’ve found in the area works just fine, but leveling in (non-mod) gear that you found 14 levels ago doesn’t work quite so well. As far as leveling and progressing your story goes, world quests aren’t all that important in and of themselves. However, skipping too many means you’re missing out on those upgrades which can really come back to bite you when you progress to the next planet.

If you feel underpowered for the current planet, don’t hesitate to pack your bags and head back to the previous planet to explore some of those quests you skipped. You’ll still earn experience, you’ll still collect credits, and you’re only making yourself better by doing so. On the flip side though, don’t feel like you need to keep questing on one planet just because you still have quests in your log. It’s perfectly acceptable to abandon every one of them and move on if you feel that there’s no challenge where you’re at.

Heroic Quests and World Bonus Quests
Heroic Quests and World Bonus Quests are both great for leveling your characters. They typically have good gear rewards as well, though most heroics offer only commendations which can be traded for gear or mods (see above) rather than actual gear.

Heroics come in two varieties that I’ve seen so far: Heroic 2+ and Heroic 4. The Heroic 2+ missions can often be soloed so long as you have the help of a companion, though some of them are tuned pretty high on the difficulty chart and you may be playing a class with little-to-no crowd control and/or healing capabilities which make it extra tough. In those cases you’re better off finding someone to run it with you where you can both have your companions out at once, or getting even 2-3 other players in on it.

If you really want to level quickly then you should try to do the heroic quests each at least once while you level. If you can’t find a group for them, and can’t solo it yourself, that’s fine you can just move on and ignore it. But if you get a chance to run it, you really should consider taking it for the rewards.

Heroic 4 quests can be really tough, and often they really will require a full group of four players. But again, I suggest you do them if the opportunity presents itself. While leveling my Trooper I’m able to solo a lot of 2 player content even without a companion because I have great survival, fantastic AoE attacks, and healing spells at my disposal. On my Smuggler, I can’t solo 2 player content even with my companion. And on my Sage I can solo Heroic 4 quests without a companion thanks to DoT’s, healing, bubbles, and kiting/LoS skills.

To sum up Heroic quests – Do them if you have a chance, always try them at least once if you can, but don’t worry about skipping them if you can’t get them done or are eager to get to the next planet to continue your class quest.

World Bonus Quests can have some really good rewards, and the story that goes along with them is usually pretty cool as well. In most cases I don’t bother with them because I’m ready to move on to the next portion of my class quest, but that’s me. These quests should pretty well be handled the same was as the heroics; do them if you can, skip them if you can’t.

From the few that I’ve done, I don’t remember the bonus quests requiring multiple players, but like I said I usually skip them.

Space Combat and PvP
This is the last topic that I wanted to cover for the scope of this post; the two odd ducks of leveling.

Space Combat is one of those things that most players either love it or they hate it. I’m one of those that are kind of in the middle sometimes leaning more to one side or the other. Space combat opens up once you get your ship, which for most people is somewhere in their mid-to-late teens. You get some really good experience from it when it first opens and some of the missions continue to be fairly rewarding while you level. Others are rewarding financially as they give a decent amount of credits, but near worthless for experience.

The great thing about space combat is that it’s short and sweet, and the rewards are usually worth the time investment even if you don’t necessarily love the activity itself. You should definitely give this a try to see how you like it. I suggest you try it on at least 2-3 different missions too, don’t just try the first one and decide that you hate it right away. I think the first mission kind of sucks compared to some of the others, so give it a second chance if you didn’t care for the first one.

PvP isn’t the fastest way to level by any means, but it’s still a perfectly legit way to do it. PvP matches reward experience and credits as well as PvP commendations (covered above) which can be used to purchase gear upgrades. Some players like to focus on a combination of PvP and Class Quests for their leveling. Rather than doing world quests they substitute PvP and rely on modable gear and their crafting professions to keep themselves geared up enough to handle class quests.

I’ve had a blast so far with SWTOR PvP, and as always I recommend everyone at least give it a try. As far as leveling goes it’s not nearly as fast as questing, but it’s definitely a viable option for SWTOR and one that a lot of people are having fun with. How viable this is for you will vary somewhat based on which server you’re on and which faction as those two factors have a direct impact on what kind of queue times you see. On my original server queues would sometimes last up to 30-45 minutes on a bad day as Empire, while my current server queues rarely last so long as 10 minutes as Republic.

 

Warzone Guide: Alderaan

In this post I’m going to go over the basics of the Alderaan warzone and list some of the strategies that I’ve found useful for victory. Since this is my first PvP post here I’ll go ahead and start off with some general PvP information to get everyone caught up with how PvP works in SWTOR, and then we’ll move on to the specifics of Alderaan.

General PvP Information

Expertise: A stat found only on PvP gear and PvP-related consumables that increases the damage and healing that you do, and reduces the amount of damage that you receive. Only works in PvP.

Valor: The PvP version of social points, this is a representation of how much PvP your character has experienced. Valor goes up very quickly when you participate in Warzones. Valor ranks are required for end game PvP gear. At this point in time there is no other use for this. You also earn titles for every 10 ranks of Valor that you achieve up to the current max of 100: Skirmisher (10), Duelist (20), Gladiator (30), Centurion (40), Champion (50), Battlemaster (60), War Hero (70), Conqueror (80), Warlord (90), and Elite Warlord (100).

Commendations: This is the PvP currency, similar to Honor or Conquest points for those of you transferring from WoW. These cap at 1,000 and build fairly quickly. These are used to purchase PvP gear, leveling gear, and PvP consumables. If you’re going to PvP frequently, be sure to spend your points before you hit the cap or else you lose any extra commendations.

MVP Votes: At the end of every match you have the chance to place a vote for the Most Valuable Player (MVP). Who you vote for is up to you and you can use whatever criteria you see fit for choosing that person. Each MVP vote rewards the recipient with 1 commendation. At this point in time, as far as we know, that’s all an MVP vote does. I’ve heard reports that during beta you got titles for having a certain number of MVP votes but nobody has seen the titles since launch so they either removed them or raised the requirements.

Badges: Badges are like milestone achievements that happen during every warzone. Each time you earn a badge you get 50 Valor and 5 Commendations.

Resolve Bar: This measures the amount of Crowd Control (CC) that a player has been hit with recently, and when it’s full the player becomes immune to all forms of CC. The Resolve bar will begin to drain once it has been filled, and the player remains immune to CC until the drain is complete and the bar has reset to 0. For a more in depth look at Resolve and how it works, I’ll direct you to [url=http://taugrim.com/2012/01/04/understanding-swtors-resolve-mechanic/Taugrim’s website[/url.

Alderaan Basics
At its roots, Alderaan is your typical assault and defend resource map. There are three nodes that need to be captured and then defended until the timer runs out. Bioware has done a great job with this map though by taking that concept and turning it into something that’s much more dramatic and understandable. In relation to WoW this map is very similar to Battle for Gilneas and Arathi Basin. The biggest difference is that rather than gathering resources over time while you control nodes you’re taking capturing turrets and using them to shoot down the enemy’s ship.

Your starting point and respawn location are both in your own ship. From there you will ride speeders down to to your spawn point on the field. Each team spawns at either the north or south side of the map on a ledge that the other team cannot reach. From there you have two sections that you can drop into – Middle or Left (note, that’s Left, not East or West). From Mid you can choose to run Right, but there is a wall that separates Mid from Left on your own side (see map below).

When you start the match there are only two speeders, one mid-left and one mid-right. Both of these speeders are always available, and they both lead to the spawn point where you can choose Left or Mid. The only difference between these two is which direction you fly around the map before settling at the spawn point. Mid-left circles clockwise while mid-right circles counter-clockwise. It takes roughly 10 seconds for the speeder to land, and which of these two you choose doesn’t really matter, it just lets you get a look at one of the two flags first and the other second to help decide where you should go.

When you control the East or West node you’ll have another speeder appear inside your ship that will take you directly to that node. This speeder takes 3-5 seconds (I never remember to time it while I’m there) to reach the node, making it much easier to defend. However, the amount of time it takes to you release, resurrect, get on the speeder, ride down, and then get close enough to an opponent who is trying to capture is usually long enough that you will not interrupt a capture unless your opponents were slow to click on the node in the first place, or you applied Damage Over Time (DoT) effects to them before you died (see Strategy, below).

Alderaan Strategy: Left, Right, & Mid
There are some pretty important things to note about Alderaan. The first thing you need to understand is how the map works so that you know where to go and how to get around. The image above shows you where each team spawns and the initial directional choices that they can make (Left or Mid).

Going Mid: When you decide to drop down into Mid you have another choice to make. Do you go to the middle node, or do you turn off and head to the right? Mid also has two levels, the lower level where the node is, and the upper half-ring level. The lower level offers a couple of Line of Sight (LoS) options for those of you who like to fight dirty/defensively. The upper half-rings each contain a Expertise buff and also offers LoS and Cover options. Another benefit of the upper rings (there’s one on the West side and one on the East, but they do not connect) is that each one has a drop off that leads to the node on its side. Those drop offs also have a Expertise buff when you drop down. On the map above, the West drop off is just below the arrow near mid, and the East drop off is just above the arrow near mid.

Going mid gives you the most options for changing your direction on the fly, which is why it’s often the most contested node. However, it’s also the hardest to defend because everyone already has easy access to it and enemies can come at you from both sides at once.

Going Left: When people use Left or Right in-game, always associate them with West and East respectively. When I mentioned the spawn point and that you could choose to go either mid or left, I’m referring to your relative options of left vs. right which is differs directionally based on where your spawn location is. If you spawn south, then left = West, but if you spawn north then left = East. Confused yet?

When you decide to “go left”, that means you’re taking the drop off that does not lead directly to mid. By going this way you cut yourself off from easy access to Mid. You have easy access to both East and West, but not Mid. Let’s assume that your spawn location is in the south, making Left=West and Right=East for the ease of explanation. By going left you lose your easy access to mid. The only way to get there is to run all the way to the north end of the field so that you can loop around and enter near the opponent’s spawn location, or to run under mid, come out on the right side and then circle back around to the south to come out near your own spawn location.

When you go under mid (there is a tunnel beneath mid where the two arrows are) there is a circular pathway with a large structural piece taking up the whole center. On the left and right sides of that structural blockage you’ll find a speed buff that will help you get faster access to the opposite side.

Going Mid, then Right: This is basically the same as Going Left above, except that directions are reversed. For example, if you want to get back to Mid you have to run to your own spawn location because you’re blocked on your opponent’s side. You still have the same easy access to the left side by taking the tunnel under mid.

Alderaan Strategy: Buff Locations
Every warzone has buffs that spawn throughout the match. They can only be used by one person at a time as using them consumes them, but they respawn over time. I’ve never bothered to stand there and see how long the timer is, but it’s probably somewhere around 15-30 seconds up to a minute if I were to guess. There are three types of warzone buffs: Expertise, Speed, and Healing.

Expertise: Expertise buffs are red, and using them increases your damage and healing output and reduces the amount of damage you take. There are four expertise buffs in Alderaan, one located on each of the half-rings in the upper level of Mid, and one located at the bottom of the drops from the upper level of mid down to the left/right sides of the field.

Speed Buffs: Speed buffs are a bluish-green color, and increase your speed by *mumble,mumble* percent for *mumble,mumble* seconds (I forget the specifics, it makes you faster though). There are only two speed buffs in Alderaan, both of which are located in the tunnel beneath Mid. One person can easily grab both speed buffs at once if they want, though most of the first buff is wasted by doing so.

Healing: Healing buffs are a greenish-blue color, and restore around 70% of your total health (I really should have researched that more…). There are four healing buffs in Alderaan, one located on both the north and south walls of both the East and West sections. I probably should have put those on the map…anyway, if your’e standing at the west node, look toward either the north or south walls at about the middle point and you should see them.

Alderaan Strategy: East versus West
For the most part East and West are pretty well equal. Both nodes have the same general layout, they’re both on raised platforms that allow for LoS, and both of them have four ways to get from the ground up to the node (three sets of stairs and one broken piece of something that acts as a ramp). Technically five ways if you count moving towards the back of the node where the ground slopes up to be even with the landing and you jump up.

However, West contains some rubble and some burning debris for who knows what proving limited LoS benefit, but leaving most of the field pretty wide open to see who’s coming at you and from where. East on the other hand has several bits of machinery that provide significant LoS opportunity. In neither case is this LoS from terrain a deciding factor in the capture/defense of the node itself, but it can be used to your advantage when assaulting or defending a node in order to keep people tied up fighting in useless locations rather than focusing on the objective. Distraction is a key strategy in MMO PvP.

This section is important to have, even with such a little impact as it can have, strictly because it’s important to be aware that the West (left) node is easier to defend than the East (right) node depending on which spawn location is yours. If you spawn in the south, then East is harder to defend because those in the north can use the terrain to partially hide their approach. It’s not a significant advantage, but it is something to be aware of so that you know to be more watchful if you’re defending that side.

Alderaan Strategy: Capturing Nodes
Capturing nodes seems pretty simple, and for the most part it is. You click on the node and stand there for 8 seconds while you channel to actually capture it.

If only it were that simple.

Capturing a node has a few requirements. First, you can’t take damage while you do it or your capture gets interrupted. Second, you can’t move (or be moved) or your capture gets interrupted. Third, you can’t take any action at all, or your capture gets interrupted. Fourth, you can’t come under the effects of crowd control or your capture gets interrupted.

In the thick of battle a lot of times you can’t do anything to avoid all of those potential interruptions. Yet sometimes in the thick of battle is the perfect time to capture the node because everyone’s so caught up in fighting each other that they forget to watch it. There’s long been a saying in PvP, “Fight on the Flag”. That saying holds just as true now as it ever did before. Fighting on the flag doesn’t mean just staying close to it, it means that the flag is the primary objective and you should be watching it at all times. Whether you’re watching it to defend it, or you’re watching it for the perfect opportunity to slide in there and cap it yourself, you should always keep the flag as your focus.

The most important bit of advice I can give you in terms of capturing nodes is to always capture it on your own side. The turret nodes in Alderaan serve as LoS pillars, so the people on the other side of it cannot target you. Because of this you want to make sure that you’re always trying to capture it on the opposite side from where your enemies spawn. So if you spawn in the south, then capture from the south, and if you spawn north then cap from the north.

When you’re trying to capture the West flag, do so from the south-west side since it’s furthest away from the enemy spawn location, and similarly cap East on the south-east side (unless you spawn in the north in which case you should replace south with north in those examples).

The one exception to that is when you’re taking the East/West node away from your opponents. In those cases you want to capture it on the straight north/south side because the speeder drops off directly north or south of node, whichever side they spawn on.

Also, don’t assume that just because your opponent is standing next to the node that he’s actually paying any attention to it at all. Ninja capping is what you call capturing a node right under your opponent’s nose. Sometimes you ninja cap by sneaking up in stealth and then capturing where they can’t see you, and sometimes it’s just walking right up behind/beside someone who’s looking the other way. If you’re approaching a node and the defenders are giving no sign that they see you, go straight for the node first.

Also, it’s important to note that many Alderaan matches are decided these days based on who gets to the first node the fastest. If you have speed buffs, use them. If you both put up a solid defense on one node and spend the rest of the match fighting over the third, then whoever capped first wins. Sending your fastest people to one node or sending some to interrupt the initial caps is a great strategy for solidifying a win.

Alderaan Strategy: Defending Nodes
The simple explanation of defending would be to say “take the above section, and reverse it.” But that’s not very helpful, so I’ll spell it out a bit.

First thing’s first – FIGHT ON THE FLAGS!!!

You should never let a node be captured simply because you weren’t paying attention, or because you allowed yourself to be drawn too far away from the node and can no longer defend it. If you’re fighting someone and they start pulling back, let them go. Another kill doesn’t matter, especially not when the main reason they’re running isn’t to survive but rather to get you away from the flag so that they’re stealthed buddy can ninja your node.

Second, DoT’s aren’t as plentiful in SWTOR as they are in WoW, but they can make or break you in Alderaan. Because taking damage interrupts node captures, applying DoT’s to all of your enemies can win you the match by itself. If they can’t capture a node, they can’t win. If you know you can’t kill off everyone there, or you’re out numbered, don’t bother with trying to kill people. Instead you should apply DoT’s to as many people as you can, use your CC if you have it, pull some of them away from the node if you can, and otherwise do as much as you possibly can to interrupt their capture for as long as you live. Even if you know nobody is anywhere close to help you, put them off as long as possible.

Third is targetable AoE. As I mentioned in the previous section, the turret nodes provide LoS which can make it harder to get someone off of a node. However, you can shortcut that by using targetable AoE. If you have an AoE spell that when you cast it it pulls up an icon and makes you designate where you want to cast it, you can break LoS using it. To do this, center the AoE so that part of its effect hits the other side of the node. AoE’s hit everything in their circle, regardless of LoS, so you can use these spells to hit people behind pillars, around corners, and so forth. If you can’t reach someone, let your spells reach them for you.

And remember, the nodes are the key to victory. There will be times that you’re so caught up in combat that you loose track of the flag and it gets captured right in front of you. Just do your best to always remind yourself to look at the flag. Don’t rely on the UI to tell you, make sure you’re actively looking at it. I was in an Alderaan match just two days ago where I was defending the West node solo and it was captured right in front of my face, with me looking at it the whole time, because there was never a pillar of light (which there usually is) indicating that it was being captured, and I never saw my opponent or his nameplate on the other side of it. Right in front of my face and I didn’t even know until it was too late.

How did I not see him? First he had chosen the smallest body type, making him harder to see/target. Second, he had a short name, a short guild name, no legacy name displayed, and no title which means his nameplate too up all of about three quarters of an inch on the screen. He was a Sith Assassin so he managed to stealth up to the node without me seeing him, but it was his decisions during character creation that kept him invisible even outside of stealth.

Alderaan Strategy: Winning
So how to you win Alderaan?

First and foremost, you fight on the flag. Nodes are the only thing that matter here, so forget about topping damage/healing charts, forget about racking up the most kills. If you’re not working with your team to capture, defend, or recapture nodes then you’re doing it wrong.

As people become familiar to Alderaan and start to develop different strategies it’s becoming more and more common for this map to be decided within the first 15 seconds. If both teams are equally matched in terms of capturing and defending nodes, then the first team to capture a node wins. For this reason, sending players with speed buffs to either the East or West node, or sending smaller groups to intercept and delay the initial captures of all nodes can be a winning strategy. Capture a node as quickly as possible and defend it.

Turrets deal damage at a consistent rate, and once you reach a certain amount relative to your opponents it becomes mathematically impossible for them to win even if they get control of two of the turrets for the rest of the game. I won’t bother breaking down the math for you, this is just another example of why it’s so important to maintain a solid defense. Even if all I have to fight you is a needle and you’re dual wielding swords, if you can never manage to hold those swords long enough to attack me but I can poke you with that needle every second, you’ll be the first to die….eventually.

There are a lot of strategies still evolving for Alderaan. People like to play numbers games and say things like “3 left, 5 mid” or “4 left, 4 right”. Numbers are all fine and good, but they aren’t the deciding factor in a game where not all things are equal. The only rule that holds true is that you need to capture more nodes for a longer period of time than your opponents in that same amount of time. If you can capture two or even all three and hold them then you win. But if you can capture one and your opponent can’t capture any then you still win. That’s why it’s all about the nodes and why fighting on the flags is so important.

Right now the most common strategy is for people to send the majority of their players to mid and 1-3 off to the flag to their left. With groups made of random people it’s still pretty common to see teams where all eight go straight to mid, too. But be prepared for anything and always do your best to be aware of what your opponents are doing. If you see a lot of red nameplates rushing off to the left while you’re charging into mid, let your teammates know that you see people going left.

Communication is a big deal as well. If you have time, always try to communicate when you see people coming towards your flag. “inc left, inc mid, inc right” will suffice, though the more detail you can give the better. “INC LEFT – 3+, at least 1 stealth” tells your team that not only is there a significant threat on the way, but with at least one of them being in stealth there’s a good chance that the node will get ninja capped even while you’re defending. The more info you can give, the better, just make sure you’re using the important words rather than throwing out a full paragraph for people to read. “I think I see a couple of people coming over here, one of them looks like it has a blaster of some kind and the other I think was using two lightsabers. There may be a third too, with a dual lightsaber, but I couldn’t see for sure before he went into stealth” doesn’t work quite so well because it takes too long for someone to read that and then react to it.

Once a threat has passed, communicate that as well. “Left clear, great job defense”. If you see a chance to complement your team, do it. Positive reinforcement goes a long way to building teamwork and trust. Don’t be sarcastic when things don’t work, keep it honest. “Clutch heals, Jent. ty”

 

SWTips: Crew Skills

Before we get too far into the actual post, I wanted to address the content of this blog. Up to this point, Psynister’s Notebook has been almost entirely about World of Warcraft. I made a few exceptions for personal posts and a couple of Rift reviews here and there, but otherwise it’s all WoW all the time.

That’s going to change.

I have found that I very much enjoy playing Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), and with in its current state WoW isn’t exactly thrilling me. I haven’t given up on WoW entirely, but I’m not too far off. If you’re only a WoW player and have no interest at all in seeing posts about other games, then you’re not going to be happy with me for the next few months. There’s a good chance that I’m not going to put any serious play time into WoW until Mists of Pandaria, which means you aren’t likely to see me blogging about WoW until then either (unless they release new heirlooms, ’cause I’m a sucker for heirlooms).

To express my official position, I don’t have anything at all against WoW right now. I might not love everything about every aspect of the game, but it’s done nothing but treat me well since the day I rolled my first toon. Personally, I just don’t feel a lot of drive to play WoW right now. I have fun doing a lot of things there still, I’m just finding more fun with another game at the moment.

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Now, back to SWTOR and on to Crew Skills.

Crew Skills are to SWTOR what Professions are to WoW. You’ll see me refer to them often as professions rather than crew skills because I’m still trying to make that mental switch in my head. Just know that when I’m using either of those words/phrases I’m referring to Crew Skills.

Crew Skills are SWTOR’s version of professions, and for the most part I love them. You, as the player, select three Crew Skills that your Companions will have access to. You get three, and only three. Of those three, only one of them can be a Crafting skill (you don’t have to have a crafting skill, you just can’t have more than one on the same character).

Crafting Skills: Armortech, Armstech, Artifice, Biochem, Cybertech and Synthweaving.

These professions all craft gear, consumables, and/or item mods. You can only have one of these per character. You don’t actually craft anything yourself, your companions do all of the crafting for you. You can never do your own crew skill crafting, no matter what your character level or crew skill level happens to be. If you want to craft something, you have to have companions available to craft it for you.

While crafting, each companion can have a crafting queue of up to 5 items at a time. The number of companions you can have crafting for you is based on your level and how many companions you currently have access to. You can only have 2 companions actively “deployed” at a time until level 25. Deployed means they are either crafting or running Mission quests for you, the one you have running around with you doesn’t count as being deployed. At level 25 you can send out your third, and I don’t have any characters high enough to deploy a fourth yet so I can’t confirm for certain when that slot opens up just yet. [Update: I've been informed via twitter than level 41 is required to deploy your forth companion.]

Gathering/Mission Skills: Archaeology, Bioanalysis, Scavenging, Slicing.

These professions are all used to gather items while you’re out questing, and they can be used as mission skills to get specific types of items. Both you and your companions can gather nodes while you’re out in the world(s), but only your companions can go on the Mission quest portion. With the exception of Slicing, these professions all give you the basic materials required by the crafting professions. I’ve heard that during beta they restricted you to a maximum of 2 gathering professions as well, but my main has Archaeology, Scavenging, and Slicing so I know that is not correct in live.

Concerning the Mission portion of this skills, refer to the last paragraph of the Crafting section up above to see the limitations of how many companions you can have actively doing missions for you at one time.

Mission-Only Skills: Diplomacy, Investigation, Treasure Hunting and Underworld Trading.

These crew skills, to my knowledge, do not have any nodes that you can gather from, and instead require Mission quests to level. These crew skills are required if you want to be able to make Blue or Purple quality gear with your crafting professions as they are the only reliable method of obtaining the rare materials required to craft them.

That last sentence isn’t entirely correct since you can get the crafting mats you need for blue+ items from buying them off of the Global Trade Network (GTN), which is SWTOR’s version of an auction house. If you want to be self-reliant though, you’ll need to pick up a mission skill.

Refer to the last paragraph of the Crafting section up above to see the limitations on how many companions you can have actively doing missions for you at one time.

To get a visual idea of when each class gets their companions, I refer to you the chart below (click to enlarge of course) given to me by the infamous @Suzushiiro of Big Crits.

In order to help you navigate this beast of a post, you’ll find links like the following to help you bounce around as needed.

CRAFING SKILLS	GATHERING SKILLS	MISSION SKILLS
Armormech	Archaeology	Diplomacy
Armstech	Bioanalysis	Investigation
Artifice	Scavenging	Treasure Hunting
Biochem	Slicing	Underworld Trading
Cybertech
Synthweaving

Perceptions of Crew Skills
A lot of players right now feel that leveling a crafting profession is a waste of time because the gear you craft doesn’t compare to what you can easily obtain at level 50. There is some validity to this, though how important it is depends on who you’re asking. Everyone has their own opinion about what professions should or shouldn’t do, and everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The professions causing the most problem in this area are Armormech, Armstech, and Synthweaving. There’s not quite so much of a stir about the ones that craft mods since they’re good for leveling, but there’s still some concern there since most of what you can craft is outmatched by mods you can purchase from commendation vendors in the area you’re questing in. Some people like to mod their gear while others do not, so again it comes down to personal preference (at least to some degree).

Personally, I’m more interested in how my professions can help me throughout the leveling process than I am about what they do for me at end game. I don’t expect a profession to give me better gear than I can get from actually playing the game, though I would certainly hope that I could craft a set of starter gear to help me get to the end game. What I do expect from my professions is that they allow me to make gear upgrades for multiple characters, and for that I think they’ve done a great job on the majority of them. I’m not thrilled with Armormech or Synthweaving, and Armstech isn’t too far behind those, but otherwise I like where we stand overall considering the game was just released.

I also like for my professions to provide income, and I’ve got mixed feelings on that. I think right now the Global Trade Network (the auction house) has a horrible interface and I really don’t like using it. Buying things is a pain, and selling things can be a nightmare (especially if you’re trying to sell several stacks of mats that you want broken down into smaller sizes). Since I’m not willing to spend a great deal of time at the GTN in order to sell all of my goods, my primary source of income is the Slicing skill.

Slicing got a recent nerf that made the Mission portion of the profession much more hit and miss and slimmed down the profit margins of the top 2-3 tiers worth of missions. However, they also increased the amount of credits you got from the gathering portion of this crew skill by almost 100%. While it’s not quite as easy to get a lot of credits at low level as it was prior to that nerf, this still gives us an option for earning a steady amount of credits while leveling without having to go through the potential hassles of playing the auction house.

Matching Crew Skills to Class Choice
Typically, people like to choose the professions that match their character class or the concept of their character. You’ll often see tanks who like to build their own armor for example, or altoholics who like professions that can benefit all classes like one that makes potions or enchants gear to make it better, or you may find a PvP oriented character who goes for the profession that offers him the most versatile or surprising options.

What you don’t often see is people taking professions that completely conflict with their character, such as a WoW Paladin having Tailoring back before they gave professions bonuses that impacted game play (I did that). That’s the basis for this section of the post; which classes match which crew skills the best.

[Index]
Armormech (Crafting)
Linked Gathering Skill: Scavenging
Linked Mission Skill: Underworld Trading
Primary Classes: Trooper, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent
Mods Produced: None

Armormechs make Medium and Heavy armor for the tech-based classes (those that use Aim and Cunning). The only benefit you get from this as a Force using class is being able to make gear for your non-Force Companions. Armormechs do not make any type of mods for gear, though they can make gear that can be modded. In that way Armormech can be utilized by Force using classes to make the blank armor and then fill the slots with applicable mods, but this type of armor is the exception rather than the norm.

There’s not a whole lot more that can be said about this profession. You build armor for tech users and that’s about it.

[Index]
Armstech (Crafting)
Linked Gathering Skill: Scavenging
Linked Mission Skill: Investigation
Primary Classes: Trooper, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent
Mods Produced: Barrels (Tech classes only)

Armstechs make all form of blaster-style weapons and Barrel mods for them. Force classes do not use blaster weapons and Barrels work only in blasters. That being the case, this definitely isn’t your optimum choice if you’re not playing one of the classes listed above. As with Armormech, the only benefit you get form this as a Force user is being able to make weapons for your non-Force companions.

While Armstech does build Barrel Mods, that mod slot is only used by Tech classes (or Tech companions).

[Index]
Artifice (Crafting)
Linked Gathering Skill: Archaeology
Linked Mission Skill: Treasure Hunting
Primary Classes: All
Mods Produced: Color Crystals (all classes), Enhancement (all classes), Hilts (Force classes only)

This one skill is the reason why I decided to write this post in the first place. Literally every guide I’ve seen written regarding crew skills lists this as being a Force class profession and that it builds “lightsaber color crystals”. Let me fix their faulty information for you right now.

The Artifice crew skill makes 4 things: Color Crystals, Hilts, Generator/Focus, and Enhancement mods.

Of those four things, three of them are used by every class in the game. The only Force-specific items that they build are Hilt mods. Unlike Armormech and Armstech where there’s virtually no reason for a Force-user to take them, the presence of Hilts is in no way a reason for Tech classes to avoid this profession.

Color Crystals are used in both Lightsabers and all forms of Blaster weapons, meaning they’re great for every class in the game. Hilt mods are only used by Force classes which does restrict their usefulness a bit. Generators and Focuses are used by all classes as well. Enhancement mods are also used by every class, and are used in both weapons as well as armor making them one of the more versatile mods out there.

[Index]
Biochem (Crafting)
Linked Gathering Skill: Bioanalysis
Linked Mission Skill: Diplomacy
Primary Classes: All
Mods Produced: None

If you were to relate Biochem to World of Warcraft, you’d end up with a mix of Alchemy and Inscription. Overall Biochem is tied with Cybertech as the single most versatile crafting profession in the game. Biochem makes Stims (similar to Scrolls, Battle/Guardian Elixers, or Flasks in WoW), Adrenals (similar to short-term buff potions in WoW), Medpacs (similar to health potions in WoW), and Implants (roughly equivalent to the Relic slot in WoW).

Biochem is a great fit for every class since everything it can build can be tailored to your class, your companions, and your situation. If you rely on a companion for soloing but your companion is always dying and you have no means to heal them, Biochem gives you medpacs that heal both you and your companion. If you like buffing yourself with Stims but hate how many credits you waste because the effect wears off when you die and you need to apply another one, Biochem has you covered with reusable stims.

From my experience with Biochem (my first profession), I wouldn’t hesitate to say it’s the best crew skill to take for the solo leveler. It isn’t going to make you rich by any means, and it’s quite capable of making you broke if you’re going to chase down every schematic out there, but it’s also going to give you more lasting benefits and more survivability than any other profession. With reusable medpacs providing heals every minute, stims that persist through death, medpacs that heal both you and your companion and apply an additional heal over time effect for you both – it’s just hard to beat this for the solo player.

Biochem also has another neat little feature that most other crafting professions do not, which is that the majority of the items you make are able to stack. That’s not just good for saving your inventory space though. Another benefit of stacking is that you can Reverse Engineer an entire stack with a single click. This makes getting new patterns faster and easier as you can craft stacks of 3, 5, 7, 10, etc and then RE the whole thing to get the full amount of mats back and an equal number of chances to roll for that new pattern.

[Index]
Cybertech (Crafting)
Linked Gathering Skill: Scavenging
Linked Mission Skill: Underworld Trading
Primary Classes: All
Mods Produced: Armoring (all classes), Mod (all classes)

Cybertech is the odd duck of the crafting world, similar to Engineering in WoW. It’s useful for all classes and offers the pieces of gear that don’t necessarily fit into the other crafting categories such as Droid armor, Earpieces, Starship equipment, and explosives.

Cybertech is the sole source of craftable Armoring mods as well as Mod mods (I really wish they would have called Mods something else, like Modular, so we didn’t have mod-mods). Both of these mods are used by every class.

The explosives are similar to the explosives from WoW’s Engineering profession. All of them have a secondary ability (I believe) so that in addition to dealing AoE damage you’ll also Stun, Slow, Root, or apply a Fire damage over time effect to those within the blast radius. Explosives are great for leveling any class whether you’re using them for the added damage or for their crowd control effects, and with SWTOR’s enemy NPC’s almost always being in groups of 2-5, having AoE damage on demand is pretty nice.

[Index]
Synthweaving (Crafting)
Linked Gathering Skill: Archaeology
Linked Mission Skill: Underworld Trading
Primary Classes: Jedi Consular, Jedi Knight, Sith Inquisitor, Sith Warrior
Mods Produced: None

Synthweaving is the Force users’ version of Armormech. You make gear with Willpower and Strength which are used by Force classes and that’s about it. Synthweaving does not make any type of mods, though it does make gear that can accept mods.

As with Armormech, I would not suggest using this skill on a class that cannot directly benefit from it, though there’s certainly nothing wrong being a Tech Synthweaver if that’s what you’re really into. Synthweaving is SWTOR’s Tailoring except that it can’t increase your inventory with bigger bags, nor does it provide any direct benefit to non-Force users save crafting gear for the odd companion.

Gathering Crew Skill Special Notes
For the most part, gathering professions are pretty straight forward. While you’re running around the world you’ll come across gathering nodes that allow you or your companion to gather items related to your chosen skills. You also have the option of sending your companions on mission quests that will both increase your skill and give you varying amounts of materials.

When you’re killing monsters or NPC’s out in the various worlds and you see one with an icon of some type beside their name, there’s likely a chance that you can also farm the mob with a relevant gathering skill after the corpse has been looted (unless it’s a humanoid). For example, most Droids can be farmed with Scavenging and most beasts can be farmed with Bioanalysis. I haven’t found a farmable enemy that gives Archaeology nodes when you kill them, but I would be surprised if they don’t exist somewhere. I haven’t seen a Slicing node mob yet either, though I don’t expect them to exist with the nature of Slicing.

[Index]
Archaeology (Gathering)
Linked Crafting Skills: Artifice and Synthweaving

Archaeology is useful for gathering Color Crystals, Artifact Fragments, and Power Crystals. Of those three materials color crystals are used only by Artificers, where artifact fragments and power crystals are used by both Artificers and Synthweavers.

When doing Mission quests with Archaeology you can also find each tier’s vendor material. Each tier of crafting has at least one white quality item that you can purchase form a vendor and will be used in at least some of the patterns for your skill range. Running missions for these vendor items saves you an average of 10% credit cost compared to just purchasing them from a vendor. If you have companions with +Critical to the this skill then you can occasionally proc additional mats and save significantly more credits.

[Index]
Bioanalysis (Gathering)
Linked Crafting Skill: Biochem

Bioanalysis is somewhat unique because it’s the only gathering profession that has only one crafting profession that utilizes it (Biochem). Gathering nodes will yield all kinds of biochemical samples and compounds used to craft biochemical items; all of which are used in Biochem. You will often find the corpses of beasts that you kill allow you to use Bioanalysis on their corpses after you loot them.

When doing Mission quests with Bioanalysis you can also find each tier’s vendor material. Each tier of crafting has at least one white quality item that you can purchase form a vendor and will be used in at least some of the patterns for your skill range. Running missions for these vendor items saves you an average of 10% credit cost compared to just purchasing them from a vendor. If you have companions with +Critical to the this skill then you can occasionally proc additional mats and save significantly more credits.

[Index]
Scavenging (Gathering)
Linked Crafting Skills: Armormech, Armstech, Cybertech

Scavenging is the most widely used gathering skill of them all as it has three crafting professions that it feeds (see above). Gathering nodes appear around the worlds and your primary source of kill farming comes in the form of Droid “corpses”.

When doing Mission quests with Scavenging you can also find each tier’s vendor material. Each tier of crafting has at least one white quality item that you can purchase form a vendor and will be used in at least some of the patterns for your skill range. Running missions for these vendor items saves you an average of 10% credit cost compared to just purchasing them from a vendor. If you have companions with +Critical to the this skill then you can occasionally proc additional mats and save significantly more credits.

[Index]
Slicing (Gathering)
Linked Crafting Skills: None

Slicing is the king of odd ducks in the gathering world because it has no related crafting or mission skills at all (except itself). Slicing allows you to farm various lockboxes while you’re out in the world, which will contain credits.

Another thing that sets Slicing apart from the other gathering skills is that it has the chance to proc additional goodies when you’re farming nodes or doing Slicing missions. Slicing procs include special Mission quests for every gathering/mission crew skill (including itself) which take significantly more time but also return significantly higher or larger quantity rewards, Cybertech crafting schematics for Ship items and vehicles, and additional lockboxes with even more credits. You can get multiple procs for each mission/gather as well. The best I’ve gotten so far is the base lockbox that gave me 140% profit above the cost of the mission itself along with two purple mission quests.

And in case Slicing wasn’t already unique enough for you, it also has a unique Mission reward. Slicing missions come in two varieties: lockboxes and augments. Lockboxes work just like the gathering version I just described in the paragraph above. Augments are a special type of item mod that comes only from Slicing (and quest rewards and such). Augment slots often appear in crafted gear that, when made, is made critically so that it comes out as an Exceptional version of the item which will have all of the same stats but include an Augment mod slot as well. I believe there are some higher level pieces of gear that come with Augment slots already, but for leveling I think only the Exceptional crafted pieces will have the slot.

Mission Crew Skill Special Notes
Mission skills are an interesting addition to the professions world to me, as someone who has MMO experience only in WoW. Mission skills require you to send your companions away for a period of time to complete a quest that gives you certain rewards. There are no nodes for you to gather from and no other way to level these than sending your companions off and burning the credits it costs to do so.

Mission Skills are the only means (other than the Global Trade Network) of obtaining blue and purple quality crafting mats which are required to craft all non-green patterns for the crafting professions. If you want to be able to craft everything with your crafting skills you MUST have the linked mission skill unless you’re willing to spend the credits buying them off of the GTN; there’s no other way around it.

If you’re just starting out, be careful about sending your companions out on too many mission skills as it’s very easy to find yourself nearing level 25 about to buy your first mount (40,000 credits) only to find you only have 4,000 credits to your name. I made that mistake on my first character with Biochem/Bioanalysis/Diplomacy as I was crafting like a fiend right up until I found myself broke as a joke.

NOTE: ALL mission skills give you an option to farm Companion Gifts. I’m going to say that here and now so that I don’t have to bother repeating myself on every listing below.

[Index]
Diplomacy (Mission)
Linked Crafting Skills: Biochem

Diplomacy is a really cool mission skill because it offers you something beyond just simple mats and companion gifts. Each Diplomacy mission also comes with a Light or Dark rating and running that mission will result in you gaining those Light/Dark points. If you’re really looking to maximize your Light/Dark standing in game then this is your ticket.

Diplomacy missions typically return either Companion Gifts or Medical Samples which are used in high quality Biochem recipes. Diplomacy can also proc the occasional Synthweaving Schematic from what I’ve read, though I never saw that in my own experience and I’m not currently playing any of my Diplomacy alts to test that for you.

[Index]
Investigation (Mission)
Linked Crafting Skills: Armstech

Investigation is the mission skill of the Armstech world, allowing you to research new and improved ways of shooting things in the face. It’s considered to be the Tech user’s mission skill because it ties well into the Armstech and Armormech crafting skills by providing mats and/or schematics for the two.

Investigation missions allow you to find rare metals used in Armstech, and occasionally you will also find schematics for Armormech, Armstech, and Synthweaving.

[Index]
Treasure Hunting (Mission)
Linked Crafting Skills: Artifice and Synthweaving

Treasure Hunting is the Force user’s version of Investigation, and provides the rare mats required for blue+ schematics in Artifice and Synthweaving.

Treasure Hunting missions also have a chance to proc schematics for Armstech, Cybertech, and Artifice.

[Index]
Underworld Trading (Mission)
Linked Crafting Skills: Armormech and Cybertech

Underworld Trading is the Chex Mix™ of mission skills. While it only provides materials for Armormech and Cybertech, the missions skills have a chance to proc schematics for every crafting profession in the game.

If you want to make money by selling schematics on the GTN, then this is one of your best options because it has such a large array of schematics to pull from. It’s also the only way to get additional Biochem schematics outside of vendor training and reverse engineering.

Companion Efficiency and Critical Bonuses
The section above goes over which crew skills match up with which classes from the standpoint of who will use what that skill is capable of making. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that those classes will be the best ones at using those skills. So in this section we’re going to look at optimizing your skills based on which companions are available to each class.

I know some of you out there don’t really care how a profession relates to a character, you just want access to a certain profession and you happen to have a character to stick it on so away you go. If you don’t care that our Force user can only build Tech items as long as you get some kind of bonus for doing so as that Force user, then this is where you find out what your best options are.

The following values are brought to you by the swtor-spy.com companions database with the assumption that “Research” actually refers to Investigation.

Efficiency Bonus by Crew Skill		Crit Bonus by Crew Skill
Bonuses By Class
Bounty Hunter	Imperial Agent	Sith Inquisitor	Sith Warrior
Jedi Consular	Jedi Knight	Smuggler	Trooper

[Index]
Efficiency Bonus By Crew Skill (Reduced Crafting/Mission Time)
Archaeology: Consular +15, Smuggler +10, Knight +10, Warrior +5
Armormech: Bounty Hunter +15, Smuggler +10
Armstech: Trooper +10, Knight +10, Warrior +10, Agent +10
Artifice: Inquisitor +15, Knight +10
Bioanalysis: Trooper +10, Knight +10, Inquisitor +10, Agent +5
Biochem: Agent +15, Trooper +10, Consular +5
Cybertech: Smuggler +10, Warrior +10, Agent +10, Consular +10, Trooper +5, Bounty Hunter +5
Diplomacy: Smuggler +15, Warrior +10, Consular +10, Inquisitor +10
Investigation: Consular +15, Agent +10, Trooper +10, Bounty Hunter +10, Inquisitor +5
Scavenging: Agent +10, Knight +10, Smuggler +10, Bounty Hunter +10, Warrior +10
Slicing: Bounty Hunter +15, Trooper +10, Consular +10
Synthweaving: Consular +10, Inquisitor +10
Treasure Hunting: Inquisitor +5
Underworld Trading: Smuggler +10, Bounty Hunter +10, Knight +5, Smuggler +5, Warrior +5

[Index]
Critical Bonus By Crew Skill (Chance to proc extra quantity or higher quality)
Archaeology: Inquisitor +5
Armormech: Trooper +5, Agent +2
Armstech: Smuggler +5, Consular +2, Bounty Hunter +1
Artifice:
Bioanalysis: Smuggler +2, Bounty Hunter +2, Warrior +2
Biochem: Knight +5, Bounty Hunter +2
Cybertech:
Diplomacy: Agent +5, Trooper +2, Consular +2
Investigation: Warrior +2
Scavenging: Trooper +5, Consular +2, Inquisitor +2
Slicing: Knight +2, Agent +2, Inquisitor +2, Smuggler +1
Synthweaving: Warrior +5, Knight +5
Treasure Hunting: Warrior +5, Smuggler +2, Bounty Hunter +2, Knight +1
Underworld Trading: Agent +2, Inquisitor +2, Consular +1, Trooper +1

By Class
Each of the following listings is grouped by bonuses that belong together if you’re considering going with the full Crafting + Gathering + Mission lineup. As such you’ll see a full listing of available bonuses, but if there’s a bonus to Scavenging for example and they have a bonus to two or more crafting skills that use Scavenging then you will see the bonus to Scavenging listed multiple times.

[Index]
Bounty Hunter:
+15 Armormech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+10 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+1 Armstech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+10 Investigation Efficiency
—
+2 Treasure Hunting Crit
—
+2 Biochem Crit
+2 Bioanalysis Crit
—
+5 Cybertech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+10 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+10 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+15 Slicing Efficiency

So if you’re looking to maximize your potential crew skills with a Bounty Hunter you’re best options are Armormech (efficiency bonuses all around), Armstech (efficiency bonuses all around), or Cybertech (efficiency bonuses all around). You have solid bonuses for Biochem as well.

[Index]
Imperial Agent:
+2 Armormech Crit
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+10 Investigation Efficiency
—
+10 Armstech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+2 Underworld Trading Crit
—
—
+15 Biochem Efficiency
+5 Bioanalysis Efficiency
+5 Diplomacy Crit
—
+10 Cybertech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+2 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+2 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+2 Slicing Crit

The Imperial Agent is one of the most well rounded classes in terms of bonuses. From a maximization standpoint you should go with Armormech (crit crafting and efficient gathers), Armstech (efficient craft/gather with a crit to your rare mats mission skill), Biochem (efficient craft/gather with crit to rare mats missions), or Cybertech (also with efficient craft/gather and a crit mission for rare mats).

[Index]
Jedi Consular:
+2 Scavenging Crit
+1 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+2 Armstech Crit
+2 Scavenging Crit
+15 Investigation Efficiency
—
+15 Archaeology Efficiency
—
+5 Biochem Efficiency
+2 Diplomacy Crit
—
+10 Cybertech Efficiency
+2 Scavenging Crit
+1 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+10 Synthweaving Efficiency
+15 Archaeology Efficiency
+1 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+10 Slicing Efficiency

Jedi Consulars have a decent grouping of bonuses that allow for flexibility. If you’re looking to maximize then you’ll want to choose Armstech (crafting/gathering crit for higher quality and larger quantity with mission efficiency), Cybertech (crafting efficiency and gathering/mission critical for extra materials), or Synthweaving (efficient crafting/gathering with mission crit for rare mats). You also have decent bonuses to Armormech and Biochem.

[Index]
Jedi Knight:
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+5 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+10 Armstech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+1 Investigation Crit
—
+10 Artifice Efficiency
+10 Archaeology Efficiency
—
+5 Biochem Crit
+10 Bioanalysis Efficiency
—
+5 Synthweaving Crit
+5 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+2 Slicing Crit

Jedi Knights are a bit odd considering the only grouping they have full bonuses in is Armstech (craft/gather efficiency with mission crit for rare mats) which they don’t use at all themselves. However, they do have a solid bonus to Armormech, Artifice, Biochem, and Synthweaving of which all but Armormech are directly usable by the Knight.

[Index]
Sith Inquisitor:
+2 Scavenging Crit
+5 Investigation Efficiency
—
+2 Scavenging Crit
+2 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+15 Artifice Efficiency
+5 Archaeology Crit
+5 Treasure Hunting Efficiency
—
+10 Bioanalysis Efficiency
+10 Diplomacy Efficiency
—
+10 Synthweaving Efficiency
+5 Archaeology Crit
+5 Treasure Hunting Efficiency
—
+2 Slicing Crit

The Sith Inquisitor fits in right about where I would expect them to. Optimal professions are Artifice (crafting/mission efficiency and critical gathering for extra base mats) and Synthweaving (again crafting/mission efficiency and critical gathering for extra base mats). They also have a decent pairing of other crew skills allowing them some advantage as an Armormech, Armstech, or Biochem.

[Index]
Sith Warrior:
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+5 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+10 Armstech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+2 Investigation Crit
—
+5 Archaeology Efficiency
+5 Treasure Hunting Efficiency
—
+2 Bioanalysis Crit
+10 Diplomacy Efficiency
—
+5 Synthweaving Efficiency
+5 Archaeology Efficiency
+5 Treasure Hunting Efficiency
—
+10 Cybertech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+5 Underworld Trading Efficiency

The Sith Warrior is pretty well off overall with their bonuses. Maximizing professions shows that Armstech (efficient crafting/gathering with critical mission for rare mats), Synthweaving (full efficiency bonuses), and Cybertech (full efficiencies) are your best options. If those don’t thrill you there are still solid bonuses to Armormech, Artifice, and Bioanalysis.

[Index]
Smuggler:
+10 Armormech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+10 Underworld Trading Efficiency
+5 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+5 Armstech Crit
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
—
+2 Treasure Hunting Crit
—
+2 Bioanalysis Crit
+15 Diplomacy
—
+10 Cybertech Efficiency
+10 Scavenging Efficiency
+10 Underworld Trading Efficiency
+5 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+10 Underworld Trading Efficiency
+5 Underworld Trading Efficiency
—
+1 Slicing Crit

Smugglers are unique in that they have two different companions with efficiency bonuses to Underworld Trading. That doesn’t surprise me at all given the class concept, but it’s odd to see something like that which is almost tailored to the class when you look at some of the other classes and their lack of relevant bonuses.

From a maximization standpoint you definitely want to shoot for using that Underworld Trading which means Armormech (full efficiency with dual mission efficiency) or Cybertech (full efficiency with dual mission efficiency). Armstech and Bioanalysis have some decent bonuses as well, and that dual UT efficiency could help with rare mats for Synthweaving as well.

[Index]
Trooper:
+5 Armormech Crit
+5 Scavenging Crit
+1 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+10 Armstech Efficiency
+5 Scavenging Crit
+10 Investigation Efficiency
—
—
+10 Biochem Efficiency
+10 Bioanalysis Efficiency
+2 Diplomacy Crit
—
+5 Cybertech Efficiency
+5 Scavenging Crit
+1 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+1 Underworld Trading Crit
—
+10 Slicing

Troopers are another fairly well rounded class, and they fit in right about where I would expect them to on their bonuses. Optimization shows that Armormech (full crit bonuses), Armstech (crafting/mission efficiency with crit gathering for extra mats), Biochem (craft/gather efficiency with crit mission for extra rare mats), and Cybertech (efficient crafting with crit gathering/mission for extra mats).

Making the Decision That’s Right For You
When it comes to crew skills in SWTOR, or professions in any other game, remember that this choice is yours to make. You can choose whatever you want and so so for whatever reasons you want. Unlike WoW, SWTOR professions do not give specific bonuses that increase your performance stats in game, so there’s no reason to worry about a +2 Aim difference between maxed Arsmtech versus maxed Biochem because such a bonus does not exist. [Update: Had that last sentence worded as "performance" which isn't actually true if you consider the explosives of Cybertech in terms of PvP since they can have a definitely impact on your performance there. Thanks to @aggrazel for pointing out the bad wording for me.]

If you want to be self reliant then you want to pick up three professions that match up together. In all cases that is 1 Craft + 1 Gather + 1 Mission, and in none of those cases is Slicing an option.

If you want to be able to make gear upgrades for all of your alts, then your best bet is to go for one that crafts mods. The top two mod crafting professions are Artifice (Hilts, Crystals, Enhancements) and Cybertech (Armoring and Mod mods).

If you want to maximize your earnings, then you definitely want Slicing (for the gathering aspect more so than mission runs). Crafting is very hit and miss and varies wildly from one server to another, so I won’t make any suggestions there.

If you just want to gather, then by all means grab yourself some gathering professions and go to town. Of the four gathering professions, only three of them provide materials (the fourth being Slicing). Of those three, Scavenging is the most widely used since it feeds three professions, Archaeology next feeding two professions, and Bioanalysis last feeding only one. In some cases Scavenging will be the most lucrative because it has the highest supply and demand, while in others Bioanalysis will top the charts because it has the lowest supply and lowest demand. Archaeology is the invisible underdog since it rests right in the middle, which means there will also be times that it comes out on top as people fight over the other two.

So take what you want, and do with it what you will.

As for me? Gotta catch ‘em all!