Ten Tips for Transitioning WoW Players

Star Wars: The Old Republic is in many ways similar to World of Warcraft, minus of course the whole relevant RTS game series, Orcs, Goblins, Taurens, Forsaken, Elves, and well you kind of get the picture. Many SWTOR players will be coming from a galaxy far, far, away where a planet known as Azeroth is constantly under siege by the Burning Crusade. These stalwart adventurers will be taking up cloak and lightsaber and exploring the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire which takes place in a drastically different setting.

So to avoid the culture shock, we’ve put together 10 awesome tips to take you from mighty Orcish warrior to proud Jedi Knight without the awkward transition.

Tip #1 – No U.I. Mods in SWTOR

Perhaps the most relevant tip is to keep calm and don’t despair when you find out that you’re unable to alter the default interface. There is no cruising for SWTOR addons as they are not supported, at least at game launch. What you see is what you get when it comes to SWTOR’s interface and some may find that to be a blessing, since all players will be an even playing field, or a curse.

Don’t fret transitioning Tauren Chieftains! Stop yourself from punching your head into the wall and check our guide on tweaking the interface. While you might not be able to skin and recondition the interface, you can make it a lot more user friendly so you don’t have to fume about why there is only one action bar and Khem Val is desperately trying to eat it.

Tip #2 – Terminology Overload

Things are slightly different in the land of droids and lightsabers. Stats are not the same and for some MMO beginners you might be confused with the difference. In SWTOR stats are known as attributes and there are six primary attributes that you’ll find on gear. Each class has one primary attribute, which is the only attribute that they should need (exceptions may exist). Attributes don’t have a one to one conversion for WoW, but we’ve done our best to link them together.

If you want more details about each stats and how each primary stat works, be sure to check out our Character Stats Overview.

• Agility / Ranged Attack Power (WoW) = > Aim (SWTOR): Increases your damage with ranged weapons and for mostly ranged weapon classes. This stat is more toward the heavy armor wearing non-force users.
• Agility / Ranged Attack Power (WoW) => Cunning (SWTOR): Increases your damage with tech based weaponry. This stat is more toward the medium armor wearing non-force users.
• Stamina (WoW) => Endurance (SWTOR): Increases your health points and regeneration.
• Presence: Increases your companions health and damage. Think of it like your stats transferring to your pet in WoW.
• Intellect / Spell Power (WoW) => Willpower (SWTOR): Increases your force damage
• Strength / Melee Attack Power (WoW) => Strength (SWTOR): Increases your melee damage and critical change with Lightsabers.
• Resilience (WoW) => Expertise (SWTOR): See our next tip for more information about this.

You'll also want to look out for some tricky words you might not have heard before. Enchantments don't exist, instead you customize your armor / weapons with crystals and other gadgets referred to as 'mods' in The Old Republic. Flasks, potions, and elixirs are replaced with stim pacs and med pacs.

Tip #3 – We’re not in Arathi Basin Anymore

Player vs. Player combat is available in the game but is closer to Warhammer Online than it is to World of Warcraft. For starters, warzones (battlegrounds) are available starting at level 10 and feature players of all levels. You’ll hear Valor (rank), Commendations, XP, and credits for fighting in one of the three currently available warzones (Huttball which is capture the flag, Alderaan which is a resource capture map, and Voidstar which is defense map).

There is only one tier of warzones so a level 10 player may be facing a level 50 but don’t fret! PvP is normalized, much like Warhammer Online, so all players deal the same amount of damage and have the same amount of health. The only difference is that Expertise will increase your efficiency in PvP, making PvP gear a worthwhile investment.

Tip #4 – Not Every Quest Must You Do

So you’re in Ashenvale and you have about twenty quests to do. In order to hit the next level you’ll need to do most of them and if you fail to do them, especially in Cataclysm, you won’t unlock future quests. You can skip questing and do the battlegrounds, but the queue can be ferocious and you’ll find yourself in a tough spot because if you want to return to quest you’ll either need to do green quests or find another spot to plug yourself into.

Well, going into SWTOR you’ll want to drop that “I have to do every quest” mentality. There is only one primary quest chain, that is your class storyline quest, and you’ll need to progress through that quest in order to unlock features like your starship or additional companions. The rest of the quests available are simply known as sidequests and like Bioware’s single player offerings can be skipped if you’re willing to level up elsewhere.

Sidequests come in two flavors, regular and heroic. Heroic quests are similar to daily quests but often require a group while the regular sidequests often have you killing enemies that you would while adventuring on your primary class quest. Bonus quests appear when you enter an area and are often require you to kill a certain number of enemies or access various quest items.

So it’s perfectly fine to level up via warzones, space combat, or just grinding enemies to your heart’s content. You won’t have to worry about losing your place in the game. A tactic a lot of players employ is to do their main storyline quests and any sidequests that don’t involve too much effort and just grind the rest of their experience away in Warzones.

Tip #5 – Strength in Numbers

When you first start playing you’ll notice the game mechanics often group enemies in clusters of twos, threes, and fours quite often. Players coming from the City of Heroes games might find this to be a bit normal, but for WoW, Rift, or similar games it might come as a shock. The way it works is like this: enemies come in different configurations but all have roughly the same health / damage. So you’ll either fight one really strong enemy or four weak enemies that do about as much damage as the one really strong enemy.

This comes into play more as you progress through the game. In later levels you’ll find yourself using your companion to assist you in combat which evens out the numbers and you’ll gain a wide variety of crowd control spells on most classes to disable some of the strong enemies while you thin out the numbers.

Tip #6 – Quest Text Matters so does Alignment

SWTOR spans many worlds and each world is full of stories and tons of voice acting. This makes each planet exciting and unique and gives you a big incentive to actually pay attention to the quest text instead of spamming accept before you run off on your next task. Of course, the option to skip it is available (space bar advances the conversation), but I highly suggest against it since SWTOR has placed a heavy emphasis on its story. Of course, each conversation does matter because your response determines your alignment.

As you progress through a conversation you’ll be given three different options to choose from. Sometimes it’s just flavor options and others it’ll be a choice between a light side, dark side, or neutral response. Picking a side in SWTOR is important because, as of right now, you’ll need an alignment one way or another (neutral gear is supposed to be added at a later point). Picking a side and sticking to it will allow you to access some pretty neat gear (even starting at lower levels with planet commendations) and is pretty fun.

So be sure to check your dialogue options before you skip your quest text.

Tip #7 – Dungeons, Instances, and Everything Else

So we’re all pretty much use to the idea of five man dungeons and 10 or 25 man raids. That’s been the de facto standard for WoW and pretty much every other game that has emulated WoW. Well SWTOR kicks that idea around a bit by introducing instanced quests and Flashpoints which are similar to the dungeons we’re used to.

A lot of quests, especially your class storyline quest, happen within instances. Most of these instances are for solo quests and the rest are for heroic quests. You’ll be able to tell their location by either a red (no entry) barrier or green (entry allowed) barrier. Within these areas you’ll be given your own unique copy of the game world for your quest to play out and can often invite other players in to assist you.

Flashpoints are the dungeons of SWTOR are available in four and eight player varieties (four being a normal flashpoint and eight being more like a raid). Flashpoints are a bit more interactive than normal quests and often feature tons of cutscenes which offer a way to level up your social skill and a chance at loot chests.

On a similar note, all phasing happens within instances. So there is no phasing like in WoW, only instances. So the world might change within a room in a cantina, but only behind the instance barrier. You won’t see the world change outside of the instances.

Tip #8 – Don’t Travel Alone: Companions

Everyone in SWTOR will have a companion follow them around and join them in their adventures. If you’ve ever played Guild Wars you might know what a henchman is or if you’ve played DDO you might know what a hireling is. Companions are a similar concept. It’s like a cross between a hunter pet and a robotic second player.

Companions are strong and are capable of tanking, healing, or doing damage (depending on the companion type) and each class gets a nice selection of companions to complement their abilities. You’re probably wondering when you’ll get your first companion, well, it depends on the class but you can generally expect to see it between level 7 and 8. Some classes get a preview of their companion early, like the Jedi Knight.

Companions are controlled like pets are in WoW. You can choose to set them to passive to avoid combat and point them towards targets to attack. Tank type companions will try to hold the attention of the enemies you’re facing while damage dealing companions will focus on taking the enemies down. Healing type companions will attempt to heal you as you adventure throughout the galaxy.

Tip #9 – Class Choice at Level 10 / Advanced Classes

You choose your primary class at character creation and then choose your advanced class at level 10. This means that you have a base class that carries along the abilities that both classes share and an advanced class that allows you access to different weapons / armor and advanced class only abilities and skill trees.

Speaking of skill trees, you’ll get your first skill point at level 10 after you change into your advanced class. Advanced class selection happens once you leave your first planet. This is a bit different than how things work in WoW.

Additionally, classes don’t fall into a primary archetype. All classes are hybrids, in the WoW sense, with no true dedication to one field or another. Each class can usually fulfill two roles. Often its damage dealing and either healing or tanking. Some of the mixups might surprise you, for instance, a stealth class might be a healer or a caster might be a tank.  Classes share one single skill tree and have two unique talent trees that lets them pick their role.

To see the skill tree for each advanced class in The Old Republic, be sure to check out our SWTOR Skill Calculator.

Tip #10 – Crafting Insanity

Crafting is different in SWTOR than in WoW. First, crafting is known as “crew skills” and is mostly performed by your crew. As you level up you’ll gain more companions to assist in crafting and running missions for you. Second, crafting is broken down into gathering, crafting, and missions. You can have any number of gathering or mission crew skills but only one crafting crew skill. There are three crew skill slots, so you could technically have three gathering skills if you so choose.

A lot of players prefer to choose one mission skill, one crafting skill, and an appropriate gathering skill for their crafting skill but having three gathering skills and having your companions run out and gather materials for you to sell isn’t a losing scenario.

Well, aspiring Tauren Chieftain, I hope this guide has found you well. You should now be prepared to take on the new galaxy that you’ll find yourself in. So are you coming over from WoW? If so, share with us in the comments section below!