So the time has come for all mmo gamers to experience the full wrath of the humongous game Star Wars: The Old Republic. I felt so tiny when I started out the game. The first few missions always felt simple or confusing for some. The gameplay was great. Loved how you could choose your own path and answer to your liking, unless not chosen to answer in a party quest. Specially liked how you can give gifts to your companions, and depending on their personality, basically gave you a thumbs up in points of a boo in points. I would have preferred it to always be the first reaction and have a superior companion when compared to others.

Recently downloaded myself a Killer Guides SWTOR strategy guide book. This downloadable pdf written by some SWTOR players really opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at things and also how to figure some really confusing things out – like your crew skills and how they develop (crafting). After a quick scan, I found that the guide had much more to offer than the basic info you could pull off the web but a specially crafted guide from a player who has gone through the game several times with different characters.

If you are looking to understand the game’s complex systems, I think this would be a great choice for you as the first part of the guide actually goes into detail explaining the various systems within the game. In the mid-sections of the guide book, they also reveal different strategies that have worked for the author to get through questing easily and how you could do a few quests at a time to save time and focus on other things. So goodluck with the game and if every in doubt or need, try turning to Killer Guides SWTOR guide.

Leveling up is always one of the most challenging and competitive areas of any MMO. The same goes for SWTOR. Star Wars: The Old Republic plays similar to WoW and the traditional MMORPGs. In order to gain access to the more powerful equipment, higher level dungeons, mini-games or obtain advanced skills, you would need to progress your character through the levels.

For SWTOR, leveling is practically the key to accessing the locked and hidden features of the game. As you reach the level cap, that is when you get to gain full access to the end-game content. For most games, end-game content such as being able to join full blown faction wars or so is the ultimate reward for hitting the level cap.

It would be interesting to see the leveling competition to be the first ever to hit the level 50 cap when the gates to SWTOR opens for the first time.

For anyone new to MMO gaming and SWTOR, the basics to leveling involves completing quests (also known as missions in SWTOR), and earn leveling experience as rewards from NPC that offers the quests. Besides questing, there’s what most gamers refer to ‘grinding’. This involves killing monsters overs and over again given each kill yields a certain amount of leveling exp.

SWTOR is designed more towards quest-based leveling with an intricately designed storyline that keeps gamers engaged and involved in how the story slowly reveals itself. Consequently, for gamers who are on the go, there are many things to consider if you want to quickly level up your character.

Many end up resorting to a SWTOR leveling guide of some sort for tricks and hints. Does that make sense? Absolutely, there are many factors that actually effects how fast each gamer can level up. First of all, you need to really know your class and the skills you have in terms of how they can help you kill monsters much faster. Have that blink or dash-type skill, use it to travel faster and complete quests faster. Do you know which quests offers the most experiences at each level? Nope. Would knowing that ensure you don’t miss out on important SWTOR leveling missions? Absolutely. How can you know beforehand? Easy. Most SWTOR leveling guides offers just that. What, where and how to quickly complete the experience packed quests or even which mobs are best for leveling as you progress through each level.

Having class guides is also a great way to leveling up quickly. Why? Each class and specialization in SWTOR does not necessarily have the same set of missions, nor do they necessarily come across the same mobs at a given level. As class customized leveling guide goes a long way for just about anyone. Afterall, in SWTOR, leveling is practically the essence the game is built on. In other words, it’s all about character and class progression towards unlocking end-game content.

For more advanced content such as strategies and gaming hints, please refer to this SWTOR Complete Guides Bundle.

This article provides a preliminary guide for Crafting and Crew Skills, more advanced content such as related gameplay strategies could be found in this SWTOR Guide.

In SWTOR, crafting and crew skills comes hand in hand. To get a full grasp of how it works, let’s start on crew skills. SWTOR lets you manage your own crew and assign skills to them. While you’re off doing your own stuff in the game, you can assign a crew member to go on diplomatic missions or so. After which, they’ll automatically complete on their own and return to you with the mission completion rewards.

There are three main skill categories that you can assign to crew members which are: Gathering Skills, Crafting Skills and Mission Skills. Starting to get a picture of how crew skills relate to crafting?

Gathering skills include those abilities that are needed to collect the raw materials used to assemble and craft objects in the game. Crafting skills is as the name suggests and then finally Mission skills is about looking for hidden treasures or negotiating diplomatic terms.

Now onto the SWTOR crafting guide (note that this is a preliminary crafting guide to get you started on). There are two main crafting skills which are crafting and gathering.

Gathering offers four sets of different abilities which are scavenging, archaeology, slicing and bioanalysis. Crafting skills also comes in further specializations, which are Armortech, Synthweaving, Biochem, Cybertech, Artifice and Armstech.

You’d then need to mix and match these skills to craft the items of your choice. There you go, crafting and crew skills made easy.

Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWTOR) offers lots of planets scattered throughout the galaxy. Each race are originate from differing planets. In SWTOR, gamers travel through deep space between planets to complete missions, join in epic battles and much more. The planet system implemented by the game’s developer is in fact a feature of SWTOR that stands out. You could in a sense compare a planet to a map or a zone, however they are actually much much larger. One planet could be compared to a smaller size Azeroth in World of Warcraft.

So far, there are more than 12 known planets. Imagine a playable area of over 12 times the size of Azeroth. What you get is a humongous play area. This makes gathering and questing much more interesting. Exploring every corner of SWTOR can be seen as a tough mission in itself.

Here’s a short SWTOR planets guide for the known planets:

Tython
The well-known Tython planet is the homeworld of the powerful Jedi. As known throughout the galaxy, the larger part of Tython remains undiscovered with unknown darkness lurking in the shadows.

Korriban
Korriban is another widely known planet given it is where the Sith’s origins. The planet is very active with the majority allocated to training Dark Jedi.

Coruscant
Probably one of the most developed planets in SWTOR, it is the Republic’s capital. This planet houses the senate and chancellor. In SWTOR, the planet has not been rebuilt since the last Sith attack.

Alderaan
Alderaan was once ruled by a monarchy system that has eventually died out and is now a neutral planet that is being battled for between the Republic and the Empire.

Tatooine
Popular in several scenes from the Star Wars movie, Tatooine is a vast desert where battles have taken place.

Hutta
This planet is where the Hutta race settles and is the base operation of Hutt cartels.

Ord Mantell
Ord Mantell is a colony run by the Galactic Republic which is under civil war. People of the planet are basically battling with the Republic for independence.

Balmorra
Once ruled by the Republic and overtaken by the Sith, Balmorra is definitely a planet where action will take place between the two allegiance.

Dromund Kass
This planet is where the emperor and dark council resides.

Taris
A wasteland since the Sith completely demolished the planet 300 years ago, the Galactic Republic attempts to re-colonize it. Taris is a dangerous planet with the walking dead as a reminder of the Sith’s attacks.

Belsavis
This planet acts as the Galactic Republic’s prison. The prison on Belsavis is known to have been created by an ancient civilization and houses some unknown mysterious evils within its gates.

Hoth
Liek Belsavis, Hoth is an ice planet. Given the planet has not been claimed and contains valuable treasures, players can expect to engage in PvP on Hoth.

Voss
Home to the Voss race, powerful force-sensitive beings, the planet and its inhabitant the Republic and Empire compete for the Voss’ alliance.

Nars Shadaa
Nars Shadaa is actually a moon under the Hutts authority. Crime organizations and cartels basically runs the planet and it is known to be one of wealthiest planets in the galaxy.

Corellia
Altough Corellia is known to be a Republic planet, word has it that the Empire’s Imperials have corrupted the planet’s leaders.

Ilum
Currently heavy populated the Imperial forces, Ilum is known to be the origins of the Jedi’s weapon, lightsabers. The crystals found on the planet are used to forge lightsabers.

Quesh
Yet another Republic planet, in SWTOR, it is continuously being invaded by the Imperial army.

SWTOR gamers will find themselves traveling in and between all these planets throughout the game to complete mission and the game’s questline (storyline). Each and every planet has its own character or so called personality and is a beauty in its own sense. Together, these planets make the galaxy and the entire Star Wars theme.

If you’re looking for more than preliminary info, this SWTOR Guide is recommended. The manual is also available as part of a SWTOR Complete Guides Bundle; further recommended for serious SWTOR gamers.

This article is a good starting point to learn about Skill Trees. Check out this SWTOR Guide for more advanced details, insights and gameplay tactics.

In Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWTOR), gamers will quickly become familiar with the concept of skill trees. Before going into skill trees, on a larger scale, here’s how the class arrangement looks for SWTOR:

• There are two main allegiance: the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire
• Within each allegiance there are 4 playable classes
• For the Galactic Republic the playable classes are as follows: Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smugger and Trooper
• The Sith Empire playable classes are: Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter
• Each of the 8 available classes have 2 specializations (also known as advanced classes) which make it a total of 16 unique classes

What this offers is uniqueness and the ability for each gamer to differentiate their character from the other Jedi Sentinels, for instance. Each class comes with 5 skill trees. Each of the advanced class comes with 3 skill trees, 1 which is shared with the other advanced class.

For example:

Class Jedi Knight has 5 skill trees

Advanced class Jedi Sentinel has 3 skills (2 which are unique)

• Combat: Enables the SWTOR Jedi Sentinel to take on the Ataru Lightsaber form
• Watchman: Lets the Jedi Sentinel take on the Juyo Lightsaber form
• Focus: A shared tree with the Jedi Guardian which enables both the Jedi Sentinel and Jedi Guardian to take on the Shii-Cho lightsaber form

Advanced class Jedi Guardian has 3 skills (2 which are unique)

• Defense: Makes the Jedi Guardian stronger at handling enemy attacks and shielding allies
• Vigilance: Improves single-blade offense attacks of the Jedi Guardian
• Focus: A shared tree with the Jedi Guardian which enables both the Jedi Sentinel and Jedi Guardian to take on the Shii-Cho lightsaber form

And there you go, a fast brief on the class structure, advanced classes and the role of skill trees, which is basically a system used to further specialize a character beyond its chosen advanced class.

Did you miss out on the biggest event of the year? Lucky for you, our SWTORGUIDE team has found a video highlight capturing all the whole SWTOR event at the E3 Expo. See what was going down at the famous expo and what all the buzz is about.

Players have been eagerly awaiting BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic since its October 28, 2008 announcement. Following the premier at this year’s PAX East, interest has only increased. Though no formal release date has yet been announced, aspiring players continue to seek out every tidbit they can find regarding the possible character types, powers, and equipment. BioWare has promised these characters won’t be as rigidly defined as those in alternative MMORPGs, and will have customization far exceeding anything in the marketplace. This makes every scrap of pre-released information even more valuable to fans. Those players with an insatiable need-to-know will find more than enough insights and overview material to quell their hungers in the SWTOR Guide – Class Overview.

So far, BioWare has announced four Light side aligned classes, and two of these are Force-powers users. But what are the differences between the Jedi Consulars and the Jedi Knights? As well, Smugglers and Troopers round out the classes, allowing players a chance to inhabit non-Force using roles and flesh out different aspects of the Star Wars universe. While the Smuggler conjures up a certain irascible scoundrel-hero from the original film trilogy (one seldom seen without his Wookie companion), the Trooper class has little connected to it other than a character or two from the Expanded Universe tie-in novels. The SWTOR Guide – Class Overview has information on all four.

Opposed to these archetypes stand a quartet of character classes from a darker side, including the Sith Inquisitor and the Sith Warrior. Each conjures up images mysterious and terrifying, just the sorts of characters eager gamers love to role play! However, what can Inquisitors do that Warriors cannot? And vice versa? Fleshing out the Sith Empire’s legions are Bounty Hunters and Imperial Agents. The first alludes to the most popular character in the Star Wars universe, a fellow whose backpack has jets and who worked for a certain chortling Hutt, however the second is a giant unknown. Just what is an Agent good for, Imperial or not? The SWTOR Guide – Class Overview has information on all four of these archetypes, as well.

With official news bytes and updates as well as rumors and opinions swirling across the blogosphere each and every day, it’s a good thing players have SWTOR Guide – Class Overview to keep them up to date on the most anticipated MMORPG in the universe.

Looking for more advanced content? Check out this SWTOR Guide which comes highly recommended.

Star Wars The Old Republic

Video games continue to evolve and change with technology, and those adaptations go beyond just graphical improvements. The incorporation of physics engines has allowed games to be more realistic and visceral. There is a growing trend toward immersive games, one where the player really feels as if they are part of the game. Role-playing games, in particular, have focused on providing a rich in depth experience. MMORPGs are tantalizing for both the player and the developer. For the player, no single player RPG can match the freedom of choice and character options that an MMO offers. On the other hand, a successful MMO brings in millions in subscription fees in addition to the initial game purchase. That reason more then any other drives developer and publishes to seek out newer and better ways to attract and keep players. Third party supplements are a growing part of the industry, the SWTOR Guides will just be the newest iteration.

Star Wars: The Old Republic represents a partnership between LucasArts and Bioware. Bioware has established a reputation for producing award-wining RPGs since it’s first offering, Baldur’s Gate. Moreover, Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic showed that not only could Bioware do homage to the Star Wars universe, they could do it seamlessly while allowing the player to choose between the light and dark sides of the Force as the story unfolds.

Star Wars: the Old Republic is set centuries after the events in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, though still taking place millennium before the rise of the Galactic Empire. Bioware has embraced the storytelling potential inherent in the project, each player will have a single overarching storyline that changes based on your own choices. Third party SWTOR Guides will be incredibly popular for this reason. Any MMO is a incredibly complex undertaking and it is effectively impossible to keep everything perfectly balanced without causing it to be stale. Hardcore gamers in particular are going to be interested in the choices that provide them with the most concrete benefit. SWOTR Guides that set out what the most optimal path for each of the classes will be in demand as the majority of gamers would rather not invest the time needed to collect all that information themselves.

SWOTR has yet to enter open beta testing, when it does SWOTR Guides will be written and tested as well as the game itself. If Bioware can live up to the hype, SWOTR will take the gaming community by storm.

For more detailed information about Star War: The Old Republic Guides, check out this SWTOR Complete Guides Bundle.