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.