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 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.