The Old Republic for Dummies
 

I’ve never played a MMO until TOR, I’m pretty sure there are others who have also never played one, but will be playing TOR. So I believe we need a thread for noob questions. Where the wise old MMO Masters can help us MMO Padawans out, without making us feel completely stupid for not knowing what may seem like silly question to you.

So I’ll ask the first silly question, since this is my thread.

1. I’ve seen items with vendors that require Social Level. So what are Social Point/Social Level? And how do you get Social Points/Levels?

I've looked around and I see you need 10 points for level 1 and 750 points for level 2, but I still don't understand how you get them.

Social points are gained from multiplayer conversations. Each time a line of dialogue is spoken in a mp conversation you'll notice a number pop up near the bottom left of your screen. Those are the social points you received for that line of dialogue. You get more if you win the roll and your character speaks.

There may be other ways to gain them that I don't know about, so anyone else feel free to answer.

So I spam Lynk with conversation and I get Social Points. Got it, it will be just like skype.:dev14:

Maybe we should agree to just all spam Lynk for some easy Social Points.

Another question: what to do with the Commendations, where do I trade them in?

Commendations are a form of currency. The best gear can typically only be bought with commendations. There should be a commendation vendor on each planet. Originally you could trade in commendations from one planet into an equivalent of another planet's encouraging saving up commendations until later in the game, but now they have nixed that, meaning you should spend them as you earn them.

There are Equipment Commendation Vendor on each planet. You can use the commendations to buy gear. I know I bought a decent vest from the Ord Mantel Commendation Vendor.

From what I read in the TOR forums (so I don’t know the accuracy of the information) you have to use the commendations on that planet, there are no refunds (you can sell the item back, but you get credits not commendations) and many of the items have lightside/darkside requirements.

The good news is the you don't have to be on the planet, the Imperial/Republic Fleet has commendation vendors for each planet, they have the same stock as the vendor you would find on that planet as well. Also generally speaking yes the armor is better than anything else you'll find, but once the game is out for a while the GTN (Galactic Trade Network) will let you find suitable player crafted equipment that can be just as good if not better.

Seems like the best (i.e. slotted) PvE weapons and chest armour will come from Flashpoints. Best to use commendations to buy extraneous gear like boots/gloves/accessories.

So far, the only way to do it is to be in multiplayer conversations with NPC's such as Flashpoints or heroics.

The good thing is all of that gear is slotted, so if you like the look of a piece of gear you can just change out the mods for higher level mods and the gear will be on par with gear from those levels.

Also, if you find yourself losing a lot in PVE, check your gear. chances are it may be for lower levels.

I have another question for those who got a bit further in the game then I did..

I'm going to play a Sith Inquisitor, but I'm in doubt about what specialisation to pick...I'm quite fond of the Assassin, with it's saps en crowd control stuff. However, I imagine healers are more important and get into groups easier? If Assassins (like Rogues in WoW) are ignored somewhat I know what specialisation to get into...

The Assassin and Sorcerer offer completely different play style choices (as do the Shadow/Sage Consular mirror classes). The Assassin is primarily designed for melee DPS, but can tank if spec'd properly (although how well in high level Flashpoint/Operation scenarios I am unsure). The Sorcerer offers you either ranged DPS or healing.

If group play is your thing then yes, I would say as a (good) healer you won't be wanting for invites. I would think there will be no shortage of Lightning spec'd Sorcerers, so if you went that route you'd probably have a much harder time getting invites to random groups. I'm not sure about Assassins of either flavour, but certainly I don't think groups will be wanting for DPS. Tanks on the other hand, like healers, will always be in demand (good ones anyway).

That and you can help your guild out more as a healer... guilds are always looking for healers XD

Me Either, Beta Testing was fun until the game crashed and I couldn't get on again.

1. How do I get in a Guild? Stupid question, i know, but how?

Well firstly, to get into a guild, that guild must be on the same server that you're playing on. A guild usually sends you an invite to join after you get into contact with them... (or you'll get random invites to a guild if it's an obnoxious guild who just likes to spam invites to everyone.)

LucasForums has two guilds operating at the moment which are both going to be active on TOR at launch (and during early access). The Walking Carpets on the Republic side and the Imperialist Meatbags for the Empire side.

The pre-launch guild program is over on the TOR site so you can't join either at the moment. Of course, once early access/launch starts, you will be able to join either of those by shooting Astor (for the IMB) or myself (for TWC) a private message with your characters name so we can send you an invite.

We should be finding out very soon which server our LF guilds will be on if you're interesting in joining one or both of them.

Hmm, when TOR launches I want to Join The Walking Carpet's, cause im gonna be a Jedi Knight.

Alright, just to make things simple for everyone all you need to do is...

1. Create a character on the same server the guild is on (we'll find that out soon enough and let everyone know which server folks should be joining).
2. Send me a private message on LucasForums telling me your characters name so I can send you an invite.
3. Do the happy dance.

Hurrah.

Dang...you both make a good point. I was a good DPS-er and tank in WoW, so Assassin seems to be a good choice, since I can always go 'tank' mode or 'dps' mode whichever is demanded. Like you said, there's plenty of ranged DPS in the game so Sorcerer is 'healer' only if you want to get into groups...I'm also afraid healing gameplay is boring...what to do? :(

You could always roll a DPS AND a healer... I've decided that I'm going to roll a Trooper Vanguard (Tank) for the Republic side and as an alt for that side I'm going to roll a Jedi Sage (Healer)... then on the Empire side, while I'll have a Sith Marauder (DPS) as my main, I'm going to roll an Agent Operative (Healer) as an alt.

Of course, I'm planning to play through all classes in TOR eventually, but for guild purposes, if the need arises, I'm gonna try and do what's best for it.

Exactly, it would be a damn shame to be in a guild that doesn't have a healer or tank and has masses of dps. Tanking Sith Assassin or (looked up a build) melee/ranged Sith Assassin (sapping targets, crowd control, ranged and melee attacks) seem to be very useful in guilds.
Bounty Hunter appeals to me too. That could be a healer-alt :)

Generally there are two classes that are very hard to find in MMO's. Tank and Healers. You'll often see spam for healers in general. but for raid groups, you see them asking for tanks and healers. There's plenty of DPS. Probably because the DPS builds are generally better for PVP(well, easier at least).

Oh this brings me to another thing that MMO newbies may not know.

It is considered bad form to choose "Need" on loot rolls unless it is something you are going to use yourself, not your companion.

Ah. Don't know how that particular system works, I always just clicked "Need". :p

On the discussion of healers and tanks: I've always found this to be what I think's wrong with MMO's in general. How some classes are completely ignored in group play because they're no healer or tank...

The few times I teamed up in the Beta, I always just gave the item to whoever I was teamed up with if I needed the item or not. Nothing to do with a MMO, it was how my mother raised me. I never take the last piece of pie either. :drool1: Pie.

The system seems a bit odd at first, but just remember the saying "need before greed". If everyone chooses Greed then whoever rolls highest gets it. Choosing Need just tries to swipe it straight away. Note for items that you don't need, you should click the X on the top right of the pop-up window to pass altogether.

Btw, for those unfamiliar with MMOs I would strongly advise against trying a hybrid AC (i.e. investing points in two or even all three talent trees), lest you end up gimping yourself. While some hybrid builds may be effective if spec'd right and played well, you'll find a "pure" build will serve you far better until you learn the ropes.

Isn't that right, D_I ? :xp:

Question:
If you get to the level of 12 before reaching the advance Class trainer, do you lose those 2 points for your advance class because you reached the trainer after hitting level 10?

Or do you get those points?

Someone can confirm, but I am going to say no, if you don't train your AC until level 12 you'll still get the same amount of points you would as if you trained at level 10.

I can confirm this. With my trooper I got AC at lv10 and got 1 skill point. With my Consular I got AC at lv 11 and got 2 skill points when I got my AC.... so you've got no worries about that.

I can confirm Lynk's confirm. Got two on my smuggler at level 11.

I can confirm mimi's confirm of Lynk's confirm. Got three on my Trooper at level 12... >_>

Too bad, there's still not enough evidence to definitively confirm this confirmation that's being confirmed. Or is there? *looks around*

I can confirm Mav's confirm of mimi's confirm of Lynk's confirm. Got 3 on my smuggler when I couldn't find the AC trainer until 12.

Well, I can confirm Tommycat's confirm of Mav's confirm of mimi's confirm of Lynk's confirm. Got 2 skill points for my level 11 Smuggler, I already was level 11 when I left Ord Mantell.

On Social Points

These are obtained during any cut scene where you have options to respond and you are in a group of at least two players. When a party member makes a response, a random number is rolled. The highest roll is the the response the party gives to the NPC.


EDIT: If the response is going to cause you to gain Light or Dark side points, you get the ponts you opted for, regardless of who won the roll. However the actions of the winning roll are what happens in the cut scene.

So if I chose to spare the Jawa from a quick death (gaining 50 light points) and my brother wanted to force choke the little sucker for giving him a faulty droid (gaining 50 dark points) we would both get the points we wanted. But since he rolled a 98 and I rolled a 7, the Jawa is no longer with us.

Many Jawas died to bring you this information...

The high roll is worth 4 social points. IF there are two players the low roll is worth 2. IF there are three players then it follows, 4, 3, 2. With four it's 4, 3, 2, 1.

Each time you "lose" a social roll you gain a bonus to your next social roll until you finally win one. My highest roll was 172. (my brother had won the rolls for so long I told him I was his companion.)

On Need Vs. Greed (and sometimes pass)

When in a group it is MMO etiquette to only click on Need when the character you are currently playing can make use of the item. If you are playing a Sith Warrior and a Sniper Rifle drops, clicking Need because you also have a Imp Agent is frowned upon.

Some items in the game are "Bind on Pick up" meaning that the instant it hits your inventory, you can't sell it, trade it, or otherwise allow another to use it. It's always good practice to take a look at the item before clicking Need. Once you get used to what things look like, you can always click greed, unless of course you really need it.

On Advanced Class Options

Be advised that the AC options for each class will take you down a very different road from each other. A Sith Marauder is a glass cannon that will hand out damage like a Jehovah's Witness at a pamphlet convention. A Sith Juggernaut is massive trash can of armor and heath with a glowy fly swatter attached who will absorb the fury of an Icelandic Volcano and yet only make a small mark with his single lightsaber as if to say "naughty, naughty!"

Each AC has three skill trees. ONE of those trees is shared by both ACs but that tree is rather basic and only improves on things inherent in the base class. I.E. Everything you got up to level 10. The shared tree isn't going to make you a better Trash can, or get you into the higher tier of DPS heaven.

Currently there are only a max of 41 skill points to place in any one tree. (50 levels) Each tree has 39 points in it. As stated by others previously, I highly recommend that players focus all points into one skill tree. I looked at the trees extensively and Hybrid builds are going to really suffer until the level cap reaches at least 60 if not 70.

Jedi/Sith classes will not be viable hybrid options until there are at least 60 points to spread about. From what I saw on the last test weekend (Dec 3-5) I wouldn't dare put any points in a different tree until level 30. Even then I was wary to do so.

The Smuggler/Imp Agent ACs that allow them to take healing abilites or melee DPS looked like the best classes to go with a hybrid.

But seriously, Go with one tree until you know what's going on. When you feel comfortable and have a logical plan, respecing your points is free the first time. (and pretty cheep the second and third times.)

And to confirm the confirmations of confriming, I didn't get my Smuggler off planet until level 15. As soon as I picked Scoundrel I had 6 points to spend.

I´d like to confirm Militiades confirmation of Tommycat´s confirm of Mav´s confirmation of mimi´s confirm of Lynk´s confirmation. Just to confirm the overall fact. I got 2 when I was level 11 too.

Just confirming here..

That mechanic was actually broken in the big beta weekend. Additionally, I think the subsequent patch changed it so that after you have won a roll you automatically come last in the following roll, meaning players can no longer win back-to-back rolls.

Another dummie question from me guys...

A little thing regarding mounts.
How many choices are there regarding mounts and colours? In World of Warcraft I had some pretty cool dragons that required tremendous effort to obtain. Is there similar stuff in TOR? I'd like a Wookie-fur lined speeder bike...

Firstly, you get access to speeders at lv25, but you can't just buy one and go for it, you actually have to buy a speeder riding ability from your skill trainer which costs 25,000 credits... and then on top of that the cheapest speeder costs 8,000. I think there are 2 or 3 choices for lv25 speeders which allow you to travel 90% faster than your regular run speed on foot.

There are higher level speeders which you can only use if you're the same level or higher. Some of these higher level speeders just look cooler, but others are actually faster than lower level ones. I think the three speeds of speeders so far are 90% faster, 100% faster and 110% faster.

As for colours, they're pretty limited, I think two of the lv25 speeders are the same with different paint schemes but they don't look all that good to be honest lol. But whatever, I got the CE version of TOR which comes with a free speeder so at the very least I don't have to waste 8,000 credits early on on a speeder.

Its 40k for the riding ability. Isn't it?

They must've changed the cost... damn. Also, to add to that, there are further ranks to the ability which cost even more... though Mav tells me that you end up getting a lot of credits by then anyway.

Yeah, I read this too. It's useless to buy gear at low levels anyway, so saving up for a speeder shouldn't be a problem. Too bad there isn't much diversity in speeders though. I would have loved a speeder bike like Anakin had or something strange like Darth Maul flew. The creators could have gone all out with it...