PorsaLindahl, you are a scholar and a gentleman! Very much appreciated. A lot of that stuff didn't exist the last time I played, and I want to be sure that I don't miss things. I'm about to finish Tython; I'll be lvl 15 or maybe even 16 by the time a leave (so much XP now!), and this thread will be helpful going forward. Thanks!

I'm a returning player from way back, before 3.0. This is a total noob question, but could someone just lay out the current path through all of the PVE story content? That is, could you lay out the order of the planets? Rise of the Hutt Cartel? Revan? Knights of the Fallen Empire? It's hard to know what order to take these days. I'm not a completionist, but I do plan to play through all the PVE content that's available. I don't plan to skip any exploration or side quests that I see, and I want to do all the main storylines to get the whole story. This thread has been really helpful as I get back in the game, but straightforwardly laying out the order of all the available content would also really help. Thanks!

I want to thank everyone again for their advice, and I thought to come back and give a little update. Instead of a balance shadow, I returned to my roots and went with a seer sage; I just couldn't resist healing. He's now level 24. (This is what happens when I start an MMO while the office is closed all week!) My questions about PVP had more to do with the fact that I don't have twink gear or a premade. I know that a solo player on a fresh character can only get so far in pop :/ So far, the game has been a ton of fun. I'm questing, I'm doing to FPs here and there, I'm doing some PVP here and there. I've completely ignored space combat/GSF... I just don't enjoy that at all, and those are not the experiences that I'm looking for in an MMO. Hopefully, that would screw my character later. The only hiccup has been gear, both for my toon and for Qyzen. The main issue is that you level SO FAST in this game that you outgrow gear almost as soon as you get it. I've been trying to use cybertech to go through the process of crafting blue armorings/mods every 2-4 levels. (For example: when I hit lvl 27, I want all of my armor to have blue 27 armoring and blue 25 mods.) I then use basic commendations to buy enhancements. For Qyzen... that guy is kind of a hobo. I have modable gear for him, and I craft green armorings/mods for him when I craft blues for my toon. Enhancements for him are pretty haphazard as I'm not dropping commendations on him. I'm still not entirely sure what I should be doing for him. As I said, leveling in this game is so damned fast. At lvl 24, I just finished the main quest line of Taris, and I'm about to do the bonus series, I guess. I don't PVP of FP excessively; I do no more than the daillies/weeklies, and I'm not even doing all of those. WTB -25% XP anti-boost Anyways, thanks again, all. I'm in it, now

Thanks for the information; this is exactly the kind of advice that I'm looking to collect as I go into the game. Regarding companions, my question was more to what the standard practice is for DPS characters when questing/leveling. When SWTOR first launched, I played a shadow tank and always rolled with a healer once I had access to healer companions. I wonder if DPS characters tend to run with tank/DPS/healer companions. (As I said, I'd prefer the normal, character-based companions to HK/Treek if I can get away with it.) My natural inclination would be to run with a healer when I have access to one, of course. However, I'm wondering if best practice is to run with a tank (to take the heat off your fragile DPS character) or another DPS (to burn things down). Thanks again!

Thank you for your thorough reply! My crafting question had to do with two things: I recall leveling being very fast in this game (too fast, imo), so that you were constantly out leveling your gear. If it's possible to use crafting to keep up with your gear (without pouring in credits from I higher level character), I'll do it. As I said, I just like crafting in MMOs. IIRC, I did cybertech and the associated other skills before... I'll probably do that again. I will definitely take your advice on the stronghold; I didn't realize that it had these other amenities. I remember ships being your in-game bachelor pad; have strongholds made them a bit redundant? I may be starting the game with the friends, and, if I do, we'll probably make a guild. If not, I'll definitely buy a stronghold. I'll try GSF, but I'm glad to hear that I don't need it to play the core PVE game. What I meant to ask is if a fresh character can queue for warzones without getting completely rolled by twin characters. My guess is "no," but I really do enjoy PVP, especially (as you suggest) for the fact that it can help sharpen your skills so that you can master your character... and I'm all about mastering my character! I'll definitely by a stronghold, and I'll check out that playlist; thanks! BONUS NOOB QUESTION: This is going to be one of the noobiest questions that I've ever asked, but I've been gone from the game for a long time and I've never before played DPS in an MMO (90% healing, 10% tank): do DPS character level with a healing companion or a tank companion? I'm generally more concerned with steadily beating content rather than doing so with maximum speed, though I don't recall the death penalty in this game being so bad, so it might not matter. (At the moment, I don't plan to purchase the extra companions, the HK and the ewok, if I don't have to.) I'll probably be playing a Serenity Shadow (maybe a Serenity Sage). Again, thanks so much!

So, I'm returning to the game after a very long break. I plan to play pretty casually as I don't have too much free time outside of work. I have a few quick questions to get me started with the game. In no particular order, I'll get right to them: For a casual player, are crew skills valuable or are they a waste of resources? I like to craft, but I don't want to bother if it's just going to be a waste of time. Galactic Starfighter and Strongholds... do I need to do these things to get stuff for pvp and/or pve? Put another way, can I ignore them entirely and not suffer in pvp/pve for it? I have no interest in GSF or housing. Is there any point in PVPing if you aren't twinked? I'm starting fresh. Any advice for things that I should do immediately when getting off the starter planet to which the game won't direct me? For instance, the game will direct me to picking an advanced class, but what about other things that I might want to do right off the bat? Thanks for indulging my random list. I'm going to jump in the game and poke around, but I'm trying to throw out a scattershot of questions to give my poking a little direction. I plan to play casually in the sense that I don't have much time to play, but, when I game, I do it seriously. I want to set my character up correctly, learn the game as I level, and have it mastered by the time I hit the level cap. Thanks all!

I'm currently leveling a Sage healer, and I've got a few random questions. I'll get right to them: 1) I want to level as a healer since I want to develop those PVE/PVP heal skills as I level. I began by getting the talents in the TK tree to increase max Force and reduce the cost of heal spells. I'm now proceeding up the Seer tree. Does this seem like a decent strategy, or should I make my way up the heal tree to some point before branching? 2) When solo questing as a heal specced sage at high level, do you quest with a DPS companion or a tank companion (ignore treek and HK for now)? 3) Do you keep either of the saber strikes on your bar? With no free ranged attack and no instant attack without a CD, I wonder what you use to finish off that last sliver of HP. Thanks much.

(I'm a returning player. I left the game shortly after launch, and I'm starting a completely fresh character.) I know that a lot of people to think of MMOs in terms prior to max level, but the leveling game is precisely where I want to go. I'm leveling a shadow tank, and I wonder two things: 1) what community wisdom recommends about when to distribute talent points where and 2) how to tank low-level instances. As for (1), my build at lvl 18 looks like this: [http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MMZcZ0M.3]. My thought was to avoid talents that boost stats by a % until I'm higher level and those numbers are higher. I dipped into Balance and Infiltration because those talents seem to give you a lot of bang for your buck. Now, I plan to go up the Kinetic Combat tree until I get to the top. Thoughts on this? If I want to tank as I level, would you guys recommend a different path? As for (2), I wonder how best to tank in low level instances, when I don't have all of my tools and I don't have twink gear. I see troopers and guardians jumping in and holding aggro without much issue. I've been queuing as DPS and fighting in Force Stance because I'm in no way convinced that my DPS + Combat Technique will be enough. I now have the basic taunt, so I'll be trying that out. As I recall, Force Breach is my only high threat skill (or the only one labeled as such in the tool tip). I would very much welcome any advice. So far, I'm loving the game, I'm loving questing with the shadow tank and PVP has been a ton of fun. I'm just trying to figure out how to do FPs so that I can learn to tank as I level (I almost always play healers in MMOs). Thanks!

I'm not a new player per se (I was in beta, played at launch, have a 50), but it's been weeks since I've played SWTOR (real life... meh) and I'm looking to get back into the game. ' My thought is that I'd like to start fresh on a new server. I'm extremely limited in my time to play, which likely means PUGs all the way (I PUGed my main to 50). I've never really had such limited/irregular time to MMO, so this will be a new experience for me. What I wonder is this: how great are the burdens of starting fresh at this point? I've completely missed the initial leveling wave, even the slowbies are 50 at this point. There's an entrenched 50 class (battle masters, arbitrarily large amounts of cash, etc). I'd imagine that, even with alts, the lower levels are rather barren. I had trouble, at times, finding people for heroic quests on my main and that toon is on a launch server. Absent starting a same-server alt (so you have a guild, you can twink, etc), does starting over seem worth it at this point? The game has changed a lot since I last played (looking at patch notes) and 1.2 will be another major shift. I wonder what this means for starting fresh. Obviously, it being 'worth it' is a question for me to answer, but I would really appreciate any thoughts you may have about the prospects for starting anew at this point. Thanks.

It probably has something to do with the 'stache. Why, in the name of all that is holy and righteous in the world, did BW mess with the goatee?

Off the top of my head (I assume Grade 5 upgrades, the EMP device, and the shield/blasters device): For the fighters, fire one missile at each fighter and finish them with your guns. Using guns alone takes too much time. Obviously, switch between charging shields and powering guns when you're in a clear zone. If you don't know, your shields will not recharge if you're firing your blasters... so stop. There comes a point, iirc it's when there's about 1:30 left on the clock, when you get zerged with fighters as well as a Sith ship. Use that EMP and chill for a moment and then hit the Sith ship with everything that you have; it's a beast. When you come across the star destroyer, immediately target missiles and turrets and blast away. Fighters sting, but capital ship turrets hurt. You can take out a bank of 4 turbolasers with missiles and blasters asap to start reducing incoming damage. You're so close that you're going to take some hits. (This also applies to escort missions if you're having trouble with those... it's the turrets that really do the damage.) If you don't already know, if you hold the right mouse button and drag across multiple targets, they'll all be targeted with missiles (up to 4 targets) and your ship will instantly fire one missile at each when you release the RMB. If you aren't using this, you should probably start. (Or, if you're like me and generally too lazy to really pick out individual targets... definitely use this ) You move around the screen faster when you barrel roll. Do a barrel roll. (Good for the blockade level to avoid those asteroids.) Um... that's all that occurs to me at the moment. Go shoot something.

Are you sure that you aren't being something of an officious meddler? I'm lvl 42 and doing a bonus quest on Balmorra (damn the XP in MMOs these days) against mid/low 30s NPCs. I think it fair to say that I need no assistance. However, I pull a pack and some guy walks up and nukes a mob while I aoe/tab around. I give thanks or a /nod, but I'm really thinking 'bro, it costs me more time to /nod that it would have for me to just kill that guy.' Officious meddler... I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility.

I've experienced the same thing since the patch. If I had to gauge the frequency, I would say that it happens to me about one in every ten missions.

I've posted this question before, but I haven't really received an answer so I'm bringing it here: What is the point of Synthweaving/Armormech? To my knowledge, neither of these skills make mods in their current forums. They can make orange armor, but orange armor doesn't seem to be rare and (except aesthetically) orange = orange so the value here seems extremely limited. Non/Partially modable greens/blues/purples seem to be of questionable value as they are, at best, placeholders until you get an orange and a set of mods for the given slot (once you do, you may as well try to go the mod route while you level). I'd really appreciate it if someone who knows could explain what the point of these skills are post-revision. Thanks

I still don't completely understand the use of Armormech/Synthweaving... someone please correct the following: 1) They don't make mods in their current incarnations. 2) They make partially/non modable greens. 3) They make fully modable oranges. 4) They make non/partially/fully modable purples. If I'm running instances and doing quests to get mods, what is the point of Armormech/Synthweaving other than aesthetics? Thanks in advance for the info!