What is the difference between a flashpoint, a heroic mission, and an area mission?

Usually the main difference is difficulty. Area missions you might not need other players with you if you are careful. Heroics will need at least one other to complete usually, and flashpoints will require a full group depending on character levels. :wea_03:

Heroic missions can be found on every planet and require at least a group of 2 players to complete. These missions take place in heroic areas and involve strong, elite, and sometimes champion difficulty mobs. Heroic missions can be repeated daily.

 

Flashpoints are heavily scripted instanced areas where a group of four players will have to fight their way through waves of enemies in order to accomplish an objective and gain superior equipment.

 

Area missions are acquired when entering certain areas of a planet.

 

Here's a pretty helpful site.

http://www.wikiswtor.com

Are Mission = Mission you "discovered" in that area, it's just a normal quest.

For instance: "You saw a bunch of Republic spies" --> Unlocks "Deal with the Spies" mission.

 

Heroic Mission = A particular hard mission. There are to my knowledge only [2] heroic and [4] heroic.

[2] Heroics are usually soloable if you got the skills and lvl for it.

[4] Heroics can also be soloable, but only if you have exeptional skills, for these types of missions you should propably be 2 guys with 2 companions. Pref. with a player healer. At higher levels, some 4 heroic missions even require 3 players + 1 companion, or 4 players if you want it to be easy.

 

Flashpoints = An instanced event, with a chainquest ment for this seperate zone only. This usually require 4 players.

 

Operation = 8 or 16 man "Flashpoints". Companions are not allowed.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Tifadore
editing spelling errors.

I'm sorry to bump this but my question is relevant. I see people talking about long times for heroic missions, are they talking about missions like the ones I get while leveling?

For example there was a low level mission to kill a mandalorian that said (heroic 2) or something similar, and I couldn't find a group so I skipped it.

 

Can people queue for those missions or is it a max level thing or are they referring to something totally different?

 

I hate skipping quests if there is a way I can queue for it instead of wasting time trying to find a group manually.

I believe what you are referring to would be the que times for the hard mode flashpoints (lvl 50 only heroics). The dps usually have a longer wait time than the healers and tanks.

 

At the moment, there is no way to que up for the planetary heroics. Just use general chat and ask if there is anybody needing your heroic. I usually get a hit or 2 when leveling my lower characters. Guilds are good for helping out with heroics also.

Edited March 7, 2013 by haliy

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=608082

 

He kept mentioning heroics everyone kept using that term, so when the guy said nobody queues from day 1 I thought he just meant it wasn't popular.

 

I guess I just got my hopes up.

 

Thanks!