Well-written guide.

 

You're still missing a section about tanking though. I've seen quite a few awesome tanks, and equally many poor tanks. I would recommend adding a few tips on the ins and outs of tanking, such as waiting for the group to be ready before pulling, making sure the healer has enough force/energy/no heat and so on.

 

Also a tip on when to use defensive abilities that are on cooldown, for example saber ward or power shield.

 

There's nothing more sad than a wipe because of a premature pull.

 

Other than that, keep up the good work!

Well, issues surrounding tanks can take up its own guide. Two of the points you mentioned, however, are covered in this guide (though not necessarily in the original post).

Concerning Tanks --

Tanking is arguably the hardest job in the game as it requires an uncanny sense of awareness of everything going on in the combat area (this should be, in an ideal world, the case with EVERY player -- and it darn sure better be in a raid group). Not only that, tanks are also often the de facto leaders in groups; they are the ones expected to do the marking, assign the CCs, direct the group movements, etc. Although, that is certainly not always the case (nothing ever "always is" or "never is").

I wouldn't recommend a tank for a first-time MMO player unless you are in a guild willing to help you learn as you go (especially if you have a veteran player with lots of MMO experience -- those guys are very valuable assests to have around).

But, if you do roll tank, I promise you will learn more about pulls, boss mechanics, and group strategies than just about any other class. Be prepared for a lot of headache early on until you get good at it. You'll have to develop a thick skin, though, so be prepared for that (and a lot of deaths).

Be open to the advice of others; be aware of the healer's health bar; be quick to intervene on ANY mobs attacking him or the other group members, and use your defensive cooldowns as proactively as possible, such as right before an "enrage," which is when a boss's damage typically spikes for a given amount of time.

These can happen any time, but typically they will be when the boss hits a certain health threshold (like 10%, as one example -- these instances are often referred to as "Burn Phases" because that is typically when the DPS unloads all of their cooldowns as well).

Using defensive cooldowns reactively is not typically the best strategy. If you use one AFTER a boss slams you for 5k damage, it's a bit too late. Pay attention to cast bars, and read the fight strategies people post on the internet so that you know when the best time is to burn a cooldown.

If you do decide to roll tank, do yourself a huge favor and read the various boss strategies posted on the web. (http://feature.mmosite.com/swtor/ has very good guides for Hammer Station, Athiss, and a few others, including videos).

Here are a few general tips for tanks:

1) Get in the habit of turning bosses around so that the group is facing its back. Bosses usually have frontal cone attacks that only a tank can absorb well.

2) Get in the habit of having your back against something hard in case a boss has a knockback mechanic.

3) Don't stand in anything that wasn't there before the fight started.

4) Remember to activate your tanking stance before you start pulling.

5) Don't charge in if you can pull back (use the Line of Sight method).

6) Ask your healers periodically how difficult it is to keep you healthy. If they are having a hard time healing you, then you need to adjust your playstyle some. This can mean many different things. Speak to your healer.

7) If you have a CC in the group, use it. You don't have a giant, red "S" on your chest.

8) Always always always make sure you are using the best gear you can. No role is more gear-dependent than a tank's.

9) Keep an eye on your DPS -- make sure they are focusing on your target.

10) Use your taunt if you lose aggro.

Anything more than that and we'll almost have to start discussing tank mechanics for specific fights, and I didn't exactly mean for this guide to go into that much detail.

Excellent guide. As a long time tank in various MMOs, I am thrilled to see that some one took the time to direct the unitiated.

I have some things to add (but not really). It's everyone's job to make sure they stay alive. Not just the tank's job to keep aggro off you and the healer's job to heal you.

The tank's job is to keep the most powerful mob in the bunch off the healer (for the most part) and the healer's job is to keep the tank alive.

Also, as dps, use any aggro dump you have.

If the ground below you is glowing or up in flames/lasers...MOVE.

I love the part about run to the tank. DO EET. Don't run away as everyone does, run TO the tank. The only way we can get that mob off you is for us to be close to the mob.

Also, I don't think I read this, but may be wrong, if a tank tells you to "focus fire" it means to only attack the mob that is hitting the tank primarily. The one criticism I have of the UI so far as a tank is that there is no target on target ability yet. This allows any of you to easily tab onto the tank to see which mob the tank is attacking. IT is an invaluable resource to help with aggro management, but is sadly missing as of now.

Kudos for a great guide!

Excellent guide! There are a ton of good pointers in here that any new player should read, and people playing new roles should have a gander at as well.

I've played lots of MMOs over the years, and I'm almost always DPS of some shape or variety. I can provide some general followups to the tips in this guide that I've learned from thousands of faceplants and wipes.

#1 - Don't be afraid to stop attacking. Sometimes the best way to drop aggro fast is to stop attacking altogether. It normally only takes a few seconds for a tank to regain the bad guy's attention.

#2 - Start slow - The 5 second rule is nice, but that doesn't mean fire all guns at the 5th second. I tend to start my cycle in big fights with Debuffs and the Damage over Time based attacks(DoTs). The Debuffs help everyone out and do very little aggro, and the DoTs help fill in for my DPS while I ramp up the speed of attacks.

My first cycle or 2 through attacks tends to be half speed. If the tank is holding aggro well and all of us glass cannons are spotless, pedal down and blast away.

#3 - You WILL die! - Go ahead and get used to it. Luckily, SWTOR gives every player a rez ability. I know you might complain about item durability loss, but I promise you that the Tank is paying far higher bills than you are.

#4 - Heal between fights - Again, SWTOR gives players a quick heal ability that should be used after almost every fight. This not only fills you health back up, but it also refills things like the Smuggler's Energy bar. DON'T start a fight with less than full energy.

#5 - Use Medpacks - Don't expect the healer to fix every bump and bruise from fights. Their primary responsibility is the Tank's well being. Always keep medpacks on hand for survival in a pinch. A lot of bosses have big AoE attacks that hit almost everyone. You WILL get hurt, but if you use a medpack you can save the healer from switching off of the tank.

BONUS - A quick note about debuffs. If you have them, USE them! Keep debuffs loaded on big bosses and it will make life much easier. You don't normally need them for every day questing, but be ready to use them on raids and world bosses.

Lastly, the standard motto for most MMOs.

If the Tank dies, it's the healer's fault.

If the Healer dies, it's the tank's fault.

If the DPS dies, it's their own fault.

Great guide, i plan to distribute it to many of the players i have/will group with. Its nice to be able to have an all inclusive guide to share.

Also, i recently group for a flashpoint with a scavanger. The droid kills are able to be scavanged and disappear quickly, and are not able to be harvested while in combat. So its good ettiquete to wait for the next pull if someone is going to be harvesting.

If you are going to be doing this, explain this to your group prior to starting the instance.

Our situation was particularly bad considering the guy harvesting was also the healer..

Nice guide from a guildie.

-Ichardo

Thank you for this concise and very informative guide, which is not only suitable for new players but also for those who have a few years of MMO experience but have not done any or only very few group missions (be it heroic missions or flashpoints).

I belong to the second crowd and although I knew about the concept of having a tank, a healer and DPS, I really feel that after reading this guide I have a much better understanding and am eager to try it out in the game.

Especially the idea of waiting for a few seconds - when playing the DPS - before hitting the primary target, would never have crossed my mind. I think I will be a greater asset to a group after reading this.

I have one question: As a commando healer should I only focus on healing during a fight or would it be ok, if I use the basic attack or even "full auto" (or any non-AoE attack) on the primary target according to the kill order, if all the group members' health bars are full? Will that generate too much threat and put me in avoidable danger?

 

I have one question: As a commando healer should I only focus on healing during a fight or would it be ok, if I use the basic attack or even "full auto" (or any non-AoE attack) on the primary target according to the kill order, if all the group members' health bars are full? Will that generate too much threat and put me in avoidable danger?

First, thank you for the kind words. I am glad you are getting some use from these pointers. I had no idea after posting this that the response would be so positive.

Second, concerning doing damage. If you are the main healer and you notice that the group just isn't taking much damage from a boss (this will happen some in flashpoints and heroic missions, but it will not likely happen in a raid environment), there's nothing wrong with having a little fun. You aren't going to pull aggro with the more basic abilities. If you do, then the tank is doing something wrong.

I would avoid using abilities that use a lot of your resources, though. What you don't want to happen is to be at half resource when something major happens in the fight and you have to heal like mad to keep the tank alive (a wandering patrol comes to mind).

The best thing you can do is to read the strategies on the bosses you will be facing to see if there is any special mechanic that can make life hard on healers (a good example in game is the last boss in Athiss I think, the one that puts the debuff on players that, if not dispelled, causes an AoE explosion -- that boss can be challenging for healers).

Barring things like that, no, it doesn't hurt to do some damage. In regular heroic missions, you can pretty much unload all you want because those mobs, even though they have a lot of health, are still just tank-and-spank fights that aren't designed with complex mechanics intended to test a player's class knowledge.

One final note --

There are really two phases to flashpoint / raid encounters: progression and farm.

If your guild is progressing through content (learning it, getting gear from it), you'll probably spend most of your time being a nanny-bot -- healing, healing, and healing -- because players are going to be taking more damage as they learn to master the content and avoid the hazards inherent to any given environment.

After the encounters become second nature to your guild (when everyone knows exactly what to do and how to do it in on each boss in the encounter and everyone has at least some of the gear), your life as a healer becomes less stressful. When you have bosses on "farm status," meaning the challenge is pretty much gone from it because no one makes mistakes anymore, you can contribute a lot more than just healing because the group (especially the DPS) will be taking much less damage from the encounter.

It will seem at first like you are doing nothing but watching red health bars, but it won't always be that way. Healers have it pretty tough during progression phases, but life does get better

 

Lastly, the standard motto for most MMOs.

 

If the Tank dies, it's the healer's fault.

If the Healer dies, it's the tank's fault.

If the DPS dies, it's their own fault.

LOL. I tip my hat to you, sir. You know, people laugh at this, but it has more truth than its glib surface implies

how do i know if im a tank? i never played mmo's but i started this because it is star wars.

There are three roles in groups: Tank, Healer, DPS.

The Tank is designed to absorb damage -- Powertech Bounty Hunter using the Shield Tech talent tree; Sith Juggernaut progressing in the Immortal tree, etc. These guys are designed not to do the most damage but to be able to take the most damage. They have the most survivability of any class.

I would not recommend playing as a tank until after you level up a DPS character and experience what it means to work together in flashpoints and in raids. Tanks are very difficult to do well; they have to know just about everything going on. They literally have to have their heads on a swivel so they can observe everything in the encounter. The best tanks make it look easy; the worst tanks spend their time wiping, wiping, and wiping -- a constant string of one faceplant after another, which makes for a very frustrating game.

My best advice to you is to do a google search on "MMO trinity" and do some research. Being new to MMOs is great, but learning how the different roles work in unison while grouping is paramount for group survival (and to keep other players from literally chewing your head off because you don't know how things work).

If that does happen, don't take it personally. We were all newbies at one time, and we all had to learn.

Please post more questions as they arise. I am happy to give you what insight I can, as are the many other veteran players who frequent the forums.

Also, I highly recommend joining a guild with some veteran MMO players. Ask them for help and explanations as well. People might be new to the Star Wars MMO, but there are many things this MMO has in common with all others.

Happy gaming!

One more note -- if I were you, I would roll either a bounty hunter or trooper and then, when you get to pick your advanced class, go with mercenary or commando, respectively. Each of those DPS classes has a lot of survivability. The mercenary role (the one I am familiar with), seems fairly easy and straightforward for learning the game.

DPS means Damage per Second; it is a measure of one's total damage output each second on a boss. Different ability rotations yield different results. As time goes on, when people start getting into the end-game content, people will start posting their "DPS" results so that others can learn from them what rotations provide the best results. This will be very valuable information for other raiders.

I am completely new to MMOs and this is the first one I have made a concerted effort at playing. Your guide is very useful, however, as a complete newbie, I do not understand many of the terms you use. It would be nice and easier to understand if your guide for newbies also had a lexicon or explained each MMO-word the first time it comes into use in the article.

Please don't get me wrong. I get a lot from the context in which you use these words, but I am still not 100% understanding the meaning behind them.

Examples of words I don't undstand include, but are not limited to: mobs, farming, and aggro.

Abbreviations provide a similar difficulty when not spelled out and defined.

Thanks for the guide!

I am completely new to MMOs and this is the first one I have made a concerted effort at playing. Your guide is very useful, however, as a complete newbie, I do not understand many of the terms you use. It would be nice and easier to understand if your guide for newbies also had a lexicon or explained each MMO-word the first time it comes into use in the article.

 

Please don't get me wrong. I get a lot from the context in which you use these words, but I am still not 100% understanding the meaning behind them.

 

Examples of words I don't undstand include, but are not limited to: mobs, farming, and aggro.

 

Abbreviations provide a similar difficulty when not spelled out and defined.

 

Thanks for the guide!

Wow. thank you for pointing this out. And you are absolutely correct. I guess I assumed a little too much. My goal initially was not to have this guide be a sprawling mess that took up too much space, but I definitely see your point.

Many of the terms have been discussed through the dialogues that have taken place after the original post was made. I will include the ones here that you mentioned (and a few others).

Mob -- any hostile NPC (or, more accurately, any npc who is not of your faction, including neutral mobs)

Boss -- any NAMED hostile NPC (any mob that has an actual name, like Roy G. Biv or General Johnson. These mobs are usually much, much harder to defeat, but they drop better loot. All Bosses in flashpoints have names, as do those in raids).

Wipe -- when everyone in the group gets killed on an encounter. Not fun, but it happens. A wipe can be caused by a variety of things. It is important to examine one's wipes to see what went wrong and make adjustments to your strategy to prevent the same thing from happening again. Avoidable wipes (people using abilities that break CCs, non-tanks trying to tank, people running away from the tank if they steal aggro, etc.) need to be dealt with quickly in a non-threatening way. Explain to the player why his or her behavior isn't conducive to success. If they listen, great. If they don't, kick them from the group and find someone else.

ROFLSTOMP -- what you do when you utterly own someone in PVP combat. Don't forget to do a /laugh at the player. PVP wouldn't be PVP without a little dehumanizing I'm joking, of course. But not really.

farming -- the act of killing creatures or clearing flashpoints for the sake of gaining loot or credits.

aggro -- a measure of THREAT that a mob (or boss) has on a player who is currently doing damage to it or healing those doing damage to it. If you are the TANK, you must always have the most aggro. If you are a healer or a dps, and you exceed the threat (or "aggro") generated by the tank, the mob or boss will stop damaging the tank and head to whoever has the most aggro.

Controller -- a player designated to crowd control a mob. Bosses cannot be crowd controlled. A crowd control ability is one designed to temporarily take a mob out of commission so that the tank only has to build aggro on a small number of mobs, thus reducing the strain placed on the healer. A controller will have other roles in the group. For example, if a Sith Sorcerer is the main healer, he may also be called on to use his Whirlwind ability to "CC" a mob.

Raid -- a special kind of flashpoint designed for larger groups composed of max-level players. Raids are the end-game content of MMOs; they are very difficult to learn, and players must be on top of their game to master these encounters. They are marked by two phases: the progression and the farm. When guilds are "progressing" through end-game content, they are learning the encounters. Expect lots of wipes and some frustration. When everyone learns the content, the encounters are put on "farm" status, meaning everyone knows the fights and the encounters move much more quickly and smoothly. The best gear in the game will come from these places. On a side note, it shows very poor taste for players to avoid being part of the raid during the progression phase simply because you don't like dying or you find it boring. Raid groups are going to use the players who have been there the whole time. So, if you want to raid, show up for the raids. Getting experience in raids will make you an outstanding player -- plus, the better you get at raiding, the easier further encounters will be.

Main -- a player's primary character, the one he or she uses to experience the game fully.

Alt -- one of a player's additional characters that he uses for a variety of purposes. A common type of alt is a "bank alt." Many players will create an alt and level him enough to get him to the space station for handling auctions on the galactic market and for storing additional supplies.

Build -- a character's talent-point distribution. Believe it or not, there is a science to this. Those who just haphazardly assign talent points gimp themselves pretty badly. As of now, since the game is still new, I'm sure there isn't an "optimal" build out for any class just yet, but there will be. In general, 31-32 total points in one tree is plenty. Look the talent tree over very carefully and try to select talents that maximize / optimize the tree's potential. Don't worry if you don't get it right the first time. You'll get it in time.

If there are other terms you are unfamiliar with, please either post them and I will edit this post with the additional terms, or, alternatively, you can do a google search for their meanings. A search for "common MMO terms" will yield a great deal of information most likely.

Thank You for the guide. I am a long time MMO player but I mostly solo (I know strange huh?) I plan on changing that in this game. I am not a PVP type of person but I am finding that soloing kinda lacks something in a game designed for teams. (Again Surprise right?) I have already learned a lot from your guide and plan on using it in the future.

Nah, this isn't wierd at all. I know a lot of players who like the single-player aspect of MMOs, even though that isn't what they are designed for. I think good MMOs put a lot of single-player content (like missions) in their games so that they appeal to a larger market.

The problem with single-player only players is that they don't really get to experience the end-game content, which always requires the cooperation of a group. That's fine, of course, but it's a shame to miss out on that content. It really is fun and challenging.

Many thanks. Great to have all this in the one location. You tend to pick up the odd piece of info as you play but its really good to have a clear guide to what everyone should be doing, and when.

Have to admit I've been exclusively soloing this so far after a very nasty(but funny now) bout of laughing / name calling while playing Warhammer. Admittedly, I was running around playing a tank when I didn't even know what a tank was , but someone taking the time to explain things in such a clear and good natured way would have been a great help. Kind of put me off the whole multiplayer bit of MMO's but there might be hope after reading this

OP, you have my thanks.

Being a Defense Jedi Guardian, I sometimes run into people that start dps'ing as soon as I pull (or even before). I'll show them this guide so they may understand why I am having trouble keeping agro if they do that. xD

Thank you for this concise and very informative guide, which is not only suitable for new players but also for those who have a few years of MMO experience but have not done any or only very few group missions (be it heroic missions or flashpoints).

 

I belong to the second crowd and although I knew about the concept of having a tank, a healer and DPS, I really feel that after reading this guide I have a much better understanding and am eager to try it out in the game.

I'll second that - a great Guide, well-written! I've played many MMOs, but usually solo and I tend to steer clear of raids etc. (the second crowd...)

'So why play a MMO then?' you may say, and that's fair comment, but there is so much abuse flying around from expert fighters aimed at less-expert players that it's just easier to keep out of it altogether. I've had a couple of nice outings in SWTOR at lower levels, and made some good friends, but I went in for my first 4-man Flashpoint yesterday, and made a complete **** of myself, and got royally insulted (deservedly so...) - very confidence-bashing It's very hard to remain calm when you're getting zapped from all directions by mobs at the same time as getting confusing directions from the Group 'leader'...

This Guide has helped restore some of that confidence!

Can anyone recommend a Guild which is happy to sign up and train an old noob?

The best tanks make it look easy; the worst tanks spend their time wiping, wiping, and wiping -- a constant string of one faceplant after another, which makes for a very frustrating game.

'Faceplant' - I know the general term (landing on yer face ) but how does that relate to a MMO?

I want pvp ,It says im flagged but why do I never see the enemy while questing ?

Try running around in enemy territory. For example, if you are on Tatooine, and you are part of the Imperial army, head to the northern areas on the map. If you are a Republic person, head to the southern areas on the map. I'm sure you will find players who will attack you.

If you really like PVP, I suggest rolling a character on a PVP server as well

I'll second that - a great Guide, well-written! I've played many MMOs, but usually solo and I tend to steer clear of raids etc. (the second crowd...)

 

'So why play a MMO then?' you may say, and that's fair comment, but there is so much abuse flying around from expert fighters aimed at less-expert players that it's just easier to keep out of it altogether. I've had a couple of nice outings in SWTOR at lower levels, and made some good friends, but I went in for my first 4-man Flashpoint yesterday, and made a complete **** of myself, and got royally insulted (deservedly so...) - very confidence-bashing It's very hard to remain calm when you're getting zapped from all directions by mobs at the same time as getting confusing directions from the Group 'leader'...

 

This Guide has helped restore some of that confidence!

 

Can anyone recommend a Guild which is happy to sign up and train an old noob?

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. A lot of veteran MMO players tend to forget that they were new once also. I remember experiences just like the one you described when I first started playing MMO games.

When you are searching for a guild, be sure to include the fact that you are looking for a newb-friendly guild with players who don't mind helping you learn how to be a better player. I'm sure there is at least one patient person left in the world. There are a lot of high-strung, high-stress, high-blood-pressure players out there destined to end up with aneurysms. For some reason, they thing a person should not play an MMO unless they have played one before.

It's a shame more people don't follow suit with what EVE Online did. They have a guild called Eve University; one of its goals is to recruit new players and show them the ropes. An admirable goal indeed.

Don't let it put you off, though. MMO players sometimes have to develop a thick skin. You are going to meet bonified A-holios in your travels, but eventually your game will start improving. It's all a matter of experience.

'Faceplant' - I know the general term (landing on yer face ) but how does that relate to a MMO?

haha. It's just a slang term for getting killed. Sometimes, when a mob kills a player very quickly, the game doesn't have time to process the death animation -- the player just goes from standing up to face down with nothing in between. Faceplant.