• Recovery -- each class starts with an ability (with a different name) that can be used out of combat to rapidly regenerate health (and other resources, like Force power or Ammo). Put a hotkey on this, since you will be using it a lot.
  
  
• Resolve -- every class will eventually unlock this ability (with a different name), which allows you to instantly break any snare or stun/knockdown effect placed on you (with a cooldown of a few minutes). This is mostly useful in PvP, but also helpful if fighting bosses that stun you. You may see players refer this ability as 'trinket' or 'trinketing' -- this is a term from World of Warcraft, where a special PvP 'trinket' item had to be equipped to gain access to the comparable ability.
  
  
• Sprint -- every class will eventually unlock this ability, which allows you to move 35% faster out of combat. Just toggle it on and you will automatically run faster. Don't forget to turn it back on if you die, as it will default to being off.
  
  
• Speeders -- every class can eventually unlock the ability to use Speeders, which let you move 90-110% faster out of combat when in outdoor areas. (90% boost at level 25, 100% at level 40, 110% at level 50.) There is a large Credit cost to learn these abilities.
  
  
• Quick Travel -- every class starts with this ability, which allows you to instantly teleport to any Quick Travel point you have unlocked on the planet you are currently on. It has a 30-minute cooldown. A few missions block the use of Quick Travel while you are in the mission's instanced area.
  
  
• Emergency Fleet Pass -- every class automatically gets this, I think at level 10. It allows you to instantly teleport to the Republic or Imperial Fleet from any location, but has a very long cooldown (18 hours).
  
  
• Heroic Moment -- every class eventually gets a special 'Heroic Moment' ability, which is on a long cooldown (20 minutes), but gives the character a powerful temporary combat boost (different for each class). You must have an active Companion to use this ability. This should be saved for things like difficult mission bosses or 'Champion' enemies.
  
  

• Direct Damage (DD) -- deals damage one time to one target, either instantly or after a 'cast time' delay during which you cannot take other actions.
  
  
• Damage over Time (DoT) -- deals damage over time (rather than all at once) to one or more targets. Some abilities combine both direct damage and damage over time. Some DoT abilities are 'channeled' -- this means your character cannot move or perform any other action while the damage is being dealt.
  
  
• Area of Effect (AoE) -- deals damage to several targets, typically either in a cone pattern centered on the active target, or in a circular area around the active target.
  
  
• Point-Blank Area of Effect (PBAoE) -- an AoE attack that is centered around your character, damaging all nearby enemies. These can usually be activated with no target selected.
  
  
• These can be combined -- for instance, you might have a channeled AOE ability that deals damage over time to all enemies in an area.
  
  

• 'Snare' abilities slow an enemy down, making it easier to run away from or kite them.
  
  
• 'Root' abilities completely prevent an enemy from moving, again making it easier to run away or kite them.
  
  
• 'Interrupt' abilities can be used while an enemy is in the middle of an ability with an activation time (or a channeled ability). It will cancel the enemy's ability, and prevent them from using that ability again for a short time.
  
  
• 'Sleep' abilities prevent an enemy from acting, but the enemy will 'wake up' if damaged. This can be used to get a breather in combat, or to shut down one enemy while you focus fire on a different one. (In SW:TOR, they normally describe these as a 'stun that breaks on damage', but in MMO parlance this is a 'sleep' ability.)
  
  
• 'Stun' abilities also prevent an enemy from acting, but do not break on damage. These normally last only a few seconds, so make them count!
  
  
• 'Knockdown'/'Knockback' abilities generally work like a stun, but cause the target to be pushed away from the user as well.
  
  
• 'Pull' (yank, grab, etc.) abilities are like a reverse knockback -- the target is pulled close to the user of the ability.
  
  

• Jedi Knight / Sith Warrior: Increase damage/healing by 5%
  
  
• Jedi Consular / Sith Inquisitor: Increase primary stats (except Endurance) by 5%, reduce elemental damage taken by 10%
  
  
• Smuggler / Imperial Agent: Increase critical rate for damage/healing by 5%
  
  
• Trooper / Bounty Hunter: Increase Endurance by 5%
  
  

While discussed above in the 'Strategy' section, this concept is so important it needs to be repeated.

In SW:TOR, as in most MMORPG games, every class fills one of three combat roles:

• Tanking -- holding an enemy's attention while mitigating incoming damage
  
• Damage (DPS) -- dealing maximum damage (or Damage Per Second) to the enemies that are occupied attacking the tank, while taking little or no damage in return
  
• Healing -- using healing abilities to negate damage being done to the tank or other players
  

The synergy between these roles allows you to fight MUCH tougher enemies than you can handle alone, or by fighting in an uncoordinated way. While getting several players together and randomly attacking anything that moves will probably work great in 'normal' content, it will fail miserably in appropriate-level Heroic missions or Flashpoints.

Each Advanced Class can fulfill either one or two of these roles:

Jedi Knight / Sith Warrior:

Jedi Consular / Sith Inquisitor:

Smuggler / Imperial Agent:

Trooper / Bounty Hunter:

Which role an Advanced Class specializes in is determined by the placement of their Skill Points. For instance, any Scoundrel can heal, but a Scoundrel that spends their Skill Points in their healing tree will be FAR better at it (though, of course, not as good at DPS). 'Hybrid' builds attempt to be reasonably effective at both roles simultaneously. In general specialization pays off, but sometimes increased tactical flexibility can be worth the tradeoffs.

Each Companion also can fulfill either one or two of the roles (either pure DPS, or tank/DPS, or heal/DPS).

Even in a 'group' of just you and your Companion, having two complementary roles will make things much, much easier. If your character is built as a tank, you should use a Companion that either provides a DPS or healing role. If your character is built to do DPS, you want a Companion that can tank enemies or heal you. If your character is built to heal, you want a Companion that can tank or deal damage.

When soloing (with a companion only), generally the strongest setup is tank/healer. You may find that you kill mobs failrly slowly, but you should have little downtime, and you can wear down Elite mobs easily.

Tank/DPS or healer/DPS should also work okay, but you will need to be better geared or more on your game. (It generally works better if you are the tank or healer, since you will have much better mitigation and CC abilities than a tanking/healing Companion.) DPS/DPS will generally kill weak and normal enemies very quickly, but if your gear is poor you may have a very hard time killing elite mobs or multiple strong mobs before you or your Companion dies. Tank/tank and healer/healer setups are not generally very useful.

There are basically four types of enemy groups you will encounter in the game:

• One mob standing in place
  
• One mob (or, rarely, a small group of mobs) that 'patrol' along a set route
  
• A 'linked' group of mobs standing in place
  
• A fixed, immobile mob (like a sentry turret)
  

(note: 'mob' is an MMO term that dates back to very, very early online computer RPGs, and refers to a single computer-controlled enemy. A group of linked enemies is often referred to as a 'pull', because when you attack or get too close to any of the enemies, they will be 'pulled' to you. The act of engaging a group of enemies is also sometimes referred to as 'pulling' them, even if you do so by running towards the enemies rather than making them come to you.)

When you engage a linked group of enemies, getting the attention of any enemy in the group will cause all the enemies in the group to engage in combat -- and they will ALL immediately attack the player that first initiated combat. This is good if your tank starts the fight; less so if a healer or DPS accidentally wanders too close to an enemy.

Active enemies can 'chain' to other nearby enemies, causing them to also activate and join the fight. Be careful using knockback abilities if there are other enemies nearby, as knocking a mob you're fighting into the middle of another group of enemies will result in a much bigger fight. You also need to pay attention to 'patrolling' mobs -- they will also join a fight if they walk too close. A particularly nasty 'chain pull' effect can also occur if a patrolling mob is right between the enemies you are fighting and another group. When the patrolling mob activates, the second group may be close enough to the patrol to also activate. Be VERY careful fighting in crowded areas when patrols are present.

NOTE: Bioware has not released any extremely detailed data about how their internal threat models work, and currently there is no detailed combat log or threat meter available. So this is partly speculation based on my personal experience with SW:TOR and other MMORPG games, but it should be close enough for most purposes.

In SW:TOR, enemy mobs attempt to attack ("aggro on") the most 'threatening' target. You become 'threatening' by:

• Dealing damage to an enemy
  
• Disabling or debuffing an enemy
  
• Healing a player who is harming the enemy (or has harmed it recently)
  

The general idea is that you always want your group's tank to be the most threatening target for as many enemy mobs as possible. Since the tank has heavy armor, lots of hit points, defensive abilities and cooldowns, and (hopefully) a healer standing by to mitigate anything that gets through, they are much better able to withstand enemy attacks.

Characters or companions in a tanking stance generally receive a multiplier to all their threat accumulation, making it easier for them to remain the most threatening target. They usually also have several abilities that cause 'bonus' threat (relative to the amount of damage actually done by the ability). Characters/companions in DPS or healing roles usually have abilities or stances that help them reduce their threat accumulation. The 'Guard' ability that tanking classes have also reduces the threat accumulation of a selected group member -- it should either be placed on the healer, or the highest-output DPSer.

Taunt abilities temporarily override the normal threat mechanics, forcing the mob to attack the player that used the taunt. I am not sure if taunting a mob has a lasting effect on its threat table, but normally when tanking I am able to continue holding the mob if I hit it a few times while taunted.

Ideally how you want to manage threat in a 'normal' pull is:

1. (If using a 'stealth' CC ability, use it.)
   
2. Let the tank initiate the pull.
   
3. If using non-stealth CC, use it as soon as the tank gets the enemies' attention.
   
4. Give the tank time to build some aggro/threat on the mob(s).
   
5. The tank should focus his attacks on one mob, while doing enough damage to the others that his healer does not pull aggro. Normally you would start with the weakest mob(s) and work your way up to the stronger ones.
   
6. DPS should 'assist' the tank and attack the mob he is targeting until it is dead.
   
7. Repeat until all the mobs are dead.
   

It is the responsibility of the DPS characters to not pull aggro from the tank. DPSers should be very careful about using AOE attacks, especially right at the beginning of a fight when the tank may not have much aggro. This is mostly an issue in a group where the DPSers are at a higher level than the tank, and/or are better geared than the tank.

It is the responsibility of the tank to prevent the healer from pulling aggro. Healing aggro is spread across all the enemies that are being attacked (or have been recently attacked) by the player being healed. This means the tank must keep maintaining some aggro on all live enemies, or they will eventually aggro on the healer. This can be done either with AOE attacks, or by switching quickly between targets (hit one mob a few times, TAB to another one and hit it a few times, etc. etc.)

If non-stealth CC is in use, the player who CCed the mob (typically a healer) is responsible for re-CCing it if the CC wears off. DPS players (and the tank!) must be very careful not to accidentally attack this mob or allow it to be hit by an AOE attack. With stealth CC, the tank must pick up the CCed mob when the CC wears off, since it cannot be reapplied.

If a mob aggros on a healer or DPS, the tank should use a taunt ability to pull it back, then land some attacks on it to keep its attention.

In some cases, it is easier to have the DPS simply pull off weaker mobs while the tank focuses on holding the attention of the strong/elite enemies. Even a single 'Strong' enemy may not deal enough damage to pose a serious threat to the DPS characters. This way, by the time the DPS attacks the strong/elite enemies, the tank has a huge aggro lead and the DPS do not need to worry about pulling them off the tank.

Some enemies (particularly Flashpoint bosses) will summon 'adds' at various points -- new (usually fairly weak) enemies that enter the fight. Depending on the specific fight, the tank may need to get aggro on these, or the DPS may be responsible for 'burning' them quickly. If they are not controlled or killed, they will usually aggro on the healer and kill them.

In Heroic mission areas and Flashpoints, pulls often contain multiple Strong and/or Elite enemies. It is very difficult to fight so many tough enemies at once, so it is highly recommended to use Crowd Control (CC) abilities to temporarily disable some of them. When soloing non-Heroic content, CC can make fights against multiple enemies much simpler and safer.

All Advanced Classes that specialize deeply in healing roles will have an in-combat ranged CC ability that lasts for 60 seconds and has a 60-second cooldown. This allows those players to 'lock down' one mob almost indefinitely as long as it is not hit by a stray attack. All Advanced Classes with stealth have an out-of-combat CC ability that can be used while stealthed. This can disable one mob at the start of a pull, though it cannot be reapplied in combat. Other classes may have more limited CC abilities, but they are not as reliable.

CC should normally be used on the most dangerous enemy mob that can be controlled. (Note that the most dangerous mob may be a healer!) The exception is if that mob is one that is very fragile, in which case you may want to CC the second-most-dangerous mob and focus fire on the fragile one right away.

In SW:TOR, armor only protects against 'kinetic' and 'force' attacks, and there are few ways to gain significant resistance against 'elemental' and 'internal' damage. This means that enemies that use elemental attacks (fire, poison, special weapons like missiles/grenades, force lightning, electrical attacks, etc.) can rapidly kill you, even through heavy armor and a tanking stance. When fighting tough enemies, it is critical to interrupt as many high-damage special abilities as possible using interrupts and stuns. Some special attacks (ones that put a targeting circle on the ground) can also be avoided by running far away from the targeted area before the attack goes off.

The good news is that all tanking roles are equipped with a variety of interrupting and stunning abilities, which should be used against enemies targeting the tank when they wind up a special attack. DPS and healing roles should assist with this whenever possible.

Since your number of stuns and interrupts is limited (these abilities normally all have somewhat lengthy cooldowns), you may not be able to interrupt everything. In some cases, it is better to suffer the brunt of a moderately damaging attack in order to save an interrupt for a highly damaging one later. You'll need to learn (probably painfully) which enemy attacks deal the most damage.

Note, again, that many Flashpoint bosses are immune to interrupt and stun mechanics. In this case, you will either have to avoid the attacks (if possible), try to use defensive cooldowns to mitigate the damage, or eat the attack and heal through it.

Many classes have abilities that allow you to 'snare', 'root', or 'knockback' enemies, allowing you to gain distance on enemies that use melee attacks. If you can keep these enemies at a distance while damaging them with ranged attacks, you will take little or no damage in return. This technique is known as 'kiting' (because it looks the mob is a kite being pulled along behind you as you run away from it.) Another application in a group is to have a ranged DPSer lead one melee mob off on a chase while the rest of the group fights the other enemies; this can be used as a form of CC when no other options are available.

On the flip side, enemies with ranged attacks can sometimes be exploited with 'line of sight' (LOS). If a ranged attacker has aggro on a player, and that player moves to a position where the ranged attacker cannot see/shoot the player, the ranged enemy will stop attacking and run towards the player until they have a clear shot. In some cases this can be used to keep them from attacking for long periods of time, by forcing them to chase a player around in circles. This can also be used to force ranged enemies to run into melee range, where it may be easier to fight them or hold aggro on them.

The latter technique is particularly useful for pulling a group of ranged enemies (or a group that has a mix of ranged and melee enemies). By aggroing the enemies and then stepping around a corner, the enemies will be forced to run up close and bunch together. This often makes it easier for the tank to maintain aggro, since they can then use AOE attacks to hit all the enemies at once.

In content designed to be played solo, you will typically encounter groups with the following compositions:

• 1-5 'weak' and/or 'normal' enemies. Typically there is a mix of ranged and melee enemies, though with wild animals sometimes they are all melee.
  
• 1 'Strong' enemy by itself. Patrols are often a single 'Strong' enemy.
  
• 1 'Strong' enemy with 1-2 'weak' or 'normal' enemies.
  
• 2 'Strong' enemies. This seems rare, and these pulls may actually be buggy.
  
• 1 'Elite' enemy by itself.
  
• 1 'Elite' enemy with 1-2 'weak' or 'normal' enemies. This is a common setup for a mission boss.
  
• 1 'Champion' enemy, possibly with a few other enemies thrown in. You will typically only see this in the final class mission on a planet, and in all of them you will be given some extra help such as friendly NPCs that will assist you in the fight. I've never seen a solo mission that forced you to fight a Champion mob by yourself.
  

There is a pretty wide variety of enemy types you will encounter. If you mouse over the enemy in-game, you will see its type listed along with its level, just like you see the advanced class of player characters. Most enemies are loosely based on a character class, much like Companions. They have lots of different names, but usually between the name and the equipment the mob is holding, you can tell roughly what they're going to do. Here are the most common ones:

• Melee brawler. Usually holding a vibroblade or other melee weapons. Just runs up and beats on you. May have a stun or knockback attack, Sunder Armor, or a bleed/poison DOT. Some (usually elite enemies with a staff-type weapon) do heavy AOE melee damage.
  
• Ranged DPS, either a soldier or sniper with a rifle or a gunslinger type with pistols. Stands back and shoots at you. Sniper/Gunslinger types are usually in cover. Typically has some high-damage special attack like 'Aimed Shot', and may have an AOE attack like a grenade.
  
• 'Technician'/'Commando' type enemy. Usually has ranged attacks, and debuffs like armor reduction or a tech-based DOT. Can also be melee-based. Elites often have knockback or charge/pull abilities.
  
• 'Trooper' type enemy. These typically have anti-armor abilities like Grav Round and a lot of armor and hit points. May also have a knockdown/knockback.
  
• 'Force User' enemies like Sith or Jedi. They will either be melee-heavy or more of a caster type. Casters will have a variety of Force-based special attacks like Force Lightning or telekinesis. Melee versions may have stuns/knockbacks. Elites will often have a Choke/Lift/Stasis-type ability to CC your companion!
  
• 'Healer' type enemies. These can be VERY dangerous, as they can heal both themselves and other enemies, prolonging a fight. These should usually be your highest-priority target.
  

Generally speaking, you can split solo fights into two broad categories: fighting a single enemy (usually a Strong or Elite), or fighting multiple enemies (either a group of normal/weak enemies, or a single Strong/Elite with a few weak/normals).

Against a single strong enemy, you cannot use CC, so you must stand and fight. The easiest way to handle this, by far, is to use a tank and healer combination -- either you healing a tanking companion, or you playing a tanking class and having a healing companion assist you. As long as you can outheal the mob's damage, you will eventually win. (A well-geared tank/healer combo can often take down Champion mobs solo, though it can take a long time.) If you combine a DPS and healer/tank, you will win as long as you can kill the mob before it kills the DPS.

It also helps a lot to mitigate as much incoming damage as possible. Good ways to do this:

• Interrupt any charge-up/channeled damage abilities. If the mob has too many abilities to interrupt them all, stop the highest-damage ones. Abilities that bypass armor are especially dangerous.
  
• Use defensive cooldown abiliites to reduce incoming damage.
  
• Use Medkits to self-heal.
  
• Trade threat between yourself and your companion, instead of letting the enemy focus on just one of you. This is easiest when one or both of you have a Taunt.
  
• Against melee enemies: 'kite' the enemy by stunning/rooting/snaring it, moving away, and then using ranged attacks while it cannot hit you.
  

Against a group of enemies, you normally want to attack the weaker enemies first and kill them quickly. Most classes have several abilities that deal massive damage to weak/normal mobs, or have extra effects like stun when used on them. Use these early and often to quickly knock out some of the enemies. Against a group of weak/normal enemies, AOE attacks can often quickly weaken or kill the entire group.

If you are fighting one strong/elite with several weak/normal enemies, a very effective technique is to CC the strong/elite, then killl the weak/normal enemies before the CC wears off. Then you just have to fight the strong/elite alone. If you are doing this, avoid using AOE attacks near the CCed enemy, as if you damage it the mob will begin attacking again.

You should also give some thought to aggro management, even just between you and your companion. If one of you is a tank, you normally want the tank to start the fight (use CTRL+1 to send your companion in first if they are tanking). This way all the enemies will start out attacking the tank. With a tank/healer combo, the tank should just beat down one target at a time, while trying to hold aggro on everything. With a tank/DPS, the DPS can pull one mob at a time off the tank and kill it while the tank continues to hold the strong/elite and the remaining mobs.

If one of you is a healer, you normally want the mobs attacking the other potential target. Note that due to threat gain from healing, enemies not being attacked by anyone will eventually begin attacking the healer. If you are healing, you may need to direct your companion to attack or taunt any enemies that aggro on you.