So here's a stupid one. All the sudden my character can't swing his saber. Just sits there and parries till death.

 

I notice for whatever reason that some of my powers in the bar are blocked?

 

Have no idea.

 

I remember that certain clothing items can block force use ... but that shouldn't in any case keep me from swinging the saber at all.

 

Just weird

 

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

If certain skills on your action bar are greyed out, you're probably using the wrong weapon. If you're a Marauder, you need two single-hand sabres, and as an Assassin, you need a sabre-staff, or two-handed sabre.

 

Edit: I have no idea what you mean about clothing "blocking" force use.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Tatile

So here's a stupid one. All the sudden my character can't swing his saber. Just sits there and parries till death.

 

I notice for whatever reason that some of my powers in the bar are blocked?

 

Have no idea.

 

I remember that certain clothing items can block force use ... but that shouldn't in any case keep me from swinging the saber at all.

 

Just weird

 

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

Sounds like you are out of focus. Focus is a meter (under your health by default. It is a yellowish color) that you have to build up to use some attacks as a Jedi Knight/Warrior. You can build focus by using your standard attack (1 by default) and other abilities that instantly give you focus.

 

The trick is to keep your focus up, so you can continuously keep using attacks.

 

 

Or you may be using the wrong weapon. It might help telling us what class you are.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Essence_of_Light

Double post. Oops. Edited April 2, 2014 by Essence_of_Light

That's the case for all classes, by the way. No matter what character you make, you have to worry about a "resource": focus, force power, rage, ammo, overheating your weapons, etc. The yellow bar above your health bar shows how much of this you have. For some classes, the "resource" regenerates, for other classes it must be built up before you can use your abilities.

 

As indicated in the post above, in the case of your character, you have a few abilities (sword attacks, the force jump ability) that build Focus/Rage, and then you have some big damage abilities that use up the Focus/Rage. Start the fight with the Force Jump ability then the Strike ability), and use them a few times until the yellow bar gets full, then unleash the high damage abilities (Blade Storm, Slash, Master Strike, Riposte) until the bar is empty.

 

If you hold your mouse over each icon, in the info panel by the minimap it will say "This ability gives 2 Focus" if it gives focus, or "Focus Use: 3" if it needs focus to work.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Merouk

So here's a stupid one. All the sudden my character can't swing his saber. Just sits there and parries till death.

 

I notice for whatever reason that some of my powers in the bar are blocked?

 

Have no idea.

 

I remember that certain clothing items can block force use ... but that shouldn't in any case keep me from swinging the saber at all.

 

Just weird

 

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

What class are you? What level are you? What weapon are you using? You say "all of a sudden" as if it was working before. Did you change anything?

Anytime someone mentions sabers and not being able to use power, it's a very good chance they are a JK or SW and that they accidentally dragged or put a different power in mainbar 1 slot 1.

 

@ OP

 

The basics have been covered by everyone else.

 

Jedi Knight and Sith Warriors have certain powers that build resource and other powers that spend resource. Hover over the tooltip and it will say if it costs focus/rage or if it builds focus/rage. If you completely dragged it off your bars, then do like the other guy said and hit P and on the left of the new window click on your main class and advanced class to look at all your spells. Another thing to keep in mind is that whatever spell is in slot 1 of your mainbar is what will activate if you right click a mob. If you have Force Leap there, then right clicking a mob will cause you to force leap to it. If you have Strike there then right clicking a mob will cause you to swing at the mob and generate 2 focus. If you have Slash in slot 1 of your mainbar and you right click a mob and you have zero focus, nothing will happen. You must first build up 3 focus and THEN you can right click an enemy and you will attack with Slash.

Edited April 3, 2014 by swtonewbie

And no: there are no items that can block you from using the Force.

 

You probably just dragged your basic attack out of your quick bar. Hit P, pull it back in and DON'T FORGET to click that little padlock item next to the quick bar to lock it and prevent such mistakes in the future.

 

If I knew how, I'd write a chat makro explaining exactly that to use when on the first 3 planets and on the fleet.

You have to use the Strike ability to gain Focus, or if you have it the Force Leap/Force Charge ability, or if youve picked your Advanced Class already and are a Guardian/Juggernaut, you can use Sundering Assault/Sundering Strike, or Sentnel/Marauder you can use Battering Assault/Zealous Strike. Most abilities for the Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior are greyed out unless you have Focus/Rage. Also, as a Sith Marauder/Jedi Sentnel, you have to be wielding 2 Sabers, and for a Guardian/Juggernaut you only wield 1 saber, and either a Shield Generator or Focus.

as a Sith Marauder/Jedi Sentnel, you have to be wielding 2 Sabers

Not true.

 

You can fight with only one saber, or even no saber. It would be less than Ideal, but you can do it if you want to. You'll be unable to use some of your AC's "special" abilities (like Zealous Strike), but you will be able to use most other abilities. Many of your abilities only say they hit with both sabers if dual wielding. Very few actually require dual sabers.

 

Shadow is similar. Some abilities require you to wield a doublesaber, but you can fight with a standard single saber (or no weapon at all) if you want to.