Little tips and tricks that you didn't know..

[KnightDLR]

Also be sure to set your looting to auto under Preferences as well! Saves you having to click each body and each set of loot that pops up!

 

Not only that, but you can also check the Area Loot option and any lootables nearby will be looted at the same time.

 

Also remember to activate your class buff once per hour, and share your buffs in PvP!

 

Feel free to share your buff with anyone, really. They scale to the level of the person receiving it. (Generally a percentage buff as opposed to a specific value.) Also, those buffs can be used will moving, so you don't even have to stop what you're doing to grant them to others.

 

Even though the Fleet Pass has an 18 hour cooldown, you can still buy another for 1000 credits and use it if you're desperate!

 

Only from Security Key vendors, which you can only access if you have an account authenticator key attached to your account. (Not sure if the CE/DDE vendors carry the same pass...they might....but those vendors are restricted as well as being in a location that is keyed to an item.)

Edited January 15, 2012 by KnightDLR

[Morfedd]

Pretty obvious: but if you've just finished a fight and are about to click a Mission NPC, regenerate you and your companion first! Many Mission NPC's dump you into a fight after the cutscene and you don't regen during the cutscene.

[Bohlareon]

Fantastic Thread! Keep up the amazing work!

 

A Little Give:

Sort of mentioned but I wanted to expand on it, the Holocrons can be a bit tough to get to sometimes and the platforming can be somewhat rough with the controls for those not used to it.

Note there are 2 ways of jumping that can help you (please expand if there are more tricks to jumping but the two below have helped me immensely).

 

1 - The jump and move - I used this for those short jumps that need precision, I jump with the Spacebar (default) first and as the jump is pressed, then push W (walk forward by default).

 

Good example of use (Justicar Territory Holocron, the 3 pipes placed like stairs horizontally)

 

2 - Move and jump - The basic jump where you gather momentum by moving forward (W key by default) and then pressing Spacebar (Jump by default) to make the leap.

 

3 - A good handful of MMOs have the ability to drag an item from your inventory/bag and click on your character/companion to equip it (with the programming in place to know where it's supposed to go slot-wise). If it requires being Bound, it will ask you.

NOT IN SWTOR! Be careful, my muscle memory was in place and I lost a couple items for my companion (including first customizations) because I thought the "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DESTROY THIS?" popup was the "BIND THIS ITEM?" popup. Don't be stupid like me and learn from my mistakes!

 

A Little Take:

1 - Is there any way to get your choice of default customization for your first companion back? Similar to the preorder crystal vendor? Being in the lower levels, 12.5K Credits is a lot of quiche I don't want to spend. I'm ok without it but it's just one of those things I wish I had

 

2 - For the Target Markers (Right Click, Target Marker, Pick Your Marker), is there any way to bind these? It would help speed up the process a bit, but love that it's in there no matter what.

[Harlin]

NumLock- Auto run.

[Aieny]

Num pad "/" to walk.

[Fei-Ke]

- Social gear can be used on your companions as long as you yourself have the required social level.

 

- When you hover over an item you see a comparison with your current gear. You can also have it show a comparison with your companion's gear but you need to turn that on in the preferences.

 

- When you hover over an item you see some details of the item, you can have it show even more details like the stats of the mods but that's also something you first need to turn on in the preferences.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Fei-Ke

[Umbral]

This is such a good thread. Sticky needed.

[Bobshabob]

Flashpoints - If you bug during a flashpoint, just leave and re-enter, you will come in at the start of the most recent area you entered... If you reset, then you have to start all over again (frustrating believe me). The same goes if you "fall out" of an instance, such as down the pit during the Esseles flashpoint, just run back through the flashpoint barrier to re-join near your party.

 

Durability - If your armor / weapon durability is getting low and you havent realised, there will be an armor icon appear above your characters portrait

 

Crafting - If you want to gather materials that you have out leveled for whatever reason (making a specfic weapon/mod for a friend / companion etc) you can use the small drop down box in the top right of the gathering mission screen to select the appropriate level materials to gather rather than buying them off the GTN or going to a planet to manually collect them. (Sometimes you can still also gain gathering levels if the mission is in the "abundant / rich yield" range)

 

Simple ones, but took me a good couple of hours/days play to make things easy for myself.

[DivisMal]

Bump for sticky!

 

Great thread, I am a seasoned MMO player but found some great flecks of gold here.

[ylaenna]

I have a question...How do I get the curator to reassemble gift fragments?

It turns out you need to have your gift fragments in your actual inventory, not just your cargo hold. (It doesn't work like crafting where as long as the stuff's in your cargo hold, you can use them to craft items.) Once you have all the required fragments on you, they work just like currency.

[ylaenna]

This thread has not been stickied but it is listed in a stickied post for new players, under Non-Stickied New Players Help Notable Threads.

[KindBudhArsh]

Using WSAD keys in a circlular motion in space combat helps avoid getting shot by enemy blasters.

 

If you have a self healing ability, use it to regenerate not just your health but your companions health at the same time.

 

When fighting mobs, look for a medic/healer in the mob and kill them first, or they will heal the other enemies, making the fight last longer then needed.

 

If you want to have a temporary "hood down" option, wear a helmet or head item and then in preferences, turn off "show head slot". You will now have the hood off and the helmet or head item will not display aswell.

 

To stack crafting items that are the same, simply put it in your cargo hold, then remove them from your cargo hold, when they go back into your inventory they will combine and stack.

 

To quickly leave a Flashpoint when finished without having to travel back to the entrance, there is an icon just above your minimap.

Edited January 17, 2012 by KindBudhArsh

[Maglen]

Actually you can keep the same orange gear right up to 50. Just need to update the mods and armoring to keep it at your level. I have had the same set since I was lvl 20 and I'm 50 now. They are all lvl 50 now.

 

This, on my SI Sorcerer, I got the Eldritch robes that made me look all mummy like and I kept them for the longest time.

[Cygnusxo]

In the preferences, you can enable the tooltip comparison for equipment/gear for your active companion so you can compare an item to your active companion's gear in addition to yours. (This really should be defaulted to "on", not sure why they defaulted it to "off").

 

OMG... Thank you so much...

 

you made my day

[Sezyrrith]

A few things I've picked up:

 

Companions don't count as a class. That lovely orange Consular robe won't work on Kira, even though she's basically a Consular.

 

Even if you don't want to do any crafting, pick up Slicing, Scavenging, and Archaeology. Gather and sell the materials, and send extra companions on Slicing missions.

 

Need to mail some extra Laminoid (for example) to your other crafting alt, but you stuck it in your vault and you aren't near a vault any more? If you can craft something using Laminoid, send any companion off to craft some thing(s) using Laminoid, then cancel the crafts. The Laminoid gets deposited back into your inventory, instead of the vault, so you can now mail it - though you lose an inventory slot or three to the remaining materials. Of course, you can mail these separately and return to sender on your alt, to pick up at your convenience.

 

Mail to other accounts' characters takes time - I think one hour. Mail to your own account has no delay, but note that you may not see the mail notification on your alt from inter-account mail.

 

I had more, but I can't think of them again offhand.

[CadashEvomase]

Okay, so first of all, this is an awesome thread

 

secondly, i'm not sure if it was posted, i didn't see it in the first 17 pages i read, but, someone mentions switching up orange gear for something new and i cringed.

 

orange gear has the most slots available for upgrades. for armor the item level and rating of armoring slot items increase the level and amount of armor on the piece. with weapons, it's either the hilt or barrel.

 

with that, those initial orange weapons you get when you pick your AC, don't get rid of them, it's more beneficial to get new armoring mods/hilts/barrels, because this will level up the item and make it do more damage.

 

if you make the mods yourself, don't hesitate to take the time and make your Might Hilt 4 or whatever you need, this will almost always have better ratings then any greens or blues you pick up. if you upgrade your weapon right, you can keep you initial oranges indefinitely.

 

only reason I'd sell an orange is if i have one already for the slot and my companions can't use it.

 

and if you think your new orange chest piece looks nicer then the first, upgrade it and give the old one away.

 

my 2 cents

[WickedThump]

When moving powers or medpacks, place the tip of the cursor in the center of the box. Do not try to line up the item with the space.

[wnein]

I can get my companion to aggro mobs simply by clicking the little ability that says 'attack you current target'. That's how I usually start up with my Trooper against hard targets.

 

Cheers.

 

You completely misunderstood what he was saying. He was saying that out of combat they shouldnt be getting aggro, only once you put them into combat.

[Sezyrrith]

I think it's been mentioned, but it's worth pointing out again IMO:

 

Some of the space missions (maybe all?) seem to have hidden bonus missions. First example that comes to mind is Balosar Outpost for Republic players. Ever noticed the shielded antennae on the bottom? Fire missiles at it every single time you pass, and make sure to blow up all the antennae on the top (including the center one among the shield generators). When you have popped them all, you'll get a notice that you completed a bonus mission.

 

Personally, those shielded objectives are the only things I've seen work as a hidden bonus mission.

[Trews]

If you like to button mash during combat like i do (hate watching the ability bar to see when the gcd is done) Try this:

Go into Preferences/Controls. At the bottom of the page is an option to set the amount of time you can que an ability to be used before it is able to be used.

I set it to 0 instead of the 0.5 it was set at. Sometimes during combat i would hit the key for an "instant" ability, and before the animation was done, i'd hit it again and the ability would just cancel and i would end up just standing there not attacking at all...very frustrating.

 

Seems to work for me. Give it a shot if you like.

 

Great thread btw. Very helpful. Cheers to all who posted so far.

[rodianhutt]

Awesome thread! Please Sticky this!

[NewJames]

5. You can learn a profession before level 10, by taking the shuttle to the fleet. You can not do crew skill missions without a companion, but you can gather straight from level 1.

 

Not anymore, I've found out the hard way that you have to be level 7 to take the shuttle to the fleet. It seems to be strictly based off level, and not dependant on any quest completions.

[sotacram]

SUBmarine.

[Elecious]

type /played to see your play time so far, was a little scary reading mine

[Ophelyah]

When modding your gear, keep in mind any armor/hilt/mod you take off the item is bound to you and cannot be auctioned. This means unless it's usable and an upgrade for another equipped item slot, it's usually not worth the expense to remove the existing mod before placing the new one in.