Everyone were saying how slicing is soooo good. So I leveled up slicing the first thing I did, but it doesn’t give much credits on an overpopulated server where everyone is busy farming nodes. Running missions only gives some schematics for cybertech and then one-time missions for other crew skills. Annoying. So I dropped that after leveling it to 350 or so. Then I was looking at the bonuses you get from companions to crew skills, and I devised a plan to maximize companion benefit (in a previous post). Well, that didn’t turn out too well either, because I miscalculated. Companions have two types of bonuses: efficiency and crit. Efficiency only affects how fast they do missions, so that’s kind of worthless. Crit however is really nice, because anything that makes you have a bigger chance of getting a crit means you get a better chance at producing something worth your while. So here’s the crew skills that each class get crit bonuses for:

Sith Warrior

Bioanalysis 2
Investigation 2
Synthweaving 5
Treasure Hunting 5

Sith Inquisitor

Archaeology 5
Scavenging 2
Slicing 2
Underworld Trading 2

Bounty Hunter

Armstech 1
Bioanalysis 2
Biochem 2
Treasure Hunting 2

Imperial Agent

Armormech 2
Diplomacy 5
Slicing 2
Underworld Trading 2

So as you can see, that ain’t much. So you can mostly ignore the bonuses I think. Maybe try to focus on the ones that give 5 crit. But there is another thing to consider here as well.

Each crafting crew skill makes you able to make something really nice bind on pickup at skill 400 (current max). So if you want the nice bling bling then you have to level all of the crafts on all of your toons. I’d recommend starting with Biochem in that case, since you get a non-consuming medpack that heals A LOT. But that is a hell of a lot of work to do. So I think there too I have to give up and just take something that makes sense.

So what is most useful? All mission skills are useful, because if nothing else you get companion gifts. All gathering skills are useful, because it shouldn’t be too hard to sell the mats on GTN. Armor crafting (both of them) is a lot less useful, because you will most likely use orange gear or world drops (like raiding gear) anyway. The same goes for weapons. Not bad, because you will be able to make mods, but not extremely good either. That leaves Cybertech, which all classes benefit from and you can also get schematics for speeders and such things which will make you quite popular on the market. Then there is Biochem, which as I already said has some good stuff. So get to it maggot. Start leveling those skills.

Either Biochem or Cybertech, and then Scavenging or Slicing or Bioanalysis, and then a Mission skill. That’s the things you should mix up to get the most out of your crafting.

Crew Skills

There are three types of crew skills used for crafting in SWTOR: Crafting skills, gathering skills, and mission skills.

Mission skills

All of the mission skills have missions that will provide you with companion gifts. Giving gifts to your companions will raise their affection to you, so it’s a good thing. For your first companion you will also get a special quest when your affection is high enough. For the other four companions, you will “only” get conversations as their affection rises, for example romance opportunities etc.

As you can see from the chart above, mission skills also have missions where you can get ingredients or schematics for your crafting skills. For example, you send out your companion on a treasure hunting mission where the reward is lockboxes. Then when the companion comes back you will either get a box of credits, or you can get a schematic for a craft, or both. But treasure hunting also has missions to get companion gifts, and then missions to get you rare gems for artifice. These gems can’t be found anywhere else, so to produce top quality stuff in artifice you have to either get treasure hunting as a crew skill or buy mats off the GTN.

Since Vette, the SW first companion, has bonuses to both Treasure Hunting and Underworld Trading, I have chosen to use both of those crew skills on my lvl 10 sith warrior. On the other hand, my Imperial Agent has no mission skills so far. So what I do is I log on my SW to do companion gift missions, then I send those gifts to my IA since he can’t get them himself. As far as I can see, these bonuses really don’t make much of a difference, but since I plan to use all my characters for crafting, even small differences may be good to have.

Gathering skills

It’s a good idea to put three gathering skills when you reach level 10 on your first character. Then you can harvest nodes as you level up, and either sell the mats you get or later on switch to a different crew skill where you are able to use some of the mats you have gathered up. Or like me, once you’ve leveled up a bit you start leveling a second character who doesn’t need to gather any materials but can start to craft right away.

Slicing is a good gathering skill, because you can harvest lockboxes with credits in them. Having credits is good for anyone. However, if you are on a server with a heavy population, there will be a lot of competition for those slicing nodes, so you will not benefit much from it. One very important note about slicing: never run missions to get augments. Augments suck. I leveled slicing to 350 before I dropped it, and augments were still worthless at that level. So just don’t bother about augments, use slicing to get credits and new missions.

Bioanalysis seems  a bit useless at first, but I expect this to be reallly good as people start to get closer to lvl 50 and are running operations regularly. Bioanalysis stuff is used to craft consumables such as med packs and stims. So there will be a neverending need for bioanalysis output. Even if you don’t pick Biochem, bioanalysis should give you a good opportunity to sell mats on GTN.

Scavenging is used by both Cybertech, Armstech and Armormech. That means it will be very useful to have, since you are gathering resources for so many.

Archaeology is probably the least useful and I’m only going to keep it on one of my toons.

Crafting skills

Armstech and armormech produces items for Bounty Hunters and Imperial Agents.

Artifice and Synthweaving produces corresponding items for Sith Warriors and Sith Inquisitors.

Bioanalysis and Cybertech produces items that can be used by anyone.

Guess what; some professions are better than others. However, this also means that there may very well be an abundance of people choosing Cybertech and Bioanalysis on your server, which may mean that you are in for some heavy competition if you want to craft things and sell them. So saying which profession is the best one is not as easy as it seems. If you are only crafting for yourself though, it should be easy enough.

General crafting

If you pick crew skills according to the best bonuses, you will end up with a total of 12 skills covered, but there are 14 all in all. That means you have to skip out on 2.

BH should start with Cybertech, Scavenging, and Slicing. Not only because Mako has bonuses for those, but also because they are useful for just about anyone.

IA should focus on Bioanalysis, Biochem, and Diplomacy at some point in the game. However, this is one of those classes where you might be better off picking slicing, scavenging in the beginning levels rather than biochem and diplomacy. That will enable you to stockpile some crafting mats, and get credits faster, and then you can focus on your real crafts near the end of the game around level 40+.

SI should get Artifice, Investigation, and Synthweaving. Khem Val has bonuses to the first two, and they synergize really well together too, providing you with good equipment as you level. If you don’t level Underworld Trading and Archaeology on your other toons, you have to buy mats from the GTN, so for crafting purposes you might want to level a SI later rather than sooner.

SW should get Archaeology, Treasure Hunting, and Underworld Trading. This toon will provide others with a lot of materials and companion gifts, but won’t do any crafting by itself. This means you can level him to 10 and then just send money and keep going on missions. But it’s probably a good idea to get a few companions to share the load of running missions. Three companions is triple the speed.

So the two crew skills you miss out on this way are armstech and armormech. This means you won’t get armors for your IA/BH and you  won’t get blasters. But guess what, it doesn’t matter. You can get orange armor and weapons from planet commendations. You get mods for those things all the time in quests and through planet commendations. You can also buy mods from GTN. So… You’re really not worse off without it. Just find a set of orange things you like, and keep an eye out for mod upgrades. You won’t miss out on anything. Really.

This boss, for the Imperial Agent, gave me quite a bit of trouble. He has several CC abilities, so he puts my companion in stasis, then he knocks me around. So I couldn’t stay close to DPS him, nor could I stay back and heal my companion. I must have tried 20 times (first at level 29 and then level 30). Finally, I understood that the IA class has an interrupt that is crucial to this battle. Unfortunately, that also means that healing is nigh impossible, so even though I’m specced as a healer I had to go full DPS on him. Then just interrupt his skills as best I could (there’s a 12 second cooldown). Had to die again due to messing up an interrupt or two, but in the end I got him down.

Now I was thinking of creating a logotype for my legacy. I was thinking about something like the Sith symbol, but like a snowflake. But the Snowflake legacy was already stolen by someone else, so it had to be Starflake instead. No worries, I can make that work, it’s actually pretty cool name. Just need to get Photoshop up and running and do some magic.

Something like this maybe?

This is when I realized I hadn’t been to my class trainer in several levels. So I went there and realized I had a bunch of skills that could be upgraded. For example, my heals would suddenly heal for 500 instead of 400, that’s quite a difference. Then I went out and quested some more and got some better equipment, both for me and for Kaliyo. Then I went back at level 20, and then it was actually rather simple to kill this boss.

But even at level 20 I did some stupid mistakes. You can see in the video below, that in the lvl 20 fight I never used Adrenalin Probe (I know I say I did in the video, but that was an assumption, I didn’t actually use it). In fact, the reason to why I just abandoned Kaliyo at the end was that I didn’t have enough energy to use any kind of abilities so I couldn’t heal her. BUT my Adrenalin Probe was available, so I could have just used that and Kaliyo would never have died. Oh well.

What matters is that I killed the boss. And also, that healing is possible, but much harder than in LOTRO. And that I’m a noob. But at least I’m learning.

Watch this video on YouTube.

I’ve got 3 weeks vacation over the holiday season though, so I expect to get some game time eventually.

46 % had decided to play empire before beta access.
41 % had decided to play republic before beta access.
13 % were undecided.

12 % of republic people decided to go empire after they tried the beta.
6 % of undecided people decided to go empire after they tried the beta.
4 % of empire people decided to go republic after they tried the beta.
3 % of undecided people decided to go republic after they tried the beta.

If this holds to be true, which it kinda should with 196 respondents, then the republic side will have a lot less players than the empire side. More people were interested in playing empire before they even tried the game, and after trying the game 18 % decided they would rather play empire vs 7 % who switched sides to the republic.

The original poll was located here, but in a few days it will no longer remain because of the wipe.

Map of the Summoner's Rift

You play on a team of five people, against a team of five other people. Each player controls a champion, and each champion has a unique set of abilities used to attack or defend. Your home base is either in the lower left corner, or in the upper right corner. The opponents base is in the opposite corner from yours. The object of the game is to destroy your opponents’ base. To do that, you first have to destroy the guarding towers along at least one of the paths leading up to their base. To help in your quest of reaching the opponents’ base, you kill creeps to become stronger. Creeps come in a steady stream on each of the three lanes, from the base of each team. There are also stationary creeps between the lanes, an area which is usually called the jungle (even though it is made up of spruce mostly). Some of the stationary creeps carry certain buffs. These buffs are more or less important for different champions (the character you play), which means there is actually an optimal way to select champions for different lanes (just like chess pieces are set up in a particular way before a match).

The optimal team composition is to have two champions in the bottom lane. One of these should be a support champion, who is able to heal other champions. The other should be an AD Carry (attack damage, i.e. attacking with a weapon). The AD Carry is very weak defensively, which is why he needs a support champion next to him, but has an exceptionally strong attack, especially late game. This team has one job to fulfil during the laning phase of the game: to push back the opponents to their turret and then go and kill the dragon stationary creep.

The middle lane should optimally have an AP Carry (ability power, i.e. attacking with magic). The AP Carry has two jobs: 1) kill his lane opponent and when that is done 2) gank top or bottom lanes (help out with attacking enemy champions in those lanes). If the bottom team is doing poorly, the AP Carry could possibly also help kill the dragon.

The top lane should optimally have a tanky fighter. The top lane is the least important lane of all, you just need to make sure you don’t loose your tower, so it is a fairly simple task.

The last player is the jungler. Having a good jungler can tip the entire game in your favor and make you win. Typically, the jungler is a champion who has some sort of shielding and health regen (life steal). Leveling a jungler is usually a bit slower than leveling in the lanes, but he has the benefit of being in an area where the enemy has no idea of where he is hiding. In the map above, there are some blue/purple areas marked. What the jungler usually does is after killing some jungle creeps so he has gained a few levels, he goes to a lane and hides in the shrub where he can’t be seen (blue areas). Then at a good moment, he jumps out of the bushes and ganks (surprise-attacks) one of the opponents. If he is a good jungler, the opponent dies, which means that it is much easier for that lane to push on to the enemy tower and destroy it. The jungler also has an important task of helping to kill the dragon and Baron Nashor when possible.

To protect themselves against ganks from the AP Carry or from the jungler, the laning champions usually buy wards and place near their lane. Good spots to place wards are marked with red in the map. A ward only lasts 3 minutes (if I remember right), so you need to buy wards often since a game can carry on for almost an hour.

Your main task, regardless of where you play, is to avoid getting yourself killed. Every time you die, the opposing team gains an advantage. If you give them enough advantages, your team will loose. Likewise, every time an opponent dies, your team gains an advantage. Therefore, your second priority is to kill enemies. Your third priority is to destroy towers, because only by destroying towers will you be able to eventually win the game. Likewise, the opponents will be able to win the game if they destroy your towers, so protecting your towers is your fourth priority. Naturally, the order of these priorities will vary a bit depending on what is happening. For example, if four of the enemy champions are attacking the last tower before your base, it would be completely ludicrous to run around in the jungle looking to kill the enemy jungler. But you get the picture. Don’t loose the advantage is no 1, and gaining an extra advantage yourself is no 2.

While you are doing all of that to win the game, you have one general concern: last hitting creeps. The one champion that scores the killing blow on a creep will get gold coins as a reward. If your own creeps last-hit the opponents creeps, that gold is lost. Last-hitting a creep will give you around 30 gold. Destroying a tower gives everyone on the team 150 gold. If you kill the dragon stationary creep, everyone on your team gets 190 gold. If you kill Baron Nashor, everyone on your team gets 300 gold as well as a powerful buff that makes you stronger than your opponents. So if the opponents manage to kill the dragon, you have to kill 33 more creeps than them to catch up.

Gold is used to buy items at your base. Therefore, you will regularly return to your base to upgrade your items. I already said you can buy wards, which are really useful. Another useful consumable item is a health pot, which makes you regenerate health after an opponent has attacked you. Finally, there are items that make you stronger. AD champions will buy items with attack damage, attack speed and life steal. AP champions will buy items with ability power, cooldown reduction and magic penetration. Tanky fighters will buy items with armor and magic resist, plus either AD or AP items depending on what type of abilities they have. Finally support will usually buy AP items as well as cooldown reduction and armor. Since these items makes you so much stronger, it is important to earn more gold than your opponents, so you are able to not die and to kill efficiently.

If I play bottom lane support, I usually play Sona or Alistar. Other popular options are Janna, Kayle, Soraka and Taric.

If I play bottom lane AD carry, I usually play Graves, Tristana or Sivir. Other popular options are Vayne, Caitlyn, Kog’Maw and Corki.

If I play mid lane AP carry, I usually play Annie, Gragas or Swain. Other popular options are Ryze, Brand, Malzahar and Kassadin.

If I play top lane tanky dps, I usually play Swain, Garen, Graves, Gragas, Nasus or Sion. There are many other popular options, and for the top champion item build is important.

If I play jungler, I usually play Udyr. Other popular options are Riven, Nocturne, Nunu, Shyvana and Shaco.

There are a lot of guides out there if you want to refine your strategy when playing. For example, check out professional gaming teams like Counter Logic Gaming or Team Solo Mid, they have guides you can read and videos you can watch as well as live streams when they are playing the game.

By comparison, I tried Udyr in the jungle. Took me less than 8 minutes to level 6, and he was way past level 8 by 10 minutes past. With Udyr, I actually had to stand idle in the jungle a couple of times, which means I could have spent that time ganking enemies for more benefit to the team. Also, I used 4-5 less healing pots on Udyr, which means I got Wriggles that much sooner. So all in all, jungle Garen doesn’t really stand a chance.

Jungle Garen post-patch

Jungle Udyr post-patch

Watch this video on YouTube.