Heya guys!! Welcome to your primer for the basic mechanics of SWTOR. This guide will be continually updated throughout the game launch as I can confirm and discover more of the basic mechanics of SWTOR. The main purpose is to expose players to your new “laws of reality” so that preconceived notions from other games can be dispelled.

Note: Post last updated 1/12/2012.

Preconceived Notions to be dispelled?

Why are you taking the time to read this? Well here are two examples of expected/understood game mechanics for MMO’s that don’t work the same in SWTOR.

• Jumping slows your movement speed down. So while many people are in the habit of constantly jumping while moving (a habit learned in WoW), doing so in SWTOR will make you run slower than someone keeping their feet on the ground.
• Characters and NPC’s can Parry or Dodge attacks that come from behind them. Unless you have an ability that has a positional requirement, you gain no special offensive bonuses by attacking them from the rear.

Do I have your attention now?

Primary Attributes

• Aim: Increases ranged damage and critical hit chance (Trooper/Bounty Hunter primary attribute).
• Cunning: Increases tech damage and critical hit chance (Smuggler/Imperial Agent primary attribute).
• Strength: Increases melee damage and critical hit chance (Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior primary attribute).
• Willpower: Increases force damage and critical hit chance (Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor primary attribute).
• Presence: Increases your companion’s damage, healing, and health.
• Endurance: Increases health and health regeneration.

Secondary Attributes

• Absorption Rating: Improves the amount of damage blocked by a shield.
• Accuracy Rating: Improves your chance to hit. Once above 100% it reduces your opponent’s Defense.
• Alacrity Rating: Improves your Cast speed and Channeling speed (doesn’t affect instant cast abilities). It can reduce the cast speed below 1 GCD (1.5 sec) and shortens the intervals/durations of DoT’s (same amount of DoT ticks but over a shorter period of time, this is a dps/hps increase).
• Critical Rating: Improves your chance of a critical hit.
• Defense Rating: Improves your chance of avoiding (parry/deflect) an attack (this is avoidance, not mitigation).
• Expertise Rating: Improves your damage/healing done and reduces damage taken (for PvP only).
• Force Power: Improves your force ability damage and healing.
• Power: Improves your damage/healing for all abilities.
• Shield Rating: Improves your chance that your shield will be triggered against an incoming attack.
• Surge Rating: Improves your damage bonus on a critical hit. The base critical damage bonus is 50%.
• Tech Power: Improves your tech ability damage/healing.

Combat Mechanics

• The base character movement speed is 6 meters per second.
• Jumping while moving will reduce your movement speed by an unknown amount, but it will be slower than if you were not jumping at all.
• Most (if not all) percentage modifiers (such as plus X % damage) are additive, not multiplicative. Ex., +30% damage and +40% damage will be a +70% damage bonus.
• A character’s chance of avoiding attacks is not affected by positional placement or the casting/channeling of abilities. Avoidance always works.
• Auto attacks do not exist. All classes have their own resource system which is spent to use abilities.
• Resources regenerate differently for each class.
• JK/SW are the exception, as they only gain resources by using abilities to generate it. They are also the only class to start combat with zero resources.
• Ability CD’s begin the moment an ability is activated (including channeled abilities), except for abilities with cast times. Their CD begins at the end of the cast time.
• All threat modifiers add +50% threat generation, and healing only causes 50% of the threat that the same amount of damage would cause.
• Stealing aggro occurs at 110% for melee and 130% for ranged.
• There is no method of becoming immune to critical hits.
• DoT’s do not interrupt casting/channeling abilities, but they do interrupt capturing points in PvP with each tick. Also applying the same DoT before the first one has finished will clip, or cut off, the original DoT. It will not extend the duration.
• Armor mitigates Energy and Kinetic damage, and it caps out at 75% mitigation.
• Attacks appear to be on a 2 hit roll system. The first roll is for accuracy (hit, miss, avoided), while the second roll determines the damage of the hit (crit, normal, or shielded).
• Combat ratings for attributes scale with level. You will need to improve your gear as you level or your stats will drop.

Unknown Mechanics

Currently these are the mechanics I am unsure of and need more information on:

Accuracy

• How exactly does this affect the target’s defenses past 100%.
• How much does accuracy really increase OH dps?  And in effect, overall dps.

DMR

• Which stats have DMR and which do not?
• What are the soft caps and scaling of existing DMR?

Boss Stats

• How much defense, mitigation, and resistances do bosses actually have?

Other Mechanics

If you know of a mechanic I missed, or found some interesting information somewhere, let me know!! There is no way I will find everything on my own.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or track me down through my Contact page.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…