Welcome to the Galaxy, citizen! This transmission has been sent to you
alone. The Empire has taken a certain notice in your, let's us say, Skills.
Let us hope we are not mistaken or else we might have to fix this, err,
miscalculation.
We belive you are already trained in the ways of combat and are ready to
to start your advanced training. If this is incorrect, and you are actually
new to the Galaxy, then please head on over to our initial training guide,
the General Information FAQ. This can be found in the Star Wars Galaxies:
An Empire Divided section of GameFAQs. (basically, if you are new to the
game, check out my other FAQ.)
However, if you as powerful as we think you are, then let us begin your
advanced training. Even if you are a veteran combat expert, or a returning
soldier, we have uses for you. We'll explore the new fields of space combat
and the frontier of Kashyyk. We'll even delve into the very secrets of the
combat upgrade itself.
To clarify, if you're new to the game, go to my other FAQ. But, if you're
a veteran player, then this is the FAQ for you. If you ever need to contact
me for whatever reason, be it a question or concern, you can do so using
the following methods:
E-mail: bluemoogle@gmail.com
AIM: omnsiscient van
Also note, since Jedi are such a huge topic now days, I decided to split
that into a different FAQ. After all, the journey of becoming force
sensitive, to becoming a Jedi Padawan, to becoming a Jedi Master is so long
its like an entirely different game!
--==[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]==--
.__________________________________________________________________________.
.__________________________________________.
<< 1 >>
C O M B A T
The combat Upgrade has revolutionized the game. No fight will ever be
the same. If you are looking for strategies and hints on how to navigate
this radical change, then this look no further!
1. Changes for Veterans
2. Working Together: Grouping
3. The New Armor System
4. The New Weapon System
5. Weapon Chart
6. Common Problems: ANSWERED!
<< 2 >>
S P A C E
The first expansion pack, Jump to Lightspeed, has added a brand new
realm of gameplay: Space. This chapter will quickly get up to speed on
how to pilot your very own spaceship. Learn what it takes to become an
ace of flying! This also covers building of spaceships.
<< 3 >>
T H E C I V I L W A R
The Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire wage war for ultimage control
of the Galaxy. Which side do you pick? The civil war is changing fast,
each update is affecting it. Learn about how the new war affects you!
<< 4 >>
K A S H Y Y K
The second expansion pack, Rage of the Wookiees, has brought the world of
Star Wars: Episode III, into SWG. Find all the items, weapons, and armor
from the newest Star Wars movie on the Wookiee Homeworld, Kashyyk. What
secrets will you find?
Alright, this is my FAQ. It's copyrighted by me under the international
copyright agreement. Anyway, here's the official way of saying it.
Copyright 2005 bluemoogle
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
I only give GameFaqs permission to use this FAQ. If you disagree with
anything and you think something in this FAQ is your work, e-mail me at
bluemoogle@gmail.com and we can try and work an agreement.
The world will never be the same. SOE has finally released the combat
upgrade, a gigantic publish worthy of being an expansion pack. But, SOE
was kind enough to release it for free as a patch, seamlessly downloaded at
the launch pad. Players who have bought ROTW (rage of the wookies) or the
Total Experience do not have to worry about downloading this gigantic patch
as the games come pre-loaded with it.
So what's the big deal about this Combat Upgrade? It sounds simple enough
after all. Well, for one, no fighting strategy will be the same as all
special moves are either new or completely different. Plus, rebalancing
of weapons opens up completely new fields of battle. So, where to begin?
.__________________________________________.
10 Vital Changes You Should Know
.__________________________________________.
1. There is now a "combat level" system in place. This is an advanced
version of the consider system. Rather than relying simply on colors
to determine the strength of the enemy, now all fighters (including
yourself) have a level. This level is based on the amount of combat
skills you have trained in. The amount of EXP given is based on
the level of the enemy in comparison to your level.
2. Most, not all, weapons require a certain level. Some weapons still
require certain skills to be mastered, but many weapons can be used
by any profession as long as he or she is high enough level. This
means a bounty hunter can use rifles, even if he or she isn't a
rifleman.
3. Skills are no longer weapon specific. A fencer's attack skills will
work while wielding a polearm. However, ranged skills do not work
with melee weapons, and vice versa. This, in a way, makes the game
have two very broad professions, melee and ranged.
4. Ranged weapons now give a "hinderance" for wielding them. This
has no effect on fighting capabilities, but it does slow down a
person's walking speed. This is a balancing issue so melee professions
will be able to keep up with the ranged. Before, ranged professions
were able to simply kite melee professions, making melee vrs. ranged
PvP futile.
5. There are now only 5 stats instead of 11. Health is the only stat
directly damaged by attack. Action and Mind are hurt only by poisons
and diseases. However, a person isn't incapped by losing all of his
or her action or mind. Rather, these pools are ability pools. Action
handles combat abilities and mind handles crafting and healing. Then
of course there are still battle fatigue and wounds, but wounds now
only affect health.
6. The combat queue is no more. Rather, abilities now follow the system
of "cast, action, cool" meaning there is a casting time, the actual
attack, and then a cool down phase. Each ability has a different
amount of time for each phase. Auto-attack is also no longer done by
default. Rather, a skill can be set to be auto attack via ctrl clicking
the spot on the hotbar.
7. All moves now require some action and/or mind to use. Even the most
basic of attacks. However, action and mind now recharge extremely
fast to counter this.
8. Group EXP has been redone to encourage grouping. Now everyone receives
equal EXP, regardless of how much damage they did. As long as they
did one attack, they get the full amount of EXP.
The amount of EXP is based on the highest level person in the group.
It's based on the amount of EXP that person would have received if
he or she solo'd the monster. If he or she would have recieved 500 EXP
for killing the monster solo, then everyone in the group receives
500 EXP.
In other words, grouping has no detrimental affect on EXP. Everyone
gets the same reward as the strongest player. Thus it is beneficial
to group together compared to soloing, but soloing is still very much
viable.
9. Groups are limited to 8 players.
10. Every profession has new skills. Existing skills have been changed
and are in new places in the skill tree. Also, some professions have
slightly different requirements for their novice box. For example,
commando now only requires unarmed and ranged support, rather than
unarmed and master marksman.
.__________________________________________.
Working Together
.__________________________________________.
One of the primary concerns of the Combat Upgrade was to create a more
user-friendly experience when it comes to grouping / partying. Many
changes have been made to make it as easy and efficient as possible for
one to quickly form a group and go out hunting.
The group interface is the center of the group. Here one can quickly
scan important and vital information on other members. The group display
is broken into a grid, each box of the grid being a different member. Each
box has the same information:
____________________________________________________
/ | Group member name |
| Symbol |-------------------------------------------|
| | Health Bars (health, action, mind) |
|--------+ |
|____________________________________________________|
| Enhancements (buffs) and dehancements (blind, etc) |
\____________________________________________________|
So what is all of that? Well, it's obvious what most of it is. The
group member name is, well, the name of the player. Duh. The health bars
is also pretty obvious in what it's purpose is.
But what about the symbol? New with the combat upgrade is the symbol
system. This system lets a group quickly organize roles on who does what
and when it gets done. The symbol is determined by the individual player,
so that means you pick your symbol and only your symbol. Everyone else
picks their symbol.
Symbols come in two colors: silver and gold. Silver symbols are basic,
meaning the player is still quite new in his or her profession. Gold
symbols are awarded to advanced players, experienced in the ways of combat.
Further more, each symbol represents a different role. They are:
The group box also shows enhancements (buffs) and negative effects
(debuffs) on the lower part of the group box. Resting the mouse cursor over
one of the effect icons will display:
- Name of the Effect
- What is boosted / lowered
- Duration of the effect
- Description
The types of effects vary largely. To name a few: armor hinderances,
weapon hinderances, food buffs, drink buffs, spice buffs, poison, disease,
medicinal buffs, blind, stun, and so on.
If you are a doctor, it is vital to pay attention to your group member's
status. Keep their health up and destroy any debuffs they acquire. Combat
medics and regular medics can also do status healing, but are much more
proficient at healing damage. Combat medics, for example, can heal entire
groups and can do so from a range.
_
/ \
|!| IMPORTANT: A common concern to many new to grouping is, "Will my
\_/ profession template be acceptable in a group?" As in,
many are worried that they won't be invited to a group.
Have no fear! In Star Wars Galaxies, all professions
are valued equally and an invitation isn't based on
profession, but rather, how well you can fight. Many base
this on your level.
_
/ \
|!| IMPORTANT: Some people will make high-level only groups, but generally
\_/ people usually let lower levels in. So, overall, don't worry
about your profession being accepted! This isn't FFXI!
A healer isn't more valued than anyone else, for once. In
fact, many groups can survive without a healer as long as
someone can rez!
.__________________________________________.
The New Armor System
.__________________________________________.
Armor has encountered a dramatic change with the combat upgrade. Now
every type of armor is useful. This means no more Composite Cookie Cutters!
Even Bone armor is strong! This is due to the new organization of armor and
how statistics are done.
Armor is no longer based on percentage of blocking damage, but rather
based on numeral values. This number is then entered into this algorithm:
This means the most effective armor (10000 AR) has a percentage of 60%
damage reduction! To quickly estimate how useful your armor is, examine the
chart below:
As you can see, the higher you go up in the AR scale, the less effective
each point of AR is. In other words, the difference between a set of
1000 AR and 2000 AR armor is much larger than say, 5000 and 6000. Keep this
in mind when shopping for armor. If you see a 5000 AR suit for 100,000
credits, and a 6000 AR suit for 300,000 credits, is it worth the extra
money? NO!
Armor is also split into three broad categories. Each profession is
better at using a certain type of armor. Also, each type of armor has
innate bonuses to the default AR value. In other words, if a set of armor
has 6000 AR, some suits of armor may automatically increase or decrease that
value, depending on the type.
Your armor defends against 6 types of attributes. First, it defends
against the base attributes of kinetic and energy. All melee weapons do
kinetic damage and ranged weapons do energy damage. From there, some
weapons and abilities will add additional damage in a sub-element. These
sub-elements are cold, electricity, acid, and heat.
As you can see by the chart, a set of armor will use its default AR to
defend against the sub-elements. However, the armor type determines how
effective it is at defending against the base attributes of kinetic and
energy.
This of course puts Battle armor in a desirable trait as it's adaptable
to all situations. However, an Assault Armor wearer is far better at
tanking melee attackers (such as PvE) and a recon armor wear is far better
at ranged battles (commonly seen in PvP).
An exception to all of this is Teras Kasi Artists and Jedi. They receive
benefits for NOT WEARING armor! As in, they can deflect off more damage
if they are completely naked than if they are lugging around a suit of
solid metal plating. This is because Teras Kasi artists use their extreme
body training to use speed to dodge blows and Jedi of course use the force
to deflect attacks.
_
/ \
|!| IMPORTANT: Armor no longer detracts from your stats! Now, the only
\_/ downfall for wearing armor is receiving a "hinderance."
A hinderance will slow your movement, your attack speed,
and make you less accurate.
To counter this, professions "mitigate" the hinderance. A master of a
profession can usually make an entire hinderance disappear! Use the chart
above to see which professions are good at using which armors.
.__________________________________________.
The New Weapon System
.__________________________________________.
Armor may have received a dramatic rehaul, but with that rehaul came
an even larger weapon rehaul! Weapons, the core behind any battle, work
in a brand new way. The new weapon system, along with the new abilities,
now carve each profession's role in battles.
To begin, all weapons do one of two base damages. Melee weapons will
normally do KINETIC damage and ranged weapons will normally do ENERGY
damage. There are a few exceptions to this rule, of course. On top of that,
some weapons will do additional elemental damage, if they have a sub-element
built in. This can be either cold, electricity, acid, or heat.
Also, each weapon now has a "special ability cost." This is the default
number that abilities will work with when negating your action / mind pools.
In other words, if your weapon has low SAC, your abilities will require
less action / mind to do!
Finally, in hopes of standardizing weapons, every weapon has a base DPS.
In other words, if the most basic of crafters made the most basic of weapons
this is what the damage per second (DPS) the weapon would have. From there,
the modified DPS is determined with your attributes.
For example, if a weapon has a 33 base DPS, but you have a skill attribute
boost, the DPS will thus go up since you fire faster. Perhaps the DPS will
become 34, 35, or even 36 by just a few speed boosts! Use the chart below
to determine what weapon is right for you!
NAME: Template
DPS: The base DPS. The modified DPS is based on this and your stats
SAC: The Special Ability Cost. Determines how much action/mind is used
LEVEL: Required level to use the weapon
SKILL: Required Skill to use the weapon
SUB-E: The additional damage done elementally outside of Kinetic/Energy
RANGE: The range of the weapon
_
/ \
|!| IMPORTANT: If (Kinetic) or (Energy) appears, that means the weapon's
\_/ base element is that rather than the traditional base element
for it's series. For example, the FWG5's base element is
Kinetic, even though pistols are traditionally Energy.
_
/ \
|!| IMPORTANT: This are the BASE stats. These can be radically different
\_/ depending on the crafter's abilities, which resources are
used, and how successful the construction was.
_
/ \
|!| IMPORTANT: I went through and starred the weapons that are *CURRENTLY*
\_/ considered to be the "best" of their league.
Common Problems: ANSWERED!
.__________________________________________.
1. I can't level up! What do I do to level up?
It's a basic concept, really. For those of you a little lost at the
whole level up thinger-majob, don't fret! It's a simple loop of commands
that you follow:
Kill things -> Get EXP -> Buy Skills -> More Skills = Higher Level
Skills are also weighted. Advanced Elite skills, such as tier 3 and
tier 4 elites, will give you higher level up boosts. Skills that require
harder to obtain exp, such as COMBAT exp (not weapon exp), will give an
even larger level bonus! Also, completing an entire tier seems to give
a slight bonus (half a level?) which accumulates over time.
Overall, there is no algorithm to determine a level. It's more like
a really really complex equation no one has cracked yet. Either way,
just know this. You'll reach the max level, 80, by simply mastering 1.5
elite professions. This INCLUDES healing professions! It does not
include any entertainment or crafting professions, though.
2. Area of Effect? What is that? What does it man?
AOE, or Area of Effect, is a handy way to deal a lot of damage. Some
weapons and abilities have the opprotunity to do one of two types of
AOE damage. It can either be a "cone" or a "donut."
Cone AOE means the AOE damage extends from the player in a straight
direction, but encompassing a small angle, creating a cone. All enemies
in this cone are damaged!
Donut AOE, or circle/radius AOE, is when all damage is dealt in every
direction in a circular fashion. This can be from one of two spots:
The damage could extend from the target or from the actual player. For
example, an explosion would create a damage in a circle around the
targetted enemy, and a spinning-blade move would create damage around
the player.
Some strategy oriented players have learned to use AOE in a different
way. Why just deal damage? Many players now use the target radius AOE
to stun/root many enemies all at once. Its the ultimate crowd control!
3. What is each profession's job in a group?
According to the Combat Upgrade manual, there are four major fields
that each profession will fit under. They are: damage dealing, tanking,
healing, and crowd control. Use the list below to determine what your
profession's INTENDED job is to be (but many can and are using their
profession in unique ways, depending on the template.)
___________________________________________________________________________
/ Profession | Type | Description \
|___________________|_______________|_______________________________________|
| | | |
| Pistoleer | Crowd Control | inflicts attack speed status effects |
| Smuggler | Crowd Control | inflicts accuracy status effects |
| Carbineer | Crowd Control | inflicts movement status effects |
| Bounty Hunter | Tanking | uses heavy armor to mitigate damage |
| Pikeman | Tanking | reduces damage capabilities of enemy |
| Teras Kasi Aritst | Tanking | extreme body finesse sheds off damage |
| Commando | Damage Dealer | Proficient at AOE damage |
| Swordsman | Damage Dealer | Fast and Furious damage |
| Rifleman | Damage Dealer | Sniped shots do damage from far away |
| Fencer | Damage Dealer | Master of manipulating Damage of Time |
| Combat Medic | Healing | Heals entire party from distances |
| Doctor | Healing | Heals wounds and status effects |
\___________________|_______________|_______________________________________/
--==[ SPACE ]==--
.__________________________________________________________________________.
.__________________________________________.
It has finally happened. With the release of Jump to Lightspeed, players
were finally given the opprotunity to blast off in TIE fighters, X-Wings,
and even a ship that looks like the Millenium Falcon! The final frontier
has been opened, what are you going to do in it?
Exploring, fighting, and socializing can all be done in space. In fact,
if you can do it on the ground, you can do it in space. But, it's ooooh
so much different now.
Anything that involves socializing, such as parties, or simply healing
other people, requires a multi-passanger ship. Most ships only carry one
or two people, but multi-passenger ships can carry entire groups!
Combat is also different. Rather than simply clicking an enemy and
letting behind-the-scenes algorithms take care of the rest, Space Combat
is like a first person shooter. You have to guide your turrents around
and you decide when to fire. Just pull the trigger!
Exploring is now done differently, also. You can now move up or down,
without having to rely on a staircase or moutain to do so! That means
you can move in perfect 3 dimensions! And, if you get tired of doing that,
just turn on the hyperspace drive and instantly teleport wherever you want
to go!
_
/ \
|!| IMPORTANT: Even if you don't plan on exploring, socializing, or fighting
\_/ in space, you ABSOLUTELY MUST get a space ship! A perk of
having your own interstellar vehicle is not having to pay
money to travel.
Even better is, you don't have to wait in line for the
commercial starships! You have your own, blast off whenever
you want! BEST part of all is, you can go any where from
anyplace! Go directly from Tatooine to Endor! No more having
to stop by Corellia first to get anywhere!
Alright, this FAQ is still in the works. I'm still exploring everything
there is about the civil war and Kashyyk, but the information in the
combat upgrade section is complete. Thus, you get this current version:
a combat guide that will eventually evolve into a complete SWG: TE guide.
Until then, may the force be with you!
