It contains very detailed information on pretty much everything you want to know about ArcheAge: world, combat, classes, leveling, ships/vehicles/mounts, PvP/factions/sieges, crafting, housing, trading, piracy, economy, PvE content, gliding, exploration, user interface and addons, and graphics.

The most important game features you should definitely read in the review are those about the classes and the skill system: there’s basically 120 class combinations and there’s bound to be some interesting discoveries to be made even now.

The leveling part basically explains how questing is more rewarding than grinding in ArcheAge, and further in the review it mentions some leveling instances which are apparently insanely hard.

Furthermore there’s a decent chunk of content about various vehicles and mounts as well as ships, included of course are excellent screenshots and videos so you can see it all in action.

Many players are of course looking forward to PvP combat as well and a review of the system is included. It explains the basics of the player versus player battle and shows off several PvP Warzones and areas. ArcheAge also has battlegrounds which are 5v5 instances areas which you can enter every 2 hours. PvP also rewards you with Honor Points which can be used to purchase equipment, mounts and other special rewards.

Another hugely popular game feature is of course crafting. As the author mentions it’s currently a controversial topic as it used to be a system aimed at hardcore players who love crafting, but after recent changes it became overly simplified. Worth noting is that the best equipment you can get in ArcheAge can still only be obtained by crafting which gives you more than enough reasons to delve into it.

There are of course also professions in this game which include Fishing, Mining, Composing (as in composing music, believe it or not: see video of player-made songs), and also trading, harvesting and construction which further add depth to the game.

Trading is basically farming or harvesting various materials which you craft into packages and are required to deliver to certain trading outposts for profits. On the other side of the coin is Piracy which is a huge factor in the game: other players can attack you while delivering packages and steal them from you. Pirating isn’t easy but you have to admit it’s one of the most fun systems that exists in any MMORPG and will certainly get your blood pumping.

A feature often missing in many MMORPGs is player housing and ArcheAge doesn’t disappoint in this aspect: it boasts a pretty powerful and customizable housing system that has benefits other than vanity.

Overall it’s a lengthy read so I recommend you take the largest cup of your favorite drink and be prepared to spend an hour amazed at the amount of information provided in the review. It also includes tons of beautiful screenshots and some useful gameplay videos to provide you with more context.

Do remember that ArcheAge is still not released and many things are subject to change, but judging by this and other early previews this might very well turn out the best MMORPG you’ve played in years. It has amazing potential and it’s up to XL Games to make the most out of it.

Be sure to check out the post and share your thoughts about the review or the game below. Did it meet your expectations, and are you looking forward to playing ArcheAge? Let us know!

Main contents:

• Skill gems & sockets
• General gameplay tips
• Skills
• Classes
• Items
• Combat
• Parties
• Instances

Skill gems & sockets

Sooner or later you will get your hands on some skill gems.

• Gems must be socketed in your gear to grant access to the skill.
• A gem will only go into a socket of matching colour
• Gems can be socketed and removed from sockets as much as you like. Right click a gem to remove it from a socket
• Sockets appear randomly on items. The rarity of an item does not affect how many sockets it has.
• Sockets can be linked. The links are shown as gold bars between the sockets. Support gems affect any skill gems in sockets that they are linked to.
• Gems you have socketed in gear you are wearing will gain experience and level up, even if you are not using the skills they grant.

General gameplay tips

• Flasks recharge slightly every time you kill an enemy. So don’t be afraid to use flasks that are full to keep your life and mana topped up – your flasks are only replenishing their charges when they aren’t already full.
• Items with great stats might seem like the best choice at first, but don’t neglect sockets. As long as they are socketed, skill gems gain experience whether you are using the skills they grant or not, so keeping them socketed will mean they get more powerful sooner. A good socket arrangement on an item with mediocre stats is sometimes a better choice than a great item with bad sockets.
• Spend some time looking at the passive skill web, it can appear daunting at first, but it will soon become familiar. Skill points can be refunded, but refund points are hard to come by, so choose wisely.
• If you’re just starting out and are unsure how you wish to play your character, try to avoid specialising too heavily. For instance, stay away from skills that improve one handed weapon damage if you feel you might end up liking to swing a two-hander.

Skills

Skill Types

Skills currently come in two main varieties: spells, and attack skills. Any skill that uses your weapon damage counts as an attack skill, and everything else counts as a spell.

• Attack skills – Attack skills are dependent on your weapon, and so are affected by attack speed, accuracy, etc.. Bonus damage from rings and other gear is applied when using an attack skill.
• Spells – Spells do not draw their damage from your weapon in any way. They are affected by % cast speed, %fire/cold/lightning damage, %spell damage, and critical strikes. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to spells.
• Traps – Traps are very similar to spells, but are not affected by cast speed or spell damage mods. They are affected by % trap laying speed, and relevant damage mods. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to spells.

The only exception to this is Town Portal, which is not affected by attack speed, cast speed, or anything else.

Support Gems

Support gems only affects skills where it makes sense. For instance, skills that do not already do damage (such as Temporal Chains) will not benefit from Added Cold Damage. Skills that do not already have an area of effect will not benefit from Increased Area of Effect, etc.

Skill gem experience gain

• Gems get experience equal to 10% of the experience you earn.
• The number of gems you have equipped has no effect on the rate of XP gain. So having less gems equipped does not cause them to gain XP faster than if you had many gems equipped.
• Gems are not affected by the experience penalty when facing enemies below your level.

Classes

The main difference between the classes is their stating location on the passive skill tree. Classes also start with different amounts of attributes at level 1:

• Marauder: 30 STR, 14 DEX, 14 INT
• Ranger: 14 STR, 30 DEX, 14 INT
• Witch: 14 STR, 14 DEX, 30 INT
• Duelist: 22 STR, 22 DEX, 14 INT
• Templar: 22 STR, 14 DEX, 22 INT
• Shadow: Dex/Int: 14 STR, 22 DEX, 22 INT

Life/mana per level

All classes begin with the same base stats, and gain the same amount per level:

• 50 life, +6 per level
• 40 mana, +4 per level
• 50 evasion, +3 per level (including level 1)

Attributes

Attributes are required to equip gear and skills. The three attributes also grant some passive bonuses:

• Strength grants +0.5 life and +0.2% melee physical damage per point
• Dexterity grants +2 accuracy and +0.2% evasion per point
• Intelligence grants +0.5 mana and +0.2% energy shield per point

Therefore the +10 attribute passive skills effectively grant:

• +10 Strength: +5 life, +2% melee physical damage
• +10 Dexterity: +20 accuracy, +2% evasion
• +10 Intelligence: +5 mana, +2% energy shield

Life and mana regeneration

All classes have a base mana regeneration rate of 105% of their maximum mana per minute. For example, a character with 100 maximum mana will regenerate 105 mana per minute, or 1.75 mana per second. “Increased Mana regeneration rate” modifiers modify the base rate. For example, 20% Increased Mana regeneration rate would result in 105 * 1.2 = 126% per minute. Characters do not begin with any life regeneration, but it is available from gear and passive skills.

The regeneration rate of life gained from life leech is capped at 20% of maximum life per second. If you have 1000 maximum life, and leech 600 life with a single attack, it will take three seconds for that life to be applied to your current life. You always get the full amount of life leeched, it is only the rate at which it regenerates that is capped – if you leech a large amount of life during a battle, you may find that the regeneration continues long after the battle is over. Similar to flasks, the regeneration from leech will stop if you reach maximum life. The same is true for mana leech, although the cap is 12.5% of maximum mana per second.

Items

Attribute requirements

Most gear has attribute requirements that must be met in order to equip the gear. These requirements come from the base item type and are unaffected by magical modifiers, quality, or number of sockets. A complete list of gear and attribute requirements can be found here.

Level requirements

Some items have a level requirement that must be met in order to equip the item. There are two factors that affect level requirements:

• The level of the base item type. This is the level that the item starts appearing (and is separate from the itemlevel that affects which magical modifiers can spawn on it). See the item data link above for a list with all item levels. Some of the very low-level base items do not come with a level requirement.
• The level of the magical modifiers. The level requirement for magical modifiers is equal to 80% of the level of the highest-level magical modifier on the item.
• The highest level requirement of the two listed above is the one that appears on the item.

Drop rates

There is a penalty to the chance of currency items (scrolls, orbs, etc.) dropping in areas with a monster level more than two levels lower than your character level. For each additional level that you have compared to the area’s monster level+2, the chance of a currency item drop is reduced by 2.5%. So if you are level 30 in a level 20 area, you will see 20% less currency item drops on average:

2.5*(30-(20+2))=20

A level 30 character in a level 28 area will see no penalty. Currency item Drops are not increased or decreased in this way when fighting in areas above your level. For the purposes of this penalty, your level is never considered to be higher than 58. Therefore a level 70 character receives no penalty in a level 56 area.

There are two modifiers that affect drop rates in the game, increased item rarity, and increased item quantity. There are three potential sources of these modifiers:

1. the player (skills, passives, gear etc.)
2. monsters (such as bosses and champions)
3. party bonuses

Modifiers from the player stack additively with each other, and are subject to diminishing returns. Modifiers from the party bonus and monsters stack additively with each other, and are not subject to diminishing returns. The total player bonus stacks multiplicatively with the total party & monster bonus.

Increased Item Rarity

Increased Item Rarity % modifiers increase the chances of an item being magic, rare, or unique. For example with a total of +100% increased item rarity, you’d get twice as many magic items, twice as many rares and twice as many uniques from normal enemies. This modifier has no effect on the number or type of currency items, scrolls, or gems that drop. When in a party, only the modifier from the player who lands the killing blow on an enemy is counted. If one of your minions gets a kill, the minion’s IIR is added to yours and the total is used. Magic, rare, and unique monsters have an Increased item rarity modifier for drops.

Increased Item Quantity

This modifier increases the average number of items that drop from monsters and chests. It does not affect the type, quality, or rarity of item dropped, only the chance that something will drop. There is no cap on the usefulness of this modifier, as monsters can drop more than one item at a time. The base chance for an item to drop from a normal monster is 16%. This varies between monster types, and special monsters have higher drop chances. When in a party, each player in the party after the first gives the equivalent of +50% item quantity modifier on drops.

Quality

All weapons, armour, flasks and gems can randomly receive between +1% and +20% quality. This value can be increased by Whetstones, Armour Shards, Flask Quality Upgrades, and Gem Quality Upgrades, but is capped at 20%. The effect of quality depends on the item:

• On weapons, increased physical damage
• On armour, increased Armour rating, Evasion, Energy Shield, and Shield Block Chance
• On flasks, increased life and mana recovery
• On gems, the bonus is specific to each gem. For instance, Frenzy gets increased damage, while Cleave gets increased attack speed.
• On maps, increases the item quantity bonus from monsters in the map area.

Modifiers

Modifiers are split up in to two main groups, prefixes and suffixes. A magic item can have only one prefix and one suffix, never two prefixes or two suffixes. Rare items can have up to six modifiers, it is unknown if there is a limit on how many of these can be prefixes/suffixes. A randomly generated rare item (from a drop or Orb of Alchemy) receives between four and six modifiers randomly, with the following odds:

• 1/12 chance of 6 mods
• 4/12 chance of 5 mods
• 7/12 chance of 4 mods

All modifiers have a level associated with them, and will only appear on items whos item level is greater than or equal to the modifier’s level. Lists of available magical modifiers are available in the item data section. The “Culling Strike” modifier (found on some unique items) causes monsters to die if you strike them down to 10% or less life.

Modifier Stacking

In general, integer modifiers are applied before percentages. Percentage modifiers using the words “% increased” or “% reduced” stack additively with one another, while “% more” and “% less” modifiers stack multiplicatively. When dealing with weapons, some modifiers that are listed on the weapon itself are applied first, before mods from other pieces of equipment, skills, and so on. This includes anything affecting physical damage, such as increased physical damage, added physical damage, quality etc., and also attack speed, critical strike chance, critical strike multiplier, and accuracy. It does not include elemental damage mods.

Similarly, when dealing with armour, evasion, and energy shield on armour, any modifiers affecting those stats that are listed on the piece of armour are applied first. This includes quality and any other mods directly affecting armour, evasion, or energy shield amount. It does not include mods affecting the energy shield recharge delay or regeneration rate, only the amount of energy shield.

Imagine I have 100 life, and two passive skills that increase total life by 15%. The total bonus will be 30%, resulting in 130 life. Now imagine I am wearing boots that give +40 life, and have a passive skill that grants +20 life. The integer bonuses are applied first, giving me 160 life, then the percentage bonuses are applied to that subtotal, for a final total of 208 life.

Quality behaves differently on armour and flasks than on weapons. On armour and flasks, it stacks multiplicatively with other modifiers on that piece of equipment. Quality on weapons stacks additively with other % modifiers on the weapon.

Sockets

There are three types of sockets:

1. Strength (red)
2. Dexterity (green)
3. Intelligence (blue)

Sockets appear randomly on most equipable items. Higher level items can appear with more sockets than lower level items of the same type. The maximum amount of sockets that can appear on an item also varies by the type of item:

• Two handed weapons and body armour can have up to 6 sockets
• Wands, shields, and one handed weapons can have a maximum of 3 sockets
• Everything else can have a maximum of 4 sockets

One exception to this is the starting weapon that appears on the beach at the start of the game. Its item level is 1 but it always has one socket of each colour.

• Items are more likely to receive sockets that match their attribute requirements. So an item requiring only dexterity is more likely to have green sockets than red or blue sockets.
• You can only put a blue (intelligence) gem in a blue socket, red gem in a red socket, etc.
• Sockets can be linked. The links are shown as gold bars between the sockets. Support gems affect any skill gems in sockets that they are linked to.

Additionally, two skill gems of the same type can be used in separate socket groups, resulting in more than one usable version of that skill. Skill Gems are only affected by support gems in the same socket group. For example, imagine a piece of armour with 5 sockets. The first two sockets are linked in one group, and the remaining three sockets are linked in a separate group. If you put Cleave and Faster Attacks in the first group, and Cleave, Added Fire Damage, and Added Cold Damage in the second group, you would have two different versions of cleave available – one cleave skill that attacks faster, and another cleave that does bonus fire and cold damage. Small letters appear over the skill icons for each support gem you have attached to that skill. This allows you to differentiate between the different versions if you have more than one of the same skill gem equipped.

Item level

Each item has a level associated with it that is equal to the monster level of the area it dropped in. The monster level is shown on the map overlay. Rare and unique monsters have +2 to their level, and will yield items with an itemlevel two levels higher than other monsters in the same area. You can check an item’s level by picking it up on the cursor and typing /itemlevel in the chat box. This item level determines which modifiers it can receive, and how many sockets it can receive.

Vendor Item levels

Items obtained from vendors can have an item level up to character level + 1, but will not exceed the following maximums:

• Normal Act 1: 16
• Normal Act 2: 25
• Cruel Act 1: 31
• Cruel Act 2: 35
• Ruthless Act 1: 43
• Ruthless Act 2: 48
• Merciless Act 1: 50
• Merciless Act 2: 50

Item level needed for number of sockets (research ongoing)

• 1 socket : 1
• 2 sockets: 1
• 3 sockets: 15
• 4 sockets: 28
• 5 sockets: 35
• 6 sockets: 50 (lowest seen so far)

Combat

Level scaling

1. Effect of level on PvP Damage

Level itself does not affect any combat calculations outside of PvP. Damage in PvP is scaled based on level as follows:

damage multiplier = 1/(1+(attacker_level/8))

For example a level 30 character will have their PvP damage reduced by 79%, while a level 60 character will have their damage reduced by 88%.

2. Effect of level on experience

Level also affects the amount of XP you gain from killing enemies. There are two penalties that are applied, one when in a party, and another based on the relative level of the player and monsters. Both of these are applied at the same time if you are both in a party, and too far above or below the monster level.

The multiplier for XP while in a party is players share (Level+10)^2.71 divided by the total of all players shares. For example, if a level 10 player was partied with a level 30 player:

• Level 10 player’s share: (10+10)^2.71 = 3355
• Level 30 player’s share: (30+10)^2.71 = 21957
• Total Shares: 3356 + 21957 = 25313
• Level 10 player would receive: 3355/25313 = 0.132 = 13.2% of the XP
• Level 30 player would receive: 21957/25313 = 0.867 = 86.7% of the XP

The player also suffers a penalty to XP if they are too far above or below the monster’s level. There is a safe level range where no penalty is applied, which is equal to three, plus one for every sixteen complete player levels. Any additional level difference in excess of this safe range is called the Effective Difference.

The formula then applied is:

((PlayerLevel +5)^1.5) / ((PlayerLevel+5+(EffectiveDifference^2.5))^1.5)

So a level 24 character has a safe band of 3+1=4 levels. So from Monster level 20 to 28, there is an effective level difference of 0. At Monster Levels 19 and 29, the Effective level difference is 1. The Effective Difference matters in either direction. Here are graphs of the experience multiplier by monster level and by effective level.

3. Effect of level on currency item drops

See the drop rates section above for details on how level affects currency item drops.

Dual wielding

Dual wielding grants a +10% attack speed bonus, and a 15% chance to block. The attack speed bonus is applied multiplicatively with other attack speed modifiers. The default attack and certain other skills will alternate between each weapon, striking with each hand in turn. Some skills (such as Cleave and Dual Strike) attack with both weapons at once, while others only use the main-hand weapon.

Hit & damage calculation order of effects

There are a number of steps involved in deciding whether an attack hits or not and how much damage is done:

1. Avoiding the hit:

• At this stage there is a chance to evade attacks (accuracy vs evasion)
• Any chance to dodge from acrobatics or phase acrobatics is also checked here

2. Avoiding the damage:

• Blocking is checked

3. Mitigating the damage:

• Physical damage reduction and resitances are applied

4. Taking the damage:

• Non-chaos damage is removed from energy shield until it’s depleted.
• Any remaining damage (including all chaos) is removed from life.

Stuns

Whenever a player or monster takes damage, there is a chance they will be stunned. A stun interrupts whatever that creature was doing while a brief animation is played. The default length of stuns is 350ms. The duration of stuns can be altered by reduced block and stun recovery, increased stun duration, and similar modifiers.

The formula used for determining whether or not a stun occurs is:

stun_chance = 200 * damage / defender_effective_max_life

Where defender_effective_max_life is the maximum life of the creature being hit. Increases to monster life from a party of more than one player do not affect defender_effective_max_life. For a player with Chaos Inoculation, their defender_effective_max_life is whatever their max life would be if they did not have Chaos Inoculation. Reduced stun threshold modifiers reduce the value of defender_effective_max_life.

For example, 25% stun threshold reduction means you treat their maximum life as only 75% as much as it actually is, meaning you stun them easier. If the stun chance would be less than or equal to 25%, it’s ignored, so you need to deal more than 12.5% of effective maximum life to have a chance to stun.

Accuracy

Accuracy is compared to enemy evasion when determining if an attack hits or misses. The complete formula is below:

chance to hit = attacker_accuracy / ( attacker_accuracy + ((defender_evasion/4)^0.8))

Chance to hit can never be lower than 5%, nor higher than 95%.

Evasion

Evading an attack prevents all damage and other harmful effects from the attack. Only attacks and attack skills can be evaded. Spells cannot be evaded.

Blocking

Blocking an attack prevents all damage and other harmful effects from the attack. Usually, only attacks and attack skills can be blocked, but there are some passive skills that allow you to block spells. Chance to block is capped at 75%. When an attack is blocked, the game first calculates if the attack would have caused a stun were it not blocked. If it would have caused a stun, the blocking animation is played, stunning you briefly. If it would not have caused a stun, then you get a “free” block with no animation. Faster Block and Stun Recovery and Increased Block Recovery modifiers reduce the length of the blocking animation.

Armor / Damage Reduction

Damage Reduction reduces physical damage taken. Elemental damage and damage-over-time are not affected. The amount of damage reduction depends on the defender’s armour total, and the attacker’s attack damage:

reduction = armor / (armor + 12*damage)

The amount of reduction is capped, it cannot be more than 95%.

The fact that damage reduction scales with the amount of damage means it is difficult to know exactly how much damage is being reduced. An easy to remember rule of thumb is that to achieve 50% damage reduction, you will need an armour rating equal to twelve times that of the damage being dealt. For example, to achieve 50% damage reduction against a 100 damage hit, you’ll need 1200 armour.

Here are two graphical representations of the armor formula:

1. Effect of X Armour on Damage
2. Effect of Armour on X Damage

Energy Shield

As long as you have greater than 0 Energy Shield, you have a 50% chance to avoid stun. Energy Shield acts as an additional hit point pool on top of life. If you have any Energy Shield remaining when you take damage, the damage is subtracted from the Energy Shield first. Damage is only applied to life once all Energy Shield is depleted. The exception to this is Chaos Damage, which ignores Energy Shield.

Energy Shield will recharge if you do not take any damage for a certain period of time. The default delay is 6 seconds. This time can be reduced with reduced energy shield delay modifiers from passive skills and gear. The formula for the recharge delay is:

100 / ( 100 + reduction )

So 100% reduction is halving the delay, not removing it entirely.

Critical Strikes

Whenever you use a skill or attack, you have a chance to deal a Critical Strike. Critical Strikes are rolled on a per-action basis, not per-monster. So each time you use a skill, the Critical Strike roll is made once and only once. If you roll a Critical Strike, you will deal Critical damage to all enemies hit by the skill.

Critical Strikes do more damage than normal, based on your Critical Strike Damage Multiplier. All characters have a base Critical Strike multiplier of 150%, meaning a critical strike does 150% of normal damage. This multiplier can be increased with various skills and modifiers on items. For instance, with a multiplier of 250%, if you deal a Critical Strike with attack that normally does 100 damage, you will instead deal 250 damage.

The chance to deal a critical strike is taken from the weapon used to perform an attack or attack skill, and in the case of spells, each spell has it’s own critical strike chance, which is listed in the skill gem’s description.
This value can be increased by increased critical strike chance modifiers from spells and gear. For example, if you are using a weapon with 5% chance to crit, and you have 50% increased critical strike chance, you will have a 7.5% chance to score a critical strike.

Critical chance can not be less than 5% nor more than 95%. Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage Multiplier are calculated separately for each spell and weapon attack. All weapons and damage-dealing spells have a base Critical Strike chance listed on them. This only affects your chance to critical for attacks made with that weapon or spell. For instance the critical strike chance on a wand does not affect your chance to critical with a spell.

Damage Types

There are currently 5 main types of damage, they are Physical, Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Chaos. Fire, Cold, and Lightning are collectively known as Elemental Damage. Damage reduction from armour only affects physical damage. Each of the elemental damage types has it’s own resistance value (eg “Fire resistance”) which is viewable in the character sheet. Resistances reduce damage taken, and are capped at 75%.

Fire damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals fire damage, the enemy begins Burning. Burning causes damage over time. Humanoids, Monkeys and Sea Witches will flee while burning.
Burning lasts 4 seconds, and the amount of damage over time is 1/3 of the fire damage dealt per second. So a total of 4/3 of the original damage, over 4 seconds.

Cold damage

Hitting an enemy with cold damage can cause the enemy to be Chilled. Critical hits with cold damage can also cause the target to be Frozen. Chilled enemies move, attack, and cast 30% slower, while frozen enemies cannot do anything except drink flasks.

Lightning damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals lightning damage, the enemy becomes Shocked. This can be stacked up to three times on one target. In this state, monsters or players take 40% additional damage per instance of Shock. Shock stacks additively with itself, for a maximum of 120% with a stack of three. The damage multiplier itself applies multiplicatively with your final damage, since it it increasing the damage the enemy takes, rather than the damage you deal.

Chaos Damage

Chaos damage ignores energy shield, reducing life directly.

Burning, Chilled, Frozen, and Shocked are collectively known as Status Ailments. The duration of the chilled, frozen, and shocked statuses is related to the amount of cold/lightning damage dealt.
If the duration based on the damage would be less that 300ms, it’s ignored entirely.

Charges

Some skills grant Endurance (strength), Frenzy (dexterity), or Power (intelligence) charges. Each charge lasts a short duration before it disappears. Gaining a charge resets the duration of all accumulated charges.

• Endurance charges are related to the strength attribute and grant +5% physical damage reduction, and +5% to elemental resistances (fire, cold, and lightning) per charge. The physical damage reduction stacks with the damage reduction from armour, so that they are both applied at the same time. For example, if a monster deals 100 damage, and you have 10% DR from two endurance charges, and enough armour to prevent 30 of the 100 damage, the incoming damage would be reduced by 40.
• Frenzy charges are related to the dexterity attribute and grant +5% attack speed and +5% cast speed per charge.
• Power charges are related to the intelligence attribute and grant +50% critical strike chance per charge.

By default characters can have a maximum number of 3 active charges of each type at one time. This maximum can be increased by certain passive skills.

Parties

The maximum party size is 6 players. In order to play with your friends, you’ll first need to finish the first zone called Twilight Strand (takes about 5 minutes). To group up with random players use the message board in towns, or open the social window (“S” hotkey) and click the “Public Parties” tab.

Monsters in party

Monsters gain 50% extra life for each additional party member after the first. For example, against a party of 3 players, monsters have double life. The original life amount is used for the purposes of determining the length of stuns and status ailments from elemental damage – this means monsters will not be harder to stun/ignite/etc. when fighting in a party.

Loot in party

Each player in a party after the first gives the equivalent of +50% item quantity modifier on drops. So a party of three will see twice as many drops as a lone character. Increased Item Rarity & Quantity modifiers are only counted from the player who lands the killing blow.

Experience in groups

For a description on how experience is shared between players, see the level scaling section above. Only party members actually in the instance count toward getting XP. If one member is in town he gets no XP. Experience is only shared with other players who are near you (roughly two screens). Monsters are still made harder by players elsewhere on the level. Being in a dungeon with a party member grants you a 30% experience bonus. Monsters give +50% base XP for every party member after the first.

Flasks in groups

Only the character landing the killing blow on an enemy will gain flask charges. The same is true for all +life and +mana gained “when you deal a killing blow” modifiers. Flasks have a +75% charge recovery bonus for each party member after the first.

Instances

All areas in Path of Exile are instanced. When you enter an area, a new instance is created. Once you leave the area, the instance will remain in its current state for 15 minutes – if 15 minutes passes with no players entering the instance, it will be closed. Entering the same area again will create a new instance with a new randomly generated map. Areas without side areas attached (any area with two or less exits) has a shorter timer, and will only last 8 minutes while empty.

Instances you create are private, and cannot be entered by other players unless they join your party. However, once a player has entered an instance, that instance remains associated with the player even if they leave the party. So it is possible to share an instance with non-party members in some circumstances. The exception to this is towns, which are always public, and cut-throat leagues, where all instances are public – meaning anyone can enter your instances at any time.

Some areas have waypoints. Once activated (by clicking on the waypoint), waypoints allow you to travel instantly to any other waypoint you have activated. Ctrl-clicking on a waypoint destination in the waypoint menu, or an area transition will bring up the instance management screen. This screen lists all available instances of the area you ctrl-clicked on, and the time remaining until they are closed. It also allows you to create new instances, and enter existing ones.

Using the instance management screen you can have more than once instance of the same area open at one time, and choose which available instance you want to enter.

Contents:

• Advanced Classes
• Companions
• Species & Appearance
• Leveling
• Stats & Equipment
• Crew Skills
• Heat System
• Skill Rotation & Combat

The Bounty Hunter brings a lot to the table, and has the opportunity to play any three of the major class roles; they can Tank, Heal, and DPS (the ‘Trinity’). Being able to fill all three vital spots of the Trinity leaves a lot of choice for your character, as if you do decide to roll a Bounty Hunter you will have some freedom before you decide your Advanced Class and which direction you’ll take.

Advanced Classes

As with all classes in SWTOR, at level 10 you will have to select your Advanced Class. The Bounty Hunter can choose from the Powertech which favors Tanking and DPS or the Mercenary which specializes in Healing and DPS.

Each AC has two unique Talent Trees, different specializations, and different ‘Cylinders’. You can only have one Cylinder activate at a time, and each provides different “buffs” for your character – They basically function like ‘stances’ in other MMOs. Each Advanced Class gains two unique Cylinders along with corresponding Talents to enhance them. Both ACs gain access to Combustible Gas Cylinder at level 4, which has a chance to add a damage-over-time effect to enemy targets with each attack.

The Powertech gains access to Ion Gas Cylinder which increases damage and threat-generation against enemies while also lowering total damage taken, providing increased Armor, and increases shield generation chance – this is mostly for Tanking. The other unique Cylinder for Powertechs is High Energy Gas, which increases all elemental damage dealt, this Cylinder would be used mostly for DPS.

Mercenaries gain access to High Velocity Gas, increasing Armor Penetration for more DPS and also Combat Support Cylinder which increases all damage & healing output, and allows you to shoot your allies in the face to apply some minor healing. It does take a little getting used to your Rapid Shots healing allies while Combat Support Cylinder is activated, but it is handy indeed.

Companions

Companions are also an important part of picking any character in SWTOR, and the first companion your Bounty Hunter gets is Mako, a pretty little lady who will heal up your wounds and follow you around with the utmost vigor.

(**Slight Spoiler Note: She tends to enjoy ‘good’ choices, although she loves her credits – so some Dark-side choices she will surprisingly agree with, but in general she tends to disagree with very evil moral choices)

Mako is the first legit Healing Companion that any of the classes get in SWTOR, which is also an added perk. If you decide to go Powertech or DPS Mercenary Spec then Mako will be a very handy addition to your adventuring.

The combination of any class role with a nice healing Companion pretty early in the game makes the Bounty Hunter a fine choice for the indecisive and Newbie MMO player. The combination of the Cylinder system with exciting abilities revolving around explosions, fire, and missiles lend itself to an aesthetically exciting character that also proves to be very versatile. Even once you pick your Advanced Class option, you’re still left with either Tanking/DPS (Powertech) or Healing/DPS (Mercenary) – a nice combo of options.

Species & Appearance

The Bounty Hunter can be played by five of the playable species in SWTOR; Humans, Zabraks, Rattataki, Chiss, and Cyborgs. Ultimately, species and appearance have no effect on your character, but it adds plenty of flavor and each race has its own unique emote which also adds some distinction. Feel free to play around with each, and make sure to choose something that you enjoy and makes you feel like a Bounty Hunter who’s ready to conquer the galaxy.

In terms of the Racial Emotes, my personal favorite for the BH is probably the Cyborg’s ‘Scan’ emote, as it adds some nice Bounty Hunter-eqse flair to your character.

Leveling

Starting off as a Bounty Hunter will land you on Hutta, which is a planet rife with plenty of greed and immoral activity for any up and coming Bounty Hunter. Your quest is to become a contestant in the ‘Great Hunt’, which is pretty much the Superbowl for Bounty Hunters. You’re competing, in usually not a nice way, against various other Bounty Hunters and attempting to win the favor of a Hutt who can make your dreams come true.

While on Hutta you’ll naturally deal with Hutts, but also the Empire, find your first Companion and complete plenty of mayhem for filthy credits. It’s also important to take a break from ruthless Bounty Hunting and remember to pick up the Datacrons on Hutta as well for some permanent stat increases. As far as I’ve been able to discover, there are 3 available Datacrons on Hutta, one for a bonus to Aim, one for Presence, and a Blue Matrix Shard.

Leveling up for the Bounty Hunter was for the most part, a piece of cake. Once you pick-up Mako and have a Healing Companion – you’re able to tackle many of the more difficult tasks, quests, and even Heroic Two-mans become pretty manageable.

The important thing to remember in SWTOR is to follow your main class story line. It will present you with everything you need, for the most part. Following the quest will you lead on the path to get your Companion, join the Great Hunt, “acquire” a ship (which is an awesome quest-line, mind you), and get you to the hub where you’ll be able to select your Advanced Class.

Stats & Equipment

As with all the classes, Bounty Hunters have a Primary Stat which functions as the definitive, most useful stat for them. Aim is the key stat for Bounty Hunters, as it adds damage to Tech skills (yellow damage), standard range damage (white damage), and Healing Tech skills (green). It also increases the Critical Strike chance on these types of abilities as well. Endurance is the second primary stat for most BH gear, increasing hit points and health regeneration.

There are plenty of other secondary stats that will become important to your Bounty Hunter later on, such as Accuracy, Alacrity, Expertise and the like; with stats like Willpower and Strength being much less important, to almost useless for a Bounty Hunter. Accuracy will be an important secondary stat for Hunters, as much of the time they will be attacking from Range – so making sure you hit is of added benefit.

Bounty Hunters also seem to be reliant on Critical Strikes, so secondary stats boosting Crit Chance and Crit Damage will be important as well. But for the most part in early game you’ll find yourself focusing on Aim and Endurance. Also, once you get upgraded to Heavy Armor when you select your AC, don’t forget to swap out/upgrade your Medium Armor gear for the better, Heavy Armor.

Crew Skills

If you’re a big crafting fan, you’ll want to pick up your Crew Skills or Trade Skills as soon as possible and the best opportunity is probably once you reach the Imperial Fleet at around level 10. There are plenty of good crafting options for the Bounty Hunter. The two main skills that stick out are Armortech and Armstech in terms of gear construction, depending on whether or not you want to be able to craft Armor or Weaponry for your character.

The Bounty Hunter uses various guns & assorted weaponry and Medium/Heavy Armor, So Armortech & Armstech are the natural selection if you’re interested in crafting some of your own gear.

If crafting equipment isn’t your thing, then Biochem or Cybertech may be good alternatives to those skills, as having extra ‘Consumables’ on hand or crafting gear for Droids can always come in handy if you’re a big fan of the non-Organic. Depending on what crafting skills you’ve selected, you’ll most likely want to choose the complimenting ‘gathering’ Crew Skill so you will be able to provide yourself with your own materials and save your precious credits.

Below is a list of the suggest pairings of gathering skills and mission skills with the listed crafting skills above.

• Armortech – Scavenging (Gathering), Investigation (Mission Skill), Underworld Trading (Mission Skill)
• Armstech – Scavenging, Investigation, Underworld Trading, Treasure Hunting (Mission Skill)
• Biochem – Bioanalysis (Gathering), Underworld Trading
• Cybertech – Scavenging, Slicing (Gathering), Treasure Hunting, Underworld Trading

With Crew Skills in mind, remember to keep an eye on your wallet – as each mission you send your Companion out on will cost you credits. While leveling up and needing to save for a mount and pay for skills, keeping tabs on your Galactic checkbook is always helpful.

Heat System

Your Bounty Hunter uses the Heat System to execute abilities, starting off with zero Heat and slowly building Heat as you continue to use abilities, with each ability having a ‘Heat Requirement’ or Cost to use. Some abilities, like Rapid Shots (your main attack ability), do not build Heat and it will be important to use abilities that don’t build Heat inbetween the use of Heat-building skills, as to give your Heat System time to cool down.

The Heat System works on a scale of 0-100 and the system is not ‘static’ in its depletion after you’ve built heat; so the less Heat that you have, the faster your Heat will dissipate. You can see your current ‘Dissipation Rate’ to the right of your Heat Bar in-game, represented as small arrows; the more arrows you have, the faster your Heat will dissipate. With this mechanic of Heat dissipating faster the less Heat you have built up, it’s in your Bounty Hunter’s best interests to attempt ‘Heat Management’ (or keeping your Heat at a lower level) so it can continue to deplete at the accelerated rate. There will, of course, be occasions where you’re forced to build up large amounts of Heat quickly, but keep in mind that your Heat bar will not ‘cool down’ as fast as it would if your Heat was only 1/3rd full.

You also have abilities in your arsenal to either lower your current Heat level, or not build any at all. Vent Heat is a prime example of one way to get rid of some of that nasty built up Heat, by venting out 50 Heat over three seconds, although it is on a two minute cooldown so be wary with its usage.

The quicker degradation of Heat when your Heat level is lower is an interesting mechanic, as if you are able to manage your Heat well – you could, in theory, stay at a consistent level and keep using your relevant abilities. As a general rule, I attempt to keep my Heat below 25% or 50% to keep the dissipation rate quick. So, when jumping into your Bounty Hunter, learning Heat Management will be key for future encounters as you continue to level up.

Skill Rotation & Combat

In your early days as a Bounty Hunter you’ll be limited in your abilities, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t efficient at blowing things up. As you level up and continue your adventures, your skill rotation will depend more & more heavily upon your Advanced Class, its Class Roles and Talent Specs.

When dealing with groups of bigger enemies; start off with a Power Shot, Mako missile, Death from Above, or Explosive Dart. Proceed with Rapid Shots, Rail Shot, or Regular fire. Attempt to keep Heat low. If enemies close distance, Rocket Punch + Flamethrower or Vice Versa (with Rocket Punch as a finisher) is a good combination.

One very effective combination for groups, up until at least level 20 (as a Mercenary specifically,) was opening up with Kolto Missile, followed by Death From Above. This combo pretty much eliminated most groups, perhaps needing to throw down a little extra blaster fire at most.

For single-enemies or Rare/Elite enemies; I found starting off with Power Shot, Explosive Dart, and Unload was an effective combo to really start the damage; at that point if Rail Shot is triggered, use it – it’s always a nice boon to add some instant damage.

Overall, Combat with the Bounty Hunter is extremely fun, engaging, and if you’re into pyrotechnics – the BH is your pick.

Conclusion

That’s about it for now. Hopefully you enjoyed this introductory guide to the Bounty Hunter class in SWTOR. Stay tuned for further looks into the intricacies of the Bounty Hunter and other SWTOR-related elements!

See also: Skill rotations, leveling tricks, PvP tactics, credits making and more guides specifically written for Bounty Hunters

Getting Started

Once you’ve created your personal character and watched your specially-written scrolling text, you’ll arrive in a ship onto Tython grounds. Once you disembark, you have a chance to familiarize yourself with a few of the controls. No doubt you’ll make things your own, as we all have our own way of doing things, but I would suggest going into preferences and having the right quick slot bar open. This allows you to move all your buffs, Medpacs and other none-essential skills off to the side so they’re out of way but still within easy reach. This will stop you clicking on something none-essential during combat, which can get a bit hectic. I would also suggest that you click the little lock button on your taskbar/hotbar, this prevents you from clicking and dragging your abilities away from your taskbar.

When you first begin you’ll have few abilities, so as soon as you level up rush to the skill trainer to acquire some new skills. I would recommend leaving your base attack as slot number one; this is so when you’re running forward you can simply lean your left hand forward and tap one easily, repeatedly, which is required a lot at first to build Focus.

When you first begin you will have three abilities. One is called Strike – this is your base attack. This attack will generate Focus without costing any; so when you first get in, use this attack the most! After that you will have an ability called Slash. This requires three Focus. So hit your opponent with Strike three times then whomp them with Slash! Slash is a more powerful attack but requires Focus, so you’ve got to build the Focus up to use it. Lastly, you will have an ability called Introspection. Introspection is your out of combat heal. After you’ve won your fight (with this guide in hand, how could you not?!) you’ve no doubt taken some damage in the process. So click Introspection and you will begin to meditate, which heals you over a set period of time.

Combat

It takes a bit of getting used to, but reading this guide will make that bit easier! First off, don’t hit and run. This doesn’t work and requires a lot of effort and costs you more than you’ll ever gain. Find a target, approach them, and start hitting them. Remain stationary. Not only does this give you a greater ability to parry (as you’ll be facing the target), but it also looks cooler. And after all, since you’re a Jedi Knight, you want to look cool! This also frees your hand up: you’re not stuck trying to chase a target; this allows you to use your abilities via the numbers above the keyboard instead of using your mouse.

I would suggest that you become accustomed to using numbers one through five and then using your mouse for the later numbers. Doing so means you can assign your best Focus gaining abilities really close to your fingertips and reserve mouse clicking for buffing, healing or interrupting. Remember, Focus is key to the Jedi Knight. There is no auto-attack, so get used to tapping number one every second or so. But don’t worry, after an hour or two this becomes second nature and you’ll settle into the playstyle.

Talent Trees

Talent Trees become available once you attain your Advanced Class at level 10. Naturally, the choice of Advanced Class is yours, so pick wisely! The Jedi Guardian is what is known as a tank, they are best for absorbing heavy damage and keeping enemies focused on them instead of your team. The Guardian can also operate as an off-tank. An off-tank is a Guardian that can absorb heavy damage, but also deal it. They aren’t as durable as straight up tanks, but they are more fun to play solo as you can deal damage as well as take it.

The Jedi Sentinel is a DPS class – Damage Per Second. They specialize in draining an enemy of their health points quickly and ferociously. They can’t take the damage the Jedi Guardian can, but they do more damage than the Jedi Guardian. Remember, there are no story differences, so choose your AC based on your personal choice of playstyle!

The primary concern for the Jedi Knight is Strength and Endurance. Endurance essentially means health points and Strength means the amount of damage you can deal out. Both are important for either Advanced Class, but it comes down to your playstyle that determines what you specifically choose to specialize in. Within the Talent Trees there will be three choices for you to make, Defensive, Balanced and Offensive.

Again it is your choice, but if you’re going for a tank, select Defensive. If you’re going for strong DPS, spend your points in the Offensive tree. If you like to hybrid you can mix the two. However, this will mean you will be a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none! When you reach level 50 you will have spare points, so I would suggest that if you go for the Offensive tree spend your points in that and spend the remaining in Defensive to give yourself a little defensive boost. And naturally if you select Defense, drops some points in Offensive so you can dish some of the good stuff out!

But really, with the Talent Trees, it is your choice. You can read up on all the effects the different trees have and make an informed decision from that. Personally, I picked what sounded coolest; because a game is, after all, all about enjoyment!

Leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more… You can find it all in this guide specifically written for Jedi Knight players!

This is a list of companions we know about that are available for Jedi Consulars.

Qyzen Fess

• Species: male Trandoshan
• Planet: Typhon
• Role: Melee Tank
• Armor: Heavy
• Weapon: Electrostaff or Vibrosword
• Abilities: Toggleable taunt-mode “Lightning Whip“, “Charge“: Ignites his jet pack and flies fist first to target
• Crew Skills: +5 BioChem, +15 Archaeology

Zenith

• Species: male Twilek
• Planet: Balmorra
• Role: Ranged DPS
• Armor: Medium
• Weapon: Sniper Rifle
• Kit: AoE Damage

Lt. Iresso

• Species: male Human
• Planet: Hoth
• Role: Ranged tank
• Weapon: Blaster rifle
• Abilities: Taunt

Theran Cedrex

• Species: male Human
• Planet: Nar Shaddaa
• Role: Ranged Healer/Techie
• Armor: Medium
• Weapon: Pistol
• Crew Skills: +10 Cybertech, +10 Slicing

Nadia Grell

• Species: female Mirialan
• Role: Melee DPS
• Armor: Light
• Weapon: Double blade saber
• Crew Skills: +10 synthweave crafting +2 diplomacy crit

C2-N2

• Species: Droid
• Comes with your starship
• He can only be used for crafting and missions, not for combat

Leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more… You can find it all in this guide specifically written for Jedi Consular players!

Jetpacks are also a common mainstay of a Bounty Hunters equipment due to its ability to get them into places generally inaccessible and out of the thick of fighting. Some Bounty Hunters also prefer the aerial combat option given to them by their jetpack.

The Bounty Hunter provides another unique mechanic in play style due to the need to “vent heat” thereby replenishing your action bar immediately should you become “overheated” in combat. While their action points do regenerate, this buildup, if not managed, can effectively shut down combat abilities in or out of combat.

The counterpart to the Bounty Hunter class is the Trooper. Bounty Hunters’ starting planet is Hutta, and the available species are Human and Rattataki. Available companions are Blizz. Mako, Skadge and 2V-R8. The two advanced classes are Powertech (tanks) and Mercenary (ranged DPS or healing). You can read more about the specializations in the advanced classes article.

Read more about Bounty Hunter class (including leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more…)

One of them are starting abilities with which every character starts, and others can be learned later on via trainers.

It should give you a nice overview of how gameplay and combat looks like.

Starting Abilities

Trainable Abilities

Leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more… You can find it all in this guide specifically written for Sith Inquisitor players!