Star Wars: The Old Republic will begin early access next week (woo!), and as people begin to roll new characters in a new game they’ll be wondering exactly how they should be gearing up. This guide will explain the functions of all of the different stats in TOR (and there are a lot.) As far as what specs want what, that’s a bit murkier, but by reading through today’s post you should be able to get a basic handle on things. I’m not going to get too heavy into what the stats are, take this as a quick reference sheet.

1. Primary Stats
2. Power Stats
3. Secondary Stats
4. Gear-Defining Stats
5. PvP Stat
6. Defensive Stats

Primary Stats

There are six primary stats that you’ll find on gear and weaponry which affect your characters the most. These stats provide multiple bonuses instead of a single increase, and (depending on spec) may have up to 5 different effects for a single point. To sum it up, each stat has multiple effects, and certain ACs and classes get additional bonus effects.

• Strength – Increases Melee Damage + Melee Crit
• Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior Bonus – Force Damage + Force Crit
• Willpower – Increases Force Damage + Force Crit
• Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin Bonus – Melee Damage + Melee Crit
• Jedi Sage/Sith Sorcerer Bonus – Healing Power
• Aim – Increases Ranged Damage + Ranged Crit
• Vanguard/Powertech Bonus – Tech Damage + Tech Crit
• Commando/Mercenary Bonus – Tech Damage + Tech Crit + Healing Power
• Cunning – Increases Tech Damage + Tech Crit
• Gunslinger/Sniper Bonus – Ranged Damage + Ranged Crit
• Scoundrel/Operative Bonus – Ranged Damage + Ranged Crit + Healing Power
• Endurance – Increases health
• Presence – Increases companion damage, companion health, and companion healing

Power Stats

When you see those primary stats above increasing damage or healing, they’re not actually directly affecting your abilities. Rather, these stats bump up your character’s power stats, of which there are three. In addition to being modified by primary stats, tech/force/power can be found on gear such as weapons and foci/shields.

• Power – Generic stat that increases the damage (and healing!) of all of your abilities, regardless of type.
• Tech Power – Increases only damage abilities considered “tech,” such as grenades or flamethrowers.
• Force Power – Increases only damage abilities considered “force,” such as Telekinetic Throw or Shock.
• Healing Power (Tech and Force) – This is actually split up into Healing Power: Tech and Healing Power: Force, but for all intents and purposes they’re the same. Increases the amount healed by all of your healing abilities.

Secondary Stats

A staple of any MMO’s gearing process is having big powerful primary stats followed by the less powerful but more varied secondary stats, and Star Wars: The Old Republic is no exception.

• Accuracy Rating – Increases your chance to hit with all attacks. Keep in mind there are separate caps for different types of attacks. If you go over 100% hit, the additional percentage is converted into defense penetration!
• Critical Rating – Increases your chance to score a critical hit with all heals and attacks.
• Surge Rating – Increases critical bonus damage with all heals and attacks. The default bonus is 50% extra damage/heals on a crit, which this rating improves.
• Alacrity Rating – Decreases activation time for all abilities. This does NOT affect the global cooldown, and only reduces the time on casted abilities.

Gear-Defining Stats

Due to the extreme amount of gear customization in TOR, developers want you to be able to take any orange item (orange = fully moddable) and use it all the way to max level if you prefer. In order to achieve this, weapons and armor both have a dynamic stat on them which changes based on the level of the mods you have placed inside the item.

• Rating – Increases the damage done on a weapon. You’ll see this listed at the very top of a lightsaber or blaster’s tooltip. The stat itself does absolutely nothing except increase the damage done — think of it as the ‘item level’ stat you’re used to seeing in games like World of Warcraft.
• Armor – Armor, which you should be more familiar with, increases Energy and Kinetic resistances (more on that later), is the dynamic stat increased on pieces of equipped gear.

So, for an example, if you take an orange lightsaber with all level 1 mods in it, compared to the same lightsaber with all level 10 mods in it, the Rating stat will be much higher, and thus so will it’s damage. Same goes for Armor on those pieces with Armor on them.

PvP Stat

Conveniently enough, BioWare has condensed all the necessary PvP stats into one gigantic unit.

• Expertise – Increases damage/healing done and decreases damage taken in PvP situations.

I’m not entirely sure what’s defined as a PvP situation, but I would imagine it’s damage done/taken to/from other characters, or healing someone who has recently taken damage from another player. Expertise is a jack-of-all-trades stat, it helps everything a little bit.

Defensive Stats

Just in case some of you care about survivability…

• Resistance – There are 4 types of resistance in the game. Energy and Kinetic Resistance are affected by Armor as well as specific resistance stats, whereas Internal and Elemental resistance are only affected by their stats.
• Defense Rating – Increases chance to parry melee attacks and deflect ranged attacks.
• Shield Chance – For those who equip a shield in their offhand slot, increases the chance for an attack to be partially absorbed by your shield.
• Absorption Rating – Increases the amount of damage reduced when an attack is shielded.

Phew – I think that just about covers everything. Most of these stats should be pretty familiar, specifically things like armor and crit, but it’s good to take a look over everything to help out your gearing needs. Keep an eye out soon for my mega-gigantor-uber post detailing the playstyles and general rotations of each of the DPS specs available to us at launch. Until next time, stay frosty!

See also: SWTOR attributes and other strategies

At the moment there aren’t too many guides published for SWTOR, but I’m confident it’ll change within days. There are four different strategy and leveling guides I’ve been able to find so far, and you can read my opinions on them below. I know of two more Star Wars guides that will get released in the next few days, at which point I’ll update my post with new reviews and comparisons.

Reviews:

1. Aeon SWTOR Mastery Guide
2. Killerguides SWTOR Strategy Guide
3. SWTOR Secrets Guide
4. SWTOR Savior Guide

1. Aeon SWTOR Mastery Guide

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Aeon SWTOR Mastery Guide is currently the most complete and up to date guide I’ve come across. This complete game strategy guide was written by professional players who really know what they’re talking about, and they made quite an effort to compile all their extensive knowledge of The Old Republic into one detailed and easy to read strategy guide.

Aeon Guide includes a leveling guide of course. It doesn’t yet have step-by-step instructions and detailed walkthroughs of every single quest in the game, but it’ll likely get added soon. Rather, for now it has a number of different class strategies and skill tree builds that are designed to make leveling as easy as possible for players. In fact, I’ve found those and similar builds to be quite effective as well during my experiences with the game, so I can vouch for it’s. If you’re unsure on how to build your character for leveling, this will most certainly help.

Of course, both factions and all classes and advanced classes are covered in this guide. Aeon also includes very thought-out PvE and PvP builds as well, designed to help you dish out the most damage in Warzones or Flashpoints. The gear and itemization guide inside will also help you understand which attributes you should go after for a particular class, and you wouldn’t believe how many players make the same mistakes over and over again. Don’t be one of them! Aeon’s SWTOR Strategy Guide also includes helpful tutorials on tanking and healing, making sure you know the right skill rotations and maximize your effectiveness. Additionally, some content is accompanied with helpful screenshots and videos, which not all guides have.

Overall, Aeon SWTOR Guide is currently the best guide you can get. Tons of content and all of it very helpful will ensure you know what you’re doing in SW: TOR and will help you get ahead of other players.

Download Aeon SWTOR Mastery Guide Here Aeon Guide has been taken down, I recommend Killerguides below!

2. Killerguides SWTOR Strategy Guide

Rating: ★★★★¾ 

There’s rarely an MMORPG released without having a Killerguide helping you through it. They have dozens of guides for various games which only solidifies their position as one of the best and most experienced guide writers out there. For Star Wars: TOR they actually published nearly 20 different guides: most are about different classes and advanced classes, with some on credits and crew skills. But most importantly, they have a full strategy guide that of course includes a leveling guide as well.

If you indeed plan on playing SWTOR, having a leveling guide helping you through the process can speed things up significantly. Killerguides leveling guide unfortunately isn’t a step-by-step guide showing you detailed information on every single quest in the game, but rather a collection of highly useful tips, tricks and strategies that will make leveling faster regardless of your class choice.

If you want a class-specific leveling guide, you should take a look at some other guides that Killerguides offer, ones that talk about each class in particular. However, this strategy guide is still very useful and I suggest you pick it up along with a guide for your favorite class. As for other content, it talks about crew skills (professions and crafting), flashpoints (dungeons and instances), PvP combat, space ship tactics, equipment and more. You can find a full list of contents on their website, which I suggest visiting.

Download Killerguides SWTOR Strategy Guide Here

3. SWTOR Secrets Guide

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

SWTOR Secrets is a recently released guide that actually isn’t an all-in-one SWTOR guide, but rather has 8 different guides, one for each class. There’s no single strategy guide that has info on all classes as well as other generic stuff, but you’ll have to pick one and stick with it. SWTOR Secrets can be bought as a bundle though, in which case you get all eight guides for a significant discount, but I’d rather see it offered immediately.

Each class guide in SWTOR Secrets package contains a variety of beginner information and tips. The inevitable leveling guide is included as well, however it doesn’t tell you any specific mission details, but rather a collection of newbie tips which granted are helpful, but not secret. Other than that, there’s info on advanced classes, PvP tactics, skill tree builds, races, farming credits, grouping with other players, equipment, recommended crew skills and companions. Unfortunately that’s it for now.

I’d gladly give SWTOR Secrets guide a better rating, but currently it lacks any detailed information that can’t be found elsewhere. Hopefully the guide will improve in the coming weeks, in which case I’ll be sure to review it again and update this accordingly.

Download SWTOR Secrets Guide Here

4. SWTOR Savior Guide

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

SWTOR Savior does have a few tricks up its sleeve, but it’s not enough to beat other guides. First things first though: it does have a leveling guide. It doesn’t hold your hand with each quest and mission, but it does tell you where to go with some maps and pointers. There’s also several locations included which are known for decent item drops and credit farming, which are usually worth checking out. There’s supposed to be a step-by-step leveling guide included in SWTOR Saviour, but apparently it’s not complete yet.

As for other things, there’s a guide on classes and advanced classes, helping you decide which one is for you depending on your preferences: PvP, PvE, tanking, healing, … Also, a beginners crew skills guide is included, giving you a breakdown of their pros and cons and recommendations on which gathering, crafting and mission skills are best for your class. Also included is a basic PvP guide, as well as information on weapons, armor and commendations.

There’s a couple of bonuses as well. First, a PvP guide including info about Warzones, as well as providing some skill tree builds. Additionally, there’s a guide about the Galactic Trade Network and how to make credits off of it.

Overall, SWTOR Savior Guide is simply not detailed enough right now to compete with other guides for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Nevertheless, if you want to check it out click below.

Download SWTOR Savior Guide Here

More reviews to come!