WIP
SWGR provides the freedom to make whatever character build you want. You can mix and match anything you want, to varying efficacy, and still do something in this game. The CU system the game is built on emphasizes this freedom of build.... but if you really need guidance below are the guidelines the majority of active player builds conform to.
Some beginning nomenclature: specific boxes in a profession are referred to by a grid like reference. For example x3xx, means the 3rd box of the 2nd line of that profession.
Character Facet
In the skill system, you generally first decide which facet your character will focus on: crafting, social, or combat. There are some rare combination builds (like weaponsmith/smuggler, or anything involving bio-engineer), but generally every toon will focus on one of these three facets.
Social Facet
The core of a social character is Master Musician & Master Dancer. This provides 20 point inspiration buffs. From there most characters either go Master Image Designer and Master Entertainer, to fully embrace the social, or dabble into the surveying and merchant lines of Artisan to setup vendors and hand sample resources.
Crafting Facet
For a crafter, you can take any three elite crafting professions and still have a few points leftover to get two vendors from the Business line of Artisan.
Bio-Engineer |
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Bio-Engineer is unique in that it is a crafter that comes out of Scout and Medic, instead of Artisan.
This makes it very hard to combine with either a pure crafting or pure combat build.
Of note, to make pets you only need xx4x BE.
In addition, Bio-Engineer combines well will Chef since Bio-Engineers make special tissues to enhance food attributes.
It also has good synergy with Creature Handler and some Doctor for a combat character, or pure Doctor to be a buff bot.
Do not forget, you need x1xx Scout (Trapping 1) to even use dna extractors as well. |
Chef |
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Chef is unique in that it is also highly advised you get 4xxx Artisan as well, since many food/drinks use Artisan experimentation.
You can pickup the usual 2 other elite artisan professions, or you can take Bio-Engineer to make your own tissues for Chef items. |
Reverse Engineer (Ground) |
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In order to reverse engineer on the ground, and have access to all attachment types, you need to be Novice in:
- Tailor
- Armorsmith
- Weaponsmith
Additionally, you must master one of these professions to get a hidden bonus to RE.
Even so, you have enough skill points to master 1-2 more elite artisan professions. |
Combat Facet
Combat is one of the most varied facets in the wide variety of builds available, but the very first decision cuts these options down a lot: Melee, Ranged, or Creature Handler.
Melee
The core of most melee builds currently is "
Center of Being", granted by 1xxx Brawler.
Most builds will aim to reach x3xx Teras Kasi to get the improved "
Honed Center of Being".
The rest of your build depends on what weapon you want to use and the combat style you want to play.
For self-healing, it is common to pick up 4xxx Doctor, as it works best with the melee professions due to skill point cost.
Berserker |
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Berserker (Sworsman) is a slow single target DPS.
Most of its abilities are focused on dealing high amounts of damage. A special ability called "Berserk" will increase the melee damage dealt in exchange for making the character more susceptible to damage it receives.
It has an ability that reduces Armor Effectiveness called "Armor Break", which is useful when dealing with bosses. |
Fencer |
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Fencer is a swift profession that has area-cone attacks. These cones attack in front of your character.
Plus, this profession has abilities that allow you to blind your targets and cause them to bleed. It provides some utility with abilities that reduce: movement speed, healing performed and action regeneration. |
Lancer |
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Lancer (Pikeman) has abilities that allow players to deal damage in 360° area around them. With these area attacks Lancers can effectively: knockdown enemies; intimidate them (reduce damage output); taunt them (trigger enemies into focusing you); stun them to reduce their defense and accuracy.
Despite being AOE oriented profession, it has a few single target attacks that deal damage; reduce combat speed of the opponent. |
Teras Kasi |
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Teras Kasi Artist's main trait is its defense, which offers high survivability. The majority of the abilities in this profession will provide some sort of defensive benefit. One of these abilities is "Center Of Being". As mentioned before, most of the Melee (sometimes even Ranged) players utilize it to increase their durability.
Another ability worth mentioning is "Focus Movement". It is a mini-burst run that mitigates debuffs that freeze you in one place and gives immunity to movement reduction effects, allowing you to close the distance to your opponent or retreat.
Lastly, it provides Innate Armor that works like a standard armor set. However, it is advised to pick up a crafted armor set in the future for improved protection and attributes. Be sure to pick up a set that matches your second mastered elite profession's encumberance mitigation |
Ranged
Ranged builds have no simple starting point to help decide what to invest in.
For healing, the go to is 4xxx Combat Medic; but also further invest up to Master Combat Medic is part of many ranged builds.
Generally a build is centered around Bounty Hunter, Commando, Smuggler, or Squad Leader.
Since Commando and Smuggler both require a 4xxx Brawler line as a prerequisite, they benefit from having "Center Of Being" ability by default. You can try to incorporate "Honed Center of Being" into your Smuggler/Commando build, but it requires an additional 32 skill points to spend.
If you are a Squad Leader or Bounty Hunter, your secondary profession is down to a choice of weapon you want to use: Pistoleer, Carbineer, or Sniper.
Smuggler is pistol oriented, so it only synergizes strongly with Pistoleer. For Commandos, it is more about the abilities you get access too use with your heavy weapons than any stat/weapon type synergy. Bounty Hunter and further Combat Medic investment synergizes with all ranged builds.
Creature Handler
Creature Handler |
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Creature Handler is a unique combat profession, in that it is entirely self contained and provides no combat benefits to the player, only to the pet.
This means it can be combined with anything, but it works best with other professions that don't use player stats for accuracy/speed (Combat Medic/Doctor) or provide a large value of these and some useful tools (Bounty Hunter).
MCH/MPike/xx31 Berserker is another build that has a good synergy. It allows you to utilize "Armor Break" from Berserker and AOE abilities of Lancer, including "Intimidate" which reduces damage output of the enemy.
With the pet being the tank, and Creature Handler providing its own heal for pets, self healing is almost entirely unnecesarry in these builds, although beneficial for low skill players. |
Supplemental Things
Creature Harvesting
All bonuses to creature harvesting (bones/hides/meats/etc) are contained within the Scout profession, all the way up to Master Scout. This can synergize with Creature Handler and Bounty Hunter builds.
Chronicler, Pilot, and Politician
Chronicler, Pilot, and Politician professions are separate from the core skill point system, and can freely be acquired in addition to any build.
Jedi
If this is what you are playing Star Wars Galaxies Restoration for, temper your expectations as there is a potentially long (involves RNG Inciting Incident or 6+ month activity reward).
See the Jedi pages for more information, but in the meantime read the above advice. Even without a glowstick, the galaxy is a wondrous place.