At last week’s Fan Site Summit, the BioWare developers gave us several opportunities to play various classes during our time in Austin. Having had experience with the Bounty Hunter, the Imperial Agent, and the Trooper, when we jumped in to the Alderaan PvP Warzone, I initially chose to play as a Jedi Consular.

I have to make clear, up front, that my time as a Jedi Consular was limited to a short period playing in the Alderaan Warzone, so I did not experience Flashpoints, end game raids, or the Consular’s story arc. However, I did manage to experience a broad range of PvP encounters, and in that time I developed an initial feel for how the Consular class plays. I have to say that it was a very enjoyable time.

The Consular I played was specc’ed primarily as a ranged DPS class. She also had a limited retinue of melee skills, but other than the standard self-heal (which is usable only out of combat) she had no other healing skills whatsoever.

First, a disclaimer: the skill trees were unavailable to us, so I wasn’t able to check them out directly, and the following is based solely on somewhat intangible impressions. However, from playing both Consulars and their Sith analogs, Inquisitors, I got the basic impression that the Consular class has three skill trees from which to choose – a ranged DPS tree, a healing tree, and a melee tree. Choosing skills from these trees would obviously result in three very different types of Consulars. This appeared to bear itself out in my experience playing the Consular.

Impressions:

The Jedi Consular I played was clearly more of a ranged Force user than anything else. The Consular I played was very distinct from the Imperial Agent or the Smuggler, in there are no skills that require positions (e.g., from behind) or that my character utilized cover, etc. It’s also different from the Bounty Hunter or Trooper, who were very mobile, blasting away while on the move.

The Jedi Consular is moderately mobile. I was able to move my Consular around the field quite well (there was even a Force based boost to her run speed), but being a Force user is a lot like being a spell caster in other MMOs. Some of my Force powers were insta-cast, so she could cast them on the move easily. Others, however, had a cast time, which required my Consular to stand still while she cast that particular Force power. Still others required channeling the Force: this meant that I had to stand still for several long seconds while my Consular channeled a barrage of rocks at my enemies.

My consular also had a few crowd control abilities at her disposal. However, these are not the CCs of prior MMOs. They do immobilize an opponent, but that is short lived. For example, I was able to confound an enemy for a few seconds with a Force ability – essentially tying him up and making him unable to perform any actions – but it wasn’t like the chain fearing or stun locking of other games. My enemies were rather quickly free after five seconds or so.

I cannot recall specific names for my various attacks (Georg Zoeller strongly indicated that this was pointless anyway, since they are in constant flux), but I can say that they were instantly familiar. I had an insta-cast DoT, an insta-cast DD ability, a more powerful DD with a cast timer (3 seconds, I believe), and a channeled damage spell, that continuously damaged my opponent as I continued to channel the ability. There were also a variety of AoE abilities.

When it came to using my lightsaber, my Consular wasn’t bad. She only had a pair of lightsaber skills available to her, but as I indicated above, this seemed to be a function of her spec/build. If she’d been a melee-oriented Consular, I got the impression her Force powers would have been fewer and less powerful, but her lightsaber attacks more varied. As it was, she was able to wade into melee range, repeatedly using her lightsaber attacks to decent effect. However, I found that combining her lightsaber attacks with some insta-cast Force powers was satisfyingly destructive.

There is no “mana pool” in SWTOR. Like other characters, my Consular started with a fixed amount of usable energy, which in this case was the Force. This is displayed on a Force/energy bar, right below her health bar. Some abilities were basic, and didn’t drain her of any of her Force when she used them. Other, more powerful abilities drained a substantial amount from her Force bar. If she used several powerful Force abilities in a row, her Force bar would be expended, and she’d have to wait several seconds while it replenished. During this time, my Consular could only use her most basic abilities, as these did not expend any Force.

The downtime related to this game mechanic was short. If I went all out, using all my most powerful Force skills in sequence, I did great burst damage, but drained my Force completely. If I chose to engage in a “sustained fire” kind of tactic, I could pretty much keep myself from ever using up all my Force. This opened up some very interesting tactical choices, and I found it enjoyable.

In terms of tanking, my Jedi Consular could definitely take a significant amount of damage, but by no means was she a tank. The differences between her and the tank-oriented characters around me were obvious – they could sustain much more damage than my Consular could. Again, however, I formed the opinion that this was a matter of spec/build, and that a properly specced Consular would be much more durable than my ranged DPS specced character.

My overall impression of the Jedi Consular? It’s a very fast paced, and action oriented class. The Consular is mobile and fun to play. Playing a Consular properly required a bit of tactical decision making on my part, in that I could rely entirely on my insta-cast Force abilities, using those in conjunction with lightsaber attacks. Conversely, I could be a bit more deliberate, standing back, and nuking my opponents. The Jedi Consular offered these two distinct play styles, and it was quite a bit of fun to vary my style between these two distinctive approaches.

Will I play a Consular at launch? Absolutely. From my admittedly very limited knowledge of the class, the Consular offers a huge amount of variety, and I’m confident that the Jedi Consular’s wide range of specs, builds, Force powers, and melee skills will make it one of the most fun classes to play for a long period of time.