Greetings, TORWarriors! Since I’ve been given the chance to participate in the Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta, I now have had enough time to, at last, try out all three of the PvP Warzones that are in-game and will be available at launch.
Whether it be backstabbing Jedi, missile blasting Bounty Hunters, or laser sniping from cover - SWTOR's PvP can be brutal.
So far in my scattered testing of various Race, Class, and Advanced Class combinations – the highest character level I’ve achieved is 20. Therefore, I have yet to experience any of the open world PvP on Ilum and the like, so this will be in reference to Warzones only.
[**Disclaimer: This information is from the Beta and is subject to change as the game continues to develop/change up until release. Also I will avoid spoilers as much as possible, but be forewarned there could be small spoilers included below.]
Shooting Down Flagships On Alderaan
The battle for Alderaan is a ‘zone control’ type Warzone, where each team will be fighting to control objectives. Or in this case, giant laser cannons that are aimed at each opposing faction’s Flag Ship and attempting to bring it down. When you control a zone, you control the laser turret and it fires at the enemy faction’s ship.
Before each battle you are granted with a mission objective loading screen. Thanks, BioWare!
The map is your standard ‘domination’ map in the sense that you fight for control over objective points/turrets which steadily decrease your opponent ship’s health. Holding at least two of the turrets is essential. If your enemies control two and you, only one – you’re fighting an uphill battle. Whichever side controls a dominant combination of the objectives long enough will call victory.
This map is certainly the most familiar in my opinion, as there have been zone control/domination maps in many PvP MMOs and First-Person Shooters in the past. It’s a familiar concept that mostly remains the same, but has the added twist of using the visual representation of the assault of each ship.
For low levels, Alderaan isn’t the most friendly in terms of travel time, as it’s a pretty large area. Prior to getting Sprint (at level 14) you’ll find yourself spending a little more time than you’d like running from each control point. Once you level up and gain Sprint and possibly the usage of mounts later (at level 25), it won’t become as much of an issue. Also to note; there are speeders to bring you from the re-spawn point to one of your team’s nearest controlled points. Although you could just choose to defend and not run around, which will earn you Defender points and medals as well.
A Jedi Shadow rides into the fray on Alderaan.
Out of the three, this one was probably my least favorite – but with that being said, it was still fun. It just didn’t catch me as much as the others, and while the cannons destroying the starships was a cool effect, I often found myself detached from that when engaged in mortal combat.
Meter representing the remaining health of your Faction's ship.
I had heard in the past that there would be no numerical indications of each other’s ship onscreen as to help keep immersion but in the current build there was definitely numerical values representing your ship’s health, which I am glad of – as it gave you some clarity as to where your standing was.
The action is plenty strong on Alderaan but as with all Warzones in SWTOR, Healing/Defending and taking objectives earns you points and victory – so getting distracted in midfield with mindless ‘zerg’ killing is not the best path to victory.
Wrestling For Victory With Huttball
If you’ve been following SWTOR, then you probably know the premise of Huttball by now and it’s pretty true to its description. Two teams of random members from both factions join up to compete in Huttball, a ‘Capture-the-Flag’ type map with a twist. You can pass the Huttball to other team members, and once acquired, you bring the ball to the enemy camp or score zone for points. Seems simple, right?
Note: As you can see, playing in the fire and swimming in the acid are NOT objectives.
Well, all those hazards you’ve seen in various videos for the Huttball map ‘The Pit’, such as the flaming walkways and acid pits – truly will try to hamper your travels. Not only can the hazards be used to your advantage in escaping with the Huttball from enemies or even shoving opponents into the fire with various knock-back techniques; but these same tactics can be used against you. Death by environment adds an interesting perspective to the gameplay, admittedly the acid is mostly easy to avoid near the center of the map – but can still be a hassle with the various knock-back effects mentioned earlier.
You can catch the efforts by BioWare to try and make sure PvP battles don’t end too quickly, as you don’t feel like you die that fast… However, Huttball is pretty fast-paced and not too large of a map. If you find yourself with three or four enemies on you, you’ll go down quickly, so don’t let your apparent survivability fool you.
Those Hutts sure know interior design. I wonder if they do redecoration?
One thing I learned quickly in the Pit was that if you intend to score, you must take the top level of bridges and pathways. The ground level below the burning oven-top bridges does not have access to the scoring zones, which is a bad tactical error to make in the heat of the moment.
Passing the ball adds an interesting dynamic to Huttball, and I’ve already been witness to multiple ‘plays’ that are effective. For instance, in one game a player was focused near the center and another remained at the ramp of the closest bridge to the opposing team’s score zone. Once the center player was able to acquire the ball, he would attempt to pass it to his teammate on the opposite pathway for a quick score. If the opposing team is offering some hefty defense, this won’t work – but it’s just one aspect of the dynamics you can use to your benefit in Huttball.
All Your Starships Belong To Us – The Voidstar
The Voidstar is probably one of the Warzones I was most eagerly anticipating trying out, as boarding and invading enemy starships draws some interesting parallels to Star Wars: Episode IV that I find to be nostalgic gold. It turned out about as much as I expected. Admittedly, jumping into the Warzone can be a little confusing at first, but you’ll soon realize that it’s pretty similar to other ‘conquest’ type maps you may have enjoyed in other games.
Unfortunately it appears capturing enemy Princesses is not currently one of the objectives.
The basic goal is to attempt to fight your way to the enemy ship’s datacore which is protected by doors and players attempting to kill you. Each faction gets a shot at the datacore, and whoever has the best ‘time’ for breaching the core will win. The opposing side is going to do their best to kill you and stop your character from interacting with the ‘barrier’ doors as you try to hack your way to the enemy core.
The feel and interior of the Warzone looks great, but until you’re familiar with the mini-map system or the map itself; its possible you may get lost your first time attempting the Voidstar. But fear not, just follow your friends and hope they know where they’re going. Much like defending control points on Alderaan, you’ll want to use AoE attacks and whatever instants/offensive abilities you can to consistently interrupt enemies attempting to break down your doors while on defense. When attacking, you’ll want to access the door as soon as possible so distractions or killing defenders is essential.
Looking out upon the Voidstar Warzone.
As an attacker, once you have planted your bombs on the barrier doors; you’ll have to protect said bombs for a certain amount of time as defenders have a chance to defuse them before explosion. Basically this adds a role reversal where even on offense you’re switching up to defensive tactics briefly. The Datacore terminal, the ultimate Voidstar path to victory, is an interactive object with Defenders wanting to interrupt attackers accessing it and protect the objective.
Due to what I believe is the current nature of the queuing system, the Voidstar was the one I experienced the least of the Warzones, as while I was queuing for the Warzones it seemed they would pop in cycles of Alderaan, Huttball, Voidstar – rinse and repeat. With the Voidstar being at the end of the cycle, it circumstantially was missed the most out of the Warzones I participated in – either by not having enough time to get to it in the cycle, crashing/logging out and then starting the cycle over, etc.
I’m not sure if this was intentional, if the cycle is just being used for Beta, or just a coincidence but it was consistent with this order every-time I PvP’ed in the ‘Solo PvP Queue’.
Closing Comments
All-in-all, I’m really enjoying the SWTOR PvP Warzones and I can’t wait to see what more they have to offer down the line and how these Warzones will evolve as the game releases and characters reach max level. There are a few notes on SWTOR’s PvP I now want to discuss as well.
At the end of each game when you are presented with the end score screen, you are given an opportunity to vote for the ‘MVP’ of the match, which is a nice little perk. Aside from that, each PvP victory or loss awards you with Valor Points (PvP ‘Ranking’ System), PvP Commendations (to trade for gear/items), experience points, and credits. It was a decent amount, with a level 19 victory for my Bounty Hunter on Alderaan netting me 1250 Valor, 75 Commendations, 9960 XP, and 1900 credits. The rewards seem to vary depending on your participation in each match; but either way you’ll be receiving something.
An example of a Warzone victory/defeat screen in SWTOR, along with a look at the MVP voting. As you can see, we got spanked this game. 
Also, the ‘Bolster’ system BioWare has mentioned before; which basically will ensure all combatants on the field of a Warzone will be within 20% power of everyone else, is great. This ensures that regardless of your level, you’ll still be effective even if you’re a level 20 pitted against a 36 for example. This buff increases your hit points, damage, and defense. You’re still limited to whatever abilities you’ve been able to train up until that point, though. It was thoroughly effective, as I was able to be an effective ally from the point you can start queuing for Warzones at level 10.
This may be a small point, but I also love the fact that you can consistently continue to use Crew Skills and crafting while PvPing. It’s a great added bonus for crafters and it won’t split your time up and force you to either dedicate time to PvP or crafting as you can send your slaves out for chores while killing enemy pubs or imps. Although this is applicable for Crew Skills to pretty much any other task you undertake in SWTOR, there’s just something satisfying about earning ‘skill ups’ while destroying enemies.
This nearly invisible wall baring this white symbol will block you from re-entry into a Warzone after death for a short amount of time.
That’s about it for now, TORWarriors… Have you experienced the Warzones during the Beta test this weekend? Drop a line, let us know how you feel about them!
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Pvp is so much fun, i couldnt stop playing saturday, i LOVE huttball, pushing people in the acid with my twilek sorc oooo baby that was great.
If i’m brutally honest, i loathed it. I’m not a big fan of PvP, i can stomach it on some MMO’s (GW), but other than that it always ends up being a hateful experience; and this is no exception. Not that it’s a specific problem with SWTOR, it’s just a PvP thing in general.
Not only is the FPS lag unbearable (on a good computer that is totally fine outside of it), but the players are typical of any PvP environment. Alderaan is quite dull i felt, and Voidstar is just everyone in a corner bashing each other. As for the story element, is there one? A 20 second introduction hardly counts as story to me – it’s just a guise for bashing each other for the next 5 minutes that is quickly forgotten as you get what i can only describe as ‘shark attacked’ by some meleer that can’t stand still and hits you only with Slash with mouse sensitivity of 12 trillion. It was ‘sold’ differently then how it actually is; for me, atleast. I also dislike being unable to select which warzone i get to enter, i would also like a ‘return to Coruscant or Republic Fleet’ option – as it’s the only way to ‘unstick’ yourself in a story environment.
I also don’t understand the vast difference between the rate of gaining social points vs valor points. In two games i’m at Valor rank 2. After almost 2 weeks of playing with 3 flashpoints a day almost, i’m not at rank 1 of social points; i don’t quite understand the huge difference.
I made an article about PvE players playing PvP and that i had muted optimism about SWTOR’s PvP and that i would give it a go. Well i did and i’m not doing so again.
This is a PvE players perspective, but i’m glad that it satisfies people who enjoy PvP, but i think us PvE players will just never touch it. Can’t please everyone i guess! 
Ahh, I’ve always been a big fan of PvP, but yeah if you aren’t into PvP then SWTOR’s PvP probably won’t be an exception. About the low FPS/Lag though, My computer is *not* top of the line and is older, and my framerate was fine in the Warzones, even to the point where I could record video without much issue.
About the respawn barrier – as far as I could tell it appears that it was on a timer, what that timer is exactly I’m not sure – but there would be some cases where I feel like i died and was able to instantly run out, where other times I was stuck waiting for a small amount of time. So it seems like the re-spawn barrier is on some kind of global timer not necessarily tied to you specifically.
I have to mostly agree with Anthony.
I played for roughly two days of the recent four day beta as nothing but PvE and enjoyed every minute of it. Around lvl 14 (right after getting Dark Infusion (a proper heal) on my SI Sorc) I decided to try out the PvP and what I found was more like a slaughter than anything.
I admit that I was “okay” against most classes, but pretty much every Marauder/Sentinel was impossibly difficult to do anything against. At first I thought that maybe those players were decked out PvP’ers who should rightfully kill me, but then I learned that there was no low lvl PvP gear.
I also experienced that inexplicable framerate lag that Anthony mentioned. My FPS was perfectly fine outside of the Warzones, but I instantly had trouble the moment I went into them.
I will probably only PvP in SWTOR just to “change things up” when I get a bit tired of running missions and operations.
I was lvl 45 when i tried it and found it awful.
The problem is, if you’re a caster, forget winning against meleer’s. They’ll simply circle you which means you’ll attempt to cast something and receive ‘CANNOT SEE TARGET’ or ‘NOT FACING TARGET’. And there’s nothing you can do it about it. You can ‘push’ them away, but then they leap straight back onto you. Then you’re well and truly screwed. Especially if you have any form of lag.
PvE is great, but PvP is loathsome from a PvE perspective.
I am pretty sure my character was spinning in circles while casting to face enemies. I didn’t move my camera at all. It was all automated.
But with the casting push-back, melee’ers definitely have an edge.
I just wish there were more ranged control. I used electrocute often only to have the enemy get out of it within 2-3 seconds.
Really? In neither PvP or PvE do i get an automated ‘revolving’
It could be my control settings then, but i haven’t fiddled with anything! And i’ve never seen it from anyone in game =/
Yep, I was auto-revolving as well. But with years of WoW PvP experience, I’m used to rotating my screen to be able to cast on melee anyway. That’s nothing new to any PvP player.
At first I found the play environment of war zones unbearable. There was massive lag between clicking abilities and them firing off, meaning players were out of range by the time the server attempted your ability. However, I saw a known issue post suggesting turning your shadows off to decrease lag, and it worked perfectly! From that moment on I had an absolute blast!
I typically hate pvp, as I’m terrible at choosing my opponents and getting a severe spanking as I find myself quickly outnumbered, but this time I found that my class role fit my play style perfectly! As an assassin, I was able to knock people into environmental hazards and cc to my hearts content! In one game of huttball, I spawned after a spanking from a bounty hunter to find the ball marker closing on our goal line. I activated stealth, and sneaked up the ramp to where I could see the ball handler coming…. He waited for the fire to stop and made his way over the obstacle, where at that precise moment I electrocuted him and squealed with glee as he stood motionless shuddering with electricity, and then the fires of hell toasted him to a crisp! Saved!
Another time, I ran past our ball carrier using force speed, positioned myself on the upper ledge. The carrier was taking a beating, and passed me the ball.. Woohoo! Easy score! … I was inches from the line when a smuggler kicked me in the nuts and I got royally pasted by his allies as they caught up.
I had an absolute blast in pvp, and can’t wait for release now
I never experienced any lag in PvP at all. According to Jagzeh, that might be because the first thing I do in any beta is kill the graphics settings that can cause lag (shadows being a big one in most games).
I’m almost quite certain I was the one that Jag electrocuted on the fire trap. For future reference, I hate you.
I had a blast with the PvP. I seemed to have the rotating warzones at first too, my first three matches were in that same order, but after the first three there didn’t seem to be any rotation. I tried it on two characters that I got to level 10 and both had the same rotation with the first three but seemed to get random matches after that. Back-to-back Voidstars for example.
I liked that on a Bounty Hunter I had AoE skills that could prevent/defend bombs in Voidstar, but my near total lack of CC was a big problem. On my Sith Inquisitor I didn’t have any problems at all with the CC, but preventing people from placing bombs was a problem when I was coming from a range with only a single ranged instant-cast and no ranged AoE (yet).
I didn’t play a melee class up to level 10+, but I did fight against several and those that didn’t have a way to close in on me, whether because it was on cooldown or they just didn’t know/think to use it, had a huge disadvantage against my ranged classes.
I enjoyed all three warzones, but Voidstar is my least favorite. I’m sure part of that is due to the lack of communication, but I found it both too easy and too hard at the same time. With a decent defense consisting of people with AoE spells, this place is a joke. However, with a team that doesn’t have those classes, it’s impossible. It was hard to find a middle ground where teams were simply balanced, and the close proximity of the defender’s respawn point means you have to burst everyone down at roughly the same time and pray that there’s a respawn barrier keeping them away from you long enough to plant your bomb.
I think they did a fantastic job with their balancing buff as I was often going up against level 23′s as a level 10 and I could barely tell a difference.
I like that there’s no PvP gear for low levels, as balance is a good thing. I dislike that there’s no PvP gear for low levels because I enjoy PvP twinking. I kind of like that there’s a sense of freshness to SWTOR PvP even though there are some pretty direct ties to some of what WoW has right now.
I did actually kill a few graphics on the way, same as i have to flashpoints – for some reason anything that involves including another player seems to drag my system a bit. But i guess that will be fixed for launch. Even without bloom and low shadows i had an horrific experience FPS wise in PvP
When the servers are re-launched tonight i’ll check out the auto-revolving, i’ve never had it before in my life
I think your problem with Voidstar is just generic PvP issues, the only way you’ll ever win is if people can coordinate to some extent. Can you explain the respawn barrier? I’ve never encountered anything like it and i don’t really understand when or why it comes up at certain times.
I loved PvP in TOR. I cannot wait to jump back in. My only issue is that there is no Diminishing Returns, so I spent way to much time getting stunned over and over and OVER again. Pretty frustrating stuff when I (as a Marauder) could only break a stun every two minutes. My favorite Warzone was Huttball. I probably would have enjoyed the other two if my teams hadn’t consisted of half of the team having the derp and the other half yelling at the people who had the derp.
There actually are diminishing returns. You can see the level on other players as well. On their target there is a little bar with 4 pieces to it. Once that is full they are immune. Stun, CC and other incapacitating affects are shortened depending on how full the bar is. I just didn’t CC anyone who had more than 2 in that bar.
You can see the empty bar above the portrait in the 1st screen shot. It’s the bar that curves around the top of the portrait. (its empty in that shot)
And now I feel like a complete idiot for not having seen it. Either way, I didn’t notice any shortening of the duration of stuns and CC.
I had a blast with the PvP. My friend and I won the first 6 games we played. The best moments were after I reached level 22 with my Vanguard and had many hilarious incidents involving Harpooning my enemies into firetraps, acid pits and off edges. There’s also the great feeling of cryo-grenading the enemy huttball carrier as he’s crossing the fire trap. If you have a decent portion of the group adhering to the objectives and the odd healer, you should do fine.
Also the best part is how useful tanking ACs are for PvP
I played six matches on Monday night and lost all six. It was generally the same group of players PvP’ing over and over again and the opposing side had a distinct level advantage (They had several Level 20+ players and most of our side was level 10-15) and were able so smash us down each time.
All in all, it was somewhat fun, but the imbalance right from the start left a very poor taste in my mouth. If Warfront queues were drawn from a larger cross-server pool, then the chance of getting an imbalanced match over and over again would not be so great. As-is, I’m pretty underwhelmed at it and am well reminded of the ugliness of Warharmmer Online at launch.
Pvp was great especially as a BH, played pvp matches all of sunday and didn’t lose a single one. As for the FPS mine barely went down and I had no lag what so ever