SWTOR Warzone Tips and Tricks Guide

SWTOR Warzone Tips and Tricks Guide by Delavager

This post is going to be compilation of tricks, hints, and tips for the three PvP Warzones available today. This is purely meant to be informative and used as a learning tool and reference to hopefully find some things you did not necessarily know before. I will break it down by the three different warzones. I play a Jedi Shadow so my tips might have perspectives based on certain abilities (like Force Speed) that may not apply to all classes. If you have any tricks, hints, or tips that you think I should add please post and I’ll add them. If you like what you see give it a +1.

This will be especially helpful to newer players whom for example may not know of certain power-up locations in the maps. I see a lot of players skipping the power-ups in the 10-49 bracket.

Alderaan

Hop to the middle trick – This trick enables players to more quickly get to the middle area from the sides. On either side there is a ramp leading UNDER the middle area used as a shortcut to get from one side to the other. If you jump up the left ramp going up towards the wall, you’ll find yourself in a mini-platform. From here you can jump up on the rungs and up onto the wall. If you walk around to the left there is an opening between the high wall and the adjacent wall which you can jump down and instantly find yourself in the middle. (Easier to see with video)

Far side speeders – This may seem very obvious to most, but to newer players they might have missed this as they do not appear at the start of the match. If you cap the far left or far right node, a new speeder will appear in the spawn point. If you take this “far left” or “far right” speeder it will take you directly to the left or right nodes, reducing the necessary travel times. This is EXTREMELY helpful if you are defending a node under attack, die, and need to get back to the fight quickly to prevent capture.

Hiding while defending the side nodes – If defending the Left or Right cap: a good place to hide is to sit yourself on one of the the ramps. You’ll still have great visibility for any incoming players, but they won’t see you till they’re just about there.

DoTs prevent capping – This might be changed but for now it’s valid. If you are on Defense/Defending a node use DoTs on the attackers. Each tick of the DoT will interrupt someone from capping the node, even after death. Thus you can DoT an attacker before you die and the attacker will not be able to cap until after the last tick. This is especially useful on the side nodes where you can DoT the attacker, die, and take the side speeder (see above) back to the node before the DoT wears off.

Power-up Locations:

This will be said from the perspective of the starting point. Each item is mirrored exactly on the other side.

Side Nodes – If you go to the left node from the starting point, there is a heal power up located near the left hand wall on the way to the node.
If you go to the right node from the starting point, there are two power ups you can get: a Heal power up and an Expertise power up. As you go right, if you hug the right wall and turn around as you go up a hill, there is a heal power-up around the corner. If you hug the right wall and continue forward towards the node, there is an expertise power up about halfway to the node.
When coming from the middle area where you drop down into the side area there is an expertise power-up at each drop in point.

Middle Node – There are two expertise power-ups, one up on each ledge. They are located on the right ledge on the side closest to you if you are coming from your spawn point.
Under the middle node/Side to side passage – There are two speed power-ups under the middle area. They are in the corners of the the cross shaped walls facing you as you come down the ramp from either side.

Huttball

HighCommander made a GREAT Huttball 101 guide here. Definitely a good reference for first time players.

Force Speed over acid pit – If you have force speed or any equivalent you can speed jump over the acid pits in the middle area. This is especially helpful at the beginning of the game to get the ball first. If you save your force speed until after you drop down and are at the top of the ramp, you can force speed jump over the acid pit and get the huttball before anybody else. If you combine this with having a teammate go left or right on the rafters at the start and stand above the air vent, you can pass it to them for a huge advantage as most opponents will be battling in the middle.

Force Speed past the fire – I’ve seen this done but have yet to do it myself. It is very tricky and takes practice to do. On the top rafters when coming up the ramp from the air vent it is possible to force speed jump diagonally past the fire, even when carrying the huttball. This is a HUGE move if the fire is up as it will stop most opponents from pursuing you as they’d be stuck behind the fire. Basically you must angle yourself to face behind the fire’s back column, hit force speed, jump, and hope you hit it. With enough practice you will be able to pull this off consistently.

Pull the ball carrier to victory – Several classes have the ability to pull their companion to them. This is very helpful in Huttball. You can pull the ball carrier from the ground up to the rafters, or through the fire, or up to the opposing goal area. By pulling the ball carrier you create a huge gap between them and the would be pursuers.

Pull/Push enemy into the fire – Several classes have the ability to pull the ENEMY to them (Kinetic Shadows/Sith Equiv, Bounty Hunters). If you position yourself right you can pull the enemy to the fire and get a free kill. I saw the other day a BH pulled the ball carrier into the fire closest to the goal. This resulted in the ball carrier dying and the ball going to the BH, in which he had a free run for an easy goal. The same thing can be done with knock backs or force push, except you need to be near the enemy to do this.

Stun, root, slow enemy on fire – The most common trick in Huttball is to stun or root the ball carrier as they are crossing the fire. This usually results in enough time for the fire to come on and kill the ball carrier. You should watch for the enemies resolve bar, if it is fully white you cannot stun them, but you can still root and slow them. As a counter to this, it is a good idea to save stun immunity skills like resilience for when you are crossing the fire area.

Force Leap/Charge your way to victory – Juggernauts and Knights get the ability to force leap/charge which basically takes you to the target. This is amazing in Huttball as a ball carrier. If you have the ball, you can easily Force Leap/Charge to an opponent on a rafter or in the opposing area. The biggest tip here is not how to do it, but how to prevent it. If you see aball carrier with two light sabers, do NOT stand on a ledge somewhere near the goal. Drop down to prevent the ball carrier from force leaping to you for an easy score. Assume the enemy knows what they are doing.

Throw the ball away if you are about to die – If you are being swarmed by the enemy as the ball carrier and there are no friendlies around you, it is much better to throw the ball away then let the enemy have the ball. If you throw the ball on an empty piece of ground, it will reset to the middle after a few seconds. This is a very good defensive tactic to prevent the enemy from getting the ball.

Power-up Locations:
There are four heal power-ups, one in each corner of the map next to the chained fence on the pit side. This is also right up the ramp from the pit.
There are two expertise power-ups, one on each side across from the air vents. If you look on the map there are nooks on the side of the map half way between bases. Inside these nooks are the expertise power-ups.
There are two speed power-ups, one in each pit. The are next to the middle column on the side facing the opposing base. It is common to use these speed power-ups to reach the heal power-ups up the ramp.

Voidstar

Knock opponents off the bridge – This too may be very obvious for most, but it’s a good thing to know for newer players. Every advanced class except power techs and operatives (sorry you two) get a knock back, and every advanced class can knock opponents off the bridge in the second area. This will instantly kill them and count as a kill for you. It is also a good idea to keep this in mind defensively as the enemy will try to knock you off as well. I have several times popped resilience in anticipation of an enemy trying to knock me off and saved my life.

“Hidden Nooks” in the middle of the first and second areas – This isn’t so much a trick as it is general knowledge. In both the first and second areas there is a big box like structure that you fall onto from the spawn to engage in the combat. The hint is this box is not flush against the wall and you can go behind it. This is a GREAT hiding place to run away to and heal up to full without fear of being attacked.

Hide behind the bridge controls in the second area – When trying to extend the first set of bridges you should position yourself between the large column and the edge of the pit. It is much harder for defenders to knock you off the cap.

Harpoon (Pull) your enemies off the bridge – If your a PT (Pyrotech) or VG (Vanguard), or Tank Shadow/Assassin you can harpoon/force pull enemies off the bridge by standing on the very edge of a corner when you do it, thus pulling the enemy in front of you which is off the edge.

Eye for an Eye – With the same classes who can pull enemies (PT, VG, JS, SA) if you get knocked off the bridge, or anywhere, you can pull/harpoon in mid air taking the enemy with you. This can be done in retaliation for being knocked off if you have quick reflexes, or purposeful if you want to take out a touch enemy opponent at the cost of your own life.

Back from the dead – With a class with force leap (Guardian/Juggernaut) if you get knocked off the edge of the bridge (or rafters in huttball) you can do a force leap in mid air to get back in the fight.

DoTs prevent capping – This might be changed but for now it’s valid. If you are on Defense/Defending a node use DoTs on the attackers. Each tick of the DoT will interrupt someone from planting a bomb, even after death. Thus you can DoT an attacker before you die and the attacker will not be able to plant the bomb until after the last tick.

Jump over the middle gap in the second area – Consulars/Inquisitors can force speed across the gap in the middle of the second area. This nearly always gets the jump on the other team if no bridge is up, plus you can grab the speed power-up at the other side to arm the wall faster. Two of these classes being stealth classes is just further icing on this trick (not sure if it can be done while stealth, the jump isn’t easy).

Power-up Locations:

Voidstar power-ups are the most “hidden” out of the three warzones, thus you are most likely to not notice them and bypass an advantage.

The first area has three power ups: two heals and an expertise. The two heal power-ups are on the far sides of the maps near the doors, in a nook around the corner. If you follow the door away from the spawn and around the corner you will find a heal power-up. The expertise is the most obvious as it’s directly in the middle under the walk way. Every player should immediately head there at the start of the game, especially if you are an attacker. If you are attacking and re-spawn, always check the middle area first to see if the expertise power-up is available before heading to the doors.

The second area has five power ups: two heals, two expertise, and a speed. The two heal power-ups are located similarly to the first area, around the corner on the far side of the doors.
The two expertise power-ups are located on the raised platforms on both sides of the bridges. The first one is almost exactly where you fall down from the attacking spawn, in between both bridge terminals. The second one is up the raise platform across from the defending spawn. Both are easily visible.
The speed power up is “hidden” behind the raised plat form on the side of the bridges with the doors. It is not immediately visible as players rarely go back there and it psuedo blends in with the background.

The third area has four power-ups: Two heals and two expertise. One heal power-up is near the “Northern” door under the ramp. The other heal power-up is near the “East” door, just to the right of it on the wall. One expertise power-up is located under the middle ramp coming from the force fields. This is probably the most hidden power-up in all three war zones. The last expertise power-up is located on the right wall when entering the area past the force field. If you take the first set of stairs leading down on the right hand side and go straight you’ll run right into it

Hopefully this helps the newer players out there and maybe some seasoned players found something new? I will add more as I find it and if you post things that I missed I will gladly add it to the list. I again will also be looking for videos to help describe locations and tricks as I find them.

Please thumbs up if you find this helpful to newer players.

Thanks to the following people for their additions:
Jandor_Ziska
xPVTx
LankySpanky
Rockstar
pinkfreudHC
Moddim
Sarlin

Random Tips by Suzahn and Sol

1. If you stand with your toes to the edge of the catwalk in huttball, warriors/knights that leap at you will hit you once then fall to the pit down below. Often times, they do this with the huttball! Sucks to be them.

2. The sniper/gunslinger is great at stopping objectives from being taken in alderaan or voidstar, but not until almost level 50 when you get the orbital strike and plasma probe. Both you can set and forget and they stop people from taking objectives because they last a long time and cause damage.

3. Every class has at least *some* kind of knockback, most AOE knockbacks. The 2nd room of voidstar has 2 bridges where you can knock people down to your death and huttball’s only path to victory involves crossing catwalks over a pit. Saving your knockbacks and anti-stuns for when you meet people here is almost an instant-win button.

4. Except if someone has already crowd-controlled that person before they got to that catwalk. A sith-warrior force-choking a guy will fill up his anti-stun meter so that he can’t be knocked back. So it’s often better to NOT use any CC on someone until it’s going to do something meaningful like kill them or knock them in the pit.

5. Every class gets sprint at level 15. It’s an out-of-combat 30% run buff. Always use it at the start of EVERY warzone. It’s great.

6. In the voidstar, the attacking team doesn’t have to go through the force-field right in front of them. you can run to the right or left side of the platform and jump off there at the start of the match. It doesn’t save you any time after the match has started, but that first time when the force-fields go down it saves you a little time getting to the doors.

7. All the warzones are very visual. You can see from really far away where the huttball is, what kind of fighting is happening at the turret in alderaan, or which door has a bomb on it. Teach your eyes to focus in on these things because running to a turret that’s not being attacked or the wrong voidstar door helps nobody.

8. PVP dailys are on Vaiken Spacedock near the PVP vendors you can buy warzone-comm gear from. Get the dailys every day, sometimes you can get them twice per day. All the warzone dailys stack, so one win can count for three different quests. You start out with one at level 10 and get more as you continue to do them. They give you warzone comms (50 each) and also consumables that heal your health or resource pool.

9. Be nice in PVP! Not just because people can MVP vote you for extra comms but because it’s the right thing to do. When someone starts complaining about how everyone sucks in their raid, that’s when you see a bunch of people go AFK and wait for the free rewards at the end.

EDIT; 10. One more tip. At the start of huttball, you can run straight forward with sprint on and if you time your jump just right you won’t get hit by the acid pool. As a sniper with no force-run, I am the first person with the huttball 80% of the time because I have mastered this jump.

11 – One tip from me is to take the free health buffs lying around if your fighting near them even if you’re at close to full health. Stops opponents from utilising it.

12 – ledges ledges ledges. Pick a smart spot and play to your strengths if you’re playing ranged. A good sniper/merc combo in hutball is nigh on impossible to get past when they are sitting on the mid level near their goal line. Gives them line of sight to all the ledges and is just suicide to try and run past without taking them out. Diverts resources the other team should be using to keep people off the ball carrier. In voidstar at the 3rd door the 3rd set of doors there are stack of containers. You can jump carefully to them from your spawn point and if people are silly enough to mill around them, you can unload and remain unoticed as ranged. Also if you are noticed and focues you just drop behind it to the next level and break LoS.

13 – In Alderaan, when you cap a gun, put it between yourself and the enemies as it breaks LoS and warriors need to get a wider angle to leap to you. It’s also great when fighting a ranged and melee if your by yourself as you can LoS around the pole and only the melee can attack you if don’e right. I constantly won 2v1 engagements like this.

14 – Lastly, if you’re playing an AC that can heal, then do so! Especially in hutball. You don’t need to kill the opposition, just CC or knock them back and then heal the ball carrier. Even in Alderaan. Nothing worse then when you have a dual sorc combo and both use their heals. Every time you attack one the other just heals them up. This will also add to your commendations as it’s based on the amount of damage done, blocked (tanks) or healed. Classes that can do both can top commendations every time.