SWTOR: Best Solo Classes and Builds (2024)

Companion Builds

To help groupless players thrive in combat, BioWare ported their classic companion system over to SWTOR. For more information on this system and which companions to choose, check out our other guides. In the meantime, though, we’ll give a quick word on the best way to set companion behavior in solo content.

Bringing up the companion menu will show all the information you need on your followers. Of particular interest for us here is the Companion Role icon.

Your companions can all be set to one of the same 3 standard roles as players. Those roles are Damage, Tank, and Healing. As can be seen in the top left, HK-51 is currently set to Damage.

Generally, the best role for companions in solo play is Healing. Set your follower to Healing and you’ll find yourself hitting sheer difficulty walls far less often. As soon as you change their role, they’ll start rapidly healing you pretty much every time you take damage. This is by far the ideal role for them when playing in singleplayer modes (and even multiplayer modes if you have a slot for them).

SWTOR: Easiest and Best Solo Classes

Here are 3 recommendations we have if you’re looking to master the art of soloing in SWTOR.

Force Melee Solo Build: Focus Jedi Guardian/Rage Sith Juggernaut

These two classes are direct mirrors of each other, so the build can be used on either faction’s flavor. Both combat styles and disciplines are pretty simple and easy for solo play. You won’t have to stress too much over advanced mechanics, but they still remain for interested players to incorporate. As well, these combat styles are attached to some of their respective factions’ best storylines. Furthermore, if you want to explore outside our prescribed disciplines, these combat styles offer a lot of opportunities for fun experimentation in their additional disciplines.

Simple Rotation

Icon (Focus/Rage)	Ability (Focus/Rage)
	Force Leap/Force Charge – Helps you get in close, fast. You should begin most fights with this.
	Force Exhaustion/Force Crush – Very useful buffs which the rotation is built around.
	Focused Burst/Raging Burst – Very powerful abilities which form a combo with the previous ones to make them even stronger.
	Combat Focus/Enrage – Activating these abilities provides you with a plethora of Focus/Rage. This is the primary fuel for your abilities. Now that you’ve activated these first few abilities, the rotation truly begins.
	Concentrated Slice/Furious Strike x3 – Next you’ll use this ability 3 times in a row. This is your basic secondary attack. It uses a bit of Focus/Rage in exchange for doing a nice bit of damage. The Combat Focus/Enrage you popped comes in handy here.
	Strike/Assault x6 – This is your basic attack. Use this one 6 times in a row to get some quick damage in.
	Zealous Leap/Obliterate – Finally, this ability causes you to leap to your target. It stuns your enemy for a few seconds, furthermore dealing a lot of damage.

Now just repeat this process from Force Leap/Force Charge if the enemy has been defeated. Likewise, if they haven’t been defeated, repeat from Force Exhaustion/Force Crush. Additionally, this is a very very basic rotation. There’s plenty of room for experimentation and customization in this build.

Ability Tree Choices

Level	Icon (Focus/Rage)	Ability (Focus/Rage)
23		Zenith/Dark Synergy – Adds a nice bit of critical chance and damage to make you deal some more damage. Additionally, sets up a lot of useful combo opportunities.
27		Cyclone Slash/Sweeping Slash – Gives you a good ability for facing groups of enemies.
39		Zealous Annihilation/Obliteration – Once again, an additional Area of Effect attack option. In solo content you’ll often face group of weak filler enemies which can be quickly dispatched by this upgrade.
43		Focused Meditation/Indignant Rumination – More useful passive buffs that help out your rotational abilities.
51		Battlefield Command/Warmonger – Allows Force Leap/Force Charge to be used much more often, in essence making you more agile in combat.
64		Stalwart Defense/Hardened Defense – Gives you some better defense.
68		Saber Reflect – As well as the previous upgrade, this is one of the biggest boosts to defense.
73		Purifying Sweep/Crushing Fist – Allows your attacks to better penetrate enemy armor. In effect, you deal more damage overall.

Force Ranged Solo Build: Telekinetic Jedi Sage/Lightning Sith Sorcerer

The Jedi Sage and Sith Sorcerer, much like the Guardian and Juggernaut, are direct mirrors of each other. Just as we did in the last section, we’ll be combining their recommended build here.

Jedi Consulars and Sith Inquisitors are the main force-wielders of The Old Republic. Their primary focus is utilizing the energy field which binds us to its truest potential. The Lightning and Telekinetic disciplines seek to wield the ultimate combat powers of each respective Side of the Force. Basically, these disciplines are all about squeezing every last drop of damage out of that super-powered space magic. Straightforward and simple, just the way a solo casual player should have it.

Simple Rotation

These disciplines are built around utilizing a number of basic ability combos. The following table lists them.

Icon (Sage/Sorcerer)	Ability (Sage/Sorcerer)
	Weaken Mind/Affliction – You’ll want to keep this Damage over Time ability active pretty much constantly. As such, this should be your opener.
	Power of the Force-Turbulence-Power of the Force/Halted Offensive-Thundering Blast-Halted Offensive – These 3 abilities form Combo 1. Used in succession, they synergize with each other well.
	Telekinetic Gust-Mind Crush-Project/Lightning Flash-Crushing Darkness-Shock – Your Combo 2. Use this one right after the first.
	Telekinetic Burst/LIghtning Bolt x3 – This simple string of abilities will act as your big finisher. It’s just three casts of the same ability, but we’ll still call it Combo 3.

To form a rotation out of these combos, follow these steps:

• Activate Weaken Mind/Affliction
• Use Combo 1, followed by Combo 2
• Use Force Speed, then another Combo 1
• Finish with Combo 3

Just memorize these small combos and learn how to use them with each other effectively and you’re golden. Like we said, straightforward and simple.

Ability Tree Choices

Level	Icon (Sage/Sorcerer)	Ability (Sage/Sorcerer)
23		Power of the Force/Halted Offensive – This ability is necessary for the combos discussed in the Simple Rotation section.
27		Cloud Mind – Gets some enemy attention off you for a bit. Acts as a defensive ability, which is nice to have on a subclass entirely designed around constant damage.
39		Incoming Turbulence/Thunder and Lightning – As a casual solo player, you don’t need to worry as much about maximizing damage outputs. That said, solo content includes a lot of weak filler enemies. Therefore, boosts to Area of Effect abilities can be nice for solo play.
43		Defensive Blast/Insulating Blast – Again, nice defensive ability to have in your back pocket as a DPS class.
51		Resistance/Defiance – Constant, free, passive damage reduction. It’s not a ton of damage reduction in the grand scheme of things. Nonetheless, as has been said many times, defense is nice as a DPS.
64		Kinetic Collapse/Backlash – A stun ability. Useful for keeping in your wheelhouse, especially in encounters which feature groups of enemies.
68		Force Lift/Whirlwind – Some good crowd control. Useful for the same reason as Kinetic Collapse/Backlash.
73		Mind Ward/Corrupted Flesh – The best boosts to survivability on the whole tree. This is a great choice, as Telekinetic and Lightning are squishy DPS.

Blasters Solo Build: Arsenal Mercenary

With recent updates, any blaster class in The Old Republic can now select any blaster combat style. SWTOR’s blaster classes are: Smuggler, Trooper, Imperial Agent, and Bounty Hunter. As well, the blaster combat styles are: Mercenary, Commando, Powertech, Gunslinger, Scoundrel, Operative, Vanguard, and Sniper. We’ve selected Mercenary here because it’s among the easier of these styles. Styles such as Sniper introduce a Cover mechanic that can increase the difficulty and complexity a bit higher than what we’re aiming for here.

Mercenary was originally a Bounty Hunter combat style, and as such is focused on letting you use a plethora of neat little gadgets. Not only is this a good-looking visual spectacle, it also lends itself to starting with a pretty basic playstyle and gradually expanding as you learn. It’s also very smooth to pick up and play as a fresh or solo player (or someone who doesn’t want to engage with a ton of complexity).

We chose Arsenal specifically because the discipline has an easy time when it comes to resource management. Blaster classes start encounters with a certain amount of Heat (basically ammunition) which is gradually used up by their attacks. Arsenal Mercenary’s attacks use few amounts of Heat and they have ample opportunities to reclaim what they lose, perfect for casual solo play.

Simple Rotation

Icon	Ability
	Start off with Tracer Missile, which makes your enemies take more damage, allowing your to deal more damage. Additionally, the ability deals good damage in its own right.
	Follow with Blazing Bolts to deal an incredible amount of damage.
	Pop a Priming Shot to reset Tracer Missile’s cooldown, then follow with another Tracer Missile.
	Use Heatseeker Missiles for another powerful burst of damage.
	Fill in any gaps with Rapid Shots, especially if your weapons start to overheat.
	Whenever Rail Shot glows gold, use it.

You can then rinse and repeat this rotation to suit your needs.

Ability Tree Choices

Level	Icon	Ability
23		Proficient Tracing – Allows you to activate Tracer Missile faster while conserving more resources. Very useful, as you’ll be activating Tracer Missile quite often.
27		Power Barrier – Gives you some extra defense, good for DPS classes. It’s not an amazing defensive boost, but it’s still something nice to have around.
39		Tracing Residue – Provides a very good combo between Heatseeker Missiles and Tracer Missiles. This is particularly advantageous given the rotation we’ve suggested.
43		Chaff Flare – Taking enemy attention away from you is always a great thing to have as a DPS. This moreso applies to group content, but it’s good to have in solo play as well.
51		Energy Rebounder – Fantastic boost to your defensive capabilities. Combine this with the Healing companions we discussed earlier and you’ll be in the clear when it comes to survivability.
64		Kolto Surge – Self healing is very nice to have as a DPS. Your companion provides a lot of healing as it is. However, in the event that they go down or you need a bit of an extra boost, Kolto Surge definitely comes in handy.
68		Responsive Safeguards – A downright absurd defensive ability. Temporary damage absorption, reflection, and healing each time you activate it. Definitely pick this.
73		Gyroscopic Alignment Jets OR Trauma Regulators – The best choice here comes down to personal preference. If you find yourself lacking some survivability, pick Trauma Regulators. The boost to Energy Shield, combined with self heals, makes it good for tough fights. That said, Gyroscopic Alignment Jets is a very good way of dealing with stuns. Most big, important fights in the game include stuns, so you’ll want to be prepared for that.

Join the High Ground

That’s gonna wrap up our guides for the best solo classes and builds in SWTOR. We hope this article has prepared you to start your journey taking it easy by yourself while you save or conquer the galaxy.

Have any extra thoughts on this article? Want to share your personal favorite solo build? Feel free to leave a comment below or share this post on social media to let us know! Also, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more Star Wars: The Old Republic guides and gaming content!

Happy gaming, and may the Force be with you!