Trooper
A heavily armoured trooper laying down the law
The trooper in SWTOR will be one of the main tanking characters on the Republic side. For those that experienced Star Wars Galaxies, Trooper will be almost exactly like the Commando profession of that game.
First and foremost, Troopers have high offensive capabilities. They wield heavy weapons and are experts in all kinds of munitions, including explosives and other ordinance. The typical trooper in The Old Republic will likely find themselves wielding a heavy repeating blaster, and increasing it’s already substantial DPS with weapon specific attacks and grenades.
To supplement their offensive capabilities troopers will have high defence, as they have access to all of the latest republic armour technologies. Unlike Jedi and smuggler classes, who rely heavily on agility and evading enemy fire to stay alive, troopers are quite content to stand still and blast groups of enemies from range.
Troopers are therefore ideal for tanking purposes because not only can they stand up to a lot of punishment, but they can deal out enough damage in an area to attract agro towards themselves. The strong combat focused abilities will also make trooper an easy class to play solo, as they should be able to tackle most enemies on their own rather than depending on others for assistance. This makes it an idea class for those less social players who like to venture out into the galaxy with just a blaster at their side. However, this won’t be at the expense of usefulness in group situations, because Troopers will still be very important in as tanks and dps machines.
In the Star Wars films we have only ever seen one non-force sensitive being (Jango Fett) who is anywhere near close to good enough to match a Jedi or Sith in combat. Troopers should also be at this level in SWTOR, as can be seen from the ‘hope’ trailer for The Old Republic at the bottom of this page. Even though they cannot command the force, Troopers will take advantage of their superior protection, armament and cunning to get the best of the Sith. Even if their blaster shots are blocked with a lightsaber, a well placed grenade or two should be more than enough to take down almost any opponent.
