Welcome to yet another Star Wars: The Old Republic character build guide. I’ll be explaining the specializations of the Commando in this guide, focusing on the specializations, rotations, and builds. But before we start off the main guide, here’s a thing or two you need to know:
The Basics
In SWTOR, the character development system is based on three skill trees through which you can make your character stronger by adding points to certain abilities or skills within the tree.
The skill tree is in the form of three specializations. The first two trees or specializations are exclusive to the character class type. For example, for the Sith Assassin, the exclusive specializations are Darkness and Deception.
The third specialization or tree is one that is shared among the parent class’s specializations.
Keeping the Sith Assassin as an example, the third specialization or tree is Madness, which is also the third one for the Sith Sorcerer, since both the advanced classes belong to the parent class ‘Sith Inquisitor’.
The distribution in this guide is designated like (XX,XX,XX), where the ‘XX’ is the number of points, and the commas separate the three specializations.
So a Darkness oriented Sith Assassin configurations like (31,0,10) or similar means 31 points for Darkness, 0 for Deception, and 10 for Madness. In total, there will always be a maximum of 41 points available at level 50 in the game.
For more help on Star Wars: The Old Republic, read our Items, Troubleshooting and Tweak Guide.
Now for the main part of the guide:
SWTOR Commando
The Commando has the following Skill Trees:
- Combat Medic
- Gunnery
- Assault Specialist (shared)
Combat Medic Commando
As the name of this specialization suggests, this is a healer variant of the Commando.
Priority List/Rotation
- Pop Supercharge
Kolto Bomb
AMP / MP (multiple times till adequate healing is provided)
Kolto Bomb
Recommended PvE/PvP Build: (31,8,2), (23,16,2)
The first build is a standard healer’s build, suited for PvP games and generally good for most PvE formats. However, in tougher PvE scenarios like Flashpoint, you may want to try the (23,16,2) build instead. Similar, that build may be recommend for some PvP situations.
Being a healer isn’t generally too difficult as a Commando, but you have to make sure your spamming AMP/MP enough times to get the job done efficiently. The hybrid build should give you some good DPS capabilities, but try to remember to maintain the central role of a healer even when using this build.
Gunnery Commando
The Gunnery Commando is a high damage dealing DPS variant of the Commando.
Priority List/Rotation
- Full Auto
Grav Round (x3)
Curtain of Fire
Hammer Shot
Demo Round
High Impact Bolt
Hammer Shot
Recommended PvE/PvP Build: (5,31,5)
This is a fairly standard Gunnery build for the Commando. There is a lot of confusion over Gravity Shot vs. Charged Bolts. Do note the effectiveness of each really just depends on the type of gear you have. Gravity Shot scales off of power/tech power while Charged Bolts scales with weapon damage. The priority list is fairly self-explanatory.
Make sure to use Full Auto every cool-down even when you don’t have Curtain of Fire up. Make sure to use High Impact Bolt and Demo Round only when they are fully stacked – there is no real use otherwise. This is generally a good priority list to keep your ammo intact, however, try not to spam; instead, make the usage priority based.
Assault Specialist Commando
The Assault Specialist is another DPS variant of the Commando, dealing high amounts of damage and having similar traits but with a twist.
Priority List/Rotation
- Hammer Shot
Full Auto
Charged Bolts
High Impact Bolt
Recommended PvE/PvP Build: (3,7,31)
This is yet another standard Assault Specialist build for the Commando. Do note that as an Assault Specialist, you must keep your ammo regeneration in its highest state. This means that instead of blind spamming of abilities, you have to prioritize your skills according to the situation.
For most of the battle make sure you have your DoT on the target and then use Charged Bolts and Full Auto to look for free High Impact Bolt procs. Make sure to watch your ammo, as the lower it gets, the lower the regeneration rate is. Make sure to use Hammer Shot whenever it is required to keep the ammo regen high.
Don’t forget to share your Commando Build with us in the comments below!
