Are the quests/storyline optional?

Question

I do not really like quests.

In SWTOR how much of the storylines/quests do I need to do?

I understand from the beta I had to do a long quest line to unlock the space ship and first companion.

EDIT: I feel I should comment here to explain the reason for the question, because it seems apparent to me that if you ask three people why they play the game, you will get 3 different answers, and I can't understand why people are fighting over which one is correct - THEY ALL ARE.

I play to socialise and to raid. I find it difficult to relate to the storylines of the quests and I do not like the railroading associated with storylines.

Thank you all for information and answers. I have accepted the one I felt was best because that is the way the site works, but I think all the answers are valid and each one taught me something.

Answer 1

You'll need to do your class quests at a minimum if you want to unlock the full compliment of companions, which is important if you want to keep your crew skills up to date. You'll need to do them through at least level 15 or so to get your ship to be able to get to planets other than the starter areas as well.

Questing is also one of the few reliable ways to bring in credits, and at high levels, skill training becomes extremely pricey.

You can play with a minimum of questing, but the hoops you'll end up jumping through may make it not worth doing.

Answer 2

if you don't like questing, you're playing the wrong game. I suggest you look for the revival of Star Wars Galaxies (google for it).

But if you're dead set on playing TOR, you can do just the class quests (ignore all the quest givers), and get your exp from PvP or space combat. With the money you get from space combat you should be able to buy your equipment in the AH and keep yourself updated.

You don't even need to do the class quests after you get your companion and ship (about level 10), just do space combat or pvp, but then, you'd be missing out on the best part of this game and what sets it apart from other MMOs.

Answer 3

Technically, yes, but for a game like SWTOR, I would say that the Storylines are THE most important part of the game. Period.

If you do plan on skipping all of the good stuff in the game, please do not go whining on the SWTOR forums about the game being too short and boring. Or that there is no "end game" content. The content is all the stuff you skipped on the way to lv 50.

I'm sure you won't like my opinion on this, but I've seen too many MMO's ruined by similar type thinking.

WoW and Warhammer being the largest two that I can think of.

Answer 4

Swtor has a few diffrent types of quest chains and all of them are optional except the basic game tutorial (levels 1-10, along with your starting planet quests.) Once you breach the level ten mark, you can choose which class direction you will be taking and the entire game is open to you at that point. (Actually, if you can convince somebody with a higher level avatar to kill everthing and help you run through your class stuff, you could make it up to the fleet and into a pvp match as early as level 5, although I am going to have to make an alt to confirm that.)

You do not need to quest to get your ship as long as you are willing to bum rides on other people, although if you are devoted to no questing, I can't see why you would possibly need to get to any of the other planets. The Imperial fleet has everything a fine solo pvper like yourself could possibly need. You make more than enough per pvp match to repair your gear and you have the GTN to buy anything you might need that you can't obtain from the pvp gear vendors.

If you can stomach questing until you get your first and second companions, you can go down to the crew skill trainers and pick up two of the Mission based gather skills and send your companions out on those to generate even more supplemental income for all that gear you are going to have to buy since you aren't going to get the normal free gear that people get as quest rewards. The good news is that pvp gear is the equal of the other high level gear in the game, so if you decide to something else at fifty you will be able to.

Additionally, at a mininium of ten grand experience per ten minutes, pvp is one of the fastest way to chug down experience, so you should be hitting fifty faster than any other way (looking at my experience/time with my questing alt, which is mostly solo, with few flash points thrown in and some crafting to get to 400, I am getting about 3000 experience every ten minutes while actively questing.)

I will update this with more firm facts & figures once I run to fifty doing the pvp only.

Answer 5

You need to do your class story quests on the first planet to unlock the quests on the second planet and to get your first companion. You need to do your class story quests on the second planet to unlock the rest of the galaxy.

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You don't need a companion or a ship to do group instance or pvp content. You can run to the shuttle from the starting planet at level 1, but the group and pvp content starts at ~10.

Answer 6

Whether you have to quest to an extent or not depends on what you wish to do on the way to and at level 50.

If you don't plan on questing but are going to PvP then you will not need a companion as you can't use them in PvP matches.

You don't NEED the companion in PvE as you can grind on mobs you can handle solo on your way to level 50.

EDIT: You will need to quest to get your ship though(you get this around level 16-17ish).