Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!
I've noticed a lot over the 5 and a half years I've been playing SWTOR that we get one question from a lot of new players; which order should I play the classes in? Well, today, I'm going to tell you, if you're not worried about the gameplay differences, this is the order you should run the classes if you want the story as it happens, and will be as spoiler free as possible. Also, I'm going to be referring to the classes by their storyline, rather than their class name, because the two classes (Sentinel and Guardian, for example) under that storyline heading go through the same storyline. So, Knight, Consular, Smuggler, Trooper, Warrior, Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter and Agent.
First off, the Knight starts first, for several reasons. The first reason is that the Consular's Tython ending references the Knight's Tython ending. The second reason? The Sith Warrior can not start their Chapter 3 until the Knight has began their Chapter 3 due to one of the Knight companions being a catalyst for a title the Warrior gets in their Chapter 3.
Now, the other classes can start in any order at this point. All of them reach the same point at about the same time, with a few minor things. First off, if you're doing the Revan Flashpoints, which are Taral V and Maelstrom Prison (Republic version) and Boarding Party and The Foundry (Empire Version), the Republic ones happen first, because Revan can't be in the Foundry if you didn't free him first in Maelstrom Prison. And if you're doing it as a Knight, you need to have gotten the "Go to Balmorra" questline, because there's a line that happens that references what you experienced just before that. All the other classes can go into these right at the end of Chapter 1.
Things go on as you'd expect, with the Republic slightly ahead in the story than the Empire is, until you hit Chapter 3. At that point, Imperial classes pull forward, with certain events happening that have consequences for the Republic classes. For example, the Warrior's ending on Voss influences the Knight's questline there. Furthermore, the Warrior's companion quest for Pierce directly influences the Trooper's questline on Corellia.
So, you're at the end of Chapter 3, on Corellia. Which order should you complete this? Well, for all the classes, you could pretty much complete them in any order for the Imperials, though or the Bounty Hunter, you want to finish your class story there before finishing the planetary story, because the Bounty Hunter's quest giver mentions helping out the final planetary questline quest giver.
As for the Imperial ending? Well, the main concern is that the Inquisitor's antagonist makes a non-vocalized cameo in the Warrior's story, so the Inquisitor ends last.
As for the Republic, you can finish in any order, but you need to save the Knight for last. And you save the Knight for last because after a while, the Warrior gets an email from an NPC the Warrior meets in their story references the Knight's ending. You'll recognize what I mean when you see it.
As for post Chapter 3 content, the only major timeline specific thing that happens is that Republic Makeb happens before Imperial Makeb. After that, all one story with what is called "class flavor" where references to your accomplishments as that class are referenced in the future.
Now, before I go, I need to mention one thing; the Bounty Hunter's final mission. If you go Light Side at the end, there's a bug in way out. It tells you to take the escape pods, but they don't spawn as clickable items. You NEED to go all the way back to the entrance of the instanced area, and exit onto your ship. And if you decide to skip this and just use the galaxy map to warp directly to the area you return to, the NPC you need to interact with doesn't spawn. And at that point, you are unable to return to the instanced area you just left to do it the right way. You're stuck. Dark Side? The escape pods spawn properly there.
So, I hope this clears up most of the confusion regarding the order the class stories go in. If you're playing one class to the end of the story, that's fine. In fact, that's the way I advise you to do so, because trying to keep up with the story beats as they happen can get REALLY frustrating with how often you're repeating the same quests over and over again. But this should be a relatively good guide on "well, this is happening after this but before this."
But for now, stay beautiful freaks!
