There are quite a few Star Wars: The Old Republic talent calculators/planners you can choose from nowadays! I decided not to focus on cranking one out myself because it felt unnecessary to reinvent the wheel; there are some pretty great wheels out there already. So, instead, I present you with a list of talent calculator options, with some analytical compliments and criticisms.

Overview

Last Updated: February 6, 2013

Name	Platform	Cost	Status
Ask Mr. Robot	Web Browser	Free	Up to Date
Torhead	Web Browser	Free	Up to Date
SWTOR Spy	Web Browser	Free	Up to Date
Gaming with DaOpa	Web Browser	Free	Up to Date
Magelo	Web Browser	Free	Up to Date
DarthHater	Web Browser	Free	Icons Broken
KnoTOR	Web Browser	Free	Out of Date
Prima Game Guides	Web Browser	Free	Tooltips Broken
R2-DB	Web Browser	Free	Tooltips Broken
SwtorHub	Web Browser	Free	Broken
Talent Calculator for Swtor (Maelstorm)	iOS 5.0+	Free	Up to Date
SWTOR Skill Build Calculator (Firestorm Interactive)	iOS 5.0+	$0.99	Up to Date
Tools for SWTOR (Teknolutions LLC)	iOS 4.2+	$1.99	Up to Date
Talent Calculator For SWTOR (Michele Di Berardino)	Android 2.2+	Free	Up to Date
Datapad (Arugaba)	Android 2.2+	$3.99	Up to Date
Swtor Talent Calculator (Transcendent Shift)	Android 2.1+	Free	Out of Date
SWTOR Talents Calculator (RacoonLab)	Android 2.1+	Free	Out of Date
SWTOR Skill Tree Calculator (Nextrek S.r.l.)	Android 2.1+	$1.03	Out of Date

As of this post update, the most recent patch is 1.6.3, but the most recent class-rebalancing/talent-altering patch was 1.4, which was deployed well before Star Wars: The Old Republic added a free-to-play option. According to BioWare developers, the next major class rebalancing patch will coincide with the release of the expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel.

Reviews

A MMO talent calculator needs to be updated in a timely fashion whenever a game update affecting skills and talents is rolled out, so a talent calculator that is powered by its own database site is your best bet. BioWare has made skill and talent data directly available to select fansites, giving them a helping hand in the development and maintenance of such tools and ensuring that there is no shortage of database site options at game launch. However, not all database sites are created equal. Each site develops its own talent calculator independently, with their own user interface quirks. But, after reading this article, you should be well-informed enough to pick the one that suits your needs.

For each screenshot, I created the same build, and showed the tooltip for the same ability. Here's a quick table of contents so that you can jump to each talent calculator discussed (I know I can get verbose):

• Darth Hater DB
• Torhead
• KnoTOR
• SWTOR Spy (Notes Updated on Dec 18, 2011)
• R2-DB (Notes Updated on Dec 27, 2011)
• Prima Guides (Added on Dec 27, 2011)

Darth Hater DB (Curse Gaming)

URL: http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/

Pros

• Builds are embeddable on your own website/blog/guide/etc. (dimensions 630x360)
• Talented ability cooldowns are shown in the tooltip
• Build url is always displayed and automatically updated every time you invest or remove a training point
• Advanced class options are written out instead of requiring you to memorize icons, and the corresponding Empire and Republic options are paired vertically
• You can reset each tree individually, as well as reset all at once

Cons

• Not all talent tooltip numbers have been implemented yet
• The number of available ranks for each talent are not displayed at a glance. You have to mouse over each ability in order to see the number of ranks.
• New abilities ("talented abilities") gained by investing training points into their corresponding talent are not differentiated or highlighted at a glance like it is in-game and in other talent calculators (green-bordered talents).
• Updating the browser address bar automatically creates the false illusion that the browser backwards and forwards buttons can function as a build history feature.

Other Notes

• Compact design (smaller talent icons)
• There is a strong visual indication when you've used all your points. All abilities will appear "locked." Since you cannot see how many ranks there are at a glance, this does not make it a worse than it already is.
• Tooltips are loaded dynamically with additional site queries the first time you mouse over each talent. (This may be of importance if you plan to use the calculator offline. Mouse over the talents before you disconnect.)

Torhead (ZAM Network)

URL: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc

Pros

• Builds are embeddable on your own website/blog/guide/etc. (dimensions 770x497)
• Each of the three talent trees display in icon form what role they fulfill (defense, damage, healing)
• Advanced class and point distribution summary is displayed front and center
• Tooltip values have been implemented, although many of the damage numbers are very skewed (due to the values scaling based on current weapon/gear)
• You can reset each tree individually, as well as reset all at once
• The build url is always displayed (in the browser address bar) and automatically updated every time you invest or remove a training point

Cons

• Talented ability tooltips do not display cooldown durations (if there are any)
• Updating the browser address bar automatically creates the false illusion that the browser backwards and forwards buttons can function as a build history feature. (Treating it as such actually breaks the calculator behavior because this type of interaction is not handled properly by its code.)

Other Notes

• Compact design (smaller talent icons)
• The "Lock" feature prevents a build from being modified until the build is "Unlocked" by clicking the lock icon. The icon differentiates between locked and unlocked states poorly.
• There is a weak visual indication when you've used all your points. You simply will not be able to increase the skill level of an ability when that happens, but everything appears "unlocked," allowing you to continue to see how many ranks each ability has, which is useful when you want to change your build.
• Tooltips are loaded dynamically with additional site queries the first time you mouse over each talent. (This may be of importance if you plan to use the calculator offline. Mouse over the talents before you disconnect.)

KnoTOR

URL: http://knotor.com/skills

Pros

• Both the tooltips and the animated slider strongly illustrate what tiers of talents are available to be invested in each tree
• Each of the three talent trees display in text form what role they fulfill (defense, damage, healing)
• The browser url is updated automatically as you invest training points, and back/forwards browser history traversal does not break the behavior of the calculator
• Talent dependency "pipes" are visually filled when you invest in the corresponding dependency to that talent (the upgrade to that talent)

Cons

• No option to embed your build on your own website/blog/guide/etc.
• Not all tooltip values have been implemented
• Changing class with a manual-open dropdown menu takes more clicks to switch classes

Other Notes

• Large design (full-size talent icons)
• All tooltips, all classes, and all trees are loaded with the page, so you can use it offline without having to load tooltips for each talent manually (although you will still have to load each class's icons by loading that class page)
• There is a weak visual indication when you’ve used all your points. You simply will not be able to increase the skill level of an ability when that happens, but everything appears "unlocked," allowing you to continue to see how many ranks each ability has, which is useful when you want to change your build.

SWTOR Spy

URL: http://www.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/

Pros

• Some tooltip values have been implemented, although any damage values that are based on current gear are simply labeled as based on your current weapon.
• You can reset each tree individually, as well as reset all at once
• Permalink is always displayed and updated automatically as you invest training points

Cons

• No option to embed your build on your own website/blog/guide/etc.
• Missing some duration values on tooltips
• Missing dependency pipes/lines
• New abilities ("talented abilities") gained by investing training points into their corresponding talent are not differentiated or highlighted at a glance like it is in-game and in other talent calculators (green-bordered talents).

Other Notes

• Large design (full-size talent icons)
• All tooltips for the current class is loaded with the page, so you can use it offline without having to load tooltips for each talent manually
• Although the permalink is updated automatically as you invest training points, but this is not automatically reflected in your browser history, so navigating away from the calculator page will cause you to lose the build
• The build URL encoding method uses a long, fixed-length format, which may or may not require a url shortening service when sharing the url in certain length-limited situations (e.g. Twitter)
• There is a weak visual indication when you’ve used all your points. You simply will not be able to increase the skill level of an ability when that happens, but everything appears "unlocked," allowing you to continue to see how many ranks each ability has, which is useful when you want to change your build.

R2-DB

URL: http://r2-db.com/talent/calculator

Pros

• The browser url is updated automatically as you invest training points, and back/forwards browser history traversal does not break the behavior of the calculator
• The slider and icon transparency strongly illustrates what tiers of talents are available to be invested in each tree
• It is easy to navigate to an overview of the talents in each individual tree (by clicking the tree name in the calculator)

Cons

• No option to embed your build on your own website/blog/guide offsite
• New abilities ("talented abilities") gained by investing training points into their corresponding talent are not differentiated or highlighted at a glance like it is in-game and in other talent calculators (green-bordered talents).

Other Notes

• Large design (full-size talent icons)
• R2-DB utilizes Torhead's database and aims to extend that functionality by utilizing socially interactive mechanisms.
• Tooltips are loaded dynamically with additional site queries the first time you mouse over each talent. (This may be of importance if you plan to use the calculator offline. Mouse over the talents before you disconnect.)
• There is a weak visual indication when you’ve used all your points. You simply will not be able to increase the skill level of an ability when that happens, but everything appears "unlocked," allowing you to continue to see how many ranks each ability has, which is useful when you want to change your build.

Prima Game Guides

URL: http://www.primagames.com/games/star-wars-old-republic/extra

Pros

• Your build is saved online, which saves the build to your account on the website for future reference, accessible from multiple computers and so forth.
• The slider illustrates what tiers of talents are available to be invested in each tree
• There is a database of builds that people have saved, so you can see what other people are building

Cons

• Account creation/login is required to use the calculator
• No option to embed your build on your own website/blog/guide etc.
• Tooltips lack cost and cooldown information
• Must navigate back to the class selection page to load a different advanced class tree
• New abilities ("talented abilities") gained by investing training points into their corresponding talent are not differentiated or highlighted at a glance like it is in-game and in other talent calculators (green-bordered talents).

Other Notes

• Large design (full-size talent icons)
• Tooltips are loaded dynamically with additional site queries the first time you mouse over each talent. (This may be of importance if you plan to use the calculator offline. Mouse over the talents before you disconnect.)
• Build URLs are only available after saving your build to the server.
• There is a weak visual indication when you’ve used all your points. You simply will not be able to increase the skill level of an ability when that happens, but everything appears "unlocked," allowing you to continue to see how many ranks each ability has, which is useful when you want to change your build.
• There is some odd selection box appearing when you increment skills, which disappears after you've filled out all the ranks in that skill or select a different skill.

And Then There Were...

I'll try to keep this listing as up-to-date as possible... If you know of any talent calculators I have missed, just shoot me an email about it at razorfish@biowarefans.com.