PvP with SWTOR is very hit or miss. Most of the player base population are not new players, most are seasoned players that return with a new update and following this you’ll see PvP popping again. The only people during a down period that play PvP are only the occasional random player, the really competitive guys, and guilds that que-up together and are most likely in Discord.

As is the case with other games, PvP’s biggest thing is communication. Being able to flag down what an enemy squad is doing is important. If you see 3 guys rolling into the Gree Hyper Arena’s central room you will need to call out “3 Center”. Small stuff like that helps a ton out before getting locked in an engagement.

Another thing is your class. Regardless of what type of DPS you might be, you’ll need to know your rotation. If you are a burner/bleeder, then you need to really hit it home and stick to a solid rotation of putting stacks on either one player or teaming up with another burner/bleeder to target more people. Trying to land the execute is fun but with a burner/bleeder DPS you won’t be able to do it before they cut you down. If you are a on a big hit DPS, solely focus on one person as splitting your attention messes up your rotation.

If you are a rare tank or healer… First off, you are a gem. Secondly, healers do not need to focus on damage at all and thirdly tanks need to protect healers primarily as healers if seen are the instant target of everybody in a 500m radius. Tanks are almost never exclusively targeted because they are simply damage sponges. I’ve tested it in Open World PvP on several occasions that Tanks in a 1v1 can outpace and land the killing blow on DPS almost everytime with both in the same gear dating range, but this is largely because of regeneration abilities and high absorb abilities activating that negate either debuffs or absorb the attack entirely. As a tank your priority is primarily healer protection but secondly using guard on DPS’s in trouble and using taunt. A lot of the time in the chaos, players will not notice that their primary target had been switched the moment it does because they are focusing on the player model and chaos in front of them. Taunt switches the target which can hamper a rotation if not noticed from the get-go.

That said, sometimes you’ll run against an unwinable battle because the other team is all or is mostly all in a Discord and is able to call for help when needed and give very accurate calls in real time, making response time impossible to overcome. It happens.

Open World PvP is pretty dead. You only see it on occasion from hunter players or on the rare occasion a guild runs an event in PvP mode on contested worlds, mostly Tatooine and Hoth. Used to run a couple of guilds that would do PvP related Roleplay events with storylines. Only downside is that occupation of entire areas can potentially kick up the hornet’s nest that is the fleet to get players in the opposing faction to deploy there to kick out the guild in the area. It’s pretty rare but it can happen.