Star Wars: The Old Republic Advanced Classes Overview

In addition to a new developer blog, the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website has been updated with a general overview of the advanced classes system that we learned about from the recent UK press event.
Advanced Classes are specialized careers that your characters can choose in Star Warsâ„¢: The Old Republicâ„¢. As your character becomes more seasoned through adventure, you will be given the opportunity to undertake one of two Advanced Classes. This decision is equally as important as when you originally created your character. This is because your choice will not only make your character more distinct and powerful, but it will also help further define the role you wish to play in The Old Republic.

In addition to your Class-specific Skills and Abilities, your chosen Advanced Class will grant you access to role-defining Abilities that represent additional areas of expertise and some may even grant new weapon and armor types. Additionally, each Advanced Class will also have three sets of Skills available to further customize your character.
Essentially, this means that the game now has 16 classes to choose from, and each one has two skill trees for us to allocate points within. Sounds like a pretty good range of customization options.