Vette and Kira. Kira and Vette.

He hadn't changed his alignment gear yet. I support you, OP.

I'd go Vanguard. I haven't played the Trooper since beta and I only had time to finish like 2 planets with that class, so I can't really speak about the story -I liked what I saw though-, but my only character now (I got back to the game recently and deleted my Jugg since BW made me change his name with the server merge and it just wasn't the same) is a Powertech, Vanguard's mirror AC, and he rocks, or at least he has rocked up until now (level 36 currently). With a healer companion you are basically unstoppable, especially if you are specced Tank. It's a tremendously reliable class. I have never died in a real fight, my only deaths so far have been after bad pulls (due to my own mistakes, or someone from my group, or my companion going crazy) or falling injuries

Nice. I only played Trooper during beta so I didn't go far with the class (just played enough to finish the Ord Mantell and Coruscant storylines and a mission in a ship right after), but I really liked Aric Jorgan. He was a great complement to my Combat Medic Commando and I like his personality. And yes, the fact that he was in a sniper unit yet gameplay-wise he's far from being one is... noteworthy. Next one? It has to be Empire and we already got Companions 101 for the Warrior and the Agent, so Mako seems an obvious choice. Khem, too.

My favorite might be Hutta, to be honest. It's relatively small, and certainly not beautiful (nor it tries to be) but it's one of the few planets that feel alive. I also love the agent and BH stories there and how iconic it feels for a planet that hadn't appeared before in Star Wars aside from some mentions. It's a great introduction to the game. As for the most hated... haven't tried the Empire version, but... Rep Taris is pretty disheartening. Rakghouls, Rakghouls everywhere. It still has some redeeming things though, especially for KOTOR players (Endar Spire, the Promised Land...), and the landscapes and ruins are an awesome sight. But a nice setting and the lore goodies can't compensate for the fact that the actual game (quests, enemies) end up being terribly tiresome and repetitive. If you at least felt an actual fear of being bitten by a Rakghoul and becoming one of them... but there's no real tension at all, just monotony.

Yeah, Kira starts off slow, you barely have any convo with her at the beginning, maybe 1 or 2 - can't remember (aside from some moments during your class story, of course). It might be a bit awkward, but you just need to be patient.

This is bringing some creepy and disturbing thoughts to my mind...

This kind of situation with some especially loathsome companions is actually keeping me from enjoying many storylines. Haven't got that far with the BH (just got to Tatooine), but... Sith Warrior... Quinn... gawd. What's worse is he's the healer. So frustrating.

During your quest to level 50 you won't be able to equip those alignment-based relics (which have both stats and an "on use" short buff) that are pretty handy, but they are not esential. You can still fill at least 1 of those 2 slots if you get some matrix shards [datacrons] and assemble them in the Dark Temple / Jedi Temple to form a relic - it's better than nothing. And it's not relevant once you are level 50 - you'll get better ones then. There's also some fluff you'll miss (like a vehicle), but they are just that: fluff. But hey, neutral/grey alignment gear is coming soon!... or so they said a whole year ago

Yeah I'm curious about this as well. He hasn't been active on Twitter since July either.

I agree that Smuggler feels (and should feel) more tactical, but the Jedi Knight still has different skills that do different things. The classes get more complex and tactical as they level up and that's undeniable, but even at the beginning they're not all the same skills. Force Sweep is an AoE (area) skill and it also stuns trash mobs (weak and standard) for a short time. Blade Storm briefly stuns the same type of mobs and it's slightly ranged. Strike is a focus builder, just use it when you can't do something better. Leap is another builder. The only instance when I really couldn't decide what skill to use (I'm talking early levels only) is Riposte vs Slash. Riposte is faster because it doesn't respect the Global Cooldown while the other is more powerful and (imo) recommendable in most instances except when you have a lot of focus built and you want to use both basically at the same time for some burst damage.. I'm not even going to delve into type of attacks (energy, kinetic, weapon damage...) since it doesn't really matter that much on early levels, though it will matter if you go Guardian and you get Sundering Strike right after, which decreases armor and makes targets more vulnerable to kinetic attacks like Sweep and Blade Storm. This is just on early levels, of course.

I don't think they will ever bother implementing new full-fledged classes. It just would take too much work. Our best hopes are new advanced classes or some kind of "prestige class" (a la WoW's Death Knight) that starts its journey much later (level-wise) than the other classes.

Keep dreaming, buddy.

Nope. Not at all. But I don't see a big issue here. The game is focused (or was, since as of late it's focused on cartel market crap) and built upon story and fulfillment of [nerdy] fantasies which are there because of Star Wars. You can't really separate one from the other. But yeah, I wouldn't play it. I don't really like MMOs per se, or at least not how they are currently (I could care less about raids and gear treadmills, for example), I just like being able to "live" in a universe I love. Same reason LOTRO was my first MMO.

Hoth. I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.

That would mean they would have to think outside the box, which (judging from... basically the whole game) doesn't seem like it's something they are very fans of. I guess we have to be glad we got those cover mechanics at all, and even then only 1 class per faction can use it (as if a trooper or a mercenary hiding into cover doesn't make sense ). Don't get me wrong, I like this game better than anything else that is on the market right now. But innovation in the gameplay/playability department is not the devs' strong point. And currently they probably even lack the resources after so many layoffs. Although I like the reticule idea a lot. Have to give it to you, OP.

What I'm really happy about is that the game itself still feels like the game it used to be in the immersion department. I mean, I played LOTRO since Beta, after release, and after the F2P option was implemented. And, while LOTRO's F2P option has something this game lacks (the possibility of earning T.Points via deeds/achievements of different kinds), I really appreciate the fact that SWTOR's Cartel Market is not nearly as intrusive as the LOTRO Store. I hated, hated, getting those messages related to the Store everytime. It just destroyed a lot of that feeling of immersion that game used to have, which is a shame because it was the best part of the game. Here, on the other hand, I've made several characters and leveled them up until level ~15 or so and it still mostly feels as "the SWTOR I used to know". I feel the game as immersive as before. [Community aside, since most of the time I always play while hiding the General chat ].

Yeah, I've never liked it either. It's ok in normal mode but it sucks when you are using Sprint. I usually turn my lightsaber off every time I can just to avoid seeing it.

I love Baras, he's possibly the best character I've encountered in the game. He can even be kinda intimidating once you get over his body size. But yeah, I give him rude replies every time I can, I don't ever kiss up, and some of his reactions to my taunts are awesome. His voice actor is fantastic. He just nails it, and I can say many of his lines by heart. "I wouldn't regret destroying you where you stand"

I've played every one of those options (DS Inq, LS Inq, DS Warrior, LS Warrior) until completing their stories on Korriban -DS Warrior until lvl40- and I was pretty satisfied with all of them. Each has their own benefits and all can make sense to a point, although some things you just MUST do despite being light-sided are a bit... awkward . Which one makes more sense as LS, though? I think Inquisitor wins this by a small margin. You can imagine your character as a force-sensitive slave who is just forced to face the trials unless he/she wants to die. And after that perhaps he/she wants to become more powerful to change the Empire from within and abolish slavery, or -as I did, since I'm a bit of a RPer- become stronger in the Dark Side (your alignment might be LS but you are still a Sith who uses the DS to fight) with a similar objective as Darth Plagueis: to learn to use the Force to cheat death and save everyone you love. But LS Warrior can be pretty awesome too, especially because that's what makes more sense (still doable as DS though) if you want to befriend and romance Vette, who I find to be the best companion character in the game. And you can still get Baras on his nerves: that doesn't depend on alignment.

Exactly.

Well, they could at least say they know about the problem and are working on a fix. That would be a start. I still can't log in

I did resub at early October to check out the game and if some performance issues had been fixed, but I didn't not see any noticeable improvement. I wasn't going to resub but I decided to keep subbing one more month to get the points - I'll get 1350 cc if I'm not wrong. The thing is... I never unsubbed because I didn't like the game. I unsubbed and will do it again because it's almost unplayable on my comp. Yeah, it's damn old and it sucks, but it's also this game's problem (its engine, load times, etc.), since other games like GW2 -Beta at least- ran much more smoothly while arguably looking better. So I hopefully can use those earned points if I ever have enough money to spend it on a new rig.

I think she's probably just designed that way. It's certainly weird having her for hours where she barely says anything despite getting so many affection points with her, but I think it's just the way she's been developed. Aside from one small convo right after getting my ship, I only got to really talk to her at some bits during class quests (for example, at the Inquisitor Ferav scene, during which you can get your first [Flirt]). I dropped my Knight on Nar Shaddaa and went Empire, but up until that point I hadn't had any convos with her aside from what I already said. As I said, she's probably just designed that way and you will get more convos later on. It's not really the same as Mako since one is your class' first companion while Kira is 2nd after T7-O1.

I would enjoy playing Republic (and BH) much more if I didn't feel slightly aggravated for being grey/neutral.