Hey Onager, thanks for that priority list, that's incredibly helpful. Haven't seen that spelled out so clearly before. I was definitely doing some of that stuff wrong, like prioritizing plasma brand over overhead slash even if the DOT was already up. Just never bothered to check the numbers. I like all the QQ'ing in this thread because it's teasing good advice out of people who know what they're talking about. Maybe that's the best way to learn: make statements that are obviously wrong to irritate people into helping you. I'll have to try that.

Here's my JKG: http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8096/azrenax.png The chest is: http://www.torhead.com/item/6zvjgcP/commando-elite-chestguard Not sure if it's available on rep side. I crafted it on my BH emp side and mailed it. There are 2 other chests that look similar but they're not white like this one. Edit: Actually not totally sure whether I crafted it or bought it on AH, but either case I got the item or the recipe on Emp side.

I'm guessing he actually means Explosive Dart rather than electro? DFA->explosive can be good for groups with 2+ normal mobs. Above poster is correct on rotation. Your main issue is popping RS with only 2 stacks of tracer lock. Wait til 5. Don't remember when you get HSM but maybe you don't have it yet. Not sure what you mean by "macros anyone?" It's not like WoW or RIFT at this point where you can make a 1-button macro that implements that rotation. You could do it with a programmable keyboard but that's against the TOS and you could get banned I think so I wouldn't recommend that.

I just got the helm, and found that the TD-17A Imperator Body Armor is a perfect color match. I have other green pants, boots, and gloves that make this set look great. Totally monochrome olive drab except for the helmet accents. The chest isn't the best shape I've seen, but the color match is nice and it has the side advantage of looking a little different than most BH's you see around. http://www.torhead.com/item/g1wxls7/td-17a-imperator-body-armor The best thing about that chest is it looks beat up, with chips and scratches. And not too elaborate. It's a quest reward from The Master's Secret on Dromund Kaas, which is in the Revanite quest chain. So you might have it sitting in your cargo hold.

There's a similar set from Belsavis. Combination of rewards from the bonus series and commendation vendor. Not an exact match, but close. The level 40 PVP armor has the same basic model but with different colors. Electrum onslaught gear also looks somewhat like that but I don't remember where you get it.

There's probably a threshold of threat that you have to exceed before you actually pull aggro. If that threshold is ~15% it would explain the behavior you're seeing. The way the threshold would work is that your threat would have to exceed the tank's threat by some percentage before you actually pull aggro. Then his threat would have to exceed yours by a similar percentage to get aggro back unless he taunts. Then the way taunts work is that the mob is aggroed on the tank, but he must get his threat ahead of yours before the taunt wears off, or at least within the threshold. So if the threshold is 15%, that would mean your threat is 15% higher than the tank when you pull aggro. Then he has to get his to 15% above yours to get aggro back. So in that scenario your 25% reduction wouldn't be enough. Even a threshold of 10% might be enough to explain the behavior, is a single attack could take you from 9.9% above to 15.1% above, because then it would take more than 25% change for the tank to get aggro back. There was a fabulous amount of theorycraft on these mechanics for WoW. I'm guessing no-one knows that much about it in TOR yet.

OP, you really were asking for the l2p responses by claiming in all caps that the boss can't be soloed. If you had said, "is there something i'm missing?" in a more modest tone you'd have engendered less insulting responses. I really enjoyed this encounter personally, and glad it was bugged. As it happens I figured out it was the padawan healing in time to win the first encounter and took him out of range. But I like those fights where you have to think about it rather than just blow through. I enjoy trying to solo H2+ missions where it takes a bit more thought. Even managed to solo a few groups of an H4 at level with a bit of luck and planning. I would actually like to see more single-player boss fights where there's a tricky mechanic you have to figure out. Not a gear test or a clickfest, but something with phases and strats. Things like avoiding aoe, moving away from him when he emotes, etc. Simple things you have to do but unforgiving, and you're unlikely to get it right the first try. Actually the class epic quests they had in WoW early on were a bit like this only harder and more involved than I'm suggesting. Like the epic hunter bow Rhokdelar and there was a priest staff equivalent I think. I certainly wouldn't put extremely difficult quests on the main story line, but maybe a side option with nice rewards or something.

I think the first really decent-looking armor you get is from the Taris bonus series, and I was lvl 33-34 when I got it. You get a full set that way, and it's all orange so it's moddable and you can keep it all the way through. I'm wearing it now -- not wild about the color scheme, but it's waaaay better looking than the stuff I had before.

I don't think you should direct Mako to attack the silver. Leave her alone and she'll heal you. You could cc the silver, nuke the normal, then back to the silver. But you shouldn't even need to do that. What I normally do on silver +1 is open with explosive dart on the normal, followed by TM. Usually he's dead with just those 2, or then you can add another TM or just the normal attack. If the silver is melee, use your jet boost and electro dart when they're up, but basically just TM->TM->TM->Rail Shot->TM->Unload. Also Mako does her cc periodically which interrupts attacks (forget what level she gets that but I think it's <33). And the whole time she's healing you, so I'm typically at 100% at the end of a silver +1. Even on the H2+ quests at level with a gold and 2 silvers, I cc the gold, nuke 1 silver, then the other, then the gold, and Mako can usually keep me topped up pretty well for however long the gold takes. Maybe you have Mako on dps stance or something? Maybe that's faster, not sure, but you definitely need her healing on longer fights.

Must be a bug that you get dark side points for punching that noble. It's clearly a moral imperative.