In all situations you can find a way to better yourself or your group. It's laziness if you want combat logs to do that for you. It makes the game easier and cuts from the fun for some people. There are people complaining that HM FP are too hard and they can't do them right after they hit 50. Should they be made easier? It would make the game easier and cut from the fun for some people. Same as with damage meters.

There so much truth in these words. Bioware should not give much power to people to exploit. On damage meters, the reality is that they make life easier. Everything can be done without them, but it is easier with them. So it comes down to lazy people that want a tool to tell them what/who is good instead of finding a more difficult way to judge that. Yes there are other ways, more difficult, but they exist. Trying to beat new content is the best PvE part of a MMO and making it easier is not something I like.

This is very interesting guide. I've always build my PC and I find all the information here good and up to date. There is topic I have researched extensively somewhat wrong. Video cards for 2560x1600 resolution. I want to state the fact that I am not an ATI fan. I had nvidia cards for close to 10 years until I had to buy one to power the 2560x1600 monitor. Researched showed that Radeon HD 6970 performance is almost the same as Geforce GTX 580 with the price on par with Geforce GTX 570. The suggested order is: - Radeon HD 6970 - Geforce GTX 480 - Geforce GTX 570 - Geforce GTX 580 - Radeon HD 5970 - Radeon HD 6990 Geforce GTX 580 is the recommended card. The rule that I found is that more RAM produces more at higher resolution. This means that Radeon HD 6970 performers better at 2560x1600 then the cards with lower ram compared to 1920x1080. With that in mind the order of the same cards for 1920x1080 is: - Geforce GTX 480 - Geforce GTX 570 - Radeon HD 6970 - Geforce GTX 580 - Radeon HD 5970 - Geforce GTX 590 - Radeon HD 6990 This shows Radeon HD 6970 performing better at 1920x1080 compared to the other cards then 2560x1600 and this is not correct. The order I would put for 2560x1600 is: - Geforce GTX 480 - Radeon HD 6950 2GB - Geforce GTX 570 - Radeon HD 6970 - Geforce GTX 580 - Radeon HD 5970 - Geforce GTX 590 - Radeon HD 6990 Putting Radeon HD 6950 2GB there might be confusing, so it can be skipped. Also I would put Radeon HD 6970 as the recommended card for performance/price.

I think you have just found some bad players that want to compensate that by being overgeared. Another example of this is all the people that ask for ranged DPS in General chat, but this is another topic. I am running Empire, so I can't say specifically for your Flashpoints. Our FPs scale - you need better gear for the last few and you can do the 1st few to get that. The basic for me is all blue gear from Corellia commendation. You can get that by finishing your story at Ilum and doing all lvl 50 normal FP (some are challenging and you will learn better team play). In the mean time you can do dailies on Belsavis and Ilum. I didn't get any Implant/Earpiece from them, just armoring and Hilt. You need 5 Armoring and 1 Hilt/Barrel. That is 6x8 = 48 commendations, 4 days, not a lot of work and it isn't mandatory. In the meantime watch the GTN for cheap Epic/Blue items/mods to make your life easier. When you finish Normal FP you should have 1/3 Epic and 2/3 Blue gear. This is more then enough to start HM FP and all that say it's not enough are bad at this game and you better stay away from them

1) Give me paid vacation, so I can play more I require nothing more. Unfortunately this will not happen and I will still sub. Imagine that. I've got my char to 50 around new year, but I am back to work and I am not able to finish even a 1/3 of the dailies and FP I want to do every day, let alone level my Alt that is sitting at lvl 14. Such a good game, so little time

I am playing neutral SI. The only neutral Relic you can buy is from PvP. Other ways to get relics: - Datacron Shards. You can have only 1 Matrix Cube, but it is best in slot when you are 50. - BoP drops on FP and Ops. I have seen 2 drops up until now: False Emperor Normal and Boarding Party Hard Mode. I assume there are more, but I have not seen once a drop on Black Talon Hard Mode, so it's connected to a certain FPs. Do not go to the GTN. You need blue and purple, because the others require alignment. Blue and purple are BoP. In the end when you reach end game it looks like it won't matter what alignment you choose. It's annoying, but the best ones don't require alignment.

I usually don’t complain, but in this instance it’s getting ridicules. I have Biochem and Slicing on my main and Cybertech on my Alt. I spend a lot of time picking professions depending on what use I will have for the character in game. Now I feel pretty screwed. On the idea that Biochem can make you money: it is completely useless in this game. There is nothing useful you can do with money in this game. Every useful item is BoP. I am playing Neutral and we have no Relics other then the 1 you build from Datacron shards, so I have 1 Relics slot empty. Sorry about ranting, but I feel I am getting the short end of the stick here. All my good choices are getting nullified and I am getting punished for my style of play (Neutral Alignment). Having said that, Biochem was OP and needed to be toned down. I don’t feel this has been done well. Having the Rakata pack exclusive to Biochem and giving 15% bonus health might lead to all tanks having to pick Biochem. Just like at the moment, but just for tanks.

Leveling my second toon and I am again doing every single side quest (Heroics excluded). I guess some people don't enjoy them so much

It certainly was. It's a case of mixing some of my favorite things in one game. I guess I am lucky I have bought a number of games, mostly on sale, but I think that the only one that beats SWTOR as value/money is Football Manager 2011 that I bought for 10$ (I buy FM series a year later because of the bug fixes).

It is difficult to say at the moment. I am playing Empire and some are too easy, some are too hard or extremely hard (possibly bugged) and some seem good to me. I guess we need some bug fixes and balance to see where things take us.

To put it simple I do not support the implementation of the suggested tools in the game. The reasons I do not are pretty selfish. I will enjoy the game more and for longer if they are not implemented. I guess that is the reason everyone is using even if they say it's for the betterment of the game I enjoy spending time improving my game play and trying to beat hard content. It's not the destination that is important, it's the journey. Having such a tool will cut this time by a lot regardless if I am playing with friends or strangers. If such tools are implemented I will use them, read guides about them and cut trough the content much faster. I know that it is possible to still do it the hard way with friends if we all agree to, but as mentioned by a lot people before me we will be a burden to others when playing outside of our group, so this is not an option. Something that should be considered is that if such tools are implemented the difficulty level of content might need an adjustment as it would become too easy for some. Others that don't use these tools might find it almost impossible. This was the mandatory logical defense of my selfish reasons I guess it all comes down to the question if you enjoy trying to beat Hard stuff or prefer just beating the crap out of it as fast as possible. I am happy it is not implemented yet and will enjoy it while it lasts. Cheers!

I got this datacron yesterday. We got a group, killed the boss. One received the depleted datacron. We went where the real one is. The one with the depleted opened it and all of us got the real one (+4 str). I think that even people outside the party can use the real datacron once it's opened, but I am not sure. I hope this helps. Get a group and get the datacron now

I reached 50 yesterday and you should not feel bad about it. I didn't skip anything and enjoyed the game more then any other in a decade. I still have a few days to go before finishing Act 3. Then I'll start exploring end game content (even if it is not huge), help guildies and start an alt to see what the other stories are like. I could reset my toon skills and try a different role, just to learn it. There are tons of stuff to do. I feel good about it