Darth Talon fans I presume?

I bounce between a Shadow and a Sentinel, and have for a long, long time. My Shadow was shelved for the vast majority of 4.0, sadly, but has since become a *lot* more fun. Really hoping they leave that combination in. As Eudoxia mentioned, it's the bug that makes the class OP right now, not the stride/rush.

The event reward is only worth it if you're looking at getting to either Eternal level (for the companion) or Legendary (turret mount); or if you still have a few classes you want to level up (due to the xp bonus armour) to either experience the class stories or get that Legendary status player tag. Myself, I have a few classes still to get to 50+ for the status tag, so this is simply a convenient way to go for it and, if I'm lucky, maybe get a new companion out of it (if I take them to 65). But I realize it's not for everyone.

As noted in a previous post, most FPs aren't too bad. It's just a few in particular that tend to be pretty unforgiving for lower levels who may not have all of their abilities yet, especially the defensive ones. If you haven't run Maelstrom (Repub only) or Blood Hunt, then you probably haven't encountered what everyone is griping about.

Sadly, this is correct. It makes absolutely no sense, but hey... that's the way it's designed. Personally, if I create 2 new characters and go pure light side on them only to get the dark side companion, I'm going to jettison him out the airlock.

I've always enjoyed the flashpoints, so I've done them all....more times than I care to admit. I freely spacebar my way through them. If a group decides to watch them, though, that's fine too. I just make a coffee For individual class stories, however, I tend to watch them unless it's a class I've done before, then I'll occasionally spacebar.

Maelstrom and Blood Hunt are definitely two of the harder ones. Maelstrom because Kilram has this amazingly broken ability to snipe and SoS you through pillars and boxes; and Blood Hunt because the difference between Tactical Joss and Valk and the Hard Mode version are almost indiscernible. Tacticals were meant to be easier. People are still learning their classes, plus many of the important abilities of their class may not even be unlocked yet. As it stands, those 2 FPs in particular are too difficult for most sub-65 groups, even with veterans behind the keyboards.

Curious about this as well. I may have missed it, but I don't recall seeing when the event is actually over. I'm playing casually currently and have a Vanguard in his 30s, but if it's more of a short-term event I'll have to pull my finger out and hustle a little more.

208 is useless gear?? I'd take an optimized 208 character over a non-optimized 220 char any day of the week. Swtor has never required top level gear. 208/216 is fine. Equip yourself. Equip your alts. Buy gifts for all character companions. That should keep you occupied for a long time...

Halfway to Legendary status here, so I still have Pub trooper + smuggler, and Empire warrior + inquisitor to choose from to level up. I'm thinking Trooper -> Vanguard, and then depending on how painful that is, either a Mara or Assassin as my other choice.

Signed. While there is a minor appeal to start a new character and see how much can unlock before my sanity dwindles, this is a major kick to the nads for all of us who have put a lot of time and effort into our character(s). My Sent, for example, has gone from dark V to light V in her career, and I've wanted proper light and dark recognition (other than those useless NPC's on fleet with light/dark gear nobody wants) for a long, long time. Now that it's here, i have to start a new character?? Come on...

We need to think up a newer word to describe the non-hardcore folk, because non-raiders can still be running around in 216/220 gear. The only difference is, they won't have the set bonuses, since those only come from OPs. But the dps difference won't be *that* big between them. It doesn't mean their level of skill or capability to do stuff is any less. I'm a casual, having not had the time to actively raid since....TFB operation era, I'd estimate. But I can still slaughter most anything I come across. As for the companion issue - I'd have to agree with you that the nerf was a bit too harsh, but I found it to be the new lack of *BURST* healing on companions that really makes this the problem. Previously, you hop down that first shaft, take ~16k damage, and your companion would insta-heal you for that amount. So any mobs hitting for less than that were a cakewalk. Now, that companion will heal you for maybe ~6k, with a HoT for 1-2k per tick afterwards. For Knights, Paladins, and so on that will hit harder, the healing simply won't keep up, and people are going to struggle. For those of us that have been around since forever, we know the ins and outs of our classes well enough to time our defensive CDs, pop medpacs, and even kite if need be, but the newer players may not be as adept and will get slaughtered. KOTFE attracted a lot of newer players, but I fear this change will drive them off. Nothing makes people walk away from a game faster than having a level of fun instantly and irrevocably taken away from you.

Well, the benchmark seems to move every couple of months. I remember for a while if you could solo the Black Hole heroic, you were doing pretty good. After that, Oricon heroic area became the new benchmark - that and certain hardmode flashpoints (False Emperor comes to mind). These days? It seems heroic Star Fortresses are a reasonable measure of your gear level (less about gear than skill, really)., with some slightly harder than others (Voss comes to mind). Tactical flashpoints are also a pretty good measure if you can pull those off. Hardmode flashpoints I'd wager are now off the charts for soloing, although sooner or later I'm sure someone will do it using kiting, line of sight, and so on.

Farming mats or blowing through dailies / heroics doesn't necessarily require a good AoE build. Stealth works just as good, and is often better, provided you can handle the bosses easily. I can clear stuff pretty quickly on my Shadow (stealth, mez, aggro reset), and almost just as quickly with my Sent (limited camo + fast run speed).

Yeah, it is chopped up. But it doesn't make it any less viable because it's chopped up It has instant burst - faster than the other 2 disciplines. Force Leap -> insta-crit AoE or single-target ability, your choice. BOOM. If you have Zen going, you'll have the force to spare to instantly follow up with a nice Conc Slice too. Great for when you need things dead *NOW*. And that makes it kinda fun to play.