I believe they fixed the bug related to taking cover while moving. However, cover is still bugged and simply does not activate at times - this was particularly frustrating in my Hard Modes last night.

Kashyyyk, Yavin IV, Endor

I would also like to know if PvP is working as intended.

I just want to say I'm extremely frustrated with current PvP rewards. I'm also disappointed in the direction PvP has moved since 1.2. Decreased TTK has really sucked the fun out of PvP. I have been trying to keep queuing, but as PvP rewards have been decreased and I'm not enjoying earning those rewards as much...well, I just don't want to PvP anymore. This isn't game-breaking, as there's plenty more to do, but I really enjoyed PvP before 1.2. I'd like it to continue to be something I enjoy in the future, and I hope it can be updated in the (near) future to be fun again. As it stands, I'll just be PvEing my way from here on out.

New design strikes me as very similar to the 'new' Gmail, in which it is now much more difficult to differentiate between conversations/threads. Separating threads by slight color changes is more difficult for my eyes to track than with solid borders and lines/bars. My forum browsing experience has become less satisfactory.

Love the new UI. One thing I'd like to be able to do is flip the Quest list horizontally. Currently text aligns to the right of the quest list, but if you move your quest list to the left side of your screen your text will run off the edge to the left. That's all.

Thoughtful feedback from the weekend: 1. It is, and has been, extremely frustrating to join a match-in-progress as a backfill player on a losing team. PvP queue times on my server can be long (5-15 minutes), and it's a slow process to queue, load, hop into a match, play for 30 or 90 seconds, watch the game summary screen, rinse, and repeat. What's worse is I'm now not rewarded in the least for this, even if I hop out of the gate, kill the ball carrier, and get 3 medals (e.g. 2.5k damage in one hit, finishing blow, 1k Defender Points). Thanks for addressing the medals/rewards issue by dropping the minimum requirement to 1. However, this still doesn't change the fact that being a backfill player is a waste of time and, more importantly, is not fun. 2. I think it's great that Voidstar now ends as soon as Team 2 makes more progress than Team 1 does. However, it can be really frustrating to be on the winning team and not get appropriate rewards for this. My team receives fewer rewards for winning than we would have if we intentionally perpetuate the match; and the other team is rewarded more if we "toy" with them and refuse to cap. Rewards are not being distributed based on performance, in this case. 3. Related to point 2 above, matches in which I've earned the most experience are matches in which I've been on the losing team and played very well. I was playing through levels 34-38 on a Sniper this weekend. In matches I won, no matter how long it took, I would receive no more than 10k experience. When we rolled the other team in Huttball or Voidstar, I would get maybe 7k XP. Not a lot. On the other hand, I could earn 8 or 9 medals in a losing effort and would gain over 17k XP. This happened twice. I would receive over twice as much XP for losing as I would for winning. It doesn't make sense! As I understand it, XP is distributed based on time spent in a Warzone, but that just encourages players to make matches last as long as possible - it doesn't encourage teams to win. That's pretty frustrating. I realize you also need to reward players who stick with a warzone and see it all the way through, but I'm personally dissatisfied with the current system and think it sends the wrong message and inappropriately rewards players. I don't want to start spewing "You must change items A, B, and C to X, Y, and Z." I don't have the solution. But I think improvement is needed in how players are rewarded (or not) for participating in warzones.

I'm disappointed and, honestly, feeling a little betrayed BioWare. PvP has been touted as a mainstay feature of 1.2 for a long time now, and I simply do not believe that you just now decided to leave it out. If you did just now decide to leave it out, then I suggest you take a look at your internal processes and see how you can prevent yourselves from disappointing your customers in the future. I can tolerate a degree of over promising and under delivering, but eventually I won't put up with it anymore. Edit: for clarity

Hey all, I wanted to bring up an issue I read about earlier. Currently, the companion gear system (that is, improving companion gear via quest rewards) is rather limiting - that is, it's very, very difficult to gear more than one companion effectively. This makes it difficult to use more than one companion in PvE environments, because eventually your "favorite" companion's gear will far outperform that of your other companions. What about when you switch crafting skills, and your previous go-to companion has a +2 critical rating for that skill? You can send him/her/it on missions, but none of your other companions are geared enough to handle the content you're encountering. What if I just want a different sidekick for a day to keep things fresh? I could of course purchase a bunch of gear on the GTN, but as it is, I could barely purchase Speeder Piloting 2 when I hit 40 last night. My concern with the current companion system is that a bunch of work went into fleshing out characters and personalities for our companions, but due to the current system it's difficult to get face time in with all of them. As such, we really only get to gain affection with one or two companions at a time naturally (that is, not spamming gifts), and otherwise they're just errand boys and girls to fetch crafting ingredients. I can't say what a good solution would be - perhaps receiving gear for all your companions at various checkpoints, something like chest piece, pants and a weapon that matches your current level and at least makes your companion viable for whatever content you'll be facing next. It just seems like there are stories within SWTOR that I'll never experience because anyone other than Khem Val can't handle the mobs I'll be facing until I hit 50.

You're only allowed to take Khem Val into the instance with Zash.

More maps

I agree that we need a solution for this issue. Very frustrating, repeatedly. I play both factions and have been on both ends of this issue. I don't know if it's practical, but it seems waiting to start the warzone until each team has 8 players would be a good way to assure matches at least start balanced.

This issue applies to Smugglers as well. Lots of useless stats on Tiered Gunslinger gear; my 'Slinger looks like a chump because none of his armor matches, but it's the only way I can get the stats I want. Hopefully this is improved eventually.

I put greater emphasis on Critical than I do Power or Surge. Critical gives Healing Trance a higher chance to proc Resplendence, which gives me a free Noble Sacrifice, which is pretty key for maintaining Force throughout long PvP battles. I also come from the DSP/Gunslinger school, and I <3 Critical, so take that as you will. I will say, getting a Crit on Deliverance is a great feeling. Use Force Armor on yourself all the time. If you see a ranging DPS, or a Sniper activating Aimed Shot (or w/e the Imp equivalent is), or haven't been attacked for 10 seconds and feel the need to check over your shoulder, cast Force Armor. You should have the talent that reduces its Force cost so that you can spam it all the time, on everyone. Hide behind walls/corners. Use LOS to your advantage. Being a Gunslinger taught me that my survivability is much greater if the enemy can't see me; for Sage's this is especially true, because unlike a Gunslinger, where the Imps can see my blaster fire, they won't be able to see the source of healing spells (as long as I stick to healing and don't cast Project or TK Throw). Generally I've found that if I need to be mobile for more than 5 seconds, or for more than moving from point A to point B, I'm going to die because one or more Imps have focus-fired me and are going to tail me until I'm dead. At that point you see if you can engage as many enemies as you can - see if you can distract them. Use Force Speed and your snare break so they can't lock you down. Use Force Slow, and spec Weaken Mind so that it slows movement (also spam Weaken Mind on EVERYONE, it's great for preventing enemies from capping, and at 15 seconds it's a powerful DOT). Use Force Stun on anyone without a full resolve bar - preferably on a Warrior or Sorcerer. Keep casting Force Armor on yourself. As you go, continue to spam Weaken Mind on other enemies and Force Armor on your allies. Use Restoration on yourself and if you've spec'd it to heal, the cleanse ability (can't remember the name) - it's a small heal, but can remove debuffs that will slow you/damage you. If Force Armor is on and Conveyance is proc'd, stop to do a Healing Trance or Deliverance, then use your knockback and Force Sprint to gain some ground. There's a LOT going on when kiting enemies like this, but that's what good keybinds are for and it can make a huge difference. Getting 3 Imps to chase you away from the ball carrier on Huttball for 45 seconds can make a huge difference. Finally, I'd suggest going into your Preferences and adjust your Ops Frame so that health bars are more easy to see, and I'd suggest moving the frame closer to the middle of the screen so it's easier to click. Hope at least some of that is helpful!

I have this issue as well. All I can say is, I'm secretly very satisfied when I can get 2 or 3 of them to chase me mindlessly, particularly in something like Huttball. For 60 or 90 or 120 seconds, I can give my team a 7v5 advantage. Silly Imps.

I voted "They're good" but wanted another option... I think in some cases the GCD is a big improvement. I appreciate that it's easier for me to see which abilities are on CD. However, as a player with Force and Energy-dependent classes, I find it difficult to know which abilities I'll be able to use when the GCD finishes based on how much Force/Energy I have. This isn't *terrible*, because I generally know how much Force/Energy I have and how much Force/Energy each ability costs, but it can definitely be a hindrance.

As one who stays away from Ilum until these sorts of issues are fewer and further between, I laughed. And agree.

This is a must-use skill, particularly in PvP and some flashpoints. In PvP it prevents you from the 3-shot death by Operative if you know there's one stealthing around (or delays it, at least). It also allows you to sit and deal massive damage for a brief time if things are really hairy and you've gotten yourself too close to the melee fighters. In flashpoints, I've found it can be particularly effective against bosses that have an ability that pulls you and your party members toward it to do massive AOE damage. If the boss in uninterruptable, just pop Hunker Down and keep firing while your teammates get sucked in. As squishy as Slingers are, this has really helped my group out significantly by reducing my need for healing and allowing me to continue damaging the boss. tl;dr: Use Hunker Down

Apologies if this topic already exists, no search feature. Title. Do I have to get a crit on one of my Underworld Trading missions with a Grade 5 metal yield? I've done 50+ such missions and nothing has yielded Promethium. I feel like I'm wasting my credits. Any info on this? knotor, torhead, etc. weren't helpful.

I'm level 42 and finally found a matching pair of blaster pistols I'm happy with (reminiscent of Episodes 4-6). Been on the prowl for a while now. As for gear, I honestly haven't been happy with anything. I haven't found a single hat like those that were so enticing in the previews. All the chest pieces after Tatooine look essentially the same, as do the pants. I don't really care about boots or gloves or bracers so much as the texture quality is so poor it doesn't make much of a difference, but I'm still looking for a hat and have been disappointed with my options so far. Withholding final judgement until I start getting some lvl 50 PvP gear.

I also realized this weekend that I was winning warzones and not getting credit for them with the daily.

I would take Bravado over the Dirty Kick buff. If you're in a situation where you're using Dirty Kick to try and run away, you're already screwed as a Slinger. Take the extra energy so you can maintain a higher DPS output, position yourself well, and remember that while attacking a target you can rotate your view however you like. No one should be sneaking up on you.

I find it very, very fun, and I'm usually very successful. That's all you need to know. It's getting tougher, now that the stealth and tank classes are really fleshing themselves out and fitting into their roles. Plus players are starting to recognize that Slingers / Snipers can do a lot of damage, AND they know we're squishy, so we're becoming bigger targets. I'm starting to see a lot of "Sniper vs. Gunslinger" duels on the sidelines, which will end quickly one way or another on account of each party doing a ton of damage and not having a lot of health.

I agree with the OP on many points. However, I also really enjoy the game, and even cumulatively, nothing listed is near enough to get me to stop playing. The nice thing is we know it'll just keep getting better.

Tab targeting is faster than using your mouse and, if it works correctly, allows you to precisely target an enemy, instead of having to try and click him/her through 2 or3 other characters who are all hacking away at each other. I have the same issue with Tab targeting. In fact I bound the tilde (~) key to "Target Next Enemy" and the Tab key to "Target Nearest Enemy" and I still have issues. The Tab key sometimes doesn't target ANYTHING, which is when I use the tilde key, but even then the Tab key doesn't always re-target the nearest enemy if I've targeted an enemy further away. Been dealing with it for a while, now, but there's not really a "workaround" - you just have to react when it doesn't work properly.