So my 31/0/10 Tankassin has been working on gear and trying to juggle the guidelines for "optimizing" the stat balance for tanking as mentioned here on sithwarrior.com: My current spread in all OJ gear, including belt/bracers (no set gear at all because it's so fugly... and also because I just dinged 50 last week): 18.8k health plus change (forgot to note exact number) 6280 armor 351 def 407 shield 171 absorb (929 total rating) I am having a real hard time getting the absorb rating up to the proper level, mostly because you must choose enhancements between Def/Shield or Shield/Absorb, basically... there are no Def/Absorb combos. I have put in all purple Mk 22 Robust mods (willpower/endurance/absorb) as best I can from the daily quests, as well as snatched 2x Mk 25B Robust Mods from the GTN. Are augments the only other reliable source of Absorb rating? As it stands right now, I only have an augment slot available in my Earpiece (already slotted with +28 absorb), and am working on crit-crafting a Relic at the least (taking forever). I'm using the Columi bracers in my tanking set for the time being for the +defense, but am thinking I might go back to the OJ bracers instead so i can slot in a Robust mod there as well for a little more +absorb. Is there any way to trade all those piles of Shield rating we seem to get for more +Absorb? Seems like this is the primary problem we run into with stat balancing... do you folks in full-Rakata gear have this same issue? Thanks.

Some Friends List improvements that would be nice to consider: "Shared" friends lists between all my toons on my account -- so I don't have to friend the same people 3-4+ times to keep track of them The ability to just friend a Legacy instead of one specific character... would be nice to help track alt-o-holics (likewise, the ability to /ignore a Legacy might be welcome as well...) A comment field if the above is not possible so at least I can make personal notes about who is who and why/when I friended them I saw in the patch notes the online/offline thing is being address... finally. Thanks!

Great info. Thanks for that. I got lucky and scored the pants off the GTN for like 10k the other day... even with another pair listing for 225k right next to them... go figure. Now for the robe...

Tracer missile is for the birds. I can't imagine ever going back... lighting things on fire is just so fun. RNG can mess with heat management for Merc/Pyro PvE, but if you have half a brain you learn to deal with it. It's nice to have to pay attention while playing...

Has anyone come across any info re: the Cybertech speeders in 1.2? e.g. are we still stuck with only the same "three" models? I put that in quotes because rank 1 is the same as the vendor model and ranks 2 and 3 are, well, just a recolor of itself... Personally, I'd love if they would make moddable speeders that we could slot things like appearance/sound packages and/or performance upgrades into... that would be fun to roll on a riced-out speeder bike... haha! Blue neon anyone? Also, any word on if mods with TANKING stats will finally be accessible to us? Purple mats for any given UT tier only come if you "crit" the mission, so it's hit-miss there... send companions with the highest affection for maximum crit rate (or companions with +crit UT bonuses). The only missions that *ensure* purple mat returns are the special one-off "epic" missions you can get via Slicing crits or from the GTN (for a lot of cash).

This is a pretty simple fix if they put it deep in the Pyro tree for sure... devs? Honestly, I don't know how they think -10% dmg to our only filler shot while all our other crap is on CD (internal or not) is a good idea... Pyro was already marginally considered the inferior PvE dps spec in the first place (mostly due to heat build-up when PPA doesn't proc)... how is this making things any better than worthless?

After thinking about this a bit, I agree with the above. The L50 gear-gap is what ruins PvP for a lot of people... so hopefully this new system will come as close as they can to eliminating it while still giving the epeeners some semblance of "progression" with their PvP. Maybe this is why I love the L10-49 bracket so much... it's not gear that wins the day...

The OP really points out some good info that is helpful to decide what I should be doing with my alts and their merc/wz comms... it sounds like buying up champion gear at this point is an utter folly. It's too bad they aren't updating existing cent/champ gear to be at least on par with the blue recruit gear... it would give some of us incentive to pvp and spend our tokens prior to 1.2. With this news, I have little or no incentive to PvP for gear at this point... just for fun (if anyone actually does that still...)...

This is pretty much it. +31 vs. +41 rating... if that affects your gameplay significantly, something else is wrong...

I'm not sure if you are just trying to be rude or condescending, but all the DB sites only show +41 crystals in the new gear... but DB sites are notoriously bad at being completely correct, esp. when they are just mining data files that may or may not be current. It's just "amuzing" how many people think they are so smart with "Google it" replies... So my original statement stands... the +46 are either people making stuff up or the devs are confused. I'm sticking with the former unless someone sees otherwise and posts shots from PTS. I believe you Georg!

The fact credits are so easy to make is WHY they have to have this credit sink in the first place... people will QQ about everything and anything. I'm pretty sure I've cleared nearly 10M in the past couple weeks since the white crystals came out... I'm not even sure anymore, it's so easy.

This is great news... much appreciated on the reply. My confusion arises from reports of +46 stat crystals in the new top-tier gear in 1.2... are those reports erroneous? I have yet to see screenshots confirming anything, which is why I suspect those who posted about the +46 gear were being malicious about spreading FUD. Thanks for the active feedback... it is appreciated by more than a few.

This is useful info for everyone: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=3574370#edit3574370 This does make me question, however, some of the reports that people were seeing +46 stat crystals somewhere on PTR... but something tells me that people are either being confused or misled... not sure which until I see screenshots and/or yellow text to confirm.

This is worth a read for all you white-crystal lovers/haters out there: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=3574370#edit3574370

I'm not sure these Robust Mods (End/Will/Absorb) are available unless you can find gear to strip them out... I have never seen them and I am a) Cybertech and b) a L49 Tankassin. These would go a long way to helping solve the conundrum that faces fresh Tankassins though... One of my problems that I haven't had much luck finding advice about is how to stat balance as a fresh 50 Tankassin... the ratings distro on existing mods is just frustrating to all end. Based on the advice from the SithWarrior.com tanking thread: How exactly do you do this with OJ gear and existing mods/enhancements? There are no real mods out there that will offer Defense/Absorb as a combination, sadly, which makes it extra hard to accomplish the above. Here are available Enh combos that I'm aware of since tanking mods are still non-craftable (spoiler tag to save space): Obviously we probably shouldn't take Absorb-only combinations just for the sake of meeting the Absorb rating ratio, so by default, it seems we end up with much higher Defense/Shield ratios than advised... is this just the way it is and we do our best? It will make me sad if the only way to end up with favorable ratios is to farm specific purple pieces as the only source... Our only other recourse is Augments, but honestly, there aren't THAT many slots available for augments in OJ gear at this time, obviously, and Earring plus two Implants is really all that we have for the most part at this time. Any insight would be appreciated.

While not directly related to the pyro changes, some quotes from Georg regarding the massive healing nerfs might provide some insight into their design process... for better or worse: http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-march-23rd-2012 Somehow though, I can't honestly believe that they feel that Merc/Pyro is "overperforming" when you compare it to PT/Pyro... and if the argument stands that PT/Pyro is "overperforming" in terms of PvP spike dps, they need to adjust it such that Merc/Pyro is not so adversely affected as collateral damage during the changes. I would really appreciate some insight from the devs on what is going on specifically with our BH class changes...

This might not be a bad idea to mirror the HSM buff as "compensation". I so hope a dev is reading this thread... I honestly have doubts that merc/pyro is getting much test time at all since this is not a popular spec with the kiddies.

yes, this is an issue i've noticed as well. sometimes the CD number fails to clear properly. i'd recommend that you put your report into a /bug in-game since apparently the CSRs have gently reminded people that these forums are apparently not the proper forum for bugs. :confused:yes, i am confused by that as well, but the yellows have said it several times to use /bug in-game to report such issues.

Personally I think the OP is smoking crack, but this part above intrigued me... Source link please?

this is the problem... PTS has no mass char copy ability right now... only "invited" guilds with L50s to test raid content are being manually copied over at the discretion of the devs. the only PTS server available is a PvE one, too, so PvP in the grand sense is likely secondary. from what i've been hearing, there isn't even enough L50 population to reliably pop WZs for testing on PTS... I honestly have no idea how any meaningful testing can occur with "fringe" specs like Merc/Pyro given such limited sampling, which is very very disappointing and a bit discomforting.

Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Curious to know what the new 7-pc set options might be? From what I gather, Rakata/Columi/Tionese set mods will not be retroactively changed to be removable. It sounds like the extractable base mods will only be for new gear starting in 1.2 and beyond. This is a huge bummer.

ORLY?!!!! please screenshot! i'm still waiting on my PTS download... *ugh*

this is the better combo if the target is heading under 30% health and running away since the FM dot takes off if used at this point. i find myself using this scenario more often as well, TSO/power surge/FM. i think the folks that burn the power surge instant with powershot are trying to front-load burst (while mobile) by linking it up early in their rotation, e.g. TD/IM/RS/power surge/powershot/RS (if it procs). both approaches are valid, just depends how you play.

Our concerns are lost because merc/pyro is largely considered "inferior" to PT/pyro... and for mercs, every other merc is arsenal, so yeah... we are a small minority. Plus the RNG nature of merc/pyro burst made it harder to pin down for PvP qq, I think... but yes, when things line up, you can destroy stuff fast with our burst capability as merc/pyro. That said, your concerns are valid and I can only hope that someone on the dev team has though this out. Nerfing power shot by 10% dmg AND PPA proc rate really hurts merc/pyro dps more than any other BH spec at this point, since our filler shot was power shot when everything else is on CD. Arsenal at least gained a buff to HSM as a small compensation, pyro got nothing. As for the whole "hit unload to proc PPA, then cancel" (same with powershot), that was mostly for PvP purposes. In PvE, I'd expect it's better to just let it ride since you invest the heat once you hit the ability anyhow, no sense "wasting" the dmg per heat like that when you are already invested... For heat management purposes in PvE, I just default to powershot/rapidshot couples to gain that small tick of heat regen before my next special. Seems to work out most of the time unless I am unlucky and get zero PPA procs after 2-3 consecutive cycles (which happens more often than it should). Honestly, 6 sec internal CD on our primary heat dump (RS via PPA procs) is very very distressing...

Wow... old school props to you. It wasn't just in the trailers either... when Luke first ignites his pop's lightsaber (and maybe some other scenes) the rotoscoping of the blade ends up pretty white there too... the limitations of real world SFX back in the day... Agreed... "technically" my toon is in all-white attire... well, it matches her hair i guess! http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2679/screenshot2012031818561.jpg I haven't decided yet if I want to drop the 2.5M for the L50 version though... made getting this toon to L47 the primary goal, but we'll see. Part of the problem is deciding +power vs. +endurance since as a tank, i kinda need one of each...