Yes, I 100% agree. We are both speaking to each other in a reasonable manner. We will agree to disagree and I'm cool with that.

My point is that a functional layer of protection already exists. Time does not need to be spent adding a second protection layer to save players from themselves who choose to ignore the first layer. And the Developers already added a quality of life improvement to address this exact problem. The "Unit Price" column was added to the GTN. Players can click it twice to sort all the horrible nasty scammers selling "overpriced" items to the bottom of the list. This problem has already been solved. Twice. Edit: Actually, this problem has already been solved three times. There is a "maximum price" search option. If you're buying units that you expect to be priced at ~3,000 a piece, just put "400,000" into this box. You will see every possible stack of units priced at 4,000 per unit or less and you'll be doubly protected from the super-scammers.

And I had just looked up this 441 year old quote too. "A foole and his monie be soone at debate, which after with sorrow repents him too late." - Thomas Tusser (1524 – 1580) from Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie

Ok, what in the world am I not understanding about this fractional pricing "scam?!" You're saying that if you're shopping for an item that normally costs ~3,000 credits per unit and someone lists one item for a cost of ~3,000,000 credits that'll you'll buy the overpriced one by mistake?! How is 3,999.99 credits similar enough to 3,999,999 credits that it's pulling the wool over your eyes? Any number with a decimal mark in it only has two digits after it. A non-fractional number will have three digits after the final comma delimiter. Apart from this difference in the actual number of digits at the end of a number, there is the difference in the total digits in the numbers overall. 3,999.99 has six digits and 3,999,999 has seven digits. And even apart from both of those major differences, the GTN provides a unit price sort option, from smallest to largest, if you click on the unit price heading twice. The Developers don't need to spend the time to add multiple layers to the GTN system to protect you from yourself. They already assumed you were going to make foolish errors and added the "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BUY THIS ITEM FOR 3,999,999 CREDITS" confirmation dialogue to the purchasing process. You are 100% personally responsible for either 1) not reading that warning text or 2) turning it off. A protection system is already in place. Use it.

For anyone stating "I don't like 16-man Group Finder because I have a small guild" please re-read the following post. 16-man Group Finder does not prevent you from running 8-man Operations with your small guild, and therefore in no way dilutes the talent of your guild group. Simply do not use Group Finder and walk into an 8-man instance. You are completely unaffected by the change in terms of the size of the Operation you run and the quality of the players in your group. If your actual reason for not liking 16-man Group Finder is the fact that you don't get Ultimate commendations unless you use it, then you do not understand the purpose of Group Finder being in the game. Group Finder does not exist to provide your pre-made guild group with free transportation into the Operation instance and a bonus commendation present at the end. Group Finder is meant to help individual players find a group to be able to run an Operation with. The commendation reward is meant to incentivize the use of Group Finder so that individual players have an increased level of access to group content. If your 8-man pre-made guild group somehow feels obligated to only run Operations through 16-man Group Finder because you want the Ultimate commendations, and therefore you have to include other players as part of your team, congratulations, you are doing exactly what Group Finder was designed for. You are helping other players experience Operation content and the incentive worked.

You should make a point of visiting in person as well. He's prepping for the Clone Wars like it's nobody's business. It'll make you laugh.

1) The Developers are not expected to balance the game's DPS around every individual player's possible hardware performance problems. 2) Every Assassin has access to Force Speed. Every Marauder has access to leap. No player of a given advanced class and spec has access to skills and abilities that permit them to move faster in combat than another player of the same advanced class and spec. "Non-variable" in this context means that in-shape Player A cannot move their character any faster when in-combat as compared to out-of-shape Player B. You can think of it this way -- if one of the top nightmare operation players sat down at your computer, logged into one of your characters, fought Grob'thok and pulled X DPS, there is nothing preventing you from also pulling X DPS. Just trigger abilities in the same order and move your character along the same path. The nightmare operation player is not physically capable of playing your character better than you can.

I would like to address some posters’ confusion as to why the change to overall DPS levels is based on the performance of the top nightmare operation players. Everyone is capable of the same DPS Reaching the highest DPS numbers does not rely on a player’s personal physical abilities. The game has artificial restrictions in place which limit how much a player’s personal physical abilities are able to influence their character performance. Global rate-limit of 1.5 seconds for abilities Character in-combat movement speed is non-variable Therefore, a player in peak personal physical condition cannot achieve a higher DPS number than any other player, in the same gear, who is physically capable of triggering abilities every 1.5 seconds. I will leave aside any discussion of mental abilities as that would imply that players who achieve lower DPS levels are somehow mentally inferior to players at higher DPS levels. I do not believe this and I strongly believe that any player, with enough practice and understanding of their character and spec, is capable of performing at the DPS levels of any other player in this game. Therefore there is no meaningful limit to DPS levels based on a player’s mental abilities. Determining “ceiling” DPS The Developers attempt to mathematically determine what the maximum DPS level (the “ceiling”) is for a given spec based on their understanding of the interaction between a sequence of abilities and the statistics of a character. However, the Developers are human and are capable of making mistakes. As well, with many hundreds of thousands of people playing characters, there is always the possibility that unanticipated gameplay will emerge that supersedes the theoretical DPS calculations of the Developers. One example of this is hybrid specs. If players demonstrate that they are capable of reaching a higher DPS ceiling than the Developers anticipated, then that unequivocally becomes the new ceiling DPS level for that advanced class and spec. It no longer matters what the Developers calculated should have been the DPS ceiling. Therefore the Developers will always use the DPS levels of min/max geared nightmare operation players as the DPS ceiling for a given advanced class and spec when those players’ DPS levels supersede the Developers’ calculations. Time-to-kill The time-to-kill (TTK) any enemy in the game depends on the interaction between three numerical gameplay elements and player skill. The hit points (HP) of the enemy The statistics (or “gear level”) of the player, which can be expressed as a percentage of the highest possible statistics The DPS ceiling of the spec of the player The ability of the player to perform a perfect rotation (“player skill”), which can be expressed as a percentage of a perfect rotation TTK = HP / ( Gear Level x DPS Ceiling x Player Skill ) Operation difficulty levels and DPS ceiling The three operation difficulty levels have one underlying primary purpose – to affect the ease with which players achieve the DPS ceiling for their advanced class and spec. As the difficulty level of an operation increases, more mechanics are introduced. These mechanics have the ancillary effect of making fights more interesting and fun, but their primary purpose is to make it harder for players to achieve their DPS ceiling. Mechanics can result in players needing to move more often, be out of range of an enemy, or have an enemy become immune to damage. The overall impact is that performing a perfect rotation and reaching the DPS ceiling during a fight becomes harder as more mechanics are added. The Developers’ philosophy behind the three operation difficulty levels can be seen as an interaction between how close to their DPS ceiling (in the case of operations, this means “the maximum possible DPS for the operation’s recommended gear level”) players are expected to come, and how many mechanics are in place to hinder players from reaching their DPS ceiling (numbers provided for example purposes.) Story Mode: Players are expected to be able to reach 75% of their DPS ceiling. Few mechanics are present, providing a small hindrance to DPS. Hard Mode: Players are expected to be able to reach 85% of their DPS ceiling. Several mechanics are present, providing a moderate hindrance to DPS. Nightmare Mode: Players are expected to be able to reach 95% of their DPS ceiling. Many mechanics are present, providing a large hindrance to DPS. So it becomes obvious why story mode is so easy relative to nightmare mode. The Developers expect story mode players to reach a lower percentage of their DPS ceiling in the recommended gear level and are barely preventing players from reaching that target. In nightmare mode, not only do the Developers expect players to reach a higher percentage of their DPS ceiling in the recommended gear level, but they are also throwing mechanic after mechanic into the fight to make it very hard for players to reach that target. Current 2.10 game state Based on the comments of the developers on the 3.0 DPS reduction, I interpret the current state of the game in 2.10 as follows. Nightmare operation players have set new DPS ceilings across almost all advanced classes that are higher than what the Developers intended. All players are benefiting from these higher ceilings as they can outperform the Developers' DPS intentions at any gear and skill level. For example, if the current maximum possible DPS for being in full 180 commendation gear is 3,300 for a given advanced class and spec, but the Developers intended the maximum DPS to only be 3,000, a player who can only perform at 70% of the maximum possible is still able to achieve 2,310 DPS rather than the 2,100 the Developers intended. As all players are outperforming expected DPS levels, it has become easier than the Developers intended for players to reach the percentage of their DPS ceiling that is required to clear operation bosses. Conclusion DPS reductions will always be based on the performance of nightmare operation players. Those players demonstrate to the Developers whether a DPS ceiling that is higher than the Developers’ expectation is possible. As well, all players, at any gear and skill level, are benefiting from a higher ceiling number based on the TTK formula: TTK = HP / ( Gear Level x DPS ceiling x Player Skill ) Finally, all players are capable of performing the exact same rotation as any other player, as there are artificial limitations to a player’s physical capabilities, and therefore, equally geared, any player is able to perform at the exact same DPS level as any other player.

I agree, in all seriousness. An anonymous video game forum is not going to provide you with appropriate answers and help for an issue that results from your personal thoughts and motivations. We can tell you until we're blue in the face that "missing minor items of content does not matter," but we cannot transfer our value systems into your mind. Seeking professional help if this issue is bothering you is an appropriate approach.

Just as other posters have been telling you, there is a full transcript of the Developers discussing the adjustment to DPS. It is word-for-word accurate, I should know, I wrote it myself. The two claims you are so interested in: 1) Content, if a problem, will be adjusted "Sure, so the trick with that, of course, is relative to the players doing [nightmare Dread Fortress and Dread Palace] now, they might be getting a little more difficult, and that’s true. We will make some adjustments to counteract the Class differences," 2) Mobs will actually be easier to kill after the sweeping changes "Now the trick of course is, tangentially related to [players doing less damage], in the lower-level game, something that we wanted to do is we’ve sort of always felt as time has gone on, that the game, especially the (because the game’s more mature now and players tend to play the higher level), that we could speed up the low-level game. So one of the things that we’re doing is, effectively, all the mobs from, like, level 50 on down, all the mobs that you see out in the planetary content and in your Class missions, that kind of stuff, they’re actually all going to die faster. So it won’t be quite such a “slog,” is the word we’re used a lot, so you get through the game a little faster."

Make sure you are also applying the armor break debuff to the dummy as well as setting its HP. You can buy the armor break canister from your ship repair/vendor droid just like the HP one. You want the armor break applied as well as the opportunity to move through a sub-30% execution phase for an accurate parse.

Shouldn't the second person who leaves also get a penalty as now the remaining two people have to wait for two spots to fill? What about if the third person leaves, resulting in the fourth person having to wait for three spots to fill? Just because you find it acceptable to abandon a group after one person drops does not mean the remaining players share your approach. Perhaps they wanted to three-man it and use a companion. I've done that plenty of times.

The guilds and players who are testing content on the PTS are performing a service for the entire community in identifying bugs. Of course the Developers need some of the top nightmare guilds on there. All ten bosses need to get cleared quickly, so having players capable of doing that in just a couple of weeks so there is time to make adjustments and retest is important. Nobody cares about World First hard mode clears. The new nightmare operations will likely go up on a public PTS and all the top guilds will go clear them there and then clear them again on Day 1 of their Live release. There is no more meaningful nightmare race in this game. Zorz cleared nightmare Dread Palace four hours after it was released on Live, and they were delayed by about an hour because the servers were going nuts from the buggy 16-man Group Finder implementation.

Yes, sticking to that strategy will serve you and your friends well. Keep your set-bonuses - DPS, healers and tanks. Don't overwrite them with commendation armorings just because they have a higher gear rating. You are just throwing away character performance with that approach.

Ah, sorry. I meant Saber Reflect in my original posts rather than Saber Ward -- the one that makes you take zero damage from an orb, no matter how many stacks it has on it. (Can you tell I don't play a Juggernaut?) I'll go edit my original posts.

That made me laugh. See also: Cleanse v. Purge

It is a regen. That's why it's a 15 second channel. You can also see the toy icon she clicks on her hotbar to start it, as opposed to the previous emotes where she types the slash-command.

As noted in the original post, "SWTOR Conquest Tracker only has access to the live Top Ten leaderboard results. Any points earned by a guild who does not rank in the Top Ten for their planet at any given moment, including at the end of a given week, are recorded as '0.'" Unless your guild has been on a Top Ten leaderboard at the end of a week enough times for SWTOR Conquest Tracker to have recorded at historical total of at least (currently) 17.8 million points, then your guild is not one of the Top 300 in the game, and therefore does not appear on this list.

Hmm...when you mentioned in your original post that you were pretty much all in 180 gear, is that 180 commendation gear, or 180 four-piece set bonus gear? DPS set bonuses are incredibly important to putting out the maximum amount of DPS (and heals and damage mitigation, for that matter). Four 168 set-bonus armorings are far superior to four 180 non-set bonus armorings. I would even take four 162 set-bonus armorings over the non-set 180 commendation versions. Any advanced class in head-to-toe 180s (with a four-piece set bonus of 162s or above) should be in the mid 3K range for a dummy parse. Top end players in the same gear parse in range of 3.7K-4.0K. 2.6K DPS is more along the lines of what a player in min/max 162s should be able to parse.

Yes, during each tentacle shield-pop everyone (and their mother) should be working to get all spawned orbs into the shield to clear them for zero damage. During Part 3 of the burn, the tanks are responsible for the exact opposite of "tanking the boss," interestingly. They want nothing to do with her. If she never aggros on them and punts them, all the better! The reason is that now the two tanks have all the pressure on them to deal with every orb that is spawning for the four corners (and there's a lot of them.) It takes practice, but there are so many tricks to use to give the DPS as much time as possible to DPS the boss and not have to worry about orbs. Some strategies to use are: Perfect DPS and healer positioning to keep the boss in a stable location as different DPS and healers are punted -- try in the middle of a wall between two corners to provide maximum distance from orb spawn locations Tanks marking every orb that spawns with a symbol (use hotkeys) so that if there's a problem orb that they can't handle themselves they can target the orb, see who it's aggroed on and make a clear call, "Bob, Gun orb's on you, 12 stacks" Each tank single taunts one of the first two orbs at deals with it normally around 15-17 stacks (no Saber Reflect or Force Shroud) When the tanks have single taunt on cooldown, then they line up their big moment, the best AoE taunt they can manage, then Saber Reflect / Force Shroud to take out several orbs When all tank defensives are on cooldown and there's a very threatening orb to deal with late into Part 3, tanks should single-taunt and suicide into the orb to clear it You can measure your group's progress during the burn phase by seeing what percentage Brontes is at during the two tentacle shield pops. Note -- she always heals herself back to 50% health during her Supremacy channel, so that's your starting point. Tentacle shield pop #1 - below 35% (ideally around 32%) Tentacle shield pop #2 - below 20% (ideally around 16%)

I have tanked and cleared this fight in both 8 and 16-man. I haven't preformed the exact job that you've been assigned, as I've always been the tank managing the second tentacle (three corner slam) in Part 2 of the burn phase. In 16-man, there are only double the number of orbs to deal with in Phase 1 and 3 of the fight. Once you make it to Phase 5 (six fingers) and 6 (burn), there are the same number of orbs as in 8-man. Therefore, tanks should never miss slamming all the orbs from the four corned in Part 1 of the burn, and from three of the corners in Part 2 of the burn. The suggestion from DrMeth is your best bet for a 16-man strategy. In Part 2 of the burn, have the non-tentacle tank (you) 100% focused on holding the boss as stable as possible and keeping punts (and damage) off of DPS and healers. The more quality DPS you can apply to Brontes in Part 2 means the less of it you'll need in Part 3, which is pretty much the entire goal of Phase 6 -- the shortest Part 3 burn possible. If an orb from the non-slammed corner attaches to anyone other than you, have them deal with it normally. If it attaches to you, have a DPS with a taunt deal with it, or at least stun the orb to let it build stacks while you're still managing Brontes for a few more Globals. Juggernaut Saber Reflect and Assassin Force Shroud are the greatest gifts ever given to a tank for nightmare Brontes. You always want to make maximum use of them by taking out two to four orbs through an intelligent combination of AoE taunt + single taunt + leap / speed + pull. Not having Saber Reflect / Force Shroud off of CD within the first ten seconds of Part 3 of the burn phase is just asking for trouble.

Updated: November 4, 2014 @ 04:30 EST

Updated: November 4, 2014 @ 04:30 EST

Here is a copy of the transcript of the Developers from their last LiveStream so that you can read exactly what was said, including the following selected quotes. They have never said that nightmare Dread Fortress and Dread Palace are being modified to be Level 60 operations. They will still be Level 55 operations when 3.0 is launched. They will be comparatively more difficult for post-3.0 Level 55 players than they are for pre-3.0 Level 55 players because Level 55 players are doing more DPS today than Level 55 players will do once 3.0 launches if they are in the same gear. The Developers acknowledge that NM DF and DP, "relative to the players doing them now, they might be getting a little more difficult" because of their lower DPS output, so they are going to toss in a few extra rewards for players who choose to continue to work on those nightmare operations (e.g. Ultimate commendations and some Level 60 pieces of gear as an alternative gearing path to running the new SM and HM operations coming in 3.0.) Once 3.0 launches no one has to ever set foot in DF or DP again to gear up to BiS 198s. The new operations provide players with all the token rewards and Ultimate commendations they could require. To answer your second point, the Developers' statement on how they think players are doing too much damage is "Classes had kind of started to exceed the baseline values that we originally had set-up for everything, and since we’re going through and doing this big Discipline reorganization anyway, we decided to take the opportunity to get the Classes back to what the Operations expected." Therefore the reduction to DPS is due to the interaction of current DPS numbers with current operation targets (i.e. relative to current content difficulty.)

Um, holy spoiler alert Batman. You might want to warn the person asking "what is the correct order to experience the story of the operations" that you're also giving them all the climatic plot points as well.