This is what I've done and I've completed Tython with a real (non-tactical) group. Now I have [solo] Korriban Incursion.

Yeah I had leveled this char in 12x so I never did any flashpoints. If I'm correct in what I've been told/read, you have to do this chain of flashpoints before you can start the new expansion planets.

Yes I abandoned everything, retook the missions from my ship. Had to complete Tython Assault in normal difficulty with a real group. Now when I turned in the mission, it gave me [solo] Flashpoint: Korriban Incursion. Going to try to complete that now.

Yes, it creates a new mission for me, the regular version. The group isn't assigned a healer, one time I even had 2 tanks, and yet by the minimap highlights you can tell it's the regular difficulty flashpoint even though the Tactical one is still in my log.

Yes, I've done all that. How do I get it to put me in solo or tactical instead of regular, though?

I have tried that. Every time I enter the flashpoint with the [Tactical] Mission it gives me the regular mission. The droid doesn't offer [solo].

And therefore can't play the expansion content. What do I have to do to get into a Tactical or Solo flashpoint? Filed a ticket yesterday with no response from CS.

I think it's working as intended. Presence make your companion more powerful, but it does nothing directly for the character wearing it. If your companion had a companion, it would buff their companion.

My method that keeps leveling fun and challenging: Never level a character without rested XP. Prioritize the class quest unless it is red. I will frequently skip entire quest hubs and run straight ahead to my class quest. More often than not, I complete the bonus parts of quests. Lots of kills 2-3 levels above me while rested adds up fast. If my class quest is red, I will do orange or yellow planet quests. Space missions are ok but not critical and I never PVP. When you get a companion, buy them rank 1 gifts all the way to 4000 affection. You can get a nice chunk of XP--around 1/3 of a level or even more from 0-4000 affection--for companion conversations. The main thing is don't let your class quest turn yellow. You have to make sure you can reliably kill elites 3 levels above you. Keep your weapon upgraded, and focus on gearing 1-2 companions. If you don't have rested XP, play an alt or earn money doing dailies on your main to buy companion gifts and upgrades. This works for me, and I can't understand how people say "leveling is repetitive after you've done the planet quests once." I do waaay more unique content than anything else. Edit: I just realized this thread is about the opposite thing I thought it was about. However, I'm one of those people who has to delete about 5-10 quests every time I leave a planet, and only do the bonus series if it's yellow and I'm in the mood for it.

Yeah I can't believe that they would remove the vendor. Sitting on 90+ DNA samples, just found out I can't spend them. :/

I'm really enjoying the event. More of my guildies have been online in the past couple days than had been this entire month. Our server chat has really taken off on fleet and Tatooine, as everyone is talking about the plague and from there it naturally flows into other conversations. It feels like people are excited about the game again. It's awesome.

I'm having a great time with 1.2 and Swtor overall. If the servers were up, I'd be playing right now. But since they aren't, I'll take this time to say "thanks and great work" to the devs. This is the first MMO in a long time that really feels like it's getting things *right*. Example: Back when the quickbars and cooldowns got messed up, I remember thinking to myself "great, here we go again." I figured I'd have to learn to live with whatever they gave us, just make the best of things... all the while knowing in the back of my head it could be better. Then the next patch hits, and there are a dozen different ways to customize every little thing to get it just how you like. You can fine tune them so that they are exactly how you want them to be. That kind of thing is AWESOME in a game. (And now the interface is fully customizable--move, resize, remove every window. It just keeps getting better.) So, thanks and great work.