A lot of this piece was very opinionated. Rather than being something shared entirely by a lot of players, I happen to think they just couldn't get into SW:TOR for similar reasons as to why I will likely quit the moment my friend stops playing: It's a themepark, and WoW is such a "Been there, done that" feel that really the biggest thing going for SW:TOR is each class's story. I can understand where they come from, I understand a lot of why people are upset and I am generally in agreement, but I happen to think they're either being too unforgiving or they're just not accepting that a themepark is what a themepark is, while also being far too nostalgic over WoW. BTW, WoW, in the end, never was, isn't now, and never will be the amazing game anyone ever made it out to be, especially considering (even more so when comparing vanilla WoW to vanilla SW:TOR as it's very new still) that SW:TOR has most everything WoW has and did it better. I think the fact that he admits to enjoying WoW's instances over TOR's flashpoints, and admits to having no altitis at all, is supportive evidence of my earlier claims. They're tired of themeparks and won't admit it and unduly place a lot of praise with WoW for what I'm betting are mostly nostalgic reasons. This is especially true when considering WoW's success has been the driving force blocking innovation and the creation of mainstream sandpark and sandbox games. With EA forcibly massaging their prostates, I would have been surprised if TOR ended up as anything different than it is. If anyone was expecting different than Bioware making the quest grind a story grind as the game's details came out, you were fooling yourself. And if you think WoW is actually superior, you're further fooling yourself.

In PVE it's ok because most enemies cause almost only white damage, as in non-tech/force. In PVP, most abilities are yellow, as in tech/force, and a couple of AC's and their particular trees (Marksman sniper here) are almost if not entirely white-damage based. Yellow damage does NOT trigger shields, and CANNOT be dodged/deflected or miss, and since lots of yellow damage is also internal/elemental armor doesn't mitigate the damage. I won't get into the aggravations this leads to as a MM sniper in PVP given this is a tank thread, but I can definitely tell you that my Vanguard is INCREDIBLY squishy, and stupidly so. Why? Because most attacks cause yellow damage, of which my being tank barely dents or diminishes the effects of. And then there's also the fact that half my talents do nothing because they rely on my shield proccing, which doesn't happen in PVP. In all seriousness, PVP tanks only really are "tanks" by virtue of the taunt and guard skills. They truly have little against the majority of classes and attacks that their being a tank even matters against. This is a failure in the design for PVP in this game, really. They need to overhaul that aspect to be quite honest with you. I'd be ok with tanking stances causing less damage to players while active to help offset increased survivability, but at least then I could feel like a tank. I die as fast on my sniper as I do on my vanguard, and that's pretty damned retarded.

I only Need companion gear if everyone else greeded. Pretty simple thing to do. You're just getting ninjas and idiots who think the sun shines out of their own acne riddled a-holes.

Are you (and when) or are you not (and why not) going to address the "invisible" advantages held by the Empire mirrors of Republic classes? Most notable of these, which seems far more like a bug than anything else, is the trooper's Mortar Volley compared to the bounty hunter's Death From Above, which takes almost a full two seconds of channeling before firing/causing damage instead of being near instant. While these may be negligible in PvE, they are very significant in PvP. What's going to be done about these discrepancies?

I think they want to get 1.2 done by March? So, hopefully... HOPEFULLY we get some updates so critically needed across the classes, especially for Mortar Volley.

Better idea: Improve bolster for sub 20. Sprint at level 10. Tank ACs to get their tank stuff at 10. Done.

Let me get this straight... OP complains about storyline quality. OP claims many players find issue with the quality of SW:TOR's storylines and story telling. OP quotes Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade complains about the mindless planet-running back and forth and the rather confusing fact that every end of chapter is just a "Return to fleet, then go back to ship" quest with no dialogue or anything meaningful whatsoever. OP declares Penny Arcade hates the SW:TOR story lines. I believe that this is the textbook definition of "Straw Man" Gabe hated the mindless running and the anti-climactic R&R quest. He never ONCE complained about the storyline quality whatsoever. Reading comprehension, mutha' ****a', do you have it!?

Considering that warzones are the only way (Ilum aside) to really get any semblance of PvP in this game, the entire progression system for PvP gear is fubar with the way it's set up. Between the bags and the fact that I have to ignore PvE entirely to hope to reach Valor 60 in any reasonable amount of time upon hitting level cap, can anyone really blame him or others for complaining about poorly designed progression?

I propose the following to help ease some PvP issues in warzones: Sprint to be gained at level 10 Low levels, particularly sub-20, to get more from Bolster (as much as 30%) Tank AC's to get Taunt, Guard, and "Tank stance" at level 10 Return the 10-50 bracket but with a stat cap and make it so Expertise contributes nothing Make it optional at level 50 to join the 10-50 bracket queue, the level 50 bracket queue, or first available In the level 50 bracket, there is no stat cap, and Expertise works as normal I am NOT looking forward to PvPing at 50 on any character. This is because I tend to spend more time PvEing through planet and class quests because I'd rather not overlevel them PvPing all the time. With a change like this, players like myself and those who choose to start their PvP career late (or especially those that choose to queue for the first time ever) are not forced into an unfair situation by facing teams in high expertise gear. As well, those who DO have lots of expertise gear won't have as great a risk of being stuck on a team of fresh 50's and face a loss more due to gear disparity than skill disparity.

I'd actually LOVE to see the 10-49 bracket be 10-50 again only with a stat cap and Expertise not factored, and for there to be an optional level 50 bracket without caps or stat restrictions. It would have been the ideal solution, if you ask me, because this allows later level PvPers to learn it and grind out their gear for the level 50 bracket in a more competitive manner.

I'd rather Expertise just be gotten rid of. Extra health and general stats of a better geared player can be dealt with to an extent if you know your class and know how to combat others. Expertise cannot be made up for unless you have the expertise to cancel out theirs. Expertise is a big reason I am NOT looking forward to level 50 PVP, because by level 15 or even 20 at the latest I can be a valuable asset in the 10-49 bracket. Seems to not be the case in the 50 bracket because the Expertise stat itself grossly exaggerates the advantage better gear already has over someone freshly 50 or lacking the valor rank to get the better gear because they actually dared PvE while leveling.

Voidstar objective points are utterly broken. I've gotten 10k+ on Alderaan for just sitting at turrets no one attacks. Meanwhile, I get 0 for being one of two people at the door the entire match because no one came my way and the enemy team sucked, and I get 0 for defending someone who ninja-planted to the data core in under 3 minutes.

There's a mission on Belsavis that for some reason one response I made that was practically bootlicking the Empire net me 15 affection with her. I think she has some legitimately bugged gains because I've had her -1 even on fairly neutral and barely even implicit pro-duty/Empire responses.

I think if you're going to be that anal about taking light side points, you're playing this game wrong. I'm playing my trooper pure light side. Only time I took dark side points was on Taris with Elara, and sweet damn did it feel good to do it, too. I'm pretty damn sure I took the light side points for this point in the IA story for similar reasons: There are times where you'll feel compelled to do something dark or light and counter to your normal choices because of the way you picture your character. Picking one side all the time isn't always going to make sense for your character or even make logical sense given how differing some choices can be. My IA puts the Empire above all else. I've had LOTS of lightside hits because of that, but I'm still Dark V leaving Belsavis.

I just want for DoT's to stop interrupting my recovery ability, but that's mostly a PvE issue anyways.

Because he's way too awesome for your feeble brain to comprehend

I don't picture doing much for my MM Sniper quite yet, but even with a point or two change there's definite value to dual speccing. I can drop a crappy PVP talent while PVEing and vice versa, taking things to better benefit a playstyle or make up for weaknesses more prevalent in PVP, and so on. Obviously, for hybrids, it means you can swap to your heal focus or tank focus spec during specific group play and then a solo/DPS spec for anything else. In the end, it's quality of life.

Are you seriously trying to imply that this doesn't look cool? Been wearing the same damned outfit since Hammer Station and haven't looked back

I never hit the wrong button anymore. After getting used to it (and getting used to a change in some of my keyboard bindings alongside it) I always know exactly where my abilities are in relation to what fingers and can always hit them when I need to. I love this thing. It should come standard with every MMORPG because they always end up giving you a screen of 50 hotbars.

What, if anything, are you doing about mirror class discrepancies? Some seem like bugs, others like it was a clear oversight, but there is a distinct and noticeable "invisible advantage" to the Empire version of every class. The most obvious is the Trooper's Mortar Volley compared to the Bounty Hunter's Death From Above skills. When, if ever, are such things going to be fixed?

/signed What's the point of companion customization if I need to gimp their stats just to see it? Head slot for companions toggle, please!

Subject. Please add shuttles to capital planet ship hangers. It'd be a very welcome quality of life provision to be able to shuttle straight to the Kaas City central taxi terminal, or to the outside of the Senate Tower, and back. You go back enough times just going through Dromund Kaas/Coruscant to talk to your class quest person. Give me a courier near my ship that just ports me to a central hub of where I'm pretty much guaranteed to need to go to, and a courier at that spot that brings me back to my class's ship (or at least inside the shipyard).

Wow. If only we had this sort of punctual attention and developer feedback for Ilum and other PvP issues, or in the "invisible advantages" the Empire classes have over their mirrors, among a fair amount of other problems real and perceived, or QOL desires that a large portion of the community seems to be vocal about. Oh, and let's not forget the ridiculous technical issues ranging from poor resolution graphics (I swear, textures in this game are comparable to the KotOR series only with higher poly models and modern lighting and I can play most new games on high to max graphics), or taking 3 to 4 minutes to load planets like Alderaan (I think it takes me no more than 25 seconds from launching Skyrim to moving my character, as a counter example, which BTW runs flawless on near max settings), or the large amount of players suffering from crashing or framerate issues. I mean, it's not like I've a problem with the upcoming changes for the UI (though we're only getting a lot of what we should have had anyway AFTER they fixed what wasn't broken), but my one guildmate puts it best: "They spent $200 million and we got THIS?" I don't know how much of it comes down to their choice of engine (and I'm on a bit of a tangent now, sure) but son of a Bith... First MMO and all, sure, but... really... Son of a Bith!

... I keep wanting to use another companion. I ignored the ship droid entirely. I'm a pure Marksman sniper, so Kaliyo does play well enough to my strengths and weaknesses, however it seems that overall tanking companions just can't take hits well enough. I want to try someone else, but so far no one else has sufficed. I gave Vector a shot, but because of how he fought he was completely missmatched for someone so reliant on range. Without being able to taunt and grab aggro, he spends half the fights running between enemies. I gave Temple a shot, but she dies just way too fast. I figured she'd compliment me nicely with her range and AoE, but she goes down too quick and too easily for me to bother micromanaging aggro and trying to keep enemies targeting me instead. I do not want to use Doctor Lokin, however. I don't want to feel "forced" into using a healing companion, and seeing as how my alternative main, my Trooper, is a vanguard tank, I naturally use Elara with him, so I mostly am after a different companion playstyle. This leaves SCORPIO. I'm going through Belsavis now. Will SCORPIO suffice for me as a Marksman sniper, or am I always going to be using Kaliyo? I rather like Kaliyo as a companion (and I'm kinda glad Temple didn't work out as she's like Elara on my trooper only with a worse actor) but I wouldn't mind using someone else. Kaliyo's affection is very high, so I want her to help with crafting (I'm Biochem btw). Any ideas or suggestions? I don't mind keeping Kaliyo, but it just feels like the tank companions don't do as well as they should, yet healer companions are letting people of all classes solo Heroic 2+ and I'd rather not be forced into using a healer companion.

If it's bosses, either you aren't hitting hard enough or you aren't using a smart rotation. If it's trash mobs, it's because you're not employing your AoE intelligently and not prioritizing the correct mobs to spread your damage to and which to focus. Mortar Volley should basically always be your first attack, especially against groups. You should herd as best you can for Ion Cannon next. From here, Sticky Grenade a mob you couldn't reach or one of the mobs you aren't going to focus on. Now, rotate as normally to keep your ammo up and damage output optimal. Obviously, you need to make sure, as the tank, that DPS follows your lead. If they don't you can't help it if they're stupid and ignore priority or instructions. Excepting boss fights, just about the only time a healer should need to target anyone else is if the tank is bad or the DPS is stupid or no one noticed the patrol.