It is slower than the other classes I have played since early on it is about fast damage as the mobs are weak or stealth to get around the trash. That will change as you close on 40 and beyond though so I suspect it will even out somewhat. Another advantage is this is one tough class to kill in PVE. Things have to go very very wrong for this character to die with all the control it has. The warm up time for most abilities on this class make it feel a bit slow early on, early class mission XP is a bit less than other characters it seems and the first companion relies on a really slow ability to start a fight. Had this class started with a melee companion, the synergy would be much better but as it stands Aric is only good for a big fight when you can have him start it. He rarely does more than 20-30% of total damage in boss fights and virtually none in trash fights Switch to the healer companion and mix in PVP/space missions is the best way to level solo early on I am finding. Even with those this class is leveling a good 20% slower than my marauder and 50% slower than my scoundrel but it is hard to beat stealth for fast leveling in this game.

An interrupt to play post 50 borders on required. I haven't needed it so far in leveling, but having played other classes post 50 I can say that several missions need A LOT of interrupts on the PvE content. Hard mode often requires all players to spam interrupts. I have sat on team speak where the leader called out the order of player interrupts so we always had someone stopping numerous boss abilities. I like the Commando but IMO this really is an oversight. Adding an interrupt would not OP the class in any way that I can see. Replace an existing ability or force players to spend a skill point to get it if they must but it really should be there.

I like the suggestion but I would simply change them to pending and show in the upper right corner. They already have the mechanic available to them in the system so it wouldn't likely be that big of a change.

I found a removable blue crystal available to dark from one of the higher end accommodation vendors in one of the sabers they sell. I do not think a blue for dark is craftable however. Hopefully they will eventually let crafters make a multitude of crystal colors not available at an NPC. http://www.cameroncole.com/digital/swtor/bluesaber.jpg

It is a nice skill for non-crafters for this reason. My original plan was Biochem and Slicing since I have zero interest in crafting course plans already changing.

They have time to work out the high level content and will IMO. The good news is if you hit 50 and get bored... there are several other story lines to explore from other character classes. No game is meant to be all things to all players. This one is certainly about the story. The journey can be a grind (for some of us) but the stories are there and they are good.

I am not a fan of complaining but pointing out desirable features in another game that aren't in this one seems pretty reasonable. I know the tone from these "requests" doesn't always come across nice but rather than meet fire with fire, dump a bunch of water on the complaint and share how SWToR could grow into that feature that XYZ person is complaining about.

Great suggestions... I agree. It wasn't always that way. When CoH launched it had a lot of problems and the devs were swamped. I do hope SWToR does grow to the level of CS that CoH and Asheron's Call had. ACs monthly updates and fearlessness for changing its game world are still amoung the best I have ever seen. Blowing up a town on the main hub, shadow invasion and all part of the monthly updates... still incredible.

Couple CoH suggestions if possible for WAY down the road. The first would be to add background people walking through the game. CoH cities felt alive because of all the NPC traffic walking around. This game has a handful of random people standing around in the same places and feels empty. I know it is somewhat frivolous but it really would help the game world feel more vibrant. Second suggestion, get more decorative slotted armor sets. I don't need more powerful armor (wouldn't complain if I found some) but one of the greatest things about the CoH was how customizable it was. A large percentage of the population could sit in their designer and build their costume for hours. Now I know that is a critical role of a super hero game but IMO some high level toon design is important in any MMO. Again helps with the immersion. Don't expect these to be done and even if they make a list somewhere completely understand them being very low priority but just wanted to throw some wall dressing suggestions out there.

1-28 the Anni tree is a lot of fun solo and very effective. Things slow down in the 30s but the Quinn companion makes it tolerable even if a tad slow. I just switched to Rage in the mid 30s and it is more playable to me but not sure it would be as effective early on. I think the bleeds start getting hammered by armor and misses on the higher level mobs but Anni is still playable. Gear is easily picked up as you go no need to buy anything. However finding a set of decent looking armor will likely be a challenge. Most marauders look like a dominatrix or Gimp. The biggest challenge to the class IMO is dealing with all the clickies. The progressions of skills on mobs are crucial and at times unforgiving compared to some other classes. A lot of classes play in a press 1-2-3 style. I find this class starts its progressions the same way but I find myself switching them up quickly based on what is in front of me. If you run with a friend and two companions the build can really shine as a boss dropper. The class is very well built for 2 man PvE as Quinn is a good healer and the Marauder is a good DPS'r. Virtually any other player/companion to the mix and you will roll virtually all the content including heroic areas. Once you become proficient and using X skill and Y time the class plays like a musical instrument. More complex, a bit harder to master but very satisfying once it starts harmonizing.

It will work... however likely won't be efficient and the player might have to be extra skillful in PvP to pull it off. Sometimes a build is less about DPS and more about the fun of playing it. Not my style but I can appreciate "outside the box" thinking nonetheless. In some games having a hybrid can really throw PvP'rs for a loop as well. An unconventional build in GuildWars for example can have someone casting the wrong buffs and prots. Unfortunately in SWToR skill selection per class is too straight forward to really alter the way someone plays a class.

Then you wouldn't have people who just crafted in the game. Slicing needed adjusting but they could have easily done that by making progression MUCH slower. Half the point raises and double the mission time. That would have put a huge dent into the skill and made leveling it take weeks if not months.

Champions Online... nerfed into boredom. I call it being "Roper'd"

Killing slicing which they have effectively done or leaving it alone doesn't kill the economy either way. That machine will keep on running in one form or another. Inflation itself hurts mostly people with savings which we don't really have. If people pump a bunch of money into the economy... everyone charges more for crafted/earned items bringing slicing right back in line with everything else. Course we would need to eliminate price fixing by NPCs in the game for it to really work properly. Ultimately they should have left the prices alone and slowed the progression way down. Doubling the time it takes for a mission would have been a good start. OT but he would hire someone to write and/or direct the better Star Wars movies then nerf the subsequent releases, add in annoying characters for marketing and follow up with constant re-releases "fixing" things that don't need to be fixed. All the while he laughs his way to the bank. Lets hope Bioware doesn't follow the same path. More Clone Wars and less I, II and III. PS Don't get me started on Roddenberry.

IMO, inflation isn't a valid argument against. Inflation is a corrective action in the economy to resolve issues like slicing and other imbalances. The problem with inflation is that it devalues savings. This economy is simply to new for that to be a real concern. IMO the real enemy here is NPC sales that fix prices without regard to the current economy. NPC sales should be removed save for low level items and let the free market decide the value of in-game goods for mid to high end items. Without the NPC fixed sales all exploits will eventually be corrected in the economy. Unfortunately we have NPCs giving, selling and buying at fixed prices which completely undermines any corrective action a free flowing economy can deliver.

Thanks for the info! Despite the math critics who don't show any of their own math, informative and useful.

Great job but Anni next please! Curious to see a solid write up on that side of the tree. I had a solid play style but I think the mobs HP is starting to over grow my DPS as I close in on 40.

I don't care what other classes can do that I cannot. I do care about the enjoyment of this class since I prefer its "feel" and at higher levels it has a lot of down time between fights raging and doesn't handle "surprises" such as double pulls well. This is based on my observations and others in our guild. Having played this far I can say the Mara is very easy to level 30 and it is an uphill fight after that. I am sure some super player can solo without a companion all the way to 50 on mobs 5 levels higher than themselves... what I want to know is how since many of us have not figured out that trick. I don't care how many times someone did XYZ in beta or how easy it is if they cannot share some specific wisdom on how to resolve the problem the OP is having. I know I am all ears.

There are minor quirks with him but IMO it isn't a Quinn Medicine Man problem. It is the 30s in general. I was rolling through everything no matter the companion till about 30. Now each trash mob fight either goes long with Quinn or fast but forced to heal between fights with other companions. I finally took Williams and he at least takes half the damage in a fight and deals decent damage. I can often go two mobs between heals with him and he is far less likely to flake from my experience. My current plan to 50 is to be noticeably higher level than the content and keep trucking through it. More grinding but less down time raging. This is important to me since I want to feel like a powerful Sith on trash mobs. Sadly the boss fights are usually far easier than the trash fights.

Equipment look variety is pretty low in this game for all classes. I finally gave up trying to look decent and ended up looking like a cross between a dominatrix and a drag queen... with a cape... and not in a good way.

Agreed. I admit though that before trying the ability myself I thought it was a quick stealth ability so I can understand why others thought the same. It has a very narrow focus and virtually no stealth properties which is disappointing especially considering its visual effect.

If they wanted to fix slicing, they should have simply pulled the plug on NPC vendors. Selling moderate to high end goods should be something left to crafters. In that system when a perceived imbalance in the economy occurs prices adjust accordingly. Nothing was wrong with slicing as it was. What was and still is wrong is that crafters often cannot do better than in game vendors with fixed prices. Nerfing or in this case killing slicing has hurt all crafters and pissed off some of the player base needlessly.

At some point alien blood stops showing up on a character I believe and it is likely bugged. I got it relatively easily early on with my main but I must have ran one too many missions. My main has now run over 60 missions and zero results for that material. I started a new character and that character is getting a couple every 7th time or so.

I get a game made 5+ years ago having server queues and such but with advances in grid computing, clustering and a much better understanding of how to contain multiple instances in the same game world there really is no decent excuse for having this problem. Honestly they should have a single world with fractioned areas. They already fraction the areas up so multiple servers seems redundant. This is certainly NOT married life or casual gamer friendly. Many of us older folk only have an hour or so to play between spousal duties... shame. I am a Bioware fan but this game is disappointing on almost every level. Time to fire up Skyrim I suppose.