What, no one agrees? Am I alone in this?

Most people will agree that the hardest crystal to get (Radiant) is actually the least valuable. The only thing you can buy with them is gear. Sure it may be nice for some people initially, but for a lot of people, that gear is outdated in less than a week and/or we get better gear from OPs without even buying that initial Radiant gear. Common Crystals on the other hand have a wide variety of usage. Companion gifts, crates, decos, even vehicles. Glowing Crystals also have some use (though very limited) since you can buy Exotic Isotope Stabilizers for crafting/selling. I would really like to see some sort of conversion ability. The easiest way to do it would be to put crates on the Radiant vendor. For example, you spend 100 Radiant Crystal get get a crate with 150 Glowing Crystals or 200 Common Crystals. I just used those numbers as an example. I would be happy with just getting 10 Common Crystals for 100 Radiant Crystals at this point, as Radiant Crystals are completely useless to me and I've been capped on them for quite some time.

It's hard to imagine this was intended. Ottegan Silk, Doonium, and Midlithe Crystals are more or less completely useless now, as are the related epic missions and skills that obtained them. I have a hard time believing they did this on purpose, which leads me to believe a fix will be coming. The problem with that of course is that the market is already destroyed. Look at the prices for Doonium as an example. Even if they make Doonium usable for something, it's going to take a long time for the market to get back to normal.

Ok no one is ever going to even make the conquest mat 216 gear. First off, it's nearly identical to comm gear. Second, the mats are INSANE. No one will ever pay the amount you could make from just selling the mats. What a complete and utter joke. Synthweaving = Augments only.

Now if only someone would actually answer the original question

Just re-re-read the patch notes. If I'm reading it correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong, you purchase the blue schematic. You make it. You RE it to get a purple. To make the purple, you need a crafting item from your personal Conquest. That is SM equivalent gear without a bonus. You RE that purple gear to get HM equivalent gear, also without a set bonus. To make the HM equivalent gear it still takes a Conquest mat??! I read the notes a couple times and I don't see anywhere where it says you would need a mat from an OP. Easier way to say it: 1) Craft blue gear (requires a crafting mat from HM FP) 2) RE Blue Gear to get a recipe for purple SM equivalent gear without the set bonus (100% RE chance) 3) Craft the SM equivalent gear (requires a personal conquest mat) 4) RE the SM equivalent gear to get a HM equivalent gear recipe without the set bonus (100% RE chance) 5) Craft the HM gear (requires a personal conquest mat, NOT an OPs mat) Has anyone opened up a HM equivalent recipe that can confirm the mat it takes? Hard to believe it would take a conquest mat as well and not an OPs mat, but the way the patch notes read.....

I'm not going into how the #s were achieved, but I will say it has nothing to do with when the expansion came out or how early on we are. I will also say the person who does this is unimpeachable. Believe it, don't believe it, up to you.

Yah the DPS spread isn't horrible. Between 1st and 17th it's 341 DPS.

I'll preface this with saying these are not my numbers. A guy in my guild is the one who posts the BiS gear for all specs (one of those 100+ page threads in the general forum) and I don't want to steal his thunder as I know he'll probably be posting a new BiS for the general population to see soon. Having said that, I've seen the numbers and in full Ultimate Exarch gear, Madness now does 240 more DPS than Lightning. Lightning is 17th out of 18 specs (next to last!) on the DPS list, while Madness is 9th out of 18 specs. Thoughts? Now when I say "thoughts" I'm not talking about debating the numbers. His calculations are always dead on and even if they are off slightly, it appears Madness will still be considerably better. I mean what are your thoughts on switching over to Madness? Personally, I think I may still stick with Lightning as I HIGHLY prefer it and 240 DPS probably isn't going to make a massive difference in raids. As we all know, raiding is more about mechanics.

He posted the full thread to the SWtoR Forums recently. You can find it here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=821885

There IS an Alacrity build that I referred to earlier that on the dummy actually does outparse the normal DPS models I've posted previously; however, it's only about 20 DPS more and requires a lot more work. If you're interested in testing it out though, the 198 BIS Alacrity version is: Willpower: 4255 (7x Augments) Power: 2164 Crit: 0 Surge: 338 (1 Enhancement, 4 Augments) Alacrity: 480 (4 Enhancement) Accuracy: 756 (5x Enhancement, 3 Augments) Personally, I found this much harder to play in operations. You're just below the accuracy cap, but you make up for it by blinding fast casts. It makes it hard to keep up though and again, the DPS gain over the "normal" BIS method is very minimal (20 DPS). Therefore, for your standard BIS slot build, you're always going to go with 2 Alacrity enhancements (222 or 240 total depending on if you're using 192 or 198).

192 Willpower: 4278 (12 Augments) Power: 1983 (All mods and remaining Enhancements into power) Crit: 0 Surge: 222 (2 Enhancements) Alacrity: 222 (2 Enhancements) Accuracy: 770 (6x Enhancements, 2x Augments)

I have a number cruncher guildee that actually put together best in slot DPS for every class for both 192 and 198 gear. He actually came up with two sets of DPS, the "optimal" which is crazy Alacrity, and then the normal version. The Alacrity setup is somewhat unreasonable, so lets talk about the normal version. Currently, your issue is too much Crit & Surge, not enough Alacrity & Power. Ideally, Sorcs should be going with a 0 crit build. Here is BIS for 198 (normal version): Willpower: 4583 (13 Augments) Accuracy: 772 (6 Enhancements & 1 Augment) Alacrity: 240 (2 Enhancements) Surge: 240 (2 Enhancements) Power: 2164 (all power mods, and extra enhancements) Crit: 0 Note: Enhancement includes implants/ear. Having said that, Sorcs are one of the lowest (if not the lowest) DPS currently. You just have to deal with that and hope we get some changes. On the plus side, we have (in my opinion) the highest survivability of the ranged classes right now and we can offset our lower DPS by creating less strain on the healers. This allows them to focus less on Sorcs and more on the other raid members, thus making your overall raid group more successful. Most, if not all, operations are no longer DPS checks. I can't even remember the last time we had a boss enrage. Once your raid team is adequately geared it's all about the mechanics. If you and your raid team can put DPS pride aside, being the lowest on the DPS will not matter. Survivability, mechanics, and utility are what are important. There is basically a line for DPS. Meet that line, then everything else is extra and it's more important to simply survive and put as little strain on healers as possible.

Legit as well. Plus Babydoll is an honest to goodness girl. That plays Star Wars. They do exist!

Legit. I'll add you to the main post. I'm stepping away a bit from organizing these but Kushanian is taking over so feel free to message him for prices and availability.

Sorry all. I haven't been checking the boards the last couple days. I really need to get someone else on the team to start checking it as well. Those interested, I'll PM you shortly. You can also contact Babydoll/Halfmint/Sucheva in game. I think we're double booked for Saturday 06/20/15 but may have openings Thursday 06/25/15.

HI all! We've had many successful and fun runs since starting this. We have openings currently for Thursday the 28th starting at 8:00 p.m. PST and Saturday June 6th at 3:00 p.m PST. We can possibly do one tomorrow as well (Saturday May 23, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. PST), but you will need to contact me soon. Please private message me here on the boards or I can be reached in game on Ikky, Narkosis, or Narcoleptic if you have any questions.

Tomorrow night's runs are full. We have 2 openings for 05/14/15 and 1 opening for 05/21/15 currently. PM if interested or contact me in game under Ikky/Narkosis/Narcoleptic.

Still have a slot for this coming Thursday I believe. The price is reasonable (even low some of have said), and you can fully gear a character from top to bottom in about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and half! PM me here on the boards or catch me in game on Narkosis, Ikky, or Narcoleptic.

Hi all! You could run pugs for weeks on end trying to get a full set of SM gear, or you can come with us and get a complete set in an hour and fifteen minutes! We are selling full runs of SM Ravagers and ToS. We are a friendly HM progression guild of several raid teams that come together for alt SM runs once or twice week. We recently decided to start selling these runs and sold our first two full runs tonight (we did them back-to-back - 2x Rav 2x ToS). It went off without a hitch. This is for Empire only. A typical run of both OPs will take about an hour and 15 minutes. You don't pay until each OP is over (we master loot everything, then at the end of the OP, we trade it to you for payment). Here is what you get on the runs. 1. A full set of SM (Resurrected) 192 set armor, main hand, off hand, 1x relic, 1x implant, 1 ear piece. 2. All extra implants and relics. The first boss in each OP drops a Resurrected relic and implant respectively, but each additional boss has a chance to drop another implant or relic. We've seen as many as 5 extras on a run, and as little as no extras. 3. All 192 MK-2 Pieces. Each boss typically drops 1 random 192 MK-2 piece. These are great for alts if you want to legacy them over. 4. All crafting mats. Each boss drops an Exonium. If your character has biochem, you can also get all the mats from trash in ToS. 5. All decorations. Decorations are random off trash. Sometimes we get a ton, sometimes only a few. All yours. 6. Mount from final boss - This is NOT guaranteed. It's a random drop so we can't guarantee you'd get one. If one does drop though, it's yours. 7. Quest Completion - The weekly quest now gives 12 Ultimate Commendations and 24 Elite. If you're interested, please PM me for prices. Feel free to catch me in game as well under Ikky/Narkosis/Narcoleptic. We would ask that you have Teamspeak if possible. You don't have to talk or have a mic if you don't want to though you're definitely welcome to. As I said we're a pretty friendly/jovial bunch. When messaging me, please let me know your class/role, what kind of gear you're in, and if you have any experience in the raids. It's certainly not necessary to have experience, but knowing your gear/experience level helps us plan ahead. Our preferred time is Thursday evening at 8:00 pst. We might be able to accommodate other times; however, we all raid HM certain nights so timing can be tough if it's not a Thursday evening. Saturday afternoon is a possibility as well though. **EDIT 06/20/2015** I am stepping away a bit from organizing these, but Kushanian (that's his name on these forums if you want to PM him) is taking over: You can also contact Babydoll or Halfmint in game (PennyAnn on these forums)

We had our first run(s) tonight! Thank you to the person who came (not going to mention names). He had two characters and we were able to do two full runs of SM Rav/TOS back to back for his characters. It took roughly 3 hours with a break inbetween and that was for 2 runs for SM Ravagers and 2 runs of SM ToS. I'll be making a new post with more details shortly.

Tango Rulez!

Just edited main post - I forgot to mention this would be for Empire side only.

Wasian and Psandak I private messaged you both.

We are exploring the idea of selling SM Ravagers/ToS runs. You would receive everything that drops. That means for a full Ravagers and ToS run you would get a complete set of armor, main hand, offhand, 1 relic, 1 implant, all decorations, all crafting mats and any additional implants and relics that drop. That's a minimum of 12 pieces with the possibility of more if additional implants and relics drop. Additionally, we can do 16m SM Revan during the run instead of 8m so you can get an additional Mainhand if you wanted. At this point were just tossing around the idea and would like to see if there is an interest and what people think would be a fair price. We're an extremely fun and friendly team that is 6/10 HM so SM is not a problem. Funds received would be used to further our guild ship and stronghold so its going to a good cause! *EDIT* Forgot to mention, this would be for Empire side only.