So I'm getting a tad frustrated with setting my key bindings via the quick bar, only to have the abilities change on me when I duck into cover. Should I just be directly binding the abilities I guess?

Quick question Blueheart. First, great guide. Love the build. Given the huge boost to cunning in the sabo tree, did you put points into it right away or did you build up your SS tree first?

Had a good night in my first warzones last night. Finished my first PvP quest and my first daily. Once I figured out this class plays a bit more like the FPS I am used to, the kills just started coming. And the difference between 30m and the 3m I am used to with my Consular? Wow. So I'm building the sharpshooter tree right now. Are there lower level abilities that I will be dropping in favour of advanced abilities as I get them, or is this going to be a serious button mash come 50?

Last night I ran my first warzones on my fresh level 10 gunslinger, and went 2/3. One war zone had me at top objectives, third in damage, 20-2 kill per death, 7 medals, and one MVP vote. A sawbones and I held our node against 4 invading imp Sith. I'm already nearly valor level 6. And then, when back in the fleet, I realized I could equip the second blaster I got in my gunslinger bag in my off hand! So...yeah. This class plays just fine in PvP as far as I can see.

LOL thanks for the tips! Not sure what abilities I have at (almost--just a few hundred XP off) 10 that are interrupts. I assume dirty kick is one. Any others or are they still coming?

IOW, never tell me the odds

Thanks all! I just got Corso last night, and the harpoon has been annoying but to this point not a problem. Perhaps I will just turn it off. Can I say smuggler is EZ mode compared with consular (at least so far)? Of course, the consular was my first ever MMO character so that added to the learning curve. But just a few hours of play time at level 10. I even managed to take out the elite guarding the red shard datachron at level 6 alone. Its so different fighting at 30m compared with 3m. I will not be abandoning my consular of course, but its a very nice contrast in play styles.

Hi all. Just started a smuggler alt, and haven't yet found a sticky with the very basics of the class. What are my primary stats, and what should I be stacking when I get the chance heading towards the gunslinger advanced class? Also, what is the best advice that you can give now that would have saved you huge headaches when you first started out/ TIA!

If you all think this was an expensive repair bill I can't wait to see what your total cost for Lord Arho will be.

Same with me last night.

Where does one get the reusable stims? Building my DPS and tank Columi kits now, and am over 100 expertise with my PvP gear, so slowly grinding upwards...

So you would say the hit in Will and End will be mitigated by the bump in crit? I was considering going 3 pieces Stalker and 2 Survivor, just to keep things flexible.

I think the answer to both questions are in my OP. I am kinetic Shadow (standard 31/0/10), and run as off tank/DPS in OPs.

Given I have been so focused on stacking Will, I've run myself into a bit of a dilemma. I ran an Ops and got a bunch of tokens for Columi gear. At 1 am I mistakenly read "Master Force" to be limited to "Force Master" and so I got three pieces of Force Master gear (boots, wrap, gloves, with the sash getting dropped). It has a really nice balance of Will and End (I am a kinetic Shadow), but obviously I don't need the alacrity. BW will allow me to change this out for either the Stalker or Survivor gear, and whereas this will drop the alacrity and bolster either Def or Crit, it will drop one or both of End and Will. Right now in Ops I am running more DPS and will add/off tank when needed. I would appreciate you input into whether I should swap out this gear for Stalker or Survivor, or just keep the Force Master until I can replace it with Rakata level gear.

I have also confirmed that constructing and REing grey items reduces the difficulty level of the upper level items without granting additional expertise to the skill. So I seem to have two different tasks--leveling to 400, and building my number of blue and purple items up. Also, it does seem to me that I am getting more crits in construction and RE successes with the grey items. I would also love clarification on this point since I suppose this could simply be the probabilities working themselves out.

OK so I've been 50 for a week. I ran EV normal last week and for whatever reason didn't understand how the looting worked so I missed out on a lot. *d'oh* But how much difference a day can make...Started at this last night: http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/6452/beforeraids228.jpg Ran a few War Zones and finished my daily (won at Huttball!), and cashed the commendations that came in the champ bag in on a Centurion survivor implant (or motivator, I dunno, they have all the same specs). Fear my level 18 valor. Then my guild Ops. Went 5/5 EV and 4/5 KP (quitting due to the late hour) normal mode. Adding a new Tionese shield bought with accumulated tokens I ended the day like this: http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/4602/afterraids228.jpg I got 3 pieces of Columi Force Master gaining a bonus, and an awesome Columi main hand. I thought I also got a relic but apparently that was reserved for a guildmate. I now have a bunch of supernumerary mods/enhancements that I could swap in or out to bump crit or shield or whatever, but I'm still getting a handle on where those levels should ideally be. Getting closer to running HM ops I think.

How so? Are you saying there is a relatively limited window to crit, or that you will crit more often with grey items, even if you aren't adding skill points to artifice (or whichever skill)?

perfect thanks!

Exactly this for me as well. Light V with Tharen, FWIW

I had noticed that! I was growing concerned that more and more items were turnign grey and I was accumulating new patterns of higher difficulty faster than getting lower level items to blue or purple status. From what a guildie told me, I thought I could only learn from items with green, yellow or orange status indicators, and was getting alarmed I was doing something very wrong. Thanks!

Can I continue to reverse engineer and up the tiers of lower level items once they go grey?

Just want to have the numbers right. With FT we're talking around 30 DPS total? What is the different damage from the PA procs--or is that just an autocrit? Sorry, am under caffeinated at present

What about the loss of 18% damage and 3% crit in force technique with technique mastery? (I am having this same discussion in my guild right now)

I just rang 50 at valor level 12 (insert lulz), and play in a composite of lvl 40 PvP gear and PvE blues, purples, oranges, and, yes, some greens. My PvP experience in WZs hasn't really changed dramatically. I play objective based strat as Shadow tank; I guard, I harass to prevent caps, I hold objectives. My success depends on the rest of the team; I have capped and defended doors on Voidstar and made it to the core with a group that knew what they were doing, and I've gotten stomped in Huttball with uncoordinated teams that do not know what they are doing (and I am still figuring that game out myself), facing premades. I'm not great by any means, but I don't expect to pull top kills because that is not my spec or my goal in the game. That said, I've pulled 9 medals, and usually average between 3 and 6. Maybe not being the best PvP player (still learning the ropes of it) has lowered my expectations, but the game overall hasn't changed in the dramatic way threads like this suggested it would have as a new 50. Its certainly not as bad as when the 50s could play with pre 50s; not bad enough to prevent me from playing and gearing up eventually (via PvP and ops). And if I cause some l33t PvPer to have a heart attack for having a "bad" on the team, well, consider it my contribution to improving the community

Well put, and me too. Starting to get the hang of Alderaan and Voidstar though but Huttball is still a blurr. Don't play it enough to get the map memorized.