This is an admission that the game is entering maintenance mode, and very little can be addressed in a timely manner. They do not have the personnel to patch the bugs that come with the weekly maintenance, let alone NEW content. It appears this is going to get very ugly fast, as the bugs that happen with many weekly maintenance will keep getting pushed out like these bugs, and not resolved timely.

There were times when Lana Beniko just got stuck on attacking mobs or just doing nothing, When I was doing the heroic Starfortress, my toon would be at 30% health in the middle of wave breaks but still she would get bugged and stand there. The buffs up from 4.0.2 with a better healing AI would make a world of difference. It is extremely aggravating to be at the above mentioned 30% health, with Lana also at 30% health between waves and Lana doing nothing or attacking. Treek is still the best healer, please fix the AI so that the other companions can be viable healers also. I like Treek but I would like to be able to use other companions as well

Stubborn, lazy and clueless changes and non changes ( number of total utility points, and up time on target the dash will not help as was their stated intention) no wonder this is free. Impact changes and issue solving would have required more resources and thought than the devs possess. NO class issues are solved for knights they remain the same. I worry that without ANY public testing, and the stubborn vision of the devs to not have a power creep ( it was supposed to be fixed in 3.0 but the new abilities in some classes, led to large nerfs later) 4.0 will be an open Alpha. The various dev teams have shown before they have coordination issues (combat vs operation design) It should be ok for the story, but I worry it will be a cluster for flash points and ops.

Yes, Underlurker is the most difficult of the SM L60 ops bosses, not even close to a contest. The only real criteria is that relevant on this fight that Bioware/EA compile over all the pug runs is the percent that kill Lurker verses the other SM ops bosses. IF there is to large a discrepancy in kills of Underlurker to the other bosses, then Underlurker will eventually be brought in line in difficulty. My guess is that Underlurker will be further nerfed due to the metrics for pugs.

The Underlurker is still the toughest boss in all of the SM ops. The nerf they did amounts a total of 3% less dps than the original over the total fight. Other SM bosses have already been nerfed that were not as difficult as the Underlurker. Like it or not the Underlurker fight needs a reevaluation like Sword Squadron was to be in line with the rest of the GF SM Ops bosses. It cannot be counted on a GF pug for a tank being able to switch to a full dps set. Everyone knew from the start that the Underlurker would have to be nerfed and the 3% was not enough for pugs simple as that.

I would expect, after the large nerf to the Sword squadron in both HM and SM, that similar thing would be applied to the Underlurker. For all those adamant about story mode nerf's being rediculous, serveral other SM encounter have already been nerfed much harder, (Bulo, Torque 16M, Sword Squadron (SM and HM.) The only very small change on Underlurker was ~10% add hit point reduction. Where is all the jerk elitist out rage over large nerf to Sword Squadron, even in HM. You would have thought many of the posters here would have cancelled their sub to protest HM mode nerf's. I have not seen a single protest thread in these forums about the SM and HM, nerfs to sword squadron. So stuff it the Hypocrisy is glaring. It is only a mater of time for the Underlurker!

Yes they killed the Group Finder level 60,16M Story mode ops and the lower tier ops. What is mainly seen is the 8M SM L60 with achievement for invites, 16M is a small fraction of what was run before 3.0. This means a whole lot less are doing the ops, and it will have a significant impact on time spent in the game. The less people play, the more likely they will unsub, leading to less and less people and money coming in for EA/Bioware. Not a good situation for anyone, hope all are happy.

Did the Battle of Rishi HM for the first time 2nd boss took a couple of tries but got past it, the final boss was fine once the mechanics were figured out took 4 tries being mdps. The Blood Hunt first boss is a different story so much AOE and the 3 adds having 72K each doing aoe damage and enraging just makes it more like a bonus boss, heard the 2nd boss is worse ( have not got past the first boss) This type of flasj point is fine IF you put it in a separate category for guild groups in voice chat, but for a GF HM flash point it is far over tuned and needs significant adjustments. I would pay real credits to see a random GF typical skill group do this with the stated 178 gear. Have not tried the Rishi bonus boss, but have cleared the other 60 HM Flash points and each Bonus Boss. As it is now Blood Hunt first boss is way out of line in difficulty for HM 60 GF.

The Current L60 HM Flash points should have ~40% chance to drop the MK-2 pieces no set bonus with the better mod or enhancement, or different implants and earpieces than are available on the elite com vendors. The previous L 55 HM flash point did this for armors ( the Czerka HM final bosses dropped the token ear and token implant pieces.) This better chance to EARN the unlettered mods or better enhancements, would significantly improve interest and participation in doing these HM flashpoints. This chance or better is needed.

My suggestion would entail, as mentioned above, a list only for the barrage of credit farmers and there ads. Most people's ignore list are filled with these credit spammers that have to be cycled as they fill up. A separate Legacy Ignore list that purges individuals after 30 days would be a huge quality of life increase that I would pay Cartel market coins for (Account wide,) I predict it would be a feature many would take. This would also separate out a major annoyance for most of us and not fill up the real purpose of an ignore list. The Credit Spammers do not stay around long. Logging in different characters just means placing the same credit spammers on ignore to even SEE the fleet chat about what is being organized.

I sincerely doubt that more that 2% of the players in this game can execute the "perfect" APM thrown out in all these class forums. Those are the ones already doing NiM, parsing obsessively 20 plus times a week and telling the rest of the 98% of this game to perform to a level they have no intent of reaching. This is still a game for most, not a profession where performing at 90% of optimal is scoffed at and ridiculed by these Guru's of perfection. Raising the standards so high that it becomes a second job, will do nothing but run off the base players that make continuing this game possible. It cannot survive without that base. So be careful what level of skill is set as the standard, as that can be a very slippery slope of alienation.

First thing to remember this is Group Finder 16 man SM operations, It SHOULD be more forgiving than 8 man SM. This has been the normal state since 2.x ops in group finder to allow more to experience beginner Ops. ALL, and I stress ALL SM 16 Man version bosses have had less than twice the hit points of the 8 man version. The Ravegers Op, specifically Torque throw out this model and chooses to put his hit points at 3.25 times the 8 Man SM version, 5.9 mil verses 1.8 mil, it also increases the incoming damage by 3 times for for adds and effects. This result raises the difficulty (where none should occur) to a ridiculous level for Group Finder SM. They toned Down Bulo quite a bit now they have Torque to face in DF 16 Man, which borders on incompetent design and ignoring what worked in the past GF 16 M ops (The dps required did not increase by 1/3 over 8 Man.) These Group finder ops are Bolstered so my correction would be to increase hit points etc. by 2 not 3.25, to bring them inline with the 8M SM ops.

The aim and strength base tanks have both implants and earpieces with defense/shield in the base green(168) items. The willpower base tanks have such valuable tanking stats as surge and accuracy in with defensive stats. This needs to be corrected in the base crafting schematics, green (168) as it involves 3 slots for gear pieces. Unless it is the intent or the devs to hurt the defensive stats of basic level gear for the willpower base tanks by 237 mitigation over those 3 pieces, as compared to the other tanking classes.

I like the guide. When 2.0 hit, I started playing the old Dirty fighting, I really enjoyed the spec. My question is this: single target looks very good, but AOE damage has my concern. You left out the AOE damage portion out of your guide ( seems it could get messy to me, to spread the vital shot with blaster volley at inopportune times due to using upper hand as a resource in the rotation / priority not as a buff) The loss of damage on secondary targets with Thermal Grenade is also noteworthy for operations.

I was checking out the gunslinger/sniper Twitch stream and the gunslinger had the weapon drops from the ops, both of these were non mod-able weapons. The implications this posses are many : no exchanging color crystals; no craft able hilts or barrels to the tier below current max; and no tweaking the weapon in any form. This is going to hurt not only crafters, but many others that purchased these goods and WILL hurt the game in many ways.

I read something here that just makes no sense to all the prior Tanking strategies put forth. Opening with a taunt (which had ALWAYS been considered a noob tanking move that generated nothing for threat) is now the NiM strategy? This makes no sense as to how 13.7 k threat was generated, as NO current threat existed, and therefore was always considered a "bad tank " move since the parsing was revealed. Has this been changed? Also how can a taunt during the 3 GCD only generate 800 threat ( that is impossible), as Storm, stock strike HIB even on my PT (Van terminology) will generate over 10 k threat before the taunt. Openimg with a shadow tank I am well over 16k ( force pull, project, slow time) before the taunt. Many things said are just not making any sense, and contrary to (Van/PT tank) openers that TAC has mentioned before in threads. This whole Tank opening with taunt, needs to be elaborated on as the values and tactics given are contrary to everything I have read about Tanking to date.

The reduction in cool downs on cleanses and interupts will need to be adjusted for many boss encounters in operations especially hard modes. The current mechanics such as cleanses for HM nefra and interupts for the coruptors at Draxus will not be doable under the proposed changes. This is shaping up to be a complete mechanical disaster that will resonate horribly. Bugs are one thing, they happen what is shaping up is much worse and confidence destroying.

The Planetary coms serve a needed purpose now, to buy hilts, barrels, armorings, mods, and enthancements while leveling. The classic coms are used much less, when I level new toons with the 12X bonus I do not use them at all. Eliminating these 2 current coms and going to 3 types only, will prove to be a major headache. I would propose they be modified thus: Planetary coms Level 1-50 as current. It does work now well enough. Clasic coms level 53; 162 rated gear, level 55; 180 rated gear. There needs to be a bridge in gear to get to level 60. The current system of eliminating these 2 com types creates the hole of gear from 10 to 59. The scenario in 2.0 was player crafted reversible engineered full 156 modifications. Yes this was better than any main hand available in Nim ops, but it was also level 53. For the record before 2.0 I had tanks healers and dps with the 150 rated hilts and barrels that were crafted, this changed in 2.0. For this new expansion I would expect fully craft-able 186 level 58 modifications (basic gear) from vender modification recipes reengineered. Crafting in new game tiers helps to get people ready for the hard mode flash points and story mode operations as it has in 2.0. For those clinging to the new basic being 180, your shortsightedness of what worked in 2.0, new tier gear moves up 2.0 to 3.0 ( 150 NiM 50 to 156 53 basic to 55 186 NiM to ( 58 186 basic )) is a lot smaller. GET OVER IT.

IF the ships were only 1 Dark project they would be work. The ships, are 5 (FIVE) Dark Projects and 5 Universals MK-3 at the vender. This is a ridiculous amount for a decoration and needs to be changed much like the original cost of the legacy cargo bays to the reasonable price they are now.

So Bestia at the council fight is one of those the dps have to give the tank a little time to position and start since it is not the usual pull and the normal opener is changed. Will still have should cannon loaded of course, but storm and the 2 free surges will be absent. What is your advice on how to start that fight,

so the key point is should cannon loaded and ready to use before the fight, then used once damaged. That is the only tricky part as healer normally have kept me healed fairly close so may have to extend out should cannon for best benefit. So the grapple/harpoon was only doing ~ 2k threat is it even worth using unless on Bestia at the council then motar volley/death from above as she will be too close for Storm. just doing SM at present just hate to lose agro. It is my experiece that the Vangaurds/Powertech have by far the lowest damage of the 3 tank classes comparably geared, it is not close.

I was testing threat generation on the tanks I have at present ( on the ops boss dummy) without taunts. I was surprised at how low the initial threat numbers were for the Powertech tank especially for that version of the grapple at ~ 2600 threat. My Pyro tech has the 180 barrel, 180 offhand 4 piece set bonus through the arkanian mods 2 DF implants and a mix of 168/180 com gear (2350 total mitigation) for now. The only ability that had more than 4k threat was the rail shot when it did not miss. The highest threat ability that I saw on any of the 3 tanks was the force pull on my shadow at ~8700 threat ( huge advantage for threat management to start the fight) My concern and question is how does a Vangaurd/Powertech deal with dps easily hitting 3.8 K sustained and higher spikes or even 3k plentiful capable dps (TC HM is one place I have run into this event) with out serious taunt fluffing on cd. On my shadow that force pull makes life so much easier to start the fight, and the guardian just needs some time to get into the higher threat abilities like guardian slash after force sweep and hilt strike. I have tanked SM on TfB, SnV, DF and DP several times on that Pyrotech, but the threat I saw on parsec has me concerned now. Have done all the above SM ops on the other tanks also. Is there something I am missing (I checked stances and cylinders and guides for openers) before parsing

Start in a few markets by seeing what you can make or gather that will make a profit and be worth your time to do, I do an item test for price and unit price before I put an item up, as the markets change. Trying to do to many markets at the start may prove overwhelming, start small then expand, you may hold items back for better prices, or go to a new market. This is for entertainment first, not to pay utility bills, do not make it tedious work. Even something as boring as sending companions to gather mats and selling them can pay for ops repairs and a positive credit flow over time. Alts can create and sustain a synergistic crafting legacy with crafting alt's or main's working together to benefit you the player. ie designated crafting alts can let your main toons take biochem for end game content (reusable stims and adrenals) That is my advice, this is what I do casually and keep it fun.

My name for the two nerfed abilities Orbital Strike and Freighter Fly are now Orbital Latrine Purge and Freighter Trash Dump. The mirror abilities now are by far the weakest main AOE abilities in the game, as compared to the Trooper/Bounty Hunter and Sage/Sorcerer. Taking away the two piece PvP set bonus and making these abilities hit for 80 to 90 percent of the original would have brought them to a much better place to even be considered GOOD, much less excellent for multiple add mobs. The main AOE abilities for the ranged DPS classes are and have been balanced in the base form. Now Orbital Latrine Purge and Freighter Trash Dump are not "Excellent" AOE abilities but have morphed to their new name.

I have a few characters that have completed DF 16SM, a Tank , 2 heals and 3 DPS on the pub side would be interested about talking with you about your guild and the opening.