You don't need full artifact to do HM 55s. I did 55 HMs (as a tank) with level 50 gear, no relics, and some vendor crafted stuff. You should still do oricon first- that 5 pieces of 66 artifact gear goes a long way for a fresh 55. After that you can probably do HM 55s (maybe upgrade weapon to 66 first- a 66 hilt is cheap enough to buy off GTN). I'd still do dailies as well, you can buy relics for 150 basic comms (gained from dailies). I personally just do each weekly and leave the area till the weekly reset. You ahve CZ-198 weekly and the Oricon Weekly. Can also do Section X/Black Hole (or Staged Makeb Weekly). The main thing you need to gdo is get comfortable with your PvE role. Talk to some people that know your dps spec and make sure you actually know what you are doing. Gear won't magically give you amazing dps- gear is simply a measure of your potential. Someone in ****** gear can easily outperform someone with a few tiers extra of gear on them. Its all about knowing your rotaton and knowing how to apply it in a group setting. One last thing- for doing dailies and group flashpoints, use Rage spec. Its the AoE burst spec and gets the best mileage for dailies and clearing through Hard Mode Flashpoint trash packs. Its single target dps is lower than both Annihilation/Carnage (if you can't beat the bonus bosses in HMFP as rage, try one of these specs), but is a very simple rotation that does insane AoE damage. With my mara's level of gear I can kill 4 daily mission mobs with one smash XD As you farm the HM FPs (and do Toborro's Courtyard) you'll get 69 artifact drops and Elite Comms (to buy 72 artifact gear). TC also drops set bonus gear that give extra benefits. Once you have enough gear (at least half 69) you are probably ready to do the story mode Operations (Scum and Villiany & Terror From Beyond). You'll have the experience/know how for your spec from all the HM FPs as well.

Veng -should- do more damage than Rage, but usually doesn't. Veng is so damned RNG heavy that it's dps #s are all over the place. Many high end jugg dps simply go rage because of this. Rage is the dps you can COUNT ON, not some proc based hell with too many abilities.

As a mara, I had no problem using quinn. I was constantly rushing planets (so always underleveled) and still didn't need to heal after every/every other pull. Quinn (and I wasn't super charging his gear) had no problem keeping me up. As a mara you a metric shti ton of tricks to help keep yourself alive- far more than a dps jugg even. Cloak of Pain, Saber Ward, Camo, Undying Rage, Obfuscate... all gained without talents. As a TANK jugg I used HK freely, but a dps jugg is too squishy to level (at on level/under level) content without a healer (or tank) companion. The heavy armor just isn't enough to level with a dps companion without significant down time. I guess if you are always 3+ levels over the content you are doing its fine... but if you vastly out-level the area you can do just about anything and not die. As for the crafting bonuses... They really aren't worth it for the money unless you are just going to HAMMER crafting out of that toon. For all crafting skills (except artifice) there is at least one other companion with +5 crit in that crafting skill (Cybertech +5 crit is bought off the ship droid and slotted into a droid companion... like the steward droid you get with ship).

Obvious troll is Obvious troll. move along here people- nothing to see

When you initiate a pull, you have (by default) aggro on everything for at least a few seconds. This is generally why you let the tank pull- it focus the damage on him/helps him round up aggro. Also, dps need to be going after the weakest targets first. A dps being hit a few times by a normal/silver is nothing compared to them trying to tank a champion. Depending on how spread out the pull is as well, the tank might take 5 seconds or more to properly hit everything (to keep them off healer). In this timeframe dps will rip the power deadly mobs off the tank (who is protecting healer). To combat this, the dps attack the weakest and most spread out mobs first. That lone silver ranged mob off to the side? That's a perfect target to charge first. Use cloak of pain/saber ward and kill it dead! Seriously though, to al lthe people talking about "arrogant tanks that don't like teamwork..." Its the arrogant ******* dps that don't care about teamwork and make the tank/healer's jobs harder that jump in early. How dare I, the arroagant tank, make you wait 5 WHOLE SECONDS for me to top off my health/let the healer catch up? THE NERVE!!!!

Carnage is the top dps spec. it is a bit wonky... but on average it still does more than a annihilation. Even after the changes, anni still suffers from a large ramp up time and STILL requires some extra micromanagement on fights with frequent/long down time. Rage is your AoE spec. There are some boss fights were it is actually the preferred spec due to enough adds being present. If the offtank is diligent on dragging adds to Grob'thok in DF your #s will soar as rage! Draxxus as well. Never be anni spec for Drax- there are too many adds that die too qucikly, you will constantly have dots not tick to their full completion. Just go rage spec and constantly hit 2-5 things per smash. I learned all three spec's and can flip between as needed... but honestly I rarely ever use Anni. About the only time I'd seriously consider it is if we were horribly short on cleanses for Nefra for the extra heals. That fight is little more than a glorified combat dummy anyway (for dps that is).

RAWR! We're regularly clearing HM SnV/TFB, and about to start on the NiM modes. One of the things I like most is that fair respect thing Manno mentioned. On raids, there is no "SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO THE LEADER." The only time vent has to be policied is if too many people are trying to chime in at once. We freely encourage everyone in an ops to speak up and say what they think could be done better, or talk about any problems they are having so the group can adjust accordingly. There is a lot of mutual respect. We all know the others know what we are doing, and work together as a team. Ultimately the read leader will make the final call, but otherwise it feels like everyone in a raid is an equal. Its a great feeling. Some people might be "duh, thats what all guilds do/say!" ... but you'd be surprised. I've been in a # of guilds (across many games) where non-officers are basically peons that can't speak up when the "big boys" are talking. What you notice doesn't matter, what you think mattered less. You speak up and add things to what a raid leader/officer says and they hate you for it (seeing it as an attack on their authority/being an upstart). Its one of the main reasons I've stayed with these guys, even Brigs and El (and their Canadian!) So yeah, fill out an app and send us some tells in game. If you don't feel "up to snuff" in terms of gear or ability, we'll definitely help with that too. I personally have no problem sitting down and talking through tanking/healing strats with someone, or helping them fine-tune their dps with a parser (I tend to prefer ACT if I'm just working on a dummy by myself). The important thing is that you try and are willing to listen.

making you IMMUNE with forcespeed would be too much. Then there would be NOTHING stopping an SI/JC BC in HB using speed over gates and such. The skill is bad enough for crossing that last gap/dash to the goal.... if it made you IMMUNE to all snare/cd.... that would just be over the top. Its bad enough as a shadow where (tier 2 tank talent) our force speed does drop all roots/snares combined with our "complete force/tech immunity" ability. I don't know how many times I popped resilience and speed through a fire gate and just saw resist/resist/resist/resist. The thing is that there are a few snares that are weapon attacks (leg shot from sniper/slinger, also JK/SW charges always apply a snare.... ALWAYS). A smart SW/JK (and I've had it happen) will actually suicide and charge a BC crossing a fire gate JUST to trap them in it... particularly against sins/shadows like myself. Hell a sent/mara can even pop their 99% reduction CD to ignore the fire damage.....

Fight fire with fire? Try and make a premade in general. No its not going to be good but I've had pug's beat premades. All in all it has been tough for the solo queuer...

Thats just it, "encouragement and good advice" typically mean jack ****. Most of the times I (constructively) try to help someone I get either apathy or a "**** off." Its rare when the person actually takes the advice. It just baffles me that a lot of people seem to have no concept of improvement... I came to pvp late and my first several games were nothing but watching/experimenting/learning. Stealthed on the other side of a fire gate... stun kicked someone into toast? Hell yeah! I'll ambush too. Oh ****, I spent too much time trying to ambush and hurt my team... need to learn how to set that up better, etc. I learned damn near everything to know about the first few WZ (and pvp) by around valor 15-20... I'll admit it took me a little while to learn the finesse of taking a node w/out killing everyone (say luring someone out of LoS of VS door while team-mate caps, use of CC to interfere with other team while someone caps). Most of that was learned by how damned futile it is to try and kill everyone before assaulting a point... that almost never works.

I'll admit, I lose my temper in WZ... but it takes prolonged acts of extreme stupidity to provoke my **** storm. One novarre coast I was tagged south node in the middle of about 12 people fighting and was never interrupted once. I point out what I did and how important it is to watch for ninja-cappers even in the middle of a big fight. Doesn't matter if you kill everyone if you loose the node in the process. We eventually clean up sith there and I go to reinforce west (the guy defending it got bored and wandered off to attack east, leaving it open). After a minute south is captured. I open my map and see SIX GODDAMN PEOPLE STILL ALIVE IN SOUTH. Even after pointing out how I ninjaed a node in the middle of a battle NOT ONE OF THE SIX GODDAMN PEOPLE could have just used one GCD to smack a capper. So then I go and try to reclaim middle. The Imps were watching this time (THEY learned at least) and I never got more than a few seconds worth of capping in. However west was immediately lost. The one guy I left up there was like "I need help" literally 3 seconds before it was completely taken >.> I just lost it. That was far too much idiocy in one game. I honestly don't mind losing if it was a good game. We fought hard... they fought harder/pulled off a nice gambit at the end. Like in a 2-3 huttball where the other team scores in the last minute then grabs the ball for a time-out victory. When my team looses do to gross incompetence..... well that's just a whole 'nother story.

Do you know how silly OP those reusable medpacks are if you get them on-level!? They are worth over half your HP at times! Every minute and a half! Screw using a healing companion.... just pop that thing on CD/mix in any self heals/defensive CD's and you never need to rest (along with hitting that adrenal, ofc!). Implants (especially since they are hard to come by/companions never start with them) are nice to be able to make (my biochem sends out implants for all my toon's comps). They also can be RE'ed into augment kit items to sell. Think about (while learning a fight/in general) how much money you'd blow hitting an adrenal every time it might be needed.... yeah it saves a lot of creds having the reusable. As a tank the medpacs/adrenals are like 2 extra "oh ****" buttons as well And as someone early said...... the WZ medpacks/adrenals make ALL the difference... but you blow through so many comms buying them that you should be saving up for a full set of BM gear. Being a bio really helps with this.

Random chance is random, broski. 3 in 15 is 20% Sometimes the 20% happens all at once, sometimes it happens fairly regularly Random chance is random. Its like with the old pvp bags....

I'm pretty sure mirialans have at least the lore behind them... strong mystical ties to jedi order/republic bread and butter members. I just can't think of any Mirialans from lore that stand out (definetely not like Thrawn or even Ventress). Rattis... yes baldness on female is just weird to me too. But then again (maybe I missed soemthing?)why are they Imp-aligned? (as opposed to neutral). It says they have a brutal/war like culture which would vibe with the Sith (strong dominate/survive over corpses of lessors).... but they can't even be SW (not originally)! SW would be the one class that fits the race so well... and nothing.

.... that was the whole point of that comment.

You didn't like Mako's look? You know there are several customization heads... right? One of the first 3 you get is a "red-headed japanese" head for her that seriously made me regret rolling my BH female. >.< Gault... I sweart to God he was the first companion I actually wanted to kill off. (thats a lie, it was Theran- **** that guy, then **** gault right after it). I eventually warmed up to Gault (but seriously, **** theran). As far as Mako's heals... shes not buggy. Companion's have CD's on their heals. Being in healing stance reduces them, but at the beginning she only has a few heals.... so she pops those off then starts shooting while they are on CD. The root of the problem is that the AI healers have no concept of overheal. ZOMG YOU STUBBED YOUR TOE /blows biggest heal. Next second you fracture your femur through the skin and they are all like "well **** I'm tapped out, that was a mean toe stubbin man" Oh yes, awesome comps.... BBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZ!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 When first meeting him, Mako goes "awwww hes precious, can we keep him?" YES OH GOD YES Boss! Boss! Hey boss! did you see that? BOSS! Oh! Boss! look! SHINY! BOSS!!! Oh I made ship thermostat work, put stool by the sink, remodulated shields- lots of little stuff Hes so adorable! I never liked Khem. I never got the vibe that he didn't have a dry sense of humor so much as he was actually being serious the whole time. He just eats up the death/destruction/dominion parts of the sith code. He also has a serious case of man-love for Tulak Hord (last, long dead, master). The VERY best thing that happened to khem was the end of chapter 1 where Vette is also pretty cool. There are some (so very wrong, but so very funny) moments when you shock her. Wow great job boss! I didn't ask you /shock. *ahem* you're welcome! Shut up Vette /shock XD. Shes such a quirky free spirit... but terribly hard to romance because of how low her self-esteem is. She never considers romance with you because she just couldn't imagine why you would deign to even take her for a fling. : / When you push the relationship she is... confused. Then needs time to think. Zenith was pretty ******/jaded. I was actually surprised he wasnted an LI (basically you try to bring down those walls of his/heal him) Did I mention Blizz is awesome!? Half of why SCORPIO is so cool is that she has this very breathy/feminine voice that whispers seductively in your air how she is going to kill you the first time you let down your guard. Its almost sexy... and you can even flirt with her a few times (which is actually kinda creepy, one of them at least). Then she goes on about how she is going to stalk your children cause shes that fascinated with you... and it just went south. @.@ M1-4X If you have ever watched "American Dad" then Stan=M1-4X hes just that over the top patriotic. One of his first (and best) quotes goes something like this: (talking about your ship) We will fly this durasteel eagle into the very heart o the Empire and bring Democracy to the Emperor himself!" XD I died laughing from that voice... and as he spreads his little robot arms out in excitement.

About that... (IA chapter 1 ending spoilers)

No... I think it fits with the overall theme of the planet. Taris was DESTROYED by the sith. Everything is ruin death and rakghouls. The Chosen Ones did their best, but they too succumbed to the desolation of Taris. It puts into perspective just how utterly monumental a task the Reps have of rebuilding this land that hope forgot.

About kaliyo... IA Story (The first Keeper) IA ending Doing taris as republic then as Imp Jedi Consular Nadia IA nar shadaa after JC Balmorra BH Torian

East/West never had to be learned. East is always East; West is always West. I'm valor 61 and never actually made the connection which side is mostly snow or mostly grass. When on defense I don't sit back and go "my there is a lot of snow here" while the shadow caps the turret.... no I put one eye on turret the other eye on enemy attack approaches/expertise power ups (some stealth think they are sneaking picking up the powerups... that just lets me know they are there). I never payed attention because it never mattered. East is east, west is west, pwe pew sith on the turrets SCREAM if more show up. No matter what WZ you are in (or what more they add....) East/west will never change. They are universal... so thats what I use. To all those saying "Its understood snow/grass by now..." Don't be so egocentric... whereas everyone with a basic education knows what east/west is on a map, not every server uses snow/grass. I never once heard anyone call snow/grass in the time it took me to reach valor 61 (say what you will about all the war hero people, you still play a ton of matches to get to 61) on SoE. That being said, Voidstar was always the problem on SoE. We never clicked on what to call each door. Half the people wanted to use left/right as you spawn, the other half wanted to use left/right off the minimap... then there were idiots who would just call left/right based on where they were. I guess the idiots are always going to be idiots... but I had to always spend a few seconds figuring out if left=left, or left=other left (unless I was on the door being mobbed or there were no sith my side) As far as everyone going

I get yelled at for passing to sages as they rescue me from time to time..... When I'm at 20% hp with 4+ people wailing on my *** I don't stop and go" Why I do say, that appears to be a SAGE on the ledge! I should wait the extra second window another stun/killing blow will come in for that good fellow to save me." NO! I go FRIENDLY ON LEDGE MUST PASSPASSPASSPASSPASS" The sage gets ball either way..... then stands there like an idiot for 3-4 seconds until someone knocks him off.... then spends the rest of the game (that we were winning) ranting at me. I'm sorry for passing when I was about to die? Really? About the dumbest thing I remember hearing was yesterday in alderaan. After a few failed attempts to take a side node (other team was fast on reinforcing) about 5 people decide to go "defend" the middle. Now granted the game was far from unwinnable (score wise) at this point. I call them out "defending won't win us a 2/1 game when we're behind, need more Offense" Then one says "oh I agree, we need more on offense" and I kid you not... the same speaker and a few others in the middle respond: "But I'm defending!" A minute passes and one person leaves middle as I just leave the game. Say what you will about NEVER leaving a game, even if the game is most likely unwinnable (The team as a whole did not understand using stuns/cc to cap a node, yet alone attacking as a group).. but I'll stick out poor teams IF THEY ARE AT LEAST TRYING. When my team gives up.... ****. I'm not holding on to an abandoned cause.

They woul still get augment slots on earpieces. 1.2 did add that all items that coudln't get an augment would provide double on a crit. My point was that out of 2 skills that lacked any crit, cyber got a +5 crit sensor from the upgrade droid, artifice got nothing. Artifice makes hilts/enhancements/sabers/offhands.... all of which could benefit from crit. Cyber got a hand, artifice shafted. And yes, us cyber/artifice cared back then. I was making offhands for the guild pre 1.2... crit crafted lvl 50 offhands.

IIRC cybertech lacked any +crit companions until 1.2 The droid actually sells a +5 cyber crit sensor.

I counter that the #1 use of crafting is to make useful items (which indirectly leads to stuff that should sell, but useable first). Just do not like 3. Its turning the game into an economy sim (aka EVE). Rewarding success and all... but seems like a snowball effect where the more you sell the more points you get the more you can sell.... where you simply crush everyone else (say... more access to biometric alloys/schematics lets you sell more items cheaper which nets you even more alloys/schematics....) Not to mention the insane amounts of lag. Imagine you go to the GTN to update your gear. Every item slot (including item mods!) is hypothetically bought from a different person..... so now every time you kill something you are sending "exp" to 20+ different people.... see where this is going? Something more reasonable would either be crafting quests.... items made.... schematics researched... etc. I agree that RNG is pure ****... however I wouldn't mind the system so much if the devs would intelligently screen the prefixes for an item. I was trying to get a fresh 50 guildy a new shiny new shield generator the other day. I nearly went insane NOT from taking 2309402398 RE's between successes... but simply that I was making a tanking item (shield generator) and was fishing for "redoubt/defense" prefix. Instead I literally got everything else (surge, prescence, power, etc) before just giving up in disgust. Also, medium armor items (no medium armor class) can gain defensive stats from RE, same with clearly non-tank items like power generators. However a simple +2% chance modifier on failure would be a quick fix. You would still "get lucky" but failures would accumulate into higher and higher success till you were guaranteed an RE. Bar that Exp system seems nice. You however seem to be masochistic (30!?). Making 30 items just to RE for tier 6 (any tier really) mats will kill RE'ing. EDIT: Oh yeah! I've always felt the best way to "fix" crafting would be to add in "just for fun" vanity type items. This would be combined with ship=player house (to decorate of course!) Artifice: Knick-knacks/curious (statues, holocrons, nifty jedi-y stuff) as well as various lights made out of color crystals (these are serious never used, we gain way too many). Armormech: Costumes to expand upon the transmorgify w/e idea. Like social items. Also can make mannequins to equip gear on. Synthweaving: Costumes like armor, but also things like curtains/carpets out of all those "luxury fabrics" Biochem: Can make potted plants/mini bar type stuff. Also pets! Chems that alter the size/color of people/pets too maybe. Cybertech: Rock'um Sock'um ROBOTS!!!! People could battle them in the fleets, race mini RC/Speeders around, robotic pets, gizmos to put in your ship. How many people waste time in fleet anyway... this would just be a fun diversion while killing time waiting on WZ queues/raids to starts/guildies to log on. Armstech: Weapon racks? Could also introduce "weapon calibration" buffs. Something like a second stim/adrenal? (would need to add the same for artifice on lightsabers). The point being these would be "just for fun" items that either have limited uses/lots of variety for decorative purposes. Should

Qyzen has increased (out of combat) health regen in tank stance. Its minor, and only out of combat.... but I'm level 35 and Khem only heals about 100 from killing something... so I think Qyzen (for the long haul) comes out ahead? As far as Qyzen Vs Khem in general..... I quickly developed an INTENSE hatred of Kimmy because all he does is talk about Tulak Hord. TH THIS! TH THAT! YOU WILL NEVER BE AS GREAT AS TH LITTLE SITH /rambles about the only 2 things of note he did with TH.... then talks about how he will devour the "little sith" **** ABOUT TH! HE DIED I'M YOUR MASTER!!!!! >.> The end of Chapter 1 was damn near the best thing that could have happened to him....