I agree with the Knight, Consular, Warrior, and Inquisitor all being tied as far as Force-sensitives go. And the Trooper, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, and Imperial Agent are all supposed to be the best of the best in their own professions too. Lore-wise, as opposed to gameplay-wise, I think the stance is pretty much "everyone", as everyone has feats they can throw around that pump them up to be something really special. I think that you can't really say that if any two of the classes walked into a room lore-wise, you could really predict who'd be able to beat who easily. It's not really simple. Gameplay-wise, they have to balance the classes against each other. But lore-wise? There's no tank, no healer, no DPS in the lore. In the lore, you just have eight people who are very, very good at what they do, with no way to tell who's better really.... if there even is any one person who's better, which might not even the case, as that would probably upset seven-eighths of the player base if they came out and said "this class is the biggest buttkicker of the lot, the rest of you deal with it". I guess that doesn't make for a very exciting thread though, does it? The fact that there's in all likelihood probably no singular top dog.

Jedi Shadow- Lawful Good. She's a very compassionate character, who cares about the people of the Republic and what it stands for; if it comes down to a conflict between the letter of the law and the spirit, she will always adhere to the latter. And she won't be brutal towards her enemies, and will prefer to end things without violence if possible, or a minimum of violence if not. Hence the focus on diplomacy, stealth, and sabotage over charging in and killing things like a Trooper or a Knight. Her teaching style, meanwhile, is very playful, often couching a lesson with humor and wisdom alike. After all, she knows that a teacher's job isn't just to teach the student, but to learn as well, so it is for both to enjoy. It is both a responibility and a privilege for both teacher and student. Essentially, she knows that the Republic looks to the Jedi as an example. If the Jedi fail to live up to expectations, how can anyone expect the Republic to step up and overcome the difficulties it has in living up to its core principles? Thus, not only does she believe in acting morally for its own sake, but for the sake of those who look up to the Jedi. That said, she's still very human, subject to making mistakes the same as everyone. From time to time she'll snap angrily at those who are being particularly cruel or ruthless, particularly those who engage in practices such as slavery or torture, both of which she considers "utterly indefensible abominations"- though, she invariably manages to calm herself back down and never gives into her temper after such outbursts, even if she is sorely tempted. Her compassion even for her enemies simply outweighs her disdain for their acts.

And since the OP is a Consular, definitely use your Heroic ability. That's what I did, as a Consular myself, and also used the advice in here. As I said earlier, all of this combined made it ridiculously easy compared to certain Consular class story bosses.

Thanks to the advice in this thread, when I faced it for the first time just a little while ago with my Shadow, had no trouble at all. It was almost disappointingly easy since I knew what to avoid. There were guard droids outside the palace that were more of a challenge than Toborro's droid if you know what to do. Almost ridiculous if you think about it, and definitely anticlimactic.

Not the Sith Empire, precisely, but he appears to have been the only one worried. From Meetra's own thoughts, "Revan had left Bastila behind because he feared the greatest threat to the Republic's survival was lurking in the Unknown Regions." We actually see Revan leave on said quest. It's established he knew something was out there, as he keeps having nightmares about Dromund Kaas. IIRC the novel opens on one such nightmare. And Meetra apparently finds out the Sith are resurgent not because of Kreia's words, but because Revan is captured by Sith and she sees a holorecording. It's played like she'd never heard the Sith were out there, and this is some big new revelation. My point wasn't that Revan knew the Sith were out there aside from knowing there was some big threat out there, but that despite what KOTOR II shows, the Exile doesn't. Revan knew something was out there. And despite the warning about the True Sith in KOTOR II, the Exile is played like she'd never heard of any such threat.

That, I can't answer. Not until we get more information on the New Sith Wars.

You say the Dark Ages were the result of the Roman Empire collapsing? Well, surprise surprise, during the time frame of Knight Errant and Jedi vs. Sith/the Darth Bane novels that the Republic had, for all intents and purposes, collapsed. Well, surprise surprise, during the time frame of Knight Errant and Jedi vs. Sith/the Darth Bane novels that the Republic had, for all intents and purposes, collapsed. *shrugs* The canon is what it is. And it's not "250 years of unsustained conflict", it's "700 years of constant warfare, with the last three centuries of that millenium being an uneasy stalemate, with the Sith trapped outside the Core, and the Republic mostly staying inside it, until the final campaigns that led to Ruusan". In any case, it wasn't just one library or another that was destroyed; almost every repository of knowledge in the galaxy outside of the Core (which didn't store everything) was damaged or outright destroyed IIRC. As for the Sith side, they aren't ever at peace during the New Sith Wars. Having read Knight Errant, it's rather obvious that without the Republic to focus on, they're constantly waging war against themselves. Sith borders changed all the time during the last three centuries of the NSW, where the Republic was just the Core, and everything else was fought over by rabid Sith fiefdoms. Not too dissimilar from what we're seeing happen to THIS Sith Empire, actually. Without an outside enemy to galvanize them, the Sith inevitably fall to backstabbing and betrayal and infighting.

Reading Darth Revan, and there are definite retcons to KOTOR 2's story in TOR lore. For example, everyone remembers how the Exile heard about the Sith from Kreia, right? How at the end of the game she flies off to find Revan straight from the Malachor system? According to Revan the novel, Revan was the only one who knew about them (Meetra thinks to herself that Revan was the one who was worried about it, in a scene that takes place post-KOTOR 2!). And she doesn't leave until a while after the events of KOTOR 2. Reason Kreia's not getting mentioned much is that BioWare is shoehorning the story to fit their vision, forget whatever details, big or small, they contradict.

EDIT: Accidental post.

For the most part, some of the Consular stuff is bearable. However, I do feel a bit cheated, after the Hope trailer gave us Satele for the first time, getting me pumped for the Consular, only to find out... nope, no armor remotely resembles her gear. At least, not for the CONSULAR. I hear Sith Warriors get plenty of Malgus-esque gear, though, so this does baffle me. Especially as I play a Shadow and the majority of the gear I get ends up with robe down past my ankles, which just seems strange for a stealth class. One nail sticking up out of the floor and you lose stealth because hey, you just tripped and landed on your face. But yeah, I'm just wondering why they give us a big iconic look for the Consular, but don't follow through. Every other class represented in the trailers by canon characters can look something like their icon, except the Consular.

Regarding the earlier discussion about why the New Sith Wars, towards the end, featured backwards technology, Knight Errant (comics and novels) does cover this to a degree. Basically, universities, libraries, laboratories, and other repositories of knowledge were casualties of the war. Irreplaceable knowledge was lost each time the wars ravaged a new world. Given this is a millenium-long war, three centuries of which (IIRC) had the Republic only exist in the core... well, at some point that lost knowledge passes out of living memory as well, leaving both sides to, as Kerra thinks bitterly in the Knight Errant novel, spend countless credits in an arms race to "invent" technology that was around at the beginning of the war. Long story short, both sides more or less bomb each other back a few eras civilzation-wise. It's debatable whether or not some technology in these earlier eras is ever rediscovered post-Ruusan. Think of it like when the library of Alexandria burned down. In one fire, most of the knowledge of the ancient world was lost, and in recent centuries we're still reinventing a few technologies the ancients knew of (I can think of flamethrowers off the top of my head- yes flamethrowers were around in the ancient world, they were lost and then reinvented). Then throw in the real-world Dark Ages where civilzation regressed, and basically roll those events into one millenium long regression of civilization (or, to use more evocative imagery, these events are the equivalent of someone taking civilization into an alley and beating the snot out of it until civilization is in a coma), and you've got the New Sith Wars. Surprised to see this actually warranted such a lengthy discussion; to me at least it seemed rather straightforward!

Besides, I'm not entirely sure the Consular needs such a ritual. My Consular has been called, and I quote, "some sort of crazy super-Jedi" by a quest-NPC Sith Empire team specifically sent to capture the Consular, and are thus equipped to deal with Jedi (which is, incidentally, one of my favorite quotes from the game so far). It obviously doesn't work, because basically, the Consular is already that crazy-strong. No Sith rituals required.

Just beat him yesterday, and I can agree with both sides of the argument, to an extent. Before I knew what I was doing, I was repeatedly getting my butt kicked to the point of frustration, and rapidly running out of cash to cover repair costs. But, once I looked up hints like those in this thread, well, while it was still a difficult fight, the difference in difficulty before and after made me literally laugh out loud when he finally, finally went down. This fight is all about knowing exactly what you're in for, and responding appropriately. It's expected that some people (such as myself), walking in blind, won't know what to expect and get their behinds handed to them on a silver platter as a result. Just how the fight is set up.

Actually, the Empire has to lose sometime in the next ONE thousand years, not three. In 2000 BBy-ish, Darth Ruin basically restarts the Sith from scratch after the old Sith are all eradicated. Then his Sith wage a millenium long war, bam, Ruusan Reformations afterwards, then another thousand years from that to the Prequels. The old Sith, for the established backstory to work, have to be basically eradicated such that almost all records are lost by one thousand odd years in the future (hence the 'New Sith Wars', as those Sith have little to no connection to these Old Sith (we're playing a war during the Old Sith Wars (basically the Great Hyperspace War through to this and everything in between; the Old Sith are those with a direct connection to the original Sith) other than name and basic ideology and, if they're really lucky, finding a stray holocron or tattered parchment here or there). Admittedly a millenium is still a long time to do things in, but the idea was always that the Sith were stamped out as thoroughly as the Republic thought they were after the New Sith Wars for about as long as the millenium of peace before the Prequels. By the New Sith Wars, the Republic is again thriving, and its hold is again firm over the galaxy, and apparently has been for some time. So, I'd argue that they have at most a few centuries to lose in, and quite probably less, as centuries-long galaxy-spanning individual wars were pretty unheard of by the time of the New Sith Wars, which was literally constant warfare for a thousand years (with the last three centuries seeing the Republic reduced to the Core and nothing else). I'd say the evidence points to a decades-long to a century-or-two-long war at best. Still a lot of time to play around with in an MMO timescale (not arguing against that!), but not this huge open gap you're implying. Not without massive retcons. In any case, I have to agree that it's fine to have the Republic's war effort gaining steam. Think of TOR like the Original Trilogy. We're in the full swing of the A New Hope phase, with the 'good guys' gaining momentum and getting big victories after being the underdogs for so long. I wouldn't be surprised if we started hitting The Empire Strikes Back stuff eventually. Then we go to Return of the Jedi. It's really the kind of arc I'm expecting from this Great Galactic War, as they seem so intent on emulating the films. The tide swings back and forth a few times then comes to a head in a cataclysmic battle that ends it all. So just wait. Even as a primarily-Republic player, I'm confident the Empire will strike back, and when they do, it's going to be hard, and right where it hurts. Then the tide of the war should swing back and forth and give everyone good periods of time where their faction is on top. Basically, though, this kind of Republic resurgence is needed from a storytelling point so that the Republic isn't the one crying foul. The Republic gets to strike the early victory, then, well, I'll let someone who was part of a later Empire speak for me: "You may win the occasional battle against us, Vorrik, but the Empire will always strike back." ―Gilad Pellaeon

Which really highlights the difference between Jedi and Sith. The Sith Inquisitor selfishly hoards power to him/herself at the expense of others (the ghosts). The Jedi Consular selflessly spreads his/her power to others at the expense of him/herself. I believe they put that kind of dichotomy into these two mirror classes to highlight the differences in the two belief systems; I prefer to not believe it just fell into place like that by mere chance, as it's just perfect. Selfishness versus selflessness, hoarding power as opposed to heroically sacrificing it. In any case, that thirst for power you want is something that rather invariably leads to the dark side, so you're better off looking at the Inquisitor and the already noted ritual for that kind of thing than either Jedi class.