That is because you didn't read the thread.

I understand what you are saying. I play a healer myself, and I PREFER the DPS to be good, so that my job is easier. However the point is that optimal DPS makes the soft enrages easy to deal with, but suboptimal DPS doesn't make the fight absolutely impossible (say you are missing a DPS and had to take an extra tank or healer) eta: I think that is the key of my argument. I don't want to group with crappy DPSers, but tight hard enrages mean a suboptimal group setups are screwed.

Here is the difference: Adds spawn: not enough DPS, healer works harder to keep everyone up and/or someone kites adds around while boss is burned down. Boss has stacking debuff: not enough DPS, tank and an offtank try swaping off aggro so keep stacks low on both. See how soft enrages open up possibilities.

Questing is just grinding mobs. Lightsabers are really no different than vibroblades. Blah Blah Blah. Presentation matters son. Soft enrages are not exactly the same thing as hard enrages, they just end up with the same result of forcing a GROUP to perform to a certain level, not just the DPS. Of course the tank and healer still have their responsibilities and can hold off the tide of the hard enrage a little, but they can be much more helpful against a soft enrage. Whatever, like I said when I entered this thread, I don't personally mind hard enrages, I just think dealing with soft enrages can be a lot more fun. To each their own I guess.

Soft enrage mechanics are more flexible, slightly worse DPS can be handled with slightly better tanking and healing. The hard enrage is a crisp line at X seconds, the soft enrage is a blurry line at X+-Y seconds. Furthermore they are less disruptive to your immersion in the game. Why the hell should being in a fight for a certain amount of time suddenly make the enemy a gazzillion times stronger. Why the hell didn't this NPC just throw his full strength at me from the beginning? Hard enrages are purely artificial constructs, soft enrages flow naturally out of the mechanics of the fight. Let me give an example: First boss of Eternity Vault. Now I don't know if he actually has an enrage timer, as I've never hit one, but assuming he does, what is an alternative to having a hard enrage? Well the fight progresses through progressively more complex phases. The soft enrage would involve things moving faster and faster and faster. More and more and more missiles targets. Shorter and shorter and shorter times between ability uses. This flows much more smoothly out of the fight than: X seconds have passed, boss turns red and starts insta-gibbing everyone.

Well first off, I don't have a problem with enrage timers, though TOR's are tuned a little tight IMO. However there are various other ways to make DPS skill relevant to a fight. An example: Spawning of adds at timed intervals. Slow DPS will eventually cause the group to be overrun. This is an example of a "soft enrage", in which the mechanics of the fight eventually overwhelm the group if you let the fight drag on too long. I think what the OP is objecting to, is the hard enrage mechanic, where not killing the boss in X seconds means you wipe. A soft enrage means that lower DPS with better tanking or healing could still work if necessary. Or it can open up more complex strategies, such as a group member kiting all adds while the remainder of the group deals with the main boss. There are other ways to make DPS even more relevant, such as damage shields on bosses which need to be broken so that a channeled ability from the boss can be interrupted. This gives you a measure of the burst DPS capabilities of your raid. Now you make the ability that needs to be interrupted survivable, but very hard on tank or healer resources, such that the DPS failing once isn't fatal, but continual failure will definitely result in a wipe. I'm sure I could think of plenty more, hell I am pretty sure I've seen both those mechanics I just described used as soft enrage mechanics in WoW. I'm sure I could delve WoWWiki to find many additional DPS tests which are not simple hard enrages.

Gharj's Finger of Death from across the galaxy.

Yes and no. Yes, there is a planet arc, no it is not epic* like the other planets and there is no bonus series. * I say this with the following caveat. The planet arc on Ilum is pretty short, but the arc technically includes the final two Flashpoints in the game as part of the story, which makes it considerably more epic. Of course only one of these actually takes place ON Ilum.......

Nope, haven't heard anything

Level 50 patterns drop in Hard Modes and Operations. The only Biochem one I've gotten is bugged though.

I have the same problem with the 'Exotech Reflex Stim' I obtained last night.

If you turn on the dark side corruption option, your character will develop dark side features regardless of class. Same thing for force users if you turn it off.

But the Dark Side choice there SHOULDN'T be a Dark Side choice. The choice to give the medicine to sick soldiers vs sick children is a tough call sure, but deciding one way or the other shouldn't matter for Dark v. Light. If the military was hording the medicine and giving it to them meant it wouldn't be used you might have a point, but that wasn't the case with that quest. This is an example of an 'arbitrary' Light/Dark distinction. If you didn't see the Light Side/Dark Side icons in the conversations you would never in a million years consider one of the choices bad....

Oh yeah I remember that from playing Smuggler in beta (I am playing Agent now, and wanted to get familiar with the mechanics without spoiling the class story) Couldn't believe I got Dark Side points for that.....

So far I have felt they have tended to be too black and white (kill character/don't kill character) or too arbitrary. I just got hit in the face with one of the stupidest Light/Dark choices I've ever seen. So I pick up a quest to test a toxin on a slave revolt. I am given the following two choices: Light: Taint the slaves water supply with enough toxin to KILL them all Dark: Taint the slaves water supply with just enough toxin to kill some and cause extreme suffering to the rest. How the hell are EITHER of those Light side choices.......