*Points at RealCandyMan on previous page* Maybe he lied...and if so shame on him, and I take my apology back

So SWTOR definitely uses the double roll system where Defense is considered first, and then shield? Because if so...that actually changes things a lot O.o As for your actual question - I don't really feel like calculating it now, it's late, and who knows if I even could But this is interesting. Definitely need to find that balance between the defensive stats, with defense being the least priority. (Even though it gives higher survival per point).

Exactly, it shouldn't be being beaten within the first couple of weeks by casual guilds the way EV and KP was. People need to not get used to the easyness of EV and KP. By getting used to it - it's caused EC to become a real shock to the system in terms of difficulty. Personally IF (and only if) people are still struggling to beat all the Story mode bosses in about 3-4 weeks, then whenenver Nightmare gets released, Story could maybe be nerfed. But generally I'd advise against it. Keeping it how it is will push the playerbase to become better. The advantage to this being that they will then be able to progress from Story->HM->Nightmare without it being a massive difficulty jump. If EC Story did get nerfed hard, then it would make Casual guilds who like to finish Story and start HM find it really tough to adapt to HM.

Okay so I didn't know Kephess dropped Black Hole gear, so that's my bad. However, obviously to get to Kephess you do need to kill the 3 other bosses, which drop Rakata. So you're essentially gearing up as you reach the final boss. And naturally - it's only 1 boss dropping it, which wouldn't be enough to realistically gear up an entire raid in Black Hole gear. I just did 16m EC with a somewhat casual guild (My prev guild disbanded - yay ). We got the first boss down after a good few tries, and wiped heavily on the second. However we're getting used to the mechanics and every attempt is getting closer and closer. The team was in mixed Rakata and Columi, and it was totally fine. Honestly, you don't need to gear up in Rakata to do a raid that PRIMARILY rewards Rakata (with as you said, a bit of BH gear from last boss). I wouldn't call it skipping a gear-tier, since otherwise the same could be said for Lost Island, which rewards primarily Columi with 1 Rakata piece from last boss. Infact I think the general idea of last boss dropping something a little better than the rest to be pretty good - to bridge the gear progression between difficulties. Tbh more than anything - this place doesn't need nerf, they just need to fix the visual issues with the second boss

Well nice to see you're not the kinda poster who goes mental when people disagree with you It's refreshing on these forums lol. Anyways, I'm not bothered if others have gear as good as mine - but I am bothered that my previous guild cleared everything, got all the best loot and felt very little need to attend raids anymore. They got bored. So we tried recruiting more people, but eventually led to guild disband. This never happened in WoW: TBC for example - not even in WoTLK (I never played beyond WoTLK). Because we always had some gear incentive, barely anyone other than tanks geared up too quickly. As it is now - it's not too bad because they give us other ways to optimise gear (Taking mods form other pieces improve gear, getting augmented gear, and grabbing the very rare BoE enhancements to give you the real Best In Slot gear). However despite this - changing one or two mods doesnt FEEL as good as finally getting that new chest piece etc. And I really do believe handing out more loot would actually BORE people more than you may realise. Course we'll never know - and you're entitled to your opinion, but yeah - I would definitely be against it. And technically this is coming from a badly geared person as I dont have any Black Hole or Campaign Gear

Sorry but that's wrong. Even though it drops BH comms doesn't mean you must have some Rakata. However currently, as you may notice - the stat difference between columi and rakata is pretty small. And thus Story mode EC is very much doable in full Columi (no rakata). The problem lies in the fact that it is a bit difficult. Maybe the fights will appear to seem easier once people learn the strategies properly. Maybe they will nerf story mode when Nightmare is released. The problem is that currently, it is a bit too hard for what they claim 'Story Mode' is meant to be. However, they cannot make it too easy, because then the jump between Story and HM will be too much. (Meaning casual guilds will literally crap themselves when they try HM and Story.) So obviously, you cannot please everyone in this situation. Either BW wanna see if the players are able to improve and adapt to beat Story Mode with relative ease in the near future. Or maybe they do plan on nerfing it, after Nightmare is released maybe. The main issue here really is the difficulty of EV and KP originally. They set the bar so low - that when it got raised (which it very much needed), people are struggling to adapt to the new difficulty. And tbh my guess is that they wanna see how people do after a couple of weeks to see if it really needs a nerf or not, rather than acting too quickly on the whims of the forum users (which unfortunately both we and BW know doesn't actually represent most of the Playerbase.)

Dude, there's too much loot in this game already imo. Especially in Ops. If they make a new Operation every 2-3 months say, and everyone got rewarded when they beat the boss, you'd finish it very quickly and have no gear-incentive to return. I got geared up in full rakata in 2 nights. I know some would LOVE for this to happen to them, and in a way I did like gearing up so quickly, but at the same time it kills the longer-term aspect of the raiding somewhat. Turning your own argument back on yourself, if everyone got a piece of Rakata from every boss, it wont just be that one guy who cant be bothered turning up anymore cause he's fully geared - it'll be all the guys, meaning no raid.

Yeah, however I feel people are (as they always do) over exaggerating. It is a little birder with pure melee group or lack of interrupts. But this has always been somewhat true. I know this is just a FP and not an Op, but nobody complained that Jarg and Sorno favours dos with interrupts, or how Boarding Party last boss favours melee due to Jorlands aoe. In this case the general difficulty is just a bit higher that people are hunting for reasons for their failure. Personally I actually find this to be a brilliantly made fight purely because it can be tackled with a few differenttactics dependant on your group composition. And yeah I agree with you about the difficulty increase will cause a bit of trouble because people have become accustomed to the easymode first tier. and for a lot of people this is their first MMO, so their gonna take a while longer to adapt to the difficulty. And as a result will probably complain its too hard.

As I stated before there is very little reason to nerf this place. Yes 1st fight is a bit tough, and certain changes could be made to make it easier but honestly there's no point. I've done the fight with 2melee, and 1melee 1 ranged dpsos. The only one I haven't is 2 ranged dps. And in all honestly, a little bit of learning and its very doable. To say you shouldn't have to try so hard is silly. It's hard mode tier 2 flashpoint that rewards 2 columi pieces and a rakata. That's like just a step below hm ev and kp, so it should be harder, more risk for more reward as they say. Now the story difficulty of the flashpoint is still there for those who simply want to experience the content. And as stated about the loot, none of the main loot is exclusive to hm Lost Island, so completing it in hard is not mandatory whatsoever. And frankly - that should be the end of discussion. Further complaining seems ridiculous considering the content is still there to play in normal. And the rewards of hard mode are still available from other places.

Guilds did inform BW after testing, that although they loved the fight, they felt it was a bit too hard for story mode. But maybe BW wanna see for themselves how the rest of the playerbase finds the boss, whether they struggle for long or not. They did change certain mechanics and increase enrage timer to make it easier. I won't be surprised if it does get nerfed in future ( just this fight, the rest seem more forgiving). But in general they stepped up the difficulty a little,but I do think its reasonable. They also don't want to make it too easy that it becomes boring, and also makes the jump from story to hm too big. Since believe it or not, even casual guilds like to do story and then progress and try their hand at HM.

You talk about bad reward, but if you pay attention you'll see the reward probably lands itself somewhere between normal and hardmode Ev/kp as it drops 2 columi and 1 rakata piece. And its a required part of the weekly which rewards 8 Black Hole comms. And when you consider that its easier to both get a 4m group together and easier to coordinate a 4m group rather than 8 or 16 then the flashpoints difficulty is completely reasonable. Once strategies are perfected and people become more aware if the best way to take down the bosses then it'll be fine. Having said that, I do ubderstand why the 1st boss is difficult, as he's harder than the rest. So you could nerf him a bit, maybe reduce frequency of the arc casts or make the arc casts remain the same size rather than growing. But like I said, I don't feel its required.

Indeed, the chat box can be moved around without going into the interface editor. Simply click on the bottom right corner to adjust size, and grab it from the top to move. You can also change font size and colours of txt for different channels. This wasn't included in 1.2 people just never really realised you could do it

Its tough but really there is no reason to complain! The normal mode of the Flashpoint is for lvl 50s. Nothing great to reward but you can enjoy the story. THe gear that drops is Columi and 1 Rakata piece. None of these pieces are unique to this Flashpoint and drop elsewhere (Columi in other HM FP final bosses, and Normal EV/KP, and Rkata from HM EV/KP and Normal EC). It's YOUR choice if you wanna do it on Hardmode. Hundreds of people have already beat the FP with just a bit of learning the fights difficulty. That alone tells us, that it's totally fine. The Risk to Reward ratio is fine, in the sense that it rewards MORE than the other HM Flashpoints, and so is HARDER to beat, to earn the reward.

Maybe you felt its dead because you were on a second instanced fleet, or youre just very unlucky to be on oneof the worst servers. If that's the case, I do feel sorry for you - as my server (Legions of lettow eh) has about an extra 100 ppl on fleet in evenings compared to the last few weeks. Whether that population lasts is another question, only time will tell but I hope it does.

cool Nope my BH is doing fine, if not better than before Come on bro... Makes me feel like you havn't actually spent much time playing with a Sorc/Sage healer Dunno, you could be right about this? But going off the track record, maybe not. You should check out the other threads about Lost Islands tuning, almost all complaints are about this boss. Should help. Now you're just being weird. Just cause you struggled with one FP boss that is, may I remind Tier 2 boss, meant to be harder than other HM FP bosses. And yes, story mode of everything is pretty easy. EV and KP story, easy. Normal flashpoints easy, EC Story - bit more challenging, as it should be. You seem like the guy who'd cry on CoD because he couldnt finish Veteran difficulty...come on now Its a grind, I agree - but meh, most people have crap ton of money. And they're not required, they're optional. Yes...

Guys, most of us just got 30 days free Dont worry, Be Happy Really though, its only 4 hours, for EU people its 12-4pm, no biggie. For East Coast its morning till 11am, no biggie?

Other than story - only reason you'll want to go in, is for the weekly quest to get Black Hole comms. Otherwise all main bosses drop Columi with Tionese crystals form mini-bosses, and finaly boss drops Rakata. (I got chest-piece, I dont know if its random Rakata or always chest) Also regarding its tuning. The first boss is tricky - the rest are fine. But having said that, I dont think it needs to be nerfed, I think once people play around a bit more - certain strategies will be shown to work better than others. And those so called tactics will then become the norm used by most groups (depending on composition). You ask why you should be punished for your group setup - I say it's not punishment, you just have to find what works for you. This is a 2nd Tier HM Flashpoint. So it should be harder than the other HM FP's as it yields greater reward. I understand this should be PuGable etc, and that it's just a HM FP, so it should cater to casuals. But I've been a hardcore raider and a social/casual player. Being casual doesnt mean being bad. A decent, not even great (I dont consider myself amazing and I beat it) group should get this down after a handful of attempts once strategies have been compared etc. If you want the content to cater to bad people...thats a different story all together. The whole point of these encounters is to challenge us. People dont get better by beating the same easy bosses.

Keep trying, not trying to be unhelpful but now that the weekly requires KUS and LI then you should be able to get a group easy enough. That and the new achievement speeders need people to do all the fps again, so should be easier to find group

Yeah you have to do the quest at the same time due to the multiple steps required to complete. But yeah it should be resetable if your group leader etc. Did you guys try everyone resetting the quest from their quest log? If that doesn't work, then you'll just have to wait for a fix.

One tactic that I've heard works well (not tried it myself yet, since I had ranged dps with me) is to essentially group up behind the boss, except for tank obv, and slow kite him. In particular if you've got melee dos, you have interrupts. So set up a cycle and get on top of it, and the fight becomes pretty controllable. You just int everything you can, no doubt some will get through. Make sure the incinerate is interrupted always! And then yeah...save big dos cooldowns for last 20% just cause things do getmore hectic as the blue circles get bigger etc. As for group composition without interrupts such as 2 dos and healer Mercenarys, tank moves him around as required, and focuses to interrupt the incinerate. The lightning circle whatever is called simply has to be dealt with. Tank kites him around, and the ranged, for example start in corner of the solid ground bit, and slowly moves when the circles appear to make sure AsLittle of area is taken up by the circles. This should work well.

We did it in a couple of tries without setting up an interrupt cycle or anything. So if I'm honest, I don't think its overturned. First boss just needs a bit of planning based on your group setup: Either have an interrupt cycle, also maybe move as a group essentially limiting the area where the blue circles drop, allowing for a much less hectic fight. Second boss is easy once you work out the mechanics: First everyone stack on top of him during the smash, so that the knockback is vertical (so you don't go over the edge). And then when he jumps on the chimney/tower things - the tank and dos should run to their assigned console and start channeling. What this does is that every chimney will burn after the 9second cast, regardless of which chimney he jumps to. (so to answer the guy above - its not bugged, its just the tactic is different to what you'd expect). Third boss took 2 tries, which seemed sort of easy once you work out how to reduce the damage with the little explosive things that he applies on tank, and anyone standing behind tank in a cone. I would probably say the 1st boss is the hardest, but I wouldn't say its much harder than the 3rd once solid strat is decided.

Wow, gz guys - slightly worrying that you guys cleared it so quickly, but if you were on PTS then I suppose all the learning was done over there. Can't wait to try it myself, if people start getting their asses online!

Lol unfortunately I don't think you've got a strong enough case to sue bioware for keeping you up all night.

God damn I planned my day around going to the library to get work done and hit the gym in the morning just in time to get home by 2pm (bst)...now I need to somehow get someone to start the dl for me before I get home XD

Well LOADS of Rakata drops from Story Mode Explosive Conflict. However you cant do Story EC in just greens/blues. Still I dont think it's a big deal. Ding 50 on alt: - Do a few HM FP's and get Columi - Also do story EV/KP and you'll quite easily be full columi - Go do EC Story (or HM EV/KP if you want :/ ) and you'll get kitted out in Rakata easily - Also do your dailies and grind up enough Daily coms and Black Hole comms - Job done, you're ready to head into EC HM and get Campaign Gear Obviously all of this isn't a walk in the park. But if you're desperate to gear up an alt, and if you're part of a guild who does HM EC for example - they probably wont mind carrying your alt through the raids, and you'll be geared in a night (Happened to me in EV and KP, 2 nights for full rakata) And if it's your first character, well it's a progression ladder - with certain elements making it easier (such as the abundant amount of rakata in EC story, and the rakata implant/module + campaign relics for daily comms, and the black hole comms from EC/Weekly/World Boss/Lost Island weekly)