Based on the general lack of bugs in 1.4 (there are a few obv, but way less gamebreaking bugs than 1.2 and 1.3) I would say it will be totally ready for release by next Tues (25th Sept) if not sooner. I would also imagine (but im no expert) that releasing new raid content before MoP launches would be more effective at retaining customers than releasing it after MoP launch.

Agree, its quite a pain that changes, which are great for PvP end up having a bit off a slap on PvE play. Having a 30m stun was especially useful when tanking trash allowing me to control more mobs at a time etc. Now that is restricted to 10m which is a pain considering most mobs use ranged attacks and don't come close.

So will this be hitting the PTS this week or not? Do let us know!

Sure its possible, but how would you restrict it? They would have to implement gear checks or some kind of agreements. Because not everyone is at such a level. There are still plenty of new fifties everyday. It wouldn't be fair to them to have to group with fake tanks, especially since people will abuse it. Dps currently have long wait times at certain times on certain servers. And idiots will abuse it to try and get a group pretending to be a tank, only resulting in the group disbanding once they realise. In short, doing stuff like that can be left to guild runs or manually set up pugs where everyone knows what they're getting themselves into.

My PT has medpacs and 15% HP heal once every 2mins on Self! I could be a healer too

Their aim with the new Nightmare modes is pretty interesting imo, I'm keen to find out how it works out. It could end up being pretty awesome if they can produce enough of a challenge out of it.

Rakatatat

Who knows they might just be doing a ton of internal testing, but if they want it to be released in September they really should allow us to copy our characters onto PTS and get it on there asap (i.e by like next maintenance or something)

Not to be rude but, the story content probably costs the most to make due to the amount of voice acting required. On top of that it has very little replay value. Regardless of how this game is a MMO with Story (which I love btw) it is still an MMO, more group content is what it requires. If you need your story fix, well that's what actual single player RPGs are for. Dont get me wrong, the class stories and planet stories are one of the most defining and interesting features of the game, but it simply doesn't keep players busy enough, and right now, that's what the game needs. In future as we know Makeb will come. It will no doubt have a good planet story, and is said to be pretty big/long too. As for class stories, not coming for a long time.

"Story mode will be available for players who just want to see the sights, but it’s no walk in the park." from the blog post pretty much says, it should be easy, but not afk-mode easy like WoW LFR. Having said that, I do think EC SM should be nerfed just a little bit AFTER Terror has been released

Some questions i felt like elaborating on, but done

Tbh, I'm satisfied but not over the moon. It wasn't enough content considering the amount of time. I'm not too bothered about big raids if they simply made them more frequent and yeah maybe with more options, such as The Eye (TK), short, but great. (Obviously there was SSC too though) There's room to improve and I think if you're not satisfied there's nothing wrong with quitting and then just seeing how it goes in future and maybe return. Myself I'm not that hard to please. I've been fortunate to not run into much annoying bugs and the lag wasn't fun and wasn't acceptable but has been greatly improved recently. In short I'd be happy with 1 new raid of 5 bosses every 4 months if they're interesting and challenging enough. EC was a great step in the right direction, and I hope they continue to learn and improve. I'll stay subbed cause I'm having fun, but if I wasn't having fun, then yeah I'd quit and just keep my eye out for future improvements.

They'd be wise to save Revan for future. I recall seeing a leak (but cant find it now, it wasnt on Torhead) saying Revan would be in 1.5, but with the lack of content in 1.3, making it 1.6 for us now.

That's kind of interesting...so Storymode wont be much harder than SM EC? And yet HM Terror requires to be geared in Campaign gear. Though I guess if people want to do HM Terror they don't have to do EC HM as long as they gear up in Blackhole gear. Since you can pretty much get BiS gear without touching Campaign. Still kind of odd though, I would have thought the natural step for Storymode Terror would be to drop Campaign and Blackhole. I guess this is something to do with not restricting too many people from being able to do it without gearing up.

Don't take my word for it, but probably Campaign/Blackhole. Just like how EV and KP hm dropped Rakata, and then SM EC dropped it too. I imagine it will follow the same setup.

I had my suspicions of it being Kephess due to the cinematic but then someone pointed out the Torhead leaks: The guys in the trailers are just the agents of the Dread Masters , could be a boss fight but more likely trash mobs lol. I also thought maybe the fat Hutt Karagga may return, if they can revive Kephess they could revive him too. But I think Kephess is a much more likely option. I imagine they're saving Malgus and Revan for the distant future. It could be Malgus, but it would be wise to save such big characters for the future. Unless they appear, we fight, and they vanish again lol. Malgus could be dead, or he could have survived too. Revan on the other hand is definitely alive since we literally see him vanish.

The general story is the Dread Masters. Which I mean yeah, its pretty Star Warsy, and they're summoning some monsters from a far away world through the Ancient Hypergates. I'm very much liking how its all linked together actually. I sort of get what you mean. But its SW the Old Republic. Technically speaking its their own stuff with authorisation from LucasArts.

It's being discussed in the Stickies Terror from Beyond thread but my guess is Kephess again, based on the fact that he's shown to still be alive in the cinematic at the end of the Explosive Conflict quest.

Not all new mechanics, just more new mechanics. HM has some new Mechanics to SM, where as Nightmare is advertised to have some new/different mechanics, specifically some that make previous strategies used by many guilds no longer viable. Which still takes much work to tweak it. The way they made it sound, making our previous tactics no longer always work - it sounds pretty interesting, if it plays out how I think it will.

Maybe they realised that boss fights that involve several bosses (to make it less beating on one boss) is harder that it seems. Kephess is great in that sense, you fight soldiers, and then rail shot droids and then the big guy himself. Vorgath too, you got the droids and turrets. Personally I have no complaint with beating on one boss. But they could make more fights like say Kael'thas where there's 4 mini bosses or something. Having each tank take 2 each. Could make for some very interesting mechanics too, switching/cycling the bosses to deal with certain mechanics and debuffs etc. But I'm just spitballing here

Although I agree it's a very long time. Much time in general has been sidetracked to work on first the Transfers which were clearly not part of their original plan. And now F2P transition as well as the entire restructuring of the studio. If they can release a 5 boss Operation every 4 months I'd be happy. If it was every 3 months that would be amazing, but I'm not gonna get my expectations too high up despite their claims of faster content.

My money's on Kephess too. Not seen that leak in detail but it kind of confirms it I guess. I'm just going of the cinematic at the end of the Explosive Conflict quest, where it shows Kephess still alive with the Dread Masters. And it would make sense he'd be pissed off, we been kicking his *** since late April And yeah can't wait for it to hit PTS and really have a look at it. I'll be honest though, the puzzle boss sounds the most intriguing. Didn't love the Anicent Pylons but Fabricator and Vorgath I find extremely fun. Also I guess when it hits PTS is usually the best indication of when it'll go live, usually approx. 1 months after. Its usually like 3-6 weeks, but I'm going for the lower end based on the staggered content releases giving testers more concentrated time on the Operation. Cant wait! But trying not to hype myself up too much, or ill just disappoint myself

HM = Hard Mode NiM or NM = Nightmare Mode SM = Story Mode

as much as I wished for more, I expected it. They most likely plan to stick to 5 bosses per raid for now

As far as I'm concerned content equals something new to do, whether its something you like or not. New WZ's are content, as they're a new map with new game mode mechanics. New Ops and FPs are content. Events are sort of content. They're content that has a limited amount of time to complete. New dailies is techinically content. Not good content, but it is. New class stories is content, but very short, i.e. Don;t get much re playability from them. Expensive to make considering how much player time they consume. New Minigames, maybe Pazaak or whatever is content. As is Space Missions. Yes it's a story driven MMO. But still an MMO. Story is something extra that it brings to the table.