Best sorc healer I've ever raided with, absolutely useless sober. Drunk off his butt? Best damned healer I've ever seen. #truth (There's a reason Kolto Tanks look like kegs...)

Apostrophe & The BioWare/SWTOR Staff

I DO have a pretty good friend who works close enough to BioWare Austin to hit their building with a rock from his office. I'll admit... I send him emails with correspondence to the developers, and he prints them and folds them into paper airplanes and hurls them in the direction of BioWare's building.

I am Apostrophe. I am not SammMoney, nor any of the actual people who RUN the podcast. TOROCast's original hosts were Samm and Eric Musco. I came along well after both of them had moved on. I've never met Musco, never spoken to him, he has no affiliation with the show, nor does any other dev/staff member. We are an officially recognized FANSITE. That is all. So much misinformation out there....

You caught me. We've been pen-pals since pre-launch using Morse Code.

I wish I was a dev's friend! I've never actually spoken to any of them, in person, on the podcast, nor via email. The most communication I've ever had with BW staff, is with Customer Service tickets. Just FYI.

^this. This really hurts players who are in more than one guild.

I made it pretty clear, that we (my guild) had no interest in participating in this exploit when we found out what was going on. Prior to learning what was happening, we were running full flashpoints, Group Finders, Heroics, PvP and GSF. We had a large majority of the guild online, doing these quest objectives as we thought was the intention of the event (i.e. putting in the effort, not being lazy as people are saying) and we were getting slaughtered, which didn't make us QQ, or whine or complain.... But more, curiosity as to how it was happening so heavy handedly. I am sure that JC was not the only server this was happening on, and reading the comments in this thread lead to believe that it's been rampant on other servers as well. To the guild in question, who's members have been bashing us, bashing TOROCast, Bioware and other members of the community: You guys have what, 6, 6-1/2, 7 million conquest points between Tuesday and now? That's no small feat and I am sure the effort to get those was substantial and I actually applaud your guy's dedication. I have never, from the first post until now, pointed the finger at anyone, called anyone a cheater, or insulted you. I pointed out, that a conquest mechanic was BROKEN and not likely what the devs had intended. On the last episode of TOROCast, my suggestion (which I doubt the devs will take, but it's not a bad one imho) would be to implement some sort of "Alliance" system for small/midsized guilds to join up with other small/mid-sized guilds to conquest together. This would allow for TRUE competition, without forcing players to decide between staying in their guilds that have been their homes, with their friends.... and competing against larger guilds in conquest events. I've been a member of small guilds. I love the demographic and interaction. I've also been a member of one of the most hated PvP guilds on my server in the past..... I've seen a lot of different responses to guild actions/activities and one thing has remained constant: people like their own guilds. Big, small, or otherwise. The addition of conquests, while I believe it's a great addition to the game, DOES absolutely need some more thought put into the fact that at the end of the day, with the current system, the guilds that are the LARGEST, with the most active players and most alts, WILL win every planet, and smaller guilds are borked. That's not fair, not one bit. I dont know what the ultimate solution is, but I am sure there is one. I think people need to stop looking at the big numbers..... who cares if you can amass 200k points per toon per week... or if it's only possible to get 45k per toon per week. If the playing field is level, and everyone has access to the same conquest objectives, the overall total means nothing. Whether you win a planet with 10 million points, or 500,000 at the end of the day, you won the planet. So balance the objectives so that they reward the players who put in the most time and effort and do the most complete content. I'll make it clear: I HATE the Battle of Ilum point farming. It's boring, it's stupid, and I am very glad they are patching it. I'd love to see the devs take a week or 2 or 3 off from conquests and work some of these issues out and roll it into the next conquest event to be perfectly honest. There's some great suggestions in this thread, mixed in between the mud slinging, which is a shame because they will get lost in the slew of filth pouring over the screen and never see the light of day most likely. I'll also make another thing clear: Last week, we had NO IDEA that the non-repeatable objectives were resetting. One of my guild members noticed the night before the patch, that his objectives were showing as "not completed" and we moreso thought that we weren't getting credit, than we were purposely trying to exploit points. We literally learned about it, when we saw the patch notes go up. Last week, we conquered Voss, which had major bonuses to crafting, and being the first conquest event, and knowing that stockpiling mats ahead of time for 2.9 was going to be important, we had a LOT of materials stockpiled and used the fact that Voss granted the crafting bonus to gain large numbers of points very quickly. It's the whole reason we chose Voss, because we were suited to go after it, having a lot of crafters who had banks full of mats. Everyone in the gaming community knew what was coming. This thread is NOT: me, anyone from my guild, or anyone from TOROCast whining or being a "crybaby" - It's me, bringing an issue to the devs and the community, via the official forums (I don't have any special access to the BW staff, and I posted my thread here on the forums like anyone else would), Tait noticed it, and took it to the team, and you all saw the response. Let's remember that we are all a part of the same community, and try to be constructive to give suggestions to the devs, without being abrasive and insulting in the process.

TaiterTot.... Thank you so much!

I wouldn't disagree with that. Players found a way to gain the highest point yield, in the shortest time-spend. If there's one thing that rings true for MMOs, it's that the players will ALWAYS find ways to do things, that the dev's either didn't anticipate, or didn't intend. I agree here wholeheartedly. I think the INTENT of Conquests, was never to be a farming point race, but instead, a communal event for guilds to band together and complete objectives. Unfortunately, what it's becoming, is guilds farming points by skipping content. But, as I said above, that's a constant in all MMOs and will likely never change. What I'd like to see, is for more objectives to be NOT repeatable, or only able to be claimed once per day per toon.... Sure it will lower the total amount of conquest points in any given planet race, but whether or not you win with 10 million points vs. 1 million points doesn't really matter. The whole goal, should be to have fun, with like-minded people, and the current state of conquests is really akin to gold-farming, but instead of gold, it's points.

http://www.torocast.com/4053/conquest-2-clash-hyperspacebar/ [Content Pasted Below if you don't want to follow the link...]

And... If my memory serves me correctly: KBN's math suggests that (diminishing returns aside) that it takes approximately 16 Endurance to compensate for losing 1 stat point of mitigation. Hence, if you opt to drop a mitigation augment, losing 32 points of either Defense/Absorb/Shield, you would need to add 512 Endurance in it's place to break even. I could be mis-remembering KBN's (or another theorycrafter) math here, so don't crucify me if I am misquoting...

Let's do a little math shall we? (all my numbers assume that you have obtained ALL +endurance datacrons, have the companion bonus, and are using a top level stim.) Prior to 2.4, the "best" gear in the game was 75s. Either Shadowed or Kell Dragon. (obviously with Kell Dragon having the better itemization, particularly with regard to non-lettered mods and the good enhancements.) - Considering BOTH of them come ONLY from NiM TfB and SnV, and you have cleared all content, I will assume that you have farmed either a full set of either, or a mix of the two. A Shadow tank, in FULL Shadowed gear (no Kell Dragon at all..) which keep in mind, Shadowed gear is more end-heavy than Kell Dragon: 3,975.5 Endurance 44,192.3 HP Mitigation stat budget: 1,793 (That is before adding any augments.) In full Kell Dragon gear: 3,638.5 Endurance 40,789.1 HP Mitigation stat budget: 2,052 Now, you have 14 pieces of gear to augment, and each one will grant you 32 stat points of SOMETHING. In order to hit 47k HP as you say, even in the end-heavy Shadowed gear, you would need approximately 9 Fortitude augments, leaving you 5 to use for mitigation, for a total mitigation pool of: 1,953 In order to hit 47k HP as you say, in Kell Dragon gear... well, you can't. Even if you used all 14 fortitude augments, you will top out at 4,086.5 Endurance, which isn't enough to hit 47k. Unless you are in FULL Dread Forged right now, (which btw.... itemized 78s would put you at roughly 43k HP, but you would have OVER a 2,700 mitigation stat pool) - I don't see how you have 47k HP, and still have adequate mitigation to make your healers not completely hate you. I'm not trying to be difficult, or a jerk... I personally have not cleared NiM TfB/SnV, and my guild is progressing in HM Fortress/Palace at the moment......... BUT, the math and facts don't lie, and the simple truth is, that ENDURANCE as mitigation for a tank, is NOT optimal, and makes healing them harder, pretty much for the sole purpose of the tank having a bigger HPeen.

We're still being silly right?

I have a wife for that. Well... in all fairness, I TRIED to have a wife for that.... but somehow, I find myself getting her wine, and sammiches.

I have to admit... This thread has kept me heartily entertained today.

KeyboardNinja can make all the charts and graphs he wants, and do all this so-called "math".... But I am right, and he is wrong. Speculation/Opinion > Facts/Math any day.

When Shield Crits: If you stack your Surge high enough, here is what happens: Attack for 50,000 damage comes hurtling towards your pretty face. You raise your shield to block it, cowering in fear... and SUCCESS! You shield the attack. Your 25% Absorb eats up 12,500 damage. (who needs to stack Absorb... really?? pfft) And the Gods have smiled upon you! Not only have you shielded the attack, but it has been a CRITICAL SUCCESS! Since you have smartly stacked Surge, you have an 80% Critical Multiplier, which absorbs the remaining 75% of the incoming attack (37,500 damage) and HEALS YOU for an additional 5% (2,500 HP) And THAT my friends... is why Tanks should stack Crit and Surge.

I think I just found my new forum signature.

I bet.... the BEST way to tank, is to use no tanking gear at all. That stuff is probably pretty heavy and weighs you down. Imagine tanking in the nude? You'd be much more nimble and be able to dodge out of the way of all the attacks. I think we've been doing it all wrong.

I've been thinking about stacking Accuracy and Alacrity on my tank... So I can taunt much faster, and make sure my taunts don't miss and accidentally hit a tree or something. That tree aggro can be pretty terrible.

Healers should be stacking Defense. You won't want to get hit while healing do you?

Yes. And I do believe it does calculate properly.

IIRC... if you end-stacked everything, and had some 75s in the mix, you could hit numbers like that. Once again, not really a tank I am interested in healing.

Just for fun.... I put together a tank build in AskMrRobot to see what is the HIGHEST HP a tank can possibly have in-game with 78 gear. (This is in NO WAY suggesting this is the proper way to build a tank, in fact it's quite the opposite... However, I was curious to see what the number is.) I was using an Assassin as the test subject, and my criteria for choosing gear/armorings/mods/enh/augments was based ENTIRELY on whichever pieces have the MOST Endurance. (Including all Endurance Datacrons, companion bonus, class buffs and stim.) The resulting tank.... Would have: 2,478 Willpower 4,917.2 Endurance 53,704.1 Hit Points Now, that extreme HP pool, comes at a pretty steep cost. In order to hit that number, you will end up with a mitigation stat pool of 1,690. (For reference, my own Assassin tank has a mitigation stat pool around 2,350 with 38k HP) I do kind of wonder, how long it will be, before I see a 50k+ HP tank in one of my pugs/GF queues.... I don't think I want to heal that tank.