So I really wanted to like this game. I mean really, I have allot of Star Wars memorabilia scattered throughout the house and my children go around telling random strangers that these are not the droids you are looking for. This is my story,... I rolled as a Jedi Consular, partially because I could not see myself making evil choices like the Imperials or even hanging with a crowd that condones that. Don't get me wrong the Republic had it hands full with some questionable choices but all in all nothing truly struck me as evil. I was dropped on a planet and proceeded to start questing. The questing in SWTOR is fair, just like any MMO on the market, Kill X, Capture Y, etc. The worlds are broken into several questing zones and you progress through the zones as you level. Looking back there weren't that many quests that I truly thought were remarkable, I didn't fly around in bombers or do anything particularly out of the MMO box. It was fairly plain Jane. While questing and completing your storyline the voice acting is phenomenal, it seems to me that's where Bioware put the majority of there funds and energy into polishing. While questing it was hard to find groups, the quests and or zones are almost designed to encourage RPG like play. In some of the larger worlds you wouldnt see players for hours. They were just empty. While questing on a planet there are heroics you can try, where you can find a group and beat otherwise harder mobs. These were fun, however I rarely did them. I found early on that it was incredibly hard to find a group. There is no Looking For Group system. Nothing, and while your leveling say on a level 30 planet the game does not reward you for to specialise as a tank or a healer. So everyone is DPS which makes getting a group very difficult. To fix this problem, Bioware gave you companions which are the equivalent of a very fancy WOW Warlock pet with about 12 abilities. You get 5 or six of these and they are awesome. I enjoyed listening to there back story and learning who they are and how they fit into the universe. Hell I even broke the Jedi code and married one. But looking back I think companions were put in only to reinforce the RPG play style of questing on your own. I bought this game to play with other people, and I find it damn hard to group up with people. Most of the quest you get are progression based so even if your lucky to find someone chances are there not at the same progression you are. So I persevered and hit 50. Ding! and then I hit a brick wall. From prior MMO experience I knew that I wanted to PVP allot, I like to work as a group and kill the baddies. But from what I found at 50, PVP is a lot less fun than other MMO’s. After level 11 your allowed into “Warzones” and given a buff so you can match up with level 50’s. Know I now they just patched the WZ and have sectioned off the big bad 50’s. But as a level 14 Sage running around I had 4 attacks and the 49 Sith shooting lighting out of his hands had about 15. WZ’s just dont make sense, they have 2 brackets 11-49 and 50, that's it. SWTOR also has an entire planet devoted to PVP, its called Illum a barren icy planet in which two sides fight over control points in a never ending battle. Unfortunately all I found in Illum was a white ugly screen and extreme frustration. I don't know if it was the server I rolled on or what but there always about 10 to the 15th power Imperials running around while there were 3 or 4 Republic players. Off these players the half were botting. Just stealthing or doing something. I would log on day after day and at different times and still see the same players on. I actually opened a ticket about this. Its been two weeks, no response. PVP in SWTOR is incredibly imbalanced it seemed to me every time I would go anywhere to fight the Imperials 9 out of 10 of them would be Sith Sorcerers. Know I now its a free country and you can roll whatever you want, but can Force Lightning be that terrific everyone wanted to play it? Its a big problem, and sometimes a bit funny when your in a PVP match and all you see is Lightning and a bunch of Sith in robes running around. I guess the Imperials don't need troopers after all. Or any other class for that matter. When your fighting other classes, there really are no equivalent, yes a Jedi Sage is supposed to be a mirror of a Sith Sorcerer but our abilities are in my humble opinion way different. Gear is also a huge problem in PVP, I am a casual player, I try to do the PVP daily quest and sometimes get done with it. Your reward is this bag you get to open which may or may not reward you with gear. If you dont get gear, you get tokens which give you access to really really ****** PVP gear, which is next to worthless with all the Sith running around. I have opened maybe 20 bags, and now have 3 PVP items. All hope is not lost though, you can get better rewards once your PVP level, goes up. I found this tedious, so its basically boils down to a grind fest, whoever learns to bot there characters around or spends as much time as they can in WZ’s. The customer service is TERRIBLE, I have four open tickets none have been responded to appropriately. I once bought the wrong lightsaber at great cost. Thinking to myself oh well lets open a ticket, WRONG I received a canned message asking me to reply to the message. The ticket was closed and there was no reply button. So I wrote another ticket, two weeks passed, no reply. I cannot really touch upon the raiding aspect of the game as I have not done any yet. There are no pugs for raids, because there is no LFG system. The Guild I joined doesn't know its elbow, the Guild information is next to nonexistent and all our meet up times need to be setup via the web.I have done a few flashpoints and they were fun and quite challenging. However, I think in a few months the difficulty will become trivial for geared players. In conclusion, Bioware released a game with little to no social functionality. All I have left is to grind in PVP, or reroll a different character. I have no stake left in the storyline, no one acknowledges me as the savior of the emperor or as a member of the Jedi council. I Love anything to do with Star Wars and the story was allot of fun, but its like the Looney Tunes catchphrase “That's all Folks” and here I am hoping it wouldn't end like this. What do I do now? Maybe I should go bot around in Illum... TL:DR, SWTOR needs allot of work, EA/BIOWARE lost allot of good will by releasing the game that should still be in BETA. Check back in a couple months to see if they have changed anything.

I am going to try and endeavor a fair and balanced argument on why Force Lightning needs to be looked at. In my humble opinion it is ruining War zones and open world PVPing. It takes all the fun out of even trying to compete against the imperials. First of all 1 out of every 3 imperials is a Sorcerer and all they do is spam force lightning. It has tremendous range, stuns you, hits like a truck and to my knowledge there are no diminishing returns to its mini stun. Yes you are right sages get Telekinetic throw and on some occasions can do some nice damage but is nowhere near as potent/overpowered as Force Lightning. Suggestions for Nerfing Force Lighning; -Add diminishing returns to the Stun -Lower the crit % modifier - Add another second onto its cast time I have been 50 for a couple weeks now, and I find that thee most unfair and unbalanced part of PVP (speaking for the Republic side) is the amount of characters rolling Sorcerers and spamming Force lightning. You guys have a real problem on your hands and this needs to be addressed. Any other suggestions? Thanks for reading.