I got to keep all my names, fortunately. Unfortunately, some of my guildies did not which means I get to choose if I call them by their old name or new name which is kinda annoying.

I'm just sorry it has come to this. Every MMO has a surge at the beginning and then a natural fall-off as people decide to go back to what they were doing before or move on to new things. This is a surprise to no one. So why wasn't it planned for from the beginning? There should have been a mechanism in place for this from day 1 (or at least day 60). As a guild leader I don't look forward to the administrative headache, but I do look forward to more people on at all times. When DAoC merged servers, if there were name overlaps, then each character got a name "extension" you could use when disambiguation was necessary. If there was a Qisa on Bedevere and a Qisa on Igraine, both characters would show as Qisa above their heads, but if you needed to talk to one specifically, you could talk to "Qisa-B" or "Qisa-I". DAoC had housing zones when the servers merged, too, so it wasn't unusual to have to 2 or 3 people in the "same" lot on each server. They managed to work out that conflict too. I mention this because, like server merges, there are numerous precedents in the past for name conflicts. If Bioware just looked at those, there could be elegant ways to handle server merges where we don't have to do all this manual work. Learn from history!

At that level you should be moving on to Belsavis anyhow. It's for levels 40-44 and is my favorite planet.

I *just* did the bonus Taris quests last night and had the same problem - I think it might be bugged and pointing at the wrong place on the map initially. It eventually went to the right place, but I'm not sure what changed it. I may have logged out and logged back in so give that a try.

"Boring" is a subjective term and, therefore something only you can decide. Coming from both Imperial Agent classes, I spend a lot less time worrying about survival, resource management, and which ability to use at any given time as a Sorcerer. But that also means I can devote more of my attention to strategy which I appreciate. I'm Madness, though, which seems like it might be a bit more work than Lightning.

I already liked him, but he won me over when we walked into the Tatooine cantina and he said, "I have a great sabacc face. That was a joke. I hate sabacc.". He had been so single-minded up until that point always talking about his old master and his ancient victories. Then, suddenly, he drops that little bomb and you realize he actually has a dry wit.

I tested this back at the end of January. At the time, this was the answer, though it may have been fixed since: Talent Descriptions: Explosive Engineering - Increases the damage dealt by Explosive Probe and all area effects by 5%/10%/15%. Experimental Explosives - Increases the critical damage dealt by all area effects by 15%/30%. Test: Question: Is Corrosive Grenade considered an "area effect" for the purposes of these skills? Answer: Surprisingly, yes for Explosive Engineering, but no for Experimental Explosives.

Just an update. I went 10-0 before losing a squeaker for my first Lethality loss. I haven't been quite so lucky since then, but I'm still definitely getting more wins, commendations, and MVPs than as Concealment. I even managed this beauty in a tough Voidstar battle where they just had too many healers (lots of damage and few deaths for our team, but no progress). This is in full BM gear (no augments or anything fancy) with a WH earpiece. I never get many medals in Voidstar because I don't tend to stand in the metal area in front of the door - it just doesn't make sense. https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=765B1C82BF91F3FE&resid=765B1C82BF91F3FE%21548&authkey=APsw05nP7Cj4PGw Some more observations as I've had more experience: 1) I'm considering that Lethality may do *too much* damage. I'm not saying it's overpowered, because our squishiness balances it out - I'm saying when you consistently do high damage, people start looking for you. I'm starting to get the same attention from the hurt train that healers get where I used to go relatively unnoticed. It doesn't help that I have a distinctive "shark hat" I love to wear (an oj imperial honor guard helm from Belsavis commendations). I'm loathe to give it up, but may have to in order to regain some anonymity. 2) As a byproduct of #1, I'm seriously considering avoiding upping my damage further as I upgrade to WH gear. I may instead load up on Endurance and just keep my damage in the 300k-400k range. 3) Lethality energy management in PvP is rough. I'm constantly finding myself with no energy and Adrenaline Probe down. That sucks. I can weave in Rifle Shots, but that points to where I am where Corrosive Dart and Orbital Strike don't. Bleh.

I have yet to figure out how to effectively escape someone chasing me without using Cloaking Screen. I can use Debilitate and hope they don't have their CC breaker up. Flash Bang is mostly out unless, by some luck, I haven't already DoT'd them. Corrosive Grenade and the Operative snare should help too, but Force Leap or force speed or that BH tether line or whatever else closes the gap quickly. Mostly I just do what the others here have said and pop Cloaking Screen + Evasion. They almost always choose another target then. When it's down, though, back to the spawn point.

Wish I could get a warzone to pop to test. This low population is killing the off hours.

I had this same question last week and was having trouble finding the answer. Thanks! Don't like the answer though. If I'm moving an armoring into a piece that already has a set bonus on the shell, then I'm doing that to get the stats of the armoring while keeping the shell set bonus.

I agree that Lethality is already pretty solid as far as damage. Making TA generation easier for the purpose of getting multiple Culls off would be over the top. Making Stim Boost easier to keep up would be nice though.

Hmm, I'm going to have to give this some thought. I really like the idea of having HoTs running on myself while I'm running around so I don't have to stop to heal small amounts of damage. Having the HoTs add TAs for more use of Cull/Stim Pack could make up for the damage lost too - just having at least 1 TA up increases damage. Hmmmmmm.

I might have said the same last week, but after trying Lethality I'd say it is better even in these situations. I played Concealment until I felt like I was as good as I could be and was on the verge of quitting. I just couldn't kill anything but under-geared newbies. I tried Lethality as a last-ditch effort to keep from shelving my Operative and I just feel significantly more confident with Lethality even after just a few warzones of experience.

I'm not Concealment any more, but I seem to recall that Acid Blade cost energy and was a temporary buff that wasn't consumed on use. So if you hit Acid Blade while lining up your attack, you'll regen the energy loss in the last couple steps, then Hidden Strike, then Backstab (Acid Blade still active). If you macro-bound it to Backstab, you'd be using it sometimes when you don't need to which would be a waste of energy. I just had it bound to V so my thumb could just slide up from the space bar to hit it while I was moving in. No biggie.

The survivability was what has shocked me the most. It isn't that Lethality makes you any less squishy, it's just that people really are pretty much ignoring anything that isn't right in their face. I tend to let others get into the fray then strafe around the outside dropping DoTs. Once everyone is busy, I pop in and help out with Weakening Blast/Shiv/Cull or Backstab/Debilitate as needed. If things get too hot, I hit Evasion/Cover Screen and reset. This works really well except in Voidstar - that is to say it works fine in Voidstar, but you seem to have to be dangerously close to the doors to get offense/defense medals - I still get 8 or 9, but not the 12 or 13 I get in other warzones. I only die about half as much as I did as Concealment, though, which of course boosts all my numbers. My favorite part about Lethality, though, is that enemies don't know what to do with you. It's pretty obvious you are an Imperial Agent just by your looks, so they figure they are safe out of melee range unless you drop into cover or into stealth. I've seen lots of people stand there waiting for me to make a move, meanwhile I'm shooting darts and grenades at them. Then, if I'm not cocky, I actually duck behind something. That's when they start to panic. Suddenly, they're at 50% health and haven't laid a hand on me. Then they have to decide if they engage or run. Either way, I like my odds. But best of all, since I switched specs I am 9-0 in warzones - all solo join, no premades. I'm making a difference to the outcome and that's a good feeling. I can't wait to play again! Damn you, responsibilities!

I noticed the same thing about droids and poisons. It makes sense that they'd have some resistance to it, but I don't know if they really are tougher or it's just my perception.

I really haven't kept up with the relative usefulness of various Lethality talents, so this may be totally screwy: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401bcZGZhrbkrrhdhR.1 Most of the Lethality talents are pretty clear which to take. The only variation I'd see would be between Adhesive Corrosives (for slowing the enemy down a bit) and Escape Plan (reducing cooldown on Evasion and Shield Probe). I'm really bad about using Shield Probe when I should, so I'm going to have to get good at that before I start worrying about reducing the cooldown. That's why I went with Adhesive Corrosives. For the other points, Imperial Education (+Cunning) and Imperial Brew (+Corrosive Dart damage) seem like no-brainers. Precision Instruments seems pretty important as well since I use all 3 abilities it improves a lot, so every bit of energy savings on those will go a long way. For the last couple points there are 7 appealing choices - it just comes down to what you value most based on your play style. I've opted for more crit chance on Backstab and Hidden Strike for now, but I'm not using Hidden Strike much so those points might be more efficiently spent elsewhere.

Cover is big for Imperial Agents on Hutta since their main attacks at that point are Snipe and Explosive Probe. But as you level you'll grow out of Snipe. And Explosive Probe, while still doing good damage, does eat up a fair amount of energy. Eventually you'll be running around so much you won't have time to drop into cover much at all. About the only time I use it is when I'm rooted out of melee range.

Just went Lethality tonight and really enjoying it so far. I think you under-sell Lethality single-target DPS. I felt a lot more confident taking on enemies 1v1 than I ever did as Concealment. If you use LoS to your advantage, the benefits are magnified ten-fold. Running around a pole playing hide-and-seek with your target while their health slowly whittles away is soooo satisfying. Really enjoyed the string of kills while protecting your healer. Can't wait to get better at this spec and see what it can do. Do you find you don't use Hidden Strike much? It generates a TA and does good damage, but it has the negative of putting you in melee right away. Is it better to just start from range most of the time? Do you find that you are instantly in combat unable to stealth a lot after dying and going to the respawn? I saw that tonight and figured it must be the DoTs still ticking away on someone. Finally, do you go for more crit than concealment does to get the energy regen benefits? I'd love to see your spec and stats and why you chose them. Thanks!

I was skeptical. I was critical. I was even, admittedly, a bit scared. I'd played Lethality on my Sniper, but the short range on Cull and the TA requirement seemed like hell. But I was also fed up with feeling weak in PvP with Concealment. Weak damage on a dps spec is just frustrating. I was hoping that getting up to full BM gear would help, but alas no. Last night I was trying to decide if I was even having fun any more. Go back to my Sniper? Switch to heals (yuck)? Stick to PvE (yawn)? Quit? So tonight I finally took the plunge and tried Lethality. I warmed up on Black Hole daily quests and got my keybinds worked out, but I wasn't feeling really comfortable. I kept running out of energy and never seemed to have TA up when I needed it. Against my better judgement I decided to dive in head first and queued up for PvP. My first 3 matches (solo non-premade) were: 1) Huttball - 347k damage (2nd on my team was 177k), 2 MVP votes, 12 medals 2) Voidstar - 415k damage, 0 MVP votes (Sorc got 430k damage), 9 medals (wasn't near doors enough) 3) Civil War - 352k damage, 3 MVP votes, 13 medals More importantly, all 3 were wins. This was huge for me. I'm used to the mid to high 100k range. I had always questioned the big Lethality numbers figuring they were meaninglessly inflated. I can be honest and admit that some of it surely is simply padding the enemy's heal stats. And surely "any compentent healer will clear the DoTs". But I was paying specific attention to how many people were running around with a good chunk of their health gone and was surprised at how often the damage "stuck". Softening up everyone and stepping in here and there with Weakening Blast/Cull was amazingly effective. The TA requirement on Cull is onerous, but actually less so than the cooldown on the Sniper version - I can actually get it off 2 or 3 times with a single DoT application. That hurts. And the extra cooldown time on Backstab isn't as noticeable when you're not using it as much. What's really cool is watching someone's health burn away while you are chain stunned. I hadn't even considered that benefit. What really shocked me was my survivability. I'm used to being constantly squished in no time. But I didn't have more than 2 deaths in any of those 3 warzones. People really are tab-targetting and I'm no longer the melee running around in their wheelhouse. Corrosive Dart is all but invisible to the target. I spam it on everyone and they don't even turn my way. Just finished 2 more while writing this: Huttball - 410k (2nd on my team was 164k) - 15 (!) medals - we won Voidstar - an incredible 0-0 win - my team literally was all DPS and I was #1 at 378k damage, 8 deaths (least on my team), 8 medals (still too far from doors) In those last 2, I could see a few enemies actually getting pissed at me. One was a Valor 76 Powertech that I could tell was used to people bouncing off him. I nearly killed him - shocked me as much as him I think - he had to burn a WZ heal to win. In the Huttball, 3 people chased me into their own pit when I tried to escape despite a close game. These are my first 5 warzones as Lethality. These are not pick-and-choose victories. I have screenshots of 4 of them. It's 1 AM and I really need to get to bed but I'm having fun for the first time in weeks! I'm not going back.

Just be conscience of when you use it as a Concealment Operative; it takes a relatively high amount of energy so you don't want to use it just before or after another high energy attack like Explosive Probe. The two together will drop you out of the optimal energy regen range quickly. Many a time I've fought a vanishing class and had them disappear on me wishing I'd thought to drop a Corrosive Dart on them first. It won't prevent them from vanishing, but it will knock them out of stealth on the next tick so they won't get far.

I've had some questions about Lethality that could be answered here I think: 1) Do you ever find that your DoTs are annoying your team since they break a lot of CC? 2) Do DoTs prevent you from re-stealthing?

So a rank 58 Power/Surge enhancement without Expertise will provide more benefit in PvP than a BM enhancement with Expertise (at least up to a certain level)? Why is that? Awesome! So I'll get the WH helm and boots and transfer the mods over to my oj gear and get the 2-piece PvP bonus.

I am mostly at the BM gear level right now. I have a helm, vest, and leggings I want to use for the looks - I moved my BM mods over to them. The gloves and boots aren't as noticable, so I'm using columi shells with BM mods moved over so I get the +15% backstab bonus. Now I would like to get the extra tick on my Orbital Strike from 2 pieces of Field Tech. Is that possible using my 3 orange pieces? If I move the armor mod over from BM or WH gear, will the set bonus go too? Or am I SOL? Also, I have way too much Accuracy on my BM gear. But I can't just swap PvE enhancements in because my PvP enhancements with Accuracy also have Expertise which I don't want to lose. What are people doing in this case?