Hello friends. Congratulations on the guild's growth, it sounds like a fun place to be. I'm 46, married for 18 years with two school-age kids and I work full time, we live in Southern California. My MMO history started with Dark Age of Camelot, but I didn't get very far with it. City of Heroes was my first full-on addiction. I switched to WoW shortly after launch and made 60, then left, but returned when my son was 10 years old and we spent a year leveling new characters together, all the way till level 80. It was awesome fun. Since then I've tried most major releases and I made level cap in LOTRO and Rift, but SWTOR is the first game to recapture the magic feel of my first MMO's. My wife does not play, but she tolerates my hobby; she watches her TV shows while I play online, it's worked out great for our marriage. I have a level 50 Sith sorcerer on Darth Sion, and several Republic characters in their 20's on Begeren Colony. None are in guilds, and the post-50 ennui is starting to set in. I'll gladly create a new Republic character on your server, and would love to chat with you if there's still any room in the guild. I will go make someone now, just for fun, and will check this thread again over the next few days. Take care, and thanks for your time.

Hello friend. I just today reached level 48 and got my last companion, Xalek. I think you should try each one as you get them, however I can tell you that no matter who else I tried, I have always gone back to Khem Val. I play a lightning/madness specced sorcerer, and I rely heavily on Force Storm for trash groups, and Force Lightning/Wrath procs/Chain Lightning for groups with silver mobs. Khem grabs the mobs and bunches them up nicely for AoE destruction. I spent around 100,000 credits and some commendations on gear when I first got Xalek, but he's just too squishy at present. He has no problems grabbing and holding aggro, but he just takes too much damage too quickly for my taste. The only other one I used for any length of time was Andro, I did do almost all of Alderaan with him. He's great but as you have seen, you take more damage without Khem's aggro management in place. One method I found to be very safe, but a bit boring, was to turn off Andro's AoE attacks and use Whirlwind to grab three enemies at a time. Then one by one we'd take them down. This is very doable, but it's just not the way I wanted to play my sorc. So I've gone back to Khem every time. He's evil so he likes most of my dark side story choices, and I've been able to get his affection up, and I just worry about gearing him and only him. I might want to try someone else at 50 just for fun, but I think Khem owns them all for leveling. Good luck.

Hello friend. I have a 37 sorcerer (closing in on 38) and I'm also finishing Taris. I did the first few quests on Quesh and they were significantly tougher, since everything was basically my level. So back to Taris for me, I'll finish up and get 38 before moving on. I've gotten pretty good at anticipating the moments where a cutscene will trigger. One thing I always do is bubble my companion, then myself and I RUN forward and trigger the cutscene. There's no timer on buffs during cutscenes, so when the fight starts we are both still bubbled. If there's an elite, I let the companion start the fight (as I'm sure you do). I'm Lightning/Madness hybrid, so I have the 2nd-tier Lightning talent that buffs the shield barrier by 20%. Makes a huge difference. I also have Wrath in the Madness tree, so once my companion has aggro, I drop both Crushing Darkness and Affliction on the target, then check Khem's bubble. If it's too early to refresh it I'll start Force Lightning, and if Wrath procs then I use Crushing Darkness (if it's up) or Lightning Strike. Re-bubble Khem, reapply DoT's, heal Khem if needed, then Force Lightning until dead. I'm confident dealing with a solo elite this way, they rarely ever defeat us. Khem never seems to lose aggro, the only time he does is when he gets controlled (such as Force Lift or Force Choke) at which time the mobs head straight for me. At times like that I use Electrocute, Force Slow, anything I can to slow them for a few seconds until Khem regains aggro. I actually used Andronikus for the entirety of Alderaan, but we were always 2-3 levels higher than the content. I turned off his grenade (so he wouldn't break my CC) and I'd Whirlwind elites or silvers until all other mobs were dead, then we'd focus on the stronger mobs. It worked great, but after all that I am finding that Khem is the safer way to go. I've tried Ashzara a few times and just can't get her to work, for my playstyle. For groups of normal mobs, Andro and I blow them to bits. For anything tougher, it's back to my buddy Khem. Good luck to you.