Is there a minimum level requirement to be able to level from 400-450? I purchased the skill upgrade on my Operative, and it didn't increase my max skill level. He's level 42, is that the reason why I don't see this increase yet? If this is the case, shouldn't they just disallow the upgrade to be purchased? This is uber confusing (and frustrating.)

Just a quick question for the pvp masses. I'm looking to start a new force user class as a pvp alt, but have zero interest in healing/ranged. While that cuts down on what I can tinker with, what are the general thoughts on which of the Marauder/Assassin/Juggernaut is going to be the most useful in rated groups. I already have a Powertech and Sorc already, I'm just not sure what to finish leveling next.

Sorry... I couldn't help myself. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/961102.html Light is affected by gravity. While the amount on a planet surface is pretty much unmeasurable, it does have an effect on light (read: photons). p.s. Yay hyperbole!

So where does the live combat log reside exactly? I'm sure there are people lining up to hear your answer to this question. My comment refers to PvE damage in live. In a raid setting, this type of example is about the best you can do to have damage compared in a vacuum.

The easiest way to base judgement on where a class fits in a PvE environment is likely going to be in the Infernal Council fight in EV. Our Pyro PTs routinely find themselves to be the first done with their 1v1 fights. While this isn't a hard-and-fast way to judge all classes DPS, it's a great barometer to see where people sit in the live environment. If you'd like to suggest another way to validly see what DPS classes are putting out in PvE, I'm happy to listen and see if I can get our HM/NiM clearing group to test this.

The PvE DPS loss is completely reasonable. I never rely on 3 GCDs to get a free railshot, and I'm sure everyone who is complaining will learn to adapt. The rest of the bads will go play another class or take their parents credit card and buy GW2 since most of the people here seem to think that PvP is the only aspect to this game and fail to see how silly overpowered Pyro PTs are in a raid environment.

I was so happy to see people approaching this change in a calm manner until one of the last people here. /sigh The change doesn't have that large of an impact. Play some more, come up with a way to cope. The world will continue to spin and great damage will still be done. It was obviously an unintended mechanic and is being fixed.

It's a mid 40s BOE, so I would venture to guess it is a random drop. Best bet at finding one is checking the GTN or killing champion level mobs on places like Voss or Corellia.

Heck, even as shield spec, just utilize all of your interrupts. Quell, rocket charge, carbonite, Making interrupt (keybond it), grapple. The most important thing to bring with you is patience and situational awareness. I sat on the guys for a couple casts by both before understanding that the fight was designed to make us use every ability that we have, and even as a low dps spec, it's completely do-able. Good luck!

PvE will still be completely viable. PTS parses still put them in the top 3 DPS specs, so I'll be keeping mine around while tinkering with some alts. There's only so many times you can clear current content, and I'd like to play outside of just running dailies. /goodbye to everyone unsubbing.

This.

All I see is "wah wah wah" in these threads. 6 seconds on PPA is just fine. Pyro is far too powerful in PvE as-is, and it needs to be reined in more than just about any other class currently. Buffing everything else isn't the answer.

Well, I can't change how people react to the changes, so I'll bid you all adieu and wish you the best with either your rerolls or buying another game. I'll be enjoying my PT even after the 1.2 patch.

I've made my main argument about the PvE state, but have a decent understanding of how PPA has a negative impact on PvP as well. I'm sure that if this change has an end-of-the-world impact on PT being viable at all, it will be addressed. Once again, after 1.2, players will have the ability to pull combat logs and give proof of how changes will impact the class. This will have a great impact on players trying to scream that a change like this is going to remove nearly 1/3 of their DPS.

I have full understanding how of heat generation mechanics work, as I've stated many times. What you're failing to read in my arguments is that I fully believe that PTs being reined in is necessary. Their sustained DPS is too high, and burst is far too spiky. Whether or not you feel the same way is irrelevant. My argument was that someone who actively plays PT in a high level (read: PvE in HM/NiM content) has an understanding of the class and that in it's current state, it's TOO good. I've shown that I have a 50 PT (and by extension, I play one) and regularly clear HM and NiM content. In PvE, PTs need to have their DPS lowered. I understand that you feel otherwise, but when there is this type of disparity between ACs/specs, a change needs to happen. I can only hope that these changes go into effect and the people who feel PTs should be completely OP will leave the class.

Considering I believe that Pyro needs to be taken down a peg as well, your argument of "you don't play a PT" is void. http://i.imgur.com/ZTofe.png The fact is that Pyro was too bursty, and PPA in it's current state has far too much swing in the "wow, I'm proccing on every FB and RP" to "Well, at least I have Rapid Shots..." to allow any real balancing of the the spec. Everyone screaming and running about their hair being on fire and end-of-the-world have absolutely no understanding of how MMO class balance works. Saying that you need to buff every other class to bring them in-line is absurd when everything PvE related is too damn easy as-is. Buffing every other class is just going to force BioWare to either make everything PvE related stronger, or rein in the offending classes. (Hint: PT IS one of those ACs)

They are upping the process rate on PPA, which is going to create more consistent heat generation. If people believe that occasionally having 3-4 procs in a row was balanced in ANY way, they are past the point where any rational argument will help them understand that this change was NEEDED. I'm pretty confident (read: guesstimate with no logging to back up) that Pyro PTa will still find themselves near the top of PvE DPS rankings. I only base this from being one of the only people in my raid group who will occasionally pull aggro when I get too many procs in a row. While this could be due to some type of threat generation differences between 15+ yard abilities vs. melee range (<10 yard) abilities, there just isn't enough information available to the playerbase to validate this thought. We have some guildies that are looking at ways to live stream the parses to a central location and look at near real-time DPS fight analysis, but we're unsure if this will help with the state of logging in the q.w PTR. Hopefully things like this will allow the playerbase to validate the impact that changes to classes have on current content. Is it wrong to force the players into this type of role? Absolutely, but its things like this that pushed forward theorycrafting of classes in games like wow, hopefully it will do the same for TOR.

Its going to create more consistent heat generation and reliable DPS. Unless you have some magical way to prove that the sky is falling by having parsing on live and 1.2, the burden of proof would lie on you in this instance. Please, show me some logs that prove that this is a pants-on-head level of DPS nerf.

Interesting. I may have to give this a try a bit later. I'll report my success/failure.

Everyone I've talked to in my guild has said that after a week without respeccing your talents, that the price had dropped to one free respec and then cost increases from there, but when I'm trying to respec my BH, I'm coming up with the step above the last fee I'd paid several weeks ago. Is there actually a fee reset once you haven't respecced in a week? Seems odd that I'm not seeing that behavior if it's true.

I'm not sure if you read my initial post, but I'd mentioned that every planet was level appropriate. I've done around 50% of the bonus series on every planet, but considering the lack of people in most areas, it's been a struggle to find groups for heroic quests. Leveling through Alderaan, I had been commenting in general that I was a tank looking for groups on heroics, as well as having gear ready before I even level. Every zone has been a ghost-town like this. I camp Champion level mobs on my level 50 characters to pick up a little extra gear as well during times that I don't have things that I can't make, or just to have some Artifact quality gear when it becomes available for me. I'm hoping this helps you realize that I'm not a slouch when it comes to making sure my character is maintained, or that I'm "lazy." In some ways, it feels like it was easier to level a healing specced Sorc, even when my tanking companion (Khem) wasn't very well geared, and was soloing even level Champion mobs, assuming they weren't hitting him for 1/3-1/2 of his health per swing. Maybe my expectations are too high after having been the healer in a tank/heal combo while leveling, I just figured it would be easier this time around because I have access to much better quality gear while leveling. I'm more than willing to accept feedback, I'd just request that my posts are actually digested before making comments that I'm some type of lazy player who only cares about leveling as fast as possible. When leveling my Sorc, it wasn't fun when I was 2-3 levels too high for zones, having quests grey out to me before I even finished an area, or picking them up when they were already green. I don't know who the companion is after Galt, but maybe they will be the key to keeping my interest, as it's waning currently with how squishy I feel, even in a tank spec.

I know she's the best companion that I can get even at mid levels, but recently (30-32) it's felt like her ability to keep me up as Shield Spec is dwindling. I've kept her gear very up to date, all upgradable gear has current armor/mod/enhancements that are handed down by my other characters, and I'm armormech and have blue quality crafted gear before I can even wear it on both my character and Mako both. It seems like she is too busy DPS'ing even after I've turned off her DPS abilities, but she seems to spend most of her time plinking away at mobs instead of actually healing me. Meanwhile I'm having to pop some kind of CD every group of mobs, and even double Hard (Silver) pulls put a strain on me. I'm level appropriate for all of my quests, and finishing up chapter 1 of the BH questline felt like pulling teeth instead of being enjoyable like levels 1-30 were. Am I just not cut out to be a BH?

They do, but most of them are so low level that I generally don't get hit by them much/at all when my companion is incapacitated. I was thinking of only going up to Reconstruct for the 10% Armor bonus and Sith Purity for debuffs cast on me. My shields tend to last a fairly decent amount of time, and with Resurgence as an instant cast, I may not even need to worry about pushback protection talents in the Corruption tree.. Thinking something along these lines, at least for lower level beasties. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201rMrRbdZf00MZsMbRs0z.1

So I've been enjoying playing at level cap recently, but have a tendency to want to see how far I can push the limits on soloing. I've finished just about every 2+ quest available by going pure heals with Khem, and he's not terribly well geared. Most world spawn champion mobs? As long as they aren't hitting Khem for 1/3-1/2 his health every swing, I've been able to finish them. So now I'm considering a different spec that may give me some more ability to solo, possibly some lower level world bosses. As heals, I've been able to solo bosses up to Subject Alpha easily enough, but it seems that past there, I'm running into issues with hitting enrage timers since my DPS just can't keep up with my DoTs + Force Lightning on CD for the most part. It doesn't feel like healing is the issue, so I thought I might give a hybrid spec a swing. Just thought that I'd throw this out there in case anyone was a similar "let's see what I can kill solo!" type person and already built a spec. I'll look at torhead and see what I can make up for soloing though.

Awesome! Thanks to Slicing feeding my bankroll in small amounts, this sounds like a great plan. Thanks a ton, I'm feeling good about this tradeskill combo! /salute