I think he means if a Guild needs one more player, they would rather pick up say, a Scoundrel over a Gunslinger. Reason being that should they ever have an imbalance in their raid (like they have too few healers) they could ask their Scoundrel to respec whereas they can't ask the same as a Gunslinger. It's a scenario that would probably be quite rare though.

The problem raised isn't an issue with dual-spec but rather the class design itself (if you consider it a problem). And you can respec in this game already, so it's not like this is news to anyone who has been using the respec NPC. I've seen plenty of Commandos switching to healer role, or a DPS Guardian switching to tank etc. All dual-spec does is make respec'ing cheaper and more convenient in the long run. If you wanted to play a versatile character, you should pick a class that can fill tank/healing roles. However, Marauders and Snipers have the advantage of having 3 seperate DPS trees, which is heaven for players who are certain they only wish to DPS. They also cannot be yelled at to play a tank/healer as it's impossible for them to do so.

TL;DR Too many abilities. You need the entire keyboard plus +SHIFT versions just to bind it all. Possible ideas to solve this problem provided below... LONG VERSION I've talked to people in the game and the general sense is that there are just too many abilities in the game. I kind of dread visiting the trainer every time, in case I'll get some new skill I have to keep on cooldown every 10 seconds or so, or give me an ability equivelant of an adrenal or relic. Especially if you want to be a tank/healer and still have good dps output in PvP in addition to your heals and taunts. Add to that the necessity of using relics and adrenals and you could be having to hit 4-5 keybinds just for a single attack, that's just one skill in your rotation. It reminds me of when shooter games used to have a constant arsenal of 10+ guns you could carry at a time, whereas nowadays in the post-Halo era, choosing your loadout is an integral mechanic of the game. So the idea (a very unoriginal one but still...): IDEA 1: Limit the max amount of skills you can equip to your hotbar. In the same way you have to choose a limited amount of talents, you must select a limited number of skills to go into your hotbar. It could also help to differentiate certain players and their play-styles as one player may have a different arrangement of abilities from another even if their talents are the same. So for instance as a Trooper or Bounty Hunter, do you want your 14th ability to be something like Stealth Scan or Full Auto as you can't have both. Do you want to bring more CC skills or more DPS? IDEA 2: After implementing Idea 1, add build stances. Perhaps make it so you can switch to another build of skills, but there's a cost for doing so. Like a 3 second cooldown and all your force/energy/ammo is drained. So if you want to have a build for questing and then switch to PvP when you enter a warzone without sifting through menus, you can do that if you like the versatility, but they would utilise the same keys. You could even use it in the middle of battle if you feel it's worth the risk. IDEA 3: Trade-off Extra Skill Slots vs Primary Attributes and Endurance Perhaps if you want to bind a larger (or smaller) number of skills, you can expand your hotbar but you'll lose (or gain) a % of your total Endurance and Primary Attribute. It would probably need to be balanced so that the players with a greater number of skills have a slight advantage however, as it's harder to play, but not large enough that someone who chooses to play with a modest number of skills can't compete. CONCLUSION: This isn't so much a suggestion to be taken seriously (as I can't see it changing), but rather to encourage discussion or see if anyone feels the same way, or can convince me having 3 bars of skills and items is for the best. I think the boat has long since sailed on anything like this unless some other MMO sets a trend of a limited hotbar in the same way Halo did for shooter games. Another benefit would be that it could help grab more casual players or console players who may be overwhelmed currently, feel like a Naga mouse is a must-buy, or that they have to learn how to play a game as if they're managing a plane's cockpit. I did try to identify an issue I'm not fully enjoying with the game, and come up with some lame armchair designer solutions rather than just whine about it. Hopefully that counts for something, and gets some interesting replies. I expect this thread to either sink to the bottom unread, or get ripped to shreds but I figure I'd post it anyway.

I'm not sure about PvP itself, but you should definitely get say... 15 social points for picking an MVP and 40 for receiving MVP. If you've gotten the attention of your fellow TEAMMATES enough for them to congratulate you on contributing well to the team I see no reason why that isn't social. Plus it's two birds, one stone. It encourages more people to pick an MVP before they leave and who could be against that?

PvE players have a gear treadmill so PvP players need one too. You can do things like make PvP an even playing field where all gear is identical in PvP but it removes the treadmill and any reason to keep playing. It also removes the ability for players to maximise or customise their gear to try out new strategies. So basically, that idea is a no-go. They could make it so you can get Columi/Rakata gear in Champion/BM bags... but then you'll have this disastrous situation where one activity (either operations or warzones) will be the quickest path to gearing and the other activity will be seen as pointless. Not to mention, it would mean you have to do BOTH activities in order to gear up the quickest. And that would mean players feel pressured to do activities they don't enjoy in a game they're paying for monthly to play. They already have a bit of that situation already where PvE players feel as though doing PvP dailies is the quickest route to high-end gear despite them hating PvP. So to reduce the chances of this happening, Bioware have to differentiate PvP and PvE gear while keeping them balanced in terms of total stats. So PvP players have their own set of gear, and PvE players have theirs. Battlemaster has lower stats than Rakata but has Expertise. So BM is superior to Rakata in PvP but inferior in PvE. Rakata has higher stats than Battlemaster but no Expertise. So Rakata is superior in PvE but inferior in PvP. The problem of course is similar to the issue where you want to raid to get gear... but you can't... because your gear is not good enough. Which is kind of a vicious circle. But in PvP the problem is even more apparent because unlike in PvE you can't solo your way toward gear via dailies for entry level, you NEED to face these full-battlemaster players in order to gear up. Basically... the Expertise system makes sense and is necessary but it's not without its flaws. The only solution I see is either bracketing Centurions into their own warzones which would slow down queue times massively, removing gear from PvP, or forcing PvP players to do PvE for their Expertise gear which PvP players don't want to do. So there are no easy answers I'm afraid. They tried to alleviate some of the issues by giving more Centurion commendations for entry-level gear but it's not enough if you want a level playing field. It's not a system that is design to be "the most fun", but rather, it's a system designed to be the lesser of several evils. In that sense, I guess it is the most fun however.

What I meant was similar to taking say a blue item, reverse engineering it and getting the recipe for a purple item. That's what I meant by crit. Not [superior], [Exceptional] or [Mastercraft]. Sorry for confusion there. I edited my post to add some extra mumbling thoughts. And if crit crafted orange gear is fairly easy to obtain, all the social vendors would need is a price hike for the crit social gear. Social Points aren't so much about the rewards, or the difficulty, but rather, it's Bioware's attempt to encouraging grouping. They want people to go into conversations as a group rather than a solo player, and that's why the social points system is there. It is perhaps laziness on their part that Black Talon and Esseles is the easiest way to obtain social points, and the ease of doing that discourages normal grouping. Like you may fall into thinking "Well I could quest with this guy... but I won't get many social points... and I can just grind Black Talon later which is faster". Perhaps they could fix it by FIXING HARD MODE so you can get social/DS/LS points in them, and then having diminishing returns on flashpoints or quests you've done a million times already.

There have been some good points raised though in the thread. Like, perhaps crafters wouldn't be too fond of social vendors giving out augmented orange gear. I understand that and it's probably the only relevant objection in this thread. So far I can think of two ideas, one which has been raised. And I think they would work well together. 1) Have augmented equivalants of social gear all unlock at around Social X or so. All cost about 100k each and only available to level 50s. 2) Crafted Social Gear: Suppose you want augments on your Sand People armour... Step 1: Reach Social III. * Step 2: Buy the armour from Tatooine cantina (perhaps increase the price of the armour from the vendor to make up for the fact you don't have to wait for it to be crafted before you can Reverse Engineer it). * Step 3: Reverse Engineer your Sand People armour with the relevant crafting profession to obtain the Crit Recipe. Step 4: The recipe may require a Biometric Crystal Alloy or other rare material to make up for the ease of reverse engineering. So go get it. Step 5: Craft it. Personally, I would be happy to have both systems simultaneously, so long as Crafting is the quickest route. It would encourage crafting, but still give non-crafters a chance of getting the same gear with some determination and a bloated wallet. *Note: Step 2 and 3 could also be condensed into a single step: "Buy Mastercraft Sand People Armour Armourmech recipe from Tatooine's social vendor". Edit: Also, one issue that could arrise from making crafting compulsory for *true* end-game viable orange gear, or making the threshold for reaching Augmented Social gear too high, is that it would demoralise or discourage grouping. People may think "It takes too long to do so I won't bother". It would perhaps make it all the more satisfying for those who put the effort in however. Personally I see a big conflict between Bioware's plans for social points and Bioware's plans for crafted orange gear. They don't go well together and I think perhaps augments on orange gear should have been a last resort to kickstart crafting. If they could have boosted crafting by other means, the social points system wouldn't have been hurt in the process. However, all of this depends on how easily attainable crit-orange gear is. If they're so difficult and require 400 Armourmech or whatever then it's a problem for the social system. However, if you could buy crit-orange gear on the GTN for about 50k, you wouldn't really need to make crit social gear hard to get, you could probably get away with making them require the same rank, but much more expensive compared to crafted gear(creating a nice credit sink in the process). So who knows?

??? What if they're an Inquisitor/Consular. They use light armour... So that would be equal to high end stuff if you had the mods to go inside it. It doesn't? You still need the mods to insert in the gear... Running black talon 50 times is a lot harder to do than simply waltzing up to any vendor (or the GTN etc.) and buying any orange piece of gear that a Social 0 player could wear. I don't understand your post at all, it just doesn't make any sense to me. Why should social gear be useless compared to other orange gear that is much easier to get hold of? What could that possibly achieve? Social gear isn't just for "goofing" around in. It's end-game viable and people like that. It means they can customise how they look, and Bioware's changes to the end-game PvP/PvE armour are an effort to make that possible. They're also adding more medium and heavy armour to social vendors so that more players can wear social gear. If it was just for "goofing" around, then light armour would suffice right? Because anyone can wear it. But no, they're trying to make more armour end-game viable and give people a greater breadth of choices. Don't put words in other people's mouths. You still have to raid for the 25 Mods or Rakata tier gear. I'm pretty sure my 25 Assassin with Social IV doesn't have "raid quality items" in her Hoth social gear. Yeah that's how it already works. You get the stats from raiding and you get the social items from doing flashpoints and quests. Both take effort. I've done Black Talon for Social IV now which is really low compared to Social X and I can tell you it takes more than an hour... And that's not just running Black Talon constantly either, I've been questing in groups whenever I've been on the worlds too. I think Social I to II is about 750 points or something like that, and you get about 150 per run. And a run takes maybe 15-30 minutes, not including the LFG Social Farming general chat spam. To get really high level Social gear you're talking about quite a bit of effort, when you get into the higher tiers. WHAT!? STOP THE PRESSES We've all been doing it wrong. We've been screwing around killing Soa and Karraga on Hard Mode, or grinding Warzones and Ilum to get the best gear this whole time and according to you, we should have been running a level 10 instance this whole time in order to get the "best customisable gear" (completely empty, stat-less, orange gear) that eclipses raid-gear somehow? Do you know how stupid that sounds? You do realise that social gear is empty right? It doesn't have any mods in it... Just checking because that's the only misunderstanding that could possibly account for what you just posted. I'm nearly convinced you've never played TOR before or are simply trolling. And I'm not trying to be mean here, I just am genuinely bewildered and trying to see if you perhaps don't understand how orange gear works. And when we use the words "end-game viable" in regards to social gear, that refers to AFTER we've put in the mods and such that we obtain from raids, crafting or PvP. Just trying to clear up any possible confusion... Also... I should point out that the OP is not asking that Social gear come with an augment... But rather, an augment SLOT, so you would still have to go buy or craft that augment in order to get the most out of your social gear.

Have you ever played TOR? In TOR they have this armour type called "Custom", marked by an orange outline. It means you can modify the armour to your exact specifications. It's a pretty good system. It means you can have the looks, and the stats, without having to compromise either. They also have this tiered system called "Social Points", where you're encouraged to group up in order to gain access to exclusive custom gear. That's why it's called "social gear". Not because it's purely for cosmetics, but rather, because you need to be SOCIAL to get it. Now, if the social gear was supposed to be as you suggest, that is to say - useless. (Say for instance, white outlined). Then yes it would be purely cosmetic. However, why on earth would such a system encourage players to bother grouping in multiplayer conversations? Why would they do that to get utterly pointless and throw-away gear they can't even use for this game's main activity - combat? That would make the social points system entirely irrelevant and have the opposite effect on players, no? I get the feeling you just want to defend Bioware's designs and systems. But you don't seem to understand the system in question. I would love nothing more than for Bioware's design goal for social points come to full fruition, and adding augment slots to social gear would be the answer. And if you need +1 higher rank to unlock the augmented version (like say Social II for Bikini and Social III for Augmented Bikini) then that would be good in my opinion.

I already read that when it was first posted don't worry. Please note where he says it's the outliers and the crazies who reach level 50 within a month. Casual players have plenty to do in this game because there's an unprecedented amount of solo quests in the form of 2 sets of faction stories across the whole game and 8 unique class stories. Bioware have the casual/solo player covered, and then some. If you're blowing through alts already and you're ready to quit, then I'm sorry you're not a casual player. You won't be seeing a very large exodus following behind you. No, Gabe Ametangelo and Daniel Erickson both said that before the game launched. They want the game to appeal to casual players, and still have the grouping and challenge for the hardcore fans too. Removing group content, when it's unnecessary (see above paragraph) would destroy the community. Why would players need to join guilds? Why would players want to do raids or flashpoints? Why would they pay a monthly fee for an MMO that has no community. Did you miss the part where I said if you want to play solo that's perfectly great, and I hope you "have a blast"? Solo content is great... and the game has it... lots of it. But it is you who is asking for Bioware to remove any reason to group up. Seriously... you want to remove the heroic quest system? You want to make the social points system utterly pointless? And you're telling me I'm trying to dictate how you should play? You are not hindered in anyway if group-players get Expertise gear or Raid gear if you don't PvP and you don't do Operations. But these rewards are essential for those who do wish to get the most out of warzones and raiding. So not content with destroying heroics and social points you now want to dismantle the whole point behind endgame too? Truth is you're just wrong here. They have two planets with repeatable end-game quests where you can get Rakata level Implants and Ear and 51 Rated mods completely solo. (Ilum and Belsavis). Bioware have always said they would add to the class stories post launch. Taking this as some sort of vindication for your own gripes with the game is simply reading too much into something that was inevitable.

You're not being forced to PvP. At most you could say that if you plan to do both PvP and PvE, then PvP gear is quicker, but it's not that big of a deal. Here's what I'd recommend for obtaining PvE gear: STEP 1 Get Tier 1 gear. It sounds like your friends are impatient and want to skip this part, opting to jump straight to Champion (Tier 2) gear. But it's really not necessary. Champion gear is harder to get than Tionese-equivelant gear anyway, and you'll be replacing your Tionese OR Champ gear eventually anyway with Columi when it comes to PvE. So if you're doing PvP purely as a means to an end for PvE, then Tier 1 gear is a more direct route to Columi and more worthy of your time in my opinion. Basically you want 51 Rated mods in all slots. (Not hard to do within a day or two of hitting 50, especially if you have 1,000 Warzone and Merc commendations ready). If you don't PvP at all while leveling, then you'll have to make up for those lost 1-6 bags by doing dailies on Ilum and Belsavis for 50 and 51 rated mods. Or spend some money at the GTN on any purple Lvl 50 gear you can afford. If you have a minimum of Purple 50 mods in all your gear then you're ready to roll and perfectly capable of doing Hard Mode flashpoints and perhaps Normal Mode operations. It's probably possible to do flashpoints in full greens to be honest... though your party will resent you for it, and it will be harder. I've done Flashpoints with people in level 30 mods and stuff, we wiped, it was annoying, but it was doable. STEP 2 Get Columi-equivelant gear. (From HM Flashpoints and NM Operations, and their dailies). Some Columi implants and such can be crafted too so check the GTN. Basically when you have Tier 1 Gear, you're ready to do HM Flashpoints with your guild and friends. When you're about half and half Tionese/Columi you should definitely think about Normal Operations (if not earlier if you have a good enough op). Now would be a good time to mention if you're Biochem, make sure to get your alloys for your Stim and Adrenal. STEP 3 Get Rakata. You'll need full Columi or thereabouts to contribute to a Hard Mode Operation.

Good luck with that... This game has loaaaddds of ways to play solo already. Each class has a totally different story which can be completed alone as well as a majority of the quests being soloable in the worlds. You have a companion to help you at all times also. It doesn't need more solo content... It needs more social content, incentives and features. Bioware have said all along that they want to have a game where you CAN solo through, and have a blast, but that they'll be constantly trying to entice and encourage players to group up on their journeys and hopefully discover the joys of playing with other wretched human beings. Also, please note that encouraging and coercing are two different things. You're not forced to group, you're just strongly encouraged. You can solo all the way, but if you don't group then you miss out on many aspects of the game. This isn't because Bioware don't value soloers, or that they think grouping's "superior", but rather, because it's necessary to ensure theres a reason for social players to group up together. Like I said it's great if you want to solo... knock yourself out and have a blast. And many people do solo, of course they do. But that doesn't mean Bioware should make a MSORPG. Asking for solo rewards to be equal to social rewards, or to remove a majority of the group content would utterly destroy half of this game. And it's completely unwarranted when solo quests outnumber heroic quests by a huge margain. It doesn't matter if soloers are 10% of the population or 90% of the population, giving incentives for grouping is always necessary if your game has that option within it.

If they're not stupid they'll use a cleansing move to remove tech effects before vanishing. On my scoundrel I can't remove force effects though I believe. I have a Vanguard too, and opening with Plastique or Sticky Grenade is always a nice way to greet a stealther who's losing and ready to bail. Or setting them on fire seems to work too. In-combat stealth isn't unfair and it's on a fairly long cooldown too, you just need to accept that you're not going to get the first hit from a stealther. Just like if a Guardian leaps at you he'll get the first hit, or if a Trooper shoots you from range he'll get the first hit etc. Remember that a player is useless while in stealth. Stealth itself isn't powerful on its own, but rather it's the positional advantage it gives you after you've emerged from it. You have tools to give yourself an advantage too so use them.

A little note: You can solo the 4man on Belsavis with a suicide run, as combat doesn't stop you from activating the objective. The only issue is actually getting to the heroic area really. As for the 5 objective one (inside the phase on the opposite end of the tomb) Shadows/Scoundrels/Assasins/Operatives can also solo that one but it's kind of hard to not die to the Esh'ka that aren't meditating. I don't know which one gives you a mod though. I would imagine that there's a reason why those types of mods are absent from the vendor (like maybe you're supposed to get crafted versions)? But if there is no reason, and this is just an oversight then I'd be all for adding more mods to the vendor. IMO, I'd recommend saving up for the Rakata Implants and Earpiece though and try to get the heroics done for the 50 rated mods.

Social points are no good for solo players? You don't say... The clue as to why is in the name. The entire reason social points exist is to encourage grouping. Arguing that they're useless because you can't get them as a solo player is beyond missing the point. Let's just say Bioware will remove the social points system before they ever give social points to solo players. Not that they will of course, because it's a perfectly good feature to have in the game. Your tirade about social and solo players is a little naive and presumptuous. In an MMO, the more worthwhile solo content you add, the more it hurts group play. For instance, why would players do a 16 man raid when they can do an 8 man raid and get the same rewards? Why do a flashpoint for gear if you can just do some solo quest that drops the same item? If soloing was the intended way to play this game, it would be an awful MMO. Obviously a majority of players WILL be playing solo, and that's perfectly fine and great for them, but that in no way makes it good design to reward soloing and grouping equally. You just need to think about the ramifications for 1 second to understand why. It has nothing to do with some people wanting to dictate how other people should play or any other number of paranoid assumptions. Bioware designed it that way because there is no other way to design an MMO without utterly destroying the very foundation of your game and your online community. Saying "make heroics soloable" is tantamount to asking that heroics be removed from the game. And if Bioware didn't want heroic quests in the game, they wouldn't have put heroics in the game... They're supposed to be missed by soloers, that's part of their design, that only social players can complete them... That's the point. If Bioware were to do anything about the state of heroics, it will likely be in the form of nerfing solo play and buffing grouping. Not the other way round.

Just a very simple suggestion. There's not really that much to do in the worlds after you've done your quests (except datacrons if you've not picked them up yet). World Bosses seem to be kind of pointless also unless you need a specific recipe. So a simple idea that would make the worlds useful at end-game (and give 50s more to do), would be to have all the strong monsters on all the planets drop a certain amount of Tionese Crystals (low level planets), Tionese Commendations (mid level planets) and Columi Commendations (high level planets). World Bosses could potentially drop Tionese or Columi gear in addition. This wouldn't ruin raiding as Operations (and Dailies/Crafting) are still the only place to get Rakata level gear. And Harmode Flashpoints would be more efficient, this would simply give players a reason to stay logged on and kill strong monsters with their friends after they've been locked out of the Flashpoint they need that day.

Why would Bioware turn a questing mechanic that is specifically designed to encourage grouping, into a mechanic which makes grouping completely unnecessary? Why not just make the 16-man operations soloable while they're at it, for all the people who can't be bothered to group up for their raids? If anything the problem is that there's too much solo content. People know they can solo to 50 quicker than they can group up. Heroics offer more rewards but they'll be useless in a few levels time. They also offer better EXP, but you just know everyone is going to take forever to reach the area, and that something will probably go wrong. Human error increases the more humans you introduce. In a nutshell, heroics can end up being slower in the long run. Which is a shame because they're a lot of fun and it makes the game feel less like a miserable, hollow fetch-quest.

I wouldn't mind a PvP arena similar to the duel of the fates fight on Naboo. Having shield doors lock and open again would be pretty cool and vary the flow of the map from moment to moment. I wouldn't get too crazy with the gimmicky areas though, you don't want a map where your ability to score is dictated by the current configuration of the map, rather than player ability. So have a few shield doors in the centre closing off choke points, and hazardous radiation fields littering the shortest (but also most dangerous) paths. I wouldn't put anything that hinders progress at the end zone. Maybe an underground-style, decommissioned, derelict power generator elsewhere on Nar Shaddaa. Maybe covered in moss and overgrown vines, and all the electricals are crackling and barely working. To give you the sense that the place could blow up at any time.

Bad idea on the whole greying out of Heavier armour. What if, for example, your Consular needs the enhancement from a Trooper Columi chestpiece and everyone's fine for you to take it? As for the companion thing, "Companion" would just become the new Greed. They would probably need to add a "Bound to Companion" feature and lock the vendor sale price to 1cr. And I can't see it being worth it, it just overcomplicates things. The Need and Greed system is supposed to be simple and easy to understand. There are a number of reasons why you might pick Need, not just for a companion. Maybe you want for the looks, maybe you want for the mods, maybe you want for an alt, maybe you want a recipe for a crew skill you don't have yet but plan to level in future. They could add buttons for all these things, but they don't need to. You simply need to use the /party chat. If you want to Need for your companion then do it, following these unwritten rules: 1) Wait until everyone else has rolled Greed. If someone Needs it, then don't complain (unless they're ninjaing). 2) "/p It's an improvement for my companion if no-one else wants it". 3) Wait for a response. 4) If they say "Just Greed it". Just Greed it. 5) If they say "OK, sure". Need it. 6) If they don't respond, pick Need with a couple of seconds to spare and if they complain tell them they should have replied.

I hear the Agent storyline is good, and none of the Imperial quests are the same as the Republic's (except Flashpoints). Have fun.

In other words it's pointless? Let's suppose you're right, that it is purely for cosmetics (which is wrong btw even if Bioware wished that were the case, in practice, the gear is of greater use to Consulars than other classes), do you think it's worth the hours upon hours of gaining social points just to get some armour you can't even wear in the field? Why would players group up, knowing that the social armour is completely useless? The fact is, it's not cosmetic gear, it's combat-viable gear. That's actually a good thing. It gives you the ability to customise your character how you want. The problem is... it's only combat-viable for one quarter of the classes in this game. That needs to change. Either all gear needs to be combat-viable for all classes (which isn't the case currently and needs fixing). Or none of the gear should be (which would make the whole social system utterly pointless and thus discourage people from grouping up). As it stands, there is no incentive for non-Consulars to group up because there is no Armour worth buying from the social vendors. Also, there are pieces, like the Sand People Armour (Medium Armour), that can't even be equipped by Consulars. That needs to change also, and it doesn't really support your theory about all gear being Light so all classes can equip. I don't even know how anyone could even think this is a bad idea. It benefits everyone, and impacts no-one negatively. It promotes grouping and gives greater customisation with absolutely nil drawbacks.

Umm... where to start. Your post doesn't make any sense if you actually know how the armour and classes work in this game. Quick recap: Troopers and Guardians wear Heavy Armour... They have always worn Heavy Armour... They always will wear Heavy Armour. They can buy Heavy Armour. They have bought Heavy Armour. And they will buy Heavy Armour in future too. You can purchase [Orange] Heavy Armour basically everywhere... The only exception being... social vendors. Hence why this thread exists. How is it fair? Well it's fair because Troopers and Guardians have been buying Heavy Armour this whole time believe it or not. I may have mentioned that once or twice. So, adding one more vendor to the list of places you can buy Heavy Armour will be unfair... how? How will adding additional sets of Heavy gear to the game be unfair? It would just mean Consulars/Inquisitors aren't the only class anymore that can use Social gear, and triple the amount of classes that benefit from leveling their social rank.

The only one I like to be honest (and I've thought about it before also) is a repair kit. But it would need to be usable only by yourself in order to make Cybertech useful. The whole point of Biochem is to make consumables cheaper for yourself, while other players need to keep stocking up on medpacks and stims. I think it would be a good idea to make it so (for example) Armourmechs can repair their Heavy and Medium armour at a fraction of the cost players must pay at an NPC. They would need to sink that lost money in another way though, perhaps increase the cost of levelling Armourmech and have the repair kit recipe cost about 200k? All classes should have perks like that in order to balance Biochem out. I'm not sure what Cybertech's perk could be. Perhaps they can make a rank 4 speeder? They kind of already have the grenade thing. Cybertech was one of the more viable crew skills as well as Biochem. It's the other crafting skills that are left in the dark currently.

I like the idea. One issue though: Gaining experience from monsters way below your level is a bad idea. For example: There's a spot in Tatooine where you can basically go from level 25-35 in hours by power leveling. If you could do that post level 35 by syncing to a lowbie's level, that's kind of broken and boring for all involved. Players would just find the optimum place the level and bore themselves to death. Depending on how legacies turn out, it might be an idea to gain a little bit of legacy EXP when synced to a lowbie, but that's about it. Or have a conversion system for commendations so you can convert 5 Coruscant commendations into 1 Correllia commendation so you're not totally wasting your time fighting on Coruscant. Besides, you usually want to help your friend reach your level so you can play together unsynced. Gaining EXP would make that harder to do. Edit: Oh, and no bolstering of a lowbie up to a high level player. It should only decrease your level, not raise it.

Shadows can tank in light armour already. I don't see an issue. And this gets my approval. Already posted about this before. Just make 3 different versions of the same armour. Exactly the same, with different armour ratings. Also, can we get a bare-chested male equivalent of the slave bikini? It's only fair. Far too many people use that slave bikini outfit right now (and it's only going to increase once we can remove armouring from PvP/Raid gear) so in the interest of equality, let's give the girls who play this game a chance to dress their male companions as sex objects too. Plus, I could look like Rambo on my trooper then. Edit: Oh yeah, I also noticed that my Sand People armour kept capping my HP on my smuggler. So can we get bug-free social gear also?