Thanks for the answers will have to see some of the things in action. - Lightning changes: The change seems up front like it might take away some of the 'flow' of the tank but might just be that you spend more time working for energise/cloak proc's (as you would only need to lightning every 16 seconds to refresh the stacks). Not really sure why that mechanic is tied into lightning seems like the effect will almost always be in place (Dark Ward scenario) apart from transition downtime and starts of fights - will have to see. Will 1 tick of lightning will refresh the stacks fully if they are already applied or does it clear itself like with dark ward? Players and bosses which knockback/stun could prevent the buff from being applied in full? - Glad to see some of the armor lost previously when both armor and healing were reduced being replaced. - ^ agreed - Hopefully you can make Force Shroud work 100% like with Saber Reflect for this to be the case. - I noticed there is a buff to threat on the stance procs - we really don't need this. Threat is already so boring as a Sin/Shadow. I'd love to see agro maintenance become a skill rather than something that is just given to you when start the fight with Force pull... this goes for all tanks not just Sin/Shadow but thats a different matter. - Concern at reducing 'uniqueness'. Currently Sin/Shadows are classed as a 'skill based tank'. For me whilst this works to some extent currently I would like to see this be pushed more. For instance more situational cooldowns / resists / reductions etc.. Make use of Phase walk more than just positioning in Styrak and a healing buff (for other players) the rest of the time. Perhaps some group type buffs as well similar to the Jug AOE taunt / Intercede. It feels as if the purpose of Sins as a skill tank is slowly getting lost replaced by fixed 'keep self buffs up, save big cooldown for telegraphed attack' (insert grumble about 3 month wait for this answer )

Step 1: Focus Target Assist Leader Step 2: Use the key bind 'Acquire Focus targets target' Step 3: Attack the target.

Greetings DreadMasters, let me be the first to congratulate you on posting on the forums this week. It seems your specialist combat team have been unable to do so. Secondly Styrak died quite some time ago now unfortunately your information is out of date and slow to reach us. I suggest it is you who are not worthy of us.

I would still say treat them separately with the same rules (no different degredation etc) but your choice

Great news thanks Eric, Look forward to seeing the 2.5 changes for merc's and shadows mentioned in the class answers Have a good trip Also any ETA on the Dark Ward animation removal (there isn't a pray emote... will have to do)

Treating this as if it was Nightmare tracking (so that the same discussion isn't required for that). Personally I don't really think HM is worth the effort of tracking but respect your wish to do so. Two Operations - Count the instances separately that way if someone misses out on Fortress they can pull it back on Palace etc.. keeps the pressure up for those who have done Fortress etc.. Verification - If people want to contribute to the thread they should do the screenshots as required. Should be required (if only to make your life easier ) Deterioration - imo only the last boss in each instance should count with a simple list of top 10 on the other bosses. Title claims should be listed separately. Bonuses - If going with the previous points decay over time for every single boss, don't add bonuses imo the only thing I would probs want added is week bonus if the points system was in place. Boss Weighting - As above imo only the last boss should be counted. By design if the is a 'blocker' boss like DG NiM the guild that kills it first will most likely get to and kill the last boss first too. Stream and Kill video release - Personally I'm happy with releasing vids as soon as the kill happens. However we saw some complaints last time where people were unhappy that certain tactics were leaked via streams / people didn't want to stream or release a vid in case this affected results (with the point decay system) . Might want to consider some 'rules' as to this if we don't want a repeat of the problem.

Thanks KBN, looking forward to the answers to these. A little sad that we have had to ask a question that we were already told we would get answers to months ago and nothing happened... I can only hope they don't answer the same on the force shroud question as before - where there are other abilities in the game that currently far eclipse it on certain fights (Saber Reflect). Might be worth adding some of the metrics posts you have written as links to this post under bonus questions so they can find all the info in one place if not read before. You also missed an extremely important extra bonus question: Please change Kinetic Ward / Dark Ward back to the previous animation (the one where you don't have a glow obscuring all your procs and no stupid datacrons floating around you) because it is horrible and almost everyone hates it.

I would love it if they did this. Just swap the animations over between the mirrors. The problem would come with the offhand's and the weapon power given because of this.

I did always hope Laze would be something like this. It always struck me as it should mark the target with something which increased accuracy/armour pen against that target for a certain duration "as you are now hitting it in more vital places etc.." Perhaps on the voting form we can have. Change | Change but to something different | No Change for me I would vote 1 | 1 | 0 as I would like to see it changed but would also rather it is changed to something completely different rather then just abilities added.

Consider me agreeing to a change to Laze. It used to have meaning (to marks / marks hybrid) with the crit causing ambush proc now has no meaning at all just a pointless boost. I'd rather have something interesting to use. e.g. A high up talent modifier: Lethality: Snipe causes dots to auto crit for x seconds for example (energy regen) - in turn allows for use of higher energy abilities. - Possibly some extra weakening blast stacks something like that. Engi: Snipe significantly increases the damage of overcharge shot for x seconds (always felt like overcharge shot was a bit wasted wanted to try something to try make it more usable, but don't have much engi experience at all in 2.0). Marks: Single snipe procs FT cooldown + double ambush cast reduction

Weekly Quest on PTS said: Recommended Gear level: Story Mode: Item Rating 156 Hard Mode: Item Rating 162 So would guess from that maybe a new set bonus for 72 (SM) / 75 (HM) Gearing people into 75's ready for next NiM progression I would almost guess that NiM raid might come December/Jan with a new expansion around March/April or so

Just allow the health amount to be edited. e.g. 1m Health and see how fast you can kill it - Can add up the damage dealt on the parser as validation

Was more interested in the changes to Warlords, I guess killing the last 2 at the same time was not by design... Shame it was quite fun

For me on 8-man it would be: 1. Operations Chief - S&V (Easiest) 2. Withering Horror - TfB 3. Dash'roode - S&V 4. Kephess the Undying - TfB 5. Dread Master Styrak - S&V 6. Titan 6 - S&V 7. The Dread Guard(post nerf) - TfB 8. Thrasher - S&V 9. Operator IX - TfB 10. Olok the Shadow - S&V 11. The Terror from Beyond - TfB 12. The Cartel Warlords - S&V 13. The Dread Guards (pre nerf) (Hardest)

As many above are saying - Should we just post in the general forum when we want a reply to something? Thanks for the reply it is nice to know you are looking into it. If you could also remove the effect all together (give an option to revert to pre animation change settings) that would be great as it can give motion sickness as well as missing the procs. Also if you could reply to the Sin/Shadow Spike thread which is around 39 or so day since the 'I'll get back to you' It would be really appreciated and show that you look at the Class forums ^^

Grats \o/

Just to add my input here. I feel like we shouldn't have to ask about Sin/Shadow spike because of this post in that thread - but it seems they have forgotten for now: Maybe we can just prompt them for an actual answer at the end of our 3 other questions? Additionally rather than focusing on single abilities - it may be better to broaden out the questions so for example a tanking cooldowns general question rather than specifically shroud

This method seems to have the easiest clarity and allowed for easier tracking of all the questions and people have to take the time to post to vote (shows they care more). Personally thing it was better than a forum poll

Didn't get back from work as early as I had hoped but could go with something like this for the next batch of questions

Just in case it was missed and affects the results. my 'other' question choice was e8. great organisation so far with the questions look forward to what the answers will bring (I have a feeling some of them might bring a lot more questions )

My votes would be for: PVE: 6 PVP: 8 Other: (PVE) 8 (because it affects both PVE and PVP to some extent.) I'm trying to come up with a couple of questions for the next 3 / gunslinger question allocation will update soon

Looks like I am the only one who thinks this is probs a bad idea The reason it is a problem currently is because Nightmare mode drops a higher tier of loot. If Nightmare only dropped the same level of gear + vanity items (e.g. shells with special looks and no mods / mounts / pets / title) then it would be perfect to have this on the same lockout - People can then choose do they want an easy HM fight to just gear up or do they want a challenge for the same gear but the chance at a vanity item. Additionally it will mean that guilds can no longer improve 1 boss at a time in Nightmare by removing the option to skip bosses - Making the balancing and gradual ramp up of difficulty all the more important. (tl;dr: Nightmare bosses may be too hard for some groups, but not all the nightmare bosses will be allowing for some gear up to the next tier - if the increased gear for nightmare mode is kept). If the lockout is removed then it is likely that Nightmare will : 1. Drop no gear - so that the gearing time is not affected 2. Drop higher level gear - causing balancing problems for future operations 3. Cause problems in guilds where players are now having to spend a lot longer raiding 4. Likely to lead to Nightmare bosses getting excessively nerfed (see Dread Guards fight) if not all players can progress past them to see the rest of the raid (now they cannot do this in hard mode).

Grats, look forward to the questions and answers we will be given

In my view you can be proud that you cleared those bosses first. You just didn't achieve a full instance clear. We will never know if everyone had skipped would they have downed the bosses before or after the time you downed them which is why it is hard to validate. For me all I care about is who completes it all first. (I don't really hold the title in that high regard). That's just because I personally enjoy the initial progression over the finesse of the 2hr kills. I suggest for the next one come back fighting and prove to everyone what you know your guild can do. The competition will be all the better for having another top guild in the mix.

This is now my favourite post on the forums Really feel for the progression raider who gets stung by a bee then their goldfish dies on NIM Ops release day XD! My raid problems are more "Was stuck at work until 7 :("