Kinda what I figured. I really don't see them doing away with the faction system, or allowing cross-faction classes. Just seemed odd that I was given a choice to rejoin the faction that I've always really been a part of, even if the story did deviate from that slightly.

So returning player here - was founder, I come and go; gone for like 3 years this time. Finished up all stories on my fully darkside sorcerer, who of course reclaimed his seat on the council. My question is, is there much of a mechanical difference for the decision to join or not join your former faction? Like, had I chosen to stay independent, would I have access to republic fleet? Or still considered Empire for game mechanics? Logic tells me, that my Sith Inquisitor Sorcerer will always be consider Imperial as far as groups, guilds, and territory go. Just curious if that decision has any *real* impact on game play.

In truth, the only people that need more endurance than their primary stat would be tanks. All healing and dps players/companions should be prioritizing their primary stat (Str/Will/Cunning/Aim depending on class) over endurance.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but level 50 crafting is largely useless, even after 1.2. The highest enhancements you'll be able to make are those found on the trainer at rank 22 which are rendered completely useless by daily commendations vendors and columi/rakata+ level gear. You *may* be able to learn a schematic for a rank 26 enhancement, but to do this, you must first obtain a piece of Campaign, or Black Hole gear, rip the enhancement out, and break it down for CHANCE to learn the schematic. There are level 50 color crystal schematics available from the daily commendations vendor on Corelia, but since the pre-1.2 vendor was around so long, these are not in high demand because they are equal in stats to what was purchasable. The magenta crystal schematic pattern for +41 stat crystals drops randomly in the Corelia daily area, but again, these are no better mechanically than what was obtained as other crafteds, operations-dropped or pre-1.2 vendor. Lightsabers would have been in high demand if the schematic to make them wasn't so readily available, and the materials required to make them so easy to obtain - I'm lucky to sell an Augmented lightsaber for 100K now (for comparison I sold one for 2.5 million before 1.2 hit). The best hilt you can make is the rank 22 from the vendor, which is again, overshadowed by the daily commendations vendor; the best offhand you can make is for the level 49's, which are decent enough for pre-operations content, but quickly replaced from operations drops.

RE'ing 6 items and getting 2 schematics does NOT make the RE chance 30%. It means that on 2 of those 6 attempts you hit the 20% chance. Each time you perform a reverse engineer attempt, a NEW ROLL that is completely independent of any previous or future rolls is generated to determine your success or failure on THAT ATTEMPT ONLY. Congrats on beating the odds, but it doesnt change the fact that each attempt has it's own 20% chance to hit. As far as to why people want specific patterns, well, some are down right useless. Every time I learn a schematic with Presence stat, I want to put my fist through my monitor. Others are highly sought after due to the stats that come with them, for example, Veracity has both Defense (from starting as Redoubt) and Shield (as a result of becoming Veracity), which are both highly sought after tanking stats. As far as I know, I'm the only one on my server selling the lvl 49 crafted Willpower shield of the Veracity subtype - too bad it's such a crap item that was outdated and overshadowed by previously available Operations-level gear the day they put in the game....

Probably the most clear, concise, and simple answer to this question ever. Should be added to the sticky!

Doesnt matter where you learn the schematic; if you are starting from green, there are 3 blues (crit/overkill/redoubt) for each one, and each of these has 5 purples ***except redoubt which only has 4 in practice (theoretical 5th one is missing). If you start from blue, then you will get Crit/Overkil/Redoubt in purple, which can further be RE'd to ANOTHER purple of the second teir - much more details can be found in the Guide to Reverse Engineering stickied at the top of this forum.

MAGENTA has been confirmed to drop from black hole mobs, NOT PURPLE. Contrary to popular belief, these actually are different colors. Having had the schematics for the +33 magenta crystals almost since launch, and having purchased purple when they were available, I can assure you there are vasty different appearances.

The very first white crystal 'found' was indeed obtained through illegitimate means - these individuals were dealt with and the exploit fixed. For several weeks before 1.2 was released there was a vendor that sold white crystals legitimately for 2.5 million credits. The vendor was removed with the release of 1.2 - all the colors he sold except white are still in the game, but obtained through other means. Purple can be obtained in either PVP or PVE endgame gear, and supposedly crafting, although there are no confirmed reports of how to obtain the schematic. Certain colors should be rare and hard to obtain, it gives us something to work for and sets each of our characters apart. If everyone's running around with purple sabers, it's not so special anymore. How many white, purple or black-core crystals did we ever see in any previous Star Wars lore, including movies, books, cartoons, etc? Even yellow and orange, while considered 'common' in SWTOR, were actually not common in any previous lore. These things are rare and 'unique' to certain characters in most cases; not every Joe Blow and his brother should run around with them. Edit: (warning, speculation!) even though white was removed 'permanently' from the game, I think most of us expect to see it again at some point in a future patch, although there is no telling how long that may be.

Probably a technicality, but the double-bladed saber, while it looks and acts like a 2-handed weapon visually, actually is considered a 1-hand item for purposes of game mechanics. The double-bladed saber does NOT take up both main and off hand slots on your character sheet. Shadows and Assassins can still equip an off-hand item: a focus for dps, or a shield generator for tanking.

There is a very simple reason why you are not finding crafted relics on the GTN - the artifice-crafted relics are Bind on Pickup! You have to be an artificer yourself to make one, and yes they are at rank 400 artificing with a minimum level to use of 50. All level 50 relics are alignment-neutral. Levelling up without a relic really isn't that big of a hinderance.

To reiterate what others have stated, you cannot add Armstech and Cybertech to Amormech - these are all CRAFTING skills, of which you are only allowed one. You may have any combination of GATHERING or MISSION skills, although each crafting skill is designed to work best with a specific combination of gathering and mission skills which can be found in your codex. Having dropped your gathering and mission skill, you will only be able to pick up new mission or gathering skills. You can actually pick up 2 gathering, 2 mission or 1 of each - these are not limitted in the same manner as crafting skills (of which, as you now know, you can only have one). To get either Armstech or Cybertech, you would have to drop Armormech (again, you cannot have more than 1 of these on the same character). And yes, I know I'm being redundant, but this comes up pretty frequently, and I thought it important to state it more than once!

Welcome to a topic of hot debate! There are some reports of them dropping from certain world bosses, but it is unclear if these reports are confusing purple with magenta (which most certainly DOES drop from certain world bosses). Another possibility is from PVP crewskill lockboxes (but this is likely the +expertise version). The bottom line is, we actually don't have a confirmation of where to obtain purple color crystal schematics and anyone that's found one isnt speaking up!

To paraphrase the guide to reverse engineering, there's theoretically 15 different artifact results from each green (in practice there are 14, since 1 of them is missing from the database). Each green can become Critical, Overkill, or Redoubt blues, and each of these can become 5 different purples (with the exception of redoubt which only has 4). After you've learned all 3 blues from the base green, the green will say 'no research available' indicating you've already learned all three of the blues. Upon learning the 5th purple from a given blue, that blue will also have that tag, but the other 2 blues will still be researchable. As long as there is still a schematic you haven't learned from a given item, it should tell you "X% chance to learn schematic" or something to that effect.

Someone smarter than me will be able to come in with actual numbers and such, but I will help you understand what diminishing return IS. Basically, after a certain threshold in a given stat, additional points in that stat are significantly less effective. For example, if you were getting 1% crit for every X points of crit on gear, beyond 35% you'll get less than 0.5% additional crit for that same X value on more gear with crit. Pay no attention to the actual numbers, as they are completely off the top of my head and not supported by evidence; I use them only to make my point. Diminishing return can also be used with certain abilities. I'm not entirely sure if it works the same here, as I have not pvp'd all that much, but in that 'other' game, each time a player is effected by a 'crowd control' ability within a certain amount of time, each one is less effective until they are immune for a short time. This is another way diminishing returns can be applied.

The biggest issue with being a 'clicker' is that most people who play this way do tend to be a tad slower on the draw with chaining abilities together - it adds up in the long run. Also, turning with the mouse is FAR more efficient than with the keyboard. I've seen clickers be quite effective, nonetheless. In pvp, however, if you're not mouse turning, you're hindering your own success.

The black core crystals are all from end-game content, both PVE and PVP. All colors are now available on both empire and republic sides. They are not craftable, to my knowledge. Purple is also around both as PVE and PVP rewards - there are reports like the one above of the schematics now beginning to show up for both end game and early-level versions of purple crystals, but they are still quite uncommon (especially at low levels). Rarity is good. Gives you something to work towards. If everyone were given everything on a silver platter on day 1, what would you do on day 2?

The caveat to this is that some orange gear does indeed have a minimum level to equip which CANNOT be lowered simply by outfitting it with lower mods. In these cases, the level restriction is on the orange shell; that piece's level requirement can go UP with higher mods, but it will never go below it's base restriction. It's important to note, however, that this does NOT make any one orange item 'better' than any other; the base stats are still equal to every other orange piece of the same type.

You're not alone, this has come up before. I think I read somewhere that the devs are trying to make it so each class's out of combat 'rejuvenate' type abilities do not cause the map to fade (I think ours is the only one that keeps our character in motion, although the BH one might as well, since they lift off the ground). It is quite frustrating to be out of combat, taking a quit breather, and not be able to see the map! This is obviously far from high priority, however, so we may be waiting a while!

Andro isn't really considered a tank companion, and his threat is actively lowered by his stances, so it's unlikely to drop your threat far enough to be below his - it does indeed work well with tank companions. I find it does work well with non-tank companions for mobs that you havent been directly damaging, however - for example, Ashara has engaged several mobs, I begin healing her, one mob comes at me, i hit cloud mind, he goes back to her. It's far more useful in groups of other players, however, where threat is actively managed by a tank and the dps/heals with proper use of stances/taunts/threat-dumps. It does work quite well, and always has.

I don't know the answer to your specific question, but I do know that some of his customizations do not include a hood at all. I've been using one from the orbital station on Belsavis or Ilum (can't remember which) for a while now and havent seen his hood since. Nothing changed with it after 1.2. It could be that you put on one of these costumizations, and that's why his hood isnt showing...

The 600K is the cost of the bank; that money is gone. You have purchased the bank, not "opened an account." My advice, do what I did, ask for donations from your most regular players (preferably officers). Granted, I had plenty of creds to just buy it outright, but it's nice to have my top officers contribute to it, since we all benefit from it.

This actually isn't true. There's actually only a small amount of gear that has a light or dark requirement. Some of the commendation orange gear does on the capital planets, but after that, each planet has it's own commendations gear, and as far as I remember, there is no light/dark requirement for most of it. PVP gear and flashpoint gear is also alignment-neutral. Relics you find during levelling will have light/dark restrictions but the end-game versions often do not. As of 1.2, there is no longer an alignment restriction on light saber crystals either. Do not let a perceived restriction of gear sway you from playing light, dark or neutral. The story can be quite engaging however you play it, and you are not penalized for such choices in any way.

Save your materials and keep trying for a different artifact version of that offhand. "Commanders" versions have +Pressence on them, which in my opinion, is a completely useless stat. Don't waste mats trying to Augment a +pressence item. Just my $ 1/50 ....