What will become of it? People will whine and complain, drop it and there will be all the more nodes for me. In the two days since the nerf, I've made over 700k without playing the auction house or even going out of my way to farm slicing nodes. I get them while questing, looting and treasure hunting. They're not the only source of my income, but, combined with normal means, they make me pretty damn wealthy. Trust me, ignore the doomsayers. I'm a level 48 sorc with 400 slicing/400 TH/200sh UWT, and I can assure you that it is just fine.

Innervate, resurgence, force bending and the static barrier talents are the main things in the corruption tree. Everything else helps a little here and there, but those are the main talents. Part of me is a little sad at the lack of diversity, but then I realize: WoW was a series of cookie cutter specs, and if you didn't use it, you were probably not accepted into raids/guilds. There was almost no room for straying from the norm there, either. What's the point of adding in extra talents if no one will ever use them?

The chest and legs come from quests, or even from random drops. The helm and belt are both random drops, and I was able to get both of them from the GTN (for fairly cheap, too). As for the belt and gloves - I don't think anyone knows. I haven't seen or heard of anyone having them, and I've been looking constantly. I've got a standing offer of 40k credits for anyone on my server who can get them for me.

You have to actually gather with a gathering profession. Since the nerf, I've made ~150k from just slicing, along with another 200k from treasure hunting and questing. It was just over a day ago, and I've barely even noticed the effects. You can no longer sit in the imperial fleet and make bookus of cash. It's simply not possible. However, to claim that slicing is worthless is disingenuous at best, lying at worst. To claim that you can no longer afford rank 1 speeder training because slicing is kaput? That's beyond dumb. Not only does it leave out the hordes of people who bought their speeder without slicing, it leaves out the fact that one is more than capable of making 40k from just slicing in that amount of time. In short: L2gather.

What stopped a slicer from deploying companions and farming strong mobs? (hint: nothing.)

For starters: I understand that people are upset about it. I understand that many view it as their main source of income, but it was pretty ridiculous. I'm currently at level 42 (took a break for the holidays), with slicing maxed out. For a little while, I tried only to use orange and yellow missions for money, and it took me a bit to figure out why I wasn't making money, and why everyone was talking about slicing bringing in stupid amounts of money. Finally, it all hit me, and there are main reasons it was broken: 1) Rich/bountiful yields - they almost always yield a green or blue credit case, which brings in about 3x the money you put into the missions. If you stick to these, you would rarely ever lose money on a mission, and your credits would skyrocket. (downrank missions so you only ever do rich or bountiful.) 2) Plans - The mission discovery items I got for the other professions go for 2-5k on the GTN, and I've received quite a few from slicing. (I counted, I have 16 that haven't sold.) 3) The amount of resource nodes - often, these only give a white case, but that white case gives about 1k on the higher planets. You'd get a minimum of about 1k for...nothing. There was no challenge to getting it, and you'd get 2-3 from any area a quest was located. Together, on belsavius (sp?), I raked in about 50k an hour just by using my spare companions and questing normally. I had enough for my speeder piloting (rank 2) and the pricier speeder at 40 plus another 170k, and I'm already back up to 400k. I spend like mad, particularly on orange items for myself and companions, but also on items for my friends and family. Point is: when done correctly, slicing was an utterly ridiculous way to make money, and this comes from someone who maxed it early on. I'm sorry many of you didn't have the chance to really take advantage of it, but that's how it is. If left the way it was, it would have been an economy breaker, with inflation pushing everything up beyond the point that any normal crafter could hope to compete with. I'm actually rather sad to see it go before I hit 50, but I'll just have to go back to selling all my greens and blues on the GTN.

Lightning is a better DPS spec, madness is better for PvP. Check the stickied thread in the sorcerer forums for specs and a priority list for abilities, it will help you immensely.

As the above poster stated, only up to a certain point. The two points in lighting for increased force are the best talents you'll spend in regards to healing for awhile, but the reduced cost of static barrier and reduced dark infusion cast time are what define a healer post-hammer station. Without those, you simply will not be able to keep up with the damage being outputted. You can always level as healing, though (it's what I'm doing.) I'm more than capable of soloing well (I actually solo 2+ heroic quests), and outside of those first two points in lighting, I am fully corruption specced. (so far. I'll end up around 31/7/3, if I'm not completely off somewhere.) http://torguild.net/calculator/sith-inquisitor/sorcerer/?p=232322210212001223132000020000000000000020000000000000000

Lightning, easily. Madness has increased mobility and control, while lighting has increased damage and efficiency. Madness will outperform lightning in PvP, while lighting will rocket ahead in PvE.

I preordered in late November because I'm a broke, independent college student. Dropping 80$ is a big deal to me, so I have to make sure I won't put myself out anywhere else by doing it. That said, I just got a new book written by someone I know personally (my college professor/mentor), so I'm pretty set for the next few days :3