hey guys, i support you, subscribe and have spent more money on cartel coins since free to play came out, one $20 pack and one $40, out of support. I still have the coins, don't know what to use them on. it's one of my favorite games ever. now for my feedback: why is this now another feature that i am sure we have asked for, just not too extremely, and nothing for transfers or legacy consolidation so we can play with who we want to play with?

understand the true issue. I have enough. I have no issue regardless because I have some saved AND I have Hard op equipment. IF I wanted something more costly on an alt, it's way out of reach. I'm talking about the horizontal design of the event here. Players who do not equip for hard operations should not ideally end up at such a deficit for these kind of fun/cosmetic only items and the currency to acquire it. This isn't black hole / elite comms.

The max helix you can gain without the very hard to to access HM 16 player xeno clear is 1 per day on the main heroic mission and the handful for the Xeno story clear, which i believe is 6 for 16 player, with the exception of the few that you get from the relays mission or the initial xenoanalyst referral mission (i believe that gave a few, maybe it was just a purple rep comm). I did the 16 player hard mode the 2nd week during the first run, I believe only 8 player the first week in addition to story mode, and ended up with 31 helix, without diligently clearing the heroic every single day. From a start point of 9, I determined that I can in fact hit 48 by the end of the 2nd week here this time but only by getting the hard mode 16 player and story mode, and 11 clears of the daily heroic. So it kind of feels like there absolutely must be an alternative for players or their alts that just aren't viable to approach the hard mode op for this event. My suggestions to address the problem are as follows: Option 1- create a new vendor, Only available at champion tier, roughly let 1000 rep points exchange to 1 helix via the trophies. Option 2- if not a trade for just rep items, let some type of material or currency item that simply drops for you while killing any enemies or players in the event, better chance to drop off of the bosses/stronger enemies at the end of each mission, which can then be exchanged up for helix currency or more rep trophies. that item could then be bought and sold as well via GTN. think of it like a gree commendation and cost varying amounts for different rep values or helix comms. Solutions such as these will create an option for non HM operation ready players to fill in that gap of the 12-16 helix currency they can't get from the HM xeno in the 2 week span. It would bring the currency in line with the rest of the relatively horizontal design ideals of the event, that none of the rewards are related to your character's power/progression. This helix currency in fact IS gating directly by your progression and I see that as a glaring flaw in the event design

I don't think that's a good idea. Why not just create a new vendor to buy more helix currency with? Only available at champion tier, roughly let 1000 rep points exchange to 1 helix. The ONLY reason I feel this is reasonable is that the max helix you can gain without the very hard to to access HM 16 player xeno clear is 1 per day on the main heroic mission and the handful for the Xeno story clear, which i believe is 6 for 16 player, with the exception of the few that you get from the relays mission or the initial xenoanalyst referral mission (i believe that gave a few, maybe it was just a purple rep comm). I did the 16 player hard mode the 2nd week, I believe only 8 the first week in addition to story mode, and ended up with 31 helix, without diligently clearing the heroic every single day. From a start point of 9, I determined that I can in fact hit 48 by the end of the 2nd week here this time but only by getting the hard mode 16 player and story mode, and 11 clears of the daily heroic. So it kind of feels like there absolutely must be an alternative for players or their alts that just aren't viable to approach the hard mode op for this event. One other idea I had if not a trade for just rep items, let some type of material or currency item that simply drops for you while killing any enemies or players in the event, better chance to drop off of the bosses/stronger enemies at the end of each mission, which can then be exchanged up for helix currency or more rep trophies. that item could then be bought and sold as well via GTN. this will create an option for non operation ready players to fill in that gap of the 12-16 helix currency they can't get from the HM xeno in the 2 week span

super combuster version might using 8 points pyro and no points into high energy

X. you don't use ion for a 2.0 Pyro Parakeet build & the build uses free flame sweep to close timing gaps more efficiently during the internal cooldown of the rail shot accelerator

it's possible your higher pyro mix has more overall potency than the strange pyro parakeet, but there is just enough synergy to the flame sweep with buffed damage and effective heat vent off paired with the improved movement utility that I think it will be brilliant for the initial push out into makeb and certainly more useful in some scenarios of pve flashpoint and op where that huge burst of mobility will aid your role tremendously and allow you to be super effective

thanks for the info on your testing. for some reason I'm still completely unconvinced by anything more than 22-25 in pyro with these trees. split out with both shield and ap options for your other 23ish so much utility or extra efficiency to be gained example the pyro parakeet with 23 shield and major flame sweep synergy, or the terminal velocity setup with ap and pyro. these builds look insane.

one on hand... if I wanted missiles... I would make a mercenary... but on the other hand, this augments my favorite (aesthetically) playstyle the super combuster 31 tactics 8 plasma assault and makes it the only pure spec that compels me for the class at L55. consider me skeptical yet pleased

This is my favorite pure build for our class at level 55. the reason I like it is the sustain damage potential. while heat management require more vigilance than the high energy built in option, you skip the high energ skill points and have 8 pyro for combustible, which pays off way more damage when you know how to pace and manage the heat. in my experience no matter how hard you spam with high energy & the extra heat vent, you can not outpace the damage that combustible burn brings. I don't have any math or gear min/max cases that prove or disprove. I just find this setup less bursty/dry spell prone than the particle accelerator/rail shot builds, it sustains well and has always felt superior for me in every way to high energy, which even often feels like I can't even use the heat venting it comes with to max potential. perhaps it could have been the forgotten alacrity build for pre 2.0. super-combuster for me is nothing but improved in 2.0 with the +aim points.

I haven't had the chanc to click your build as I'm on mobile, but I will say y test with 23/23/0 was very promising as an ion stance build with more damage at the cost of durability/threat burst skill points further up the shield tree. I'm referring to it quite fondly as Flaming Fist in wake of the defunct original iron fist

Grim, had you ever compared your experience with 31 tactic/AP and 8 in assault/pyro? I am looking at 2/36/8 in 2.0, and it seems like the OVERALL efficiency works out a bit better with the maxed version over the hybrid, but then does the rail shot damage with accelerator resets surpass that as long as you are smart enough with resources to pull it off? I don't really care of the fine details in the math. All I saw was 3k+ crit on fire pulse/immolate, 3500 usually, as well as the higher damage with my rocket punch and flame burst too, which appeared to me to be a net gain given the efficiency available with the guaranteed free punch/stock following the cheap fire pulse

The problem here is: grapple sucks! To solve this problem you would need to let grapple function more like it logically would vs targets that cannot be uprooted. Zip YOU to the target like blizz's grappling line. Then comes the problem of many cases we still would want to do that rather than pull something. There is utility gained with the skill and it is simply at fairly large odds with the role many of us will take. I shouldn't have to explain that grapple is only extremely useful under PVE for tank and offtank duty. You can still contribute to that duty within your group regarding positioning enemies with your assistive grapple... but this is something ideally you would CHOOSE to have in your build if you like that option and have a team makeup that complements it. This is not the only example case of the missed opportunity within advanced class system the game launched with to provide player choice at multiple levels of role, ability/utility set, and skill customization in the point trees. More choices, rather than just one tiered path of cookie cutter combos, would empower the player to create the playstyle they prefer with their favorite class and make each player more able to be unique. My suggestion thread- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5894913#post5894913

ok, so it was fun to play. at times heat got up there but it indeed proved that the free flame sweep allowed charge up to the 3 stack while clearing heat to be at a nice level for the use of the triple stack unload. the most prohibitive thing being the maneuvering to grab a new charge during the longer bosses we faced on hard hammer station. it's inconclusive yet, although it did feel like a distinctly powerhouse-damage approach to the tank in exchange for the new mitigation style stuff at the top of the adjusted shield tree. definitely like it would be great as an offtank laying all kinds of threat and pain while mopping up multi targets. similar applicability for warzone role i'd imagine

i almost immediately thought of that while entertaining the split use of points with this, but then too hastily dismissed it, thinking that the new flame engine now in the shield tree made more sense. i thought it may trump the value i think of the slow prototype flame thrower style, PRIMARILY because you can have heat problem in ion and burn stances with the pft (doesn't mean it can't be worked it just means it requires very attentive choice/priority and practice with a good proactive sequence to use your procs at the right time and not too late). flame engine doesnt have the heat problem, and I can see it's designed to let you pop the cooldown at the beginning of a combat, sort of to blitz and establish good threat. i am a bit confused with the skill point description, it's as if it used to be 3 or 4 ranks. the cooldown with both points to proc a flame engine is equal to the cooldown of flame thrower. the cool thing for the full shield spec though is it mitigates heat since it will be free, but partly I feel like they did that as a balance against the removal of the heat dump from the top tree ability that now takes more wind up and will not be there every cooldown perfectly like clockwork like the old version. now you kind of have these 2 procs in addition to your rocket punch reset and heat vent. in fact when flame engine goes off the audio is the same sound we used to hear all the time the yell for the rocket punch reset. The one thing that could let it work is focused around the free sweeps on jet leap though. I am seeing some huge synergy there, because sweeps build your flame thrower stack, so you could always charge up the 3rd stack in time and spend your focus on managing the heat. certainly warrants some trial use. i will put that on my tanky geared test guy and see what happens

and guys i tried this with full 23 shield and it's stupid fun. it feels how the burning PT should play. at least for kicking out on makeb on at least one of my pt/vanguards I am going to start 23/0/18. Resource usage is suddenly a lot more smooth because you can drop so much heat with 1 or 2 free sweeps. (non crit, around 1600 damage lands on every target with my flame sweep, which is on par though slightly less for each target than what i'd deal to one with a flame burst) advantage being its WAY more damage than doing a blaster shot and my heat is dropping while I clear time on the internal CD of the particle/ion accelerator to my next rocket punch. the down sides will be more of a meta/min max conundrum, alacrity vs else, etc... once hitting the equipment levels later on in 55 elder. i do not care about min and max i just like to make a playstyle and try many till i know what i'm most effective with, wrecking all in my path i wonder how long it will take them to kill this playstyle off like they did with the original parakeet

HAPPY to blow HOWEVER many CC it will take for the dev to let me put on a rifle or EVEN double pistol. Or a cannon for my vanguard. A while back I had some spare cash in paypal and snagged a 2500 coin pack,, still ahvent felt a good reason to spend, and hover near 4000 cc balance. we need more customizations that are worth unlocking Weapon choice should NOT be blocked anymore. gunslinger wants to sling a fat rifle? should not be a problem. I would call your attention to the 2 pistols ive felt are the biggest/baddest loooking. there is one from imperial taris vendor that looks like the big fat metal one a lot of imperial officers have, and its noise is Bang Bang not a shoom shoom like most of the blasters (ie the original great hunt blaster I believe) the other would be "the glowing gun" used to also used for battlemaster tank i believe. and also is the graphic on the one cartel market weapon. this solution is extremely simple, they already have cartel item weapons but now we need even more of those and unlocks to get any weapon type of your style (range class can't unlock a melee weapon / vice versa). post this up on their suggestion board asap, orig. poster For the detractors above my post i just read through- here's an alt solution. You know that one republic AC that can make use of a smaller 2nd hand scatter/shotgun? Give us guns like this, that ARE "blaster pistol" type. You see they did that to put BOWCASTERS in different AC hands by making them of different types. So here's your fix. NEW cartel items so they don't need unlocks but just provide us (the point of cartel market) choices to customize and look cooler how we want with weapons that are badder and bolder than what we've been used to.

perhaps, but I think the value of more buffed out flame sweep is the point of the initial build. if you want to buff out the rail shot there are fine full 36 or split ap and pyro setups to maximize it. I'm not going only 21 shield with this. less bursty, more sustain similar to how Ap/tactics with burn cell functions

you're correct it was a tanky style with a little more Firepower, at the expense of durability. this one can only be used for an alternate way of playing with the burn stance. personally I am choosing it in protest of the continuing lack of storm/jet charge retuned as a base skill that can stand up to force speed and force leap. non conforming is one of my specialities.

I claim this build for the good of vang & PTs throughout the galaxy! 23/1/22 or 22/0/24! Just for fun but hey who knows how it could be optimized and played with different gear options. Of course there is the issue of spending half your points for one ability & the linked surge/flame sweep free attack. But I will be trying this on test to see how it plays using the free attack(s) to bridge gap between high impact/rail resets

great update. hey, do you think this will certifiably work better than 2/36/8 ? you gain efficiency on automatic rocket punch free after the cheap top of tree attack, however you have to be extremely vigilant with the heat-ammo bar as always with plasma-pyro

I will go ahead and bump your thread by presenting my own solution that I've envisioned after observing bioware's current "Griefer vs Player" mechanics when it comes to player combat OUTSIDE of queued game modes. I really DONT think it can be accomplished as suggested or criticized over and over about some Item/thing to control or hold in a non-structured place in the world. You couldn't make that work UNLESS the rewards were specifically for capping only, and a very well tuned system to provide slowly escalating advantages to the side that's outnumbered/gunned to avoid an impossible slippery slope that will sabotage the fun of the area. I think a whole different way of doing it is FIT for the old republic, and bioware further still has immense opportunities to set its game apart from any competitor by capitalizing on its existing design ideas for a new pvp system. Outlaws vs vigilantes, to accomplish 3 crucial elements that separate player combat from other game experiences such as pve or queued team scenarios: 1- meaningful competition between individuals, combat needs be interesting anywhere in the game world not over a static world objective that has nothing to do with individual behavior. i imagine the idea of the small group can translate to this when you choose to group up with players aligned to your chosen role 2- player choice, through both interesting items that can be gained with pvp experience, currency, and Score/Rank, and choice of what kind of alignment to play, the choice who your enemy is. 3- tap into the game's existing emphasis on your choice of light vs dark to transcend the severely limiting and stale static faction conflict (good faction vs bad faction [they are both corrupt]), which was attempted but not quite achieved in the open group vs group area on gree event. To accomplish this there would need to be a new pvp system. The issue is there is no pvp system, just what's left over from the original design of the ilum experience and the related elements still used for warzone game mode. Without pvp system, griefer vs player is the result. With a system, griefers get incentive to get more notoriety and bounty, and those who dislike grief behavior get incentives to fight them and we all get missions giving more currency, experience, and OPPORTUNITY for rank points in our skirmishes with our enemy on these missions sending to every different planet and place in the old republic http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=595977

Look, all I'm asking for is some playstyle customization. I understand skill point options that give you a really cool modification to a base ability. like getting the flame thrower proc high in the new shield tree for powertech. What needs to happen is removal of the actual abilities that are currently in skill trees, and either grant them in a set as a separate choice from skill points, or let them be base abilities. Players will have a great deal more playstyle customization by choosing the skills they want to use with their playstyle simply out of their base AC set, rather than needing to place them in skill tree tiers. Some of the differentiations are completely arbitrary as it stands and this is compounded by the advanced class mirroring. Best example I can give is how my pyrotech's coolest flame capabilities are all advanced prototype obtained (What?). I make my flamethrower into the most powerful attack with skills in that tree, and I gain a new fire immolation there, yet I cannot pair it effectively as of pre 2.0 with skill points for my fire stance, mainly due to no heat dissipation tools without the points in and use of high energy stance, which has been shown to be less potent than the burn capacity of the combustible stance. the defining tool of the pyrotech setup pre 2.0, is a skill.. named.. prototype..... particle accelerator. going off of the rail shot. Not even a pyro move. nor is the top ability which happens to be a bomb, another "tech prototype" item in the wrong tree. so my point is that abilities we might want can be a separate choice set so different skills can work in different skill tree builds. i can be pyro burn damage style and get all my firey tools into my skill bar and the burn stance if i want.. if the skill trees weren't like this. i could be a pyro that tanks and has awesome threat on high number of targets. With 2.0 it looks like the larger number of points and move of the +aim points to 3 instead of 8 instead shield finally makes the option a bit better, but the fact still remains that because the skill points dictate the OTHER stance rather than the flame stance, there's no true Fire Burn melee maximized powertech playstyle, when all the tools you'd need to do it are there and just hard blocked by too rigid design in the ability choice system. your stats and role defining differences are one choice set. your tools and skills to play any of those roles could be another choice set. more choices will be better for players and let them play their favorite class how they want instead of just between a few very static playstyles in the skill trees. advanced class system has huge untapped potential to allow playstyle customization starting with abilities, then followed by a role choice to grant some more differences, followed by skill points choices to customize different abilities and energy efficiency or sturdiness, mobility, etc. if you're following me these differences in the type of choices should be very apparent. The points I get to spend into my character could represent a lot more meaningful choice toward how I play the role I like if the basic design would separate between boosts/customizations of standard abilities and role capabilities (ie defensive augmentations for the frontline style, resource replenish/overload tools for the Firepower style). The corollary for me on that is weapon use. Why couldn't my vengeance juggernaut have the capability to have offhand saber or sword if he wanted. limiting it to a power generator is aesthetically and in other ways too limiting. Why couldn't the powertech snag a 2nd pistol instead of the generator if he's built as firepower, or a sweet rifle? why not a cannon on the offensive vanguard? we need these kinds of choices as well.

uhhh.. faction interaction block should be completely lifted. the story has great examples of the diversion from faction lines for the purpose of cooperation or communication. even if we don't yet have a system for choosing your character's actual alignment, why do we have to continue enforcing faction as a player dividing structure. none of the content past particular level has to do specifically with the faction (the only that does other than planetary and class is the two flashpoint sequence). the fact that player characters themselves are hard locked by faction who they can play with is unnecessary. guilds need to be able to include either faction, as do groups. i think general planet and fleet chat channel are the only things that do not need to go to both factions.

so what time is that ? it would appear there is no maintenance/downtime happening for this tuesday kicking off 2nd week of the 1.7-return of the gree fun