None of the old expanded universe literature is canon any longer so debating how the Force is supposed to be perceived from them is moot. Some of the new canon stuff, the Clone Wars and Rebels in particular, are greying the dichotomy and pushing the legit nature of the Force towards the less stark dichotomy that fans have long preferred to believe. Considering that TOR's own status in the canon is tenuous at best, it's probably not worth arguing over whose views of the Force are proper.

Makahi and Niman should totally be integrated into the Inquisitor and Sage ACs somehow.

Nazi boogeyman motifs have been a part of media since long, long before Star Wars IV. In any case, while it may have been fair for late 70's film when part of the fun was the celebration of pulp serials, the canon reboot should be a fertile opportunity to move beyond at least some worn stylistic cliches. So far, though, they're preserving the more dubious parts of the EU like the Empire's racism and are choosing to turn the interesting characteristics of places like Rhyloth (albeit this was Clone Wars) and Kessel into duller settings. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually they completely retcon away any possibility of the ancient Sith species and culture returning to the canon but bring back the Vong in the same stroke.

I am beyond sick of the Greater German Reich being the go-to "inspiration" for autocratic states. It's boring, it's derivative, and it's not interesting anymore. It's gotten to the point where I'd rather cheer for the space nazis out of sheer spite.

Good grief, did the Inquisitor slip on a banana peel and yell "Curses!" or something?

I finally got around to watching the first two episodes, which were strung together as a televised movie, and while it surpassed the low bar I set for myself I sort of doubt I'll enjoy watching the whole series for long when I feel actively disappointed every time the Imperials fail to kill or capture the so-called heroes.

OP's got a valid point. I'm not reassured by all of the "look at WoW" posts because Blizzard royally screwed the pooch on their squish and BioWare's workload for this expansion relative to their developer team size is no more accommodating to hammering out the details than Blizzard's was with the new WoW pack. When you have so many new features to test and tweak in addition to something like a stat squish it's only reasonable to expect things will be overlooked that make the implementation at launch frustrating. Also it's silly to assert that MMORPG company developers always necessarily understand their own games better than individual players do. Theorycrafters have proven they can understand a game inside out better than devs plenty of times for one thing. I still remember all of the times when George Zoeller, the original combat dev, tried to dismiss mathematical proofs from theorycrafters about the weaknesses and imbalances of the classes with characteristic Rhinelander arrogance only to have the number geeks on the forums validated every time.

Yes it has, actually. Works just fine for operatives and mercs, who are far more competent out of their primary element than sorcerers your false equivalency notwithstanding. Also you're wrong about nothing stopping me from using melee. The utter suboptimal nature of the saber skills is plenty of a deterrent. You might as well say that nothing is stopping Immortal Juggernauts from playing offensively and ignoring guards in PvP.

Don't scare me like that, you jerk. It makes my brain lock up painfully when you suggest we can be different from every other MMORPG on the market where ranged and melee classes can only be competent in one of two range designations without being considered overpowered and trying to do everything. Next thing you'll tell me that hard trinities aren't necessary. Witchcraft!

Because nerds have massive egos and hate not being seen as right almost as much as they hate dissenting tastes.

Almost any skill spread that isn't completely random and thoughtless is viable in regular warzones, especially sub-55, because most of the time neither team is communicating or planning and bad players are abundant. If you start seeing premades in those regulars, though, then you'll be in a great deal of pain most of the time as a Lightning/Telekinetics sorcerer/sage, and don't let the wishful thinking of people with a weird quasi-patriotic zeal for their favorite spec BS you about the cold hard truth.

I have strong suspicions that the Emperor is involved with whatever lunacy is motivating Revan on Yavin IV.

Good question. Considering the street talk about how badly Blizzard crapped the bed with their stat squish, I'd like to know more details about Bioware's plans for accommodating performance in obsolete content if any.

I'm grateful, as always, for Dulfy's circumspect attention. The TOR equivalent of the WoW "stat squish" so soon is something of a letdown. I was looking forward to finally going back to Explosive Conflict at level 60 and finishing it solo on my alts since I can never ever find enough people willing to do it on the fleet or Dromund Kaas.

You're stoking the flame of hope and contributing to my leveling anticipation. I'm looking forward to seeing how the story in Shadow of Revan will match up with the foreshadowing of the post mission arc emails received after Forged Alliances.

That's honestly not a bad idea. They'd probably make quite some scratch from the diplomats who might gladly pay a small fee to send their companions out on whatever mission grants the best rewards regardless of alignment and have any net detraction from their chosen alignment overwritten by one or two flashpoint choices.

I'd love to see the legacy system given new features and perks. Datacron unlocks, unique stronghold decorations, ship customization, integration with GSF, more flavor emotes and powers related to class advancement, there's no shortage of good ideas. I don't see why stuff has to necessarily compete with the CM either as it's easy to just make unlocks accept Cartel Coins instead of credits.

Lore and completion satisfaction were enough to motivate me to collect the datacrons on a main character representing each faction. I can't say what they could do to make repeating this tedious process on 6 alts compelling. Even back at the level cap of 50 a handful of piddling stat points and a swiftly obsoleted relic couldn't coerce me into again tolerating such appalling ersatz platforming or maintaining the patience requisite to shill for help in order to get those datacrons needing group support. Experiencing those challenges once or twice is sufficient. The rewards for datacron collection, though, absolutely should be accessible through the legacy system. It's not as if that poor neglected feature is just overflowing with feature bloat or received too much developer attention ever since the 1.2 patch. The whole purpose of the legacy, as should be obvious in its naming, is to give an account's characters access to things they wouldn't otherwise have based on some achievement or investment by other characters. Finding the datacrons on one character and having them open to the rest either automatically or via a paywall credits or Cartel Coins is 100% sensible and justified, and I really don't understand why it hasn't been taken off the Wall of Crazy and made one of the perks of a patch.

The Advanced Classes function as the true classes seen in other RPGs. Other games don't allow class changing because it wouldn't be desirable to have players hoping back and forth to whatever is considered to the flavor of the month. In this game, though, its structure would mean that permitting AC changes only lets for switching between one of two possible flavors in a given month. I guess it would still be pretty bad if all operatives were swapping to sniper anytime they wanted to DPS in PVE.

The BioWare fan community richly deserves the lambasting it gets from other gaming communities. Holy hell, what a fatuous topic to last this many pages.

Dear skinnies, I would like to cordially remind you that 1 in every 3 American adults is PLUS-SIZED and that obesity is growing as an accepted lifestyle choice and approach to personal health across the civilized, progressive world. The PR team's inexcusable ignorance of this fact is on problematic display with not ONE single character design used in this article using the type 4 body. Fat people have been a critical pillar in the Star Wars fandom since its birth in the 70s and there's really no excuse for you dudebros not to recognize that!

Dead center. She's characterized as a "Light Sith" in a way that doesn't serve as shorthand for "Wannabe Jedi who just needs to defect already, but BioWare won't let her." Seriously, they won't even let Sith Warrior players go allegedly "darker than a Dark Jedi" without espousing sympathy for the actual Light Side of the Force. I see in Lana a lot of what I try to see in my Sith characters, and it's neat to finally have that point of view reflected in the script.

We of the "Feed the Trolls Foundation" wish to express our everlasting gratitude to the users of the TOR General Discussion forum for their continued support and generosity.

Right now I just want an ability that incorporates the lightsaber meaningfully even if it's only a boost to deflection that lets the plasma stat stick do something useful instead of permitting a supposed master of the Force to take blaster shots to the face.

I disagree. The aesthetics of the ability are so iconic that it ought to be of some import to all disciplines. I'd even argue that it should benefit Corruption somehow. Nothing affirms that the AC is inspired by Darth Sidious more than a stationary, continuous discharge of lightning arcs.