Solo'd Torvix with my Engi Sniper after seeing this thread. Feels good, man.

Looking at the size of the Krayt Dragon skeletons on Tatooine, this should seriously be a boss some day.

Ah yeah, here's where I messed up: Hard caps: Defense Chance :: Defense adds +30% at the most. Cap without talent buffs is 35%. Shield Chance :: Shield Rating adds +50% at the most. Cap without talent buffs is 70%. Shield Absorbtion :: Absorb adds +50% at the most. Cap without talent buffs is 70%. Depending on your class and talents, your exact +X% need for which secondary stat changes. Also, procs for abilities and talents are different for each of the tanking classes. Also, the points needed to get to each cap from the order of least to greatest: Defense > Shield Chance > Shield Absorbtion Ratio of D/S/A points to which skill they enhance: 55/32/18 In other words, Defense requires a lot of points to reach it cap whereas Absorb requires a lot fewer. For a baseline +350 for each (quite possible to get with Campaign level gear): Defense :: +10.5% Shield Chance :: +17.9% Absorb :: +27.2% That's partly why I suggest going the Absorb > Shield > Defense route going by +X% no matter the class. If you aim for getting to near +30% Defense Chance, or even just 30% Defense Chance, you'll never get there with Campaign gear and augments. Also: For Juggernauts, the only proc they get that requires Defense Chance exclusively is Retaliation. However, Juggernaut tanks get +6% Defense Chance. For Powertechs, Shielding an attack vents 8 heat and finishes the cooldown of Rocket Punch. However, Powertech tanks get +8% Shield Chance. For Assassins, their Force regeneration procs off of all defensive abilities.

You also don't have to go to Balmorra first. You can go to Nar Shaddaa first, then rush through Balmorra. And when you get to Tatooine/Alderaan, you can go to Alderaan first instead of Tatooine. Depends on what you want to do and how difficult the first planet is.

All three tanking classes need some kind of damage reduction buff/debuff for the entire party. Tankassins get Wither, a 5% damage reduction debuff to all that get hit. However, that's a tanking tree stat, which means it'd have to be something Juggernauts get relatively high up the Immortal tree - despite the fact that it's not a very good tree at the moment. That said, maybe something like a party wide buff would be a good thing for Vengeance Juggernaut. As it stands, Sorc and Merc DPS have better Utility with off-heals and a CC. Operative DPS is pretty much the same, with one of their CC's being able to allow groups to bypass pulls. To be honest, the only way I can see operations forcing groups to bring a more diverse melee DPS selection other than stacking Marauders is to either put a cooldown-esque debuff on Bloodthirst or make more fights melee unfriendly. Arguably, the cooldown option seems like the only one that people might like.

Infernal Council misonsception: Bloodthirst and Predation automatically cause Marauders to recieve the "Penalty of Destiny" debuff. In fact, it doesn't. You only receive the debuff by attacking an Infernal Council member linked to another player or by healing a player. The ability you're looking for that causes issues with Marauders is Berserk, and even then, it only happens when the player is in Juyo form. While in Juyo, the Marauder gets a buff to their bleed attacks, yet those bleed attacks heal the entire group. If a Marauder wants to use Berserk, they either have to be in the Ataru or Shi-Cho stance before using it. There's really no reason for a decent Marauder to not kill their guy. The actual DPS requirement for the Infernal Council fight is laughable at this point. Even in Hard Mode, players just need about a constant 700 DPS to kill their guy on time. Tanks need half of that, and healers just need to be able to survive the huge damage abilities of the Assassin.

Theoretically, you can add enough Absorb, Shield Rating, and Defense to get 100% everything. The problem is that the numbers you need to get that is impossible with the current gear tier. It's better to aim for a certain number rather than attempt to reach the hard cap. Absorb added should be at least: +30% Shield Chance added should be at least: +18% Defense added should be at least: +10% Prioritize in the order of Absorb, Shield, and Defense, too. This is really only possible with Campaign tier gear. Also, does not require augments.

I think Terror's gear progression would be: Story Mode Asation = Campaign token drops Hard Mode Asation = New tier token drops Nightmare Mode Denova = New tier token drops That's pretty much what Denova was like when it was released. Story Mode matched Tier 1, while Hard Mode was the true new tier.

Vengeance Juggernaut is pretty good. Good skilled players with decent gear should have no problem pulling the DPS needed for Denova HM. Vengeance Juggernaut suffers from the same cons as other melee DPS, though. The only utility they have to make up for this is a taunt and threat wipe. Some guilds may pass a Juggernaut for a Marauder's team buffs for that alone, though I can see the usefulness of a third taunt and a threat wipe in operations.

Want to know which mods are best for Snipers if they want baseline damage? Advanced Artful ## Not: Advanced Artful ##A Advanced Artful ##B is even worse. Sniper Mod Syntax, for a quick explanation Advanced just informs players that this is an Artifact level mod. The second word defines what secondary stat is in the mod. - Artful :: Power - Keen :: Critical Rating - All others give useless stats for Snipers. The number defines the amount of points distributed in the mod. The higher the number, the better the mod. Any suffixes, or the lack of a suffix, determines how those points are distributed. - No suffix :: The secondary stat is favored. Has more secondary stat than A and B. Has more Cunning than B. - A :: Cunning is heavily favored. Has more Cunning than no suffix and B, has more Endurance than no suffix. - B :: Endurance is favored. Has more Endurance than A and B, but more secondary stat of just A. The difference in raw damage given between the no suffix and A version of mods is substantial enough to pick the no suffix one when looking for damage. I'll use Advanced Artful Mod 22X as an example. Now, let's go ahead and assume you have Gearhead and the Inquisitor buff, giving you +14% Cunning. - 22 :: Actually gives +41.0 Cunning - 22A :: Actually gives +54.6 Cunning Now, just ignore Endurance and subtract the lower value found in either mod with the higher. - 22 :: 27 Power (higher) - 8 Power (lower) = +19 Power (compared to 22A) - 22A :: 54.6 Cunning (higher) - 41 Cunning (lower) = +13.6 Cunning (compared to 22) As someone already pointed out, Power gives more damage per point than Cunning, and the amount of Power you get compared to the amount of Cunning surpasses that in just points along. Using higher level mods and more of the no suffix ones will eventually lead to noticeable differences in DPS than if using the ##A ones. Don't forget getting decent Crit Rating, though that should be achievable through Enhancements.

Hammer Station is actually a good flashpoint that teaches people basic flashpoint strategies. It is hard for on-levels for a reason (it's the Wake Up Call Boss for SWTOR when it comes to flashpoints). It's doable with on-level groups, even ones not experienced with MMO's, since it's purpose is to teach. 1) You need a four man group. This isn't your 2 or even solo-able Black Talon instance for the standard on-level. Future flashpoints will get harder, with Colicoid War Games and Red Reaper being unwinnable without 4 sentient players. 2) People need a role. You'll want one healer and one tank. Off-tanks and off-healers are fine here since there are no enrage timers. 3) The tank attacks first. This becomes evident when people realize that everything in the group will target the first person that attacks until threat (either through damage or healing) forces them to switch targets. 4) CC is king. If you don't learn that fights while using stuns and CC abilities are easier than when not using them, then you'll want to learn that before Athiss. The second boss fight can be made significantly easier with the use of CC. 5) Be aware. Things happen in the fight that cannot be anticipated unless you've done it before. From special boss attacks to adds suddenly spawning, failure to pay attention and figure out how to counter these will lead to future failures in tougher content. 6) DPS need to attack adds. This becomes very important in the final boss fight. For one, the tank needs to keep the AOE cone of the boss from hitting other people (another part of being aware). Also, if the DPS ignore those adds, they will ravage the healer and kill the healer in seconds. As for a final boss guide, it's as everyone says. - Avoid the mines - Have the tank turn the boss away from everyone - Have the healer be near the entrance, as far away from where the adds spawn as possible - DPS will shoot the boss, yet attack the adds as soon as they appear. The boss has no enrage timer, so it's not like they *have* to keep shooting. The end. Enjoy your loot.

Eternity Vault Story Mode is laughably easy. Basically, you just need level 50 and ~49 greens across the board be "geared enough". Actually knowing the fights before going into Eternity Vault will increase your ability to do well more than gear. Gear is actually just a means to make content easier for those that miss mechanic checks or play their class to poor standards. For Hard Mode Eternity Vault, you'll need Tionese tier at the least. The gear requirement, again, is not that high. Tionese level stuff is more for the fact that, if you have that, you have PVE experience. A player experienced in endgame PVE is more valuable than a PVPer with full War Hero yet no PVE experience. Also, an understanding of Eternity Vault Hard Mode mechanics is required. For Nightmare, you'll need at least full Columi and lots of Hard Mode experience. Ideally, by the time you're good enough to consider Nightmare, you'll already be decently geared with Rakata tiered items. Nightmare is also the exact same as Hard Mode mechanics wise, so you just need a complete understanding of Hard Mode's mechanics. Though, a little warning, the gear requirement for operations goes up the less skilled and informed you are for operations. Individual gear requirements also hinge on what group members are able to carry the team and have experience with Eternity Vault. Obviously, if you're running a group of level 50's with level 49 stuff, you better hope they know how to play and know the Eternity Vault fights. Another warning, too, as it seems that Bioware is going to lean in this direction for future content. Denova and Lost Island have demonstrated that gear is not going to be able to pull a bad group through content. Things are going to be more of a mechanic check than a gear/skill check. Knowing the fights beforehand is going to be the most important thing. Go ahead and get the practice in now for Eternity Vault and eventually Karagga's Palace, or you'll find yourself in a rut trying to find out how you're not getting through content despite having BIS and all.

Check the Trooper Campaign/BH vendor. Are Commando offhands available? I think it's most likely available. If so, Bioware needs to do one of two things: 1) At the least, remove the Trooper and Bounty Hunter DPS generators from being bought through BH comms 2) Give MK-1 offhands to all classes, yet have the mods locked Otherwise, Commandos have an unfair advantage gearing up with Black Hole commendations. I believe the Mercenary, the Commando's mirror, doesn't have their MK-1 offhand available for purchase. This would balance the two classes. I believe that the developers of Bioware were actually deliberate on leaving out the Vibroknives, though. This is due to the fact that Gunslingers use a second pistol as an offhand and all modable offhands are unavailable through Black Hole comms. The Scatterguns and Vibroknives were left out in order to bring balance to Smugglers and Agents. For Sentinnels and Marauders, they never noticed the issue since both classes use the same type of offhand.

Aim for ~35% with the Agent buff. Grab all the Strength and Willpower datacrons, too.

Chances are, in whatever form SWTOR becomes in the next few years, it won't close for a good while. The question most people want to know: Is SWTOR going to be something that's worth my time and money for those years? For 400k people, it wasn't, and I'm certainly not 100% sure I'd be willing to give more than a basic one year grace period.

Zorn has one stun, channeled ability. Firebrand/Stormcaller have no stuns, iirc. Vorgath doesn't have anything that'd proc this, iirc Kephess does nothing to proc this In the end, Unyielding doesn't seem to proc much in boss fights. It'd be better to muse over other options before taking it.

Drop Sonic Barrier and pick up Deafening Defense. Enjoy your new and improved defensive cooldown and replacement for Dark Blood. Consider getting the Shien stance too in order to shell out decent DPS on demand.

Testing dummies at least help players sort out what rotations are best for the majority of the fight, acknowledging that: - While the actual boss fight DPS will vary and most certainly be higher than anything in live fights, the dummy is standard, unbiased, and serves as a control for determining the ability of a player to output damage. For example, comparing a player with 1000 DPS compared to one with 1500 DPS on the dummy is a perfectly valid comparison, and it's perfectly reasonable to say that the player with the higher DPS on the dummy will do more DPS in an Operations fight. - The DPS of most builds goes up significantly once the target dips below 30% health, so one doesn't have to worry about not using their finishing move. Yet, despite this, Juggernaut DPS suffers the same faults as Marauders and other melee and close ranged classes. Their damage intake might be higher than ranged DPS and they're susceptible to not putting DPS on the boss due to having to step outside of the 4 meter range. Still, Juggernaut DPS is perfectly viable, and in the hands of a good player, the added utility of Intercede as a threat wipe can lead to interesting developments for boss fights (for example, I usually Intercede to the healers during the Infernal Council fight and steal aggro from the Infernal Assassin for great justice)

To be honest, if your skill and knowledge of your class is good, you will be dominating in sub-50 PVP regardless of gear or spec. Come 50, you'll notice some things. For one, Immortal spec's damage turns your lightsaber into a wiffle bat when you don't wear DPS gear. Speaking of gear, tanky gear as a whole isn't prefered in 50 PVP. The most competitive spec for Juggs in Ranked, though, is the Rage spec. Gives Pyro Powertechs a run for their money.

I usually run with this build while in Vengenace: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#101MMZrMZcGMRMuddGo.2 I usually also run with 2 Battlemaster Vindicator shells to Intercede then Force Charge back for extra rage. It's 3 seconds of less DPS, yet the self heal is nice. The brief CC immunity also helps for some bosses that do regular knockbacks. But yeah, as the above poster stated, you need Savagery and Ruin. My usual strat: - Intercede and Force Charge on CD - Smash on CD - Ravage on CD - Sundering Assault on CD - Impale OR Shatter used when Ravage is on CD - Force Scream and Vicious Throw when Savagery is up - Basic Rotation: Ravage -> Impale -> Force Scream -> Vicious Throw (If able, one Savagery buffs multiple Force Screams and Vicious Throws if the player can do both) -> Ravage (If Able) -> Force Scream (if able) -> Vicious Throw -> Repeat

Jugg DPS is perfectly viable. Vengeance is best for PVE boss fights and can beat any DPS requirements for Operations, while Rage is the only other spec that can get close to what good Pyro Powertechs can do in DPS.

The PVP relics actually gives more overall damage than the PVE ones. For that, look at the Campaign and War Hero Boundless Ages Relics. The Campaign one will add 315 Power for 30 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown. For 30 seconds, the player gets 72.45 extra points of damage per hit (ignore any other damage buffs). Assuming a modest 1 hit per second, the player will do 2173.5 extra non-crit damage in 30 seconds. The War Hero Relic adds 113 Power permanently, giving 25.99 extra points of damage per hit all the time. Obviously, it does less damage than the Campaign Relic in 30 seconds. Yet, over a two minute span that matches the Campaign relic's cooldown, the War Hero Relic will do 3118.8 extra points of non-crit damage at a hit per second rate of 1. So, while the PVE Relics do provide burst damage better than PVP Relics, once a player with the PVP relic gets 84 hits in or more, they've gotten more damage out of the PVP Relic than the PVE one ever could.

These two aren't a problem if two people actually, ya know, level together. You can also deal with mobs up to 4 levels higher than you. The difficulty is higher, but it's possible. The level 22 and 25 example is actually not that bad assuming both still need to do Nar Shaddaa. But yes, in the end, if someone you're leveling with decides to play enough of the game to the point that they surpass you by a wide margin, then they either have to wait for you to catch up or stop leveling with you entirely. Custom channels and advertising these custom channels makes this irrelevant. All of the destination servers should have a custom channel for certain activities that can be seen on any planet, assuming the server has the bare bones of a social community. Cross-server LFG is not required, and BW seems to be leaning against cross-server for the foreseeable future. It also won't fix the issues of tanks/healers instantly getting groups while DPS have to wait for several minutes for a group. Yes, LFG is very robust and needs improvements. There are tons of other bugs and glitches that need to be fixed, though, that have all been turning players away. Join a guild or the custom LFG channel of your server. Other than that, such functionality addition will most likely not come in the foreseeable future and is not required. Some things are broken, some things are only perceived to be broken. The utility of each crafting skill needs improvement. Chances for crits are, despite what unlucky people claim, *not* broken. There's no right path for what to do in the endgame for either PVP or PVE. You're not required to do Daily runs anymore. You're not required to use HM FP's to gear up for SM Operations. You're not required to have any endgame gear for HM FP's. You're not required to even do the endgame. Endgame needs more content and variety, actually. The Launcher lets you pick the environment... just because. I'm actually not sure why this was changed, yet it's not an important issue. It doesn't bother me, and it only takes an extra mouse click while logging in, and it's not like it's trying to devour my soul like the standard EULA's of most video game publishers. When the PTS is re-enabled, you will then see the Public-Test Server be available to choose as an environment. As more expansions are made for SWTOR, it's also possible that Legacy servers akin to Everquest's design might be added, which you can choose to activate by picking your environment. I've also heard an idea from a guildmate that Origin may be turned into something akin to the SWTOR Launcher, where players input their login information, pick the game they want to play, and then instantly launch it. There's also the fact that developers and paid testers use the environment tab to choose their own private test servers, so it helps those in the know. I don't like it either. Yet in the end, a lot of what you claim is the problem for SWTOR is what *you* don't like, and other players (including me) may not sympathize with the points you bring up. In fact, most of your points are either not problems or not important problems. What seems to have been the major causes of SWTOR being lackluster was: - Low server population and the inability to do anything about it other than reroll (Fixed by the server transfers and impending server merges) - PVP unbalance up the wazoo makes some classes and specs nonviable for competitive play - Not a lot of PVE, yet, and the first two operations were pretty meh, and lots of competent guilds have cleared everything available - Very few functionality features that are considered standard for MMO's - Server performance seemingly degrading post server transfers - Bugs, some game-breaking, everywhere with several major ones ignored for long periods of time (Denova instance depopulation issues, PVP dead at respawn bug) - General lack of communication of the developer's goals and ideas as well as the shift to major updates only being done for the next 1.X patch rather than the weekly minor balancing and fixing they had at launch

If you could tank KP and EV HM, you're more than geared for Lost Island HM. The thing with LI HM is that there are a lot of mechanics that are extremely brutal if ignored. The first and second minibosses and Doctor Lorrick (final boss) are actually the heaviest hitting encounters. The Sentinnel droid (the one people have the hardest time on) is actually not that bad if avoidable mechanics are avoided. - The adds do roughly 35-65 DPS each. Melee adds can be AOE taunted by the tank and DPS can AOE them down. Ranged adds can be ignored for most of the fight. - Incinerate can be cleansed - have the healer do it. Failure for your healers to cleanse even one stack of Incinerate means you lose ~30% + of your health. - Each lava burst only does 10% of a player's health - Plasma balls do a lot more health, but players are supposed to walk out of them anyway in a set pattern Because of all the unavoidable mechanics, LI HM is less of a gear check and more of a mechanic check. Skilled and coordinated teams can walk into LI HM with Tionese gear and one shot everything. Unskilled and uncoordinated teams with BIS everything will fail.

Even with guard, the healer will pull aggro from anything not currently taunted or damaged. It's also not that hard to pull aggro from unguarded healers. Assuming an unguarded healer not using threat dumps and has a generic 10% reduction in threat from talents: Tanks: Disregarding high threat abilities and taunts, tanks need to do 22.5% of damage that healers have healed in range of the aggroed mob to match the healer's threat. The tank needs to burst 30% of the damage that the healer has healed in order to ensure that aggro transfers to the tank. Guarded DPS: Again, disregarding high threat abilities and taunts, DPS with guard must do 60% points of damage of the healer's points of heals in order to match threat. The guarded DPS has to do 78% points of the healed points in damage in order to ensure that aggro transfers. Unguarded DPS: This DPS will have to do 45% of the points of healing in damage in order to match the healer's threat, and then 58.5% of the points in healing in damage in order to ensure that aggro transfers. How much DPS does each player need, then? Good healers, from what the combat logs in my raid group have shown, usually do HPS of 1400 to 1700. This means that: Tanks: Need sustained 315 - 382.5 DPS to keep aggro away from healers, and then burst 420 - 510 DPS to rip aggro away from the healer. Guarded DPS: Needs sustained 840 - 1020 DPS to keep aggro away from healers, then burst 1092 - 1326 DPS to ensure that aggro transfers. Unguarded DPS: Needs sustained 630 - 765 DPS, and then burst 819 - 995 DPS to rip aggro off. All those benchmarks are extremely easy to make for comparatively geared players to a healer doing 1400 - 1700 HPS, even for the guarded DPS. Essentially, there should be no reason anyone should have issue pulling aggro off of the healer unless the mob is ignored for a prolonged period of time (which is an extreme no-no).