The first time I did this from group finder, it did take a couple tries on the first boss, only one of us having known the mechanics. But once we all knew that an orbital strike would drop at the feet of each member of the group after the adds came out, then we just assigned a person to each corner for when adds came out, let the orbital strike drop at the adds' feet (moving out of the way before the strike actually hit ofcourse, lol), then each person dps-ed their own add, with the healer needing a little help. But the dps-ers should be able to kill their assigned add in short order and keep themselves alive if it's done quick and efficiently. Then back together, then action stations for adds, then back, etc. If the group has trouble the first time through, someone (you if need be) needs to take the time to explain it clearly or else you'll just be pounding your head into the desk for no reason.

Another vote for actual planned merges instead of just transfers.....not sure if it's too late to vote or not, lol. What would have been cool a while ago is a system like Rift has where you can transfer once a week anywhere you want. Anyways, pretty much all my guild has stopped playing at this point but they have said if Bioware does server merges and adds more actual endgame/world/universe content they will come back. And since there aren't that many people on now (Corellian Run has like 42 people on the fleet at prime time) it's not really possible to recruit or pug operations. So SWTOR is pretty much on hold for me until these things happen. And Ilum/open-pvp needs fixed. It wasn't even as good as LOTRO's pvp zone, the Ettenmoors.

I'm really hoping they do planned and purposeful merges based on numbers and data. Honestly, I'm a little worried about just plain old free transfers because it will be hard to know whether everyone on your server is going to move somewhere else and thus make your server one of the new dead ones, or whether you should move to another one.....I think it will be be difficult to know for sure what to do. I think it would be best for Bioware, aka those with the real data and numbers, to make intentional/planned server merges so that the things are balanced and not thrown way out of control. I played Aion for a while and when they opened up free transfers, factions and numbers on servers got thrown way out of whack after the first round, people got upset, then they had to lock the servers back down again to play damage control and keep things from getting worse, etc. There may be specific cases where someone needs to transfer to play with friends or family, but I think the initial move should be planned merges. It doesn't appear that we need so many servers right now.....let's consolidate and move forward with a strong and balanced base.

Did you take mods from Campaign gear and put it into legacy gear?

Really?!? Sweet, you just made my day. I haven't seen anything/anyone else say that so far in all I've read and watched, heh. Thanks for the info. I'm guessing though that Storymode is still class-assigned?

After 1.2, we're not supposed to get gear for a class that isn't in the raid. But it will still be pre-assigned to certain classes, just like typical hard mode master looting. So you could still get gear tokens for the classes that don't need them. So far, I haven't seen anything where they will be switching to a general gear token system where you can assign it to and it be useable by any class, which would give raiding teams full control over who gets what. For those that haven't had too many issues and bad luck strings, it's the old "RNG/Random" response and "get over it", heh. But many of us sympathize and feel your pain in the bad luck strings. So after 1.2, you may still be dealing with the same issue from reading the patch notes and watching that guild summit video, minus ofcourse the possiblity of getting gear for classes that aren't in the raid. So your chances will be a little better at getting everyone geared up but if you already had every class type in your raids to begin with, then it doesn't seem like your chances will be any better. Anyone else have factual information to the contrary?

No matter what your opinions are though about how right the OP is (although it appears he's had a lot of experience to support his information), it still doesn't change the fact that dps Operatives are getting the shaft by the general population when it comes to being taken in group content. That has to say something about the current state of the Operative. And I can attest in my own experience.....I do a lot more dps in group content on my sniper than I do on my operative. But even then, I feel like my sniper isn't doing as much damage as mercs or marauders. (there was another thread about the sniper dps too)

This appears to only change normal mode so that it isn't assigned to specific people. So it will be like the hard/nightmare modes where it will drop class-assigned pieces that can be given to anyone in the raid. But, let me repeat.....it's still going to be class-assigned. I haven't heard or read anything that says differently. So the person who's guild ran him through normal (and as some pointed out, could have run him through hard as well), after 1.2 hits, could still get shafted because the loot may be assigned to a class that isn't his but is another class in the raid. Does anyone else understand that? That's how it works right now in hard/nightmare mode. Every gear token that drops from bosses and chests are assigned to one of the main classes....BH, SI, or IA (or Republic versions). So, yes, in 1.2, you'll have a better chance of getting the gear you need in normal mode, but it will be the same as it has been in hard/nightmare mode, where it's still assigned to a class, so if the tokens are assigned to a class other than your own, you still don't have a chance, and those classes that already have the gear will be getting duplicates. Also, regarding dropping group (exiting area), for bosses where you have to loot the corpse, you would have to drop before the boss dies because the gear is assigned upon death. For "bosses" where there is a chest, then people can exit area before the chest is looted because the gear is assigned at opening. And as I pointed out earlier in another post, in 1.2, Exit Area will be interrupted on damage, so it will make exiting area on boss fights very hard. Not to mention, it's not exactly very easy to coordinate exiting area before a boss is dead anyways, leaving a couple people in to finish off the boss by themselves, especially if they are not geared very well and hence the reason why people are exiting for them anyways. The point for those of us who support general gear tokens is that it will give guilds more control, more choice about who is getting what. Normally, you try to gear up your tanks first so they can take more damage, then probably healers so they can keep up better. You might give dps-ers their mainhands first to be able to burn through stuff faster. The possibilities are endless in how you could decide to distribute loot if the decision was truly in your hands......but it isn't and won't be even in 1.2. It will still be assigned to a certain class and for now it seems we'll just have to work around it as best we can and deal with the fact that there will still be wasted loot because the assigned-class-token may still be for a class set that already have all their gear.

lol, yeah, you are So right......people should be punished when they don't bring one of every class type to a raid. >_> And, besides, after 1.2, it's not going to matter whether we have one of every class type, if you hadn't noticed. But it still won't keep the tokens from being assigned to classes that may not need the gear anymore, because in hard mode and nightmare mode, they will still be auto-assigned to certain classes. And if those classes already have all their Rakata, it will be wasted. I wish people would stop spamming the RNG argument, it's old. Those of us in favor of general gear tokens know that it is currently Random, duh. It would just make it less frustrating and make more sense if we were able to decide who in our raid team was going to receive the drop, as opposed to BW deciding through the class-assignment. Does everyone like the Random system? Are those of us in favor of general gear tokens (that can be assigned to anyone) in the minority?

The problem is this only keeps loot from dropping for a class that isn't in the raid group. It doesn't keep an imbalanced amount of gear dropping for certain classes. In hard mode and nightmare operations, the loot is still pre-determined to certain classes, i.e. a SI glove token or BH glove token. You can still have it tilting in favor of a certain class fairly consistently so that many of the raid team are still with only one rakata while those of another class type are taking duplicate drops because they've been swimming in drops because the tokens were almost always their class. I like the generic gear token idea, where you can decide what player/class is going to get that piece this time, rather than doing all that work to end up not getting many people new pieces because the loot was pre-set to a class that didn't need it. To the OP, we've actually had the opposite problem. We haven't seen a lot of IA gear.....mostly SI and BH gear. I've been in several hard mode EV runs on my sniper and only have the boots to show for it because every other time the drops were assigned to the SI or BH class.

The one nice reason to have a variety from all the classes, as the previous poster outlined, is that you get all the buffs possible. However, with 1.2, if you have leveled two characters to max level, etc., it appears that they will be able to cast two buffs at once. Can anyone that has more information on that expound on it further? If dual-buffs will indeed be a possibility, that will be pretty sweet. Otherwise, right now, you could run an all BH/Commando group if you really wanted to, heh. Have PT's for the tanks, and Mercs for the heals and dps. Same with Inquisitors/Sages. Assassin tanks and dps and Sorcerer heals and dps.

It is still assigned to certain classes in hard mode and nightmare mode ops. Have you run hard mode ops and been the master looter? When you loot the boss or the chest, you'll see two Rakata barter tokens (more in nightmare?) and each one will be specifically for a certain class. You can assign that to anyone, sure, but if the two pieces are auto-assigned to a BH class, and your BH's have already gotten all their pieces, but you still have SI's, SW, and a IA in the raid, then that loot is effectively wasted because the people that needed the piece didn't have their class assigned to the barter item. I get the impression that people don't understand this and are therefore dismissing anyones concerns about the system, even after 1.2 comes out.

I'd just like to point out a couple things from the release notes in case anyone missed them (source: http://www.swtor.com/test-center/patchnotes): •The Exit Area ability is now interrupted when damage is taken. •Loot drops from endgame activities, such as Operations and Flashpoints, now take group composition into account. That's it. If anyone has some supplementary information, that would be great. But from the official source, I don't see that 1.2 is "fixing everything". Sure, it is supposed to recognize the classes in the group/raid, but you'll still have people getting duplicates. And now that it appears that "Exit Area" will be much more difficult to do on boss fights, that takes a little bit of viability away from that route. Call me old fashioned, but I like the old method of having a general gear token that can be assigned to anyone so that we aren't constantly wasting gear on companions because some classes that the gear drops for have already gotten that piece a couple times. If you have raided hard mode operations, you know this happens unless your group has had extremely good luck. Is that not a reasonable wish and not just QQ as everyone likes to say?

From what I read of the release notes, I think you are painting with too broad of a brush. Predestined loot isn't completely going away, in the sense that it will still be for a certain class if not for a certain person, just the way hard mode ops distribution is now. With 1.2 it will supposedly recognize the classes that are actually in the group so you won't be getting IA pieces when no-one in the group/raid is an IA. Likes last night, I happened to go on my Sorc to heal instead of my usual sniper, and ofcourse a bunch of IA stuff dropped when we didn't have any IA at all in the group. *sigh* But 1.2 still doesn't solve the problem of repeatedly getting drops for one or two specific classes when those classes may not need it anymore and there are others in the raid that do. For instance, so far we've had the loot distribution tilted in favor of BH's for the most part. They'll all be done at this rate in another couple raids, while others haven't gotten much at all. And to another poster, I'm not sure I really buy the argument that having general gear tokens assignable to any class would be bad for the game and make people stop playing after they get their gear. Will it make people want to play more if they continually get shafted because the tokens that drop aren't for their class so they are lagging behind? Is it really a common opinion that they guage how long people will keep playing based on built-in time prolongers like duplicate loot for classes that don't need it?

FP's aren't absolute control by a long shot. It can still generate the token for a class that doesn't need it and until 1.2 comes out the token could be for a class that isn't even in your group. Opt-ing out is kind-of complicated, seems to me. Best is to have a "Columi Boot Token" or "Columi _______ Token" or "Rakata Boot Token"/"Rakata ______ Token" (whatever armor set that happens to be current to the raid you are running). The master looter can assign it to whoever/whichever class. You don't have people getting multiple/wasted gear while everyone else is lagging behind, wasting weeks of possible progression. Sure you can have people leave group before a boss kill or before a chest is opened but that is so annoying and tedious, just is too much nonsense for something that should be simple and straightforward.

Yeah, and honestly hard mode isn't really "the answer" to the issue either. Sure you can assign the pieces but the classes of those pieces are still pre-determined by the loot generator. So you could still have the issue of the class type assigned to that gear token not being the one desired even though you can assign it to whoever you want. For example, I've been running my sniper in hard mode ops, and we have a lot of BH's and SI's that make up the rest of our raid usually. And for each boss, we usually get either two BH tokens or two SI tokens. Out of several runs, I think one IA boot token has dropped. It also goes for Flashpoints....if you want to get someone a specific Columi piece to finish out their gear, you have no control on whether that whole run will have been wasted for nothing or not becuase it could be assigned to another class that doesn't need it. It would be better if they were general gear tokens, like a general boot token, general glove token, etc. That way it could be assigned to anybody, any class, and they could turn it in for whatever class/spec they want. That would guarantee that no loot ever gets "wasted".

I have to agree somewhat. I was disappointed with Ilum. I didn't realize at first that only a narrow sliver of the map was open pvp. I've been there many times with guildies and just random pugs. And yes, it is all about Central Assault. Try to be clever and roam the map some to look for some action? Nah, not usually worth it. Central Assault is the big magnet. It can be fun for sure when there are equal numbers of people from each faction on, but the percentage of time that that actually occurs is not very high. A good seemingly 80% of the time it's completely dominated by one side of the other. And everyone is roving around Central Assault looking for armament boxes to swipe before someone else can. For those who don't like some form of PVE in a PVP zone---well, those armaments are pretty much that, a pve component in a pvp zone that everyone does in the slow time. So I don't see any problem in adding some more forms of quests similar to that in Ilum. You all are already doing it anyways, whether you realize it or not. And as far as the Northern Assault, Southern Assault, Imperial Base and Republic Base.....there really isn't a ton of incentive to go to anywhere other than Central Assault. Yet, despite that fact, your quest log gets spammed with Battle of Ilum quests to flip them, even though you don't really get any tangeable rewards for completing them. I definitely think adding some things in to encourage people to move around the map some more would be beneficial. And more quests that give rewards wouldn't hurt---whether it's merc's or commendations, maybe a little valour. Something. That way when the times are slow, people do have something to do rather than trying to beat each other to a handful of armaments at Central Assault. In summary, I think the OP's suggestions and sentimentes hold a lot of merit for anyone that wants to think objectively with an open mind. More variety to the current state of Ilum can never be a bad thing. Roving around Central Assault for armaments all day and then hoping some people form the other faction log on sooner than later has to wear out even the most rabid fans of the current state of Ilum.

I've seen the BH boot columi item drop when we didn't have a BH in group. Next time I ran it, it was a SI boot drop. It would be nice if they could somehow code it so that it would only drop for the classes that are actually in the group. I know people love wasting hours of time running flashpoints for nothing, right? Maybe just for the daily/weekly quests? hehe

I'm pretty sure you have to have done the flashpoint once on normal mode before you can get the hard mode quest. That's been my experience so far. Tried to do Boarding Party and Foundry but didn't see any quest options just outside the instance. Picked up the Call To Arms quest, ran through it really quick on normal, finished it. Then I was able to talk to the people outside the instances and get the Hard Mode quests. It looks like it assumes everyone would have run them at least once while they were leveling. But I had the same experience as the OP. For Directive 7, I couldn't get the HM quest ouside the instance. Went and talked to a guy on the orbital station, came back, talked to someone else there, dropped one of the quests, then was able to get the HM quest. It wasn't as clear cut as some of you are making it out to be. Ofcourse, I didn't run half of the flashpoints while I was leveling. So that may be a difference in perspective/experience.

I have a 50 Operative, heal-specced, that I just reached a few days ago. I have decent gear but don't have any champion gear yet. I tried to heal a couple Hard Mode flashpoints and was very frazzled at the end, lol. I did fine on regular flashpoints and 4+ heroics as I was leveling but Hard Mode flashpoints can be an eye-opener. I think I'm going to need a lot more purple gear and upgrades to be viable. Someone else posted in this thread that once they upgraded all their gear they saw a dramatic increase in their healing output. So I'm hoping with better gear combined with a little more experience that the Operative healer will click for me, but I'm a little concerned right now. And someone else mentioned that the Directive 7 3-droid boss fight in HM was very difficult, among a few other cases......basically anytime the group is taking damage, the Operative is going to be hard pressed to keep up. Ideally the tank is taking the brunt of it and so they need pretty steady/constant heals. Add in group damage and the Operative gets spread very thin. And they really don't have any buffs/defenses to offer the group as a whole to influence how much damage or healing the group is taking for boss fights. I'd like to see an update from the one person saying they were going to be starting Hard Modes to see what their impression was.

I saw that you said you can't RE world drops or quest rewards for a better schematic. Does that go for modification vendors and mod commendations vendors too? I thought I heard someone say once that they RE'ed some mods from the commendations vendor and got a better schematic but in my own little trial I didn't have any success. Thanks.

My only problem with the grenades is that they are REALLY heavy on the materials. They take a ton of the underworld metals. It looks like they would take a lot of credits to keep a supply chain going---credits for underworld trading missions or buying the mats off the GTN. What are your impressions of the materials cost? I like all your other ideas though. I think it would really help people take "ownership" of cybertech-ing. I have to admit, one bummer was finding out that all those armor plates and mods I was accustomed to being able to upgrade myself with suddenly dissappear at end-game......so I spend all that time being excited about my mods and then don't get to do anything with them for end-game gear, the culmination. It seems kind-of pointless to have the ability to make something that nobody wants, that isn't viable.

Cool, thanks for the info. That sounds about what I was thinking based on vibes I've gotten from reading this and that. I'm still hoping someone will reply if they've seen an epic armor plate or mod drop in the operations yet. C'mon, I know you are out there. Unless it just hasn't dropped yet. I guess I'm trying to confirm what the developers said and see if fully moddable gear can be made to be as good as purple operation gear with these mods that are supposed to drop in operations.

In my experience, it's random which pieces drop in flashpoints. I have a Operative and a Sniper both at level 43 right now and I've run all kinds of stuff, but it's kind-of random. One night in Boarding Party, it was all IA-type stuff......another night it was mostly SI-type stuff. I think it's luck in some ways. I actually got a nice moddable piece of gear from a Heroic+4 on Balmorra---I forget the name but you had to disable some towers along the way and kill the leader down on the beach in the back of the instanced zone. But many times you can get moddable gear from quests or from the commendations vendors. Make sure to check the commendations vendors whenever you enter a new world and see if there is something worth saving up for. Between rewards, vendors, and drops it doesn't take long to get into a full set of moddable gear minus the bracers and belt most of the time. Then after that you can use commendations to upgrade the armor plate, mods, enhancements and barrels as you level to keep the set current.

Yeah, from what I've been reading, the armor plates and mods that cybertechs can make end-game aren't as good as the inherent armor value that comes with the purple pvp/pve gear, and I haven't been able to get a purple mod in RE-ing yet, so can't really confirm either. But the fact that the developer said that purple armor mods would be dropping in the Operations that would make fully-moddable gear as good as the purple operation gear, makes me think that I can't craft an armor mod that will be just as good. I'm still curious if anyone has seen one of these drop in the operations yet though. Any other thoughts?