There is definitely a bug with the fight on Republic side. Only the left side shields dropped, the right hand ones were not affected in the least by multiple direct hits from the orbital strikes. Considering how inconsistent the Tactical mode bugs were with this boss, it doesn't surprise me in the least that some people can manage the fight and others cant.

I'm also curious if he can gain affection through conversations during class quests and the like while leveling up.

Currently when unlocking HK 51 on another character that is not level 50 will leave Hk 50 unable to use any of its gear that it comes with. You'll have to gear him yourself, and store the rest in storage.

A very all encompassing guide, with alot of detailed information. However, that said, it feels like the guide could use a good editor, as it's hard to pick out where one section starts and where it ends. While it all makes sense in one long reading, its not that helpful when I'd like to look up your ideas on one particular subject, eg: talent builds. A table of contents, some general formatting and a bit of restructuring (Keybinds might not be the most important thing to someone trying the build for their first time, while talents might be more important); a bit of TLC and this could be the definitive Deception guide.

No. There's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I can't even figure out where to begin with how wrong the tracer missile argument is. It's just wrong on so many levels. But this thread isn't about that argument. So for the purposes of this thread, I'm going to create the Shoulder Slam debate. The question you have to ask yourself is simple: Are you playing the shoulder slam build to its full potential? If in your own mind your answer is yes then that's it. That's all you need. Lets imagine though that someone comes out of the woodwork and calls you a noob for using the shoulder slam build. Now lets also pretend for a moment that the game had some quantifiable way of evaluating how good shoulder slam was against this fellow's electro dart build. The simple point then is to tell the fellow to either prove -his- electro dart build is better than -your- shoulder slam, or that he should shut the heck up! If yours works out to be the better build, well you know that he's the idiot. And if his build works out better, then its something to consider. However this is the only situation where he has any leg to stand on. Ok you're probably sick of this fake build names. They're to make a point though that what the OP is asking about has nothing to do with any one particular build. --- As for my own personal opinion on the tracer missile debate, people whining abut one single ability have their heads in the sand. The general consensus is that as a whole, arsenal is just as good if not slightly worse than pyrotech. In that case, what does it matter then if its one ability that makes a tree stand up or three?

I think we're getting off topic here. The topic is the usefulness of Thrash and Energize, not the pros and cons of macros.

Unfortunately you're comparing apples and oranges. Replays are files that can command a game engine to execute the same commands as before. Think of them like an old player piano, and the punch cards that would play music. The game engine just plays the match over again rather than playing back a video file. Much smaller all in all SWTOR would have trouble implementing this though. While Dirt 3 would only have to deal with position data, acceleration, wheel position, acceleration and a few other variables, SWTOR has quite a bit much more to keep track of! And server side logging of every command each player pressed and when can cause significant issues. Ever wonder why public test servers lag more than live servers, even with fewer players? Its all the backend logging! Simply put, its not something easy to add to a game, and considering how pressed for time the dev's are, something this big that's a "wish list item" will probably never come to pass.

DPS meters are what turned WoW into another "Spreadsheets Online."

What I love most? Too many things. Most of all? The balance the game has. This is just my personal opinion, but I've found the game refreshingly balanced, even when compared to "that other game". What do I hate? The fact all of the endgame gear is so limited. The game has a very robust modding system but it flops after level 50, with armoring, hilts and barrels all locked in the gear and no equivalent available by any means. My low key Sith Juggernaut now if covered head to toe in cybernetics and spikes all identical to all the others around.

As others have said, stock prices aren't tied to just one game, the economy is so lousy right now I'm amazed any stock is going up. Just as a wild example, rather than being anything to do with SWTOR it could just as well be Origin under-performing, or their future catalog looking thin. Now what the OP can be legitimately concerned about is that if EA isn't doing well, they may find a need to cut costs, and the op has jumped to the conclusion that future cuts may be to the Bioware staff. Its an understandable concern, but its more likely that the op will be hit by lightning this afternoon than EA will fall under such tough times.

Yes, and next up, fixing Force Push's violation of Newton's third law!

The problem with the RNG element is the only thing people wanted from those bags was the chance of gear significantly better than the gear they could otherwise have by just reaching level 50. Centurion gear is a poor waste of database space and art assets. I'd be surprised if the metrics showed any trend to actually use full sets of the gear.

DOAC was good, but at the same time I signed up to play TOR, I honestly don't feel like getting misty eyed over an old game that had its time and passed. But wait! I hear you say! This game is almost an exact clone of WoW! They're ripping off so much from that game that I the reader of this post find terrible about that game! Why don't they rip off the good parts? Well my friend, this is unfortunately a bad argument. If you're going to suggest that TOR has ripped off WoW, than isn't it also true that Battlefield ripped off Counterstrike? Which was really just a mod of Half Life. Which ripped off GoldenEye, which ripped off Quake? In-fact the entire FPS genre could be looked at as near perfect clones of the previous versions, with subtle mutations to the tried and true formula of "Shoot person in head, get point, act like *** in SayAll." There's a word for this actually. Genre. And it applies just as well to books, movies and even music, (Repeatedly playing the same three cords while whining about how bad your life is? Points to whoever figured out who ripped who off!) In any case, what use is there looking back at a failed game? Sure we all loved it quite well, but you have to ask, why are there millions of us playing TOR right now instead of lining the pockets of DAOC's shareholders? We all want something fresh and new. A change. To be honest, I'd rather they keep trying experiments like Huttball and go in new directions rather fall back on something I already burn out on years ago.

The cliff notes version of this thread is that Lucas doesn't really care for his fans and his fans don't really care for him. But they're both grabbing one end of the same teddy bear and are pretty much yanking it apart. They both have very valid arguments for why it's their teddy bear, or why the other one shouldn't have the teddy bear, but it doesn't really matter because the teddy bear is about to rip in two and cover the floor with stuffing.

Definitely doesn't regen health every six seconds. For confirmation, read the republic mirror of the tree on the vanguard and you'll see a much clearer description.

Dear sir, Is this a possible confirmation of the fact that C2 Droid corporation is looking into reviving the long lost, and award winning HK line droids? I am a consumer desperately in need of a droid to better anoy my companions, with chiding remarks about their meatbag status, a feature woefuly absent from current ship steward droids. Regards, Sith Warrior

This needs to be echoed, and to add to it, one should consider the force cost of individually targeting each mob and thrashing/shocking them, versus the cost of one lacerate over the same time period.

I actually did this as an experiment with my two warrior class characters. One I took full out light, the other full out dark. The fact is, I didn't really enjoy either. Playing the character just to max out its alignment and get the cool speeder did have its benefits, but there we times, on both sides of the force, where one choice was just idiotic. And it made me cringe having to press it. Other times it would completely turn around an entire section of a class quest, skipping some rather hard but epic battle in favor of a more.. ehm... expedient method of information gathering. Which was a surprise, though at least both had their moments of epicness. The lesson I can share from doing this is that you need to ask yourself which comes first, the story or min-maxing? If you answered the story, I offer the same advice I'm using for my sorcerer now: Pick the choice that sounds coolest. In the mood for some choking or lightning? Go for it, even if you're lightsided. You're having a bad day after all, its only natural to let loose on that poor sob. Or maybe you've just spent 2 hours running around helping out the locals and you're definitely not doing this guy's work for him just to get an answer, so electrocute him! Or maybe most of the time you do have your fun and take out you wrath on others, but killing this one fellow seems like a mistake. Try looking for a neutral option, it can sometimes lead to better dark side options (or better punchlines to go with your lightning!). If you still think he needs saving, well save him. You're a Sith, you can do whatever you want, even be nice. Who's going to say otherwise? And if they do talk back, there's always plan A: Lightning! Its far more satisfying to turn of the light and dark indicators on the convo wheel and just pick what your gut says

It was me! Me, me, me, me, me, ME!

This is untrue. To say melee is broken bad is to ignore operatives/scoundrels Vanguards/powertechs and assassins/shadows, which all share the 10m circle with marauders. This does not excuse the fact that marauders suffer. In fact it only makes it even more poignant that there's something wrong with the marauder when three other ACs can all be balanced much better than the marauder. A stun would be very nice to have, but I honestly doubt the option of adding more skills to the game will ever be on the cards in the near future with the careful way the devs are making adjustments so far.

You may want to try gearing up Vette. I've found she makes most battles much easier as Immortal spec, compared to Quinn. Back on topic, the obvious reason is people would complain at not being able to have a pocket healer and still be evil. Granted they could have taken a note from a certain companion quest in ME2. As a writer myself, I hate accusing folks of phoning it in, but its perhaps the weakest moment about the entire class story. There's so much telegraphing leading up to it, it makes Anakin's fall tot he dark side in Episode 3 a total surprise.

Which version of the ret paladin are we talking about? There've been so many On general feel, I'd probably say the carnage marauder makes a good fit for the older incarnations. It so very much mirrors the old "wait for my weapon to proc and then pray" playstyle. Powertech would be close to the modern incarnations of the class. And then finally something like the Vengeance Juggernaut sums up the classic view of Retadins: Not enough DPS, no tools and bringing squat to the table, why didn't you spec tank like you're supposed to?

In game support just off a forum thread? That's some forum post!

I dipped my head into the Customer Service section of the forums tonight looking to see about whether or not a certain problem was a known issue or not. What caught my eye were a number of threads complaining about the quality of customer support. I even made a post in one of them sharing my thoughts on what could be improved. This all got me thinking. You only really drop into the customer service forum and post there if you've had a problem so its just the same everyone posting in that forum isn't going to have the most rosy of stories. Having a problem also tends to stress you out. So my question is this: What's your experience been like? Have you been treated well? Did your problem get resolved in the end? How do you think Bioware can improve the experience? I do beg you all though to please be constructive in your responses. The game is new and this is a sensitive subject, we've all had our problems but its no reason to be rude.