I had the same idea as well, they way over thought this.

Before a match starts, sure. After, 2 tanks and 6 healers sounds like a joyous opponent when you're attacking, also sounds like lots of stalemates.

Giving something back and treating it like they are doing you a favor/ adding content can be a solid trick in these games. That would be my only guess, that and they will eventually run out of room for vendors

Perhaps he doesn't devote significant portions of his life to the swtor forums

I agree, barber shops (armor dyes to) are basic functions in most mmos (all of them that I've played). in truth I can't remember the last time I played a game that didn't launch with a barber shop. It's pretty obvious that progressing the cartel market is more of a priority than progressing the base game, will be curious to see how long that holds up.

Those guys that blow every cool down, stun, and mezz they have when they are in 3 on 1 fights (they being one of the three).

Oh definitely, it's usually marauders or assassins, those dudes seem to take it real personal when they die. Operatives do as well, but if you kill them again they will almost go out of their way to avoid you after that (unless it's one of the rare good ones). I will do this in pug pvp with healers, there is also the occassional player that will really take it to me and I'll look for them again to pick up what they are doing/ what I did wrong.

The only way money factors into gearing up is with augments and ripping mods out. Pay to win would be if you could buy your raid gear or pvp gear straight up with cash. They have definitely taken the money grub approach to this game with how they are handling the cartel market vs base game additions, but it isn't pay to win at this point.

I definitely agree with the first point, not the second though. 3 and 4 don't effect me either way.

I'm more concerned with things like players, sometimes whole teams of players going invisible with more lag since this dlc. Feels like the first month after launch again, minus the bags

I don't actually mind the game company providing a system where you can essentially buy credits through them. I think the packs are dirty, but I have no issue with armor suits being up their for cash and I actually like that you can then turn around and sell them for credits if you want. Now basic mmos items like armor dye kits, barbers, that's becoming ridiculous. They are adding very little to the base game but they are adding things to the cartel market regularly.

That game does have a much better cash shop system than this one, this one is slowly getting off the rails.

So the barber is going to be a cartel item to? If they keep putting basic mmo functions like barbers and armor dyes in the market they are going to have to jack up the monthly allotment for subs.

Haha. Although I would guess they will repackage items if they remove certain packs while calling it some kind of bonus. To the op as others have said if you are going to spend your hard earned dollars on tons of pixilated packs sell the packs on the gtn and pretty much treat the cartel market as a way to buy credits from bioware directly. The only cartel item I know of that is even worth half a hypercrate is revans mask. Farmers have been more productive than hunters for a long time now, although it can be fun to gamble here and there. Or you could take this little slice of advice for mmo land Figure out what items rich players will want/ need that they would rather not get themselves. Ideally it would be something that they would be willing to overpay for, once you get rich in these games convenience is the biggest draw. An example would have been farming relevant materials right at the prerelease of the dlc, things like that are always grossly overpriced in the early go.

1.) Agent: I'm not finished, but it's very well done and I don't know how it's going to end yet (I'm in the 40's). 2.) Sith Warrior: I think it's mostly because it's my favorite voice actor, but it's generally solid, although I knew how things were going to go down to soon. 3.) Knight: I liked the vast majority of it, thought the end was pretty bad though. 4.) Bounty Hunter: When played like a serial killer, it's fun, less so when not. 5.) Trooper: It is boring at times, but I found it to be very well done. My favorite companion group by a landslide. It also may have my favorite ending so far. 6.) Inquisitor: Thought the first act was good, i thought the rest was garbage. 7.) Smuggler: Mine is in the mid 30's and I haven't cared about the story line in awhile already. I'm not done though so it may move up. 8.) Consular: Worst voice actor by a mile. My least favorite opening companion by a mile. And since I played this at release I looked like I was wearing a dress for 50 levels. I think the voice actor largely killed this story for me though, elements of it were clever, should have played it with the sound off.

There is your answer, along with the cartel market things. They can sure pump out cartel items regularly

I wouldn't count on there ever being a season one at this point.

Eh, I've topped the charts on a few different classes since the change and I'd say my sniper does way more "oh ****" damage. It's one of the most telegraphed heavy hitters there are, I very rarely have a problem fighting one. Multiple can be a bit much, but I think I'd rather multiple smashers than multiple stealthers. You'd also make the spec worthless if you went to heavy on the nerf and as someone else said lots of people play this spec both pvp and pve. Lastly guardian/ jugg needs good defensive cooldowns because they are the only out in the open melee class in the game, meaning no stealth of any kind and no gun.

I would say it is yeah

Ooh, an over/ under post. I'll go with the under, specifically 10 dollars

Not really surprising though. The original bag system conditioned me well for future surprises

To put it simply, they released a system that was much better in theory then it has been in practice so far. I have a character I just hit 50 with during double xp where the recruit gear is still the best I have in a few slots, but if I want to do a warzone I would be better off having nothing in the slot than the recruit gear. For stuff like this it would be a lot better if the system just ignored expertise that doesn't exceed bolster on each piece, as the idea of putting on inferior gear to get better stats is pretty dumb

interesting thought, definitely better than "because they don't want your inventory to get full, they'd rather make less money from you as an alternative."

I'd guess it's because it requires patience to not just open them yourself, if you do open them yourself you're more inclined to buy more. If people want items on release day they'd also have to buy packs with this cooldown. It may be so the market doesn't get flooded, but the market will just be flooded with items on the second and third day instead of the first.

Yeah, the people dropping 100+ bucks a month on cartel packs are the people that are going to carry this game going forward. They release new cartel packs every few weeks for a reason. I'm just curious how long that's going to last