Is HM EV/KP either going to be removed from the highlighted operation rotation or having the difficulty significantly increased? Otherwise gearing now is just how many alts you can run through those ops when they're featured and how lucky you are rolling on pieces/avoiding ninjas rather than doing remotely difficult content. Will the nightmare version of the highlighted operation have an increased chance to drop 224 or the same chance as any other nightmare operations? Will nightmare operations drop 224 MK-2s instead of 220 MK-2s? Or even a chance to drop MK-2s?

Group Content - Is there going to be a revamp of hard mode flashpoint rewards? In 4.0 the cosmetic reward drop rates like decorations were nerfed to oblivion, HM EV/KP drops much better gear for a fraction of the difficulty, and heroic weeklies give better credit and comm rewards, so there is zero reason to do these anymore. Any plans to bring rewards back in line with other group activities? Why should I queue for a HM FP for a 2% chance of getting a deco when I can get 2 or 3 soloing star fortresses for far less hassle? Eternal Championship - Do we have to complete one or more KOTFE chapters to access this like the Star Fortresses? Do we have to do any part of the companion recruitment chain? Or is this going to be really alt unfriendly? Blizz - Will he be available to people who don't want Yuun?

It would be if the rewards were commensurate with their difficulty. There's no point to wiping through HM FPs when SM ops provide far better rewards - unlike at 50 when the last boss of each HM FP dropped the same token as from doing SM ops and HM LI dropped HM gear. Plus decorations drops - the incentive for people who already have the gear - got nerfed to hell. Then again these are the same designers who think grinding KP HM lockouts on alt after alt should be the way to gear...

It's only a problem because top tier gear has become ridiculously accessible for doing easy content, thus dramatically increasing the pool of people capable of doing them and decreasing accountability. i don't recall this problem being remotely as widespread in 3.0 or 2.0 back when the pool of people capable of getting top tier gear was much smaller, but now that any 8 random strangers can get bis, the temptation is much larger. Easiest solution is remove KP and EV from featured HMs.

Great, more companions I can't reject? I'm already punished with Niko and Yuun now more people I can't get rid of

When you reverse engineer the Exarch Quick Savant MK-1 earpiece bought with a token, the schematic is named Exarch Quick Savant MK-2. The stats appear to match the MK-1 earpiece and not the MK-2 random drop earpiece.

The dps ability Force Crush for light side single saber companions does not apply the dot, nor the sunder debuff. This happens to Senya and the Ithorian from Star Fortress.

This varies ALOT by class. I have a tank in 198 and 208 gear and the companion changes are fine. Heroic weeklies and Heroic Star Fortress, including one and only, are all doable with healing companions around influence 15 or so. The only difference I noticed is I have to use defensive CDs again and actively taunt and no longer let mobs stick on the companion because they are far less durable now. Not a big problem. Dps companions unfortunately lack offheals and cannot kill fast enough to be viable for pulls of multiple strongs and elites unless I use multiple CDs or heroic moment for self heals. I've also done the same content with a dps sorcerer and a tank companion and an arsenal merc and a healer companion. Heroic weeklies are not too bad with level sync, but the zero armor at 65 bug (and the companions lack an offhand and cannot shield bug) means tank companions die too quickly to be viable for 65 content. Heroic star fortress is still doable with use of ccs on elites and self heals, but much harder and requires knowing the class well. Finally, I have an concealment operative in mostly 224 with influence 50 HK, and ironically find heroics much more difficult than the other classes. Tank companions are not viable at 65 and healer companions do not do enough healing for even the more hard hitting knights, even by using kolto/shield probe/evasion/roll for shadow operative elite/etc on CD. Basically I have to use heroic moment. Lack of aoe means the final room before the exarch is impossible without using the star fortress buffs, and the elites have a nasty pull when you enter the room even in stealth that makes sleep dart unreliable. I don't blame the companion nerfs for this though as much as I blame the combat team for leaving operatives without viable aoe for so long. My biggest complaint is actually nerfing of companion utility going from the old 10 ability system to the new 5 ability system. Healing companion used to be able to aoe heal and use dps abilities on weaks to speed up kills when healing isn't needed, now all they have is basic attack. This is especially glaring on melee healers that waste alot of time running around, they really need the leap attack ability they have as dps... Ranged dps lost their aoes so clearing packs is not as nice, I would really like to use HK's assassinate again, etc.

I have a more pressing problem ... I can't reject him. Everything other subscriber reward I don't want I can delete (tossed the duster, the blasters, etc.) but Nico just sits in the alliance alerts window waiting to be recruited. And no way am I partnering with a dirty old smuggler. Rewards should be rewards, not punishments.

Can anyone confirm the CE customizations aren't in that pack? There's a few I have my eye on but no CE.

Does this mean we're stuck with the companions that do not have an option to be rejected? Like the star fortress companions and the companion from Find a Findsman that's required to progress to further recruitment missions? Basically I can't recruit any companions because I don't want him on my crew.

One of the things we were promised this expansion was the choice whether to recruit a character as a companion or not. So far though I feel like I'm being punished for doing content because so there's no way to reject so many of the companions. I've only managed to get rid of one, and even then he still shows up in the companion window somehow. For the rest of them, my only choice is not to do the recruitment missions - but then those stupid alerts clutter up the top of my companion screen and the blinking icon won't go away. It's all very frustrating for those of us who like small, tight-nit customizable groups to get dozens of sycophants or useless hangers on who serve no purpose. Specific examples: *Heroic Star Fortresses - There are achievements and other rewards for completing these, but after you do them those horrible resistance people invite themselves as your follower and just won't go away. So if I don't want them on my crew I can't even do these. *Find a Findsman - Want to unlock a companion you actually want? Congrats, you're stuck with this one! *Nico - No way to reject him, so I'm basically being punished for subbing to get early access.

Apparently back in beta the Agent companions had different roles: Kaliyo - ranged dps Vector - melee dps Lokin - melee tank Temple - healer Scorpio - ranged tank but they got switched around since leveling with a rdps as first companion was too hard. Kaliyo was supposed to dual wield blasters and scorpio was supposed to use blaster rifles. 4.0 "fixed" scoripio but not Kaliyo.

I like the old cartel packs more than the Underworld Alliance pack - sure there were a few "problems" with them but I think the changes went overboard trying to address those issues and ended up making this shipment more undesirable. I usually get 1-2 hypercrates per shipment (with cartel coins and on the gtn) and after opening up a few packs this time I think I'd rather just buy any particular item I want from the gtn from now on. Specific issues: Value - the old cartel packs gave like 6 items and these only give 2 (at around the same price). Even if I got 3 junk items per pack (which is usually really bad luck on my part) I still feel I got a better deal with the old packs than the new ones. Pack embargo - I like buying old hypercrates way more than the new bronze/silver/gold packs since (1) they're cheaper per pack so I can open more (2) the old ones at least gives consolation stuff in the form of jawa junk, cartel rep, etc even if I didn't get particularly lucky, (3) if I'm going for a particular "theme" I can be sure the items I get are of that theme rather than entirely random like with the new packs. At the very least I'd like to see the embargoed hypercrates cycled maybe 1 per month like before. Weapons/color crystals/pets/companion customizations - I don't think these should've been removed. Every pack is going to have hot items and not so hot items, but that doesn't mean these had no desirability whatsoever (I could still use them on companions and alts, or give to new players). All this change does is make the less desirable armor sets the new "low demand" item. (The real problem imo is most weapons were ugly.) Jawa junk/cartel certificates - why the heck were these removed? If anything they made opening a particularly unlucky pack at least tolerable. XP boosts - Thank you for removing these actually undesirable items. I disagree. Not everyone has time to do heroics on multiple alts to farm companion gifts, they like the jawa junk and other things were the "padding" that gave the old packs value. For me, I'd like to see the old 6 item packs come back with either a credit box or a mission discovery replacing the xp boost.

That's just psychological. Mechanically there's no difference between positive choice granting 50 affection, negative choice granting -50 affection and positive choice granting 100 influence and negative choice granting 50 influence. In the end anyone who wants to economically max out companion influence will always take the choice that gives more so you need to waste less on gifts. No there's not more to do. Pre 4.0 you had to buy stacks of rank 1 and 2 gifts. Post 4.0 you still need to buy stacks of rank 1 and 2 gifts even if you start with 10k. It's the exact same, only the amount you banked before is trivial now because the numbers changed. Basically BW inflated the whole system so pre 4.0 affection is worthless and you have to go through the exact same regifting process. It's a hyperinflation that wiped out pre 4.0 affection.

What annoys me isn't having to grind more influence, it's how the new system moved the goalposts and cheapened the grinding that I already did and makes me do it again. Pre 4.0 I had to shove rank 1 and rank 2 green companion gifts down everyone's throats, now the 10k I had before is meaningless because the first step of grinding to the new cap is shoving more rank 1 and rank 2 green companion gifts down everyone's throat. Anyone who waited until after the expansion to level influence (unlike the dev posts that told us it wasn't a bad idea to max affection pre 4.0) is at a huge advantage because those rank 1 greens will easily get you to 10k affection now and you have to buy even more of them and keep doing something. I wouldn't be complaining if the cap was 25k or something and required rank 5 and 6 companion gifts, but the change as is is just regrinding the same thing over again for the same of grinding.

My fully geared revanite companions actually got nerfed quite a bit. Most people probably never bothered to properly gear their companions - especially while leveling - so they're surprised how good they could be, but having soloed the gree and rakghoul H4s this is what companions with proper stats are supposed to do.

We're being punished for doing crafting pre 4.0. Obviously the implementation of Archives means BW knows the old schematics matter to some of us, I don't see why armoring and enhancements have to be specifically targeted.

Yes, I leveled a second sith warrior just to get the light side jaesa achievement. Some people do it. I'd like to know too why these achievements are being removed entirely rather than being moved to an archive section.

The only annoying thing with the current cartel pack contents is the useless experience boosts. I like the cartel reputation items and jawa scraps from the current packs and I think they added a good value to the packs. I also think cartel reputation was a good incentive for buying alot of packs, so I'm disappointed these particular items are being removed. More direct sales and the other changes sound great.

I can see it now: This just in! Notorious Dark Council member and slayer of many Jedi Masters assassinated by level 8 korslug while walking to the shuttle on Korriban! Read all about it!

That's probably why you never noticed. Losing the extra crit is an annoyance for me, but anyone who says 5% and 2% are statistically the same is just wrong. Back when augments were selling upwards of 200k, that extra 3 crits were worth half a mil credits for the augment crafting alone. Factor in the extra chance to crit slicing missions and it's not trivial.

It's not a huge difference, but it's not meaningless either. The extra 5% crit adds up and for people using the dedicated companion for the crafting bonus it's something BW is taking away despite the promises we wouldn't "lose" anything. Basically, how would you feel if your income was nerfed 5%?

So basically it's useful for huttball and when your frag grenade or the jugg's intercede is on CD. Like I said, situational and not more generally useful like abilities other classes are supposed to be getting.

I did. Option 1 - get close to an enemy. Not helpful at all for a healer. Option 2 - get close to a friend. If the friend is a melee class, it's the same effect as option 1. If the friend is a ranged class, well enemy can now kill 2 birds with 1 stone with 1 gap closer. IMO it's way too situational to be generally useful. I meant have a shield probe can be used when stunned utility as a new utility by making room by combining the other 2. Sorry if that was unclear. Well that explains it. My post was from operative POV, I don't play snipers nor was I commenting on the sniper changes.