Sorry if this has been brought up, i have read some threads similar to this issue but none i have seen appear to directly answer what i am looking for. So i am going to just ask it. With bolster (i think i somewhat understand it) is there any point to working toward a partisan set for the expertise? Is there a difference? If so by how much would you estimate. Also i have been gone over a year and cannot remember but expertise works to ones advantage in open world, correct (against players of course)? If this can get clarified for it me it be VERY helpful to plot out what i want to focus on as a returning player. Thank you. Edit - Also, can anyone explain to me what this "BiS" term is i keep seeing pop up? I am not familiar with it.

It's all about the saber stave's, yo.

I was actually pondering the thought of a small % of alacrity to just increase the duration of force choke and ravage. Those threads you linked were very interesting though i must admit a lot of it went over my head lol. Numbers and I do not have an intimate relationship. Though i am happy to see your suggestion on defense:shield because for my Makeb mods i do think i, by chance, did pull that off with perhaps a bit more defense than you recommended. The thread made by dipstick was definitely helpful for me because seeing how tanks setup their armor, mods, implants, and ears is a good idea of what the "end" game looks like, for me i stopped playing around the time of the start up to the character transfers... so my Mercs Rakatan armor was the "end game" toys to run around with, this bit of info has now helped me catch up just a bit more lol. On a side note, i am a bit concerned with some of the readings i have been doing that pvp fights at level 55 are totally dependent on what i now understand to be the underworld or the pvp variant of items (partisan i think it was?), for me when i pvped gear helped only a % of the successful fights ... other things came into play back then, but from what i have been reading its really all about the gear and who can two it people the fastest ... that is quite a bit of a downside to all this gear mongering imo.

Hey thanks for the reply! Yea i been playing with my jug a bit for the past few days now, went back and got enough planet comms to buy a full set of Makeb mods for my armors, weapon, and shield. I still do not understand the pros and cons between shield rating, absorb, and damage reduction, but i tried to mix a blend between the lot of them, apparently focusing more on damage reduction and shield rating with a slight bit of absorb thrown in. I even dedicated my helmet to be crit and surge for a very slight boost to my damage... not sure it was a smart approach or if going crit and surge is wasted, but the dps player in me forced my hand haha. I also made my wrist to be fit with a power mod and i believe i threw in my chest armor a power mod as well. For the most part though i am all defensive, my ear and implants are still damage spec from grinding but i figure in time they ill be replaced mostly with defensive stat. I have not yet gotten around to doing Hardcore flashpoints or any operations because i no longer can tell which offers what anymore (or what i am able to even begin starting at), too much as changed so i have slowly been reading around and getting broken pieces of information form people.

nice vid, gives me ideas for the future of my jug once i get all my ops and such gear squared away.

I just finished Correllia, have 73 planet comms, and was debating where to spend them on makeb comm mod vendor at the fleet. I know i intend to go full immortal tree now for operations and maybe some WZ / open world pvp. What is a more affective stat to focus on, shield defense or damage reduction? or a mix of both? I am used to playing dps classes so this is not a field i know so well. is there any consensus what is the most affective means for a tank build? thanks!

Roleplayers Assemble! Tonight, we riot....

i dont get what the big deal is, just incorporate chat bubbles... what evil could happen on BW end if they added this feature? The only reason atm i see them being stubborn about this is they want to the only MMO (except EVE) without them... which in my mind is so stupid. people want it and at best they are happy with a disable/enable option so those who don't like bubbles can turn them off and those that do can turn them on. i just dont get it.

I am also someone who just returned and feeling totally out of place without chat bubbles.... i often feel i miss something someone tries to communicate because the chat box is no a area i happen to monitor all that much. /supportchatbubbleoption

Hi, so i left the game right around the time of the free character transfers... i have since returned to give the game another shot and have been attempting to continue grinding my warrior alt who i maxed to 400 synth.... cannot really remember what my plans were for him being this craft (i suspect something for heroics and max gear) but with so many changes i was wondering if there was any gain from being a synthweaver up to level 50 and not 55 with expansion (which i dont have yet). if not i was figuring going cybernetics maybe? my main is already a 400 biochem. any advice or helpful suggestions to catch me up with the current affairs of this game would be most helpful and appreciated. Thanks.

I voted for Raw PvP focus, of course the concept for "PVPPVE" balance sounds all well and good... But I have concerns the Bioware PvP team can actually pull it off effectively. Not trying to be a jerk, just being totally honest from what I have seen from PvP in this game so far. I believe before you even begin to combine PVP elements with PvE elements, you MUST first set a strong foundation and principle of what you consider "TOR World PvP" actually is. As it stands now, its essentially nothing, tabula rasa, a fresh slate. Yes we have/had Ilum pvp for a period of time, but it has since been scraped and is honestly barren of any real activity from what I have experienced. James Ohlen, my advice to you on this issue is you MUST make world pvp something the player WANTS to participate in, not something he or she feel a need to. Ilum is of course a perfect example of this, the players as a whole felt a NEED to trek all the way to the Ilum pvp grounds, every day (or when they could), to get their Dailies and Weeklies done. This was all out of a simple and temporary urge to obtain not valor.... but those "prize boxes" we all refer to as Champion and Battlemaster Bags. TOR World PvP needs something more long term, something maybe more abstract and less instantaneous-reward-gratification based... Much like the Champion and Battlemaster Bags are. Create a system where every individual has a sense of "pride" for their server and who actually feels they can be in "control" of it. Let this be by means of a server XP buff, a slight valor increase buff, etc. I would not go so far to say you want create a stat buff for the winning side, because in the end you do not want to give the winning side more of an edge in this conflict.... Balance is key for little things like this. Such a design can be done by a server wide pvp contested zones on not just one planet (like Ilum) but any planet Republic and Empire meet. Of course in a practical sense for the server wide buff or as some call it "Realm/Server Pride" you may want to follow a similar system that previous games such as LOTRO and DAOC have done where there are relics and fortress raids, this will lead to whoever controls the relics controls the server buff (or whatever benefits) and in essence, the server itself. Something like this will keep people constantly PvP'ing because they will have something worth fighting for. (keep in mind, while doing all this it has to be enjoyable and fun for every player... on both sides.) Do not stop there though, another huge mistake that ended up becoming a byproduct of the Ilum system is PvP outside the designated PvP zone, which soon became worthless, with no incentive at all to even attempt it. The server I mainly play on (Shien) has had several scheduled RP-PvP events and all were in separate locations, non of which were ever Ilum. These events were planed with the purpose of fun PvP and RP but because there are no incentives to reward players for PvP'ing outside a designated zone, they happen maybe once a month and any time in between that you will rarely (if ever) get World PvP. There are several things I can imagine that would help increase the flow of random, unplanned, world pvp but I figure this post is long enough.... So I will recommended at least throw us a bone, that being .... Give us valor rewards for killing opposing players ANYWHERE in the open world of TOR. So to recap: Focus on "Raw" PvP for TOR before even considering any PvE factors. Set a foundation and Principle of what YOU (developers) see as TOR's Open-World PvP. Create a fun, enjoyable, attractive, and compelling open-world system that does not simply give the player a basic need to participate in it, but a desire that they will want to every day of the week. Gives the players a sense of pride for their Server and the World-PvP they invest time into. Something that keeps players coming out to PvP every day, the goal is to not simply appeal to the PvP'er, but to the Rp'ers and PvE'ers out there who will have a stake in all of this. Do not limit the concept of World-PvP in TOR to strictly designated zones. If a Republic and Empire player are able to meet, face to face, give them a true reason to want to fight each other. Regardless if they are out in the sand dunes of Tatooine, the autumn forests of Voss, by the mountainous snow caps of Alderaan, or the ice fields of Ilum. Make it worthwhile.