To be a fly on the wall of a Bioware dev meeting

It actually allows the game to be moar grindy while not feeling like it is. If the path is long then you start to feel it after 2 or 3 characters, heck sometimes after only 1 character. Forgetting the differences between faction classes, merging AC's leaves you with 4 characters to "keep up" with the current end game and still experience every play-style in the game. Stuff to do doesn't change. pvp, raiding, starfighter, collecting gear/achievents, doing dailies, running current story content, and basically anything else in the game that is there to do is still there to do. If this isn't enough to keep people playing then the game might be done for. Balancing is unaffected, Are sages broken because they have heal and dps specs? Specs would still exist so depending on what spec you chose you gain access to different skills. Look at a sage currently. you don't get all the good healing abilities unless you spec for healing. Same deal with merged AC's, you go down a gunslinger line you don't get access to stealth. Someone mentioned about Jedi knight and the use of medium and heavy armor. This is the only class that has this problem. However, stats are going to be changed so there is a main-stat on gear instead of int, str, ect... and there will be bolstering for missions so there could be some kind of workaround where if you are wearing medium armor and use a tank spec it bolsters your armor to be in line with heavy armor of that equipment rating or if you use heavy armor but are in a "sentinel spec" it reduces your armor value to corresponding medium armor levels. MMO's exist where it is only possible to have 1 character per account because that character can swap between every class. That's not what is being asked for here, but if that extreme can exist... This would actually be more akin to how the classes in Rift work if you could only chose one soul at a time.

Yeah, I would LOVE to see more class stories but I think that ship has sailed. Hopefully with only one story line in the expansion it will be epic and continue to expand at a good pace because they can focus their team on it instead of trying to split them between all the classes. Merging AC's brings my total characters down from 16 to 8 though (which still seems excessive to me) to experience all the play-styles the game has to offer. This is just a quality of life change really, not sure why some people (not you specifically) are super bent out of shape about it.

Yea, the OP could update the front page to be more informative. I forget what page it was on but someone did a real good breakdown of what merged AC's would look like back in the thread somewhere. If I can find it later I'll link it for you. The real reason to merg AC's, in my mind at least, is because the story paths are becoming narrower. Back when the game first launched every class had its own story and due to the duality of the light/dark choices could be argued that each class needed 2 play-through's to full experience. AC's kind of gave a reason to have 2 characters go through the same story in a different way. Ever since the Hutt expansion stories have been getting away from classes and moving towards one large story for each faction. Just think about makeb, orikon, rishi, yavin 4... They are all basically the same for each faction respectively. With the new expansion coming around the corner it sounds like there will only be one story for all regardless of faction. At this point I'm wondering why I have so many characters. There is only so many times I can reasonably be expected to go through the same story no matter how good it is. EDIT - found the post, I'll just link the quote here.

Kind of have to agree with you about the dps zerg race that is gw2. However, that isn't what is being talked about here. Merging AC's doesn't make you a master of everything at all times. You still have to choose a spec which would work exactly as it does now. Currently as a jedi sage you can go healing or dps. No one is shouting how op they are cause they heal and do damage. if jedi sage was merged with jedi shadow so we just had jedi consular you would still need to choose a spec. So you could heal, tank, and dps but not all at the same time. The only thing that would be different is that your jedi consular gets an additional 2 to 3 specs (from either shadow or sage depending on which yours currently is).

I can see where your coming from with this. The least viable spec becoming obsolete isn't a new thing though, since it would use the same specs that are currently in the game this suggests there is already a least viable spec. Your example of mercs getting destroyed would indicate that most ppl gravitate away from them for pvp as it stands now. If mercs were consolidated into just bounty hunters people might still not play the "merc specs" in pvp but how is that different from how it is now? At least the bounty hunter players who main a "merc spec" would have the option to change specs into something respectable if they wanted to pvp on their bounty hunters instead of shelving their merc and making a powertech. Balancing between specs is always going to be an issue. Consolidating AC's into base classes doesn't effect balance, although it might shine a spotlight on specs that need help badly and get the dev team to tweak them so they become viable.

I'm not sure I follow you. You said earlier in the thread that you have both a tank and a dps Sith Juggernaut. It is currently possible to respec 1 character to do both these things but you chose to have a different character for each; Not judgeing you, I am an altaholic myself. If Sith Marauder and Sith Juggernaut were merged into just Sith Warrior with 5/6 specs the option to have a dedicated character for each of those specs, should you wish to do so, would still be there. Literally nothing would change for you. Am I missing something? P.S. While I'm on-board for condensing the AC's into 1 Class; I'm not sure how I feel about unlocking all weapons for all classes. AC specific weapons within the same class however sounds good. IE: Jedi Consular could use a single saber or a staff saber.

Class stories are the best part of swtor. Sad day that they are no longer going to be supported.

Your logic defies the casual l2p response many give in regards to this issue. I semi retired my Juggernaut because being thrown around like a ragdoll is not, imho, fun. Mostly this is from an initial engagement standpoint. If I say force leapt into a fight like a Bauws because I was under the mistaken impression I was an unstoppable force of rage, I would be immediately put in my place by anything with a knockback as I was thrown out of melee range. Apparently the correct way to handle these situations is to trundle up like a chump, get knocked back, then force leap into the fight. I find this breaks the flow of combat for no good reason. Especially since vengeance spec juggernauts get Unstoppable which negates this problem, but Immortal (tank) spec juggs can't use this. Approaching this same situation from the standpoint of a vanguard and he can just hold the line then storm into combat and not be immediately knocked away. After the fight gets going knockback becomes a non issue since most enemy knockback has a longer timer than player gap closers. It's that initial entry into combat that bothers me. Either trundle into combat like a chump or don't play a juggernaut.

It would be nice if tech weapons unlocked for non force users and all saber types unlocked for force users. As for new versions of weapons, EA could just release adaptive weapons. Similar to how if u equip adaptive armor as a heavy armor user it counts as heavy armor. If you equip an adaptive rifle as a commando it could give out assault canon base stats. Has the added benefit of allowing them to make more cartel packs and sell more stuff via the cartel market. Might make it worth their time to add the few animations to make these other weapons workable.

Ok, I figured I would just have to eat it but thought I'd ask just to be sure. It's kinda unfair imo since like you said shadows can pop resilience and vanguards can pop hold the line but I guess thems the breaks. Sad day. Maybe the devs will give us back unstoppable at some point.

Thanks for the tips Kitru. Saber reflect is awesome. It would be nice if it refreshed out of combat however because in flashpoints, which is where I'm having the most problems with this although Makeb is annoying as well, it is defiantly not up every mob. Any advise for when the enemy is melee? I'm thinking lost island here where the trash mobs knock you back. Big robots and turrets are fairly easy to predict and can even be interrupted out of their knockbacks sometimes, heck the knockback is actually helpful from these guys on occasion because it lets me force leap into the fight again without needing to use push (assuming I can interrupt the first knockback and leap is up again).

So I was wondering if there I anything I can do to get mobs to stop slapping me around like a rag doll. Most fights I jump into combat and get immediately knocked back or stunned (sometimes pulled). It's getting very frustrating and as much as I love my juggernaut tank it's making it harder and harder for me to want to log onto him. Any tips from you pro tanks would be welcome. Thanks.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into those.

I'm going to assume you were actually trying to be helpful here, but I was looking for a more specific answer. I realize that there are helms that toggle the hood off, I was looking for the actual names of the helms. For example... The RD-071 Vendetta Headgear Hides the hood while only really covering the ears, but it is agent only. The Jedi Battlelords Headband Hides the hood while only covering the eyes, but is Jedi knight only.