I've done the chapter several times with jedi, sith, and now a trooper. It's a stretch but not completely far-fetched. I think it is supposed to be a McGuffin device that wasn't explained well enough. In the cave Satele says something to the effect that Valkorian has either unlocked or granted some sort of small force potential. So, from that point on, I just assumed my trooper will have just enough force in a cut scene to do whatever the cut scene is supposed to do. And, when it is over, he will not be powerful enough in the force to do anything more than his normal trooper combat moves. So, plot device. Is it lame? Yes. Does it cheapen the over all story? Maybe. Is it railroading the story? Most definitely! Obviously, how much you like or dislike railroading will affect how you perceive the plot device.

This game is 32-bit. So, the biggest performance boost is a SSD drive. It won't use more than 2 processor cores at one nor will it use more than 2G of memory. What doesn't fit in RAM or your graphics card's RAM has to be paged (which is a lot actually). So, the faster you can get it off the drives paging file, the better. Other than that, run group content on low graphics settings. Speed is more important than bling.

Agreed. Some you have to go back to the fleet terminal to finish. Other than that, it's an unresolved bug that has been submitted before. It was partially fixed last patch but I don't recall it being listed. Count how many possible tacticals there are and how many actually count towards the weekly. It's not the same. At least the foundry counts now. During 4.0, it didn't.

I see two large disconnects. First, SWTOR is not an MMO and never has been. It has much more in common with console games like Diablo 3 and its endgame reflects it. But, you have to pay to fully access SWTOR; unlike Diablo. This could be addressed with a marketing change and expectation management. But a change in the subscription model is in order. Second, EA and Bioware are disconnected from customer support. The game is and has always been buggy. Customer service can't or won't help when there is a problem. Personally, I don't think they even have the tools to fix most problems. And, the software QA cycle for this game is abysmal. Other companies would turn over staff based on their repeated performance. This cycle has repeated until now they are so far upside down they can't do much to correct it. Many veteran players go into content knowing it will have problems, CS won't help, and it will be up to the player to work around it. This one can only be changed with strong management and a change in business processes.

Here are some robes you can try. They are all synthweaving of medium to heavy weight or adaptive. The hood up/downess for some is based upon what kind of head gear you wear and your species. Medium: blade master sentinel Heavy: reinforced chanlon (Probably want to get different pants) knight's crusade peacekeeper (fairly tatooine-y) Adaptive: Requires cartel coins Eradicato'rs Warsuit (chest only) (could be heavy armor with no over belt) Sanctified caretaker (chest only) (more a "The Clone Wars" style honestly) Your mileage may vary.

Yes, you are correct the root-knock back requires talents points. I believe both versions of it do. And, no I did not get "owned" by a sorcerer/sage. I am just trying to get a discussion going on the merits/detriments of dual effect abilities. But, I tend to agree with Zlashie. I think you should have to choose one or the other. But, I would like to hear other people's opinions as to the merits of the system (regardless of how you get them).

How do you guys and gals feel about these? examples include: the sorcerer/operative knockback that roots as well force choke stuns and applies a dot lightning/throw channel a dot and does a slow Are they too much bundled in one ability or are they a necessary evil of the game?

I believe the precedence was set by BioWare themselves... in KoToR 1 and more specifically Bastilla Shan. Knights of the Old Republic one used a mechanics engine that was a variation of the, at the time, Star Wars RPG designed by Wizards of the Coast. In that RPG, the guardian was the jedi melee base class basically, and the consular was the jedi caster base class. However, Bioware added the sentinel base class in between them for use in the KoToR game. It was a melee-caster hybrid. The in-game lore stated that the sentinel was tasked with rooting out and destroying the darkside and its users. Hence, the sentinel is the spiritual predecessor of the Jedi Shadow. Over time, the Jedi Shadow has been redefined (by Dark Horse comics) to be a sort of "specialization" of the sentinel that hunts the darkside. Whereas, the sentinel itself has taken on a more "investigator" type role as seen by Obi Wan in Episode 2. Anyway, the iconic Jedi Sentinel is Bastilla Shan and she wielded a yellow double bladed lightsaber. This was her initial weapon when encountered in the game and the weapon she uses in most artwork depicting her. That is the best explanation I can give you for why a Jedi Shadow is forced to use a double bladed lightsaber. It also gives an explanation why yellow saber crystals are avaiable at level 1 while other crystals are rarer. I should note, Celeste Morne, the iconic Jedi Shadow in the comic, uses a single yellow lightsaber. However, I personally wish there was an option for a viable one handed Shadow. The double saber makes sense for a tank. I can see it as a defensive weapon. But, the other two specs are both dps. One is "rogue" like and one is more "castery" than the other two. A rogue back stabbing with a poelarm feels silly to me. But, I can see how the other, the caster spec, could be confused with a sage. Afterall, the spec in question is the shared tree betwen shadow and sage. **edited to add Morne

I took tumult off my hotbar. On a two strong pull, I mind maze one of them and then spike the other one. That gives me a 2 cooldown head start on the second mob. You can then electrocute if you want which will give you another 3 cooldowns. The mob will make up in the middle of the third. By 5 cooldowns, most strongs are 75% or more dead anyway. That is how I do it at level 50. *shug*

I hope arenas stay out of the game. If players want to duel each other. That is fine. If BioWare wants to implement some sort of group duel functionality, that is fine as well. However, I think PVP should have other objectts than to just kill. Sure, killing is fun in and of itself. But, there has to be more for it to feel competitive to me. I realize not everyone will agree with me though.

in alrederaan the center speeder ride lets you look at all three nodes to see which as obvious defenders and how many. I dunno about the void star speeder. The match hasn't started so you don't really need to survey the defense points yet.

On my server it is more than that. Since the bracket went in, I have yet to see the queue pop even once. I still don't think there are more than 20 50s total on my particular server. I do see one republic scoundrel in Ilum occasionally though.

vanish with a Force Cloak. It will drop threat if you pull aggro.

You've got the basic attack pattern down. spike, voltaic slash (x2), discharge, shock Really the only way to up your burst is to pop all your cool downs and consumable before the discharge. A relic, overcharge saber, recklessness, and the expertise potion. That should make your discharge hit for about 3k, your shock to hit about 2.5k and hopefully another shock for 1.5k. That is 7k in two cool downs. But, obviously that is an expensive way to get a high burst.

While I don't necessarily disagree, The only way I see this working is to off one or more in conjunction with 6 (the ability to faction change). This will let the players attempt to change if they so desire.

I did the same. My original server was a high pop with 45 minute to hour long queues to log in. So we re-rolled on a low pop server. There never were that many 50s on my server. I believe there are about 10 level 50s PVP'ing. No one is running raids or level 50 instances that I have ever seen. My PVP queue has not popped today. Not once. I feel your pain. But, we are the minority in this plight.

The targeting issues can be quite frustrating in pvp. But, I believe the real problem lies in client latency. Not network latency. But, client latency. It is almost like a target is only updated at the beginning f the global cool down when it should be updated at any time. I have had experiences on hoth, a large planet with noticeable lag and load times, trying to work through mob packs. I would attack one mob, click a new target and then fire off my stun. Due to my reflexes and key binds I can do the target and stun in less than a GCD. But, what happens in reality is my first target is stunned and then in finally target the second mob after that. This of course fires off my ability bound to the number 1 key at the second target since I now have a new target. I have also experienced problems sneaking up behind moving players. I will click and click and click while I follow them and not get a target at all. Eventually I am forced to tab target even though there is only one target on the screen. Tab targeting is the only work around I found. Tab targeting is pretty fast. But, you run into three problems. 1) tab targeting chooses targets based on distance from you (closest to farthest). You have to cycle targets to get the one you want and it is a forward only queue. If you tab too far and miss your target you have to tab all the way around again to come back. 3) you cannot table target an enemies out of your combat range. Not a big deal for ranged classes but it can be for melee classes. It is frustrating and it should not be this way. but it is at the moment. Give them time to work out the kinks. I personally think you shuold be able to not only target by body but also by clicking on nameplates.

I am all in favor of cross-realm PVP. I play on a low pop realm. My friends are there as well. My queue times for a fight against republic? upwards of 5 days. Literally. My queue time for huttbal? Upwards of 3 hours. The number of level 50 PVPers on my realm? I can think of about 4. All in the same faction and on the same pre-made. I am level 46. When the level 50 bracket goes in, my PVP till go to zero. nada. zip zilch. I don't think huttbal will eveln fire up at 4 vs 1. Raise the bar. Give me the compention and give me the queue to play.

Unfortunately, this would create one of two problems. If the gear remains the same except for expertise, then it relatively the same power, but easier to get, than raid gear. However, the expertise stat makes them inferior for raiding. On the other side..people that PVP would want their efforts to be rewarded with better gear. Better PVP gear with higher resistances on it is desirable. Hence, the expertise stat. It is not just as easy as removing the expertise stat.

I have a level 41 assassin tank and I love it. I will give a few heads up though. We have some growing pains during the leveling process. In general, inquisitors get their companions later than other people. When they are getting their fourth, you are getting your second. And, they will have their healers much, much earlier than you. This means you will spend more time seething/autohealing than other people. Assassins really aren't much of a tank until about level 20. Once you get the Dark Ward talent you will start to feel like a proper tank. Before that, you will feel squishy. You should be able to tank instances at this point. Lay down the AoE discharge and thrash away. PVP wise you will be able to help defend nodes/doors with stealth, dark ward, guard, and taunt. Somewhere around 35 or so you will again feel the growing pains. Tanks in SWTOR do not deal out large amounts of DPS. They deal rough 25% to maybe 50% of the damage. And, you don't receive your healing companion until the end of Hoth (which is about level 40). So from 35 to 40 you can neither do lots of damage nor whether infinite damage. You will learn to use your interrupts though =). Taking out a single elite will require most of you resources including health, abilities, stuns, medpacs, and possibly more. PVP wise you will likely start getting a reputation as a huttball carrier. We have many abilities that makes us good huttball carriers. At level 40 you will have wither and your healer companion. At this point, you will be a leveling monster going out of your way to look for large trash packs to kill with your multiple AoEs. PVP hasn't changed much at this point. Defend nodes/doors. Work on Huttball. You do have a new trick though for huttball. You can force pull for lots of fun tricks. If you played the most popular MMO, assassins are a cross between death knights, shaman, and a splash of druid with the stealth. I love it. But, you will have to work for it. =)

Challenge: No matter hw tough a boss BioWare comes up with for a raid encounter, trying to take on 1 or more thinking human opponents can be tough. They will swarm you, change tactics, hide, be clever, ambush you and a whole host of other devious tricks. They will steal your nodes, take your flags, and hunt you down like a dog if you take their flag. Replay: It's never the same. You can't stand exactly in this spot for 37 seconds and do this, then move over here and stand between the rock and the pylon ... There is no predictable pattern that will always work. There may be some general stragetgies. But, even they don't work all the time. That is why I enjoy it.

It is not that one faction (Empire) is more powerful than the other. It is a population imbalance. More people play empire. Thus, empire is more likely to have better players. That is just statistics. I would even hazard an opinion that the people drawn to the Empire story/side are more likely to PVP. I can't prove that obviously. Take heart in that at least you can queue at all. Queues on my server are upwards of 3 hours. Even if you are losing, you are wracking up more commendations than me.

Auction every green that is not bound to you and not good for you or your companion. I've made hundreds of thousands of credits from auction greens and blues.

I enjoy them. I do them as dailies on both of my characters. I just ticked over to level 30 and realised that now all those original missions, like jabin escort, have new sub-missions in them. I now get bonuses for taking out fighters and capital ships. My perspective is this: I would much rather play an arcade game for a daily thant to travel to some secret cave in the middle of nowhere to pick the extremely rare super flower guarded by 12 doo-dads.

If it is a modable item (orange), shift right click the weapon to open the interface. grab the crystal and drop it in your backpack. You will be greeted with a window that tells you how much it will cost and whether to accept or deny. Note however, that crystals have a level to them. You can certainly take a low level orange crystal (with +3 endurance) and stick it in a high level weapon. You will get an orange blade. But, you will give up the 40 some odd endurance you could have had for having a high level orange crystal. **edited for clarity