I'm not sure what your plans for the Legacy Mode are, but I'm hoping that one of them is to include Datacron bonuses to all characters bound to that Legacy. It would be a tremendous help to alts with killing mobs at lower levels with the stat bonuses and getting Datacrons like the balloon on Tatooine wouldn't be so God awful. I know they're 'optional' but the fact that there are stats tied to them makes them not-so-optional for raiding guilds and even PvP. That's a lot of Endurance to pass up skipping Datacrons. Off-topic: Legacy should also include perks like bonus XP for all characters with the Legacy name, bonus credit finding, bonus chance for getting mats when gathering or sending companions on missions, and things like increased movement speed while mounted and reduced repair costs much like World of Warcraft's guild perk system.

Maybe it is just a class/companion combo. I can tell you that as a Gunslinger, no companion helps enough to make soloing fun. It's so incredibly slow paced. Bowdaar does decent aggro-wise but always ends up almost dead (and by all right, I mean piss poorly but better than Corso). Fish-Head is a far superior healer to the robot but he doesn't heal fast or hard enough to keep me alive while I'm getting face-melted. As it stands, Gunslingers are excellent for PvP because I can rock someone quickly and have tons of outs to avoid CC and damage. We do killer DPS. But getting to 50 and doing dailies and ANYTHING by yourself is so miserable it's not even funny. Your companions are junk. Plain and simple. Might be different for other classes.

So when you're on Ilum doing the PvE dailies, you can do them without a companion? Because I'd love to see how that goes. Ilum has both PvP and PvE dailies and I've never been a fan of PvP in MMOs (or any game for that matter). Companions are a massive part of the game and they are just awful. They don't help the experience in any way. People seem to think that companions are a separate entity from your character but that's only if you're PvPing, doing Flashpoints, or Operations. Which, yes, I understand that's the whole point of endgame and you require them less and less as you do more group stuff. But when you're solo, they are no longer just an extra little bonus to the game, they are part of your character. You and your companion are you. If he dies, chances are you're going to die, too. That needs fixed. A companion should be a bonus to have around while I solo, not something I absolutely must have and gear up or else I'm completely screwed.

My main point of this was: You HAVE to have a companion. I bought the game without Beta testing (my mistake) and from what I gathered from reading, companions were an option, not a necessity. You have to have him to do quests. I can't just go out on Ilum and do dailies without Monkey Boy following me around Wookie Smashing mobs around. The biggest problem with this is they FORCE you to use these companions and then make them horrible. The tanks are squishy as hell, even in good gear. My Wookie is stacked with 50 custom/purple gear and it's like he's in level 20 greens. My Fish-Head can't heal enough to keep me alive because I'm so squishy. I'm worse than the Wook-master. So herein lies the problem - They force me to use a companion and then make them stupid, slow, weak, and generally awful. The companion tanks need a major buff. They can't hold aggro, can't be healed in combat unless you're a healer and then you can't do much damage, and they get beat down like they're not wearing armor. And by Attack on Command, I'm not referring to where you force him to attack with Ctrl-1, I'm talking about when I attack a mob, he automatically starts attacking that mob as well. He will only attack if I'm struck back.

Sounds like a lot of pissed off people on this board. I made this post and it goes to second page. Never a good sign.

Speaking from a PvE solo perspective, they are horrible. I'm a 50 Gunslinger in all modded/purple/blue gear. I'm sitting at 100.58% accuracy, 39.14% crit, 60.02% critical bonus, and 6.4% alacrity. I'm not sure how good that is, but I can drop mobs in seconds. The problem lies in my companion. Without him, I'm dead. Plain and simple. As hard as my guy hits, he's just a wet paper bag. Even regular mobs on Ilum will drop me in seconds if they focus on me. I have spent at least 300k on my companion's gear (Bowdaar). I have him at 15.5k health, 35.14% chance to shield, 14.32% defensive chance, 25% shield absorb, and 4122 armor and he is at 25% health or so on EVERY PULL! I have to recuperate after every single pull. Even with normal mobs. If I get 2 strong on me, he's dead. After Elite battles, he's at 10% or so unless he loses aggro (which is 90% of the time on long fights) and the Elite decides to blast me down to 30% health while he's at it. I'm using all cooldowns, too, mind you. My absorb shield spell, my dodge ability, Hunker Down so I'm not CC'ed, MedPacs if I need them (which I keep the best one stacked to 20 at all times), and lately I've been using an Endurance stim just so I can live .2 seconds longer if they attack me. To top it off, the companions are just dumb. Horrible AI and a 3 second lag to attack. Not to mention their pathing is a joke and there is no Attack My Target option. So if I start blasting, he stands there like a fool until I take damage. THEN he pulls his sword, stands there rubbing one out for 3 seconds, runs in to attack, rubs another one out while standing by the mob, then FINALLY attacks. I'm done until companions are fixed. Doing dailies on Ilum is HORRIBLE. I can't even handle it. And alts are horrible in this game but that is another subject matter. Doing those planets again in the linear order they are with their linear quests makes me want to vomit thinking of it. Edit: Spelling. Also, give us a companion heal ability. Something that restores health slowly over time or the ability to use a medpac on them. Something is needed to speed up the daily grind and overall slowness of combat/recuperating.

Dude... That was deep, bro. I remember playing Everquest Online Adventures with my brother on the Playstation via dial up. It was dope as all get out. You're right. You're right about everything. I love you, man.

http://swtor-holo.net/swtor-datacron-locations/swtor-balmorra-datacron-locations.html I follow this site. Very useful and laid out well.

I agree. There are some very serious issues with the game that need addressed. If we could at least get a confirmation on them being worked on, I would change my sub to renewed instead of cancelled. Guild Issues - Not being able to invite from guild; Guild list disappearing; No guild vault; Guild chat disappearing Legacy - What is going on with it? Companions - Horrible pathing; Paper thin and constantly dying regardless of gear; Delay in attacking; No setting to make them attack when I attack; General poor AI issues Green Lights - What the hell is up with the green beams on planets? Missions - Inability to remove Bonus Quests after the main quest is complete. I have 2 bonus quests I can't do or remove because the area is closed off and I can't abandon; Black screen during some Class Missions that forces you to Esc. out then restart conversation; Staged Bonus quests where the first and second part are Kill 20/40 of the same mobs. Can you just combine into one stage of kill 30? Flashpoints - Buggy as hell; Colicoid War Game turrets need a revamp badly and re-tuned; Loot chests not being able to be looted Looking For Group - We need one that finds groups for people who are looking. When I'm on Ilum, I can't be in the Fleet finding people to group with. And considering my server has 10 Republic players on Ilum at prime time, a LFG would be nice. And if you leave it the way it is, make the LFG comment actually readable. It's nice that you can put a long comment but can't read the damn thing UI - Make the bars movable; Make it so you can open more than 2 screens at a time without closing other ones; Fix tab target Crafting - Currently, if I send my companion who is currently with me on a job, I'm stuck with no companion until he gets back, even if there are others available in my companion list. Please let us summon them without having to cancel the current job of the one we have out; 400 crafting items are useless. PvP gear is far superior and even quest rewards from Corellia and Ilum make craftable gear look like garbage. It's only purpose is to gear up alts and low-levels. That's about all I can think of for now.

Yeah, it's brutal. I had all Level 5 upgrades and still got worked over a few times. Just do a lot of barrel rolls and bobbing and weaving. Take time to let shields recharge instead of shooting at everything you see. There's another mission after that that is even more harsh but I forget which it is.

As it stands, yes I will subscribe another month to see how development goes and what they will be implementing. At the end of the next billing will be my deciding factor. If by February the game development looks grim or there is no communication of what they plan on doing, I will be cancelling.

There needs to be a rename function. The best you can do is have someone flag it as inappropriate in hopes that Bioware makes you change it. It's also stupid that your Legacy name shares both sides of the server. If you want a new Legacy for Empire or Republic, you have to go to a new server.

If you don't consider: Stage 1 - Kill 30 Pirates Stage 2 - Kill 45 Pirates Stage 3 - Kill 5 Pirate Cannoneers Stage 4 - Kill Pirate Boss - to be grindy, then you are out of your mind. It's so much worse at 50 when you get these bonus or area quests and the only reward is 1000 Legacy experience. And the best part is if you don't do them, they're stuck in your quest log.

I've got Bowdaar pimped out in 40-50 gear and he's great. I've always kept him geared over my other companions and so far I've never had a problem. His Wookie toss is annoying as hell and the fact that he cleaves and roars CC'd mobs is annoying but overall he's the only one I use.

You've got to take into consideration how many 0's people gave because they didn't receive the game in time and got mad and gave it a 0 (i.e. children or small brains), people who have never played it and bash it because it's a new MMO and want to bring the rating down to discourage buyers, people who hate EA/Bioware and slam their games for the hell of it, and then the people in general who actually didn't enjoy it. The game is fun. Lots of fun. I find it hard to believe the majority of the 0's were people who didn't enjoy the game. In fact, if I read a review that's a 0 I immediately discredit it. Even horrible games deserve a rating. You have to dig through the pool or morons and fanboys and find the reviews of people who actually put effort into the game and review. Those are the ones you want to base your buying off of.

I play the game and have had nothing but enjoyable interactions with people. I've done every heroic quest and Flashpoint up to Quesh (minus a few in Balmorra) and everyone I've grouped with has been friendly and helpful. General chat from 1-40 has been nothing but positive comments and people enjoying the game. Then I come to the forums to see how things are going and it's like Santa just took a dump on my head. What is up with all of the hate and garbage spewing all over? It's pretty depressing. I know the general forums are usually packed with trolls and haters but this seems excessive.

Yep, no brainer. This game is pretty fantabulous. I've pretty much hated every MMO since WoW but this one has finally given me back the MMO feel I've been looking for.

Pre-Ordered mine yesterday. Yay me.