Some ppl likes to follow simple recipes, others like to know how their characters work in reality... ...It's a shame that, on PvP, you couldn't get a "Killmail" like in EvE to later investigate how the enemy that whooped your *** effortesly was geared... ...Would help some ppl understand that a game were the simple recipes are actually the truth are games not worth playing.

In my experience the logic of ppl that seeks to reduce their costs to the minimum allowing others to pay for them is directly linked to selfish personalities... I have a hard time believing those same persons will then voluntarily give money to others. In any case, it's very easy to catch a drama person: A full red rakata gear repair bill is around 20k now (compared to the 50k before)... It takes 9 deaths on the average for 1 of your pieces to become Red... ...Doing Belsavis or Corellia daily mission pack gives an average of 100k-200k depending on the luck you have with trash drops and, ppl at rakata level can make them in around 1h (belsavis-solo) or 40m (corellia-duo) (Relaxed rate... not mindnumbling speed runs. SOmething you can do while chitchating and joking). So really... Are you telling me, that ppl on your guild cannot offset their costs just by doing dailies?. This means that at least each person is dying 100K/20K = 5x9 = 45 Times on each of your raiding sessions? How much time it takes for you to die 45 times? A "good" recovery dicipline can cut down wipe recover time to something close to 3m... So assuming you go on 8 man and you are always combat rezzing a poor soul on each wipe... 45 x 7/8 x 3m = 118m is the minimum time needed to die as many times (This OFC assumes you don't spend any time organizing and that you wipe at the very moment you pull... Each time). But notice that by just doing dailies... In LESS time you earn more money than needed to whistand your anomalous death rate. You know what I think? That your guild (it it exists... Because the usual complainer about repair costs is the casual solo player that goes on PuGs everywhere to High-end) is one of those PvP/PvE hybrids I have PuGed with... That has grown used to PvP casual mode were you don't need to care about getting involved into support gaming activities... And now that you are peeking into PvE action and your errors have a cost involved you are too lazy to spend 1h a week to get the funds to die like mad on all your weekly Operations (The alternative, ofc, is maybe getting some tactics somewhere... You may believe it or not, but dying 45 times in 118m is not a "good sign" that you are using the correct approach to PvE). This was happening before... But only the tanks were charged 3 times the figures you are seeing now... And no, if all your guild members have problems now to pay 1/3 individual costs... I highly doubt you "helped" your tanks before.

You are wrong about this... The main effect of the offhand slot is the Tech/Force power increase, additionally, ALL Dual wielders have attacks that use MH Base Damage OR Offhand Base damage (That's why "combined" shots/attacks that use BOTH come with the extra penalty to accuracy)... The best example of this situation is Scoundrel's Shoot First & Backblast that require an upgrade on your shotgun to see their damage going up (Scoundrels are not even affected by "Dual wield" penalties because they do not have combined attacks... They have MH or OH attacks... To agravate the situation Scoundrel OH attacks are very important on DPS output, for example). So "dual-wielders" are in the same boat as every1 else because their mechanics take already into account this particular situation.

First I will highlight 2 concepts: - BH stands for Black Hole. - And while progressing in general you don't have access to the gear the current Boss drops. After reading the above 2 points... Think what would you do with your 1st 50 BH Commendations as commando and then... Go and check if a member of the 3 AC I mention have the same options as you. And now, please, reread my post... I hope you understand what I mean. (Additionally, as a personal advice, you should really check the BH offhand as Commando DPSers are in the same situation as DPS Shadows... Were the BEST offhand is the BH power + surge, while the rest of generators, campaign included, are pure crap). EDIT: This was from Rep side... So I guess that for Empire you can add Mercs into this whole bussiness also.

The issue is very simple... ...Any1 finds any valid reasson that justifies why Sentinels, Gunslingers & Scoundrels are forced to go systematically undergeared during their progress through EC? I'm speaking about the fact they are the only ACs that can't buy an offhand (one of the most important upgrades for any class) direcly through BH commendations... They require direct drop tokens (Campaign). You may think that in the case of Sentinels & Gunslingers it's to prevent dissassembling their offhand barrels to get their Main Hand upgraded but... Scoundrel Shotguns are basically Shields with Base damage and can't be dissassembled... ...Why barrels do not come in Main Hand and Off Hand versions to prevent this (As BH/CA armorings now are bound to the slot they are extracted from)? Any1 else finding this highly unfair for those 3 ACs?

The typical PvP mumbo jumbo about "unpredictability", etc... No I don't want to have the "loot piñata" PvP is on this game on PvE... I want to be rewarded for execution and effort and coming home with a good repair bill if I fail... ...Not to pretend you do something (To avoid AFK kick) and then grind your way to success without actually having to bother to perform on your activity. But it's the kind of PvP player SWTOR is catering to... The ones lacking the will to dedicate any energies to get anything acomplished (That's why you can also laugh hard at the "requirements" to craft PvP augmented gear... Compared to gear for PvE which is basically a tribute to how much the Devs expect PvP players to get "involved" into anything else than sit there waiting for the next queue to pop up). I just demand that PvP gear got in the "loot piñata" invest more item budget into expertise (And expertise effect improved) so it becomes weaker on PvE so, in turn, I don't need to deal with "PvP heros" that may think their "hard earned" gear can get them into any form of high-end PvE. It will be very important so when 1.3 anonymous Dungeoneering arrives... The PvP dressed players underperform as badly in PvE dressed ones do ATM on WZ... Because ofc, they can't believe that lacking any kind of practice on PvE encounters have any impact on the outcome of their runs and... We don't want to mix gear between activities, right?

That would hold some weight IF... ...The most common use of "Exit Area" wasn't to avoid repair costs for NON TANKS on a regular wipe, that, in turn, presented a systematic bias on the "Operative Costs" for the tanks on any Guild so... ...BW fixed it in the right way, by reducing costs for EVERY1 to 1/3 and been sure that as much ppl as possible pay the same for failing an encounter. So, again, ppl complaining about this are mostly the DPSers/Healers that got used to save extra credits each time a regular wipe was triggered... ...Meanwhile, ppl bothered by bugs... ...Complain about the bugs themselves, which must be fixed with independence on how some persons can overcome them... ...Not like the OP of this same thread that, trying to justify the real use (Saving costs on regular wipes) goes so far trying to dramatize the impact of bugs on OPs that he "creates" an impossible scenario with or without "exit area" in combat allowed.

After some carefull meassurings we observed that: Fearful emanates from the tank in Zorn at the moment Toth initiates the jump (The difference is really 1 second animation... So take it with a pinch of salt). The important info is that it emanates from Zorn's tank not Zorn itself nor the spot were Toth lands... That's why ppl developed the "cone theory", obviously, if you have the tank between Zorn and you (which is basically equal to "Zorn facing you" scenario) and you are meassuring your distance to Zorn... You are eating a few meters (Even more if your tank is at max melee range from Zorn). EDIT: This is 8men HM "data".

I have to recommend "Applied force" over "Tech Mastery" (OFC, saber defense is out of the question)... The reasson is simple. Against the average PvE OP mob (35% Mitigation), 6% armor reduction equals just to 2.1% extra damage applied. Meanwhile, for a target in light armor (around 18% mitigation) what you get for 6% armor penetration is just 1.2% extra damage). I'm providing you this 2 numbers so you can evaluate the impact those 2 points have based on the PvP target you go against and because, of how Armor Penetration stacks with armor reduction, on the average PvE OP, that 35% mitigation is usually reduced to close to the light armor values due to the pressence of armor debuffs provided by other classes (It's hard to not find a Guardian or a Commando providing them). On top of this TM only modifies: - Clarvoyant Strike. - Project. - Shadow Strike (Which already reduces even more the benefit as it comes with a "built in" 50% armor penetration). - Saber Strike. - Spninning Strike. - Whirlwind Blow. If you now do the effort of performing some DPS sequences to get how the DPS is spread between the different powers (Not the dummy, you can't use Spinning Strike there)... You realize that basically you are trading a 6% DPS increase on CS (Usually the 1st damage source if you have the 4pieces PvE set bonus) for roughly a 1.2% increase on DPS in Project (The 2nd Source), and barely a 0.8% on Shadow Strike (The 4th source). ...Unless you stay exclusively DPSing non-debuffed Tanks on PvP, you should get "Applied Force", it will net higher DPS on most scenarios. EDIT: If you want to get your own "decission making" numbers just take the ammount of armor rating you usually fight against, reduce it by 6% and evaluate how much damage the target receives with the reduced mitigation.

Put your consular buff on any other tank and you will see the advantage you have is 2%, assuming you have the 4 set piece bonus which the OP lacks... ...The only thing that really allow us to tank better internal/elemental powers is our excellent active defense (Resilience) and, ofc, self healing.

Your stats are perfectly k for the gear you carry... ...You need to know that against power attacks that also do internal/elemental damage you are no better tank than any1 else on your OP. That's precissely the case against Jarg but... ...You have Resilience (Use it each time Jarg pulls some1 close... Immeadiatly after he will do a flame wave attack) and... ...You can reserve harnessed shadow for the 2 (or 3 on nightmare) high hits that start when he does a Rocket Punch on you (It has the same animation as the Bounty Hunter power). That way you will patch up partially the spike of damage that can kill easily other tanks... ...Believe me, if you feel "squeeshy" against powers that do internal/elemental, just think that you are the best at dealing with them IF you adapt the 2 above behaviours to any fight you are in (I advice you to store a bunch of combat logs so you can evaluate how much damage and from which type you receive on each fight... That will help you fine tune your active defenses).

It's not one or the other... ...It's about the proportional increase of each magnitude (And the surge you have) plus some details of your particular build... Stacking power only is a waste of resources because at some point a 1% increase on crit chance will be more productive. On the other side, crit chance has direct DR. So on each upgrade/option, get your calc to check what you need to add next. Also pay attention to builds were crits are fully guaranteed... If those 100% crit chance hits are important on your particular scenario, you should look towards surge + power, as more crit chance will do nothing for those attacks. Personally, I aim to a fully buffed 40% crit chance (39.12 atm under full OP buffs)... More will waste partially CP bonus on FB & Project (Infil DPS here) and the rest to power, surge (I try to have something around 75%) and enough accuracy to neglect any chance for CS to be parried/dodged (8% against EV/KP and 10% for EC).

In decreasing priority from top to botttom (And all coming as Optional): - Mouseover targeting (Specially important for healers). Including the option to label which UI elements should be "mouseover active". Additional option to also be able to Mouseover target's 3D model (Important this to be optional... Some classes are impaired by this and others are improved). - Active Slot Buttons. The pressence of a buff that modifies a certain action should also be notified by a highlighting effect on the action/s (Golden Border, additional mini icon, etc, etc). - Buff Gain Flying text events. Would rock to have the option to make the Icon of a Buff that's gained through a combat action to appear as a Flying Combat text event. It would require its own animation path, optional buff text and its animation speed should be adapted to the minimum ICD of the class (Or the cannonical GCD). Ideally should be combined with the option below by adding a 3rd option to the buff/debuff editing: "Trigger combat event on gain". - Buff/Debuff Filtering. Popular "options": Hide Long Duration buffs during combat, Show Debuffs you can cleanse only. Ideally the user should be able to click on any buff/debuff to add it to a list of buffs/debuffs to Hide (Using a modifier like ctrl+left click) later, while editing the list, the user should have 2 options: "Unhide", "Hide during combat only". - 3 State Buffs. There are mechanics on the game that provide an effect but ALSO mark the start of an ICD... Would rock to have buff icons that remained to be able to visualize when that ICD ends even if they are "spent" to modify the linked action/s. So instead of 2 states (on and off) we should have a 3rd state "on ICD". The best example of this is Shadow's "Find Weakness" proc. - Anchoring of UI elements. Been able to group up and move together certain UI elements helps a lot ppl that has to frequently change their UI. - Snap to Grid. This helps a lot with the initial alignment of certain elements (Would also work wonders with the option above).

I just happen to redid SOA HM after 1.2 and: - /stuck when into a MT kills you instantly (Like the whole rest of the game... /stuck in combat = death) - After 1.2 there is no mob inside... The 2m debuff you get kills you also when it fades (Didn't try to check if I could right click on it to die faster... Now that I remember). Specifically for OPS/HMs (On Real in combat emergencies): - Leaving your group starts a 60s Timer that kicks you out of the Phase you are in. So in short... The OP has suffered the worst case of unreported bugs chain on this MMO history or... ...He is one of those cheap-asses that cares nothing about the ppl that actually stays so he could bail with 0 costs before and it's just fabricating crap to "justify" a rollback of a must-have feature for PvE.

I think you haven't spend time analyzing how item budget is spread around real gear and you seem to ignore the difference between an additive source of DPS and a proportional one... When you do the effort on calculating how much each point of power increases your DPS and how much each point of crit do... You will realize that Main Stats are carefully designed as your main source of BOTH and that "cooked" stats like Power or Crit Rating are there to alter slightly the bulk of your Item Budget to favor builds reliant on Crit mechanics from the ones were Crit is just a DPS booster. The question is... Why to waste a flexible slot (Augments) into something you will have to already unbalance when you try to correct Overaccuracy or Overalacrity? If you really do the effort of distilling your options to dump away Acc or Ala... You discover you have 2 ways at the ENH layer: - The very inneficient Surge + Crit. - The highly efficient Surge + Power. So the net change you are doing is transforming Ala/Acc into Surge PLUS something else. Then you have the MOD layer that allows you to freely change between Crit & Power following a 1 to 1 ratio. Tell me... What's the point of ignoring 1 of the contributions to Crit Chance (Main Stat) by overloading yourself with Power if later you will be forced to use plain Crit Rating? Both magnitudes (Power & Crit Rating) that aren't boosted by Proportional Stat increases (5%, 11% or even 15%)? Is that hard to understand that a character that maximizes his total Main stat will always enjoy a higher "effective" item budget? At the end of the day... Some1 using Main Stat over Power+Crit will have the same crit than you PLUS more bonus to damage because, to reach the same Crit chance he will have used effectively 2 independent contributions so he will be able to convert Crit Rating to Power at the right place (Enh & Mods). (The above reassoning is stricly from a DPS PoV that, OFC, also includes minimize Endurance during this process. Effective "Augmenting" for tanking is more varied and for some tanks Endurance is also a mitigation contribution, which makes things even more complex) EDIT: I hope I don't need to highlight the fact you you can't help stacking Surge, which, in turn, makes a must to add a decent level of Crit Chance so Surge is not wasted unnecesarily.

Few comments: - Main stats are always prefered to power by the simple fact that the Consular Buff increases them by 5% (Not to mention if you are one of those lucky classes with a +6% or +9% to main stat skill), while the JK buff directly modifies bonus to damage/healing meaning that also affects Main Stat contribution. Collaterally your Main stat is an independent source to your Crit chance with an independent DR curve... Meaning that to reach a given percentage you better have as much different sources as possible (That's why getting also all STR Datacrons is so important for us), instead of just saturating your Crit Rating. - Stacking power IS NOT ALWAYS a winner situation to increase DPS. You always need to take into account how much bonus to damage you already have and evaluate the proportional increase on DPS the ammount you are adding contributes to... Why? Simple, crit%+surge% are proportional increases to dps applied... So if you neglect them systematically for power you may reach the situation where adding 10 power when you have 1000 doesn't compensate from that 2% increase on crit%+surge% (Even if their ratings are affected by DR).

Multiple reassons any seassoned Raid Leader should be aware of already: - Symetrical Cost for all participants. You could escape because A: your class can remove completely agro (Nothing changed there... You are in hands of Boss scripts that evaluate correctly this, as before), B: Some1 did hold fire from you so you could escape and he didn't (Generally the tanks). - Coordinated Repairs. Specially while PuGing... You just need 1 person to go repair to delay the whole Op team for X minutes. The above point naturally makes all ppl to go together to repair. - Reset Stability. This is a classic on most MMOs... The script responsible to reset the status of an encounter is usually stressed when participants are out of range, not in the zone or "God knows were" after exiting the area and using a second fast travel option while the encounter is still "on" (Usually related to the fact that ppl on different zones can potentially be under different hardware also... Which collides with the typical single-machine nature of the enclosed Operation Events scripts). That's why they reduced repair costs to 1/3 and added higher credit rewards to the trash you find on each run after 1.2.

As Scoudrel I can also overheal this (Before 1.2 buff also) the trick is that the tank do not receive that much damage over the average party member (So 4xSRM + KC do most of the healing... With the ocassional Single target heal to balance the lowest HP member). The best strategy is not to run away: - Less DPS applied. - You still need to heal up some ppl. If you don't move at all you can apply higher HPS on your fellows. The typical pug fight goes like this (You always use AOE heal after punishment, ofc): 1st Punishment. Nothing particular. 2nd Punishment. Every1 uses their defensive CDs. 3rd Punishment. Every1 uses their Medpack. On high DPS teams the boss usually dies before this 3rd Punishment. 4th Punishment. Unless some1 is badly geared they should survive by pure HP pools this one if they did all the previous steps. The Boss enrages directly after this one. If you don't manage to kill him by this time without moving, your party lack the DPS to do HMs in general.

You just need 2 visual indicators for Infil and 1 for KC, the rest of the buffs can be easily mentally noted because the actions giving them aren't chance based. Infil - Find Weakness. Glow on fists and SS slot border highlighting for as long as FW is up. SOUND: "roaring"-like effect for as long as FW is up. The reassoning is that FW presence do not imply an immediate use... So they must be a state that can be checked anytime, not an event that dissapears (Like a flying text notification). In fact, the most important information of the current buff is NOT its pressence... But when it's going to end (I highly dislike that the current one is not a 3 state buff: "Not triggered", "on CD and available", "on CD and already used") Infil - Full Exit Strategy. Pulse around Shadow Shoulders (aka "charged up") and FB button flash. SOUND: One time "fanfare"-like notification The reassoning this time is that on most attack routiness you don't care too much about how many stacks of ES you have... You just adapt your attacks to generate as many of them as possible between FB CDs. But for triggering bursts sometimes is usefull to wait until you are totally charged up... And for as long as you fight it's close to impossible to loose this status... A a one time notification is enough in this case. Kinetic - Particle Acceleration As Find Weakness... Both states share most traits (You also delay a PA use specially when synching its use with Combat Potency). Sadly they have to be distinguishable... Because even if there aren't popular builds that can trigger both effects, in theory, it's possible for a player to be under both at the same time. EDIT: The body effects could be better substituted by Saber Blade extra effects as, naturally the moving blades are usually closer to your target which is, as melee, the portion of the screen you spend more time looking at, specially in high mobility fights, that are the ones were a typical player has less time to check the bottom buff bar hunting for the pressence of what they need to take the right decission. For some reasson (Maybe color crystal customization?) blade particle efffects aren't barely used at all to notify the players about buffs affecting their attacks.

The problem with that is mobility is already a defense on PvP... You can't mix the 2 of them. Instead I would rework "Shadowy Veil" for something of use... ATM are 2 points no1 considers even using.

The ability is simply OP because it's an extra movement + extra mitigation. It's basically: - A 2nd Force Speed. - A 2nd Resillience affecting ALL kinds of damage (Not just powers) for 2 seconds (in contrast to the 3s Resilience last). In any case... It adresses something the Shadows lack... Which is vertical movement. This is also affecting PvE recently, and not just PvP (Any shadow that has done EC will know what I'm talking about... There is a good example there... Not critical but I always find hilarious what would happen with an entire Shadow Team against the Snipers in the upper floors that protect the 1st extra Commendation Chest). (The ideal candidate would be to allow Force Speed to ALSO increase jumping height but... That will trigger all kind of geometry exploits and send to hell the carefull balance of some puzzles). In any case... As I also hate having extra buttons I would go for: Exit Strategy+ [actual effect]. Additionally, Shadow Strikes attempted while on Shadow Technique against enemies between 10-30m will make the Shadow Blink to the back of his/her target doing 15%/30% extra damage. This use will afflict the Shadow with "Force Exhaustion" preventing him to Blink or use Force Speed for 30s. The above modification will give: - A force costly vertical movement option. 50 force for this is quite taxing. So Force Speed will still be the prefered gap closer on horizontal surfaces. - A "finisher" to use against a fleeing enemy (Most of the time the shadow would have Find Weakness up to cut the cost of this jump and to make this hard hitting SS to ignore armor). - No extra buttons... The player will choose with the same button if they want to blink or not. The deadzone between 5-10m is done on purpose not only to be able to use the same button, but to be sure that a player that tries to use the boosted SS against their current target actually looses 1 or 2 GCDs by moving back (This deadzone can be tweaked as pleased to correct any "missuse" of SS against the target the Shadow is currently engaging on melee). - The extra damage on SS is a requirement to alleviate the problem of swaping between long range targets and to enforce this skill as an unique "Class Role" allowing an alert Shadow to tactically swap targets to finish off retreating enemies on PvP, specially. - It's important to have a visible buff (Alternatively this use can induce a 30s CD on Force Speed if it helps at visualization better... The net effect is the same). For Loremongers You can't distinguish a short range teleport from a fast enough short burst of speed. EDIT2: Removed CD on SS... Was redundant because of extra requirements of FW proc for any DPS use of SS. The CD on Force Speed should stay because, imho, a burst class with too much mobility is OP... Makes Darting too easy.

Sorry but when you see: It's hard to believe you have some1 in front with real experience at using/countering TK throw. ...The problem is that you seem to not find PvP players that priorize the use of a resolve bar against a KC shadow/sin in the right way or... ...You have spent most of your time as Infil/Balance to know how easily disrupted the channel is, or... ...You do not take into account how predictable a HS assisted TK throw is. It's similar to an Infil Shadow opening weakness... The moment Project is going to be used its so easy to predict that every1 has rdy their resistance/vanish-like powers to neglect it (Assisted, ofc, by the travel delay). The only scenario this particular power gives a net advantage is on 1v1... Even against other tanks, because it's a permanent menace that forces the oponent to reserve the Resolve Bar for it exclusively (or face a self-healing high mitigation target that will outlast you)... While the KC shadow has more freedom on how to CC his oponent. Instead of altering its basic functionality, if this is a problem (That I don't think so)... Keep the immunity to pushback and allow it to be interrupted by specialized powers. That way you leave PvE functionality intact and will still require some skill to deal with KC self-healing on PvP... Instead of just disablling the viability of KC in any scenario possible... Which seems to be the goal of the OP.

Good thread but... ...Quoting Agent Smith: "It's inevitable"... ...Innevitable that the unstable nature of the Sith society destroys them... Without Jedi having to move a finger against them. Sith need an enemy to remain cohesive... So achieving their goals will ultimately be their demise... ...That's why they are always on the loosing side... It's just a matter of time that bored Sith turn into Empire Citizens and then, by simple number factors, the Empire will simply try to get rid of the Sith Elite. I think the OP has misunderstood the finer details of the Inquisitor Storyline... Along it you see how weak the Sith relation with the Empire is (You are basically the phsical representation of how much the Sith phylosophy fails them... Their superiority myth is shattered by a random slave, potentially even not "pureblooded")... It's normal, you can't extend your ruling over your vassals if ppl of equal power just seeks to destroy you. The Sith try to believe that wielding ultimate power will make them free from the consequences of their decissions but... They systematically try to hide to the general public the atrocities they commit, most of them just random acts of passion... They are implicitely scared to loose control over the average empire joe. I have played my Consular strictly caring about the average Republic Citizen... And that has earned me a good bunch of Dark Side points but overally I have more chances to do "Good things"... Sadly, the Jedi Council code is too strict by the fear the average Jedi has about the Dark Side... My Consular is free from that fear and I have found the actions/reactions of my version of the storyline quite satisfying... ...Stricly speaking about moral decissions in the game... The Consular storyline has offered me the hardest moral situation I have been on this kind of games (On Taris) and was not even a "galactic-wide" cataclysmic decission... The Empire equivalents are simply too "caricaturesque" for my taste (Something similar happens with the Jedi Knight "Galactic Superhero" Storyline... Too radical).

It's not a bug... It's a systematic "average performance phylosophy" that has been applied to all PvE gear, starting at Tyonesse. Basically goes like this: - You reach a new tier of gear. - You get all pieces of such tier of gear for your PvE bonus. - You keep on getting the "good" pieces that contain the Parts that allow you to remove the "bad" ones of the suit you already got. That 3rd step increases the longevity of the content by been sure ppl in full suits have a reasson to keep on going to that same content. If you evaluate 146 Rating Tier (Made of Campaign + BH) for stalker you will see 3 things: - Campaign gear comes with an even higher overaccuracy syndrome than Rakata (And I thought that was hard to give a worser gear than Rakata default). EC mobs have 10% basic avoidance (in contrast to the 8% KP&EV have) but this extra is simply balanced by the extra ACC you get on L61 parts. Notice how BH 2xImplant+Ear give you most of the accuracy you need (Personally I don't like BH Implants at all... So I will not use BH ones, and instead will control my ACC direcly through Enh). - You can combine armorings to get 3 DPS ones and 2 tanking ones if you go with exactly 4 pieces giving the bonus. - Black Hole Gloves and Boots (The cheapest sources of Mod & Enh) will need to be get multiple times as they provide the Low Endurance Mod & Enh that can be used to correct the horrible ones that come with Campaign gear, on top of allowing the user to precissely control his ratings. So what I see on the new Tier is the same "extra phase" phylosophy of tweaking your default itemization that, in turn, will force you to get involved for a bit longer in gearing activities (This "phase" is not too hard to do for a DPS... Just hunt for parts with as low endurance as possible so your total item budget has the minimum wasted on Endurance). EDIT: Just to clarify... I don't perceive Black Hole gear as an independent set... I evaluate Campaign + BH as an overall repertory to gear up (Even if Campaign is considerably harder to acquire). If you do the effort on comparing the whole array of pieces you will see how BH is done as a complement... But you will also see how BiS are spread between the 2 for most classes which, again, doesn't seem an accident... It's a failsafe to be sure every1 has a reasson to get involved into as many gearing activities as possible.

You really need to know the details of each parser to evaluate if this has an effect. With ACT, indeed, you have to manually combine the events after each Force Cloak to get the average DPS but as no DPS event is really lost on the parsing you can get all information you need. With the varied online tools that are around is harder to say but their Developers can easily check for Force Cloak use and create a special "patch" to ignore the next "end combat "event.... If not, Scoundrel & Shadow parsers will suffer from meassure window effects that can alter a lot the DPS recorded of this burst (or better put cyclic) classes (Scoundrels suffer less because DA is done always BEFORE their bursts, to be able to use SF on long fights... They do not have the Action bar depedency Infil has, but for example, on combat starts it's quite common to trigger a double SF using DA which will lead to something similar as what happens to us in middle combat). The DPS meassure window, in general, has an impact on the final DPS meassured... That's why a good log for a burst capable class should start when the user spends his/her CDs to trigger the burst and end exacly when those same buffs get out of CD (But aren't used again)... That way what you see is a good meassure of what a full cycle is able to do. If you take any other meassure window you can bias the result up or down. On the typical Infil fight, FC is usually done in the middle of a burst (Because you already have an almost full force bar and do not want to waste any second of respite) meaning that a default parser will basically split your combat in the middle of your burst that, in turn, will lead to a systematic underevaluation of that DPS peak.